#because i drew him as his older self. lol

[dreamdripdistance]

jotchua... 👼

[dirkxcaliborn]

Continuing where my tags left off bc I decided I didn't want to put an essay there lol

It's so weird I think bc it's not like I disliked Nero in any way???? Like he was an asshole tbf but even if I didn't like him that much for a while, he didn't really deserve the narrative he got stuck with...

Like Pheonix was very antisocial. He didn't really get along with people and I think a big part of it was his own self-hatred making him isolate himself. That said, he did have one friend and they were pretty close even though they didn't really understand each other for a while. Nero also didn't get along with people and hated himself, but while Pheonix had a very apathetic approach, Nero was very aggressive and antagonist. He lashed out a lot and would target people in jealousy, and Pheonix's best friend ended up his primary target. (Looking back now a line could probably be drawn between Nero recognizing himself in Pheonix and attacking something Pheonix had that Nero didn't, a friend).

Moving on, both of them ended up dating someone they had an extremely antagonistic relationship with as kids. Pheonix started dating his best friend's brother, who he'd basically been mortal enemies with since 1st grade. They had a lot of issues to work through, obviously, but they faced a lot of them head on and were really determined to go about things seriously. They got married and they love each other sooooooo so so much it probably makes ppl sick lol.

Nero on the other hand ended up dating Pheonix's best friend?? And to make things messier that's also his sister's ex??? which there was like this whole body swap thing that lead to that and probably really shouldn't have. Their relationship was always pretty rocky and they broke up before college... but for some reason years later they got back together??? and at this point Nero was really fixated on Alex (Pheonix's best friend) and had basically pleaded with him to get back together with him. A lot of their relationship from then on is kind of just... Alex indulging Nero, and Nero doing what he has to to stay with him. Nero actually proposed to Alex at one point and got turned down!! And at this point, Alex is like hmm the more I think about it, I think this relationship is really harmful to Nero and he's forced to sacrifice a lot to be with me and I just don't feel the same way as him. And Nero's just like No it's Fine I am Begging you please stay with me ok it's my choice if I want to put myself through this so please.

And that's not even getting into the fact that Alex is aro and Nero is ace. Like..... bro. Don't ask me why dude I don't know I really do not know.

Pheonix was allowed to go through a whole arc where he learned to accept himself while surrounded by so much support and love... while Nero's still just doing the most self destructive shit.

I'm still not entirely sure how to dig him out of that hole. He and Alex definitely need to break up but idk how to bring that about when he's so adamantly clingy and Alex is such a push over. I don't think Pheonix and Ren would interfere... they haven't so far and as of yet there's not a catalyst to do so. Pheonix also isn't really the type to interfere in other people's business, and Ren has long hated Nero so him suggesting they break up wouldn't be anything new. I absolutely refuse to have an infidelity plot line... while I think there is the possibility of Alex being convinced to break up with Nero, that doesn't really address Nero's issues and there's nothing really stopping him from again, turning up Alex's doorstop and pleading with him until he takes him back.

[goblins-riddles-or-frocks]

Getting some Berserk thoughts down, because the last time I was in my feelings about Griffith and the Golden Age arc, I’d promised at least one anon that I’d talk about it later and then I didn’t shfhff

But dam the Primrose Hall speech is such Wuthering Heights level miscommunication! It makes me ill!

Griffith positing that: a) having a dream is thee most important thing in the world and b) he cannot respect or consider a friend anyone who does not have their own dream (implicitly a dream different from his, so those two spheres never need interfere or threaten each other) or someone who is subordinate to him and therefore in danger of dying for his dream.

And then like five chapters later we get Casca’s flashbacks about Griffith and that immediately establishes that he is a lying liar who lies when it comes to his own emotions and guilt, but also that we can’t really know what he’s feeling in the present day, exactly, because he’s a different person now.

Contrary to what Griffith stan nation might say lol, I don’t think the dissonance between his two reactions to a child’s death directly resulting from him striving to achieve his goals is actually him just being a better liar by the Golden Age era.

He’s become indelibly crueler over the years and like, twenty is not fifteen.* He’s older and spent the entire time in between at war, killing other people, and commanding his own troops to die, for his dream. Age has hardened him. Meanwhile, him succumbing to that cruelty, to steel himself against personal grief, is literally the culmination of the Golden Age arc!

*caveat that the ages are messy, but he appears to be a teen and at least four to five years older by the Primrose Hall speech

But that flashback sequence is truly the key to Griffith’s character. It establishes both that he feels a general guilt over the blood on his hands, but also that he is motivated by a catastrophic level of sunk cost fallacy.

I also think him musing that the child must have really admired knights and wanted to be a knight himself, and that he always looked at Griffith like he was a hero out of a story is more indicative of Griffith and his initial perceptions of glory/his dream when he was younger, than simply an element of his guilt for leveraging the sense of hero worship he invokes in his followers (which is def an element at all)

It’s just very telling that this comes on the heels of Guts’ guilt over Adonis’ death and being reminded of his own younger self when seeing him.

Griffith’s own dream likely started out of naivety and simply wanting glory/to be a hero/to ascend when he started the Band of the Hawk as an adolescent. I think that child’s death represents him understanding the cost of being a mercenary, and leading people to their deaths for his own gain, when it’s far too late and he’s already sitting on a pile of corpses. And the only way to make it up is to keep grasping at his dream so that at least those deaths weren’t for nothing. I really don’t think he’s particularly torn up about Adonis’ death in the moment, but the larger abstract sense of guilt very much threatens to crush him if he ever falters.

And you know who has historically made him falter and put himself at risk, threatening his dream?

So, I think he’s very deliberately talking about Guts here actually, rather than the usual shipper line that he’s not even considering Guts when he says this.

And I think he’s very deliberately bringing up the key differences between himself and Guts (having a dream; Guts viewing himself as nothing but a tool to him despite!!! Griffith trying to convince him that they’re equals) and trying to convince himself that Guts shouldn’t mean much to him/that he cannot respect his life.

Because what’s one thing we know Griffith does? He pretends he doesn’t care while visibly caring very much.

And interestingly, what Griffith claims not to respect at all when speaking to Charlotte, seems to be what drew him to Guts in the first place. I’d argue, part of how Guts makes him falter, aside from an emotional connection, is potentially that he’s envious/tempted by the concept of being so uniquely unburdened with personal goals, considering Griffith himself is practically drowning in his own ambition.

Which, arguably, could simply be traits he values in any subordinate but not an equal. But we’re told several times by Casca that Guts is a unique case for him, that he’s never deliberately sought someone out to join him. And ostensibly, in that moment that observation is the only thing Griffith knows about him.

And it’s also worth noting that he initially simply asks Guts to join them. (More specifically he just says “I want you.” Super normal). The dual and its terms are something Guts sets, resulting in this moment.

But even after that point, he keeps trying to nudge their relationship into a more personal dynamic. Confiding in him, making it clear that he doesn’t tell anyone else these thoughts. And of course the famous scene where he insists that his own life isn’t worth more than Guts’ at all.

But Guts views himself as a sword to be wielded by Griffith (something we see Casca echo too) and keeps reinforcing the fact that he only does as Griffith demands.

And Griffith is very willing to leverage that and use Guys’ obedience to his benefit. At the heart of it, Griffith has always been mercenary even about this relationship. He’s very much trying to have his cake and eat it too, where his close personal friend and confidant is also his dog who he can bring to heel whenever it suits him.

It is very telling the way Griffith reacts when Guts tries to leave him. Where when he realizes he can’t talk him out of it, he decides to make him stay.

To me, this all ties back to the Primrose Hall speech, and how Griffith is trying to distance himself from his feelings for Guts, because he’s so much closer to his goals at that point. And ostensibly both the Princess’ favor and the attempt on his own life have made him really reevaluate how close he is to achieving something real and to not let something petty like feelings get in the way of that.

…and then Guts breaks up with him and everything falls to pieces.

[noeggets]

felt like drawing my kids, sorta AU cause i drew them kinda different half my designs, i aged up the navi's sorta

information about them bc it's long and self indulgent from me talking to my friend

Enzan

Age: 11 (but turns 12 before Lan does making him slightly older and he will use this in a argument if he wants to)

I HC him french because of his english name they just moved to Dentech city at some point

Protoman

Age: in his 40's. 2 or 3 years younger then Enzan's father.

Backstory He was Enzan's mom's Navi (her name is Glace bc i watched the dub but apparently this website believes Enzan's english translated name is a swear word but his name on his wiki means Hot Blaze or something like that but it's french so his mom is french that is the HC i will stand on) i diagress, when she passed he was given to Enzan

other information: His Navi model was discontinued because it was buggy and glitchy, nobody could fix it (nobody wanted to try) so they just stop using whatever AI brain chip he has to make Navi's like him. He dislikes Enzan's father because he feels like he should have never got his original netop pregnant because she was sickly and giving birth is what ended her life he believes because she was ill he whole heartedly believes that what it was however the exchange was Enzan and he loves that child as his own, very rough relationship with Enzan's father

Lan

Age: 11

other information: His Mom and Dad are divorced because Yuichiro loves his work more then anything excluding Lan and Megaman he loves his kids. they are still friends and love Lan equally. Lan lives with his mom Megaman used to live with their dad in his testing phase but he's in Lan's PET so he lives with Lan and his Mom now. his original home is at Yuichiro lab, the PET and Lan's Computer is his new home he is able to jump to whichever he decides. His dad is Netopian/American

Megaman

Age: age unknown youth model - He hasn't existed that long but at the same time he was created to be around Lan's age

Backstory

created from the dna of deceased twin of lan hub. technically he is a twin but he isn't Hub he is a copy created with the DNA. He is not Hub tho.

other information: he doesn't understand social cues and tends to speak his mind, he is wiser then Lan but not knowledgeable in subjects people/Navi's his age should know about. He can solve complex problems and understand wrong from right but when it starts becoming being a world experience issue he can't really help you

Maylu

Age: 11 (older then Lan younger then Enzan, taller then Lan brags about it sometimes)

other information: American/Netopian, has whatever an american accent would be called in this world, she had a hard to learning Japanese but can speak it fluidly, cannot write it that well. Very chill at the same time the loudest person in the room if bothered. Likes this kid name Zackery in their school cough Zero COUGH he has a whole story that he is Willy's son who Willy turned into a Navi but nobody knows it yet

Roll

Age: youth model around 16 or 18

Backstory

Normal custom edited Navi from base youth model in stores no interesting background

other information: adapted the traits of being kinda selfish and needy. It's hard for her to stand not having her way, very girly Maylu did not make her this way she just developed a personality outside of her environment because she does not act anything like Maylu this is not a bad thing but it isn't a good thing either lol we love roll still

[neonfretra]

i love everyone whos taking an interest to the sharks no matter what forces compelled yall <3 but also can i interest you in some of our guys that are older than 19 because i think the sharks truly excels at being the funniest collection of . guys, i guess

head coachs emotional support 2nd liner

last year (with david quinn) we had luke kunin as a second line center (hes a depth winger in teams that have more than five forwards and a dream). this year (with ryan warsofsky) we have jan rutta in second dpair . problem: they arent. good . theuy are CLOTH MOTHER!!!

we already have barclay goodrow at home

this is a quote from a tweet comparing kunin and goodrow but i CANT FIND IT...

i dont think we shoulda got barclay goodrow ill be real gang. i dont know what mike was doing here. anyways luke kunin is also our barclay goodrow at home (a bit of a goon, a bit of a leg weight) & we have barclay goodrow & warso loves sticking them together. & naturally theres some center with these two guys. (its currently will smith hockey)

the two old guys so to speak hook up

quoting this call from drew remenda regularly (~0:42 seconds in)

o captain my captain logan couture who has not touched ice since last season (but he played 6 beautiful games in our flop 23-24 season) && marc edouard vlasic (cousin of alex vlasic if you saw everyone getting pavlovian dog reactions every time they mentioned smaller pickle) who we last saw on ice last season...! theyre both out on injuries from the wear and tear of hockey and i honestly doubt we will see them again but i am incredibly fond of them.

heres some important things to know about marc edouard vlasic (pickles)! ^_^

divorced

yeah thats all i got for you

genuine question i have had for a while: how many of yall have never seen these guys on ice LOL

HOTEL CALIFORNIA!!!

oh my god we have SO many retired sharks that just. came back to work for the sharks. just off the top of my head:

mike grier (gm)

ryane clowe (assistant gm)

known landlords joe thornton (who is here for. vibes??? DOES HE GET PAID???) and patrick marleau (player dev coach)

tommy wingels (player dev coach)

mike ricci (player dev coach)

evgeni nabokov (goaltending dev coach) (not to be confused with goaltending dev coach thomas speer, known goalie whisperer)

mark smith (casting)

scott hannan (casting)

alex stalock (casting)

jason demers (casting)

david quinn has connections in the furry community (national hockey league) that could end your career in minutes

ex head coach dq (hes an assistant coach for the pens!) was really good at collecting guys from his prior teams, he used to be a coach for team usa in the olympics and for boston university . he knew gmmg (general manager mike grier) from bu! he also i know a guy'd his way to the pens!

funniest to me is henry thrun . dq WAMTED this guy . back in the college days ! see the thing is henry thrun we call him mr harvard. the one that got away NO LONGER...

swear to god theres another guy who dq ? i think ? loved SO much from his time with the rangers that he just kinda. snatched them with him to the sharks. BUT MY MEMORY IS BAD. I SWEAR IT HAPPENED. <- spent god knows how long paging through the shrimer

the san jose-new jersey highway

we keep collecting notable guys from new jersey... they arent even necessarily super notable IN jersey. mackenzie blackwood and vitek vanecek dont LOOK super good. i think both of them had insane injury records too?? and then we put them behind the sharks defense LMAOOOO

this post is written AFTER vitek vaneceks career record 49 save game BTW

ty equillibrium

did you know we traded away one ty (ty emberson) and also traded for one ty (ty dellandrea) . this is completely unrelated to anything .

the swedish mafia power struggle

we currently have five swedes: fabian zetterlnd, william eklund, alexander wennberg, carl grundstrom, and timothy liljegren ^_^

last season, it was a capital t thing that willyek was self appointing as head of the mafia with getting swedish meatballs at the rink (see previous link) and fabian zetterlund getting him coffee for his exit interview

alex wennberg as his senior IS challenging willyeks seating

riveting stuff. shout out to san jose shark media!

[pinayelf]

Spent some hours thinking abt this au so I finally drew it 💃🏽

I love the inherent romanticism of migs and lyla being in love and never being able to touch but also what if she was a human library archivist who Miguel befriends and eventually asks to join the spider society for her tech skills…

some of my hcs for the au under the cut ✌🏽

Lyla is also from 2099

she’s snarky and unserious, a bit chaotic sometimes

absolutely brilliant

she’s a library archivist & since it’s into the future libraries are probably enmeshed w tech and you’d need to be able to be good w tech to work in archives

She worked in the alchemax databases and befriended Miguel that way

they wanted her to pull some files unethically but she refused and quit, not before telling Tyler stone off (more specifically told him to eat her shocking ass)

when migs finally quit alchemax he finds her again at some rundown diner and they reconnect

she gets held up and Spider-Man saves her but she immediately puts it together that it’s Miguel because ofc she does

along with Jess drew, Lyla is one of the people Miguel trusts the most

lyla is close friends w Jess and also peter

she’s Margo’s tech mentor but is more like her cool older sister

her friendship w Miguel is the two of them constantly roasting each other. The other spiders are surprised that Lyla talks to him like that and that he responds w the same energy lol

she was with Miguel when he replaced his alternate self. She was introduced to gabi as his librarian friend

she grew close to gabi and loved her too, her loss also destroyed Lyla

she keeps this bottled in because she thinks she’s not allowed to grieve gabi

she and Miguel are both bottled up in different ways - Miguel closes himself off and loses himself in work and lyla jokes everything away

she is not in love with miguel

she isn’t pls believe her

shes in love with Miguel

[nrilliree]

we all know that dragons are not slaves and choose their own rider but i understand baela and rhaena anger because it was their mothers funeral and vhagar was the last living piece of her but their cousin ( Aemond ) sneaked out in the middle of the night and claimed her . I mean atleast rhaena should have given a chance first and if vhagar rejected her than it will a different matter , and while confronting him instead of realising his mistake he goes ignorent and pushes baela and starts the fight . And threatens jace with a stone and almost bashes his head until luke slashed his eye but he was just protecting his brother.

now people will justify alicents action to take lukes eye but why did she draw out blood first she should have listen to everyones side of the story and then she should decide what to do next . I mean if the roles were riversed and luke and jace were throwing slurs at aemond like " you will die screaming in flames just as your father did " and aemond accidently takes lukes eye in self defence and rhaenyra just goes and tries to stab alicent and take aemonds eye people will go balls and justify aemonds action and blame rhaenyra for taking action without thinking .

And in the last ep of hotd luke went as a messenger for the queen which means he cannot be harmed and cannot take part in any fight and also he didn't know that aemonds was gonna be there . and in stroms land aemonds taunts him and demand his eyes that is the sole reason he drews out his sword and when he leaves aemond thought it was the best ideas to chase after him on the words largest dragon which is also a war dragon because of his ego and to scare luke and when that idea didn't work and vhagar was out of control he commanded her in english wow vhagar has downloaded doulingo and started learning english .

That's right. It was Laena's funeral, and Rhaena and Baela had known Vhagar since birth. She had always been something directly related to Laena for them, and the fact that Laena talked about her with Rhaena when she was worried about her lack of a dragon could have been important to Rhaena because by trying to bond with Vhagar, she could have a part of Laena in her. And here came Aemond, whom they did not know at all, took Vhagar away without a word and contrary to custom, and then mocked and insulted them even more. Of course they reacted emotionally. And in such a situation, Aemond, being several years older than Rhaena, should not have brutally pushed her away and threatened to kill her using Vhagar. He might not have known them, but he probably had the emotional maturity to know that wasn't the right thing to do. That's why for me Aemond is a little psychopath. People blame Rhaenyra that when she saw her sons alone and bloody, she believed them that it wasn't their fault and that they were attacked. They spoke the truth in their reasoning. And Alicent did exactly the same - she saw her injured son and immediately started looking for those responsible, refusing to admit that it could have been Aemond's fault.

A situation arises in which Lucerys is responsible for both Aemond's eye damage and his own death. Because for some, Lucerys is the one responsible for Lucerys' death, not Aemond, lol.

[i-did-not-mean-to]

The curse of being loved

This ficlet is my peace offering to @sortumavaara.

I have not forsaken your blorbo. I swear... I'm just not good at writing him lol

@elanna-elrondiel you wanted to be tagged. @cilil this is your fault for enabling and encouraging me!

Characters: Elrond, Elros, Elwing, Maglor, Maedhros

Words: 1,5k

Warnings: Sadness, Eldritch powers, kids are creepy, self-realisation, murder, canonical slaughter, canonical kidnapping

The first language Elrond had ever heard was the breathless cries of amazement and captivation at perceiving him, and he’d understood it at once even though he didn’t yet comprehend the power inherent to that instinctive reaction of bone-deep awe.

As was expected and natural, he was loved and cherished by his parents, and, if he noticed that their level of watchfulness went beyond that of others, he did not think anything of it.

Why would he have? He’d never known any other way of being treated.

Likewise, he’d never really questioned the strange appeal he and Elros seemed to hold for almost any other adult in the dismal camp of refugees. They were twins, a two-pronged beacon of life and hope, and it made sense that those who’d previously suffered such pains and deprivation would feel inexorably drawn to the soft, open faces of young children.

Elrond was aware that—in a world full of lurking danger and dark doom—he was vulnerable and precious to the adults in his life, not least because of the importance and wisdom of his genitors who were still utterly besotted with his charming smiles and pleading glances.

As time went by, though, he soon learned how to capitalise on that undeniable weakness in that self-forgotten, profoundly selfish way that was typical for toddlers.

Thus, he observed the reactions of those surrounding him with dispassionate curiosity, adjusting his mannerisms and voice in a myriad of discreet, nigh-imperceptible ways to consciously exacerbate the strange, alluring, corrupting effect he had on people.

In time, and almost despite himself, he started to tilt his head in a way that made his eyes gleam and his skin appear fragile and translucent like the finest porcelain, having ascertained through trial and error that this made it patently impossible for anyone looking at him to avert their eyes or deny him even the most outlandish request.

Barely out of infancy, he was continually perched on someone’s arm like a wondrous bird wrought of unconfessed wishes and stardust—back then, he was blessedly ignorant of his own lineage and the terrible might it conferred to him, and he shamelessly basked in the attention and admiration with which he was unceasingly showered.

Slowly but obdurately, all his motions grew thoughtful and elegant long before other children his age had outgrown the phase of rambunctious chaos, and yet, neither he nor his brother was ever truly ostracised or mocked by their peers for their peculiar charm that invariably turned rational sages and ferocious warriors into blabbering fools.

They were loved by all they met, and they hadn’t yet made any experience that would push them to worry about something as self-evident and wholesome as the simple fact that people seemingly never grew tired of watching them play or listening to them talk, no matter the subject and its relative importance.

Growing older and fairer with every passing day, Elrond before long was overcome with the unshakable sensation that the people around him drew an unfathomable, indescribable sense of soothing and even healing from their every interaction with him, and so he pushed aside his nascent qualms at having praise and gifts bestowed upon him without measure or restraint.

Still, he felt adored, respected, and valued in his community, and he began to feel responsible for those who had taken such generous care of him in return. When he grew to his full strength, he vowed, he’d prove himself worthy of all the affection that had been heaped upon him for as long as he could remember.

One fateful day, though, their mother—in their father’s absence—threw herself into the arms of the sea, desperate tears channelling her bright gaze into a deadly beam of cutting devastation that would sunder her from her sons forever.

Elrond was too stunned to even cry out—he didn’t understand. How could a woman whose very purpose in life had been to coddle and adulate her sons do something so cruel and reckless?

Of course, he did not get the time to further muse about these confusing, contradictory truths in peace, though, as a stranger approached him, his long-fingered hands extended as if to promise with his whole body that he meant him and his brother no harm.

Was it instinct or habit, Elrond would never be able to determine later on, but, abandoned by his father and bereft of his mother, he shamelessly angled his face upwards to catch the flickering light of his childhood being put to the torch in his wide, wet eyes.

Robbed of all his anchor points, he fell back on the hitherto unquestioned, flawlessly reliable magic that coursed through his veins—pushing Elros behind him, he moulded himself into the most appealing version of himself to cow the ominous, looming threat by innate enchantment alone.

The stranger chuckled softly. “I used to do that,” he confessed in a soft, melodious voice that seemed to chime like a thousand golden strings. “Nelyo was always the pretty one, but I was ever able to coax and coerce people by a mere glance or a whispered word.”

Elrond flinched back as if struck. Why did this atrocious confession echo through his whole being, sending nauseating waves of shame and guilt crashing into his soul?

There was something so callously, insultingly veracious in that careless quip that Elrond felt his mask of puerile purity slip, revealing the deep-felt shock and sudden fear lurking underneath to the merciless stare of the murderous intruder.

“You truly are of Melian’s blood.”

Frowning, Elrond shook his head in a vain attempt to dispel the gossamer threads of dark and dangerous magic the man’s voice wove around his frantic mind, choking all sense of self-preservation and caution out of it mercilessly.

“Who are you?” he asked, feeling Elros’s cold hand press against the small of his back as if to encourage him or hold him back.

The fearsome foe hesitated for a heartbeat. “Maglor,” he then sighed. “Call me Maglor.”

At once, Elrond pounced on that minuscule mellowing. Stepping forward fearlessly, he put out his slender, tiny hand and conjured up his most enthralling, hypnotizing smile. “I’m Elrond, and this is my brother Elros. You wouldn’t harm us, would you?”

Wearily, Maglor—who was drenched in blood and covered in mud and miserable memories—let go of his blade and wiped his pale, empty palm across his sweat-sheened brow. “No,” he finally grunted. “I know not whence the spell you’ve put upon me has issued, and I like it not to find such power in one so young, but I admit that all bloodlust has drained from my heart. Come away, there is nought here for you but death and starvation.”

“You hexed him,” Elros whispered as they were led out of the camp. “There comes another one, can you do it again?”

In truth, Elrond was shaken to his core. After a bountiful childhood at the bosom of his parents’ people, he now came to understand that he wielded a fearsome and potentially perilous power.

He yearned to seek out his mother’s wisdom or his father’s stalwart support, but he knew not where they were, and he doubted that he’d ever be reunited with them.

Too many epiphanies—much too weighty and woeful for a mere child to fully fathom—hit him at once, and he longed to curl up in the warm, protective arms of those who’d gathered around his bassinet and his naïve games to cheer and comfort him at every turn.

From the foul fumes of burning wood and smouldering stone emerged a figure—tall and stiff as a moving tree—and Elrond closed his eyes for a moment, trying to recall every single instance in which he’d tricked someone into giving him an undeserved treat or forgiving a careless trespass upon their peace and property.

“Káno, what do you think you’re doing?” the newcomer rasped impatiently.

“Speak to the child,” their new minder, already half won over, replied in a clipped voice that turned his words into a hailstorm of icy shards. “You’ll see that I had no choice in the matter.”

With a scoff, the red-haired demon turned and stalked away.

“He’s afraid of your talents,” Elros cheered under his breath, and Elrond let him believe that the battle he was about to fight without even knowing his weapons was already won.

He’d have but little time to become consciously aware of his skills and hone them sufficiently to save their lives, but he’d not burden Elros with the devastating knowledge that they’d be on their own and at the mercy of their parents’ enemies henceforth.

When Maglor turned to lift his orphaned captives into his unyielding arms, Elrond leaned his soft cheek against the worn, dirty fur collar of his cloak in a gesture reminiscent of a defenceless kitten, seeking shelter and warmth.

“Leave it to me,” he whispered. He’d not only make these murderers spare their lives—he’d make them love him.

Again, this was an attempt at breaking me out of my writer's block, so there is no event, no Masterlist, no context...

Lots of love from me!

[skyloftian-nutcase]

Imo I’d suggest writing it bc some people haven’t read everything (me tbh) and so idk who ur guys r or what their personalities r etc, but most importantly for u, if u wanna write it then u totally should, no matter what u think other people will think❤️

Anon, thank you LOL, I was going into quite the silly spiral. Anyway, I have A LOT of things to say about blorbos, so I’ll just talk about two who probably won’t get much fleshing out because I write piecemeal for them and their story isn’t really something that’s gonna be on AO3 or anything because they’re backstory characters.

Rambles under the cut :D

Orik/Link, Hero of Power – Born of a Hylian mother and a Sheikah father, Link lost his mother to childbirth and his father to illness shortly after. He was raised in his father’s culture, collectively raised by multiple families that pitched in to look after orphans after the illness that killed many in their tribe. Link went by the name Orik during his childhood, as Sheikah viewed the name Link as sacred, and not to be given to Sheikah children. He liked the name Link, though, and wanted to have something of his mother’s. He kept a shawl she wore and used it as a blanket when he was little, and later as a scarf when he was older. The cloth and the name were all he had of her.

Throughout his childhood, Link could tell that while he was considered part of the tribe, there were some who viewed him as being beneath the others. He once heard his father’s best friend say that Orik was his father’s greatest mistake, and it stuck with him. Link naturally seeks the approval of others (he is a MAJOR people pleaser), and he wants to prove himself to his people, so he strives to be the best warrior in the entire tribe. He makes a name for himself by becoming the youngest to pass the trials into adulthood, doing so at the age of 12. Once he does, this, he basically has to fend for himself now.

When Link turns twelve, his entire life changes. He has earned some respect from his elders, and he’s eager to continue doing so. He was always a quieter boy, and when he becomes a guard, he’s dutiful, obedient, and generally a little shy and not talkative. It makes him come across as either incredibly stoic or unnervingly/annoyingly lifeless. Despite his quiet, demure nature, though, Link is very keen and observant. He’s vigilant of his environment, and is pretty good at getting a vibe for people. However, he’s now forced into a position of responsibility given to adults, and he kind of just… skips over the development he should get in adolescence. Link has spent a good portion of his childhood trying to prepare himself for adulthood before he even became a teenager, so he’s internalized a lot at this point. He keeps his emotions to himself. He bows and obeys. He doesn’t argue, even if he doesn’t like something. It isn’t until Hemisi drags him out of himself, and until the war forces him to step up, that he really starts to come into his own.

As such, Link’s entire life centers around and stops at the war. He was so stifled as a kid, self-imposed but very much affected by his environment, and so the war is both horrible and freeing. He finally stepped forward to make his own decisions when he saw the casualties at the Battle of Hyrule Field, despite King Ozen’s orders for all the Sheikah—his best warriors—to remain at the castle. Link chose to join the war, and when he was going to sneak off to do so, acquiesced to Princess Zelda’s wish to sneak out with him so they could investigate something. What she sought was the Master Sword, as she suspected Link was the Hero, and he only drew the sword because ordered to. Being the Hero to him is a privilege, and granting him the approval and attention he sought as a child, but he really doesn’t know what to do with it once he has it. It does give him something he isn’t used to having: agency. While he obeys his queen, his status as Hero gives him the ability to befriend her as well, not just follow her orders. While he has a heavy destiny on his shoulders, he chooses to fight against Ganondorf, despite his feelings for him, because he wants to do what’s right. His agency slips through his fingers as the war progresses, as he loses himself to the constant fighting, and it isn’t until the war’s end that he feels like he finally has a chance to make his own life in marrying Hemisi, someone he is madly in love with, and rebuilding together.

And it’s all taken away when he has to marry Zelda instead.

Link’s marriage to Zelda… basically destroys him for a long time. He lost Hemisi, someone who treated him like a person and didn’t bother with the formalities and protocols that plagued his life, someone who made him feel like he could break the rules and have fun and be himself, someone he had just gotten back in the war after losing her initially to it, someone who shared his pain in losing a father figure, in having to kill said father figure. He feels like he shackled himself to the throne, having to obey every whim of the queen to make Hyrule look strong. More than anything, though, he feels like he finally did what he’d been trying to do his entire life: the Sheikah were more proud of him than ever, Hyrule adored him and recognized him and his abilities, Zelda needed him… and he felt completely powerless. He finally got the approval he sought and then realized it was pointless.

This, in turn, leads him to completely spiral. What’s the point of his life, if everything he sought was for nothing? He’d never had a father figure in his life until Ganondorf, only to lose him and have to kill him. Hemisi was his entire world, helping him discover himself and he adored her, only to have to abandon her. He’d tried again and again to make the Sheikah proud, and when he finally did he felt like he’d enslaved himself more than ever. And more than anything, it was his choice – Zelda didn’t force the matter. But he’s always done his duty, and really, why wouldn’t he try to help? He wasn’t going to abandon his entire country for his own needs and wants. That’s selfish. He can’t possibly put himself first like that. It’s wrong. It’s wrong.

So why the hell does everything feel so wrong now?

Link spends years trying to figure out his life after this, to figure out who he is and whether he even has freedom or not. He feels like he doesn’t, and given that he never really had a full childhood, he does not know how to cope with it. Despair, confusion, loss, hopelessness and frustration brew into bitterness and anger, and he does not know how to stop it. He’s prone to melancholy, usually being depressed and sluggish, until he’s pushed to a point of rage, because he doesn’t know how else to express his emotions anymore. He was trained to fight and kill. It’s all he knows. And now he’s stuck in a position where that isn’t entirely needed, and he’s not sure what he’s supposed to do aside from bow his head and do everything Zelda says.

He tries to pick himself up. If nothing else, for the sake of the children he made with the queen. They deserve better than what he’s doing. But it takes him years, and a lot of his anger and hurt is focused on the queen since she, buckling under her own pressure, orders him around expecting him to be okay with just obeying blindly since he agreed to the marriage.

Someday, Link learns to live with everything. Sort of. For the most part. At the very least, he learns to live. He focuses on helping the Sheikah, on developing their technology. He gets Terrako as a gift from the scientists for all the effort he puts into it. He tries to rekindle a healthy relationship with Zelda, though that takes much longer as they’re both hot messes with too much baggage to know what to do with. He tries to be a good father for his children. But he struggles hard, and sometimes he gets angry at himself for doing so - he’s not a child anymore, why can’t he just deal with this? (Because you never learned how, Link. You moron.)

Link loses himself when the war ends, what little he’d managed to find. It takes him over a decade to get that back. He doesn’t entirely succeed… not in time for his early death. But he does try. And he looks out for his family and his kingdom as best he can.

Queen Zelda, the Sacred Diplomat – Zelda spent her childhood mostly in solitude. Her father, King Ozen, was the second son of the previous monarchs, and watched his older brother get assassinated because his claim to the throne was viewed as weak both due to his weak magic and the fact that he was a man. As such, when Ozen had Zelda, he flaunted her existence like a badge of honor and a certification of authenticity. Zelda, however, wasn’t really given any leeway to do anything as princess. She was kept in the castle, like a bird in a cage, to be admired and viewed but not touched or spoken to. Her mother died when she was little, leaving her entirely under her father’s rule. While her father was weak and paranoid, though, Zelda has an inner strength that is not to be trifled with, and she dreamed of gaining her birthright and becoming queen.

During her childhood, Zelda really wanted to make sure she was ready to rule, thinking that her father would of course give her the throne when she came of age. She tried to seek his approval as best she could, and while she seemed to get it in some ways because she’s the princess, it never felt completely genuine. So she stepped up her game to be the best princess ever, learning everything of the politics of Hyrule, learning especially how to wield her magic as best as possible. She dreamed of becoming queen, of being the best queen there was, and of protecting and taking care of her people. Her family history and responsibilities were seen as stories of heroes to her, and she wanted to add to that story, proud of being able to take care of so many.

As the years went by, Zelda saw her father systematically tear Hyrule apart by allowing anyone who sweet talked him to gain power. She tried arguing to no avail, and by the time she was in mid adolescence she started to realize that maybe her father did not have the kingdom’s best interests at heart. She tried to hold on to hope, though, until she saw him fumbling the war and not taking Ganondorf’s threat seriously.

She took matters into her own hands. On the eve of her seventeenth birthday, fueled by confidence over the fact that she bore the Triforce of Wisdom, she overthrew her father with the help of Impa and half the Sheikah. Zelda regrets to the end of her days how her relationship with her father unraveled, as he wasn’t always particularly bad to her (they had plenty of good moments, but his paranoia outweighed everything), but she still thought the duty of her family was more important than her father’s approval.

Because of her mostly isolated upbringing, Zelda is very naïve to the emotions of others. She learns how to manipulate people quickly, but can sometimes lack empathy – she will 100% trample someone’s feelings if she thinks she needs to in order to accomplish a goal. She has a compassionate heart, but it hardens if the objective and the emotions clash. Most of the time, it isn’t even on purpose – she’ll order Link to bring their daughter and accompany her on a tour of Hyrule because she knows the people of Hyrule will want to see the royal family, because marrying Link and creating a family was for the benefit of creating stability and bringing hope to her people. She doesn’t bear in mind that Link’s suffering—she doesn’t even realize it for a long time, too caught up in her own stress and duties—or that showing their daughter off to the world to make people happy is exactly what her father did to her. She doesn’t understand why Link is so melancholy initially, and as for her his relationship with Hemisi, Zelda knew they were close, but clearly they couldn’t have been that close if Link chose to marry her anyway, right? Duty comes first anyway.

Zelda struggles in being a mother. She wants to be there for her children but she doesn’t know how – her parents were never there for her, after all. She spends time with them, nourishes them, loves them, but sometimes the best way she shows she cares is to drag her daughter into politics to teach her so that the nobles can’t take advantage of her, and Link hates that.

As for her personal feelings for Link, he’s one of the first people around her age to ever act normal around her. She loved his friendship during the war, and she doesn’t understand why it’s changed – she knows she isn’t necessarily in love with him, and that he isn’t in love with her, but he agreed to the marriage, so why is he acting like he doesn’t like it? It was his choice, after all. This frustrates her, and sometimes she can’t help snapping at him when he seems to be slacking off. After all, she’s got nobles nipping at her heels trying to take back the power she’s slowly siphoning away from them, given to them foolishly by her father. Sometimes Link helps her out, but most of the time he’s still struggling with his own issues and trying to raise their children while she’s consumed by her desire to take care of everyone. Zelda finds her happiness through protecting others, and she really enjoys the satisfaction of seeing her plans work, and it can make her enjoy manipulating people a little too much sometimes. Despite this, she genuinely wants what’s best for Hyrule, and she wants to make her husband happy too, even if she’s not sure why he isn’t already. (Talk to him, Zelda. Talk to him. Oh, wait, they both suck at expressing their emotions.)

Zelda is not a trusting person. She has too many enemies for that. So she keeps her thoughts and feelings close to her chest, which can cause hiccups with Link. However, she trusts Impa implicitly, considering the Sheikah chief literally had to overthrow the king and her own people in aiding Zelda’s coup. Impa fills the void of a mentor and mother figure for Zelda, and she is eternally grateful for her counsel, but sometimes, having been told her entire childhood that she knows nothing and should keep her head down whenever she tried to advise/talk to her father about matters, she gets fairly defensive. She does not appreciate being corrected by anyone aside from Impa, and she can get a bit dicey about it even with the Sheikah chief sometimes. But she tries to recognize that wisdom means knowing when one doesn’t know something – it’s just a sore spot for her.

Despite her not trusting easily—at all—and despite her having a difficult time figuring out what’s wrong with Link, she does try to reach out to him multiple times to extend an olive branch. Sometimes she rescinds it with her own mistakes, and sometimes he smacks it out of her hand with his own flaws. But eventually, they rebuild a friendship, partly with the help of Impa being injured in an attack organized by Ozen’s loyalists (nobles who know he’ll give them power if he’s back on the throne) – Link and Zelda both love Impa dearly, and they’ll put aside any differences to protect her (Link will burn the world to the ground if he has to, Zelda will temper that but inadvertently cause emotional damage, Link will temper her lack of empathy in turn).

In the end, Link and Zelda have similar backgrounds with very different results. Both wanted to prove themselves, one to his culture by becoming the best warrior and a dutiful servant, the other to her father and herself. They both have a lot of grit. Link’s far more sensitive, basing his identity on the approval of others, while Zelda bases her identity on her ability to take care of her people. This means Link was drowning when he got married and realized that the approval of others only left him feeling more enslaved than ever and unable to make decisions for himself, while Zelda was thriving when she got married because she was doing everything to save everyone. The roles reversed as time passed, when Zelda started to wonder if her efforts truly were worth it when problems continued to arise and she saw Link suffering, while Link started to step up and try to take advantage of the situation he was in and help Zelda.

[uchihaharlot]

please please please please please more thoughts on shisui sucking his own fat cock that was so fucking hot every time i think about it i get so w 🤣❤️❤️

As you wish. I see Shisui and cock in the same sentence, who am I to ignore the salacious whims of my people? 😈

NSFW; the finer details of Uchiha Shisui sucking himself dry;

— So how did he he even get in this position? 😂 The origins of when Shisui started giving himself head are so long ago, Shisui just had to give in to the impulse. Life is short, it’s not like people weren’t using shadow clones to fuck around. Everyone who learned the technique eventually got curious. Shisui chalks it up the way Kanye West does — ‘only good gon’ come is this good when I’m coming.’ So yea.

— Let’s not lie, he’s a horny bastard. He’s even shoved his fingers in his own ass and milked himself while doing this, though that’s a topic for another time. The first time he slipped his drippy cock in his mouth — legs bent over his head, it was scary actually. Worried he would suffocate himself. ‘This is what girls see?’ He actually gained a new appreciation for the blow job. How much work actually went into it, and well, practice makes perfect.

— It was better than his hand, no lie. Shisui was so sweaty and breathless from the combination of being bent like a pretzel and the euphoria that was his cock in his mouth. He came fast too, probably too fast — which raised a new dilemma for him.

— The first time he tasted his own cum he choked, literally. Went down his windpipe because it straight shot and rocketed down his throat. Spit up a bit of it out his nose 🥹 The time after that he came on his face, for research purposes. Over time learned the art of swirling his tongue right before he was about to bust, which helped with the choking and created a vacuum that allowed his little Uchiha swimmers to glide down his throat. Though he really likes pearl necklaces.

— ….completely changed his diet to accommodate this little quirk of his, for a while Shisui was a solo man. Did what he had to do for a proper self face fucking. Figuring out which fruits would make him less…tart. He drew the line at salmon, since that is his favorite food — he would just skip those days. Starts each day off with a smoothie, just in case. As he has gotten older, sorry Shisui, sometimes he doesn’t have the energy to bend over so yea, ok, he might use a shadow clone of himself. It’s still innovative!!

— Despite his reputation for being the village bus stop at one point in time, this is a secret he keeps to himself…until his s/o walked in on him (recently lol). How unholy that must’ve looked. They talked about it — well, fucked it out. This woman, she is a god send, I tell you. He still thinks about her dainty fingers pressing into his ass and her hand stoking him as his lips slurped his own length.

— Other than that, there really isn’t much more to say. That time she caught him it had actually been months, and he was worried she would think he was a freak but then she said, ‘you’re talking to someone who eats your ass…’ yea, she did do that. Often too.

[adiduck]

WIP Game Snippet (and Last Line Challenge)

So I'm starting at the bottom of my WIP Game snips this time--below you'll find my 25 sentences for Operation Groundhog AU (plus a little extra).

This is also gonna serve as my response to @frostbitebakery's tag for the Last Line Challenge!

Rules: in a new post, show the last line you wrote (or drew) and tag as many people as there are words (or as many as you feel like). 

Open tags for that one. I've tagged too many people recently LOL

-

It’s not the Captain that finds them later, sitting in a little break room they’re definitely not supposed to be in and waiting for news. It’s one of the Admiral’s flag aides.

LCDR Sam Silenski, he introduces himself. Early forties, maybe, boxier build of a man who spends a lot of time behind a desk and makes up for it in a gym, a dark sweep of brown hair mixed with gray. One of the more senior members of Admiral Kazansky’s staff. His handshake’s firm when he shakes Ice’s and then Mav’s hands, gives them both a smile. “The Captain asked me to grab you two on the way out and get you back to base,” he says. “There’s not going to be much news tonight.”

“But it’s going okay?” Mav interjects, when Ice can’t manage to find the words to ask.

Silenski shrugs. “I have permission to inform you both that they avoided a respirator,” he offers. “Which is good, because the Admiral--” his eyes catch on Ice, and he clearly amends what he was going to say. “The Admiral doesn’t like being out of commission that long. He’s had to call in his deputy exactly once since assuming command, and… it was… not an enjoyable experience for anyone.”

Mav snickers, elbows Ice in the ribs. Ice finds a ghost of a smile to give him.

Silenski walks them out to his car--a beat up jeep, shit all over the back seat like most cars Ice has seen. The guy looks mildly embarrassed anyway when he realizes, glancing at Ice like he’s expecting Ice to have especially stringent back seat-related standards. Ice opts not to mention that he thinks he left a gym bag with dirty clothes in his own car’s back seat before he deployed. He thinks he’s getting a sense of the mystique his older self’s been cultivating with his staff, and he doesn’t want to ruin it by being too human.

It’s a weird thing to be thinking about, but it’s better than--

Well. It’s just better.

Ice ends up taking the front seat, by virtue of having longer legs. It’s a relatively quiet trip back to the assigned housing they’d shoved Ice and Mav into at the start of last week. Mav and Silenski make small talk--baseball, and San Diego weather, and a little of what being a flag aide is like.

“I have a good job,” Silenski says, shrugging. “Good pay, interesting work. A boss who maybe could stand to take a vacation occasionally.”

“I don’t think Ice’s had that word defined for him,” Mav jokes, grinning.

“What’s a vacation?” Ice asks dutifully, and Silenski snorts.

“Alright, alright, I’ll tell them to update the betting pool,” Silenski says, and pulls up to the shitty little bungalow Ice and Mav are sharing. “Ah, Kazansky.”

Ice pauses, door open and halfway out of the car.

Silenski looks at him for a minute, mouth twisted up, and then nods. “It really is a pleasure to meet you. Sorry about the weird circumstances.”

Ice nods. “You too,” he says. “Thanks for the ride.” He gets out and closes the door before the conversation can turn to… anything else.

[lippypopples]

First drawing of Venci. More about his design below.

In Blaze’s arc (the Armarouge drawn) he just lost his eye and has a huge scar on his chest thanks to Shade (his brother.) when he was in the hospital bed thinking about the event that just happened, he thought to himself that he regretted not telling his true feeling to Venci sooner. He had a childhood crush on Venci and never told him about his feelings before he joined a guild and moved away to the kingdom.

I want a character that would represent a bright future for Blaze after he just lost his eye and got retraumatized again. At first I tried to use a Lucario (if you looked at my older drawings you would see Blaze with a lucario)

links here of those drawings here

link one

link two

but when it actually came down to designing Venci I was struggling. I tried making the lucario shiny, not shiny, making it look different etc but nothing seemed to be working. I even tried a Leavanny and cinderace but hated all the results.

I was starting to hate this character of Venci before he even had a designed, he didn’t look right to me no matter what I did, then my friend suggested I use a Roserade. At first I scoffed at the idea of using a Roserade but after some convincing from my friend I did a Roserade. these were the first drawings.

After these drawings it all started to click.

I was pretty shocked with how good he looked right off the bat. I altered his colors a little bit and this is how we have the Venci today.

Let's look deeper in his design, as said before I wanted a character that would represent a good future for Blaze after what he went through. I choose to give Venci red and yellow roses instead of red and blue roses like most roserades. Depending on the roses colors they represent something. The obvious one and most well known is the red roses representing love, at some point in the story Blaze confesses his feeling to Venci and they start dating. The yellow roses represent friendship, joy, excitement and love at first sight, since blaze fell in love with Venci when Venci evolved into a roselia. I guess the yellow roses could represent Blaze's childhood and his feelings on Venci. You could even say Venci's hair flower could also represent bringing peace and new beginnings, starting over and rebirth. (it could also rep for love as will lol)

Now to explain the meowscarada features. Venci is NOT a fusion in fact, he just has features of a meowscarada because his father is a meowscarada. The reasons why I made him a catboy is more of a personal one, when my childhood pets all passed it was like starting a new life. Someone in my life passed, I moved states with my stepdad and sorta started life over again. When my parents got a new cat it sorta felt like a clear slip between my old childhood life and my adult life. In a way having a cat-like character to represent a new future for a character who was recently traumatized sorta mirrors my real life. That's why I made Venci a catboy is because to me, a cat represents an end and new beginnings.

Now for his name, originally Venci was going to be named fanny but my friend didn't like that name and i couldn't come up with anything better so they did some research and found Vinci roses, they are roses that can only be yellow and red and I thought they were super fitting. It also sounded cooler so i kept the name.

When I first drew Venci as a lucario he was originally was going to be a happy go lucky type guy, but after drawing him as a roserade and giving him this stupid face his personally was cemented.

He became an egotistical dumbass who is a big flirt and is too cocky for his own good. He may be good at battling but he ignores his limits and that results in him losing battles thinking he can take on stronger pokemon. He's very silly but he dose things with good intent but sometimes pushes himself due to his ego. He could have some character development where he isn't as egoistical and self centered. His ego also makes him think he can't fail at any guild missions. For awhile he hasn't failed at a guild mission until he meet Penelope who was the first pokemon he wasn't able to get captured. This sylveon was fucking with him and no matter what she always slips through getting away and making him fail his mission and seeing himself as a failure.

TLDR: Venci was a dogboy but now is a catboy and i think that's fucked up.

[bromcommie]

🤩🎯

Hi, thanks for the ask! :) 🤩 What led to your interest in the fandom?

Oof, boy. So, I mean, I was a geeky little kid and grew up loving the Spiderman and X-Men comics, so my interest kind of naturally progressed with the MCU boom of 2009 or whatever. As for Cap, I have to admit I didn't like him all that much at first - I'd only seen him in The Avengers and I think like many other people I kind of just viewed him as The Square Old American Imperialist Guy (thanks, Joss Whedon😒). It was only after seeing CATWS and retroactively CATFA that the floodgates opened. The interest was kind of on and off for a while, but it definitely spiked with time and I got into the Cap, WS, Black Widow and some other comics as well after that.

Idk when exactly I got into Stucky, because I distinctly remember having a phase of "why can't guys just be really really really good friends???" (I know, I know.) but between then and CA: CW I definitely fell in love with both characters and a) kind of went through my own awakening lol, b) started rapidly developing an unrelated but helpful interest in early and mid-20th century history and c) watching a shit ton of Cap edits on YouTube because I've always liked vidding. I eventually started making some of my own vids and fanart when my brain just woke up one morning and clicked into "oh shit. oh, not only is the premise of this story compelling on several levels, but these motherfuckers are in love in love" mode, and inevitably that also led to me starting to read fanfiction.

And that was just...a fucking revelation and a half. Because suddenly here were all these people writing heartfelt, compelling stories—sometimes heavy as shit, sometimes downright hilarious and sometimes just publishing quality—about everything ranging from grief and guilt and trauma to bodily autonomy and disability and queerness and self-worth to relationships with faith and nationality and community and intersectional identity to beliefs and morality and perseverance to violence and war and systems of oppression to different kinds of love and devotion etc etc etc I could go on literally forever. All set to a sprawling love story, all in a historical context I was interested in, all with about a million different perspectives you would never actually get to see on screen or on the page. I also fell in with a bunch of very passionate, nerdy queer people in college after, all of whom loved comics characters and shared these interests and had a lot to say on the overlap of the two, and well. I never really stood a chance, after that.

I guess ultimately what really drew me to it was the potential of taking material that was (I'm sorry, but let's be real) sometimes painfully mediocre-to-plain bad but with a great premise, and then projecting and exploring some really interesting and grounded and even vulnerable topics through the very fun sandbox that the more fantastical, epic aspects of these stories present—often in a subverted way and with mouthpieces (read: Stereotypical Empowered Bulky Macho Men) that you don't get to see in that light in mainstream media. And the Cap fandom really had (and has to this day!) an abundance of talented, curious people throwing themselves into that wholeheartedly and with such wonderful passion and creativity and care. So engaging with that as a hobby can be really lovely and inspiring and cathartic. And sometimes it's just plain lighthearted fun! I think the older I get the more I can really appreciate that.

Also, not to be super sappy or make it sound more serious than it is, but stories about goddamn superheroes overcoming painful, fucked up real life situations and aspiring to do and be better were a great comfort to nerdy Little Me, and so was getting to talk to people about the things I saw in them that meant something to me. I think Steve's character and origin—and the perspectives on it I got from other people—were just a big deal to my baby teenage brain during a time when I was starting to develop a real life social and political awareness and a sense of all the ways in which the things we do and say and how we stand up for each other matter. And as a grown-ass adult today, I still cherish that. And I cherish that even though I've matured and evolved and so have my other interests, I still got to come on here in the year of our lord 2024 when this particular hyperfixation suddenly came out of its long winter slumber and indulge in a comforting, creative hobby and stretch my writing muscles, and that I still got to find people to play in that sandbox with in a way that is extremely satisfying.

So there you go, and I'm so sorry. I have a lot of thoughts and feelings on this. Make of that rambling essay what you will.

🎯 Do you have a writing milestone you’re working towards?

In terms of fandom works, I really don't. I started writing fic just as a fun hobby for myself, and I never really thought of it in terms of goals like I do the original work I try to write, just because I think that'd probably take some of the fun out of it. I'm in a bit of a rut at the moment though, so I'd really like to be able to break out of it soon and post the next few chapters of orpheus I've been trying to work on, if that counts!

[casiavium]

It is thursday not wip wednesday anymore but I really want to finish damage control in march (more likely april tbh, I still have a lot of cosplay stuff to work on before the con I'm going to in a few weeks) so maybe if I post weekly wips I will hold my self accountable to actually writing

flashback scene that opens the chapter directly copy pasted from my wip, so ignore the format and any typos lol

"Are you healing well?"

Link's fingers grazed his chest. The skin was perfectly smooth, not even the old scars from sparring left. He felt as if there should be a gaping wound, as if he should be able to dip his fingers into a hollow center and scoop out what was left of his humanity. 

Ghirahim took hold of his wrist and drew his hand away.

"Yeah."

Tucking his legs under himself, Link leaned into Ghirahim, watching as the demon stretched out his arm and rubbed along his deathly pale skin. He could feel the other's eyes staring at him intently, but didn't elaborate. No scars remained anywhere on his body. Every tiny cut and scrape he had vanished. His freckles were gone.

"You're rethinking again."

Ripping his hand away, Link scoffed at the statement. "Even if I am, what could I do about it?"

His attitude wouldn't go unnoticed. Twisting his face by his chin, Ghirahim forced his attention, hard glare met with unapologetic indifference. Clicking his tongue, he conceded, wrapping his arm around Link's shoulders in what felt more possessive and encircling than tender.

"You're learning the right sentiment, but we'll have to work on your presentation. Master won't be as kind as I am when it comes to ignoring your insolence."

Link wanted to snap back that he didn't need to pretend respect around Demise because Demise actually deserved it, but he held his tongue. Ghirahim may have lost some of his status to rule over Link, but he was still a far older and far more powerful spirit. His own meager freedom was loosely based on Ghirahim's ability to convince Demise, and he wasn't about to have it taken away.

Ghirahim applied pressure onto his far shoulder, insistently molding him against his body trying to encourage him to relax. The couch shifted as their limbs tangled together, Link resting his head against Ghirahim's chest. Threading fingers into his hair, he combed through dull locks to lull him into a false comfort. Just the night before he had been nearly ripping them out, violent fists curled around wrists that would no longer bruise.

The room was pretty, Link had to admit. Maybe at one time it had been a library, but all the shelves were devoid of books save for a few spineless pages and a crumbling hardcover. The whole fortress had an air of forgotten elegance, that what was once housed in here commanded respect and nobility. The empty windows and crumbling walls echoed his own feeling of wasting away.

"You said," Link whispered, barely a breath he hadn't learned how to use again, "that you didn't want the Surface destroyed."

The hand stopped combing through his hair. 

"It's best not to dwell, Link."

"I don't want it destroyed." He continued to press, emptiness guiding his words. "But... it's not even my home. All it did was fight me, and hurt me, and put me through meaningless tests. I don't want it to burn. It can't."

Link squeezed his eyes closed, his whole face aching from holding back tears. He wanted to cry. He wanted to cry so bad, and even that had been taken from him. "It's like Hy— the gods didn't want me to succeed. And it's not that I want to destroy it—I just don't <b>care</b> anymore. Why don't I care?"

The body beneath him moved with a deep breath, sparking jealousy in Link. Ghirahim could convey his emotions in ways he couldn't even when he was human, always had the right words to express his anger. Link was hollow. He was like Fi, but the person he had been was trapped inside himself. He could only seem to make that shine through in acts of anger.

"It is normal to feel upset that the people you thought cared for you never did." Ghirahim began, hesitantly, but Link cut him off.

"The Surface never cared for me, Skyloft did."

"And our Master does not care about Skyloft. Just the Surface. So why is it bothering you?"

"I don't know." Link admitted, gritting his teeth. Only partially a lie. He couldn't tell Ghirahim the truth: he was the hero, he was supposed to save the Surface. He was supposed to care. He didn't know why he had given up. "I'm just... restless."

"That's normal." Ghirahim murmured, going back to petting him. "Your blade hasn't even split blood. You're agitated and craving an outlet, you want to be used. I'm sorry I can't help you."

"Is it like this all the time?" 

"You'll get used to it." 

Silence hung over the pair, the creaks and groans of the fortress echoing along the halls. Link picked at a loose thread, unraveling the fine pattern on the cushions.

"How long did it take you?" 

When Ghirahim didn't answer, Link propped himself up on his elbows, pushing his questions in this quiet moment he was least likely to lash out. "You weren't always like this. You were human once, like me, right?"

"I was never human." The spirit denied, spitting the words out like they disgusted him. "Humans are weak and pathetic things, and you'll learn this change is a blessing. I was a demon, Link. I was never like you, so I'm afraid I can't offer much help. You must be suffering far worse than I did."

"But you survived the same thing. Surely you remember what it was like?"

"I remember very little of my life before becoming what I am." He snapped, but he had drawn his arms across each other and wouldn't look Link in the eye. 

"I don't believe you."

 Link found himself flipped and pressed against the floor in the blink of an eye, both he and Ghirahim toppling down as the demon straddled his chest with a hand around his neck. His lips were curled into a snarl, a wild anger unleashed in his eyes. "Stop testing me."

"Why won't you tell me? Are you hiding something?"

"It's none of your concern!"

"I'll ask Demise."

Ghirahim stopped. "You wouldn't."

"I will." Link pushed, grabbing Ghirahim's arms to try and pry him off. "I'll go right now, I don't care, what's the worst he can do? Kill me? Hurt me? Ignore me?"

Digging his nails into his grey skin, Link tried to make Ghirahim fight, but the demon wasn't even struggling. He held Link at arm's length, but no longer tried to pin him down.

"You want attention."

Link only kicked his legs, snapping his teeth and trying to throw Ghirahim off.

"I told you, acting out will not get the results you want."

 "Sitting here pretending you care about me isn't either!"

"Oh, sky child. " Ghirahim sighed, letting him tire himself out as he tried to fight. As his punches slowed to weak tugs at his clothes and his screaming morphed into dry sobs, Ghirahim caught his wrists and held him still. 

"You never did know when to quit."

[borbology]

idk if anyone has asked this before but may i ask for some knight headcanons? specifically sword and blade,,?👀

YESSS I have been waiting for this ask! I have a lot of hcs about Sword and Blade that I'd love to share. GET READY FOR A LONG POST!

To start off, I have the post where I drew what I think they look like under their armor (I also birthed this cursed image).

First of all, and as much as I love them, I think Sword and Blade didn't get a big enough personality in the anime. If I were to describe them in my hcs, I think that Sword is generally the more chill one out of the two. He strikes me as the kind who is easy to hang out with, but he can be unexpectedly funny or stubborn at times. Sword is more gentle with the way he speaks, whilest Blade is bri'ish and has an ocassional potty mouth (says wanker and consistently gets away with it because no-one knows what it means). Because Blade has a harsher voice in the dub that somehow makes me want to make him the bolder one of the two. He's the one who's more likely to express himself. We gotta hear more of that hilarious voice afterall lol. In making his design I gave him his one eye that he has in the game sprites. I've really enjoyed drawing him very expressive so I decided to make him a creechur with big emotions.

I love thinking about how they interact with eachother. I see them as brothers. They've been through a lot, love eachother, but also get into shenanigens and bother each other sometimes.

Their relationship is both endearing and hilarious. Between the two of them, Blade is actually the older one -- I decided that because it's funnier if he's the eldest even though he's shorter. At this point they wouldn't know what to do with eachother. I think that they share a room next to Meta Knight's quarters, and that they have bunk beds. I actually have a sketch of their room that I want to finish someday soon.

As for their personal lives, it's important to me that characters have substance which makes them feel like real people, so when I make my own characters I always give them five things to help with that -- hobbies, desires, a favorite food and favorite drink, a birthday, and trivia (some little traits that have no real impact on the character in their story but still exist and are interesting). This is something I love doing and my autism always has me making lists/filling out self-made questionares for characters. I highly reccommend it, it's fun as Hell and a useful tool for writing character.

Sword:

He can play guitar and he likes music in general. Once I decided to give him antenna I thought it would be neat because bugs hear by picking up vibrations, so the vibrations of music are probably very pleasing. He also likes to watch sports because he has become quite athletic since training under Meta Knight.

He is happy with the state of his life but once he feels like the timing is right he wants to find a girlfriend. My man has been alone too long. Part of this is because he feels like he missed out on getting to experience relationships when he younger (due to the war). He'd like a girlfriend, but he's somehow embarrassed to talk about it and he worries how Blade would feel if he spent some of time with another person.

Sword likes comfort foods like macaroni and cheese. He enjoys the taste of ginger ale because it makes him think of the ginger beer they sold at home (whatever the kirby universe's equivilant to australia is lol)

His birthday is June 14th (I do have a system for how I pick chracter birthdays btw but I'm not willing to share it you just have to trust me)

For trivia, he likes cats, and he's allrgic to peanuts

Blade:

He likes to relax in his off-time and scientifically the best way to do this is by playing Animal Crossing, so I gave him an Animal Crossing town because I love Animal Crossing. It'd be funny if there was a game in the Kirby universe where you played as a cappy or something in a village of creatures like Rick, Kine, and Coo. He also likes to practice baking (he and sword said in the anime that they both always wanted to be cooks, but they were too afraid to tell this to meta knight. plus its fun for him to watch meta knight eat all the treats and still somehow try to deny he has a sweet tooth lol)

Blade, unfortunately, is British - which means that he, unfortunately, likes British food. He will eat beans on toast and make everyone around him uncomfortable. As for his favorite drink... peach nectar lol (bugs love sugarsugarsugar)

His birthday is March 9th (don't question meee)

For trivia, he likes dogs (its funny if he is a dog person while sword it a cat person). He's got just the one big eye so cats give him allergy. I also subscribed to the idea of him being trans because of the difference in his voice between the sub and the dub versions of the anime. Just this alone comes with its own set of hcs I won't get into here.

Lastly, I felt the need to dive into their history. Their backstory about being survivors of the war and having to resort to robbery to survive is so interestingly tragic and something I feel like people don't pay attention to enough when it comes to portraying them. They had to have homes and family and friends that they both lost before happening upon each-other and deciding that two is better than one when it comes to staying alive in the barren hellscape that they now roamed. I plan on making some art about this topic in the future so I'll leave out my hcs for now.

THANK YOU FOR COMING TO MY TED TALK FEEL FREE TO ASK QUESTIONS

[saltymongoose]

Hi Salty~ I hope you like Shadowy beings, Because it's Employer time!

Because they can morph their features, I had a little fun with giving them actual faces. But usually I'd just do eyes and a mouth and be done with it. Their outfits were actually the most fun I had with them besides the doodles. :)

Now all I have left to do is the B I G B O Y S

Good lord, it has been so long since this was sent in!! 😬 I'm sorry for being so late on this. To get into the actual subject of this ask I'll just start off by saying that I adore how you managed to show so much personality in these guys.

The Employers tend to be blank slates insofar as appearance is concerned, as really their only differences are their colors, eye shapes, and particle effects. Your use of different body shapes, facial expressions/features, and outfits make them really stand out from each other, and it also shows a lot of thought in how you decided to characterize them.

To start with more specific things I liked, we'll begin with the Auditor. He looks incredibly smug, kind of like he has this pompous aura, which is really funny. He definitely has this self-important attitude that makes itself apparent in what he does in Nevada, with how he saw fit to meddle in what was going on, and I feel you’ve captured that very well in the way he looks.

Plus, those little doodles you did show off his dynamic with the Player quite well (and they’re also really cute lol). We love to see the Auditor simping, even if the Player would rather not have to deal with him when he is. 😅

Moving on to Stygian, I absolutely love the design you went with for him; his style of clothing gives him this air of nobility that really suits him, considering his general attitude and work. In a way, it sort of reminds me of the outfits I'd see in Castlevania or some of the older designs from JJBA Phantom Blood. (Plus, I just really like this style of fashion, so you get brownie points for that lol.)

The more fluid way you drew him is also really cool, and it's especially evident in the doodles (which are also adorable, I like how much attitude you showed with him lol). I just love him haha.

In contrast to these two, the Deliberator strikes me as very "friend shaped"? He seems a lot more innocent from the get-go, which is probably because of his softer facial features (excellent design choices here). Plus, his interactions with the Player in the doodles support this as well. He's probably the nicest Employer within official lore, so this fits really well. :)

Finally, we have the Conductor, and omg his particle effects are stunning!! I really like how you cut into the actual shape of his body to increase the effect of the visual, it's so striking. :D Your design choices when it came to his clothing are excellent as well, considering how you made his title as the Conductor more literal. These are all just wonderful; you did superb work on these, and it only makes me more excited to see what you come up with for the Big Boys lol. <3333