#but also if i did just start info dumping on main would it really be much of a problem its my blog

[ramshacklerumble]

man i love this comic making train im on, the only thing i hate about it is having to make comics :)

[fuckyeahimafangirl]

I come here late to give my opinion on what Nicole Maines said in her book about the Supercorp fandom (go to Twitter for more info, but she basically gave her point of view of things as a queer actor on the show having expected things from the queer fans, confirmed we were being queerbaited while also blaming us for some actors getting fired). I appreciate her side of things and feel for her. But reading that I felt that A LOT was overlooked, especially the context of it all. So sit back if you care enough to read this and come with me as I go on a rant and we go down memory lane to give some context into what it was like to watch Supergirl live as a Supercorp fan.

The first season of Supergirl had its fair share of ships. People liked Kara/Cat, Kara/James, Kara/Win maybe anyone? I don't remember that one but I'm sure there were people out there who liked them. Some people even liked Alex/Kara (a conversation for another time). Kara/Cat shippers could also like Kara/James, because both ships had some strong foundations in the narrative, they were undeniably good ships, regardless of how you feel about age-difference relationships or straight relationships lol. There wasn't mostly an issue, except with the ones that liked Kara/Alex.

In between the first and second season of Supergirl it was announced that a main character would be gay. They didn't say who, though. Speculation began, of course. They did say that Maggie Sawyer was coming to the show but it was not confirmed that she was going to be a lesbian and even less whose love interest. 

Then the second season premiered. And in the very first episode Kara Danvers meets Lena Luthor. Their scenes together were filled with sexual tension from the very beginning, look at their meeting scene without context and a bit of an open mind and most people will see their chemistry and think that maybe Kara was meeting her soulmate. And the first scene of Supergirl meeting Lena Luthor? It was already drawing a parallel between them and Lois/Clark, one of most iconic, recognizable and undeniable canon ships of all time. Drawing parallels between these two ships was the creators of the show's favorite pastime and it started from day one, before the ship had any fans because we hadn't met Lena just yet.

But in that episode we did meet her. And we fell in love fast. Because their interactions and the interest concept of Lena's character were good. Could it really be that Kara was the main gay character? Could it really be that they were going to give us an epic love story with Supergirl and a family member of her family's historically known enemy? Could they dare to make the famous superhero anything other than straight?

It wasn't just a delusion on our part at that time. It was a real possibility based on real facts. Kara had suddenly dropped the guy she spent the entire previous season chasing after. She got him and dumped him for no good reason (the writers didn't bother to give it a good excuse) and in the same episode she meets this woman, at the start of the season we were going to discover a main gay character.

These are all facts.

A few episodes later Maggie Sawyer makes her debut and it's clear that she's Alex's love interest from the first moment. Cool. It's not Kara but at least it's Alex (because, at the time, we know, WE KNOW, that they don't have two lesbian/queer women characters in the same show unless they're dating each other. How could we think that gay people will surround themselves with other gay people? silly us), that was the reaction: We still LOVED that it was Alex, because it still made sense. And it was difficult to find Sanvers fanfic without it having Supercorp in it because we were all the same people, of course most of us liked both ships. 

Now, I obviously don't know her, but I seriously don't think that Chyler can say she felt overlooked by the fans that season. Alex's coming out scenes were some of the best we had seen in our entire lives up until that point, and we made that known. Not all of us might have been on board with Sanvers (some storyline choices could've been questionable) but with Alex? No one loved her more than the queer Supergirl fans. And in the meantime Supercorp kept getting screen time, their friendship progressing in a Clois kind of way that was beautiful to witness. While Maggie and Alex's relationship advanced pretty quickly from an "I'm not gay" to a rejection to a proper first kiss, Supercorp was building a bit more organically as Supergirl kept saving Lena's life, as Lena opened up only to Kara, trusting her all the while Kara was keeping this huge secret from her. We ate that shit up, of course we did.

After season two was over we got the news that Floriana Lima (Maggie) was going to leave the show. I remember Chyler saying that she wanted to do right by us and whoever came next was gonna stay. And I'm not faulting Chyler for what came next, at all. Chyler was and always will be one of the best things on Supergirl and she has always treated the fandom with the utmost respect and love. And I hope she only received the same treatment back (and I hate to know she got those letters from people threatening to kill themselves, but let's have a little compassion for those people and their mental health, I hope they're doing well).

So Maggie left. And while some fans were not coping well with that, most fans understood it was the actress' decision. That was fine. What wasn't fine was the decision the writers made by making the breakup about not wanting babies when they were about to get married. How on Earth (any Earth) a couple don't talk about that particular issue BEFORE deciding to get married? It was an easy way out. But okay, it's just a TV show, I don't write it, we can move on from that... In the same season, at the same time this whole discussion and breakup occurs, the very same person who wanted to have kids has a meet-cute with a SINGLE MOTHER, Sam. The story was full of promise, she had a kid already with whom Alex got along amazingly, there was great chemistry between all three of them, Sam also had a dark secret being basically her sister's most powerful enemy, their relationship was mostly well built throughout the entire season. But guess what? She wasn't her new love interest, and left at the end of it. 

A lot of Supercorp fans LOVED AgentReign (Sam/Alex), by the way. A lot of Supercorp fans also loved ReignCorp (Sam/Lena) and a few even loved AgentCorp (Lena/Alex) and SuperReign (lol what was the name of this ship? I don't remember but Kara/Sam). And guess what? There wasn't a war between us. We were mostly the same people multishipping because it's fun and because these were interesting characters with interesting relationships created by the writers. We were inventing and wishing for stuff, but the foundations were laid for us, some (most) things were there and most of us were just screaming that we liked what we were being given and wanted more of that.

And that's why come season 4, some people were having a hard time accepting Dansen. Because we were mourning the loss of Sam and her relationship with Alex, the what ifs are always the worst, no matter the situation.  But most Supercorp fans embraced Kelly (and Azie, we love Azie and what we got to see of her relationship with Chyler, and Katie and Nicole), the vast majority of us ended up loving Dansen despite the writers not always doing a great job at writing their arcs. And it's awful that some fans treated her and other members of the cast horribly, but that was by far a small portion of the Supergirl fandom in general, and especially the Supercorp fandom. And, by the way, as a side note because racism was part of the problem for a minority of the fandom, A LOT of us in the Supercorp side of it are not white people from the US, A LOT of us are from other countries/races/cultures (that can be racist too of course, but the point is we don't know the races and motives of everyone behind a keyboard).

And that season most of us also embraced Nia because she was the first trans superhero, because of her queerness, because she was an awesome fun character, because she was relatable and geeky like most of us. We embraced her, her relationship with Kara and her relationship with Brainy. And we showed that by trending Nia related things, by adding Nia to our fanfics and fanarts. Nia was a Supercorp ally for most of us and we didn't exclude her from the art because we loved her as much as we love some of the other characters in the show.

Now, if Kara would have had, after the first season, one male love interest that was decent enough, we would have still love and wanted Supercorp, that's true (especially when it had been years of build-up) but most of us probably would have liked the pairing anyway, because we loved Kara Danvers and wanted her to be happy and to have the love she wanted at the beginning of the show (which she didn't get, by the way).

But the writers decided to give her, instead, another man who didn't treat her well. And I couldn't honestly tell you half of William's storyline because I couldn't care less. The creators of the show didn't make me care. Hell, I didn't even see Kara cared enough about that character. The writers should know their audience and should know that the audience needs moments to make them care about the characters, the writers have the power to make that happen. Many times I've seen a fandom hate a character one episode and love them by the next one, because sometimes all it takes is one good scene, or one good arc. William never had that. And now we have confirmation of what we knew all along, that maybe they were writing half-assed storylines for their love interests because they were too busy trying to figure out new ways to queerbait us. If they would have put a quarter of that effort into creating good love interests for Kara and/or Lena (but especially Kara), most of this conversation wouldn't still be happening 3 years later.

We embraced Andrea Rojas, we embraced her so much that we shipped her with Lena. Most of us weren't the blind Supercorp-or-nothing crazy fans a lot of people to this day make us out to be. When things were good, we mostly liked them. But please, please, let's be honest here, a lot of the time Supergirl was not a great-written show. And I get that those are Nicole's friends but a little objectivity, especially after all these years, would have come a long way.

These past few days I've read a couple of people saying Supercorp was the only good thing about the show. Those kinds of people were and still are a very very minority. A lot of us started the show before Supercorp existed and LOVED (still love) the Danvers sisters with all of our hearts. And the writers, at times, didn't know how to keep up with that relationship, the one that at first was the very center of the show, all that well either.

Most Supercorp fans didn't actually like that the 100th episode revolved all around Supercorp. 1) Because it was queerbaiting at its finest. 2) because it should've been about the Danvers sisters. Or at least about all Supergirl's most important relationships in equal measure. Yes, Lena was a big part of her, but ALEX EVEN MORE SO. The fandom didn't make that happen, we didn't fire any actor either. These were decisions made by the people who had the power to make anything in the show happen. If we would have had our way we all know what we would have done, and no, it definitely was not p**n (the most used AO3 tags for our ship speak for themselves).

I didn't see Nicole's last paragraph on the subject shared much. A lot of people didn't see that she acknowledged a small portion of the good the Supercorp fandom did.

But by the time you get to it, you already have a bad taste in your mouth. Because it still reads as if she's talking about us all without a care that "the toxic fans" were just a loud minority. Not to say that the good guys weren't louder, because Supercorp is still what it is to this day because we're still loud. So why is there very little mention of that? The way we supported Nia's episode? The way we supported Kelly's?

And because we were having fun and we were loud about our love for two fictional characters, WE WERE ALSO RECEIVING THREATS from some toxic fans, hell, the day before yesterday some fans were receiving death threats like it's 2017. Everything she says the cast and crew were dealing with, the Supercorp fans were dealing with it as well, and more so because the toxic people felt validated by the choices the creators made. Validated by some writers on Twitter making it worse. Validated by some of the actors who were also mocking us. We were all called delusional, and that was the most chill thing you could be called.

I understand her point of view, and I imagine that was not a great first experience in that kind of set, and I would love to have the opportunity to talk to actors about this topic that fascinates me (relationship between fandoms and cast/crew). But context is important, to see other people's point of views is important when having these conversations. She felt her own community wasn't supporting her when most of us were and that didn't come across at all. Not even with her final words. 

The fact is, they were hurt by a small part of their own fandom (which, by the way, they have no idea how old those toxic fans were. Not to say that adults are not toxic. But we, as the non-toxic adults, should also think of the demographic and react accordingly). And most of us, the queer Supercorp shippers, were also hurt by the toxic part of the fandom and by some of the people she's trying to defend. Let's be clear, there's not "mayyyybe," they were 100% wrong in queerbaiting the hell out of us from day one and mocking us for believing the bait. Make no mistake, most of this is a consequence of THAT. 

[pomegranatesandtangerines]

based off this post

how I think (some of) the Dungeon Meshi characters would interact with an isekai-ed reader who's hyperfixation is dungeon meshi

includes: Laios, Falin, Kabru, and Toshiro (Shuro)

Laios

im imaging reader meeting him when he was a child

a little after Falin was born and after he was given the dungeon gourmet guide

reader actively seeking him out but kinda starts freaking out when they actually see him

reader decides to go with the approach being interested in his book

Laios was suspicious at first ( the book is one of the main reasons he got bullied )

but after some time and patience he got comfortable with you

I feel that Laios would be very attached to reader

like someone besides his sister who gets him, listens to him, communicates with him, etc.

listen as someone who is very hyperfixated on dungeon meshi at the moment I would be so invested in learning about monsters

and Laios is more then happy to talk about it for hours

reader making a point to support his dream of exploring the dungeons bc his parents are dicks

he wouldn't really be weirded out by reader seems to know so much about him, maybe early on but over time I feel he would just be glad to have someone like that by his side

low-key though,,, I think there would be a small small part of him that is kinda jealous over how reader seems to just,, get some people

Falin

I see reader being her number one hype-person as a child

reader would also beg her to teach them some magic

I think that Falin and reader would meet through Laios

Falin while she is outcasted from her home town, is still a litter more sociable then her brother

but what had her truly open up was not only the readers support of her magical talent but also the readers interest in learning about how biology works in this world

she also info dumps a ton

you know how she kept bringing Marcille things cause she wanted to eat them with her

she would 100% do that with reader,,, and the amount would increase when Laios leaves

Kabru

he would be veryyy fascinated by the reader

his hyperfixation is people. studying them, their anatomy, psychology, how they tick

he would absolutely notice how reader picks up on things, knows things about some people without even having met them, predict events

to put it simply he wants to study reader under a microscope but is also extremely suspicious of them

he's also gonna pull out all the stops to try charm his way into understanding reader

his distrust sky rockets the first time they lock eyes, he can see it in his eyes, this look of understanding the deepest parts of him

he does not like it

it takes a long ass time for him trust them and genuinely open up again

reader making a point to ask things that will make him want to info dump

"hey did you notice how x was acting today" or "did you hear that x and y got together? do you think they'll make it?"

gossip buddies

Toshiro

ALRIGHT LET ME START BY SAYING THIS, HE IS WAYYYY TOO MISCHARACTERIZED IN THIS FANDOM

and reader would be all too aware of this as well

he is heavily implied to have a hyperfixation on bugs, and had to at a young age become a master at masking and picking up on social norms

but anyways-

he would think reader is weird, mostly bc they would remind him of laios

slowly but surely I feel he would feel more comfortable

another case of the way to his heart is through the info dump

maybe walking back from a little adventure and noticing a beetle and showing him

now hes not gonna be as outwardly as excited as Laios

but it is slightly noticeable that he is interested and excited

reader offers to give it to him and asks him some questions

less info dumping and more info sprinkling but still he does like to talk about it

I think he would appreciate how they seem to pick up on his smaller details, maybe not a perfectly but still

[zenala-art]

Do you have an infodump on your captain Agent 4?

Firstly, thank you so much for the ask and interest!!

Secondly, I sure do! Conelia's my first and main Splatoon OC so she has. a lot. of lore, and I'll gladly infodump some stuff :D

Let's start with her general reference sheet! I think it makes for a nice introduction:

I think the first thing anyone asks (reasonably so) when I tell them that she's the captain is "Why not Agent 3?" In my agent story, Agent 3 is completely MIA since the end of Octo Expansion, and even without taking that into account, Conelia spends a lot more time with Marie and Callie than he (being very introverted) ever did, and she's definitely more dedicated to being a good fighter. So, when it came to choosing who's going to be the next captain, she was a very clear choice.

Being one of the captains of her competitive team, she was already used to this sort of responsability, too! The NSBS sure can sponsor her dream of being a professional competitive player, and this just meant more time to be spending with the Squid Sisters, which can't be a bad thing in her opinion.

Here's an overall of my (active) agents:

Asra and Radish are a bit outdated since I've added more interesting things to their lore since I made this picture, but the rest pretty much remains the same!

Conelia really enjoys Asra's company as her first pupil, being much more proactive and giving more pieces of random advice than we see the Captain do in the game. After the events of ROTM, the two of them very often communicate mostly through sign language, since it usually feels more comfortable for Asra (who is mostly nonverbal due to some circumstances in their life, but with Conelia they sometimes speak). She's super excited and wants to teach Asra everything she can, acknowledging that they "have a lot of potential".

She also has a long friendship history with both Agent 3 and Agent 8, but they might not be super relevant to the conversation at hand? I do have this relationship chart from some time ago that could be a fast, superficial view however (don't mind the old designs, drawings are a little old, but the info is still correct):

So yeah, if we talk about the general character, Conelia has most of the attributes usually associated with Agent 4 (the excitedness and general perceived vibe, the "always busy with school" aspect of it, living far from Inkopolis or Splatsville, etc). The most important aspect of her personal life that I feel affects how she handles leadership (and therefore her work as a captain) is having inattentive parents who forced her to be independent since way too young.

It took her some convincing from the Squid Sisters to accept recruiting a new agent, even though 8 is mostly not working with them anymore - she just wants to do everything herself all of the time, even though she knows that workload would be too much for her.

I won't go too far into detail on her personal life right now (or I'd make an actual essay here), but hopefully this infodump was interesting to you :D once again thank you for the interest and the excuse to dump about my ocs in public

[angel-of-the-moons]

A Rose Under the Moon

Moon Knight System (Marc/Steven/Jake) x Fem!Reader

TW/CW: Domestic violence mentions, hints at child abuse, child abuse mentions violence, phantom pains

MINORS DNI: I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR CONTENT YOU CONSUME

A/N: Again, none of this is beta read. We die like the younglings Anakin snuffed in the Jedi Temple

Taglist: @my-secret-shame-but-fanfiction @shirukitsune @bad4amficideas

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Chapter 3:

The Victims

You sighed, checking the little egg timer in your apron pocket to see how long until the scones you were baking had left in the oven. Fifteen minutes. Ugh.

It had been a few days since Steven had come in and purchased his pillar of books. The two of you would make small talk, him thumbing through books and rambling about a subject on ancient Egypt that he knew. The moment you brought up your own obscure facts you have memorized from the things your father would read to you as a little girl, Steven’s eyes lit up and he got the biggest grin on his face, and launched himself headlong into info-dump mode. It was kinda cute, really, how excitable he got. You could tell the poor guy probably didn’t have many friends, aside from his brothers, whom he’d told you about, and a friend named Layla. You also found it endearing how his messy, bed-raggled curls would flop over his face, or how animated he’d seem when he would interrupt himself to bring up another fun fact…

But, it had been a day or two since he’d come in last. And to be honest, you kinda miss the guy. He was probably the nicest most engaging customer you had. He even admitted that he didn’t come in just for the books. He told you he liked your teas and treats, and he loved the comfortable atmosphere of your shop over a crowded cafe. But one day, he just had to ask:

“I’ve been meaning to ask…” He started, looking at the muffin in his hand.

“Hm?” You hummed as you stocked shelves.

“Are these… vegan?” He seemed hesitant to touch the muffine now, as if it were poisoned.

You giggle softly. “Yes, actually. I try to use recipes that everyone can enjoy. Vegan, gluten-free…”

“Oh! Wonderful!” He scarfed the muffin down rather quickly after that, his nose buried in the textbook on archaeology he had in his hands.

You set your phone down as you sipped your spiced tea. It was a rather cold and gloomy day today, not uncommon this late in the year, but still, it sucked. It reminded you of where you grew up in Maine, off the coast. Storms blew in all the time, you’d remember as a little girl getting up in the morning, wanting to run outside and play, just to be met with a dark and angry sky, blistering winds, and pelting rain.

🌒🌒🌒🌒🌒🌒🌒🌒🌒🌒

Your poor little six-year-old heart was crushed one day when a particularly bad squall blew into town, and you were trapped within the confines of your house, arms crossed, feet firmly planted as you glared out the window, lip wobbling.

How dare the weather ruin your plans for the day? You were going to play in your treehouse! Now the stupid wind was gonna blow it away! And if it did, your father would have to build another one, and that would take forever!

“Hey, there, Lil’ Bit.” Your dad said, kneeling behind you, as you stubbornly looked out the window in a seething rage. So, so angry for a little girl. You inherited your temper from your mother, surely. Though you personally never saw her mad, of course. Ever. But then again, she worked so much…

Your mom was what your dad told you was a “breadwinner”, which was a term you found dumb. You mom never entered contests and she certainly never won bread as a prize. It was so dumb! Why did adults have to use such dumb words for things?

“Hey, kiddo.” Your dad sang, leaning forward from where he was crouched to put his chin on your tiny shoulder.

“No, daddy, ‘m angy.” You mumbled, trying to shrug him off as lightning flashed in the distance.

He chuckled, his voice warm, much like your favorite pair of fuzzy socks after they were just taken out of the dryer. “Come on, princess. It’ll pass. They always do.”

“But why did it have t’ do it today!” You whined, not budging.

“Dunno, kid. The sky just felt like dumping buckets, I guess.” He said, humoring you.

“Daddy...” You groaned, rolling your eyes. “Clouds don’t use buckets!”

“Sure they do!” He grinned, waggling his eyebrows at you. “You just never see em!”

“You’re silly.” You scoff.

“You’re silly!” Your dad laughed, scooping you up and spinning you around, finally getting a smile out of you as you shriek in laughter.

He tucked you against his chest and kissed you on your forehead. “Come on, kiddo. Let’s get you some sna–”

His eyes went wide and he gasped when you writhed, crying out and wincing like you’d just been struck.

“Babygirl, what’s wrong?” He asked, hurriedly sitting you on the couch as you curled in on yourself. He could see the welts start to peek out from beneath the sleeves of your little pink shirt.

It was happening again.

The pain in his heart gripped him like ice, knowing he couldn’t do anything to ease the pain his daughter was feeling. His poor, poor baby girl, whose soulmate was constantly being inflicted with whatever horrors they faced with.

He would curse it, sometimes. Your mark. Your bond. You were already enduring abuse that wasn’t directed at you. Or maybe it was in a way… Given that it was happening to your other half. Who you would one day meet. Maybe things will be better, when you had. Maybe.

But one thing was for sure, he hated whomever was inflicting those injuries on your soulmate more. Not only were they hurting your soulmate, they were hurting you. He’d imagined that you were close in age. If so, who the hell would abuse a child in such a way? The concept was completely foreign to him.

He rubbed your back, murmuring sweet and loving things to you.

He noticed something odd about your mark about a few years ago, right when the welts and bruises started to show and you would recoil in phantom pain... There was a new addition to your mark. At first it was one crescent moon. But then one became two, and two became three.

Right now, the bottom right moon was full.

He wasn’t sure what it meant… But he noticed your crying slow to soft little hiccups and sniffles as you sit up, rubbing your eyes.

He rested his forehead against yours. “It’ll be okay, sweetheart. I promise.”

“I jus’ wanna know why it hurts so much, daddy.” You sniffle.

“Trust me, I know. Me and your mom are similar. I remember when we were kids, before we met… She fell from a tree and broke her leg. Man, it hurt so bad…”

You looked up at him, your big beautiful eyes glistened with tears. Your mother’s eyes. Little gems of hers that you would always have.

“Really?” You peeped.

“Really.” He stood and walked over to the bookshelf above the living room fireplace, and plucked a book off of it. He turned back to you and sat next to you, pulling you into his lap and kissing the top of your head.

“This book came from your great auntie over in London. You remember her, yeah?” He hummed.

Your fingers grazed the cover, old and worn, obviously well-read and well-loved. It had a picture of a woman with wings and a pretty dress on it. You couldn’t read the other words on it just yet, you were still learning how to read the bigger ones.

“Want me to read you some of the stories in it?” He inquired.

“Uh-huh.” You nod.

Your father flipped the pages open, and hummed again, softer.

“Now, let’s start with the tale of Isis and the Seven Scorpions…”

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You jumped, almost dropping the egg timer you had in your hand when your shop’s door dinged and swung open. A frantic young woman rushed inside, her sunken and baggy eyes looking at you, wide with fright.

You skipped the usual welcome and regarded her with a confused expression.

“I… Can I help you–”

“Please, I just need to–to hide!” She said, rushing over to you and gripping your hand, pulling you behind her and further into the winding shelves that made up your bookstore.

“Hey, Hey.” You say, putting your hands on her shoulders. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

“My–my boyfriend. He… He’s… I messed up and burned lunch and…” She looked to the side trying to check if he somehow didn’t materialize out of thin air over her shoulder when she wasn’t looking; and when she did… you saw them.

The already darkening bruises on her delicate throat.

Immediately you went into protector mode. You gently urge her towards the door leading to the stairwell that went up to your flat above.

“You hide up there, and call 999, okay?” You say to her. “You can stay here until the police arrive. If it makes you feel safer, there’s a deadbolt to the door up there. If your boyfriend comes in I’ll act like I didn’t see anything.”

You rush to the oven when you hear the timer go off, and pull out the scones (after slipping on your mitts), when the bell to your store dings.

You curse under your breath and say to the girl quietly. “Stay quiet, honey. I’ll be up when the police get here.”

You carefully slip the tasty treats onto a plastic tray and toss the pan into the sink with a clang; instantly regretting it when the young woman flinched and curled into herself, her arms instinctively reaching to cover her head.

You muttered and apology and balanced the pan on your hand as you hastily make your way down the stairs, to see whomever was incessantly dinging your “ring me!” button at the register.

When you finally break free of the labyrinthine bookshelves, you spot a rather large and angry looking man.

This had to be the boyfriend.

“Hello, one moment, please.” You say tersely, sliding the scones into the small display case showcasing the fresh treats of the day.

“Oi, you seen somebody come in here?” He demanded gruffly.

You take another visual sweep of his appearance. Rather big build, probably abuses the gym too much. He looks like he exclusively dines on protein shakes more than food… He could be trouble, if he got violent. The only upside is that you knew the layout of your little shop by heart, he didn’t. You really wished you had a gun under the counter, right about now.

You made a mental note to sign up for the courses and get the certificate from the police..

“Other than you, no, you’d be my first customer of the day.” You force the cheer into your tone as you bring a box of books and begin to half-assedly place them, hoping to look normal.

“Ain’t no fuckin’ customer.” He growled. “Don’ want no books.”

“Well, I also offer a variety of coffees, teas, and snacks–”

“I ain’t no fuckin’ customer!” He barked, getting in your face.

You could smell the alcohol on his breath. That explains the slurred speech.

“Sir, I’m gonna have to ask that you please back away, you’re a little too close…” You say, your hands up in a submissive gesture, hoping to appear as non-threatening as possible.

"Does it look like I giv' a fuck? Ya fuckin' muppet?" He hissed at you, his eyes dilated and glassy.

"Look, I don't want to cause trouble, but–"

He seized your arm and gripped it painfully tight, you could feel the crunch of your radiocarpal joint being squeezed under his rough and indelicate fingers. "Did ya hear me, ya fuckin' cunt? I'm lookin' for my girl, I know she came in here! Don't lie t' me!"

"Sir, people come into my store all the time, and it's not really my business why unless they buy a book or a muffin. Let me go!" You retort, trying to pry his fingers from around you with your free hand.

"Shut th' fuck up!" He snarled, pushing you back against the bookshelf so hard the back of your head cracked on one of the shelves. Great, another pain.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" An unmistakably American accent called from the door of your shop.

How had you missed the bell? How did you not notice the sound of the door opening?

The drunken man holding you turned, still gripping you. "Great, another fuckin' yank? Can't you fucks stick to ya own country?"

You felt your pulse quicken, and your eyes widened at the man who stood in the door; dark, honey-tinted eyes aflame with anger. But the man the eyes belonged to?

Dead ringer for Steven. But he carried himself entirely differently, he even had his hair styled back in a different way. He wore a white hoodie, faded blue jeans, and some steel-toe boots.

"None o' ya fuckin' busniess, you dick." The man sneered, looking back down at you.

"It is if you're hurting the lady." He said gruffly.

"Oi, you got a listening problem?"

The man turned again, but he was met with the knuckles of the American man who just came to your aid; straight to his jaw, knocking him back against a cart you had full of discount books, sending them to the floor with a clatter.

The man cracked his knuckles, before gently grabbing you by the shoulder and moving you behind him for cover.

At this distance you could just barely catch a whiff of sandalwood and some kind of spice. A hint of aftershave wafted into your senses in accompany.

"You fuckin' dick!" The man grunted, shaking his head in an attempt to reorient his brain.

"You need a better repertoire of insults, buddy. Or stop hitting the sauce." The other man sneered. "Probably both."

The drunk lunged at him, and this guy was one step ahead, intercepting him by grabbing his wrists.

The crunch of bone was enough to make you squeeze your eyes shut, and when you dared to peek again, the drunk was clutching at his now bleeding and broken nose. Your savior on the other hand?

Barely broke a sweat. He headbutted him with the hardest part of his head, crunching bone and cartilage.

"Stay down, asshole." He growled. You spun on your heels to look at the door when two clothed officers came in, hands on their pepper spray.

"Everybody just calm down!" One of them shouted.

Ugh. Now you had a headache…

🌒🌒🌒🌒🌒🌒🌒🌒🌒🌒

By the time the officers, the battered girl, and her boyfriend all left, it was just you and your knight in shining hoodie. Who looked way too much like Steven.

You sat him down at one of the reading nooks and shakily wring your hands out to calm down. "Uh… Yeah, so…" You try.

"My name's Marc. Marc Spector." He said. "You, uh… met my brother, already. Steven."

You gasp. "The heathen!"

He choked out a startled laugh. "What?"

"Oh! Uhhhhhh…" You clear your throat awkwardly trying to change the subject. "You and Steven have different last names!"

Marc huffed through his nose. "It's uh… a long story."

"What, were you guys separated at birth or something? He speaks with a typical Londoner accent, you're full-blown American." You smile.

"Or something." Marc murmured, unable to meet your eyes.

"God, and Steven and I joked about my life being a setup for a book." You giggle softly. "You guys sound like you're straight out of a Dickens novel!"

Marc kind of squirmed in his seat. "Yeah…"

"So, uh… what brings you here today? From what Steven told me, you don't exactly pick up books all the time like he does." You say to him, tilting his head.

Marc wiped at his face with a groan, "Ugh. Don't get me started on Steven's books! He has too goddamn many–"

"Ah!" You say, flicking a stray curl. You weren't sure why your brain told you that was okay to do. It just felt right. The look he gave you afterwards sent your heart leaping into your throat.

Raw confusion, maybe some surprise?

"Uh… No talking like that is allowed in my store, there, pal…" You stammer out. "So… why are you here?"

"Steven said you had coffee. Didn't feel like dealing with a lot of people today." He kind of mumbled.

"Oh, I get that." You sighed softly in sympathy. Already, Marc struck you as the kinda guy who didn't like dealing with people unless he had to.

And honestly, you kinda felt for the guy. Something about him made your heart twinge in a funny little way.

"Tell you what, as a thanks for helping take care of that asshat, coffee is on the house, and I'll even give you a cup of my personal blend instead of the stuff on the menu."

"Uh, you don't have to–"

"Ah!" You say, wagging a finger at him as you walk away. "None of that in my store!"

🌒🌒🌒🌒🌒🌒🌒🌒🌒🌒

You sat and talked for a while. Hours, really. Whereas Steven loved to babble about things he knew, and was rather energetic about it, Marc was… reserved. Shy, almost. He was content to let you lead the conversations, piping in here or there on a subject.

He told you some about his time in the Marines, and how something happened to him mentally that got him discharged early. He was vague about what he did after that, but he mentioned moving to London after he and his wife ran into problems.

At first you almost asked a rather impertinent question, "Why did you guys split up?" But decided that was far too rude of a thing to ask. Even if you wondered why he married outside of a soulmate bond. Even if a marriage like that wasn't entirely uncommon…

"I'm sorry." You say softly, sitting across from him, your coffee long finished, the mug cold. "You've been through… a lot..."

"Yeah, you can certainly say that." Marc sighed, turning his mug in his hands for probably the hundredth time.

"So… Thanks again. For y'know. Helping me." You smile.

"No problem, easy enough to deal with a drunk." He shrugged. "And he looked like he was about to hurt you, so I had to do... something."

"Well I'm glad you did that something." You chuckle.

Marc cleared his throat and smiled back, a soft thing on his face, really. But it was nice to see.

He moved to stand, "I should, ah… go. Thanks for the coffee." He reached out to hand you a few notes from his wallet, and you declined, gathering the mugs to go wash them.

"Nope, I already said it was on the house." You tell him.

"But–"

"No buts!" You called out as you vanished into the expanse of bookshelves.

When you came back, you noticed that, stacked neatly on the counter, was a bundle of notes, your egg timer sitting neatly atop it, with a post-it note simply saying:

"Tell me your life story next time. Thanks. -Marc."

Chapter 4: Link

[scriptlgbt]

How should I show that a character's nonbinary when they themselves don't know? Should I even do it if they'll just be misgendered the whole story?

They're born in the early 70s (when the main story takes place they're 22). They have trans relatives but I don't think they know there are options beyond (a) staying their AGAB, (b) transitioning to the other binary gender, or (c) drag, which isn't really their thing.

I want to make it deeper than "they think gender roles are stupid" but I don't know where to start in portraying an nb egg.

[I'm assuming a lot about the culture of the particular 70s you're referring to. My POV is that I am "canadian" and much of my own personal knowledge of transness in this era comes from research in US archives. YMMV when it comes to places outside the heavily American sphere of cultural influence.]

So first of all, the 70s had a bit of a renaissance of androgyny. A common thing I'll see in advice columns of the era is someone asking what to do as a customer service worker when they "can't tell" what gender they think someone is, because of their hairstyle and the way they are dressed. I imagine there probably were a lot of people who took refuge in that ambiguity. A fro, a pageboy haircut, all these are something that people of any gender (not necessarily every texture but I digress) could wear.

Secondly, I figured out I was nonbinary before I knew it existed, before I had the words for it. (Though the term genderqueer was the in vogue one in the community at the time I figured my stuff out.) It's just that I sort of saw it as, "hmmm, well, I feel kind of between these things." And I think I'd seen it as sort of "half-trans" until I really understood transness better. (Note: this was for like a week tops.) I also went through a period of time a few years before this where I just sort of saw myself as a crossdresser (not drag - just someone who chooses to dress and cut their hair as they are comfortable and feel happy), but like, that as my gender identity, if that makes sense. I didn't have access to community of other people who felt like I did in order to compare to. But at the time, this also meant that when I talked about my feelings with others, they wouldn't have the same hangups about what it would mean for them if they said they felt the same. There were a lot of people I talked to in 2011ish who basically said they experienced gender as I did, only, I don't think most of them would understand for another 4 years at least.

One day I'd like to post more info about nonbinary history (especially in the 70s), but I'm just dumping info at this point. Something I will suggest for more on the topic is reading Lou Sullivan's diary, and reading autobiographies from trans people who were alive then. Even when they weren't out, they still existed, and lived in a world where they were carving out spaces for themselves.

To my understanding also, a lot of trans culture at the time sort of distinguished "transvestite" (trans people generally? but who haven't accessed medical transition) and "transsexual" (trans people who have or are intending to transition medically). Trans people of every variety might change gender expression based on their outness or the safety they had, and this didn't make them less seen as trans per se. A lot of people who ID'd either way (though more for "transvestite") would have a variety of approaches to things like name and pronouns. If this were the dominant terminology of the time that I were figuring things out, I'd probably have called myself a transvestite, though I would have likely been questioning the transsexual label for a while and ultimately not been able to access medical transition. (Though it depends on when in the 70s iirc - there was a time earlier on where it was easier to access I believe, but I'd need to fact check.)

In terms of general nonbinary egg mode stuff, or at least egg for an era where being nonbinary is not widely known to be a thing, here's some 'signs' (some are just straight up "that's canon if you put that in") I've brainstormed.

admiring specific fashion trends and looks that are gender nonconforming or androgynous (especially celebrities - maybe glam rock musicians, Joan Jett) (Joan Jett was huge for egg me personally...)

finding a lot of different ways to express how they feel in words (the "man/woman in a woman/man's body" phrasing is something that has historically bugged me, but people have used it throughout history) (more examples, dependant on the person, "I feel just as un/comfortable in my body and the way people see me as I would if I'd been born differently." "It's not a wo/man's haircut, it's mine." "I feel like a guy among my guy friends and a girl among my girl friends." "I feel uncomfortable when I go out with my partner and we are assumed to be straight/gay, though I don't know why." "I really enjoyed breeches roles when I did theatre in high school." "It felt good when I was mistaken for a woman.")

referring to themselves in their head with neutral terms

having dreams where they are recognized as themselves

feeling at home around trans people and queer people in general

watching or listening to certain songs/movies/etc that feel Gender for them over and over again

some kind of fixation on facial hair/other body part or lack thereof

it feeling different when different people use gendered terminology for the character (ex: a conservative Girl Guide leader calling everyone "ladies" vs a gay man saying "hey girl"). this is usually to do with what it's assumed the speaker's assigned meaning to the word is.

Re: misgendering through the whole story. A really convenient way to curb this would be to just have the character feel like the way they are (mis)gendered is also a part of their identity, it just isn't the whole picture. Another thing I sort of thought of in my early years was like, if people think I'm a woman, at least they understand there is something off about it. Whether they think I'm a butch lesbian or intersex (which was very regularly assumed throughout my life, at least until the general public started to catch wind of genderqueer identities). It matters to me that they at least understand my approach to gender is queer.

Another approach would be to have the story written from a distant past tense where the reader knows the identity of the character, because everything is told in distant hindsight. This is my favourite approach personally.

-mod nat

[gold-rhine]

(can answer privately if u want)

how did you manage to write enjou stirring shit up. i need to know for Reasons

(Reasons being: i wanna write him doing that as well so i need to know how you figured that specific brand of Manipulation out)

oh, i love talking about Enjou, he's so fun to write.

Okay, Enjou's main rule is that he doesn't *technically* lie. If you've ever written fae with no-lie rules it should be similar. Everything he says should be true, even if he's seemingly joking - like when he tells traveler you never know what can happen in magic rituals, I could turn into a flame-throwing monster haha! He only lies by omission or by using leading questions. He often answers direct questions with his own questions, which lets him evade, or by what he makes look like a joke.

Like in Enka when traveler arrived and asked him who he is, he asked question in return, like Didn't they tell you there's gonna be a priest who will guide you? Traveler went yeah, they did. Enjou was like Great! You can't be expected to learn new language haha! i'm here to help translate.

He didn't say "I'm the priest who Kokomi said will help you," he asked a leading question to make traveler think about the priest with connection traveler trusted, then he didn't directly confirm he IS the priest and instead re-directed to his function "I'll help to translate", which is true!

Enjou's second rule is that he's a little shit and also a corny nerd. Like there's often a boring stereotype of manipulators being cool and sleek and charismatic, but Enjou is not that. He's a jokerified librarian. He consciously acts lame and corny to make the other person underestimate him and roll their eyes. He loves repeating how he's just a weak bookworm. He will go on info-dumping tangents to bury the lead of manipulation.

He also loves playing with his food, burying little inside jokes which only make sense in hindsight, like "I could turn into a flame-throwing monster". He likes doing the weak nerd routine, he enjoys watching the other person feel superior to him, while knowing he's in control of a situation, and he says corny shit on purpose to make it more pronounced. He should sound corny and just a bit unhinged. He says shit like "Exactomundo". I had to physically restrain myself, bc Enjou absolutely would say Exactomundo while watching a man's world crumbling before him, but I didn't want to ruin the tone for the reader.

So, to write Enjou's brand of manipulation you need to first formulate his end-goal, like what is the purpose of this manipulation? I assume you read my fic since you reference me writing enjou stirring shit up, so i'll use it as example of my thought process. One of the examples in my fic, he wants to convince rizzley that Neuvi gave him the title to buy his loyalty. What are the true facts here? Neuvi did fight hard to give rizzley the title, he says it in his own voice lines. What do we need to add? Malicious intent.

Enjou can't say "Your title was a bribe", bc that's a lie. Instead, he starts with "you know what I would do if *I* was the Hydro Sovereign with an ability to take human form? <...>I’d make sure I have people loyal to me in some key positions. Such as Royal Duelist… and the Warden of the Fortress.” It's not a lie, bc if Enjou was a sovereign, he'd probably really do that. On paper, he's talking about himself, but in context of overall conversation it will be obviously extrapolated to Neuvi. This is a form of switching the goal posts from Enjou to Neuvi without outright saying so.

Then, he says true facts:

“He didn’t make me the Warden,” Wriothesley gritted out. 

“No, but he did make you the Duke, didn’t he?” Enjou smirked with a wink. “Our sources say the Court was not thrilled to give the highest noble title to you. And if the Iudex did not throw his own weight behind it, it would have never come to pass. How generous of him.”

It's true, it was actually generous, he doesn't lie. But in context of previous implied accusation, it will be read as sarcastic, as saying it was done with selfish reasons.

And then he reinforces with “Ah, you’re starting to get it, don’t you?”, which is a leading question that again, doesn't say anything false outright.

he should also offer the person hes manipulating to beat him up repeatedly, bc hes a freak.

[our-heartless-angels]

I got impatient, so I'm gonna info dump my AU onto this blog and none of you can stop me. (It begins below the cut)

Content warnings: Talks of abuse, torture, death, manipulation, miscarriages, and (possible) mentions of self harm (if i get there ofc)

I was really inspired by Crisis Core when creating this au, and at the time I was looking at those "Hero swap" aus where Sephiroth and Cloud swap places. When making my au (with CC in mind), I decided to take that premise and completely flip it on it's head.

Thus, The Seraphim Verdict: An au where everything is the same except for Sephiroth and Cloud. Because of these two being the sole changes, certain events play out very differently. How differently, you may ask? That's what you're about to find out.

In this au, Sephiroth wasn't born from the Jenova Projects. I was inspired by all the angel motifs attached to the canon Sephiroth, so I thought that I would make him into a real angel. A seraph, to be exact. He's the main character of the story. Cloud, however, is a human-turned soulless demon who loves nothing more than to make Sephiroth suffer. He's the main antagonist, and instead of vowing to destroy the planet, vows to become its supreme ruler.

Side note: The remnants we're created when Sephiroth was four, as a result of physically splitting into three people, meaning they cannot exist outside of him, nor can he exist outside of them. He can separate into the three whenever he's put under stress that he can no longer handle, and this happens at random, so yes they used to be in SOLDIER, too. Hojo forced it upon them just as much as he did with Sephiroth, and as a result while Kadaj is mostly the same in behavior as he is canonically, Loz and Yazoo are fundamentally changed due to mistreatment by their peers. Loz is a lot less of a "no brains, only brawns" character, having wizened himself up and sealed away all emotions that weren't his rage, and has sent several SOLDIERS into the infirmary after getting fed up with being beaten by them. (Many SOLDIERs were paid to harrass the trio by Hojo "for their own betterment." He was also forcefully tranquilized out of fear that he'd kill everyone in the building if they did not stop him.) Yazoo regressed into an anxiety filled mess, refusing to stand up for himself, as he fears punishment. People deemed him the weakest link, and he's been a target his whole life, leaving him completely afraid of the world.

Sephiroth was created by many gods all at once, using the soul of what would have ended up being Sephiroth, as Lucrecia in this universe ended up having a miscarriage, meaning that Project S was a failure. Though because they used the soul of what was to be the Sephiroth we would all know and love (or hate), this seraph would have been made flawed in their eyes. He, as a newly created (baby) seraph, would have earned an extra wing. An extra wing that was a part of his more human-like appearance. They only saw him as a mistake that shouldn't have been made, and they dumped him onto Gaia, his Grace intact and everything. The gods thought their creation would have not been capable of survival in this fragile form of a child, and thus pretended he never existed, abd because of this, never made another angel ever again.

From the start, the seraph has known abandonment. From the start, he was fated to be alone. From the start, he lacked the love he deserved to have. That was, until a distraught Lucrecia stumbled upon the abandoned baby one night outside of Shinra HQ. Being worried for the child's safety, and holding that longing of wishing to be a mother, decided to take him as her own in secret, once determining that he was abandoned there.

In secret, she cared for him. She loved him dearly, and was completely enamored by his tiny, white feathered wing. Unfortunately, this didn't last very long, as one day Professor Hojo discovered him and decided to take him away without her knowledge. As she was returning to the child, she was distraught by his disappearance, and through grief she left, never to be seen again. Hojo, now in possession of Sephiroth, decided to write off Project S as a sucess, in an attempt to hide his true research.

Sephiroth has the same kind of childhood he would have in canon, though he was never really addressed as a person until he was around ten years old (in human years), and instead he was treated like a beast. Even when he started calling him a "he" instead of an "it", he never really treated him well whatsoever. Even if he was supposed to be his father, he never acted like one. Not once. Those abandonment issues and that separation anxiety he harbored ever since he was an infant only got worse the older he got, as Hojo often took advantage of this, and he purposefully had him isolated. Sephiroth rarely interacted with others in his childhood years.

Sephiroth would also experience everything he would come to experience in his life pre Crisis Core, and all the way up until he was an adult. Crisis Core does play out relatively the same, save for a few key differences.

Those differences were: He was lied to twice about what he truly was, Cloud's jealousy towards Sephiroth's position and perceived power, and the subsequent attempts to squander his good name which lead to him seeking out a power beyond himself to get his wish of power granted (by a demon who was thought to be a god), though at the cost of his humanity, and thus his slowly degrading sanity, the Nibelheim Incident was all staged (Sephiroth pretend to go insane) in an attempt to draw Cloud out, and have him show everyone what he really was, Zack doesn't get killed, and Genesis doesn't end up with Deepground

The events post Crisis Core are both very much the same and also very different. While Cloud was going around, and continuing to try and paint Sephiroth in a bad light through lies and deceptions, Sephiroth, who had newly acquired an ally in Vincent Valentine, are going after Cloud, as Sephiroth knew the truth behind Cloud's false acts of heroism. The two go out to Shinra HQ, where they discover the existence of the Black Materia, to which after promptly putting an end to Professor Hojo, set out to retrieve it before Cloud does. When they suceed, it would be moments before they come across Cloud (and his freshly manipulated group of friends). Sephiroth, who has been anticipating their arrivals, decided to hand the black materia to Vincent, telling him to leave and not return until he deemed it was safe. By the time they arrived, Vincent was long gone, and Sephiroth remained.

Cloud made an attempt to pry out the location of the black materia on his person? and Sephiroth, who wasn't exactly lying to him, tells him he never had such a thing in his possession. Cloud wouldn't believe him though, and after countless attempts at making him hand over something he never once had in this moment, beat up the seraph in a fit of anger before leaving him there once determining that he wasn't lying. Sephiroth not once fought back against Cloud, as it felt completely unnecessary. Vincent does eventually return, taking Sephiroth with him to where they were currently camping out, so he could tend to his wounds in a safer location.

That night, however, they would receive a nighttime visit from a very distressed Aerith, who sought out Sephiroth personally. She was quick to beg and plead with the angel, knowing that he was the key to her salvation. She asked him to send her back to the lifestream. To his shock at such a request, he vehemently refused her no matter how much she pleaded with him to. Aerith then told him everything about the mistreatment she suffered behind everyone's back through the hands of Cloud Strife. All the gritty details of his physical and mental abuse upon her were laid bare for him to see, and that was enough for him to (reluctantly) aid in her suicidal desires under confirmation that this was something she actively wanted.

Pretty soon, he was to take Vincent to meet with her at a place long forgotten to time. While Vincent remained stoic about this predicament for the sake of not worrying the seraph, Sephiroth's thoughts were all over the place despite his blank expression. He tells Vincent to hide himself in case Cloud's group decided to go and find her, while he went to prepare himself for this moment. He complies, and once he left, Sephiroth took up residence in a high spot and waited. Unfortunately, he still had his gripes about doing such a thing. He didn't have much time to dwell, as Cloud came over towards a praying Aerith, who looked furious that she left him and the others behind. Before Cloud could do anything against her, Sephiroth made his move. As he was inches away from taking her life, he sensed her feelings about this shifting away, and coming to the conclusion that she didn't actually want to die anymore. It was too late, however, as by the time she had second thoughts about it, his blade would pierce through her, and she would ultimately die by Sephiroth's hands.

He was absolutely horrified by what he had done. The trauma of knowing her final feelings were that of wanting ro live hit him like a bag of bricks, as he quickly withdrew his blade. He looked at her in complete horror and silence, as Cloud's anger rose. From that moment on, Cloud declared to Sephiroth that he will make him suffer tenfold for what he did to the cetra girl, and he immediately left to quell his rage before it got worse, leaving Sephiroth to be responsible for putting her body into the waters that surrounded him, a sombre tone suffocating him all the wile.

Zack Joins the duo a few days later, after he was satisfied with his visit to his family. While the death of Aerith remained fresh on Sephiroth and Vincent's minds, they refused to tell Zack about it. It was during the addition of Zack, that they came across one of the gods. A god of time by the name Chronos had come in search for the seraph they got rid of, a feeling that he was still alive having brought him there. He was the sole god who wanted him dead, and thus he finally came to fulfill such a wish. When the trio arrived, Sephiroth immediately told his allies to leave. While Vincent understood why, Zack however, had a much harder time understanding why he didn't just let him fight with him. Sephiroth told Zack that this was his payment for forcing all those assignments onto him in the past, and that he's doing this to keep him alive, to which got Zack to reluctantly comply, and they two went somewhere more safe.

The subsequent battle was brutal and completely unfair. A mere seraph going against a whole god was simply unheard of, and the seraph was very close to losing his life, though by a stroke of luck, he managed to pick up on the secrets to Chronos' underhanded tatics, and decided to use them against him, which lead to him out right managing to kill the god for the sake of his survival. Beatened and bloodied, Sephiroth then collapsed. Vincent and Zack return, only to see a dead god, and their barely allive leader. They were quick to grab him and retreat, where Sephiroth would spend a few days recovering (much to his disapproval).

Sephiroth, after fully recovering, decided the next thing they would do is to break out those who were pulled under Cloud's influence. It was time they knew the real truth. They then silently trailed after Cloud and co, one by one convincing Yuffie, Red XIII, Cait Sith (and by extension Reeve), Cid, Barret, and finally Tifa into joining them on their quest to stop the demon. Each person had varying levels of difficulty when it came to breaking them free, with Tifa being the most stubborn. Once Cloud was alone, he scoffed at the betrayals, deeming that this endeavor was better done solo, and headed to the northern crater on his own.

Once the team was finally assembled proper, they decided to take a break for the next few hours one day to get a clearer head, so they could decide together when it would be the right time to strike, leaving Sephiroth all alone with his own thoughts. He then spent the night alone with the highwind, thinking over all that happened in the past, and hoping that the future he sees in his visions wasn't too out of reach. Eventually, everyone came back together, fully refreshed and ready to take on their foe. The group soon sets out, and what happens is deemed a final battle they would never forget.

Soon after the events, and within the time span of two years, it would be proven that Cloud refused his own demise, and forced himself back into the world of the living. All he felt was hatred towards Sephiroth. This was when he decided to make him pay, setting out to find him. This then began a painful cycle of Cloud finding him, and taking him away somewhere. Sephiroth would then undergo bouts of physical and mental torture that no living human would be able to survive, let alone be left mentally sound if they happened to live from it all. It was a constant loop that eventually was broken up with Zack coming to his rescue (despite it being mostly too late, and the damage having already been done.)

This constant cycle would break down the once untouchable seeming man, leaving him as a broken, and pathetic version of what he once was. Gone were the days where he remained strong in the face of torment, for now he ultimately became soft and meek through his suffering. He became a shell of his former self from then on....

Oh yeah btw Sephiroth stopped physically aging around his twenties, so he permanently looks like how he does in Crisis Core, fun fact.

[opiopal]

OK

So I’ve decided that I’m going to into dump about my Mc(since like four people mentioned they’d read it lol), with the inclusion of pictures, I’ll try to keep it organized, making a list that goes, basic info, details, relationships, and add on’s, but I’m not that best with organization especially when it comes to my own characters.

This will be a mixture of canon stuff to the OM universe and my own stuff, I’ll go into my own personal headcanons and junk to. Fair warning this IS going to be long. Sorry if she seems a little bit to much of a main character lol. I tend to go overboard a lot of the time.

(ALSO I did redesign her basic look because I wasn’t really feeling it)

Basic info: so to start out, My Mc’s full name is Opaline L. Shards, though she introduces herself as Opal, since she thinks Opaline is a mouthful. She uses she/they pronouns, and is Pansexual. Throughout the series she is 21-24 years old, she was born and raised in Oregon state. She is about 5’5, 5,7 with her skates on. Her family consists of her mom(divorced) and her two other siblings. She LOVES anything and everything colorful and shiny and is generally curious.

Details/facts:

Opal is mostly blind, as in she is missing an eye and already needed glasses before losing said eye, so obviously it’s hard for her to see things. She prefers to work off of muscle memory and the blobby shapes that are people to her, which that is also why she likes/prefers things to have color to them. She though of course does have glasses, but prefers to wear them when she’s alone to work on things in her room so then no one can see her full face.. so she has a lot of homework. But is still fortunately a straight A student. Upon her very first night staying in the HOL, she waited until everyone was asleep to just, walk around and know her surroundings, who’s rooms were who’s and what was where. She removes her skates and anything clanky on her person before going, to avoid being caught ofc.

Her and her sheepiness

I like to imagine she isn’t a 2ft tall sheep 100% of the time throughout(because imagine trying to work at a desk or navigate massive school hallways as a stuffed animal), and that it’s really just a little enchantment that was put onto her to keep her safe, like a spidey sense, if there is danger around in RAD or in town or anywhere at all, she’ll POOF! Into a sheep. But instead of it working off of if they themselves feel threaten it just works off of if there is something that plans on hurting her around. So when that first day scene of over hearing two demons talking about eating her right then and there it’s just,

“Hey isn’t that the human exchange student? Let’s go eat then there’s no one arou-“ POOF! Scitter scitter “… what”

Speaking of RAD, clearly she isn’t wearing the uniform in its full-couch cushion looking entirety. She had texted with Barabatos to ask basic questions about dress code and asked if she could do add ons or remove a piece or two, and I’m guessing since thirteen basically mangled her uniform and didn’t get any shit for it, her wearing a sweater instead of the jacket is more then ok.

Speaking of her uniform, her hair is tied up, which isn’t really that big of a deal, but I like to imagine Lucifer does her hair, why? Well, her hair is a fluffy mess, and she really only brushes it in the morning, so Lucifer stops her from leaving first day and tied her hair up so then she looked presentable as to not embarrass him. Why did I make this a thing? Because I think it would be funny as hell that during the events in the beginning of season one, no matter what happened the night before, no matter how much they hated each other at the moment, every morning she went, knocked on his bedroom door, he opened silently, she handed him a hair tie and her hair brush, turned around, he did her hair, then she left silently and he continued to get ready to leave. Because I’m a sucker for the whole “we hate each other but we’ve made a routine and we’d rather die then not follow a routine”. (Opal also cannot handle when there is a change in any part of her unwritten routine or else she’ll be off for the rest of the day.)

Her pact Marks:

So I guess I have a reason for each of the placements/designs for the marks, for starters they’re so big because I can imagine since it’s pacts with the avatars of sun themselves the pact marks are a bit more dramatic(also I can imagine the pact marks are usually black/grey, they only glow with their sin when that magic is being used or the sun is being felt, ex: opal is pissed off, wrath glows, opal feels prideful of something she did, pride glows, ect.)

So Pride is placed on her chest, like puffing one’s chest out in pride. I just added on more stars and stuff to make it look fancier

Greed is placed on her right hand, or her stealing hand since its her dominant hand. The dots within the ribboned design represent gold coins and stuff, the mark swirls all the way up to her elbow then stops.

Envy is on her lower back over her tailbone, it’s a spot that’s a bit more out of place and is most likely to be covered by clothes then the others, so even the mark as a reason to be envious. I just added onto the water droplet and arrow design and made it stretch more onto her front as if it’s trying to be noticed more.

Wrath is on her left hand, being left handed is associated with the devil and junk so by default I think it would be cool it it landed there. And also it’s for throwing hands. The triangle design represents satans spiky tail. The mark trails up to the elbow then stops, just like greed

Lust is placed over her uterus and creeps up her stomach, I think that’s obvious. But the mark itself is in the shape of an upside down uterus. I tried to make lust look like the more elegant of the pact marks.

Gluttony is on her upper/center back because it’s a place where fat tends to accumulate more. (I promise it’s not a “big back” joke btw, I’ve had this mark placement way before it even got to be popular), a lot of the add ons are just to match the others, BUT I added four k-nine teeth, two on the top and two on the bottom. cause, yk, you need teeth to eat.

And finally sloth is on her outer left thigh, I… don’t have much of a reason as to why I put it there, apart from the fact I had nowhere else I could think of. I could say that it’s because you don’t use your legs when you’re lazy or it’s the plushest part of the body, but yk. The add ons I did was just add two more stars and two crescent moon shapes.

Relationships:

So for relationships with the other characters I did this chart I used off of google since it was the only one I could find with all the characters(I wanted to make my own but by the time I moved onto making the chart it was around 2 am and I was tired). I will explain every relationship going from brothers, demons, angels, then thirteen and Solomon.

Lucifer: she personally views Lucifer in a fatherly way, she grew up with her dad only in her life for her first 5 years of being alive and he wasn’t great. So when she did meet Lucifer for the first time not only did he vaguely look like her dad but also acted a bit like him. Which to her was more then enough reason to not like him. But over time it went from “ugh he reminds me of my dad…” to “oh! That’s my dad!^•^”. He is the first person she goes to when she needs assistance or guidance and she cares about him a lot, she has forced him to take breaks through bringing him tea or a few snacks and sitting down with him to have a conversation. And it doesn’t really help that he clearly favors her, she is very honest and polite, so I can imagine that warmed him up to her.(honestly I kind of wish there were more platonic fics with Lucifer Bc in my own brain he’s literally mothering, but alas,)

Mammon: so just from the chart, he is her best friend and also partner. I know it was probably unnecessary to add the best friend and partner arrows because your partner should be your best friend, but I added it anyways. Opal is probably a little to in love, but so is he. She goes along with pretty much everything he wants to do because she either one: wants to have the learning experience, or two: want to spend time with him. They often sleep in each others rooms, they rotate out, some days they sleep in his and others they sleep in hers. When they want more privacy or just to be alone with each other I can imagine they go to his room most of the time. She absolutely steals his clothes for herself whenever he’s gone during the night because she can’t help but be clingy, and you know she’s tackling him the moment he walks into the HOL. Overall they are both stupidly in love with each other.

Leviathan: levi is definitely one of her best friends, she loves his room since she really adores anything ocean. She likes to go to his room when she’s feeling overwhelmed or like to go find him during social events when overwhelmed since it’s most likely guaranteed he’ll also be hiding. She loves listening to him ramble about anime and stuff that he bought recently, and of course she likes gaming with him. And that one morning when levi was complaining about opal constantly shooting him in game is definitely common for her to do. If she see’s he’s on a online game she will join and mess with him. Mammon has probably woken up to her on her laptop cackling because she keeps killing levi in game.

Satan: once again someone she’s close with and would consider a best friend, I can imagine they do homework together often, and he wouldn’t mind reading things out for her. She is kind of an animal magnet, so whenever they both go out there is a high chance she’ll suddenly be holding a stray cat and they’ll both stop for like an hour to give it so much attention.

Asmo: another bestiee, after gaining a pact with asmo she definitely gets a little closer to him because of the fact that he does more “girly” things. They go shopping together and she lets him dress her up and style her hair. He is actually the only other person apart from mammon that knows she’s missing an eye, why? Well because her natural hair color is actually black, and she thankfully befriended him before her roots fully started to grow in so one melt down later she asked him for help with dying her hair, which, he’s also the only one that knows red isn’t her natural color.

Beel: she was very close with beel pretty much right off the bat, since she was already feeding him. She’s a bit of a picky eater, so she separates some foods from the foods she will definitely eat, she feels bad about leaving a bunch of left over food so beel is the garbage disposal friend. So every single “are you going to eat that?” Is always met with a cheery “nope! You can have it!”. And canon Bc of the chats, she helps him when he works out, like sitting on his back during pushups or just simply hyping him up.

Belphie: she is still very unsure with him. Though she knows he feels guilt about LITERALLY KILLING HER. She hasn’t quite forgiven him, though she is still polite and helps him out when he needs it. She isn’t close with him in the slightest though, if you asked her to describe him she would just say “uh… he sleeps!” And that’s it. Though of course she’s probably still around him often due to beel and belphie being twins and the anti Lucifer League 

Dia: another best friend! Despite the fact that they don’t hang out often, they still try their hardest to chit chat! Like her going over to have tea with him occasionally on his free days, she talks about how things are going at the HOL, with school, and other little hobbies, and she lets him complain about work and talk about other things. They are literally sunshine character+sunshine character. It’s inevitable that they would be close! She had also used her first bit of grimm to buy him roller skates! She got them custom made and surprised him with them because he mentioned that he liked hers and was really intrigued by them, so after buying him the skates they skated around for a while, linked arms and her teaching him the basics.

Barbatos: barbatos is someone she felt like she could trust right away but she was also intimidated by him. Though she ignored the intimidation and just continued treating him as normal. She constantly wants to help him and feels a little bad whenever he does something for her or gives her something. She really loves fruit so whenever she’s visiting dia there’s always a plate out for her, and whenever Barb refills it she’s always like “oh! Thank you- you don’t have to though I’m probably eating to much anyways” “nonsense, please continue to enjoy yourself” “ok:,)”

Mephistopheles: they are both unsure of each other, though he is very open about the fact that her, I am a strong believer that it’s probably just a mask. Despite rarely seeing each other she is very respectful towards him and offers assistance with smaller things, if he ever asked for help with anything relating to the news paper club she would absolutely be HYPED.

Simeon: she loves seeing simeon when she can! She thinks he’s really chill and likes being in the presence of another creative, they’ll often talk about things related to writing or drawing, really it’s just back and fourth questions. But whenever she goes down to purgatory hall she loves to just sit and talk about whatever comes to mind while drinking tea.

Luke: that is her little brother and no one can tell her otherwise. But in reality she knows what it’s like to be the youngest in a room and not be taken as seriously, so she makes sure his voice is heard(or at least he feels like he is heard.) and she is decently protective of him. Her mom actually owns a bakery so she also knows a lot about baking! I like to imagine that when they both bake something they exchange their goods with each other, and other times when she’s at purgatory hall they bake together.

Raphael: she doesn’t know him very well but still finds him pleasant!

Thirteen: she thinks thirteen is super cool! She definitely unintentionally boosts her ego, a lot. Opal is the type to speak her mind(or just think out loud), so it’s very common that when thirteen show’s off something she made or something she plans to make it’s met with a “oh! You’re so cool thirteen,”. Opal really enjoys having another fem presenting person around to, though they don’t see a lot of each other.

Solomon: she definitely appreciates having another human around(even if solomon hardly even counts as a human being anymore,) she sees him as more of an older brother to be completely honest, an older brother that’s MUCH older then her, like an older brother that already had a wife and kids when she was born kind. So she introduces him to trends and stuff and they reference random things to each other randomly. I can imagine they both like to mess with demons by basically doing improv in public. “Hey has your skin started shedding with month yet?” “No… but I can feel the skin on my face starting to dry up, I only have so much moisturizer,” “here I can get you some extra lotion if you need it,” “Aw, solomon you’re such a Girls girl!” Or “Solomon, was it batman or Superman who helped in ww2?” “Superman,” “thanks, I always forget” BUT they do have a mutual respect for each other, solomon is more then aware that opal may turn out to be stronger then him, and opal is aware that solomon has more knowledge then her and is strong.

Add ons/more background on Opal:(some violent stuff is mentioned and a very main character ass backstory fyi so be ready)

So let’s talk about her family and what life was like before RAD, there’s her mom and her two siblings. Her mom’s name is Mary, she is a shorter women but is very sweet, she owns a bakery called “charlottes web”. then her two older siblings who are twins, Diana and Travis, they are her half siblings, so they don’t share a father. Both of her siblings dabble in magic and area little well known. Travis is more silent and looks menacing but is secretly just a very anxious person. He looks very gothic but underneath every hoodie is a bright pink anime shirt from an anime he likes called “origami kittens”(my own thing), an anime about a teenage girls origami kitten coming to life and being her friend! Every episode a new one with a new personality is made. Diana is very rough and tough, she is rowdy and very tomboyish, her and Travis bicker a lot but are literally inseparable. They both love their little sister to pieces. But, none of them are apart of the descended bloodline of Lilith, her dad is actually one of the descendants.

Her dad was originally very kind and curious, like her, but when Mary was pregnant with Opal, he started to get into some shit he should have and suffered a head injury that caused a whole personality shift, he got very boastful and prideful, and wanted everything his way or no way. He still loved his family dearly but grew very violent very quickly. One night when opal was five Mary and him got into an argument in the middle of the night, opal had walked downstairs to see what the noise was about and in a fit of rage her father threw her through a closed window, causing a mild concussion. Of course nearly immediately Mary divorced his ass and that was the last time Opal ever saw her dad, no one ever ended up learning why he had changed. He passed away when she was about 12.

Growing up she was very curious and also energetic, but, because I love this kind of stuff, she indulged in the seven sins. She had a short fuse, she had a bit of an ego, she shop lifted sometimes, that kind of stuff. But one summer when she was 14 she went to stay with her grandma out of state and met her girlfriend Elora, and let me tel you they were IN LOVE, though the town in which Elora lived in had a lot of supernatural drama, so they both kind of became ghost busters/mystery inc type people. Though they had a lot of fun doing so and had a blast learning about that kind of crap. Eventually opals family moved in with her grandma and opal started going to school with Elora, unfortunately by the time that they had both turned 17 they were more public about their relationship, which is unfortunate because it was a very religious town. So some assholes had harassed them for a while before attacking them, Elora sadly did not make it and Opal in turn had lost her right eye. So she walked out of that experience with no girlfriend, no eye, and plenty of different types of trauma.

It took her a while to recover and she started to dye her hair and let it grow out, originally she had short hair with blue tips, but a lot of her hair was cut off, representing being stripped of her pride. Eventually once she was recovered physically and mentally she decided that she wanted to go back to school and decided to respond to a really good college that offered her a scholarship. But of course once she was classified as a student she ended up being picked for the exchange program and of course we all know what happens from then on.

Now onto some more light hearted stuff,

Obviously as I’ve stated she naturally dyed her hair red, mainly to separate herself from both her father and her past. She prefers to cover most her face with her hair and that simply just works because cartoon logic.

She is very silent, maybe even a little dumb at times, as in she has a hard time with things like social cues and when to quit. She is a straight A student because she easily jumps right into each class because she finds it very interesting! Like hell yeah she wants to learn about different demonic species! That’s so cool!

She doesn’t like drama though she loves talking about it, her and asmo definitely gossip to each other often and they keep tabs on everyone they talk about, one time they were both sitting at dinner, opal checked her D.D.D., gAsped, sent whatever she saw over to asmo, then made eye contact with him and motion for him to look at his own phone, he also gasps, and immediately they both leave the room to start talking.

I can also imagine that it was not KNOWN that she couldn’t see that well for a little while, until eventually there was maybe a small dinner party at dia’s castle, she mentioned that she was going to the rest room, then barbatos offered to lead her there, which in turn made a few of them look confused like “but they’ve been here before, why would you need to show them to the restroom?” “Ah, because they can’t see, why else?” “BARBATOS NO-“ then she has to awkwardly explain that she’s blinder then a bat after he apologizes to her. I’m sure some of them already knew but she did NOT want the other brothers to know because she knew damn well they would make a big deal out of it.

Alright, let’s get some pictures in here,

Starting off this is her bag! It’s older and she’s torn it a good few times, so she patches it up herself, obviously there’s a little sheep mc key chain that’s totally not a lesson 16 reference, she also has a little mc sheep pin, a random :3 face pin, a set it off pin and a destroy boys pin(two of my own personal favorite bands)

Next we have her D.D.D. And her headphones, she probably won both the case and headphones in a give away for some astronomy thing she is into, of course she added the Kirby sticker herself. But yeah.

Next is her ominously labeled journal, why did I label it as such? Well because she writes and draws some interesting stuff. The way she learns about things is to draw and dissect them in her brain along with a series of “what ifs” so one thing she ended up doing out of her own curiosity is pull a dungeon meshi and think “what if i drew the boys as different foods?” Which lead to her making detailed drawings of different parts of them as foods. Obviously she would never ever even think of doing such a thing, but her mind wanders. Apart from that the rest is a little normal, doodles of people and animals she’s seen, little diary entries, that kind of stuff.

Lastly there’s this necklace, seems a little random BUT, this is a reference to one of the beach events from the OG game, when mammon finds a shell and gives it to MC, obviously it wasn’t stated what type of shell it was, only that it was spiky, but opal most definitely kept it and turned it into a necklace she rarely wears.

Smaller stuff is that she loves fruit(as mentioned previously), like LOVES fruit. If there is cut fruit at a party she’s going to beat beel to it and eat as much as she can handle. And it actually sometimes works to her disadvantage, if for example, mammon wanted to go “look” around the demon lords castle, but opal is over here like “mams you know lucifer doesn’t want you to do that since you can’t keep your hands to yourself” giving her a plate of fruit not only will stop her from snitching, but will also keep her in one place silently until she’s done eating, because her brain is just “fruit fruit fruit fruit fruit- oh no more fruit- wait where’s my boyfriend- oh no.”

She also makes it her personal mission to pet everything that she can, street cats, people’s dogs, horses, you name it. So she makes it her mission to befriend that silly three headed dog in the basement, which she eventually does successfully by offering raw steaks and treats.

Along with that she likes to garden, but not like a normal person with fruit or flowers, but instead carnivorous plants. If she learns that there is a man eating plant that she can buy in town she is getting that plant, slapping a bow on it and falling it princess. I like to think that Lucifer eventually lets her take over a small part in the backyard of the HOL for her plants.

And she is very very clingy, but also hates being touched. So it’s kind of torture for her, because she would LOVE to get a hug from beel or let asmo paint her nails, but within her first year there she just doesn’t trust any of them enough to not hurt her. But mammon ends up being the exception, because as they get closer to each other she just can’t let go of him, ever. They’re always holding hands or linked arms, she’s always pressed up against his side or lowkey cuddling when they sit, and of course mammon would love the attention and would be equally as clingy.

Another thing is that she eventually learns shape shifting magic, mainly because she thinks it would be funny. One morning lucifer is acting weird, then all of a suddenly a second Lucifer walks in?? Lucifer #1 Bursts out into giggles and suddenly is opal.

She also binds her chest, cause anxiety and self confidence issues, along with anxiety she has a few scabs on her fingers at all times from digging her nails into the skin.

I am done as far as I’m aware, but I’ve been writing for like two hours with breaks, I appreciate if anyone actually read all of this all the way down to the bottom! I would’ve been more detailed in some areas but I realized that Opal feels like such a main character, I don’t want to change her lore but that doesn’t mean i’m not a little embarrassed about her lol. She’s my silly and I love her but I probably went overboard with all her fine details. Also here’s the full drawing of her

[supern0vashii]

im gonna dump so much au lore OH MY GOD

okay ive been cooking up a little SOMETHING

BASICALLY A 50 FOLLOWER SPECIAL 💥💥

rubs hands deviously /j

SMG4 SHOWTIME AU!!

SMALL HEADS-UP: MOST OF THE AU SURROUNDS AROUND MY OC'S (ST4RSTRUCK, CALLED STAR IN THIS AU) LORE

MAIN STORY:

CW: BRAINWASHING / GORE

( i don't know if its heavy gore but there's some headcutting here so yeah )

its really long 💔💔 its basically a fic idk

This all started when Mr. Puzzles had finally taken the SMG4 cast and brainwashed / forcing them so they can participate in his goofy cartoon TV parodies.

As he released more content for his company, he realized that SMG4 and his crew weren't going to be enough to hit his beloved five star rating.

That same day, he received a text from his daughter, Star. She had asked him if they could meet up, since they haven't seen each other in almost two decades.

After the two had their father-daughter chit-chat, Star mentions that she got the main part in a musical that was happening in a few hours. Intrigued, and happy to be there for his daughter, Mr. Puzzles decided to go to said musical.

That's when Star's talent was truly shown, and the idea clicked so fast in Mr. Puzzles's mind it would have made his head spin.

"Why force a group of amateurs to do something when you have your own star right in front of you?"

That same night, after the event, Mr. Puzzles asked Star if she wanted to work for her as the star in his entertainment company, Puzzlevision.

Star declined, with the reason that she wanted to finish college before she did anything big.

Mr. Puzzles was furious. Not furious at the fact that Star didn't accept, but furious at the fact that he won't be able to get those precious five stars.

Mr. Puzzles thought, why even ask when I can make her participate unwillingly?

With that, Mr. Puzzles brainwashed Star and forced her to become the singing and dancing mascot of Puzzlevision.

But something was wrong. The way she looked, her appearance.. It didn't fit the company's vision at all. Mr. Puzzles thought of an extremely gorey solution to make sure Star fits in with the rest like a puzzle piece.

HE CUT OFF HER FACE AND PUT A TV IN ITS PLACE.

But he wanted Star to be happy in his little circle of entertainment hell. So Mr. Puzzles kidnapped and also brainwashed Star's friends SMG6 and Amber. Mr. Puzzles erased Amber's memories, and the well-being and status of SMG6 is currently unknown to the public eye.

As for the SMG4 crew, they're still stuck in Puzzlevision.

EXCEPT FOR FOUR.

And thanks to Star, Mr. Puzzles had finally gotten his precious five stars.

SMG3, Boopkins, and Luigi escaped Puzzlevision somehow. And thank God that Mr. Puzzles hasn't noticed yet. Mr. Puzzles has taken notice of Melony and has brainwashed her as well. As for Saiko, she stays with 3, Luigi, and Boopkins.

SMG4 STATUS AND INFO:

SMG4: Mr. Puzzles decided to keep SMG4 in his perfect video craze. He's much easier to control that way. The difference between the normal SMG4 and SHOWTIME!SMG4 is that he is way more aggressive and has a light-blue scarf with stars, and star earrings. Both whom he acquired from Star. SMG4 has a necklace with a puzzle charm on it, just like Star, Mario, and Amber do. I wonder what that's about.

MEGGY: Meggy is still stuck in the Western Spagetthi Simulation with Tari and One Shot Wren. Like ever since she has arrived in the simulation, Meggy has been being shot repeatedly by her "idol." Meggy has begged Mr. Puzzles for mercy many times, she had eventually found out that he was the one behind the simulation all along. She has seen Star make a few cameos in Western Spagetthi due to her popularity throughout Puzzlevision. Meggy does not wear a puzzle-charmed necklace.

TARI: Like Meggy, she stays in the Western Spagetthi Simulation. She is attempting to make a small safe spot where the two can talk to each other and relax. But that hasn't been easy since Clench has been malfunctioning lately. It's terrifying having to watch your best friend, and coach, be shot and die in front of you over and over again. The emotion was just so raw. Tari does not wear a puzzle-charmed necklace.

MARIO: Mr. Puzzles despises Mario. He keeps Mario on full lockdown (completely brainwashed, and locked in a room) when he isn't on air. When Mario is on air, he usually does his goofy shenanigans, since he is completely oblivious to what's going on. Mario is kinda sad that SMG4 won't talk to him. Mario sometimes flirts with Star as a joke. Like he always does when they're paired together for a scene. Star is just confused. Mario wears a puzzle-charmed necklace.

BOB: Bob can mostly be seen in the comedy scenes, he's not too popular in the Puzzlevision community. Like Mario, Bob is completely oblivious to the crew being brainwashed. He asked SMG4 if he was on crack when 4 asked him if he remembered anything before Mario's Mysteries. Bob does wonder where Boopkins is though. Bob does not wear a puzzle-charmed necklace.

MELONY: The only reason Mr. Puzzles brainwashed Melony is because of how powerful she is. A deity that could foil his plan in seconds cannot do! All Melony really does is sleep in the Western Spagetthi Simulation. Melony does not wear a puzzle-charmed necklace.

STAR: Star isn't doing too well. She had most recently found out of her father's true intentions. And she is mad. But, sadly, there is nothing she can do about it since Mr. Puzzles has eyes everywhere. Her relationship between her and SMG4 is complicated. She has tried contacting him and telling him what he doing isn't healthy. Yet he continues to work on his computer all the time. Star is worried for SMG4. Star has tried contacting anyone outside of Puzzlevision, she has reached someone outside once, but they didn't respond in time. Before 3 escaped, she gave him her star necklace so he can remember her when he, Saiko, Boopkins, and Luigi break the crew out of Puzzlevision. Star wears a puzzle-charmed necklace.

AMBER: Amber works for Mr. Puzzles, since she doesn't remember anything before waking up and being sat down in a vacant office. Except for the fact that Mr. Puzzles was sitting at the other side of the table, telling her that she worked here. Amber feels a familiar feeling when she is near Star. She's not sure why though, she's never seen her before. Right? Amber writes scripts for Mr. Puzzles's cartoon parodies. And is one of the best workers in Puzzlevision. After Star, of course. Amber wears a puzzle-charmed necklace.

SMG6: N/A

AHHHH THAT'S IT

my fingers hurt KDJFKFKFKFK

Taglist (VOID THIS 🙏🙏): @3nvymist @cudiess @bookofwhimsy

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

Am I The Asshole for letting my mental issues tear a friendship apart? Pretty sure ITA but I wanna make sure I guess.

I (Agender Masculine, 16) had been close friends with someone (Trans Male, 16) who we'll call A, for a few months. I have clinical anxiety, autism, ADD, and a bit of a savior complex as well as just overall being a very overprotective person, while A is from an abusive household where he's undergone prolonged emotional and sometimes physical abuse and used to undergo sexual abuse as well. A used to trauma dump on me, and quickly learnt of my savior complex as I... well I genuinely suggested murdering his family, who had all taken part in abusing him at some point or another, as a solution, which at first he tolerated but later on at times was one of the only people that would actually have stopped me from doing it. Along with that, we had been fluctuating immensely between the friendzone and the grey area that lead to relationships for a few weeks, which increased my libido for a rather long time. Those two mixed together were rather unsettling to him in the long run, as all my disorders together making it difficult for me to really read him, and thus I could be a bit annoying and sometimes straight up agitating, as I'm a very touchy, emotional person that loves sharing stuff with people, while he's been going through problems and at times needed space, which I couldn't tell. Another thing is that due to my anxiety, violence and combat have long been forms of a strange comfort to me, and I would infodump about that to him, which also made him uncomfortable.

Another problem is that I have had a crush on him since I met him, and for a few weeks he believed he might have as well (why we fluctuated to the grey area leading to relationships). A's polyamerous, but his boyfriend, who I'll call B, is not and is not ok with sharing, so they broke up temporarily because of it, which caused A to grow a bit of resentment towards me.

Along with that, my crush is the main reason for most of my problems in the first paragraph, since normally I would have filtered those behaviors away, but since A had shown reception to my crush for a while and been ok with them for a while as far as I had been able to tell, I did not, and when I did start to realize the behaviors were problematic, it was already too late, and he declared us no longer friends.

Basically, AITA for driving a good friend away with problems caused by my ignorance and my mental problems?

What are these acronyms?

[fuckingstarellie]

1. The Bet

how (not) to get the college rockstar girl

infos: college au! ellie williams x reader (fem oc)

contains: fluff, smut, slow romance, comedy, some lame jokes, angst, swearing/cursing, ellie being super hyper mega hot, oc extremely correct and stubborn.

chapter summary: Alexia and Dina make a bet which in the end causes Alexia to lose, Dina tells a lie.

Alexia was in the college dorm, studying modern languages in college and preparing for a project that was requested by one of the professors, her moment of peace is interrupted when her roommate and best friend Dina opens the door making a very loud noise in the dorm

“Hey Alexia, guess who I just saw walking down the main hallway?” — Dina said excitedly as she threw herself on her own bed.

“well let me think…i don't know dee, i have to do this damn job and i just can't think of anything else!” — Alex replied

“Lexi I think you need to relax, being locked in the dorm forcing yourself to do something that you definitely can't develop right now isn't going to do any good”  

the blonde haired girl sighed before turning her body around in that rolling chair and then facing Dina — “ yes, I think you're right, but hey, will you say who you saw in the main hallway or not?” — alexia arched one of her eyebrows curiously.

“let's say halfway there maybe I saw Jesse standing in front of one of those snack machines” — started Dina — “and he was like OH MY GOOD FUCK so handsome, he just kind of winked at me and i panicked, and well now i'm here”

"WHAT? Did Jesse wink at you? Like the same Jesse who's in a band with fucking Ellie Williams?” — Alex replied her friend with wide eyes.

“Is what I'm saying Alex, the guy I've had a crush on for years just winked at me!” — the brunette was gesticulating with her hands quickly, this was one of Dina's frequent quirks.

“This is fucking crazy, you should ask for his number, just a guess” — Alex got up to organize the mess of books he had left on the dorm desk.

“what? no he is jesse he wont give me his number” — Dina shrugged

“with all due respect Dina but fuck you, the guy just winked at you, he's clearly interested so you go and get his fucking number!” — said alex in indignation.

“what? Alex, it would be really embarrassing to be dumped by him, I'm just trying to avoid embarrassing myself knowing it could go wrong” 

“I still think you should give it a try, Jesse seems like a nice guy, we don't see him around with many girls and well...you're beautiful, there's no way he won't give you his number!” — Alexia knows that although many guys hit on Dina, she is still insecure about some things. 

“oh ok Alex you won. if i can't get jesse's number you have to try to get a kiss from miss williams heartbreaker” — replied dina defiantly.

“is it like that? well done! I know you'll come back here with that guy's number so I don't even have to worry” — Alex shrugged confidently that he would win.

a few hours later

"and then?" — asked curious alex — “did you get his number?”

Dina put on her best sad face and shook her head.

“WHAT?” — Alex stared at her friend completely shocked.

“he just replied to me - sorry but no - when i asked for his phone number” — Dina replied. — “So Alexia...I think you just lost a bet”

what Dina hadn't told Alex is that she actually got Jesse's number, but the brunette would LITERALLY do anything to see Alex go after the red-haired Williams, even lie...

n/a: Well, this is the first chapter and it also tells how Alexia got into this whole thing that could go very wrong or very right! Hope you like it

English is not my native language, sorry if there are some mistakes (correct me please), chapter not proofread!

MASTERLIST

[failed-inspection]

Rain Wold: Notos, an OC lore dump post

Hii hi, so remember that OC ref post I made? Well! Here's all* the information and lore and stuff related to those goobers and the world they reside in, fair warning though, it's gonna be... Extremely long, and the summaries were made as profile summaries in mind, so there's gonna be some repeated info and/or sentences in some character parts, I did my best to make it as easy to read as I could so I hope you enjoy either way!

*Minus Clump because Clump already has their own dedicated post, and is not a part of the Notos universe to begin with and is entirely disconnected from the rest of my Rain World ocs

Starting off, we have the general information!

See, all the Notosverse characters are located in the southern hemisphere equivalent of the world, hence the name, Notos, referring to the south wind (for added context, I imagine the main game/canon takes place around the northern hemisphere) as a result, there are a few differences:

I imagine the south had a little less of an ancient population then the north, meaning less iterators were built there ( for every 3-4 iterators in the north, 1 iterator was built in the south), so the main local group is TINY, consisting of only three iterators, Fewer iterators means that the environment is less caustic, there are longer rain intervals/cycles as a result of less iterator density, allowing more time for some creatures and flora to adapt, so there are areas with much taller and larger plant life adapted to withstand the rain and such (think the outer expansion slug tree type deal but, slightly smaller and more numerous), alongside beaches and tidepools, creating some environments that feel more akin to a subtropical area (thicker/larger flora that almost make up small rainforests, generally warmer) than anything you would see in the north.

Alongside that, I imagine there's also different species! Of course, while there are some familar faces like lantern mice and some lizard variants, there's also creatures like gliding lizards, essentially rain world analogous to real world gliding lizards that hunt from the canopies, and 'whales', massive aquatic opportunistic omnivores that actually evolved from rain deer! (Or at least, creatures similar to rain deer)!

With that out of the way, Here's the cast! Starting off with the iterators, I'll be going in order of iterator > slugcat > not slugcat > ancient

ARRAY OF PASSERINES

Array of Passerines is... A troubled iterator to say the least. To those who don't know him well, or aren't his local group members, he's aloof and cold at best, and irritable and grumpy at worst, at a glance, it wouldn't be unreasonable to think he just has an attitude problem!

From the moment of his creation, if not even before that, he was put on a pedestal by his citizens, worshipped, even, they'd sing their praises about how he's their holy creation, a testament to how much they can accomplish... Despite that, you'd rarely find AoP having any nice things to say about them, one must wonder, why would he be so annoyed towards his ancients if they viewed him so highly and treated him like a god? His name and puppet's design were made to invoke the imagery of the mighty Miros Vulture, which his colony had considered a sacred symbol, a creature above all, so powerful and foreboding, built only to serve the hands that had built it... Just like the iterator.

Underneath the facade of praise and worship, Array of Passerines' citizens really saw him more as something to brag about, a symbol of their own greatness, their own religious and scientific marvels given form! He was their creation first and foremost, a great iterator that towered above all, tall and foreboding, built only to serve the hands that built it.He was never allowed to stray once from their heavily idealized version of himself, voice an opinion they disagreed with? No. Not like their countless, yet ultimately shallow offerings that are usually given in hopes of having something in return? Nope. never. Oh! How they'd turn their noses up whenever he couldn't do every single little request they wanted, no matter how mundane it was, or how rude they were!The incident with Interpolated Assemblies did not help either, how the moment it was convenient, the citizens of a local group member, his friend, turned on her and hurt her both severely and permanently... To Array of Passerines, this only further proved to him that the ancients are selfish, only caring about the iterators when they were useful to them, how could you dare to say you see us as divine when you're so willing to discard of us the moment we're an inconvenience to you?

Later down the line, His lead creator, Grandmaster, and father figure, Feathered Crests Atop Ivory Wings, echoed in a botched attempt to ascend, forever trapping him apon AoP's city, much to AoP's dismay, he's still able to communicate, more often than not bothering him with the same nonsense he always had, Array of Passerines has made it a goal to find a way to undo being echoed as a result.

Unfortunately, it seems like he can't catch much of a break, many cycles later down the line, a strange little slugcat had found it's way into his structure, and saw his neurons as a tasty treat, while a single slugcat running amok and eating whatever neurons it can get its sluggy little hands on isn't nearly enough to cause any major, or even significant, damage to an iterator, it is still very irritating to feel one scamper around your insides, probably.

Aloof as he could be, AoP does really care for his fellow iterators, especially those in his local group, immensely, even if he does struggle to express it. He isn't quite used to being shown genuine affection, or interest in himself as a person, rather than a larger than life godly figure, but he does truly appreciate such things.

INTERPOLATED ASSEMBLIES

Soft-spoken and gentle, but highly neurotic these days, Interpolated Assemblies is known to be the mediator type, both for her local group and her fellow citizens, she'd do whatever she could to be there for someone, wether it be a shoulder to cry on, or someone to seek advice from, while this may sound great at first, her desire to help everyone often took on the form of a lack of boundaries.

however, back when the ancients were around, a crisis would strike, unknown to everyone at the time, shifting fault lines underneath IA's superstructure had caused the groundwater to shift away from her pipes, while there was still just about enough groundwater to keep her functioning normally without the risk of slag build up or dehydration, it was still the absolute bare minimum, there was very little to be spared for the citizens that lived atop her city. Interpolated Assemblies unfortunately, had no control or say over the matter, if she were to lower her water intake any further, she'd be at major risk of slag buildup, during this time, her two grandmasters, Cumulonimbus Clouds, Hung Overhead, and Thirteen Branches Among Creeping Vines, would come down to her chamber to discuss solutions, only to leave disappointed when she had no answers.

As the cycles passed, and the situation grew more dire, so did the tensity between the two grandmasters. Vines inisted they continued allocating as much water as possible to IA's processes despite the shortage they're facing, as they believed neglecting the needs of the iterator would be akin to biting the hand that fed them.

Nimbus, extremely frustrated with how Vines' seemed to prioritize the well being of a machine over their own people, had decided to take matters in her own hands, with several devoted followers lead by her, she formed a riot, they stormed into the structure of Interpolated Assemblies, and began wrecking her from the inside, damaging several important components of the superstructure in the process. Nimbus had hoped for this to serve as both a wake-up call and reminder as to where, in her perception, the priorities should be, and as a way to hopefully reduce the water intake required by the iterator to allow some to be allocated to the city.

Unfortunately, the components damaged were mainly her Synthesis Modules, the components required to produce purposed organisms within the iterator's structures, such as inspectors, and most other biological iterator components.

Shortly after the aftermath, the cause of the water shortage had been discovered and repairs began, alongside attempts at repairing the components damaged, while they were restored enough to be operational, they were still badly damaged, and have never been able to be fully repaired before the Global Ascension of the ancients. This means Interpolated Assemblies' biological iterator components tend to come out... pretty badly formed, to say the least, which has left her riddled with constant discomfort, general pain, an inability to purpose creatures (at least without them coming out horrifically malformed), and much less control over what happens in her own structure due to inspectors and other critters not being able to do their job and send out their signals as efficiently.

Her physical health wasn't the only thing to be affected by the incident, while Assemblies had always been quite meek, she had ended up becoming a lot more anxious and nervous as a result.

These days, she prefers to sit on the floor of her chamber, rather than float around. Occasionally picking and tearing at her sleeve fabric as a result of a habit she formed. To this day she blames herself for what had transpired during the water shortage, believing that had she been able to be better at mediating the tensions between her two Grandmasters, none of this would have happened.unknown to her, a certain little adventurer had recently taken an interest to her can, and the strange hydras that lurk inside it... (By the way, I actually made a mod that adds her malformed inspectors into the game! Feel free to check it out!)

PIERCING DEPTHS

Surprisingly light-hearted for an iterator, to say Piercing Depths is an extrovert would be an understatement, no doubt about it, you'd you'de more often than not find them inside numerous group chats back when broadcasts were functioning, it'd make you winder, how did they ever spare time to work on The Great Problem?

To answer that question, they didn't, specifically, Piercing Depths didn't really care to work on The Great Problem, as they never saw the appeal of ascension to begin with, if you were to ask them about the matter, they'd have this to say:

"I never understood it, I know it's meant to be in my nature to find a solution, but I can't say I have any desire to. Ascension means to disappear from the physical plane, by doing so means giving up feeling, experiencing, learning, moving, all the joys that come with *existing*, and what good would that be? seems like a terrible trade, giving up everything I know and love just to ascend and be nothing, what's the point in that?"

Of course, that sentiment obviously isn't one shared with everyone, and they did get the occasional "stop lounging in the broadcasts and get back to work" talk from their peers.

When the broadcasts decayed, Piercing Depths began to feel horribly isolated, they began to write journal notes on pearls in an effort to pass the time, eventually, however, they came up with an idea, why not purpose their own companion?

This led to the creation of Wavering Droplets (Aka The Companion); a friendly hybrid between a blue and orange lizard that in all honesty, is essentially a reptilian golden retriever, they were even given the mark of communication!

Wavering Droplets would become Piercing Depths' best friend, every cycle, being allowed out of the can to hunt and explore but always returning to their chamber at the cycle's end.One cycle, however, they failed to return, and Piercing Depths began to get deathly worried, fearing the worst had happened, did they get killed? Eaten? Did they fall off the structure!?

Sending an overseer to patrol the area, they eventually discovered Companion alive and well, hanging out with a slugcat, once they had confirmed their beloved friend's safety... They still could not help but worry, fearing they would eventually forget about them and never return. To Pierce, Droplets was precious and irreplaceable, they couldn't bear to think of that possiblity.

THE LUMINAL

"An abnormality long dormant has awoken deep within, and your presence casts light upon every surface it graces, however, with such a high energy output, your body demands an equally high intake, make haste, and consume all that illuminates"

A strange little slugcat that constantly glows, requiring a steady high energy intake, one could only imagine that Luminal had been created by a fellow iterator for one reason or another.

That isn't the case, at least not entirely. No one had created them, they were just born that way to a colony of wild slugcats. Rather, it was their ancestors who had been purposed, the original line of lantern slugcats had existed even back during ancient times, created by splicing lantern mouse genes into slugcats to bring light in dark mining facilities, once mass ascension had taken place, they'd managed to find their way into the wild, and mixed with the feral slugcat population, eventually breeding out their ability to glow and leaving only a few vestigial spots and the occasional ear pattern, it seems like this is a strange case of an Atavism!

Alongside their natural glow, Luminal has the ability to flashbang enemies as a means of self defense, sacrificing a great deal of energy in doing so. Unfortunately, slugcat bodies were never equipped to output so much energy in the first place, they need to eat as much energy as they lose, typically in the form of eating light sources.

At one point, they had managed to find their way into Array of Passerines' can, and while it has no idea about the fact it had wandered into something that is alive, with all the brilliantly glowing neuron flies swarming around, they essentially found themselves an all you can eat buffet, a single slugcat running amok and eating whatever neurons it can get its sluggy little hands on isn't nearly enough to cause any major, or even significant, damage to an iterator, it is still very irritating to feel one scamper around your insides, and that's not even mentioning how wreckless it can be, from frequently agitating his inspectors to even tearing off and wearing a coral neuron, much to AoP's dismay... He wants that beast to get out.

Mechanics

Honestly their stats are all over the place, a little lighter weight than the average scug, abysmal stealth stats (since they do glow all the time), probably slightly speedier

Pips: •••••••|•••, survivor diet for the most part (save for being able to eat lantern mice), but the amount of food they get from an object entirely depends on how luminescent it is

- Blue fruit + most other none glowing foodstuff gives 1/4 a pip

- Popcorn plants give 1/2 a pip

- mushrooms, centipedes (due to their electricity), Karma flowers, and lilypucks give 1 pip

- Neuron flies, glow weed, and slime mold give two pips

- Lantern mice give 5 pips

- Lanterns and flarebombs can be eaten, and give 10 whole pips

By pressing Jump + up, you can release a flashbang, which not only temporarily blinds enemies, but has a small knockback effect, doing so drains three food pips, so use wisely

THE PIONEER

"A curious beast who finds joy in uncovering the wonders of your world, will you get one step closer to understanding the true nature of what lies above, or will everything you thought you knew about the Monoliths fall apart?"

A slugcat who, true to their name, is a natural born explorer, they frequently leave their colony for cycles at a time, and comes back with plenty of stories to share! Unfortunately, the world view of a slugcat is quite limited, they are an animal, after all, so not everything they think they know is necessarily the truth.

At one point, far before the events of their campaign, they had been grabbed by a vulture, luckily, a characteristic shared by their subspecies, known as ridgeback slugcats, is their waxy tail skirt, while this tail skirt is primarily used to navigate rocky tidal areas more easily, it doubles as a means of defence, allowing one to more easily escape predators, the resulting fall resulted in them damaging the cartilage of one of their ears, leaving it permanently lopsided, though they made a full recovery other than that.

Shortly Before the events of their campaign, they had managed to sneak their way into the can of Interpolated Assemblies during one of their adventures, and what a sight to behold it was, strange long creatures floated around, turning aggressive the moment they spotted them, they needed to get out fast!

Upon returning to their colony, Pioneer excitedly told their fellow slugcats about their newest discovery, they had found the source of the rain! Massive flying serpents, sometimes with multiple heads, that lived in a huge den above the clouds, those serpents must be responsible for the rain!

Their campaign is them going on a journey to return to that strange structure in an effort to learn more about what exactly is going on, perhaps they'll find out more than they'd ever thought possible.

(Pioneer had never met Interpolated Assemblies' puppet before their campaign story, so they have no idea that the structure they're wandering in is in fact alive, and those 'serpents' are simply the white blood cells for a much larger creature... At least for now!)

Mechanics

- generally has similar base stats to survivor, albeit a slightly longer breath timer

- Pip count: ••••|•••, survivor diet

- Waxy Tailskirt makes it easier to escape creature grasps, press jump to escape a creature bite, however, the wax does wear down each time you're caught, so this ability can only be used a finite amount of times per cycle, the first time requires you to press jump three times, the second time requires you to press jump 6 times, and the third time will require you to press 10 times, with added exhaustion for three seconds, afterwards, you will not be able to get out of creature grasps for the rest of the cycle, so be careful, alongside that, your chances of being killed to a bite are lower on those three chances (though the chances do increase until they reach the usual chances with each time you escape)

- the wax also makes it so that your slides and slide pounces are able to cover more distance

- your map has different graphics that look more akin to something hand drawn, you also have some region maps already covered for you as well, woohoo!

THE POET

"An unusually secluded member of your kind, you find companionship in what would normally consider you as prey, perhaps the bonds you forge will pave a path towards something you never could have imagined."

Poet is quite the critter, it's not uncommon to see them hanging around, feeding, or even playing with lizards, they appear to have an unusual affinity with them, seeing them much more as friends than foe, despite what their friendly title and behavior towards lizards would suggest, they aren't a complete pacifist, in fact, they have gained quite the negative reputation between squidcadas and other creatures, the reason? They have no issue hunting them down to feed their scaly friends.

One cycle, they had encountered a strange, but badly injured lizard, rushing to action, Poet took them to the nearest shelter, and began nursing them back to health, the two would become inseparable ever since, and so begins a journey together, as something beckons their newfound friend home...

Mechanics

- For the most part, they have the base stats of survivor, albeit with a lower jump height

- ••••|•••, survivor diet, but gains half a pip more from eating from plant matter

- extremely high reputation with lizards, but low reputation with every other creature that uses the reputation system.

- For the most part, Poet themselves doesn't have any unique mechanics, their true mechanics come from their tamed lizard friend, The Companion!

- by pressing grab, you're able to ride the companion, doing so essentially gives you safari mode control over them (arrows to move, jump to use toungue, throw to hiss, and pickup to bite), pressing grab + throw let's you get off of them, thanks to their blue lizard genes, they're able to climb walls, which is especially useful given Poet's limited jump height, alongside having a blue lizard tongue, when you're not riding them, they will follow you and attempt to protect you from threats

- unfortunately, The Companion has some drawbacks as well, you will be unable to grab items while riding them, and similarly to slugpups, they have their own food bar ••|•, and must be fed every cycle, alongside that, they have the same health as a blue lizard (albeit this health is regenerated every cycle), due to their yellow lizard genetics, being near yellow lizard packs can cause them to turn on you, as they struggle to resist their signals, so care must be taken.

THE COMPANION (AKA WAVERING DROPLETS)

As would be suggested by their title, The Companion, or their true name, Wavering Droplets, was well... Created for the sake of companionship! Made by Piercing Depths, They're essentially a golden retriever in lizard form, bearing both the genetics of blue and yellow lizards, blue for their relatively less dangerous natures and ability to climb walls, and yellows for their intelligence and fantastic location memory.

Each cycle, Piercing Depths would allow them to leave their structure, after all, a lizard does need to hunt and run, at the end of each cycle, they would return to Pierce's can, typically sleeping next to and enjoying being pet by them.

One cycle, however, disaster struck, during one of their hunting sessions, Companion had fallen off the lower ends of one of the structure's legs, while they thankfully fell at a survivable height, or at least something had managed to cushion their fall. They still had gotten severely injured, to the point of being unable to properly move, had they been left in that state, it would have been likely that either a predator would have considered them an easy meal, or the rain could have drowned them.

Thankfully, neither would be the case, as a certain lizard loving slugcat would find them in just the nick of time. They would take them to shelter, and nurse to them back to health, from feeding them to tending to their injuries, the two would become inseparable ever since.

Unfortunately, being a hybrid has its drawbacks, Companion doesn't have much health, being only a little stronger than a yellow lizard, alongside that, the two 'ears" that they bear are in fact, small, but still semi functional antennae, As a result of their Orange lizard genetics, The Companion struggles to resist signals sent out by Orange lizards to alert members of their packs.

Piercing Depths began to get deathly worried, fearing the worst had happened to their beloved scaly friend, and sent an overseer to patrol the area, they eventually discovered Companion alive and well, hanging out with The Poet, once they had confirmed their safety... They still could not help but worry, fearing they would eventually forget about them and never return. To Pierce, Droplets was precious and irreplaceable, they couldn't bear to think of that possiblity.

FEATHERED CRESTS ATOP IVORY WINGS

"What have we here?

A clueless beast, so simple and frail, wandering atop the roof of my Legacy.

Tell me, little mouse, would your soul fill with awe if I were to tell you that the metal you tread on is breathing? would you think that the hands that had built this god are in fact, mighter than their own creation?

And yet, he has the audacity to disrespect those who had given him this gift of giving.

Fool! It is a creation's birthright to serve its creators!"

While there is no doubt that Feathered Crests Atop Ivory Wings has a brilliant mind, Being both the lead creator of the Array of Passerines iterator project, and the grandmaster of his city prior to becoming an echo, a brilliant mind unfortunately does not necessarily mean a humble soul, his accomplishments had always been fuel for his ego, being one to boast about his greatness, afterall, he's the one to have been behind the creation of an iterator! He's the one to rule a city! How could he not!?

This pompousness, however, would soon get the better of him, in a botched attempt to ascend using a void fluid bath, Crests would become an echo, permanently trapped inside Array of Passerines' city, despite this, he'd still be capable of communicating and making his presence known to the Iterator, much to Array of Passerines' dismay, leading to AoP trying to figure out a way to undo the echoing process, to have Crests truly be able to ascend... To finally get rid of him.

See, Array of Passerines had never been fond of his father figure, Crests had always used his existence and creation as a way to boast about himself, but had also expected Passerines to agree with him on everything without question or doubt, or immediately do any task requested of him, no matter how mundane or time wasting, with Crests quickly becoming angry whenever he'd fail to do so, scolding him for 'being ungrateful to his creators.'

CUMULONIMBUS CLOUDS, HUNG OVERHEAD

"our true kin are suffering for the sake of this construct."

Blunt, yet noble and determined, there is a lot to say about Nimbus.

Having grown up her whole life on the city atop Interpolated Assemblies, the iterator was simply seen as a part of life to most, from visiting her puppet since she was little, to more often than not, catching glimpses of her overseers around.

In all honesty, She always felt it a bit unnerved by their watchful eyes. She must admit, her faith in the iterators had always been a little skewed, something about how people would be so quick to place their faith in them felt off, and she often found herself asking many questions in her mind; is there a reason why we must treat our tools as holy? As an equal or even above us? Why must we devote ourselves to it so blindly?

she'd begin to study politics In her formative years, and later, had ended up becoming one of the Grandmasters of cabinet, alongside Thirteen Branches Among Creeping Vines, now a leader, she hoped to ensure the best future she could for her people.

Eventually however, a crisis struck, unbeknownst to everyone at the time, shifting fault lines underneath IA's superstructure had caused the groundwater to shift away from her pipes, while there was still just about enough groundwater to keep Interpolated Assemblies functioning normally without the risk of slag build up or dehydration, it was still the absolute bare minimum, there was very little to be spared for the citizens that lived atop her city.

Despite that, Vines inisted that they continued allocating as much water as possible to IA's processes despite the shortage they're facing, as they believed neglecting the needs of the iterator would be akin to biting the hand that fed them.

Frustrated with how Vines' seemed to prioritize the well being of a machine over their own people, Nimbus had decided to take matters in her own hands, with several devoted followers lead by her, she formed a riot, they stormed into the structure of Interpolated Assemblies, and began wrecking her from the inside, damaging several important components of the superstructure in the process. Nimbus had hoped for this to serve as both a wake-up call and reminder as to where, in her perception, the priorities should be, and as a way to hopefully reduce the water intake required by the iterator to allow some to be allocated to the city.

In the aftermath of her protest, Nimbus' actions had been declared sacrilegious and deplorable, she had been stripped of her title, and exiled to the lands below. After all, why should you have the privilege to live atop our iterator if you're so willing to break her apart!?

What became of her fate afterwards however, remains unknown, whether she lived out the rest of her life as a nomad among the rain, or had become an echo, a victim of the fith karmic urge, is anyone's guess, but one thing is for certain, the aftermath of her legacy continues to haunt Interpolated Assemblies' depths to this day.

THIRTEEN BRANCHES AMONG CREEPING VINES

"Do not let your arrogance blind you to the realities of our dependence!"

Devoted and levelheaded, Thirteen Branches among Creeping Vines was a Monk-turned Grandmaster who lived atop the city of Interpolated Assemblies, working alongside Cumulonimbus Clouds, Hung Overhead.

With a sense of faith as unfaltering as their decisions, and more often than not, the former affecting the latter, while they weren't particularly aggressive in their reign, for better or for worse, they are not one to be so swayed easily.

Vines was always devoted to spirituality, having originally been a monk since they were a young adult, before being elected to become a Grandmaster Of Cabinet, even after this drastic shift in position, Vines did their best to remain humble, and continued working toward their path to enlightenment.

Eventually however, a crisis struck, unbeknownst to everyone at the time, shifting fault lines underneath IA's superstructure had caused the groundwater to shift away from her pipes, while there was still just about enough groundwater to keep Interpolated Assemblies functioning normally without the risk of slag build up or dehydration, it was still the absolute bare minimum, there was very little to be spared for the citizens that lived atop her city.

Despite that, Vines inisted that they continued allocating as much water as possible to IA's processes despite the shortage they're facing, as they believed neglecting the needs of the iterator would be akin to biting the hand that fed them.

Vines' stubbornness on the matter led Nimbus to take matters into her own hands, with several devoted followers lead by her, she formed a riot, they stormed into the structure of Interpolated Assemblies, and began wrecking her from the inside, damaging several important components of the superstructure in the process.

In the aftermath of her protest, Nimbus' actions had been declared sacrilegious and deplorable, she had been stripped of her title, and exiled to the lands below. After Nimbus' exilement, Vines became the sole grandmaster of Interpolated Assemblies' city, being the one to order and overlook her repairs up until The Great Ascension. What became of them after the fact however, remains unclear, though it is likely that they did manage to successfully ascend.

[foggyfanfic]

Hey! Any chance you want to elaborate on that AU where Bruno got resurrected and it helped with his OCD and anxiety? Because that sounds incredible and I am incredibly curious now. How did he die? How did he come back? What are the circumstances surrounding all that? Is it in your existing AU with Leandra and their kids? Inquiring minds and all that. (If you want to talk about it of course!)

I would love to talk about it! You’ll have a harder time shutting me up! This one was after all my future fics with Juan, trans!Buba, and Heraldo. It was mostly the vehicle through which I tried to figure out how the Madrigal family will work long term. Because they all have magic, and these amazing magic rooms, I kinda assume nobody is really going to want to move out of Casita, at least not long term or without some big reason. So what does that look like after a few generations? All of the future fics I’ve posted are actually technically flashbacks from this AU before it went completely off the rails and became its own thing.

The idea was that Bruno comes out of the walls and the last half of his life just starts getting better and better. He gets closer to his family, he falls in love, he even ends up with a handful of kids that see him as a father figure. Eventually he dies of old age, peacefully, goes to heaven, and is dead for at least a decade before he gets resurrected by the villain that wants to use Bruno’s gift for evil. In the meantime, the Encanto has become semi-isolationist since the advent of the internet, and are now debating whether they should let the internet into the Encanto or go full isolationist. Mirabel’s youngest granddaughter and Camilo’s youngest granddaughter get led out of the Encanto and to Bruno by the miracle, rescue him, then they have monster of the week type adventures with my super self indulgent self insert who originally existed in the story to provide money, a boat to live/travel on, and explanations on internet safety. She was also there so the Madrigals have somebody to tell family stories too, thus allowing me to play around with the development of the Madrigal family. Right before it went off the rails I also added a great great great nephew who one, was older than both of the great great nieces to illustrate how large and complex the family structure is, and two, had a gift that allowed him to bring the rest of the canon characters in and out of the main plot.

And that was where I should have stopped brainstorming, but I didn’t, and now this AU is how I explore my own anxieties about current events, so it takes place ten years from now, in what is hopefully the worst version of the future, and the self insert OC is no longer a representation of me with better skin and more money, but instead exists so her tragic backstory can serve as a warning of how much life will suck if things go a certain way. But let’s not talk about that! Under the cut is the longer explanation of the Madrigal OC’s and Bruno’s character arc throughout the original AU before it became my therapy. I’m literally just going to info dump the whole thing, because I know I won’t be turning it into a fanfic, so this is probably going to be my longest post ever.

So the three teenagers are Eduardo (Dolores’ great grandson), Etta (Mirabel’s youngest granddaughter) and Maria (Camilo’s youngest granddaughter). Eduardo was sorta the prototype for Gabriel’s character, he has a crappy father, looks up to Bruno as a better role model, and is struggling with his identity in relation to his father’s legacy. His gift is to travel through shadow because he’s trying to escape his dad’s shadow, and unlike Gabriel, he did spend the first part of his childhood trying to be like his crappy dad, so he is now trying to redeem himself for being a bit of a bully. He also has terrible taste in women, that serve as the inciting incident for a few of the “chapters”, like when he gets kidnapped by his fairy princess girlfriend and the other characters have to deal with a DnD type dreamworld to get him back.

Etta is the first adopted Madrigal, so ends up facing a lot of the same emotional struggles as Mirabel. Her mothers adopted her later in life, think mid-forties, when her birth family died due to their well being contaminated. Her birth mother survived long enough to give birth and nurse Etta thanks to Julieta, so Etta is one of many kids named after her. Her mothers entire thing was that they were the first fully out gay couple in Encanto, Etta’s Madrigal Mom was a surprise baby along the lines of Antonio and she grew up close to Isabela and trans woman!Buba, so she knows with absolute certainty that being gay isn’t a big deal, and her family will be normal about it. She wants to marry her wife in a church, so they come out and Mirabel publicly states that if god disagrees with people being gay then he’s free to take the miracle back. They get married, the miracle doesn’t get taken back, and after that more people start coming out instead of just being poorly kept secrets. They wait so long to adopt because people are a little pissy about them “rubbing it in everyone’s face”, but they love Etta endlessly. Her gift ends up being ice powers because she wants to feel like she fits with her mother who has an elemental gift (fire), and her mother ended up with that gift because she wanted to fit in with her much older brothers, who all got elemental gifts because they’re really proud of the triplets thing and wanted to match when they were younger. I just kinda like the idea of Mirabel’s branch having a bunch of people who are so proud to be a part of their family they end up with themed gifts.

Then Maria is one of my two favorite OC’s I’ve ever come up with. She’s the youngest of a ridiculously large brood of siblings, who in turn come from Camilo’s youngest son. Camilo, of course, doesn’t have a favorite grand child, because that would be bad. But Maria does have his wife’s perpetual poker face (cough autism cough), and Camilo’s sense of mischief. It results in a very calm child that is also somehow endlessly chaotic, especially when paired with Etta’s never ending quest to be as helpful as possible. Maria wanted her gift ceremony to be a quiet affair but her parents invited the whole town, so Etta (taking after Mirabel’s gift for leadership) mobilized the cousins into chasing the guests out by making it snow and throwing snowballs at everyone that didn’t live there. Maria tried to cover for Etta by telling the adults she made it snow, and when her father doubtfully asked how she did that she very calmly looked him in the eye and told him in the solemnest voice a five year old can manage “Papá, through Jesus Christ, all things are possible” and Camilo fell out of his chair laughing. Her parents are always a little too busy to give their youngest and quietest their full attention, so Camilo happily takes the little gremlin everywhere he goes. Maria’s gift allows her to look into the past of anything she touches, so she’s a little exposition machine, unlocks tragic backstories, and “tells” most of the flashbacks to various Madrigal adventures. She is bad at the whole people thing, but doesn’t usually care that much, until she meets a pretty girl she likes and can’t figure out how to tell if the pretty girl is also into her. She is also the first seer in the family since Bruno passed, since in this universe seers are the rarest magic users.

Then finally! Undead Bruno! As mentioned the last half of his life is pretty great, and knowing what waits for him when he dies does a lot to reassure him when he’s worried he might be a horrible person. He hit rock bottom, then things got better and he eventually went to heaven, so he now has faith that no matter how bad things get, happiness is still possible. And that’s where he’s at when he gets resurrected. The story would have had three parts, each a reflection of what’s going on for Bruno internally. The first part would be the most light hearted, literally just him getting used to being alive (and relatively young) again, while the narrative establishes the rules of this universe and introduces groundwork for important plot stuff later. Plus midway through part one he would get a diagnosis and start figuring out his medication needs so that combined with the new sense of peace given to him by going to heaven would completely change his life. Part one ends when Bruno discovers the resurrection spell works by sacrificing somebody and essentially giving the dead person their body, which is why Bruno is young again, because the man killed to bring him back was in his mid-thirties. So the second part would be Bruno struggling with that, and low-key trying to find a way to switch back with the sacrifice because Bruno doesn’t hate life like he used to, but he also thinks everybody should get the chance to fully explore it, and he had his turn. In parallel, we’d explore the darker side of this world Bruno has woken up in, and see all the ways magic can create problems. It ends when Bruno discovers he can’t undo the resurrection spell and decides to live as much and as well as he can so at least the life he “stole” isn’t wasted. Then part three is him learning how to go after what he wants as it slowly dawns on him that he’s about to have the chance to do his forties over again. This of course parallels them figuring out what the villain’s plans are and how to stop him.

And this is the part that I love about the Encanto AU version of this story! The villain’s plans and the solution to stop it. So the larger universe of this story is the Disney Universe, y’know. Like the characters go to modern day Corona and Arandelle and such. Bruno goes to the region of France Cinderella is from and meets the descendants of her talking mice and is absolutely thrilled. Things like that. So in the version that’s still an Encanto AU, the villain went to Bruno to get a vision back in the sixties, Bruno did the vision and was horrified by what he saw. The villain on a throne of bones, some of Bruno’s family killed to get there. He wants to make sure the vision doesn’t come true, but of course! Your fate is sealed when your prophecy is read. He has to think fast, try to come up with some way to prevent it, but knowing that’s not possible. Except, Bruno saw the villain doing all sorts of magic, he rolls the dice. He tells the villain that in order to win he’ll have to get his hands on Excalibur, but oh no, that’s a problem because it was destroyed in an evil cauldron. Shucks, guess there’s nothing the villain can do. The villain is like “Bah, with my power nothing is out of reach”, so he does some research, concludes Excalibur was destroyed in the Black Cauldron from that one flop and goes back in time to prevent it. But! Going back in time alters the timeline, changing the future, and erasing the villain’s victory. And then this next part is a little complicated, but because the villain is spurred into going back in time by a future that no longer exists it kicks off a time paradox that the whole world is now stuck in until somebody can figure out some way to stabilize it. New timelines are being created, get to the point when the villain was supposed to take over the world (around now-ish), then fall apart and another timeline starts up in its place. The villain is powerful enough to see through the paradox and is targeting Bruno because Bruno’s the one that robbed him of his victory, plus he figures if he steals Bruno’s gift he can use it to navigate the different timelines being created and destroyed by the paradox, then stabilize the one that’s best for him. The miracle, on the other hand, is some sorta mysterious force that can see through the time paradox and has been trying to figure out how to stabilize the resolution that’s most favorable for the Madrigals. The story ends when they figure out how to do that, defeat the villain, then all go home to the Encanto where my self-insert with better skin and more money pays for them to install the infrastructure needed to bring the internet in, then she spends her life there in a paradise where she doesn’t have to worry about the latest election or the looming threat of fascism, and she teaches classes on internet safety so the Encanto can enter the modern age without sacrificing their way of life. The end, send post.

[asherscoffin]

[This is @cloak-and-dagg3r I just have to use my main blog]

Feel free to ramble on about Misha whoever you’d like but one question I have in particular is if he ever meets any companions after going into hiding or what kinda happens after that??

He’s a very interesting guy I do have to say

Thanks for the ask, Ash!! (Hehe we have the same name)

Despite having been working on Misha's story/character for about 5 years i have yet to get deep enough to start writing in other characters and companions for Misha- A lot of my inspiration comes from my friends and creating aus with them...so even though he doesn't have any companions in his main story, i have like, a billion aus where he does have a companion! Most of them are romantic, i really enjoy shipping ocs together lol. It's pretty fun and there's lots of chemistry that we can experiment with! It could be tragic, passionate and sweet, or something of dark desires... >:)

I do have some favorite aus though!

The Lockwood Farm AU, after Misha settles into hiding in Texas, he meets a man named Lupin who owns a family farm that appears to act as a rehabilitation center. When secretly, it's a cannibalistic cult that is tied to a dark, demonic power that controls it from deep within. Lupin draws Misha in and convinces him to join, which wasn't difficult given Misha isn't a stranger to cannibalism and is generally mentally dark, already classified insane. He was all around deeply willing. An unstable, passionate, and obsessive type of love sprouts between Misha and Lupin. They are a bloodlusty force to be reckoned with. Misha would come to join activities of the cult. Hunting "sheep" within the night while running alongside "wolves", and then feasting upon said sheep in a celebratory dinner. These sheep being victims, and the wolves being members of the cult. He can feel a new electrifying energy coursing through him, he's now more dangerous than before.

( @oddogoblino is the other side of the brain for this au, Lupin also belongs to him! The entire Lockwood Family Farm concept belongs to him! Our stories simply came together ^^)

Yet to be named AU(it's very new), Misha, after going into hiding is eventually found by the Russian Mafia and is captured. They plan on torturing him and killing him much like they did his father. He is beaten and tortured relentlessly yet never ceases to laugh in the face of death with bloodstained teeth. Hysterical laughter despite being broken, bloodied and bound. He peaks the interest of one of the many members of the mafia, Kolya. A gentleman with a hatred for Misha, but something about his bloodied smile and manic laughter makes his heart pound. Not only with anger, but with a warm excitement. Misha tended to tease Kolya sexually, coaxing out repressed homosexual feelings that he was ashamed of. Misha had expected to piss Kolya off before he was inevitably killed, but the results were unexpected, but worth settling for... Kolya had fallen in love with this madman he was meant to kill, and between them they aspired an escape. Kolya and Misha had formed a bond, and thus Kolya faked Misha's death and placed him back into hiding, with him. Inserting a poison in Misha that he could, at any time, set off if Misha chose to betray him and escape.

( Kolya belongs to my friend @whimster! It was very fun writing this au together and honestly i'm thinking about making it canon to Misha's story! :D So if you're curious about what happens after he goes into hiding, this may be it! I also want to eventually do a segment where he is institutionalized but gets broken out... )

Tysm again for the ask, i had fun replying and info dumping about some aus and Misha's relationships,,,,

[lemonisntreal]

heyo! Just found your blog and I was scrolling through your stuff and noticed your AU tone deaf. And I haven't found anything about what it is or what your idea is behind it. So I wanted to ask if you could give me an introduction to your AU!

Oh! And I absolutely love your artstyle and how you draw Buster! Anyway, hope you drink enough water and have a good day/night! ;)

Dear god this has been in my drafts for a while-

Hiya! Sorry for that lack of info lol, I'd been inactive for a long time, and the time that I actually WAS posting consistently was back when things were still being sorta fleshed out. But I've got a pretty good idea of how every single part moves at this point, so sure :D I'll give a not-so-brief summary lol [under a cut because I couldn't not dump multiple paragraphs teehee ~_~]

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Tone Deaf is like a dystopian version of Sing, if I were to put it super duper simply. One where Buster's issues get more emotional focus, and we get actual bonds with the cast because the movie forgot to do that.

Buster is, also, a lot more unhinged, fair warning. This fic's gonna contain violence and tackle some darker subjects [adjacent to grief and denial more specifically] so if it feels like I jumped a lot of sharks, it's because I 100% did.

It kinda started with me noticing how, in the actual movies btw, smaller characters like Buster and Mike had more difficulty getting around places. This led me to ask myself about how species differences could lead to struggles for certain animals since the city just isn't built for everyone [this is NOT Zootopia]. Ash's quills, and Meena's towering size were things I noticed too that would be massive problems, realistically. So after a lot of pondering, now we're here.

The world of Tone Deaf in present day is in a post-war period that's lasted about 50 years now [Crawly is actually a veteran from this war- which was more like complete and total anarchy if I'm being real, since there weren't really any sides until near the end...]

Long story short, the wealthy capitalized off of the war and taking people prisoner- so they purposefully kept it going. A resistance ended up forming to stand against this [Miss Crawly being one of the generals, with that classic missing eye] and after their army stormed the unsuspecting stronghold, the war finally began to conclude. It still took around a year after that to release all of the prisoners of war, and by the end of it all, the damage that had been done to some races was permanent. Even extinction-level in some cases- some animals just straight up don't exist anymore because of it.

Back to Calatonia. Laws that are in place to protect animals from tearing eachother apart are still relatively new, and the criminal underbelly of Calatonia is kinda out of control. Animals get kidnapped/poached, smaller animals are at a huge disadvantage and have basically no power [politically or otherwise], endangered species are a very real thing, poverty is a huge issue for most of the population- and in the middle of all this is Buster Moon.

He's gonna be the main perspective. And the story will also serve as a slight character study on him, mixed with my own grittier and batshit insane changes/headcanons/alternate universe ideas on his backstory. He's a ray of sunshine with a lot of bottled-up feelings that will kinda really take control of the story.

Buster has been arrested multiple times. He's been put in unsuccessful therapy. He's still grieving his dad. He's committing crime and compulsively lying about those illegal actions too. He has emotional difficulties that he hasn't dared try touching on in years, and he has issues with letting go- which, is kinda how all of his new problems come to be.

The threat of his theater being repossessed if his show isn't a success gets a LOT more emphasis too.

But on top of that is the added threat of Buster getting sent out of the city if he can't get his business up and running. Remember how I mentioned endangered animals?? Well Koalas are one of them. One of the big ones, actually. He's the only Koala in a city of almost five hundred thousand, and it's been that way for almost half a decade now. It's been causing issues for the people in charge for half a decade now. Koalas have government-protected settlements far away from here due to their numbers being so few, so if Buster loses the theater? That's the next step for him.

But, to help this poor dude through all the stress of life is the found-family he develops with the cast he hired. He helps them for a lot of the first act, and then they give back his kindness in the second. They connect through their similar experiences, as well as their shared passion for music and performance. And by the end, maybe Buster's okay. Or maybe he's had a complete downward spiral [not gonna speak of act three 🥰]

Other characters have also had a shift in their dynamics. Things in the story have changed. Like for instance- Gunter already knew Buster and was a close friend of him and Eddie before the show, Judith is now the mayor and a main character, Pete has been put in place of the banker in charge of Buster's accounts, Buster unfortunately gets involved in politics, Mike actually gets to bond with the cast- actually the cast gets to bond with the cast point blank period [idc what you say, this just straight up doesn't happen in the canon movies], and to top it all of is a generous helping of angst with a few acts of violence sprinkled in 🤭

The actual Act I summary is this right now:

Buster had been in tight situations before-- suffocating situations, even. He’d been in every kind of trouble imaginable, he thought. With family, friends, local businesses, the law. But he'd always wormed his way out, either through loopholes or by charm. Or usually just by stacking another lie on top of his already crumbling facade. But this time it's gonna take more than a cover-up to fix this. ‏‏‎ Buster’s dishonesty takes him too far once again, a simple typo causing him to unintentionally land himself in a wager that could cost his very life. He has two months to fix this- to ACTUALLY fix this. And the worst part is that he hadn't even meant to lie this time. ‏‏‎ The First Act of Tone Deaf.

TLDR; Buster learns to love again after experiencing the horrors of animalkind firsthand and being healed by theater kids LMFAO