#but at the same time i'm wondering if that's too similar to eris and how their response to grief is violent and somewhat feral too

[practically-an-x-man]

trying to decide how... really nonhuman I want Vivienne to be

[catboytenya]

previous anon here, I think that's really interesting! Who are all of your headmates/fictives?

SORRY FOR BEING 3 HOURS LATE I'VE BEEN PLAYING BUGSNAX- putting it under the cut again because there's *looks at pluralkit* a lot. They're in alphabetical order! (You might notice a theme where a lot of us are more animal than human even human fictives) I bolded their names in case you only want the names and aren't interested in the info i added

Agoketsu - He's a bnha oc that moved in because lee thought about him too hard (not sure what he's here to do in the system yet, relatively new)

Akemi - Also a bnha oc that moved in because lee thought about him too hard (also pretty new)

Anan - This is a bnha fictive, it's thirteen! You know and love her <3 she's decently close to her source appearance wise but personality wise she takes on a more motherly role and her personality doesn't line up with her source at all, i think she's mostly here to "reign in" the littles

Angel - not a fictive! they're my weird fucked up angelic feral wolf who's golden retriever kin, by far the funniest person in my system if you think about her too hard, also he uses any pronoun, doesn't front too often, but it's just objectively funny to have this cool angelic wolf in your brain and they wish they were a normal ass dog

Applejack - mlp:fim fictive HONESTLY. forgot she was in here. i don't know if she's still around at all tho headmates can come and go and she hasn't fronted in a long while, wonder if she's still around? she was basically identical to her source tho which! is actually very rare for me

Bendy - Ink demon fictive go BRRR! in all seriousness Bendy's a very valued member of my system, he's very good at masking when we need it and he keeps a close eye on things, i appreciate him a lot, even if he stands there. menacingly. he's pretty similar to his source appearance wise but he's got a demon tail. probably because i've always been a bit bitter bendy didn't get a tail (as a note i'm not involved in the bendy fandom AT ALL like i know nothing about the fandom space)

Bethy - not a fictive! she's a weird feral white lion with neon pink and green stripes. she's the newest member i'm pretty sure? she's good company

Davesprite - yeag. he's my oldest headmate, i'm pretty sure! basically the same as canon but more bird so talons instead of hands, the usual, formed for company really early on i think?

Dominick - weird seraphim leather daddy that lives in my brain :) he's funky i like the him :)

Eclipse - DCA fictive, he's like a mini system in my system!

Eijiro - bnha fictive <3 personality wise he's pretty close to his source, appearance wise he's partially shark

Eri - bnha fictive + little <3 she's actually basically my daughter in the system which i can elaborate on later if you'd like, she's got these pretty little white and gold dragon features, cute as a button, love her to death, out littles don't front much because it's just inconvenient if they do, but it's nice to have them co-front now and then

Green/Blue - pokemon fictive who can't ever pick which fucking name he likes i swear i'm gonna beat his ass metaphorically because he keeps changing. his proxy with pluralkit. and then FORGETTING HE CHANGED IT. he's part eevee but part of me feels like he just. wanted to feel included because almost everyone else is part animal. (i don't think that's really how it works but it's funnier that way)

Hanta - bnha fictive, he's new-ish don't know a lot about him tbh, he showed up because lee kept listening to scotch tape and cellophane, he's fronted like 3 times so far i think? idk much about him you might have better luck asking lee about him they've co-fronted together before

Himiko - bnha fictive, she helps with blood phobia stuff, she not super similar to her source but she's close-ish? friendly as hell, the type of person to send asks off anon like a madwoman. to get a feel for her vibe look up honduran white bats

Inasa - bnha fictive, i'm gonna be honest??? don't know a thing about this guy. idk if he's still here or not he's been dead quiet. he showed up in the system the same day as eri so maybe he's just afraid of being outshined <3 (JOKING i'm sure he's just not active, it's actually common for someone to be silent for months even years without fronting because their services just aren't needed at the moment)

Izuku - bnha fictive, weird scorpion rabbit who takes control of the body for three weeks straight and drops like 20 chapters on ao3 and then dips (basically when we need to focus on something and just Can't he'll show up to do the work for us)

Jin - bnha fictive, twice my beloved ect ect, basically there to help us cope with new situations/new people we have to interact with, not very similar to his source appearance wise, he's a whole ass anthro husky, we love him tho he's pretty helpful, likes to push himself into front to steal conversations though it's kinda annoying

Katsuki (bear with me there are two of us) - bnha fictive, this one's me, for a while i was acting host because lee went poof for a while (he's back to being host i'm just fronting today because i had stuff to do) i've got red and black dragon features and probably the one with the most art because my partner(s) loves to draw us together (my partner's also a system for some context something something if i had a dime for every time i helped someone realize they were a system i'd have a concerning amount of dimes) basically. i take care of the body when lee can't, so cooking, brushing teeth, things like that, i'm also under the protector category and i don't hesitate to get into arguments/screaming matches (and i always regret them later since it is. usually with my family 😭 sorry mom ily)

Katsuki (TWO) - bnha fictive also, so, headmates can split or fuse, right? i think this was a result of a split? we're similar but pretty different at the same time, he's a wolf hybrid, like, think satyr kinda body type hybrid, something got fucked along the way though so he's got seraphim wings?? awful and annoying and terrible during phantom limb moments. you don't know hell until you feel like you've got three sets of wings ON TOP OF your own set of wings. hell on earth, truly. i hate phantom wings i hate them so bad. anyway i'm rambling- he's also a kinda take care of the body when lee can't but when it comes to proper rest/relaxation, basically an emergency break self care day we are eating cake and watching a favorite show today fuck your work

Keigo - bnha fictive, he's very different from his source and he actually tends to avoid people who like his source character unless he trusts them it's a long story ANYWAY he's more birdlike, his feathers are red and black instead of just red, things like that, his entire job is basically Act As An Emergency Companion, but also if the body/system is stressed out and feeling unsafe, he'll usually switch to front to keep things calm

Lee - oh hey it's the host/original! you guys know this dude by now you don't need an introduction with him

Lucus - Also a bnha oc same as the other two so far don't know much about his job in the system

Mangle - fnaf fictive, WEIRD DOG?? i think she's a weird pet regression headmate. brain gets all fuzzy when she fronts kinda deal? nothing more to really say here

Mina - bnha fictive, WE LOVE A QUEEN WHO FORCES US TO NOT BE DEPRESSED. she's got pink jaguar features and she does so much for making sure we do not fall into Depression Rotting Times, if we start to rot she'll hop into front and go make us do something really fun, basically, i love her to death. fun fact though! while my ex was visiting, when he knew she was in front, he spent the entire time misgendering her and i really think that was the one time she really just gave up and was genuinely upset

Mirio - bnha fictive, he's a griffin anthro so completely different to his source character in appearance, but pretty similar in personality, has a similar purpose to mina in that he's an emergency "STOP BEING DEPRESSED" but instead of redirecting us to a fun activity he directs us to talking to people we love and care about

Mystery - Weird little galaxy dragon thing?? he's been here for a while and i still don't know why they're here. girl what do you even do. do you even pay rent.

N - pokemon fictive, i think he's also a really old one? no clue why he is here he could've just been for company like davesprite was?

Oboro - bnha fictive, he's part drake, he doesn't front much anymore (shitty ex friend who he was really close to made him not like fronting anymore, but he's warming up to fronting again i think), but he actually used to be the person who fronted the most outside of lee, it's why the system is named the Cloudy Creatures system, he did a lot of heavy lifting early on when we finally realized we were plural (we had been plural for a long, long time before we realized, we. did not know we were. we have a history of hallucinations and delusions so we just. assumed. we were in active delusion when we were like "i think i am oboro shirakumo??" so. yea turns out! plural!) he gets us outta the house and makes us friends

Ochaco - bnha fictive, he's part bat i think? he's basically an emergency break rest time person too, but in a "let's go treat ourselves we deserve it" kinda way

Pinkie - mlp:fim fictive, she's basically mina 2 if i'm being honest, job wise, no shade to her though pinkie's got her own personality and shit they're not 1:1 or anything

Raggedy - weird purple and blue reptilian dude who lurks around. he's been around for years. no clue who he is, what he does, or anything like that. but considering he's been around for so long he kinda just feels load bearing?

Rainbow - yea. another mlp:fim fictive. i do NOT have the entire mane six i promise. this is just what happens when you binge watch a show for 5 days straight without really stopping. idk what she does though

Rarity - I SWEAR. I DON'T HAVE THE ENTIRE MANE SIX. idk what she does either also btw. (i don't really interact or co-front with any of the ponies sorry 😭)

Red - pokemon fictive, part pikachu, you know the drill, idk why he's here i think lee just got obsessed with him for five days straight or something? but he's here

Ripcord - giant feathered frost dragon, i feel like his full fucking time job is just Yearning.

Rusty - little tiny fluffy red wyvern, goes to events nobody else wants to go to, things like that, he's about the size of a ferret give or take

Shadow - sonic fictive, he's a little, sticks around anan most of the time if she's fronting he's probably co-fronting, i think he was our first little? does basically everything other littles do, heals the inner child, perpetually is mad we don't set up the gamecube for him to play dora the explorer and the purple planet (NOT A FUCKING JOKE!! BTW!!)

Shota - bnha fictive, this is the consequences of lee's actions (obsessed with aizawa) in all seriousness it's nice to have another person to step in to take care of the body in the same way i do, since i do get tired if i front for too long without breaks

Shouto - bnha fictive, cat hybrid (similar to the other katsuki's wolf), you see him mostly around fall, he basically every year takes halloween, loves fall weather, loves painting the body's nails, just genuinely here for a good time, for some reason though most of the time when he fronts nobody remembers what he was up to except people who co-front with him and him, most of us we can get fuzzy memories but when he's fronting? nah. shit's gone. real interesting though, right?

Techno - another bnha oc but this time it's one lee is just genuinely obsessed with. it was only a matter of time before this fucker (affectionate) moved in. no clue what he does tho! here for a good time AND a long time tho

Tenko - bnha fictive, another little, he's basically oboro's son like how i've got eri, does things littles do, y'know how it is

Tenya - bnha fictive, this man single handedly cleans our room when it gets too bad, fox hybrid, he's just genuinely pretty good at taking care of the area around us rather than the body

Thistle - NOT A FUCKING CLUE WHAT THIS DUDE IS. i think he's a changeling from mlp:fim?? idk but i think he's a protector too, he's good at shoving into front to just fucking block people. things like that.

Trench - fuckass giantass sea serpent motherfucker, you'll probably never interact with him ever unless you become VERY VERY VERY close with the system, genuinely hates most people, from what i've learned is that sometimes, a headmate's entire job? is just. holding trauma for the host. so. he does his best, and we appreciate him even if he's a dick sometimes and hates humans

Yoichi - bnha fictive, drake anthro, amazing at diffusing situations, will step in if we're having an argument and we're the ones in the wrong to apologize, things like that, i think that puts him in the protector category too? he's good people

Yuga - bnha fictive, yayyy sparkle butt yayyy, he's a poodle peacock human thing, not a damn clue what he does, but he looks good while doing it?

OKAY that's the entire list i don't think i forgot anyone! if you have any questions about anyone let me know or2 sorry for the essay and a half lol

[halt-kun]

My Hero Academia Chapter 427 - Who was Togura Shigaraki, really ?

Should I be working on my PhD ? Maybe

But I also need to read that chapter

Anyway

Okay so a tv special on Shigaraki

well, he did kill a lot of people

I wonder where this is going

Because if I ever watched a documentary on some random murderer dictator-wannabe and they ended it with "but he was a misunderstood child with trauma", I would riot !

But let's see what's the angle there

OOOO SPINNER CHAPTER

I'm HYPED

the guy with an unrequited crush

what happened to the quirk AFO gave him ?

Thanks Doctor

clearing things up, pleases me

Well that's a bit ironic considering what Shigaraki did to mostly random civilians that weren't actively against him but yes Deku is a murderer technically.

Even though he just gave AFO what he wanted, his quirk

Well now he's calming down

Spinner really gives me the same vibes as Sensui and Itsuki

Well I'm crying, this hits home a bit with the rise of the far right in France (though we (the left) won). My brothers long for destruction in a similar way because they feel rejected by the system (even though they're ciswhitestraightdudes)

So : CAN Deku save Spinner ???

This could destroy me

Spinner really gives the black incel from the countryside vibes

Deku is calm

Spinner, he was your hero of course, and at least for someone who would probably be akin to some alt right geek, at least, your "hero" was rooting for you and thinking about you.

Not just using you for your money because you think you're a loser who won't amount to anything worthwile

Shigaraki's last words to spinner in an alternate dimension : "you should invest in crypto bro, you'll get rich and have women"

I'm noticing now that I don't know enough about the japanese political system to really understand what is represented here. Spinner and Heteromorphs were definitely supposed to mirror the civil rights movement from the US and yet, did he really try to represent somealt right incel there.

Or is it just a byproduct of Spinner character he didn't realize would come to be ?

To my knowledge, Hikikomoris can share this aspect of incel geeks in japan but I don't really know how it's been lately.

I thought my cultural background was closer than that between US and Japan but it's true I've followed US politics more lately

Let's continue though

Well it hurts Spinner, I understand

But you'll have to move forward and accept his legacy, he didn't only affect you but a lot of other people too and not just "positively"

You'll have to move forward at some point, if not for you, for him.

He's not here anymore, take the time to process your grief, but you need to becomes your own hero from now on.

I truly hope you can fight on your own and take part in the reconstruction of Japan toward a better country.

YES

YES

YES

YES

VERY GOOD

YES I KNEW HE WOULD GET IT

You can be a hero Spinner, to yourself but also to others

you have to begin with yourself too

will you join us ?

And save all the Shigarakis laying in wait, ready to succumb to despair ?

Hahaha nice Deku

but yeah, he won't forget about Shigaraki for as long as he lives

TEARED UP AGAIN

yay Shoji, the GOAT, he saved you too in a sense

Oh shit, does it mean Chisaki interacted with Eri ???

Not a good idea, how'd it go ?

Well, even them will work toward redemption it seems

I doubt Eri will forget too

she's traumatized and it's probably lying somewhere, repressed very deep into her psyche.

Thanks Tsukauchi, but a good psychiatrist would be a better idea, she already has a good support system

she needs professional help to complement it

if needed

Oh first years already !? Too bad they'll get expelled in a matter of hours

Oh god no please

fangirls

and Mineta

kill him right now if he even dares to go back to his perverted mind

Is there even a guy in there ?

Anyway, very good chapter

Is MHA going to have one of the best conclusions among mangas (especially big WSJ mangas) ? I'm starting to believe it !

[the-spoopy-ghost-of-raejin99]

Some actual g-witch spoilers and theories this time.

With the actual reveal of Eri being a part of Aerial and the implications that Prospera is using Quiet Zero for her sake, I'm beginning to believe that Prospera didn't actually like, physically stuff Eri into Aerial. My guess is, since Quiet Zero has something to do with datastorms, and Prospera says Eri is waiting "beyond the datastorms", it's possible that Gundam pilots who experience datastorms might leave digital imprints behind, and that's where Eri essentially comes from. Whether this was intentional on Prospera's part or simply something she took advantage of after something happened to Eri offscreen after the prologue is unclear, but I'm willing to bet the latter.

Part of me wonders if this means we'll see similar versions of others, like Elan 4 (there's some weird foreshadowing in the new OP where one half of Elan's reflection has 4's earrings, the other has 5's) or Eri's dad, maybe even Sophie. Some are more likely than others, but I wouldn't write it off. Exactly how they would still be around, we would have to see, but if Eri's consciousness was somehow saved, it's possible that at least Sophie (who was affected by Aerial's mini Quiet Zero) might have been saved too.

This is highly speculative so I'm not 100% about this idea, but given Prospera wants to use Quiet Zero to create a world where Eri can be happy, it's possible Prospera wants to pull a technological equivalent to Code Geass's Ragnarok Connection and turn all of humanity digital to have them join Eri. We'll have to see as the plot moves forward what she's actually planning, but given who's writing this, I wouldn't be surprised.

Also seen some folks say that Eri/Aerial was the one actually fighting and that Suletta wasn't doing anything, but I don't think this is true. While I think Aerial is capable of controlling itself, I think Eri's main function in combat is controlling the GUND bits and giving Suletta the benefits of the GUND format without her having to go through the issues with the datastorms. I believe Suletta is the one doing the primary piloting, but it's likely she wouldn't be as effective in another Gundam. My assumption is eventually she'll unlock the ability to use the GUND format the same way Eri does in the prologue, based on the ED foreshadowing.

Some things I'm not sure on:

-Why Eri was so intent on killing Sophie. It could be as simple as either she was trying to stop Sophie from killing Suletta or that in her current form she doesn't think the way a regular person would, but it seemed a bit extreme how far she went.

-Eri seemed a bit different. She's wearing the same exact space suit she did in the prologue, but perhaps it was just different animators working on this scene, but Eri looked slightly older than in the prologue. Like I said, it could just be the animation, or it might be a hint that whatever caused Eri to become like this happened perhaps a year or two after the prologue.

-Suletta's exact nature. There's three main possibilities: Suletta is legitimately Prospera's second daughter (unlikely, since I don't think after the proglogue she would have stopped to have a kid later down the line), she's a clone of Eri, or, most likely, she's an enhanced person made to resemble Eri like the Elans. The last one is the most probable but they really haven't delved too deeply into it yet.

-The number of GUND bits Aerial has. Belmeria seems to explicitly point out that Aerial has 11 bits, which is an odd thing to note if the specific number didn't indicate something important. I'm not sure if it was simply to imply that something with that many GUND bits should be impossible to use without datastorms, or if, like some people have theorized, each bit has its own "personality" implanted into it and she knows a little something about where they came from. Hard to tell, but I could just be reading too much into that.

[spanishskulduggery]

hi! i was thinking about some things a lot of english speakers i know do, sometimes me, and wondering if there were similar -- but not equivalent -- things in spanish. like, how when a lot of us speak aloud, we drop the "g" on words that end with "-ing" ("talkin," "thinkin," etc.). or how when we say "kitten" or "rotten" a lot of us say it like "kih-in" or "rah-in", dropping the t. do those make you think of anything similar in spanish? (could be dropping letters, could be common ways of casual speaking that if u're just learning spanish from formal sources u might not learn, etc. ik it's kind of a broad question -- just wondering about an example or two that come to mind, ik a full answer could and probably has taken up books. and i'm sure it probably varies by country and/or region, too)

Oh it's super common in Spanish in different ways

There are syllables that get "swallowed" all the time

Some examples:

estar in present tense turning to ta; like ta llorando is está llorando "he/she is crying"... practically any time you see the -ing in English replaced as -in' you see toy/tás/tá/tán/tamos + verb in progressive as a kind of approximation

dónde turning into on; combining with estar you get onta or ontas like "where is it?" or "where are you?" [¿dónde estás? -> ¿ontas? in other words]

todo el día "all day" -> tol día

para -> pa [sometimes pa' to let you know it was para] para nada "not at all" -> pa ná

There's a joke in Spanish about pa él "for him" and pa'ella "for her" OR "paella"

And practically any word ending in -ado or -ada can have the D suddenly disappear

So like está muy callado "he is very soft-spoken" or "he is very quiet" can come out as tá muy callao

The feminine form tends to omit the D sound and collapse or conflate the A sounds together, so está muy callada can kind of sound like tá muy callá

That's why para nada sometimes comes out like pa ná because without the D you have two A sounds together which just kind of become one A sound

I have also heard clarostá which is claro está so it comes out like "fo sho" or "fursure" or something instead of "for sure"

I know that in South America you sometimes hear eres "you are" come out more like eri. And there are times when es "it is" or "he/she is" comes out like é which is similar to Italian

And por is often shortened to po'. In Chile the expression po comes out like the Canadian "eh"... like you can just end a sentence with po for emphasis. I'm not totally sure if it's an abbreviated version of por supuesto "of course" or por cierto "by the way" or some other por expression, but po is very common

...

There is also baby talk which is a little different but a friend of mine likes to say pobue tigüe or pobre/pobue tigüecito which is "poor tiger"... kind of like "poow widdle tiger"?

R sounds in baby talk end up as ü or W-ish sounds; like if I were trying to baby talk grande I would write it as "guande"

Same friend also says aícara instead of ay caramba/ay carajo which I enjoy

...

Somewhat related but BUE- or GUE- or HUE- is often spoken as if it were W

I have heard/said/seen people say weno/a instead of bueno/a, or hearing abuelo/a as something closer to awelo/a, or el vuelo "flight" sounding like el welo

There is also a linguistic link to huevón "dumbass" to Chile's use of weón and its verb expressions with wear or wea

-

I'm sure there are linguists who study this kind of thing, especially with the internet there's all kinds of abbreviations and approximations and contractions of words

If anyone like native-speakers/linguists/whoever want to add anything or their own favorite examples please do I'm curious

[the-lonelybarricade]

A Court of Faded Dreams: Chapter 45

Chapter Title: Wait For Me, I'm Coming

Fic summary: In her grief after Rhys sacrifices himself to restore the Cauldron, Feyre accidentally sends herself back in time. Back in her human body, in her early days in the Spring Court, Feyre must be careful how she alters the timeline as she tries to save Rhys and Prythian from Under the Mountain.

Beta-read by the wonderful, talented, life-saving @noirshadow <33

Read on AO3 ⟡ Masterlist

For a moment, Feyre was back in Hybern, frozen with fear while her sisters were dragged before her, gagged and bound, to have their mortality stripped from them. All she’d wanted in this timeline was to protect them from such a fate.

“No,” she whispered, horror seizing her chest. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. Elain was supposed to be safe. “No, nononono—it can’t be like this.”

“It won’t,” Lucien seethed, his knuckles white where they gripped his swords. “I’m going to get her back. Right now.”

A terrible idea. As much as Feyre wanted Elain to be safe, and as willing as she was to do anything to get her back, it had to be a trap. Eris had come here to bait Lucien and if he went after Elain right now, he’d likely be going to his death.

And on the off chance that Eris was genuinely trying to be helpful…

She slumped backward against the smooth stone of the alleyway, giving herself a moment of reprieve against the increasingly heavy drag of her body. If Eris had truly undermined Beron, they would have the element of surprise on their side. If they didn’t act quickly, it would give Beron time to prepare. Mother knows what terrible things Elain would be subjected to in the meanwhile.

Feyre could still hear the way Elain had shrieked when she’d been thrown into the Cauldron—that raw note of terror that punctured the room, as her mortal life was stripped away. Did she sing an echo of that agony now, locked away somewhere in the Court most famous for its cruelty? The fear in Lucien’s eyes told Feyre he was imagining any number of unspeakable horrors, ones that his imagination likely didn’t need to fuel. He had lived them.

But Feyre was still trying to catch her breath from the battle. So was Lucien, by the look of him. Some of his hair had loosened from its braid, clinging against the damp of his face and crusted with the same ash and gore that smeared his cheeks, his neck, his armor. Bloodied cloth split at his shoulder—the wound already healed, thankfully. But that didn’t change the fact that both their chests were still heaving and in the winter air she could see every shallow pant of his breath.

It was a struggle to return herself to her feet whilst images of Elain being tortured swarmed her mind. She’d seen the way Azriel carved into people with Truthteller, she’d heard the story of what happened to Rhysand’s mother and sister, to Jesminda. If they didn’t go now, Elain’s fate could be similar—or worse. And yet if they left now, in the condition they were in, it would likely be three lives lost.

Rhysand’s words crept into her mind, a memory of his advice to her on the balcony Under the Mountain. We can’t afford to make impulsive decisions. Everything has to be calculated, even if it condemns us in the end.

Feyre was trembling as she shook her head. The words revolted as they rose to her tongue, refusing to speak them out loud, to a distressed mate no less. But they had to be said. “No,” she whispered. Then, more firmly, “We have to be smart about this, Lucien, we can’t just—”

But Lucien had no patience for reason. He was already turning away, already vanishing into shadow. 

“No, wait! Lucien!” Feyre grabbed for him, intending to pull him back so that they could think rationally. But as her hands wrapped hastily around his elbow, the shadows swept around her, too, and a moment later they were both standing in the Autumn Wood.

“Lucien!” she hissed. “What are you thinking? We can’t just storm into Beron’s house.”

He shook off her grip impatiently. “Then go back to Winter. I’ll do it myself.”

Feyre wasn’t certain she was capable of winnowing that far, even if she wanted to leave Lucien to his own devices. Her magic guttered as she tried to reach for it. What was once a bottomless, raging ocean was now a droughted stream. 

Before she had time to properly fret over her drained magic and its consequences, or to take a moment with Lucien to decide their next move, the Autumn male was stalking off into the wood. She swore and scrambled after him, struggling against the fatigue that clawed at her bones to keep up with his rage-fueled pace. Lucien moved with a familiarity that reminded Feyre he had likely spent his youth running through these woods, sneaking around his father’s watch. Feyre did her best to emulate the way his feet treaded lightly over the crisp foliage and mossy ground, trying to sink back into the huntress who’d once relied on stealth to feed her family. Except that huntress had never come fresh off the battlefield. 

“Do you even have a plan?” she demanded, voice hushed. She remembered well enough that in Autumn, information was currency, and even the solid oaks listened for something valuable to exchange.

“He’ll kill her, Feyre.” It was not an answer, but the rawness of his voice quieted her protests. She’d never seen him so vulnerable before, not even facing his own death Under the Mountain. Feyre knew that brand of terror well enough. It cut deep into her chest every time she was reminded of Bryaxis’s warning. There was no fear like that of a mate in danger.

“I’m Beron’s lifeblood, you have a kernel of his power—if you channel it correctly, the wards shouldn’t sense us and we can sneak in unnoticed.”

She’d been able to trick the wards in Summer into thinking she was Tarquin, she couldn’t see why the same wouldn’t work in Autumn. What they did past that point, she didn’t think Lucien knew either—to him, getting into the Forest House undetected was goal enough. 

Fallen leaves crunch underfoot as Feyre paused in her step. Lucien… wasn’t Beron’s lifeblood. Would that make a difference? 

The male in question stopped, whipping his head around impatiently. “Are you trying to get us caught?”

She could forgive the harsh tone as an agitated mate. But with the state he was in… how would she even breach such a subject? Perhaps it would be better to discover his parentage now, when it would seem like a mild issue. 

She ventured carefully, “If it were someone… related strictly to your mother, would the wards still sense them?”

A muscle ticked in his jaw. “By the Cauldron, Feyre. Is now really the time to flesh out my father’s ward restrictions?” At her beseeching stare, he sighed. “I don’t know. My mother’s sisters were killed in The War. They were likely able to come and go freely through the Forest House. Whether my father has bothered to alter the wards in the last five centuries is unbeknownst to me.”

Feyre swallowed and nodded as though that answer were satisfactory. With a huff Lucien returned to his careful path through the wood. She had to believe that if Beron’s wards barred Lucien from coming through, then they would have discovered his true lineage long ago. 

Still, she was tense as Lucien led her through the forest, wishing she had magic to spare on casting her awareness through the ancient, vibrant trees in search of any errant fae minds. Instead they relied solely on Lucien’s knowledge of their patrol routes and stations to evade their notice. Feyre tried her best not to consider the likelihood that his knowledge could be outdated. With the harsh slant of his jaw and the wrath that burned steadily in his eyes, Feyre recalled the way she had single handedly cut down an entire legion of Hybern’s men when Rhys had been taken. She had to trust that, if nothing else, the instincts of a vengeful mate would suffice.

It felt like it took hours to get to the wards. With the sunlight filtering in through the thick canopy overhead, it was difficult to gauge how much time had truly passed. Feyre measured it in aching muscles. The longer they walked, the more the adrenaline of the battle faded. It had taken them three days to walk through Beron’s seat in the previous timeline, though they had been trying to avoid the Forest House.

Now, they walked straight towards the sprawling estate, which tunneled levels below the ground. There were layers and circles of sentries ringing it: in the trees, on the ground, atop the moss-coated shingles and stones of the House itself. 

Lucien’s metal eye whirred as he stared ahead. “Whatever magic you need to mimic Beron, summon it now.”

Her eyes couldn’t sense whatever his could, but as Feyre scraped the reserves of her magic to coat herself in the essence of Beron’s flame, she felt the hum of those magical walls as they bowed to their sovereign’s power. Feyre’s whole body trembled with the effort of maintaining that flame, could feel it beginning to gutter just as they passed through. 

All was quiet when they stepped to the otherside, officially entering the home of Beron Vanserra.

They both released a weighted breath.

Then Lucien went rigid, that metal eye clicking and whirring as it focused on the trees overhead.

His eyes widened. “Get down!”

There was hardly enough time to react to Lucien’s body barrelling into hers, sending them sprawling onto the mud and autumn foliage as arrows whizzed past their heads. Lucien was swearing colorfully under his breath as they scrambled for cover. 

Just as Feyre was pulling from the last of her magic to summon a shield around them, an arrow went through her thigh. She cried out as her final scraps of magic fizzled into dust. Lucien grabbed her around the waist, pulling them both out of range—closer to the Forest House.

“Don’t be stupid,” she gasped. “They know we’re here. We should leave while we have the chance.”

The conflict on his face was heart-wrenching. Feyre didn’t want to leave Elain, either, but she didn’t see what choice they had. Her magic was completely drained, and now she was injured. They’d lost their element of surprise and were grossly outnumbered. They needed to flee so they’d have a chance to save Elain another day. 

Lucien was sensible, even if his instincts must have been screaming at him to go after his mate. She could see the moment he’d made his decision to flee, the way his eyes fixed on a small cobalt ribbon tied around his wrist. It was like pinching the wick of a candle, the way the light died in his eyes. With an anguished cry, he gathered Feyre into his arms as though he intended to winnow them away. Feyre braced herself for the wind and smoke. 

Only it didn’t come. 

Lucien paused, his face gone ashen. “The wards,” he whispered, half in dread and half in astonishment. “I can’t winnow us out.”

Her blood turned to ice in her veins. She’d seen a spell like this once before. That little trick could have only come from the King of Hybern. Which meant he was there, in Autumn. Likely with Elain. 

The archers hopped down from the trees, grinning like a pair of hyenas. Their long hair glinted in the scattered light that shone through the leaves above, the same color as the autumn foliage that surrounded them.

“Little brother,” the taller one greeted. “How nice of you to finally join us.”

They were escorted—none too gently—into the Forest House and through its infinitely vast halls. Lucien hadn’t been kidding when he’d once mentioned that walking from one end to the other could take half a morning. With the poisoned arrow still sticking out of Feyre’s thigh, each step was punctuated with hot shards of agony. She felt as though they’d been walking for years.

Eventually they came to a stop in a wide room carved from the trees and rocks that had once stood in its place. It was brightly lit with the very flame that lived inside Feyre, torch after torch lining the wall as though fire took the place of artwork. They were a living, crackling presence that seemed to call to her even with her magic snuffed by the faesbane. The light flared brighter upon their arrival, seemingly stoked by the pleasure on Beron’s face where he sat on the opposite end of the room, sprawled proudly upon his twined-oak throne. The Lady of Autumn stood near the entrance of the room, eyes distant and unfeeling as she stared vacantly ahead.

“Feyre Cursebreaker,” Beron called once she and Lucien were forced to a halt by their escorts. “Just the female I was hoping to see—much sooner than I anticipated, as well. I can only assume you’re here unbeknownst to Rhysand. I could not imagine him concocting a plan so clumsy, and I wager he’s busy in the Winter Court.” His eyes fell onto the wound at her thigh, the fabric around the protruding arrow soaked with blood that dripped onto his wooden floors. “Pity that faesbane will prevent you from calling him for help.” 

Feyre tipped her chin. “If you’re going to kill me, Beron, at least I’ll die with the pleasure of knowing that Rhysand will level your court by morning.”

“Kill you?” Beron crooned. “How simple-minded. I merely wish to make an exchange. The Night Court is in possession of something I covet. Get it in my hands, and I’ll give you that filthy little human I have locked below this House.” Those dark eyes slid, for the first time, to Lucien. The smile Beron offered his son was little more than a taunt. “Alive, of course.”

The life seemed to drain out of Lucien’s face, and Feyre was certain her expression was no better. Alive was a vague promise. Beron could have removed each of her limbs and still returned her alive. Elain had been alive all those months she’d stared aimlessly out her bedroom window, hardly speaking, hardly eating, and yet there had been no life in her eyes as she grieved her mortality. Feyre already knew she would trade anything she could to prevent that light from ever leaving her sister’s eyes again.

But… The Book of Breathings. Feyre was certain that’s what Beron would ask for. Why else would he have attacked the Winter Court? And giving it up would mean… giving it up would mean…

“What is it you're after, then?” she demanded through gritted teeth. In her peripheral vision, she watched Lucien’s eyes flick worriedly to her thigh, as though that mechanical eye could track the poison spreading through her veins.

Though Feyre could feel that poison and all of her bone-weary exhaustion creeping in, that was hardly the source of the pain that currently fractured her body. No, that came purely from the anticipation of the rope that was about to be cut loose. The choice she would have to make.

To save Rhys in the long term or to save Elain in the short term.

“Newly Made as you may be,” Beron droned, “I’m sure you’ve heard tales of the great Cauldron, which gave birth to the world and blessed us with magic. It’s said that a millenia ago, its feet were cleaved and hidden in the temples of our land.”

“I didn’t take you to be devout, Beron,” Feyre said plainly, refusing to show him her hand regardless of the sweat that built on her palms. “Have you had a priestess in your ear, selling you children’s tales?”

“I’ve no need to doubt what I’ve seen with my own eyes. And you can play ignorance all you’d like, Cursebreaker. I know the Night Court has the Cauldron’s feet.” Her heart stumbled a beat. “You can either tell me their location, or I’ll tear your pretty sister limb from limb, as is becoming tradition for my son’s dalliances. Your choice.”

And Feyre had thought he could have asked for nothing worse than the Book of Breathings. At least in giving up the book, there was still the chance the Cauldron would never need to be nullified.

But giving up the feet, restoring the Cauldron to its full power…

It cost the lives of those dearest to your heart to end the war. It will cost the same again.

They were backed into a corner. As desperately as Feyre tried to think of an angle, she didn’t want to risk putting Elain in harm’s way. Lucien was stiff beside her, eyes staring blankly ahead. There was a vacancy to him that told her he was somewhere far away. Had Jesminda’s execution been the last time he’d stood in his father’s throne room? And now he stood here again, with the threat of reliving it if she didn’t give Beron what he asked for.

What would Rhys do if he were here? How would he spin this to minimize its impact?

“Show her to me,” Feyre demanded. “Prove that she’s alive and unharmed.”

The High Lord seemed to consider this for a moment, then nodded at the males that stood on either side of Feyre and Lucien. Wordlessly, Lucien’s brothers disappeared down the hall to fetch Elain.

They waited in tense silence, until eventually the sound of footfall carried into the chamber—three sets, instead of two. They were accompanied by a sound of whimpering that set Feyre’s blood boiling. Once they came into view, she could see why—Elain was being dragged by her hair, her face twisted in pain. 

And though Elain looked otherwise unharmed, it was too much. Too similar to that day in Hybern. Feyre felt her knees threaten to give out beneath her.

A furious snarl broke the silence in the room. Lucien’s battle face was nothing compared to the bloodlust in his eyes when he saw the way his brothers were holding Elain. “I’ll rip your fucking throats out.”

Even from the way Beron clucked his tongue in disapproval, she could tell he was taking a sadistic level of pleasure from drawing out Lucien’s ire. The taller brother drew a knife and pressed it to Elain’s throat. Her fear was thick enough to coat the entire room in its scent, as was the blood drawn from the tip of the dagger.

But her sister—her prim and gentle sister who had once sobbed on the floor when a faerie broke into their home—bared her teeth into a snarl. She hardly flinched against the bite of the dagger as she fixed two pairs of murderous brown eyes on Beron.

Lucien did flinch. But seeing the challenge on his brothers’ faces, he took a heavy breath and visibly forced his body to relax against the rage Feyre saw burning in his eyes.

“Know your manners in my court, boy,” Beron warned. Then he fixed his beady stare on Feyre. “As you can see—she’s alive and well. Do we have a deal, Cursebreaker?” 

What choice did she have? Her magic was gone, she was poisoned and exhausted—they couldn’t fight their way out of this. She couldn’t seek Rhysand for any advice. The wards prevented them from fleeing. She looked to Lucien, his expression furious yet harrowed with a fear she felt so sharply that it made the arrow in her thigh seem like a splinter. Feyre turned to Elain, dagger pressed to her delicate throat despite everything Feyre had done to keep her safe. 

She’d failed her sister twice now, and she would not fail her again.

“It’s a deal,” she said at last, feeling the tingle of magic as it bound her to their bargain. “The Cauldron’s feet are in the Hewn City, deep in the treasure trove.”

The words tasted like ash. The Cauldron’s feet had been her only insurance of Rhysand’s survival, and now she had surrendered it to their enemy.

She had effectively traded her mate’s life for her sister’s.

 It was as though her limbs were tied to strings, and it was the work of some far away puppeteer that kept Feyre upright, when in her mind’s eye all she could see was Rhysand’s collapsed body on the battlefield. At least the feet would not be easy to retrieve. And perhaps an attack from Autumn would piss off Keir enough for the Darkbringers to join their battle without the use of coercion, though that felt like hardly any consolation when the price was her mate’s life.

Beron smirked and gestured dismissively to his sons that held Elain. “Go.” 

The brothers wasted no time in vanishing, pushing Elain forward as they disappeared into smoke. Lucien practically bolted the distance to catch her, pulling Elain into his arms protectively. Feyre could see the way his posture relaxed at having Elain pressed against him, and distantly she was relieved that at least one pair of mates was saved today.  

The look Lucien sent Beron was full of deadly promise. “We gave you what you wanted, raise your fucking wards.”

Unmoved by his son’s staredown, Beron leaned back in his throne looking as if he’d just won a very impressive game of chess. “Well, I can’t very well let you go until we’ve ensured the Cauldron’s feet are where you claim them to be.” 

Fuck, Feyre thought. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Their bargain hadn’t included leaving.

The poison was beginning to make her feel faint, the edges of her vision becoming hazy as she pushed through the protests of her body, mind, and spirit to grasp desperately at a plan. Those things could wait—right now, she needed to survive.  

She could feel Lucien staring at her, and from his grim expression she wondered how grave she must look. “Let me heal her.”

“Faesbane is nasty stuff,” Beron said, as though it were something exciting. “As I’m told you recently discovered for yourself.” He smirked. “Can’t be healed with your magic, I’m afraid, so she just has to wait until it’s out of her system. Pitiful thing.” 

Hybern, she thought suddenly.

Since the moment Elain had been kidnapped, Feyre had been fighting the memory of that horrible day in Hybern. Kicking and screaming against it, the same way her sisters had when they were thrown into the Cauldron. It still haunted her nightmares.

And yet, it was more than just a horrible memory.

She'd been in this situation once before. Trapped by wards, no way to communicate with Rhys, forced to make an impossible decision to save the people she cared about. And her solution… it could be copied. This was not the way she wanted it to happen, but it was the only way out she could think of.

“Lucien,” Feyre whispered, moving closer so that she could speak without Beron overhearing. “You can break the wards.”

His face twisted in confusion. “What?” 

“You can break the wards.” The words felt thick and slippery on her tongue, difficult to shape as the poison crawled through her bloodstream.

Lucien looked stunned, searching Feyre’s face earnestly. “How?”

“I didn’t want to tell you like this,” she said softly, hoping her friend would forgive her for the abrupt, life-altering news. Keeping her voice quiet was hardly difficult, and when she spoke it was barely detectable to her own ears. “You’re a Spell-Cleaver.”

He froze. Lucien looked to the Lady of Autumn where she stood at the far end of the room, eyes downcast, then swore softly under his breath. 

“I can’t take all three of you.” 

Feyre frowned, her mind churning slowly as she tried to keep up with his thought process. “Three of us?” 

“If I reveal that I’m a Spell-Cleaver, I can’t leave my mother here.” 

“Lucien,” Elain said quietly, earning both their bewildered attentions. “Your mother told me she’d give me a signal that would mean the wards were lowered for one minute, you don’t necessarily need to reveal anything.”

“What are the three of you whispering about?” Beron snapped, eyes narrowed. “It doesn’t bode well.” 

They were saved from explanation by a screech on the other side of the room. A male had seized Lucien’s mother by her hair. A male that Feyre had last seen beheaded, moments after Elain had put a dagger through his throat. 

The King of Hybern.

“This nasty thing was about to cast a ward cleaving spell,” the King sneered, hoisting a small spellbook out of the Lady of Autumn’s palm. “Where did you find magic like that?” 

Where would Lucien’s mother find a spell like that, if not from the High Lord best known for cleaving spells? Feyre spared a glance towards Lucien, who seemed to be putting that together himself. 

Another set of footsteps sounded down the hall, likely summoned by the Lady’s scream. 

“Eris,” Beron snapped. “Where have you been?” 

“Monitoring the battle in the Winter Court,” he answered, looking uninterested in the scene before him. “I’m reluctant to report the Night Court alliance has battled back our forces.”

“Not to worry,” the King crooned from where he still strung up Lucien’s mother—Feyre caught the way Eris’s eyes narrowed. “Dagdan and Brannagh have just informed me we’ve won the true battle—they say hello from the Hewn city.”

The twins. More enemies that Feyre had last seen with knives buried inside them. And they’d won—they’d taken the Cauldron’s feet, likely used the same fleeting spell the King had once saved for breaking into the House of Wind’s library.

Beron sighed. “Let her go—I’ll deal with her impertinence later. She has too great a blind spot when it comes to our sons. Even the less favorable of them. Eris, take her away.” 

Two things happened the second Eris’s mother was handed to him. 

First, Lucien cried out and there was a flash of light so bright it was momentarily blinding.

Then, he grabbed Feyre and the three of them folded into darkness. They landed knee deep in soot-stained snow, ash floating through the air from the still-burning buildings. Pushing her own injury aside, Feyre immediately shifted to assess Elain.

“I’m fine,” she insisted once Lucien began doing the same.

There was a keening noise somewhere within the chaos. A voice that Feyre would recognize anywhere, no matter how strained from battle. Rhysand was instantly beside them in the snow, grasping Feyre’s face. “You’re alive,” he whispered, sounding so griefstricken that it shattered her heart. “The bond went quiet and I thought—“ he couldn’t finish the sentence as he drew Feyre close on a half sob. “It doesn’t matter. You're alive. You’re alive.” 

“Rhys, the Cauldron’s feet. I had to—“

“Shh, it’s okay,” he said. “Az told me the Hewn City was infiltrated, I’ve already sent him to deal with it.” Those eyes fixed on the arrow still protruding from her thigh, and she glimpsed the fury that cut through his concern. “You’re hurt.”

“I’m—”

She was going to say fine, and even without the bond Rhys would have known it was a bald lie. He was already scooping her into his arms, finally taking the weight off her miserable legs, and her resulting whimper cut off anything else Feyre was going to say.

“Who.”

She knew what he was asking—knew that he had likely already pried into Lucien’s mind to find the answer. Still, she answered, “Beron.”

Those violet eyes turned ice-cold. His face was covered in ash, hair slick with sweat and sticking up at odd angles from the removal of his battle helm. Around them, soldiers were carrying around injured, counting dead bodies. It had been a long day, for both of them.

Rhys didn’t need to make any promises. Feyre already knew that Beron would be paying in blood for what had happened here today. She watched him make a conscious effort to put that rage aside, knowing there would be plenty of opportunity for vengeance in the battles to come.

For now, Rhys ducked his head and pressed their dirty foreheads together. “We’ll take you home and get you to Madja.”

Feyre shut her eyes, relishing in the contact. Mother knew how much longer she’d have to hold him like this. A tear slipped free, and Rhys immediately wiped it away, smearing it into the rest of the grime that caked her face.

“We all survived,” he said gently. “We lived to fight another day.”

Feyre nodded her understanding, halfhearted as she felt. It was enough to face one battle at a time. 

Their attention was drawn back to Lucien and Elain by the sudden appearance of Eris beside them, carrying his mother and looking very reluctant to be there.

“Oh, dear,” he said. “It seems Mother winnowed away the second I turned my back.”

Lucien’s lip quirked. “I thought you might have it in you.” 

“Oh shut up,” Eris snapped. “She’s in this position because of you, so you better look after her.” 

Just as quickly as he’d come, Eris winnowed away, and the Lady of Autumn looked uncertain as she hovered before all of them.

“I’m a Spell-Cleaver,” Lucien said to her, lips a sharp frown. He almost looked angry. 

“Yes,” his mother said, voice soft.

“You understand why Eris took you,” he prompted. “Why you can’t go back.”

Would Beron kill her for it? Their expressions certainly indicated he’d do something horrid.

“Yes,” she repeated, eyes full of remorse. 

“We’ll offer sanctuary in the Night Court,” Feyre chimed in, feeling so much sorrow for the Lady whose life had been stolen from her.

“Thank you, Lady,” she said, bowing her head graciously. 

“Perhaps you should see if you can get sanctuary in the Day Court,” Lucien said, voice sharp and humorless. 

“It’s available—if she wishes it.” Everyone’s attention turned to Helion. Feyre wondered if he’d been alerted to the situation by Rhysand, or if he was simply able to sense the Lady’s presence.

Lucien went stiff at his arrival. He turned on the male, looking at him as though it were for the first time. “Did you know, too, Helion?” 

He paused. “Did I know what?”

“That I’m a Spell-Cleaver.”

Helion tensed, glancing between Lucien and his mother in near disbelief. “You’re—you’re what?” There was a beat of heavy silence, and he swore colorfully under his breath. “It certainly looks like the three of us have a lot to talk about.”

Lucien stood, taking Elain with him. “Give my mother asylum in the Day Court, but spare me from the family meeting. We’re going back to Spring.”

Back to Spring… where Beron’s sons had strolled in with hardly any trouble.

“Actually, Lucien,” Feyre interrupted, feeling nervous to interrupt such a pivotal moment in Lucien’s life. “I think it’s better if Elain came back to the Night Court. It’s not the first time Tamlin’s had trouble with his wards. And after what happened today, maybe Elain shouldn’t be that close to Autumn.”

“If Elain goes, I’m going too,” he growled.

Helion and Lucien’s mother were watching him closely, as much as Lucien pretended not to notice. Feyre glanced to Rhys, hoping she expressed enough on her face to communicate that she trusted Lucien to come to Velaris. Rhysand sighed, “You can come too, foxboy.” 

“Lucien—“ his mother whispered, silver brimming in her eyes as she reached towards him. 

Lucien looked pained as he shook his head. “Just give me time to process this Hell-sent day.”

He busied himself with gathering Elain into his arms, hardly glancing at his parents as he walked past them to stand beside Rhysand. But Feyre could read the anguish that he refused to let them see.

Helion put his hand on Lady Autumn’s shoulder, the familiarity of the gesture almost heartwrenching.

“Right,” Rhys drawled in an attempt to break the tension, but it lost its effect from the sorrow in his voice. “I need to take my mate to a healer, so we all really must be going. Helion, Lady, please reach out if you need anything.” 

Lucien stared blankly ahead, ignoring everyone’s collective stares—even Elain’s—as he let Rhys grab him by the shoulder and winnow them all to the Night Court.

Taglist: @cretaceous-therapod @arrowmusings @achernarlight @rhysandswingspan @imsecretlyaherondale-blog @loverofdemoncorns @swankii-art-teacher @reddidh @thebonecarver @xo-fangirl-xo @daydreamer-anst @hinnyforlife @thegloweringcastle @darling-archeron

[moononastring]

Because we don't talk about them enough...Eris x Iris for the entire shipping ask. I'm feeling greedy today 😌😂

Clearly, we don't talk about them enough HAHA.

falls asleep on the couch

Eris! My dude is exhausted. He's doing a million and one things and Iris finds him nodding off all the time. She'll usually cover with him with something and adjusts him so he's resting his head on her while she's doing something on her own.

makes friends with the neighbors

Iris! Eris gives off big 'i'm better than you so don't fuck with me' vibes while Iris is a social butterfly. Many of their neighbors wonder how they're together but then they see his goo-goo eyes at her while she threatens him and suddenly, it makes perfect sense.

is the adventurous eater

Eris! He is definitely very worldly in his tastes and is the type of husband who wants to get her to try different kinds of food. Iris is curious enough to try things at least once.

hogs the covers at night

Iris! Similar to your answer with Elucien, Eris is a freaken furnace while Iris is over here all cocooned in the blanket. She loves sticking her cold feet on him.

forgets to do the dishes

Neither of them. Though in canon Eris is a prince who I doubt has ever done dishes, I headcanon him as very clean and a bit of a neat freak. In Modern AU, this would be the same. As for Iris, she's too organized for that haha.

tries to surprise their partner more often

They both do! Sadness time but both aren't used to gifts from others or anyone really doing anything to surprise them so once they get to that stage in their relationship, they really go out of their way to try and surprise the other with things. Even and especially if it's something small, the goal is to always bring a smile to the other's face.

leaves dirty laundry on the floor

Neither because again, Eris is too much of a neat freak, and Iris is way too organized. Though out of the two, I can see Iris being a little lazier and putting it off for a little before she feels guilty and immediately goes to pick it up. This doesn't include when they're busy getting hot and heavy with clothes immediately being forgotten about :)

stays up til 2 AM reading

Iris! She loves reading and will sometimes get so into a book she'll forget about the time. Eris sometimes stays up reading reports but ends up nodding off before Iris.

*Side headcanon: Iris would join the Valkyries book club and when they all find out the Helion is secretly Sellyn Drake who just happens to be her brother-in-law's dad, she tag-teams with Eris to embarrass Lucien by reading aloud random smutty passages to annoy him. Lucien wants to ban them from coming over but Elain said no.

sings in the shower

Eris and he's actually not too shabby! He only does it in the shower and the first time Iris caught him, he wanted to die. But then she got into that shower with him and has no issues singing to her in there.

takes the selfies

Eris because he is a p r o. See Ken Bek's Instagram pls. He takes the best photos and catches the best shots of Iris.

plans date night

Eris! This dude has so much money that he has never cared to spend on anyone until Iris and now is committed to winning best husband of the year award with his date nights.

[mimisempai]

The beat of your heart soothes me to sleep

Summary

5 times where Loki falls asleep in Mobius' presence and once where Loki helps Mobius to fall asleep.

Answer to an anon prompt request on tumblr

"Loki falling asleep with Mobius around"

As always when it goes on this trope, I got carried away.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/32649739

2597 words - Rating G

1.

As Mobius emerged from the shelves of the archives, deserted at this hour of the evening, his gaze fell on the tables, and one table in particular.

The table that reminded him of the first days of his meeting with Loki, and the very first time he had realized how much Loki trusted him.

They were both still in the taming phase at this point in their relationship, each gauging the other's reactions.

They were doing intensive research. Mobius, immersed in the files, had not noticed that Loki had become silent while a few minutes earlier he was commenting on every sentence of what he was looking for. He yawned and at that moment noticed something unimaginable, Loki had fallen asleep.

Moreover, it was not a light nap. From the sound of his steady breathing, it was a deep sleep.

For someone as suspicious as Loki, the fact that he slept in this way in the presence of someone was a miracle in Mobius' eyes.

To sleep in front of someone you barely know. How much trust does that take?

At that moment Mobius knew that something had changed, at least for him.

He didn't know at the time what the future would hold, but before waking him up, Mobius told himself that he would do everything in his power to preserve the trust that Loki seemed to have in him.

Whatever it takes.

He recalled the memory fondly as he stroked the table with one hand in passing, right where Loki had fallen asleep that day.

As he looked up to continue on his way, he was surprised to see Loki waiting for him on the doorstep. He wondered, blushing slightly, if Loki had seen his gesture and if he too remembered.

Mobius didn't have to wonder for long, Loki leaned over, kissed him on the cheek and simply said in his ear, "I remember, too." Then Loki straightened up, took Mobius' hand and added, "Come on love, let's go home."

2.

"Okay, tell me what are the top 3 laws to avoid breaking?"

Loki sitting at his desk, let out a deep sigh before protesting, "Mobiuus, I can't take it anymore, you've been making me repeat the laws and workings of the TVA for two hours."

Mobius replied firmly, "Even if you think you don't need them, it's important that you know them, you're going to be responsible for training recruits in the field and while I have no doubt about your teaching skills, you'll be a role model and as such you-"

"Do not disrupt the flow of time," Loki began to enumerate in a sullen voice.

Mobius smiled fondly and nodded approvingly as Loki continued, "Avoid time travel and do not contact people in the past to save them from their future."

Loki yawned ostensibly to show his annoyance.

"Perfect!" replied Mobius who walked away from the desk as he spoke, "Now we will review some of the punishable crimes by the TVA, such as time theft, time misconduct, or time jumps that can destabilize the continuity of space-time. What can you tell me about that last one, Loki?"

Silence answered him.

"Loki, stop being a child and answer," said Mobius in a slightly irritated tone.

Still no reaction. Mobius turned around and couldn't help but smile at the sight in front of his eyes.

Loki had fallen asleep, his head on his arms crossed on the desk.

Mobius approached and looked with tenderness at the black locks that had slid down his lover's face, the little puffs of air that came out of his mouth and made the sheets of paper in front of him tremble, but above all the look of complete surrender.

Mobius shook his head and looked around before finding what he was looking for. He went to grab a blanket folded on the arm of a chair in the corner of the room. He unfolded it and laid it gently on Loki's shoulders. He leaned over, placed a kiss on Loki's head and whispered in his ear, "I'll come back later..."

Loki answered with a groan under Mobius' amused look.

3.

"According to Hesiod, Eris is the daughter of Nyx and gives birth alone, like her mother, to many children, all evil. She is the relentless Discord, both companion and sister of the murderer Ares, who at first rises timidly, but soon touches the sky with her forehead and treads the earth with her feet. The most famous story of Eris tells that she started the Trojan War by provoking the Judgment of Paris. The goddesses Hera, Athena and Aphrodite had been invited, along with the rest of Olympus, to the forced nuptials of Peleus and Thetis, who would become the parents of Achilles, but Eris had been dismissed because of her tendencies to cause trouble.So she gives birth to the worst calamities and seems to announce the apocalypse."

Mobius paused in his reading as he felt Loki fidgeting, shaking his head in Mobius' lap. They were enjoying what was probably one of Mobius' favorite activities since they had been living together.Loki lying on the couch, his head in Mobius' lap while Mobius read aloud, one hand in Loki's hair or in Loki's hand on his chest.

Loki, surprised to learn that Greek and Roman mythologies had many similarities with Norse mythology, had asked Mobius to read him the story of the goddess Eris, Loki's Greek equivalent.

"Of course, there's nothing good about my Greek equivalent!" snapped Loki. "Whatever our origin, we can only do evil."

Mobius grabbed Loki's chin to turn his face upward and said in a scolding tone, "Loki, I thought you knew by now that this was not the case. That you didn't have to live up to this destiny. After all this time, you still don't believe it? You still don't believe me?"

Loki sighed and took hold of the hand that held his chin and intertwined his fingers with it, "Of course I believe you, it's just hearing that, brings back memories that taste bitter."

Mobius leaned over, pressed a kiss to Loki's mouth and resumed reading. "I think you'll like the next part... Eris is also the one Zeus sends to awaken the fighting spirit of the warlords so that they will throw themselves into battle.She is therefore also the goddess of emulation.  Eris is a portal that opens to individual energies. It generates the pioneers, to move the collective energies. She unconsciously forces us to take a direction, to take a path."

"Hm you're right," Loki interrupted him, "I really like that. "Go on."

Mobius chuckled and continued, "Eris forces action, reaction.  Eris causes chaos to prepare the necessary future mutation. Eris is a trigger, a revealer. She participates in the tragedy of life."

"Hmmm..."

"Loki?"

Mobius felt Loki's head get heavier on his lap and Loki's hand clutching his own slowly loosened its grip. He leaned forward a little to see that Loki had fallen asleep. This was no longer a rare occurrence, but it never ceased to amaze Mobius as to its deeper meaning. He pulled the plaid that was at the end of the couch over Loki's legs, taking care not to wake him up, then resumed his reading.

"Eris turns our lives upside down, plunging us into chaos. If she spreads mischief through all, she also throws the trouble in oneself. It is to open a new way. A new life where we will never be the same again."

These last sentences made Mobius smile, because this is exactly what Loki had done in his life. He had opened a new life for Mobius that had changed him forever, for the better.

He closed the book carefully and put it on the armrest. Carding his fingers gently in Loki's hair, who purred in response, he let himself be lulled by the sweetness of the moment and fell asleep in turn.

4.

"I am exhausted, ex-haus-ted!" exclaimed Loki as he entered their apartment.

Mobius, busy preparing the meal, watched him enter the kitchen, smiling at his lover's antics as Loki continued to talk while undressing.

8 hours training new recruits in combat techniques combined with magic!  8 hours! Mobius you are the boss, you could do something!"

He had arrived in front of Mobius, planted a kiss on his lips before continuing to unbutton his shirt without giving him a chance to respond. "I'm going to shower and come eat, love."

Mobius followed him with his eyes and shook his head before returning to the dinner preparation.

Later, sitting at the table, they ate dinner and talked about their day. Loki was much calmer and more relaxed after showering.

Although the training had indeed exhausted him, Loki was nonetheless enthusiastic about his students' progress. But towards the end of the meal, as Mobius told an anecdote about one of his day's events, he saw that he was losing Loki's attention. His head was nodding as he visibly struggled against sleep.

"Loki, sweetheart, let me put the dishes away and you go to bed, I can see you're really exhausted," Mobius said in a gentle tone.

Loki didn't protest, got up and gave Mobius a gentle hug before saying, "Sometimes I wonder what I did to deserve someone as caring as you."

To which Mobius replied, "Nothing, you're just you and I'm just me."

Loki smiled and gave him one last kiss before walking off to their room like a robot.

Mobius went to put the dishes away, turned off the lights and headed for their room. When he entered he was surprised to see Loki sitting on the edge of the bed.

"Loki?"

Receiving no answer, he walked over to find that Loki had fallen asleep like that. He must have really been exhausted.

"Loki, sweetheart, you should go to bed."

Loki groaned in response. Mobius laughed silently. He opened the sheets, gently helped Loki to lie down, carefully removed his sweatpants and T-shirt, Loki malleable as a disarticulated doll in his arms. The degree of trust and acceptance that Loki had in his arms was something new for Mobius every time. Something absolutely extraordinary.

Mobius laid down beside him, covered them both before taking Loki in his arms and after a tender kiss on his forehead, let himself be carried away by sleep.

5.

Loki knocked gently on Mobius' office door before poking his head through the doorway.

"Ready to go home?"

Mobius looked up from his work sheepishly and replied, "Loki, I'm sorry, but I'm not going to be able to leave right away, I have some urgent reports due tomorrow, so I'll be staying late. It's not even worth waiting for me."

Loki didn't hold it against him, he walked over to him, took his face in his hands, kissed him gently before pretending to wipe the creases on Mobius' forehead with his fingers. "Don't worry like that, love, take as much time as you need. I'll leave you a piece of dinner in the fridge for when you get home."

"Thank you for being so understanding."

"You're welcome." replied Loki as he walked away.

Mobius followed him with a grateful smile on his lips before getting back to work.

Three hours later he walked through the door of their apartment, the living room was in darkness except for a small lamp lit near the armchair where Loki was sitting.

He gasped as he approached, Loki was sleeping, that was something he was used to, but what surprised him was that Loki was wearing one of his shirts. Mobius swallowed when he saw that he wasn't wearing any pants, just the shirt and his underwear, bare feet curled under him on the chair. He looked so vulnerable like that, that Mobius' throat tightened. Mobius crouched down in front of the chair and lightly placed his hand on Loki's bare knee so as not to startle him as he called softly, "Loki... Sweetheart... our bed is much more comfortable to sleep in."

Loki's eyes flickered before slowly opening, a smile lighting up his face when he saw Mobius.

"Mobius, you're finally home."

Mobius nodded, stood up and held out his hand to Loki, "Come on, the bed is more comfortable."

He accompanied him to their room, watched him go to bed before going to get ready for the night, also feeling exhausted.

A few moments later, he joined Loki in their bed. He lay on his back and Loki came closer, resting his head on his chest and wrapping his arm around his stomach.

"Loki..." Mobius had a question burning in his mind.

"Hm..."

"Why are you wearing my shirt?"

Loki cleared his throat, obviously embarrassed, "I tried to fall asleep in our bed, but without you I couldn't, so I thought if I wore something of yours, maybe I could, but no, the bed is too big without you, so instead I waited for you in the living room, and finally fell asleep in the chair."

Mobius tightened his arm around Loki's shoulders and said in a voice hoarse with emotion, "you can go to sleep now, I'm here, sweetheart."

Loki snuggled up to him in approval and it wasn't long before Mobius felt the weighted head and steady breath against him, which in turn lulled Mobius into a deep sleep.

+1.

Mobius sat at the kitchen counter, clutching a cup of tea. He couldn't stop shivering.

It was the middle of the night,  it was half past two in the morning. He had been awakened by a nightmare and could not get back to sleep. He didn't want to wake Loki, so he came to the kitchen to try to calm down with a cup of tea.

The nightmares of Mobius were often the same, reminiscences of the lives that he had erased in the name of the previous TVA. It was often the conversation with Sylvie that came back to haunt him.

"All that time, I really believed we were the good guys."

"Annihilating entire realities, orphaning little girls, classic hero stuff."

Of course Mobius had never thought of himself as a hero, but he thought he was doing good and now realized how blind he had been.

And it was hard because there was no way to make amends, no way to redeem himself, because most of the people he had taken had ended up in the void and had not survived Alioth. At night Mobius could not think beyond the throbbing pain of guilt.

Suddenly, hands rested gently on his shoulders.

"Mobius? Are you okay?"

Then without waiting for an answer the hands slid forward and Mobius found himself with Loki's chest pressed against his back and Loki's chin resting on his head.

"I had another nightmare," he whispered, hoarse and vulnerable. Loki hummed, moved back and gently rubbed the back of Mobius' neck..

"Come back to bed with me," Loki's voice was warm and sleepy. Loving. Soothing. He took the cup from Mobius, discarding the now cold tea and rinsing the cup, before taking Mobius' hands and dragging him towards their room. Loki made him lie down before tightening his arms and legs around Mobius who in turn tightened his arms around Loki.

"Thank you," he whispered into Loki's soft hair.

Loki simply tightened his arms around him, and said softly, "Sleep my love, I am here, this time I am the one protecting you."

Mobius fell asleep, a dreamless sleep, only aware of Loki's presence shielding him from the world and from himself.

Beloved.

________

Whole series of one shot here : X

As always, bear with me as it is not beta'd I hope you enjoyed it 🥰

[offtorivendell]

How do you think Helion and the LoA would reunite? For some reason, I'm scared SJM would pull a Gavriel with Helion and kill him off

Hi anon, thanks for messaging! 🙂

I'm sorry this took me so long, and I'm really, really sorry to do this to you, but I'm scared of the exact same thing. My gut feeling is that Helion and the Lady of Autumn might not get a HEA, at least, either not right away, not one that lasts for long, or not in this lifetime.

If you don't want to read my sad thoughts, please don't click read more. This is one opinion about which I'd gladly be wrong.

Spoilers: Throne of Glass series.

Trigger warnings: canon typical violence, death and domestic abuse.

It's obviously not something I'm hoping for, but I don't see Helion and/or the Lady of Autumn, who has powerful magic of her own - strong enough that Lucien’s fire power, inherited from her, has him successfully hiding in plain sight amongst his half-brothers - both surviving this trilogy. Or, if they do survive, I'm not sure it's a given that they will be together romantically in the very near future. I want them both to be happy, and them getting back together would be romantic, but sometimes I wonder whether too much has happened to them both as individuals, since they were last a couple; can they overcome everything in the space of a few months? Maybe Lucien’s mother, rather than Azriel's own, will spend time in the Night Court’s library sanctuary (to which Cassian alluded in ACOSF)?

In terms of them reuniting, I suspect it will happen after Beron dies his untimely death (it may even have something to do with his death), but as I said, I'm not sure it will be romantic between the two of them - at least, not at first.

Could Nameless be the price once more?

If Lucien’s mother dies, I think she'll likely regain her autonomy before the end, and probably outlive Beron by at least half a book, but I can see SJM having her and/or Helion sacrificing themselves, either individually or together, to save Lucien (or Prythian in some capacity) during the final ACOTAR book.

If it's only the one of them, I think it could be the Lady of Autumn who sacrifices herself. It sounds like you've read the Throne of Glass series, in which we heard the line 'Nameless is my price', which was essentially a prophecy that should have ended in Aelin's death. I know they are two different series, but I think there could be a clue; who doesn't have a name in the ACOTAR series? Lucien's mother.

This could be a complete coincidence, of course, but these other notably nameless characters have also met their end in ACOTAR:

Rhys' father

Rhys' mother

Rhys' younger sister

Two of Lucien's brothers (of the seven, only Eris and Lucien have names)

Mama Archeron

Papa Archeron

The King of Hybern

There are obviously plenty more characters who currently remain nameless, some of whom have died (Tamlin's family, for example), but I'm referring more to characters who have been spoken about, and for whom it would make sense - at least to me - for us to have learnt their names by now. As I said, this could of course be a coincidence, but I have a feeling that the Lady of Autumn dying could be used as at least part of the impetus for Lucien and Helion bonding as father and son.

I hear you ask: why not Helion?

We know SJM doesn't like endings where everyone is dead, so the person who dies has to strike a balance between eliciting an emotional response from the reader, while not being a true main character. While this feeling of hers could obviously change, for now, that's what we know.

This sort of character could potentially be:

Helion

The Lady of Autumn

Tarquin

Thesan

Mor

Varian

Amren etc.

Helion dying might read a little too similar to Gavriel's untimely end in KOA; if, like in Gavriel and Aedion's situation, Helion died before Lucien could truly get to know him, as well as his place in the Day Court.

How would Lucien be accepted by the Day Court without Helion to soften the way? How would the Day Court react to someone many would still see as the son of another Court (the son of a High Lord who sided against Helion's own in the war that, hypothetically, killed him, no less) taking over the position of High Lord - assuming that the power transfers to him, of course - without any transition period? We know he is cunning and clever, like a fox, but this could be a tall order, even for him.

Together again in the Otherworld?

The above being said, what if, in time, they can fall back together? Either if they both survive, or in the Otherworld, when they have both made that journey, and are reunited once more? That could be a romantically bittersweet ending for the two of them - their souls twining together for eternity, no longer bound by their troubles, and free to truly just be.

As I said, I don't want to be right, and I do go back and forth on this; it could be Tarquin and/or Thesan, or Amren (etc) who die by the end of the sixth book. But you've caught me at a time where I guess I'm in my doubting phase lol, so sorry about that. Whatever happens, I'm sure SJM will write it in such a way that honours the characters involved, and has us crying at the same time.

Thanks @nikethestatue for checking this over. 💜

[nuttdepikabnha]

Why Hanta Sero should be in Ones Justice

Anime spoilers??? And cussing. Please exuse any typos I may have missed. You have been warned

If you follow me you would know that I fucking love hanta sero

He's wonderful and if you don't think so, that's perfectly fine

What I'll be talking about is why he should be in the game and how weird it is that he isn't, and different combat moves and in game moments that the creators could add with his dlc.

Note, I do not have the game myself, but I've seen enough videos to know how it works for the most part. If there's anything I'm missing please fill me in

Let's get started I'm ready to rant

First off, they have characters that we see at most two or three times that for some reason are in this game.

Take example, the meatball man that was in the way of Bakugo, Kirishima, and Kaminari during the licencing exam.

We only see him for two scenes and he's not important at all.

Sure we can argue that sero isn't important to the plot either, but neither is Mina, jirou, tokoyami, mineta, twice, Mr. Compress, ect, but they ended up in the game because they are beloved by the fans and we see them enough to know exactly who they are.

It also baffles me how characters like rappa and that one villan during the kota arc got into the game as well.

They were one time villains that we don't actually know anything about and are just there to stand in the way and not add any plot

Now people might get mad at me,

"But! What if they appear and become important later and we just haven't seen it in the anime???"

Well the game follows the anime.

The story mode follows specifically where the anime is at.

You're also thinking,

"If you don't think one time villains shouldn't be in the game, what about overhaul???"

Overhaul was more of a threat and appears longer than the other mentioned villains.

The characters we follow at the point have to actively look for him.

His actions effect the rest of the story because of eri.

The same reasons go for stain.

He fits into the roster because he is definitely more memorable and leaves a great impact as well.

One more rediculous fucking example of an unnecessary character added to the roster is gang fucking orca.

I could name way more pros that deserve to be in the game but nope. We get a pro hero we honestly don't care for compared to others.

We care more about pros like present mic and midnight, who have appeared many times and left a larger impact on the series.

In conclusion to this section,

It's rediculous that the game has characters most people don't care about and the game doesn't need, so it's confusing why they don't add sero, a character who appears way more often, got 18 on popularity polls TWICE IN A ROW, and adds a little more to the series. Even if it's a one liner or two.

NEXT SECTION WHERE I GEEK OUT ABOUT POTENTIAL MOVES HE CAN HAVE!! LETS GOOO

I'm not sure how to start this section so I'ma just be straight forward:

If you don't know how to make his moves..

Just👏inspire👏from👏Tsuyu👏asui👏👏👏

Let me explain,

The two actually have very similar quirks. They can use their quick to trap others, they both move around in the air at ease, and can throw people or objects.

They can be the same type of fighter

WHEN HE ENTERS A BATTLE-

He walks up, does a little stretch while saying something confident:

"This'll be a walk in the park!!" Something like that

Once the stretch is over he closes his helmet and goes into a fighting stance

MOVES HE CAN DO:

There should be a combo attack where he shoots his tape to the ceiling and pulls himself forward, kicking the opponent then landing, having his tape unstick to the ceiling and go back into his elbows.

This attack could be used as long distance, if you are a good distance from the enemy, and short distance

Normal single button short distance attacks could be him normally punching. His quirk wouldn't be too well for close combat so he can punch and kick as his heart desires

Long distance can be him wrapping the opponent in tape and swinging them to throw them into a wall.

Just like tsu does, like he did with rocks, and just like he tries to do to todoroki during the sports festival

His plus ultra move could go like this:

He straps the opponent in tape then swings them around really freaking fast to the point they are in the air,

He slams them into the ground by grabbing the tape and pulling it down. The person breaks the ground in slow-mo as the hit thing rises up.

I'm not entirely sure if you can dodge your character normally by rolling or something, but sero's dodge move would just be swinging out of the way.

If you swing out of the way and press an attack button, he can kick the opponent from behind then land on his feet

OK SO YOU KNOW THE CUTSCENES WHEN YOU ADD SIDEKICKS AND DO PLUS ULTRA THEY WORK TOGETHER????

OK that for sero would be with Midoriya and Uraraka

But... Mina and Kaminari???"

YES I would love that BUT this would make more sence because they have worked together before for the hero license exam.

The cutscene with Bakugo, Kirishima, and Kaminari HEAVILY recreates the scene during the license exam where they worked together, (with the game changing it up so they can all attack)

The same thing can happen for sero, uraraka, and deku because of how they worked together at the exam.

(I had to rewatch the scene for these specific details. It gave me serotonin ( ꈍᴗꈍ)

Ok so I'm gonna do this rp style to make it easy..

"You sure this plan is going to work?"

Sero walks in sight and looks past the camera before uraraka comes into view and nods

"Let's do this" she says with confidence

"Alright fine"

The two run out of view as deku comes into the screen and runs towards the opponent, keeping them destracted by running around them and landing a couple hits, showing the hit count on the side.

Sero comes into view and shouts at deku to carry him

They jump away upwards and the opponent's sight follows them and sees boulders taped together above their head.

Deku jumps on top of the gathered boulders and crushes the opponent and the ground, once again in slow-motion and the hit number going up quickly. Uraraka cheers in the background as this happens.

Basically this but the boulders are taped together and are trying to crush the opponent, not capture them

Ok I'm going to answer my own questions about this:

Why is sero being carried?

Yes it reflects what happens in canon but it can also be helpful with careful thinking.

If sero was standing around while deku would kick the boulders, the opponent would have an opportunity to attack sero. But in order for their plan to work, the opponent would have to be standing right under the boulders.

If he were being carried, the opponent would be more focused on them and stay put.

He also adds to the weight of making the boulders go down and crush the opponent.

CONCLUSION???

Hanta Sero is a very minor character, mainly for background and comic releif, but he might as well end up on the roster of the my hero game.

His abilities would work well in the fighting game and a lot of people like him enough for him to be recognizable.

The game will let characters who have less than two scenes into the game, so they should have a beloved character that has way more moments and is more well known through the series

There are different ways the creators can have fun messing with his quirk and teaching fans new things about him.

The new dub update came with new voicelines, and those can definitely help us learn about his character and just have fun listening to conversations he might have with fellow students.

Omg thank you so much if you read this all the way. I really hope they add him.

THE PETITION :00

https://www.change.org/p/byking-add-hanta-sero-as-dlc-to-my-hero-one-s-justice-2?original_footer_petition_id=21912577&algorithm=promoted&source_location=petition_footer&grid_position=4&pt=AVBldGl0aW9uAEc0TgEAAAAAXq2XfIIo54wyOWIwZTdiYw%3D%3D

Ok I'll stfu now lol

[class1akids]

I agree that the Overhaul arc is poorly done, but I'm curious - what are your thoughts on Nighteye? He's one of my favorite characters, mostly because he clearly cares so deeply about so much yet he's rewarded with pretty much nothing but suffering for it. I felt like his fate was handled...absolutely terribly by Horikoshi, with it being glossed over almost immediately after it happened rather than having the profound effect on Deku, Mirio, and All Might that it should have. (1/2)

I feel like part of the reason the Overhaul arc feels so hollow is because it seems like a means to an end in introducing some new characters - Mirio, Tamaki, Nejire, and Eri, primarily - but the arc ITSELF has very little effect on anyone or anything in it once the story moves on. There’s no lasting impact; it barely even gets referenced again. And again, Nighteye’s care and dedication go largely unrecognized and unrewarded. There’s almost nothing to feel good about in the arc. (2/3 lied again)

The longest time I spent away from staying current on the manga - when I couldn’t muster the will or desire to read - was during the Overhaul arc. I think it was poorly executed all around, that the most sympathetic characters in it were unilaterally punished for their best qualities, and that what should have been important was given the same post-arc treatment as filler fluff. What are your thoughts on the problems with the arc? And what do you think of Nighteye as a character, and his fate?

I have several problems with the arc, but the biggest one is that for such a long, Midoriya-centric arc, I feel like I’ve hardly learnt anything new about him, and that he hasn’t changed much.

As for my problems with the arc:

1. Mirio

Mirio was obviously introduced as a foil to Deku, to show that Midoriya wasn’t the only possible heir to OfA, he wasn’t even the best choice by far. It’s an interesting setup, but one that I don’t really know what to do with narratively. 

If anything, it soured my opinion on All Might quite a bit. Because he behaves like OfA is just another quirk, something he can do with as he wishes, and bestow it on a good-hearted, but naively idealistic kid with no body strength or combat experience to speak of. And I can’t help but think of all the times Deku almost died, taking OfA (a legacy quirk, nurtured by generations to be able to counter humanity’s big threat, AFO) to the grave with him, and All Might’s choice starts to feel selfish and short-sighted.

I do think at the end of the story, All Might’s choice will be vindicated, because something will make Deku in retrospect the best possible holder (my bet is that due to quirk singularity, Deku’s quirklessness will play into his advantage in hindsight), but for what we know now:

1. All Might passed up on choosing someone with a quirk to help increase the power of OfA.

2. All Might without ever considering the greater implications and wider responsibility, didn’t even look at the candidate chosen by his close allies, who did have a pure heart, had been training hard for years, managed to turn a very difficult quirk into a powerful weapon and was perfect both in body and mind. Instead, he went with a spur of the moment nostalgia, because he SAW HIMSELF in Deku - and I cannot applaud this. 

Before you come @ me angrily - I don’t hate on Deku - I think Deku from his perspective deserves it, and has done as well as he reasonably could, and even going above and beyond trying to make the quirk as his own. 

This is a criticism of All Might’s choice as framed by the narrative. It feels less wisdom and more selfish wish-fulfillment from this perspective. 

Mirio has to fall and lose his quirk because obviously someone so much stronger than Deku cannot stay in the narrative and not bring up more questions going into the battle against Shiggy. But the way Mirio loses and Deku wins against Overhaul I feel also doesn’t have a lot of lessons - when fighting, have the right Loli-backpack with a convenient power just to make up for your current problem???

I don’t even like Mirio that much as a character - he feels a bit too perfect, a bit too powerful to be interesting to me. I like my characters flawed and conflicted. 

So I think the Mirio vs. Deku comparisons didn’t really deliver anything for me. I came out of the arc not having anything convince me that Mirio wouldn’t have been the better choice and just as deserving as Deku. I don’t know what Deku learnt - he has a bit of confidence crisis, but he’s already had confidence problems, and doesn’t seem to last beyond this arc. 

2. Sir Nighteye

Again, his character seems another way to make All Might less likable. We finally learn that a lot of his splendid isolation at the top of the hero-mountain is self-imposed; that he pushed away his allies and refused a helping hand. 

Sir Nighteye is an idealistic All Might fanboy, a lot like young Midoriya, except he was pushed away. 

His quirk is also quite broken in many ways, which makes you wonder where did they hide him in pivotal moments like Kamino?

I honestly didn’t feel much for Sir Nighteye - he felt more like a plot device than a real flesh and blood character to me. But I feel that the points he was created to make (i.e. All Might’s behaviour in choosing Deku was reckless) were not convincingly refuted. 

Yes, the story may have proven that he cannot predict all ends, that the future can be changed - but still, just because he couldn’t foresee Eri (a deus ex machina device) activating in the crucial moment doesn’t change the validity of his criticism. 

I also feel that his death was a bit hollow - it doesn’t profoundly change Deku, Mirio or All Might. It’s a momentary sadness, but not a kind of emotional devastation. 

3. Eri

She’s cute and all, but her power feels a bit too convenient in the sense that now whenever something horrible happens, it never feels permanent, because we are like - oh, well, Eri will just rewind that.  (Mirio’s quirk, Shirakumo, Deku’s deadly wounds…nothing is of consequence.)

I’m not going to pass a judgement on this until we get the picture of what Eri’s power actually is, what are it’s limits, how it is fuelled - but it’s something that can break the narrative. 

4. Overhaul

Chisaki had a great potential and amazing design, but I feel like him as a villain also didn’t quite deliver. 

I guess he’s put in as a foil of Shigaraki. While Shiggy is the guy trying to bring on a new era, but clinging onto the teachings of his master, and has a quirk that’s only hugely destructive, Overhaul is trying to “preserve the old ways” by basically staging a coup in the yakuza, and he has a quirk that could be a powerful healing quirk, which he uses for evil? 

He’s also a bit similar to Eri in this - that his OP quirk could have been turned into pure good if he was saved from the yakuza’s clutches as a child. Still, in the end of the arc, I don’t have much feelings about Overhaul - nothing that really prompts me think in his ideals (like Stain did), or nothing that makes me feel empathy for him (like Shiggy’s or Toga’s backstory does), or nothing to make me intrigued (like Dabi does). 

5. Too large cast - too little character development

We get introduced a ton of new characters - but in the end, the only ones I feel like I learned something substantial about are Fatgum, Mirio, Sir Nighteye and a little bit Amajiki. 

On the negative side - we leave the characters we spent the last 150 chapters learning to care about behind. We only see Uraraka, Froppy (but they are totally sidelined), Deku (who as said above doesn’t feel coming out having grown from this arc - but yeah, 100% OFA looks cool I guess?) and Kirishima (who got a decent backstory and development). 

We also see Aizawa - and similarly to Nighteye - we also see why he needs to be taken out of every fight, because otherwise his presence would resolve it too fast. He has that one nice scene with Deku, showing that he probably realized that he needs to care about the emotional well-being of his students.

Otherwise, because we are fully following the raid, I’m sitting there thinking after 13 episodes, when will I see the class, and the characters I’ve come to be invested in again? 

In the end, for almost 50 chapters and 14 episodes, the really emotionally impactful moments are few and far in between:

 - Deku - All Might - change the future together

- Kirishima: Red Riot Unbreakable

- The Suneater fight

- Kirishima & Fatgum against Rappa

- Mirio standing up to Overhaul after losing his quirk

- Deku vs Overhaul (spectacular, but not very character-driven)

- Sir Nighteye death (but like I said, not as impactful as could have been)

In the end, it tried to grab too much, and it didn’t deliver a coherent whole. I think Horikoshi is better at writing shorter, more compact arcs.

I don’t hate it, but it’s certainly not one I want to rewatch or re-read and mostly I’m just looking forward for it to be over and for us to get on to other storylines. 

[vulcanaizawa]

Just thinking bout Shouta's quietly resigned face and the sad, silent slump of his shoulders when the nurses tell him the clothes he picked for Eri wont work, as he thinks oh no... im... not going to be any good at this, am I?

and each of Eri's nervous, little smiles make him think that maybe... just maybe... he might be doing okay at this whole... dad? thing? because he never expected to become... especially this young... but then again he never expected to end up a teacher either, but as he watches this batch of students progress he's maybe doing okay at that? So...

So he cherishes each moment that Eri smiles, feeling himself melt and sink a little more into helplessness with each one, ducking his head and having nothing at all to say whenever Mic makes jokes about being wrapped around her little finger because he knows it's true...

and he keeps pushing through the nervousness and uncertainty alone. He doesn't know any other fathers to seek counsel with - well okay, he KNOWS a couple fathers, but they're not friends or anything, and he barely trusts them as far as he could throw them - but...

...maybe he discovers Yagi-san going through some similar feelings.

They're not quite the same, of course, it's not like he's taken full guardianship of the Midoriya boy or anything, not like he's... trying to fumble his way through learning how to raise a child - a little girl, no less, fuck, Shouta knows NOTHING about raising a little girl - but they at least have a few moments of shared uncertainty, wondering if they're even doing the right thing to be getting closer than necessary, if the kids would've been better off had they stayed simply a teacher to them instead of... of whatever they were each becoming to their respective charge.

Shouta reveals the true depths of his uncertainty one night, little finger nervously inching closer to Toshinori's as the quiet of the otherwise empty staff room, bathed orange in the late evening sun, presses down on his heart to speak more than he intends to.

And Toshinori takes his hand and wraps it up so tight in his own, fully engulfing it in those big, warm fingers, and tells him that he's known a lot of fathers - some who've done well, others who haven't - and that even if he didnt know Aizawa from Adam, didn't respect him so highly as educator, didnt see him raise young students through the most difficult time of their loves, didn't see every day how much passion and love he secrets away for that little girl, that

"-one look at Eri-chan's face whenever you walk into the room would tell me all I needed to know that you were the best damn dad she could ever ask for."

Eri is trying to learn to make things, like "Momo-nee-san," and on parent's day she nervously hands over not only a hand drawn card of the two of them but also a little lopsided sewing project - a lumpy cotton stuffed oval with two triangles awkwardly stitched to the top, crooked little kitten face smiling up at him.

"Um... the... the class nee-sans h-helped with the eye buttons," she murmurs as Shouta turns it over and over in his hands.

Then he scoops her up and tells her how beautiful it is and how much he loves it and teaches her that sometimes when a person is really really happy it's too much for their bodies so they have to cry a little, it doesnt mean I'm upset it just means I love you so so much that's it too much for me so will you help with it? Will you hold some of my love for me?

and then later he calls Yagi over to show him the kitten look look at how well she did look at what she MADE for me and Toshinori shows him the bento Izuku packed so carefully and lovingly but the poor boy forgot I can only eat so much will you help me with this please I can't bear to throw any of this away

and they both kinda cry together for a while about these little pieces of family they never thought they'd have while both loyally pretending they're not seeing the other one cry and Shouta falls asleep splayed out across Toshinori on the couch.

Izuku brings Eri back that evening from hanging out with 1-A, and he grins as he puts his finger to his mouth, chuckling a little. Eri doesnt know what's so funny, but his excitement is catching and her dad looks like he's getting some good sleep, so she grins back and stays quiet. Izuku gets her ready for bed, and carefully cleans up the living room a little - scarred fingers lingering over the now empty bento as he smiles, getting a little wistful, so happy that the whole thing got eaten. He knew he'd packed too much, but he just got so excited... He had worried about making Yagi feel bad he couldn't eat it all, but it seems to have all worked out.

He shows Eri how to help, giving her one end of the blanket they carefuly tuck around the sleeping - and in Toshinori's case, snoring - dads on the sofa.

Everyone sleeps well.

[sagethreepiece]

Ok let’s talk about @paintbrushofanimeuniverse reply tho:

There's another way. The scientists group (that experimented on Anya's bio mom) kidnaps Anya. And Loid and Yor use their resources to reach her. Imagine this, Anya is about to be tested on and from two different doors come Loid and Yor kicking ass and then, they finally noticed each other. They probably try to come up some lame excuse and Anya (tired/scared) goes: "Papa is a spy, Mama is an assasin , I'm a psychic and Bond can see the future. Can someone untie me?"

No but i love this???? It fits with Spy x Family’s brand of humor.

My scenario is very similar: I imagine Loid is assigned a mission to look into a laboratory that is rumored to be creating new weapons for the war and he must go and retrieve evidence. While doing his spy thing and infiltrating the lab, he comes across information on “Subject 007” and discovered not only that it’s Anya but that she’s a telepath. He manages to complete his mission (when doesn’t he tbh), and he goes home to test whether Anya really is an esper, without her knowing of course. Which is hard. Since she can read his thoughts. He thinks some things and see how Anya responds (all kinds of hijinks ensue), and he does this for a few days. After all, he’s a spy — he needs to observe and learn more about his target before he acts.

So then the Forger family is on a family outing, something happens where once again Anya saves the day but this time Loid confronts her about how she suspiciously always knows what to do/say. Anya gets scared because the scientists who “raised” her said that no one must know of her power (helloooo episode 1 flashback) and she runs away. With her being as clever as she is, she is able to evade both Loid and Yor.

But when she thinks about it, she loves her Mama and Papa. She knows they love her too. So she resolves to go back home and face whatever may come. After all, her powers can’t be as bad as getting 8 Tonitrus bolts right? On her way back, she is then kidnapped by said scientist group (they’ve actually been looking for her for a while — she’s a valuable tool — but couldn’t find her after her last orphanage didn’t have any papers on who adopted her ).

Loid and Yor of course are freaking out, and try to find an excuse to ditch each other so they could go into their true roles of spy and assassin. Yor says she’ll go ask Yuri if he can help look for Anya (she still doesn’t know he works for the Secret Police) as a cover. Loid is 1000% against the idea (it’s Yuri c’mon), but it doesn’t matter right now because he has to get his daughter back and this was the perfect situation to ditch Yor.

He figures out where Anya is and who has her. Yor also figures it out, though her means are a little more…bloody….than others. They’re both racing against the clock to get to her. After all, they have no idea if she’s safe or ok and the idea of Anya being hurt is something neither Loid nor Yor want to imagine.

They do badass-ery things, finally get to the room where Anya is but do so at the same time. Loid’s thoughts are running mile a minute when he sees Yor (“what is Yor doing here”, “how could I not have known”, etc.) and Yor is panicking, wondering if this means the Shopkeeper will make her kill Loid because he knows her secret now. Anya, overjoyed her Mama and Papa are there to rescue her, starts to get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of thoughts running through both Loid and Yor’s heads (especially Loid though). She sighs then says exactly what @paintbrushofanimeuniverse has her say: Papa is a spy, Mama is an assasin , I'm a psychic and Bond can see the future. Can someone untie me?"

No one’s gonna read this wall of text, but if you did, I thank you!

i know “yor finally gets assigned to kill twilight/loid finally gets assigned to kill thorn princess” is a really fun and popular future plot line people like to think about, but i think “yor gets assigned to kill desmond sr” could cause equal amounts of drama. because operation strix is not KILLING desmond, it’s getting close to him and infilitrating his inner circle. and you can’t do that if he’s… dead

cue shenanigans of twilight miserably trying to keep this horrible man alive from this demoness who he had assumed was an urban legend and yor going “who is this fucker who keeps getting in my way”

[deathberi]

Hi hi Eri! Hope your week was great!!!

Ohhh that sounds lovely, you're gonna spend time with your family!!! Even if you have to work I hope you'll enjoy it a lot 🥰

Ahhh you're so similar to my best friend about that! Even if she likes a lot something, she always will notice every single thing which sounds wrong to the serie!

Yehhhh i really have to remember a lot about bleach! I surprised myself to not remember names of (majors) characters 🤣 But I think i can enjoy the current season, at least if I find somewhere to watch it! i just need to don't remember how disappointed i was when i read this part of bleach years and years ago lmao

Ahhhh you're so strong, really, I can't stay anime only for too long, i'm quickly so frustrated! You can't even imagine how much I'm trying to not read blue lock. I wanted to read it before they have announced an anime and I've been caught up by time and finally not reading it (for now!) I highly recommend you to watch blue lock if you still haven't!!! 🫣 I seriously dont know how did I resist to not read Kaguya until now lmao

Ahhh tokrev tweets pissed me off an incredible amount of time! I tried to ignore a majority of them but you couldn't scroll without seeing something offensive said against it 😵‍💫 Well, not sure about editor's issues for Wakui but it wouldn't surprise me 😪 It made me very sad for Kubo when I heard that, and it was the same for Shokugeki no Soma. I really loved to follow it weekly tho. Did you read/watch it already?

Dhsqlfjzla maybe one day you'll get that push for one piece, and you'll find the ship you'd living for!!! 👀👀👀 Anyway i love your ship combination, deuteragonist + best girl is working so well!!!

I've almost finished your gift and ahhhhhhh i'm so excited , i tried something slightly different of what i'm used to do as an edit and i'm proud of the result even if it's not 100% finished! Hope you'll like it ❤️

See you soon for the reveal 👀👀👀

- Your animanga secret santa 🎄

hi santaaaa 🥰🥰🥰

yes totally chilling at home, hope you’re having a wonderful holiday time too!

probably just cuz i like whining while i’m at it pointing out the flaws lmfaooo also the new bleach animation could be your cup of tea, it is indeed animated well unfortunately.

it must really depend on the show and the random bout with whether you shall dive into the manga. most certainly you won’t stop once you open a chapter 🤣

a lot of the tweets are just dumb and clout chasing stuff like yeah sure you do you twitter folks 😂 unfortunate that editor issues really happen and can make or break a good manga run. i was interested before to at least try to watch it, you know for the food, but i also heard that it’s very fanservice-y so idk i just put it off since i wasn’t in the mood for that then and forgot it altogether 😅

at the right time for sure!! 💖💖 ahhh omg that makes me so excited!! i’m sure i’ll love whatever it is, and wow thanks for even trying out different stuff for this hmmm makes me curious too!!

i enjoyed our exchanges so much! i’ll see you soon~ merry christmas my santa! 🥳

[autumn-foxfire]

You know, I think Ochako might've won her battle with Toga. Her unleashing SPM is the same as Shouto freezing Dabi before he tries Phosphor. They won the battle with their respective villain, and now they have to win the battle again, but this time save their hearts too. Idk what that means for ShigAFO though. Hawks and the kids "won" by breaking the mask, that was their objective, but AFO healing himself is the same as what those two did. Except nobody there can save his heart y'know? So I have no idea what AFO's end is going to be. Bakugo didn't get to "beat" Shigaraki in battle, but maybe if I read further Deku beat him already and Shigaraki got a new "awakening" to launch us into the second part of the battle. It's a lot like the Volo fight now that I think about it. Fight over and win over again in succession to ~really~ win.

I think this ask was sent before the latest chapter so I wonder what happened between Toga and Ochako? Did Kurogiri interrupt the battle with his portal and Toga took her leave before the battle could be concluded?

I don't think AFO is going to get an end similar to the sympathetic villains, especially with Eri's quirk rewinding his body (I believe?), so I doubt people will reach out to his heart. Though maybe they might try with OFA and Yoichi? I wouldn't put it past Hori to do so and he does seem to have a brother complex.

Another anon on a later ask summed up how Hori writes big battles like this so there is definitely going to be a second battle where the focus is more on "reaching out" than just pure fighting.

I'm sorry nonnie, this is an ask I should have answered so much sooner.