#and keep up the bit about the timeline introduced in chapter 9 just being a throwaway joke. which it kind of was but also i had this cookin
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Each string was a life, each strand sectioning off into a what if, a splitting cable that led to endless possibilities. Different lives in different worlds. Better lives in better worlds.
The Way Time Twists (AO3)
Chapter 18: Kid
The strings pull. The strings snag.
The sun warmed her closed eyelids, tinting everything in a hazy, muted glow. She could hear the faint squalls of seagulls, the distant chatter of voices she didnât recognize, and the waves crashing into the sea from what felt like a hundred miles away. Save for the smell of metal, faint underneath the sea salt in the air and the terrible rot wafting out from the dumpsters, everything was fine. She blinked open her eyes, slowly sitting up and taking in her surroundings. She recognized it. All of it. It was Mafia Town. It was... Mafia Town? But youâve never been here before- a thought, murmured by an uncomfortably familiar voice, wormed its way into the forefront of her mind, unbidden. This is your first time away from home.
Chapter 19: The Way Time Twists
Kid's memories blur and blend together, but they're not just hers this time. (But they are, aren't they?)
Art by @nakakabaliw.
#do you know how hard it was to lie to literally everyone i know. ESPECIALLY TO GIGI. DO YOU.#and keep up the bit about the timeline introduced in chapter 9 just being a throwaway joke. which it kind of was but also i had this cookin#do you understand the lengths i go to for this fic#that was agonizing#but so so worth it#and with that? im gonna take nap#this was a bitch to format and im exhausted#nothing to get me in the mood for my daily nap like posting to ao3#fics#ahit#a hat in time#hat kid#mustache girl#hat adult#hatstache#moonjumper#the way time twists#twtt#twtt au#twtt posting#damn . lotta tags
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To say the new teacher wasnât quite what Hugo expected would be an understatement.Â
He looked like heâd crawled out of bed five minutes ago and would give anything to crawl back. He was a lot younger than heâd expected, a buff guy, hair combed, in a suit and tie, and carrying a clipboard under his arm. Â
He promptly ignored the ten teenagers staring at him while he walked over to his desk. When he got there, he shrugged off his jacket, took off his tie, and unbuttoned his dress shirt revealing a t-shirt underneath that said âthe book was better.â
Hugo turned to Xander, who was silently â yet uncontrollably â laughing into his hands.
The girl in front of Hugo raised her hand. âUh, Mr. uh-â she tried.
Their teacher raised a single finger as he opened a drawer and took out a mug and a thermos. He poured the contents of the thermos, probably coffee, into his mug and chugged it back in one long gulp. He set his mug down on his desk with a resounding thud.
The bell rang.
âAlright, you little gremlins! Hereâs whatâs up! My name is Mr. Nemo, and you have a choice. I can be a mentor and help you have a wonderful life, I can be a tormentor and make your life miserable, or I can be a dementor and suck the life out of you. Your choice. Any questions?â
I choose this part. Can you say what you were thinking about it and stuff?
Thanks for the ask! It was a while ago, so some of this is going to be my thoughts on the writing now.
The 'mentor, tormentor, dementor,' bit was actually something my 10th grade english teacher would say to her students. I don't actually think she said it to me, but my best friend told me about it. That teacher was a really influencal mentor to me during highschool. She was sassy and salty as heck and I still consider her to be one of the wisest women I've had the blessing to know.
I think the main thing I was to show the student's first impression of Jacob Nemo. I'm not sure when or why I chose a student pov but I think it was the right choice. Through their eyes it gives the reader a fresh perspective on Jason's teacher persona. In a way, I'm reintroducing Jason. Jacob Nemo, while an alias, is very much a part of Jason. It's tapping into his 15 year old passionate self who wanted to become an english professor, while keeping his personallity.
While I was typing this answer I tried to think of a major difference in character between Jason and Jacob, and there really isn't one. If you look back at the snippet (I think it's at the end of the last chapter of the prologue) you see Jacob's interview and it lists the details Jason added to Jacob's fake backstory. Jason purposfully made someone very similar to him because he didn't want to be someone else or act in front of these kids. He even included that he was in the military and has ptsd to offer an excuse in case he ever breaks down while as Jacob.
This is Jason's dream job, what he would have been if he hadn't died, but even more than that, this goes back to his resove at the end of chapter 9 where he is trying to make the most of being in this timeline. Jason realizes he would not be who he is without the people who have poured into his life. People like his family and, I think, his english teacher as a kid. He knows what a trusted adult routing for you can do for a kid and wants to pay it forward.
I'm pretty sure I wanted to show Jason being tired, becuase he does patrol pretty much all night and then have to show up at school. Pretty sure I purposfully made Jason only have one class always at the end of the day. It's Gotham's private school so I immagine they would/could have their own special exclusive rules about their AP classes. So Jason would be able to sleep through the morning and show up at class in the afternoon. He looks like he rolled out of bed because he probably just did.
I made a lot of the english students and Mischief members way before introducing them. I sat down and just whipped up a bunch of oc kids and then later decided who would be in what group. Hugo was one of my favorites from the english kids so I decided to do his pov.
My beta made a comment about how Jason would totally be buffer than the PE teacher and that made me laugh.
Thanks for the ask and letting me ramble a bit. I realize this is pretty long, but I really enjoyed it! Honestly this helped me make connections about my writing. This reminded me of things I planned I totally forgot about, and made me realize I did things that looked planned but were totally not.
#batfam#batman#@peppersonironi#ask game#TTWE#Jason Todd#Jacob Nemo#oc kids#salt and light#fanfiction
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Chapter 159: Justice is blind + Foreshadowing from chapter 6 and JJK0?
This chapter weâre introduced to Higuruma, one of the players in the Culling Game with 100 points who Yuji and Megumi will most likely target in an attempt to add new rules to the game.Â
As I mentioned before, JJK is the equivalent of Murphyâs Law on steroids and we are guaranteed for Gege to pull the rug from under our feet. For all you know, the odds that Higuruma agrees to help them without a problem are 50/50.
Onto this weekâs theories... This is a long one so brace yourself.
Higurumaâs Shikigami is the stuff of nightmares
Higurumaâs Shikigami, if thatâs what it is, is loaded with symbolism. Perfect for my Cursed Technique of reading between the lines and over-thinking every single detail.
What I love about Higuruma is that he is a man on a mission--sort of like a Shonen Protagonist. He is single-minded in his pursuit of saving those he sees as victims to the monster that is the Japanese legal court system.
Despite continuing to put himself on the line for the people he is trying to âsave,â the oppressive system that they are part of makes it impossible for him to achieve his goals. And yet, he keeps trying to fight the beast that is the legal system even when the odds of him ever winning are .1%.
In the end, it isnât the legal system itself that breaks him, but rather his own unwavering conviction combined with his frustration and the anger from those he promised a victory he was not able to deliver despite his greatest efforts.
The only thing granted to all is an unfair reality
Lady Justice has been depicted as blind since the 16th century. Her blindfold is meant to represent her objectivity and impartiality before the law.
But Higuruma knows that a 99.9% conviction rate is anything but objective and impartial. Keeping his âeyes openâ is his desire to bring awareness to a system that is broken.
What I found interesting, however, is that while Higuruma is intent on keeping his eyes open, his Shikigamiâs eyes are sewn shut, as though they are being forced shut by thread.
If there is anyone who is closest to embodying the ideal of blind justice, it is Higuruma.
This makes me wonder how weâre going to see Higurumaâs character evolve, especially as he comes across Yuji and friends.
Higuruma vs. Megumi/Yuji?
Remember I said Higuruma might be willing to help Yuji and Megumi add a rule? I donât think thatâs whatâs going to happen, but it is still a possibility. He does seem like a fair (pun intended)Â person after all.
Whatâs being set up, I feel like (and I could be wrong), is a showdown between two opposing belief systems:Â
Higurumaâs blind trust in serving and facilitating justice vs Megumiâs self-serving justice.
Ironically, they bothÂ
want to save good people,Â
neither considers himself to be a hero, andÂ
their sense of justice is self-serving... they just have different criteria for what that means
Higuruma wants to facilitate justice for people who are innocent but are victims of the Japanese Law system. Heâs done the research and he believes these people to be innocent and as having done nothing wrong.Â
On the other hand, Megumi wants to facilitate justice for people he cares about no matter how potentially dangerous they are (and this last bit is really important).Â
I realized recently that despite Sukuna having killed a lot of people during Shibuya, Megumi has not attempted to kill him since the Cursed Womb Arc.Â
Remember, Megumi has said heâs responsible for those deaths since he was the one who saved Yuji.
In addition, not only does Megumi need Yujiâs strength to save Tsumiki, but I am going to go as far as saying that Megumi cares deeply for Yuji to the point he still doesnât want him to die even after everything that has happened up to this point.
Which begs the question, how is Higuruma going to react to Yujiâs existence?
This brings me to the possible foreshadowing from all the way back in the Cursed Womb Arc and possibly even JJK0.
Foreshadowing from chapter 6 or Crack Theory?
When I first read the new chapter I was intrigued that one of the characters Higuruma is defending as an attorney has a similar backstory to Tadashi from back in chapter 6.
Although their face structure looks similar...
The circumstances are slightly different in that Tadashiâs case involved driving without a license and Higurumaâs client was drunk driving.
But if weâre willing to suspend judgement for a minute, this is important because, if it is, in fact, Tadashi he is referring to here, then this panel just goes to show that Gege foreshadows like a boss.Â
And what if that girl who got ran over happens to be Rika from JJK0?Â
There isnât necessarily concrete evidence that Tadashi is the one who ran Rika over AND I would need to look at the timeline of events more closely, but if it IS the case... talk about butterfly effect in action.
But the foreshadowing doesnât end there. Someone pointed out that in chapter 143, Megumi tells Yuji they arenât heroes fighting for justice and that no one can truly ever judge JJS.
So... no one can judge sorcerers, unless judging is exactly what Higuruma has been doing to rack up points...
The fact that Higuruma has 100 points tells us heâs been on a killing rampage, and from everything we see him go through in the chapter and from that look on his face in the last panel, we should not be surprised that heâs gone off the deep end.
Honestly, characters who loose their shit (hello Feral Megumi) are one of my favorite things about JJK.
I am writing all of this because it goes to show that Gege does not show you anything in his story that doesnât have meaning in the grander scheme of things. Which leaves room for interpretation about whether Saori and Yuko will have roles moving forward.
Right along these lines, in looking for a specific line from chapter 9, I ran into this little gem:
Is this foreshadowing about Tsumiki too?Â
Maybe, maybe not.
As I said before, half the fun is in going through the journey of JJK unfolding before our very own eyes, while putting the pieces together from all of the breadcrumbs Gege dropped along the way.
But the fun doesnât end there. I am fascinated at how as a fandom we willingly get traumatized when Gege kills off everybody and their mom that you cared about, while simultaneously loving every single minute of it.
We know itâs coming, and weâre there for it.
Thatâs Gegeâs Cursed Technique for you... he gives you what you didnât know you wanted.
Gege setting up the stage for madness
All in all, Gege has been painstakingly setting the stage for the madness that is to come during the Culling Game and the hype just keeps on escalating. If the Culling Game arc is anything like Shibuya, we can expect, again, Murphyâs Law in full effect.Â
I was chatting with @darthduttonâ about how I started reading the Shibuya Arc only a few months ago and therefore I did not get to experience it as it was unfolding.Â
It makes me so happy that I now get to experience the Culling Game as it happens and I am both so distraught and excited for whatever comes our way.
And when I say âwhatever comes our wayâ I mean that I trust Gege to continue to surprise me.
I am here for the hype but I stay for the story
I loved this chapter!Â
I thought it was the f*cking bomb.com because you can see Gege starting to tie loose ends from possible foreshadowing he shared at the beginning of the story.Â
Plus, we got to see his story-telling skills in action as he creates yet another relatable character.
I truly admire Gege as a writer--the fact that he can come up with a story on a week-to-week basis, execute on it, create very human and relatable characters, set up foreshadowing all the way back at the beginning, and drop breadcrumbs along the way is just mind-blowing to me.
God, I love Jujutsu Kaisen.
Anyways... this was a bit long but I just felt like I had a lot to say about this seemingly insignificant chapter. Hope you enjoyed it, and as always, I am looking forward to hearing your thoughts on it!Â
#jujutsu kaisen#jujutsu kaisen manga#jujutsu kaisen spoilers#god i love jujutsu kaisen#jjk theory#jjk ch 159#fushiguro megumi#megumi fushiguro#yuji itadori#Itadori yuji#gege akutami#okkotsu yuta
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My predictions on BSD getting animated going forward
Iâll be taking a look at the novel page counts (Japanese and English) and comparing them to the screen time theyâve gotten so far and then using this to predict how long the remaining light novel adaptations will be (approximately). At the end will also be my rough prediction/hopes for the order of some of these being adapted. I say some because I have yet to read what there is so far of the gaiden novel translations, the main story manga has essentially still been on the DOA arc almost since where the anime left off, and I personally think that itâs currently too soon for Storm Bringer (aside from money purposes).
Note, most of this was written well before the anime 5th anniversary livestream but the announcements wound up not affecting it. I then of course made adjustments as needed account for the novel content we do have so far, both in Japanese and in English (officially).
Page to Episode Count
Not counting the afterward, ads, etc for the English/US copy, Japanese is including it
Also all eng page counts are using the Yen Press release and jp page counts are taken from the fandom wiki
*148 is purely counting the Untold Origins portion of the novel. If we also count the A Day at the Agency short story thatâs included before it (56 pages), then we get the full 203
Also the English page count for BEAST was noted before the English release date but after page counts have been posted by affiliated retailers, so subtract a couple pages from the written count of 176 for the time being to account for the afterward and possible character sheets being included
Now that we have our page to episode counts (as of April 5th, 2021), letâs find the actual content run time of what we do have animated so far.
Seasons 1-3 and the OVA all have the same episode length/duration. Each episode is 23 minutes, and we can subtract 3 minutes on average from that to account for the OP and ED being played. This leaves us with an average of 20 minutes of BSD story content per episode. So on average, each of the first 3 seasons contain 240 minutes, or 4 hours, worth of story content.
Dead Appleâs total run time is 91 minutes, with the OP and ED making up 9 of those minutes. However, we do have a bit of the story content being played while the ED is playing (as sometimes happens in the anime as well). To keep the math simple, Iâll be approximating story content time at 82 minutes.
Apply these numbers to the novels that have been animated so far and this is (approximately) what we get:
Now letâs use these numbers to predict the screen time needed for the other novels
Note that we canât really use Entrance Exam as a fair measure because of how much got cut out (just compare the run time of it to Dark Era and it speaks for itself). However, the numbers for Dark Era and Dead Apple are the best ones to use, as they both have minimal changes between anime and novel and both have official English translations currently available. Take out the approximate time taken up by OP/ED and and the numbers pretty much match up.
So with that being said, we can estimate Untold Origins (only) at approximately 3 eps/60 min and 55 Minutes at 1h 40-55min/100-115 min or 5-6 eps if it doesnât get a movie. We can also estimate the A Day at the Detective Agency short story at the beginning of Untold Origins to take up about 1 ep, probably even a bit less.
1+ 3 + 5-6 = 9-10 episodes which isnât enough for a full single cour season unless they all get put into one big OVA season, but also 10-11 eps (or less) seasons are a thing (ie. Fugou Keiji: Balance Unlimited, Blood Lad, Black Butler: Book of Circus, The Seven Deadly Sins: Signs of a Holy War, FLCL)
My personal predictions/hopes for the anime adaptation timeline going forward
This is considering the manga content, current âpausing/stopping pointsâ what wouldnât be too awkward, each of the novels relevancy/necessity to the main story manga, and assuming we continue with single cour (12-13 ep) seasons
Hopefully/ideally a 55 Minutes movie
S4: ch 54-70
Early S5 (preferably) or end of S4: Untold Origins or A Day at the Agency
S5: ch 71-88/around where we are now?
A Day at the Agency can, in my opinion at least, be chucked in at any point either as a single episode OVA or as the light novel content for s4 (maybe not even taking a full episode and then starting ch 54 in the last few minutes for example). Keep in mind that the current DOA arc is a long one and has plenty to it, so personally I think it may even be better to not include a novel adaptation in a future S4, as it would likely already be a right squeeze content wise. Remember, we also have a few XX.5 chapters that are continuations of the chapter directly before them.
I still need to read whatâs currently available of the gaiden novel fan translations but it can probably be adapted at any point as well. Iâm estimating approximately 5-6 eps as an OVA series. I donât really think it would get a movie, partially because you can make it only so long, especially since itâs an anime movie and unlike Storm Bringer, it doesnât have Chuuya to practically guarantee the profit.
BEAST also doesnât directly impact the main story and can be adapted at virtually any point. However, seeing as we do have a live action confirmed for it and itâs page count lines up very closely with Dark Era, it can be either 4 eps or (more likely in my opinion) a movie, as it can be considered almost stand alone content.
Personally, I believe it is currently way too soon to animate Storm Bringer as it came out only a little over a month ago (as of writing this) and has minimal plot necessity as of ch 91, but I do believe it should be either split into 2 movies (a part 1 and part 2) or it would need 8 episodes, likely as an OVA season. If it were to get animated sooner than 55 Minutes or Untold Origins, which I believe to be very unlikely, I feel that it would almost certainly be driven by the financial gains of Chuuya being included, and his popularity alone. Reminder, SB is about Chuuya and not SKK. Dazaiâs appearance in SB is proportionally a very small percentage and heâs not even mentioned in the official plot summary.
However, you can argue that SB is starting to have some relevance now, with the recent mention of the Order of the Clock Tower in ch 90 and the increased relevance of sealed ability weapons in ch 91. However, I really do believe that you canât adapt Storm Bringer before 55 Minutes because of Standard Island and its treaty, it also talks about sealed ability weapons, knowing who Wells is, and 55 Minutes canonically takes place during the âdowntimeâ portion of S3. In fact, hereâs Asagiriâs words directly from the Afterward (translation by Yen Press):
âthis volume didnât take place in the past, but rather sometime after the tenth volume of the manga. In other words, itâs a tale about the âusualâ detective agency in novel format.â (55 minutes, p 237)
Untold Origins also should be adapted sooner rather than later (at least compared to SB in my opinion) because itâs about Ranpo and Fukuzawaâs shared past, which becomes increasingly relevant ch 70 onwards, as well as the need for the ADA being founded (which ties in with Yosanoâs backstory in ch 65-66).
In regards to whether I think each of these would be better suited to a movie adaptation or as multiple regular length anime episodes, itâs mainly due to page count and partly due to the budget difference between the two, as well as how difficult I think it would be to animate each of these based on what needs to be drawn. The anime industry isnât the fastest to switch to newer technology, hence why we see issues with 3D blending sometimes. I really do think that at the very least, 55 Minutes deserves the movie budget because of how detailed and complex the architecture of Standard Island is described as, as well all the mechanical parts needed for the final battle of the novel. Hate the lizard mouths introduced in Dead Apple all you want, but you canât deny that the 3D cgi was blended very smoothly. For any of the other novels to be movies, itâs more so because gaiden and BEAST can be considered their own stand alone stories that donât rely too heavily on the main story in terms of when they take place and get adapted. I feel that SB is more likely to get its own season or an OVA season more so due to its length, but multiple part anime movies have also been done before (ie. the Fate/Stay Night: Heavenâs Feel movies), so itâs not entirely impossible. Especially considering that merely having any Chuuya screen time means that you can expect the profit and popularity to really go up, especially with SKK being on screen together (regardless of whether you love or hate how the fandom tends to push a shipping POV on them).
These are all of course just my hopes and predictions and estimates based on information currently available, so take them with some salt. Iâd love to hear opinions on how, when, and why each of the currently non animated novels should be adapted going forward. Also please stop begging the relevant BSD official Twitter pages for SB to be animated next and go read the other light novels you Chuuya simp
#bsd#bungou stray dogs#bsd analysis#bsd theories#bsd dead apple#bungo stray dogs#bsd manga#bsd storm bringer#bsd light novel#bsd anime#bsd 55 minutes#bsd beast#bsd gaiden#bsd untold origins
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Hi hi! So the lost tombs and chronology all super confuse me. So tlt2 ended on a cliffhanger that was not resolved by tlt3 which is ultimate note, but now there is another tlt3 that I am guessing is made by the same studio as tlt2 (but not UN) that actually follows tlt2? And it has the same WPZ as tlt2 (but sadly different WX, ZQL though Iâm sure these guys are great). You seem to know what youâre talking about so Iâm hoping you can help!
UN also ended on a cliff hanger so Iâm wondering if theyâll get a sequel from their studio that comes before tomb of the sea.
ahhh hello anon! yes ahaha the dmbj dramas are certainly very confusing--because they keep switching the screenwriters/entire production team between dramas. huanrui did tlt1 (2015), tlt2 (2019), and the sequel to tlt2 (2021). they're also technically the production company for un (2020), but linghe did like all the directing/casting/writing so its significantly different in tone and quality from the other dramas huanrui produced. npss (dmbj author) did sha hai (2018) and tltr (2020), with sha hai being in collab with linghe, so you can see lots of parallels with un and shared cast. (gonna add that i dont know much about the m9 because thatâs not what im personally interested in, so iâm only going by stories with wu xie & the iron triangle.)
unfortunately, the dramas pretty have no continuity as a result of all the weird shit and multiple studios doing different dramas and messy stuff going on behind the scenes. the author's production company currently has all the rights back for filming future dramas, which is......imo, a good thing for book fans who love the author but a đŹ thing for book fans who like the original story more than what the author is now doing with it. I'll uh avoid saying too much opinion stuff though so no more on that đ
that aside! yes äș饶怩柫 âexplore with the noteâ part 2......is the direct sequel to tlt2 and done by the same studio. unfortunately the writers are different and im not sure how much of the production team is the same either. idk how much you know about the novels so brief summary here--for the chinese version, the main story has 9 parts split among 8 books (though the official eng tls have each part being a different book) with some important content being as follows:
official eng title âcavern of blood zombiesâ (first time wx goes into a tomb, first t3j meeting)
official eng title âangry sea, hidden sandsâ (xisha seabed tomb, introduce a-ning)
official eng title âbronze tree of deathâ (bronze tree in qinling, wx & lao yang solo adventure)
official eng title âpalace of doomâ (heavenly palace on the clouds, introduce bronze gate)
official eng title âdeadly desert windsâ (golmud, introduce hei xiazi, desert, rainforest, tamutuo)
official eng title âgraveyard of a queenâ (the rest of that arc, wu sanxing & xie lianhuan reveal, jade meteorite, amnesiac xiaoge and escape, sanshu vanishes for good--also i think the official eng tl covers a couple chapters of the beginning of the next part too)
éŽć±±ć€æ„Œ (searching for xiaogeâs memories in banai, miluotuo cave, i think introduction of wu erbai)
éçŹŒçłćœ± (auction/hotel iron triangle fight, introduce xiao hua & xiuxiu, wx & xh on the mountains alone while pz & xg go with granny huo)
finale (rescue from zhang family mansion, changbai mountain goodbye, 10 years promise)
after the main story are the main sequels:
zang hai hua (tibetan sea flower; unfinished & abandoned) covers wu xie a few years after xiaoge has entered the gate, searching to understand xiaogeâs past
sha hai (tomb of the sea; unfinished & abandoned) covers wu xieâs plan to wipe out the wang family, after zhh
chongqi (reunion: the sound of the providence) covers wu xieâs lung disease and how he recovers from that, set after they pick up xiaoge again from the bronze gate. thunder city and everything.
çŻæ”·ćŻ»ć°ž&äžć±±æć€ (still updating on wechat) donât worry about this one since itâs still a WIP lol
btw between sha hai and chongqi thereâs also ten years later (a short story) that covers how wu xie and pangzi pick up xiaoge from the bronze gate and take him home
the dramas Do Not Connect To Each Other At All, which the exception of tlt2 & tlt2 pt2 somewhat, but they go in this order:
çćąçŹèź° / the lost tomb 1 (2015): covers part 1 but with major OCs and filler, and includes the auction scene from part 8 for some reason, so introduces xiao hua early.
ææ”·æœæČ&秊ćČç„æ / the lost tomb 2 (2019) technically âexplore with the noteâ: covers parts 2 & 3 but with major OCs and filler, introduces xiao hua & xiuxiu (and hei xiazi briefly) early. last couple episodes also cover the beginning of part 4. not a direct sequel to tlt1 despite being done by the same studio.
äș饶怩柫 / heavenly palace on the clouds (2021) technically also âexplore with the noteâ: covers part 4 with major OCs and filler (and the same changes carrying over from tlt2). some episodes are identical to the last couple episodes of tlt2. works as a direct sequel only if you ignore the last couple episodes of tlt2 that take place in the snowy mountains. (those episodes of tlt2 were filmed after this drama was filmed, and im still not sure why they dragged the wu xie and xiaoge from tlt2 back to changbai mountain to film those episodes.)
ç»æçŹèź° / ultimate note (2020): covers parts 5-8 with minor OCs and minimal filler, also introduces xiao hua & xiuxiu early. the only adaptation that resembles its source material most of the time.
æČæ”· / tomb of the sea (2018): covers the second sequel with major OCs and filler. includes some bits from zhh and the short story âthree days of silenceâ.
éćŻäčææ”·ćŹé· / the lost tomb reboot (2020): covers third sequel with major OCs and filler.
in addition there is the prequel series mystic nine (2016) and side movies for the dramas that the author produced. there is also a single standalone movie--time raiders (2016) that is....well itâs. very strange. itâs fully subbed on youtube if youâre interested?
the best way to watch the dramas is to assume each one is its own self-contained AU set along different points of the dmbj timeline because even the dramas the author himself worked on donât have continuity LOL (and with the exception of ultimate note & sha hai most of the time, also assume most characters are pretty OOC from the novels).
i uh regret to inform you though, that ultimate note will not be getting a sequel unless the author magically decides to not care about making money anymore and sells the rights to film the finale to linghe or something ^^;;;; itâs....unfortunate bc un is the most highly-rated dmbj adaptation on douban by A Lot, but itâs an adaptation that the author had literally nothing to do with whatsoever.
more information on some of the side movies/stage plays/manhua/donghua here.
summaries of the main novel stories (currently through zhh) here.
edited mtl (some of which has apparently been looked over by native cn speakers) of the novels following where official eng tls end here. (there are many scattered extras as well.)
you can get the official eng tl books/ebooks on amazon or elsewhere(?), but if you have problems purchasing them or like you just dont wanna support amazon or something, dm me off anon. (also i dont want to be mean but frankly the official tls are kinda bad too ^^;;;)
a rough timeline (spoilers galore) for the dmbj novels here. (fair warning im not 100% sure how accurate all of this is--they put three days of silence as 1991 but looking at the info in zhh, it seems like it should have been before the 1950s...but itâs more than fine as a general overview.)
anyway i hope that was helpful in some way? dmbj is a Very Confusing thing to get into ahahaha, one of my twitter mutuals has made a few carrds if you think they might be helpful: book, dramas (slightly out of date bc it says heavenly palace hasnât aired yet), ultimate note (got its own carrd by virtue of being the only adaptation aside from sha hai sometimes that most og book fans acknowledge lol ^^;;;)
also anon if anything wasnât clear or if you had more questions feel free to ask again sorry ahahaha im kinda tired rn @.@Â
#dmbj#shouting into the void#ask#anon#....im kinda tired bc i just finished watching ydtg so i hope that doesnt come across *too much* in this post LOL#and its probably obvious which adaptation im biased towards but after reading the novels i cant really help it
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WIP... Tuesday?
Just in case anyone was wondering what useless novelty project Iâm spending my time on now, may I introduce:
Or more accurately: âShisui Uchiha and the Saga of the Overly Complex Movie Poster thatâs Taking Up all of the Authorâs Writing Time.â
Or: âShisui Uchiha and the One-off Story that Accidentally Turned Into a Trilogy, much to the Authorâs Total Lack of Surprise.â
So anyway, I have 30,000 words (3/9 chapters of the first part) so far and as usual, no timeline for completing this story. But Iâm definitely in too deep to back out now! My new approach to stories is to write the whole thing, then post week by week. So this one is still probably several months away at least...
But hereâs a quick preview:
The list of things Shisui Uchiha regrets in his life is pretty small.
A handful of ill-considered one night stands, several embarrassing bets with members of his family, the summer he decided to turn emo, ohâand one particularly notable fuck-up early in his career that very nearly ended it prematurely. But, for the most part, itâs been smooth-sailing.
Sure, maybe the odd rival takes a pot shot at him here or there. Ancient booby traps try to kill him, or the local wildlife steps in where theyâve left off. He and spiders are categorically never going to get along. But heâs never had cause to regret his career itself. He loves everything about treasure huntingâthe adventure, the danger, the intellectual challenge of it all. The way his heart races when he finds some ancient artifact supposedly lost for good.
So, all in all, his current positionâperched twenty feet up a silk cotton tree in India, surrounded by about two-dozen armed thugs personally out for his bloodâwell, thatâs just another day at the office.
Two of the men walk below Shisuiâs hiding place and he holds his breath, watching. Theyâre thick-built meat-heads; improbable amalgams of every jackbooted thug to ever grace a movie screen, with jawlines Chuck Norris could break a fist on, and brows that would make a Neanderthal proud. Supressing the snicker that threatens to escape him at the thought, Shisui wonders where Gato keeps finding these idiots. Some sort of steroid-fuelled body building conference maybeâŠ
Comfortable theyâre far too stupid to realise heâs here, he swings his legs back and forward, checking his bag to make sure his prize is still undamaged. Thankfully, despite having beaten a hasty retreat through the crowded city streets, the jewel-encrusted golden elephant winks up at him like a winning lottery ticket. One thatâs going to pay for fancy canapes, champagne and extra leg room on Shisuiâs flight home. Then a lot more afterwards.
But karma, as they say, is a bitch.
And karma, for Shisui, makes itself known in the form of a fluffy grey creature that plops down onto the branch beside him, joined in short order by half a dozen other partners in crime. At first, the macaque just fixes its intelligent gaze on Shisui, as though assessing what to do with him. Then, one very pregnant pause later, after the apparent realisation that no food is immediately forthcoming, the ringleader opens its mouth and screams. Loudly.
Shit.
âNo, shhhâŠâ Shisui orders in a loud whisper. âOh come on, donât be an asshole.â
The screaming continues, soon swelling to a cacophony as the others join in.
âShoo!â he pleads, waving his arms around to try and scare them off. âIâll buy you bag of bananas or something when I get down from here, just please shut upâŠâ
But the little bastards donât stop and, if anything, Shisuiâs heated objection only seems to be pissing them off more. Which is fantastic, because truly the last thing he needs today is to catch rabies orâ
From the bottom of the tree, someone clears their throat. âAhem.â
Or that.
Itâs smug, officious, and quite frankly, about the last voice Shisui wants to hear right now. Every part of him sinks. On reflection, maybe it was a bit arrogant to think he wouldnât have been followed to the temple. To think he was just going to walk in, pilfer a several-centuries old treasure, and walk out again, a comfortable five-figure sum the richer for it.
But then, it wouldnât be the first time.
Sighing, he looks down to see his least-favourite human approximation of a turd. âGato.â
âWell, well, if it isnât my favourite globe-trotting Uchiha. Fancy seeing you here,â Gato says, appearing inordinately pleased. His trademark sunglasses sit awkwardly atop his bulbous nose, straddling a pencil moustache that looks like a worm met its unfortunate end on his face some years ago, and he never bothered to wipe it off.
For reasons he canât currently articulate, it annoys the shit out of Shisui. Possibly because if thereâs anything he hates more than someone getting the better of him, itâs someone whoâs as much of a fucking waste of space as Gato getting the better of him.
âYeah well, you know how it is,â he says, glancing around for a quick exit. âAncient treasures to find, damsels in distress to rescueâŠâ
But unfortunately, the crowd of highly armed men around Gato is growing by the second, and Shisuiâs options are looking somewhat thin on the ground. At least, all the ones that don't end with him riddled in bullet holes. Damn macaquesâŠ
Gato grins. In the pre-monsoon heat, sweat rolls down his neck and spreads like an oily stain across his collar. âOh, Iâm well aware of how you operate... Youâre a businessman, just like me. Always taking jobs for the highest bidder.â Before Shisui can open his mouth to disagree, Gato holds up a hand, adding, âI know, I know⊠you donât see yourself that way. Moral code or whatever it is you like to call it. But in reality, the only difference between us is that you have the air of legitimacy that comes with an academic backing, whereas Iâm willing to admit what I really want.â
âAnd what do you want, Gato?â Shisui asks flatly, already knowing the answer. The tired old game theyâre playing here.
âThat trinket you have in your bag.â Gato licks his lips, as though he can taste the champagne heâs going to be drinking once he returns the statue to whoever hired him, to disappear into some private collection, never to see the light of day again.
âWhat do I get in return?â Shisui asks, even though itâs obvious from Gatoâs expression that heâs not going to like it, whatever it is.
A mirthless laugh assaults his ears. âIâll let you live to cross paths with me another day.â
As offers go, itâs not very believable. But as much as Shisui hates to admit when his luckâs run out, even he can see the writing on the wall. Today really isnât his day. Sure, he might trust Gato about as far as he could throw him, but even Gato isnât stupid enough to shoot him on a main street, in broad daylight. ProbablyâŠ
Retrieving the golden elephant from his bag, Shisui tosses it carefully down.
Turning the trinket over in his hands, Gato lets out a hum of appreciation. âVery nice. My client will be pleased.â He hands it off to one of his many thugs to box up, then peers back through the branches, looking more like a slug than Shisui would ever have thought possible. Reinforcing the impression, his lips twist with a slimy smile. âWell, as always, itâs been nice doing business with you Shisui. But I think, unfortunately, youâve caused me trouble for the last time.â
Far too pleased for Shisuiâs taste, Gato steps back, raising his hand in a gesture that looks awfully like itâs intended as a final farewell. Or a smug âfuck you.â Either way, the message is perfectly clear.
Shisui rolls his eyes, mentally scratching off another predictable villainous turn on his treasure hunting bingo card. âAll right,â he calls after Gatoâs retreating back. âNice doing business with you too! See you next time...â Under his breath he mutters, âAssholeâŠâ
Truly, Gato doesn't have an original bone in his body. It's like he once read The Idiots Guide to Being a B-Grade Movie Villain, then internalised it on the spot to make up for a lack of anything remotely resembling a personality. But, pathetic imitation of a villain or not, his bullets are still effective.
The leaves around him shred beneath the pop, pop of gunfire as Shisui sucks in a rushed breath, bracing himself for what heâs about to do. The branch wobbles precariously beneath his feet as he races along it, pushing off into air that rushes past, disconcerting and empty. The slender gap to the building seems to widen to the span of a gaping abyssâ
He hits the rail of the apartment with thud, clambering quickly over it to fall on his back on the balcony, winded, but mercifully unharmed. A macaque peers over the guttering at him, with a leering grin that clearly threatens more screaming.
âDonât you start,â he warns, waggling a finger at it.
But thereâs barely a moment to catch his breath before the sound of splintering wood below indicates another problem. Or an extension of the same one. Bounding to his feet, Shisui scoops up his hat, settles it back on his head, and checks over the railing. A bullet clips the plaster nearbyâa pretty good indication that Gatoâs men have every idea where heâs gone. That, combined with the way theyâre currently pushing through the lower doors to the complex probably doesnât mean anything good for him.
âShit,â he announces to no one in particular. Itâs times like these he really wishes he carried a gunâŠ
Forcing his way into the mercifully empty apartment off the balcony, Shisui slips quickly through it. Cracking open the door on the far side, he checks the coast is clear. It is.
Of course, it doesnât stay that way for long. Halfway along the open air corridor, thereâs a cry of discovery from his pursuers, followed by more shooting. Seriously, why are the bad guys always bringing guns to Shisuiâs knife fights?
Ducking, he runs faster, bursting into another apartment filled with hazy cigarette smoke and shocked faces before finally making it to an exterior stairwell on the far side. Looking at the next building over, itâs immediately apparent the gap is way too far for him to use the same trick he did before. But with Gatoâs men advancing on him from below, maybe he can just make it to street level and bypass them altogetherâŠ
A thicket of power cables criss-crosses the span between the buildings, with one nearby running almost to the level of the shop awnings below. Sending a rash of silent prayers to whatever gods take care of Indian power line maintenance, Shisui detaches a length of rope from his belt and flings it over the wire, gripping each side like a makeshift zipline. Holding his breath, he pushes off into empty space. To his surprise and considerable delight, the line holds.
It sweeps him across the street, picking up more and more speed, until the side of the other building is rushing at him likeâ
Shit.
He impacts it with his shoulder, coming to an uncomfortable and jarring stop. Pain shoots down his arm and he lets go of the rope, crashing through a fabric awning and landing ungracefully in a huge stack of bagged flour. Dust floats down around him and Shisui groans, moving each of his limbs in turn. By some miracle, nothing seems broken. Not even his tantĆ in its leather holster at his back.
Oh well. Fall down seven times, stand up eightâŠ
Apparently his exit was none too subtle though, because Gatoâs men are leaning over the stairwell railing, yelling and pointing at the mess heâs made. Dragging himself to his feet, Shisui evades an angry store owner, brushes flour off of his clothes and resumes running for his life.
Never let anyone say archaeology is boring.
As he emerges back onto the main street, searching for quick and easy exit, the sound of screeching brakes and angry honking carries from the road. Cutting a wild path through traffic is an old open-top olive-drab Jeep with several gold charms dangling from its rear-view mirror. It jerks to a stop just before hitting Shisui, both side wheels riding up on the curb.
âNeed a ride?â the female driver asks, grinning.
Her windswept hair hangs past the fashionable silk scarf tied at her neck. Unmanicured nails wrap around the slender metal of the steering wheel, like they couldnât be more at home there. Theyâre a stark contrast with the cream suit linen sheâs wearing, rolled up neatly to her elbows. Speckled with dirt, it looks like sheâs probably travelled halfway across the country to be here, and been up to her elbows in the grease of the Jeepâs engine at some point to do it. Sheâs a walking contradictionâalbeit one Shisui is delighted to see.
âIzumi!â he exclaims happily.
Eyes sparkling, she waves. âHey.â
âI thought you were practicing on the course in Reno this weekend⊠Whatâre you doing here?â
A shot rings out, kicking up dust near one of the tyres. Glancing behind him, Izumi rolls her eyes, reaching across to throw open the door. âWhat am I always doing? Saving your ass, you idiot... Now get in before one of us gets shot, or I have to find out whether my rental insurance covers illegal firefight damage.â
#uchiha shisui#uchiha izumi#future shisuita#new story#my art#really having fun writing this one#I'm such a sucker for adventure movies#and snarky team banter#and this combines both#aaaaand we've just been thrown into another covid lockdown#so more writing time here I come!#Shisui Uchiha and the Lost Treasure of Asura
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ANIME & MANGA I HAVE BINGED IN THE LAST MONTH: May 2021
I've Been Hunting Slimes for the Past 300 Years and Now Ive Maxed Out My Level: incredibly long name aside, cute af slice of life that suffers Same Face Syndrome. I'm still happy to watch it because of how feel good and fluffy it is though, Im probably gonna forget about it in two or three years tho. 8/10.
Don't Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro: I found out this was a webcomic first and suddenly all the HORNINESS made so much more sense. A Femdom, Degradation, Humiliation, Dacryphilia Bullies to Lovers story disguised as a high school rom-com which, I'm not going to lie, misses SKEEVY CITY by mere inches on a regular basis. However, I'm a Dom/Switch and this entire relationship sets off my dom brain center like New York City just shy of midnight. So if you're into that sort of scene, this anime is for you. If not, it's still fascinating but you're probably gonna be a little put off by how mean the Girl!Bully is to the guy MC. Unless you find out something about yourself, in which case, congrats! Stay safe, sane, consensual, and learn about the traffic light system on top of safe words, I promise you'll have a better life in general after that. Still Ongoing, currently 10/10.
Fruits Basket: IM GONNA CRY I LOVE THIS ANIME SO MUCH???? The original anime came out when I was in... I think middle school and my parents were really strict on what I watched so I never got to experience the first wave and I never bothered to watch the show ever after I moved out of the house years later. However, now that I'm much older I honestly can say this is one of my favorite anime to date, and all the characters are charming, lovable, with their own problems that I can connect to or sympathize with, and I love the MC which is always a treat tbh. Except Akito. Akito can suck a sandpaper dick. I'm only on S2 tho so no spoilers! Anime 11/10.
Monster Girl Doctor: went in thinking it was gonna be a monster girl who's a doctor with a homoerotic assistant (her name is SAPPHY okay sue me for thinking it) and ended up watching the entire dubbed harem series. Honestly, I've seen worse and this one has consistent follow-through on interesting characters and backstory enough for me to shove aside the blatant under-monstrousness of the female monsters and the harem-ness of everything else. Dubbing is honestly really good, which is a treat, and the monster designs are not the worst and the MC is tolerable. Honestly, I don't mind having watched it! The mix of cgi and the traditional animation together work pretty strangely though, and it often doesn't flow super well. 7.5/10
So I'm a Spider, So What: Dubbed version which honestly isn't that bad. Took me a bit to get into it, but after realizing that it's got a mismatched timeline a la The Witcher, it made so much more sense. Heavily done in cgi, and you can definitely tell between the 2D and 3D animations, but not the worst in the world. I went in not expecting much but it ended up being an Issekai I can stand and even enjoy. On god has a decent story... with the spider. I'd be a liar if I didnt say I skipped some of the human parts just to get back to the best part of the show. 8/10.
Somali and the Forest Spirit: I'm so fucking nostalgic for this thing it makes me want to go and hug my dad. About a human girl under threat of being eaten with a monster-dominated world. Very obvious "humans fear what they don't understand" message but instead of the humans learning tolerance it's what happens when they get annihilated first so like, kudos for the mangaka for having the guts to do that. I cried like a baby regularly. It's really good, I watched the dub and ID WATCH IT AGAIN!!! 9/10.
To Your Eternity: Oh my god. O h my g o d. Fell in love on the first episode, ngl. About if an immortal being learned how to be a person from scratch. I love it. HOWEVER. Keep a box of tissues on you at all times because you're gonna need them. I'm only on EP7 because that's all that's out right now but just know. I love it. Not for everyone but certainly for my "what do we define as human and the human condition" ass. 12/10.
Those Snow White Notes: A sports anime without any sports. About shamisen playing which is cool because I never realized how cool this instrument was??? Its neat af. OP1&2 are by Burnout Syndrom so know theyre fire. Gonna be real, its pretty alright, but not extraordinary. You can tell they were using the characters as archetypes rather than actually characters which kinda kills a lot of the emotional value you could've had, but I'm still gonna watch it. It doesn't make me cringe as hard as other sports anime tho so I consider it toptier in that regards but if you're a big sports anime fan you might be bummed out by it. Every single musical performance is INCREDIBLE tho. A solid 8/10.
Toilet Bound Hanako-kun: THE ART OMFG IT'S SO GORGEOUS. Listen, if you took coptic markers and gave them an animation budget with some manga panel direction thrown in there, that's this anime. It's beautiful. Gorgeous. I'm in love with the aesthetic every second. Story? Really good. Characters? I love the MC and his evil little twin brother asshat. Demons? Not super imaginative but I'm carrying on happy as can be anyways. Dubbing? A bit shaky at times but I found the voices charming if a little off for some of them. I'm already waiting for the second season with popcorn at the ready. 10/10.
Prison School: I watched this directly after Hanako-kun and it was like I got slapped in the face by sweaty unwashed titties and some fedora wearing schmuck's piss kink. No character is likable or redeemable. I finished it, but at what cost? 2/10 and only because a character shit his pants and I laughed.
Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle: watched this right after Prison School and it was NECESSARY tbh. Its so CUTE and honestly, im not even kidding you, the fucking funniest anime I've seen in months. I watched the dub and the VAs are having the time of their lives working on this anime not just giving it their all but literally just going ham. Its great. If I read this im sure id be bored outta my mind but the VAs giving it a joyous performance make it an insta fave for me tbh. 9/10.
Sk8 the Infinity: i watched the dub with my bro and I can confirm that its a spectacular show because we both loved it and we have vastly different tastes. Incredibly SUSPENSFUL AND STRESSFUL for an anime about skateboarding but we finished it in a single sitting tbh. The last episode is not dubbed for some reason but we still loved it. Like if Free! was less obnoxious but the only fan-service here is Joe ⥠a beefcake who owns my lesbian heart. I think there's exactly one named female character tho and I legit couldn't tell you what it was if there was a gun to my head. So, over all, 9.5/10.
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime: I'm going to be entirely honest, I went in thinking it was going to be a boring isekai of no value. I was right about the Isekai part. It was honestly pretty interesting and focused on nation building like you're playing civilization rather than the usual "Get Stronger" narrative or "Get Some Pussy" narrative most isekais take which is delightfully refreshing. Granted there are flavors of that in this which means it doesn't alienate the big isekai watchers out there, but it's not the whole dish and it doesn't make me want to cringe the same way others do. You've got a slime MC just vibing and building a nation of monsters nbd. Does lose points for making the female monsters more humanoid than their male counterparts but makes them back by only doing perfunctory fan-service and nothing that makes me want to cry... except the butt sumo episode but in fairness it was all a terrible dream. Literally, the MC refuses to dream anymore after that. solid animation, decent voice acting, decent story, made me realize how HUGE this is in the Light Novel community???? There's like 18 fucking novels and that's WILD. 8.5/10.
MANGA:
Spirit Photographer Saburo Kono: a one shot special by the mangaka of The Promised Neverland! Honestly a really delicate touch of both super creepy and really touching, and I'm not gonna lie I'm bummed that this isn't a bigger project but the single chapter makes it a good taste for their style. I've been wondering if I wanna read/watch The Promised Neverland and now I think I will. 10/10
Deranged Detective Ron Kamonohashi: from the mangaka of Hitman Reborn comes this Sherlock and Watson derivative! Not even 20 chapters out yet with a sort of spotty schedule, I honestly love it even thought it's exactly as you expect. HOWEVER. Kamonohashi the "Sherlock" character uses mental pressure to kill all confirmed murderers and it's up to Toto the "Watson" character to save all those people before Kamonohashi kills them! It's just recently introduced a "Moriarty" family of crime lords (not a big spoiler don't worry it was obvious) so the tension surrounding Ron's past is amping up rn. Personally, I think the art is GORGEOUS, the characters engaging, and the story quick enough to keep my interest. Most mysteries are solved within a chapter or two so you're not stuck 20 chapters into one locked room mystery which is just peachy tbh. RN, 10/10. If this gets an anime, I anticipate a legion of fangirls who ship the two main characters along with their many friends. I've been alive too long to believe otherwise.
Don't Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro: Yeah I read the manga after I watched the show. A slower build than the anime, but it works for the format, if theyd done the same with the show then I don't think it wouldve done as well. Honestly? Cuter tbh but just as horny. You dont start really LEARNING about your character until like, chap 65 tho and no real "drama" happens until like 75. A good chunk of the chapters are like 8pgs so its a breeze to get through. I love these slow burn idiots of the century. 9.5/10 because you can DEFINITELY tell the mangaka does hentai too.
Yugen's All-Ghouls Homeroom: one-shot by the mangaka for Food Wars, it's no wonder there's this constant perviness from the MC, a guy who can see and exorcise spirits. Takes place at an all girl's finishing school with KICK ASS monsters tbh, kinda bummed its not longer. The MC? Blatant monsterfucker who is also a CONFRIMED monsterfucker???? Idk i vibe with that single emotion. Everything else is hit or miss. 7/10 for monsters and cool concept, lost points for the MC very pointedly being okay with admitting he'd wait for the teenagers to be adults tho. Creepy af. Could live without that.
Hell's Paradise: I finished the entire 127chps in 3 days and I was really enthusiastic about it 90% of the time thinking about how deep it was and then I actually thought about it and I ended up being very neutral about the whole thing tbh. The art is fantastic tho, but DEFINITELY deserving of the M rating. Tits. Tits everywhere. But not tits to be ecchi over, no, monster hermit tits on beautiful women-ish figures. Now generally I give that a pass but a huge theme in the story is that men and women are "no better than one or the other" but like, lady tits are what you see 99% of the time. Men tits are few and far between. I call bullshit on most of the "deep" themes is what I'm saying, so it's like the mangaka was trying for those deep thoughts but missed the margin a little too far for my preference. That being said, the MC is a married man who loves his wife which automatically makes him my favorite character so like... idk so many good things, so many misses, but overall really spectacular themes and imagery. Unique but classic all at once. It's getting an anime and I have NO IDEA how much censorship they're gonna be doing but they're going to be doing SO MUCH. Oh yeah, and one guy is a plant/human hybrid who fucks a 1000 year old plant-hermit which makes him a canon monster fucker. And one canon non-binary character who I, a nonbinary, actually like. So like... gosh I've got mixed feelings. 8.5/10.
Choujin X: From Sui Ishida, mangaka to the mega hit Tokyo Ghoul comes this brand new manga!... Of one chapter, lol. Not really binge-y because it's just the one chapter out right now but I'm already keeping my eye on it. The grasp on anatomy in the art is PHENOMENAL and you can see Ishida flexing his art skill which is great. Can't give a true rating but I'm giving it a tentative 9/10 because I'm excited to see more.
Shag&Scoob: technically not a manga, its an ongoing webcomic I binged an subscribed to in one day and I just think it deserves more attention. Starts off funny with "what if Scooby Doo had a gun" and has been led to "what if all cartoons are aliens that survive and receive their powers by the humans that love them in an epic war with Martians." On god, its good. I finished the current series in a couple hours so it's a breezy read, highly recommend it. 9/10.
To Your Eternity: Yeah I watched the anime and then finished all current 143 chapters in like 3 days. GOD IM WEAK. I don't buy physical manga unless I know I want to remember the story forever and I'm already budgeting for the current books out. Yeah, this is a good series. That being said, definitely not for the faint of heart or those who suffer under common triggers like suicide, molestation, death, etc. It's all framed as bad and necessary to the story don't get me wrong, but it's there and has lasting affects on the characters. Incredible story telling by the creator of A Silent Voice. Keep tissues nearby at all times. 12/10.
#i've been killing slimes for 300 years and maxed out my level#don't toy with me miss nagatoro#spirit photographer saburo kono#fruits basket#deranged detective ron kamonohashi#yugen's all-ghoul's homeroom#monster girl doctor#so i'm a spider so what#somali and the forest spirit#to your eternity#jigokuraku#hell's paradise#choujin x#shag and scoob#toilet bound hanako kun#prison school#sk8 the infinity#that time i got reincarnated as a slime
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Guidance - Zuko x Reader Chapter 1
Fandom: Avatar the Last Air bender Word Count: 3,819 My Masterlist Warnings/disclaim: General In this fic, characters are aged up, to what I see fit for my story, but will stay roughly on the same timeline This takes place on the timeline after the North Pole and Zuko and his Uncle go their separate ways for a bit. If youâve never seen ATLA, the story may be confusing and vague/give spoilers.  Authorâs Note: under the story ___ is a blank for your name/oc/whatever you prefer Written in 3rd person Line/header is to separate paragraphs to indicate time skips, as Tumblr hates my formatting. Story under cut, 1 of 8: Guidance Masterlist
Limply riding along on his ostrich-horse Zuko clung to his stomach as a waft of food hit him. It was coming from a nearby forest, he turned the animal into the trees a bit before demounting and tying the reins to a trunk near some water. Zuko quietly walked, following the smell of food, the closer he got he could tell it was fish.Â
A woman came into view, she looked around his age, but was alone, with many basins of salt, which he amused was for curing some type of meat. He kept low and quiet, waiting for the perfect moment to steal some food.Â
Watching the girl intently, Zuko gripped the hilts of his double swords when she sat down a couple of leaves on the ground. She took the fish, which she had been roasting and rotating above a flame, gently pushed it off the stick it was cooking onto the leaf. She repeated the movements until 3 fish were on each leaf, she picked up one and sat down.Â
After sipping her tea, she sat another cup across from her, with the other pile of cooked fish. This confused Zuko, because she seemed alone, yet was setting a place across from her, repeating with some rice in small bowls.Â
âYou are very stealthy but I apologize, not good enough to evade me.â The lady spoke softly, after a bite of rice. âPlease come join me, youâre hungry, I could hear your stomach.âÂ
Zuko froze, it seemed like a trick, yet his need for food drove his feet forward slowly.Â
âWould you like some water along with your tea and food?â She gave him a gentle smile as he emerged from the forest into her clearing.Â
âWhy?â Zuko demand.Â
âWhy not?â She retorted, pouring him a cup of water and setting it near the food.Â
Zuko glared at her, he didnât want to just take food given, yet it was technically better than trying to steal it when it was clearly free.Â
He gingerly sat down in front of her, eyeing her.Â
She chuckled a bit then sighed, âare you going to let that food go to waste?âÂ
âAnswer my question, why?âÂ
âTechnically I did, you didnât answer mine. Why not?â Zuko glanced down at the food before glaring at her again, causing her to sigh again. âLetâs just chalk it up to me not wanting to fight today. Iâve had a very nice day, and I have enough food and supplies to share with someone who does not. Is that a good enough answer for you?âÂ
âSo, youâre only giving it to me because youâre in a good mood?â He sneered.Â
âNo,â she stated calmly, taking a piece of fish and eating it. âIâm doing it because I know what it's like to travel and have almost nothing. Itâs not pleasant. Itâs not something I would even wish upon my enemy; hunger is the cruelest torture of life.âÂ
Zuko looked at the food again, before picking up the fish and starting to eat it.Â
 Zuko kept eyeing her as they ate in silence, she didnât bother to start conversation nor stared at him, her calm composure was throwing him off, but it also calmed him as it reminded him of Uncle Iroh.Â
When Zuko was done eating, she handed him a water bladder, it was bigger than the empty one upon his person.Â
âTrade me, I need a smaller one for watering plants.â Zuko glanced over at her makeshift home and saw a couple of pots with flowers near her makeshift wall.Â
Zuko traded with her, without any words then he stood up to leave, as he turned, he glanced at her over his shoulder, âthank you.âÂ
âYouâre welcome,â she paused as he started to walk away. âWould you like some feed for your ostrich-horse?âÂ
Zuko paused at the line of the clearing, mulling it over, she was frustrating him.Â
âWhy? Because you think I need handouts from a homeless person?!â He shouted at her.Â
âI may be homeless, but at least I am not lost. I see the hurt and loss within you, Iâve been there, itâs easier to get through when youâre not alone and not wondering when youâll eat again.âÂ
âSo, you pity me? There is no way you could know what Iâm going through! What Iâve lost!âÂ
She opened a piece of parchment with his face on it, his wanted poster.Â
âPrince Zuko, I may not know what youâre going through exactly but I know what youâve lost.âÂ
âIf you know who I am then why would you feed me? Give me water? Offer me feed?âÂ
The woman stood and walked towards him, with an open hand, offering it to him. âBecause I know what it's like to be not wanted by anyone, not even my home.âÂ
Zuko could see her eyes water a bit before quickly blinking them away, he could see the truth behind her words, and the sorrow within her eyes.Â
Zuko looked down at her hand, âso what are you offering?â He asked softly.Â
âTo teach you how to live on your own, and possibly guide you to yourself.âÂ
Her words struck him the way his Uncleâs do, but this time, he knew that the one behind the words had been in his place before. But was she was so lucky to have someone to help her, would he choose his self-isolation or take the chance to learn? He furrowed his brow not knowing any of the answers. He looked up into her eyes then gently shook her hand.Â
âOkay.âÂ
A few weeks had passed with Zuko and ___, he learned her name and told her his fake name, Lee, in case anyone came around. He found out she was 20, 2 years older than him, yet she seemed so much more knowledgeable on just about everything he had questions on.Â
âAnd that is how to make a basket,â she said calmly, giving her basket to him.Â
Zuko grunted and started to weave the pieces together, getting more and getting frustrated as the pieces wouldnât stay together.Â
âHere,â ___ sat closely next to him, moving his hands into a different position. âYou canât use so much force, youâre simply weaving pieces together, keeping composure and being firm, with your hands further apart and it should be easier. Itâll still take practice, but youâll get it.âÂ
___ gently patted his shoulder before standing up and moving over to the fire, where she was cooking soup.Â
âWhy would I need a basket anyways?â Zuko grumbled as he took the process a bit slower and more seriously.Â
âIf you become good at it, you can make more watertight ones, so you can brine or soak meats before curing them, so you have more food while traveling. A couple of good baskets with salt in them, on the side saddle of your animal, youâll just have to start a fire to cook, then you could eat and rest. Or knowing you, cook then continue.â She laughed slightly at her comment as she stirred the soup.Â
Zuko put down his in-process basket, which was holding its shape thankfully and not coming undone the moment it wasnât being held together.Â
âHow long have you been on your own?â Zuko asked before drinking some water.Â
âI guess about 8 years now, soon to be 9. I left home right before my 12th birthday.âÂ
Zuko sat down to eat as she handed him a bowl of soup. Scooping soup for herself then sitting next to him. âWhat happened?âÂ
___ ate some of her soup before looking at the flames flicker. âWhere Iâm from,â she started hesitantly, âas a girl, you get married at 16, have a child, but you canât fight, only can you learn how to aid and heal others.Â
âMy mother didnât follow that path, she had me, outside of wedlock and kept me secret from everyone but our maid and my nanny. My mom was higher up in politics, working long hours, but when she came home, sheâd send home my nanny and the maid, and it would be just us. She doted on me, loved me, but above all, I was still a secret, no one outside of our home knew I existed, not even my father.Â
âI was about 8 or so when I begged and cried for her to take me shopping with her. I hadnât been allowed outside of the house and I was tired of being a good girl and staying all cooped up. After what seemed like days, she finally agreed. Everyone stared at me as I clung to her, I was so excited but scared of everyone eyeing me.Â
âWhile we were at a store, getting me some new clothes, a man ran up to my mother. Panting as if he ran with all his force, my mother hid me behind her. They argued quietly for a bit before my mom let me come out and introduced me to the man. Saying he was my father. The man broke down crying then hugged me like Iâd disappear if he let go.Â
âOnce we were home, my mom explained to me that she never told my father about me, and when the town saw me, someone told him that his ex was walking around with a child that looked like him. She explained to me that to get where she was in her career, she couldnât let a scandal like me out. She told me that if I wanted, I could go to school with other kids and see my father more to get to know him.Â
âAt the time I was just happy to have the opportunity to finally make friends and have a dad. A few years passed and my parents eventually got married and we lived like a true family.âÂ
___ had a smile the whole story until now, her face fell a bit.Â
âMy parents, being important members of our nation, were sent on a mission. They never returned. I donât really know what happened to them, but itâs one of two things. Either Fire Nation got them, or nature did. I think it was nature, we had a very harsh winter that year and I never saw any soot in the sky, my mom and dad were supposed to stay close to home.Â
âSo, I was an orphan, but more than that I was angry at nature, the world. I wanted to learn how to fight and get strong. I begged the master and our council and even attempted to fight the master.Â
âOf course, having no training nor good stamina, I got beat down again and again, over a week. One day, an elder came to me, telling me Iâd taunted and tainted our traditions. If I was willing to let go of my anger I could stay home, but if I continued to be brash and try to fight, I would need to leave as my anger and thoughts were not welcome there.Â
âSo, I left, with very little, and all the money my mother and father had.âÂ
___ stopped, getting herself and Zuko more soup. After a few moments, she sighed softly as she could feel Zukoâs eyes on her, silently asking her to continue.Â
âI went back a couple of years after I left and they could tell I had become a fighter, on my own. Because of that, I was forbidden to come home, to even enter the walls. I was sent away and I havenât looked back.âÂ
âWhere are you from?â Zuko asked softly, but she didnât answer, she simply added some wood to the fire. âYou know where Iâm from, tell me.â Zuko tried to persuade her.Â
âThe North Pole,â she spat the words while poking the fire.Â
âAre you a waterbender?âÂ
She chuckled dryly, ânot a very good one. But I can fight, I know chi blocking, heal a bit, and I have very good senses, they are heightened. Which is how I heard you coming before.âÂ
âI didnât know the North Pole was like that, it seems, so sexist,â he whispered while glancing at her before handing her a cup of water.Â
âI didnât have the happiest childhood, but not the worst, the war didnât affect me until I left home. Iâve seen the devastation, so I made it my will to help everyone I can.âÂ
âBut why would you help me, Iâm Fire Nation, Iâm the prince.âÂ
âYou are as affected by the Fire Nation as the rest of the world. You were a child speaking with worry about your citizens with care and goodwill. For it, you were burned and banished for showing weakness, for showing loyalty and love to your father. At least when you were a kid, you were banished for trying to be good. I was banished for following my anger.â ___ gave him a soft smile, and it made his heart hammer.Â
âNo one has ever said I was good,â he murmured.Â
âYou have a dysfunctional family, the only good one is your uncle. It took him a while and pain to find his way. I know youâll find your way.âÂ
âI just want my throne, my home, my country, my honor.âÂ
âIâm going to say something and I suggest you think about it.âÂ
âJust spit it out already, oh wise one,â Zuko said sarcastically.Â
âNo one can take your honor. No one can take your birthright from you. You need to take it back; you donât have to earn and prove yourself to anyone. Who are you? Who do you want to be? What do you want out of life, for yourself? Look inside yourself and ask yourself the hard questions. Stop living up to the person someone wants you to be, be yourself, the best version of you. Because no one can take that from you, no one can be you, but you.âÂ
Zuko glared at the fire internalizing her words. âYou sound like my uncle,â he said bitterly. âBut with less nonsense and straight to the point.âÂ
âStill I guess my words can sound like nonsense if Iâm not careful,â she laughed softly. âCome one, itâs time for bed.âÂ
Zuko sighed softly before helping ___ pick up the campsite and put out the fire. She cleaned up the dishes and put them away, going into the tent.Â
âHey, Zuko, itâs getting colder outside. Would you like to sleep inside or at least have a sleeping bag?â She asked while putting a blanket on to the ostrich-horse who was lying down next to the tent.Â
Zuko stared at the ground for a moment, it was colder last night, and although the sleeping bag would be nice, the shelter would be better.Â
âYouâre furrowing your brow, thinking about it so much,â she laughed slightly before poking the bunched-up skin in-between his eyebrows. He glared at her slightly, âSince your debating, let me throw in another option. You can do both, have a sleeping bag, and come inside.â ___ gave him a soft smile; his heart did an odd twist at her smile.Â
âOkay,â he looked away from her and walked into the tent. It was definitely warmer inside, probably because of the foliage she had around it.Â
He saw her cot in the back and near one of the walls, sheâd already laid out the bag for him nearby. ___ came in and started tidying up a bit more, putting some more things into a large backpack.Â
âWhatâs the backpack for?â Heâd seen it here and there; within the days heâd been there.Â
âOh, this is my necessities bag, so if Iâm attacked or something happens, I can grab this bag and run. Iâd have the most important things so I can start over.âÂ
âThatâs a very good idea,â he mumbled softly before sitting down on the sleeping bag. âSo, what are you teaching me tomorrow? Iâve learned fishing, gutting and deboning the fish, brine and curing, identifying good and bad berries and herbs, and today the baskets.âÂ
âI actually need to go into town tomorrow,â she said while taking off her heavier clothes. âI havenât been in a couple of months. Iâm a bit low on rice and potatoes. The blacksmith was supposed to make me a heavy-duty pan like the one I make soup in. Plus, I need to sell some things. Like baskets, cured meats and fish, I made some jewelry last month, I should sell that too.â ___ continued, but it seemed more so like she was rambling to herself.Â
âSo, what am I supposed to do?â Zuko groaned.Â
âCome with me, I usually stay there for a week or so when I go. I do things around town, helping people, earning money. Iâll teach you some labor stuff, so when you leave and are on the road again. Youâll know how to look for things to fix, to get a free meal, supplies, or even money; if they have it.âÂ
âHow long have you been doing this?âÂ
âWell, Iâve been here in this spot for about 2 years, I will probably be leaving soon, but there are two good towns here. Iâve been helping towns for about 4 years. I was wandering and learning to fight for about 2 years before settling down. You know, learning about plants and stuff too.âÂ
âSo, youâll just leave this place for a week and come back.âÂ
âYeah I usually go every month into town, but,â she trailed off while getting into bed.Â
âBut?âÂ
âSo, there's this guy, heâs nice and all, but heâs not my type, just a little too,â she paused for a moment before getting the right wording. "Complacent. I want to travel again someday, move around as I wish. He wants to just stay in one place his whole life. Heâs been very flirty lately and I just donât want him to bother me. Nor do I want to nicely put him down and give him any hope. Heâs kinda too confident for his own good, which can also be annoying.âÂ
âOh,â Zuko mumbled. ___ is attractive, even to him, and her kind heart is very enduring. âHow often does that happen to you?âÂ
âNot much. I try not to let anyone be too friendly, because I wonât be around long. Nor do I want to make a good friend and feel conflicted about exploring my life.âÂ
âWhat if you loved them?âÂ
âI donât know. You canât plan who you love. But I would hope they would want to travel with me, or at least be willing to in the future, once the war ends.âÂ
âYou seem so sure the war will end.âÂ
âI am,â she stated calmly.Â
âHow?â Zuko asked.Â
___ yawned, âitâs a story to tell another day.â She rolled over facing away from him.Â
Zuko groaned and lied down annoyed.Â
âGoodnight Zuko,â she mumbled softly.Â
âNight ___,â he grumbled.Â
Wind was whipping at the tent, waking Zuko, he sat up to look over at ___ to see how she could sleep through this noise. But he was shocked to see her cot empty. He gently lit a flame in his hand and called out her name, but got no reply. He got out of the sleeping bag and went outside to look for her.Â
He looked about the general area of the campsite, but couldnât see her. Eventually, he wandered towards the nearby river and froze when he saw ___ standing in the middle of it. Â
___ was elegantly moving water, wearing a beautiful white dress that flowed and moved with her. Pushing, pulling, and swirling the water all around her, polished and gentle. There was no strength, just graceful movements. Zuko had only fought waterbenders, he never saw the beauty in it as he did now. Â
As she slowed her movements she looked up at the full moon, with her face in the luminescence he could see tears streaming down her face. His heart tightened at the sight, he could almost feel how much pain and desolation she felt even with the distance between them. Â
___ slowly sat down in the water, curling her knees into her chest, resting her head on the tops of her knees. A few moments passed when the water started to glow around her, illuminating all the water around her. The glowing water slowly consumed her; ___ lifted her head as the water reached her neck. Zuko could see her taking a deep breath, preparing for the void.Â
The sight was unsettling as she was engulfed, vanishing along with the glow of water. Zuko wanted to jump in after her but his confusion as to why she would let it happen kept him in place. He came back to his senses realizing he could barely hear with the wind because the sound of his blood was pounding within his body. Â
Zuko slowly sat down on the ground trying to calm down, as his heart calmed, he could hear the wind did too. He could only think of Zhao, who had been taken by the ocean spirit. What spirit wanted ___ and why?Â
While contemplating, the river started to glow again. Zuko watched intently as he could start to make out ___âs body within the water, pushing her gently up onto the riverbank. She was motionless, Zuko scrambled to his feet and ran to her side. Being closer he could see she was breathing slowly. She was dry, the water didnât drown her, it simply took her and returned her. But why?Â
___ took a deep breath while exhaling her eyes opened and the same glow as the water was there, briefly. Zuko was lost for words, as their eyes locked.Â
âWhat are you doing here?â Her voice was soft but raspy as if sheâd been sleeping.Â
âYou werenât in bed, so I came looking for you. What happened to you?âÂ
___ sat up slowly looking away from him, clearly debating on what to say, depending on how much he saw, âhow long have you been here?âÂ
âA while,â Zuko answered a bit curt, he wanted answers, not more questions.Â
She stood up slowly, Zuko mirrored her warily and cautious as she looked weak. She wobbled a bit, Zuko quickly wrapped his arms around her.Â
âAre you okay?â Even though he was annoyed and curious, he was also concerned.Â
âIâm vastly drained,â she rested her head against his shoulder. Although he stiffened a bit, it was pleasant to him, he welcomed the feeling while tightening his arms around her. Something about this just felt so accurate, he rested his cheek on top of her head. Soon her weight started to drift onto him more and her breathing slowed.Â
â___?â Zuko called her gently, but when she didnât answer. He gingerly scooped her up into his arms, carrying her back to her bed.Â
Authorâs Note: I havenât wrote a story with intent to make it visible in a long time. So new work 2020, I refell in love with Zuko, like a lot of people did with the resurface of Avatar being on Netflix, Iâve watched it three times now, aha. Fanfiction wasnât a part of my life/world when it first came out when I watched it. But Avatar did launch me into my love of anime, and from there I eventually found fanfics, then started writing them. I feel very late to post a Zuko fic, but this story has been in my head ever since I rewatched it, the first time. So, hopefully, someone is craving more Zuko fics like me and theyâll enjoy this with me <3
#zuko x reader#zuko/reader#avatar zuko#fanfic#fic#fanfiction#avatar the last airbender#atla#atla fic#zuko fic#zuko avatar#lalahbug#guidance series#lalah writes#reader insert#xreader#self insert#fire lord zuko#firelord zuko
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Ok, letâs talk Eren. Because thereâs certainly a lot to talk about, and I definitely think that Isayamaâs still got a few tricks up his sleeve with him. Iâll definitely want to talk about Historia at some point in the future, too, but I need to get more pieces together there, so for now, letâs dive into a timeline of Erenâs mind. Letâs put the events between chapter 90 and the Marley arc in order, and see what we see. And pay close attention to what we donât, because thatâs every bit as important. And now, brace yourselves if you decide to read this, because boy is it a long one. So, time for a read more break!
So to make this easier, letâs start from the start. The moment the disconnect between Eren and the reader starts. (Side note, I can totally see why the anime made this chapter into a single episode more and more, itâs so important)
At this point, Eren gets all of those memories from the future. We definitely donât know all he saw (âthat sceneryâ and no doubt something related to why his dad still gave him the power) but weâve got enough to understand his reaction, specially if we consider the shards from chapter 130 also being some of those memories he got. A horrified âI do all of this?â is probably the first thing that he thinks. And so a year passes. Memories from the past from what his father experienced, and memories from the future of things heâll do that he just canât believe heâd even do. At this point, his knowledge of the world is also limited to âEldia good, Marley badâ which is reinforced by experiencing his fatherâs memories (as if he experienced them himself, as opposed to everyone else just reading the journals), and that certainly has an effect on him. And so we get to one year later, to the ocean scene, where he poses the question based on the future heâs seen. âThose enemies on the other side of here... If we kill them all... does that mean...â
âThatâs what Iâm doing in the future, right? Thatâs what this all leads up to?â is probably whatâs going through his head as he poses that. He doesnât quite understand how it makes sense. And then not long after, his negative biases start being reinforced. Marley comes in with their expeditionary forces and he worries about a full force attack. Then Yelena comes in with a plan from Zeke, which likely makes him start thinking that those memories make more sense.
âItâs gotta be something we must agree on in the future then. Our one option.â See how he immediately jumps to that conclusion. Heâs still spending all that time thinking on how those memories make sense, and that seems to be the answer. And his us vs. them view is further built up on by the Survey Corpsâ biggest mistake. Notice someone missing?
While the rest of the Levi Squad gets to open their minds about people on the other side of the walls and make connections with the volunteers and POWs, in their extreme wariness to keep Eren away from the potential of Zekeâs manipulations, they keep him from making a connection. Armin and Mikasa see progress, but Eren just sees the glares of POWs and a serious lack of time. He doesnât get to experience a potential peaceful option that the rest get to. So at that point it is âwe follow Zekeâs plan, we use a major show of force against the world, and we buy timeâ. Memories seem to make sense for the time being. And so another year passes, and things start looking a bit better. A port is built, and they get introduced to what seems like they may just be genuine allies from the outside world
Finally, right? Thereâs a chance for things to work out. Eren doesnât get to interact with the volunteers or the POWs, but at least he can see theyâve upheld their side, the port works, and they have allies whoâre following them due to a noble cause. We even see Eren smile, probably for the first time in two years! But then...
Suddenly, things get much messier. Kiyomiâs motivation for Azumabito support gets muddier which supports negative biases on his end towards the outside world, and the plan basically means a repeat of what the royal family did for years. The very thing he sees in his memories heâll make his father put an end to, no less. âSurely Iâm not bringing upon the rumbling to support this, right?â must be one of the things that comes up in his head. And so, he makes the push. All options should be checked out, there must be another way. Him using the rumbling could still be part of an alternative plan, after all. The Azumabito head out, and another year passes...
Boy, if you thought Erenâs biases towards the outside world were negative before, theyâre hitting rock bottom right here. Everything here keeps supporting the idea that âthe world is the enemyâ. And the time aspect comes up yet again. The 104th discuss passing down his titan, and it reminds him time is running out and if he wants to keep his friends safe and prevent the cycle of titans to continue, he needs to do something. And as if things werenât bad enough yet, after the railway opening ceremony, Yelena comes over and...
Talk about the motherest of all fucks. He already disagreed with Zekeâs plan on the basis of Historia being used as a baby machine and THEN this comes up? And Zekeâs gonna come in one way or the other. The top brass of the military is compromised. Absolutely everything seems against the island at this point. Zeke just wants to euthanize every Subject of Ymir. The Azumabito are just hanging out like vultures waiting for the spoils from the island. Everyone else plain old wants them dead. He didnât even get to hang out with the volunteers like Onyankopon to see that they genuinely care for the future of the island! Itâs not surprising that at this point, this is the conclusion he comes to.
And thatâs it, right? Eren just lost all faith in everything except Paradis (and not even all of it) and wants everything to burn, right? Well, itâs certainly what Isayama wants you to think at this point. See, I donât doubt that, at this point in time, Eren did mean this. But hereâs where the fun part comes: Weâre still missing parts in the middle. But we have something starting to build up to that something else. We fast forward a month or so, to 123. The first time Eren experiences the outside world by himself.
I think this moment is pretty important. His perception of the world was mostly about his dadâs memories (which he brings up to Mikasa just before). But this is very different. For the first time, he gets to witness firsthand the scale of what heâs considering. And following that... Well, you already see him in this page, he stands out, but he comes into play. Fez kid.
That likely makes Eren think of other future memories that havenât come to pass, but most important, it begins showing Eren another side of the outside world. See, so far his impressions are that itâs either people like the Azumabito whoâre only interested due to having something to gain, or people like Sargent Gross or Zeke who outright want them dead, whether itâs out of hatred or genuinely thinking itâs the right thing. But Fez Kid and the people heâs with are different. Theyâre just like Eren, Mikasa, and Armin were after the fall of Wall Maria. I do think that this is the first time Eren truly questions going with the Rumbling
But they also do something that could be the key in preventing the potential destructive course Eren was in at the time:
I donât think many people really consider how huge this is. Just a month or so before, Eren saw the whole outside world as the enemy. Yet here, in this one night, he sees more humanity to the outside world and something far more positive than heâd considered in YEARS. These people donât even understand them, thereâs a language barrier, and yet during that night a connection is built and for once, itâs just Eren actually sharing a good time with others. Sure, he may intend this as a goodbye considering he left the next day either way, but I genuinely think this is the point where heâd start having some hesitation about his plan.
The next day, he leaves, but then we enter ??? territory from the good few months he spent at Marley leading up to the Marley arc. His talk on the basement with Reiner is no doubt Eren at his most honest in quite some time, and based on all we have leading up to this, itâs clear it takes more than just Falco to make him change his views to these:
The story has made that much clear. He no doubt spent a long time on his own before even infiltrating at Fort Slava (the panel of Eren with his Marley arc look at the town near the fort is proof enough), and we also know Fez kid was a part of his life yet again. The fact we still have two unexplained panels of him tells us thereâs more weâre missing.
And this is where I think Isayamaâs leading the audience into a narrative trap. It reminds me of The Last of Us 2, in a way. Being vague here for people who havenât watched and/or played the game, Ellieâs flashbacks seem to reinforce a certain perspective on why sheâs gone on her quest, only for further ones down the line completely change what we thought she knew and recontextualizing her motivation. I think this is similar, it just happens to be a monthly manga thatâs letting you sit on each assumption for months as opposed to it being a 20+ hour long game that you can get through in a few sittings.
But yeah, before I end up digressing even further, thatâs what I think is happening. Isayama is reinforcing certain assumptions, and organizing the flashbacks in a way that obfuscates the full truth. At this point, I end up referring to @jaegerbroshoeââs theory on Eren finally making full sense of those memories during Willyâs speech in chapter 100. So summing up how I think it went, Eren did mean for the destruction of the world 9 months before current events, upon arriving at the mainland, interacting with Fez kid and haivng to live there for a few months he started questioning his plan and reconsidering what those memories meant (âDo I really do this despite what Iâve now learned?â), and finally, as Willyâs speech happens and he talks to Reiner, he gets some true clarity.
But then you ask, if his plan isnât the destruction of the world, why would he still push his friends away? I think itâs a complicated situation. First off, he still does intend to make himself into a monster in the eyes of everyone else, and heâs not just gonna go âha, just kidding!â last second. He needs to commit to the role. But also, because he already locked himself into it. Floch has already formed the Yeagerists. Zekeâs plan is in motion. The Liberio festival and raid is gonna happen either way. And thereâs a whole other post I have to make on Historiaâs pregnancy at some point, but I suspect itâs fake and that Historia herself isnât even in Paradis anymore at this point. The memories now make sense, he understands his own plan, but it doesnât mean he can just walk back on things and pretend thereâll be no consequences. All he has left is to keep moving forward and trust that this last interpretation of his future memories is right.
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Finding the Time to Study Fic 2 [Day 33]
Here is my starting post for todayâs study break stories session. See this post for more details and feel free to send me asks to keep me going! Itâs been a lot of fun so far! I will reblog this post with the story as I write them today. Iâll be constantly looking for ideas of times and places for Janus to have missions, so feel free to send in any you can think of at any point!
If you are a new follower or just donât want all of these posts clogging your dash, please feel free to block the tag âstudy break storiesâ as all posts and voting about it will go there. You can still see the finished product of the story even if you are blocking that tag as I will not tag the edited chapters with âstudy break storiesâ but with the tag âfolds in paper.â See edited chapters below. None edited chapters are under the cut.
My Masterpost Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11
I also have a playlist on youtube (because Spotify didnât have one of the songs I wanted). Itâs short, and not really for serious listening, but I had fun with it.
Alright, here we go again!
Chapter 12
There was something off about his readings. Clearly the time distortion was starting to pull at this place with the way the weather was flickering between storming and sunny, but he still couldnât quite pinpoint the exact location of the source of it. He could, however, get that it must be somewhere on this side of the river more into the downtown area, so thatâs the way he was walking, Pat close on his heels.
âWhatâs your name, by the way?â he asked.
Janus shot him a glare. âElvis Presley,â he said.
Pat frowned, clearly knowing who that was. âThereâs no reason to be mean.â
 âYou did it to me first.â
ââŠIntroduced myself as a famous musician?â he asked. Janus didnât respond, and after a moment, Pat laughed lightly. âYou really donât understand time travel, do you?â
âOh, yeah,â Janus said. âName the three types of time distortions.â
âJust because I donât know the names of things doesnât mean I donât understand them.â He stuck out his tongue. Janus was dealing with an actual toddler. âUnlike you who has a bunch of fancy words, but just caused a time loop.â
Janus scoffed. âI did not just cause a time loop.â
âMaybe not a big one,â Pat agreed, âbut you did.â
 Janus raised an eyebrow. âIâve never introduced myself to you with a musicianâs name, but now youâve told me that I will. So, at some point in the future I will have to, thereby making you think to say that now. Time loop.â
âThatâs not⊠that doesnât count.â
âDoes too,â Pat claimed. âLike I have said once before and you may or may not have heard me say before, anything you do to me to get back at me for something I havenât done yet, just causes whatever that is to happen in the first place.â
âBut youâre still going to do it.â
 âThen take it up with future me. I havenât done anything to you.â Then he paused and sighed. ââŠWhich I guess means youâve done nothing to me.â He seemed to mull this concept over for a long moment. âWell you were a bit crabby about me not knowing what a time distortion was, but I can forgive you for that.â
âAnd Iâm supposed to forgive you?â
âLike I said,â Pat said. âI havenât done anything yet.â
âYou also havenât done anything to endear yourself to me either,â Janus grumbled.
âHmm,â Pat said. âFine.â He pulled something out of his pocket. âYouâre obviously not having much luck finding whatever youâre looking for. Tell me what it is and Iâll help.â
Janus squinted at what was in his hand. âIs that⊠an iPhone 5?â
âNo!â he said. âItâs super-secret time travel tech disguised as an iPhone 5!â
âWeâre in 2027,â Janus said. âNot a great disguise. Those things have been obsolete for a decade.â
âWell Iâll keep in mind to have my tech disguised as phones from the right year next time,â Pat said, sticking out his tongue. âNow what are we looking for?â
âIf my timepiece canât find it, Iâm certain yours canât.â
 Pat rolled his eyes and tapped on the deviceâs screen a couple of times. âIâm going to guess itâs that,â he said proudly.
Janus leaned over to look at the screen. âAre you using google maps?â he sputtered.
âIt integrates time relevant data like traffic conditions and local weather warnings with time travel technology,â Pat explained. âSomething seems to be going on in a museum a couple of blocks that way.â
âIâŠâ Janus said. That was actually a really good idea, usually unnecessary with scouts observing that data beforehand, and Janus wasnât sure how good the accuracy would be considering whatever was taking it into account was automated, but still a good idea. âWell, I guess since we have no other leads, we can check it out.â
 Pat looked far too proud for having only used a piece of tech that hadnât even been confirmed as accurate. âThen, letâs go,â he said right as a chilly wind started to pick up and a couple of snowflakes began to fall around them. âBefore that gets worseâŠâ
Janus let Pat lead with his iPhone. Janusâs timepiece still wasnât picking up a clear signal for some reason, but it seemed to point in the same general direction as Patâs. Strangely though, as they got closer to their destination, the signal started to get fuzzier. Patâs tech seemed unaffected leading them closer to the museum.
 When they got to the MusĂ©e Fabre museum, Janus stopped. âWhat?â Pat asked. He was shivering slightly in the cold and holding his arms around himself.
âMy timepiece stopped working completely,â he said.
âIâm assuming thatâs weird?â Pat said.
âIt is,â Janus confirmed, turning to squint at him suspiciously. âHow do I know youâre not the one doing it?â
âIf I was doing it, wouldnât I have just knocked it out from the get go?â Pat questioned.
Janus pursed his lips. âI donât know,â he said. âWould you have? Maybe itâs a trick.â
Patâs eyes narrowed a bit on him. âThink what you want, but Iâm freezing. Come in with me if you want.â
 He dithered from a few moments before following Pat inside. Pat had already struck up a conversation with the woman charging admission into art museum. She was looking at him, her brow knit as he spoke. Janus nudged him away from her getting a confused glance from him in return. He shot a smile at the woman.
âTwo adult passes for the museum and the Hotel Sabatier dâEspevran, please,â he said, placing down 14 euro.
âAh,â she said, still looking at Pat oddly. âYes sir.â She gave them the passes and Janus quickly shuffled Pat away.
âWhat is wrong with your French?â he hissed once they were out of earshot.
 âWhat?â he asked, bewildered.
âYou sound like youâre reading Le Comte de Monte-Cristo. No one talks like that anymore.â
âIâm a little rusty,â Pat defended himself.
âTwo centuries?â Janus asked. Pat stuck his tongue out like a child once again. âIs that your only way to respond to legitimate criticism?â
âWhat does it even matter anyway? No one ever expects time travel, at least not for something so silly.â
âItâs not silly,â Janus said. âItâs a legitimate issue. The wrong person whoâs watched too much science fiction notices and youâre putting the timeline at risk. Not to mention if there are other time travelers around that arenât as nice as me.â
 âAre there a lot of time travelers around?â Pat asked, sounding intrigued.
âThere are plenty, both legal and not.â
âHuh,â he said, âbut what are the chances weâll run into another one?â
âConsidering the time distortion? There could be many. Opportunists wanting to capitalize off the chaos, people trying to stop it, like me, and not to mention the person who caused it.â
âWait, someone made it happen?â Pat asked.
âThese things donât just happen naturally.â
âHuh. So, something like this has to be caused by a person?â
âYes,â Janus said. ââŠWhy?â
Pat smiled. âNo reason. I think we should head upstairs. Whatever Iâm picking up says itâs around here, but I donât see anything. Maybe itâs a floor or two above us.â
âWhich is why itâs ridiculous to use Google Maps.â
 âWould you rather use yours?â he asked sweetly.
âIâm still not convinced itâs not your doing,â Janus growled. âWhy does your tech still work when mine doesnât?â
âProbably the same reason the ring did,â he muttered.
âWhat?â
âWhat?â
âYou may be the most aggravating being in the universe.â
Pat glanced at him with a bit of a smirk. âI canât tell you,â he said. âIt would be a much bigger risk to the timeline than me speaking in French from the 1830s. But, Iâm pretty sure the reason mine still works is just a software difference.â
âWhat the hell do you mean a software difference?â
 Pat opened his mouth, doubtlessly to supply him with yet another frustratingly cheeky and unhelpful answer. Yet, Pat did not have a chance to do so as, just as Janus stepped onto the second floor of the museum, the ground started to violently shake. Janus tried to turn to catch Pat as the other manâs foot slipped on the last step, but he couldnât do so in time. Pat fell onto his hands and knees, sliding back a few steps and smacking his face into the stairs hard once and then a couple of times more after that as he slid.
 Chapter 13
The room stopped shaking after a moment. âOw,â Pat said. He seemed a bit stunned but was still moving at least. He carefully maneuvered himself into a seating position. âOuch. Owie.â He reached up to poke his own nose. âOw!â Janus slapped his hand away when he got there. A bit of blood was already trickling from his nose and there was a small cut over his eye, but it wasnât bleeding too much.
Janus pushed him so he was leaning slightly forward and produced a pack of time appropriate tissues from his pocket. He pulled one out of the package and offered it to him.
 He took it and pressed it up against his nose to try to stop the bleeding. He seemed mostly alright though Janus imagined heâd have plenty of bruises down the line. The power in the museum flickered and Janus looked up. Now that he was listening, he could hear people panicking in and out of the museum.
âWe should probably get off of the stairs,â he suggested.
âYeah,â Pat agreed. Janus helped him to his feet, and they climbed back up the steps. Janus looked around and found an employees only sign a few feet away. Usually heâd not risk that as it could get him into trouble he didnât want to be in, but considering the earthquake that had just happened, he could probably play it off as panic.
 He ushered Pat into a small room and found a chair and table. He had Pat sit in the chair and pulled out another one of the tissues to dab at the blood coming from the cut over his eyes. âHere,â he said. âHold that there. Iâm going to go see if there are any bandages about.â
Pat took the tissue with the hand not already holding one to his nose. âThanks,â he said.
Janus nodded and got to his feet. The lights flickered once again but didnât stay off for now. He didnât know how long that would last.
 He couldnât see anything that might hold bandages in this room, but there was a second door. âIâll be right back,â he told Pat, exiting through it.
The lights flickered once more as the door closed behind him and he cursed. When they came back up Janusâs eyes immediately fell on a man. They both froze.
âRemus!â Janus hissed the second their eyes met. âWhat are you doing here?â
Remus blinked at him for a moment. âHi. Janus,â he said. âI⊠come to France for⊠tea sometimes?â
âThere isnât any tea back here.â
âSo, there isnâtâŠâ he said. There was a moment of silence. âUh, so I actually cannot talk to you right now.â
 âWhat do you mean?â Janus asked. Remus grimaced in a way Janus had never seen from him before. It immediately set off alarm bells in Janusâs head. âOh my god,â Janus said. âOh my god. Youâre not from the same time as me.â
âOh, you have no idea,â Remus mumbled.
âHoly shit, youâre looping?!â
âItâs⊠not looping if I wasnât here the first time.â
âRemus, we spend more than 12 hours a day together most of the time. The only thing worse than this is if I looped back to this time myself.â
ââŠYeah. Anyway, I need to leave now.â
âPlease do.â
 He turned to go, but then stopped. âOh, and,â he reached into his pocket and tossed something at Janus. Janus caught it.
It was Band-Aids.
âOh, shit,â Janus spat at the clear use of foreknowledge. âI hate this. I hate you. Iâm going to kill you the next time you see me.â
âSure, Jan.â
âGo.â
He did, slipping into the next room while Janus took a deep breath and then turned back to the door behind him. He schooled his face before Pat looked up. âI found some Band-Aids.â
Pat nodded and Janus came over to squat next to him.
 Janus opened the box and Pat looked down. His eyes lit up with sudden joy so intense that Janus felt like heâd just gotten a punch to the gut. âKitty Band-Aids!â he exclaimed. Janus bothered to actually look at the design on the container, only to note the cartoon cats on the front. Pat was almost vibrating off his seat. âLook theyâre all so cute!â He grabbed the container from him to inspect the different designs printed on the back with glee even as a bit of blood was still trickling from his nose.
Janus took the box back gently and guided the wad of bloody Kleenexes back to his nose.
 âWhich would you like?â Janus asked.
âOh, they are all so cute,â Pat cooed. âUm, how about that one!â he pointed. âOr that one! Or that one!â
âPat you only have one cut.â
âBut theyâre all so cute!â Pat said, tongue tucking into his cheek. He contemplated the box again. âLetâs do the black one,â he finally settled on.
Janus selected one of the Band-Aids with a black cat wrapped around a pink ball of yarn and staring back at them with wide green eyes. The think looked like it had partaken in one two many doses of catnip, but Janus didnât mention that.
 Instead, he just carefully unstuck the backing from the Band-Aid and motioned for Pat to remove the tissue from his forehead. He smiled at Janus as he drew back.
Janus cleared his throat. âHowâs the nose.â
âItâs slowing down,â Pat replied. âThanks.â
âNo problem,â Janus replied. They met eyes for a second before Pat looked away back at the box of Band-Aids.
âOh,â Pat said. âThereâs a grey one. I didnât notice.â He pointed to it. âI should have used that one.â
âDo you like grey cats?â Janus asked.
âI like all kitties,â he said, âbut one of my roommates loves grey cats. He had one when he was a kid and thinks of them as good omens. Seeing one always brightens up his day.â
âA friend of mine has a grey cat,â Janus said. âSheâs much more tolerable than him.â
Pat laughed a bit. âDonât be mean,â he said.
âOh, he deserves it, donât worry.â Janus considered him for a moment. âHere,â he said, pulling out one of the Band-Aids with the grey cat on it. It did, actually, look a lot like Diesel Fuel.
âBut I donâtâŠâ
Janus just shrugged and stuck it on his cheek where there was no wound. Pat giggled and touched it with a finger. Janus stood back up.
âCan I have another tissue?â Pat asked.
âSure.â Janus handed a tissue over to him and he crumpled up the bloody ones in his hand.
âI think Iâm good to keep going,â Pat said, putting the new tissue under his nose. âThe nose will stop soon.â
 Pat got out his iPhone and directed him back out of the room. They checked the second floor and didnât find anything and so went to the third floor. The second they arrived in the room that Patïżœïżœïżœs phone was directing them too, Janus knew that it must be right. There was a strange, distorted whirling sound and the entire room was shaking slightly like they were standing next to a railroad track.
âIâm guessing this is it,â Pat said.
Janus nodded and looked over his shoulder at the screen. They both cautiously walked towards where the little dot was on the phone.
 âIs that it?â Pat asked, pointing at a small device on the center column in the room. Janus reached forward to flip the switch on it. The whirling stopped and the room settled. Janusâs time piece vibrated as it came back online. They waited for a few moments. âI assumed⊠time distortions would be moreâŠâ
âThey are,â Janus said. âThis one is artificial.â
âWhat does that mean?â
âItâs a simulation,â Janus said. âIt causes similar symptoms to a time distortion, but itâs not actually fracturing time at all.â
âThatâs good, isnât it?â Pat asked.
âI donât know,â Janus said. He took the piece of tech of the wall and carefully stored it in his pocket, âbut someoneâs trying to get our attention.â
 Chapter 14
Janus didnât feel comfortable leaving France 2027 just yet, still weirded out by the strange turn of events. So, he and Pat ended up sticking around for a couple of hours. They looked through the art museum for a bit, but Janus was having trouble focusing on the pieces, and Pat eventually suggested they get some air. Janus agreed considering the museum would close for the night soon anyway.
They wandered around the downtown for a bit. The people seemed to jump back from the strange weather and earthquake that afternoon rather quickly, and there were plenty still about to blend into.
 Pat was snapping photos every so often like a tourist which Janus shook his head at but allowed because even with the outdated phone it almost made them blend in even more. It also might stop any questions about Patâs weird way of speaking French. They could just say he was an overeager tourist who watched too many old movies.
âOoo!â Pat said. âWe should get crepes.â
âWhy?â
âYou canât go to France and not eat crepes.â
âI assure you, you can,â Janus said dryly.
Pat shot a pout at him and the next thing he knew he was in a small crepe shop.
 For Janus, choosing something was easy. He just ordered the first thing he found on the menu which seemed to be a standard one with ham and eggs. Pat on the other hand seemed to be struggling greatly, and Janus had to gently push him to the side to let some other customers order first.
âWhat should I get!?â Pat asked. âThey all look so good! I could do strawberry preserves or maple syrup or just sugar!â
âOr you could get one that is actually food,â Janus suggested mildly. âI donât think you need any more sugar judging by how you are acting.â
Pat rolled his eyes. âYou sound like Lo.â
 Janus made a note of the name âLoâ even though it surely was a nickname.
âBut, since youâre insisting, Iâll get something healthy. Iâll have the strawberry one. Thatâs a fruit!â
âIt comes with a cream cheese filling,â Janus pointed out.
âAnd itâs fruit!â
Janus shook his head and stepped up to the counter. âOne ham and cheese and one strawberry preserve, please,â he said to the cashier as he was not allowing Pat to order in French and accidently say something stupid. He forked over some euros.
âYou donât have to pay for me,â Pat protested when he saw that.
Janus glanced back at him. âI was afraid youâd try to pay in francs,â he said dryly.
 It looked like Pat was about to stick his tongue out at him, remembered that Janus had criticized him for that earlier, and then just scrunched up his face in displeasure as though that was any less childish.
They waited for their crepes to be finished and then went to eat them outside near a water fountain.
âI can pay you back for the crepe,â Pat said after they sat down. âI do actually have euros.â
Janus waved him off. âIt wasnât that expensive.â
Pat hummed. âWell, in that case. I insist on paying for a wish for you.â Janus raised an eyebrow. âIn the fountain!â Pat clarified.
 Pat set aside his crepe to dig in his pocket for a couple of coins. âHere!â he said handing one over.
Janus glanced over at the fountain. âNo.â
âOh, come on,â Pat beseeched. âYou have to want something. Iâll even throw it in for you, but you have to make a wish first!â
âNo.â
âPlease!â
Janus sighed. âFine.â He popped the rest of his crepe in his mouth. âI wish for a crepe,â he said after swallowing.
âYou just had a crepe, silly.â
âBut I liked it, so I want another one.â
âWe can go back and get you another crepe.â
âAh, but Iâm not hungry anymore.â
Pat crossed his arms. âYouâre just being difficult on purpose.â
 âNot me,â Janus said putting hand over his heart. âI would never do something like that.â
 Pat glared at him, but then snatched the coin out of his hand. âFine!â he said. âOne crepe wish coming right up.â He hopped up with the two coins and darted over to the water fountain. Janus turned to watch him go but then happened to catch sight of something out of the corner of his eyes.
Patâs phone.
He didnât pause in his movement, completing the turn, but as he watched Pat close his eyes, presumably to focus on his own wish, Janus snuck a hand out and grabbed the phone without looking. He slipped it into his own pocket.
 Pat came back over after throwing both coins in the fountain and didnât even seem to notice that his phone was missing, picking up his crepe to take another bite. Just to make sure, though Janus decided to distract him. âWhat do you think of your crepe?â Janus asked.
âI like it! Itâs sweet, but not too sweet. There was a crepe place across the street from my apartment in college, but they always put a bit too much sugar in the dough, I think. Iâd still eat them, but these are much better.â
Janus nodded and kept up the light conversation until Pat was finished.
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âWell,â he said then, getting to his feet. âIt seems that nothing else is going to happen regarding the time distortion. I should be getting back.â
Pat hummed. âI should too. Itâs movie night!â
âI probably should arrest you,â Janus noted.
âIn the middle of all of these people?â Pat asked mildly.
âTouchĂ©,â Janus said.
Pat gasped and pointed at him. âPun!â he said. Janus blinked at him. âBecause weâre in France! Thatâs French!â
ââŠGoodbye Pat,â Janus said, turning to walk away from him.
âGoodbye⊠wait I still donât know your name!â
Janus stopped to look back at him for a moment. âLike I said,â he replied. âElvis.â
âFine,â Pat said. âAu revoir, mon chĂ©ri.â
âYou never stop, do you?â Janus asked.
Pat giggled. âConsidering I donât know what you mean, I imagine Iâm just getting started.â
Janus actually left then, walking off towards the alley heâd first arrived in. In some ways, the mission had been a bust, but in others it had gone very well.
He felt for the weight of the phone in his pocket before pulling up the display screen on his timepiece to go back to the TPI.
It had gone very well indeed.
 Chapter 15
The first thing Janus had done when heâd returned to the TPI was hand over the timebomb to Khalid who sent it to forensics. Within the hour, forensics got back to them that it was the same timebomb as 2999 and that it had never exploded, but simply been diffused. Which meant, blessings on blessings, everyone got to go home that night.
 Not that Janus went home, no, he ended up falling asleep on his desk somewhere between 3 and 4am, but at least he wasnât sharing his space with anyone. Heâd been trying to hack the cell phone all night to see if it had anything he could use, but he honestly had no idea what he was doing. All it seemed he could do was play some annoying song over and over again about never giving someone up. At around 2am, heâd finally broken and sent off an email, though, heâd continued to try to mess with it after that.
 He got woken up by Lena coming into the office at 7am, and noticed he already had an email response asking when Janus wanted to come in.
âNow?â he sent back.
ââŠDo you sleep?â was the immediate response. âAnd yes.â
His wrist buzzed as an appointment in 5 seconds downloaded to his timepiece. He selected the coordinates and landed at Cultural Outreach. The receptionist blinked up at him and then back down at the screen on his desk. âOh!â he said. âI didnât see this appointment. I think Professor Eran is in his office.â
He didnât stand to escort Janus this time, so Janus went ahead and went down the hall to Virgilâs office himself.
 He knocked on the door and while he was waiting for Virgil to open it, the infernal contraption once again started to play the same stupid song.
âI didnât even touch you!â he spat, getting it out and tapping on the screen.
âJonas Brothers dude again?â Virgil asked causally upon opening the door.
Janus shoved it at him. âMake it stop.â
Virgil took it and fiddled with it for a few moments before it stopped with the song. âOh my gosh,â he said scrolling through something on the screen.
âWhat.â
âWhat maniac sets a custom alarm for every 30-60 minutes for a week that just plays âNever Gonna Give You Upâ? Oh, and one âItâs Not Unusualâ on Saturday. Heâs mixing memes at an alarming rate.â
 âCan you. Just. Make it not happen. Anymore?â
Virgil smirked at him. âMaybe.â He turned around to go back into his office.
âVirgil,â Janus growled following him in.
Virgil just laughed. âWhat do you want to know about it?â he asked. âJust a fair warning⊠the song means he⊠likely was aware someone would steal it.â
âOf course, he was,â Janus groaned.
âBut Iâm sure we can still get something out of it.â Virgil started tapping at the screen again. âOkay, letâs see. Itâs an iPhone 5, and someone jailbroke it.â
âWhat does that mean?â
âTampered with it so they could install non-company approved software,â Virgil explained.
âWell I figured that since he was using Google Maps to track time distortions,â Janus grumbled.
 âI think I have something,â Virgil said to himself while digging through his desk. âAh ha!â He held up some sort of cord. âThis will let me hook it up to my integrator.â He slotted the cord into the bottom of the iPhone and then crawled under his desk to fiddle around with some other things. âThere we go,â Virgil said popping back up. âIt might take a few minutes. Running the program any faster might overheat the phone.â
Janus nodded and sat back to wait. Virgil grabbed the phone and started to play around with it a bit even as it uploaded all of its information to his computer.
âWeird,â Virgil said after a moment.
âWhat?â Janus asked, sitting up straighter.
âThere are exactly two contacts. Fewer than Iâd anticipate for a regular phone from the 2010s. More than I would expect from one clearly not being used as a phone.
 Virgil glanced to the side, and it must have finished the download because he unhooked it from the computer. âI have a 21st century phone network adapter,â Virgil said. âIt transfers call back to whatever date the phone says. Do you want to try calling one?â
âItâs worth a shot,â Janus replied.
Virgil dug back into his desk for a small device that he plugged into the same port heâd plugged the earlier cord. âOkay, which contact do you want to try first?â he asked. âOne has âRoâ with a crown, red heart, and a gold star emoji. The other has âLoâ with a book, blue heart, and Milky Way emoji.â
 âHe mentioned a Lo,â Janus said. âSo, try him first.â
Virgil nodded. âIâll put it on speaker.â He pressed some buttons before setting the phone on the desk between them.
The phone rang three times before with a bit of a crackle, it was answered. âSalutations,â a voice said, voice sounding a bit scratchy as though he had only just gotten up.
Virgil motioned with his head for Janus to speak. âAre you âLoâ?â he asked.
The man hummed. âTo some people.â
Janus⊠didnât quite know what to say to that, or even what questions he should ask.
âIâm assuming youâre the man that stole my associateâs phone.â
 âYour associate?â Janus fished.
The man made an amused hum. âI believe you were calling him âPatâ on your last adventure.â Janus could hear something being placed down on the other end of the phone. Before Janus could respond, he heard what sounded like an old keyboard being typed on. âNow,â Lo said. âI have to admit, I am surprised you were willing to oblige me so thoroughly by plugging the phone into your system. Letâs seeâŠâ
The screen on Virgilâs lit up bright blue all of a sudden. ââŠshit,â said Virgil.
âWell,â Lo said, âit seems you were clever enough not to plug it into the TPI system, which is disappointing, butâŠâ
 There was more clicking on the other end. âHmm, interesting music tastes for the 4000s,â he said.
âIâm an anthropologist,â Virgil spoke up.
âAh, yes, I can see that,â Lo replied. âVirgil Eran, senior professor at Silver Mountain University, a vetted member of the Cultural Outreach program, and searched the phrase ïżœïżœïżœHow to eat sushi without making a cultural blunder and making everyone hate you and losing your job because what kind of shit anthropologist doesnât know how to eat raw fish rightâ which you then shortened to âHow to eat sushiâ and proceeded to search 52 times in the last 48 hours.â
 Virgil went a bit scarlet around the ears. âDude, did you really have to out me like that?â he hissed at the phone.
âMy apologies,â Lo responded. âFrom my personal experience, donât dip the rice parts in soy sauce, and donât add too much wasabi. Overall, most people will be understanding of mistakes, and you will certainly not be fired or ostracized for handling food incorrectly. As long as you are not acting intentionally disrespectful, and I image you will not be considering your clear anxiety over whatever outing you are planning to attend, you will be fine.â
âOkay,â Virgil said. âGood point, but counterpoint, what if youâre wrong and everyone hates me forever?â
 âIs it the lunch meeting today at 11:30am?â Lo asked, âbecause I can see that a Professor Boris Laden has attended the event multiple years in a row. Considering he is a philosophy instructor, has no Japanese heritage that I can see, and I have found a photo of last yearâs event wherein he has placed his chopsticks vertically in his rice, and he has yet to be fired or ostracized, I would postulate that your fears are unfounded.â
âYeah but⊠okay, I really donât have an argument for that one, except maybe Iâm a piece of shit and everyone is looking for a reason to hate me.â
âConsidering your many impressive accolades in your field, I would argue that âa piece of shitâ is not a good descriptor of you. Not to mention the fact that you are often a highly requested member for different committees in your department and outside of it.â
âOh, but is that because people like me or because Iâm an anxious mess and make sure events go off without a hitch?â
âFrom experience, disorder with people you enjoy the company of is far more tolerable than order with people you do not. Which explains my current living situation and the lack of finished dishes in my sink. Therefore, I would assume the former.â
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âA lot of assumptions,â Virgil commented, but he was smiling slightly.
âAssumptions based on data,â Lo argued back lightly.
âYou really came in here, hacked into my computer and smacked my anxiety in the face, huh?â
âGlad to have helped.â
âY-â
âAre the two of you finished?â Janus interrupted, finally getting sick of the two of them.
âNot nearly,â Lo said. âI have gained access to an entire network of a very large university and will be sorting through the data for a long time.â
âUgh, right,â Virgil groaned, âand you got access through my integrator.â
âI doubt theyâll be able to trace it back to you if you donât tell them.â
âNice try,â Virgil said dryly, âbut not likely. Iâm telling them about you immediately so they can work to kick you out.â
Lo laughed. âFair enough, but Iâve already gotten plenty of information at this point. Including the fact that you work with the TPI and scheduled an appointment with an Agent Janus Picani this morning set to start a few minutes before this phone call. So, hello Janus.â
âBastard,â Janus shot back.
âAnd goodbye Professor Eran. It was a pleasure.â He hung up.
Virgil sighed and ran his hand through his hair. âThis is going to be fun to explain to both of our bosses.â
 Arc II What We Do to Each Other
Chapter 16:
As it would turn out, Janus and Virgil did not get in trouble for hooking up the old phone to Virgilâs integrator, mostly because it wasnât really a mistake on their part. The phone cleared all virus checks that the tech people both from the university and the TPI ran on it. The phone should have been clean and should not have caused an issue.
In fact, they were still trying to pin down the code on the general university server. They could tell that something was mucking about on the system but what or how was a mystery. This also meant that there was no telling what information had been compromised and considering how many things Silver Mountain had its hands in, that was⊠a bit worrying.
 Another worrying thing was there was suddenly more activity of late at the TPI. There were more time distortions popping up every day. Usually they would be few and far in between. There had been 3 total recorded the year before, but over 12 in the last week. Some of them were fake like the one Janus had investigated, but some of them were real. It painted a distressing picture and also was a drain on their resources. Khalid was actually looking to advertise positions to hire new recruits which was something she rarely did as she liked to keep appointments to the TPI in house.
 Theyâd even loosed the number of field agents needed for each mission and Janus and Remus had been splitting up just to get everything done. Today, he and Remus had thankfully only two missions scheduled for the day.
âAre we going together or separate today?â Janus asked Remus.
âThink theyâll burn me at the stake for being a witch if I go alone to either of them?â Remus asked.
âI donât know. Probably. I think weâre getting a bit late into the 1700s for that in Cuba, but I have no idea about Mesopotamia.â
âLetâs just go together. I did not like almost drowning yesterday because I was the only stranger in town when the weather was going wonky.â
âSurely it isnât because you opened your mouth. Ever.â Janus said dryly.
âHow was I supposed to know he was the local clergymanâs son?â
 Janus rolled his eyes. âOn second thought,â he said, pushing a button on his desk to choose Cuba as he next mission, and standing up. âI donât want you coming with me.â Yet, he did not protest when Remus also signed up for the Cuba mission and he waited for him by the office door before going to talk to Rhi.
Rhi was a bit frazzled when which meant quite a bit as she was usually incredibly put together. Remus didnât even seem inclined to tease her today.
âOkay,â she said once theyâd closed the door behind them. She flipped through some documents on her desk. âPicani and Clockson. Camaguey Cuba 1755. Do you know Cuba?â
 âUh,â Janus said. âYeah?â
âLike youâre reading the things, right? I donât have to babysit you, right? You got it? The Seven Year War was happening, but it wonât affect you much as it hasnât really hit Cuba. Itâs the middle of the Camaguey Carnival. Everyone will be everywhere and there will be chaos so as long as you donât really fuck up you should be fine. UmâŠapparent races.â She looked up at them and studied them each for a moment as thought looking at them for the first time despite having known them for years. âItâll work. Go to costuming.â
âShouldnât weâŠâ Janus said, âsign things?â
 ââŠYep,â she said, fiddling with her desktop and then sending documents over to their side to sign.
Janus and Remus both did before sending them back.
âGreat. Good.â She stood and grabbed some things from behind her. âYou can go.â She sat back down as they took their things and Janus noticed a message pop up on her desk. She looked up at Remus looking exhausted. âWhat?â she asked.
âJust open it,â Remus said.
Rhi tapped it and a photo opened.
âI got her a new mouse toy!â Remus said happily as Rhi looked at the picture of Diesel Fuel attacking a cloth mouse.
âThat is⊠appreciated Agent Clockson,â Rhi said. âNow get out.â
 They did, leaving to get their costumes on and checked. Costuming was just as busy and frazzled as Rhi had been and they actually had to wait for decon because thereâd been a mix up with the agents leaving before them. They landed in Cuba without issue. Janus could already hear the festival in full swing outside the small building theyâd were in. Remy was standing there with a very not time appropriate mug of coffee.
âSue me,â Remy said when Janus raised an eyebrow at it. âPlease just⊠get in and out without causing trouble. Seriously. I donât want to have to deal with that on top of everything else.â
 âWeâll do our best,â Janus assured.
Remy pulled his sunglasses down to look at him. He looked exhausted. âGod please do more than your best.â
Janus nodded tightly. âWeâll be in and out,â he said, already glancing at his timepiece. It had been disguised as a golden bracelet which made it a bit harder to actually use, but wrist watches wouldnât be invented for more than a century, so theyâd have to make do. âThe time distortion, if thatâs what it is, should be in the middle of town. Letâs go.â
He and Remus exited the building onto the packed city street.
 Janus was immediately bombarded with all types of sights, sounds, and smells. There were many colorful articles of clothing and costumes as people went every which way along the street talking to other members of their community, playing instruments, and dancing. There was the sound of people speaking Spanish, still mostly almost pure Castilian Spanish with perhaps a bit of influence from Taino as the Haitian revolution had yet to push the Creole language over to Cuba. People must have been hard at work cooking different dishes for the carnival as many different spices wafted through the air. It was sticky hot considering it was the middle of June in the tropics and Janus was immediately sweating despite the temperature appropriate clothing heâd been outfitted with.
 He glanced around their immediate area, just scoping out the crowds. His eyes were immediately drawn to one person near them.
âOh, youâve got to be kidding me,â he said out loud when he saw Pat. Remus looked in the direction Janus was.
Even if Janus didnât recognize him the moment he laid eyes on him, he probably still would have ended up staring as he was the only person in the area who clearly did not know how to do the dance he was attempting.
Remus snorted and Janus shook his head in secondhand embarrassment. âWell, would you look whose boyfriendâs here,â he said to Janus. Make that firsthand embarrassment. âHas anyone told him the Mambo wasnât invented until the 1900s and also thatâs not how you do it?â
 Chapter 17
Pat stopped dancing the moment he saw Janus approaching him, but he still bobbed cheerfully ( and unrhythmically) to the music. âHi Janus,â he said pleasantly.
âYou just have to rub it in, huh?â
There was a flash of confusion across his face, but then he smiled. âWell, I know where in our relationship you are. How was France?â
âYouâre a bastard.â
âYou stole the phone,â he laughed.
âYou stole the bomb,â Janus countered, âand you wanted me to steal the phone. You booby trapped it.â
âNo,â Pat correct, putting a finger up. âWe have security on my phone because in high school I once forgot it in the school locker room and long story short, the three of us ended up in a lake. So, then Lo made sure I always had some sort of tracker on it. When I started time traveling, he updated it and when I met you we updated it again in case there was ever an opportunity like that. Lo calls it using our weaknesses to our advantage.â
 âHeâs a bastard too,â Janus growled.
Pat just laughed.
âIs someone talking about me?â Remus asked, stepping over to them. Janus rolled his eyes.
âOh,â Pat said, blinking at Janusâs partner for a moment. âRemus.â He hesitated slightly. âHow are you doing?â
âMe?â Remus asked. âUh, Iâm doing good. A little stressed out with work, but fine.â
âGood,â Pat said with just a little too much heartfulness to it.
âWhat?â Janus asked, eyes narrowed at Pat. âWhat is that?â
âWhat is what?â Pat asked. He met Janusâs eyes briefly and it made panic surge up Janusâs spine because the look Pat was sending him wasnât one that said he was playing dumb. It was a warning.
 Oh, Janus did not like this. That look told Janus Pat had some foreknowledge that he absolutely could not tell Janus about without messing up the timeline spectacularly. This was why this mess the two of them were mixed up in was so bad, but it seemed Janus did not have much of a choice when it came to Pat.
Despite how bad of an idea he knew it was, he still wanted to push, because whatever Pat was hiding could be very, very bad and it had to do with Remus. There were so many reasons Pat could be acting like that around Remus, but the worst ones were definitely the ones on his mind. Death, injury, illness. They were all possible especially in their line of work and especially with how time was being screwed with right now. And Pat knew. He knew exactly what the answer was, and oh did Janus want to push.
Experience knowing what worse things could come out of having foreknowledge made Janus bite his tongue.
 âSo, what are you two doing here,â Pat asked, and Janus unhappily let him change the subject.
âOh, like you donât know,â Janus replied.
âI donât know,â Pat said innocently.
âThereâs another time distortion,â Janus said, âand while you didnât know what it was the last time I saw you, Iâm pretty sure you do now.â
âOh, I didnât know there was a time distortion here. I can help you if you like,â he offered sweetly.
âOh, yeah, sure. Then why are you here?â
âI wanted to see if I could find the Flying Dutchman,â Pat told him.
âAnd so you went to Camaguey?â
âUh huh.â
âOne of the farthest places from the ocean in Cuba?â
 âIs it?â
âI donât trust you.â
Pat just shrugged. âWell, if you donât want my help finding the time distortion, Iâll just be on my way then.â
âWait,â he said when Pat went to turn away. Pat paused. Janus turned to Remus. âRemus, do you think heâs bullshitting me so I let him wander off and do whatever the hell heïżœïżœs doing, or do you think heâs bullshitting me into letting him come with us.â
âHmm,â Remus said, looking Pat up and down. Janus could immediately tell he wasnât going to get any helpful answer. âWell, if weâre going with the how much do I get to see his, admittedly very sexy, ass criteria.â Janus pinched the bridge of his nose. âLetting him leave now means instant gratification and a nice full image when he turns away. However, letting him go with us means many more opportunities to get a glimpse, but theyâd probably just be glimpses. So, yeah thatâs a tough call.â
âYou didnât even bother to give me an actual hidden suggestion with that bullshit,â Janus groaned. He glanced at Pat only to see him hiding his very red face in his hands. Janus blinked. âOh,â he said. âYou got him, Remus.â Janus was surprised. Heâd expected a bit more tenacity for someone with Patâs personality. Of course, Janus was used to Remus, so that perhaps had some effect. Pat made a muffled distressed sound behind his hands and Janus raised an eyebrow. âYou really got him.â
Pat flapped one hand around while still using the other to completely hide his face. âItâs just. His face. Saying that. Is weird.â
 Janus could not say that he didnât feel a slight spark of joy at seeing Pat flustered. After all, Patâs weapon of choice had often been flirting with Janus in the past. However, he still smacked Remus on the shoulder when it looked like he was about to continue with something likely far more inappropriate. âWe are here for a reason,â he reminded. He turned to consider Pat and squinted at him. âYouâre coming with us, Iâve decided. I donât want to let you out of my sights. Donât,â he said empathically turning to Remus as the man opened his mouth once more.
 Pat had mostly recovered, though his cheeks were just a bit pink still. âYeah,â he said. âIâll go with you. Where do we start?â
Janus glanced at his timepiece. âItâs not showing up on our trackers yet.â
âIt messed with your tracker last time,â Pat pointed out.
âI know,â Janus said. âWhich means it could be another fake one or whatever is causing it hasnât started yet. If things start going wrong, but it still doesnât show on our radar, itâs almost certainly a fake one, but some of the fake ones havenât blocked our technology.â
âHere, I can check,â Pat said.
âPlease donât pull out an iPhone,â Janus begged.
 Pat stuck out his tongue at him, and then smiled. He reached for the bracelet on his wrist and twisted it back and forth a few times before pressing his palms together. He glanced around them quickly to make sure no one around them was watching and then peeled apart his palms like he was miming reading a book.
âWhat the fuck is that, and how do I get one?â Remus asked immediately. It was innocuous, whatever it was. If someone from this time caught a glimpse of the display, theyâd likely assume it was a trick of the light, but staring right at it, Janus could tell it was a map of the surrounding areas with a softly glowing blue light marking their current location. Janus could see no screen or origin of a hologram. It looked like the image was drawn onto the manâs palms, but as he watched, the image shifted to zoom out.
 âThere doesnât seem to be anything major yet,â Pat said wiggling his fingers a bit. The display changed slightly to some sort of colorful overlay Janus did not understand. Pat hummed. âDid you two come from that building recently?â he asked nodding at it.
âYes,â Janus replied. âHow do you know?â
âThereâs sometimes a slight temperature change when people time travel,â Pat explained. âI can read it on here.â He tilted his head. âThere also seems to be a big enough temperature change in a church a few blocks away that could indicate time travel. Want to check it out?â
âWe might as well,â Janus agreed.
âAnd if itâs nothing, we can get drunk on the communion wine!â
âHeâs going to get immediately struck by lightning,â Janus said.
 Chapter 18
âIf we see anyone,â Janus said as they entered the church. âYou keep your mouth shut. Do you understand me? Remus, do you understand me?â
Remus immediately turned to Pat. âYou know, I didnât grow up Catholic,â he said to Pat who looked at him in confusion. âSo the first time I ever entered a Catholic church, you canât blame me for being a little confused about the whole cabinet thing with a wall between them. After all, everyone was singing about glory to god and what not. So IâŠâ
Janus slapped him. âThis is why you were almost burned at the stake yesterday.â
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âExcuse you,â Remus said, putting his hand over his heart. âI was almost drowned.â
âYou were almost drowned?â Pat asked, his voice seeming legitimately distressed.
Remus shrugged a smile on his face that caused a Pavlovian migraine to start up behind Janusâs eyes. âItâs one of the hazards of the jobs, and really it would have all been worth it if Iâd actually gotten to drown in that manâsâŠâ
âWeâre in a church!â Janus cut him off switching from Spanish to Swahili in the hopes that no random passersby would be able to understand him in this time and place. âDonât talk about lewd sex things. Donât talk about sex at all. Itâs a Catholic church!â
  Remus continued to speak in Spanish with no regard for anything. âBut not talking about lewd sex things takes away 3/4ths of my personality,â he pouted.
âMore like 9/10th,â Janus grumbled, âand the other 1/10th is just normal stupid.â
âHey, you shouldnât be mean,â Pat scolded, in fucking English for some reason, âbut Remus, honey, you probably shouldnât be saying things like that right now.â
âNo, no, he has a point,â Remus said switching to English.
âHeâs my partner, I have the right to call him stupid,â Janus insisted.
âAnd I love you too!â Remus said in Greek because he was really, truly, stupid.
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Pat looked between the two, but then seemed to accept it, dropping the concerned expression for a slightly amused one. âIf you say so.â
âCan I⊠help you?â A voice asked. All three of them whipped around to see a young boy looking at them and seeming very confused. Which was fair considering that to his ears, theyâd just been speaking nonsense.
âWeâre here to pray!â Remus claimed, then he turned to wink at Pat and said under his breath in Swahili, âto that ass.â Pat went immediately bright red again, which was doubtlessly Remusâs aim. Janus subtlety stepped on his foot while smiling at the boy.
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âOh,â the boy said. âOkay.â Thankfully, he didnât seem interested in questioning the random strangers in front of him further. âIâm going to go back to the celebration now.â
Janus smiled at him. âHave fun,â he said. He waited for the boy to leave through the front door before slapping Remus on the back of the head.
âOw!â he whined sounding far too pained for how hard Janus had actually hit him.
Janus rolled his eyes. âLetâs just start investigating,â he said.
âSure, sure, you never let me have any fun,â Remus said, pulling up his wrist and spinning the golden bracelets on his arm. âHmmâŠâ he said.
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Nabrina FanFics Part 10
Sabrina Spellman & Nicholas Scratch (Nick Scratch) FanFics MASTERLIST (UPDATEABLE PINNABLE)
Updated: September 20, 2020
As we await for news on Part 4 and when exactly when we will get the final part of CAOS, here are some fantastic Nabrina Fics by some wickedly good writers. Escape into their amazing and magical creations through their amazing writing as we wait on a final part. Make sure to leave some Love/Praise or Kudos through the comments on their work. Or maybe given them a little message to how much you enjoy their stories, they are the heroes through this Nabrina/CAOS hiatus.Â
As always have a Wicked or Hell-ish these fics and ENJOY!!!!
Fics in order by Last Update: 9/20/2020
[Key: AU=Alternate Reality - AH=All Human/All Mortal - * = New Fics to List]
1. âWicked Windsâ*
Author: sarahkwut @sarahwyland
Summary: Nicholas Scratch winds up at the Academy of Unseen Arts after being kicked out of several others for being too smart - and too powerful - for his own good. Heâs got a chip on his shoulder and heâs not in Greendale to make friends. But then he meets Sabrina Spellman, a witch thatâs not only beautiful, but just as up for breaking the rules as him.Except she wants nothing to do with him.His old friend Prudence places a bet that he canât get her to give into him - but things get complicated as he not only starts to fall for Sabrina, but a deadly darkness settles over Greendale. Rated M - Chapters 1/? - Last Update 9/19/2020
2. âLetâs Fall in Love for the Nightâ*
Author: shotgunkitten @shotgunkittenâ
Summary: Hilda Spellman once said that their meeting was fate. And while neither Sabrina Spellman nor Nicholas Scratch were sure if they believed in that kind of thing, they were sure of this: They never wanted to find out what their lives would be like without each other. AU/AH- Rated T - Chapters 10/? - Last Update 9/18/2020
3. âCruel Summerâ
Author: thoughtsaboutshows @thoughtsaboutshows
Summary: A mix between AU and Cannon, where the young members of the Church of Night also attend Baxter High. The young witches and warlocks then go to the Unseen Arts Summer Camp to bolster their gifts. However Sabrina, being half mortal, only began attending after her Dark Baptism. To the mortals of Greendale, Unseen Arts Camp was for the wealthy. An elite sector of the Baxter High youth that attended a camp deep in the Greendale Wood far upstream of Sweetwater River. Many had tried to find and break in, but none have succeeded. To the mortals, the divide between the camp attendees and the not was of money and status. When in fact, the difference lay with light vs. night.Set between two timelines- the present and the summer, Sabrina attends camp for the first time and grows closer to Nick only for them to be torn apart as school starts. Rated Mature - Chapters 24/? - Last Update 9/17/2020
4. âUnwrittenâ
Author: Miss_Kath90 aka @misskath90
Summary: Tired of her auntâs matchmaking attempts, Sabrina decides to tell a little white lie⊠and now she needs a boyfriend to accompany her to her hometown for the holidays.And who better to play that part than her good friend Nicholas Scratch? There is only one little problem⊠He had a crush on her since the day they met. When two friends pretend to be in a relationship, what could possibly go wrong? Rated T - Chapters 9/? - Last Update 9/15/2020
5. âBefore the Devil Breaks Meâ*
Author: willowaus @willowaus
Summary: All Sabrina wants to do is enjoy the last few years with her mortal friends. Attend college, party a little too hard, and make endless memories with them. But when you're a Spellman nothing ever goes as planned, especially not when she meets her handsomely mischievous classmate, Nick Scratch, who introduces her to a side of witchcraft that she's never thought possible.When people start ending up murdered in ritual sacrifices on campus Sabrina knows she can't keep both of her worlds apart any longer. Especially when it seems each murder is a message for her. AU - Rated Mature - Chapters 19/? - Last Update 9/15/2020
6. âIf You Let Meâ
Author: bunivy aka @bunivys
Summary: After pouring all of her time and effort into obtaining a law degree in the city, Sabrina Spellman moves back to Greendale for one last summer before she departs for good. She's fully intent on enjoying her stay in her hometown, even deciding to pick up a part-time job at her Aunt Hilda's cafe to save up some money. The only problem is that the boy in the bookstore across the way is one she's had some not-so-good history with and it's becoming increasingly harder to ignore him. Before long, she finds herself exploring the complexities of old high-school grudges and what-ifs, all while trying to sort out her present-day relationship with the boy she has long since deemed as non-existent.Meanwhile, Nicholas Scratch wonders if it would just be easier to remain non-existent. AU/AH - Rated Mature - Chapters 23/? - Last Update 9/04/2020
7. âOff The Record - One Shotsâ
Author: sarahkwut @sarahwyland
Summary: Missing scenes from my completed piece, 'Off The Record.' AU/AH - Not Rated - Chapters 8/? - Last Update 9/07/2020
8. "Free Pourâ
Author: sarahkwut @sarahwyland
Summary: He's a bartender with a perfect free pour and a Ph.D. candidate. She thinks she wants to be a lawyer and wishes she had taken more chances in life. Both of them are trying to move on. But when their paths collide, Nick's hand is no longer steady with the bottle and she's far more willing to take a risk. AU/AH - Rated Mature - Chapters 23/23 - COMPLETED 9/01/2020
9. "Burning Houseâ*
Author: thoughtsaboutshows @thoughtsaboutshowsâ
Summary: Sabrina hasn't seen him in months but she still sees him everywhere. Nick sees her every night in his dreams. They both know what they want, but won't let the other have it. Not yet. Not when Nick will hardly talk to her and Sabrina used well...THAT candle... ONE-SHOT - Not Rated - Chapters 1/1 - Last Update 8/28/2020
10. âBorn To Love Youâ*
Author: thoughtsaboutshows aka @thoughtsaboutshows
Summary: So Sabrina left Harvey at the altar for Nick. What now? Tune in for snapshots into Nick and Sabrina's life now that they've admitted their true feelings. What happened after Sabrina left Harvey and ran to Nick? Did they live happily ever after?This will be a collection of snapshots of this version of Nick and Sabrina. I don't know how often it will be updated, but we will get a look into their life together.I enjoy writing my fics based on songs, so if a particular song screams this Nick and Sabrina to you please message me on tumblr or comment below and maybe I'll write a scene based on it! ****Follow up to One-Shot Marry Me. Go READ it first!****  AU/AH - Not Rated - Chapters 3/? - Last Update 8/15/2020
11. âThe Four Picturesâ
Author: Copper_16
Summary: Itâs been 10 years. Nick and Sabrina are teachers at the Academy along with some familiar faces. Itâs been a decade there canât be that much chaos anymore, right? Wrong. Rated T - Chapters 4/? - Last Update 8/04/2020
12. âMarry Meâ*
Author: thoughtsaboutshows @thoughtsaboutshows
Summary: âNo, No, No.â Nick said as he shook his head at Prudence. âSabrina is my best friend. Thatâs it.ââSure.â Prudence shrugged her shoulders.When she explained to her brother that they were likely more she had said it as a statement, not an invitation to have a conversation about it. She was entirely annoyed by the Spellman girl, and had found it odd and irritating that she and her brother had been attached at the hip from a young age.âBesides sheâs marrying Kinkle, Prudence.â Nick explained more to himself than to Prudence. His eyes were wild and looking around the room, searching for something to land on. âNot me.ââDo you want her to?â Prudence asked as she leaned forward. Nick paused, unsure how to answer that question. Nick had been in love with Sabrina Spellman for most of his life. But she was happy with Harvey Kinkle. Prudence rolled her eyes and stood up sighing, and placed a hand on Nickâs shoulder. She was rarely affectionate and this was as comforting as she got. âYou may want to figure that out.â AU/AH -Â Rated Mature - ONE-SHOT - Chapters 1/1 - Last Update 7/11/2020
13. âThe Chaos In the Starsâ
Author: willowaus @willowaus
Summary: Nick sacrificed himself to save her, but Sabrina's not about to let him fester away in Hell. But what happens when saving the one she loves brings about a series of apocalyptic events that Sabrina and the rest of the Spellman clan need to thwart?Alternate part 3. (Part 3 Fic) - Rated Mature - Chapters 24/24 - COMPLETED 6/30/2020
14. âA Little Wickedâ
Author: Miss_Kath90 aka @misskath90
Summary: Sometimes, in the darkness of her room, unable to sleep, she thought about how easy it would be to fall in love with him. And she was sure a part of her was a bit in love with him already, but she kept holding to the past and that was hurting them both. Rated Mature - Chapters 1/1 - Last Update 6/16/2020
15. âCrash Into Meâ
Author: thoughtsaboutshows @thoughtsaboutshows
Summary: Set after Part 3 and some time after Nick and Sabrina's breakup. Just a little one-shot of a mission they get sent on by Zelda. Tough conversations and some tears...and one bed ONE-SHOT - Not Rated - Chapters 1/1 - Last Update 6/15/2020
16. âHeaven canât help me nowâ
Author: bunivy @bunivys
Summary: Soulmates are a universal law, the way of life. Sabrina's soulmate is Harvey, but she'll pick Nick every time, in every way. ONE-SHOT - Not Rated - Chapters 1/1 - Last Update 6/13/2020
17. âI knew you were troubleâ
Author: Miss_Kath90 aka @misskath90
Summary: Sabrina didnât know that being away from home for the first time could be so hard.Away from her aunts, friends and her-lifelong-boyfriend, Sabrina have to deal with the nostalgia but also with the new challenges College's life mean: get used to share a room with a not-so-nice roommate, put up with long hours of study and very few of sleep, learn to live from pre-cooked meals instead of her aunt Hildaâs homemade ones, find balance between her studies and her new social life⊠And resist the temptation a certain Nicholas Scratch mean for her. AU/AH - Rated Mature - Chapters 28/28 - COMPLETED 6/06/2020
18. âA Thing or Two to Learnâ
Author: gracefulchaos
Summary: What if Sabrina and Nick weren't in the same coven, and they met each other later in life? AU - Rated Mature - Chapters 1/? - Last Update 6/06/2020
19. âWhen the Bones are Goodâ
Author: sarahkwut @sarahwyland
Summary: Sabrina Spellman is enjoying her life as a normal teenager. Sabrina Morningstar is reigning Hell with an iron fist. Ambrose Spellman is searching for a solution to bring them back together and close the time loop, Sabrina's wishes be damned. And Nicholas Scratch? He's faced down his own demons and he's desperate for redemption.Except the clock is ticking.On time and Terrors. (Part 4 Fic) - Rated General - Chapters 28/28 - COMPLETED 6/05/2020
20. âBury a Lieâ
Author: raeinthedark
Summary: Sabrina is comfortable with death. It's her job. But everything is changed on a rainy October morning. The life and work she was accustomed to are forever different in the wake of tragedy. There really isn't coming back from this, unless she can figure out who's behind it. AU/AH - Rated Mature - Chapters 3/? - Last Update 5/04/2020
21. âI run to youâ
Author: thoughtsaboutshows @thoughtsaboutshows
Summary: Nick and Sabrina love two things. Research and each other. But their research often takes them to far away places, and far away from the person they love most. AU/AH - Not Rated - Chapters 1/1 - One-Shot COMPLETED - 5/21/2020
22. âMy Body Is A Canvas For Your Loveâ
Author: Unseemingowl aka @unseemingowl
Summary: Sabrina had no love for the whip or the belt or the cane that Nick had used to enjoy so much, but restraints... That was another matter entirely. Rated E Mature - Chapters 1/1 - Last Update 4/29/2020
23. âGround Beneath Her Feetâ
Author: mindlesshappy aka @feministstree
Summary: Sabrina is born out of a miracle - one that she wishes would repeat for her, but when she is destined for someone else, how much can she resist before her heart decides to give in. Alternatively, Nick is Sabrina's soulmate, but she really just wants Harvey to be it. Also, in the backseat are all the other possible ships, getting their own soulmate glories. Rated T - Chapters 18/? - Last Update 4/17/2020
24. âin your eyes (there's something burning inside you)â
Author: jessequicksters
Summary: Nicholas falls in love with Sabrina as fast as a mortal sells their soul to the devil. The only problem is, in the Church of Night, everything has a price. Even love.Especially love.(He bleeds every time he dreams of Sabrina and when they kiss, it happens too, but love isn't supposed to hurt, right? Except he's never known about love; the only thing he knows is that this half-mortal is going to be the death of him.) Rated Mature - Chapters 5/5 - Last Update 3/22/2020
25. âThe Institute for Divine Craftâ
Author: rayo aka @its-nabrina-bitch
Summary: After a humiliating spat with Father Blackwood pushes Sabrina away from her witching life and the Academy, Madam Satan crafts an alternative solution to move Sabrina Spellman further down the path of night. Ultimately leading her to the Institute for the Divine Craft. A handsome Headmaster with mysterious ties to her father, convinces Sabrina to abandon her mortal life, and cultivate her abilities as a child of the Church of Lucifer. AU - Rated Mature - Chapters 19/? - Last Update 3/22/2020
26. âMy Lover of Blood and Milkâ
Author: Unseemingowl aka @unseemingowl
Summary: It didnât feel as though it had only been a few hours since she had made her way to the Greendale woods for Lupercalia. As she sat there, shivering in her muddied and bloodied silk slip, it felt as if a completely different person had made her way back out of the forest...... Or how Sabrina struggles with lust and trust after her disastrous Lupercalian night with Nick. Rated Mature - Chapters 4/4 - Last Update 3/15/2020
27. âI Need to Knowâ
Author: raeinthedark
Summary: Love isn't that easy to erase... and that song is on again. Rated General - Chapters 1/1 - Last Update 2/29/2020
28. âBe True To Your Schoolâ
Author: rayo aka @its-nabrina-bitch
Summary: Nicholas Scratch is the Golden Boyâą of Baxter High; star athlete, top of his class academically, and devastatingly handsome. Sabrina Spellman sees Sophomore year as an opportunity to expand her horizons; joining the cheerleading squad, running for student council, and making new friends along the way while working to maintain her relationships with her old friends. What Sabrina Spellman doesn't know: sophomore year is about to turn her world upside-down. Rated T - Chapters 6/? - Last Update 2/23/2020
29. âOceanâ
Author: sarahkwut
Summary: AU, M-Rated. Nicholas Scratch has everything working in his favor. He's got a decent job as a history teacher, his roommate Melvin is always up for video games and getting high, and Sabrina Spellman lets him mess up her sheets frequently. Sabrina knows Nick isn't good for her, but she can't stay away, no matter how hard it is to pretend she's completely okay with their casual arrangement. But when life takes an unexpected curve, Nick is forced to face a new normal he doesn't know how to navigate. And Sabrina may or may not be there to help him through it. AU/AH - Rated Mature - Chapters 27/27 - COMPLETED 2/10/2020
30. âIâll be thereâ
Author: Miss_Kath90 aka @misskath90
Summary: She couldnât stop looking at him, since she had recovered him from the claws of the Dark Lord, she felt unable to be apart from him and had to admit that part of her was afraid he would disappear if she moved from his side. And Sabrina wouldn't let anyone or anything separate him from her again. Never. Rated Mature - Chapters 1/1 - Last Update 1/30/2020
31. âWalk awayâ
Author: Miss_Kath90 aka @misskath90
Summary: Pain. Could he someday escape the pain? He sometimes thought it impossible. It was strange, his relationship with the pain, it was an enemy and a friend. The pain numbed him. The pain didnât let him sleep. The pain hurt him and soothed him. It was unhealthy, the way the pain helped him relieve the pain. But it was the only thing he had left. Rated T - Chapters 1/1 - Last Update 1/27/2020
32. âTo Hell and Backâ
Author: sarahkwut
Summary: Sabrina was successful in her efforts to retrieve Nick from Hell, but the damage - physical and emotional - is deep. Sometimes, the only way to heal is to go your separate ways and trust things will work themselves out in the end. (Written before Part 3 - an alternate take on how Nick recovers from his time in Hell - with and without Sabrina). Rated Mature - Chapters 3/3 - Last Update 1/26/2020
33. âThe Morning(star) Afterâ
Author: rayo aka @its-nabrina-bitch
Summary: A Painful NickxSabrina Reunion Rated T - Chapters 1/3 - Last Update 1/24/2020
34. âMy only love sprung from my only hateâ
Author: filmharlot
Summary: High School AU where Nick is based on the version of him that Sabrina creates in her dream during the Batibat episode. Harvey and Sabrina have broken up and don't want to work together on the Romeo and Juliet assignment in Drama class, so she ends up being partners with Nick AU - Not Rated - Chapters 8/? - Last Update 1/19/2020
35. âA very witchy Christmasâ
Author: Miss_Kath90 aka @misskath90
Summary: Just a bit of silly Christmas fluff that I couldnât help but write, placed in the series universe after a huge jump in time. Not Rated - Chapters 1/1 - Last Update 12/25/2019
36. âMortal Little Christmasâ
Author: HeartsInJeopardy
Summary: âTwas the night before Christmas â and the first for Nick Scratch - but Sabrinaâs holiday movie was not a good match. Rated T - Chapters 2/2 - Last Update 12/21/2019
37. âLessons in the Unseenâ
Author: bunivy aka @bunivys
Summary: Academy Teachers AU. Sabrina Spellman lives as simple a life as a half-mortal half-witch can. Despite her dislike for the headmaster, she enjoys spending her time teaching Ritual Magic at the Academy of Unseen Arts, hoping to positively shape the minds of young witches and warlocks. However, with the sudden dreadful announcement of her aunt Zelda's engagement and the appearance of one mysterious - and strikingly handsome - Nicholas Scratch, Sabrina finds that her life is not so simple anymore. Or all that safe. AU - Rated Mature - Chapters 32/32 - COMPLETED 12/17/2019
38. âJust a Little Obsessedâ
Author: eyerys
Summary: Nicholas has developed a tinie-tiny crush on Sabrina. Nothing like major or whatever. It's not like he thinks about her all the time or daydreams about what it would be like to be with her or how cool she is. No, not at all.Sabrina doesn't have a crush on Nick. No, not at all. Uh-uh. She has Harvey. Sweet and loving Harvey Kinkle. But for some reason, she can't help but find her mind wandering. Rated T - Chapters 1/1 - Last Update 12/13/2019
39. âAs The Moon Risesâ
Author: venzaren
Summary: Sabrina Spellman is tired.Tired of living a double life. Tired of facing discrimination at the hands of her pack. Tired of dealing with her status as an Omega. And most of all, she's tired of people hounding her about finding her mate.Then Nick Scratch returns to Greendale. AU - Rated General - Chapters 1/? - Last Update 12/07/2019
40. âThirteen Memoriesâ
Author: tempestbreak
Summary: (Set at the end of Season 2) Sabrina and her friends go to Hell and rescue Nick -- but what happens when that's the easy part?It turns out, having the Dark Lord inside your mind for months can do some damage, and Nick comes back different. His memories of the events leading up to his sacrifice, including his relationship with Sabrina, are gone. How can Sabrina help him regain his memories of their time together when she's not even sure she trusts her own? Rated Mature - Chapters 6/? - Last Update 11/02/2019
41. âBut The Greatest Is Loveâ
Author: sarahkwut
Summary: The acheron captured Lucifer Morningstar, but their problems are far from over. The coven is decimated, the Church of Night is no more, Father Blackwood is on the run, and Nick and Sabrina's relationship is in ruins. How do they pick up the pieces and move on? There are more questions than answers and the consequences could be of biblical proportions. Rated Mature - Chapters 25/25 - COMPLETED 10/28/2019
42. âBack to Youâ
Author: nadiaselite
Summary: Sabrina brings Nick back from hell. Rated T - Chapters 1/1 - Last Update 10/11/2019
43. âThe Open Roadâ
Author: paradiamond
Summary: Nick wants her back, and heâs willing to do whatever it takes. In fact, he insists on it. Rated T - Chapters 1/1 - Last Update 9/22/2019
44. âThe words âI love youâ arenât enoughâ
Author: Miss_Kath90
Summary: âLook at me, Nickâ he was reluctant but when he finally looked up she took his face in her hands making him unable to look away âWhat you did that day⊠Nick, you sacrificed yourself for my sake, even when I mistreated you and told you all those horrible things. You did it for me, because you love me⊠Donât you see? Youâre incapable of being evil.âOr... Sabrina gets her boyfriend back but things donât go as smoothly as she thinks they will. Rated Mature - Chapters 1/1 - Last Update 9/22/2019
45. âMission: Letâs get my boyfriend backâ
Author: My_Evak_Heart
Summary: Sabrina and the Fright Club ventures on their first mission: getting Nick back from Hell Not Rated - Chapters 1/1 - Last Update 9/7/2019
46. âJealousy is a killerâ
Author: Melissa1226
Summary: Will Sabrina and Nick Start something new? and who is watching them from the shadow full of jealousy? Rated Mature - Chapters 8/? - Last Update 8/28/2019
47. âThe Jockâ
Author: mikaila_ealum
Summary: An Alternate Universe where Nicholas Scratch is Baxter Highâs quarterback along with one of the most popular boys at school. With few knowing the truth, Scratch is living a double life as a warlock at the Academy of Unseen Arts. Sabrina takes a hiatus from the Academy to get more in touch with her mortal side. When Sabrina gets back she becomes partners with Nicholas for a project in theatre class. AU - Chapters 8/? - Last Update 8/07/2019
48. âact 5, scene 2 (thou and i are too wise to woo peaceably)â
Author: ghostemo aka @wickedscratch
Summary: When Sabrina Spellman rose to a challenge issued by Prudence Night, she never imagined sheâd actually make the varsity cheer squad - or that doing so would upend life as she knew it. Now she has to navigate her new role within the social hierarchy of hell -er Baxter High as well as trying to get her boyfriend to actually communicate. It certainly doesnât help that sheâs been paired up with the annoyingly handsome Nicholas Scratch, captain of Greendaleâs beloved football team, for a project in her theater class. Itâs exactly as, if not more so, cliche as it sounds. AU/AH - Rated T - Chapters 3/? - 7/25/2019
49. âOff the Recordâ
Author: sarahkwut
Summary: AU. Detective Nicholas Scratch left New York for Greendale in desperate need of a change of scenery. The small town takes some getting used to, but local reporter Sabrina Spellman quickly grabs his attention. It's the fresh start he needed until Greendale's residents start turning up dead. With a murderer on the loose, no one is innocent - and anyone might be next. AU/AH - Rated Mature - Chapters 29/29 - COMPLETED 7/22/2019
50. âBring You Close To Meâ
Author: BridgetMcKennitt
Summary: Sabrina and her friends managed to bring Nicholas back from Hell. There was a lot the two of them needed to discuss, but tonight, they had this. Rated E Mature - Chapters 1/1 - One Shot - Last Update 7/13/2019
51. âA Brief Momentâ
Author: bunivy aka @bunivys
Summary: Ever since he's returned from Hell, Nicholas Scratch has been having nightmares. With help from Aunt Hilda, Sabrina unknowingly shows him a light and for a moment, Nicholas knows everything will be okay. Rated General - Chapters 1/1 - One Shot - Last Update 6/24/2019
52. âTo Hell and Backâ
Author: swtnerdgirl
Summary: A year has passed since Sabrina and her friends rescued Nick from Hell. No one came back the same. They all had their scars. Some emotionally. Some physically. In the days leading to Hilda's wedding, they all prepare for their lives to change and heal their wounds. Rated Mature - Chapters 16/? - Last Update 6/06/2019
53. âDead Witch Walkingâ
Author: rayo aka @its-nabrina-bitch
Summary: Faced with the possibility of being harrowed to death by her classmates, Sabrina finds an escape. Rated E Mature - Chapters 1/1 - One Shot - Last Update 5/26/2019
54. âMoonlight Beneath Rough Lipsâ
Author: ivylikeveins
Summary: After the encounter with the thirteen witches of Greendale, Sabrina enters the dining hall with moonlight locks bathed in soft blue hues, and Nick does not know what to do. He ends up with a soft and small Sabrina pressed into his chest, sleeping, and wrapped around his very much over-sized jacket with Nick's lips pressed into the soft, pearly strands he wants his soul to get entangled within. Rated Mature - Chapters 1/1 - One Shot - Last Update 5/19/2019
55. âThe Huntâ
Author: OnlyInAutumn
Summary: Nick howled into the night, up at the stars to signify that he was ready on the eve of Lupercalia, the darkness of midnight around them. The first sound of the horn sent them into the forest. The hunt had begun. Rated E Mature - Chapters 1/1 - One Shot - Last Update 5/11/2019
56. âSecrets, Secrets are no Funâ
Author: filmharlot
Summary: Sabrina is the new kid for the first time in her life. Choosing to go to the Academy full-time seems to be a hard transition than she was expecting. With the Weird Sisters harassment at an all-time high, dealing with leaving her mortal friend's and condescending teachers, Sabrina is suffering. She's not even allowed to have Salem for comfort. It's not all bad though. She is finally free to do magic whenever she wants, and there's a charming warlock who is being particularly nice to her. Plus, someone is leaving kind gifts on her bed at the end of the night. She just wishes she knew who it was. Not Rated - Chapters 1/? - Last Update 5/06/2019
57. âUnsettled Nighttime Creaturesâ
Author: mindlesshappy
Summary: We all know Sabrina is going to save Nick. This is how Nick reacts to being saved - which, spoilers alert - is like a very stupid warlock. Rated T - Chapters 5/5 - Completed 4/25/2019
58. âSelflessâ
Author: sarahwut
Summary: Sabrina Spellman dragged Nicholas Scratch back from Hell. But Hell might be better than a world in which they aren't together. Rated General - Chapters 1/1 - One Shot - Completed 4/23/2019
59. âHomecomingâ
Author: cherrystems
Summary: After several months Sabrina is able to get Nick back from Hell with the help of her family and friends. However, Nick has to adjust to Earth again while dealing with PTSD and anxiety. This tells the story of the growth of Sabrina and Nick's relationship over the recovery time. Not Rated - Chapters 3/? - Last Update 4/20/2019
60. âUnder Your Spellâ
Author: londonmarie
Summary: Sabrina doesn't hesitate to have her Dark Baptism and things go differently. Rated T - Chapters 10/? - Last Update 4/18/2019
61. âPhotographsâ
Author: Greyowl9831
Summary: It's been at least 150 years since Sabrina signed her name in the Book of the Beast. One day she finds an old photo album. Will the memories it contains be a great walk down memory lane or will it be more than she can bare? Not Rated - Chapters 4/? - Last Update 4/14/2019
62. âAn itch That Needed Scratchingâ
Author: umbrellacorp
Summary: What if Nick slayed his familiar and Sabrina and Nick got to experience the last night of the Lupercalia festival alone. Tonight, Sabrina would be transformed. Nick was going to show her power that she never knew she had, an innate carnal power. They were about to become the most powerful union of the Church of Night. Rated E Mature - Chapters 1/1 - One Shot - Last Update 4/13/2019
63. âand I keep waiting (but I wonât say Iâm waiting)â
Author: lost_n_stereo @lost-n-stereo
Summary: You would think that it would hurt less as the days go by, since itâs been nearly two years since Nick sacrificed himself for the greater good and Lilith took him to hell. Except, he didnât sacrifice himself for the greater good, he sacrificed himself for her. And that makes it a hell of a lot tougher to let go. Rated General - Chapters 1/1 - One Shot - Last Update 4/10/2019
64. âFireâ
Author: OnlyInAutumn
Summary: Their powerâtogetherâwas overwhelming. It was something that she had not felt either, the consuming feeling of expanding power. It was entirely addicting. Rated Mature - Chapters 2/2 - Completed 3/24/2019
65. âsomething I can believeâ
Author: Anry
Summary: Missing scene after Sabrina's baptism. I wouldn't say that it's really a relationship here, just conversation. Rated General - Chapters 1/1 - One Shot - Last Update 1/25/2019
AND THERE YOU GO!!!! Have fun everyone, if I missed any Fics or you have any recommendations for the list message me or send in a ask and Iâll add it to the list. Hopefully by the time youâve checked out some of these stories we will finally know something about Part 4.Â
#Nabrina#Nabrina Fics#CAOS#Chilling Adventures of Sabrina#Sabrina Spellman#Nicholas Scratch#Nick Scratch
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1, 7, 25 for the fanfic end of year ask :)
001. favorite fic you wrote this year i have a soft spot for take my hand (take my everything) which was the first fic i wrote this year! and kind of the first step back into writing creatively on something new that wasnât the 7 year monster sterek fic. also my first foray into 9-1-1 fic and was just a lot of fun!Â
007. longest completed fic you wrote this year the longest fic i wrote was my second for the year! so show me (family) wound up being around 16k+ for 9-1-1 which kind of burst out of me over the course of one 48 hour window unlike take my hand which took a few weeks to crank out.Â
025. a fic you read this year you would recommend everyone read SO MANY FICS DUDE!!! iâm gonna rec a couple, some that i re-read this year and some that i discovered for the first time, all from a variety of fandoms. BUT heads up, you didnât specify a fandom so itâs gonna be a little scattered. also someone else sent me this same question but specified 9-1-1, so iâm gonna reserve those recs for that ask. GET READY!!
and this, your living kiss by opal_bullets (7/7 | 84k+ | M) destiel; AU: college/university; john winchesterâs A+ parenting; angst with a happy ending
only a very few people in the world know that the celebrated and reclusive poet jack allen is just kansas mechanic dean winchester, a high school dropout with a few bucks to his name. not that it matters anymore; life has left him so wrung out he never wants to pick up another pen.
until, that is, a string of coincidences leads dean to auditing a poetry course with one dr. castiel novak. the professor is wildly intelligent, devastatingly handsome...and just so happens to be academiaâs foremost expert on the poetry of jack allen.
note: i discovered this fic back in the pre-pandemic times of feb 2020 and iâve read this fic TWICE since, leaving a lengthy comment each time. the poetry in the fic itself is stunningly gorgeous and i have a habit of reading it out loud to myself while reading bc it begs to be heard. this fic is seriously beautiful and makes me want to read all the poet!dean auâs out there in the world. unfortunately there arenât that many so i just keep coming back to this well. i donât think i can express enough how much i love this fic.Â
lost time by ARCurren (105/105 | 350k+ | T)Â bransonxsybil; AU: canon divergent; outsider POVs; original characters; slow burn
the story of a free spirit who was asked to give up the man she loved for a system she didnât believe in and what happened next. AU after 3.04.Â
note: did i think, when i stumbled across this fic years ago, that it would wind up being one of my all time favorites that i return to time and again to re-read? never. did i re-read it for like the dozenth time this year?? 110%. this fic is everything i want from fanfictionâitâs beautifully written, expands on canon, and shows me all the hidden moments the cameras never did (not to mention itâs historically accurate and delves deep into irish politics of the time). the first third or so of this fic is all about tom and sybilâs slow burn romance at downton, but the fic really bursts into its own when we follow the two to dublin and get introduced to all of the authorâs deliciously detailed ocâs. heads up warning: this fic was never officially completed, though the final chapter is a beautifully written summary of the final arc of the fic. even so, itâs fucking worth it.Â
misfire by mothlights & unpossible (6/6 | 28k+ | T) sterek; time travel; angst with a happy ending; alive hale family; magic; alternating POV
âthe debt must be repaid,â she says, and it has the weight of a vow. the words resonate through him, ringing through his ribcage and the bones of his jaw, and stiles loses his breath and maybe his grip on reality because she draws herself upright and where there had once stood a supermodel-level MILK now there is galadrielâs much hotter older sister, a presence of unmistakable power in their ordinary, smells-vaguely-of-thai-takeout hallway.Â
âoh shit,â stiles says.Â
note: this fic is the first in the misfire âverse and i need you to understand that it literally broke me when i binge read these fics a month or so ago. i am a sucker for a solid time travel fic especially bc there are such few good ones in fandom. but this gets at the heart of it all by exploring the idea of stiles getting the chance to save derekâs family and taking it...after he and derek are romantically together in his true timeline and then actually dealing with the ramifications of how that alters everything and how stiles survives in this new present where he and derek are virtual strangers. everyone should definitely read this, but you should also know that i fucking sobbed while reading the sequel (which also has a happy ending, but really digs deep into the nitty gritty angst of the repercussions).Â
map of the world by seperis (11/11 | 154k+ | M)Â destiel; end!verse; alternate universe; canon divergent; original characters; slow burn
the worldâs already over and theyâre already dead. all theyâre doing now is marking time until the end.Â
note: look, if you donât know about down to agincourt by @seperis, what are you doing with your life?? the series is over 1M+ words so far, the fic author is on book 4 out of a planned 8, and itâs fucking phenomenal. i know iâve tagged a couple of these recs as slow burn but...this is the slowest slow burn to ever burn. canon!dean travels back into the end!verse timeline just as lucifer kills dean and somehow cas made it out alive and has to keep dean safe while he learns to become his end!verse counterpoint. the world building in this series is intense and i cannot recommend it enough. iâm still in the midst of my re-read bc itâs SUCH an endeavor but i highly recommend it to everybody.Â
invictus by ellanasan (116/116 | 355+ | M) hayffie; au: alive abernathy family; pre-hunger games; canon prostitution; slow burn
âso then, before i can even think about doing something stupid like trying to stab him with his fucking golden paperknife, he gives me a choice, see?â haymitch continued, almost detached. âeither i play nice like all the other victors or heâll kill my family. i could either become his puppetâgreatest punishment he could give me, according to himâor i could become the example.â
AU in which haymitchâs family lives.
note: hello, have you ever wondered what the hunger games series would be like if haymitchâs family were alive? i fucking hadnât until 2 years ago when i stumbled across this fic and fell head over heels in love with this ship. @ellanainthetardis is my go to hunger games fic writer for anything exploring canon and iâm obsessed with anything she writes about the OG victors pre-canon (finnick, joanna, chaff, etc). this fic is just 300k+ exploring that world and all the intricate details of how cruel the games could really be. HIGHLY recommend. i definitely re-read it this fall when i needed a pick me up.
donât know what iâm supposed to do (haunted by the ghost of you) by crazyassmurdererwall (1/1 | 30k+ | T) sterek; canon divergent; angst with a happy ending; ghosts; stiles POV
stiles sees dead people. yep. seriously.
(heâs got this. heâs totally got this. so what if one of them is derekâs mom?)
note: did you know that @crazyassmurdererwall is one of my all time favorite people? and that sheâs wicked talented? and that in our spare time sheâll send me a billion fic ideas that are amazing and i get to hear all the intricate details of her plot bunnies? but i digress. this fic is one of my all time fave sterek fics iâve re-read it sooo many times. thereâs just something about the heartache and stilesâ insecurity and the way he tries to shoulder it all on his own. and then thereâs alliâs brilliant writing, the way she weaves through a scene and paints a picture just so and manages to tug at your heart strings with her precise word choice. thereâs some amazing world building in this fic as it explores this other facet of the supernatural that canon teen wolf never touched upon, and iâm so grateful for that bc alli is the only one who should be allowed to write about ghosts and teen wolf together.Â
lagavulin and guinness by snarfle (10/10 | 163k+ | explicit) hartwin; slow burn; PTSD; suicidal thoughts; graphic depictions of violence; domestic abuse
plenty of people had looked down on eggsy throughout his life. he had gotten fairly used to it. didnât mean it was fair, but he knew how these things worked. what really sucked was that the new arthur was worse than the old one.
âeggsy grimaced. he didnât know how to explain to harryâwho seemed like he hadnât been discriminated against a day in his lifeâthat the new arthur kept giving him what amounted to suicide missions, and that he was currently bleeding out in a warehouse because of the deliberately bad intel she had given him.â
also featuring: dean is harder to get rid of than eggsy thought, his mum is going off the deep end, there are way too many nefarious plots in play, and eggsy is really beginning to wish that harry would stop holding his hand and kiss him instead.
note: look, i know i recced this literally less than a week ago but i ALSO stayed up til 5AM re-reading this last night and it was a-m-a-z-i-n-g. i was on a bit of a kingsman kick earlier this year, so iâve actually re-read this fic TWICE so far in 2020. i will give you a serious warning in that this fic delves deep into domestic abuse through the lens of a variety of different relationships. it also explores the potential for abuse in hartwin, bc this fic is one of the few that actually commits to the fact that theyâre literal spies who murder people. actively. a lot. but seriously, this fic is one of my fave in the fandom and i STRONGLY recommend it.Â
waste of breath by bryrosea (1/1 | 22k+ | M) loganxveronica; canon compliant; missing scenes; navy; past child abuse
logan echolls, the nine years, and the navy.
note: bryrosea has an obscene number of amazing logan and veronica fics (her canon divergent series stay with me is another i re-read this year), but iâve found myself returning to this fic a lot over the years. iâm a sucker for canon compliant fics that explore the missing scenes in between canon and this fic hits all the right buttons by diving deep into how logan echolls went from being a trash fire at hearst college at the end of s3 to being a decorated navy pilot by the movie. it explores logan seeking out therapy and making a life for himself that he can be proud of, all while pining after the girl who got away. and bc this author is amazing, she followed it up with a sequel from veronicaâs point of view in the series done by only me.Â
the law of equivalent exchange by awed_frog (8/8 | 60k+ | M) destiel; POV castiel; pre-canon; post-canon; canon compliant; immortality; reincarnation
âand whatâs the point of it?â
âof love? there isnât one. loving is its own purpose.âÂ
note: i mean??? i donât really know what to say except that this is one of the truly most beautiful fics i have ever read. it follows castiel through time as he meets different reincarnations of sam and dean across history and falls ever more deeply in love. it is achingly tender and so ecstatically written that i die just thinking about it. and that summary? i mean. holy fuck break my heart why donât you? i donât know how i missed out on this fic for so long since it was published in 2015 but i only learned about it for the first time back in july and it was. life changing?? when the fic finally reaches the canon timeline and he meets THIS dean itâs peak yearning. 10/10 will read again.
ahead in the count by elisela (17/17 | 50k+ | E) sterek; AU: sports; pitcher!stiles; teacher!derek; long distance relationship; getting together
âyankee fan,â derek says, laughing when stiles makes a disgusted face. âthe bronx bombers, stiles, you canât be a new yorker andââ
âstop talking right now,â stiles sighs, shaking his head. âi canât believe i still want to kiss you after that,â he says, pulling derek in by his coat. âthis is making me rethink everything.âÂ
âiâll never watch them again,â derek promises, and stiles laughs against his mouth.Â
or: stiles is a starting pitcher for the NY mets when he meets and falls in love with derek. derek doesnât know.Â
note: i read SO MANY of @eliselaâs 911 fics this summer, which i loved, and then she got into teen wolf and started writing sterek and i just about died. this fic is amazing, one of my fave sterek AUâs that iâve read in years. itâs just the right amount of drama and angst and fluff filled with all the joys of miscommunication and character relationships that makes reading sterek such a joy. reading this fic and finding out eli needed fic recs pushed me to dive back in to reading sterek fics for a bit this fall so i can say with the utmost authority that this is one of the best iâve read in a long time.Â
i used to think one day weâd tell the story of us by notequitegucci (2/2 | 32k+ | M) gendrya; alternate universeâmodern setting; outsider POV; friends to lovers; friends to lovers
9 times a stark encounters gendry + 1 time he meets the starks.
note: again, this is the first in a 2 part series titled love me like you do that explores arya and gendryâs dynamics together through the point of view of her family. game of thrones ended last year with a whimper but i keep returning to the gendrya tag on ao3 to seek out new, amazing content and also to re-read some old favorites. i canât remember if i came across this for the first time last year or this one, but iâve read it and re-read it more times than i can count since and i love it more than i can describe. iâm a total sucker for outsider POV fics and my biggest pet peeve in canon is the fact that none of the starkâs ever found out that arya and gendry had a history together. this modern au fic almost makes up for it by giving me a gendry encounter with every family member and then the big reveal. itâs peak content.Â
theeeeeeese recs got a little away from me. i wasnât originally intending on adding lengthy notes to each entry but ... oh well!! these are all amazing so please enjoy.Â
fanfic end of the year asks
#lilolilyr#ask#if i knew an authors tumblr i tried to tag them in this#seriously my reclist got away from me for a bit#also if you're looking for 911 recs#like i said they will be in another ask where someone specified!!#fic rec#about kat writes
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Sticky ficky 9
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Thatâs right hoes, Iâm back and bringing you more sticky ficky content. I really set this chapter up expecting to introduce work on a string but it didnât happen I PROMISE I SET IT UP FOR NEXT CHAPTER THO
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Silence greeted Jude as she stepped, shaking and weak, out of the shower. She could still see bits and pieces of her dream in her mindâs eye, could still feel the sharpness of Cardanâs nails digging into her neck and smell Balekinâs rotting flesh.
She tried to take deep breaths, to swallow around the painful lump in her throat, but she couldnât find the strength to.
Just as she was about to start hyperventilating again, she heard a knock at the door. It started soft, just three delicate raps. But when nobody answered, the knocking became louder.
Funny, Vivienne and Oak should still be home. Why werenât they opening the door?
Jude kept her plush blue towel wrapped tightly around her and walked through the apartment, her wet feet threatening to slip on the linoleum floors.
âFucking calm down, Iâm here,â she griped as the person on the other side continued to beat at the door. Still, nothing couldnât prepared her for what she saw on the other side.
There, out in the hallway, was Heather.
She opened the door, crossing her arms over her chest. âVivienne isnât here.â
Heather brightened upon seeing her, only dulling slightly at the mention of her ex before smiling once more and pushing into the apartment.
âIâm not here for Vivi,â she stated. âIâm here for you.â
Jude, who couldnât stop the puzzlement from showing on her face, merely watched as Heather continued through the apartment sheâd once shared. She was carrying a long sleeve of fabric, longer even than her leg, tucked up under her arm.
Heather stopped in front of Judeâs door and motioned for her to enter. Jude raised a brow in response.
âGet dressed,â she ordered. âWeâre going out.â
She said it with enough confidence that Jude didnât even question it. She moved robotically, going to her room and dressing in comfortable leggings and an old concert hoodie. As she laced up her boots, she studied her sisterâs ex lover.
âWhy are you here?â Jude finally asked.
âI told you, Iâm here for you,â she answered, then her face faltered a bit. âI need someone to talk to about,â she sighed, âeverything. Itâs messing with my head and I canât figure it all outâ
Reasonable enough, Faerie can unhinge even the most sane of people.
Jude, dressed and ready, nodded for Heather to lead the way. It didnât even occur to her as she walked out the door that it was the first time in weeks sheâd left her self-determined prison. After the dream, she was tired, too bone tired to think about her own sorrow.
She was tired enough to try something new.
Neither woman spoke as they hopped on the bus. Being late morning, most people in the city were already at work. It was just them and the bus driver, sitting in a comfortable silence that was broken only by the humming of passing cars.
As they got off the bus and the smell of salt hit Jude, she finally asked what they were doing.
âI always used to go kite flying when I needed to think,â Heather explained. â Iâd go with my dad when I was younger and Vivi when we were together. It helped me talk things out.â
Jude blinked against the sunlight, her body still used to the Faerie timeline.
âI canât exactly talk this out with dear old dad,â she reasoned. Jude snorted.
It was the first sound that resembled a laugh sheâd made in weeks.
When she was a little girl and her parents still lived, they always used to go to the beach during the summer. She can remember days spent building castles out of sand and doing cartwheels down the coastline, searching the water with her twin for any sign of mermaids.
The mermaids sheâd imagined were far sweeter than the ones who really lived.
âCâmon, kick your shoes off!â
So Jude did. She tucked her socks into her boots and tied the laces so she could hang them round her shoulders while they walked. Together, Jude and Heather stepped off the boardwalk and into the sand, the warmth of the sun-baked earth seeping into the bottoms of their feet.
They walked in silence and Jude thanked whatever gods existed for the fact that the surf was calm that day. They could barely hear the ocean and hardly anyone was in the water.
âHere looks like a good spot,â Heather decided aloud, dropping her shoes and the sleeve she carried.
âWhatâs that?â
âMy dual-line,â she answered, pulling fabric and strings and handles and sticks out of the sleeve. âI figured Iâd bring the easy one, in case you wanted to try.â
âIâve never seen a kite that looked like that,â Jude observed the mess of black and purple and green nylon as Heather began to unravel the strings from around the handle.
Heather grinned at her, laying out some forty feet of line. âIt was handmade by a guy down in Georgia. My dad bought it from the artist. It was my first stunt kite, I never liked mono-lines.â
Jude watched quietly as the other girl set up the vaguely triangular kite, testing the tension on the carbon fiber rods that held the fabric open before using a larkâs head knot to tie either of the handleâs strings to separate sides of the kite.
âWatch this,â Heather grinned, setting the kite down so it was being pushed back by the wind.
So Jude crosses her arms and watched Heather walk her way back to the handles, keeping the kiteâs lines taught so it didnât go over into the sand. Then, when sheâd gotten the handles firmly grasped, she took a step back.
And the kite launched into the sky.
For all the beauty Jude had witnessed in Faerie, nothing was quite like this. It flew, nothing like a bird and everything like a leaf gliding through the wind. Though the colors were glaringly unnatural, it still gave off a calming sense of beauty.
Jude had become so used to the terrifying version of pretty that sheâd forgotten what mundane beauty could look like. Sheâd forgotten how much sheâd loved it.
Heather whooped as she caught the wind, pulling the line in her right hand towards her so the kite did a spin in the air and laughing at how it oversteered. They squinted together, watching the kite fall and then rise as it lost and caught gusts of air.
Jude smiled. It was small, and it was gone quickly, but sheâd smiled all the same.
âWould you like to try?â Heather asked and she nodded, letting her friend hand her the handles and then stand behind her to help her get the hang of things.
âIf you want it to turn left, pull the left handle towards you. For right, pull the right. Donât move the handles side to side. Lift them up for the kite to go higher and pull them down for it to go lower,â she explained, laughing loudly as Jude promptly did exactly the wrong thing and sent the kite smashing into the ground.
âOh shitââ
âDonât worry!â Heather exclaimed, running over to the downed kite. âTheyâre tough!â
She picked up the kite and set the tip back towards the sky, holding it aloft and telling Jude to step back. When she did, Heather launched the kite once more.
What mustâve been an hour passed as she taught Jude the ins and outs of stunt flying. She got talking about her foils and her quad-lines and how her mother knew how to spin a mono-line and keep it in the air. She told Jude stories of competitions sheâd watched and festivals sheâd been to. She even mentioned how sheâd started a kite flying club in her highschool.
âItâs just something about the way the wind whispers through the trees on a good day,â she grinned. âSets my soul at ease. Nothing quite clears the mind like a kite in the sky.â
âWe donât have kites in Faerie,â Jude whispered, almost reverent in her tone. âI suppose it loses its appeal when so many people can fly themselves.â
She passed the handles back to Heather, who began doing tricks like a seasoned professional.
âFaerie loses its appeal when the people have no appreciation for simple things,â Heather whispered back, sounding perturbed. âLike trust, for that matter.â
Jude snorted as Heather made the kite fly in a square. âTrust? In Faerieland? Vivi didnât prepare you at all.â
Heather shot her a look and the two stared at each other for a long time until the kite crashed down again.
She walked to grab the kite and launch it for Heather.
âHowâd you survive? Back when you were a child, I mean.â
Jude crosses her arms, moving back to her previous spot, keeping her eyes on the kite the whole time.
âMadoc viewed us as his responsibility after he killed Mom and Dad,â she shrugged. âAnd we were children. The fae are usually very careful with children, even human ones. Babies are so unbelievably rare that to harm a child would be unthinkable for most.â
She allowed herself to look back over and catch Heather watching her.
âI suppose we just got lucky that we had enough time to learn the ways of Elfhame.â
Heather turned back to the kite.
âAnd we used a lot of Rowan berries and salt.â
The other girl pursed her lips and sent the kite careening towards the sand, saving it at the last possible moment. âI just donât understand how an entire people can be so unbearably cruel. So evil and manipulative, especially when they canât lie.â
âTheyâre self-satisfying,â she offered like it wasnât a bad thing. âA way of life that you either get used to or get crushed by.â
âDonât they ever get tired of being selfish?â
âWhy would they?â Jude half laughed. âIt gets them what they want.â
She let the kite fall and neither woman went to retrieve it.
âDo you ever get tired of playing their game?â Heather asked.
Jude blinked, her fingers tapping a soundless rhythm on the elbow of her crossed arm as she stared out into the calm, glassy sea.
âI get tired of losing it,â she finally answered. âAnd I tire of the fact that I only lose when my selfishness isnât driven by destruction.â
Together they sat down and Heather, sensing Jude wasnât done, waited for the younger woman to continue.
âIâve killed more people than I care to count, bathed in blood and dug secret graves in the dead of night. Iâve engineered the fall of the eldest Greenbriar child and, unknowingly, helped set the stage for the fall of the others.â
âIâve dominated meetings and outsmarted countless people I shouldnât have been able to outsmart.â She finally turned to look at Heather. âIâve done all this and more. So why is it that it only works when Iâm hurting someone? Why is it that, on the briefest occasion I do something out of loveâbe it crowning Cardan to protect my brother or taking a lover for myself for once or giving myself to a man in marriage because I genuinely thought he caredâwhy is it that love breeds failure for me?â
Heather blinked calmly, weighing the question in her mind, rolling her thoughts around on her tongue and playing with the handles of her kite as it fluttered oh-so-slightly on the sand.
âI donât think love breeds failure for you,â she finally started, âmerely success that you arenât comfortable with.â
Jude raised a brow at her before leaning back in the sand, throwing her arms across her face to block her eyes from the sun.
âJude, Iâm serious!â Heather insisted. âI get that ruling through Cardan didnât go as smoothly as you liked, but Oak got to be safe here. He gets to be a normal kid for awhile, learn some basic kindness.â
She went to respond, but Heather cut her off.
âAnd yeah that Locke guy was a complete and total tool, but plenty of men are. It wasnât your insistence on loving him that made him a two-timing whore and your sister a back-stabbing bitch.â
Jude couldnât help but smirk at that.
âAnd, while Iâll admit I donât really know whatâs going on with you and Cardan right now, the fact remains that youâre still married. He couldâve tried to divorce you instead of sending you away. That has to count for something, right?â
âHe banished me for murdering his brother,â she felt her face sour at the very idea of Balekin. âNever mind that he challenged me to a duel and, per the rules of courtesy and the faeâs slavish insistence on obeying it, I couldnât turn him down.â
Heather opened her mouth.
âAnd never mind that he forced me to kiss him in the Underseaââ
âWOAH!â Heather exclaimed and Jude went quiet. âHe did what?â
She uncovered her face and opened an eye, squinting up at her friend and raising her brows at the shocked expression that she wore.
âWhen I was trapped in the Undersea he made me come to him,â she explained, covering her face once more. âI guess he had an idea that I might feel something for his brother so he forced me to kiss him the same way Iâd kiss Cardan. He thought me glamoured, I had no choice.â
âJude thatâs assault.â
âAdd it to the thousand other things thatâve been done to me. You get used to it after awhile.â
She felt Heatherâs hand on her shoulder and started, uncovering her face in shock and finding the older girl staring at her in horror.
âJude thatâs not right. Just because it happens a lot doesnât mean itâs okay.â
She chewed the inside of her lip as Heatherâs face scrunched up in determination. âYou should use some of your murdery badassery next time someone tries that shit on you. Iâll help, Iâve got a taser that looks like lipstick.â
Jude wanted to laugh, but the completely serious look that Heather wore stopped her.
How long it had been since someone was willing to go to war for her and her alone. Well, if you ignore what Cardan did to get her freed from the Undersea. But was that really the same? Heâd not lifted a finger, and heâd had the power of half an army and magic that could boil the sea.
Heather has nothing, likely not even basic fight training, and she was still ready to back Jude up.
âHow are you handling things since,â Jude changed the subject, âyâknow, with Vivi?â
Heatherâs face soured and she huffed, staring out at the sea.
âIâm so angry,â she admitted. âI could get over her not preparing me, I could get over the whole cat thing. But taking my memories? Deciding that Iâm not adult enough or strong enough to remember whatâs been done to me? I donât know if thatâs forgivable.â
The way her voice broke at the end told Jude everything she needed to know and she wrapped her arm around Heather.
âBut you want to forgive her.â
âYou know I do,â she sounded so forlorn. âI love her so much Jude, but I donât know how we cone back from something this devastating.â
âIf you figure it out, I wanna be the first to know,â Jude snorted and Heather cracked a smile once again. âWhat a pair we make.â
âIâve never been friends with a murderer before. Or a queen, for that matter,â Heather observed. âDo you get used to it?â
âThe murder part? Absolutely.â
Heather shot her a rueful grin. âI have much less of a problem with you getting used to that then the assault thing.â
âWhat a coincidence,â Jude laughed. âMe too.â
~~~~
The Jude and Heather friendship I always needed in my life. Next chapter will be Jude and Heather go to/have gone to a kite shop and seen the worms on a string. Some WILL be purchased I promise.
I know itâs no Cardan and no sticky hands but I needed some Jude healing. I think we can all agree she needed to talk through her feelings with someone who was close enough to care but far enough away to point out when she wasnât being treated right.
~~~
Tag list: @cardan-greenbriar-tcp @hizqueen4life @slightlyrebelliouswriter23 @thewickedkings @aelin-queen-of-terrasen @cheekycheekycheeks @queen-of-glass @b00kworm @doingmyrainbow @andromeddea @jurdanhell @thesirenwashere @sweetlyvillainous @courtofjurdan @clockworkgraystairs @st00pid231
#sticky ficky#tfota#jude duarte#jurdan#cardan greenbriar#the great sticky hand war#heather#jude HEALS#Next chapter:#rise of fweej
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âThe Rise of Kylo Renâ + TROS theory (with TROKR pics)
Iâll probably look like a clown in 16-17 days when âThe Rise of Kylo Renâ #2 releases but whatever lolâafter TROS I believe even more that the former leader of the Knights of Ren (Ren) is Ben from another timeline or a future gone (more) wrong
Anyways, my thoughts on this:
1) remember the outrageous âBen sets the temple ablaze and runs awayâ from the Visual Guide? Iâm sure itâs probably just even more retconning (like a ton of stuff from the VD), but what if itâs literalâexcept itâs just that the Ben who does it isnât the Ben we know, therefore making it true while retaining âourâ Benâs innocence. Another option (painful but, I think, absolutely plausible) is that Ben himself accidentally set on fire the temple with his rage and sorrow unleashing a Force storm. However, the way the âprologueâ of TROKR #1 ends (Iâll talk about later on in this post) seems kind of like a foreshadowing that Ben (well, âourâ Ben) didnât do it...? Kind of interesting, and hopefully we wonât have to wait until issues #3 and #4 (february and march) to know about that important detail
2) this interview with Charles Soule (the writer) and Will Sliney (the artist) dedicates, curiously, the first 3-4 paragraphs solely to talking about Renâand the article, which is from the official SW webpage (an article called âIntroducing âRenâ in Marvelâs The Rise of Kylo Renâ), starts like this: âthey call him Ren, but that wasnât always his nameâ. Which is also how the comic starts:
... Tell me this doesnât sound suspicious as kriff and like foreshadowing
And the interview keeps going like this: âBorn out of the flames,â as artist Will Sliney puts it, the leader of the Knights of Ren in the opening pages of the new comic Star Wars: The Rise of Kylo Ren #1, arrives battle-scarred and wearing a fearsome, featureless mask â a blank expression save for a smattering of claw-like gouges. Concealed within is a charismatic leader, the exact type of person who would be able to seduce young Ben Solo away from the path of the Jedi.â Then they basically proceed to spend the first 4 paragraphs talking a lot about Ren besides talking about Ben (and then, lastly, about Snokeâand, fun fact: they knew about the Snoke twist of TROS beforehand), although I think they talk less about Ben even
3) Ben being compared to Anakin while Ren is compared to Darth Vader, except Charles Soule wanted Ren to read âlike a more charming Darth Vader. âA Vader who is charismatic and who is appealing. Thatâs why [Renâs] skin is burned and he sort of looks the way that he does. Heâs embracing the seductiveness and the damage that the dark side does. Darth Vader, as impressive and imposing and terrifying as he is, is remote and cold and distant because he has the suit surrounding him. Whereas Ren isnât hiding behind it. Heâs someone you could have a beer with, in theory.â
4) more interesting interview stuff. âDesigned purposefully for the new comic series, with issue #1 out now, Ren feeds the evolution of Kylo Ren. âThe entire seductiveness of the dark side poured into one character engineered for Ben Solo is Ren,â Soule says. âHeâs sort of a charming evil rascal that can be really fun to write and I really like where he goes in the series. But if Kylo Ren is going to take over the Knights of Ren, which we know thatâs what happens, there should be some transition.â
Also: âI think the key to writing Ben Solo is to write him as a lost teenager who is deeply in touch with emotions that teenagers often feel,â Soule says. âHe feels like no one understands him, no one sees him the way he actually is, heâs utterly alone and thereâs no one else out there in the universe. So when he sees Ren, heâs like, âWait a minute â maybe there is somebody like me in the universe. Maybe there is a path for a guy like me. Look at the choices heâs made. I could make those choices, too, and I could be cool.ââ
So... This is interesting. We have Snoke manipulating Ben to go to him, at first making himself appear friendly, while on some measure Palpatineâs pulling the strings from Snoke (I donât think he would be like a puppet with Palpsâ voice, though, given that chapter of the TLJ non-junior novelization that has a lot of stuff from Snokeâs perspective, but who knows). But then, Ben Soloâs basically obsessed with Vader... and, apparently, this Renâs a walking dark side temptation for Ben. Well... Weâll see what happens, I guess
Also, crying inside at reading that âwait a minuteâmaybe there is somebody like me in the universe. Maybe there is a path for a guy like me. Look at the choices heâs made. I could make those choices, too, and I could be coolâ. If Ren really was Ben from another time seeking to change things (probably something related to Rey): the implications that this has, the emotions that this has, the power that this has
Interesting, too, that it hasnât been said if itâs Snoke whoâs âthe masterâ of the KoR (yes, they do have a master on top of their own leader), but that only gets weirder because the KoR were revealed time ago to be only loyal to their leader and to the âRen philosophyâ (which also makes possible ties with Snoke alone impossible)âso, if Snoke and the First Order arenât, then who is it? Palpatine? Still, again, thereâs the philosophy thing of following only their group leader...
Oh and: the Ren philosophy sounds very intriguing and Iâm liking it a lot
(For context of the next pics: there are two brothers, being one of them Force-sensitive, and both the KoR and someone called SecSec are trying to recruit themâbut the non-Force-sensitive one kills the other, which means the KoR doesnât accept him, and Ren kills him)
5) just after that panel, in this pic below they talk a bit about âthe masterâ here, being Ren who says it. Also itâs interesting that, after that happens, the KoR part ends with Ren saying "letâs go find something to burnâ:
After that thereâs a page as if this kind of prologue has finished, showing a page with the logo of the comic and all that... and then, next page itâs Ben standing in front of the fire and ruins of the temple all shocked (a note here: on that page it reads ânowâ and the name of the location, and the âprologueâ happened âlong agoâ). Iâd say that really looks like foreshadowing...
Now the thing is... If the KoR are not affiliated in any way with the First Order nor Snoke, and the KoR is only interested in recruiting Force-sensitives for their ranks, then how come they couldâve arrived in Lukeâs Jedi temple... just at that right time to burn it down? I mean, right, there can be coincidences, butâ uh, that might be a bit too much of a coincidence, perhaps? Who knows...
6) interview intensifies. âBorn out of the flamesâ, is how Sliney describes Renâwell, thought it was worth mentioning this because guess what mythological being is born out of the flames too. Also, funny the parallel between that and the publisherâs summary of âThe Rise of Kylo Renâ #3 (scheduled for February 12th): âSoon, BEN SOLO'S path will end in a place of fire and blood, and a shadow will rise to take his place. He is with the KNIGHTS OF REN now, and they will welcome him, if he can pay their price.â Well, given that âourâ Ben starts becoming Kylo Ren after what happens at the temple, and that they describe Ren (referring to the former leader of the KoR) like being âborn out of the flamesâ... this does nothing to deterr me from believing this theory, to be honest
7) more from the interview. â The creative team engineered some surprises for this charming dark sider, a foil in many ways to Darth Vader hiding beneath his protective covering. âYou expect the dude hiding his face under a mask like that to be all messed up, particularly with his body looking the way it does,â Soule says. But in issue #2 weâll see what heâs truly concealing, a reveal that speaks to Ben on a whole other levelâ ⊠This whole paragraph, I swear. Sounds like when they talked in the times between TFA and TLJ about Benâs face behind his mask, and about his unmasking. Also, the talk about the face revealâŠ
What kind of âreveal that speaks to Ben on a whole other levelâ could it be? I donât think theyâd be referring to that with something more going on in his face, as in, scars or charred skin. In fact, it wouldnât make sense for Ren to cover that up given that he shows with pride his scarred body
And faces of men he might know? The probabilities just lower and narrow soooo much here. We have yet to see, however, if Ben gets the reveal as a kid or an adult, which could make a difference. Still, back to âwhat man could this guy beâ, I just canât think of someone that heâd recognize and have this impact on him... ... And now itâs when itâs a Ben clone from another timeline, lol
8) that big panel on âThe Rise of Kylo Renâ #2 where the KoR and Ren are facing Luke, Ben and Lor San Tekka, and Ben and Ren seem to mirror poses:
9) this is jut something that came to my mind, but⊠It still bugs me to this day the phrase âit is youâ that Ben says regarding Rey on the TFA novelization (when she calls forth the Legacy lightsaber), because Ben didnât know back then about them being a dyad, nor have we seen any mentions to him having dreamt of Rey before or anythingâso maybe Benâs encounter (encounters? Still not sure about it) with Ren involved Ren telling him something that will happen in the future? Something which could also tackle that random âwhich girl?â
The sad thing, if Ren was really Ben from the future? Like I said in my previous post about this teory (pre-TROS): ... that Ben wouldâve literally killed himself, and therefore made true what he told Han that his son is dead and that heâd killed him (which then is reversed in TROS with that âKylo Ren is dead, my son is aliveâ). That would be such a kriffing trauma for Ben that I donât know if I could stomach it, after seeing Benâs death in TROS... I mean, we would literally be seeing another Ben die... even if somehow his actions meant a worse future would have been avoided
Anyways my brain seems to find fuel in angst (why), because now reading âRenâ only makes me think of Benâs name but taking on the âRâ from Rey if in that future something happened to her... (Or that the Knights would be called âof Renâ in reference to Ben and Rey)
... And now itâs when weâve been played like a fiddle all along and the novels, with their differences/expanded material as hints (like the âit is youâ in the TFA novelizations), are but one of the timelines. Can you imagine? To cite the TLJ non-junior novelization: âtime is a circle. The end is the beginningâ. At this point I believe anything could happen, specially after seeing TROS and how wtf itâs all that surrounds it...
10) to finish the post, the thing that made me start thinking Ren could be Ben: the hair that peeks from below the helmet looks apparently like Benâs both in shape and color (an interesting detail is how the color of their hair seems to match in tone: in issue #1 itâs brownish for the both of them even though oneâs surrounded by fire and the other by ice, and on the preview pages of issue #2 their hair is shown black). And in a universe so diverse as SW, and given that Ren and Ben are characters so connected, thatâs a pretty... interesting choice. Here are some more images for comparison between Ben and Ren:
#Reylo#Baby boy Ben Solo#Rey#Baby boy Ben#Ben Solo#TROKR#TROS#TROKR speculation#TROS speculation#TROKR theorizing#TROS theorizing#TROKR theory#TROS theory#TROKR theories#TROS theories#The Rise of Kylo Ren#The Rise of Skywalker#TROKR spoiler#TROS spoiler#TROKR spoilers#TROS spoilers#The Rise of Kylo Ren spoiler#The Rise of Skywalker spoiler#The Rise of Kylo Ren spoilers#The Rise of Skywalker spoilers#Star Wars#SW#Star Wars spoiler#SW spoiler#Star Wars spoilers
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Finding Home Gavin Reed x Reader
Chapter 9
Masterlist
I hadn't realized I had fallen asleep, but then I heard my dad calling from the kitchen "You two really stayed out here all night?"
I jerked up, groaning when I felt the crick in my neck from sleeping on the couch.
"Are you alright (Y/N)?" I whipped around.
"Oh Connor! I'm sorry, you should have woken me up. What time is it?" I stood up and stretched, Sumo mimicked me and stretched. He walked over to the front door and whined.
âItâs 8:16 am. Iâm going to take Sumo for a walk. Would you like to come, (Y/n)?â Connor stood up and started walking towards Sumo. I blinked a couple times, still trying to force myself to wake up.
âConnor, I think sheâs going to need a couple minutes to wake up.â I nodded in agreement and reached for my backpack.
âSorry, Connor. Iâm exhausted. Iâm gonna shower and then we can head to the animal shelter, is that okay?â Â
âOf course.â Connor clicked on Sumoâs leash and left.
âYou can use my soap in the bathroom, thereâs some towels in the closet in my room.â My dad was holding his keys and getting ready to leave. âHow are you guys getting to the animal shelter? Iâm taking my car.â
âWeâll just get a taxi.â He nodded and I made my way to my dadâs room. I heard his car start as he left. Sighing, I opened the closet and grabbed a towel. Before leaving his room, I glanced around. There wasnât much. My book was sitting on his nightstand. Smiling, I walked over to see how far he got. Flipping through it, his bookmark fell out. I bent down to pick it up, an old piece of paper, halved and soft with age. I opened it and felt my eyes start to burn, obviously a child's drawing that was once colorful but was now faded with age. I couldn't make out what it was supposed to be, and I couldn't remember drawing it but my name spelled out clumsily in purple crayon gave away that it was mine. I couldn't imagine my dad keeping something like this for so long. I folded it up before the tears could fully form and escape my eyes, tucking it back into the book, and placing it back on the table before walking into the bathroom.
After showering and changing into a t-shirt and denim cut offs, I walked back into the living room. Connor was sitting in the kitchen watching Sumo eat his breakfast. He had changed since coming back, he was in another plain shirt and khaki shorts. He looked up at me.
âWhat do you want for breakfast?â I shrugged and walked over to the fridge. I grabbed an apple and bit into it.
âIâm guessing you bought the fruit. Thereâs no way dad would.â Connor smiled.
âIâve been trying to get him to eat better. Iâve had mixed success.â I nodded and jumped up to sit on the kitchen corner. â(Y/n), may I ask you a question?â
âYou donât have to ask if you can ask me questions, Connor. If I donât want to answer the question, Iâll let you know.â He nodded as I continued munching on the apple.
âYou change your syntax when you reference Hank with Officer Chen and Detective Reed, with them you say 'my dad,' but when you reference Hank to me, you just say 'dad.' Why?" I hummed, swallowing the bite of apple in my mouth and pausing for a moment before responding.
âI hadnât noticed if Iâm being honest. Do you want me to just say âmy dadâ when Iâm talking to you?â I looked at Connor, he was staring at his feet intently, his LED was spinning yellow. Without looking up he shook his head no. âOkay, I can keep just saying dad. Connor are you okay?â He finally looked up, eyes wide.
âYes. I just donât want to upset you or make you uncomfortable.â I smiled, finishing my apple and throwing the core in the trash.
âConnor itâs okay, donât worry about it.â I patted him on the shoulder. I hopped off the counter and walked towards the table, where my phone was and picked it up. âHey, can you call for a taxi?â A notification popped up when I unlocked my phone, Tina had texted me back while I was asleep.
Oh my god! That was so long ago!
I know! I was showing Connor some old pictures last night.
âOne will be here in five minutes.â Connor walked over and stood next to me.
I put my phone in my pocket. I figured she was probably sleeping or with Valerie. I felt bad for Tina since she probably had a lot of long nights. I was glad to know that, for the most part, my long nights were in the past. I knew Iâd be having more in the future with grading tests and working on my research, but at least now I was paid for my long nights.
âAre you excited?â I asked, looking over at him.
âYes. I hope Sumo wonât be jealous when we return.â I laughed and Connor smiled.
âHeâll get over it. Letâs go wait for the taxi outside. Do you have a key to lock up the house?â Connor nodded, pulling a keychain out of his pocket.
After a short ride, we arrived at the local shelter, the Michigan Humane Society Pet Adoption. I probably shouldâve called ahead to see if they would let us walk some of the dogs, if they didnât, we could always just pet them under the guise we were looking to adopt.
Walking in, I noticed there were only a few people in the building. There was a woman and little girl looking at some cats, an android receptionist, and another android feeding the dogs. I walked over to the receptionist, a ST300, wearing light blue scrubs and she still had her LED.
âHi, my name is Dr. (Y/n) (L/n) and this is ConnorâŠAnderson and I was wondering if we could help out for a bit. Maybe take some of the dogs for a walk?â She smiled at both of us and handed each of us an electronic clipboard.
âPlease fill these out and show me your IDs.â I nodded getting out my wallet and pulling out my state ID.
âConnor, do you have an ID?â I asked him as I handed her mine.
âI already sent it to her.â
âOh yeah, I forgot about that.â I started filling out the form. It was very general, asking for full name, address, and a statement of consent. I looked up and handed it back to her, Connor had already given it back to her and was staring at the dogs.
âTereasa over there will introduce you two to a couple of dogs.â She said gesturing over to the android feeding the dogs. âIf you need any help, my name is Stacy.â
âThank you, Stacy.â I said as I followed Connor over to the dogs. Tereasa got up and looked at both of us with a smile.
âHi! You two got here just in time for Sophie and Rudyâs walk.â She gestured to a timid black lab and a golden retriever mix who was trotting in front of the door to the kennel, huffing impatiently to be let out. She grabbed two leashes and let them both out. She handed me the leash for the black lab and Connor the leash for the golden retriever. âSophie is the black lab and Rudy is the golden retriever mix.â She reached out and touched Connorâs arm. Her synthetic skin pulling back. âThatâs the path we take them on. Itâs about half a mile, but feel free to take your time. The dogs love going out.â Connor nodded and gently ruffled the deceptively fluffy caramel colored fur on Rudyâs head.
âCome on, (Y/n).â Connor started walking and Rudy ran ahead of him and yanked on the leash. I smiled as me and Sophie followed them outside. âRudy has a lot more energy than Sophie.â
âI think sheâs just anxious.â She was staying very close to my side. I moved the leash to my other hand and scratch behind her ear. âYouâre okay.â
âYou should get a dog for your place.â Connor managed to slow Rudy down enough that we were both walking next to each other.
âMy apartment is way too small for a dog. Plus, Iâm going to start my research interviews soon, so Iâll be out and about a lot.â
âI want my own dog. Hank is worried Sumo would get jealous and annoyed if there was another dog in the house.â I hummed in agreement.
âSumo is dadâs baby. He takes better care of Sumo than himself.â Connor nodded.
âWhat will you be researching now that youâre in Detroit?â
âWSU has asked me to research and write a book over the android revolution and an analysis of why it happened when it did. Itâs going to be a challenge piecing everything and the timeline together. I havenât started planning much yet, Iâve been trying to finish my class material first. Eventually Iâll probably interview you and dad, if youâre okay with that.â
âOf course. I know a few other people who may be able to help as well. We spoke to Elijah Kamski during our investigation, he may be interested in the project.â I laughed.
âI know, Eli. He was one of the contacts that reached out to me early on during my research. Heâs even edited some of my work. He reached out to me when I was trying to get some of my articles published. We still talk occasionally.â
âI didnât know that.â
âYeah, I was surprised when he reached out to me and asked to help with my research. I figured I would get a cease and desist letter from Cyberlife, not a friendship with the CEO. I felt my phone start buzzing in my back pocket and stopped. âOh, hang on a second, someoneâs calling me.â Connor took Sophieâs leash and I answered my phone, it was dad. âHey dad, whatâs up?â
âI talked to Fowler; weâre having that meeting in an hour. He said if you wanted to come and give advice, you could.â
âMe and Connor are walking some dogs right now, but weâll head there as soon as weâre done.â
âTell Connor weâre going to be in the meeting room. Heâll show you where to go.â
âAlright, see you soon.â I hung up the phone. âFowler said I can come give advice at that meeting today. Itâs in an hour, do we have time to finish their walk and get to the precinct?â Connorâs LED started spinning.
âYes, but we should probably hurry.â I nodded and followed him, feeling bad for ending our time here early and for rushing the dogs who clearly wanted some outside time.
âWe can come back on your next day off or do something else.â
âThat would be nice.â I grinned at Connor as we continued walking the dogs.
#gavin reed x reader#gavin reed#detroit become human#hank anderson#connor is like a son to hank#connor has major little brother energy#rk800connor#dbh#dogs
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I was tagged by @danwritestuff (a million years ago and only now I actually got to finish this thing) so here it goes:
1. How did you begin writing? Technically I started when I was like seven or eight and was working on an illustrated story about a dog and a magical bone. Yup, true story. But I think I actually started to get into writing when I was in seventh grade and a teacher told us to write a short story as homework. I donât even want to think back on what I wrote because it probably wasnât good, but I will never forget that my teacher told me that she enjoyed my story and that I was good at writing. Thereâs literally nothing better than having someone believe in you. And I initially only wrote in Spanish but funnily enough after getting into roleplaying my brain kind of made a switch and it comes more naturally to me now to write in English.
2. What was your first writing project? Tell us a little about it. Again, the story of the dog and the magical bone. But the first serious project that I still hope might see the light of day when I stop planning and actually sit my ass down to write it is a fantasy trilogy. I started it in 2008 and needless to say my mind has changed a lot in a decade, so as a result that story has changed very much from my original idea. I think thatâs why I havenât really done much writing and Iâm stuck in âdevelopment hellâ, because the thing just keeps mutating and my ideas for that world and those characters keep growing and changing.
3. What is your preferred medium for writing first drafts? Iâve always used Microsoft Word.
4. What rituals or habits do you have around writing? I always have a cup of tea next to me. And I say stuff out loud too, especially when itâs dialogue. I also sort of act out certain stuff to find words that could describe that. Definitely not rituals, just weird habits I have.
5. We all have a âtypeââ of character, plot, themeâ what is yours? Well, I always go for fantasy or scifi stuff because itâs easier for me to make up shit than do extensive research about things that are real (also it scares me that I migh portray something in an inaccurate way). So yay, Iâm lazy like that. I tend to include reserved, quiet characters (even if not the protagonists, theyâre there). I donât know, I just have a deep appreciation for introverted people that are more of the observing/listening type than the talking type.
As for plots or themes, I like to dabble into the âself-discoveryâ paths for the protagonists and the âchange established structuresâ in the world. As for important themes, family bonds are always there in one way or another (both biological families or âfoundâ families amongst the characters). Also I have this weird thing about names. In every story I have characters that are called a certain way by most but then they are given a different nickname or are revealed to have a different name by someone that is/becomes close to them. For some reason the way other people call each other has always had such a deep meaning for me.
6. Introduce us to one (or more!) of your OCâs. I have an army of OCs, I have no self-control when it comes to creating them... my latest one is a gentle giant of a man stuck on an island where people donât age and those stranded there canât escape (shoutout to Mira and Ally for @timelessrpg!). And this guy is mute and deaf because Iâve learned a bit ASL and I wanted to integrate that into a character, explore different ways to have him interact with those around him without having to rely on speaking.
7. Whatâs your favorite genre to read? Fantasy, science fiction, historical fiction and psychological thrillers. But Iâd give a shot at every book that sparks my interest regarding of genre.
8. Your favorite genre to write? Fantasy and science fiction. I like creating my own playground rather than using our lovely little world.
9. How do you conduct your authorial research? Google searches to start off. Then once I get a general overview I start to look for more specific stuff in books, videos, etc. I use YouTube a lot. That thing is a treasure chest of information and it helps with ther âoverviewâ part so then I can do more digging about specific subjects.
10. What does your editing (gasp) process look like? Iâm such a jerk to myself when I edit, so I guess thatâs another reason why itâll take a while for my stories to see the light of day. If you look up the word perfectionist in the dictionary you see my picture... But Iâve been trying not to be so hard on myself lately and instead of staying stuck on that endless cycle of writing and erasing, Iâve been allowing myself to just write on. Iâve also made a deal with my roomie: I have to pay her $15 pesos (little less than $1 usd) whenever I got back to edit a chapter I had already finished. Iâve only paid her once, but itâs a good incentive not to go back an edit stuff too much and just go ahead to write.
11. What are your favorite tropes? I have too many, especially with romantic/platonic relationships. Enemies to lovers, is definitely one. Also any sort of yin yang/light and dark representations in character dynamics, Iâm such a sucker for those. Any kind of trope that involves characters not seeing it coming and then just knowing theyâd do anything for the other person (not just necessarily in a romantic way, I love bonds like that with people who become siblings to each other). Any sort of trope that involves a âpartners in crimeâ or âride or dieâ dynamic, IâM SOLD.
12. Show off your writing space. It used to be a desk when I still lived at my momâs place. It was in itâs usual state of controlled chaos, as I like to call it (because thereâs stuff everywhere but I know exactly where everything is). Now my roomie and I share a desk, and most of the times I just end up writing in bed, using a folding bed tray as my desk.
13. What is the most useful piece of writing advice youâve ever used? Sit down and write is one. And also something that I saw in Victoria Schwabâs instagram:Â âIâm not writing a book, Iâm writing a chapter. Iâm not writing a chapter, Iâm writing a page. Iâm not writing a page, Iâm writing a lineâ. That helped me feel more confident. The work put into trying to write a book always felt so overwhelming and like something I would never really get done. But thinking that even a little bit counts has made it feel like a less impossible feat.
14. What is the least useful piece of writing advice youâve ever ignored? That itâs wrong to repeat a characterâs name or identifier (the queen, the thief, etc). I used to think it was wrong to it because âbeing repetitive means youâre a bad writerâ and youâd have me do mental gymnastics to figure out different ways to refer to my characters which, honestly, end up coming off as forced. So yeah, Iâve definitely begun to ignore that now.
Another one is that writing âsaidâ is wrong. Iâd rather use âsaidâ a hundred times than throw in random shit like âennunciatedâ just to avoid using âsaidâ.
15. Your writing beverage/snack of choice? Tea, always. Either black tea or rooibos with milk.
16. How do you compile your ideas? Quick notes on my phone when I donât have a notebook at hand. Word documents. And notebooks. Lots of notebooks. I have a specific notebook for each story. Lately I started posting stuff on my wall. I have a summary of each chapter that Iâve already written in little pieces of paper, kind of like a timeline. Above each âchapterâ thereâs a blue post-it note with the stuff that led to the events of that chapter, and below thereâs a green post-it note with the plot points that chapter will set in motion. Itâs kind of to keep in order all the information Iâm dealing with. And then above the timeline I have even more pieces of paper with specific events that must happen eventually and I just keep moving them around to construct the rest of the story. It might sound weird and confusing, but I swear it helps. Iâm a visual person and itâs very damn helpful to see those pieces of story and ideas have some order.
17. What are your controversial opinions âą on the craft of writing? That being a best-seller means the book is good. I donât know if itâs controversial or not, but I donât think quantity equals quality. Also, LET STORIES END. I get it, sometimes as readers we love a group of characters so much or a world that we want more, but that doesnât mean there should be more. I feel that a lot of prequels, spin-offs and extended series end up taking away from the original story/saga because they were clearly not in the authorâs mind from the beginning. There are exceptions to this, Iâm sure, but I just feel authors should know when enough is enough rather than try to milk their series for all theyâre worth. And I might get shit for writing this, but Iâm also against the idea that all characters have to be woke and politically correct 24/7. I believe characters should be allowed to be ignorant and say wrong things and make mistakes, because then they get to learn and grow and become better people, and yes, possibly get called out or educated throughout the story. I donât know, maybe itâs just me having faith in people learning and growing, but I happen to like characters that start out not so great and begin to really become better human beings during the story.
Tagging: @azianxpersuasionwrites, @briannaswriter, @allywritestuff, @proserpinewrites, @theichthyostegawrites, @montaguew, @loeswrites, @eridawrites, @roshwrites, @rjwrites, @ashlaaaywrites, @trishywishy & @dude-im-batman
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