#and who ultimately died more alone than they started

[kouzih]

Something stupid.

Nam-gyu ( Player 124 ) x gn!reader .ᐟ

warnings : swearing/insulting, semi-public sex(?) creampie, unprotected sex, smut obviously..uhh imo maybe more stuff

tags,, @gongyoosgf @cybrasigilism

requested by anon!! wc : 2.8k

( this could maybeee count as min-su x reader but imo..no proofread though)

ᶻ 𝗓 𐰁 .ᐟ You try to comfort Min-su by holding his hands and caressing his palms. You had come to him because you noticed that he was stressed. The tremors in his body instantly disappear with the touch of your hands, your voice softly echoing in his ears as his eyes remain locked on your hands.

"Hey, it'll be fine."

Your grip relaxed him, his head shaking slightly as he looked up at you with shaky eyes. A tiny grunt of agreement comes from his lips. You could understand his nervousness, after all, many people died in every game here. You tried to be with him as much as you could during the games. You would drag him around by holding his hand, but ultimately you would make sure he was safe.

On the other hand...you would be lying if it didn't bother you that the others in the group were so obsessed with him. Before you could even approach him and ask him how he was, they would jump on him and surround him. Still, he tries to look after you as much as he can.

"H-hey, wait—" The man who introduced himself as 'Thanos' held Min-su’s hands and congratulated him on being unharmed, leaving you behind as Min-su tilted his head to look at you. "Hm?" As you turned your attention to his almost inaudible voice, a pair of hands began to wrap around your neck from behind, a lazy voice heard in your ears as a warm breath brushed against your shoulders. "Heyy, you made it." He was throwing you back and forth while his hands were caressing your shoulders, and before you could respond Min-su he had you turned towards him. His signature smirk was on his face as his hands moved to your shoulders sides, his eyes flicking to his friend before he leaves you alone.

You let out a breath you didn’t even realize you were holding and walked over to Min-su, muttering in an annoyed voice as you tried to get the others away from him. "Yes, yes, we both made it, no big deal." The man, who clung to your grip as if his life depended on it, swallowed hard and looked at the others. Thanos looks at you in surprise but doesn’t say anything, while Nam-gyu looks like he’s trying hard not to laugh. While looking to the side with his teeth pressed into his lower lip, hands caressing his hair.

Being his typical self, you don't say anything, rolling your eyes and looking at the boy you're holding onto. His eyes were fixed on your hands and he looked like he had forgotten to blink. Feeling your gaze on him, Min-su looks at you with embarrassment and pulls his hands away, you hear a small whisper under his breath. "Ah- sorry.." You blink as you look at your hand that is still in the air. You hold on to him more than you should, you thought. "..It's fine?" As you walked towards your beds, Min-su was following you. You turned around and checked on him a couple times, he was busy with playing with his hands.

Nam-gyu was walking in front of you, his body facing you, mumbling things you didn’t care about while giving you a questioning look every time you turned around. "Hey. I'm right here." He pauses for a second to get your attention by shaking his hand. "I already know that." "Then why do I feel like you're not listening me?" Putting your hand under your chin and pretending to think, you spoke. "Maybe because I don't." He looked at you with a sour face, raising an eyebrow. "Bitch." You could tell his mood even from his tone of voice. You knew he didn’t really mean it, it was just his fantasy to say that to every person he came across. When you get to your beds, you start sitting on the metal steps, your eyes searching for Min-su, you tap your feet on the ground in a small rhythm.

Min-su sits down next to you with a small smile, closing his knees and pulling his hands together. While the others started chatting, you noticed Min-su was just looking at you without saying anything. He was looking at you with his head slightly tilted to the side and his eyes locked on you, as if he were dreaming. "So how's it going..?" Saying it suddenly, you distract him. He leans his body forward a little and mutters something under his breath. "Nothing much honestly..." "You know, you don't have to worry that much." "Hm?" He listens carefully to what you have to say, turning his face towards you. "I know this place is..well, not the best. But at least we get to..have fun." "Have fun??" There was a hint of concern in his voice, and the look on his face made you chuckle slightly. For a moment you felt like everyone was silent and listening to you, but you continued speaking.

"Well, I could do something stupid and nobody would care. Everyone is worried about getting out the next day safely."

A small hum is heard from Min-su, a sign that he agrees with you. But when you think about it... Min-su was acting braver towards you. If it was for others, he would have tried to go to bed or something, and would not have wanted to continue the conversation. And he seemed to enjoy being with you. Whenever you're with Se-mi, he would always follow you two around and try to give you answers whenever he could. Nam-gyu sucking his teeth behind you suddenly brings you out of your thoughts. Just as you thought, they started listening to you. With an irritated sigh, you turn your head to the side, only to see Nam-gyu is staring at you. Since he's sitting on the wrong side, his head is thrown back, hair is falling behind his ear, and his hands are supporting him at his sides.

"What?"

"Maybe think twice before you talk."

You stand up, looking at him with an embarrassed face. You could hear giggling behind you as you made your way to the bathroom. It wouldn't be a lie if you did it to avoid staying there. After a short while, when you have to go back, you bump into someone while opening the door. At first, you don't recognize who it is because of the sound of the collision, but when he speaks with that soft voice, you realize who it is. "..You're sure you're okay?" Chewing the inside of your cheek, you look at the guy in front of you. "Oh-yeah, yeah! I am..You didn't have to check on me." You take a step forward while rubbing your hands on your cardigan as if it hadn't dried yet. The man in front of you didn't say anything but you understood what he meant, this time he was next to you as you walked, instead of behind you. When you come back into the room you realize most of the players already went to bed. Did time go by that fast? There were still people standing, but most people had already taken their seats. You grab Min-su’s hand and lead him towards your bed.

When you two get to your beds, you realize Nam-gyu still isn’t asleep, in fact, he’s not even in his bed. He was sitting cross-legged, head resting on his shoulder, no conversation taking place between you as his eyes were on you. Min-su says goodnight to you in a small voice as he goes to bed. He jumps on the bed lightly and pulls the covers over himself, and making eye contact with you for a while. You sit on the edge of your own bed, smiling at him. Whispering back to him, you wait for him to sleep. The bed moving draws your attention to the back of the bed, where a figure is at the other end of the bed, supporting himself with one hand, looking at you from the side. "What is it this time Nam-gyu?" You say in a whispered voice, throwing your shoes under the bed to lean back against it, shaking your head slightly and pushing the hair out of your eyes. You sit in a position with your hands between your legs and wait for the answer of the man in front of you.

"Payback." He says simply as he plays with the ends of his hair. You look at him with a raised eyebrow, pulling your covers back as you try to simply ignore him. "I don't have anything on me, you know that." You say. "Whatever I have to pay for anyway.." You whisper the last part. Nam-gyu throws himself into the covers and lets out an unbothered sigh. "For saving your ass in games, asshole." Your attention shifts to the sleeping Min-su as he looks at you from under his eyes, and you swallow, folding your arms. "Stop playing around, yeah? I just wanna sleep right now. " He wraps one arm around your shoulder and the other rests on your lap, his touch landing in...not so innocent places.

The moment you grabbed his hand to pull it away, his gaze met yours. As if he was warning you. "Well, I could do something stupidddd..and nobody would careee.." He straightened his posture as he said it in a sarcastic tone. The sheets on you two was now thrown to the side. "Then I should give you something stupid to do, huh?" His whispering did not stop as his hand pointed lazily to the side, toward Min-su's side. "Because it doesn't look like he's going to do it." As you opened your mouth to speak, one hand went to cover your mouth, his voice quieter but more sincere. "You don't wanna wake him up, do you?" You gasped in surprise as your mouth closed. He pulled his hand away as his lips took its place, one hand moving to the back of your bed, shamelessly watching you squirm beneath him with your eyes open as he supported himself from where you were leaning.

You, who had your eyes closed tightly, began to loosely grip the sheets beneath you, your touch lazily moving to his hair as he let go of your hand. He parts from your lips as you hope no one hears you, his gaze drifting down as he guides your hand to cover your mouth. You did your best to cover your mouth as you breathed heavily with one eye closed, as your eye quickly shifted to the side you yelped to the cold sensation gripping your waist. You swallow at the sound of his whispering and try to fix your almost fallen position. "Shhh.." He had that stupid smile on his face. He grabs the hem of your sweatpants as his hands slide down. He could have sworn you were shaking as he shifted them to the side.

"You know how to talk back, but you are under me in such a needy state? Hah. You better keep it this way, you disgusting bitch."

A feeling filled you the moment you realized that his hands had lowered his sweatpants as well. Uh, oh. You glanced around to make sure no one was watching, but Nam-gyu reassured you. "I don't think they have the courage to look at all." He decided to use his hand, which was wet from covering your mouth earlier, to prepare you. "Even if they get a chance to look.. all they'll see is some bitch underneath me, dying to get me." Your knees began to wrap around his waist when you felt something cold and wet inside you, you could feel his breath on your ear as a positive grunt fell from his lips. He didn't even need to prepare you, actually. The way he spoke had already prepared you enough. Noticing this, he quickly pulled his finger out, letting out a 'pop' sound as something much wetter quickly took its place. The urge to look down was born inside you, the heavy breathing you were taking with difficulty could easily be heard by someone else when the hand covering your mouth slowly slid down.

"It must feel good to get what you asked. Yeah? You spoiled brat." You seemed to have swallowed your voice, so the things you wanted to say to him were only limited in your mind. "S-shut up.." You hissed under your breath, your mind going fuzzy from the insults he threw at you as you took his length inside you. For a moment you felt like your insides were being torn apart. After taking it all, a burden fell on your back as if there was a pulsating vein inside you. Nam-gyu's eyes darted to you and he said something that took you a moment to understand before he moved. "It's too bad you're so needy.."

His thrusts back and forth made you sob a bit, you felt your legs part to the side as a few tears escaped your eyes. "Fuck.." It felt stupid to even try to catch your breath. Each other’s soft, well his harsh and your soft voices filling your ears as you clung to his shoulders for support. He let his forehead fall onto your shoulder as his grip on you tightened, his hair sticking to your neck and his own face.

The only sounds you could hear coming out of his mouth were curses and a few grunts. After what feels like hours, your body is starting to feel a little too hot. You notice Nam-gyu is starting to get a little too quiet, too. "..Nam-gyu?" He doesn't give you an answer and you can feel him shiver for a moment. Once you realize what's going on, you quickly push him off his shoulder, your eyes widening momentarily. He stares at you with his eyebrows raised as you fix yourself and give him a sign to pull it out. You opened your mouth in an instant when you felt something warm inside you, and Nam-gyu pulled back with an irritated voice, at least you thought he did. Looking at you with the worst eyes you’ve ever seen, you realize.

He still doesn't take it all the way out, so the sticky feeling inside doesn't go away. You'll just feel less pressure. Nam-gyu pushes his hair back as a little of the liquid you’d rather not see spills out, his hand going to squeeze your ass as he lets out a relieved sigh. And you lie there, still unable to catch your breath. You hiccup as you feel movement inside you again, your eyes meeting with Nam-gyu's. As he continued to move as if it was none of your business, you felt the liquid inside you come out and then enter you with every movement. As if it wasn't enough to make you feel overwhelmed, the realization that he was finished once again caused the dried tears in your eyes to be replaced by new ones. The feeling of fullness inside you made you feel strange. Nam-gyu finally decides to pull out and lightens his touch with a small chuckle. Your breathing is still ragged as you shakily place your hands on your legs for support. The way the man fixes himself in front of you without any affect draws your attention, your eyes following his movements as the drool flowing from your mouth hits the bed. Swallowing heavily, you bring your hand up to your face to fix your hair.

"Dickhead.."

"Talking like you didn't just take my dick."

"W-whatever.."

As he brushed his hair back, the sweat on his forehead making his face explode in a way that was obvious. You reached out to pull the sheets that had been thrown on the sides to cover yourself and pick up the mess he had made.

Noticing this, Nam-gyu effortlessly throws the covers over you, letting it hit your face and fall onto your body, some kind of voice you can't figure out catches your attention. You had forgotten for a moment that Min-su and the others were asleep. The man who has already climbed into his own bed gives you a small wave and leaves you like that. Come on, he won't even help you to clean up? It was an expected behavior from him, anyway..

[class1akids]

"I like food"

I saw many posts people saying how random Shouto's line is about praying at Touya's altar and realizing that he likes food - and I wanted to point to how it helps wrapping up his arc.

Shouto is saying: "When I was praying at Touya's butsudan (Buddhist altar), I suddenly realized something, I liked eating food. I realized there's more to me than just the person I want to become."

Food was a "negative space in the Todoroki family, so liking food was not evident to Shoto growing up.

In Shouto's flashbacks with his family, we never see him eat food. His only memory tied to the kitchen is the kettle incident. We know from Natsuo that Shouto ate alone, a diet prescribed by Endeavor, no doubt all geared towards maximum performance, rather than enjoyment. Not even knowing your siblings favorite food is the ultimate symbol of how dysfunctional the household was.

2. Food was a positive space in Class A - tied to comfort, bonding, friendship

In class A, Shouto starts eating with Iida and Midoriya after the Stain incident. Food becomes comfort, connection, sharing, caring, teamwork, etc. He experiences things like using his fire to prepare food together, eating together, cleaning up.

Many memorable Shouto-scenes are tied to Class A eating together (e.g. heroes cry too) and he connects to Inasa over a discussion about favorite foods (udon vs soba) which is a theme that carries over to his endgame with Touya

3. As the Todoroki family tries to reconnect, food plays a central role

As the family changes, they attempt to reconnect around the family dinner table (the famous sluuurp scenes). But Todoroki dinners end in a disaster - still they are useful bringing to the surface important conflicts and trying to communicate about them (another important theme discussed in Shoto Rising).

There is more in the light novels: Shoto's and Rei's decade late reconnection as Rei offers him a little kid strawberry milk that she remembers he liked when he was 5, and their attempt to connect with Natsuo ending up in a mush of ruined soba - it's all out of sync.

4. Food as a symbol of lost time and broken futures

Food is also very central for the hopes of a happier future: Enji's dream of his family at the dinner table, Natsuo's regret about years of missed meals, Shoto wanting to share noodles with Toya, all culminating in the heartbreaking realization that they have the same favorite food they'll never get to share.

5. Food as a symbol of processing grief and healing

Praying at the butsudan (the Buddhist altar at home set up for a deceased loved one) involves the preparation of offerings of food and drinks, which then the family eats afterwards. We see this practice referenced in Ch 249 when Enji prays at Toya's altar.

So Shouto making a reference to it is a shorthand for telling us that Touya died at some point, Shouto is still grieving him and just like Deku and Ochako, he's trying to make sense for himself out of their short encounter. So wanting to learn how to make chopsticks and bowls (a traditional Japanese craft of woodwork and applying lacquer, often involving intricate patterns) implies that he wants to bring Touya the perfect offering, but also that he's finally stepping outside fully of the framework Endeavor created for the family, where children are cast into roles of heroes, villains and by-standers, masterpieces and failures but never human beings. He's thinking about what connects him and Touya together and who they would have been in a different story.

6. Shouto's personal arc

Shouto's character was always about balance. Balance between past and future, ice and fire, duty and family, etc. So crafting chopsticks and bowls to elevate good food connects the grief and survival guilt with healing and growth. It is both a tribute to Touya's memory and a new possible hobby to express still undiscovered sides of himself.

It fits the theme of the chapter "More" - as it focuses on what lies beyond being a hero, reaching a goal, working hard and how Izuku, Ochako and Shouto have been transformed by their experiences of trying to save their villains.

But it also fits Shouto's personal arc that was about discovering who Shouto really is. Earlier in the chapter, Shouto refers to being constrained into the framework of a bigger story, where his choices are bound to happen. As a hero of the sidestory of that manga, Shouto has no choice but decide what kind of a hero he wants to be (not-Endeavor, like All Might, reassuring, family hero). Encounters with his family helped crystallized this image of himself.

But now that he's being released from this story, he can look outside of the framework of a hero manga and discover those "more sides than just a hero". And Touya was the last encounter - the last piece of that puzzle. I think there is a parallel in how Tomura destroyed much of hero society - Touya also destroyed the foundations of the Todoroki family, so something different can maybe built.

Without Touya, I think the family would have kept at trying to piece themselves together in a tense, fake kind of peace to keep up appearances. If nothing else, Touya's actions tore through that need of saving face - leaving them all exposed and grappling with the harsh realities of their actions. But I think it also allowed the younger siblings to step outside the cage their parents created for them and build things better from scratch. It allows them to find more sides to themselves outside of the logic of the Todoroki household.

[yvesssssssss]

heyy, new request! 😚

how would nagumo and seba react if their s/o died and how would they move on? can they actually move on or not? what do they do to get over you?

take your time taking requests btw! i love how you write them both so much!! 😋 (pls make this very angsty)

If Their S/O Died – Nagumo & Seba’s Reactions and Moving On (or Not)

I hope you like it! I’m not really great at writing angst so yeahh༎ຶ⁠‿⁠༎ຶ

Nagumo Yoichi

Nagumo doesn't react how people expect him to. He doesn't cry. He doesn't scream. He doesn't even look surprised. When the news reaches him, his expression stays eerily neutral, almost like he already knew this would happen.

But the moment he's alone, the cracks start to show. The silence of a room where your voice used to be is deafening. The absence of your warmth beside him in bed makes it impossible to sleep. He knows grief isn't something he can outmaneuver, isn't something he can joke his way through—but that doesn't stop him from trying.

He goes back to work as if nothing happened. Smiling, laughing, teasing people like always. But something is off. His disguises last longer than before. His voices and personalities become more refined, more immersive. It's almost like he's desperately trying to become someone else—someone who isn't mourning you.

The Order notices. Shishiba eyes him critically, the weight of unspoken words hanging between them, but ultimately says nothing. Even Osaragi—usually indifferent—tilts her head, chewing on her lollipop a little slower as if sensing something off beneath Nagumo’s usual grin.

But Nagumo doesn't talk about you. Not once. If someone mentions your name, he acts like he didn’t hear it. Not because he doesn’t care, but because if he acknowledges you’re gone—really gone—then he has to acknowledge that he was powerless to stop it.

And Nagumo hates feeling powerless.

When he tries to "move on," he does it in the worst way possible. He flirts more. He sleeps around. He drinks too much. He smiles too much. But none of it works. Your absence is a wound he keeps covering with bandages that never stick.

Late at night, when the world is quiet, he sits alone with his thoughts—and that's when it gets unbearable. He catches himself reaching for his phone to text you, only to remember there’s no one to answer. He orders food and sets aside a portion for you before realizing you’ll never eat it. He dreams of you, and for a few blissful moments, he forgets you’re dead. But when he wakes up, reality crashes down like a blade through his ribs.

Nagumo is not the kind of man who "gets over" people. He just pretends he does.

And one day, years later, if someone asks about you, he’ll smile. He’ll make a joke. But if they watch closely, they might notice the way his fingers twitch, the way his smile strains—how, despite all his masks, there is a part of him that never left that moment.

Nagumo lives with grief. But he never truly moves on.

Natsuki Seba

At first, Natsuki doesn’t react at all.

He hears the news, nods blankly, and goes back to work. It’s almost eerie how normal he seems—still hammering away in his workshop, still crafting weapons, still maintaining his usual sarcasm. He even jokes about it once, an offhand comment about how you’d be mad if he let your death slow him down.

But something is wrong.

The weapons he makes are flawless—more flawless than ever. Each blade sharper, each gun modified to perfection, every design pushed to its absolute limit. But when you look at them too closely, there’s something unsettling about them. Like he’s pouring all his grief into the metal, twisting his pain into something dangerous.

Mafuyu notices. He watches as Natsuki stops sleeping, stops eating properly, stops talking to anyone outside of work. But when Mafuyu tries to bring it up, Natsuki snaps.

"What, you think I’m gonna break down? Cry about it? You think I need your help?"

He doesn’t. He doesn’t need anyone. Because you’re gone, and no one can fix that.

And so he throws himself deeper into his work, spending days in his workshop without stepping outside. The machines hum, the forge burns hot, the sound of metal clanging against metal echoes through the empty room. But it’s not enough. No matter how many weapons he makes, no matter how perfect they are, they can’t bring you back.

His hands start shaking. He ignores it.

His vision blurs from exhaustion. He keeps working.

He starts testing weapons recklessly, no longer caring if the blade is too sharp or if the recoil is too strong. If he gets hurt, so what? It doesn’t matter. Nothing does.

The first time he breaks down, it’s over something stupid—he’s sharpening a knife, and for a split second, he imagines handing it to you. Because that’s what he used to do. He used to show you his work, let you admire it, let you hold the finished product in your hands. But now, there’s no one to show it to.

The knife slips from his grasp, clattering to the floor. And just like that, something inside him shatters.

He doesn’t cry. He doesn’t scream. He just stands there, staring at the blade, his hands clenched into fists so tight his nails dig into his skin.

And that’s when he realizes—he can make the strongest weapons in the world, but he was never strong enough to protect you.

After that, something changes. His weapons become colder. More efficient. No unnecessary details, no personalization, no sign of the careful craftsmanship he once prided himself on. Just machines of death, made with mechanical precision.

People start noticing. They say his weapons feel different—like they weren’t made by a person, but by someone who doesn’t care anymore.

And maybe that’s the truth.

Because Natsuki doesn’t stop working. He doesn’t take a break. He doesn’t grieve—because if he does, he’s afraid he’ll never start again.

He doesn’t move on. He just keeps forging.

Because the moment he stops, he’ll have to face the fact that you’re never coming back.

And that’s a pain he’s not ready to bear.

[kirain]

I decided to make adult designs and "where are they now" stories for all the child tieflings who are confirmed to survive to Act 3.

Unbeknownst to her, Arabella was a latent sorcerer with a natural connection to the Weave. Her powers likely would've manifested at puberty, but touching the idol of Silvanus imbued her with wild druid magic, multiclassing her prematurely. This caused an internal struggle between the two powers, which threatened to rip her and anyone around her apart. Fortunately, with Withers' guidance, she set out to follow the Weave and found balance in her new, strange abilities. For years she traveled Faerûn alone, honing her skills and making peace with her past. Eventually, she became known as the "Wondering Storm", so attuned to nature some would mistake her for Silvanus' Chosen. Those who crossed her, however, would swear she was Jergal's Chosen; able to end a life with a single stare. Though not unkind, Arabella became feared by many for her stoic personality, mysterious presence, and peculiar command of the Weave. It seemed that wherever she was needed, she would inexplicably be.

Though Raphael went silent, Mol continued to enjoy, and perhaps abuse, the gifts from her patron. With the Absolute defeated, she quickly clawed her way up the ranks of the Guild, eventually becoming a pseudo ward to Nine-Fingers Keene. For years she would sharpen her skills, mentored by Keene and her most trusted associates, until she challenged the notorious crime lord to a duel for leadership. Much to her surprise, Keene lost, and was therefore forced to relinquish command to the young tiefling. Seeing the move as a betrayal, however, the Guild's loyalty was split, causing the criminal powerhouse to fracture. This led to a dark time for the Guild, with many in Baldur's Gate referring to it as the "Outlaw Civil War". Much blood was shed during this conflict, but eventually Mol turned the tides in her favour, running Keene and those still loyal to her out of the city. She would go on to rebuild the Guild in her image, successfully and more fearsome than ever; though, when she approached her old colleagues with an invitation to join, they all declined.

Once he managed to enter the city, Mattis tried to find his companions from the Grove, but he ultimately turned his sights to conning rich families with "panaceas from the hells". For a while, he flourished under this racket, until his scheme was exposed by jealous competition. This led to him being violently assaulted by angry customers, nearly ending his life—he only survived by rolling into a rapid canal. After being saved by a kind, impoverished couple who fished him out of the water, he spent nearly three months confined to a bed. His recovery was slow and agonizing, but hardly discouraging. Instead of succumbing to his misery, he took the time to plot his revenge. With the couple's help, he learned the laws of the land and revived his strength. Then, when able, he cut his hair, disguised his face, spied on the man who wronged him, and subsequently tricked him into signing his business over to the couple. Together, they turned the questionable business into something respectable. Mostly. Mattis' silver tongue finally became an asset, rather than a survival tactic, though he was never above a good swindle.

Ide and Umi took up arms during the Absolute's attack on the city, each of them basking in the action. Realising that Umi had developed an insatiable bloodlust, and itching for more battles herself, Ide suggested they enlist into the army. Though technically too young, the new General—appointed by High Duke Ravengard after the fall of the Absolute—accepted them as apprentices until they came of age.

Though their time with the Flaming Fist was imperative to their training and survival, they found the rules and hypocrisy of the troop disheartening, and even more so when the General died. Eventually they deserted, leaving Baldur's Gate entirely and starting a small band of vigilantes. To some, they were a menace. To others, they became heroes of the Sword Coast. No matter the case, Ide and Umi were inseparable, never seen apart.

Inspired by his saviours, Mirkon continued to write stories about his time in the Grove and his rescue from the harpies. He never found his parents, but he refused to live in the slum's orphanage. Life was hard for the young tiefling, often forcing him to grovel for food and coin. On the worst days, he found comfort turning his stories into songs, which he slowly morphed into a semi-profitable street act. This eventually caught the attention of Alfira, who one day happened to be passing by. Recognising his talent, and overjoyed to be reunited, she took him in and taught him how to play the violin. Together, they created a lucrative show that expanded well beyond the Elfsong Tavern, which aided Alfira in opening her dream college. She and Lakrissa would soon adopt Mirkon, and he would later become one of the most beloved and celebrated instructors at the college.

Though working as a hawker for the Baldur's Mouth kept Silfy fed and relatively sheltered, she grew listless. Dealing with rude and racist customers hardened her enough to snap back, resulting in her termination. With nowhere to go, she found herself wandering into Ramazith's Tower, where she implored Rolan for a job. Feeling for her plight, Rolan put her to work stocking shelves and filling orders. It wasn't exciting work, but she was safe and satisfied, until one day a customer's tome exploded, causing a flurry of rainbow flames that whirled into the shape of a unicorn. This event, though frightening, would inspire Silfy to start reading the books in the shop, with the help of Tolna and Rolan. To everyone's surprise, she proved to have an impressive aptitude for magic, and she soon found herself enthralled. Within just a few years, Silfy would be accepted into Blackstaff Academy, where she would excel in her studies and catch the eye of the great Vajra Safahr. She would offer Silfy a position in the school, as well as a mentorship, but Silfy would politely decline, graduate, and return to Bauldr's Gate. Her true home.

[cirrup]

I was supposed to start working on my presentation for chinese class but now I am alone letting the brainworms of your Mulan Au take over.

*chewing at my desk out of desesperation* is it still omegaverse? I'm thinking of overprotective LQG protecting A-Yuan, thinking of SJ losing his shit when he realizes SY left, so many possiblities, i am positively melting at that art of SJ with baby SY, I AM SO SOFT FOR PRECIOUS MOMENTS LIKE THIS, AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

so much potential angst and fluff lurking in the corner, hehehehehe

Yes yes yes <3 in this house we eat up SJ losing it in overprotective fashion every time! I have so many thoughts about their little family in this. SJ almost losing the only two people in his world and desperately trying to keep them where they can’t be taken (YQY is more than happy to stay wherever SJ but unfortunately SY has Curiosity).

YQY, the saddest man alive, feeling both happy and guilty that SJ worried about him and also hating that his own issues with the sword have caused the tension between SJ and SY. That he was gone when SY almost died and would have failed them both if SY hadn’t survived.

And SY who isn’t sure he didn’t replace their kid but knows that he definitely feels like their son now and doesn’t want to worry them more but the world! Exists!! And he wants to see it! But okay he can keep the peace until SJ fully accepts that he won’t immediately die if he has a sword or goes out into the world or both??? Both is good??? But mostly he can be patient until all of a sudden it’s either him causing an entire ruckus by disappearing or his two dads dying and well…surely if baba knew the stakes of it all he wouldn’t mind SY borrowing his sword because Xiu Ya like won’t Hurt him because it’s SJ’s sword! So it’s fine!!!!!

And if also borrows his A-Die’s guan and his baba’s fan just in case he misses them then…well that’s no one’s business anyway!!!

Much to consider much to consider

The way I sat with the omegaverse idea for so long because it really is perfect. Ultimately in my heart it was so much funnier for SY trying so fucking hard to be a Manly Guy and LQG absolutely misunderstanding the motivation and still getting side swiped with Shang’s bi panic in the inverse because they are both So Useless. Still the omegaverse version lives on a lovely shelf in my mind.

(Now go work on your presentation)

[oh-no-its-bird]

Fic where, in practicing to get edo tensei right, Orochimaru uses Izuna as a test subject and tries to substitute DNA to make it work, using Suigetsu's bc like it's extra flexible or whatever bc shape change

Edo tensei mermaid Izuna locked in a tube somewhere in Oro's lab,,

He's SO mad about it and has literally no information ab what's going on at all bc hes locked in a fucking tube !!

Bonus points if Orochimaru doesn't even specifically know who he is

They unearthed him w the rest of the founders on a whim but bc no one really requested him specifically, the body just kinda sat there and eventually got mixed in w the rest of the Uchiha corpses, till Orochimaru requests an Uchiha corpse and they shrug and send him over

He still has Madara's eyes too (left alone either by oversight / or bc they decided not to pull them before he got mixed in w the other bodies, who had by then already gotten scooped of their eyes so they assumed he'd already been harvested)

Ok but like. No one even tells him what happened/where he is/that madara made the village. Why would anyone?? The only one Izuna sees regularly is Orochimaru, and he doesn't know those facts would matter??

Izuna doesn't even know what Konoha IS, he isn't gonna recognize the name

From Izuna's perspective, he died in his bed and then BOOM. Tank time.

Orochimaru might tell him it's been some years since his death (thinking he died in the massacre) and even if Izuna doesn't believe him bc like, enemy, enemy territory, he sure as fuck probably won't be thinking "Ah yes it's been decades since my death and my brother went against my dying wishes to make that village"

Tho he might get nervous and start picking up those cues when he sees the tech

Oro mentions offhand that the Uchiha were all killed and Izuna immediatley assumes the Senju won the war and loses it

He'd figure it out eventually obviously (probably after being set free, most likley by Sasuke w Suigetsu) But he'd also probably keep that to himself, bc like, enemy territory n stuff

Mermaid shapeshifter Izuna terrorizes the shinobi world,, Sasuke doesn't know what he just unleashed.

Ok actually but like. Suigetsu's shape-shifting but bc Izuna has a fire chalra nature, make it liquid fire shape-shifting. Fuckin, fire mermaid Izuna. He has an awful time retaining his form and actually for the first chunk of time, him being in that tube is genuinley just for the best. He keeps turning into liquid fire with no real solid body and can't put himself back together for hours.

Izuna hears his brother is still alive and running Akatsuki and is so down to clown till he realizes THATS NOT HIS FUCKING BROTHER HOW DARE YOU USE HIS NAME

Anyways oh my god Izuna on team Taka,,

He and Sasuke would be SUCH a dynamic actually, they look alike so much?? Sasuke doesn't recognize him but he's clearly a close relation, so there's some mystery there. Sasuke is like super shaken by finding a member of his clan and Izuna, by that point aware that apparently the rest of his clan is dead, is sticking to him like GLUE. Sasuke is bitchy little brother coded and Izuna understands this is probably karma bc he is also bitchy little brother coded

They probably clash a lot, especially bc both are expecting to be in charge here, but ultimately I think they'd get along better than Sasuke does most people, and there's also that bonus vulnerability of like. Izuna is an older Uchiha boy who's trying to brother him (with a noticeably different brother-ing style to Itachi too) and Sasuke has been alone for so, so long.

Sasuke accidentally calls him nii-san then promptly has several break downs about it

Suigetsu and Izuna either get along ALARMINGLY well or they hate eachother. I think I wanna go with the first bc it sounds more fun. They couldn't talk to eachother in the tanks but they could still see eachother, so maybe they kind of developed some sort of code to communicate?

They are "cause problems on purpose" friends. They're also "wdym I can't kill him???" *looks of genuine confusion* buddies. They're giving Sasuke the biggest headache actually, someone stop them. If you leave them to "take care" of a problem, there will be carnage.

Also, like, Izuna literally has Suigetsu's DNA in him. That's a thing.

Mmm maybe some complex thoughts ab how Izuna has effectively become a bloodline thief against his will (the ULTIMATE taboo for shinobi from his era) and he's like, actually fucked up about it.

Running joke where they refer to each other as cousins, could be funny. They argue over who's the bastard child (it's Izuna obviously but he won't just take that title lying down)

Izuna is like, in his 20s, and Karin is around 16 or 17 at this time I think?? She definatley has a bit of a crush on him (which helps take the edge off Sasuke) but like, he's not acknowledging that beyond patting her on the head. She'll get over it eventually. (Sasuke hides behind Izuna when Karin is trying to flirt w him and Izuna absoloutley laughs at them both)

Izuna is actually really impressed w Karin's sensing abilities specifically. I think he'd be a bit on edge around her at first, bc Uzumaki -> Senju ally. But he'd quickly assume she's a deserter (he has no idea the Uzumaki are pretty much wiped out rip) and becomes cautiously chill after a minute or two (also when he first escapes, he REALLY doesn't have the luxury to pick and choose his allies. He's instantly attached to Sasuke and cautiously fond of Suigetsu, and Karin seems to have Sasuke's trust at least, so he'll keep an eye on it but otherwise trust Sasuke's judgment)

Izuna and Karin besties arc where they paint eachothers nails is a must. I love the take that Izuna is really into fashion n stuff and he and Karin should like, trade hair tips or smthn. Karin knows modern soap brands where as Izuna bought his soaps from clan vendors who no longer fucking exist, so like, it's definatley helpful.

Karin is the only one of them to have any real hint of where tf Izuna came from (tho even she doesn't have the full details) it'd be cool if she was the one to figure out more details ab his general mystery— maybe something about her chakra sensing gives her a hint as to how old he really is?? Or she finds the paper trail that hints towards the bodies being mixed up???? Idk but she deserves to have an "aha!" moment

Also Izuna's medical knowledge/standards are NOT up to modern and Karin is so mad about it, she's giving him hella lessons on first aid n shit and he's very, very interested in all this free medical knowledge

I know the least about Jugo so bear with me on this one pls— I think Izuna would find Jugo to be pretty fascinating as a person actually. He enjoys tentatively poking him with sticks, and comes to genuinley like him as a person (when he's calm) pretty quickly

Also cats love Izuna so he gets bonus points from Jugo bc of that, they can bond while petting Izuna's contracted cats or smthn idk

Yeah I really don't know much ab Jugo so that's all I have to offer sorry

Ok let's backtrack a bit, back to Orochimaru ->

Fun scene towards the very start of the fic, where Izuna still has no fucking clue what's going on, but recognizes Orochimaru as a member of the Orochi clan. He says as much, and Orochimaru has to pause.

No one's mentioned his clan to him in years. They haven't been relevant in Konoha since Orochimaru was born— even before that, they were barley relevant. Izuna should not know who they are.

(The only reason he does know is bc they had a neutral to positive relationship w the Uchiha back in the warring era, and Izuna had visited them once before)

Immediatley, Orochimaru is squinting at this guy. He's giving Danzo a ring asking who exactly he got sent over, but Danzo doesn't actually have anything to offer him??? The paperwork is a mess and there were a LOT of Uchiha. He's not registered as a shinobi tho.

Hmmmm.... ok.

Orochimaru is suddenly aware there's some kind of mystery here now, which is dangerous for Izuna. Izuna is, again, in enemy territory, and he's able to pick up on the fact that Orochimaru doesn't actually know who he is. This ofc means that HE sure as hell won't be telling him.

Maybe he bares his teeth and sarcastically says he's the second coming of Uchiha Madara (not even that big of a lie when u think ab it)

Pivoting time ->

Izuna is listed in the data books as like, being equally as talented as Madara and I think we should talk ab that more actually

I love Tobirama but he really did get him by surprise

Izuna just got cocky and taken by surprise!!

HE DIDNT EVEN GET COCKY HE JUST LOGICALLY DIDNT EXPECT TOBIRAMA TO FUCKING INVENT TELEPORTATION

Then he went down in the history books both in canon and out of it as the weakest of the 4, that's so tragic

Izuna gets mermaid edo tenseid and (once people know who he is) everyone is like "Ok well at least he's uhh. The weakest of the 4 right?? I mean tobirama killed him when they were like only 19/20 so we'll probably be fine???"

Then he just fucking bodies them all bc hes a nightmare actually AND on whatever special test trial edo tensei steroids they gave him

Izuna is fueled on rage and spite and he's full up on both

Imagine he gets the full story of everything that happened while he was dead too, like.

Ok so Madara goes against his EXPRESS dying wishes and makes his village. (what the fuck!!) Then backs out (yay!!) but in an awful way that effectively fucks over the entire clan for years to come (nii-san what the FUCK)

Then gets literally backstabbed by Hashirama (HE FUCKING TOLD YOU!!! WHAT DID HE FUCKING SAY!!!!!)

Then the Uchiha seem to thrive and like. Ok. He's still mad about it, but at least something... kind of nice came out of it.

THEN BOTH THE VILLAGE AND MADARA'S(?????) SCHEMES KILL THEIR ENTIRE CLAN

Izuna is SO mad at literally everyone, holy shit. The only one safe from his rage is Hikaku, god rest his poor, poor soul

Actually, I think it'd be funny if Izuna was like, indescribably extra awful mad at everyone— but then is like. Normal mad amounts at Tobirama, who was a bitch but at least didn't seem to carry on a personal fucking vendetta against the Uchiha like EVERYONE ELSE INCLUDING FUCKING MADARA FOR SOME GODDAMN REASON

Izuna is going like, "FUCK you, FUCK you, OH, EXTRA FUCK YOU—" then squints at Tobirama and goes "...fuck you." Then goes back to screaming

To be clear, Tobirama absolutely contributed to the end of the Uchiha, but like. A) it'd be funny, and B) at least his seemed slightly less on purpose than literally everyone else

There's also I think a difference of like. Izuna never expected Tobirama to suddenly turn around and be pro Uchiha

Where as everyone else (again, including his brother!!) Was like. A genuine betrayal

Tobirama fucking over the clan was never a surprise

He never pretended to be on their side (like Hashirama lowkey did)

Tobirama vs Izuna but it's them getting to relive their rivalry where as Izuna vs literally anyone else is emotionally charged as hell and filled with demented screaming

Leaving it there for now, I might actually try to write this one but who tf knows

[calummss]

Mads Mikkelsen Headcanon: Dating A Younger Woman Would Include

masterlist

the age gap i'm thinking of is 20-35 years, so if it makes you uncomfortable do not read!

you would probably meet randomly at a park, both of you walking alone and bumping into each other

let’s add the cliché where one of you is holding a cup of coffee and it goes everywhere, staining the two of you

instead of glares or words of anger, you both chuckle at each other and laugh, apologising with grins on your face

he offers you some money for new clothes but you deny

you start to talk and realise similar interest and it all kind of comes naturally

both of you had intentions of frienly acquaintances but slowly evolved into friends that went out for dinner or drink every couple of months

i feel like you would be the first to fall for him

you knew that he was significantly older than you but your heart saw right past that

mads never brought up the topic because he thought it would be weird and didn’t want to destroy the newly friendship

but one day you were bold enough to ask him if he thought of you more as a friend

he stumbled over his words a few times but ultimately admitted his affection for you

you kissed him to let him know you felt the same way

secretly knowing that mads was an actor, you approached the relationship carefully, always making sure that you were alone or not as seen to avoid paparazzi

which did not work because 5 months into the relationship a famous paparazzi released the pictures because he knew the age difference would cause a scandal

and you were right

newsites, twitter, every social media app was talking about it; his fans especially where halved. some backing up the relationship, others not

the two of you pulled away even more and stayed in his home in denmark

your parents contacted you after seeing you on the internet

they were weirded out who am i kidding?

they met him and talked

realised that you are in love and couldn’t really disagree because you’re both consenting adults but it took them a while to get adjusted

you spent the next couple of months doings various things:

baking (your mother’s blueberry and raspberry chocolate muffins)

walks in the park

snuggling up on the couch watching throwback movies

dancing to songs

your favourite being i wanna be yours by arctic monkey

and your favourite activity was mads bringing you breakfast to bed…

when everything died around your dating scandal, you slowly started to go out into the world again

mads bringing you as a date to an award show where he mentioned you in his winning speech

your relationship faces ups and downs but you know that it was meant to be

[gendertrickster]

hi you're like. the certified homestuck tgirl expert to me. i'd love to hear ur thoughts on trans girl dave if u have any you'd like to share ^_^

i am honored?? dave to me is definitely like. honestly a more realistic transfem endgame than june in a lot of ways

like on one hand you have dave strider alone, someone famously incapable of indefinite repression and for this purpose conspired against by the undisputed highest force of patriarchy in homestuck (gamzee). but on the OTHER hand, you have fucking davesprite, who honestly needs no introduction as one of homestuck's most indisputable transfeminine characters. not that i'm not gonna give one anyway

comes back from a doomed future which was under constant oppression from their own living nightmare which was violently planted in their subconscious by aforementioned patriarchal demon (could mean nothing), gives up the position of "dave" entirely, and immediately becomes irreconcilably alienated from all their friends except rose, who distinctly "gets it" in ways no one else could (could mean nothing)

tries one last act of heroism and almost dies for it, suicidally chooses the sword over their own body (could mean nothing), and then gets miraculously offered a new chance to keep living and very conspicuously does not welcome this second chance warmly

starts having a thing with jade, breaks it off because of completely unspecified personal stuff they're working through (could mean nothing), fucks off forever in hopes people will just forget about them, and then later miraculously stumbles into the same kernelsprite as a weird troll cat girl they have a stark amount in common with, coming out of the merge more euphoric and joyful and appreciative of life than either of them ever felt (could mean nothing)

(davepeta, for the record, was also planned as early as 2012.)

the fact that davepeta is also positioned as the ultimate foe of lord english even beyond the prophecy of the ultimate weapon is proof that this was always part of the plan — dave wins, gamzee loses. gamzee tries to prevent the blossoming of a young trans woman who, truly unlocked, would be an immeasurable threat to english's power, and ultimately fails. dave strider emerges a beautiful woman

[merinarasauce]

I think a really underrated part of the TF2 comics is the way the relationship between Spy and Miss Pauling develops and falls apart. It's this rich little microcosm of Spy's heavily masked (ha) personality and Pauling's desperation for approval.

During their few interactions in the first three comics, they act accordingly to their given roles- they're coworkers, that's all. Miss Pauling has seven other mercs to locate and manage and Spy is busy wrangling Soldier and Zhanna.

That really changes in the latter half of #4- that's when things start falling apart for both of them. Miss Pauling, of course, is caught up in her hunt for more Australium- unlike Spy, this isn't just a job for her. She wants to impress the Administrator, to get her attention and praise. Both of their motivations shift completely because of their visit to New Zealand.

What I think most gets to Spy here is meeting Sniper's bio parents. One thing we can glean from subtext is that under the surface, Spy is a deeply caring person who's driven by love far more often than he'd like to admit. But he's also a coward, and doesn't see much of himself beyond being a spy. He defines himself by the harm he caused and the lives he's taken. I think what breaks him is witnessing how shitty Sniper's gene donors are- and he sees himself in them.

(One thing I've noticed- Spy smokes a lot, but when he's specifically shown lighting or touching a cigarette in the comics and animations, he's stressed, and when he rolls his eyes, he's hiding something.)

And I think this is the case because...

...he immediately chases after Miss Pauling when she puts herself in danger. And this is, typically, extremely out of character for him! In both Expiration Date and the Jungle Inferno trailer, when he feels he's in danger, he follows a specific pattern- he cloaks, and puts some distance between himself and the problem. (Hell, if you've played Spy in TF2, that's a tactic you'll fall back on all the time.) But, instead of securing the sub, he chooses to run headfirst further into a flooding/collapsing room to make sure Miss Pauling gets out of there.

We don't often see Spy touching anyone else, let alone so gently. He could have grabbed her wrist or her arm, but he's specifically drawn holding her hand. The only other instance that comes to mind is the way he holds Scout as he dies in #6.

This is really interesting to me, because his relationships are usually contextualized through violence. Yelling at or hitting his teammates, murdering to protect the people he cares about- even when giving his mask to Tanya in #7, at the most gentle he's ever been, he encourages her to play "princess assassin". (Worth noting that this is more indicative of his relationship with violence than anything about Tanya- any former little girl will understand the urge to play murder and violence with her dolls.)

Things also change drastically for Miss Pauling here. Her previous relationship with the mercs wasn't really explored, but it's hard to imagine she considered them as friends. She's consumed by her job, and while she recognizes them as people (as shown by the contract lines), it's worth entertaining the idea that she has a bizarre perspective on what a "person" is.

This is a woman who murders witnesses and buries bodies for a living. Everyone besides the Administrator is disposable- and that includes her. And the Administrator is like a goddess to her. Every ounce of her life is devoted to her. At the end of Expiration Date, she shows interest in spending time with Scout- she might've even been romantically interested in him- but that connection is strained and ultimately broken by her obsession. Whether they would've been anything more becomes a moot point. She grows to resent him because she has to be professional with him, and he can't handle that.

Another thing that could explain her perspective in this situation: she's a young, unmarried woman in the late 60s and early 70s. She is almost completely stripped of independence just because of how she was born. She can't even apply for a credit card. Obviously, she wasn't about to marry a man just to be recognized as a human being. But the situation she went into instead isn't much better. She's taken advantage of, made to work impossibly hard 364 days out of the year, for essentially no reason at all. She's not "just someone's wife", but she's "just the Administrator's assistant".

And I think this one act of kindness from the person she least expects opens up a world of possibilities for her. She's an equal to Spy. She's always been an equal to him, even when they were working together. He may complain and make sarcastic remarks, but he listens to her.

I think this is when it hits her all at once. Sniper is dead. He took her seriously, hell, he recognized her as a threat. She can't handle the idea that she's important, that she's worth something, and she threw away someone else who was worth something, too.

(And it seriously doesn't help that Spy has no clue how to speak earnestly to people. I like to think his frustrated expression in the bottom second panel there is him trying desperately not to let his expression slip into "ohhhh i fucked up again".)

Then, Spy doesn't make fun of her, and instead extends an olive branch again- drastic as this one may be. And I think, unfortunately, this causes Miss Pauling to latch onto Spy like she does with the Administrator. Not nearly as badly, but it causes a lot more damage as things go further. Because, after this, she starts looking to Spy for approval and attention.

This might be a reach, but that sort of sheepish, stumbling response feels a bit unlike her. Her speech is usually very quick and sharp, even when she's nervous. (Or dying in a hot dog eating contest.) This relationship has been established maybe a few hours before, and she already thinks she's messed up.

This one's also interesting. Pyro, Heavy, Soldier, Zhanna, Demo, and Spy all came with them, and Miss Pauling is most focused on Spy in particular. The way she says it makes me think she feels hurt. That also looks to be Spy's revolver she's using- take that as you will.

And after everything, she turns to Spy again. Look how happy she is at hearing his approval for the first time! This is probably the first compliment she's gotten that's not from Scout or about her appearance in a long time.

And don't let Spy's neutral expression fool you.

Once again, this is unusual for him. For the entire preceding battle, he was hiding, disguising, trying to avoid getting hurt as much as he could, up until he got shot. But the minute Miss Pauling is on her own and about to get hurt, he does something downright reckless to save her.

But the very nature of this relationship is fragile- once again, Miss Pauling defines herself as a tool for anyone she looks up to, and Spy defines himself as a weapon, something violent and unforgivable. It was always going to be self-destructive. And I think the moment it breaks is when the Administrator dies.

(I'm out of photos BUT I'll reblog with the rest.)

[pompomnium]

In Bartimaeus, the fact that Nathaniel is the protagonist holds great significance.

For instance, Ptolemy is a more relatable and heroic character, but if he were the protagonist, the story would have a very different tone. He was an exceptional individual by nature.

In that case, the conclusion would be that only those who are inherently extraordinary can remain special until the end. However, by having Nathaniel, a typical magician, ultimately become a special figure, the story also conveys the theme that an ordinary person can become extraordinary.

Moreover, Ptolemy was someone who aspired to a future where spirits and humans could build an equal relationship. He was accompanied by djinni such as Affa, Teti, and Penrenutet. In his attempt to establish an equal relationship with all the djinni, I do not think much that he singled out Bartimaeus alone for special treatment.

Ptolemy chose Bart as his companion for the journey to the Other Place not because he trusted him the most, but because, among his djinni, Bart was the one who never fully trusted him until the end. This way, Ptolemy could both reach the Other Place and prove his trust in Bart. It was the optimal choice. If Bart had trusted Ptolemy completely from the start, like Affa, Teti, or Penrenutet, then someone else might have become his guide to the Other Place. Even if Bart had refused, the result would have been the same. Ptolemy would have relied on others to reach the Other Place.

The same applies to their farewell scene. In the story, there is a moment when Bart embarks on a military expedition alone. ( In this scene, Penrenutet serves as Ptolemy’s attendant.) This suggests that among Ptolemy’s djinni, Bart was likely the most skilled in combat. That is why, when they were ambushed in the marketplace, Bart was the last one remaining. This may have been decided beforehand by them as an emergency response, or it may have been just a coincidence.

And then, Ptolemy freed Bartimaeus. Even if Bart had not been the last one, Ptolemy would have let the last one go just as he did with Bart. This is because if all of them had died, the hope for the future would have been lost. At the very least, he was trying to survive and did his best for that. And it was only after exhausting all options that he finally let Bart go.

Personally, I prefer to interpret Ptolemy as a character who lived not for any one individual, but for a greater cause and his own dream. He was a philanthropist who saw all djinni as special.

Now, let’s talk about Nathaniel.

He is the complete opposite of Ptolemy. To him, djinni were objects of fear and hatred—Bartimaeus included, of course. However, as the main story makes clear, Nathaniel ultimately loved Bartimaeus without even realizing it.

Just as Ptolemy was a special human to Bartimaeus, Bartimaeus was the only djinni who was special to Nathaniel. In the first place, Nathaniel’s story could not have existed without Bartimaeus as his counterpart. Nathaniel was a very difficult boy, and even in GE, he struggled to find a suitable partner.

The same is true in PG. No matter how dire the situation, it is hard to imagine Nathaniel summoning any djinni other than Bart into his body. This was a story that could only work with Bartimaeus.

Similarly, in the final scene, when Nathaniel freed Bartimaeus, it was not for some great cause—it was for Bartimaeus as an individual. (That is precisely why Bartimaeus was saved, both in body and in heart.)

Even in this final scene, if it had been anyone other than Bartimaeus, it is uncertain whether Nathaniel would have bothered to free them. Nathaniel was the kind of character who repeatedly told Bartimaeus, "When I die, I’ll make sure to take you down with me." If it had been another djinni, he might have actually followed through with that.

Of course, this is a hypothetical scenario—because I don’t think Nathaniel could have made it this far with anyone other than Bartimaeus in the first place.

In other words, Ptolemy’s story could have been told even without Bartimaeus, but Nathaniel’s story could not. That is why I believe that the one who truly made Bartimaeus the protagonist was none other than Nathaniel himself. And, it goes without saying that it was Bartimaeus who made Nathaniel the protagonist.

Well, this is my personal interpretation. This is my opinion as someone who loves Nathaniel.

I used a translator to create the sentence, but sorry if my English is wrong.

Thank you for reading this far.

[ceo-of-sloppy-women]

OKAY SO I HAVE THOUGHTS

There is definitely someone who's probably said this better than me but here's my two cents anyway

I've played this game like twice and never really though to pay attention to where people get shot/how they die... but then I saw a piece of art and something clicked in my brain. If this was a quick in the moment shot, the placement wouldn't really matter, but this is a) a work of art and fiction b) extremely deliberate on Milton's part

Milton lets Hosea walk off - there is a long moment where Milton could have shot Hosea anywhere (the leg, head, nape). What I mean is he had a clear shot. Yet, he waited until Hosea turned around. He aimed deliberately for his chest. He had enough time to think it through and he knew for 100% that Hosea had no weapon (since he was captured). Turning around wasn't a threat. Yet, Milton still chose to act. And the creators of the game had to fully animate and decide all of this - this moment would have had to go through so many hands, from writers to animators to supervisors (so let us assume any symbolism wasn't lost on them). So, I am treating this as deliberate.

Realistically, shooting someone in the chest is the best place to kill someone. Especially over the heart. While headshots are effective, its a smaller target and far easier to miss. But, hit the heart? All that blood is suddenly not going to the brain (or anywhere for that matter) and the victim is very likely to die. Painful too because you have nerves in your both but no pain receptors in your brain - meaning Hosea could damn well probably feel that bullet (if he was real). We even see how painful this is in game (his death is pretty brutal because he has a brief few moments where he is very much alive an d dying alone in the street). Milton, being a man of the "law", definitely already knew how painful this death was - he probably even killed people this way before - so combined with the deliberate intent, Hosea died suffering, choking out his last wilting breath in a gurgled cough. Brutality chosen over execution (heart-shot instead of head-shot).

Don't even get me started on the dying breath - given that Hosea had been coughing since the start of the game, his last breath wasn't even a moment of peace. It was probably utter suffering as he choked on the very air he had desperately been trying to breathe for months.

Symbolically is an entirely different story. Up until now Dutch has pulled some crazy schemes but there is a definite shift when they come back from Guarama - which happens AFTER Hosea dies. The heart is a symbol of compassion, of virtue, of love - of having respect for your fellow man and ultimately, morals. All of which Dutch seems to have lost post-Guarama; he is a changed man who burns the world around him with every step. We see this fire symbology a few times, but most especially when Dutch leaves Arthur in the burning warehouse. Almost as if the snow we start in at the beginning melts into water without Hosea to keep it cool (ie the ocean of chapter 5) until it evaporates in the wake of Dutch's spiral into firey insanity. This is implying Hosea to be the cold/ice to Dutch's heat/fire. The death of the companion leaves behind only the passion of compassion, as Dutch is left with only conviction and no withstanding moral compass. Micah and Dutch together are only fire with fire, while Arthur manifests into ice too late, with only enough time to save the rest of the gang from Dutch's fallout.

Hosea is also not the only one who dies during this mission, he is the only one to die of a shot to the heart. Lenny also dies, but he's shot in what I can best estimate to be the guts - his guts to join up with an outlaw gang and rob a back literally led to his death. Lenny's death doesn't seem to affect Dutch as much as Hosea though - like Dutch is like "Oh no! Anyway lets keep going". But with Hosea's death - Dutch gets SUPER PISSED - that whisper of "Hosea" to himself speaks volumes more than his reaction to Lenny. Dutch was close with Hosea; whether you want to call them friends or lovers, they were narrative parallels and each other's foils. THus, it makes sense that Hosea's death had a profound impact on Dutch, far more than Lenny, and since this is a work of fiction, Hosea's death being a shot to the heart should not be taken lightly.

Hosea being shot in the heart was the symbolic death of Dutch's heart. The world took the last piece of good Dutch thought he had left - the last reason to hold back and Dutch wanted to burn the world down around him. And its even more insane that this was a deliberate act on Milton's part - while he didn't know that Hosea specifically would hurt Dutch in this way, he is a smart man. Milton had been following and researching the Van Der Linde gang for a hot minute, he knew the members, he knew the history, he knew that Dutch and Hosea went way back than most other gang members. Milton knew what he was doing - this was a deliberate attempt to dismantle the gang by "cutting the head off the snake" (making Dutch desperate and isolated with the death of his oldest partner). Especially since Dutch calls Hosea his friend right before Milton does this. What better way to drive that message home than shooting his friend in the heart - making his last moments suffering alone in the street?

While Milton had no idea how well his plan would work, shooting Hosea in the chest was a deliberate choice intended to aid in the dismantlement of the Van Der Linde gang by getting to Dutch psychologically. As a work of fiction, killing Hosea in this fashion was a choice by the creators riddled with symbolism.

[honeyshiddendesire]

Single Daddies

Author's Notes: These are my thoughts and opinions if you don't like it idk what to say but y'all are gonna hate me for Luffy's spot so just be warned lol 🤷‍♀️

Luffy - The Care Free One

🧸So I'ma get the worst out first BUTTTT if this man is a single dad I don't see him caring much sorry but being honest

🧸 If you leave this man to raise the baby alone then it becomes a straw hat baby not just Luffy's because everyone would need to chip in

🧸When the baby is super young and cluster feeds then sorry not sorry I can see him tiredly walking over to Sanji's room or Robin's to say something is wrong. Will hand off the baby and go back to sleep

🧸If the baby is hungry at night then he'll go to Sanji's room and say that him and the baby are both hungry lol what is supposed to be a night feeding turns into a whole meal time.

🧸When the baby needs baths it will make him want to clean up more lol totally the type of parent to skip using one of those mini tubs and just jump in holding the baby lol

🧸Will pick out toys him and the baby will both want to use

🧸I don't see him as a girl dad just saying I always picture him with an army of crazy boys. But for the sake of this lets just say he gets left alone with one boy.

🧸I don't see him being the serious type raising his kid cause despite him being an adult he's still a total goof troop buttttt that kid will have the most compassion for when someone is in need.

🧸I don't see Luffy taking care of the kid when it comes to like brushing their hair or teeth unless the kid is old enough to copy everything that he's doing

🧸If the kid is too young and needs that stuff to be done for them then I don't see Luffy doing it sorry sorry sorry I just see him as one of those dads that wont clock in till the kid is more functioning

🧸BUTTT that doesn't mean he won't be present I just see Nami and Robin doing it like they'll dress him but he picked out the outfit. He just doesn't like the trouble of fighting a toddler into their clothes

🧸Will totally play and rile his baby up alllllll damn day until the kid practically falls asleep on the deck then will sit there like "Awe ~they fell asleep~"

🧸Will through his baby the best parties though

🧸 Doesn't believe in bed times like the others lol or saving dessert till after dinner

🧸Just like the rest of the crew he will slingshot everywhere with his kid much to Nami and Robin's dismay

🧸Will totally get into trouble with his kid clinging to him and the usual goofy man would disappear in an instant and gets replaced with that serious Luffy that we all know and love

🧸It would notttt be pretty if someone decided to start shit with Luffy while he had his kid with him like literally all hell would break losse

🧸Ultimate blast of haki would knock out everyone in his path but he got some good genes so expect his kid to just tough it out with no issue

🧸Will run into Smoker one day and I could see the man totally ignore the pirate and his kid so they could escape, Smoker would deny it till the day he dies though

🧸 Would put his hat on his kid a whole bunch of times just to see them smile and giggle

🧸Honestly Luffy wouldn't notice a struggle of being a single dad with a crew as amazing as his, it's more than a crew it's a family

🧸So when his kid one day asks -

"Daddy? Where's my mommy? Don't I have a family?" Luffy would just laugh as he place his hat on his kid's little head, watching their tiny hands go to push it up out of their eyes. "What do you mean? We're all your family! Who needs one mom when you have two!" He'll cheerfully say as he goes and points at the two women. His kid would match his smile perfectly as he just carries on without a care in the world. Luffy would observe the way his kid runs around the deck jumping and laughing around and would just swell with pride.

"Yeah I definitely picked the best crew."

Zoro - The Always Matching One

🧸I picture Zoro's situation would be him with his girl for a bit before she finally tells him that she's done and that she's not taking the kid with her.

🧸 Zoro would be one of those dudes to be like "Fine fuck you, we don't need you anyways."

🧸We've all seen the babysitting episode lol so that man would be a great single dad but someone get him a bell cause not only will he get lost but now he dragged his damn child into the mix too.

🧸Sanji will have to pack him a lunch bag no matter what or where they are just because he is scared the mosshead would get lost and have his kid starve.

🧸Despite their usual animosity Zoro would totally get tips on how and what to feed the baby from him, since the kitchen is Sanji's domain he would spend a bit more time with him

🧸Zoro if he had a girl will totally put little ponytails in their hair and they would not be perfect at all lol they would be randomly placed but she would be obsessed with them

🧸If he has a son then he would give him the same hair cut as him, if his boy wants a fade then Zoro gets a fade. If his son wants a buzz cut then Zoro gets one too lol

🧸Will totally dress his kid just like him too lol Unlike Luffy who just grabs whatever looks cool or has fun designs lol Zoro would look at each shirt and top in deep thought lol

🧸"Hmmmm. We'll do black today." Zoro would mumble to his kid who just waits stoically on his bed

🧸Zoro would totally nap in the son with his kid until Chopper yells at him that he's exposing their delicate skin to too much direct sunlight and it would nearly give Zoro a heart attack thinking he's almost killing his kid

🧸Would only calm down till Robin and Chopper give him a long talk about the do's and don'ts of a baby's skin lol

🧸 For the sake of humor lates say his baby has eczema he would see that and think he gave his baby a sun rash from sleeping outside a lot lol would totally panic until Chopper finds him a special cream

🧸Zoro is gonna train his baby in the way of swords hands down lol

🧸 Would totally find his kid a matching bandana lol don't fight me on this he would want his kid to match him as much as possible lol

🧸Would scuff at his kid trying to weight lift with a one pound weight "HA! That's all you got kid? Weak!" He would tease making his kid laugh, "Shh daddy don't say that! I too small shhh!" His kid would say wagging their finger dramatically with an eye roll lol

🧸 Just like Luffy he would bathe more instead of using those mini tubs he would say fuck it and just take one with the baby because it would be easier that way (If this weirds you out please seek help!!!)

🧸TEACHES THAT BABY TO SWIM!!!! With all those devil fruit users he would be damned if he let his kid sail the sea without knowing how to swim

🧸His kid would have the same scowl as him no doubt

🧸Zoro would pretend to sleep most times but he's actually super nervous

🧸 Would constantly wonder if he's doing a good job

🧸Way more strict than Luffy but one little pout and the man is folding

🧸Can totally see Robin reading stories to his kid and him joining in to listen lol

🧸Would totally explain to his kid how their mother left them but it was okay because he has a bunch of family there on the ship

Sanji- The 'Uses His Kid To Flirt' One

🧸 His scenerio would be like something out of a movie. Waking up to a crying baby only to find a little bundle all wrapped up left in a box or a basket with a note that the baby was his and the mother was long gone and don't come looking for her.

🧸Yes Sanji would be devastated since he loved his mother and always pictured his child would have the same bond but oh well

🧸 Best single dad IDC lol

🧸Will keep that baby strapped to his chest everywhere he goes, won't need help changing or feeding the baby at all

🧸Will accept the ladies and others help thought but honestly I don't see him needing it

🧸Will panic whenever his kid seems even slightly sick

🧸Will read the baby bed time stories and besides Law, he would be the only one to set up a bedtime

🧸Will use one of those baby bathes and will always keep his kid squeaky clean with their hair prim and proper

🧸Sanji would make his baby the best little snack platters

🧸I already made him a girl dad headcanon so for this lets say he has a boy lol whewwwww would he get jealous

🧸His little boy would be way more smooth than him, and since his daddy can cook best believe he learned the skill too. So he would go over to Nami and Robin with little treats that he prepared like "Here you go, made special with love for the prettiest ladies that sail the sea~"

🧸Sanji would catch his baby sprawled up with the ladies wearing little sunglasses as they literally fawn all over him

🧸If he has a boy best believe little dude is wearing the finest suits right along with him lol

🧸Just like Zoro he would want to match his kid all the time lol but wouldn't match the hair lol he loves his long blonde hair too much

🧸Would totally take the time at some point to visit Zeff and introduce his kid formally. Zeff would treat that kid like gold lol

🧸I could totally see Zeff being one of those grandparents who are so laid back and if the kid spills something he'll be like oh that's alright and Sanji's eyes would nearly pop out cause when he was that age Zeff would practically chew him a new one lol

🧸Sanji would also explain everything to his kid about how their mother left, would've totally kept the note for the day they start asking questions

🧸Would totally be way easier for him to pick up chicks when he has a cute kid as a wingman/woman lol

🧸Would use his kid for everythinnngggg lol to get discounts shopping for food, to get dates, to get out of trouble with Nami and Robin lol literally everything

🧸Just like Zoro he's gonna teach his kid to swim lol there's only so many on the ship that can swim in the ocean so he has to make sure his kid will be safe

🧸Will also try to teach his kid to fight and defend themselves, he used to get bullied by his family so he wants his kid to be able to stand strong

🧸Will randomly wake up at night just to admire his kid

🧸Like Luffy throws amazing parties and cooks them the best cake they could ever eat

🧸Would always wonder if he did something wrong to his kids mother to make her want to miss such a special experience. Could totally see him blame himself until his kid looks at him one day and says he's the best daddy a kid could ever ask for

Law - The Strict One

🧸Best single dad even more than Sanji lol

🧸 Will do all his kids checkups and appointments, that kid would be the healthiest out of all of them lol

🧸Would have no problem with night feedings and changing diapers

🧸Honestly he could care less that the mother is out of the picture he would boss up and raise the baby regardless

🧸Law would cook such balanced meals for his kid lol that kid wouldn't even know what junk food is until someone gives them some behind Law's back lol

🧸Would keep that baby clean as a whistle but I don't see him being able to do hair, that man is a great surgeon but I feel like he would be useless doing hair lol

🧸Would totally buy his kid all types of colorful clothes and toys to help with their eye development. "Baby's need high contrast colors in their young age, it helps with development." He'll tell Bepo as he fills up a huge basket full of baby stuff lol

🧸Don't fight me on this I've said it in my girl Dad headcanons but he would get his kids doctor sets lol and a lab coat

🧸Will totally read to his child and teach them things way earlier than most, his baby is smart just like him lol

🧸His kid will have his smug attitude for sure lol

🧸I can see Law running into the straw hats with the baby strapped to his chest, his face as hard as he could possibly make it but would have to try not to blush when Nami and Robin just gush over his cute little baby (the baby looks just like him so them calling his kid cute is them low-key calling him cute lol somehow kill him before he dies of a heart attack lol)

🧸I can see Law having a very minimal love life even before his kid so now add his child he then well.. he has no love life at all lol

🧸Just like Sanji would use the power of his kid to get out of situations lol needs a discount on medical supplies? He's having his kid as the store clerk then lol "Excuse me ma'am could we have a bulk of your gauze for a 5% discount please I'm studying to be a doctor like my father." SUCCESS lol his kid would totally win over the store clerks heart lol

🧸Law doesn't have that much stamina when it comes to his powers so I can see him train wayyyy longer now that he has a child he never wants to be in a situation that his energy gets depleted

🧸Will shambles his kid instead of yelling down the halls of the polar Tang lol

🧸Will swap out random stuff using his d.f. powers because it makes his kid laugh for whatever reason lol

🧸I can see his kid finding a toy that looks like Bepo and Law will instantly get it for him lol

🧸Will catch his kid napping with Bepo, little kid all snuggled up to the soft man and he would have tons of pictures hidden in his wallet

🧸Will be one of those parents that makes time blocks for his kids activities lol like an hour of crafts, an hour of outside play, a 20 minute swimming lesson with Bepo and so on and so on lol

🧸Will definitely be strict "No ice cream until you've had your dinner I don't want to hear it."

🧸 Law would be one of those parents like Sanji to keep a box of his kids artwork lol even though they'll be too little and it'll just be a page of scribbles lol

🧸Will teach his kid how to use a sword just like him lol

🧸Will honestly be chill like Luffy when it comes to the whole mom thing because as a doctor he knows he can't choose what a person does with their life so he wouldn't give it much thought but would definitely explain the situation to his little one

@none-of-ur-business-fuck-off

[hollaforlyla]

Omg hiii! I stumbled upon your blog a few days ago and I'm here to say that I really love your Sonic fics!!! Your writing style and characterization of the characters really piqued my love for Sonic fics again ✨

Ummm, may I request something?

Okay uh... may I request for a Sonic X Reader. With a reader who has a really low spice tolerance? Like any food that she eats no matter the spice level, she couldn't handle it...

Since Sonic's favourite food is Chilli Dogs, so obviously it's spicy... But the reader really really wants to try eating his favourite food and enjoy it with him.

This request is because.... This is actually my problem irl haha. I have a really low spice tolerance so whenever I eat anything spicy, it would make me have a runny nose, ears burning in pain, and stomach aches. Which sucks honestly 😂😭 So I was wondering what would Sonic react to that?

Thank you and have a nice day!!! 💖

If you need to make some adjustments to the plots then go ahead!

" TOO HOT TO HANDLE " ── sonic x gn!reader

YOU-I-OMG- TYSMMMM YOUR WORDS ARE TOO MUCH!!! this was so much fun too write, i hope you enjoy it!!

Sonic had always raved about chili dogs. It was his ultimate favorite food, the one thing he could eat morning, noon, and night without complaint. And you? Well… you really wanted to share that experience with him. There was just one little problem.

You had an insanely low spice tolerance.

And when you say low, you mean rock bottom low. Even the mildest hint of spice had your nose running like a faucet, your ears burning, and your stomach tying itself into knots. It was honestly unfair.

But today? Today, you were determined.

“Are you sure about this, (Y/N)?” Sonic asked, arms crossed, one brow raised in amusement as you stared down at the chili dog in front of you. The scent alone made your nose twitch. “I mean, I totally get wanting to experience the best food in existence, but I dunno if your body’s gonna forgive you for this.”

You gulped, nodding resolutely. “I can handle it.”

“Uh-huh.” His smirk widened. “You sure? ‘Cause last time you had a single bite of something mildly spicy, you looked like you got hit by one of Tails’ failed experiments.”

You shot him a glare. “That was one time!”

“That was three times.”

Ignoring his teasing, you took a deep breath, bracing yourself before finally taking a bite.

The moment the chili hit your tongue, you knew you had made a mistake.

Heat flooded your mouth instantly, your throat burning like you had swallowed fire. Your eyes watered, your nose immediately started running, and—oh chaos—your ears were ringing. You made a choked sound, frantically fanning your mouth as you reached for anything—anything—to cool the inferno on your tongue.

Sonic? Sonic was dying.

The blue hedgehog had doubled over, laughing so hard he was practically wheezing. “O-Oh man, I knew this was a bad idea, but I wasn’t expecting that! You look like you just fought the biggest battle of your life and lost!”

You couldn’t even argue, too busy suffering as you guzzled down a glass of water—which, by the way, did nothing.

“Why—why is it getting worse?!” you gasped, your voice nearly breaking.

“Yeah, water’s not gonna help much, buddy,” Sonic chuckled, though his laughter died a little when he saw your pained expression. “Whoa, okay, yeah, maybe this was a really bad idea. Here, milk helps, right?”

He zoomed off and returned in an instant with a glass of milk, which you gratefully took. The moment the cool liquid coated your tongue, relief finally settled in. You slumped against the table, panting dramatically.

“Never again,” you croaked.

Sonic patted your back, looking way* too amused. “Hey, you gave it a shot. That’s more than I expected.”

“You let me do this knowing I’d suffer.”

“Well, yeah,” he said shamelessly, grinning. “But in my defense, it was really funny.”

You weakly smacked his arm, though your glare had no real heat. “I hate you.”

He chuckled, pulling you into a side hug. “Nah, you love me. And don’t worry, next time, I’ll make you a chili dog with zero spice. Just for you.”

Despite the lingering heat in your mouth, your heart warmed at his words. You leaned into his side, sighing. “You better.”

And just like that, Sonic had a new mission: creating the perfect spice-free chili dog, just for you.

[fraugwinska]

Hiya Guys - Anyone up to read a fic I wrote to battle my little writers block? :> I know jack shit about Alchemy, so I drew a lot of my references and ideas from FMA - But I've already planned for a second part, and thanks to the lovely @impale-me-radio-daddy I have some good pointers and sources to dip my toes in more into the mechanics of Readers ability! ;> Until then: Have fun with this!

"Again, thanks, but no thanks, Carmilla. The whole 'overlord'-thing isn't my cup of tea."

The demon in front of you sighed, closing her eyes for a moment - maybe to not appear as aggravated as you knew she was. Carmilla Carmine has hounded you to join the other big players of Pride who called themselves overlords and acted like they were above everyone else. But you had no intentions or aspirations to mingle among the power-greedy wannabes and parochial moguls, as you told her - in much more diplomatic words - multiple times. The fact that she hadn't tried to force you into compliance only spoke about the power you held, almost wasted on you. Almost.

"I really think it would be...", Camilla started again, but your patience had run thin.

"...beneficial for all involved. It's like a broken record player at this point, no offense. And I hope you'll finally take my 'No' as an answer - Cross my heart, you'll be the first person to know if I change my mind." The warning tone in your voice and you standing up from the chair opposite to her office desk made her give you a sharp, cautious look, but she retreated.

"I understand. I won't press you on the matter anymore." She said, tactically calm, and raised her hands in surrender.

You just nodded her a courteous goodbye and exited her office, chin high as you walked down the corridors of her headquarters and out into the streets of the city. Hell was always busy, but the afternoons were the worst - everyone tried to do their last errands before nightlife took over Pentagram City and people weren't out for shopping or dinner, but for cheap and easy fucks or fights. A little kid - a cannibal child by the looks of its pitch-black eyes and sharp, pointed teeth - ran into you, preoccupied with its popsicle that looked too much like a tongue for your taste. Its mother, horrified, stammered apologies and pulled it hastily away, eager to get in some distance to you. You smiled at them - it may have looked a little malicious to them, although you meant it as genuine. But you knew she knew you were her. The one they called the Alchemist.

You made your way through the parting crowds, just wandering around. You had nothing to do really, and you generally enjoyed just walking through the city you've come to know for only a year. It didn't take long after your fall to get you the infamous name - Only the Radio Demon Alastor rivaled you in the speed you climbed up in the hierarchy of Hell. Tales were told, some true, some heavily exaggerated, some utterly ridiculous. Have you disintegrated demons into their very elemental parts? Yes you had. Have you taken out a whole district because you were catcalled? Not quite, you did that because those bastards from Mayhem Square decided to raid your laboratory and sprayed very vulgar and disgusting things on the walls after they destroyed your latest experiment. Have you sacrificed your loving family in exchange for the ultimate knowledge in alchemy before you died? Definitely not.

You laughed softly about the rumors. What loving family had been there to sacrifice to begin with? You were a war orphan. Abandoned and alone, only taken into a makeshift home and earning your living by signing up for human experiments when you were old enough to be smarter than just steal from abandoned crops and trash cans. If someone ever wondered if one could inject radioactive waste into a person and what the outcome would be, they would've found their answer in your blood and cells - a pinch of insanity, a lack of empathy and painful hallucinations. In exchange for your years of help and your resilience, you were offered a university tuition. You quickly took to science, studying biology, chemistry and, outside of the curriculum, alchemy. To the very last day, you wished you'd studied physics just to finally figure out the universal gravitation formula.

Your career had ended very shortly after your graduation, when you came back to work in the very same lab you've come to be tortured as a teen. But now you were the one experimenting on desperate souls that no one would miss. The only set rule you wouldn’t deviate on: No experiments on children. One of your subjects, overtaken by the pain your hands caused, had gone mental and stabbed you with the syringe you've used on them. Stabbed you many, many, many times. A fitting death, you thought. Your next time awaking, it wasn't with the sight of the tiled, sterile laboratory, but the busy street you just walked on. 

It had been a throwback to your childhood, really. No home, no one you knew, no money. But now you had your power. And OH, what a power it was, effortless and gloriously embedded in your being. Paired with your absence of empathic feelings you quickly gained souls under your belt. Mostly lower-rank and no-name-demons, you left them intact, unless your scientific curiosity got the best of you.

Of course the Radio Demon had sensed the birth of another powerful sinner right below his nose and you had the displeasure to meet him not even a month after arriving. While Carmilla seemed to have the strong aspiration to have you among her fellow Overlords, Alastor's ambition went in a completely different direction. First he wanted to be sly and get you under contract, and when you laughed in his face, well... he wanted to consume you and your power, rip you limb from limb and put an end to your existence.

Alas, you were way too powerful for his liking. The moment his claws sunk into you, the moment he would break a limb and rend flesh, the wound was closed up and the bone repaired. You weren't just good at disintegrating - the principle of equal exchange applied to rearrangement and repair too. His conjured voodoo-minions fell apart into cloth, ash and thread at your will, and his ego took more than just one hit that you resisted, that you held your stance, didn't even move out of his way but buried your feet deeper into the ground with a cold smile on your face - that you were equally as powerful as him. If not a little more. Time and time again your paths crossed. Where Alastor was Entertainment, you were Rationality. Where he was Chaos, you were Order. He was looking for the end of his boredom, you for the ultimate knowledge. His smile a facade to hide his frustrations, your stone cold face a facade to hide the joy you felt with every missed blow from him. You were attracting opposites, the only overlap was your shared egocentrism - You knew he believed himself above you. And he knew you thought the same about yourself to him.

So that's why Carmilla was trying to convince you to join the overpowered. So you would change from an unpredictable threat to those hot-shots into a controllable part of them. What a shame, truly, that power was never something you aimed for. Your only ambition was to further your knowledge about existence, about the nature surrounding you, about yourself. You craved understanding and finding order in the chaos. Especially since Hell was the ultimate chaos.

Your thoughts came to a halt when you suddenly felt a strange sensation. You were just walking past the outskirts of the Cannibal Colony to round (and avoid) the Doomsday District to make your way back home, but now something had drawn your attention. A sixth sense, a force, an itch at the back of your head. Electricity was in the air, and you only had time to rearrange the particles of dust and debris around you into a makeshift shield when a black tentacle burst from the ground and smashed it into pieces. When the cloud of dust around you settled and you coughed, you were met with the sight of Alastor in the middle of the street, his smile as wide as ever.

"Normal people go for a courteous 'Hello', you know.", you stated and straightened yourself.

"Ah, but my darling, you and I both know we are not normal. Or people." Another tentacle darts at you from behind, its tip sharpened like a spear, but you were quick to dodge and let the appendage crash into a digital advertisement for VoxTech newest useless and frivol products. The screen flickered for a moment before returning to its previous content, but the damage was already done - the pole was bent and the screen had a hole in the upper-left corner. You turned back to Alastor, giving him a displeased glare.

"What is your issue with me today? Do I wear the wrong shoes? Maybe my hairdo isn't to your liking? You seem to be a little more... enthusiastic than usual. And not in a good way."

The Radio Demon twists his cane in his hands with a sneer, his burning, narrowed eyes not leaving you as you crossed your arms in boredom and tapped your foot.

"The issue on hand, my dear, is that you encroach onto my territory yet again. How about this: A final fight, you and I. The winner gets to decide if the loser is eaten alive or is granted a merciful death."

"Huh. You sound like you've had a really bad day."

With the flick of your wrist, you rearrange the ground beneath him, shifting solid stone and concrete into sticky bitumen and tar. You can't hide the grin when he struggles to stay upright, his polished shoes glued to the spot, but his smile doesn't falter. If anything, it widens.

"I take this as a yes, then."

Before you can even think of a comeback, your view is obscured by a swarm of his minions. They're coming at you from all sides, claws outstretched and snarling. With a roll of your eyes and a wave of your hand, you let them fall apart into their basic elements, pieces of stained cloths and clouds of foul smelling ashes falling all around you. Alastor's grin is as wide as ever and you see the telltale glow of his power around him - and before you can even blink, he's right in front of you, his shoes still sticking in the viscous black matter where he formerly stood, his claws reaching for your neck, your head. You feel his razor-sharp fingertips scraping the skin of your throat, not deep enough to really do any damage, but still droplets of your neon green blood dripping from the cuts. With a grunt you grab him by the lapels of his coat and throw him over and above your head, and while he flies through the air, his laughter echoes through the streets. He's having fun, you know that. But deep down inside... so are you.

"Your back alley voodoo tricks are getting a bit repetitive, Alastor. At least make it interesting."

He lands a few feet away, gracefully like an antelope on his bare hooves, and the static of his laugh sends shivers down your spine.

"Who am I to deny a dying lady her last wish?"

His shadow detached from his body, the pitch-black entity’s teal grin a stark contrast to his red, glowing eyes, the wickedly growing antlers and his pale skin. The immaterial monster opened its maw wide with a deafening screech, and it shot forward at blinding speed. You finally moved, darting away from the shade as it swished towards you - it almost looked like a morbid ballet as you avoided as much contact with the ground as you were able to, frantically thinking of what his shadows are made of so you could destroy it. He had never stooped down to use it in your fights, and you knew that they had to be more than just abscence of light, as sentient as it was. The basis of Alchemy was simple: You can't form something out of nothing, but if you knew the compounds, you were able to rearrange, dispatch or destroy almost anything. You tried to buy yourself more time to think by another high jump into the air, only to hear Alastors static next to your ear, a hand wrapping around your waist with a grip that was intended to hurt and another on your chin, holding your face in place. Your instincts told you to twist under and out of his grasp, to rearrange your skin into something harder to prevent his claws from tearing into you, but find yourself unable to move. A hiss from below you makes your eyes dart to Alastors shadow - it has your own in an iron grip, holding it hostage in its black claws.

"Is that interesting enough for you, darling?", the demon above you purrs into your ear, but the question was unnecessary, answered in his laughter and his ironclad hold of you, your body pressed against his, arms frozen mid air and useless like a marionette without it's player. His hold around you is painful - it would crush a lesser demon easily, but luckily, you weren't lesser. And you still could, even without the usage of your hands, will your side he pierced with his talons to at least harden enough with the iron you drew from your blood so he couldn't tear you apart that easily.

"It's certainly interesting that you have to resort to gagging my shadow to subdue me."

The words were all but pressed through your gritted teeth. You knew you wouldn't be able to escape at this point. This part of his magic, his shadowmagic, was one of the only things you practically knew nothing about. And lack of knowledge, as usual, meant lack of power. In this case - the power to get out, to flee and regroup.

The touch on your waist disappeared for a second before appearing again, stronger now and accompanied with a pain shooting from where his fingers had dug themselves into the weak metallic coat underneath your skin. You hated the quiet whimper your body unwillingly let out at the sting, reminiscent of the scalpels that were used on you many times, so long ago. He chuckled, deep and guttural right below your ear before leaning his head down to your eye-level.

"Subdue you? Oh, no, no, no my sweet Alchemist. This fight is over, as you are well aware and I'm pleased to say that at last, I am the one victorious. The deal was the choice between eating the other alive or granting a merciful death. I just have yet to decide what option to choose."

He releases his claws from your jaw and rakes his nails down your neck and collarbone, his face inches away from yours, red eyes glowing even brighter and his smile that reached his ears with open delight as his claws tear deeper and deeper into you, his static now drowning out the sounds of your pained gasps as darkness grew from the ground, encasing you.

"I... really hate you, you know?", was the only thing you could bring yourself to hiss. His snicker was dark, malicious and infuriatingly cocky.

"Oh darling. I hate you more." And then it all went dark.

You opened your eyes. A blank, charcoal canvas stretched as far as the eye can see. A monochrome dimension for monochrome creatures. Everything had a certain damp feeling to it - the air, the atmosphere, even your own skin felt slick, damp and oily to the touch. Freezing. Unfamiliar and strange.

"Where are we?"

You still felt Alastor’s long fingers holding you in place, but the pain was gone, replaced by a burning heat where he pressed your back into his chest, a stark contrast to the coldness of the air surrounding you. Clean air. You felt no specs of dirt, dust or carbon on your tongue, the air tasted neutral and smelled void, the flavor almost painful in your throat.

"This, my dear, is a little pocket dimension I've crafted. To be specific - it's the one I've crafted the moment I met you."

Your eyebrows arched up, and his shadow let yours tilt your head just enough so you could see his face and his overly excited grin. His words struck a chord and the penny dropped - He, in his deluded mindset of superiority, had anticipated this day to come ever since your first encounter. This wasn't just a spur of the moment, he had planned this, crafted a punishment for the - to him - inevitable scenario that one day he'd finally get his comeuppance. Where he'd finally beat you. Planned to get you here to destroy you.

"It's not very... showy, considering it's created by Hells Greatest Showman himself." Your voice betrayed you. You wanted to sound bored, neutral, indifferent - but every syllable dripped with hidden defeat. Alastor had purposely created a place that you couldn't decipher, that held nothing you could use to defend yourself.

"Au contraire, darling. I think this is the most appropriate stage for our final performance."

His voice was dark, low, and vibrated from the bottom of his chest. His breath was hot and wet on the nape of your neck and the tips of his fingers on your chin burned. You could feel his excitement reverberating through his body. He was looking forward to this. To eradicate you. You closed your eyes. Rationality told you there was no use in defiance.

"So, Alastor. What's it gonna be? Are you a man of your word or aren't you going to kill me the way you've promised? What was it? Eat me alive or make it a merciful death?", you asked, but the only reply was his grip around you tightening and his teeth sinking into the crook of your neck. It was a pain so sharp and yet so tender that it made you almost moan. A pathetic whimper escaped your throat, and you hated how you could feel his lips on your skin curl into a smirk.

"My poor, little alchemist. I thought you, as a woman of science, knew that one has to define the terms you work with."

His fangs grazed the soft flesh of your neck, his tongue leaving a wet trail along the bite marks they had left. A shiver ran down your spine and your skin broke out in goosebumps. The grip on your jaw tightened and he tilted your head to the side, exposing your throat to him even more.

"Killing is just one mundane interpretation of our deal. There is more than one way to eat you while you breathe, my dear, and as for a merciful death... well..." His hand left your waist, wandered down over your hips to the hem of your pants and slid beneath. "... the meaning of that will depend on how this plays out."

The tips of his claws dragged over your underwear and your back arched, subconsciously pressing yourself against his broad chest as much as his shadow allowed it. He chuckled darkly at the reaction he drew from you, his fingers rubbing your core through the fabric, and your eyes fell shut in furious pleasure. You were unable to stop the whimpers and quiet moans that came from you, and he laughed at every sound he forced from you.

You understood the principles of biology and chemistry enough to understand why your body reacted the way it did to his touch. Hormones released, muscles tensed, senses sharpened, brain focused - and all that with one purpose. Carnality. Sexuality. Lust.

You understood the social components : Alastor, despite his infuriating personality, was a powerful and attractive demon. He was a sight for sore eyes and a feast for the hungry ones - you maybe lacked empathy, but you weren't blind.

What you didn't understand was that, despite your deep dislike you felt for the Radio Demon, despite the many times you've fought each other and how he's tried to erase you multiple times - your emotions were telling you that you craved his touch, wanted what he was threatening to do, what he was implying with his words and emphasizing with his actions, his hands working themselves towards your slicked heat and with his lips still on your throat.

And the worst thing was, he knew.

He could sense it, probably even taste it, in the scent of your arousal and the taste of the sweat on your skin. He could read it in your body language, how you subconsciously tried to move against his fingers, how your body melted into his when his teeth scraped over your collarbone and your breath hitched when he sunk them deep into the soft flesh of your neck once more.

The force behind his jaws was sharp and without any mercy, but it only lasted for a moment until it became deliciously soft and firm, his lips soothing your tormented skin after the beast within had taken its fill of your blood just as he breached the last physical barrier of your underwear and dipped two of his digits into you. He forced a soundless sigh from your lungs with the way his fingertips caressed you, igniting a feeling inside you didn't know you could feel.

The satisfaction you got from giving and receiving physical pleasures up until this point mostly to serve your biological needs, impersonal. The connection that existed between partners was short-lived and never personal, almost medical, with the barest minimum of any physical contact necessary, just enough so the mechanics of your hellish body came to the desired effect of pressure release to let you focus on more important matters.

But with Alastor, with his mouth still feasting on the sensitive, marked flesh at your nape and his dexterous fingers working between your thighs, nothing of what was happening was impersonal. Medical. There was no need - But want. A craving desire that arose like a hot flame deep inside you, making the pleasure you were given intensify and left you almost in a frenzy, to try and get more of it. A feeling almost animalistic, something raw and purely instinctual that you wanted to prolong instead of getting it over with.

There was no logic to the way your body reacted, no formula you could apply to ease your frustration at the way he touched you - he played your body like he knew it by heart, a strange turn of events. While you seemed so illogical in your behavior, he was strangely tactical. You were frantic, he was calculating. Every touch, lick and nibble was done with an intended purpose. And in return your reactions to it were completely without rhyme or reason. You couldn't stop the moans spilling from you as he dragged his long fingers in and out of you in an agonizing speed, the pad of his thumb teasingly rubbing over the little nub hidden between your folds, your hips were moving on their own, in sync with his movements as much as they his shadow's grip on yours granted you.

"I... don't t-think...", you gasped with another cruel flick of his thumb against your sore clit, "...you can c-count that as.. e-eating."

To your frustration his motions did slow down, the thrusts and motions he drew from you fading, the tension within building so painfully inside of you, uncoiling so suddenly just to be denied. His chuckle rumbled in his chest and he retreated his lips and teeth from your throat.

"I'm nothing but a connoisseur, darling - one has to prepare and season his meal properly in order to feast."

The sudden loss of contact made you whine in your throat as his hands withdrew, from your wetness as well as your neck and chin. The air felt even colder against your heated skin now, and you shivered when your limbs suddenly contorted, were rearranged by ghostly hands. From the corners of your eyes you could see Alastors shadow force yours into something of a bridge position, back arched, arms bound over its head and legs spread - and through the unexplainable connection between you both, your body followed, having no other choice but to obey what the immaterial shapes dictated.

Alastor stood aside, waiting, watching intently as your trousers were pulled messily down your legs by invisible claws, revealing the soft skin hidden beneath. They dragged the fabric over the swell of your hips, under your rear and over your thighs. For a few agonizing seconds everything was still, the monochromatic world around you in perfect silence, the only visible life your panting breath and Alastors everlasting static. When the last bit of fabric left your body and you were completely bare, he stepped in between your legs, raking his claws over the inside of your thighs before coming to a rest on your hip bones. He looked smug, he looked manic, and most of all he looked hungry. His tongue swiped his sharp teeth, coating them with thick, dark saliva, and you shuddered with a mixture of humiliation and anticipation alike.

"Well now, I think it's time to dig in, right dear? Especially since the table's so nicely set and all."

The impact of his burning mouth on your dripping sex was beyond the comprehension of words, all your synapsis concentrated at the singular sensation of the demon below you working his jaw with gusto and enthusiasm only a cannibal like him could, teeth and tongue and lips unabashed and unapologetic in their efforts to elicit sounds from you that bordered on the screams he loved to broadcast. You could feel him smiling at each and every breathless moan he wrenched from you, you could feel his cold red eyes burning holes into you as he kept eyeing you from below, tongue buried to the root in you, his claws pressing painfully into your flesh in a vice-like grip, threatening to break and rip at the soft skin when you tried to suppress the mewls in an effort to deny him his self-righteous satisfaction.

"Darling, I know you're normally the one who takes others apart - but I just have to wonder what you will look like undone."

You were pushed even closer, even more at his mercy as he forcefully shoved his face deeper between your legs, his black, twisted antlers piercing into your stomach, leaving dainty puncture wounds that stung and begand to trickle with your blood. Your breathing became more desperate with each minute, more keening and so much harder to keep steady - when one of his dexterous hands joined his mouth between your legs and curled the long digits deep inside you in search for the certain bundle of nerves - located an inch inside the vaginal opening, on the upper vaginal wall - that his skilled tongue had neglected so far. Your mind went blank and your whines became constant, unchecked and vocalized so much louder when he found what so many demons (and humans, if you were honest) thought to be a myth - the Grafenberg spot.

He hummed in self-satisfaction as you moaned shamelessly now as he rubbed and probed, curling, stroking, doing everything at once with his fingers on the spot while his mouth worked at your sensitive clit above, suckling hard, bordering on painful licking and even biting. You struggled in the immaterial grasp of his shadow, wriggling on his mouth, the intense, uncontrollable, uncontrolled and unrivaled sensations sparking from your core leaving you desperate for release, for any kind of relief, the pressure of it building so unbelievably fast in you, his movements, the vibrating static and his quiet laughter sending you towards a feeling that you knew, once experienced, wouldn't leave again. You hated that you loved what he was doing, hated that he was able to do what so many others had failed to, that your mind was consumed by pure, undulated desire for the damn Radio Demon as he - in a twisted sense of your own profession -destroyed and rebuilt you simultaneously with the same kind of unceremoniously fervent frivolity that was oh-so-characteristic for him.

Your eyes fell shut, a vocal and shuddering breath escaping you as you felt your end coming nearer and nearer, every flick of his tongue and every slight graze of his teeth were a thousand-fold amplified and yet purposefully too little to finally grant you the relief you yearned for so badly, to put out the element of fire within that threatened to burn you alive.

"Alastor... Please...", you managed between breaths. The words felt sour and sticky on your tongue, but you knew he was waiting for them. You had never begged for something before. Not for mercy when some of the researchers went over the limits of their set experiments on you. Not for recognition when papers you wrote were released in your colleagues name. Not for your life when the thick needle in the hand of the deranged patient rose to the sky, ready to strike. But for Alastor, you begged. 

Your plea earned you a victorious glare and another harsh suck on your swollen nub that made you cry out in pleasure and pain. With a last stroke of his tongue in tandem with his fingers against the exact right spot and a firm flick to your clit, your climax felt like you were falling apart into particles and atoms, crumbling around the mouth of your arch-rival. He had been right. Definition was everything, one of the rare things the Alchemist and the Radio Demon could agree on - He promised death, and that's what he gave you: A metaphorical one, devastating, humiliating and everything but merciful. Each spasm was a shovel burying your pride, each sob as he licked you through the ebbing waves of your high a eulogy for the respect you had for yourself. But this death, as disgraceful as it was, was pure bliss, was what ascencion must feel like.

Your body was slowly released from its restraints, feeling heavier than it should as you were dropped unceremoniously to the ground, and you closed your eyes again, feeling oddly empty when he removed his mouth and fingers and stood up to his full height, towering above you. You didn't even struggle even though your limbs were free now, just sighed and turned your head to look up and face Alastor as you heard the clicks of his heels next to your face.

He looked disheveled and wild - a mess of tousled red hair entangled in sharp antlers and sticking messily onto his sweaty forehead, the corners of his mouth glistening with your fluids and his blackened eyes alight with mischief. You could see the outlines of a massive erection through his strained pants, a small consolation that the ordeal he had put you both through hadn't been above his biology too. But before you wasn't the jovial trickster that all of Pride knew and feared, and it wasn't the tactical torturer that had worked you over the edge of your emotions either. This was the animal, the demon within, the monster hell made out of a man in its essence - limbs cracked and elongated, spine twisted and curved, aura dark and almost glowing in green. And it was stunningly beautiful. It was such an incongruous appearance, contrasting his normally smooth, proper and almost human demeanor so much that it might become your new definition of a paradox.

His hand suddenly went behind your head and roughly grabbed you by your hair and dragged your head up, just enough so he could bend on his waist to be on eye-level with you. It stung beautifully at the roots, and you hissed at the delicious pain as you met his gaze.

"Th͑an͊k y͈͝o͔̲͒u̧ͥ f̌͌or̬ t̜ͦhe̬ͯͅ m͉̋ȩ̞͙al,͍ l̵̅͝it͓͙ͤt͘lè̍ A̰̞l̇c̭̙̕h̏̒emis̏͑t." 

His voice was distorted and thick, it sounded sticky and heavy and even unhinged. For a moment, you saw his wish to bite you, to tear into your jugular and finally dismember you reflected in his ticking eyes. And in that moment, defying all logic and instincts, you would’ve let him do it. But the strike didn’t come, and the moment faded, along with his monstrous form. He shifted back to the demon you knew, hair still out of place but expression a mask again, a play, a facade. But there was a strange conflict behind his smile, a weird furrow in his cocked brows.

“I believe with that the deal is fulfilled.”

Alastor snapped his hands, and you fell, through darkness and light, fire and water and earth and wind swirling around you until you hit concrete ground. Quickly stumbling to your feet, you blinked. You were dressed again, back in Pentagram City, back at the exact spot where you turned the corner just before...

You whipped your head around, but the Radio Demon was nowhere to be found. The street before you was empty, car horns and gunshots and bomb explosions filling the air coming from the Doomsday District. For a moment you panicked - had it been just another one of your hallucinations? You thought you had left this special side effect of your brain behind in the living world, but you were smart enough to consider the chances of possibility. It would explain everything. Your hand snapped to your neck - no lacerations, no bite marks. Contradictory evidence. It didn’t mean that it hadn’t happened, but it increased the likelihood of the perceived experience being just your brain playing its cruel tricks on you. Just like it did now, flooding your nerves with a faint feeling of... disappointment.

You shook your head and sighed, turning on your heels to continue your walk home. When you put your hands in the pockets of your lab coat, a wrinkled piece of paper brushed your palm. Confused, you pulled it out and unfolded it, your eyes widening as you read it with a gasp that got stuck halfway in your throat.

Until next time, my dear. And if you ever crave more, there is always a table set for you. A.

It read in an obnoxiously neat, cursive handwriting. In a hue of crimson red.

[diminuel]

Since I’m still down the Rocks rabbit hole and pondering this AU some more (I'm boring and just calling it Time Travelling Rocks AU for now) I think the path of angst for any time traveling AU would go like this:

Either little Pebble (I'm just going to use this as a name for now because it's cute! Technically, unless I change my mind, Crocodile's name is Keres) gets taken off Hachinosu and Rocks has been chasing for leads, leaving a trail of destruction for days/ weeks that finally leads to God Valley once he hears the broadcast. Or if the kid was on Rocks’ ship it’s also possible they lost sight of her on God Valley because a D. Clan child is not going to just sit around and hide. There has probably already been tension between Pebble’s parents regarding whether it was appropriate to bring a child on high stake raids and if it maybe wasn’t better to drop her off on Sphynx instead where a child can grow up safe and sheltered (but alone and ultimately defenseless if it turns out Sphynx isn’t safe after all).

It's possible that Rocks believes that Pebble has been killed which starts him on an even worse spiral of destruction, with no holds barred. And there’s a real danger that killing a lot of the present World Nobles would rain destruction down on the seas below, enough that Roger and Garp know that they have to stop him even if that means killing him and protecting Celestials in the process. Yes, it’s tragic that Rocks’ child is among the casualties but they can’t let Rocks trigger a "great cleansing". (Rocks would of course think that those are empty words coming from Garp, who knows that innocent children are experiencing unspeakable suffering and die at the hands of World Nobles every day. Who knows and does nothing about it. Who knows of the wanted poster that had been put out for Rocks’ innocent child and does nothing.)

Rocks, who has no devil fruit power but uses magic (or ancient civilization technology that looks like magic), knows that if he gets killed, a last resort/ emergency spell will be triggered. He doesn’t know what exactly it does but he doesn’t care.

But maybe as he lays dying he sees his child run past. Wearing different clothes, hiding her identity, having everyone fooled that she died, even her own parents. Such a smart child. And in true D. clan fashion Rocks can die with a laugh.

And then the magic is triggered and Rocks gasps awake and instantly swallows salt water. Disoriented, with wounds carried over from the battle, it takes him a while to get to land. He learns where he is and, shockingly, when he is. 36 years thrown into the future, on an island called Dawn.

If I go with a 36 years jump then that would put him shortly before Luffy’s departure, so he would be the only Monkey kid still on Dawn. In a serious AU I would go with that for sure. So that Rocks might only return to the world stage in/ around Marineford as well, having spent the time before acclimatizing to this time (and being babysat by Garp to make sure he’s not taking the first opportunity to return to his King of the World/ World Destroying ways.)

Maybe he’d meet Luffy in Impel Down because Rocks also had the brilliant idea to break into the prison to get Ace and Crocodile out, just that he’s a lot more stealthy than Luffy. But once Luffy’s made such a commotion then all bets are off for him too. It’s a fun family trip! :DD (Crocodile doesn’t think it’s fun at all. And he’s not looking forward to seeing his parents' reunion in Marineford of all places where the stakes are just too high for relationship drama...! And from the way Rocks is talking about Whitebeard there is definitely going to be relationship drama and Rocks might just kill the old man and the doing the World Governments job for them.)

I think while the Marine would still claim victory because they think Ace died (he gets better), Whitebeard does survive.

(In a sillier AU where everything is changed anyway the time jump could be earlier.)

[bomber-grl]

Nico Di Angelo x Child of Hypnos ᶻ 𝗓 𐰁

Pairing(s): Nico Di Angelo x gn!Reader (male intended)

The two of you getting together isn’t a surprise whatsoever but more so because of nicos closed nature

The two of you most likely met because, again, Nico needed to use one of your guys powers for whatever it was

Aaaand you were the only was who was awake and reading some book

So he went up to you and asked if he could use your power and you ultimately ended up agreeing just because why not?

Tbh you didn’t really listen to what he said but just nodded, so imagine your surprise when he gets to you again and asks why you didn’t do what you promised

You’re honestly mad he’s interrupting your sleep so u just ignore him and turn over

Ofc he still tries asking you but only because anyone else was too sleepy to even be bothered

Eventually you decide to go to the bonfire at camp and while sitting there you see an abnormal shadow in the far distance

You decide to get up and walk towards it, noticing how it kinda moves as if shocked

You ultimately just stand there and ask whoever is there to come out and low and behold-

It’s Nico Di Angelo, son of hades

You walk up and ask if he’d wanna hang out, which he immediately turns down

But once you mention his insomnia he gets defensive

Then leaves

Ofc it’s only when the next time you meet and he’s more aware that he decides to give you a shot

He’s mostly shocked about how similar you are and especially by your stupid ass jokes you make while half asleep

He gradually finds himself thinking positively of you

Maybe even endearing

Especially since you’re really open minded and much of an introvert just like himself

He feels like he can actually consider you a friend

But then those feelings turn sour and unsure when he starts feeling nervous and feels butterflies in his stomach near you

It’s almost enough to make you want to reach into his dreams, especially when you feel his hesitance when you thought you already passed that stage.

Well one day when the camp is having a bonfire you two decide to go for a walk and when you grab his hand to stop him from walking he’s more than confused

That’s when you decide to confess your feelings for him, you knew you’d have to or else he never would

He was more than shocked and left once he said he’d have to think about it

Eventually he goes to your cabin when your sleeping and lays down with you

When you wake up he instantly opens up and tells you how sorry he is for his reaction, he was just scared

And eventually agrees to become your boyfriend if you’d like that

Anyways,

The first thing you do is the obvious accidental sleep over

It’s at his cabin since he doesn’t have any other sibling of his (Hazel) staying there

The two of you nap and talk about serious topics, it’s overall pretty intimate and eventually you decide to bring up a topic you’ve been wanting to

It’s about his insomnia and lack of serious sleep

He gets pretty defensive especially since he’d be vulnerable when you use your power on him but he ultimately agrees and falls asleep next to you

Once you two wake up you’re both cuddling and he instantly clams up, one thing you take note of is his coldness and you choose to hug him tighter

Eventually this becomes a normal occurrence and you’d chill in his dorm alone together while doing different tasks in silence

Plus you’d always be there to make him sleep when he doesn’t listen to anyone else

The two of you become more open with your relationship eventually and everyone is supportive

But keep their distance cuz of how mysterious you both seem 😭

Ps if you use your induced sleep on someone during battle then he’s just shocked

He didn’t know you could use it that way and it’s honestly easier to knock out a whole field of opponents then have to fight them

Honestly match made in heaven