#bc canonically he's older but going off their original timelines she should be older but either way its just messy

[hazellvsq]

i like the nico big brother content but also hazel and nico are functionally the same age in my mind. their timelines are so complicated that to me they are basically birthday twins. if she’s thirteen he’s thirteen. if he’s fourteen than she’s fourteen. also most importantly they are both tiny old geezers.

[queen-scribbles]

What motivated you to make Tel your canon outlander?

Oh, that's a fun story :D

Originally it was his big sister, Silver, smuggler extrodinaire and one of my OG launch day babies

(art from emedeme)

She's two years older than Tel and I've always(since making him, at least, bc he came along a year or two after she did) headcanoned they were going through the class story events at roughly the same pace. She was a little ahead for Act 1, he was in Act 2, then she was for Act 3 and the post-main story stuff. They keep in touch and are on good terms; catching up, goofing off, teasing each other mercilessly etc etc. So when Silver starts running Shadow of Revan, of course she taps in her little brother for help. There's no way Tel's a Revanite; he loves the Republic so much he left the family smuggling business to be a goody-two-shoes soldier.

Since this means they've both interacted with Marr and Satele, I had the thought it would be really funny if when Marr commed Silver about the Wild Space Expedition she snarked something about her war hero brother being a better fit for somethin' like that and gave him Tel's holofrequency before snuggling in against Corso and going tf back to sleep. (cue five years of Guilt™ when she thinks she got him killed >.>) And then I started actually thinking about it, and realized it was a) something she would do and b) very helpful for some Silver/Corso timeline things. With when I wanted them to have kids, she would have been 7 or 8 months pregnant in carbonite(yeesh) and Corso would have had an 18 month old to handle while she was MIA and while Silver is good she's not heroic, if that makes sense.

Tel is both. He's so Captain America his face claim is Chris Evans /cough And he's a really good fit for Alliance Commander(better than Silver, much as I love her, she does not do the Leading Large Forces thing). Sooo my joke thought turned into canon. Silver instead got that Dantooine farm Corso mentions in one of his romance letters, three kids, and occasionally goes on forays into Wild Space to look for her little brother bc part of her can't believe he's dead. (she finds him on one of them, and becomes an Alliance recruit. Yes, this messes up the whole Corso and Risha alliance alert, but you only get that as a smuggler, so it's fiiiiine. Risha can tag along. That way I get to reunite her with Vette and all is as it should be in the world.)

OH. Also, Elara Dorne is my favorite romance in the whole game, so I had to make her my canon one. :D

[rozaceous]

Road to Ninja!Mariko? Or maybe a zombie apocalypse au Mariko? I’m sorry I only have very stupid ideas.

An AU where she is reincarnated earlier in canon? Like around 2nd or 3rd war?

anon, you had no way of knowing this, but my original naruto oc was not in fact mariko, though the two share any number of traits! i ended up abandoning that line bc i couldn't wrangle the amnt of foreknowledge required to make canon come out vaguely canon-like, my ideas about canon kept evolving, and there wasn't a plot so much as a few scenes i had in mind.

but here, have nohara yua, who got assigned to uchiha shisui's genin team. (yes, that nohara) she's end-of 3rd war era, approximately, bc kishimoto's timeline is...flexible. i know this isn't quite what you were poking at, but it's what i've got so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Yua all but slams down the last of the dishes on the puny dining table in Sasuke's puny apartment before slamming herself down in front of it all.

"All right, kid," she says, starting to serve herself from the pot of stew. Sasuke warily follows suit. "We're gonna have a talk, and it'll be a bit gross because feelings are a thing, but bear with me. Itadakimasu."

"Itadakimasu."

Yua prods her stew until it's fully mixed with her rice. "Right. So, excepting my older sister with whom I do not get on most days ending in a y, and a friend who's probably crazier than me, I've basically lost everyone I've ever loved. Family, friends, mentors--my heart's a graveyard. And this isn't my idea of attempting compassion," she says warningly, not missing Sasuke's sudden curled lip. He frowns at her instead, caught out. "I'm telling you this because you should know from the get-go that I'm not what you might call emotionally stable. On the other hand, most shinobi aren't, but then again, most aren't quite the level of fucked up I've attained. Though I can name a few. Whatever. That said, I'm also really fucking good at my job."

She shovels a couple of bites into her mouth while Sasuke looks on with an expression of vague disgust at her lack of manners. Yua doesn't give a shit.

"The Academy's probably going to be doing away with early graduation entirely pretty soon since we aren't in wartime and no one wants to chance repeating your precious brother--" Sasuke flinches almost imperticibly and Yua tramples on "--but with that caveat, I graduated at the age of nine, got promoted to Chunnin at ten, and was a jounin by the time I was fourteen. I made the bingo books when I was twelve, and right now I'm listed anywhere from B to S rank. Depends on the country, but Suna's shit and practically lives to piss me off, so the day they give me the satisfaction of treating me like a real threat is the day they get snow in their forecast. They're just bitter that I'm better at wind jutsu than them anyways. Iwa and Kiri are better, though, they take me seriously and have a pretty accurate take on my abilities between the two of them.

"My honest self-assessment is that I'm A to S rank, depending on what type of work you're looking for. I'm not an all-rounder by any means. My taijutsu is decent, bukijutsu is acceptable, and my genjutsu are good but my repertoire is pretty small. I'm ninjutsu type, through and through, and that much I'm damn good at. There's maybe two ninja in the village that can give me a run for my money in ninjutsu, and one of them's the Hokage."

Sasuke has virtually abandoned his stew to stare at her beadily, interested despite himself.

"Now I did all that without any bloodline bullshit, without clan techniques, and almost exclusively being self-taught. And since you're clearly wondering why the fuck I'm telling you my résumé, I'll say: if you wanna learn, I'll teach you."

Sasuke's eyes flare wide and, never one to miss an opportunity to pause dramatically, Yua takes another couple bites.

"Why would you teach me?" Sasuke demands as soon as it's clear that she's not immediately going to explain herself. "I barely even know you."

Yua chokes on a laugh while mid-chew and then starts coughing. She ends up having to gulp water to clear her esophagus.

"Yeah, that's true enough," she admits once she has herself under control. "I've got no credentials as a teacher, either; I've always sort of brushed off taking on a genin team even though I'm sure I'd like it. Partly it's because once you teach someone something, even though you're technically responsible, you've got no control over how they use what you've taught them. Students go errant all the time. And partly it's that I'm an emotionally stunted softie who would imprint all over a bunch of baby genin and mother them within an inch of their lives.

"But I'm still hoping that you'll take me on, kid. Itachi wants to fuck up our lives? Fuck that, I say. He wants you to get strong, to live like shit, all full of unhappiness and hate just to have the chance of taking him in a fight?" Sasuke's hand is white-knuckled over his spoon. "Fuck that," Yua says passionately. "Fuck that asshole and fuck what he wants. I'll make you strong enough that there won't be a damn person in the world, not Itachi or anybody, who can tell you how to live your life. Because if I can give you my skill set, your eye magic baloney combined with the fact that you've got talent in spades and a damn good work ethic will mean that you'll be virtually untouchable."

It's true, too. A Sharingan user with perfect chakra control would be able to steal and then duplicate any jutsu like Kakashi on steroids because of the lack of chakra drain from being able to properly turn off the doujutsu and the efficiency in performing those jutsu. A Sharingan user with perfect chakra control who can use substitution jutsu so well that it's basically teleportation? Unmatched versatility in attacking, superior speed, evasion, illusions-- the word invulnerable comes to Yua's mind.

---

Yua decides that it's time to step in when Naruto is unconscious at Sasuke's feet and the transformation granted by the curse mark starts to recede from his body. She substitutes from her place in the trees to a spot atop the water in his line of sight, just far enough away that he isn't going to feel provoked. Nonetheless, he jolts when he sees her, and she feels the chakra rising in him as though to attack.

"Calm down," she says quietly, words nearly lost in the crashing rush of the waterfall behind her.

Sasuke's hands return to his side, but they're clenched into fists and he regards her warily.

"Yua." His voice is raspy, a little dull. And no wonder, if he's just finished attempting to beat the life out of his best friend only for his tutor to show up. "I'll fight you, too, if I have to."

There's no relish in the words.

"No," she says, still quiet, feeling like the moment deserves her solemnity. "I'd say you've demonstrated your resolve to leave. I won't be the one to drag you back."

---

Sasuke stares at Yua, feeling something almost like panic climbing up his throat.

"The--your mission--"

"Fuck the mission, Sasuke," she says gently, and her expression is sad but not accusing.

He doesn't understand. He'd steeled himself as soon as he'd seen her, knowing that for her to show up at such an opportune moment meant that she'd likely been watching the fight between him and Naruto and that she now has a perfect grasp of her surroundings and Sasuke's condition. And Sasuke knows that even if he were in top shape and had the full use of the curse mark, even if his chakra wasn't as weak as the flame of a candle, he would stand little chance against Yua. She'd shown him the gap in their skills often enough, after all, and she's the one that he's closest to ever since everyone died, the one who made sure he ate well and did his homework and got enough rest, who taught him chakra control and how to shunshin, who calls him things like Little Duck and ruffles his hair no matter how much he protests. Naruto may be his friend, but Yua is the closest thing to family that he has left, is the person with the strongest claim to him, the one most likely to make him return, either through force or personal ties.

Even so, he'd been willing to fight.

So for her to stand before him now and announce that she's abandoning the mission that so many of his peers have hurt themselves over, that she'll ignore the orders of her Kage with ease, and all of it without the faintest trace of judgment on her face after he's tried to kill his best friend--he's just like Itachi who stole Shisui from her--

Yua must understand whatever his features are telling her without words, because she says, "I told you at the beginning that the danger of teaching is that the teacher has no control over how the student uses what they're taught."

Students go errant all the time, his memory echoes, as if summoned by her reminder. He feels it like a punch to the gut. He'd known, before, that he was essentially betraying her by leaving Konoha for Orochimaru, but now he knows it the same way that he knows one of his ribs is fractured.

"But I also told you," she says, "that I wanted you to be strong enough that no one could tell you how to live your life. And that's what I want, for you to have the power to make your own destiny. And you think that Orochimaru has something that no one else does. That his offer of power is unique, superior. So, as the one who promised that to you initially, I apologize for failing you."

And she inclines her head--Yua bows her head--

"Stop," he says in a gasp, and there's moisture building in his eyes. If it sounds like he's begging, it's because he is, because if Yua keeps talking, keeps forgiving him, then his resolve will fail him and everything will have been pointless.

"No," she says, with sudden firmness, and she stares him straight in the eye. "You're choosing your own fate, Sasuke, and I won't resent you for it. This is the path you're walking now, and you can't turn back, you can't be swayed. That's what it means to tangle with destiny--there's no room for regret. And if you're going to Orochimaru, there can't be a single doubt in your heart."

"But why?!" The question rips out of him in his desperation to understand. "After all of this, after everything, why would you let me go?! How can I--how--you--"

"Because I love you," she says without hesitation, even though he sees the glossy film covering her eyes and starting to stick to her lashes. The ferocity of her words takes him aback as much as the content. Literally, too; Sasuke takes a half-step back. "Love is the tie that binds us to one another, but it's not a chain. And anyways, I promised you freedom."

Yua starts to walk towards him, and he stands frozen beside Naruto's unconscious form until she's right in front of him. He thinks, somewhat hysterically, that he really doesn't stand a chance against Yua in a fight if all she has to use is a few words before he's as paralyzed as a fearful rabbit. Naruto--and he forces down an absurd giggle--could stand to learn from her.

She pulls him into her chest tightly and he's helpless against her. No matter that she's only barely taller than him now, no matter the muscle and experience he's gained; she overpowers him.

The hand she has pressed to the back of his head trembles. And then, before he's had time to relax into the embrace, she releases him.

"Take care," she says, and a pair of tears streak down past the purple marks on her cheeks. Sasuke studiously ignores the damp spot he's left on her shoulder.

"I--I will," he says.

They stare at each other for a long moment, each aware that they won't be seeing one another any time soon, and that the next time they meet they may very well be on opposing sides. Sasuke feels something burning deep in his chest, something that's been aflame ever since he'd started fighting Naruto in earnest. It hurts him, warms him; he feels like he's going to choke.

"Now get outta here, kid."

Still helpless against her, he listens.

---

Yua's washing her parents' and sister's headstone like she has every fourth Friday for the past several years when Kakashi finds her. She hands him a soft brush; she's learned to bring more than one.

Kakashi, faintly smudged with dirt and smelling of tree sap and algae and sweat, takes it from her wordlessly, crouching and dousing the brush in her bucket of water. His strokes across the stone are precise and thorough, practiced, and they work in quiet symphony for several minutes.

Finally, he leans back on his heels and says, "I thought you were going to talk some sense into him."

If it's not anything to do with work, Kakashi tends to say only exactly as much as he has to, speaking in bare thesis statements without the supplementary paragraphs that show how he's reached his conclusions, and as such, Yua has become extremely good at reading between Kakashi's lines.

Sasuke is gone, and Kakashi doesn't know why she didn't do more to stop him.

She exhales slowly and with purposeful evenness, offering respectful attention to the characters of her mother's name as she washes them. "I think Sasuke is operating from a different definition of sensible."

Kakashi's snort lacks humor.

"He's no fool, Kakashi," she says lowly. "Rash and impulsive, sure, but not stupid. I'm sure he knows exactly what he's walking into. Orochimaru's made no secret of wanting Sasuke's body for his own."

"I fail to see how giving Orochimaru the precise thing he wants fits any definition of sensible," Kakashi says dryly.

"There's a three-year timeline before Orochimaru can take another body," Yua contradicts. "And I think that for Sasuke it'll be plenty of time."

"For?"

"Becoming strong enough to kill Orochimaru and eliminating the threat against him altogether." Kakashi's head turns to her slightly, but Yua only notes the motion in her peripheral vision. "For better or worse, Konoha's changed since either of us were genin. At his age, I was a chuunin in the bingo books of all the major countries and you were a jounin. Don't get me wrong, in terms of comprehensive skill level, Sasuke is above where I was, but I would've won in a fight because of experience. Experience is a hard teacher, but if you manage to survive it, there's nothing better. And with that stupid curse mark and the certain knowledge that he's targeted by Orochimaru, how much field work could Sasuke really have been guaranteed?"

Kakashi's gaze on her is wary, but he doesn't interrupt.

"If he'd stayed, Sasuke would've been trained to the bone, but he would've been coddled from the world outside the village," Yua says. "And Orochimaru's already breached Konoha's defenses, has killed the Kazekage and the Sandaime Hokage. There's no guarantee that he wouldn't do something equally drastic again for the chance of getting at Sasuke, with no attention to collateral damage. And besides, if we were truly capable of keeping him safe, he wouldn't have that curse mark in the first place. So I'd say Sasuke is taking a lot of factors into account."

Kakashi sighs, running a hand through his messy stack of hair. Yua glances over, intrigued as always at the sight. If his hair is stiff and voluminous enough to defy gravity as it does, how does his hand not get caught?

"Then I guess I'm having a hard time accepting that my student is relatively safer in the hands of the S-class nuke-nin that wants to throttle his soul and possess his body," he bites out. "Especially since I like to think that between the two of us, even Orochimaru wouldn't be too much to handle."

"I'm retired from field work," Yua reminds him, though in truth she's warm at the open expression of respect at her abilities considering how long it's been since they've worked together.

Kakashi gives her a flat look. "I seem to remember you holding your own during the Crush just fine."

"I suppose," she says blandly. "But the fact of the matter is that Sasuke doesn't think that he has anything left to learn from me. And maybe he's right; there's only so many chakra control exercises I can give him. I'm in no position to offer field work."

"There was an easy way to change that and you know it."

Yua drops her brush and pours the remaining water over the stones. Some of it splashes at her bared toes. Kakashi offers his brush back and it clatters into the bottom of the bucket.

She joins Kakashi in resting in a squat, butt nearly touching the ground and her arms crossed over her knees, chin resting upon them.

"My goal in teaching Sasuke was to make him strong enough to choose his own destiny. And what he does with what I've taught him has always been his decision."

"Yua--"

"Was I supposed to drag him back?" Yua interrupts, surly. "He's demonstrated his resolve to leave, I'd say. I couldn't love that boy more if he were my own flesh and blood, but I'm not going to chain him down based on some hypocritical idea of what I think is best for him. I can only trust that I've taught him well enough that he'll make it. The other option is despair and agony and I've had enough of that for my lifetime, thanks very much."

She presses her eyes into her forearms. "I've made, Kakashi. I kept him as safe as I could all this time, I trained him and made sure he ate properly, I taught him how to keep house for himself, asked about his grades in school and what he learned in class. But never once did I tell him about my true motive in retiring to hospital work. I wasn't as honest as I should have been, and part of me--I want Sasuke in my life forever, but part of me is glad he's gone so I don't have to worry as much about the fallout of my actions. And part of me is scared of what he'll do when he finds out what I've kept from him."

There is, for a long moment, silence.

"You've always acted according to Sasuke's best interests." Kakashi's voice leaves no room for rebuttal. "If you weren't honest with him, it's because it wasn't safe. You know that as well as I do--better, even, so don't go beating yourself up about it. No one expected you to take care of Sasuke and no one would have asked it of you, but you stepped in where no one else did. You've done a good job with him, Yua, and if you're saying that you think he's strong enough to make it on his own, I'm sure he'll come out on top. Though I don't like it.

"And as for what'll happen when he finds out the truth…" Yua dares to peek up from her arms as Kakashi pauses, and he treats her to an eye smile. "Maa, don't underestimate how much that brat loves you, too."

"Tch." But despite the lingering sense of anxiety, Yua does feel comforted. And then she snickers. "Look at us, having a conversation about feelings like emotionally competent adults. Is there snow soon?"

"You can speak for yourself," Kakashi says primly. "I am certainly not and never plan to be something so dull and mature-sounding as emotionally competent. It's likely dreadful and far too much work. Besides, I have an image to maintain."

"Yes, heaven forbid that I mar your reputation as the Angst Lord of Konoha."

"Precisely."

"My name is Hatake Kakashi, and I like the gloom. My dislikes are sunshine and good cheer. Hobbies include brooding over my tragic past and staring moodily off into the distance. I have no dreams for the future because hope is a delusion for those too afraid to engage with the despair that is reality."

"You know me so well."

Yua laughs.

---

Tsunade hasn't been back in Konoha for very long, but she's been around long enough to hear about how Konoha's once-notorious Nohara Yua, whose fame had reached even derelict pubs and casinos, had turned into the sweet-mannered, harmless-looking woman barely past girlhood that had first greeted Tsunade upon her arrival in the village hospital. Well, Tsunade has nothing against sweet manners or looking harmless, acknowledges their advantages, even, but Nohara Yua had embodied those qualities to the extent that Tsunade had started to think that the girl who had been renowned as the Windwalker and internationally feared as a ninjutsu master had been the result of overblown rumor, carefully planted misdirection, and willful blindness.

Initially, Tsunade had found her to be a competent enough doctor, and generally inoffensive. Upon learning who exactly had briefed her on her new patients' statuses and given her the rundown on current hospital procedures, the cognitive dissonance had been so great that she'd had to be assured that yes, it was that Nohara Yua. No, really.

And the nurse assuring Tsunade had, with the reluctance born of politeness and the thoroughness born of a love for gossip, told an astonished Shizune and skeptical Tsunade in an undertone why the Windwalker was working as a member of hospital staff. And then Tsunade had been well aware that she was in no place to make comments about lifestyle choices after losing a lover.

Still, that the woman apparently took on D-rank home repair missions as a hobby did not inspire Tsunade to believe that Nohara was ever anything other than a reasonably talented kunoichi whose offensive abilities had been rather exaggerated, both out of strategic convenience and a desire by other kunoichi for a female figure to look up to as the next--well, her. And even if Nohara had been as lethal as her reputation had painted her, Tsunade had been sure that that person was as dead as Uchiha Shisui, replaced by someone content to live out the rest of her life in a much quieter fashion.

But Tsunade only had been sure because right now the woman in question is standing in front of her desk next to Hatake Kakashi, explaining oh-so-succinctly about the steaming pile of shit that Hiruzen-sensei had left her to inherit, the ooze and stench of which is still far from stale for all that the rug has been thrown over it for almost half a decade. The same festering dung heap that Nohara has apparently been investigating secretly and under her own initiative, with no one but Hatake in the know, for the last four years.

"So let me get this straight," Tsunade says, in the full knowledge that she'll be getting absolutely plastered later this evening no matter what Shizune has to say about it. "The Uchiha were planning a coup against Konoha leadership."

"Yes."

"And the Sandaime was aware of this."

"Yes."

"And not only did Itachi not go insane and kill his entire clan, but he was acting under orders. From Danzo. Whom Itachi believed to have the Hokage's approval."

"Yes."

"And Itachi is now acting as an undercover agent without a handler in the international terrorist organization known as Akatsuki."

"That's correct."

"While Danzo is currently operating a secret military organization within Konoha itself, which answers only to him, and which the Sandaime falsely believed to have been dissolved as he ordered several years ago."

"Yes."

"And this organization has infiltrated Konoha's active forces on every level with no one the wiser, and has been taking and executing missions without official sanction."

Nohara's gaze slides to the alcove of Tsunade's office, where the ANBU agent on duty is hidden under seal--oh fucking shit--

"ANBU Cat is someone I trust with my life," Hatake inserts smoothly.

"What a fucking relief," Tsunade snarls. "Cat, get over here."

Cat is crouched in front of her in a flash.

"Get that decorative plate off your face, Cat," she snaps. Cat follows her instruction with admirable speed and Tsunade looks into the unassuming features of a man approximately Yua's age who is clearly struggling to master some kind of emotion that makes him look extremely nauseous. "Your name, Cat. Not ANBU designation."

"Tenzou, Hokage-sama."

"Right. Tenzou. How long have you served in ANBU?"

"Seven years, Hokage-sama."

"Long enough to have known Uchiha Itachi."

"We were briefly on the same ANBU team, Hokage-sama, along with Kakashi-senpai and Yua-senpai."

"And do the events that Nohara has just finished describing sound plausible to you?"

Tenzou's eyes lower momentarily before conscientiously returning to meet her gaze. "They sound as plausible as Itachi having a violent mental break, Hokage-sama."

"And do you know of this organization called ROOT?"

In response, Tenzou opens his mouth and sticks his tongue out as far as it will go. For one horrible second Tsunade flounders, wondering if this is some faddish gesture she's too old to understand, and then she sees the seal.

"That bastard," Tsunade whispers.

Nohara snorts. "Yeah, he likes to seal up the tongues of anyone who does work for him so they can't blab. Most of my investigation into ROOT has been looking at what should be there, not what is. You find it by spotting the empty space.

"I know that he has shinobi that he's trained specifically for years, and then there are others who have engaged in missions with him thinking that they're partaking in some extra black black ops, not aware that they're doing anything that isn't perfectly legitimate, if secret beyond all reason. Kakashi got sucked in years ago, before he realized that Danzo was operating off books, and Danzo dropped him like a hot cake and left him to fester under that godforsaken seal. Recon work has been a bitch."

"If your goal was to squirrel out ROOT, why didn't you return to ANBU?" Tsunade questions narrowly. "Surely it would have been easier to gather intelligence while on Danzo's recruiting grounds."

Nohara stills, looking discomfited for the first time. "There were several reasons," she says finally. "Part of it is that I wanted to be there for Sasuke, and having a set schedule at the hospital and no missions taking me out of the village made that considerably easier. Part of it's that I want Danzo to think I'm none the wiser to his schemes, and I'd say I've done a good job of being soft and overly emotional, exactly like he hates in shinobi. And then, well, I honestly wasn't in any shape to take on ANBU work." Nohara clenches her hands at her sides, and her stare is borderline defiant. "My partner had just died under suspicious circumstances, my friend and captain had killed his clan and turned missing-nin. Not to mention, I'd just finished recovering from a mission that I'm pretty sure was supposed to off me. Bluntly, I was a fucking mess."

Hatake slides Nohara a look and Tenzou does the same, though Tenzou's look has the distinct tinge of pity whereas Hatake's is merely assessing.

"Mostly though," Nohara continues, "I no longer had faith in the Hokage. Shisui went to the Sandaime about the coup, and the next thing I knew, Shisui was dead and the Uchiha clan was gone. Things had gone extremely and terribly wrong and I knew that either the Sandaime was in on it, or he'd been too ineffective to prevent it. I could never betray the village that Shisui loved so much, that my family died to protect, but neither could I serve under Sarutobi Hiruzen."

Tsunade understands her phrasing perfectly. The village that her entire family--barring one estranged sister--had died for. The village that Shisui had loved. Not Yua.

"I can understand using Sasuke's departure from the village as the the impetus for bringing this to my attention," Tsunade says slowly. "But I have to ask the question: what do you plan to do if I don't pursue your investigation? What if I decide to leave things buried, or even to silence everyone in this room?"

Hatake freezes entirely, expressionless, and Tenzou's eyes widen.

Nohara merely blinks.

"I came to you with this information because I think that you have a sense of justice," she says. "The Sandaime was too focused on mercy, not realizing that mercy without justice is nothing but weakness. Honestly, I think the man was a coward. But you know the pain that I know, Tsunade-sama, and you left Konoha because you couldn't abide the senselessness of the loss, and I think that you're back because you want to see that loss made meaningful. And if that's the case, if what I hope and think about you is correct, then I'm ready to serve you in whatever capacity you think best without reservation.

"But if not." Nohara's voice doesn't harden or raise, her face doesn't shift. Even so, the room feels a degree colder. "Even heaven won't stop me, Tsunade-sama. I'm not interested in revenge, but if you deny justice to me, to Sasuke and Itachi and all the dead, then there will be no stopping me. I won't let anyone demean the ideal that every shinobi on the Memorial Stone died to honor and uphold. I won't let the Konoha that so many have fought and hurt for turn into an empty shell, devoid of meaning. I've done my best these last few years to work so that this wrong can be resolved as peacefully as possible. And even if I let it be a convenient face, I've genuinely tried to live gently and kindly. But in the end, I'm a shinobi. If it means that I can look the boy I raised in the eye, if it means I can take my friend's hands and let him put down his sword, and if it means that when I die I can say to my parents and my sister and my partner that nothing they suffered was in vain, then I will use every scrap of knowledge and strength I possess for violence, and I won't hesitate to cut down you or anyone who stands in my way."

Silence reigns, and Tsunade doubts that her left eyebrow has ever strained so high. Yes, the woman before her is certainly no accommodating doctor. This is a woman who is every bit the efficient killer of her mythology and then some, crafty and slippery and with a diamond will.

She scoffs. "I'll consider myself warned, then."

[ask-reno]

Too many Turks in the barracks

Fair warning for incoming ooc wall-of-text babbling. This is a lengthy, unsolicited reply to a question I found on another Reno-related blog (electric-turks), but I couldn't resist. Who knows, maybe there are some other folks out there who are as overly-invested in the Turks as I am?

.....anyone? :'D

Nevermind, let's just get to the excess. The original question was: What exactly does Reno’s position mean? “Second in command”

WELL I'M SO GLAD YOU ASKED... someone else... who doesn't know me. And now for a bunch of vaguely-in-depth Turk-related information you probably never really needed.

As I said in my last post, there is actually a whole lot of canon-based info about the Turks and how they're set up as a unit/team. Let me spoil you right now by saying I am going way past the original question and just talking a lot about Turk hierarchy/history because I enjoy typing novels, apparently.

So by the time the main game rolls around (and the remake, by extension), the Turks are a much smaller elite unite than they were earlier in the full FFVII timeline. Reno is definitely a veteran Turk along with Tseng, Rude, and to an extent Elena because the Turks were originally a much larger group of ShinRa operatives. You can see a few of the older Turks in the PSP game Crisis Core, wherein Reno is much younger, Tseng is not the leader yet (or maybe just became the new leader?), and Rufus/Elena are first entering the scene as significant players. If you really want to delve into Turk stuff, check out the translations of Before Crisis (the Japanese-only mobile game), which was based around the Turks as whole and is the earliest installment in the FFVII timeline. There were tons of Turks at that point. So many, many Turks.

Now bear with me because I might be a bit off with the timeline and character ages. It's been a hot second and I am writing this off the top of my head, but I used to rp one of the BC Turks in addition to Reno, so I HOPE I still know enough to add some relevant info (and please correct me when I'm wrong). Essentially, the point is that by the time FFVII OG/Remake happens, Reno is for sure what you'd call a veteran Turk if just because he's managed to stay alive that long. Turks don't generally think about pension plans, if you catch my drift.

Reno is second-in-command because the Turks are set up on a hierarchy, similar to the military as a loose comparison. President ShinRa (senior or junior) is commander in chief; the leader of the Turks (Veld in BC and Tseng later on) answers directly to the president and functions as the highest ranking Turk; any second-in-command ranks highest after Tseng and (as mentioned by previous people in the conversation) will step in as the next acting officer should something happen to the leader.

So far as I know there aren't any defined ranks after second-in-command, but it would probably come down to Rude and then Elena since there are only two canonically-acknowledged Turks left at that point. Elena is established as the youngest as of Crisis Core, since she comes in as a teen schoolgirl if you can believe it. (Also her older sister was one of the earlier Turks from BC).

I haven't played the remake yet so I'm not sure how much they kept up the class-clown attitude Reno ultimately has in Advent Children, but at the end of the day Reno is one of the longest-standing Turks and so he would be the natural choice after Tseng as leader. My particular take on Reno as a character is that he's damn good at his job despite his image -- be that meth-addict-looking 1997 Reno who can't win a battle to save his life, young barely-past-rookie Reno from BC/CC or silly comic-relief child-grabbing Reno from AC. Maybe they're all the real Reno or maybe none of them are. He clearly calls some shots though ranking immediately under Tseng.

...and that would probably piss Rod off to no end but I will end my babbling there. Anyone else place BC Turks?

[bluebeetle]

honestly since its on my mind here is my rankings of jason ships off the top of my head:

jayt1m, bruj4y, j4ydick,j4ydami, jayt4lia, jaysl4de: theyre bad scoob. inc3st and p3do shit galore; jayt1m woulda been more bearable if tim hadnt been adopted right before jay came back, but still has issues esp re: how jay acted towards tim and tim being a minor while jay is an adult, ableit one very close to his age. tbh i dont trust anyone who likes any of these for obvs reasons. anyways jay has a rly interesting dynamic with all of them except slade tbh and making it romantic ruins it for various reasons, but also bc family is SUCH a driving point for jason!!!! 

jaybabs: i am so tired of DC putting babs with every man they can lol. she deserves better. anyways i dont like it, the few interactions we see with babs and jay prior to him coming back have very older babysitter-like energies, she is supposed to be older than dick (who was already 18 when jay was 12!!) and has known him since he was a child its a weird age gap and they rly dont have a lot in common other than a shared trauma over the joker. its not good and does a disservice to what could be a good platonic relationship that could allow them to heal, esp jay. 

jayroy: i prefer them as friends. they have such good energy with jay as roys’s friend’s little brother who somehow became his friend but as a romance its kinda dull to me, and im not the biggest fan of their age gap 

jaydonna: only ogs will remember when DC tried to push that jay-kyle-donna love triangle on us lol thanks dan didio. honestly its not the worst, i could maybe see it, but donna being around dicks age still makes it a lil weird and the love triangle sucked. donna deserves better, but hey, its better than donnas canon husband tho! 

jaysionis: no comment.

jayanita: yes this exists it appears in 1 issue of the young justice comic during the world without young justice storyline. in this jay is about 18 and alive, with something akin to his pre-crisis backstory. hes shown to have been in a relationship with anita, who i believe is around 16-18 and then he dies lol. would be interesting to see them meet in normal canon but anita hasnt appeared since like 2007 and who knows how old she’d be now with the wonky ages. has potential ig but its in a grey area. 

jayrose: i feel like they have potential BUT it is ruined by the fact that it only ever seems to exist with them already together and interested in each other, with basically no build up or real chemistry as a result. it feels forced and more like out of a necessity to pair people up. they could have a fun dynamic, esp around damian but it feel like its never done right, and often at rose’s expense

jaykyle: their ages are vague due to varous timeline fuckery in DC but i always assumed they were both roughly college age by the time they interact, with kyle being a lil bit older . has a lot of potentiall imo but they havent interacted much in so long. got that sorta bad boy x tortured artist thing going on i like it.

jayconnor: tbh i would love to see them interact more. i feel like this is the superior jay/archer ship tbh tbh. i think it could rly work esp bouncing off each other with their different personalities but they still have a lot in common. they def should interact more now that connor is back in the comics.

jaysteph: speaking of ppl who need to interact more... DC has fucked with their ages a bit since they want to age up jay but not age up steph, so that is an issue, however originally they were only about a year or two apart (since jay is a few months younger than cassandra cain and steph is older than tim by about a year). they have a lot in common with their backstories and their roles in the batfamily so i think it could b cute! much better jay/batgirl ship than babs tbh... would love to see them just TALK. also funny to imagine jay rubbing it in tims face.

jaytemis: i rly like artemis and can see potential in this one so i really do like it! however scott lobdell is NOT the one who shoulda been telling their story and thus they suffer from his writing heavily imo. has a lot of potential and is def my fave bat x amazon ship.

[cinematicnomad]

1, 7, 25 for the fanfic end of year ask :)

001. favorite fic you wrote this year i have a soft spot for take my hand (take my everything) which was the first fic i wrote this year! and kind of the first step back into writing creatively on something new that wasn’t the 7 year monster sterek fic. also my first foray into 9-1-1 fic and was just a lot of fun! 

007. longest completed fic you wrote this year the longest fic i wrote was my second for the year! so show me (family) wound up being around 16k+ for 9-1-1 which kind of burst out of me over the course of one 48 hour window unlike take my hand which took a few weeks to crank out. 

025. a fic you read this year you would recommend everyone read SO MANY FICS DUDE!!! i’m gonna rec a couple, some that i re-read this year and some that i discovered for the first time, all from a variety of fandoms. BUT heads up, you didn’t specify a fandom so it’s gonna be a little scattered. also someone else sent me this same question but specified 9-1-1, so i’m gonna reserve those recs for that ask. GET READY!!

and this, your living kiss by opal_bullets (7/7 | 84k+ | M) destiel; AU: college/university; john winchester’s A+ parenting; angst with a happy ending

only a very few people in the world know that the celebrated and reclusive poet jack allen is just kansas mechanic dean winchester, a high school dropout with a few bucks to his name. not that it matters anymore; life has left him so wrung out he never wants to pick up another pen.

until, that is, a string of coincidences leads dean to auditing a poetry course with one dr. castiel novak. the professor is wildly intelligent, devastatingly handsome...and just so happens to be academia’s foremost expert on the poetry of jack allen.

note: i discovered this fic back in the pre-pandemic times of feb 2020 and i’ve read this fic TWICE since, leaving a lengthy comment each time. the poetry in the fic itself is stunningly gorgeous and i have a habit of reading it out loud to myself while reading bc it begs to be heard. this fic is seriously beautiful and makes me want to read all the poet!dean au’s out there in the world. unfortunately there aren’t that many so i just keep coming back to this well. i don’t think i can express enough how much i love this fic. 

lost time by ARCurren (105/105 | 350k+ | T)  bransonxsybil; AU: canon divergent; outsider POVs; original characters; slow burn

the story of a free spirit who was asked to give up the man she loved for a system she didn’t believe in and what happened next. AU after 3.04. 

note: did i think, when i stumbled across this fic years ago, that it would wind up being one of my all time favorites that i return to time and again to re-read? never. did i re-read it for like the dozenth time this year?? 110%. this fic is everything i want from fanfiction—it’s beautifully written, expands on canon, and shows me all the hidden moments the cameras never did (not to mention it’s historically accurate and delves deep into irish politics of the time). the first third or so of this fic is all about tom and sybil’s slow burn romance at downton, but the fic really bursts into its own when we follow the two to dublin and get introduced to all of the author’s deliciously detailed oc’s. heads up warning: this fic was never officially completed, though the final chapter is a beautifully written summary of the final arc of the fic. even so, it’s fucking worth it. 

misfire by mothlights & unpossible (6/6 | 28k+ | T) sterek; time travel; angst with a happy ending; alive hale family; magic; alternating POV

“the debt must be repaid,” she says, and it has the weight of a vow. the words resonate through him, ringing through his ribcage and the bones of his jaw, and stiles loses his breath and maybe his grip on reality because she draws herself upright and where there had once stood a supermodel-level MILK now there is galadriel’s much hotter older sister, a presence of unmistakable power in their ordinary, smells-vaguely-of-thai-takeout hallway. 

“oh shit,” stiles says. 

note: this fic is the first in the misfire ‘verse and i need you to understand that it literally broke me when i binge read these fics a month or so ago. i am a sucker for a solid time travel fic especially bc there are such few good ones in fandom. but this gets at the heart of it all by exploring the idea of stiles getting the chance to save derek’s family and taking it...after he and derek are romantically together in his true timeline and then actually dealing with the ramifications of how that alters everything and how stiles survives in this new present where he and derek are virtual strangers. everyone should definitely read this, but you should also know that i fucking sobbed while reading the sequel (which also has a happy ending, but really digs deep into the nitty gritty angst of the repercussions). 

map of the world by seperis (11/11 | 154k+ | M)  destiel; end!verse; alternate universe; canon divergent; original characters; slow burn

the world’s already over and they’re already dead. all they’re doing now is marking time until the end. 

note: look, if you don’t know about down to agincourt by @seperis, what are you doing with your life?? the series is over 1M+ words so far, the fic author is on book 4 out of a planned 8, and it’s fucking phenomenal. i know i’ve tagged a couple of these recs as slow burn but...this is the slowest slow burn to ever burn. canon!dean travels back into the end!verse timeline just as lucifer kills dean and somehow cas made it out alive and has to keep dean safe while he learns to become his end!verse counterpoint. the world building in this series is intense and i cannot recommend it enough. i’m still in the midst of my re-read bc it’s SUCH an endeavor but i highly recommend it to everybody. 

invictus by ellanasan (116/116 | 355+ | M) hayffie; au: alive abernathy family; pre-hunger games; canon prostitution; slow burn

“so then, before i can even think about doing something stupid like trying to stab him with his fucking golden paperknife, he gives me a choice, see?” haymitch continued, almost detached. “either i play nice like all the other victors or he’ll kill my family. i could either become his puppet—greatest punishment he could give me, according to him—or i could become the example.”

AU in which haymitch’s family lives.

note: hello, have you ever wondered what the hunger games series would be like if haymitch’s family were alive? i fucking hadn’t until 2 years ago when i stumbled across this fic and fell head over heels in love with this ship. @ellanainthetardis is my go to hunger games fic writer for anything exploring canon and i’m obsessed with anything she writes about the OG victors pre-canon (finnick, joanna, chaff, etc). this fic is just 300k+ exploring that world and all the intricate details of how cruel the games could really be. HIGHLY recommend. i definitely re-read it this fall when i needed a pick me up.

don’t know what i’m supposed to do (haunted by the ghost of you) by crazyassmurdererwall (1/1 | 30k+ | T) sterek; canon divergent; angst with a happy ending; ghosts; stiles POV

stiles sees dead people. yep. seriously.

(he’s got this. he’s totally got this. so what if one of them is derek’s mom?)

note: did you know that @crazyassmurdererwall is one of my all time favorite people? and that she’s wicked talented? and that in our spare time she’ll send me a billion fic ideas that are amazing and i get to hear all the intricate details of her plot bunnies? but i digress. this fic is one of my all time fave sterek fics i’ve re-read it sooo many times. there’s just something about the heartache and stiles’ insecurity and the way he tries to shoulder it all on his own. and then there’s alli’s brilliant writing, the way she weaves through a scene and paints a picture just so and manages to tug at your heart strings with her precise word choice. there’s some amazing world building in this fic as it explores this other facet of the supernatural that canon teen wolf never touched upon, and i’m so grateful for that bc alli is the only one who should be allowed to write about ghosts and teen wolf together. 

lagavulin and guinness by snarfle (10/10 | 163k+ | explicit) hartwin; slow burn; PTSD; suicidal thoughts; graphic depictions of violence; domestic abuse

plenty of people had looked down on eggsy throughout his life. he had gotten fairly used to it. didn’t mean it was fair, but he knew how these things worked. what really sucked was that the new arthur was worse than the old one.

“eggsy grimaced. he didn’t know how to explain to harry—who seemed like he hadn’t been discriminated against a day in his life—that the new arthur kept giving him what amounted to suicide missions, and that he was currently bleeding out in a warehouse because of the deliberately bad intel she had given him.”

also featuring: dean is harder to get rid of than eggsy thought, his mum is going off the deep end, there are way too many nefarious plots in play, and eggsy is really beginning to wish that harry would stop holding his hand and kiss him instead.

note: look, i know i recced this literally less than a week ago but i ALSO stayed up til 5AM re-reading this last night and it was a-m-a-z-i-n-g. i was on a bit of a kingsman kick earlier this year, so i’ve actually re-read this fic TWICE so far in 2020. i will give you a serious warning in that this fic delves deep into domestic abuse through the lens of a variety of different relationships. it also explores the potential for abuse in hartwin, bc this fic is one of the few that actually commits to the fact that they’re literal spies who murder people. actively. a lot. but seriously, this fic is one of my fave in the fandom and i STRONGLY recommend it. 

waste of breath by bryrosea (1/1 | 22k+ | M) loganxveronica; canon compliant; missing scenes; navy; past child abuse

logan echolls, the nine years, and the navy.

note: bryrosea has an obscene number of amazing logan and veronica fics (her canon divergent series stay with me is another i re-read this year), but i’ve found myself returning to this fic a lot over the years. i’m a sucker for canon compliant fics that explore the missing scenes in between canon and this fic hits all the right buttons by diving deep into how logan echolls went from being a trash fire at hearst college at the end of s3 to being a decorated navy pilot by the movie. it explores logan seeking out therapy and making a life for himself that he can be proud of, all while pining after the girl who got away. and bc this author is amazing, she followed it up with a sequel from veronica’s point of view in the series done by only me. 

the law of equivalent exchange by awed_frog (8/8 | 60k+ | M) destiel; POV castiel; pre-canon; post-canon; canon compliant; immortality; reincarnation

“and what’s the point of it?”

“of love? there isn’t one. loving is its own purpose.” 

note: i mean??? i don’t really know what to say except that this is one of the truly most beautiful fics i have ever read. it follows castiel through time as he meets different reincarnations of sam and dean across history and falls ever more deeply in love. it is achingly tender and so ecstatically written that i die just thinking about it. and that summary? i mean. holy fuck break my heart why don’t you? i don’t know how i missed out on this fic for so long since it was published in 2015 but i only learned about it for the first time back in july and it was. life changing?? when the fic finally reaches the canon timeline and he meets THIS dean it’s peak yearning. 10/10 will read again.

ahead in the count by elisela (17/17 | 50k+ | E) sterek; AU: sports; pitcher!stiles; teacher!derek; long distance relationship; getting together

“yankee fan,” derek says, laughing when stiles makes a disgusted face. “the bronx bombers, stiles, you can’t be a new yorker and—”

“stop talking right now,” stiles sighs, shaking his head. “i can’t believe i still want to kiss you after that,” he says, pulling derek in by his coat. “this is making me rethink everything.” 

“i’ll never watch them again,” derek promises, and stiles laughs against his mouth. 

or: stiles is a starting pitcher for the NY mets when he meets and falls in love with derek. derek doesn’t know. 

note: i read SO MANY of @elisela’s 911 fics this summer, which i loved, and then she got into teen wolf and started writing sterek and i just about died. this fic is amazing, one of my fave sterek AU’s that i’ve read in years. it’s just the right amount of drama and angst and fluff filled with all the joys of miscommunication and character relationships that makes reading sterek such a joy. reading this fic and finding out eli needed fic recs pushed me to dive back in to reading sterek fics for a bit this fall so i can say with the utmost authority that this is one of the best i’ve read in a long time. 

i used to think one day we’d tell the story of us by notequitegucci (2/2 | 32k+ | M) gendrya; alternate universe—modern setting; outsider POV; friends to lovers; friends to lovers

9 times a stark encounters gendry + 1 time he meets the starks.

note: again, this is the first in a 2 part series titled love me like you do that explores arya and gendry’s dynamics together through the point of view of her family. game of thrones ended last year with a whimper but i keep returning to the gendrya tag on ao3 to seek out new, amazing content and also to re-read some old favorites. i can’t remember if i came across this for the first time last year or this one, but i’ve read it and re-read it more times than i can count since and i love it more than i can describe. i’m a total sucker for outsider POV fics and my biggest pet peeve in canon is the fact that none of the stark’s ever found out that arya and gendry had a history together. this modern au fic almost makes up for it by giving me a gendry encounter with every family member and then the big reveal. it’s peak content. 

theeeeeeese recs got a little away from me. i wasn’t originally intending on adding lengthy notes to each entry but ... oh well!! these are all amazing so please enjoy. 

fanfic end of the year asks

[chaoticspacefam]

18 and 20 for Ty? 💗

from the numbered headcanons asks, here: [x]

Thank you for the asks, @palepinkycat ! :D I hope y’all are strapped in for this, bc 20 in particular has a lot of angst. So fair warning~ owo

(art by @moonlitalien ^^) 18. Things they’ll never admit

1) He’s scared his mom is going to pull a “classic Sith*” one day, decide he’s “useless” and just up and leave him like his grandma once suggested she should (*beats D’leah with a broom* 🧹🧹) He doesn’t want to be the reason she starts to consider it so he’ll never tell her this ;-; (Rai wouldn’t dare, of course, but Ty doesn’t know that D:) * Disclaimer: What people now tend to consider “classic Sith���, but I have entire HC’s about how Sith parents are with their children which are actually not like that at all and it’s simply that this has been lost through the various wars etc. and Valkorion’s takeover, and now those who are harsher due to wanting their kids to be “strong” and yadda yadda are more commonplace, but yeah...what people consider modern-day “classic Sith” of “take care of yourself or bye, runt” basically

2) He really, really hates blood. As in, if he smells it too strongly he might faint. He doesn’t want people to think he’s a “terrible Sith” so he will quickly remove himself from a room if someone’s bleeding so this doesn’t happen

3) Even though he builds, takes apart and fixes lightsabers for a living, he really doesn’t know how to fight with one all that well. He can deflect blaster shots and maybe block-and-parry enough to not get stabbed before someone can run in to rescue him, but he can’t duel for shit: he’s a string bean with pretty much no (substantial) muscle to his frame and he’s very easy to throw around like a limp ragdoll hahaha People might make fun of him for this because “dude you literally build them what do you mean you can’t use one?!” so he keeps it on the down-low XD this one gets long so I’m gonna put a cut here ovo Long rambly headcanons (mostly) filled with angst below the cut!

20. What-ifs/Alternate Timelines

Are you ready for the a n g s  t? No? Well you’re getting some anyway sorry, most of these AUs are full of it, m’sorry 1) Zephyrverse AU Ty still exists, but his backstory plays out quite different to Subterfugeverse Ty. The events that lead up to his birth are pretty much the same, except instead of D’leah finding out about him when he’s a baby, Kas helps Rai to hide him from her (because they’re worried she would, y’know, kill him if she found out who his father was before they got a chance to explain how it happened and yeahh), they succeed in this for a while, but eventually it’s not D’leah that finds him, but his uncle (Tsâhis’ older brother), Naalush. Realizing that Ty is in fact his brother’s child - and also a possible advantage for him against Saarai - Naalush ends up kidnapping Ty and stealing him away to raise him himself. The twins look for him for several weeks but cannot find him and assume he’s died, this is when D’leah finally finds out there was a baby from That Mess (tm) but as this time Saarai is heartbroken because she thinks he’s dead, she’s less angry about it and eventually they settle things and go into hiding again to stop Vitiate and his cronies from finding out about them after Tsâhis exposed their true identities. His original plan was to convince Ty that his mom “didn’t want him because he was a runt”, and make Ty hate his mother enough that he might kill Saarai for him once he grew up, since he figured Saarai wouldn’t hurt her baby...while he was right about that, he didn’t count on Ty being a complete wet blanket. So, even if he can’t train him to fight his mama, he still keeps him around both as his only connection to Tsâhis and also as a bartering chip against Saarai, he convinces Ty that if he tries to go back to them then Saarai and Ni’kasi will kill him because of his father and basically teaches him to be too scared of being hurt by his mother to go back to her even though he wants to deep down and for a long time this works. Eventually during the war that gets launched as part of Naalush’s Poorly Executed Revenge Plot, he runs into Ni’kasi and Sash (Saarai’s current wife, played by my friend ofc), and both are shocked to find out that Ty is still alive. Sash realises he’s Saarai’s son and basically decides “okay kid I’m also your mom now and we’re going home”, and it takes her some time to build up his trust again to bring him back to the Empire, but she manages it. Ty is terrified of everything and everyone because of the things Naalush had convinced him of, except for Sash, so Saarai asks her to mentor him since she’s the only one Ty trusts and eventually she manages to get him comfortable & settled again. By the time Sash & Rai get married he’s more “back to normal” and he asks Sash officially if he can call her “mom” and that’s that :’D He’s now the head sabersmith for the Empire and he also has a lady-friend and an eventual baby on the way later on down the line~ 2) Sort of an off-shoot what-if scenario to the above one: I had tossed this up as a possible ending in case things didn’t work out with him as a character so we could cut him out of the rp ICly, but basically the war eventually boils down to a final confrontation between his mother and his uncle, Saarai makes a Big Oof and his uncle ends up stabbing her in the heart and she “dies” temporarily, Ty’s Great-aunt is a talented Force witch/healer and could theoretically bring Rai back, but would need a lot of Force energy to do so, and Ty, feeling a bit outcast in the Empire and unsure whether he would be welcome long-term, but knowing they need Saarai to lead, offers himself up as that conduit. This ultimately would have led to him dying of course, but at least his momma would’ve lived. (but we decided we both loved him too much to axe him in the end so yeah we didn’t go for that and ended up finding a different solution to bring Rai back from the dead that didn’t involve killing the baby tomato lol) 3) this one is super unfleshed out, but basically the most similar to the Subterfugeverse timeline, except when D’leah finds out about Ty being born and loses her shit, Kissai’s still around to stop her from hurting him and becomes a sort of protector for the baby tomato. He bonds quite well with his grandpa and Kissai teaches him enough self-defence to take care of himself, and beats up anybody that tries to give him shit (if Saarai doesn’t get to them first XD)

there may be more later on down the line (and #3 will likely become more complex and fleshed out) but as of rn we haven’t gotten to actually write anything solid for any further AUs as we’re still working through plots for the “canon” Zephyrverse timeline :D

[hackedmotionsensors]

Hey I feel like you’ve already answered this but what are some of your favorite iron man or Captain America comics and why? What story lines would you recommend? I’m curious about the more modern stuff. What’s some of your fav comic artists when it comes to marvel?

OKAY SO. 

holy shit this got long so UNDER THE READ MORE WE GO

This is always kind of a hard question to answer because I personally have not read everything in regards to either Iron man or Captain America. I’ve read the Tales of Suspense stories a lot because I keep trying to start over from the very beginning. And that’s not always helpful if you just wanna dip your toes or give Iron Man/Cap a go.

So what I CAN tell you is here’s what I did when I was first getting into comics around 2012.

I went to Borders/Barnes and Noble and a I read a bunch of the compilations they had in the store. Someone has already done the work FOR you so its really easy to just pick up a book and read from there. 

I started out with Invincible Iron Man  (I’m gonna link to Amazon but I suggest not buying from them because Bezos is a demon [comixology is owned by amazon as well but it is a convenient app]) 

Marvel has its own comics app but if you also read and pay for other comics its not ideal. There are places to “read comic books online” and for older stuff I definitely do this now but for newer comics I’ll try to pay for them especially if its indie. Support indie comics!!! 

Anyway. Invincible Iron Man. A polarizing story in terms of Iron Man lore. But its definitely an easy one to get into and read especially if you’re coming in from MCU and are just testing things. You don’t necessarily need to know all of his history but it covers the basics. 

Next I’d try Demon in a Bottle It’s the original alcoholism arc. A must read for general Tony’s lore. This isn’t the one where he ends up a hobo on the street where Cap helps him escape from a burning building. But this is where he goes off the rails the first time. Bethany Cabe is his current girlfriend and tries to help him. And he kind of recovers. I’m not sure this is exactly a FAVORITE but it has a lot of the important shit for Tony. His temper is something that doesn’t get talked a lot about I think but he DEFINITELY has one. The art is very..........lol its not BAD per say but its also not like wow what gorgeous art. 

Another important Tony lore is Armor Wars So you wanna read the first few times Tony and Steve fight about REAL SHIT. This is it. This is the classic story where he realizes his tech is being used by bad guys and HE’S THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN STOP THEM NO CAP NOT EVEN YOU BECAUSE YOU’RE A GOOD GUY AND I MIGHT HAVE TO GET DIRTY. It has the classic Steve sitting in a dark room waiting for Tony to come back with his date and then throwing his shield at Tony going “I don’t want your trash”

It also has a lot of good Tony being in a morally grey area. *chef’s kiss* 

And then basically read all the fun stuff with Kurt Busiek in Vol 3 (This isn’t an amazon link but the marvel database so you know roughly where to start) 

VOLUME THREE HAS SUCH HITS LIKE

The Sentient Armor: Tony accidentally kills Whiplash in a lightning storm. The Armor comes to life. The armor falls in love with Tony and WANTS TO BECOME ONE WITH TONY. Tony does not want this. Tony is beat up and kidnapped and taken by the armor to a deserted island. The Armor is like Tony I love you so much GET IN ME NOW. Tony is about to die from a heart attack. The armor RIPS ITS HEART OUT AND SHOVES IT INTO TONY. Bye Tony I love you now we’re one forever. RIP

Tiberius Stone’s 2 arcs (they’re not in consecutive order but they’re both hella gay): Tony’s old boarding school friend shows up again and is a TV mogul and is DEFINITELY NOT Slandering Tony in the press or blowing up his buildings or framing him for MURDER oh my god Tiberius is a pain in the ass and we definitely boned down as teenagers but he would never frame me for MURDER but his TV devices that seep into your brain like the boob tube thing from Batman Forever are pretty suspicious. Oh no Tiberius IS a bad guy and he got me naked (why?) and hooked the both of us up to the TV machine and now we’re trapped in his horny tv dream why am I dressed like Alice in Wonderland???  ALSO HE SLEPT WITH MY GIRLFRIEND!!!!??

(This is why I will FOREVER get upset that Killian in Iron Man 3 isn’t Tiberius Stone. He IS LITERALLY FOLLOWING THE TIBERIUS STONE PLAYBOOK INCLUDING THE PHYSICAL LOOK WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE FEIGE YOU OWE ME MONEY!!!!)

Also at the beginning of Vol 3. Tony gets the absolute holy hell bejesus shit beat out of him. And that lasts for a WHILE and seeps into the Avengers Vol 3 (which you should also read its fun and I like that George Perez actually tries to make people look ethnically diverse but also you can tell Clint from Cap)

There’s also a part in vol 3 where Monica from FRIENDS shows up at a party and that’s a wild thing that happened.

But basically I think you can start just about anywhere with Iron Man and have a good time if you’re a deep Tony fan. He has a lot of great stories and its why he’s my favorite. Even this last run with Slott I still KIND OF LIKE ANYWAY??? bc its Tony. Its not always written to what a lot of long standing Iron Man fans would say is canon but I mean.....he’s got 57 years worth of comics behind him so he’s bound to change here and there. He was once a super villain, died, brought over as a teenager from an alternate timeline, and then merged with another Tony I forget the details but its silly lol

Side universe reading Iron Man Noir, Ultimates (Hickman’s run is very fun but also Ultimates 1 and 2. DO NOT READ ULTIMATUM IT IS GROSS, I HAVE READ IT FOR YOU ALMOST EVERYONE DIES ITS GROSS.

Ultimates is literally half of the basis for the MCU. Don’t read Ultimates Iron Man tho. Not only is it written by a creep its also extremely stupid and doesn’t even really make sense in terms of what happens later in Ultimates. It basically gets RetConned immediately.

Also Ultimates universe has Gregory Stark. Tony’s fun evil twin brother who for some reason is blonde. I can’t really give you a specific story to read with Ultimates because its the most god awful confusing universe to try and find stories from so I literally don’t even remember. I’d check an Ultimates fan blog for that.

AS FOR CAPTAIN AMERICA.

I love Steve Rogers. I really do. I think he’s a fun character. B U T. His comics for me can be very boring. He has some great arcs as someone who is supposed to be a representation of what a GOOD AMERICA can aspire to or whatever. But America often times SUCKS A LOT (our current times being very obvious). Cap definitely fights for what he believes and so that’s why he often takes off the garb of Captain America and runs around in a slutty v neck and a cape as Nomad. Or when he comes back from the dead and his BFF is the new Cap (WITHA  KNIFE) and wears the sexy Secret Avengers uniform. Very sexy. We stan the Colonel Rogers uniform very much. But his early comics are a lot of “OH MY GOD I KILLED BUCKY ITS ALL MY FAULT BUCKY!!!!! RICK JONES PUT ON BUCKYS CLOTHES THIS ISNT CREEPY I PROMISE”

A GREAT run in Avengers is the Cap’s Kooky Quartet or as I call Cap Joins the Baby Sitters Club. This goes WAYYYYYY back to Avengers 17 

It runs for a very good while before Giant-man and Wasp come back because Giant Man can’t shrink back down lmfao idiot. But its a lot of fun and establishes Cap as being a really good leader even tho he’s thrown into the hot seat because he was out on a mission and everyone else was like “We’re taking a vacay bye Cap. Good luck with the kids” *John Mulaney doing Andy Cohen impression* HUH WHAT WHY

I have no idea what to Rec really lol I know @sineala is part of a SteveTony 616 discord and they do readings every month(?) of either very SteveTony based arcs or specifically Steve or Tony arcs. But I think they have a better grasp of Steve stories than I do.

I would say most recently the run with Mark Waid and Chris Samnee as the artist is a VERY good read. The story is pretty nice and dry lol but the art. Holy shit.

I know there are a bunch of artists that really REALLY get Cap but Chris Samnee is probably my number one favorite Cap artist. Even his sort of retro style works with Cap SO WELL. And I like Mark Waid’s writing. Or at least I don’t think I’ve ever been really mad at it like with Dan Slott or Gillen (We will never forgive for what he did to Tony’s backstory and taking Maria from him) lol

Uh...but as far as I could tell the entire run where Bernie is his girlfriend is VERY good. She first shows up in Captain America 247 . Cap is an illustrator on the side (or as his main job) and man what a dope. His art habits are worse than mine like get a desk Steve. But this arc through Bernie goes through a lot of Steve being kind of stuck in the past and not knowing how to embrace the modern or future and Bernie is there being the coolest fucking chick in the world who’s studying to be a lawyer, watches Wrestling, listens to Bruce Springsteen (I think lol I forget), dunks on Cap for being a weirdo old dude. Very put together woman of the 80s. She proposes to Cap and because I think the writers changed he’s like I HAVE TO LEAVE IMMEDIATELY BYE. 

This isn’t on any of the main timelines but its a good read Captain America Man Out Of Time. Basically Cap coming to grips with the future and realizing the past sucked ew. lol Also he listens to Radiohead which Tony gives him a personal concert for because of course he does.

And then of course there’s this fucking TOME of a story Captain America: The Winter Soldier .

Im gonna sound a little negative but I don’t mean it against anyone’s favorite but I have the most exhausting time trying to read this story. I’ve tried at least three times lol. I think maybe Brubaker’s weird obsession with the Cold War (Remember when he called people who were yelling at Slott for being a creep a ‘Bunch of Commies’) is just so fucking heavy handed that I can’t personally get through it. I would much rather watch the movie.

HOWEVER. There’s good old Bucky coming back from the dead. Natasha. Sam Wilson. Sharon Carter. All big players in this story. So uh lol good luck with this one. If you’re also a Bucky fan this is a must read but as I only peripherally like Bucky I don’t care to read this one. 

So I’d check out this arc.

Also a personal fave of mine is 

It starts here on Captain America 402 . Its the best story IN THE WORLD. ITS SO ICONIC. NOTHING CAN COMPETE. I LOVE CAPWOLF SO MUCH lol

[phoebehalliwell]

okay but if bianca was already like....5/6/7 before chris was even born, is that the age difference in the "evil world" canon? or is it a weird thing with phoenixes + aging?

i mean,, i can’t think of a reason it wouldn’t be bc like. at that point we are still very much on track for a dark future chris has not made the change necessary to save wyatt as evident by the fact that when bianca drags his ass back to the future it’s still the dark future. so like. if we were to eliminate futureboy!chris from this timeline right now the future would carry on into the dark future where this age gap would still be there, and then obviously it’s still then in the altered/changed/fixed timeline bc like that’s the timeline we’re following. we already saw kid bianca and we saw chris y’know be born and exist. i don’t really wanna tinker with aging for phoenixes bc like. i feel like it just gets difficult defining the rules and figuring out how they apply all that how she ages into the future like this that and the other and then if you’re doing that you also have to take into account how they mentally age bc it doesn’t matter if bianca physically ages slower than chris so like idk they’re both physically 18 at the same time, she’d still mentally have 5 years on him which i feel like the only reason to change the way bianca ages would be to make this age gap less weird and that doesn’t quite do that if anything i feel like it makes it weirder if i were to add anything to the lore with phoenixes & aging it would be something to do with what happens when they die y’know like some “phoenix rising from the ashes schtick” and if i were to do that it would be like okay so this is just the origin myth i have in my head blah blah blah we have our og phoenix who’s a witch in salem and she’s just a normal witch seeing all these witch trials and is like ruh roh and this is an au where they actually like burn witches in salem but also an au where witches actually exist so let’s start there and she’s seeing all these women burned at the stake and idk maybe they got her coven or maybe someone ratted her out she knows the end is nigh so she goes out to seek some mythic phoenix and something something something or other idk she completes three great tasks and earns a phoenix feather and she fuses herself with the phoenix magic (thus giving her the phoenix mark) and then the witch hunters find her and burn her at the stake and uhh that hurts like a motherfucker an she ends up extra crispy and they’re like okay that was fun and idk everyone goes to bed for the night in their little puritan village as our lovely og phoenix’s charred body starts to slowly try to heal itself and basically drags it’s charred skeletal ass into the woods and lays there for three days and three nights as her body slowly starts to reconstitute itself blah blah blah give it a week and she’s basically a full human again and she finds that while she retained basic magic she lost her active powers blah blah blah she swears to get vengeance on those who wronged her and idk stick to the shadows somewhere along the lines she finds she can obtain new powers when she has her daughter (not her first bc she first was burned in the witch trials rip) her daughter is born with the same phoenix mark and no active powers and blah blah blah she becomes really really old as you do when you age something or other she’d like on deaths door and let’s say idk her house is burning down or something so she goes in to save something idk an heirloom or like her great granddaughter and saves her but like dies in the fire but wait what’s this once again a charred skeleton is trying to pull itself back together it’s the original phoenix and she’s now the same age she was when she was first “reborn” from the fire and so the first phoenix i’d say lived for probs a couple centuries just you know self immolate on her deathbed & be born again until she finally like tapped out you know lived a full enough life that she’s like okay this has been fun goodbye fr now But i do not think all phoenixes have this power (which uhh can really only be learned the hard way) i think maybe like three people tops (including our original phoenix) have this rebirth gift the rest like if you burn to death u burn to death end of story but this also then gave the phoenix traditions of a) burning their dead and b) a firewalk to symbolize the final steps into adulthood. and i do think there are some like really extreme crazed phoenixes (is that really the plural? okay google says the plural is phoenix or phoenixes or phoenices which are all fun imo) who do like think they’ve been blessed with this gift but it’s like. it’s all or nothing. you have to actually die in a fire to find out. so like. is it worth it? some people have said yes, but the answer is actually No. Okay All That Being Said yes i’d give bianca this gift bc she is Chosen she’s Special also i love her and think it’s sick as fuck so it’s like. she could have died in a fire when she was like a toddler or something blah blah blah and then let’s say when she was like idk six i guess she was stabbed? for some reason? we’ll say a demon and her mother, knowing that she was born with this gift promptly uhh lit her daughter on fire and then out of the ashes got a lil toddler again then that would put her at the same biological age and relatively closer to the mental age of chris as i image lynn would have wiped bianca’s memory a wee bit after all that But that is like A Lot bianca dying as a kid so i don’t think i’d do All That i’m just keeping them with a slightly under 5 year age gap (bianca’s a sagittarius born in 1999) and just give them the journey of Not knowing each other’s ages to bianca learning she’s like Five Whole Years older than chris and proceeding to tease him for being like a tiny baby child despite chris being like what 21 when he knows her she’s like oh sorry shouldn’t you be like studying for your sat or something? or idk they’ll be watching some movie made in like 2008 and bianca will be like oh didn’t this come out the year you were born? can you even legally drive? (no, he can’t, he does not have a driver’s license) bc like. it’s weird. they bridge the century y’know i think it really freaks her out that he was 2004 bc mentally she’s like okay you should be like 15? 16? but again it’s like i really want they’re relationship to be this slow burn so while they might meet when he’s like freshly 21 and she’s 25 going on 26 they probably won’t start dating for idk like 3-4 years so then they’re like what 25 and 30 which like. idk i don’t think is that weird. it’s like how in university undergrads will date grad students and there’ll be like a four year split but it’s not incredibly weird bc they’re both relatively at the same states in their life but like an undergraduate dating a high schooler is a major red flag bc they are both in insanely different places in their life like bro if ur dropping them off at their parent’s house & then driving back to your apartment you share w three friends like reassess. please. but i think in regards to chris & bianca and their age gap, when they meet they’re both relatively in the same “era” in life (is there where i mention chris is a college drop out bc he is) and when they grow they grow together

[nadziejastar]

Sora doesn’t grow as a character bc of how KH3 was written which makes me really sad. If you had a chance, how would you write his character change? I think separating him from the rest of the characters was a good start for that but you know how it went nowhere in canon.

Well, there are several things that undermined Sora’s character in KH3. Ava wanted to leave the future to the children because of the way they saw the world. That’s what Ephemer represented. He was pure and idealistic and that’s why he was the lead Dandelion.

Surely we remember as children the way our hearts made everything seem so shiny, and perfect. Sora has a heart like that–uncorrupted, willing to see the good before the bad. When he sees the heart in something, it then becomes real.

This is why I don’t like the idea of the Dandelions being resurrected and being brought to the current timeline. Their role in the story is meant to be part of the past. Sora (and the rest of the main characters) were supposed to be the inheritors of their legacy. Ephemer was personally leaving the future to him, the same way that Ava did. KH3 shows the Foretellers returning, and hints that the Dandelions are coming back and IMO that just takes away from the whole meaning of Sora’s character. Even him saving everyone at the end became just an excuse to create a time paradox, letting the past characters return. Sora’s actions just don’t feel all that special in the grand scheme of things anymore.

Goofy: The king told us to go out and find the key bearer, and we found you. So as long as we stick together, it’ll all work out okay. Ya just gotta believe in yourself, that’s all.

Sora: Just believe…

Kairi: I believe in you.

It’s also why I don’t like Sora disappearing at the end of KH3. After Neverland, Sora heard Kairi’s voice telling him she believes in him. And then he saw Kairi as a child listening to her grandma’s story.

“The darkness spread, swallowing the light, and the hearts of many people. It covered everything…and the world disappeared. But small fragments of light survived…in the hearts of children. With these fragments of light, children rebuilt the lost world. That is the world we live in now.”

The same thing happened in KH3. She believes in him. Again, because Sora is the inheritor of the Dandelions’ legacy. He was growing up in KH3. Winnie the Pooh is a children’s story book and Sora's connection with Pooh was weaker. And in the Keyblade Graveyard, Sora completely lost hope and stopped believing. He gave up and would have faded away due to his despair. I really like that, since it showed a more pessimistic adult side of him we never saw before. It showed how he has changed from being that naive kid.

I like the scene in KHI, when she watches the sunset with Sora, and tells him not to change. I thought it showed very well her anxiety and loneliness over how as we get older we find a distance growing between us and our close friends.

However, Sora and Kairi’s relationship is all about how, deep down, he’ll never really change. He’ll always hang onto his inner child, even after he grows up. He ate the paopu fruit with her, and their bond truly is unbreakable. They’ll always be together, just like when they were kids. Kairi’s anxiety and loneliness should have been resolved in KH3 and there would be closure to their relationship and to her traumatic past.

“{Kingdom Hearts is] not too realistic, but I do want my players to grasp a sense of reality from it as well. For example, I’m sure you had friends when you were young, a good group of friends, but as you grow older things change and it doesn’t always stay the same. I think all I can say is please play to the very end and see what happens. But I think [Kingdom Hearts 3] does depict how each character feels about each other in this new storyline.”

In KH3, Nomura obviously changed his mind on the ending, for the sake of dragging things out even more. I think KH3 felt so weak because it was meant to be a definitive conclusion. But in the end, it became just a small stepping stone to set up multiple sequels, which have veered way off course from the original vision. Its own message and story got lost in the process. Given the way things are going, I honestly would have preferred for Sora and Kairi to just get their moment on the paopu tree with everyone looking on happily, and for KH3 to be the final game of Sora’s story. I think his character has reached its natural conclusion and everything now is just needlessly dragging his story out.

[mahalzevran]

My Dragon Age...Origin

(Pun intended?)

@fortheloveofsolas asked me how I got into DA as well as what made me romance certain characters so here is the story under a read more!

I’m just gonna talk about the stuff in my actual canon timeline.

It all started maybe April(?) of last year. A friend got my older sister into Dragon Age (so this is essentially that friend’s fault, yes I’m calling you out @copyandfishpaste). My sister got really into it and she’d keep talking about it to me and asking me what I would do in certain situations. I think she kept telling me to play it too. It was a blur really. So finally, in like July of last year (my anniversary is coming up lol???) I decided to give in and play it.

I wasn’t sure which origin to pick but I was definitely going to play as a mage because I’ve been a mage trash since I got into HP and I was into HP ever since I could remember. I was honestly leaning towards a human mage, but decided to just say “fuck it” and went for the elf mage origin just to make my gameplay even more...interesting... (And close to home probably lol). Anyway, I found myself at Ostagar at like five (5) am and three games later here I am, pro-mage, pro-elf, pro-anders.

As for the romances:

Zevran

I had no intention at all to romance anyone in Origins. But because there’s no icons, I had no idea which was the flirt options. I ended up getting ninjamanced by Zevran. I just went for it lol. And now I’m Zevran trash. (Also funny story I also ended up having sex accidentally with every romance option so...) (I never saved the game but the achievements are there...)

Fenris 

So this one, thankfully you actually knew which were the flirt options, and I managed not to romance everyone. But I just really liked Fenris and he has a nice voice so I remade Kaia and romanced him (off canon). Really gave you a sense of accomplishment because Fenris is very hostile towards mage.

Enter Alden Hawke. I really like Anders and I eventually grew very very fond of handers, specifically male hawke and anders (pls don’t misunderstand I love all handers pairings). So I was like “hey! why don’t u make a male hawke for Anders!” and thus Alden was born. I made sure Alden was worthy of being romanced with Anders. I even had some nice headcanons about them. But boy was I wrong? Apparently, Alden didn’t want to be with Anders. He liked Fenris better. (Alden and Anders would never have worked out bc they’re both bottoms :/). I kept having this nagging feeling that Alden should be with Fenris. So I listened and thus I re-created Alden (after finishing the Anders romance with him) and romanced him with Fen. And now they’re happily joined at the hip.

Solas

So, for Inquisition I decided to return to my roots and not romance anyone again. Well, technically. I already had Lu pretty much developed before I played Inquisition (well, as much as I could have her developed without playing the game; and also I spoilt myself something really big about the game, which was that Solas betrays u and he’s actuall Fen’Harel). My intention with her was that she has a huge ginormous humongous crush on Viv and she was just gonna have deal with Vivienne never loving her. So no actual in-game romance for Lulu.

Then around the time I decided to play, I had an excellent idea (not). Since I play on PC, why don’t I just use the numbers to select the dialogue options that I think Lu would say? Instead of hovering over with the cursor? This way the interactions are more organic since I won’t see the icons related to that certain dialogue. Guess who ended up ninjamancing me? Solas.

I just went with the romance because I hate myself and also am stickler for angst.

[bibbleboo]

Could we get some headcanons/more background on Abbey and Doyle’s kids? 🥺👉👈 I love the premise of this AU

YEEEEE (im just gonna ramble a bunch about the backstory i have so far but ill put it in bullets so its easier to follow lol i apologize for it being long as fuck-)

OKAY SO,,, first of all,,, doyle and abbey timeline,,,, [i am looking respectfully]

in this au, they get back together and have a sort of ‘lovers pretending to be enemies’ chaotic on again/off again hookup thing off to the side just between the two of them thru like Most of the final season, they try to keep it a secret (especially doyle who doubts the saturdays would be hAPPY if he was seeing her again) but in the end, saturdays ofc find out, probably are unsure about it at first, but she gains enough of their trust to be there for the big finale battle in the weird world mansion.

when shit goes down and argost becomes the vessel for the two opposing kurs (regular kur, and the anti kur from zak monday) and they like. explode his matter or w/e, i imagine instead of kur just completely disappearing, the ‘anti kur’ gets shot back to its universe, while original kur gets forced into a new vessel in this universe... the closest of which happens to be the unborn child abbeys unknowingly carrying. basically, what if the two kurs just LOOKED like they evaporated but actually did what happens when you try to like tape two same sides of a magnets together and they YEETED-

So thats how we have Parker, their firstborn daughter! and this... also implies ‘Parker Monday’ exists which. 8^) i havent thought about yet so forgive me on that but hoo, 

they dont know parker is kur, they got no idea and rly just assume kur is gone for good. but after they find out abbeys pregnant (which is a huge emotional trip for both of them in its own right) they do eventually sort of agree they dont want their kid exposed to that whole world of mystery. like, ik its a vital thing to the whole family, and ik these two people were probably voted least likely to ‘settle down’ in high school, but i cant imagine they didnt escape the kur/zak situation without a LOT of trauma, so while the saturdays stay in the cryptozoology field, doyle and abbey slowly pull away from the mystery and mercenary stuff, and also instead of going for big dollar lifestyle settle with ‘independently wealthy’ parenting.

also, neither of them really . grasp the concept that theyve even started a family, and are ‘together’, and that this is REAL, until around when she gets pregnant with their second daughter, Kendall. and then theyre like. oh nooo wait are we actually like boyfriend and girlfriend EWW-

when kendall is born parker is 3, and the next like 10+ years are pretty smooth sailing. as far as what the kids know/see, they probably know the cryptids when theyre little but. (tw animal death sORRY TO BE DARK I JUST??????) idk,, how long komodo dragons live/how old komodo already is and i definitely dont know Anything about giant prehistoric birds and am not even sure if science knows that lifespan, so. im not sure how long they could really be in each others lives??? i almost imagine parker would have memories of them that she assumes she remembers wrong, like “oh yeah they used to have a lizard and a bird... my imaginative little kid brain thought they were a komodo dragon and a dinosaur”, and as for fisk im still working on it but i . actually kind of imagine he might have a much longer lifespan (since lemurians are like ancient or w/e? and also if hes by dna like a gorilla cat or w/e gorillas at least live long af) and also feel like once he got older and settled down a bit he might live somewhere in the woods, maybe even his old tree? and the saturdays see him ALL the time obviously, but hey zaks gotta go to college eventually, a gorilla cats gotta eat bugs in forest, we all have to grow up and leave the nest sometime,

so idk the last time parker has actually seen fisk and she might assume he was an imaginary friend or smth but, 1. if i do write a fic they absolutely have to meet again, 2. overall the vibe is they know the saturdays are cryptozoologists, like, the same way josh gates does destination truth, seeking answers and studying, they dont really. know that theyre REAL. to them its like, a hypothetical science. (this is also part of why they dont realize parker is kur, she isnt around cryptids and therefore whenever her powers would actually show up they wouldnt be recognized) anyways parker isnt embarrassed or put off by it but just thinks its a little wacky, meanwhile kendall is obsessed with the world of mystery/paranormal/cryptic lol

speaking of the girls personalities;;;

parker is like. not really normie/preppy, even if she seems it at first glance, shes nice and has a good head on her shoulders but also is a teenage girl (inherently unhinged) and shes THEIR teenage girl (+5 feral) so despite her success and charm shes also very witty/crass when she wants to be, and deep down shes closer to the kind of person that would on pure inexplicable instinct put something random in your mouth when you’re yawning so you bite down on it afterwards. or like. that video of the girl singing in the bathroom while her friends curl their hair and she grabs the curler to use as a microphone before realizing its burning hot??? shes. the voice of reason, but the voice is usually shrieking in fear, making a cursed joke, or half the time whatever shes saying is actually smart. she kinda wants to go to college and travel, but struggles with indecisiveness and anxiety, so she has no idea where to go, what to major in, etc. and is again kinda just livin thru the typical teen life in that regard

kendall on the other hand is like. weird kid culture, the kind of kid that believes they are secretly a new supernatural creature each year (mermaid phase, werewolf phase, alien phase, etc), probably completely accidentally starts cults or witch covens at school (didnt realize teaching peers how to become ‘blood brothers’ and ‘make potions’ from puddles and stolen school supplies would be taken so seriously by parents) , very into emo/scene/punk/alt culture but not rly in an overtly dark/edgy way, more of a having fun and expressing self way. she wants answers for everything, really loves mysteries and being open minded, and definitely a rebel/adventurer at heart, even if she gets naive or in over her head sometimes.

the girls get along well! parker is not dismissive of kendall she just. isnt really into the same stuff/is more freaked out by it most of the time, but she would tag along on certain adventures, especially if it was to keep her safe. and kendall definitely directs gentle mockery towards parker a lot but does see her as a good role model and guiding figure, their bond is really strong!

other details !

doyle and abbey prob decide to say fuck it and get married after kendall is born, they probably have a few rough patches but nothing is more important to them than the kids now and in the end they understand each other better than anyone else so . canon tension idk her! family ftw! power couple! they intimidate the teacher during parent teacher conferences together hand in shady little hand !

their parenting style is exactly what one would imagine, 70% fun and sass and controlled chaos where theyre the bigger children than their children, 15% ‘this is how you hack the government and dual wield swords-- i was not supposed to teach you that im sorry’, and 15% actual guidance / emotional depth / etc. flaws might be overcoming their own immaturity for the first few years, and then being lowkey overly protective (while claiming they arent, but just bc you semi jokingly tell parker she should join the football team doesnt mean you dont actually hide 60% of ur life from her and check that her bedroom windows are locked every night and have 24 people listed in her school emergency contacts and used to cut up her food till she was 7 and-)

so abouT THE BABY BOY (Phoenix), 1. his middle name is leonidas bc im gay and i love emotional turmoil babes , 2. fully unironically the idea behind such a late pregnancy is abbey would be mid fourties when hes born right. so like. [has two kids] ‘ok birth control time’ [when theyre teens many years later] ‘ok im old enough to stop taking this’ [the hyperfertility curse that plagues many women rears its ugly head with one last hoo-rah]

and finALLY a very quick elevator pitch of what id write an actual fic to focus on;;; kendall sneaks into the attic to look for old shit bc they BOTH know their parents have been hiding stuff over the years, she finds things like a cryptopedia (now offline), the claw, maybe even a piece of the kur stone, and ropes parker into the long haul of figuring out what all this stuff is. and ofc the second they ever find the naga relic and parker comes face to face with it, [rest in rip] time for mom and dad to find out and all this kur shit to start ALL over again-

[jamiedodgerart]

the fade is a liar sometimes

aka, a really long post about how mal hawke survived dragon age inquisition. warning for big but kinda vague spoilers for dai and mentions of alcoholism

ok full disclosure i dont know how he survived the fade. but im thinking the nightmare like. didnt wake back up in time to block the way through the portal, and so never caused the Do I Kill The Warden Or Hawke dilemma. cos. that was kiiiiiiiinda bullshit. 

i had to pick between alistair and mal. and i really didnt want mal to be actually really dead bc at the time of here lies the abyss he’d be in a really shitty place, mentally, and i didnt want him to just! die! without resolving that! so i gave canon the finger and concocted a convoluted plan to give mal a better ending

background, after the events of da2, he ended up leaving kirkwall and fuckin’ around in the woods for a bit. i imagine he was helping refugees get out for a little while, until anders showed up and convinced him to help groups of renegade mages/circles on the verge of winning their independence. at this point he was pretty sick of the world at large, didn’t know what he wanted or where he was going to go next, and let himself be (guided? directed? pushed around?) by anders, drinking himself into oblivion and generally feeling like garbage. he fell out of contact with most of his remaining friends and began convincing himself that he was guilty for the explosion, by trusting anders (he’d suspected something was wrong with the ingredients anders was asking for and confronted him about it, but trusted him and helped him by distracting the grand cleric)

i rambled about this on my private twitter but mal and anders... ended up not being a great fit for one another and past me said it better than present me can

eventually, the inquisition came into being and grew in power. anders, still being a wanted man and mal too by association, avoided the inquisition’s patrols pretty easily. but stories started to spread about the inquisitor and his... particularly creative justice. see, pica really likes choices that have some poetic irony to them that also focus on rebuilding (he had alexius work for the mages, stuff like that), generally avoids executions, and is pretty chill with mages. the inquisition is also independent of any government, really, and is about as impartial as you can get in thedas. so when mal gets word from varric that corypheus is back, a problem, and something they need mal’s help with (that is also, in his professional opinion, his fault), he gets an idea.

he heads to skyhold, meets pica (who read the tale of the champion, asks varric questions about it constantly, was expecting a hero, and was not expecting the hero to be a depressed alcoholic) and iunno here lies the abyss happens with the aforementioned edit of no one important dying (i guess i could kill alistair and preserve a kind of important turning point in pica’s character with an added bonus of giving mal another thing to have survivor’s guilt about but i dont think i could go through with it. imagine the emotional toll. pica could get that change some other way anyway) mal by this point has gotten to know pica fairly well and has found what he’s heard to be true, and gives him a proposition

(i would like to add now that while ive read asunder, until i looked it up just now i didn’t remember where it sits in the timeline relative to da2, and it wasnt super clear to me just how much each of the two events affected the mage/templar war. so some text in sketches might be inaccurate, historically)

so you can imagine that anders is Pissed Off by this development, but justice is kinda like 

cos like. pica Is a real actual authority figure. who is down to dispense some quality justice esp re mages. and is coming at it from a “yo i know you meant well and you did kinda have a point but you also killed a lot of people so there does have to be Some kind of consequence of that”

(but neither of them are at all happy with mal turning them in)

anyway the trial ends up including a full investigation of the events in kirkwall, as well as the events at the spire (cole, rhys, and evangeline all give their testimony) and it’s more a straightening out of what was up with the whole start of this shitshow anyway, cos the confusion and misinformation about it is probably the worst part. 

pica finds anders guilty and sentences him to community service, which a lot of people disagreed with. pica thinks it was a GREAT IDEA though because that community service comes in the form of anders teaching the inquisition mages about healing magic!! something that anders is good at, loves doing, and can actually help people with!! why are we still fuckin about with herbs when there’s magic!!!!! this also has the added bonus of making mages less scary to the general populace- chuckin’ fireballs is a lot more alien and intimidating than healing up a broken arm, yknow? it can help mages seem more human and good for society than they were, separated from the public in towers.

anders is still a prisoner, though, which hes super not happy about, and part of his sentence is also that dagna gets to study him. he and samson are in grudging solidarity in the face of tolerating her extreme cheerfulness. and maybe he gets a cat too. i wonder if he and samson could talk about how shitty the chantry is re: lyrium addiction in templars? its obvs not on the scale of mage shittiness but it could be an interesting discussion

see in the grand scheme of things mal really didnt do all that much. he was duped by a lover into doing something he 100% would not have done if hed known what was actually going on. i feel like the most anyone could bust him on was aiding and abetting. and maybe helping hide an apostate. mal was found, as pica informally put it while distracted by looking at a transcript of a kirkwall templar’s testimony, “kinda guilty? just like. if ur asked to help blow up a chantry dont do it again” but cassandra elbowed him really hard and he said “look ok your sentence is, fuck, i dunno, work for the inquisition. what do you wanna do”

that was not what mal was expecting and he didnt have an answer. and pica looked at him and said “ill give you some time to figure it out, ok. just. take care of yourself, man. u look like shit” which got him another elbow, which he returned to cass with equal force

anyway. mal is now officially Not Guilty in the court of the law. which fuckin sucks bc that assessment does absolutely NOTHING to stop his shit brain from keeping being guilty about everything. so he tries to quit drinking, fails, and just has a rough time in general, while also sometimes visiting anders in prison. which probably really doesn’t help.

ENTER WARDEN-COMMANDER OF FERELDAN, MADRANA “MAD” TABRIS, AND HER PARTNER/GF/ADULT SUPERVISION EMMARIE “EMMY” COUSLAND

(you may also know mads as hester, as i called her in previous playthroughs. hester’s not a really elfy name and shes grown far enough away from her namesake that i felt a change was warranted. also emmy was created by @1500birds. i love her)

thats them (mads then emmy) so mad tabris, legendary fighter, unkillable blight-ender, bather in darkspawn blood, and general bottle covey is looking for a challenge. its been like ten years since shes had an actually hard battle to win and she’s near skyhold, and she’s heard that mal hawke, another legendary fighter, is also in the area. oh and some cadash guy. hes apparently good too. also, she’s looking for some way out of the whole grey warden death sentence thing. shes not keen on dying unless she’s killed, ydig, and apparently skyhold’s doing a lot of groundbreaking research these days

she and emmy swing on in to skyhold and finds that hawke is, well, a mess

important background. mads is not good at dealing with other peoples’ emotions. so shes not really equipped to deal with this. emmy, however, is kind, has nerves of steel, loves to help people, and is Very equipped to deal with this. and so the two of them adopt mal. (even though hes older than both of them.) 

theyve got really, really different ways of trying to help mal. emmy is a great listener, and understands survivor’s guilt and the lost-all-my-family brand of trauma pretty well. she helps him sort through all the shit that’s happened to him and offers a lot of support. and hugs. by god shes a hugger. also theyve got a symbiotic cuddling relationship bc emmy is always cold and mal is always warm, so they platonically nap together sometimes. mads is unfortunately too wriggly and pointy to be a good cuddler :’( she squeezes in the mix sometimes anyway though and it’s uncomfortable but nice

mads’s method of helping mal is in her area of expertise: getting out pent-up negative emotion by fighting. for a long time, mal has internalized a lot of shit, and mads is really good at annoying him into either yelling or punching out that shit. shes doing it out of concern for his well-being, she swears, and not because she takes joy in pissing people off. she does but thats not the point. it’s not a perfect strategy but it does help a lot

unfortunately for her, sometimes mal can be downright vindictive when drunk and angry, and can hit on the few things she’s insecure about

(i would really love to make a post about mads sometime, cos she ended up being a lot deeper of a character than i originally intended. i really just wanted a really sharp angry lady who fought with the subtlety of a brick to the face, and ended up getting that plus bravado covering up a whole host of insecurities. i feel like i should finish dao before writing it up though ahah)

(what mal said is also not totally accurate- mads cares very much for emmy. but yknow how when things get heated it doesn’t really matter if they’re really accurate anymore- they just have to be close enough to get a reaction, ydig)

anyway! the two of them together help mal get his life back in order- he cuts down and eventually quits drinking, starts taking better care of himself, and gets more of a handle on life. i guess you’re probably wondering where varric is, right around now. so am i mal pushed away a lot of people close to him after da2, including varric. but varric kept looking out for him (lying to cassandra to protect him, using his network of contacts to keep an eye on where he and anders were operating). when mal comes to skyhold i think he’d try to avoid varric out of guilt- yknow how when it’s been a really long time since you’ve talked to someone, and you know you should have called them back, but you never did, and they kept asking how you were, and you want to be in an actually good place before you call them back, but shit keeps happening, and it’s been like two years since youve said anything to them, and then you see them and do some serious acrobatics trying to stay out of their sight so you don’t have to confront their honest interest in your well-being that they have no right to still have after so long with no word from you, and you have to make it seem like you havent been avoiding them because that would be rude, and really it’s just easier to be constantly vigilant of where they are and make sure youve got plausible reason to be leaving casually yet quickly

well mal did that. emmy had to physically bar his way from escaping a room once when varric came in, and dragged him by the scruff of the neck to talk to him. varric was painfully understanding and ended up hitting it off nicely with emmy

so! someday mal gets a job. specifically, pica gives him one. because he still owes the world some community service. with his experience as a hunter and highwayman, he becomes a scout!

whoaaa color

more specifically, mal becomes a... specialized type of scout. some idiot who shall not be named but whose name sounds a whole lot like pica cadash gave him command of a small squad of scouts, heavier armored and armed than average inquisition scouts but not heavy enough to count as infantry soldiers. their job is to dismantle highwayman and rogue mercenary bands, in whatever way necessary. so! originally this was supposed to mean sneak attacks on their strongholds or whatever, but mal talked with him about his own experiences with crime (mostly that most people in his crew back then were in it out of necessity, and needed money to support family) and the squad kind of became. really heavy recruiters. it became kind of a joke that the inquisition would take anyone- and they would! practically any skillset could be used in an organization as big as the inquisition, and at this point it was still growing

like. barely any exaggeration here

so that’s where he is pre-trespasser! thank u for reading and if youve got questions or want to learn more PLEASE ask i lov my ocs and love talking about them

i want to add that in @1500birds‘s latest playthrough (miranda trevelyan, a pro-chantry mage cullenmancer) mal rags on cullen endlessly

that was supposed to be the playthrough where he survives the fade, but then bran realized that miranda would kinda hate mal and would 100% leave him behind

[actuallylorelaigilmore]

A - Z (Fandom ‘Come At Me, Friend’ Meme)

WELL THEN *cracks knuckles* HERE WE GO 

(all 26 letters behind a cut bc this is very long)

A - Your current OTP(s)/OT3(s)/OTX(s)

As of this hour, my top OTPs are Penelope/Schneider from ODAAT and Joyce/Hopper from Stranger Things. But I have endless numbers of them, even within each fandom.

B - A pairing you initially didn’t consider but someone changed your mind

Jean/Alice from TDBM. 

C - A ship you have never liked and probably never will (be nice)

Um…hmm. I’m such a multishipper, I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about my NOTPs. I’ve never been onboard the Keens from The Blacklist, though. Not even a little. I only enjoyed Tom in his original villainous state.

D - A pairing you wish you liked but just can’t (again: be nice)

A couple of my spouse’s faves, I really wish I liked too, especially Sam/Josh and Mal/Simon. I don’t like one of the characters in each very much, so I’ve never been able to get into them–even though I understand them, and have had fun writing them…I just don’t love them too.

E - Have you added anything cracky/hilarious to your fandom, if so, what

Yeah, mostly graphics, though. I don’t think I’ve ever written crackfic. I did New York Times Minus Content edits for TDBM, a ton of those. Also Sext Message Error sets for Lizzington and for Josh/Donna. And Welcome To Nightvale sets for iZombie and Lizzington. And OTP Bot sets for Lizzington.

And this isn’t EXACTLY crack, but my original tumblr claim to fame was this Hamilton/TWW crossover that got reblogged by Lin himself.

F - What’s the longest you’ve ever been in a fandom

Mm, the first time I actively joined a fandom was Buffy, and I was about 14 when that started for me…so as of this year I’ll have been in that fandom for 20 years! But I’ve been a fangirl literally my whole life, I just didn’t really join fandoms before the internet, and I started using the internet more in junior high and HS.

G - Do you remember your first OTP, if so who was in it

Lou/Joey from Brotherly Love, or Claire/Trevor from Cupid (original run), or Dharma and Greg, or Allison/Wade from CryBaby, or Idgie/Ruth from Fried Green Tomatoes. I was a shipping prodigy, and the couples I was obsessed with as a literal child blur together a bit in the timeline, so I’m not completely sure which came first.

H - What is your favorite source text for fandom stuff (e.g., tv shows, movies, books, anime, Western animation, etc.) 

TV shows.

I - Has tumblr caused you to stop liking any fandoms, if so, which and why

The Aaron Tveit fandom made me uncomfortable watching BrainDead before I even had the chance to decide if I liked it or not. Most fandoms I love, though. I prefer to ignore the drama and focus on the people I actually like. 

J - Name a fandom you didn’t care/think about until you saw it all over tumblr

SO MANY. Parks and Rec, TDBM, Stranger Things…a significant portion of my watchlist comes from this hellsite by now–I have friends with good taste.

K -Say something nice about someone in any of your fandoms

@mossdonnatella is in a lot of my fandoms. She is a much better fic writer than she thinks she is!!

L - Say something genuinely nice about a character who isn’t one of your faves (chars you’re neutral on are fair game, as are chars you dislike)

I really ended up disliking Jacob a lot, on Grace and Frankie. But I will say that in the beginning he is very respectful of Frankie’s boundaries and tries to be patient with her, and I did like that.

M - Say something genuinely nice about a ship that you don’t ship (or its shippers, or anything related to you)

I don’t actively ship Jancy on Stranger Things after seeing S1 (I don’t really ship Steve/Nancy either, though…I think I mostly just ship Nancy x happiness) but the moment when her mom knocks on her bedroom door and they reach for each others’ hands instinctively? That is a damn fine understated sweet connection moment and I really enjoyed and believed it.

N - Name three things you wish you saw more or in your main fandom (or a fandom of choice)

Okay since a lot of my top fandoms are for shows that ended a long time ago, I’m going with One Day At A Time. In fic or in canon, I want to see a lot more of Schneider being Penelope’s BFF and her confidant. I want more serious!Schneider moments bc it turns out the actor rocks at them, and I want to see Pen really get to move on from Victor as her kids get older, I want real confirmation that she’s finally past any possibility of reconciliation with him bc she deserves SO MUCH BETTER.

O - Choose a song at random, which ship or character does it remind you of

Randomizing my music gave me “Quiet” by MiLCK feat. GW Sirens and Capital Blend. 

Sample lyrics:

Cuz no one knows me, no one ever willIf I don’t say something, take that dry blue pillThey may see a monster, they may run awayBut I have to do thisI can’t keep quiet, no A one woman riot

Despite the mature meaning behind the lyrics, and probably because I’m watching Stranger Things right now, it reminds me of Eleven, the tiny badass fighting her way to freedom.

P - Invent a random AU for any fandom (we always need more ideas)

Alright, I’m gonna invent one right off the top of my head right here and now since you asked. Um… a One Day At A Time AU in which Penelope meets Schneider not as her landlord but as a patient, once she becomes an NP. Doctor/patient “okay if you won’t stop asking me out then get a new doctor so I can say yes” fluff ensues.

Q - A ship you’ve abandoned and why

Lizzington. I’m technically still writing fic for it bc I have a chapter fic to finish, but I haven’t watched the show in years, I avoid content for it, and have no interest in it anymore besides the phantom limb feeling of having been so invested in a ship for that long and making friends around it.

R - A pairing you ship that you don’t think anyone else ships

Well, since I mentioned it earlier, I think I’m the only person ever to watch the scenes Bud and Brianna have together in Grace and Frankie and think “that should really be a thing.” 

Also…Kate/Donna from The West Wing. Based entirely on one scene.

S - Show us an example of your personal headcanon (prompts optional but encouraged)

I genuinely don’t understand this question, sorry. What’s an ‘example’ of my headcanon, and how does that relate to prompts? If somebody wants to explain this to me, I’ll answer it. 

T - Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending, about anything at all (gender identity, sexual or romantic orientation, extended family, sexual preferences like top/bottom/switch, relationship with poetry, seriously anything)

Yep yep yep. Andy was the leak, not Toby, and that is the hill I will die on always. I’m sure I have others, but that’s the big one.

U - 5 favorite characters from 5 different fandoms

Toby Ziegler (TWW), Alice Harvey (TDBM), Lorelai Gilmore (Gilmore Girls), Jim Hopper (Stranger Things), and Spencer Hastings (from what I just saw of PLL with @actuallylukedanes). 

V - 3 OTPs from 3 different fandoms

Luke/Lorelai, Gilmore Girls. Parker/Hardison/Eliot, Leverage. Joyce/Hopper, Stranger Things.

W - 5 favorite ships and 5 kinks you like best for said ships

Josh/Donna (TWW), Donna in control. Matthew/Alice (TDBM), hurt/comfort sex. Alvareider (ODAAT), “whoops are we kissing wait do we like each other?”Jared/Miss Parker (The Pretender), conflicted kisses up against wallsI’m having trouble thinking of a 5th one but I used to really like Lizzington angry!sex bc damn that ship was angsty

X - top 5-10 characters who are yoUR PRECIOUS BABIES AND YOU WILL DIE DEFENDING THEM

Eleven, Toby Ziegler, Schneider, Lena Luthor, Logan Echolls, literally every main character on The Good Place.

Y - What are your secondhand fandoms (fandoms you aren’t in personally but are tangentially familiar with because your friends/people on your dash are in them)

Game of Thrones, Agents of Shield, Doctor Who (though I finally have started this one!), Jane the Virgin, The Worst Witch, and lots more…I like learning about fandoms secondhand. 

Z - Just ramble about something fan-related, go go go (prompts optional but encouraged)

Every single one of these tiny Stranger Things children in S1 is the epitome of epic friendship and I love it. Mike jumps off a cliff to protect Dustin and Dustin’s willing to get his teeth cut out to protect Mike and Lucas offers a sincere apology when he’s wrong, something most adults still suck at, and Will tells Mike the truth even when he would benefit from lying and Eleven chooses death to save them all and they are beautiful and perfect and I love them.

[blacknovelist]

Yknow what? This post has been sitting in my goddamn drafts for almost a year, so I’m gonna step back into the BNHA Desolation AU stuff for a bit and do a spontaneous thought dump of timeline, plot, concept, and canon parallel stuff. Not necessarily in that order.

So the timeline of Desolation AU is a looooooot more stretched out than in Canon, bc everyone needs time to do pretty much everything (Adjust to moving to Musutafu, train for the military, practice with and learn about Quirk Replacement/Simulation tech and actual Quirks, etc.), and as a result of this, Izuku does actually go out on missions without One for All. Its necessary as part of his regime (since he’s to be All Might’s successor, presumably, and Toshinori had to do this stuff too), and it helps promote good bonding with the rest of his troops. Izuku spends a good few years out on the field without the Quirk before Toshinori officially declares him his successor.

Nana died in battle against AfO and his men (AfO himself was mostly watching, and was not part of the battle until the end of it, when he and Nana fought briefly before he mortally wounded her and ordered a retreat). Toshinori was with her along with a few others like Gran Torino, and though they successfully got her back to Musutafu, she died of her injuries some time later. By this point, Nana has already passed on leadership over to Toshinori, but that didn’t make things easier. A lot of people really loved her.

Anyway; most of the Desolation AU stuff I’ve already talked about concerns backstory and world building and is generally really dark and dry and stuff, but that’s not really how the actual plot is. Like canon BNHA, I really want it to be kind of hopeful, kind of bright, kind of optimistic of a story even though everything is shit right now (and will be for some time). I’m a sucker for that kind of stuff.

While the song (Cut Apart from the Transistor OST) is very empty and, well, desolate sounding, which is why I though of a wrecked post-war world, I like the eventual progression back into a brighter and happy world (which is why I mentioned elements of both Transistor and Bastion in Desolation AU’s original ask post, since Bastion is much happier of a game)

The plot itself is, more or less; Following decades of war, the two factions have finally reached a tentative peace. Both sides are looking for a way to restart the war and end it once and for all, but a secret third faction from a city called Musutafu is moving in to combat years of ingrained hatred against the other side and encourage peace and prevent war from erupting again. All Might is the leader of Musutafu and the face of peace between Quirked and Quirkless people, but he’s looking for a successor to inherit both his Quirk and the responsibilities of being the head like he is. So, more or less the same plot as BNHA, except instead of heroes and villains it’s military factions. Did I mention I don’t really know much about what I’m talking about like, 85% of the time?

For the Kamino Ward stuff (my honest to God favorite stuff to think about at all times), I’m thinking that what happens is Musutafu’s camps are breached for the first time by AfO, who sends Shigaraki to oversee the operation with everyone without taking part. Bakugou is dragged off, presumably so they can try and sway over to their side and, failing that, get info from him. Musutafu stage raids on the area they confirm he’s being held - the group who snuck out in Canon (Deku, Shouto, Creatie, Red Riot, Ingenium) are, in the AU, instead assigned the warehouse area to raid with several others, since at this point Izuku has inherited OfA (not that anyone knows yet) and they are all soldiers in their own right (due to timeline stretching, they should be in their early twenties or older at this point). I’m playing with the idea of this being when the world at Large learns that Toshinori no longer has the quirk that put All Might/Musutafu on the map and the Musutafu guys leak it that he gave it to his successor like all the other Musutafu leaders, to make him into the symbol of peace and sacrifice I mentioned in previous posts, but I’m not sure I wanna keep that. Either way, like in Canon, this is the end of his career.

The equivalent of the sports fest arc will probably end up being a rapid fire series of missions and raids that put them into the spotlight for a bit and garner attention from the big man Endeavor himself.

To steer my conscience back to the timeline itself though, here’s a rough draft of the timelines (canonically AfO’s reign presumably spans several generations, and the same goes for Desolation. Let me know if I messed up somewhere though, I did this half asleep):

–> The start: Quirks start cropping up. Later on, AfO makes his debut on the world scene. –> He publically goes too far, provoking tensions between Quirked and Quirkless and thereby instigating a slowly escalating war between these two factions –> What starts as one region of the world at war with itself turns into pretty much the whole world fighting against itself –> At some point, OfA slips off, rescues people, and founds Musutafu –> Timeskip at several generations: the treaty is signed –> A couple years later; Musutafu surfaces the world scene, and stays in the shadows –> Nana Shimura leaves her family behind to join Musutafu –> A couple years later, she joins the mission that rescues Toshinori’s hijacked convoy and takes them to the city –> About five to ten years later, when Toshinori is a teen, he joins the military –> Less than a year later, the news of her husband’s death reaches her. She spends months using her resources to look for her son before being forced to assume him dead –> A few years after Toshinori’s enrollment, Nana declares him her successor and gives him her Quirk to start direct training –> After two and a half years of training, Toshinori takes on his mantle of All Might and becomes leader of Musutafu. Nana conditionally retires and continues to work with their troops and go on missions. –> Over the course of the next fifteen to twenty years (give or take a good few years), All Might puts Musutafu onto the map and world scene as a radical declaring peace, and turns himself and Musutafu into symbols of peace –> Towards the 10-year mark (give or take a couple), Nana Shimura is mortally wounded in battle against AfO and dies to her injuries –> Several years later (anywhere from two to five), AfO stages a drifter attack to kill All Might, only to be mortally wounded. All Might is likewise injured but the city is saved, marking victory for Musutafu. Both are forced to temporarily fade from whatever spotlights they’d been under –> A few months after that, AfO finds Nana Shimura’s son being shipped off via convoy and spirits him away –> Toshinori spends his time looking for a successor when he’s not hiding his condition and going on missions, before the eventual mission to Izuku’s hometown –> Musutafu receive Intel about a series of drifter raids on a group of cities and set out to intercept them –> Following the First Episode-equivalent events of the drifter attack, Izuku and Bakugou’s families decide to move to Musutafu (for their own safeties) –> Izuku and Bakugou enlist in the military cadets program (not unlike cadets irl, except a little more intensive) for the UA corps (TBD if that’s the name I’m keeping) so they can join properly when they’re of age. –> Izuku is doing this on Toshinori’s recommendation, and they meet regularly to talk about pretty much anything –> *Insert several year training montage here* (the entrance exam, hero vs villain and USJ arcs all fall under here) –> They’re eventually enlisted formally (approx age is likely 18-early twenties), after this is prob the sports fest equiv. –> Toshinori gives Izuku OfA somewhere in here. –> That’s more or less all I got for now (chronologically at least)

[wandchoosesthewizard]

but also i need malfoy meta? like how did narcissa get to be where she was? is there anything she wouldn't do for her family? how does she actually feel about her sisters? i need malfoy things pls

Gonna put this giant fucking rant about my most precious Malfoy under a cut. Because I am just gonna go off!! (And honestly it does get really long).

So let’s kick this off by directing you here for a little light reading because instead of plotting I mostly just fucking regurgitated a lot of Narcissa feels. 

So - obviously - given the scant information we have in the books, a lot of this is just my head canon and I mean, you know, whatever. Take it or leave it. The only exception to this is Narcissa, Lucius & Draco’s love for each other. They love each other and I will accept literally nothing else. (Like most specifically Narcissa and Lucius’ love for each other, and their love for their son. Draco’s feelings may be more complicated - understandable so - but Lucius and Narcissa LOVE each other and they LOVE their son and yes they made mistakes and may not have raised him perfectly (what parent does???) but you can get the fuck out of here if you think Lucius was an abusive husband or father…) 

And then we start to swathe out into the muddy waters of my feelings / interpretations. I’m sorry it’s a bit scatter shot but… It’s just what happened.

So I think one of the biggest things I need to state here is I play very heavily with the canon timeline - ignoring and acknowledging it at my whim. So I often play it so that Narcissa is in the same school year as Severus (sometimes along with Lucius, sometimes not) with Andromeda the year above and Bellatrix again the year above that. And this comes into play more later on. So let’s begin. 

Narcissa Black is the third and last child of Cygnus Black III & Druella Rosier. She was meant to be a boy (as, honestly, were her two sisters before her) but she was a last ditch attempt. Narcissa is aware of this flaw from a young age - and while she is not abused for it - there is a certain… Emotional neglect. She is spoiled, treasured and she supposes it is what love feels like. But there is also the pervasive knowledge that she is a tool - more than she is a person. 

She is to be wed to a man from another high-class family. Andromeda and Bellatrix are betrothed to the Lestrange Brothers and she is… For a long time, unsettled. There is a fear she will be wed to her cousin - Sirius or Regulus - as her aunt and uncle were. However, nothing trouble her more than the delay - the delay in finding her a suitor. Is she unloveable? Is she unmarriageable..? What is wrong with her?That is the first fear Narcissa Black remembers having. 

The second is the fear of madness. Their family breeds in - as they have to if they wish to stay ‘toujours pur’ - and you can see glimmers of madness in Bellatrix certainly (something made only worse by Azkaban) and in some people’s interpretations, Walburga. I also think that Violetta Bulstrode (for whom she has her middle name) her great grandma went mad and Narcissa witnessed this at a young age.

This is her second biggest fear and eclipses her first fear easily. Because - because she is raised to believe she is special, beautiful and precious. She is different from her sisters (and there is always an inkling, perhaps, that she is not her father’s daughter) in looks. She is blonde, beautiful and brilliant. You can fake enough to make yourself loveable. You cannot hide insidious madness creeping through your veins.

It’s why - I play her as a very controlled, very private person - with a surface veneer of sociability. She laughs, she smiles, she parties, she charms - but her inner workings, her thoughts are private. Her fears, her sadness, her anger - she keeps a tight reign on them and has for a very long time (which backs up her skill at occlumency). 

So - you’ve got a special young woman - Bellatrix is probably treated very strictly, Andromeda is, likely as the middle child, ignored. And Narcissa - the baby, is also - quite possibly ignored, but a little more spoiled and the one for whom the rules don’t exist.

They spend a lot of time together - learning to be proper ladies and Andy is her favourite. Bellatrix has an edge of cruelty to her, a temper often left uncontrolled - the loudest voice and the harshest opinions. Sirius is nicer than Bellatrix but their personalities are both loud and dominant, and so, she likes Regulus better too. 

Bellatrix goes to school. It is her and Andy alone now (and, occasionaly, the boys) and she loves it. Adores the monopoly of her sisters time and affection, resents it when Bellatrix comes home but must keep that to herself. Andy goes to school and she is bereft. Alone. Her parents have little to no interest. It feels like a year of solitude (she is, of course, entirely too dramatic in this regard). 

And then she goes to Hogwarts and it should be the best time of her life. While at school she doesn’t put in as much effort as she could, or perhaps should into her school work - she has already learnt there are no consequences for her - and she’s more than willing to get someone else to do her homework for her. Sirius ruined it, of course, by being sorted into Gryffindor. It is the first crack in the perfect facade of her family. (Depending, on of course, where Andromeda went when she was sorted.) 

It upsets her, of course - as does everything else he carries on doing - he is still her cousin (even if he isn’t her favourite). And him leaving - it shredded their family in her opinion. It made it very easy to hate him. 

When Andy leaves - it’s harder. That’s her sister, her favourite sister and it is the most painful thing she could do - to abandon Narcissa like that. Like she doesn’t even care about her family. Hating Andromeda - she… She can’t. She knows she should, Bellatrix who has suddenly turned her full attention onto her tells her she should. Her parents tell her she should. Her aunt and uncle tell her she should. 

And she can’t. She wants to. She can’t. She loves Andy. 

But it’s not like she can see her anymore. 

She needs space to breathe - but suddenly - there isn’t any, the pressure is unbearable and there isn’t anyone she can talk to. And Bellatrix - she loves her sister but this… This is too much. 

But she endures. It’s what she does. I��m not sure how she gets over it  - she probably meets Andy in secret - vents her spleen and then… Puts up and shuts up. 

As for Lucius and Narcissa. I am very free flow about how it happens - Arranged marriage? I’m on board for that. Something more organic? Yes please. Something - somehow - to do with Severus introducing them? Fuck yes. 

But like I said, they love each other. I’m not very specific on the how or why - I can pretend I’m keeping it open for whoever I’m playing opposite - but there is, for Narcissa, that recognition of - oh. This. This is what love actually is. This is what it actually is. I’m not sure if it feels… Unconditional? To her but there is something there - that tethers to her to him. 

Draco - I feel is (and this is where I snap back to the original timeline) is their only child for a reason. I think - and if Narcissa and Lucius are older than James and Lily - it’s either because they waited or because they had difficulties. Given how doting we canonically see Narcissa to be (sending her son weekly care packages, refusing to let him go to Durmstang) and the fact he is their only son, I am inclined to believe the latter. 

And I think - for Draco - For Lucius - well Narcissa says it best herself:“Let go, Bella!” snarled Narcissa, and she drew a wand from beneath her cloak, holding it threateningly in the other’s face. Bella merely laughed. “Cissy, your own sister? You wouldn’t–” “There is nothing I wouldn’t do anymore!” Narcissa breathed, a note of hysteria in her voice, and as she brought down the wand like a knife, there was another flash of light. Bella let go of her sister’s arm as though burned. 

I think - one of the big problems I have with Cursed Child - is apparently after all that… After lying to Voldemort - who would kill them all if she was discovered - After running, unarmed, screaming for their son at the battle of Hogwarts - Narcissa and Lucius would lose their son and their grandson to bigotry? No. No way. Narcissa has lost too much of her family. She would swallow her pride and suck it up. And she might not be the best at it, at first - but she would not lose her son over who he chose to marry, who he chose to love any more than she would cut off her own arm. She might never be perfect but she would try. (And let’s not get into how the last movie /cursed child shits all over that bc. I will kill.) (And yes, you can directly transfer this on to Drarry and Scorbus or Dramione or whatever other non-traditional choices you might have for Draco. Narcissa would figure it out somehow simply because she has to.) 

(Also gimmie all the post war Lucissa angst.) (And all the first war Lucissa living the high life of pureblood & death eater elite) (And then also the post Voldemort fall high life too) (just give me Lucissa who love each other and make each other better and build each other up or give me death.) (I’m getting tired now and this is devolving, so I think this is where I’m gonna have to leave it but if you have more specific things you want me to explore plz plz plz prompt them - for any of my characters bc I love ranting I s2g)