#big fucking sword specialists

[nardo-headcanons]

Naruto Worldbuilding - The Hyuga and The Uchiha

big thanks to @weepingnightmarenaruto , whose post inspired me to write these!

This is random, rambly and NSFW-ish at some parts. feel free to use in hcs, fics, etc

Byakugan vs Sharingan I have made a post on buffing the byakugan before, click here to read the whole thing.

a/n: this text formatting shit is killing me

Byakugan users are immune to visual genjutsus to some degree, so if you wanna put a Byakugan user under a genjutsu you need to use your mangekyo or use a non-visual genjutsu.

Using their gentle fist, byakugan users can penetrate the Susanoo, but a lot of chakra is needed to get through.

Sharingan users can use their sharingan to follow and predict movements, allowing them to perform elaborate shuriken and kunai throwing jutsus. They can make a trajectory of a kunai curve and are generally very fast in their movements.

As a ‘response’, the Hyuga came up with the Revolving Heaven Technique to block shuriken from all sides. The Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms technique, and later the One hundred-and-twenty-eight Palms technique are hard to read for sharingan users due to them not being able to see the tenketsu. The One Hundred and Twenty-Eight Palms technique is so fast that it can’t be blocked without very extensive training in taijutsu.

While many Uchiha are weapon specialists and sword wielders, the Hyuga have a disdain for the use of weapons and prefer to use bare hands to fight, making the Uchiha specialized in long distance fights and the Hyuga in short distance fights.

The best way to beat either an Uchiha or a Hyuga is with excellent Taijutsu (Like Guy or Rock Lee level taijutsu)

Uchiha Clan vs Hyuga Clan

Similarities Both clans are strict and conservative with their upbringing. They hone their family traditions and are sceptical about outsiders wanting to marry into their clan, although the Hyuga are a bit stricter than the Uchiha.

Differences The Hyuga think of the Uchiha as overly emotional troublemakers and brutal warmongers with no emotional control while the Uchiha think of the Hyuga as arrogant, stuck up snobs with a superiority complex, and they have a big disdain for the branch family system of the Hyuga.

While the Hyuga clan prefer traditional clothing like Kimonos, the Uchiha prefer clothes with a more western cut.

While not every Uchiha has a Sharingan, every Hyuga has a Byakugan.

The Hyuga had higher political power than the Uchiha and played a big part in the discrimination the Uchiha faced.

Misc - NSFW ahead!

a/n: please don't ask me why i chose to add this. also. @samgazm ur gonna have a field day with this one

The sharingan activates automatically during very emotional moments (which the Hyuga look down on them for) and also during orgasm. Some wielders keep it activated during sex to improve their performance and record that special memory, since most recorded moments are gonna be battles and it’s nice to have something to balance that out.

That being said, the Byakugan never activates on its own. Most byakugan users “awaken” it either because they are shown how to or because they are squinting their eyes to read something and realizing “Ohh, I can do this with my eyes”. They will never activate it during sex because they don’t want to fuck a skeleton.

[rei-ismyname]

CABLE RELOADED - Highlights

So, the dread DORMAMMU has invaded the galaxy/universe, wearing Ego the Living Planet's shell like the skin of a snake. He's conquered five planets of magical significance to perform a ritual to Dark Dimension-ify this one. Super bad news. Fortunately, The Guardians of the Galaxy are on top of it with new recruit Doctor DOOM. Rocket Raccoon and DOOM's plan? Shoot him in the head with a really big gun. Who do we know that knows guns?

He really is adorable.

This motherfucker, who's really just happy to be working with Rocket. He sends Cable to Breakworld and, because of the heavy security, he chooses to drop in from orbit, destroying him arm in the process...

... fortunately, Cable has a backup. He needs even more though, so he plants a Krakoan gate seed and brings in some specialists.

Wiz-Kid IS a rockstar

Not The Five, but the five he needs. Big fan of all of them (except for Groomer Cheney.) Breakworld's inhabitants are not. They're bozos who are justifiably not down with these strange people up in their shit. Then again, they once shot a massive bullet at Earth, so fuck em?

Solid callback to Astonishing X-Men there. DORMAMMU caught everyone with their pants down, so the team was hastily assembled. Team itself is a dirty word on Arakko, and obviously Khora wasn't briefed. Still, it's better than working with Fabian Cortez and she is much better in a fight.

Wiz-Kid's flavour of Technopathy is pretty wild, and I love my disabled brethren. The aliens don't, but it doesn't matter what they think anymore.

They need to make it to the objective, the whole reason they're here, and Nate takes the time to explain on the way there. He does work with Khora again btw, in X-Men Red. It's excellent.

She's so cool. She boosts Boom Boom to make a big ass bomb and Cannonball's job is to dunk it in security's face.

It works. Then Khora boosts Wiz-Kid. Result - REALLY BIG GUN - as mentioned. Mission nearly accomplished. Lila Cheney just needs to teleport them and the RBG back to base. Also, what goes in a really big gun?

If you guessed 'REALLY BIG BULLET' you'd be correct. Engineered by Rocket out of Mysterium (which Dormammu, a magical being, cannot withstand) provided by SWORD. Breakworld would be jealous, Kitty Pryde would almost certainly not. Anyway, BLAM.

Book is excellent, and very readable without knowledge of the greater Last Annihilation event. Definitely recommend.

[charmixpower]

Issue Four: A Friend for Bloom

This is cute and it makes perfect sense that they'd eventually ask how the earth girl ended up on Magix

This is the first instance of the dream art style that's used a couple more times later

I think it's cute that it's being used in a flashback

Her little imagination bubble is so cute, she is already zipping around in her mind

Why is Mitzi's Mc-Mansion next door to Bloom's working class family's home, that shit doesn't add up

Bloom is a menace to society

This is cute. She's almost transforming

This implies that Stella owns a perfect replica of her magic form that she wears for fun sometimes

Bc she is not transformed here, note the lack of wings Mike is commenting on

Stella liking Bloom's art is so cute and I love her

Winx comic artists also enjoy redesigning the winx's transformation outfits

Vanessa is fighting!!!

I love the callback to the phone being a cabbage bc yeah that would be a normal person's reaction

When Bloom first met Stella she was only able to push away the little imps, and not do very much else, and I like that now Bloom knows she has magic she's able to do more damage

When in the show she summoned the great dragon first try

Stella of the comics says I will beat your ass with my bare hands if I must, foreshadowing the sirenix spells

It's also very smart of the comics, it's implying that Stella can't shoot beams and such without her scepter, so she uses hand to hand to compensate when she's without

That's Sky btw but with the white gem I thought it was some random specialist Bloom just fucking murked

No these images are not out of order

Sky how did you get up that quickly

Also I refuse to believe that Timmy has a sword

Not to mention all their swords are the same, lame AF, give Brandon is big fuck of sword back

Do it again Bloom, comics Sky is a little bitch and is not to be trusted

I greatly prefer this

There is no way Mike was gonna fix the crack in the foundation without a lot of questions and a lot of money without magic

[eldritchmochi]

Word prompt for the letters! SWORD TIME

mina pls that is so many letters lmao

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

okay, if it is not obvious, i have thought SO MUCH about disability in exandria, so heres a general worldbuilding headcannon vs character based hc but it's shown that disability isn't overly impactful in exandria. basically everything we've seen ranging from pcs like shakaste to big npcs like dancer and also smaller one off pcs like the moorbounder dealer in the city of beasts, whatever the name is, they're fully functional within society despite major physical disabilities and theres functionally not a whole lot of ableism at a surface level when it comes to worldbuilding (thanks matt).

however..... its not hard (for me) to extrapolate how the dynasty in particular would have a not great view on disability (thank u cherry for putting it into words as i was charlie day-ing over coping skills early on). it's not something that i talk about explicitly in coping skills (and may not since it would be really info dumpy and not vibe with the way i write or characterize the wizards lmao) but it's something ive spent a great deal of time thinking thru for the dang fic and my in-head notes are basically a) in a modern setting like coping skills, the healthcare situation moves at a glacial pace partly because elves live forever so what is a several year wait for a non emergent specialist issue and b) major disabilities, things that impact daily living to a significant degree that cannot be "fixed" with magic, are at best really only tolerated until anamnesis or consecution so the body can be reset into a more perfect form

i could wax poetic about the nitty gritty as it relates to coping skills specifically, but that is like, the base premise of 90% of the fic lmao

W - A trope which you are virtually certain to hate in any fandom.

okay so, heres the thing: with the exception of a few squicks, if something is well written with some fukken *heart* i will eat up just about anything. theres some tropes i don't really get myself and haven't found anything with it that's interested me, like hanahaki, but i have fav fics involving things i notoriously avoid, like kid fic and hs aus. like legitimately, my absolute fav fic is a non explicit hs au, which considering i basically dont read non explicit fics OR hs aus is fucking wild

O - Choose a song at random. Which ship or character does it remind you of?

lets see, i did one here for an ashrym fic, and one here for general shadowgast so lets go with a single character, and a delightfully weird song for her

obviously imogen, again, because its funny. do not ask me why spotify recommended this german edm country album to me a bit ago but i listened to the whole thing and it fucking slapped, and this song immediately went on my hells playlist

R - Which friendship/platonic relationship is your favorite in fandom?

I AM ONLY DOING ONE BECAUSE I DONT TRUST YOU MINA (ilu but also damn many letters lmao)

but callowmoore is just chefs kiss. i don't see anything necessarily romantic between them but i love the idea of the two of them bonding over being absolute gremlins. ashton definitely needs a charismatic wingman and fearne definitely needs someone who has (some level of) smarts re Doing Crimes, so the two of them playing off each other is just delightful and i love how soft they are with each other in cannon and in turn all the fanart (especially the forehead kiss???? im still not normal about that)

D - A pairing you wish you liked but just can’t.

hmmmmmmmmmmm okay i guess maybe reylo? the rots kiss was absolute garbage rey deserves better BUT i am in theory into her domming the shit out of him but reylo shippers as a whole soured me on the ship and now i just hhhh no thank you, even from authors i trust to write it in a way i'd enjoy :C

T - Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending? 

T answered here! (basically no lmao)

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

homestuck :I like part of it was definitely the Fandom Cycle of falling out if interest with something, especially once there stopped being new cannon i could access but a bigger part of it was seeing all my fav artists and writers in the fandoms, particularly the ones 30+, PARTICULARLY Black artist, being absolutely shat on by kids for the crime of... being adults in fandom spaces basically, or otherwise creating fanworks that featured non-white, non-thin depictions of the characters. i live vicariously thru @/roundandtalented when they spam share hs art because i still love those characters but yeesh ye olde tumblr hs fandom got VERY toxic

M - Name a character that you’d like to have for a friend.

answered once here with ashton and here with astarion so i guess i gotta keep the train going with "a" name characters

hmmmmmmmmmm

okay lets say abby from ncis (i have watched Many crime procedurals lmao). i imagine she and i would be GREAT fashion buddies, especially when i'm bubblegum pop kawaii to her scary goth. we could swap tips on breaking in big stompy boots and all the best places for cute clothes, and i think we're fairly close in size too so could even SWAP gasp The Dream

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

god i do not know if fandom as a whole has picked up on any of the various things i've built in my fics but tbh i think its absolutely hilarious how i inevitably write a porn/camming au for like every fandom i write multiple fics for. it happens, every single time. EVERY TIME. in fact, mine and cherry's sg camming au started with me lampshading this trend i have, laughing about how FINALLY here was a fandom where i couldn't write camming and make it work, except whoops i thought too hard on it and made it work. this occurred over the course of like..... a single evening. i had the basic outline sketched out within twenty minutes of me being like "theres no way i could write camming into critical role, NO WAY" i am not even exaggerating

so i guess maybe my hilarious contribution to critical role is the contemporary magical setting proof-of-concept???? cherry did say there werent really that many at the time i asked because i lov me some modern aus

there are maybe some letters left idk at this point lmao but here is the meme for those of u who made it thru all that

[specialagentlokitty]

Saul silva x reader - my stupid heart

Part two:

You woke up the following morning and got ready for your day, checking what you had in your schedule you picked up your phone.

You: so mister headmaster specialist, what does that mean exactly?

Sending the message, you hummed to yourself as you jogged down the stairs, grabbing your keys and you made your way to work.

You didn’t hear anything for about half the day, and when you were getting ready for lunch your heard your phone ping.

Wiping your hands on your shirt, you sanitised them before you pulled your phone from your pocket.

Saul: I teach a select group of people a select set of skills.

You snorted a little, shaking your head.

You: very mysterious. Do you teach my niece bloom?

You were curious, you heard her mention a few names, but his name didn’t ring a bell, so you wanted to make sure they didn’t have any classes together before you carried on talking to him.

Not that you were against him, but you were sure it would get weird somehow.

Saul quickly replied.

Saul: no. She’s a good student, but not in any of my classes. What time is it for you?

You looked at the time, and then you replied to him.

You: 2:33pm. Is it early there?

Saul thought for a moment about what he should reply to you.

Saul: later, in fact. It’s night here.

You hummed and nodded your head, heading to your office so you could eat your lunch in peace and you kicked your feet up on your desk.

Saul: so do you explore for fun? Or is it work?

You: it’s both really, but I do actually have a different job. Maybe I’ll tell you one day since we’re being mysterious about your jobs.

Saul laughed a little, shaking his head as he looked around, making sure his students were still training.

Saul: well, if we’re trying not to be mysterious tell me more about you. I’m intrigued.

You hummed a little.

You: I’ll let you guess what kind of person I am, that sounds more fun!

Saul rolled his eyes.

Saul: well, I guess I’d have to say you’re an adrenaline junkie, you love it. But I think you’d be a stubborn person too, like you wouldn’t be pushed around easily. If you have a job and travel maybe it’s part time? Am I right?

You looked at him message.

He did have it pretty close if you were being honest, and you smirked to yourself.

You: someone’s been on my YouTube. Yes I love the rush adrenaline. I don’t think I’m stubborn, I just know what I do and don’t want. But I don’t have a part time job, I run my own business so most of it I can do while away, i travel around my employees days off or when my business partner is in town, we take turns travelling.

Saul: so I was close enough. You’re turn.

You grinned to yourself.

You: well since you haven’t accepted my request to follow you, you’re a stickler for the rules. You don’t want anyone to know we’re talking, which I’m cool with don’t want you getting in trouble. Sword as a profile picture, either very into knights and stuff or it’s a hobby of yours. Maybe you’re a blacksmith. Do we still have those? Not the point, I’d say, if I had to guess, teacher now, some sort of armed forces in the past.

Saul looked at your message and he couldn’t help but roll his eyes at your little rambling but he smiled a little.

At least you weren’t going to mention to anyone that the pair of your were talking.

You set your phone down and carried on eating your lunch, glancing at the door as it was thrown open.

“I think I fucked up.”

“You’re an apprentice you’re allowed to fuck up. I’m coming.”

Grabbing your phone, you set one last message before rushing away.

You: got to go, apprentice fucked up. Later Headmaster Saul Silva.

Setting your phone down your dashed away.

Saul looked at his phone and smiled a little.

Saul: see you later.

He stuffed his phone back in his pocket and quickly went back to teaching.

As the days slipped into weeks, he had grown to enjoy your little chats, but he still couldn’t tell anyone, not even his friends.

It would be such a big deal since he didn’t actually teach your niece, but he knew there would be a few that still frowned upon it.

So he didn’t tell anyone, he only talked to you when he was either at him, in his office or on the training grounds away from everyone else.

But he loved talking to you.

You found it fun to tease him, wind him up about his total secrecy about what he actually did or even what he looked like.

Even as a couple of months had passed, and you were coming back from another trip he still refused to show you anything.

You didn’t mind it, everyone talked and took things at their own pace, but it didn’t make it any less fun to tease him.

Sitting on your porch, you looked at your phone, it had been a few days since you last heard from him.

So you dropped him a quick message.

You: hey Saul Silva, I hope you’re okay. I’m just messaging to let you know I’ll be a bit quiet for the next few weeks, got some projects coming up.

Putting your phone back in your pocket, you rested your elbows on your knees as you looked at the rising room with a soft smile.

Saul looked at his phone and sighed, he felt back for ignoring your last few messages, but he hadn’t had the time to reply.

He looked at your message, and he looked at his calendar, not seeing anything for the weekend, he looked back at his phone.

His heart raced in his chest as he thought about what to say, what to type.

How did he put his thoughts into words?

He typed and deleted messages and typed again only to delete it.

Signing, Saul looked at his phone feeling a little defeated.

“Trouble?”

Saul locked his phone, putting it back in his pocket as he turned to look at the side.

“Just thinking Sky.”

“You know you should just be honest with her.”

Saul looked at him, raising a brow in confusion.

“I saw your screen before you locked it. Don’t worry I won’t tell, you deserve a good think Silva. Just be honest, ask her to hang out.”

Sky grinned a little, giving a wink as he walked away and Saul left, making his way back to his office and made sure the door was shut.

Sitting down at his desk, he unlocked his phone to see the chat again, and he gave in, finally sending the message however it came out.

He just typed the message and hit send and locked his phone.

Setting it down, he sighed and ran a hand down his face. Was he making a huge mistake? Was his message going to scare you away?

You hadn’t looked at your phone in a few hours, you were exhausted from a hards day of work and you crawled into bed and plugged your phone in to charge.

That’s when you saw you had a message and you opened it.

You read it over a few times and you laughed softly.

Saul: I’m sorry if this is too bold, or if you don’t want too. You can say no, but I was wondering if maybe I could come see you this weekend? I have nothing planned and could do with some time away if you’re up for it. Again, you can say no that’s completely okay.

You smiled a little more and carefully typed out your reply.

You: sure thing mystery man, it would be nice to put a face the the name Saul silva. Here’s my address, I’ll be waiting.

Setting your phone down you grinned to yourself as you laid down to sleep.

You were finally going to put a face to your mystery man who appeared to have an interest in you.

Maybe it was reckless to be giving your address out, but for the next few months your friends were staying with you, so it seemed a lot safer plus with all the work you had going on you had no choice but to meet him here

[epicwalrus]

Walrus Loses her Mind cont.

OK, so theories...oh boy, the theories.

Some are new, others have evolved...and all of them are driving me slowly to distraction. Current theory count...3? I think?

You know the drill, spoilers for all Mysterious Lotus Caserbook episodes up to 28.

1. Shan Gudao is not dead and is, in fact, the big bad.

I am still convinced of this and only growing more so.

Despite what Lianhua says (unreliable narrator, much?), the flashbacks have shown Gudao in adulthood to be bad-tempered, aggressive, and manipulative, and Madam Feng said all he cared about was becoming famous and the strongest. He abandoned his PREGNANT girlfriend because he wanted to be stronger.

On top of that, he seems to have lied to Lianhua about the Cloud Iron and may have kept the He kid as the leader of The Four Tigers (He Zhang), although please correct me if I'm wrong there; my ability to hear the tones in Mandarin is still abysmally lacking, I'm trying to learn, I promise.

Even the argument with Xiangyi before Gudao quit the Sigu Sect felt slimy and manipulative, very much "I'm the good one. I care about you. I gave you the best sword I ever made. You are being too willful. You are the bad one." Poor Xiangyi might have been having his head fucked with for who knows how long. He was clearly suspicious of Gudao after the Cloud Iron incident but is now convinced he was the bad one.

Turning the two strongest sects against each other via his "death" opened up the way for the Wansheng Sect (which shares a symbol with Gudao), who are supported by the very royal court who offered Gudao an army to fight the Jinyuan Alliance. Who could fight back against him with the two strongest warriors dead and their sects in pieces?

I'm not convinced he's doing it for personal power anymore, though (or maybe not entirely). I think he may be a descendant of the Nanyin survivors and is picking up their plan where they left off (see theory 3).

2. Lianhua will be healed via his poison to fight poison technique.

Still being stubborn about this one, too XD The setup is almost perfect. They already have 4/5 things for healing our delicate lotus man.

A previously discussed and dangerous theory for detoxification (which requires great inner power, a counter-poison and acupuncture)

A-Su's golden acupuncture needles that can heal anything

Physician Guan, who is an acupuncture specialist

And either that wine to increase one's inner power (if they can find a legit recipe) or someone equally as powerful to feed Lianhua power (Feisheng).

We just need that poison that can counter the Bicha poison.

There was a shot of Duobing carrying an unconscious Lianhua in the trailer. Maybe that's when he's carrying him to safety after the poison becomes too much to suppress.

And then it's all hands on deck.

Everyone coming together to save our Lotus man.

Duobing suppresses the poison with Yangzhouman (I think that's how you spell it?).

A-Su asks her grandfather about the counter-poison and goes in search of it (maybe with Wanmian's help?).

And if the wine is legit, someone brews the wine as fast as they can. OR Feisheng constantly feeds his own power into Lianhua.

Physician Guan prepares the golden needles.

3. The Nanyin descendants are carrying on a plan created as a last-ditch effort in the war a hundred years ago.

These latest reveals seem to show us a conspiracy from the end of the war:

Nanyin merchants moved in to hide among the population while guarding the Heavenly Ice keys.

The princess married into the royal family with the Rama Vessel (now known to contain Karmic Insects) as her dowry.

Suiyan village's founding.

I think, as the war grew close to an end, Nanyin planned to release the Karmic Insects into their enemy's kingdom as a last-ditch effort to turn the tide. However, the Princess was found out (maybe she was mind-controlling the prince she married with said insects to force the Emperor's abdication), and she died as a result.

Her tomb, and the Rama Vessel, vanished as soon as she was buried, and so the plan failed. But maybe the inscription in her tomb (put there by the Nanyin workers who built it) was their last hope for their descendants to pick up where they left off.

Now we have many instances of Nanyin descendants appearing again and following our mysterious hooded man (glares in Gudao). I think someone had rediscovered the plan from the war and now plans to use it for revenge and to restart the Nanyin kingdom, just like in the legend of the kingdom's founding.

"But, Walrus," you cry, "the insects in the Rama Vessel need a Mother Insect to control them. Where is she?"

Well, dear reader, I lied. I actually have four theories!

4. The Mother Karmic Insect/s is/are hidden INSIDE THE NANYIN PRINCESS.

We learned in today's episodes that the Mother Karmic Insects can survive in a host for hundreds of years. And who else would have been in the position to smuggle these insects into the country?

The princess' body was preserved far better than the prince's when we saw them in the Yipin Tomb. Perhaps, this was again the Nanyin survivors giving their descendants the best chance for revenge. They preserved her body with Asura grass in order to allow the Mother Karmic Insect/s to survive until the plan was picked up once more.

What was once a last-ditch effort for survival has become a plan for revenge.

[andtheyreonfire]

Current Masterpost

Currently contains Persona 5 G/t one-shots, but other/longer works may come soon. Happy to start postin my junk :>

One-Shots

all to make you mine - 4.5k

Ren Amamiya is a borrower. A tiny, magical creature, only about four inches tall. He's confident in his role as the specialist little guy on the planet. All of his friends agree!

Well—almost everyone. Too bad one particular human is being more of a prick today than usual. Too bad he's leaving Ren to suffer the torture of being ignored.

Too bad Ren still doesn't know how to tell his target he might want to be more than friends.

Tumblr Link   Ao3

—

Catch - 2.3k

She’s safe, as long as Ren’s around. He’s got her.

No matter what, Ren won’t let Futaba fall.

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—

Flinch - 1.7k

Ren’s palms swelter. He calls up, “We could do something else.”

“Like what?” Ryuji scoffs. “It’s pissing rain out there.”  

It is. It was the reason Ren came to Ryuji’s house. He climbed up the carved-in ladder on the side of the cabinet, perched on an upturned coffee mug and made light conversation. Before they knew it, it was dinnertime, and Ryuji agreed he could hide in his pocket to avoid the storm.  

Ryuji is currently not letting Ren in his pocket.

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—

Heist - 2.9k

“Just give me a minute! Almost got this bad boy open,” she calls. She just needs to grab him, hack the internal door in his cell, and lead them to freedom. She hopes he’s excited. Really, how could they keep a 16 year old in here for half his life?

“‘Open’—What’re you doing? Are you—“ Joker swallows. “Oracle, stop. Tell me what’s going on.”

Joker’s voice sounds wrong begging. It makes Futaba drop the screw—only because the last bolt is loose enough to untwist with her fingers.

Futaba understands him. She, too, used to fear the outside world, of interacting with anyone after her mother vanished. But, thanks to her key, jailbird item, she’s maxed out her social stat. She’s ready to face the world—with Joker by her side.

All she wants is to give him that same confidence.

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—

Instinctual - 990

Every second that passes is another second Goro want to fling himself off Ren’s hand, to take a match and gasoline and burn Ren’s skin to a crisp.

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—

Microorganism - 1.9k

She knew Ren was big, sure, but seeing it from any angle lower then his shoulder always gives her butterflies.

—Not entirely the bad kind, mind you, which is why she’s here. Her first Official Hang-Out Date. She’s trying not to be too nervous. She hasn’t known them as long, but she’s determined. She will make a good impression on her girlfriend, and her other girlfriend, and her partner, and her girlfriend’s girlfriends, and her partner’s partners—

Tumblr Link   Ao3

—

Run - 997

Okay, this is fine, this is fine. Ren’s doll-sized chest stutters, his tiny fucking form sucking in even tinier breaths—

Ryuji begs, “Don’t panic, dude, ‘else I'm gonna panic. Please.”

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—

sacrifice - 1k

Akechi freezes, warning lights blaring in his mind. His hand twitches for the sword at his side. With a tremendous amount of effort, Akechi retracts it. He must soften his edges, appear something like innocent, for his mission.

This—flirting is dangerous. The longer his enemy does so instead of showing his true, monstrous colors, the more dangerous it becomes. Akechi shouldn’t be this close.

Tumblr Link Ao3

~~~

G/t July

ev'ry mem'ry i'll keep - in progress

To Goro, some things were to be expected in Maruki's realty. Seeing the residents of Tokyo be lobotomized? Sure. Seeing a dead woman resurrected and realizing he might be the same? Why not. Having the madman try to convince him to give into the delusion? Of fucking course.

What isn't expected is waking up in Ren Amamiya's palms, shrunk to a fraction of his original height. What isn't expected is having to fix this situation while barely being able to pick up a pencil. What isn't expected is the strange, terrifying vulnerability Maruki's forced him to display, and the consequences of going without the mask he's worn all his life.

Ao3   Day 8   Day 14

—

and i know - 2k

You'd think, against a teenager that has the power to change size on a whim, the Metaverse's shadows would be less keen on fucking around and finding out.

They're not.

Ao3   Day 20 

—

at the end of every tether - 3k

“I’m not one for consolation prizes,” Akechi’s cognition boomed, Ren craning his neck up, up, up, just to see past his crouched knees. Before he could even flinch, a massive, gloved hand filled his vision, Akechi’s warped face regarding him with a possession he’s never seen on him in his life. “Though, who am I to deny ownership of a new toy?”

Really, Ren should’ve known something was up the second they confirmed Akechi’s third keyword as "beanstalk".

~

After giving himself as hostage to the cognitive ruler of Akechi Goro's palace, Ren's biggest concern is distracting him long enough for his thieves to form a plan, hopefully getting them and himself out of this castle, alive.

It'd be a lot easier if Akechi's shadow wasn't so honest.

Ao3 Day 19 (2024)

—

standin’ strong (as the waves roll over) - 1.1k

It’s because of their continued, casual contact that Ren doesn’t jolt when, crouched down in front of Suzui Shiho’s hospital window at 3 a.m., Ann climbs onto his back. It might as well be another Wednesday night for her. Ren can almost feel the evening chill through his thin pajamas.

~

Ann wants to see her girlfriend before she leaves. Ren's a little taller than average. It works out.

Ao3   Day 25

—

take me home (what a wonderful way to go) - 3.2k

On a cold, winter night, Ren's desperate. Only one option is available to him, and it's someone he's never before had to admit his feelings to—even if that's just admitting that he needs help.

Set after all to make you mine.

Ao3 Day 9 (2024)

—

wake up where the clouds are far behind - 7k

“It’s bad!” Oracle’s voice cracks with panic. “He’s gaining power by the second! He’s almost maxed out, but that doesn’t matter when the palace is about to—!”

A sudden, deafening boom shakes the earth.

Ryuji throws his arms in front of his face. Wind whips at him, rubble and smoke pooling into his lungs. He coughs, eyes watering, looks up to find—

A massive, blood-red glove, followed by a sleeve as dark as night, protrudes from the roof of the second building. A second glove reaches upwards, knocking over towers, clawing past prisons, reaching up, up, up, towards a sky as red as itself.

~

The heist itself is the most important step in stealing a person's heart. Ryuji knows that. He does. But—it's difficult, staring into the golden eyes of his best bro. It's difficult, with how ill-equipped Ryuji is for this situation. It's difficult, considering this battle might be their toughest one yet.

Ao3   Day 31

[the-cornuthaum]

So, I am going to do my civic duty and shill Kazemaru.

"Who is this?" you might ask because you habitually never look at 5*s, the overpriced, underperforming largest segment of characters in Arknights. Can't blame you, 5*s are almost never worth 2/3rds of a 6*s cost when all they give you is 1/3rd of their performance.

This is Kazemaru. She's a 5* Dollkeeper specialist, an archetype with three entries, which are, in order of release:

Bena, the 5* event welfare from the Preluding Lights vignette event. I hate everything about her, from voice to design to kit, so I shall not expound on her further.

Kazemaru, the actual no-shit origami ninja from Higashi. This cat was the 5* on Fiammetta's banner with Guiding Ahead.

Specter the Unchained. Yes, a limited, 6*, abyssal hunter Dollkeeper. She makes for an extremely poor point of comparison to Kazemaru because she is both a Limited and, more pertinently, an Abyssal Hunter and the AH tribal synergy is fucking cracked.

So, let's look at The Cat, the star of the show.

Kazemaru has two skills, the one you should ignore* and The Phenomenal One. (*with one exception)

Her S1, the forgettable one, is an incredibly hard-scaling (25% atk scaling gain per mastery level from M0 to M3) power strike type skill that goes down to just 2 SP at M3, that additionally takes off 10% of Kazemaru's HP whenever it activates (this is good for a Dollkeeper who wants to switch to their doll form).

"Why would you call this forgettable" you might ask? "This is a crazy good power strike skill! 350% atk scale! 2 SP cost! why would you not pick this"

I am so glad you asked.

Her good skill is Origami Arts: Twin Shadows, aka S2.

When you push this button, Kazemaru immediately punches herself in the face for 50% of her current HP (so 100->50%, or 60->30%, you know, literally just divide by 2) to get closer to unleashing to unleashing her second form.

Then she drops an origami substitute of herself on the field that immediately begins to shank people with its origami sword. Sounds good, right?

YES IT IS but there is MORE TO IT. When the Substitute - the Kaminingyo - drops on the field, this activates Kazemaru's talent. Her talent is "when a Substitute enters the field, do absolutely cracked amounts of Arts Damage to every Hostile Thing in the 8 tiles around the Substitute.

The substitute only gets summoned onto ground tiles , and always in the direction of a Hostile Thing, so don't worry about it spawning behind Kazemaru and doing fuck-all, this cat craves violence.

When I say absolutely cracked amounts of arts damage for a drop-in ability like this I mean "270% of her ATK" as arts damage. A Kazemaru without any extra potentials at e2 50 (what I consider the standard stop-at point for 5*s) has 725 ATK at 100 Trust. This translates to just under 2k arts damage from the substitute dropping onto the field. But haha, no. She gains 120% ATK from her S2M3, so that nuke turns into about 4.2k damage on drop-in.

It's free real estate, and the real estate manager is going to cut your throat with a sword made of folded paper.

So far, we've had "punches 50% of her own life out of her", "drops the substitute that does a big old nuke" and then it transitions into "now both the Cat Herself and the Substitute shank all enemies they can reach. Kazemaru reaches around 1.7k attack, the Substitute has around 1.5k attack, they both have an 1.2s attack interval. If you can sandwich an enemy where both the substitute (which can attack every adjacent square to it), it just fucking dies. Kazemaru genuinely does 6* damage, but it's slightly more conditional than modern 6*s (because you actually need to use the susbtitute and use a modicum of braincell to position Kazemaru).

Now, we still haven't hit the bottom. KAZEMARU IS A DOLLKEEPER. She just goes "I know we just had first breakfast, but what about SECOND breakfast?"

This is why both her skills chip off her own HP. Because this cat WANTS to switch to the Dollkeeper Substitute Form, rather than merely summoning a paper ninja murder doll. The moment she does that, guess what? SUBSTITUTE NUKE from her talent. On the left hand, the Kaminingyo, the summonable substitute, falls over and vanishes, but Kazemaru's dollkeeper form is completely insane because it inherits the 8-tile range of the Kaminingyo and then this fucking thing also attacks air.

Look at this creature. You are NOT safe from this cat woman with a paper sword.

Oh, and also do yourself the favour of reading her profile. Kazemaru, Professional Ninja, was forced to become an office lady when her Ninja Clan went legit, and one day flippedo ut and went "I CAN'T TAKE THE PEACEFUL LIFE ANY MORE! I NEED DANGER! EXCITEMENT!" and that's why she was transferred to Rhodes Island, because we are a peaceful pharmaceutical company.

oh, there was one exception earlier. you remember how I said that her 1st skill was forgettable? the only exception is integrated strategies. if you get the ATK-on-skill relics (spinach/spaghetti type), Kazemaru's S1 becomes an utter menace because of hard it scales off of her ATK. You will hit 10k skill activatiosn from this cat. If you play enough IS, Kazemaru is 100% a worthy M6 simply because you switch over to s1 the second you get the spinach/spaghet and then everything she hits dies in 3.6 seconds (the time for 3 attacks)

That's all I had to say. Please look at this cat.

IS players be like: "oh no I am dying help i have not gotten a single medic voucher since floor 1, this poison mist is killing me, woe is me, all I had were these 8 supporter tickets"

please for the love of god, fellows, if you play IS enough, hear me out and heed my advice and BUILD YOUR QUERCUS yes that's right you want to BUILD THE DRUID OF GODDODIN she is A BETTER MEDIC THAN MOST MEDICS and will CASUALLY KEEP YOUR SQUAD ALIVE

how? why? she has SO MUCH SHELTER on units above 70% hp and then also permanent healing uptime because her s1 is indefinite so please my brethren in christ and my brethren in not-christ-but-just-IS I beg you

build your quercus. also kazemaru because #kazemarugang

[lightdancer1]

In terms of swords only two types of entities I write use the really big ones:

With the Urhalzantrani proportionally they're actually the same size as a regular sword but the entities in question have a mininum size to humanity of 25 feet tall (putting them on the scale of the 33 King Kong). So a proportionately scaled sword to one of those entities would read like a big damn claymore to a regular human and indeed the blades are too heavy to lift).

They don't need melee weaponry but it's a part of an aesthetics thing and a nifty means to add an extra wallop with a nice visual symbol and their ancestors *did* use swords, to boot, so they retain traces of who they were and what they were.

The other are the fire-giants of Muspelheim, who have the largest swords of anyone. Their blades are rune-adorned world-wrecking weapons of mass destruction that literally become blades of fire that can be aimed edge-down and explode entire planets from the mystic fire unleashing their nature and the nature of the most powerful sorcery at their disposal.

They can be used for combat and are with Gods, but as they're blades that are literally set on fire they crunch and leave cauterized wounds where they strike.

[sparklyeevee]

Sorry I'm still thinking about how the ability to trust and obey a head of state, wholesale take on her priorities as your own, and do what's asked of you even when you don't have the full picture, is a huge part of the First Prince of the Sword's job, is something Gawyn was trained from childhood to do, is probably a big part of why the princes of Andor train with the Warders in the first place, and after what Elaida did to him, what she tried to do to the Younglings, he can't do it anymore. She literally traumatized him into being unable to do his damn job. He can't be Egwene's Warder, not effectively, when his instincts won't let him stop looking for what she isn't telling him. He can't serve Elayne when he sees a trap in her every order, for him and the men under his command.

It's worth noting here that what Elaida did with the Younglings, deliberately sending them into impossible situations because she didn't like them and no longer had a use for them... That's not what you might call a thing, in this setting. My partner remembers Carridin and Valda doing it once each, but Carridin is a darkfriend and Valda is...Valda. They're also both men, and neither is actually the head of an entire government. Other leaders, other heads of state, including Rand, are sometimes careless with their military forces, and the Light knows the Seanchan see people as disposable, but it's a long fucking step from carelessness to malice, and if the Empress, may she live forever, or one of the High Blood, found the continued existence of a specialist unit inconvenient and unaesthetic, they would be ordered to kill themselves, straight out. I don't think Gawyn ever actually tells anyone what she was doing, which suggests to me that either he didn't expect to be believed, even by Elaida's direct adversaries, or he didn't know how, he didn't have the language for it. Certainly Gareth Bryne didn't understand it, but that's no fault of Bryne's - Gawyn didn't even really try to explain, and Gareth Bryne isn't Lan, he can't just intuit what's really bothering someone. I think Rand might have gotten it - he knows a thing or two about not wanting to be used, and about not being able to trust people when they won't tell you what's going on - but circumstances conspire to make it impossible for them to talk to each other.

I'm not trying to blame anyone for not getting where Gawyn's head is at. It was actually kind of narratively important that someone just straight up fall through the cracks. It was kind of important that someone be refused language for what was done to them. It was kind of important that, in a series where the most common way to look after a suicidal person is to offer them a more useful, but also more time consuming, way to kill themselves, and just keep doing that until they stop wanting to die, that someone not get any help with that, and fuck up catastrophically trying to do it for themselves.

And this is kind of the context on Gawyn's desire to like, be more protagonisty than circumstances really allow him to be. There's a completely offhand observation in Eye of the World, when Rand and Mat are on the way to Caemlyn, about how farmers have only themselves to answer to if they sleep late. Gawyn doesn't understand how Rand is so comfortably able to exercise personal agency, to just do things without being told to or even getting permission. His limited understanding of the way the world is ordered, his very hierarchical way of thinking, suggests to him that a random sheepherder, all the way down at the bottom of the social strata, should feel more constrained, be more afraid of acting without external direction, and he can't for the life of him figure out how Rand does it, and he's jealous, which makes him angry, because Gawyn, due to the psychological damage he's taken, is no longer fitted for the life of service to which he was raised, and desperately needs to be able to do what Rand is doing. Not the Dragon Reborn thing, not initial caps Changing the World, but seeing what needs to be done and doing it without the direction or approval of any greater authority. And none of the people he tries to talk to about it even understand what he's asking, partly because they're all a little less clueless about how the world is arranged, and understand without explication that a farmer, who is empowered to just notice that a fence is breaking down and set about repairing it, is not going to face the same challenges in this area as the First Prince of the Sword, who commands armies but is always answerable to the Queen.

[darkwants]

"yeah, makes sense. very classic." ezra muttered as he nodded, still on the verge of rambling as he paced. part of him wanted to interrogate wren on what kind of highlights, what color. it wasn't that ezra knew a lot about hair care, but he knew that since everly was a blond, her hair would show colors better than if she was a brunette. he wasn't sure if she was going to come out with a different shade of blonde streaked through her hair or if she'd suddenly have waves of blue like the sea - he'd seen odder hair choices and he had no idea how dramatic of a move everly was planning. better than a tattoo, he supposed.

going into the kitchen and trusting wren to follow after him, ezra quickly filled up the kettle and put it on the stove before going for the box of tea. in a late night fit, he'd ordered a box online that offered a dozen different tea blends and he set it out on the table so that wren could pick on. he wasn't about to call himself some kind of tea specialist, some kind of barista (did they call people that made tea baristas? or was that for coffee? was all of this shit mixology?), but ezra had found out that different kinds of tea not only needed to be steeped for different amounts of time, but that they needed to be steeped in water that was different temperatures or you'd burn the leaves. he had no fucking idea what those temperatures were, but it made him feel smart to know that apparently you could burn leaf water.

"her grandma, who is an elderly lady and doesn't need to be fighting off paparazzi." ezra countered, immediately picturing the woman wielding an umbrella like a sword. sure, there was no proof that the paps would bother them, just like there wasn't any proof that someone wouldn't snap a picture when everly was with ezra, but that wasn't the point, the point was he was out of the loop. the only thing that snapped him out of his tizzy about things that could go wrong was wren's comment about her prescriptions and arthur, prompting ezra to look back at her with a frown.

"what the fuck are you talking about? he's supposed to be helping you, so that absolutely is his job." sure, at first it had just been bringing her home, but it seemed like arthur had taken up the task of looking out for wren and prescriptions were a big part of that. as far as ezra could tell, wren was a big part of why everly dealt with everything that happened as well as she did, and the two still seemed incredible close, which meant that ezra held an interest in making sure that wren was handling things okay with their return. "have you been having trouble with anything, or has arthur been keeping up with it pretty well?" @misaligncd

at first she hadn't fully understood ezra. then again she had heard nothing but stories about him before they met. everly had talked about him constantly as if she was scared she would forget back in those woods. she had seen the way that he treated her friend when they were brought back to the real world. how much he cared but even wren could see that maybe it was good they had some time apart. even if it was clear that ezra did not agree with that in the slightest.

"i try," she told him with a mere shrug. wren understood that everly was going through a lot of changes. mostly because she was doing the same but they were handling everything differently. she understood why everly wanted the highlights and she knew how to do them. that was why she had agreed to it but she was realizing that calling ahead was probably a good plan. otherwise she was going to end up dealing with a very antsy ezra it seemed. then again she had no idea how often everly's grandma intended on dragging her out," i think she just needs something different but she isn't sure what else she can do so she went with hair."

"thank you," she breathed, realizing he clearly had needed some sort of task. he seemed like the type who liked to take care of people even if most didn't think so. he had even helped her when she had been stuck in the damn hospital. she couldn't help but roll her eyes at his dramatics," she hasn't been kidnapped, her grandma who you can trust, took her out for a bit but she'll be back and you can relax." she merely gave him a knowing look as she made herself comfortable at the table," pouting, moping, whatever you wanna call it," she said in a sing song tone," arthur did bring me here and he didn't say hi because he found out i haven't picked up my prescriptions this week and decided he needed to do that even though i told him it's not his job."

[americaswritings]

Won’t lose you | Part 3

Warnings: angst, language (swearing)

Summary: Riven can’t stand around while Musa is trapped in the school.

Words: 1.6k

Pairing: Riven x Musa

A/N: And this is it :) Sorry if the ending felt a bit rushed, but I had to finish this story at some point and it would have gotten a lot longer and harder to write if I continued after that point. I hope you enjoyed this little ‘series’!

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Masterlist

Part 1 | Part 2 

or Read it on my ao3

With every corner he rounded Riven felt his heart skip a beat in anticipation. And every time he felt both disappointment and relief.

Although he was glad that his worst fear- finding Musa hurt or dead- hadn't been confirmed yet, he felt his hope slipping with each corridor that let into nothing.

All the while he didn't know what was happening upstairs with Sebastian. Had they won, defeated him and gotten back the specialists that had been under his spell? Or were they losing, each minute he spent down here searching for her one that cost one of his mates their life?

Riven ran a hand over his face, letting out a grunt. "Fuck!" He couldn't keep searching for her and coming up empty. The others might need his help.

But he couldn't bring himself to give up without a trace of her. Wouldn't be able to forgive himself if he fucked up yet another thing in his life. And this mattered. She mattered. Because she was different.

He had known it from the moment he had seen her tugged in a corner with her big headphones on. Hiding from the world. He knew the feeling to well.

Had known when she had joined Sky and him to get Beatrix back without hesitation, even when he had offered her an out.

And most of all he had when she had opened up to him about her struggles concerning her fairy powers. To him of all people. Even though they barely knew each other Musa had trusted him enough to let her see some of her darkest thoughts.

Because since the moment he had saved her, something had changed between them. He felt a connection to her he hadn't before, a need to find her when he stepped into the room, a longing to be close to her, a thrill to get a reaction out of her.

He didn't know what hurt more, the thought of losing her or what they could have had.

As the defeat crawled into his body, Riven felt exhaustion sink in. His posture wasn't as straight anymore, his sword lower than usual as he rounded yet another corner.

So when his eyes fell on a figure, almost fully absorbed by the shadows he nearly flinched out of his skin. Startled he raised his sword again, drawing closer. But as he took another step forward the person turned, letting out a hiss as if the movement alone had hurt them.

For a second he was too caught off guard to move, his mouth slightly open in shock as he gaped at her. After getting disappointed over and over again he hadn't dared to find her anymore.

Yet here she was. And she was alive.

His eyes flickered to her hand that was clutching at her side, pressing onto the fabric of her shirt that had turned dark.

"Shit!", he cursed, lunging forward but Musa's other hand reached out, holding up a large spear. He almost tripped over his feet, taken aback by her instinctive defensiveness.

But then recognition crossed her face and she lowered it the stick. "Riv?"

He would have smiled cockily at her, probably come up with something that would earn him an eye-roll, but he was too worried.

"You're hurt", he stated, rushing forward again now that her weapon was out of the way. She seemed surprised as he leaned down to inspect her wound.

"Can you?" Their eyes met and he saw pain in them. But relief as well. He couldn't dwell on it.

"Oh, uhm." Musa removed her hand, allowing him to take a look at her injury. Her shirt was drenched in blood, but when he lifted it up a little, he saw the bleeding had almost stopped. The cut wasn't too deep.

"You'll live", he said, ignoring the way she sucked in a breath at the close contact and how the sound alone made his hairs stand.

Down was the shirt again, covering the trace of skin he had gotten a glimpse of. "Might leave a scar though." He searched her eyes, but Musa shrugged. "Could be worse."

He had to agreed. From all the scenarios his mind had come up with in the past hours, finding Musa hurt might not have been one he had hoped for, but it was a small wound compared to what could have been.

"It is pretty badass." He offered her a smirk, hoping she couldn't see through his attempt to overplay his worry.

A small smile lit up her face and he had to bring himself not to stare at her. God, she was breath-taking. Even with dirt and traces of blood covering her skin, her shirt torn and her hair dishevelled around her shoulders, the small buns falling apart at the base of her neck.

He wondered if she would ever not look beautiful to him. How could he have been so blind before? Had wasted his time having fun with Dane and Beatrix, who was arguably hot, but could never compare to the effortless beauty of the fairy standing in front of him.

And who was he now, thinking about beauty, of brown eyes and soft lips turning into a smile? Riven shook his head, as if he could shake off his thoughts that way.

"Let's get the hell out of here", he muttered and Musa nodded eagerly. But when she tried to take a step forward, she returned to her hunched over position, her face turning pale as she clutched at her side again.

"Come one." He stepped close to her side, looping an arm around her torso to steady her. He saw the hesitation in her eyes as she gazed at him from the side and he wondered where it stemmed from.

Was it as hard for her to accept help like it was for him? Did she feel insecure having to rely on him? Or was she still mad over their fight?

"Lean into my side", he told her, casting his eyes forward so he didn't have to look at her doubt any longer. "Or do you want me to carry you again?"

Perhaps his teasing had lightened the atmosphere enough to help her relax, because Musa finally did what he had asked, angling her body against his.

He had to keep himself from letting out a sigh. He had wanted her close. Had craved it. Had woken up from a dream once, in which he had pulled her into his body at the end of their training sessions.

He hadn't thought much about it. Musa was hot. She could be witty and bold. And she was out of his reach, with her fairy friends constantly swarming her.

She was a challenge. Of course he would want to go after her. That didn't mean he felt anything for her.

But now was not the moment to let his mind go there. She was hurt and insecure, exhausted and perhaps a little scared. Yet, he still wanted her close. But in a way he didn't understand himself.

"Are you offering?" Her question startled him for a moment before he remembered his words. She was teasing him back he realized, and it made him grin.

"That was a one-time thing." He saw surprise cross her face and added, "I prefer seeing you unhurt and walking on your own."

There was too much meaning behind his words, but Musa let it go, either too exhausted or too empathetic to hold him accountable.

"Then you need to keep training me", she said and back was her stubbornness that had caused their fight. But Riven wouldn't argue with her anymore.

"I will. Can't always be there to save you."

Even though he wouldn't mind it. Not one bite. But he had to be realistic. And he couldn't let his pride nor his will to keep her safe get in the way of it.

Because even though he feared once she had gotten better and more confident in her fighting abilities she would head right into battle, he head learned she would do no less without his training.

"But it looks like you held yourself quite well." Musa bit her lip, but he saw the sense of pride in her eyes as he peeked at her.

"How did you find me anyway?"

He swallowed, eyes fixed on their path. It wasn't easy manoeuvring them through the dark and narrow corridors, but it gave him time with her alone. Before they would be absorbed in chaos again.

"After the phone call we convinced Silva to attack. Sky and I went inside to free the fairies. We figured you would be among them but when you weren't-", he trailed off.

He saw Musa's curious gaze but kept his jaw set, careful not to reveal the gravity of his emotions to her.

"Where is Sky now?", Musa asked and he nearly breathed in relief that they were back to safe questions.

"He went up. Something with Sebastian and Bloom. You know how they are."

In love.

Perhaps the questions weren't so safe to answer after all.

Musa swayed a little and he reached out to steady her, their eyes meeting. She must have been aware of the intensity of it too, but she didn't pull away, didn't look away.

He was the first one to break their moment so he could safely help her up a pair of stairs.

"Are they okay? I mean- do you know about the others?"

He heard the fear behind her voice and tried his best to sound confident and calm but not indifferent.

"I haven't talked to them, but they were fine when I last saw them. And the fairies were okay when I let them out."

None of them said anything after that, both too absorbed in their thoughts as they tried to brace themselves for whatever they would find once they had escaped the dark edges of the basement.

But Riven knew, whatever it was, they would face it. 

Together.

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[atlas-of-a-human-soul]

Worth the risk

Pairing: Sky x specialist!reader

=================================

Sword practice never felt like practice. In Alfea, every sword fight was meant to be a fight for your life. Or that’s how Rosalind had made it so ever since she took over the school.

Sky and Y/N’s sword fight is under the light, upon a warm day with spring flowers. Though Y/N’s teased Sky, telling him to see the beauty that is all around them, all he sees is the blade of steel, never the green wands of grass.

“Slow down”, Y/N growls at him, managing to block his sword from piercing through her in a moment of aggression she didn’t expect. 

Sky’s been lost for months, fighting as if everyone’s his enemy - like she’s his enemy. Silva’s arrest had left marks on everyone, but Sky’s anger had been festering and Y/N worried one day it would swallow him whole. 

“If you can’t keep up”, Sky leans in, his blue eyes hardened, “Leave.” 

She can feel the tension and hear the intensity in his tone. There's a great deal of emotion behind these words he is speaking. Y/N wished he didn’t mean it, but she knew he did. He’s looking for a punching bag, not a friend. 

“I can keep up”, Y/N’s eyebrow furrow, her guttural tone making her throat burn. If she’s too defensive, Sky will walk away. If she allows his behavior to remain as it is, she will lose him. “I can accept and understand how you’re feeling this way, in the same situation I would feel it too.” 

Elbowing Sky in the ribs, her blade slides past his and the tip stops at his throat. “I do feel it. Silva meant a lot to me too. So you can talk to me about it. You’re allowed to feel the way you do.” He needs validation of his emotions, not some solution or apology. 

Sniffling, Sky steps back and away from the blade. Spitting to his left, he shakes his head before taking his original position and Y/N can tell he’s not going to talk to her. Not today. Not about Silva. 

Their swords clash again and Y/N grits her teeth, trying to keep her balance as Sky went in hard this time. The sound of their swords clashing is enough to break her heart, for no matter the overtures of peace she makes, he comes in for the kill, not as play.

Raising her right leg up, her foot lands on his chest, forcing him back a good distance. Grunting, Y/N throws her sword aside. Raising her hands before her face, she taunts him to do the same. 

Smiling in disbelief, Sky follows suit, the metal of his sword clattering against hers as it lands right on the blade.

“You could never beat me this way”, Sky’s smile feels cold, almost like the numbness and anger in him had managed to become as one when she challenged him to get his hands dirty.

“I might surprise you”, she raises her eyebrows as she waits for Sky to make the first move. 

Chuckling, Sky’s throaty laugh makes her smile too. “I’m open to new experiences, Shortcake.”

Rolling her eyes, she managed to duck just in time to avoid a punch to her face. Instead of allowing him to strike, she uses her height to her advantage, managing to swipe under his feet, with her hands readily gripping his wrists, pinning them to the ground while her body had kept him under. 

Straddling Sky, Y/N could see his shock firsthand. It had shaken him to the core that someone, anyone, especially her, could take him down. 

“Are you surprised?” Y/N kinks her eyebrow, her lips twitching at the corners until a self-satisfied smirk takes claim on her face. 

Sky’s lips are parted, his eyes softer than they were in a long time and they held hers with a longing, a passion she didn’t feel in months. “I miss you”, Sky utters, his heavy breathing contrasting her shuddered, shallow breaths.

“I’m right here, Sky”, she says softly, releasing his left wrist. Placing her right hand on his cheeks, she swallows thickly, “I’m here and this is the first time I feel like you are too.”

“I’m sorry I’m so fucked up. I should stay away from you”, Sky’s eyebrows furrow, his eyes flickering to her lips as she draws the bottom one between her teeth. “I don’t want to scare you when I’m like this.”

Scoffing, she sits, pulling him up to sit too. “I’m a big girl, Sky. I don’t scare easily. Maybe you do, so I don’t want to scare you, but I think I am in love with you.”

His eyes widen, the coldness of his blue eyes turning to crashing ocean waves she had fallen in love with. She could feel his hands shake, hear his breath as it got caught in his throat and she wasn’t shy, placing her hand over his chest only to feel his frantic heart unable to find a normal rhythm.

“Don’t give up on me”, he breathes out, “Because I love you too.” Licking his lips, his hands cup her face and she’s the one unable to draw a proper breath of air as his lips claim hers as if she’s the light in darkness he’s lost in. And in that kiss, she was home - in the arms she felt safe, on the chest she could rest her head on. 

Sky is home - he’s a promise of true love in a world where love can only break your heart. But if anyone’s worth the risk, Sky is.

[party-gilmore]

Plotlines I Know They Won't Do But I Still Wanna See Anyway #37:

The Team gets a some kind of coded distress signal from Hardison. They are, obviously, freaking out but trying to hold it together so they can put together some kind of rescue plan. They come up with where he's being held, get an idea of by who, and start working on an extraction plan.

Eliot is trying to be his usual "I'm the strong one, I'm the support, I've gotta take care of everyone else" self but being the retrieval specialist this plan is going to rely on him a LOT so there's added stress and then also, if we're going by the conversation with Sophie at the end of the Double Edged Sword, still trying to keep his, Hardison's, and Parker's particular romantic entanglement on the downlow and ALLLL this extra stress has him struggling. Buckling, even.

We get a touching scene with him and Parker where she lays out for him what Hardison did for her back in the Queens Gambit - you had to be [the strong one] because that's what you had to do to survive when it was just you, but you have a team now, and we can take some of that burden from you. Let us. We can do this.

(It got long, continued below)

So it's very sweet and he gives up some of his control with being The Protector and learns to share that role with everyone going after Hardison, revealing the nature of their relationship in the process and it's all very sweet.

EXCEPT!!!!!

They start their exfil run, and it turns out? NO HARDISON!!! It was a trap!!!! Of course the bad guys didn't get Hardison, how could they?? The guilt weighs on Eliot and Parker - what did they miss? Was their judgement so clouded by love and fear for their partner that they made mistakes they normally wouldn't while planning the con? What went wrong? How could someone have fooled them so thoroughly??? Who could have mimicked Hardison's signature like that?? Who knows his algorithms enough to-

Then, the Big Bad Guys own hacker steps out from the shadows...

Cha0s.

The ep ends on that cliffhanger leading us into the season finale where:

[Title Card - "Three Days Ago"]

Hardison, noticing some funny business going on with some alerts he set up to keep him informed if The Team gets into any real bad trouble, does some digging and makes it into the surveillance feed of the Big Bad's HQ where he and Cha0s are working on their plan.

It's already too late to head The Team off - Cha0s has gotten some weird fucking buffer into the system while Hardison's been busy elsewhere (which, he's kicking himself a bit for that, but he knows that kind of danger comes with the job - as good as he is, he knows it only takes one lucky day for another hacker to become The Bigger Fish) so he can't reach out directly with The Team already entrenched in the Con. Any attempts would alert Cha0s to the fact that Hardison knew what was going on and honestly? He'd rather keep that element of surprise. Let Cha0s think he's winning for now, while Hardison works outside of the usual channels to assemble a very Last Dam Job -esque team of his own.

Some new faces from Lev. Int., Mr. Quinn (of course), maybe even some Russian mob connections they have (maybe they left a good impression after "catering" a wedding, or something like in the Real Fake Car job where they made an arrangement after a con one time with a local boss who actually protects the people in their territory).

They break into the facility at the same time the Leverage team does - we learn over the course of this episode that the "lucky breaks" the team caught on the way in last ep (before they were captured) - distracting the worst of the mercenaries or clearing the path faster - were actually the result of traps set up by Hardison's team.

The climax of the ep is right where we left off last time - the Team trapped in the center of the compound, the trick revealed, Cha0s stepping out of the shadows, taunting them with something like "oh I wish Hardison were really here, I truly do, just so he could see what we're about to do to his precious little team-"

"Anybody ever tell you be careful what you wish for?" Hardison's voice echoes all around the room from every computer, every PA system speaker, every cellphone, and as everyone looks around the dim room frantically all the lights snap on at once, half blinding them. The Big Bad Guy is flailing, covering his eyes with arms screaming, "WHO THE HELL IS THIS?"

The same omnipresent Hardisom voice comes again, "well, it's definitely not Eliot."

And Quinn slams into the guy outta nowhere, kicking off the exfiltration plan.

(Somewhere in the midst of course, Quinn FINALLY gets to hit Cha0s.)

[comics-autism]

God yes. 100%. I hate how much Inquistion reduced mages from an absoulte boon in a fight where they could be doing any number of things to support you or harm your allies to... a guy with a flashy weapon. I will never forgive them for removing healing. Mages have been nerfed mechanically each progressive game and like. Listen from origins to 2 it was... kind of fair those bitches were completely broken in Origins. But from Inquistion they just did not feel strong at all unless you deliberately went for a broken build (Hello knight enchanter), which like the other games did have broken builds (Hello arcane warrior) you didn't need to go with them to feel powerful.

Being a support mage in Inquistion is Hard because they removed all the support skills. You really are just as a mage to look pretty. The lack of hexs and of Healing kills me. Also the removal of Spirit Healer and blood mage? Why the best two things your mage can be? Why do you hate fun inquistion?

I do also feel like the difference in game power effects warriors and rogues in Origins to 2, idk about inquistion I've never bother to playthrough as anything other than a mage. Which is again probably because of how big the skill trees where in Origins, and how many like. Weapon choice spesific skills there were? If that makes sense. Like in 2 and inqusiton there's a single branching tree for two handed and for sword and shield while Origins had four seperate lines.

But! On that! The change from two specialisations (or three in awakening) to just one. Definetly effects how powerful you feel. Specialisations Fuck. It's great being able to choose a spesific skill set and it getting to be more powerful because you can only choose two of them. But inquistion made it so you could only choose one and... didn't double what came with that choice. Specialisations across the three games feel pretty equal in how much they have and how powerful they have and inquistion just. Halfed it. By only letting you have one.

BUT ON THE MENTION OF COMPANIONS. I have been given free lease to go nuts. Yes the fact that they're all specialists in Inquistion drives me Nuts. All of your companions excel in their field and most of them have literal formal training and accreditation. Vivenne is court enchanter! Cassandra is a Seeker! Solas is a fucking god!

They are the best of the best literally chosen out of the inquistions hundreds of soldiers to support you and as such can 100% pick up and slack from the inquisitor.

In Origins and 2 your companions were like. Just some guys. Which is funny because I definetly think most of them could destroy the inquisition crew. (Almost like it feels like they grow stronger through the journey and through knowing you while Inq feels like they just. Stay the same.)

Like the da2 crew is literally just. Your friends. The dudes you happened to stumble on and befriend and they're all powerful but in a different vibe to inquistion where like, it's not formal and it's certainly not respected. They're as skilled as they are because they had to be to survive.

Same with Origins. None of your companions have Any standing or respect when you start the game. Oghren and Sten are disgraced warriors. Alistair is a newer recruit. Lelianna is in hiding, Zeveran is on run from the crows. They're all people desperate enough to join your suicide mission. And if you get to know them and finish their quests they grow and become stronger and continue to follow you because they trust and respect you.

Origins and 2 you're desperatly searching for any ally you can find, anyone willing to help you and fight beside you. In inquistion you're shopping around for the best of the best. And they join the Inquistion. They don't join YOU. They see the Apocalypse is happening so they join the powerful army working to stop it. Hell out of memory like... every single companion approaches you first in Inquistion (I think Blackwall is the sole exception to this?) where it's almost the exact opposite in the previous 2.

Like several companions offer their help before you ask in Origins and 2 but you have to like. Come across them first. Like yes Oghren will approach you but he doesn't send a letter to your advisors telling you he'd like an alliance. You have to be in Ozamar where people are loudly talking about the surfacer warden and the fact that they're being sent on a fools errand to find Oghrens ex-wife.

It's just an Incredibly different vibe.

Inquistion companions are professionals. Origins and 2 are desperate people doing their best.

So like how powerful the Inquistor is doesn't matter because they've got their buddies covering for them. All THEY'VE got to do is wave their hand at the rifts. Hawke and the Warden ARE the desperate people doing their best just like their friends.

Also brief note because this is getting too long. Nethier the Warden or Hawke get peaceful retirements. Like it does depend on how you headcannon it but like the Warden generally goes on to be the Warden Comander where they'd only get more powerful in the like? Ten years since we left them. And Hawke becomes a fugitive where they're still having to fight so still gaining more experience between 2 and inquistion.

Literally like Everything in the games. The gameplay, the plot, the companions, to how their story ends are ALL telling you it goes Warden -> Hawke -> Inquistor. Which is really interesting and is kind of fun sometimes but like. Shame about the Inquistor and their game lol.

It really does seem to be regardless of the play origins and backgrounds and classes chosen, the most common ranking for dragon age players is like

1. The Warden, undefeatable. They are missing because they're so powerful they'd ruin the plot of the other games. Essentially a banned trading card.

2. Hawke, a prodigy. Street smart, as in learned "on the job", plus being a natural talent. Champion. But the Warden could still curb stomp them.

3. The Inquisitor, a competent individual with an unfortunate ghost rash. Could get curb stomped by both previous protags.

This is not hate this is genuinely wonderful. This probably has a mechanical explanation, like the skill trees being SUPER CONDENSED and cookie cutter in inquisition, but I love that Stand Alone the Quizzy is a Worthy Opponent but compared to the other two protagonists theyre a big baby.

[fuckit-hero-of-trains]

Thanks for answering my last ask!

I really like what you chose for their teams

Could you do Four, Legend and Hyrule too, maybe?

no problem! thanks for sending in the asks! gives me an excuse to talk about my three favorite topics: legend of zelda, pokemon, and symbolism. anyway!

Legend: Ace- Shiny Lopunny (Normal) Dark World Form

Snorlax (Normal) Big Sleepy

Diggersby (Normal/Ground)

Staraptor (Flying/Normal)

Sawsbuck (Norma/Grass) Oracle of Seasons

Girafarig (Normal/Psychic) Bow Wow Tail

like I might've mentioned before, for a while Legend was a tossup between normal and psychic. normal becuase alttp is the "baseline" for loz games and psychic because of links awakening. I ended up compromising and gave him a normal team but with two pokemon with sleep as their main element aka Rest + Sleeptalk Snorlax and Hypnosis + Dream Eater Girafarig. Both are incredibly formidable and frightening and fuck you Warriors Normal type is viable!!!!!

...

Four: Ace- Metagross (Steel/Psychic) Four's Four-ness

Aegislash (Steel/Ghost) The Four Sword

Klefki (Steel/Fairy) Minish <3

Magnezone (Electric/Steel)

Scissor (Bug/Steel)

Skarmory (Steel/Flying) Zeffa <3

at first, I wanted Four's team to consist of the first two and then preferably a pokemon to represent each of the four elements within the four sword. unfortunately, Heatran and Empoleon are the only Steel/Fire and Water/Steel pokemon out there, which would break my self imposed rule of not giving any of the lads legends or starters. so, I went on to plan b. like Sky and his birds, I didnt just want Four to have steel types, but I wanted his pokemon to be mostly inorganic in nature. the first four pokemon on this list all fit this, being pokemon who are made of metal as opposed to "animal covered in metal" if that makes sense. the other two, well, the idea that Scissor is "forged" from a Scyther is fun and,,,,,, c'mon man, I had to give the lad a really rad metal Zeffa. Four's team depend on their defense, which Klefki, the helpful little lad he is, helps to bolster with his Light Screen and setting up of Spikes. Tanky lads then set up subsequent Iron Defenses to tank even more. Four is very lucky the Kingdom currently doesn't have a Fire Type Specialist becuase oh boy would he be screwed.

...

Hyrule: Ace-Florges (Fairy) Great Fairies

Togekiss (Fairy/Flying)

Mawile (Steel/Fairy)

Ribombee (Bug/Fairy) Regular Fairies

Grimsnarl (Dark/Fairy) Blins in General

Azumarill (Water/Fairy)

to be honest, Hyrule was a really difficult one to make a team for. fairy is a pretty niche type and while it reflects Hyrule's magic and general upbeat nature vibes, it doesn't really mesh super well with the rugged and brutal nature of his games. his champion team I feel better reflects it (he has a Hydreigon to represent Gleeok and so on and so forth) however, I tried to at least give him some variety. Aside from his weirdly tanky Florges, his Superpower Azumarill is the stuff of nightmares, especially when unable to be given status conditions thanks to Misty Terrain. Grimsnarl knows Fire Punch becuase if Hyrule gets set up against Four one more time in the final tournament, hes going to lose it.