#but like I put in my little numbers and now I exist with this knowledge

[linguenuvolose]

My dating stats are coming together more and more and….. idk how I feel about this

[autistic-shaiapouf]

Mystery bugs in my home and I don't recognize them! I've seen a few around at this point and might make a more formal post about it tomorrow but, mystery bugs below the cut if anyone wants to take a shot at helping me ID them:

Not the best pics but it's got an abdomen with clear markings that make me think either roach or earwig, but photos of the nymphs of either don't seem to be matching up; granted I only looked for maybe 5 minutes and mightve missed something obvious but this guy's not ringing any bells for me

[generalsdiary]

Dr. Ratio w/ Kavetham parents (x Aventurine)

warnings: none

word count: 5.7k

a/n: after the intro (one or two paragraphs) it switches to Ratio’s pov dw (beginning with the first line of dialogue), also if you don’t like the Aventio ship- it is only mentioned after half of the writing. and in case you’re only here for Aventio- it begins halfway. tho I do recommend reading the full work for the best experience ^^

description: let's talk about Ratio's parents. I have been going on and leaving comments/hiding in hashtags here and there about how much I like the theory/fanon of Alhaitham and Kaveh being his parents (fluff, nostalgia)

now let us take into consideration that Teyvat does exist in the canon of Star Rail- and (if you've read/watched a few analysis) you might know that the planet on the loading screen is literally Teyvat- and now if you're questioning how is it separated from everything (read; not getting checked by the IPC) and similar- well.. it is locked off of any access. I'm truly not the right person to dwell into this, so do explore more about that if it has piqued your interest, and without further ado, these are my thoughts on our favorite canon couple in Genshin being Ratio's parents.

I can see Veritas coming back home (by some means) and his dads being just over the moon delighted to see him.

Kaveh would most likely ask him to sculpt something with him. Veritas, as it is portrayed, he sculpts mostly himself, and (in Kaveh’s voice lines he says sculpting is his hobby) Kaveh enjoys that as well. so, it makes perfect sense that Kaveh taught him that, just a little Veritas wobbling around and putting his hands into the grayish looking water, little hands shaping the sculpture- Kaveh giggling at the sight, gods Kaveh would look so beautiful in that setting, Alhaitham smiling fondly- he won’t touch the water or the statue- the texture ain’t right. so, when adult Veritas comes back home for a longer visit, of course Kaveh insists on his son sculpting something with him.

“how have you been, Veritas? it has been quiet without you rambling with yourself in the middle of the night about the problems of the world” Kaveh snickers and pours fresh ground coffee.

“I do hope you have been taking care of yourself, you shouldn’t let your job rule over your private life.” Alhaitham adds.

“I- I have been fine, and no my job isn’t suffocating me, dad.” He answers in that annoyed voice reminding his fathers of a teenager. “I never said suffocating.” Alhaitham quietly adds, his son revealing himself in his word choice. He doesn’t comment any further. The obvious is clear to all three men.

he goes to his room, fresh, clean as if he never left. his walls covered in sheets of paper with math equations, sketches of various buildings (even an attempt to sketch his father’s beautiful work of the palace of Alcazarzaray), quotes from those close to him in case memory ever betrayed him. the warm sunlight dripping into his room, the scent of spices, fresh coffee, herbal tea and warm cotton letting him know that he is home. nostalgia isn’t something he allows to rule over him, but in this moment, he is weak to it and indulges in the safety of his room. the rough texture of the sheets soothes him and all the puzzle pieces seem to fall in their place. he needed this. his dads, this vacation. he falls asleep with a small smile on his face that night, there’s perhaps no better place to be than home.

little kid Veritas was truly born into the right family with his intellect. perfect parents to take care of all of his “quirks”, and hunger for knowledge. and, Alhaitham and Kaveh are so proud of the man he grew up to be, “you know that love for math and numbers, is all you.” Alhaitham comments, not raising his gaze from the book in his hand, the early morning sun just barely grazing the room. Kaveh smiles and walks over to his partner, his lips leaving a soft kiss on the top of the younger man’s head, “he is equally you and me, Alhaitham.” both men smile for the next minute, Alhaitham’s free arm moving around Kaveh’s waist since he stood right next to where he sat. “except the hair, that he takes after his uncle.” Kaveh laughs melodically at that remark, “well, he crafted the hair genome-altering potion himself because we allowed him to ask Tighnari too many questions which he was all too happy to answer.” Alhaitham nods, “it fits him. the indigo. can’t even remember what it was before if I’m being honest.” Kaveh all but shrieks, turning his voice to a whisper to not wake their son, “that’s because he did it when he was 4.”

speaking of his ‘uncle’, Wanderer is someone Veritas was very fond of. or rather, is still very fond of. such a genius mind, a clever being with a puppet body, snarky, sarcastic- Veritas felt confused why he didn’t hang out even more often with his dads; they seemed like the perfect match of personalities and intellect. nonetheless, he did come over occasionally, and was always met with, something he now knows to cherish; the soft smile, the gentle voice and the cozy embrace of his uncle who likes tolerates children. and especially since he didn’t come over often, teenage Veritas would run away take a walk to go see him, he always looked young so that made him seem even more approachable to the young boy. he’d seek knowledge, and intelligent conversations- not that his fathers or his other uncles didn’t provide that. he simply needed someone outside of that roster. an outsider. well… half of an outsider, who can keep secrets. not that he’d have many secrets to share, Wanderer would gladly amuse the kid, happy with the respect the child gave him and intrigued by the questions he'd hear.

“alright kid, it is late, off you go.”

“it’s dark yes, you won’t see me off?”

“you can walk, can’t you? now go.” Wanderer zooms off into the shadows. Veritas developed confidence in his late night walks home and bravery, not knowing- until maybe in his adult life, that Wanderer always flew above him on his way home. making sure that he was safe. and every time, maybe out of respect, maybe out of a sense of duty, or perhaps… even… companionship? friendship? he’d slip a note under the door ‘the kid was with me, W’

“is uncle Wanderer still in Sumeru?” Veritas indulged between bites of pita pockets. he just did a workout session with Alhaitham, his dad is where he picked up the healthy habit of working out and staying active.

“he should be. I mean he didn’t move out to a different region if that’s what you mean” Kaveh answered with a nod in Alhaitham’s direction, to confirm or debunk what he said in case he had different information. Alhaitham shook his head, he didn’t know anything else, “he should be in Sumeru city.”

Veritas makes his way on the incline of the Divine Tree, last step, and, “ah well if it isn’t my favorite nephew?” the voice said sarcastically. a whoosh of wind and the short man with a large hat- obscuring anyone’s view, flew down.

Veritas smiled, “uncle. it has been very long. and the years have… treated you well” he chuckled, attempting to tease the older man.

Wanderer scoffed, “is that some poor attempt at a joke? perhaps, you should spend more time with the general on this vacation. brush up your…” vague gesture, “comedy.” he hovered and sat down on the stone wall.

“I doubt comedy is something I’m fit to pursue.”

they talked for hours that day. catching up and Veritas dumping, if at all possible, even more questions onto his uncle about life and existentialism. the sun started setting and Wanderer got up, ending their conversation as always before it got too late in the night. he gestured to Veritas to come closer, to which he bent lower- the height difference was painfully obvious, “you really grew so big.” Wanderer softly commented, Veritas could see the same kindness and endearment in his eyes that he saw as a child. Veritas always meant much more to Wanderer than he ever let on. to be called uncle, considered a family member, and not be asked to change himself. Wanderer appreciated Alhaitham and Kaveh, and his nephew is someone he’d die for. he pinched his cheek, “you take care of yourself, young man.” Wanderer smiled for a second and flew up out of sight. and, just like all those years ago, he flew above him out of sight, making sure he got safely home… after all, Veritas isn’t a vision carrier.

“puppets- puppets can’t cry, stop this” he’d mumble to himself as a few more teardrops fell on the parchment paper he pushed under the door.

‘the kid was with me’

second night he dreamed. Nahida smiled in this dream and waved “welcome home, Veritas”, once awake he sat up immediately out of breath.

stepping into the kitchen and there she sat.

“oh Veritas, it is so good to see you” she chirps, jumping off of her chair and walking over, he bends over to pick her up so she may properly hug him.

“auntie Nahida- I- I seem to have forgotten you knew the exact moment I laid my head on the pillow two nights ago that I got back home” Veritas would mumble, he didn’t realize that he would be this happy to see her.

“oh- Lesser lord Kusanali, you didn’t use the door- um- would you like some tea?”

“Lesser lord Kusanali, good morning, I’ll fetch the tea.” Alhaitham would add, making Kaveh sit down so he doesn’t stumble over something, his husband is always jittery when the archon comes to visit.

being close to Wanderer meant Nahida heard of him, and of course, she knew about Alhaitham’s and Kaveh’s son, hence upon visiting the kid often she became the auntie Nahida. Veritas grew up knowing the full truth, his dads aren’t the type to sugarcoat it or lie.

so in this embrace, Veritas realized how many questions he had for the tiny god in his arms. the god of wisdom. although, that might be impolite… he was silent for a bit.

Nahida giggled, “ask,” her legs swaying on the chair, “I know you must have so many more things you wish to know. especially with your age, doctor~” she giggled even more. and therefore it became a discussion, Veritas carefully forming his words, his dads listening to the conversation until they had to leave to lunch with friends. “come if you have time, your uncles Tighnari and Cyno will be there. they would be happy to see you.” Alhaitham adds as they leave the house.

on his way to the tavern he hears a woman yell his name, frozen in his step he turns and sees her running towards him. “Collei!” Veritas smiles, opening his arms and she jumps at him. he gives her a spin and tightly embraces her, “how have you been- you’re still amusingly short-“ he laughs, and she playfully punches him,

“is that how you greet your favorite cousin?”

“you mean my only cousin?”

“don’t get snarky with me- I got better at communication and will use sarcasm to my advantage!” Collei laughed happily as she answered. in his mind, she has always communicated well with him. he never saw any issues, only fondness for his older cousin.

they catch up on the street, his cousin is someone he cared about a lot in his youth. a peer who he didn’t shoo off, who didn’t dislike him, and who was and still is an amazing, accepting, intelligent person. one stayed and the other one moved away, yet their communication never failed, never changed, and the love always there for one another.

Cyno and Tighnari basically tackle him with love and affection. Cyno wraps him up in a blanket of dad jokes (not literal), while Veritas shares stories of foxians on the Xianzhou Luofu. it is a pleasant lunch filled with stories, and the tallest man at the table getting babied and treated as if he is fifteen years old again. somewhat bittersweet. Cyno insists they play a round of TCG, Veritas winning easily, “it is pure strategy, uncle Cyno” he tries to hide his smirk as he answers to a frowning general; Alhaitham adds quietly, “that’s my boy. well done.”

His uncle Cyno was the one to teach him Genius invocation TCG, during their trips to the desert they spent their evenings playing cards. “this is hardly fair, uncle. I keep losing” the small boy frowned.

“Veritas, when you are old enough, and more experienced you will, maybe, come close to winning.” Cyno answers, not showing mercy to the kid- he must learn the rules of the game properly, as he is teaching him survival in the desert. which, over the years of many trips, resulted in Veritas growing well acclimated to the weather conditions and scorching sun there, a good life skill to have.

on the other hand, he also grew accustomed to the moisture-heavy air and high heat of the rainforest. going on many camping trips with his uncle Tighnari. learning of different plants and creatures, gaining proficiency in biology before he even got to go to school. nights in the Gandharva Ville were also something he remembers fondly, his cousin, someone he holds in high regard, was always nice to him, pleasant, no matter his attitude and ‘adapting’ behavior. Collei never judged, they were, in a way, both patient with each other and led intellectually stimulating conversations for both parties. Veritas wouldn’t be the same man he is today if it weren’t for his peer.

Madam Faruzan is someone he didn’t expect to see in the house of Daena. he found her… interesting in his youth, but he moved past the interest when the well of knowledge for him dried up. on the other hand, Faruzan adored the little boy who was respectful and smart. they chatted for a few minutes and he quickly excused himself, otherwise, he’d have to put the bust on and the people of Sumeru have spent years not seeing such strange behavior and he knew it would attract even more attention. his younger dad’s voice would echo in his head, “it never matters if it makes others around you uncomfortable- you take care of yourself. if it helps you, if you feel better, then wear it.” and the scene of his dad placing the kid sized plaster head on his head played in Veritas’ mind. he feels incredibly lucky to have such amazing parents.

“how’s the traveler?”

“oh them? they found their sibling and I’m afraid I haven’t seen them in a bit. but they always come around, you know how they are. unpredictable~” Kaveh chuckles, and fondly recalls his friend with gold hair.

“or perhaps they changed bodies and personalities and embody someone you know outside of Teyvat.”

“daaad.” Veritas exhaled, “your attempts at humor get more annoying with years” he rolled his eyes at Alhaitham.

in a suggestive voice he joked a bit more, “maybe now they are less polite, maybe they even have- gray hair like I do.”

for a second the image of the Trailblazer flashed before his eyes but he dismissed it, “daad please can you contain yourself. I would appreciate it. those books on comedy did you no good,” his head turned to Kaveh, “dad why did you buy him that?”

“for pure shits and giggles, my dear boy.” Kaveh answered with a grin.

one can be as put together as they want and as old as they can be, but once one is home… we all turn back into children.

there was a knock on the door, Kaveh got up to open it, “good morning, yes?”

“ah hello, is doctor Ratio here- his device seems to not be working on Teyvat it seems so err…”

“Veritas it’s for you!” he said louder and turned back to face the man in front of him, “and you are?”

“dad-“ he gently pushed Kaveh aside, “you’re too flashy- get inside Aventurine!” he hissed in a hushed tone.

Veritas stands with his hand on his forehead, shaking his head gently. Kaveh seems amused with a smile on his face and sits down on the couch, next to the sofa armchair where Alhaitham made himself sit in no time. Kaveh can tell by the look in his husband’s eyes that he is entertained.

the young man, which their son addressed as a translucent quartz… Aventurine took a step towards Veritas. “hey- doc- I didn’t mean to- maybe I should’ve read some stuff about the planet before jumping-“

“maybe?” the tone of voice was obviously a displeased one, even raising in tone with a sharp glare. Veritas inhaled and exhaled. like a child doing a play he turned to face his parents, “dads, this is Kakavasha,” Aventurine did a small wave, “he is an occasional work partner of mine and I suppose that is why he came here.” he turned to him and raised an eyebrow.

“well, yes, your phone- I mean device wasn’t working- actually nothing came up- I grew worried,” his voice turned into a whisper, “you know with this planet being so gatekept and outside of the IPC’s or the Aeons’ control so…”

“worried?” Veritas asked. Kaveh and Alhaitham were only missing popcorn, this has been the most entertaining thing they have watched in years. going all the way back to when they visited Fontaine and saw a wonderful drama performance.

“yes,” the blond man answered.

“let’s-“ Kaveh cleared his throat, “I’m Kaveh, Veritas’ father, this is my husband Alhaitham. why don’t you stay a bit- no need to rush off to… wherever you zapped from, hm?” he smiled.

“this, being the isolated area you claim, surely two travels in one day are not good, hm? stay the night. we will make room.” Alhaitham nodded.

and oh, Aventurine could read them in a second, street smarts this guy. he saw every single detail of the two men and how it translated into Veritas. “I’d hate to be a bother- but I’m clever enough to know you two would insist.” Aventurine smiles. Alhaitham and Kaveh hold back any laughs bubbling up their throats from giddiness. for them two, a pinning couple such as themselves, something as this short interaction between Aventurine and Veritas was as obvious as Cyno being the general Mahamatra. visible from the top of the Divine Tree. the only question was, where do they stand together?

“I. you’re right, but I don’t think it is necessary-“ Veritas begins only to be cut off by Kaveh.

“you’re forgetting yourself- didn’t you say he was flashy? you practically dragged him inside.”

Veritas cursed himself mentally, this was truly not what he had in plan. “fine. follow along, dear gambler.” he walked down the hallway and Aventurine followed quickly along.

Kaveh looked at Alhaitham with wide eyes and held back the urge to bite down on a pillow. “I will fucking scream, our son, OUR SON, got bitches?”  “was that real? that just happened, yes?”

Alhaitham was speechless in any verbal form, but his facial expression was priceless. “dear. Archons. thank you lesser lord Kusanali for blessing our boy.” Alhaitham hoped their son would never be lonely… and over the years it truly did turn him to even hope for the archons to show mercy upon him. “he also isn’t an idiot” Alhaitham continued.

“mhm, quite a beautifully well-mannered young man along with that,” Kaveh added.

inside his room, “why- this was truly unnecessary- my dads will now-“

“doc, calm down your parents are great- is this where I’ll stay?”

“this is my room!” he narrowed his eyes, Aventurine nodded and stayed quiet, “yes… this is where you’ll stay. don’t get… cocky about it”

“oh please doc, it isn’t the first time we share a bed.”

“change into something Sumeru appropriate if you wish to leave this house at any time during your stay.” Veritas ponders for a moment, “my clothes are too big and so are any of my dads- uncle Cyno is shorter than you so that’s a no, uncle Tighnari has a tail so that’s also a no, uncle Wanderer wears Inazuma-Sumeru styled clothes and also too small- I will have to buy.” he sighs after his short analysis.

“money is never the problem- credits are something I have a lot of and you know that- why?”

“they use mora here, not credits.”

Aventurine falls quiet, a world with no credits… a land of opportunity! he shall gain mora!

“no. don’t you gamble- the rules here are different-“ knock, knock.

“Veritas, will you go buy Kakavasha clothes or shall I sew something of some old pieces?” Kaveh asked against the closed door.

“I- dad can you go buy- we need to talk- I can’t at this moment.”

“yeah, I’ll go.” silence, he didn’t move away yet. “I’ll take your father with me.”

a distant muffled voice answered, “I don’t like shopping for clothes, Kaveh.” “Shush Alhaitham we are going.”

“I doubt your worry was justified- you knew you couldn’t contact me here”

“your parents seem nice. and now I’m here, so let us not dwell on would’ve, could’ve, should’ve hm?”

Veritas sighs. they exchange a few more words and he leaves for dinner with Collei previously arranged.

the sun is setting when he gets back, Aventurine got nicely acquainted with his parents and… well, Veritas is standing frozen at the entrance door. Aventurine is wearing white Sumeru style clothes, with pretty gold accents and splashes of purple and cyan. there has never been a lovelier man than him, your beauty leaves me speechless. He clears his throat, “now that you look appropriate, allow me to take you on a walk, yes?” to which the blond man obliges and they leave the house.

absentmindedly he talks of the architecture and how people live in Sumeru city. they arrive at a point that oversees the vast area towards Port Ormos and they stand there in silence for a few moments.

“the clothes are very comfortable, I hope I’m wearing them well,” Aventurine says with a big smile.

“you look…” beautiful, ravishing, heavenly, out of this world, take my hand in marriage, “…you wear them well, yes” Veritas cuts his thoughts off.

“c’mon doc, we are on your home planet, in your city. no one knows us here- at least not as the cornerstone of the Aeon of preservation and the member of the Intelligentsia guild. we can relax.”

Veritas rolls his shoulders and takes a deep breath. “you’re right. … you look… beautiful. I… I bought you something- it was meant to be a gift when I got back but… here” he hands him a small blue velvet box. Veritas doubts Aventurine ever enjoys wearing jewelry, not with the way he quickly strips himself off of his rings, the watch, and necklace the moment he gets home. Aventurine opens the box and tilts his head in thought, “this is…?”

“a hairpiece. sort of like mine. a pin. I’m sure you understand.” Veritas nods to himself. Aventurine hands him the pin, a dark blue-golden piece displaying a certain mushroom. “put it on me.” Veritas’ eyes shift to the shorter man, if he wasn’t such a calm person his hands would shake in this moment. his fingers gently grip the pin and place it on the soft blond hair.

“good?”

“perfect. I chose well.” Veritas cannot hide how flustered he is at that moment despite his cold demeanor when his cheeks show a shade of pink.

“Doctor… Veritas. I would like to enjoy this vacation- with you. us, together, no one to say anything, may we… relax?” Aventurine says softly, his hand shyly coming to hold Veritas’ making him look at the man. “the view is beautiful from here, the sunset, colors, everything in warm colors, look.” he says, Aventurine shifts his gaze and Veritas keeps looking at him. he raises their joined hands and kisses his knuckles, “you mean everything to me” he whispers.

Aventurine smiles, returning his gaze to him. Veritas continues in a soft voice, “you wear the clothes well. it is… such a vision to see you in the clothing of my world. to see you standing next to me on the streets I grew up on, to see you meet my parents… also I have planned to stay for quite a while so expect to be here for at least a month or travel back to the ship.”

“I think I might stay for a few days. I like the sight of you here, you seem much more relaxed than you usually are, Doc. it’s like you feel safer here. and given how many dangerous specimens are on this planet I am surprised by that fact.” Aventurine gives his hand a small squeeze. “I’d like to get to know your family.” there’s an underlying sadness he sees in the shorter man’s eyes, perhaps the yearning for a safe family of his own.

“I have a big family, uncles, and aunts, a cousin… I’d be happy to introduce you.”

“friends? you didn’t say friends.”

“ah… those. family is what I have here. and you.” Veritas pushes the thoughts of his childhood away, friends… not something he had a big privilege of experiencing. He always preferred his uncles, aunts, truly the only real friend he ever had was Collei. perhaps the other kids weren’t even worth it.

the walk ends with them gazing at the sunset, holding hands.

at night they share his bed, his childhood bed. in the privacy of his home he feels safe enough to lean his face closer and gently kiss him. his lips pressing onto Aventurine’s with a mumble of good night. It feels surreal… his partner with him, in his arms, in his home. Aventurine that night dreams of a small white-haired person who welcomes him to Sumeru and says she is happy to meet him. in the morning when he shares the dream, between kisses Veritas lays along his jawline, the doctor stops to inform him that that was the Dendro archon, which results in a gasping Aventurine and a longer time in bed explaining the function of gods and deities in this world.

Veritas walks into the kitchen, following the scent of Sabz meat stew. his parents are in the study so he freely wraps his arms around Aventurine and lowers his head into the crook of his neck. “smells good.”

“mhm, your dad gave me the recipe- I thought I’d try it out. taste it!” Aventurine turns a bit in his arms, lips pursed blowing on the wooden spoon. it tastes good, melts on the tongue, his eyes widen and it is all the confirmation Aventurine needs. Veritas kisses his temple, “I’m so happy you’re here, Kakavasha.”

steps on the wooden floor knock him out of his bubble, his cheeks blush- being physical with his partner isn’t something he wants his parents to see. he puts the plaster head on and sits down. luckily in this household, it is perfectly normal to self-regulate in such a way. he can count on both hands just how many times he saw his dad without the noise-canceling pieces he uses. half of those were when he was sleeping, he remembers as a kid when he’d run to their bedroom, in tears from a nightmare- in mere seconds he’d have the devices on his head- be it Kaveh putting them on or he himself getting them on. after which they would both turn to comfort the small boy. any other time, was his dads quietly chatting on the sofa, and upon his arrival his younger dad would waste no time to put them on. two voices being too much. Alhaitham reassured him plenty of times so he doesn’t feel hurt by it, especially now, that he is old enough to understand; the only person he can tolerate, he enjoys listening fully to (not all the time tho) is Kaveh. to prove the case further, as a teenager he found out that his dad’s device has a mode which makes sure that his older dad’s voice always pushes through noise cancellation. true love at its finest. and what a hopeless romantic his dad is to do so and feel like that. the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. he does wear his bust much less when he is around Kakavasha.

and now not even the plaster head can hide it when he tilts his head on his hand and stares at the blond man. Alhaitham smirks, he sees through it oh so easily, “do you need any help, Kakavasha? if not, Kaveh and I are leaving to go to the Akademiya, update our retirement plans and so on. although, I’m sure my son can help out if the need arises.”

“I am doing fine so far, thank you sir”

“no need for sir, Alhaitham is fine.”

“I’d feel impolite to address my partner’s parents like that,” he speaks out loud before thinking. he stops stirring the food, when did he- how- when did he start feeling so safe that he stopped overthinking as much? Alhaitham nods with a barely noticeable smile and turns to leave the kitchen. “don’t burn the house down, you two.”

Veritas plants his face into his palms, covering the plaster head even more. Kakavasha turns around to face him when the doors close. “hah, um… sorry?”

Veritas gently takes his plaster head off with a small sigh, his cheeks are colored a light shade of pink, and eyes looking elsewhere, “it happens. I’d love to think my dad took your ‘partner’ in a business terminology, but… nobody in this household is that idiotic. and… I doubt we were any less than obvious, especially to a special case such as my parents.”

“special case?” Kakavasha hangs onto his words.

“some other time I’ll tell you about their situation- or perhaps you may ask them yourself. watch the food, dear.” Veritas gestures with his chin to the cooking pot.

Kakavasha does that indeed, chatting along with Alhaitham and Kaveh, the men more than happy to share their story- and get to know their son’s partner.

“I was told I might find you here,” he says in a soft voice, sitting next to the tall man.

Veritas raises his head from his notes. he is sitting at a large table in the house of Daena, surrounded by books, papers and a few pens. “who told you? I wasn’t avoiding you- my dad told me they added a few books and borrowed some from the Temple of silence, I couldn’t resist reading through it all.”

“your dads. am I bothering you, doc? I’m sure there are some books I can entertain myself with” Kakavasha gazes around.

“with no offense, doubtful. it is usually highly dry material, unworthy of your time and energy. I am willing to take a break, may I tempt you with a walk, dear?”

“yes, you may.” Kakavasha smiles at the flirty question.

saying goodbye is never easy. when being home is nice, pleasant- it makes it much harder. Aventurine left a week or so ago, and went back in the outer orbit of the planet. Veritas spent more time with his close family, having more shared meals and spending his early mornings in the Akademiya’s library, even going so far to visit the actual Temple of silence.

Kaveh’s arms are holding him tightly in an embrace, his voice slightly shaky, but he is trying not to let it show, “I will miss you so much, my dear boy. please stay safe, don’t get into unnecessary trouble, eat a lot, take care of yourself and you can always come home if it gets tiring. or just- one day come home to retire, maybe? and bring that boy with you, your father and I like him, he is welcome any time.”

Alhaitham’s strong arms hug him with a few pats on the back, in a monotone voice, which Veritas recognizes as warmth, he softly speaks, “I stand behind everything your dad already said. do take care of yourself, we will miss you a lot.”

“I don’t want to cry.” Veritas whispers, standing in front of his parents, Kaveh inhales sharply holding back his own tears, Alhaitham tightly holds his hand, his jaw clenched as he also tries not to grow too upset. “we shouldn’t cry,” the retired scribe says, “it isn’t good to say goodbye in tears, we will see each other again. we are immensely happy you came to see us, Veritas. I love you- we both love you, and safe travels.” he ends it with a nod, Kaveh nods as well.

“I love you too” Veritas whispers back, he jumps into both of them, hugging them one more time. he steps back, waves and, with the usage of technology unnatural to Teyvat, he is gone. Zapped away into the orbit.

“I miss him already.” Kaveh doesn’t cry as much as he thought he would when their son leaves.

“Veritas is out there doing the best he can for himself, and he isn’t alone. we both know how much it matters that he isn’t alone.” Alhaitham’s eyes appear sad despite his words. the men sit on the couch cuddled in each other’s arms. “you’re right… he isn’t alone.”

Ratio, back on the ship, eyes filled with tears threatening to drop meet the watercolor ones of his partner. “I- I… I miss them already, Kakavasha.” Aventurine walks over to hug him, his hand moving in circles on his back. “I’ve got you. I’ve got you.”

after a few minutes, Aventurine quietly says, “we will visit them again. we can come over for my birthday? I… really enjoyed being surrounded by family. maybe you’d let me meet more of them this time, yes?”

Veritas smiles, tears dried up, he really has a way of bringing his mood up. “of course, we will visit for your birthday then.”

“I look forward to calling them my family like you do,” Aventurine adds with an all-too-familiar smile.

“is that-“ Ratio tilts his head, “is that some backward way of proposing?”

Aventurine chuckles, shaking his hands, “nope. not yet. there’s time for us to do… that”

Ratio smirks, with an exhale he leans his head on the shorter man’s shoulder, “thank you… for coming along. I’m glad you met them.”

Aventurine silently smiles and kisses his cheek. perhaps the next time they come around they will make certain vows.

[fanfic-obsessed]

Unauthorized Change in Priority

I’m still on a bit of a DCxDP kick right now and I have another idea. It seems to be a fairly common trope that when DP exists and the Justice league seems to be ignorant of a small town in Illinois that was actually pulled into another dimension for several days, that the blame is laid either on the GIW or John Contantine. When John Constantine is blamed, we tend toward him going ‘we don’t fuck with the Infinite Realms’ and nopes out on behalf of the entire JL, leaving a 14 year old to handle things on his own. 

Let's take a slight inversion of that. Also I should probably mention, you might want to disregard any canon that contradicts this. 

It is important to note going in that in this one Amity Park sits on so many intersections of ley lines that it is impossible to tell which layline is connecting to which.  A bit like a natural lake bed that is fed by a bunch of little rivers.  This thins the divider between this dimension and the infinite realms, substantially.  So even before the portal opening the line between Amity Park and the Infinite Realms is tissue paper thin. 

Constantine before he joins the JDL, at some point well before Danny is even born, finds himself in Amity Park. He realizes immediately how thin the veil is in this location and, not wanting to sneeze and accidentally drop this town into a hell dimension, backs away slowly. The veil is so thin that Constantine does not even dare putting any kind of monitoring spell but notes the town (reasoning that anything that happens here will be world ending).  When he joins JLD (still well before the portal opens) he creates the Amity Park file and puts two very important notations. 

First, anything Amity Park can only be handled by the JLD, preferably Zatanna or Contantine. He has a good reason for this; as most superheroes have just enough contact with death or magic to be reactive to the Infinite Realms, no knowledge of what to avoid, and next to no willingness to leave well enough alone. If there was an issue that by some miracle had not punctured the veil between realities, it is almost guaranteed that the wrong move will make things exponentially worse not better. 

Second, he put a notation that any communication about, for, or from Amity Park is priority number 1, used for potentially cataclysmic, all hands on deck immediately communications. In short any call from Amity Park should have been immediately routed to Constantine. 

This is what should have happened. However, the first technician to receive a call from Amity Park (during Lunch Lady’s attack) decided that this must have been a miscoding, or a data entry error, as ghosts do not exist. Not only does he mark the caller as a prank, but he also used his own access to change the second notation for Amity Park, marking any call from that location or about that location as a prank, to be ignored. 

Fast forward ten years, until now nobody has caught on to what happened. Constantine had very realistic fears about tearing a hole into the infinite realms and thus never checked in on Amity Park, since no notifications came in. 

We start with Batman, in the watchtower, unintentionally running into Constantine giving a royal, and deeply pissed off, dressing down to the technician in question, though the topic is not obvious. 

Upon seeing Batman, Constantine goes “Good, you were next on my list. We need a full League meeting, ASAP, and all of your brood needs to attend, particularly Red Hood.”

Batman just growls out a ‘What?’

Constantine sighed “Look, I know you don’t like magic. I’ve tried to respect that, no matter how much death magic you and your brood radiate. But we have a fuck up with potentially dimension ending consequences and your undead boy might be the best shot at keeping us all from a war we can’t win.”

 Batman growls to cover his own confusion.

Contantine rolled his eyes, “I will tell you everything I know, at the meeting. Going over this more than once increases the chance that someone will fly off the handle and fuck us all worse” he then turned to head toward one of the conference rooms, towing the technician. When the technician protested Constantine snapped out “Mid Case Scenario is that we have to sacrifice you to the Infinite Realms for your fuck up, you stay with me until I know how bad it is”

No more than a half hour later the Justice League has gathered, including a prickly and confused Red Hood (only there because someone-Read Red Robin- thought to use the ‘apparently this is a dimension ending trouble and we’re the assholes that live here’ argument). 

Constantine starts with three word ‘Amity Park, Illinois’

Every member of Justice League Dark goes pale.

Constantine continues:

We have a fuck up of massive preportions. Possibly dimension ending, all caused by the idiot to my right.  For those of you not in the know there is a dimension that lightly overlaps ours, called the Infinite Realms. It simultaneously encompasses all afterlives that ever were or will be and serves as the connective tissue between the afterlives and the mortal realm.  Natural rips form, usually along the ley lines, to allow the spirits of the dead to pass on from our world to theirs and vice versa. It can also be called the Ghost Zone. This realm is made up of ectoplasm, what ghosts are made of.  Semi poisonous to mortals, also technically radioactive. Mortals who have touched death in certain ways begin to resonate with the Infinite Realms, mostly by dying and being brought back by unnatural means.  

With me so far, Good.

A few decades ago I came across a city in Illinois where the veil between here and the Infinite Realms is so thin it is practically see through.  Since I figured accidentally punching a hole in reality and dropping a midwestern city into some fucked up shit was not a good idea, I left but kept an eye for the name to pop up anywhere. When I joined the Dark, I put a priority alert in place. ‘Cause anything that happened in Amity Park  or  about Amity Park meant the damn Infinite Realms and we needed to be on top of that shit. Except the dipshit to my right, whose name privileges have been revoked,  decided that the careful label of ‘Priority 1’ must have been a mistake, and changed the label to mark everything from Amity Park as a prank. 10 years ago.

Yesterday a different alert regarding the Infinite Realms was tripped and guess what I found…Over 200,000 calls from Amity Park in the last decade. All urgent cries for help. All ignored. This was the last message.

 Everyone in the league looked deeply uncomfortable with the idea that they had been ignoring cries for help, the unnamed technician cringing next to Constantine. It got worse when Constantine played the last message. The voice sounded male and it sounded young (They do not know if, but it was Tucker Foley aged 24 years old), what’s worse was that there was audible pain in the voice overlaid with a helplessness. 

I���I don’t even know why I am trying this. It’s clear no one is listening. That no one will listen. But…But Danny would want us to try. Would want us to give one last warning, he loves humanity so much.  They took Danny. They took him two weeks ago and they are cutting him open. We can feel it, Danny’s trying to keep it from us, to keep us from feeling it but our bond is too deep.  We can’t get to where Danny is being held and he’s so tired; he won’t last much longer. <The voice stops and there are several minutes of pained panting> Let this serve as a warning, should the Ghost King be Ended at the hands of the US Government, the Infinite Realms will ride to war. Amity Park stands with our Ghostly brethren.  Long Rule King Phantom. 

The recording cut out and a horrific silence echoed. Before anyone can rush off to try and rescue this ‘Danny’ Constantine gets to them to sit down so that this could be done right (and avoid rushing in to make things worse). He points out that the Ghost King has not yet been Ended, gesturing at the Bats. All of the bats have brushed with death in the right ways (also Gotham was Very very cursed, which also thinned the veil. Though it was not up to Amity Park Levels Gothamites tend toward liminal as well) to be at least loosely affiliated with the Infinite Realms (liminal, though that is not the term he used), with Black Bat, the current Robin, Batman himself, and Red Hood being the ones that pinged as ‘Actual Realm Denizens’ (I know most of the league has died, or died adjacent, but we’ll go with they register as slightly liminal but much less than the Bats, since Gothams curses and the use of the Lazarus pits count as additional exposure).  

Had War broken out, the loyalty of those four in particular would be bound to the Ghost King. Constantine was also sure that between their affiliation with the Infinite Realms and the loyalty of those four, the rest of the bats would likely switch sides (Of the Bats, only Red Robin looked completely at ease with this prediction-Tim had long ago accepted that his loyalty was not tied to Justice but to Family).  Thus the bats serve as an early warning system, should they attack then it was too late. 

In addition to being the canary in the coal mine, Constantine hopes that Red Hood, having died and come back, may be able to serve as an ambassador of sorts, that having him and the other bats with them when they go to Amity Park will give them the time to talk with the residents and de escalate things. 

The meeting continues as the League identifies the goals for this

Short Term: Rescue the ‘Danny’, anyone else in immediate danger, and make contact with the people in Amity Park

Mid Term Goals: Start making amends for ignoring their calls for help, ensure the residents are safe or could be made safe, figure out why they think what Danny is enduring has anything to do with the US government

Long Term: Dismantle whatever organization is the ‘They’ the caller mentioned

Of the Bats, Oracle and Black Bat would stay on the WatchTower to play canary. At the same time they would start trying to figure out the They mentioned in the call (by going through the other calls) and any research that needs to be done. 

A Single jet, with the Batfam, John Contantine, and as many of the Justice League as can fit (with the Supers flying outside it) is dispatched to go to Amity Park; there is concern that more than that would spook the residents or seem like an invading party. They are able to land the Jet in the middle of Amity Park’s town square and can already see the devastation. It already looks like a war zone, with destroyed buildings and pitted roads. The sky flickers between a normal looking sky and a sickly green that they do not realize it from the Infinite Realms. 

A crowd has gathered by the time the amp on the jet lowers. It is a mixture of humans and ghosts, none looking pleased to see the Justice League. The crowd is led by Fright Night, Mr. Lancer, and Tucker Foley (who looks to be in some kind of pain).

This is an Eternal Trio (Tucker/Sam/Danny) kind of idea with Tucker and Sam having a strong psychic bond with Danny, in part due to being there when he died and the portal opened. Because of that all the ghosts see Sam and Tucker as substitute Ghost King/Royalty with Danny being in the GIW’s hands. It takes some back and forth (and Fright Knight explicitly asking Red Hood if the Justice League are to be trusted) but Tucker is willing to answer their questions if it means that they get Danny back. 

It turns out that the GIW had the town basically under siege and had for the last year (by that point barely anyone was trying to reach out to the Justice League). Two weeks ago the GIW managed to capture Danny (and had since managed to capture a number of ghosts and liminal humans for experiments). They had some kind of shield up that meant that no one who was past a certain point of Liminal, as all of Amity Park were, were able to get anywhere near it.  Sam and Tucker’s bond with Danny meant that they knew he was alive and could feel what Danny was going through.  The Bats were too liminal to get close to the GIW facility/fortress. They would go with Tucker to Fenton Works to begin interviewing people about what was going on (finding out that the GIW was apparently a branch of the US government was disquieting). John Constantine (still dragging the techncian) was going with them, someone mentioned the stable portal to the Infinite Realms and his ulcer grew by 3 sizes. The rest of the Justice League would be storming the GIW facility to rescue anyone imprisoned. 

In Fenton Works they encounter Maddie and Jack, radiating a manic crazy kind of energy as they furiously build weapon after weapon for the ghosts/AP residents to use against the GIW and/or the rest of humanity. Vlad Masters was with them, trying to keep them relatively stable.  The Fenton Parents only found out that Phantom was Danny and that Danny had died a few days before Danny had been captured, though they had mellowed about Ghosts over the years (they were still shooting at Phantom, but it was more of an afterthought to making sure the GIW didn’t harm any innocents- Closer to frenemies than enemies).  To be fair Danny had not been trying to keep it a secret from them for years, but after a certain point it felt like bringing up the Danny Phantom/Danny Fenton thing was a little awkward. The Fenton Parents are practically the only people in town who had not made the connection.

The knowledge that they have been hunting their baby, that they have been hurting their baby, that their inventions killed their son cracked their psyche’s a little. Before they could fully recover from that blow, the GIW took Danny and was hurting him. The GIW was using the Fentons Research as a basis for everything they were doing.  That shattered their minds more than a little. Their behavior from that point on tended to remind older Ghosts of ghosts who were on the verge of having a cracked core from either an impossible Obsession, or conflicting Obsessions. Everyone is treating them very gently and lets them keep building really weird weapons to keep them from literally beating themselves bloody on the GIW shielding.  Red Hood, as the most Ghost Adjacent (Everyone in Amity Park have been exposed to enough ectoplasm to sense the levels of ectoplasm in other, to a certain extent), and Red Robin, as the most engineering inclined, are immediately co opted to help with weapons development as the Fentons babble about taking out the GIW in distressingly specific terms, uncontrollable manic energy, and frighteningly blank eyes (Even Red Hood is treating them with the ‘these people are a primed grenade attached to a nuclear bomb’ kind of kid gloves).

Jazz makes a point to thank Batman for Red Hood and Red Robin indulging her parents.  She is exhausted and at the end of her endurance in trying to keep everything together. She sits with Sam, Tucker, and a number of assorted ghosts to answer Batman’s questions about what the fuck has been going on in the past decade. 

Back at the watchtower, Oracle has written a program to transcribe the messages from the Amity Park calls and do an analysis on the word use. From the transcripts she has been able to find a couple of important keywords: Anti Ecto Acts, Ghost Investigation Ward, the names of several ghosts, Pariah Dark, Danny Phantom. She and Black Bat begin researching. These are not fun topics to research. 

The Lantern Corps are taking the research and compiling a report to take to the OA.  Absolutely 0% of the people are happy with what they are discovering. While not all of it could have been prevented by the Justice League knowing about the portal opening from the beginning (The Anti Ecto Acts had been buried in a sub clause of a sub clause of on page 1,361 of 2,500 of a Wheat Subsidy Bill), there was significant preventable damage. 

At the GIW headquarters residents of Amity Park, both ghost and human, stood outside the shield line as members of the Justice League, particularly members of the Super family (which has the benefit of having Clark Kent the reporter be a first hand witness if need be) pass through the Shield with only the faintest of resistance. The first priority is the Shield as no one can escape until it comes down.  Superboy, the older, finds the experiment cells first.  It is horrifying beyond anything he had ever experienced.  

Several of the cells contained ghosts that not only had been living when they were brought in, but also were trapped in a cell with their own rotting corpse (Including both Paulina and Dash). Every possible human/Ghost experimentation and horror was present.   They find Danny vivisected and pinned open with several of his organs and limbs decorating the room, while he was painfully regrowing them.  

Later the vague descriptions of what was found in the GIW headquarters, reported by Clark Kent and Lois Lane, would induce actual supervillains to come out of the woodwork to help the Justice League in taking down the Acts, the GIW, and their supporters. Ra’s Al Ghul reaches out to Red Robin (not just because Ra’s also qualifies as liminal under the acts-though he does take that personally), offering support and a cadre of assassins. Lex Luthor throws his political muscle behind repealing the Acts.  Two Face is in complete agreement with himself for the first time in ages when he declares it open season on anyone in a GIW uniform. 

In the aftermath it is found that even the living residents of Amity Park are all too Liminal to live in most cities. Gotham remains one of the few cities that can support them.  A robust exchange program springs up between both cities; the residents of either tend to consider Amity Park as a neighborhood of Gotham. Gotham University is the first school to offer admissions to one of the ghostly residents, codifying how Ghostly enrollment should be counted. They are also the first to offer both a Psychological and Sociological Master degree program with a focus on Ecto beings.

Constantine finds that it is no longer possible to separate Amity Park from where it had partially sunk into the Infinite Realms. This has led to some strange warping of the space time continuum that gives him a headache, but by all accounts is as stable as it can be.  This means that while everyone agrees that Amity Park is in Illinois, and geography does seem to support that, it is possible to turn down certain streets at certain times and be in Gotham and vice versa. 

Once Danny had recovered some from his experience a bit, he does pass judgment on that technician.  Once the tech dies, he would be imprisoned in Walkers prison  for a period equal to the suffering and recovery time of all of the victims affected by his choice. 

[christinebloodwrittings]

Engraved on the knowledge tree.

Request by: @white-00-7

Pairing: Lucifer x Fem!Angel-Reader Summary: It is said that time turns people you know into people you don't anymore. When your prayers weren't answered, you decided to visit your dearest friend, in Hell. Warnings: Slight angst, Adam and Eve mention, fluff, NSFW.

“Dearest Sami:

I have heard of your new position in the heavens, congratulations! You must be very happy, as I am for you. The flowers of the garden are exquisite, I’ll bring you a few when I go up to visit. How are you now, are you still picking fights with Michael?

Yours truly, Y/n, principality of the south wall.”

“Dear Y/n:

Principality, oh my! I guess I’m not the only one with a big promotion. I am well, swarmed with papers of matters that yet don’t exist, if that was possible. I have a proposition for a new animal, I will show it to the council and let you know what they tell me.

And Michael is still a pain in everybody’s shoes, certainly someone’s been putting something in his oatmeal every morning, not that I have anything to do about it…or maybe I have.

How are things in the garden? I heard the big man was about to make something new.

Yours truly, Samael Morningstar”

“Dearest Sami:

My word! A new animal? I hope it is fluffy or cute, but that is perfectly capable given your gifted mind. And yes, the big boss is creating something he called “People”, we have yet to wait on his final design, he has tried many methods to create one, but they crumble down.

Don’t bother your sibling, Sami, you know you’ll get in trouble again. I hope you succeed in your presentation.

Yours truly, Y/n, principality of the south wall.”

“Dear Y/n:

I indeed succeeded! Soon you’ll see what will be called a duck floating in the lake of the garden, it has both yellow and white feathers, with a beak on their faces! Most adorable.

What is he making them with? I heard he’s going to try mud next; I do hope that works now.

 Which leads me to the next question: at what full moon will you bless me with your company here? I have no one to annoy Michael with, I miss you!

Waiting for your letter, loved the little gardenia inside.

Yours truly, Samael Morningstar”

“Dearest Sami:

I am so glad you liked it! He has succeeded as well! He calls it a “Man”, he’s oddly like us, without our immortal glow and wings of course, he looks simple and fragile, but strong. Adam, the first man! Very smart as well.

I am afraid I have to stand guard, big boss’s orders, so the day I had planned going up had been postponed. I’m so sorry.

Here’s a loose feather of your latest creation! Cute as they can be, the human was the first to caress them. The feathers are the softest thing I have ever felt, even more so than petals. You are brilliant Sami!

Yours truly, Y/n, principality of the south wall.”

“Dearest Y/n:

Oh my! It’s better than I had ever imagine! Though it fills me with grief knowing that I won’t see my dearest friend in a while, but no one can fight against the big man.

I have heard that the man feels alone, so he will be making him a companion, what he calls a woman. To be his equal and support.

The first one to jump on the idea was cupid, as you can imagine, she loved it, so much that she and the big man are discussing her appearance.

Thank you for the feather, still, I would like to see you.

Yours truly, Samael Morningstar”

After Lilith was created, there was almost no letters from Samael. You, dearest reader, couldn't imagine why.

There was an exact number of twelve letters sent to Samael, but the only one that came back, when the skies were tainted red, was to join the fight against a rebellious angel and his legion of insurgents.

Armed and sadly ready to make a move as the front line, you saw Samael, your friend at the other side of the battlefield, your heart crumbled as you were hit by your comrades running off to battle.

An arrow sent you against the ground, then the fire burnt most of your wings and skin as you retreated, last thing you saw was a blinding light, then all of the rebellious team sank down on the ground, including your beloved friend, who had in his arms the first woman.

After the light, fire stars showered down from the skies, one last deed before the angels fell from the heavens, pass the grounds of earth to the new kingdom, Hell.

Your once pearly skin was tainted with burn marks, golden patches colliding with the pale hue. The pain spread across your arm, portions of your torso and multiple specks on your face, similar to freckles but in reality, those were tiny fire marks from when they collapsed on the ground.

Ever since that day, Samael turned into Lucifer.

“This is absurd! How in the- HOW was she able to redeem a sinner?” you heard Sera yell on the other side of her conference room. “Who cares?! The princess did it, there’s hope for hell after all!” Emily cheered and with reason, redemption down there seemed impossible, now it’s a reality Heaven must seize.

“Y/n! can I ask you a favor?” Emily peeked her head out from the door, “Sure miss” you replied, after there was no garden to guard, you were put as a regular soldier, just making sure everything is as perfect as it always seems to be.

“I need you to take this letter to Charlie Morningstar, okay?” why she didn’t go herself? Because as a seraphim she would have to go through Michael and the rest to be allowed to do so, and that could take another hundred years.

“Sure thing, your eminence” you walked away from the building, eyeing through the door the snake winner, internally speechless.

The portal was opened in direction to the Heaven Embassy. As you walked around the streets, sinners looked at you both in fear and repulsion, you couldn’t blame them really, “Fear not, I do not with to harm you” it work in matters that they started to ignore you, resuming they lives. Though you couldn’t stop hearing the screams and nasty comments made.

“You bitch, is your fucking angels fault!” a demon yelled before throwing a stone your way, hitting your shoulder, so a lot of other demons cue in throwing stones at your body. You dismissed the act and kept walking, knowing that if you retaliate things could escalate and become worse.

Besides, after the fire burnt your skin, you almost didn’t feel anything on your back.

The shiny building named ‘Hazbin Hotel’ had a different aura surrounding it, no wonder they were able to redeem someone.

You knocked on the door a few times, a cat like demon opened, his eyes wide as he eyed you up, “What do you want?” he bitterly asked, defensively, “Exterminators gave us a bad rep, huh?” you tried to ease the tension, “I’m here to speak with Miss Morningstar” he looked at the sword attached to your hip, “Loose the sword” he spit, his ears pinned down behind his head, “If it makes you feel safer, here, just don’t let it go into the wrong hands” when he had the weapon on his hand he stepped aside.

“Husk, is everything okay?” your previous dead like feeling melted away, she was the living image of your friend, exactly the same lovely feeling he used to irradiate, “Oh hi! Welcome to the Hazbin hotel!” she took your hand, pulling you further inside, “Oh wow, those are the greenest eyes I’ve ever seen!” she took your face in her hands, rising a golden blush on your face, seeing pass her glow to see just his image, and adoring the same reaction upon meeting you.

“Lovely to meet you, princess, my name is Y/n. I have come with a letter from the Seraphim Emily” you tried to fix your emotions by detach yourself from them, almost impossible when she looked so much like Lucifer, it hurt your insides, even more than your scars.

“Since when soldiers like yourself deliver correspondence?” you heard the red smiling demon jest from the other side of the parlor, “Since the garden of Eden faded” did he meant soldier as an insult? Or he made reference to your wounds? You fidgeted with a strand of your long silver mane.

“I didn't know angels could have freckles” an ex-exterminator made an observation, “Those are burns Maggie, I recognize my own work when I see it” the voice of the former archangel sent a shiver up your spine, thousands of years without hearing his voice made you almost forget it.

Your stomach twisted inside your body, much like Lucifer’s when you turned around and saw you. You were given the image of a lion for your strength and brave heart, he always made a mess of your hair when he wanted to pet your fluffy ears, saying that in between all the angels with your same physique, you were one of a kind, given your white fur instead of the caramel looking one.

He had always made you feel special, and just like that he turned his back on you.

“Y/n, principality of the south wall” he seemed a stranger to that name, centuries without saying it out loud, “Lucifer Morningstar, king of Hell” you curtsied, and oh how it hurt his pride. “No need for that, Y/n, I’m so glad to see you well” he extended his hand, repressing jumping to hug you, given that the last thing he saw as he fell was you under a bunch of his flames.

“Likewise” you felt his hand, rough and calloused, “Will you stay for dinner, or you have to fly back?” you couldn’t fly anymore, just to show him you expanded your backbones, allowing him to see the naked bones lacking flesh and feathers, “Even if I wanted to, I can’t, but the embassy isn’t far away”.

He remembered your wing ceremony, those were hours and hours of soaring creation by his side, enjoying your freedom, and because of him, you were stranded in the ground like a defeated bird.

The room was in a mix of awe and pity, seeing the damage created by a war made for love, then the princess interrupted with the news of her redeemed friend, it was all laughter and joy. But for some reason Lucifer couldn’t stop looking at you, all that damage, all the pain and recovery that you must’ve endured.

“Y/n, you’ll have to stay” he worded that sentence so weird, he had to make another go with it pointing the sky, clouded and dripping. “It’s just rain, I can walk just fine” the radio demon cleared his throat, calling your attention, “It’s acid rain, my dear, I’m afraid you won’t make it pass the door” upon the demon’s hand on your shoulder Lucifer’s eyes turned red for a fraction of a second.

“In that case, princess, would you mind sparing a room? I’ll leave first thing in the morning” she dismissed you calling her princess, “Call me Charlie, and yes, but the rain lasts at least a couple of weeks” you found weird that she stuttered her sentence, so much you thought she was lying.

“Charlie, if you want me to stay for some reason you can just say so” she fiddled with her suit, “I mean is true that the rain lasts a few days, but I want you to see what we can do to redeem sinners, and you could pass the message?” her way to ask for her hotel sake and her father’s was cute, you were unknowing of the latter though.

“Very well” you felt her snaping your back in the tightest hug ever, “Oh thank you, thank you!” she yelled into your chest, “Ah, Charlie I love you, but let her go please, you have yet to control your strength” Vaggie ran to your side, to take her girlfriend away from you, only then both your soul and the air came back to you.

“Like father like daughter” you muttered breathlessly, Alastor holding your arm to support you, “Really?” she lighted up even more, as if that was possible. “Exact quality hug, but he broke two ribs in the process” you let out a laugh, this time the one with the golden blush was lucifer.

“Miss Y/n, you must be tired, how about I escort you to a room?” Alastor took the opportunity to kiss the back of your hand as he pulled you towards the stairs, only to be blocked by Lucifer, “I think is best for me to do it, she’s my friend” he made an emphasis on ‘my’ when he spoke, trying to take your hand from his, but Alastor took his feet away with his tendrils coming from the floor.

“I am the host of the hotel; it is my duty” his smile grew on his face, focusing only in getting into Lucifer’s skin, he didn’t noticed you walking away, “I’m the king of hell!” Lucifer roared annoyed. “Charlie dearest, how about you take me? You are the owner of the hotel” she giggled awkwardly seeing the scene, “This way, ignore them, they do this every day” her comment made you let out a laugh, “I can imagine”.

Lucifer watched you go away with Charlie, the sway of your hips along with your hair falling down to your middle back, made him feel a tingle going up and down his body. “She is a majestic sight to behold” the drop that made Lucifer snap from his stare, “Touch her again, and I’ll forget you are friends with my daughter, bellboy” poor Alastor saw dots of light, when the king hit exactly where his wound was.

Later that night, after Charlie had gifted you a robe and a toothbrush set to use, you stared at the city, seated in a sofa chair next to the window, a cup of tea that Husk had made for you, as a way to apologize for his bitter attitude earlier, which you smiled and told him that it was rather admirable of him, to be so invested in protecting his friends.

You heard a knock, “Y/n? Are you awake?” you thought for a minute, before getting on your feet and adjust your robe. Lucifer was outside your door, his tail wrapped around his leg for moral support, his heart on his throat as he had told himself over a hundred times to just go and talk with you, before actually running down the stairs to your room.

Your mind was plagued with thoughts as well, what might he want? Is he going to apologize for what happened? Is he just going to catch up with you? But of course your body was faster than your mind, because you had opened the door.

Your divine light illuminated his eyes, rising the blush once again when he saw you mere in a long robe, “Yes?” you softly asked, “Do you- ehem, would you like to talk? I mean with me? Not that you couldn’t with anyone else, just- I mean this situation, can we?” you laughed at his ramble, “Come in” his tail lightened around his leg as he entered your room.

“So, uhm, it has been a while” he sat in the chair opposite to yours, “It has” you took another sip of your tea, “Azrael took your place to annoy Michael, the other day he found a roach in his coffee” the ice breaker worked just fine, Lucifer discarded his hat on a side, and laughed his heart out imagining the scene, “And here I thought the angel of death had no sense of humor” he said in between laughs, “You would be surprised” you took another sip.

He swallowed a tight ball of saliva as you crossed one leg over the other, allowing your shiny skin flash him for a second, “I wrote to you nonetheless” his eyes traveled up to your piercing green eyes, “You did?” he heard a low ‘mmh’ before your answer, “I received a letter from the queen, saying that you didn’t wanted to associate with someone like me” you materialized the letter, reading it out loud.

“Estimated Y/n.

I would like you to stop sending your letters, my husband is beyond your pity and sympathy. He doesn’t with to associate with someone like you. We are pretty much done with heaven after what happened.

I suggest you start acting with more dignity and stop trying to romance a married man.

Regards, Lilith Morningstar, queen of Hell.”

You dropped it to the ground, “I kept writing though, eventually, I just tossed my quill and paper, hopeless” he went on his knees, taking the letter into his hands, before looking up from your legs to your face, “Even after…that?” another hum, “Well, it was almost for nothing, she left me seven years ago” you didn’t know whether to give up the façade and offer him some kindness or continue, “That’s unfortunate” you said out of nothing.

“I think apologizing isn’t the best way to go here” his hand was suddenly on your calf, just feeling your softness, “So, can I tempt you? So maybe the next time I see you will be sooner than ten thousand years?” his yellow hue eyes shone in the dead of night right against your leg, in which he rubbed his cheek.

“I- I can’t, what will they say?” he smiled, pushing himself up, his chest slowly rising against your knee, until his face was inches from yours, “If they throw you out of heaven, I promise to catch you” he whispered, “Don’t play with me, devil” you warned, the light white fur on your neck spiked up as a response of the amount of chills his sudden touch on your hips was given you.

“I’m not, I promise I’m not, but as a matter of facts, I had a dream about you” your leg fell from your opposite knee, giving him accidentally, the opportunity to push himself between them. He took your face in his hands, caressing strands of hair away as he settled his sight on your eyes.

“Your eyes remind me of the grasslands of Eden, of the first emeralds, they are so full of life and beauty, just like the bearer. I won't say that the dream haunted me, because I was really waiting for the light of hell to come down just to dream of you, seven consecutive years since my wife left me”

Tears burned their way down your face, “I…missed you too” his breath was so suddenly close, you shut your eyes without knowing what to expect. He smiled, you were still you, “Y/n” he called you, “Tell me you enjoy being a soldier, and I’ll walk away” subtle, lovely, a kiss to your upper cheek, right below your eyes, catching a tear that slipped.

“I don’t, but you just left, and when she comes back, you’ll leave again” “Not this time” “You promise?” “I promise” he waited a couple of seconds for you to say something else, your face was so conflicted, he didn’t knew if you didn't wanted him, or you hated him, but he had no response.

Your lack of words guided his hand to cup your face with one hand, gently at first, then he slipped pass your hair to the back of your head and pulled roughly until he could devour your mouth like he had dreamed, biting, without regard, the soft flesh of your lips.

"Kitten, you taste better than I could ever dream" he lowered his head to your collarbone and from there to your chin he licked like a snake getting a taste of his prey. The sensation of his rough forked tongue sent a shiver down your spine.

You wanted to resist, but his kisses, were so skillful, his hands suddenly grabbed your hips, lifting you up with ease, automatically you hooked your legs behind his back, then your hands flew to hang on his shoulders.

Your back hit the soft bed, in one swift motion, still having at least one hand on your hips to keep you grounded.

He wanted to have you, fast, but also take his time, the bulge in his pants wasn’t making his situation any better for him. You were damned and lost in his caresses, your hands were all over his back and hair, his own matching your movements, while his pelvis teased yours, rub after rub, both undergarments were soaking wet.

As time went by, your doubts dissipated in between his hungry kisses. He sat up, with his hands he threw his coat aside and opened his shirt for you to see, waiting to see if you wanted to escalate or maybe tone things down a notch, he was fine as long as he could still make your lips all swollen as they were.

He watched your hands travel down to the straps of the robe, undoing the knot and allowing him to see the light pink lace lingerie you were wearing. Your pale skin, the lingerie, plus the golden burn marks made such a nice color palette on you, he felt he turned harder just seeing all he could have If he had made the right choice in the garden.

“Do I look that good, seducer?” he noticed your lips moving but it was as if he was in a trance, you were just so “Divine” he let out while going down against your belly, leaving kisses on every rough burnt spot, “I’m so sorry” your hand was petting his head, making him drop moans of his own as you did every time he touched you.

“Do you always wear this under your armor? Or you were hoping to see me?” your blush and the way your eyes moved away from him proved you guilty, “My, my, if I didn’t knew better my dear, that puts you in line to be damned for the sin of lust” his tail caressed the inside of your thigh a few times as he purr those words, making you shake in anticipation.

“Will that turn me into a sexy demon?” he laughed, his tail flicking against your clothed bundle of nerves skillfully, “I’ll see to it if you allow me to” his teeth bit into your neck, not drawing blood but enough to add to your collection, “Lucifer, please” you moaned breathlessly, “May I taste you?” his horns popped out of his head as he looked on your eyes for consent, “Fuck it, yes” his disheveled look was a such a tripping hazard.   

Your robe hanged on your elbows as you looked up to see what he was up to, he was kissing the inside of your thigh while he discarded your panties, having the sight of your wetness all to himself. Looking directly to you he wet his lips before licking you clit, making you shiver, then your legs were secured on his shoulders before he went in.

Lapping your folds like a starved man, drinking in your essence like it was the finest wine, he delighted himself in your beauty, “At this rate, I’ll end up corrupting you, my sweet kitten” he took your soft tail in his hand, twisting it around his arm. “Will you make yourself responsible?” he purred in response, taking in his teeth, gently, your clit, teasing a moan out of your throat, “Why of course darling, if you think I’m letting you go easy now, you’re dreamin’ baby” he winked, making his way up, with a flick of his fingers his clothes were gone, as well as your robe.

“I’m truly sorry about what happened” you pulled him up for a heated kiss, tasting yourself in his lips as you did. He then asked for permission for the main thing, in which you said yes in between kisses. His hips collided with yours with each thrust, the sound of skin slapping and the wet sounds filled the room, as did your moans and his.

Ecstasy was a word you wouldn't use for that moment it was too simple. Suddenly there was a knock on your door, “Y/n? Are you okay, we heard a noise” you looked down and your cup was smashed against the floor, you must’ve knocked it at some point.

Panic filled Lucifer’s mind at the voice of his daughter on the other side, “I’m fine Charlie, I merely knocked a cup accidentally, go back to sleep” you heard her say an ‘Okay’ accompanied with a yawn.

He then took himself out of you for a few seconds, then pulled your body towards him, rotating your hips until you were on all fours. He grabbed your hair and he continued fucking you, the thrusts getting stronger and more accurate.

"Stay here, with me, please" he breathed against your ear, to which you couldn't respond, the heat clouded your senses, a warm feeling crawled up your core to your chest, a feeling you knew the meaning of.

"You’re squeezing me so tight" he said in between panted laughs, "Stay, please" you shook your head, “Please love” he bit your shoulder, seeing the golden blood turn red as it went down your back, “There’s no turning back now, anyways, you’re stuck with me” he started thrusting with his life when he saw your eyes turn black, your iris still as green as it was.

“Mine, MINE” he growled, hands on yours as he felt you squeeze him as you came. “Yes, yours” you spoke out of breath, mind blown entirely.

His six long wings had spread out when he finished, so he took the opportunity to take your body in his arms and wrap you in the pile of soft, warm feathers, filling your face with kisses as he positioned both under the covers, “We’ll clean up tomorrow, I don’t want to let you go” you laughed as he whispered those words with kisses under your chin, “Please don’t ever” you hugged his back with one arm, the other hand scratching his head, pulling out a purring sound from him.

You were far too corrupted to go back now.

[sycamorality]

@ceruleanstarbreak okay SO

making this a post bc i love yelling about scavengers.

quick note bc im not sure where else i'd put it: eyes are either really dark, really light, bordering on white or a solid inbetween vibrant color, at least from all the scavengers i've seen and can remember.

the most common colors are grays, whites, blacks, browns and oranges - colors you'd usually see in animals irl like cats or dogs. the rarest are yellow (actual yellow and not an orange that looks yellow) and cyan. accent colors (this is just a term i use - but i use it to refer to the color that sometimes appears on frills/spines and as eartler deco, and on occasion the belly) of these two are much more common than body/head.

i have a folder of the first 11k scavengers (+ a few extra above 11k if they had colors like blue/etc so the numbers are a Little inaccurate but i think they work just fine), and the color commonality (is that a word?) goes as follows: orange - 142* pink - 100* blue - 70 red - 42* ** green - 33 purple - 32 yellow - 0 cyan - 0 *there may be more/less, this is my own view on colors. **there might be more, i'm not sure if i organized all of them yet, i wouldn't be surprised

not counting gray/brown/etc because those are extremely common

all scavengers have heads that are darker than their body, however, there is something called bodyblack that makes the body darker, and sometimes this causes the head to be lighter than the body, because techncially the head is still lighter than the body. 973 is a VERY good example of this!

scavengers also have arm blend - it is always the head color, but can sometimes look like it isn't because the blend doesn't go all the way. (their legs and tail never have a gradient) and we can't forget eartler deco! to my knowledge (i don't exactly know everything about scavenger code but i do know at least a decent bit from observing a whole bunch), eartler deco can be the same color as the eyes, or be a completely different color. eartler deco color can also be used for spine blend (which means the spine blend can also match the eyes or not), even if the eartler deco isn't visible on the scavenger. 6194, 7491 and 4572 are good examples of this!

their head color tends to not stray too far from their body, but sometimes, they do stray pretty far from it! i've noticed some combos are much more common together while others just don't exist at all (to my knowledge of course - i don't know every scavenger but i've seen a whole bunch of them). here's some examples!

whole bunch of interesting combos, yeah? the ones that are more wild like the last three are usually much rarer than the ones you see reoccuring (like the pink/orange + blue and pink/orange + green). sometimes the belly can also get an unusual color (and i'm not exactly sure how that works, it tends to seem like it has a color of its own and tends to be lighter than the body, and on occasion seemingly match the head but not exactly).

now i can really mostly only comment on 0 through 11k, but other combos i've seen (listed [body color] + [head color]) are:

white/gray + green

white + pretty much any* color

cream + pretty much any* color

yelloworange + purple or blue

red or orange + dark brown

gray + purple or blue (most commonly, but any* color is possible)

any pale color + its brighter/more vibrant variant (like pale purple + bright purple)

...and probably more, but they usually tend to match together well, unlike mr no scavnificant harassment (51620372) over here.

now, usually scavenger frills are rather. well, normal looking, and sometimes they just get SUPER frilly, but other times... they can get a little weird!

these are the best examples i have on hand right now, but i think they suffice well enough. 3222 looks like a hunchback, and 1646 has frills that do quite literally float off its body, as does 8804 (while also just having an interesting shape to them). of course there's also the frill colors that can theoretically be practically anything, and those also get wild pretty often

now these aren't the wildest i know of, but they're the ones i have images on hand of.

the rest i can't really comment on at length is the eartlers, 'teeth' (weird little shapes by their mouth) and head shape. sometimes eartlers are really thick and tall, really thin and small, or somewhere inbetween. sometimes scavengers have eartlers on the bottom of their face and sometimes they don't. sometimes two points on the eartlers visually 'merge' together, which is mostly visible if a scavenger has eartler deco, because it still applies to the separate points.

that should be all! unless i forgot something... in that case, oops, my shitty memory strikes again.

[luvtonique]

I realized something this morning.

This is probably gonna be a long post. (Edit, yep)

I'm a pretty fairly public figure on the internet, and I very regularly interact with a huge amount of people. From YouTube Comments to Discord to Tumblr Asks/Comments to Newgrounds Reviews to MMO Chat to Mic-Chat on Games to Twitch Chat to Stream Chat, blah blah blah.

I've, for years now, over a decade (hell over two decades) talked to probably thousands of people, and have been able to get a gauge on a pretty safe to say "average" of collective human intelligence on the internet.

I've come to realize that not everybody has that kind of experience talking to people online as I do. I've talked to literally thousands, probably near ten thousand, people online in my life.

This is a staggeringly high number and puts me in an outlier position among the rest of you, who likely have only interacted with a double digit number of people online in your life.

Now that you have that information in mind, here's what I realized this morning.

I realized that the reason I don't listen to people, ESPECIALLY when it comes to politics, is because I have learned through talking to all these people that fucking nobody knows what they're fucking goddamn talking about.

I study a lot of things in my spare time, and history is a huge one that I study. I very regularly read and listen to multiple sources talking about historic events, and I make sure to look at as many sources as possible, sometimes including reading encyclopedias in my own home that we've owned for like 40 years.

I cross-reference all of these things and paint a picture of the most likely truths through various means.

Why's that important? Because sometimes a 14 year old on Twitter, literally nearly less than a third my age, will occasionally come along telling me that I'm wrong. Not about history necessarily, but about some opinion that I have based on my own experience and my own knowledge that I've researched myself.

I usually ask them where they got their information, and I'm met with boldfaced idiocy. Completely braindead shit like "180,000 people said it on Twitter," or they link me a Tumblr post with 100k notes, or they say "It's common knowledge," (which is the biggest red flag of them all because not only does it prove they have no evidence to back up what they're saying, but as this post will go on to explain, "common knowledge" is quite literally the worst source of information on anything. People commonly think the earth is flat and that Scientology is real. People commonly think that walking under a ladder or breaking a mirror gives you bad luck. People commonly think that naturally blue food exists.)

In my life I have met thousands of people, and THOUSANDS of them are fucking idiots who very very smugly state completely incorrect knowledge. Earlier today someone tried to tell me that the creators of Beat Saber never sold the company to Facebook, and I showed them proof and they went silent for 3 hours and then went "Yeah so what, Facebook is still a good company" and I wanted to beat my head against the desk.

The internet is full of people who are fascinatingly ignorant. I'm not calling myself "better" or "smarter" than anyone here, I'm just saying that I have learned better than most people that people on the internet are not, and never fucking will be, a good source of information. I don't care if they're your best fucking friend, the coin-toss of them knowing what they're talking about or actually having the facts is so heavily weighted against them, it's seriously like a 98% chance they have no fucking clue what they're talking about.

I urge everyone to take a moment and realize that the internet is, in fact, a good place to find information and do research, but PEOPLE ON THE INTERNET, especially MEDIA AND SOCIAL MEDIA, are NOT SMART PEOPLE AND ARE NOT GOOD SOURCES FOR YOUR INFORMATION.

These are angry, smug, annoying little idiots who are likely 14 years old with a 1st grade reading comprehension who aspires to be a TikTok content creator as a career, and under no fucking circumstance should you ever, ever, EVER listen to any social, financial, religious, gendered, medical or political advice they give.

The world has gotten vastly out of control with how much people think "A lot of people agree with me" is a good enough reason to solidify your opinions. "A lot of people agree" is the biggest red flag ever, because people on the fucking internet are complete fucking idiots, I'm sorry, but I'm someone with far more experience talking to people on the internet than literally any of you reading this. I talk to people on the internet as a career and have been doing this for longer than most of you reading this have been alive.

So what's the point of this? What's the take-away?

The take-away is that I'm saddened by how many people will attack each other vehemently, cut off friends and family members, label people as toxic or problematic, jump to conclusions, etc. based on complete and utter misinformation spouted to them by people who have never once in their entire life actually looked up what the fuck they're talking about. They treat random strangers on Twitter as "experts" because that person is well articulated or put together a YouTube video with really good editing that's softly spoken by a British accent guy and has scary music whenever some "evil" person is on the screen.

The take-away is that people, like yourself (don't you dare try to deny it) will just believe whatever they read on social media, or whatever their Discord friend-group is talking about, because they are living in a complete falsehood that people on the internet know better than they do.

You are not incapable of doing your own research. You are not incapable of finding the truth. You are not stupid. Just do your own research, look into things yourself, cross-reference, use the scientific method, go to a library, read books, for fuck sake please adopt the basic social skill of "If someone says it on the internet it is most likely not true and I should look into it myself."

Because the current state of people is monstrous.

Y'all get so fucking mad about things that are just plain not true, and you revolve your entire life around things you were told by complete idiots and/or children on Twitter and other social media websites.

Stop.

Look at yourself, look at how angry you get about things, and consider that there may be a possibility that anger stems from a complete lack of any foundation or truth in your own beliefs.

Consider the almost 100% guaranteed possibility that you have been blatantly lied to by people who have no fucking idea what they're talking about, and that you are violently upholding standards that are incorrect because you have placed trust in the word of untrustworthy people.

Look up confirmation bias, read about it.

Look up manipulation tactics, read about it.

Look up "Plato's Republic" and read about it.

Absolutely, under no circumstances, should you ever, EVER, form your social or religious or political or financial or gendered or sexual etc. opinions based on SHIT YOU READ ON SOCIAL MEDIA.

And while we're here, don't listen to the news either. They're just a bunch of parrots saying what needs to be said to get you all fighting with each other so that the government can fuck things up while you're distracted. Do your own research, check multiple sources, don't consider social media or regular media to be a 'source,' get every bit of information from every angle, and for fuck sake, stop attacking people for disagreeing with you when you, yourself, only believe what you believe because your friend group believes it and you know that if you disagree with your friend group they'll all attack you so you'd rather be on their side, which only further proves my point that y'all need to fucking chill.

"Democracy will never work. If 3 medical experts tell you that you must eat a ginger root to cure your ailments, but 100,000 idiots with no medical experience tell you otherwise, you're more likely to believe the 100,000 idiots. They are louder, there are more of them, and you will gamble on the hope that among those 100,000 idiots, there must be more than 3 medical experts. The voice of the ignorant will always drown out the voice of the educated."

-Plato's Republic, 375BCE (Paraphrased)

"I can't believe Jay just called us all idiots and expects us to listen to him"

-Someone in the comments of this (It's gonna happen)

PS: If you looked up "Naturally Blue Food," and found out it does in fact not exist, good for you for doing your own research!

[kuwajima]

Hi! Hope this ask isn't weird but in the vein of talking about Zenitsu's backstory, what are your thoughts on Zenitsu's 7 evil ex girlfriends? As in, how do you tend to sort of place them on Zenitsu's pre-demon slaying timeline? And overall how do you imagine them, if think of them at all. Love your ideas about Zenitsu's backstory and kinda wanna know what you think of this aspect of his unexplored past!

I've noticed that the fandom rarely, if ever, do much with the knowledge of their existence beyond a passing mention when talking about Zenitsu's insecurities, whether in a fanfic or a meta post, which is interesting since, well, getting scammed 7 times by "romantic" partners seems like something really interesting to dwell into when writing about Zenitsu. I've read some really good fics featuring the inevitably horrible situation Zenitsu had as an orphan in the late Meiji Period, yours especially, but the exes shine by their absence across the whole spectrum of Zenitsu fanfic. I have my own thoughts about this but this is an ask, can't ramble too much lol.

Also, happy birthday! A little late but alas, hope you had a great day in your day and thank you for your fanfics in here! OMWF is just a gem and your other fanfic are just as good ❤️

I love this question!! I have put a lot of thought into them, because it does seem like an excessive number of times to be scammed and not learn your lesson, but it's very indicative of how much Zenitsu deludes himself while chasing what he believes is an ideal life. And now that you mention it, it is very rare to have them included in fanfic or meta outside of a casual reference to them.

I think the reason might be because the timeline is admittedly weird, so we have to believe that he speed ran seven girlfriends in his early teens, or the worse option is that some of them happened before he was a teenager.

And I think it has to be the latter, because I personally believe he was with Jigoro for a few years. I know it's canon that a slayer can usually learn their forms in about a year but there are a few things that indicate Zenitsu was with Jigoro for longer than that. He was hit by lightning and I refuse to believe the only side effect was the hair thing. Plus, Zenitsu is confirmed to be pretty lazy and although he is obviously a very skilled swordsman during the events of canon, Jigoro didn't know about the whole sleep-fighting thing so he should have only sent Zenitsu to Final Selection if he was sure he mostly wasn't going to die. And it's Zenitsu...there's no way he got up to speed in a year.

We are told in canon that Zenitsu dated all types of girls, and they all treated him badly, took his money, and more. The way it's worded (and this could be a translation thing) is that multiple women took his money. Now me personally, if I was a loan shark I would simply not loan money to an orphan child multiple times. There's also no way he was earning large sums of money (see the above point of him being lazy) so there had to be some time between losing his money and getting a new girlfriend. Especially if they were trying to get money out of him, there is no reason to go after a kid with absolutely no assets unless he already had a reputation of being easily manipulated.

I don't think he stayed in one town for very long either, so it's possible he ran away from other owed debts. But even then, we can assume there are probably a few months between girlfriends at least. And I don't think all of them took his money. For example, we know he dated a shopkeeper's daughter and she could have very well just made him work without pay at her father's shop as an act of "love."

Overall, I think it's a situation where Zenitsu would do their bidding for the "honor" of being allowed to say they are his girlfriend. That was the only thing he was getting out of the arrangement, since they didn't even let him hold their hands. I think it's probably incredibly obvious to anyone Zenitsu tells about his ex-girlfriends that he was never actually in a relationship with any of them. But Zenitsu still believes they were his girlfriends, despite being mistreated and sometimes betrayed by them. I think it's telling that only after he meets Jigoro does he understand that Jigoro is the only person in his life who cared about him (until he met Tanjiro, of course!) In the absence of childhood affection, those girlfriends probably did feel like true love at the time.

But you asked about the timeline. My guess is this probably happened over seven times over several years and the older he became, the most he was able to be manipulated (more access to money, a bigger reputation for being easily tricked, etc.) WHICH BRINGS US BACK TO MY EARLIER POINT: these girls were "dating" a tween.

We do see some faceless women when we learn that Zenitsu is full aware that women dislike him and deceive him (yet he keeps going back, because he convinces himself this time is different) and they certainly look like either teenagers or young adults. I assume these are examples of the girls he dated (there are 6 in the flashback and he has 7 exs, so I'm not 100% sure that's who they are) And obviously there was absolutely nothing intimate or romantic going on, but it does add a layer of malice to the whole thing. If he had been dating girls who were his own age, I'm not sure they would have been so malicious with their treatment of him. Their inclusion in his backstory is to show us that he is easily manipulated and repeatedly does not learn his lesson, because Zenitsu tricks himself into ignoring red flags.

And I'm not victim blaming. I think it's clear that he was intentionally victimized by these girls, but it is added to give us insight into Zenitsu's personality.

This is a very long-winded way to say, I believe they were all women older than Zenitsu, who either sought him out as an easy target or quickly realized he could be manipulated simply by being promised the title of Boyfriend. And they all occurred before he turned about 13, maybe 14.

But I would also love to hear your thoughts on the situation as well! I have grand schemes of writing a fic where he and Nezuko run into one of his exes post-canon and she initially thinks he's being tricked by another beautiful woman, but then she realizes that not only do they actually seem to like each other, but Zenitsu isn't the same person he was before.

And thank you for the birthday wishes!!

[midnightemy35]

Walkis Six Headcannons Part2

THE BRAINROT IS TOO MUCH

Link to part 1

warnings!: slight manga spoilers! Fluff and crack

Malcom is the designated bug catcher

It's really funny to watch the group freak out when an insect flies into the room. Galuf had passed out when the insect flew in through the window that was right next to his face. The insect had flown right in front of his face and he could see its beady little eyes staring right back him

Lévis is using Galuf's unconscious body as a shield and Domina is hiding behind him. Kenny (who is also freaking out even with his lack of facial expressions) is trying to freeze the insect but Charles is yelling at him to not kill it because his mom taught him that all life is precious (Charles himself is hiding under a table)

Then Malcom walks in and gently cups the insect between his two hands and releases it outside (quite anti-climatic really) while the whole group hails him as their saviour (except Galuf who is still unconscious)

The group has sleepovers every Friday night so that they can goof off the whole night. The dorm room used is rotated every week and currently it is Charles' room and everyone is slightly unnerved by the number of painting he has of his mom

They usually play card games and gossip during these sleepovers but some card games have been banned due to previous incidents

One of these card games is UNO. Domina almost went on a rampage after being hit with a stack of four +4 cards. Charles had to teleport him somewhere else before he flooded the room all the while Lévis and Galuf were laughing their heads off

Domina and Levis are scarily good at old maid. The both of them are experts in reading people and manipulating them into taking the old maid card

Kenny is that one quiet kid that hangs at the back of the class and mostly goes unnoticed, so he has a front row seat to most of the drama within Walkis.

Lévis has a shit ton of connections within the school (chief of magic bureau’s son) so he’s got eyes and ears all around the school and the amount of tea he gets from this is astounding

Have you ever seen a group of six teenage boys sitting around in a circle shit talking almost everyone in the school? It’s so entertaining. There’s so much going on, everything is happening all at once and somehow all this drama is connected in someway.(god i want to join them so bad. I love listening to drama going on at my school but i don’t have the social skills to find people who are willing to spill the tea)

The gang like to play with Lévis’ hair(he surprisingly lets them). Domina usually just combs it out. Galuf is trying all sorts of weird ass hair styles and getting knots in Lévis’ hair (Lévis absolutely beats the shit out of him for that). Charles can do some basic hair styles like braids and ponytails but nothing really special but he likes to tend to Levis’ hair anyways (reminds him of when he used to play with his mom’s hair) Kenny and Malcom are surprisingly good at hair styling and often braid his hair and put it in really elaborate and pretty hair styles (where they attained this knowledge? We might never know)

One time, for April fools, the gang snuck into Kenny’s room and replaced his beanies with beanies with weird designs. One had bunny ears on it, another had one of their teacher’s face just printed on it, and another was neon green and looked like it was radioactive.

Kenny found it funny and kept all of them. He wears them to go out sometimes just to throw people off

The gang has once used Kenny’s magic to recreate Elsa’s frozen castle (does Elsa exist in this world? It does now). Charles’ then recreated the whole ‘let it go’ song and he looked majestic in the dress. He’s a surprisingly good singer as well

Once when they were walking around in the woods (searching for ingredients for potions class probably) they came across a lake and Malcom accidentally bumped into Domina and he fell into the lake. Everyone was laughing at Domina until he decided to retaliate by using his magic to drench them all as well. (Galuf ended up catching a cold)

Lovie isn’t as angelic as the gang mostly believes he is. Lovie is actually a really good manipulator. You know how Lévis did the whole thing of tricking Galuf? Yeah well he learnt his manipulating skills from someone and it’s his brother. Lovie doesn’t really manipulate others all that much but he will do it to secure his own interests but he probably won’t manipulate his or Lévis’ friends

[retroactivebakeries]

inordinately pleased with my most recent glitch pc so I am inflicting her on you all

Anthrinas Kimmeros, Dying of Destiny

“I name myself an ember’s child; a ling’ring troth, a fading flame; when I am named, no longer say: salvation, to the world.”

Once, there was a little girl who was destined to save the world. A magical animal found her, and it offered her duty and power, and it made her into a magical girl. And not just any magical girl, but the savior, a destined hero who would bring an end to all suffering, like Usagi or Madoka.

Only—that wasn’t a destiny that she was supposed to have. That wasn’t a destiny that was supposed to exist at all. There’s no such thing as a savior who can put an end to suffering, and the science is still out on magical girls.

She didn’t realize any of this until after the first of her destined deaths. As her life guttered, she glimpsed the countless invisible strings of fate connecting everyone and everything. And she saw the pulsing, crimson snarl of her own destiny, a cascade error coursing through the fate of everyone whose life she’d ever touched—

And she understood, then, that the world was wrong.

Destiny soon decreed her rebirth, but she’d seen the Glitch now. She couldn’t be a proper magical girl, a proper messiah. She arose instead in Ninuan, her hopes dead and her magical girl uniform monochrome. So she wasn’t a savior, not anymore, but fate still had its hooks in her. If she wasn’t there to save the world, then she would bear witness to the destined apocalypse. She would rule over the ruin left behind, reigning from a castle that doesn’t exist.

It was pretty easy to be a living weapon in service to a higher purpose when you’ve spent basically most of your life doing just that. She murdered the Angel that was Grief-That-Inspires, Orgone Energy, and Beith, and she wrought a twisted mockery of a god from its corpse. She beefed with basically every Noble who has a magical girl schtick. She actually did end the world, once, although she ended up having to eat a timeline reset on that one.

Statistically, most magical girls burn out before they reach their late twenties, and the numbers only got worse if you're corrupted into a dark magical girl. She pushed herself as hard as she could, she fought the good fight against reality, and she spent more than she had to give doing it.

For a couple years, she just…stopped. Events still happened, sure; people talked to her, on days she’d gotten out of bed and dressed; she might’ve killed a god somewhere in there—but she wasn’t really there for those parts of her life. She wasn’t anything, really.

She gave up on the war, eventually. It’d been a few years since she’d actually fought in it, but like, formally deciding that she was done. Because...she was so tired. And she started trying to fill the void—did some moonlighting as a magical girl; got a cat, and then another cat, and then some more; let a bunch of those magical girl-themed Powers she’d beefed with throw a pretty half-assed intervention for her. [And then a bridge into the campaign concept.]

Sanctum: The Castle That Doesn’t Exist. A sprawling gothic castle that has yet to be built, for the destined apocalypse has yet to come—but once it has, it is from here that Anthrinas will reign, crowned with no crown and enthroned on no throne. It is eerily empty, though at times it seems not to be. 

Technique: Dark Magical Girl. We’ve all watched enough anime here to know what this does.

Sphere: Anthrinas typically uses λ-versions of her former companions—their Ninuanni selves, set free from the cage of existence alongside Anthrinas when she was reborn. Other arcana include appropriately-themed mystical treasures, supernatural companions, and minions.

Phazia: Anthrinas’ magical animal companion. A winged cat so black as to seem a void cut from reality. Knowledgeable in the whole metaphysical framework underlying how magical girls work, but most likely going to be used mainly for being-a-flying-cat reasons.

Rhimrida: A light-hearted illusion magic specialist. She’s the magical girl of self-deception, of “nothing is wrong,” of “don’t think about that.” She’d be a good cast for Mara if they made a movie about the Buddha.

Lithwin: A hot-blooded gun witch whose standard attacks involve a lot of magical gatling guns and missile barrages that explode into flower petals. She’s the magical girl of transience, of “nothing good lasts,” of “there’s always an ending.”

Alasenta: A prim and proper miko, skilled in rituals for binding, sealing, and warding, though used more offensively than you’d expect. She’s the magical girl of futility, of “it can’t be helped,” of  “no—not even you.” 

Tainram: An inveterate cynic and a living jinx who brings bad luck to others. She’s the magical girl of chaos, of “you’re not in control,” of “things fall apart.” She’d be a good cast for Eris if they made a movie out of the Principa Discordia.

[karliahs]

i'm watching season 6, jaku fight, and i must. Scream

literally i told myself i was just gonna watch a couple of eps while i had dinner and folded laundry and now it has been. multiple hours. i'm so hype i may pass away. this show RULES

people say screaming crying etc as hyperbole but i have been. whisper-screaming so as not to be a dick to my neighbours. and crying. God!!!!

there is genuinely a lot of stuff i didn't know about. most crucial of which being. SO THAT’S HOW TWICE DIES, HUH? goddamn. i'm genuinely surprised i managed to not know that until now. fucking christ hawks. this is all so insane.

me pre s5, a fool: yeah i know people enjoy the lov a lot but it's just not my bag

me an hour ago, actively crying: he was,,,, lucky,,,

briefly managed to have a coherent thought among the hype and it's that i fucking adore twice talking about how the league is a place where they haven't given up on him for making mistakes to...hawks. who it seems has never ever been in a place where he could be anything less than perfect. and has been put under insane hideous pressure from such a young age. treated as disposable. sent into the lions den over and over. it's genuinely damning. also hawks basically having to live in a different genre to everyone else. he doesn't get a fun high school superhero adventure story, he gets a fucking dark espionage thriller. and he's 22.

hawks diversion almost over but i will say i had a brief moment right after he was first introduced where i was like hm they have kind of defanged (detaloned?) the drama of his double-bluffing a little early, bc they were very quick to reveal that no the number 2 hero is not ACTUALLY working for the league or meta army. but then they put best jeanist's probably fake corpse (jorpse) in a duffle bag and I've been incredibly along for the ride since then. this slaps.

and i had absolutely 0 idea about the entire arc of the league attacking the liberation army and again was not expecting it to be my bag bc I'm generally not a villain guy but...damn,,, and while i did kind of know the bare bones of shigaraki's backstory......christ alive

okay back to jaku screaming

the stuff i DID know about is hitting me like a truck. i knew full well aizawa gets hit with the quirk-erasing bullet and i was still yelling no no no at my screen as though that would change anything

hrg. i rly need the closure of finishing out this arc but also idk how much more hype i can take rn. i wish there was someone here to scream with me so i'm screaming at all of you instead. did you know this content that has existed for literal years at this point,,, is good

also god 😭😭😭😭 the kids and aizawa. "the worst thing would be losing mr aizawa" "please, sir, stay alive" 😭😭😭😭 aizawa thinking of eri as he CUTS HIS GODDAMN LEG OFF. I KNEW BUT FUCK. HE'S SO!!!!!

i can't believe people watched this without being spoiled and knowing everything that happens. i'd have passed away. i could never face this show without the full knowledge that aizawa makes it through okay bc i still kind of worry about him dying even when i know full well it doesn't happen. i love him so so much

[captainsophiestark]

So something crazy happened this week - I hit 1.5k followers! 🥳

Genuinely thank you all so much for following me and supporting my writing. When I first joined Tumblr, I truly never could've dreamed how wonderful the community, friends, and fandom I've found would be. I love you all so much!

I've never done a follower celebration before, but I really wanted to do one for this milestone, so here we are! It's D&D themed, but no knowledge of D&D is required to join in the fun.

Our 1.5k follower campaign is going to be running from today, May 29th, to Wednesday, June 6th. During that time, feel free to send me as many things off the list below as you like! Interacting with people on here is one of my absolute favorite parts of Tumblr, so feel free to come into my ask box as many times as you like 😄

I'll be tagging all posts for this celebration as #Sophie's 1.5k Follower Campaign. You don't have to follow me to participate, but it would be greatly appreciated. Without further ado, here are the actions you can take during this campaign:

Zone of Truth - Send me an ask with a game, like KMK/FMK, Would You Rather, or anything else you can think of!

Roll Initiative - Roll some dice and send me a character from the list at the bottom of this post, along with the numbers you rolled! I have prompt lists left over from my Year of Fic planning, and I'll put your character and your dice rolls togeter to write a corresponding headcanon (or possibly longer fic, if the inspiration really strikes!). Roll one of the following, some of the following, or all of the following: 1d8, 1d10, 1d12, and 1d20. You can roll with real dice or by typing "roll dice" into google! Please specificy if you have a strong preference between a romantic or platonic fic.

Nat 20 (2 left) - Send me a character I write for and a request, and I'll write you a oneshot! My time's a little limited right now, so I'm capping these at 3 total requests. In the immortal words of Brian Murphy, "Roll three Nat 20s in a row!". If you want to also roll a d20 and send me the result, I'll add a dialogue prompt corresponding with the number you rolled to the request. Please specificy if you have a strong preference between romanitc and platonic fic.

Perception Check - I have a good amount of writing queued up for my Year of Fic and a few other projects, so send me this for a sneak peek of works to come! If you want to include a few fandoms or characters you'd most like to see included in the sneak peek, feel free to do that! Just no promises that I'll have something including them to show you

Behind the DM Screen - Send me the title of an existing fic of mine, along with specific questions if you have them, and I'll give you a little info on the process of creating the fic!

Free Action - Come into my ask box and chat with me! About fandoms, cute pet pitcures, or whatever else! Anons are welcome as usual, and if you feel like you want to be recognized without coming off anon, then you can claim an emoji and use it as a signature on your asks, so I know who you are! As of now, 🥰 emoji is the only one taken

Thank you again to every single one of you who's here with me now, from the beginning of this blog or from earlier today! I'm so happy to have you here and as a part of the party!

Writing Request Character Options:

Bridgerton: Anthony Bridgerton, Benedict Bridgerton, Colin Bridgerton, Eloise Bridgerton

Crescent City: Tristan Flynn, Ithan Holstrom, Lidia Cervos

DC: Dick Grayson, Jason Todd

Marvel: Grant Ward, Jack Thompson, Daniel Sousa, Angie Martinelli, Harley Keener, Pietro Maximoff

*Riordanverse: Luke Castellan, Thalia Grace, Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, Piper McLean, Jason Grace

Star Trek: Jim Kirk

Star Wars: Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Padmé Amidala

Top Gun: Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw, Jake "Hangman" Seresin, Natasha "Phoenix" Trace

The Vampire Diaries: Mason Lockwood, Klaus Mikaelson, Kol Mikaelson, Damon Salvatore, Enzo St. John, Kai Parker, Caroline Forbes, Matt Donovan

*All characters in the Riordanverse are going to be book-based, since that's what I know best, and will be written as their ages at the end of Heroes of Olympus or older for requests involving romance

****************

Tagging a few mutuals who I've absolutely loved getting to this point with 🥰 thank you guys for being such a wonderful part of my experience in this place!

@ghostofskywalker @bandshirts-andbooks @trekkingaroundasgard @arttheclown-coveredinblood @flowers-and-fichte @everyhazyday @dawn-petrichor-world @space-helen @ro-is-struggling @writeroutoftime @shadowdaddies @hawaiianpizzaenjoyer

[rukafais]

one day i will do a grand breakdown essay on Why Jarlaxle and Kimmuriel’s Relationship Makes Me Incredibly Unhinged With Citations but for now you get this abridged version. Spoilers for Lolth’s Warrior/last book in particular but also Generations and other Way of the Drow books a little bit. also this is STILL a long post i’m sorry I am VERY not normal about this

so last trilogy (generations) kimmuriel's all, man i wish i was an illithid. i like illithids. hive mind's great. love those guys.

   But here, in this place, nothing was measured in that manner. In this place, Kimmuriel Oblodra didn’t exist, other than to be a single colligation in the one being that was the whole of illithid society. Here in the hive mind, his fingers caressing the great pulsing brain, the edifice of connection and oneness, thoughts and memories became interchangeable and mingled.  Study in the hive mind was merely a matter of searching what had become your own expansive knowledge and memories rather than hearing or reading the words of a separate being. Kimmuriel often lamented that he should have been born an illithid. The hive mind knew this truth within the drow’s heart, of course, which explained why he was so welcomed here. One could not easily hide insincerity in this place. One could not easily hide anything from the illithids.

A large part of the individual that was Kimmuriel wanted to just stay here. Let Luskan and Bregan D’aerthe be the concerns of another. He could remain at the hive mind and caress knowledge itself, bask in pure thought, revel in memories as visceral as if he had walked those pathways in the lonely and singular drow form he had been forced to wear.

and then in THIS trilogy (way of the drow) kimmuriel has mentioned it's also going to be his afterlife as a way of rejecting the concept of a god-given one/escaping the clutches of Lolth, or any god, entirely

“The multiverse is a matter of divine numbers,” Kimmuriel said. “The particulars of the tyrant gods are merely noise—temporary noise in the ultimate eternity of it all. We are manifestations of pure and singular thought, grains of sand on an endless beach or drops of water in the endless ocean that splashes onto that beach. The hive mind is a conduit into that pure and singular thought. It is my destiny to directly merge, to become less speck and less droplet, and more a viewer of it all. You felt the power when we channeled it from the hive mind to obliterate Demogorgon those years ago. You felt it, the ecstasy.” this kind of description is also imo, implicitly has thematic connections to transcendence; kimmuriel is interested in it, he asks drizzt for his opinions as drizzt has gone through a similar process, he examines the memories of Kane’s own transcendence, etc. It’s not the same but it is similar. Transcendence is a process that is easy to initiate and hard to come back from because you essentially become one with the universe and it's so ecstatic and amazing that you have trouble remembering who you are as an individual, and if you lose that thread enough, you kinda cease to exist as like, yourself. You just get lost in the sauce, forever. but, some kind of strong emotion and focus can bring you back from it, if you go in with a purpose and you manage to maintain that purpose: 'ecstasy' is a key word here because kimmuriel uses it to describe what channeling the power of the hive mind/being tapped into that pure conduit is like, and vitally, to strengthen the connection, transcendence is also described this way:

“The body will not turn back and the mental and emotional discipline needed to deny that call of ecstasy is enormous. When you transcend, you will know such joy, unrelenting, even building as time, which becomes meaningless, passes, yet the time to find the needed discipline, the denial of pure desire, is short, and failure means that you will be forever removed from this existence. Afafrenfere just stared at him, jaw hanging open. “I know not how to put it more clearly or bluntly,” the ancient monk answered that blank stare. “You will not want to come back, and so you, as you are known and as you know yourself, will be no more.” So, i posted all that text, now i'm gonna get into the next bit Several books have established that Kimmuriel is lonely without psionic connection and the hivemind fills an unmet need in him.

 However, as a direct counterpoint to the hive mind and what it is capable of giving him (despite its love for him, and I do believe it’s reasonable to interpret this passage: Arguments came back at him from so many other corners of the hive mind, though. He was unique here, or nearly so. Only this synapse of the hive mind, this being named Kimmuriel, that existed in that drow reality in that world of Faerun, could bring in such expansive experiences and knowledge of that place. He would be limiting the hive mind and thus limiting himself if he lost the balance between recipient and source. as a kind of love, even if it is an ‘alien’ expression of it; Kimmuriel is worth more to them as an individual and not an illithid, even as an outsider, than he is joined and subsumed to them) we have...stuff like this:

Kimmuriel’s work here was done. He offered that thought to Pescatawav, and the Most Endeared excused him to go and tend to the more pressing problems he faced on his home plane, among his own inferior people. There was no sense of gratitude, no thoughts of hope that Kimmuriel would succeed. It just was. There were a few moments like this for Kimmuriel Oblodra, when he almost reconsidered his life’s journey, when he saw so plainly the difference between the sensibilities of the hive mind and those of Jarlaxle. His only friend. we also have jarlaxle getting kinda disassembled and put back together by the hive mind so his memories can be deconstructed and it's kind of funny but also Kimmuriel had been desperately worried about subjecting his dearest friend to the intrusions of the mind flayers. Perhaps he should have been more worried about subjecting the illithids to the sensibilities of Jarlaxle.

Jarlaxle is So Much that he’s kind of affected the hive mind. Good job buddy. But it means they now have that connective tissue: Kimmuriel cannot hide anything from the illithids including whatever strong feelings he has for Jarlaxle, and Jarlaxle is also very attached to Kimmuriel: “Kimmuriel is your second.” “He’s the other half of my first. In my part of Bregan D’aerthe, in my, shall we say, personal journeys, you are my partner.”

Like really attached: “Where will you go?” Jarlaxle pleaded when Kimmuriel didn’t answer. “ “You know,” the hulking possessed man replied audibly. “No,” Jarlaxle breathed. “I won’t let you!” Drizzt saw that Jarlaxle was fighting back tears. [...] “There is an emptiness . . . I will miss you, Kimmuriel,” Jarlaxle said, as quiet as Drizzt had ever heard the rogue.

Like, really really attached:

“I am lesser without you, my friend,” Jarlaxle told the image. “Both practically and in my heart.”

I could go on but I’m trying to make this short etc there’s like a fucking billion examples.

So. Kimmuriel is not content with just his mortal body on his own plane, which is a lonely existence, or just feeding his mind which is essentially what the hive mind does for him. He needs friends and people to like...make physical existence worthwhile to actually reach a pleasant equilibrium. His more passive suicidal tendencies actually sort of ebb after Generations, where he is considering mortality carefully but also is like "i'm not sure i actually want to die":

“So, he let you in there and he gave to you his memories of transcending the physical form.” “And now I understand better. But of course, there remain limitations on that understanding, because such an act may or may not be a permanent state of being.” “There’s only one way to find out the truth,” Drizzt admitted. “I am in no hurry to leave this life.”

So he's clearly found some sense of purpose to make being physical work for him , and again! A large part of that is Jarlaxle! He names other friends (especially Gromph) but a LARGE part of that is Jarlaxle.

And then he fucking dies of course I've shrieked enough about that lmao

and when he says goodbye he confirms that yes, he is going to his ideal afterlife, where Drizzt hopes he finds peace similar to transcendence:

“My time is ending,” the voice of Malagdorl repeated. “There is nothing to be done.” “Except to say farewell,” Drizzt said. “I will remember our talks on the road to the monastery, my friend. May you find oneness with the hive mind and peace in eternity.” “And you, warrior. Survive, I beg.”

joining the hive mind, a cluster of individuals swirling into a greater ‘being’ and is also referred to as ecstatic, is compared and contrasted to a process of becoming one with the universe that is hard to come back from as yourself because it feels That Good.

Got all that? Good. Because now we get to the epilogue of Lolth’s Warrior:

Jarlaxle left them, then, and went to his private room. He sat down before a table and pulled a cloth off the circular object resting in a tri-pronged stand atop it. He closed his eyes and reached out, hoping. A familiar image appeared in the ball a long while later, and Jarlaxle breathed a sigh of relief. “I am glad you are floating about this day,” Jarlaxle said. “You miss me.” This day, he heard in his mind, a most familiar voice. And perhaps again, now and then. Jarlaxle understood the unsaid part: Kimmuriel would not come to him at his beckon. Less so, came the thought in his mind. There is so much. So much. “And so much I still need from you.” You will be disappointed.

 [...] “I am lesser without you, my friend,” Jarlaxle told the image. “Both practically and in my heart.” It is the way of things. And that was it, and the spirit of Kimmuriel departed once more. Perhaps for the last time, Jarlaxle knew, though he desperately hoped that wouldn’t be the case. Here he is!  It’s not a summoning circle or a calling spell, it simply just seems to be that Jarlaxle reaches out and hopes that Kimmuriel will be around to answer him, and he does. Taking Jarlaxle's gay little sad thought calls, plural, because they have done this several times already, is worth it to Kimmuriel, enough to tear himself away from his ideal, implied to be VERY GOOD FEELING AFTERLIFE for.

Enough to maintain a sense of self and individuality because he speaks to Jarlaxle like he's the same person, just very distracted and its like WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO WITH ANY OF THIS. like fucking. Im not even getting into the implications that it's rooted in love, like, the hive mind’s love for kimmuriel as an individual and kimmuriel’s love for jarlaxle and jarlaxle’s love for kimmuriel?? subtextually? becuase jarlaxle is the only one who has consistently treated kimmuriel like a person

To trust Kimmuriel is to trust a creature we cannot begin to decipher. Why Jarlaxle elevated him to lead Bregan D’aerthe, I will never understand.” “Perhaps Jarlaxle believes that he understands Kimmuriel.” “Then Jarlaxle fools himself.”

they are noted by other characters to be extremely close to the point that they have a trust bond that is rare among menzo drow:

Now, though, I witness a much different structure within Bregan D’aerthe, and one very much more powerful. For Jarlaxle has given to his followers something truly special among the Lolth-serving drow: an element of trust. And he does so by example. Jarlaxle has entrusted Kimmuriel Oblodra with the very leadership of the band on those many occasions when he, Jarlaxle, is out on some adventure or other. He has even tasked Kimmuriel with reining in his own worst excesses—with keeping Jarlaxle himself in line!

(also see the other half of my first thing; when Jarlaxle says Zak is his partner Zaknafein immediately rebuts it with “Kimmuriel is your partner”) they go from standoffish and awkward to like calling each other friends and kimmuriel being Totally Fine with jarlaxle just touching him unprompted, a guy whose personal space bubble is Don’t Fucking Touch Me Asshole:

“I hesitate to take Azzudonna, this woman I barely know and know not at all as a friend, and you expect me to subject you to the intrusion of the hive mind?” “Why, Kimmuriel, did you just admit that you love me?” Jarlaxle teased, but the psionicist was having none of it. “Good,” said Jarlaxle, nodding to his drow companions. “Then I want you to cast it now on my dear friend here,” he explained, wrapping his arm about Kimmuriel. and then kimmuriel dies and this literally does not slow him down. and then he dies and, as the epilogue shows, comes back to jarlaxle anyway.

like it's not even thematically inappropriate is what fucking gets me, because kimmuriel has already established he is someone who essentially lives in two worlds and needs both to be happy and the conclusion is that he doesn't have to choose, he can have both, and that mirrors jarlaxle's defiance of having to give things up to be 'good' Jarlalxle doesn't have to abandon everything he was just so he can become Good and Palatable to a surface world that doesn't give a shit about him (drizzt did this only out of desperation, even; his flight and rejection and all of it, for him menzo is a home that he wanted so badly to belong to, it hurts to leave, but he knows he has to because he can’t bear it. that’s a different essay though). he can have all of it, as much as he can carry. he wants all of it. he hates to let go of it. that refusal to let go saves almost three thousand people from menzoberranzan. kimmuriel's refusal to be forced into a choice means he comes back to jarlaxle in some way and form, even with the deck stacked against him to make it incredibly fucking difficult to do so and again, kimmuriel has literally everything he has ever wanted in dying, everything he's ever aspired to, the One Truth he’s been reaching toward, and it is, apparently, still not enough.

In conclusion:

“Look at yourself!” Gromph scolded. “You care. Kimmuriel Oblodra— and how remarkable that any Oblodra or Odran cares! Have you gone soft, then? Have you abandoned your sole goal in life, to find the One Eternal Truth along with those tentacle waggling illithids?” Kimmuriel wanted to deny his words, to deny him, but his responses sounded without conviction. “Have you become enamored of the flesh, Kimmuriel?” Gromph asked more seriously. “Have you found within your emotionless mind a bit of love for that which we mere mortals covet?” idk man look at it its on the ceiling. i dont fucking know. i truly do not know. i am not going to be normal about this for the next five years.

Bonus:

When Kane is talking to Afa about transcendence and Afa’s reasons for transcendence (he wants to find his dead boyfriend again):

“Nothing in the multiverse is more powerful than love, my friend,” Kane said, and he smiled, and moved his hand. 

Like sure okay whatever. Sure. It sure is huh.

[nightghoul381]

Dark If ~ Jude Jazza

This a fan translation so it is definitely not 100% accurate. I do not own anything related to Ikemen Villains. Support Cybird by buying their amazing stories!

CW: Mentions of blood

Prologue | Part 1 | Part 2 | Bitter End | Premium End | Epilogue

I immediately started researching things in the library. About curses and magic.

The knowledge I gained from books every day was all about things I didn’t know, having been raised in an overprotected castle.

Kate: “Time is not irreversible, and space is not absolute.”

Kate: “Like intricately intertwined threads, the past and the future, and one world and another, can be connected.”

Kate: “…Maybe that’s why I have memories of living both in England and in the world of fairy tales…”

Both existed separately, but now they are intertwined as one.

It’s like twisting two threads together.

When I quickly turned the page, I saw that it was written about a wizard.

Because wizards possess incredible power and are rare in number, they often become the source of contention between countries.

It is not uncommon for one’s life to be targeted by assassins from other countries. This is because if you kill one wizard, you will have a military advantage.

(Because wizards can easily plot to overthrow the country,)

(If they refuse to belong to the national army, they are often imprisoned or killed--)

Kate: “…Oh I see…”

(I can’t believe that the overprotective king and military would tolerate such a situation just because he’s a wizard…)

Anger and shame at not knowing anything welled up.

Jude the Wizard: “What are you doing here night after night?”

Kate: “Mr. Jude…”

As soon as I saw him, I felt a rush of regret for the words I had spoken a few days ago.

Kate: “…I’m sorry for saying it was because of your personality that you were targeted.”

Jude the Wizard: “Ah? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Kate: “Just as you said, I’ve come to learn how little I knew.”

Kate: “I want you to listen to my wishes…First, we will be able to talk as equals.”

Jude the Wizard: “….ha.”

Jude let out a dry laugh and hooked his fingertips in my collar again, pulling my face closer to his.

Kate: “…ngh”

Jude the Wizard: “I thought that a princess who had been content to be kept in a box for many years would grow up to be a selfish, spoiled brat.”

Jude the Wizard: “Yeah, you see it too. I’m going to make you so frustrated that you’ll cry.”

Kate: “…What was that?”

He is still sadistic and looks down on me. And yet, for some reason, my heart lifts.

(I’m not saying I’m not happy to have received a bit of recognition, )

(But I’m not…I guess.)

Jude the Wizard: “Well, at least you can try your best.”

Jude pulled his fingers out of his collar and left the library.

(--Come to think of it, I was told I was a slave and even had a collar put on me.)

Yet I was never restricted from doing anything other than leaving the castle.

“I’m safe, so please don’t send any soldiers. There will be unnecessary deaths.”

Ellis had also delivered a letter with that written to the castle.

Since then, they have continued to communicate regularly to me to let me know that they are safe.

(If the curse is due to his grudge—maybe I did something wrong.)

(Why can’t I remember…?)

As if to vent my growing frustration, I immersed myself in researching curses and magic.

As I spend my days like that, before I know it--.

Kate: “Ah, good morning Jude.”

Jude the Wizard: “…You did that on purpose.”

Kate: “…Did what?”

Jude the Wizard: “I’ve got bed hair.”

A hand reached out and roughly combed through the tangled hair.

I lowered my head, trying to disguise the pounding of my heart.

Jude the Wizard: “Pfft, Why’re you blushing so much? You really are a child.”

Far from getting used to this arrogant sadist, I was starting to feel a little attracted to him.

(This is phenomenon where the victim falls in love with the kidnapper.)

(It’s not love…yeah.)

Kate: “Mr. Jude, you didn’t come out of the study again yesterday, did you? Are you sleeping properly?”

Jude the Wizard: “Heh, I just called you a child and you’re worried about me.”

Jude the Wizard: “Let’s wait until you fix your bed head and are able to say hello in the morning, princess.”

Kate: “What…”

A finger flicked my forehead, causing pain.

Jude the Wizard: “You like pain, don’t you?”

His lips curve in a mocking manner, almost catching my eye, and I look away.

Kate: “I really don’t like it…now, will you please lift the curse today.”

Jude the Wizard: “I’ll think about it when I’ve had a good day.”

Kate: “Didn’t you say the same thing yesterday?”

Jude the Wizard: “Ah-ah, yapping and biting me, today is a bad day too.”

Jude laughed at my plea and went out as usual.

Time passes without mercy, without any success in lifting the curse of finding what is missing in this world—.

(Jude…?)

In the middle of one night, I felt that Jude had returned after being out for an unusually long time, and when I peeked out from the library,

Jude’s back was just about to disappear into the study.

There were some spots left on the carpet—.

(Is that…blood?)

A shiver ran down my spine and I ran to the study, unable to sit still.

Kate: “Jude… are you hurt?”

Jude the Wizard: “… I told you not to enter this room without permission, didn’t I?”

Jude the Wizard: “It’s not a big injury, just get out of here.”

Kate: “Even if it’s not a big injury, you don’t leave the injured alone. You help and treat them.”

When I forced myself to walk over to him, I saw a pile of papers and documents piled up on the desk.

Kate: “…What on earth are you researching while holed up in your study every night?”

Kate: “It’s why you went out tonight, isn’t it…?”

Jude the Wizard: “…What would you do if I said yes?”

Kate: “If you keep doing this, your body will shut down.”

Kate: “Risking your life for the sake of a promise… it’s just like you.”

Jude the Wizard: “…What?”

Kate: “—It’s like you’re the one who’s cursed.”

Jude the Wizard: “Hah… you say that.”

A hand wraps around my throat, like a snake coiled around me.

I’m cursed by this man—He holds my life in his hands. This is a reminder of that.

Kate: “ngh…ha….rgh”

The tightness of the collar is loosened and my breathing increases.

Jude the Wizard: “I’ve lived a long life, and I’d love nothing more than to be cursed to death by a stupid promise.”

Jude the Wizard: “Don’t worry about me, take it easy—tomorrow you’re destined to fall into a deep sleep, just as you were cursed to do,”

Jude the Wizard: “You forgot, right?”

Jude the Wizard: “If you don’t want to get your head blown off right now, go back to your room, princess.”

The door closes in front of me with a loud bang.

Yes, I realized my birthday –tomorrow—was fast approaching.

(If this continues, I will fall into a 100-year slumber, as per my curse.)

(I still don’t know anything about why I was cursed by Jude, or what is missing in this world…)

As I was suffering from anxiety and unable to sleep, the sound of glass breaking filled my ears.

(Someone attacked again…?)

I’ve gotten used to the sound by now, but—today I feel especially uneasy.

(I hear more people’s voices and footsteps than usual.)

(Ellis is staying the night away to go shopping in the town at the foot of the mountain—and)

(Jude is injured tonight.)

Kate: “…mm”

I hurriedly jumped out of my bed and headed out into the hallway.

Jude the Wizard: “Tch… Why are you here? Go to sleep.”

Kate: “With this noise? Please don’t be unreasonable…”

Soldier: “Miss Kate!”

(--Are these people from the national army!?)

Kate: “Why… I’ve told my father that I’m okay…!”

Soldier: “The deadline of your curse is already approaching tomorrow.”

Soldier: “He wishes to see your face for a second before then, and I have been ordered to take you home!”

(My father…)

Jude the Wizard: “—I’m sorry, but the princess won’t be going home.”

Jude pushes me behind him with one arm, trying to hide me from the soldiers downstairs.

Kate: “Jude? If you do something like this, you’ll be treated as a traitor and you’ll be targeted even more than you already are…”

Jude the Wizard: “Ha, I don’t need you to worry. Besides, if you go back to the castle now, you’ll die.”

Kate: “Wha…?”

(What do you mean…? The curse that’s triggered by being pricked by a spinning wheel is supposed to cause a person to sleep for 100 years.)

But now, Jude clearly said, ‘I’ll die.’

Kate: “Aside from the curse, are you saying that there’s something that would cause me to die…?”

Jude the Wizard: “…haah. The doctors in the royal castle are really incompetent.”

At that moment, I saw a flaming arrow flying towards Jude--.

Kate: “…watch out…!”

Jude the Wizard: “!?”

Immediately moving to cover him, I lost my balance,

Jude the Wizard: “…Kate!”

--and fell headlong down the stairs.

When I landed—I was in the arms of a soldier sent by my father.

Soldier: “Miss Kate! Are you okay!?”

Kate: “Jude…!?”

When I looked up, a soldier had taken advantage of my falling and pinned Jude down.

Jude the Wizard: “Shit… What are you falling for? Are you stupid?”

Kate: “…ngh, Please! That person is injured… please don’t be rough!”

Soldier: “He will be taken into custody by the national army on charges of abducting and confining the princess.”

Kate: “Wait, please…Listen to me--!”

There was no way my voice would be heard…and we were transported to the royal castle in separate carriages.

(What should I do… Jude was arrested because of me.)

From what I read in the books, I’ve got a good idea of how wizards are treated.

Instead of having the crime overlooked, he will be forced to work to protect the country and attack the enemy.

(Jude still has a promise he wants to fulfill…)

--“Even if I die, I won’t break my promise.”

Kate: “…?”

I thought I heard someone’s voice, and right after that the world around me became distorted.

(Ah…? I think I hit my head earlier--)

I closed my eyes tightly until the dizziness subsided, and when I opened them, I saw--.

An unfamiliar back alley.

Kate: “…what, where…?”

I don’t know why, but the image reflected in the mirror is that of a young girl. She looks to be about ten years old or so.

(Is that…me when I was younger?)

I was wearing a pretty, expensive-looking dress, so it didn’t appear as though I was living in England.

At that moment—I heard the yelling of several adults from across the alley.

Male voice: “Catch him! Catch him alive!”

Male voice: “This… took so much time and effort, but finally--!”

When I looked out of the alley, I saw a boy around the same age as me being chased by adults.

He was covered in scars, but his eyes were burning fiercely as if he hated everything in this world.

The child almost passed in front of the alley where I was--.

Kate: “…Hide—”

Boy: “Wha!?”

I couldn’t help but pull him in.

Hiding behind a wooden box, I hear the heavy footsteps of adults moving away, and I breathe a sigh of relief.

Kate: “…It seems like they’re gone. Why were you being chased? Are you hurt--?”

Boy: “…You don’t know who I am. I’m sure I’m wanted all over the country.”

Kate: “Really? How could such a small child…”

Boy: “Small child, you’re about the same age right?”

(Ah…Maybe--)

Kate: “Can you use magic?”

Boy: “—what if I could?”

I could clearly feel his apprehension rising.

It was said “Wizard children are sometimes put on a wanted list in order to keep them around as a valuable asset.”,

I remembered that heartless sentence.

Kate: “I won’t capture you, so don’t worry.”

Boy: “…ha, I doubt that. You look like an aristocrat or a member of the royal family. I can’t trust someone with a lot of money and power.”

Kate: “It’s true! …you were put on the wanted list even though you’re innocent,”

Kate: “It’s absolutely unfair to have your life threatened or your freedom taken away…!”

It reminds me how Jude was attacked almost every day in that castle deep in the mountains.

Before I knew it, the words were pouring out, letting out the frustration that had built up during the days I spent in that castle.

Kate: “Ah… I’m sorry, I just had to say that out loud.”

Boy: “Haha, why are you apologizing to me? No problem, I agree with you.”

Boy: “… your face doesn’t seem like it can tell a lie.”

Boy: “It would make you an evil person to get the bounty through deception, and you don’t seem to have the ability to use your wit—ah?”

Boy: “Hey, show me your face.”

Kate: “Eh? I—”

The boy pulled my face closer to his and looked into my eyes, squinting as if searching for something.

(Cold… but beautiful eyes.)

Boy: “Tsk… Why do people like you end up with such a disease.”

Kate: “Disease…?”

Boy: “You have about ten years left.”

Kate: “Eh, what…!? Does that mean I’ll die in ten years…!?”

Boy: “I won’t let you die, as I owe you my life.”

Boy: “Ten years from now, before you die, I’ll stop time.”

Boy: “I don’t know how many years it will take to find a cure, but I think 100 years will be enough.”

Kate: “Wait…What do you mean?”

Boy: “You’re a dull princess. I’m trying to help you and you’re crying and screaming as thanks.”

Boy: “Even if I die, I won’t break my promise.”

A finger poked me in the forehead.

Boy: “Ten years from now—you’ll prick your finger on a spinning wheel and fall into a 100-year sleep.”

Kate: “W-why do I have to get priced by a spinning wheel…?”

Boy: “Because it looks like that, I don’t know. And you—you seem to like pain.”

A mocking, arrogant smile appeared on his thin lips, and I was taken aback.

Kate: “—You and I, have we met somewhere…?”

--The next thing I knew, I was being rocked by the carriage that I’d been pushed into by the soldiers of the national army.

(Just now… for a dream, it felt extremely vivid.)

I could still clearly feel the touch of his fingertip on my forehead.

“Time is no irreversible, and space is not absolute. Past and future, and other worlds can be connected.”

(The past and present are connected…?)

I was in England, came to this world—and now I made a promise with Jude from the past.

The idea was so farfetched, but the dots were connected and it emerged as the truth.

Kate: “Now, Jude is being held prisoner—The curse, the promise is…”

Kate: “That promise you just made with me…?”

--Flashback—

King: “…You got into a fight with me that night, and you snuck out of the castle. Then, you lost consciousness and collapsed in a back alley.”

--End Flashback—

When I think about it, I can understand why I have no memory of that time.

I met Jude in the back alley because that’s who I am now.

When I came to this world, I made a promise with Jude from the past.

So, before I met Jude from the past, I had no memories of him.

(Still… I didn’t think of the curse as something to be afraid of.)

(Jude didn’t curse me because of a grudge.)

(It was to buy time to find a cure for me.)

In other words, as per the curse, I have to pricked by the spinning wheel.

A sleep to stop death, to fulfill his promise.

Kate: “The spinning wheel…”

Kate: “I have to find the spinning wheel—”

Prologue | Part 1 | Part 2 | Bitter End | Premium End | Epilogue

[mitcheechee]

Hey, new follower here! (I'm actually in the wrong account so please don't mind me being anonymous!) I really love your art and I mainly wanted to say that your art and style is amazing and beautiful! Secondarily, do you have any tutorials or tips on drawing bodies, hands and I noticed you do blood? I understand if you'd rather not answer that; if so just only the first half! Love your art! Thanks for existing (if that makes sense)❤️

wah... first i just wanna say tysm!!! youre so sweet 😭

i unfortunately dont have any tutorials or anything made already and i dont really want to make any as of right now because i feel like i have a long way to go in terms of learning how to properly draw a lot of things. since i don't know what im doing id feel really lousy putting out a tutorial when i dont even have a lot of the basics down yet...

im gonna blab under the cut about tips (not really tips on drawing bodies themselves as a guideline, but what has helped me practice and thus allowed me to get better at drawing bodies in my own art), so u dont have to read all that if it doesnt interest u! but regardless thank u again for being so sweet!!! sorry i couldnt give u what u wanted.. maybe one day... 😭

again this is just how i practice, but its GENUINELY helped me get so much better.

all i can say as far as tips is to definitely practice with references as much as u can, it really will help u improve. i know people often dont like that advice too much but its really true... every time i use references to practice for a bit i can tell it helps me, and looking back at older art i know its true. i dont often use guidelines (i really need to...), or at least not in the sense that i do in most of the guides i see so i feel like i cant give much else in terms of advice tho, other than that.

anyway, its one thing to just use a reference, but really trying to get it down and learn it (learn the body, anatomy, how to draw it all) so u carry that knowledge on is sorta different, for me

what has helped me to really learn is this method of practice where i

draw a reference photo based off what i see

trace the photo

overlay both my trace and the first drawing i made

go back and choose key points on the photo/trace where i was very off and mark them as a little dot/line and then try to fix the original sketch with those dots/lines to match the photo (look below to understand what i mean LOL sorry)

try and draw it again from scratch based on what i see visually

and for number 4, what i mean is this:

lets say the 2nd is my visual (rough) drawing based off of the original

overlaying my original sketch on the reference i can see where a lot of points are off!

ill make note of a few of the areas that were very off and mark them, then get rid of the reference underneath. ill still look at it as a guide on the side, but overall try to just change the original sketch to match it instead of directly tracing!

i feel like this may not have been exactly what u mean as far as tips for drawing bodies, but ive found that in order to grasp them better in a way that helps u draw them on ur own, doing studies like this really helps! for me, at least, it allows me to better store things in my memory--because looking at the image and practicing doesnt feel like it really CEMENTS any knowledge, but seeing where i went wrong and then working backwards to try and alter it shows me where im lacking in skill, and helps me use that information later!

doing this allows me to understand how bodies take up space. it has helped me to see the body as more of a tangible thing while i draw freehand, and do it more accurately as well, instead of it feeling like its. a limp noodle i cant grasp LOL

i will say, tho, that for hands especially i almost always use my hands as a reference for what i want. like i dont even have a guide for that in terms of what i do to draw them out or guidelines i follow, i just straight up draw them based off what i see or imagine, i dont really do those step by step guidelines...

im sorry again i couldnt rly give u what u wanted, i just dont think im at that level where i can truly give any advice since im not good enough (yet ! we hope) for a genuine tutorial. if u mean something as far as like... body shapes and stuff im still not rly there yet either. i hope this helps even a tiny bit tho, if u read this far!!!

[certifiedmaidenlessblog]

Okay literally nobody asked but since I am procrastinating AND restless:

My final thoughts/ranking of the Eternal mini:

(warning this is a full on yap sesh and I have next to no knowledge of music except for the very basics feel very very free to ignore)

1. Deja vu: I have feelings for this song. So gorgeous, dreamy and ethereal. Smiling so big because this song exists blah blah. Anyway the way I thought this song would be #chillvibes from the album preview snippet but then it turned out to be #nochill kajskajsj even tho there is definitely a lethargic quality to the song. I was so gagged but despite the tables turning on me I loved it immediately. Also the very random (but very well incorporated) tabla in the bridge? Slay. Initially I was mad that this wasn't the tt but with all the melodrama and orchestral arrangement, it has a similar vibe to guilty so I get it. But this song is ten fold of what guilty wanted to be (to me, that is). And I think this song remaining as a b-side to be occasionally performed instead of it being dragged through the promotional cycle and losing all the weight and impact of the song is a good choice too (the song itself is not very promotion cycle friendly either). I can't wait to see what the choreo looks like.

2. Horizon: Very kibumcore as a lot of people have also said, I think so too!! A very unexpected sound for a taemin song but he delivered sooo well. I do wish the song was longer tho. Don't know what being the second title track on this album means as of now but it's worthy of the position I'm sure.

3. Crush: Extremely shineecore! A cute and funky little number! Got me moving! The layers in the instrumentals are neat. I got exactly what was promised on the album preview. Well executed. No other notes. Other than the funky vibe there isn't really any standout element so I might get bored of it quickly tho.

Can't decide between ranks 4 and 5 so I'm calling it a tie.

4/5. Sexy in the air: I definitely should have let my brain soak this in a bit more before complaining about it cause now I literally can't stop listening to it helpppaksnakms cause Damn... This is crazy. What am I gonna do now?? Jaksjksks My first ranking for this song was literally second last (in a derogatory way) and now here we are. Also I held off from watching the mv first because I'm a very visual creature and I get easily swayed that way so I was trying to be #unbiased or whatever. I still think that the second verse is a bit meh, specially because of the English lyrics (i don't even know why I was so pissed off by the "turn me down" that was obviously supposed to be "turn me on", it wasn't even that serious 😭) but I was definitely being too harsh and it's not even as bad as I made it out to be and it doesn't stick out enough to get in the way of me enjoying the rest of the song. The switch up after the beat change is soooo good I've been obsessed with that part (the horny choreo definitely helps :D).

The good things about this song being the title track are: it's produced by dem jointz (the production is interesting and immaculate), the mastering of this song is better than most tracks on this album, it is performance oriented/friendly, both halves of the song are tied together so neatly that honestly the beat change doesn't even seem that unnatural even if it's shocking, tm devoured this track in a way that only he can, tm freak lore continues!!!! but most importantly it's bold!!! and it's a statement!!! (instead of playing it safe like he did with guilty imo lol, musically i mean). My only real grievance with this song is probably the fact that it wasn't allowed to go full freak nasty the way it was originally envisioned to be because we live in a society or whatever. Tm was moaning and groaning and saying fuck in the studio only for it to be muffled and be barely audible on the track. The dem jointz trademark of an addictive repeated word/phrase being distorted because otherwise tm would be put in horny jail fr (horny gay jail even because its so crazy that they had another man moaning on the track like skdkksksjdkd). Some of the lyrics being altered hastily (like "turn me down" ksjsjsks).This song being called sexy in the air instead of sex is in the air kajskaksksks. Sad. Because if anyone can pull off something like this without being cringe, it's tm. But it's okay I get it. Also notably this song has one of the veeery few ethical uses of that infamous bed creak sample (by ethical i mean relevant to the song at hand in a way that maximizes the slay of the song).

4/5. Say Less: Very pretty, short and sweet, could have been longer. A solid closer for this album and definitely stands it's own ground despite being on the track list after Deja vu. Which is lowkey a feat of its own. The instrumentals are infact drowning out his voice a bit but I don't think it bothers me as much as I had feared. Reminds me of Truth a bit.

6. The Unknown Sea: I don't have particularly strong opinions on ballads but I do generally only listen to ballads if I'm already super into the idol. And I do like most of the other ballads from tm. However. He's singing his ass off here but the vocal processing.... specially in the chorus his voice sounds very tinny. When I first heard the song I thought it wasn't that big of a deal but now it is definitely getting in the way of me enjoying this song. Beautiful bridge tho, definitely the highlight of the song for me.

7. G.O.A.T.: This instrumental is so fucking nasty I'm obsessedddd. Unfortunately the instrumental might just be the saving grace of this song. I went into this track thinking I was not even gonna be able to listen to this but thankfully it's not thaaaaaat bad. But we definitely need to get tm off his rapping agenda. Even after listening to this a bunch of times it's not sitting that well with me. (Which is crazy because after first listen I thought his voice was more well suited to GOAT than SITA???) I do understand that this song was meant to be a bit tongue in cheek like yeah the goat bleating sounds are hilarious in a good way but tm is Not giving the hardass aura that he thought he was going for and um. that's enough for me to be like :/ which is such a shame cause even the arrangement of this song is so interesting. But yeah whatever this track needed vocally is not in tm's strengths so. I'll wait for someone to upload the instrumental tho so that I can download it and play it with the rest of the album jksjsksksjsjs

I think it's a good choice to drop an album that's just him coming out swinging after such a drastic career altering decision. There's no more room for regrets or dilly dallying and he's confident. Which is a good thing. Because it definitely makes the statement he wants to make. The album as a whole is interesting, all the tracks differ from each other but that doesn't take away from the cohesiveness of the soundscape of the album. There is a clear logic in the way the tracklisting was done, the transition from one song to the next makes sense (even if I can't explain it properly).

That being said, yes the production and the mixing is a bit lacking (along with the other downsides of a low budget) but I don't think sm has songs like this in their vault anymore so... You win some you lose some idk.

Overall I do see this as a win. Yapping over and out.