#but as more knowledge of how that works came out

[colorlessjay]

A thought:

I love the idea is S6 Cas being both comforted and horrified at the same time by S16 Dean.

Like, he’s grateful to know that despite Dean’s work and how reckless he can sometimes be, he will live and seemingly come out of it at more comfort with himself.

However, the signs of age on him are a reminder of just how limited Dean’s time in compared to his. He hasn’t been around Dean enough to see those sort of signs yet really and now he’s confronted with them all at once.

Ya know, I actually had a lil think about this, but not from S6 Cas' perspective, but actually S16 Cas

Like, S16 Cas chooses to grow old with Dean, but at the same time, their life time together is merely a BLINK compared to the knowledge and millenniums Cas has lived through

I mean, Cas watched the rise of humanity. He was there when the first fish came onto land

In a sense, despite how much he loves the idea of growing old on earth with Dean, there's a sense of security in knowing that death means their eternity in heaven

But also a sense of dread knowing he'll have to watch Dean take his father breath later down the line. That for Cas, 'later down the line' feels so short, feels too soon. Cas has known of Dean's many deaths, but to witness it will break him, regardless of where he will end up.

Often Cas contemplates on asking Jack to erase his millennia old knowledge, so he can enjoy human years as they are intended

But at the same time, those memories shape who he is and who he has become. Gives him the perspective of the stages he's gone through to get to who he is now. And he likes change. He likes knowing he can still change and age like any other human

So when Dean one day comes up behind him, kissing that spot on the back of his neck his husband loves so much and says "Looks like you're going grey" in that teasing tone

Cas feels a sense of comfort

Because he's growing older

and he's doing it with Dean

--------

Okay good night

[malestransforming]

That Time I Became a Firefighter

The screech of the sirens damn well nearly deafened Lucas. Two firetrucks careened passed him, pulling up to the smoking house just up the road he was walking along.

Ahead he saw a bright red engines stop in the middle of the road, and a dozen firefighters jump out and go to work. They were all dressed in light brown clothing, with orange and silver reflective stripes around their wrists, chest and angles. Amid the chaos, they ran around carrying ladders, hoses and other equipment. They seemed cool and calm under pressure: totally in control of themselves and without worry. Admittedly it was hard for Lucas to truly know how they seemed as many of the firefighters had their faces covered by a breathing mask, but still it was nice to imagine.

Lucas found himself paused now, standing on the sidewalk, and staring at the commotion with his jaw slightly agape.

“Pretty cool, right?” A voice called out from beside him. He turned and saw a row of firefighters standing together watching him.

“Yeah… It is,” Lucas stammered a reply. The whole scene really did feel alive with emotion, and while “cool” wasn’t exactly the best description of someone’s house burning down, being a firefighter certainly beat the excitement of Lucas’ job at the Apple store.

One of the guys stepped forward, away from the rest of them, towards Lucas. He approached with a sooted hand outside. Lucas saw he had a heavy looking metal cylinder strapped to his shoulders.

“I’m Dave,” he said.

“Lucas,” Lucas replied, shaking his hand.

Dave gestured to the people running around them. Lucas saw they were dousing the house with water. Several of them carried large, pointed poles. The damage was extensive, and the situation was dire, but all Lucas could focus on were the firefighters with their awesome equipment, incredible physiques, and amazing jobs.

“Wanna give it a go?” Dave asked.

Lucas simply nodded. It was all he had ever wanted. He wanted to be a firefighter more than anything.

The changes began instantly. Lucas’ muscles grew stronger and thicker. His jeans became tighter as his spine cracked and lengthened. Powerful biceps grew onto his arms, replacing the weak noodles he had before. All the better, considering how much weight he would need to be pulling around. The rest of his frame filled out, creating a wider, huskier and more muscled build. He was bulky and wide but he was still able to move quickly and with purpose.

In his mind, Lucas gained new knowledge about fighting fires and fire safety. Exercising and working out became the most important action in his life.

Dave stood in front, proud of the man Lucas had grown into. “You feel okay, brother?”

A dopey grin spread across Lucas' face. He absentmindedly flicked a tangle of hair out from his eyes. “Hell yeah, Cap!” Lucas responded, his voice lower and huskier now.

“Good. Go get your gear and help the guys air out the second floor.”

Lucas ran over to the truck where he knew his bunker gear was. He kicked off his shoes and shoved his feet into the black boots before pulling up the pants and hooking the suspenders over his shoulders. He tossed his bunker coat over his beefy arms and zipped it up. He grabbed his air pack and strapped it to his back, putting the shoulder straps down with a hard tug.

His SCBA air mask hung down by his legs. Lucas grabbed it and shoved it down over his head. He snapped his helmet on top and clipped his air supply into the front of the mask, breathing the oxygen with a sharp hiss from the tank on his back.

A voice came over the radio telling Lucas to join the rest of the crew at the front of the building and start pulling down debris with a pike pole. Lucas grinned, relishing the excitement of his career. He looked down at himself dressed in brown bunker gear, and ran his gloved hand up and down the rough fabric. He looked fucking amazing and he felt even better.

[knuiui]

╮TWST Boys feat. "What's your perfume type? "

♡ HEARTSLABYUL ❣

the dorm based on the strict queen of hearts! since that 'certain' fiasco just a week after you and yuuken arrived the first friends you had is from this dorm! you still hangout with them from time to time especially during unbirthday parties! pictures of your outfits for the event always go viral.

╰ Riddle Rosehearts ♥

you and him got close after 'that' incident. you consider him as a smol hedgehog that needed to be protected 🥺 he almost dropped kicked your knee caps after you said that /j. but on serious note, riddle considers you as one of the most hard working person he's ever met aside from his mother. he'd been the witness of your grueling hours of practice just to get a character's accent right (yk cause you're not from here) and study what type of character you're playing as. he wished you'd take care of yourself more though. relaxing is good okay! he's been through the same road and he'd hate to see you suffer some sort of breakdown like he did, minus the homicidal tendencies.

he's seen that video. It practically went viral over at twistok the moment it was said to be you participating in the "What's your perfume type?" kind of questions.

acts cool but is actually panicking on the inside. really considered changing his perfume to match whatever you said was your type.

he didn't get to ofc. that perfume was practically sold out within 24 hours of the viral video being posted. you're fans really are very dedicated. instead he opted for a new fragrance that caught his eye while browsing the store.

════ “ What's his perfume? ”

Amouage, CRIMSON ROCKS

cater later did the whole trend as well for the members of heartslabyul dorm and asked him the question, he glared for a little bit before answering and hastily turning back to his books. if you squint you can see the tips of his ears almost color matched the shade of his hair.

he answered, "[your perfume]"

╰ Trey Clover ♣

this handsome mf almost had you groveling for him jk. you two has always been in good terms even before the whole heartslabyul fiasco, you darn nearly kneeled on one knee after he gave you a box of his divinely baked sweets. now he's the one that always supplies you snacks whenever you're at nrc campus for practice aside from jamil ofc. he admires how dedicated you are in getting all your scenes on one take. though, he wished you'd take time and eat properly, he can see how small the portion of the foods he brought you actually ate. you insists you'll eat it later but he's not having any of it. mom friend tbh.

of course he saw the video. he might not look like he uses social media daily but he does actually use it a lot more that an average person, his family's bakery has to advertise their products somehow yk?

when he came across it it didn't bother him that much. but now that he thinks about it, didn't his perfume ran out just a week ago? well maybe it's time for some replacement after all.

you'd think that trey is the kind of guy that prefers mild perfume or even something with vanilla on it, considering he always works with sweets. well he likes to subvert expectations sometimes.

════ “ What's his perfume? ”

Jo Malone, WOOD SAGE & SEA SALT

cater commented the same when it's trey's turn for the twistok trend. trey just smiled casually.

his answer to the question is, "[your perfume]" of course.

╰ Cater Diamond ♦

your bff. besties for life. he's the first one you actually really got along with, because his personality resembles a past friend of yours. you two have weekly meet ups at cute cafes or at the mall to chat and gossip about stuff. Oh sevens, mostly gossip actually. you two are the most knowledgeable with gossips and rumors that are floating around NRC and the entire internet in general. if people think their secret is safe with you, no honey, their secret is safe with you AND cater <3. you've definitely used a picture of his side profile or his back, in one of your stories and the internet almost bursted into flames at the prospect of you, the goddess amongst men dating someone. cater later dropped a short behind the scene video of you using instructing him to pose very non-celeb lover like style. the internet almost collapsed for the second time that day.

that original video has tens of millions of views on twistok, you'd have to be living in a rock or a house with bad wi-fi to have not been aware of its existence.

he's kinda chill with it on the outside, but the background of his latest magicam pictures that includes bottles of perfume and a few boxes of a certain women's perfume says otherwise.

if it's his perfume that you answered with he'd be all smug about it, even posting a story holding a full ass brand new bottle of it. but if it's not it's fine ig not, he'd feel indifferent of the matter because his own perfume is actually picked and gifted to him by you <3.

════ “ What's his perfume? ”

Chanel, PLATINUM EGOISTE

immediately did the trend a day after the video of you doing it was uploaded. he's bummed that he didn't get to do the trend with you first though.

he'd mysteriously winked at the camera after answering, "[your perfume] girls are goddesses, y'all are drop dead gorgeous <3."

╰ Deuce Spade ♠

this doofus is a part of yuu's gang of idiots of course you two are close! you treat him like your little brother at times ouch. deuce often tags along yuu when he visits your sets, he'd only ever seen your neat and crisp appearance when you're in NRC uniform so imagine his gobsmacked face when he saw your disheveled appearance on set (you have to play a captured hostage). he almost called crewel because he knows that his professor would definitely fly into a rage if he saw his precious daughter covered in dirt and soot, ... yuu had to explain to him while you died laughing in the corner. he definitely teared up when he finally saw you acting out a gut wrenching scene for your character. deuce has always believed that you're special beyond your lack of magical prowess and finally he has been proven right.

ace showed him a video, it has clips of the viral one of you doing the twistok trend but the poster added screenshots of the perfumes you mentioned.

if it's not his perfume that you mentioned he definitely deflated a little bit, it's fine though, his mother bought a bunch of perfumes and she gave him his perfume because it's a bundle freebie with hers.

considered changing his perfume to the one you mentioned but he took one look at his wallet and that idea was shut down immediately.

but, if you chose the perfume carolina herrera good girl, he'll definitely malfunction on the spot. because his mom told him that perfume specifically is the partner of his own.

════ “ What's his perfume? ”

Carolina Herrera, BAD BOY

when cater came up to him asking what his perfume is, he innocently answered. this poor oblivious boy..

he only realized that it's the twistok trend when he saw the video cater posted, he sulked a little bit but did not regret his answer.

he'd blink then say, "Oh, Carolina herrera I think? the pink shoe one. " quite proudly, it's his mom's perfume.

╰ Ace Trappola 🂡

both of you hated each other's guts. considering the fact that you saw him fighting grim and insulting yuu, adding that his brash personality is very much exaggerated to you by the said cat. ace is definitely the least favorite of yours in yuu's band of idiots. this mf also doesn't know how to watch his tone so when he joked about something it sounded more like an insult. but long story short you two get along the second best now. disregarding the fact that you two almost became enemies to lovers got off the wrong foot, you two usually hang out in this quiet spot near the gym whenever he has basketball practice and you need a quiet place to do script readings the tranquility of the area are only ever broken when a loud screeching from floyd would ring from inside the gym.

yeah, yeah, he's seen it. heck! practically everyone has. he'd always be enchanted by your smell but now he knows what perfume to gift you once you ran out of a bottle <3

he'd act so nonchalant about it you wouldn't notice he'd subtly try to change his perfume however like deuce, he took a look at his savings and it said 'nope'!

he'll be a smug fucker if you said his perfume's name tho

════ “ What's his perfume? ”

Killian, BLACK PHANTOM

he'd blinked whe cater said the question while simultaneously shoving his phone to his face, then he smirks smugly and say,

"[your perfume], of course" while looking straight to the camera, as if talking to someone.

you're very loved by Heartslabyul, darling! Make sure to not forget to drop by sometimes very soon! they just miss you so much, your busy schedule be damned there will be an unbirthday party next week make sure to wear your best dress, beloved Alice! ~

[miange1]

no cuz stop😭

jack twist, elwood dalton, david loki, who accidentally hits their boyfriend in the face like REALLY hard

but their boyfriend is a people pleaser and says it's fine over and over again while they're trying to move his hand and help💀

JACK TWIST, ELWOOD DALTON, DAVID LOKI, accidentally hitting their boyfriend in the face

male reader, use of 'doll'/'hon' or sum i forgot, broken noses, bleeding, yelling, worry turns into worried anger, jack twist is a switch, nothing to do with the fic, just saying, i have no knowledge on how wind words, foldable chairs are not to be used as weapons, everyone was holding something, on elwoods bit reader doesn't know elwood after retirement if that makes sense, not proofread, ever

JACK TWIST

— it happened when he needed you to help move the horses gear, and some of the fishing equipment to a different place since it was getting a bit colder and he didn't want the wind blowing out any fire or accidentally making it bigger than it needs to be

— he was trying to move one of the chairs and was talking to you but wasn't really able to see where you were since he was in a bit of a rush.

"yeah and that son of'a bitch don'—" the chair hit you smack dab in your face, most of it hitting your eyelid area.

the only noise he heard was the tiny 'ow!' and your hat hitting the ground.

— trying to get your hand off your eye, and saying sorry hoping you weren't absolutely pissed at him just for you to constantly say it's fine, and you were fine, and he didn't need to worry about it.

— he does not let that happen.

"c'mere.." he sat you down, finding a first aid which he was lucky he remembered he packed it. "shit doll it's swollen." his accent got thicker with worry while trying to take more of a look at it.

"it is? oh, that's okay i can–" "hush it." "okay."

ELWOOD DALTON

before retirement

— do not come up behind this man when he's stressed.

— probably has a little area like a basement he goes to train below or let off some steam. you were coming down to let him know that the food was ready but he was too drowned out to really hear you.

"el!" you tapped him, biggest mistake. he freaked out and punched you in the face thinking you were some robber or something.

— only freaks out even more, muttering a bunch of curses and saying sorry a shit load.

"move your hand i broke your fuckin' nose!" "no, no, it's okay i'll walk it off—" "move your damn hand!"

after retirement

— you worked in the bar and he was helping out clean the rest of the mess after cleaning out the guys who had messed it up in the first place.

— he was moving a bit of the tables and chairs and while doing that you came up behind him, unfortunately while he had been moving a table and it hit your face making you fall over.

"oh, my god i just hit you in your face, are you okay?!" he set the table down instantly just to see you shaking your head trying to get up on your own.

"it's alright, no issues!" "you're bleeding!"

DAVID LOKI

— poor guy, feels bad even after whether he shows it or not.

— got forced to move around some stuff cause some guy got fired and he needed help getting his desk cleaned out. for one , he was already mad , for two he was about to get even angrier and he did not have the time for that.

— was moving around some sort of box and you came out of absolutely nowhere.

"hey davi- loki, sorry, do you have the files for– ah!" "what the fuck..? oh, what the fuck!"

— took him a bit to realize, he forgot about moving the stuff and instantly came to your aid. was worried without the blood, got even more worried with the blood.

"shit, shit, shit.." "is it bleeding?" he had pulled you up to get you some sort of aid and wipe off the blood. could care less if you were fine, you were his boyfriend and he didn't want you to just be bleeding cause of him, accident or not.

— let you take about a five minute break before he had to get back to work.

"be careful next time, alright?" he kissed your forehead, patting your cheek very lightly. "m'kay, see you at home."

[mixelation]

a bit of the blood covenant (the minato/oc fic). working title is "renka is a liar"

what could she be lying about.....?

I’m going to fuck up that guy’s whole life, was the only thought in my mind as I lept through the trees. 

Every time I came down on a new branch, my right thigh screamed in protest. It would scream again as I came back up, hurling myself as ungracefully as a new genin to my next landing. 

But, dear reader, I have advice for you: if you want to kill a medic, make sure you make a killing blow. Don’t just leave her for dead and assume she’ll crawl off and die like a good girl.

I’m not Shisui, I thought furiously, pausing in my sloppy run as the temple I was aiming for came into sight. Fuck off, Danzo. 

I leaned against the trunk of the tree, panting heavily. Through the branches, I could see the curving roof of the temple. There were a lot of old abandoned buildings out here, dotting the forests of Fire Country, and this one didn’t stand out as special. I only knew where it was because I’d previously found it by happenstance, and I only recognized it as important by chance knowledge. I had never been inside before. 

Pausing my run had been a mistake. The loss of momentum meant that I was aware of how shaky and weak my legs felt. I made a clumsy jump for the forest floor and had to turn my landing into an embarrassing roll. 

If anyone was following me, they were far enough behind that I couldn’t sense them. I could see the spiral emblem on the door of the temple. I limped forward confidently, using my left hand to push more healing chakra into the hole in my leg, which I would generously describe as “gaping” but was definitely less gaping than when Danzo had stabbed it into me. 

I’ll get both his legs, I thought as I pushed open the temple door. Ugh, it’s going to scar!

The movement of the door tossed an enormous amount of dust into the air, making my eyes water. The air smelled stale and musty. The windows were boarded up, and only a few sickly strands of moonlight illuminated the innards of the Uzumaki temple. 

I had to stop my healing to activate my sharingan. I could usually do both at once, obviously, but I’d been running on nothing but adrenaline and spite for too long, and my body currently did not contain nearly enough blood as it should, and I was starting to get dizzy. 

The sharingan did nothing to enhance color vision, but with it I only needed the smallest source of light to make out the contents of the temple clearly. There were some hanging scrolls and abandoned, rotting furniture, which I ignored. My eyes went straight for a wall of masks along the back wall. 

I limped into the temple. I had some trepidation about which mask was the one I wanted, but looking at them, I knew instantly. 

It wasn’t that the mask looked unordinary or that my sharingan could pick up something special. The mask was painted wood, a grinning demon’s face with curling horns. Nothing was special about its craftsmanship, and my sharingan could detect no jutsu on it. 

And yet, to look into its eyes, was to see the inevitability of your own death. 

A hint of fear tingled in my spine. A bad omen, my superstitious mother would have said. 

That was fine, though. I’d been staring down the inevitability of my own death for over two decades. I no longer gave a shit, except that if I had to die, I was doing it as explosively as possible. It was this or nothing. 

I pulled the mask for the wall and lifted it to my face. 

If you kill me, I thought at the mask, make sure you bring that asshole down with me, will you?

xXx

Dear reader, here is what you need to know about me.

My name is Uchiha Renka. I was raised by a great aunt after both my parents died in the Second Shinobi War. My hobbies include reading, baking, and dabbling in make-up and fashion. After a lot of study and hard work, I have passed most medic-nin competencies and work mainly in the hospital. 

I am a painfully normal sort of young woman, as you can see. At least for a ninja. I work my shifts, and I treat myself to a new book once a week. The most scandalous thing I do, aside from occasionally going out on state-mandated missions that sometimes include various types of murder, is sometimes try weird shades of lipstick when I go out drinking with the girls. We even have a three drink maximum. I did not do anything to merit the fucking headhunt after me except exist as an Uchiha. 

And… well, okay, I’ll admit something, just between us. Another thing you should know about me is that, even if my main goals in life are to help people at the hospital and then go home and read a good book over some hot tea on my balcony, I do have a bit of a fatal flaw. It’s nothing more than a basic Uchiha family trait, really:

I am just a teensy-weensy bit vindictive. 

It got me into trouble a few times growing up, but it’s really nothing too bad. It definitely wasn’t enough to make me deserve the absolute clusterfuck you just read about. You make one mistake, and next thing you know, your boss is calling you a vile woman and a disgusting, cowardly failure and trying to kill you. 

Well, fuck him, honestly. I’d survived everything up until him, and I wasn’t going down without a fight. 

I wasn’t one hundred percent sure how the shinigami mask worked when I put it on. I thought I could maybe use the shinigami to chuck Danzo and-slash-or “Madara” into the afterlife for good. My second choice was to bring back Tobirama and have him tell off my enemies and maybe my clan for… whatever the hell they were doing. 

Honestly. All I wanted was to sit in my patio chair with a blanket and read…

I ended up vomiting up the Fourth Hokage instead. 

I know. It sounds gross. I know. But I’m not making any of this up. I put on the mask, and it was like the shinigami was inside me, and then inside of the shinigami was this horrible squirming feeling. I wanted it out. I needed it out. 

I threw up. It felt awful, worse than any vomiting session I’d had before, my whole body retching. The mask fell off my face. 

Then the Fourth Hokage was standing in front of me.

[lenniexprime]

Rejection.

“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.”- C. S. Lewis

┍━━━━━»•» «•«━┑

tfa! optimus x teen! senior! reader.

rejection fucking sucks dude. I hate getting those rejection letters. I really do. But honestly, I can't help but appreciate and be thankful for the schools I've gotten into. However, something about this is grief is only letting me cope through writing it. Share it with me, yeah?

┕━»•» «•«━━━━━┙︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶ - Not Edited

Look at you... A college-bound senior, getting ready to take on whatever comes your way.

You've made it thus far...what can stop you now? The challenges are getting good grades, staying on top of things, and doing well on every test. You stayed up most nights, studying or doing homework. You've skipped out on days at the base or to hang with the rest of your friends on days or weeks before tests.

You may have messed around years before, but this year, this is your senior year. No room for mistakes, no room for too much error.

You've impressed yourself and others with such determination to get good grades on everything.

If you were being honest with yourself, that really wasn't the hard part. The hard part was the fact that you had to apply to colleges, get the right documents in, and ask for recommendation letters.

The stress took and is still taking over the majority of your whole life.

If you didn't think the weekends were getting more like weekdays before, then you definitely are now. You could barely catch a break and if you ever did it was so hard to get back into the grind of things. As time went on, you found you had little interest in doing things you enjoyed before. You looked at your video games differently, you could barely stay entertained for a whole movie, and your homework wasn't getting any more interesting.

One day, you were sitting in base, telling Sari about the dangers that are ahead of her in the years coming, but when two bots came in just as you were talking about how you found no interest in things anymore, she couldn't stop but just stare back at you while staring at the bots behind her, working on something.

You honestly didn't care about talking in front of the bots about your problems though. You didn't think they'd care that much about the situation.

Sari couldn't get the look of worry off of her little face as she stared between you and the bots. You didn't care much about it until she got up and left as soon as Bumblebee came.

You sigh and lay back on the couch, looking to the side, hearing thumps behind you.

"We are no strangers to losing interest in what we may use to enjoy due to excessive stress, but that does not mean you can't try," Ratchet says crossing his arms. "It is always nice to have a hobby or something to distract you," Optimus chimes in, his deep voice making you finally look back. You sigh.

"Also we're here, it doesn't hurt to talk to others during times of struggle," He adds.

Ratchet then walks off, leaving Optimus and you behind.

"My communication issues suck, but not only that but it's hard for me to try to communicate my teenage feelings to a 8-year-old and alien robots who have little to no knowledge of what I could be going through in here," You point at your head.

"Yes, we may not know, but at least you know you have a support system," he says quietly. "You were talking to Sari earlier, yes?" he asks rhetorically.

You close your eyes, shaking your head, putting it down. "Yeah Optimus, thank you," you mumble. "It's just hard, plus not only do I have to stay on top of grades, but I'm really nervous about being accepted to these schools," you say, hands motioning how you feel.

You look up at him again. "I'm scared of getting rejected..denied..worse," I say mumbling again.

Optimus looked at you, living in his own stress and despair, it's not easy seeing such a young human like you stress like he does. Everyone has their own responsibilities, but it gets to a point. He doesn't want you to be scared of rejection, he wants you to accept it, to learn from it, to push you through it. He remembers how he was, getting kicked out of the academy, he felt rejected and denied. He was still trying to recover. He wants you to understand that it's okay to make mistakes, to make tough decisions, or to be okay with a school denying you. It didn't define who he was (partially) so it shouldn't defy you.

"I understand your fear, I was there once, I had the pain of being denied, of being rejected almost," He went on, sitting next to you. "You have to understand that rejection and failure make us stronger people," He finishes, looking at you. "Don't be afraid to be sad, but don't let it take over your whole life. It's one moment out of many successes you're yet to have." He smiles at you. You smile back, finding some peace in what he had spoken to you. Maybe he found peace in his own words too.

[florencechase]

So I came across the Mayfair Witches thing with Lestat and Felix, and like pretty much everyone on here I was bummed but then I though about it for a very long time, went through the books again and… here’s how I think they can still make it work. Just as a disclaimer though, I’ve only fully read IWTV and TVL, and am currently like 1/3 through QOTD, so if there’s anything in the books after that that disproves my theory I’m sorry! But since the Lestat/Felix arc takes place towards the end of IWTV, I thought I’d still give it a go.

So the main issue here that people bring up is that if Lestat taught Felix to “cull the herd”, he can’t be book Lestat because book Lestat admits to only killing the “evildoers”, so why would he tell Felix to be so merciless? The answer: it’s complicated.

Lestat, the book and the show version, is unfortunately (or fortunately because that’s part of what makes him so interesting) a man who often does the opposite of what he says. I took a closer look at his first moments with Gabrielle after he turns her, and we have a similar situation in which he’s teaching her how to kill. Here’s an excerpt from it:

“I found a victim as soon as we had crossed the river […] [a]nd as I lured the victim out of the tavern, as I teased him, maddened him, and then took him, I knew I was showing off for her, making it a little crueler, more playful. And when the kill came, it had an intensity to it that left me spent afterwards.” (TVL, p. 147)

When he’s teaching others how to kill, he likes to show off. Simple as that. I’m sure the victim he chose was a criminal, like most his victims, but the point is he never told Gabrielle that. To her knowledge what Lestat just did was brutally murder some random man. Two pages later we have the following passage when Gabrielle makes her first kill and it’s the guy on the horse she ends up stealing the clothes from:

“I was shaken. The innocence of her victims didn’t trouble her. She didn’t fight my moral battles. But then I didn’t fight them anymore either, so why should I judge her? Yet the ease witch which she slew the young man – gracefully breaking his neck when the little drink she took was not enough to kill him – angered me tough it had been extremely exciting to watch. She was colder than I. She was better at all of it, I thought. Magnus had said, “Show no mercy.” But had he meant us to kill when we did not have to kill?” (TVL, pp. 149-150)

Lestat obviously doesn’t feel comfortable killing innocent people, but there’s not one scene in which he either tells someone he’s having moral dilemmas with it, or tells others they shouldn’t kill innocent people. It’s his thing, and it’s his struggle, but he never shares it until he writes about it in TVL. Here’s another excerpt that highlights this:

“When [Louis] says I played with innocent strangers, befriending them and then killing them, how was he to know that I hunted almost exclusively among the gamblers, the thieves, and the killers, being more faithful to my unspoken vow to kill the evildoer than even I had hoped I would be?” (TVL, pp. 434-435)

The key phrase here is “how was he to know”, so Louis had no idea! All this time he spent with Louis, and he never told him that’s what he was doing! Which brings me back to the show, to the reunion moment where Lestat tells Louis “I don’t like to point out my virtues.”

Of course, in the context he’s talking about not telling him he saved him at the trial, but it’s a pretty general statement about himself and it’s true, so far, in the book. He only kills innocent people, never tells anyone about it. He saves Louis at the trial, never tells anyone about it. And while I’ve seen some theories about how him not telling Louis he saved him was part of some pact he made with Armand, I’m just going to take things at face value here until the show proves otherwise.

Lestat always claims he’s “evil” in the books, but he does a whole bunch of stuff to disprove that. I think part of why he doesn’t let people know his good deeds is because there’s a part of him that wants to be perceived as the “evil monster” that he sees himself as. It’s the biggest irony ever for Lestat out of all vampires to claim he’s evil when he’s never acted with malicious intent (in the books, but I would even say in the show as well but the show is more complex in that regard).

The big thing about Lestat, which would also set him apart from show!Louis is that he does his thing and lets others do their thing. He doesn’t interfere with others, doesn’t tell them how to live their lives “the correct way”. Sure, he has many heated discussions about it with Nicki, but those are not him telling Nicki he should live according to his philosophy just because he thinks it’s the correct way to view life. Nicki hates himself at that point, which just gets worse with his way of thinking, and Lestat’s trying to pull him out of that. Nicki’s worldview is actively harmful to him and at least part of the reason for his eventual demise. But that’s not really relevant here, so I’m just going to leave it at that.

Which brings me back to Felix and Lestat. Did he, at some point, go out of his shack to kill people to show Felix how to do it? Not necessarily. The show doesn’t say he did, he could’ve simply just told him how to do it, he did after all figure it out himself too. It’s pretty intuitive I suppose for a vampire, and even when Claudia does her first kill Lestat isn’t shown killing first. He waits in the car with Louis and Claudia manages just fine.

Lestat knows what’s in their nature as vampires, but he himself doesn’t follow it at all times. It’s implied in one of the excerpts above, when he says he’s “being more faithful to [his]unspoken vow to kill the evildoer than even [he] had hoped [he] would be.” He’s not holding himself to any strict rules or high standards here. He’s trying his best, and if he takes an innocent life, he probably feels uncomfortable about it (while he secretly enjoys the feeling) but he’s probably just like “oh well.”

And with Felix, it could absolutely be a situation of do as I say, not as I do. He teaches him what’s in their nature, but he himself chooses to do differently. That, to me, sounds quite a lot like book!Lestat.

Besides, another aspect I’d like to point out is the definition of the word “cull”. Since English isn’t my native language, I had to look it up to really get all the nuances it implies. Here’s what google says:

“Selective slaughter”. Now here’s where I might be wrong and please correct me if I am, but since there are parallels to Darwin in MW, couldn’t that also imply selectively killing a particular group of people? As in, weed out the evildoers, or the weakest who don’t have a chance of survival anyways (as Lestat does after Louis tries to kill him)? The latter would make sense with the Darwin parallel. What we see in MW may be skewed through Felix’ perspective. I haven’t watched MW, but these things happen all the time in IWTV. Killing mercilessly may be only his interpretation of what Lestat said.

TL;DR: Lestat understands vampiric nature well enough to teach others how to kill “like a vampire” when he himself still chooses to do differently. He also doesn’t “like to point out [his] virtues” which is why he never actually told anyone he only kills criminals.

[seththeforestgiant]

VAT7K ARCANE AU!!! #arcane vat7k au!!!

OKAYOKAY so like what if

Varian comes from the undercity but he was found by Heimerdinger when he was rlly young so he hasn't gotten the chance to really taste the life on the streets.

Hugo, on the other hand, saw his parents die at a very young age, so young that he barely remembers them. He used to live on the streets, barely surviving until *a parental figure* found him and took him in.

You'd think he was lucky, but his life was never easy. He had to work in order to get food and shit yk had to do some dirty jobs and steal. He was REALLY smart and made snarky comments or played pranks all the time which got him into trouble a lot. Hugo was always into the theathrics, working for his family/employer but still seeming like he lives on his own terms. He was involved with the *parental figure's* gang and had access to some pretty illegal supplies.

Meanwhile Hugo was trying to survive, Varian got the opportunity to actually grow. Him and his father had been invited to live amongst Piltover's richest and most luxurious people. Rapunzel/Cait had become one of his best friends, sort of like a sister (Maybe Vi could be flynn, a previous thief that has come to the "good side"). Varian was always really smart and became the most known and admired inventor in all of Piltover, making the city famous for his inventions that improved lives daily.

When he came across the magic of moonstones, heimerdinger forbid him from continuing his research in that field. He was scared of their power and the dangers that kind of knowledge could create.

Varian, however, was not discouraged (maybe he was trying to heal his father with them or some shit idk). One day he snuck out into the black market of the undercity to gather some questionable supplies and stumbeld across Hugo.

Hugo's parent/employer, when they heard about Varian's work tasked him with befriending the scientist and idk somehow fuck up Piltover from the inside.

So blah blah balh Hugo gets brought into the labs and pretends to have good intentions, befriends varian, falls in love with him and when his betrayal is revealed shit goes down.

But like @imanalbertross said they don't rlly like eachother at first?? Like Varian feels threathened in his position and Hugo kinda catches feelings really fast then plays it off by being annoying and making fun of varian which just makes varian dislike him more at first

So hugo kinda treats him as this stupid but kinda cute rich boy

Please give me more ideas!! I want to develop this au :)

-how can we incorporate varian's mother into this??

-and the library of knowledge?

Credit goes to me and the two very cool ppl that gave me ideas (screens below!!) Tysm!! @imanalbertross @mustardonaraccoon

Edit: OH AND MAYBE HUGO DOESNT KNOW THAT VARIAN WAS ORIGINALLY FROM THE UNDERCITY BUT DONELLA KNOWS THAT BCS SHE KNEW VARIAN'S MOTHER THE PLOT THICKENSSS

[headfullof-ideas]

Okay, at some point I’m sure that it seems like I’m just coming up with my own versions of AU’s when someone else announces theirs and I immediately respond with ‘oh, I have one of those too!😃’ BUT I SWEAR I’M NOT! I was just left to my own devices for several years, with no way of getting online and interacting with the tiny fandom of The Deep, and so came up with all my own generic AU’s. And only remember I have the small, underdeveloped ones when someone else posts one of their own, because currently I’m only posting about the ones I’ve developed a lot of lore for and have an actual coherent story for.

On to why I wrote that whole fore note, httyd-nerd’s age-swap AU reminded me that I too have an Age Swap AU. Because that’s a pretty consistent AU that some fandoms have in some way, I feel like, so of course I made one of my own for funsies. However, unlike @httyd-nerd, I didn’t do mine with Ant and Alpheus. I did it with Ant and Fontaine.

The gist I had, and then further came up with on my way home from work which is when I had this very reminded thought, was Ant and Fontaine’s ages were swapped. Ant was still the Chosen One, though I hadn’t gotten quite far or dedicated enough into figuring out how he was. Maybe there wasn’t ever the rule of ‘youngest member of the family will be the Chosen One’ in this timeline (which means there’s probably something similar for the Ephymacron; ie anyone in the family can use it). Or maybe it was supposed to be the youngest, but when the Scepter was scoping out its options, it decided it didn’t really like either Fontaine or Alpheus, and then stumbled across Ant and went ‘👀tell me more’.

+

Ant: There ain’t no way my little sister is getting saddled with this responsibility, I’m taking it *doesn’t realize that’s not how it works*

The Guardians, thinking that Ant somehow stubborned his way into bending the rules of the Scepter: *to the Scepter* Why didn’t you pick Fontaine?

The Scepter: Didn’t want that one. Or the other one, that one sucks by the way, what were you thinking?

The Guardians: But…it’s supposed to be the youngest of the royal lines!

The Scepter: Screw that, I want this one. He’s funny

The Guardians: But-

The Scepter: My last one wasn’t the youngest either! You can’t make me pick the other two! This one’s mine!

+

Along this line, Alpheus thinks that Fontaine is supposed to be the Chosen One, and is creepy toward her the same way he was with Ant. And if the youngest rule doesn’t exist, he’s just spiteful toward both Nekton kids because Nereus likes them more so of course it’s all their fault. Regardless of which one, Ant just makes it his mission to keep Alpheus as far away from Fontaine as possible, because there’s NO way he’s leaving that creepy eighteen year old around his baby sister.

In the scenario where it’s assumed it’s the youngest, Alpheus tries to do his whole nemesis shpeel, but is interrupted by Ant kicking down the door of his moonpool and storming the submarine in the Swamp Knight. Every other interaction with Fontaine Alpheus has to try, he’s dragged away by his feet by her wildly overprotective older brother. It comes out that, somehow, Ant’s the Chosen One and Ant’s like ‘finally a better excuse to get this guy alone and kick his butt’. Alpheus sweats when he realizes it’s actually indeed Ant he has to deal with and not Fontaine, and nopes out of the Lemuria business from the fear alone of being left entirely alone with Ant.

And in the scenario where Alpheus has some decency and doesn’t act creepy with the little girl, it’s because he decided that she’s not nemesis material and definitely not the Chosen One (this would be in the scenario where the rule of youngest doesn’t exist, so the Guardians aren’t sure if it’s Ant or Fontaine). He has requirements for a nemesis, and this pesky little girl doesn’t meet any of them. So he focuses on Ant, who takes it if it means he stays away from the rest of his family, but there’s a running gag where Alpheus just gets SO annoyed with Fontaine because she buts in and just makes herself a problem anyways by kicking his ankles or pressing all the buttons on his chair and control panels and being a general nuisance, and he just wants her to stop.

Finn and Maddie would also be swapped here, because if Finn and Fontaine still had their baby romance plot it’d be creepy if Finn was still the same age (though the thought of ten year old Maddie beefing with a fifteen-sixteen year old Ant is hilarious, and very in character). This is where I’m not sure where the ages in this AU would lie, because Finn and Maddie have a different age gap than Ant and Fontaine, and I want them all to be somewhat around the same age as their respective pirate/Nekton. So it would probably be Ant and Maddie being 16-17 respectively at the start, with Ant being fifteen and then turning sixteen early on in the show while Maddie turns eighteen much later. And Fontaine and Finn would be 12-13, with Fontaine turning thirteen much later on when it’s her birthday. This also makes it slightly better regarding the Alpheus and Ant situation, though Alpheus is still Alpheus and we all know how he is.

Maddie would be the First Mate of the Dark Orca, and Finn’s the baby pirate who doesn’t really know if he actually wants to be a pirate, and has a little more leeway and freedom because Maddie’s the perfect pirate and Hammerhead doesn’t pay much attention to him. Maddie sometimes resents Finn a little bit, because she feels she had to take over as ‘Mom’ for him, especially as one of/the only woman on the whole sub, which means she’s also fighting tooth and nail against all the male crew members who don’t want a lady running things when Hammerhead retires. She still dotes on Finn and just thinks he hasn’t filled his pirate boots yet. All the older boys at the Floating Market deal with a huffy little brother standing in between them and Captain Hammerhead’s pretty daughter. Maddie being the older sibling takes care of Finn a lot, with a mix of genuine care and also internalized resentment at being the one to take care of Finn instead of their Dad. She throughout the series starts to develop some angst with Hammerhead about it, and eventually resolves to get Finn out of the Dark Orca if he doesn’t want to stay when she finally takes over.

Maddie once babysat for Fontaine as a favor for Ant, though Fontaine doesn’t quite realize it was her because they were both so much younger, and Maddie hadn’t started wearing makeup and jewelry and quality pirate boots at that time. It was around the time that Ant and Maddie were the same age as they are in canon, in which Fontaine and Finn weren’t old enough to be involved in any shenanigans. Ant and Maddie met each other before Finn and Fontaine because of this, and had their whole ‘i despise you and want nothing to do with you -> wanna hang out and talk about sea monsters’ arc before their little siblings got involved. They were best friends by the time Fontaine and Finn were old enough to start getting involved, and have all sorts of inside jokes. They got a little dismayed when they found out they have to start keeping an eye on their respective siblings during their families interactions, instead of just chilling in the vents and talking about the latest events in their lives and sea monsters. Kaiko and Will found out about Ant and Maddie a few years after they started to get along, and almost grounded Ant over it. Eventually, they acquiesced to not doing anything about it when Ant pointed out he didn’t have many other kids his age that lived a somewhat similar lifestyle to talk to. They turn a blind eye, a bit judge mental about Maddie’s lifestyle but aware that she and Ant seem to be genuine friends. Ant’s made a point to not make them aware of the fact that he’s been letting Maddie into the Aronnax to take home leftovers for her and Finn for years. Hammerhead is still wildly and blissfully unaware of it all.

Fontaine and Ant are like a ‘Overly cheerful and optimistic older brother and teenage angst filled little sister’ dynamic. Fontaine thinks Ant is childish for his age and SO embarrassing in public. She tells everyone she meets that she’s an only child. Ant thinks she needs to lighten up on the teenage angst and drama and tells everyone all about his adorable but angsty little sister. He’s also got about a hundred photos of her in his phone because her facial expressions are fun to turn into memes and mood boards, and not just because it drives her nuts every time he does it. Ant’s the older, loving, semi-responsible but genuinely caring brother, and Fontaine is at the age where her personality makes her a little bit of a jerk and an absolute pain and twerp to deal with (listen, at the age she’s at, with her personality and flaws? She’d be kind of a butt, let’s be real)

Jess and Ant’s relationship is also swapped here along with Jess’s age, but not in the same extremes that it is in canon. Jess has a bit of a crush on Ant, in that she thinks he’s really nice and super cool and not bad looking, BUT it’s just a puppy crush, and she’s aware he has a girlfriend and is self-aware enough to know that their age gap isn’t great. BUT. She makes it out as a bigger thing than it is because she KNOWS how much it drives Fontaine nuts when she sweet-talks Ant and acts weird around him, and she feeds off of chaos. Especially at her bff’s expense. Fontaine is dying over her best friend talking about how cute her older brother is because he’s NOT, he’s SO ANNOYING, STOPPIT JESS!! Ant wasn’t immediately aware of Jess having a puppy crush on him until Kari pointed it out, but he knows that she knows he has a girlfriend and he knows that it’s not a serious thing. And he knows she’s using it to her advantage to mess with his sister so he just laughs about it with Fontaine. (Jess also thinks Kari is super awesome and cute too, developing her own baby crush on Kari when she finally meets her in person too)

Ant angst, because it’s me and I have to! Ant is considerably older than Fontaine, and slightly parentified-eldest daughter syndromed. But! Not because Kaiko and Will did that to him, they’re good parents and this isn’t slander. It’s just that Ant is considerably older than Fontaine, and so capable of helping with more aroudn the Aronnax than she is, and so deals with a lot more of the actual running and maintenance of the ship than she does. He helps with more risky missions and he looks after Fontaine when Kaiko and/or Will are busy with their own work, because they DO have jobs, the Aronnax needs funding somehow. He’s got some Eldest Daughter Syndrome, and he’s internalized some parentification, but it’s not because of his parents, it’s because the lifestyle he grew up in caused it to happen.

Fontaine is oblivious to all of this because she’s an angsty lil’ bean living in her own world of teenage angst and drama. Because all of her friends live on land and go to the mall and school, and she’s stuck on a submarine doing admittedly cool things, but she’s stuck with her ‘over-bearing’ older brother and doesn’t get to do cool land things like everyone else her age. Nobody understands her! (Said with an angsty little undercut because she’s just So Dramatic like that) It isn’t until all the Lemuria stuff starts to happen, and Ant doesn’t want his baby sister to deal with all of that so he automatically just takes the responsibility himself to save her from it, because these Guardians are weird, and set off a little warning bell in his head. Fontaine thinks he just wants the glory of the Chosen One and is so full of himself, and the Guardians think Ant is so certain of his role and ready to fill it. When in actuality, he’s just trying to keep his little sister out of a potentially dangerous situation, and so throws himself into it instead because he’s her older brother, and that’s his job. Fontaine doesn’t realize how much Ant actually does around the Aronnax and how stressed he was before all of the Lemuria stuff happens, and it gets worse and she starts to notice how tired and stressed he is. Cue the guilty angst, with Fontaine trying to step up and take a little of the weight off his shoulders.

(Little sibling feeling helpless while watching older sibling try to take the weight of the world and refuse help angst, enter stage left)

I should also mention that Fontaine doesn’t think Kari’s Ant’s girlfriend. She knows of Kari. She’s hung out with Kari. She loves when Kari comes over. She thinks Kari’s the coolest person ever in fact. Which is exactly why she doesn’t think Ant and Kari are dating. Because there’s no way that Kari, the super awesome girl who dresses really cool and has a pet lizard which is a little weird but Kari makes it cool, would be into Fontaine’s dorky dumb older brother. She’s devastated when she finds out that Kari is indeed into Fontaine’s dork dumb older brother, and that it was him who got her the cool lizard to begin with. Ant and Kari didn’t know that Fontaine didn’t know. They fully thought she knew. They don’t do too much/any PDA around her (at least none she notices), and they don’t go around announcing that they’re girlfriend/boyfriend. They don’t hide it, but it’s not the first thing they announce to the room. And because they were friends before they started dating, Kari had been coming over for years. And they’re super comfortable with each other without having to kiss every seven minutes, and totally fine with just lazing on the couch in sweatpants binge watching a show and munching on a party size bag of chips.

They thought it was super obvious. Kaiko and Will know. They don’t go around hiding the fact either. Ant even brought it up at dinner when they first started going out. He brought Kari over for dinner as his official girlfriend one night. Fontaine however, is an angsty little tweenager who lives in her own world of angsty teenage drama, and just totally missed that Ant and Kari were dating. It’s one of the worst things she’s ever learned when she finally realizes the fact.

Thaaat’s the big majority of it I think. I only ever did a few drawings, and I might do updated ones now. Maybe a fic some years down the line. But i have now shared and eased my conscience of my own version of the Age Swap AU

[feelo-fick]

I WANT ENDLESS BLISS!!!

HALF-AWAKE, HALF-DEAD, HALF-LIFE CRISIS

ALL NATURAL POMEGRANATE PULP.

FERMENTED TO PERFECTION, SAVOUR YOUR SAVIOR.

Q: What's your favourite food? A: THE ALE THEY SERVE AT THE TAVERN!

other versions : )

[can-of-slorgs]

The other researchers are also here! (magical edition!)

[adreamingrevenant]

[itspileofgoodthings]

also I had a breakthrough today that I had in fact overthought a Specific Problem to Death and that I had created a monster in my own mind and that’s why it felt like I was being eaten alive every time I tried to solve it.

[hotsugarbyglassanimals]

it's probably the sunnier weather that's doing stuff to my brain to make me more optimistic but it's so interesting having a brain that craves a lot of self-fulfillment to the point where I can move past some hang-ups around perfection by going "oh I really wanna do that though" and then I do it well because researching how to do it right is also a rewarding part of the process

[thrassisfras]

The fact that I went into that first conversation with Gortash completely blind and he somehow managed to be the one that almost convinced me to side with him is just wild to me. Gwydion had been incredibly resistant to anyone (even his partner) trying to get him to be just a little power-hungry, but then Gortash came along and started talk about unity and stability instead of "we're gonna be evil and rule the world" and it was working on Gwydion.

My only thought during the coronation scene was "damn, he really does know Gwydion"

[cheswirls]

hhhhhhhhhhhh saboace royalty au. ace was crown prince but can’t use magic which is necessary to become king, so he renounces his title and becomes infamous for his eccentric tendencies to play up the illusion that he’s truly not meant for the throne and that his younger sibling has full rights to the title of heir.

sabo is born to a family serving in the royal court, has been a genius magician since he was a child, and is the perfect example of a young man fully educated to serve at the king’s side. which is why he’s allowed himself to be tied down into a loveless political engagement with the king’s heir, putting the whims of his family before his own and resigning himself to become the future ruler’s consort/spouse to legitimize his role as an advisory right-hand man.

but then the heir grows rebellious and denounces the engagement with sabo in public and ace swoops in to save the day (and sabo’s reputation), demanding his father give sabo to him instead. he steals sabo away and challenges his sibling’s right to the throne, intent on earning back the title not for himself, but so he can make sabo (who is heavily qualified to rule) the king - and since they’ll be wed, no one will be able to undermine sabo’s position as he will technically be part of the monarchy that governs the kingdom.