#but they made up for it with all the rival stuff so ill forgive them

[romanceddawn]

forever and always thinking about that scene from episode 221 in the anime where seto's complaining about being with them and jou's like "no one invited you!" so seto immediately looks to yugi to see if he agrees with that and yugi just gives him a little smile and nod to say that he invited him like ooooh my god thats the cutest shit in the world topped only by seto admitting he believes in yugi's skill later on

like i know him being at the ceremonial duel isnt canon to the manga but sometimes i think i like the anime canon for it better just for the rival moments

[masterwords]

Ok, so I’m so hyped for May and all the domestic Hotchgan! And you said blow up your ask box, so….

I would love a fic about Derek and Aaron taking a cooking (or baking) class together! I just think it could be so funny and sweet. (And probably more messy than they think it is. Maybe a little competitive 😅)

Turns out...I am not good at writing cooking classes. LOL This idea was one of my absolute favorites and I found it to be incredibly challenging. I had three different drafts, none of which were good, so I set myself a 30 minute timer this morning and just went to town...landed here. It's better than the others, but not great. At least it's coherent! I didn't edit it, just skimmed...so if there are horrific embarrassing errors. I'm sorry please forgive me. We're in the thick of baseball and getting ready for tournament season and end of the school year stuff so my time isn't as plentiful as I'd like but we're getting there! Doing the thing! (Not on AO3 yet...I'm being lazy.)

Words: 1.7k

Warnings: food, it's all food based.

** hey shorty **

“You should take Penelope,” Derek muttered, one last attempt at salvaging his Saturday afternoon. “She would love this.”

“She bought the gift for us, Derek. To do together.”

He’d forgotten that part. Maybe not entirely, but he was clinging to some thread of hope that maybe she had wanted to go to the classes too. And if she did, he wouldn’t have to.

“It’s just gonna be a bunch of nerds…” Now he was whining. He wasn’t proud of it.

“It’s an hour, Derek.”

“An hour I’ll never get back.”

In the end, it turned out to be two hours...but two hours Derek was glad to have been present for. The instructor, an old woman with a thick Scottish accent and a frown that could rival Hotch’s any day of the week got right to business. No jokes, no wasted time.

She started by explaining the history of shortbread, and Derek breathed an audible sigh of relief. His ultimate fear was that they were going to be making something awful...it was described by Penelope as a “historical cooking class” and she gave him no more information. Hotch knew but refused to divulge – so he’d looked it up, and it turned out there were three possible classes it could have been given the time and day. One of them was making something called a medieval beef pie and something about the thought of that made him feel ill. Shortbread he could do.

Or so he thought.

“Pilcaithly Bannock,” she said and Derek couldn’t help glancing around the room to see if anyone else was as lost as he was. Turned out, he was not alone. “It’s a traditional shortbread made with the addition of almonds and a few flavors you may find intriguing. The recipe we’ll be using comes from a cookbook written in 1861.”

At her direction, everyone filed up toward the front of the classroom where she handed them a bin full of ingredients and cooking utensils with a photocopy of a recipe taped to the top. Hotch and Derek glanced at one another thoughtfully, both impressed by the instructor’s organization. Suddenly Derek, who had never considered himself much in the kitchen, felt like he might actually be able to do this.

Hotch baked. He loved to do it. His insomnia sometimes led to incredible pastries, flaky dough and sweet treats that helped him ease his troubled mind in the wee hours of the night. He would come back to bed around 3am with the house smelling like a bakery and a little flour in his hair and Derek would wake up starving and salivating. But him? No. He could grill, and he could do that with the best of them...and he could eat, boy could he eat...but baking required so much precision, measurement, time and patience. It wasn’t that he couldn’t do it, it was that he didn’t want to. Nothing about it was appealing except eating the end result.

They were not supposed to talk while they worked, but everyone seemed to want to chatter a little. The instructor poured herself a mug of coffee and stood in a corner observing for a long while. Surrounding them was the chaos and clatter of a kitchen, mixing bowls and whisks and spoons and running water.

“What does it mean when it says to beat the butter to a cream?” Derek whispered, leaning over close to Hotch. “Isn’t that already what it is?”

Hotch tipped his bowl in Derek’s direction and showed him the thick peaks of creamed butter with a smirk. “Just use your whisk and whip it.”

“Too bad we don’t have stand mixers in here.”

“Seems like a good time to put those muscles you work so hard on to good use…” Hotch muttered and Derek, under his breath, called him a shithead.

“Mine’s gonna be so much better than yours.”

“Keep dreaming,” Hotch replied so quietly, so sure of himself that it became Derek’s entire mission in life to do this one thing as perfectly as he could. So, stepping back, he read the entire recipe top to bottom and then again, closer, before he set to whipping the butter. He was a little behind the rest of the class, they all looked like they were adding in the flour and sugar and almonds, but he wasn’t concerned. He could take his damn time.

And he did. He chopped his almonds into fine little bits, he made sure there were no clumps in his dough that he would definitely classify as a “paste” in accordance with the recipe, and when he scored his final product before taking it up to the oven he was...well, he was proud.

Until he saw Hotch’s, which looked borderline professional. His heart sank. The students all piled their trays into the waiting preheated ovens and set to their next task...cleaning up while the shortbread did its thing.

“If mine is better,” Hotch said while he scrubbed his countertop, “you take me out to lunch at Shake Shack.”

Derek scowled. It wasnt’t that he didn’t like Shake Shack, but he wasn’t in the mood for greasy burgers and milkshakes. “And if I win, you take me down to Così.”

When the timers began going off, the instructor pulled them out of the oven one by one. She inspected each tray before handing them off to their owners to begin cooling. The look she gave Derek was impossible for him to read, but he could see the admiration on her face when she looked at Hotch’s perfect little slab of shortbread. He began mentally preparing himself to eat at Shake Shack, to watch Hotch with his mushroom burger and frozen custard quietly gloating over his perfect performance. He realized in that moment that while he loved Hotch, he probably would have hated him had they met in high school. That smug look on his face was getting Derek all sorts of riled up and he couldn’t decide if he wanted to kiss him or smack him. Maybe both.

“How are they?” he asked when Hotch broke off a corner to try. He just shrugged and looked...disappointed.

“I could have done better. They’re a little tough.”

Derek stared at him agape. “They look professional, man.”

“I over-mixed the flour. They’re not bad but they don’t crumble the way they’re supposed to.”

Derek, horrified by what his own creation must be like in order for Hotch to be disappointed in his own turnout, stared down at his slab. They were darker than Hotch’s by at least one full shade, and a little extra even on the edges. Slowly, he reached out and broke off a corner of his to try and it crumbled in his fingers.

Hotch was watching him closely with a sweet smile on his face. “That’s perfect, Derek.”

“What are you talking about? It fell apart.”

The instructor made her way to their counter and peered at both of their creations. First she looked at Hotch’s, broke off a corner, and Derek saw the same look of disappointment on her face that Hotch had.

“They taste incredible,” she started with a smile. “But you’ve overmixed a bit, haven’t ye?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Give it another try at home.” Hotch smiled and nodded at her encouragement, proceeding to clean up the rest of his station and package up his failed attempt at shortbread. He could turn it into ice cream topping or something else at home at least. It was salvageable. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched the instructor inspecting Derek’s.

“Nice color,” she began before grabbing a bit and watching it crumble in her hands. Her smile, once somewhat timid, widened. “Ahhh. That’s perfect.” She snapped off one whole cookie and held it in her hands reverently before snatching a chair, dragging it over to where Derek stood and stepped up on top of the seat. She stood now beside a very confused Derek, her hands still cradling the cookie.

“An old Scottish tradition is to break a slab of shortbread over a bride’s head. If it crumbles, the marriage will be good and fruitful. Shall we give this young man’s shortbread a try?”

The class erupted in laughter and applause, so she held her hands now over Derek’s head and snapped the cookie. It barely took a second before it crumbled to bits and fell over Derek’s head and shoulders in cookie dust. He shut his eyes and laughed along with everyone.

“Ahhh. Well, if that’s any indicator of the strength of your marriage…” she said, doing her best to get safely down off of the chair with Derek’s help. “Job well done.” Derek glanced at Hotch and shrugged, thinking he would find the man looking jealous or disappointed in himself...but all he found was Hotch with tears in his damn eyes and a smile on his face. The big softy.

In the car afterward, Hotch sitting in the passenger seat with two takeaway containers of shortbread on his lap, Derek poked the bear. “Did you hear her say mine was perfect?”

“I did.”

“She used the word perfect. Not good or great...perfect.”

“I heard.”

“Just makin’ sure. I know your ears don’t work so good, shorty.”

"Derek..." Hotch mumbled, giving him the side-eye. Derek just smiled broad and pulled out of the parking lot.

"Whassup shorty?"

Hotch had no response, but he couldn't help the ghost of a smile that ticked up at the corner of his mouth. Being called shorty was probably the least of his concerns. Derek was about to be insufferable over this shortbread ordeal for the remainder of the weekend and he would just have to suck it up and deal with it.

Derek, with a wicked little grin on his face, drove them straight to Shake Shack, bypassing Così on the way. He won the competition in class fair and square, but the instructor was right. He did have a pretty damn good marriage, and part of what made it so good was knowing when his partner might need a little pick-me-up...even if he did make the superior treat. He won cooking class.

But Hotch needed that frozen vanilla custard for his wounded pride and Derek was going to make sure he got it. (But if he crumbled a little of his perfect shortbread on top...well, could he really be blamed? It was perfect.)

[absolutepokemontrash]

MC’s half Demon, and they look AWFULLY familiar...

‘Kay guys, I got a different kind of stupid Headcanon to throw at you. Get ready!

Part 2 Lessons 1-5 Part 2.5 Group Retreat Lessons 10-12 Lessons 13-15 Part 3 Part 4

*ahem* picture if you will, it’s the day the exchange program is set to start. The student council (nix Mr. Kill All Humans, Weeb-supreme, and our Scummy Sweetheart) have assembled to welcome the new human student. All is going according to schedule, the portal opens up at eight am sharp, they hear the pitiful screams of the selected human who was not given a heads up about the whole thing, and the poor little human falls straight onto the marble floor.

There’s something a tad... off about this human don’t you think? After they’ve peeled their sorry ass off the floor they observed the assembled student council with an air of sophistication and self importance that no one expected. Their posture was perfect, their eyes sharp and calculating... they bared a striking resemblance to-

“Lucifer,” Diavolo looked to his right hand man, then back to the human. “The human kind of looks like you!”

And out popped four pitch black wings from the human’s back and two small horns out of the sides of their head, one horn was a bit bigger than the other. They even still had some of their down feathers! How cute!

((Content warning: Swearing (I have a potty mouth, forgive me), but that’s it.))

Luci-dad

So, the MC is Lucifer’s kid! Of course Mr. Prideypants immediately tries to recall exactly what little romp in the human world uh... spawned this half-human half-demon child of his. Good thing MC’s got the other parent on speed-dial.

“Please note, MC,” Lucifer pinched the bridge of his nose upon hearing Asmo take even more pictures of his newly discovered hellspawn. “I was not aware of your existence, if I was I’d-”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m not upset.”

Lucifer blinked a few times in surprise. “P...pardon? You aren’t upset?”

“No, my parent told me that my father was a high ranking demon, and they bare no ill will against you. Though, I am looking forward to this whole... exchange program thing.”

Oh wow, that was easier than Lucifer thought. Damn. Well, he was a father... (let’s be real, he’s been parenting his brothers for thousands of years, and a good chunk of you sinners call him daddy)

MC is probably the most protected student at RAD, despite the fact that they have no visible security detail whatsoever. They didn’t want to be seen as... weak and pathetic.

Something about this human just... set the lesser demons on edge. Any talk of eating them was stamped out on the first day when they walked by. It’s like Lucifer himself was staring at them, daring the demons to try and bother the human. MC’s powerful presence kept them protected and feared.

...at least until dear uncle Asmo decided to do their hair one morning. All those ribbons may have looked adorable but they kind of ruined the intimidation factor.

MC loved to mess with the other students, keeping their lineage a secret for the first little while just made it so much funnier when the other demons tried to scramble out of MC’s way without looking like they were running from the ‘weak little human exchange student’.

Oh wow, what a sadist. Like father like child

Flying lessons are a must. Poor MC isn’t terribly good at controlling their wings, and their horns are still growing in so when they pop into their demon form the first thing they get is a sore skull. Ow... it sucks that Lucifer isn’t outwardly very sympathetic.

“Ow!” MC crashed face first into the grass in the backyard of the House of Lamentation. “Father! My wings are cramping! Can’t we practice this tomorrow?”

The sight of seeing his dear child crash face first into the ground had lost its hilarity after the first three times. Lucifer slowly lowered himself to the ground and crossed his arms as he stood over his incredibly grass-stained kid.

“MC, we’ve been ‘practicing this tomorrow’ for the past month. If you want to learn to fly you’re going to have to actually manage to stay in the air for more than three minutes.”

MC shot Lucifer a withering glare that only preteens were capable of, Lucifer matched it with his own much more sophisticated glare.

“You’ve been flying for over a thousand years! Don’t you have any tips that can actually help other than ‘don’t panic, you’ll look ridiculous’?”

Lucifer dragged a gloved hand down his face and looked around, the two were alone as far as he could see.

“MC,” Lucifer began. “When I was a young angel, I needed to learn how to fly with someone else.”

MC perked up. “Who?”

“Michael. The smug bastard picked up flying quicker than I did.”

“What’d you do?!”

Lucifer smiled at his child’s intense investment. “I practiced flying every day for five extra hours until I could do everything that Michael could do, just better.”

MC’s starry eyed interest died almost instantly upon hearing about the extra five hours of practice. “Humph, I bet I could outfly younger you and Michael with only two hours of practice a day.”

“Really now?”

“Yes! Watch!” MC shook off their wings and took off in a running start before shakily making it into the air. Their form was decent enough, and they weren’t shaking as much as the previous attempts. “SEE?!”

“Yes MC,” Lucifer smiled. “I can see.”

You know what else Lucifer could see? MC crashing right into a tree.

“Ouch...”

Okay... maybe they could halt practice a little early and order a treat from Madame Scream’s. A little sugar to refuel is needed when the end goal is crushing a mutual rival beneath their heels. Just some good old fashioned father/child bonding time!

MC has a smaller seat right next to Lucifer’s seat in the Assembly Hall. I will not compromise on this one.

For all your fluff needs, I give you: Lucifer teaching MC how to play the piano. He has a proud little smile on his face when his kid finally starts getting it. That’s all. Enjoy the image.

That one Uncle who gives you Alcohol at Family Gatherings (Mammon)

Yeah, when Mammon burst in late to the party and whining about everyone’s spamming him with texts to haul his scummy ass to the Assembly Hall, the last thing he expected was to see a mini-Lucifer.

“What the fuck am I lookin’ at?!”

The glare the two Lucifers gave the poor Avatar of Greed was enough to make him want to turn tail (uh, wing) and book it down the hall.

“Mammon, this is MC. They’re my child.”

“Hello.”

“...whaaaa..?” Mammon looked between the two, same glare, same intimidating aura, same annoyingly good posture.

Mammon scratched the back of his neck and looked over at his older brother. “Do I uh... still gotta babysit em’ if they’re not human?”

“The lake of Cocytus will melt the day I let you babysit without supervision.” Lucifer grumbled.

“I don’t need a babysitter!”

Despite Lucifer’s initial denial, Mammon and MC ended up spending a lot of time hanging out when Lucifer was busy with paperwork. Of course Mammon’s first thought was ‘how do I profit off this situation?’

MC is now Mammon’s designated babysitter after they caught him picking up their feathers that had fallen off with the intention of painting them white and claiming they were Lucifer’s from back in the Celestial Realm.

Mammon does end up spoiling MC a little. Just a smidge. They’re the kid of his totally not his favourite brother after all! How could he not? Whether or not these gifts are obtained legally or are legal at all is subject to scrutiny.

“Mammon, I can’t drink this!” MC placed the bottle of Demonus back on the counter of the kitchen.

“Why not? That’s a bottle of the good stuff! We gotta celebrate you gettin’ an A on that test somehow!”

“I’m underage! Incredibly underage. I’m not legally allowed to drink.”

Mammon wordlessly plopped a silly straw into the bottle. “...does that help?”

“No.” MC then inclined their head to the bottle. “And I don’t want to get hung from the ceiling, that bottle was in my father’s study yesterday, I’m above theft.”

“How old are you s’posed to be anyway? Never mind... uh...” Mammon wracked his brain for something else he could do for MC that didn’t cost anything (don’t judge him, the poor bastard was flat broke!). “I could... teach you to drive!”

“Driving?”

“Yeah! Drivin’ is awesome! We can take my car!”

The bills for the damages done to the car and the Devildom were mailed to Lucifer the next day, and MC and Mammon got to keep each other company as they hung from the ceiling. Ah well! At least MC wasn’t upside down!

Mammon wasn’t that good of a flight teacher either, he also crashed into a tree (the same tree MC crashed into, actually) when he was cheering for MC. They were finally able to do a loopdy loop! He was proud and distracted! Okay?! Lucifer! Stop smirkin’ at him! It’s not that funny!

At least the vantage point from the tree was decent and the branches didn’t scratch him up too badly. Oh hey... that person walking by was wearing a very nice watch... he’d be right back-

That Uncle That is Always Absent From Family Gatherings and When He is Present He Leaves Early (Levi)

He missed everything. That is not an exaggeration. He was in the middle of an online raid battle and couldn’t look at his phone! No Lucifer he can’t pause an online game! That’s not how it works!

Okay, the human exchange student is half demon? WOAH! THAT’S JUST LIKE THAT ONE ANIME- W A I T. THE LITTLE NORMIE IS LUCIFER’S KID?!

Okie doke, he was fully convinced that MC just had to be an anime protagonist.

They binged every series that Levi compared them to. Sure MC might have missed a few assignments because of late night anime binges, but they were too good for this school crap anyway, right?

Nope. Lucifer put a ban on the two watching anime until both their grades improved. Surviving that hell brought the two together.

“Ugh!”

The sound of a pencil case being haphazardly thrown across the room made Levi peek out of his bed-tub. If his figurines got knocked over so HELP HIM-

“This is stupid!!I shouldn’t have to catch up with this!” MC crossed their arms and gave their Demonology textbook their best disapproving glare.

Lucifer Lite (tm) was having a hell of a time trying to claw through their missed work, and Levi sympathized, he really did, it’s just... he was playing Animal Crossing-

Levi paused the game to placate his anime-buddy when their wings popped out and he feared for his rare merch’s safety.

“H-hey, MC? Do you need help?” Levi’s offer was met with a bone chilling glare that lived rent free in his nightmares ever since. He had pulled a Mammon and forgotten he was talking to Lucifer’s child. Lucifer’s allergy to help must have passed down to MC.

“No! I don’t! It’s just... dumb!” MC hissed, she turned and looked over at the fish tank. “Right Henry 2.0?”

Henry 2.0 did not respond.

“MC, you need to finish your homework or we can’t watch anything together,” Levi sighed, he had finished his work over an hour earlier. He had mastered the art of all night anime binges and managing to do most of his work in the fifteen minutes between the time he woke up and the time school was supposed to begin. “We haven’t even binged all of volume 4 of TSL yet!”

“Mmm...” MC grumbled. “Fine...”

MC picked up their pencil case and began continued their work. Levi breathed a sigh of relief and went back to Animal Crossing.

The tiny normie did in fact finish their work, only after they caved and asked Levi for help. Swore him to secrecy, they did... very intimidating, they were.

Just saying, he most definitely sent that one Keanu Reeves meme with big Keanu and little Keanu but with Lucifer and MC to the wrong group chat. Poor bastard.

Flying lessons? No. Levi hadn’t flown since his time in the Celestial Realm, he had no advice to give other than: “Flap your wings!”

“THAT’S WHAT I’M DOING YOU-”

MC didn’t get to finish that thought, they lost their balance and fell right into RAD’s fountain. Ah well, Levi had a head start on running for his life that he squandered by laughing at MC. RIP.

The Uncle/brother/whatever the fuck that Starts a Fight With Your Dad at the Family Reunion. (Satan)

Oh... another Lucifer? Eugh. Gross.

Satan gave the kid a wide berth when they first met. Everything the kid said or did ticked him off. “Tsk. Look at MC. Making an omelette. So annoying.” “Oh wow, MC vacuumed? Roll out the red carpet, we need to celebrate their existence!” “Look at them. Breathing. Disgusting.”

MC’s pride wouldn’t ever let them admit it but... they knew Satan didn’t like them, and it hurt their feelings.

“Shhhh,” Satan whispered into his backpack.

“Meow.” The backpack replied.

“I said shhhhh.”

The backpack did not reply after that, which was a good thing considering the little princet of the HOL was nearby.

“Satan?” They asked. “Who are you talking to?”

Satan coldly brushed past them as he made his way to his room. “No one you need to concern yourself with.”

When the little calico kitten was safe in his room, Satan quickly realized a mistake in his foolproof ‘sneak a cat into the house’ plan. He didn’t have any toys for the kitten, and he didn’t want his books getting scratched...

It was alright, he’d just rush out to the a store that sold cat things and rush back! Five minute trip tops!

Well when Satan got back the cat was no longer in the room. Oh dear. He discreetly tore apart the house looking for the poor little thing until he ended up finding it in the library, happily chasing around a loose feather being held up by MC.

“Oh, hello Satan.” MC chirped as the kitten batted it’s adorable little paws at the feather.

“My... my door was closed. Did you let the cat out?”

MC shrugged. “I heard meowing.”

Satan ran a hand through his hair and grumbled. Stupid smaller Lucifer. Stupid original Lucifer. Everyone sucked.

“Let me guess, you’re going to run to Lucifer and tell him all about the meowing and the rule breaking.”

MC shook their head and glared at Satan. “Of course not. I’ve already gotten way too attached to this little guy anyway. We’re co-parenting this kitten like mature adults.”

With some coaxing, Satan did sit down and play with the kitten, maybe MC wasn’t... so terrible.

The two watch Unsolved Mysteries together, that’s their show. “This guy did it.” “Satan, we’re two minutes into the episode-” “Trust me.”

Thirty minutes later.

“He did it.” “See MC, what’d I tell you?”

Lucifer did find out about the cat, but with enough pleading, MC and Satan managed to warm up the cold spot in Lucifer’s chest where his heart should have been. The cat’s name is Detective Toe Beans (or just Bean).

Satan can’t fly, he has a tail, but he did read up on wing anatomy and how flight actually works in demons, his advice would be good in theory, but it’s full of so much technical jargon that MC can’t understand it.

At least MC didn’t crash into something, they barrel rolled through one of the HOL’s windows. Good thing it was the window to their room. The broken arm still hurt like hell.

The Best Dressed Bitch Who Brings The Booze to The Reunion. (Asmo)

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Lucifer’s kid was SO CUTE! A thousand pictures commemorating that adorable moment needed to be taken! Wait- Lucifer- GIVE BACK THE PHONE-

Asmo, surprise surprise, absolutely adores little MC! So cute! So small! He was just so excited to announce to all his Devilgram followers that Lucifer was finally a certified DILF.

That post disappeared five minutes after it was made but the damage had already been done.

Asmo made sure MC looked their best at all times, if they needed help talking to anyone? Asmo’s got their back!

Sure, maybe he’s a little pushy, but pushy’s a good thing sometimes, right?

“Asmodeus-”

“No, these shoes wouldn’t fit you...”

“Asmo-”

“No, not these ones either...”

“ASMODEUS.”

Asmo squeaked and jumped upwards, Geez Louise... little MC’s voice could sure be scary when they wanted it to be...

“I don’t need any fancy new shoes.” MC huffed, sitting up straighter in one of the chairs in Asmo’s room. “I thought this was supposed to be a sleepover.”

“Hmmm...” Asmo pouted. “Makeovers are an essential part of sleepovers... what’d you do with your human friends up in the human world that could possibly be better than a make-over?!”

MC began to list things off. “Ordered junk food, talked about people we hated, watched movies,”

“Greasy food is so bad for your skin...” Asmo cringed and shook his head violently. “But I’m totally down to watch a movie and bitch about people I hate!”

“Ah yes, human sleepovers, a tradition I never quite had the chance to enjoy.” Solomon said from Asmo’s bed. “Who are we bitching about?”

“Remind me what Solomon is doing here.” MC muttered as they sat down in front of Asmo’s TV.

“Because, I wanted to hang out with my two favourite humans.” Asmo cooed, reaching over and trying to pinch MC’s cheek, which they awkwardly dodged.

“Can we watch The Exorcist?” Solomon asked, propping his head up with his hands.

“Ew, no.” Asmo made a face at him. “That scene with the vomit? Hell NO.”

“Mm.” MC mumbled. Asmo turned to look at them.

“MC? Are you doing okay? You don’t look like you’re having any fun...”

“I’m fine.” MC grumbled.

Asmo pursed his lips, as much as it made his little narcissistic heart break, he nudged MC. “Why don’t you pick the movie, sweetie. I’m sure Solomon and I will like anything you pick!”

MC noticeably brightened. “Let’s watch Scream!”

The strangled noise that came from Asmo was... concerning, but to his credit, The Avatar of Lust held his tongue about his distaste for the movie, and the three slumber-party goers had quite the lovely time.

After the movie ended, MC went back to their room, sure it was a sleepover but their bed was right down the hall.

Good for Asmo and Solomon. Horny fuckers. We stan.

Asmo just claps and tries to cheer MC on when it comes to their flying lessons. (The idea that Asmo came up with to wear his cheerleader costume from the previous Halloween was immediately shot down by Lucifer)

“You’re doing wonderful, MC- WATCH OUT FOR THE POWER LINE!”

MC didn’t hit the power line, but Asmo’s scream of terror caused them to fall butt-first into a dumpster. Their injured tailbone served as a tragic memory of the incident.

Oh well, good thing Asmo had nice smelling soap to give that could mask dumpster-stink.

The Uncle that eats everything and tells you to eat your veggies while you angrily pick at your broccoli at the kid’s table. (Beel)

Lucifer... has a kid?! Beel choked on the cheetos he had snuck into the Assembly Hall when the kid’s wings popped out.

Oh wow, that’s nice :) maybe they can eat together. Belphie would probably like them.

Wait what is the gender neutral term for Niece or Nephew?

...Nibling? Uh... let’s not say that around Beel. We don’t need him to get hungrier and begin associating MC with nibbling on things.

The Underground Tomb incident probably went a little differently, but after all that nonsense, the two are closer than two peas in a pod!

Mmm... peas...

“Beel?” MC stepped into the Avatar of Gluttony’s room.

“Hi MC.” Beel was doing push-ups in the middle of the room, on the ground right beneath his head was a massive bowl of spaghetti that he bit into every time he completed a push-up. “Can you come stand on my back? I need the extra weight.”

“On your back?” MC padded closer. “Are you sure? It’s not going to hurt?”

“No, it’ll be okay.” Beel assured them. “Belphie and I did this all the time. Except Belphie is normally asleep.”

MC tentatively stepped onto Beel’s back. It was a balancing act to say the least, they eventually gave up on standing and ended up sitting cross legged between Beel’s shoulder blades.

“You did this with Belphegor?” MC asked.

“Yeah,” Beel sighed. “He was always too tired to exercise, but he’d let me bench press him sometimes...”

MC frowned and hugged their knees to their chest. Knowing full well that Beel’s twin wasn’t in the human world like Lucifer said was absolutely ripping them apart from the inside. Guilt felt just as rotten as their pride did when they were being belittled...

“Maybe you’ll see him again sometime soon.” MC whispered. “Maybe my father’ll come to his senses and let him come back down to the Devildom.”

Beel paused his push-ups for a brief moment, then nodded and went back to his eating exercising combo. “I hope so. He’ll like you, MC. I’m sure of it.”

MC nodded. “I... hope so.”

Beel’s a pretty decent flight teacher, but his wings are just so different from MC’s that it renders any tips he had next to useless.

“MC, maybe your wings aren’t flapping fast enough.”

“Beel, I appreciate the thought, but I’m not a hummingbird. Or a fly. I don’t need to flap my wings a million times a minute to stay afloat.”

Ah well, MC tried to take some of Beel’s advice, but their lower right wing cramped up and they ended up flying in circles until Beel was able to catch them. Ah well, better than the dumpster incident the previous week.

The Uncle That Passes Out in The Basement and You’re Not Allowed to Wake Him Up Even Though All Your Toys and Video Games Are Down There. He Also Picks a Fight With Your Dad’s New S/O Before He Passes Out. (Belphie)

Sitting in the attic was quite a drag, and this supposedly weak little human was quite the annoyance to try and call out to. It took a lot longer than expected, but when he heard little footsteps coming towards his prison, Belphegor nearly jumped with joy.

Oh... it... looked like Lucifer. Smelled like Lucifer. Stood like Lucifer. Quacked like Lucifer. Or... trilled..? Whatever sound a peacock made, this brat sounded an awful lot like Lucifer.

A... half-demon. Hmph. Belphie honestly thought Lucifer had actual standards. Not anymore, he guessed.

(Man I could fill a whole-ass fic with the Belphie betrayal thing, but for now let’s skip to post attic nonsense)

Okay so maybe MC wasn’t disgusting. They made a good nap buddy. It was cute when their wings came out when they were sleeping sometimes. Well... it was cute when they didn’t hit him in the face and make him wake up with his mouth full of feathers.

What Beel said had been true, Belphie made a good substitute when weights weren’t available, but Beel didn’t want MC to feel left out, so Belphie and MC ended up sitting on his back while he did push ups. MC once got bored and started playing Go Fish with Belphie on Beel’s back while he exercised.

Yes. MC is still a member of the Formerly-Anti-Lucifer League.

“Are you sure he’s not going to be too mad at us?” MC asked for the dozenth time that day. Detective Toe Beans was wrapped around their neck like a scarf (he had gotten so big!!!) while MC nervously sat in one of the Library chairs.

“Positive.” Belphie said with a toothy grin. “Besides, he’s like putty when it comes to you. Just give him your best puppy eyes and we’re not guilty on all charges.”

Putty..? Really..? Lucifer..? How strict was he before MC got there... they wondered.

“Sh! He’s coming!” Satan stuck his nose into a random book, it was the Oxford English Dictionary... and it was upside down.

Belphie pretended to pass out and MC decided that the best course of action was to stare deeply into their cat’s eyes. Yeah... that looked casual and not weird.

“Satan, MC, Belphie.” Lucifer nodded to the three of them as he walked towards the entrance to his study.

“Lucifer.”

“Afternoon, father.”

Belphie let out a cartoonishly loud fake snore that nearly caused both MC and Satan to break cover and start laughing.

Side note, Bean had adorable widdle eyes! That cute little face was just to die for-

“You three..!”

Belphie, Satan, and MC peeked their heads into Lucifer’s study, their handiwork was perfect. Everything was covered in red post it notes. Perfectly not harmful, but SO inconvenient!

“You’re all cleaning this up or so help me-”

“GO!” Belphie and Satan each grabbed one of MC’s arms (Satan also grabbed Bean) and sprinted out of the House of Lamentation. Maybe they’d move back there in twenty years... they hoped that Solomon and The Angels would let them crash at Purgatory Hall...

Belphie had used up his physical energy supply for the next four years. He passed out the moment they stepped into sanctuary. Time for a nap...

Flight practice? Ha. Belphie’s napping. Though, he was suspiciously awake and filming whenever MC did something stupid.

“Try not to suck so bad.”

“GO TO HELL BELPHIE!”

“I’m already there. Hell is every second I’m stuck here watching you fail.”

“YOU’RE GOING TO GET IT FOR THAT!”

Well... MC mastered the dive bomb that day. Lucifer bought them a cake.

Bonus! Your Dad’s New Husband! That Has Managed to Somehow Make Everyone Hate Him Despite the Fact That He’s A Cinnamon Roll. (Diavolo)

A mini Lucifer? A mini Lucifer!

Diavolo dotes on MC like he’d dote on his own kid. MC wants a crown? They’re getting a crown! A damn nice one too! MC wants a title? Here! MC is now... idk Ruler of the area between Majolish and Hell’s Kitchen.

Poor Uncle Mammon’s got some financial insecurity, he’s still the cool uncle... right?!

He is very much that ‘how do you do fellow kids?’ Meme.

He tries to do stereotypical ‘dad’ things but he’s not very good at them. Once he tried to host a barbecue...

Barbatos saved the day, but Mammon’s hair was still singed, Solomon’s cooking still gave Beel food poisoning (SOLOMON EATS TOXIC WASTE I SWEAR-), Luke still got hit in the face with a frisbee, and Simeon got an unhealthy dose of DAD NERVES and got so stressed everyone was almost blinded by the holy light he suddenly started blasting. We do not mention the water guns.

(Seriously whose bright idea was it to give Belphie and Satan water guns while they were in Lucifer’s presence?)

Praise Barbie. He’s too good for them.

“Um...” MC awkwardly held up the baseball, trying to look at it from all angles like it was a completely alien object. “Lord Diavolo... are you sure you want to play catch?”

Diavolo clapped his hands and bounced on the balls of his feet. “Yes! It’s a thing human fathers do with their children, correct? We must make up for lost time between you and Lucifer, right?”

Lucifer massaged his temples and nodded. “If you two would like to play catch...” Lucifer grimaced. “I will too.”

“Okay! MC, throw the ball to Lucifer!” Diavolo instructed.

Lucifer half heartedly held up his baseball glove as MC tossed him the ball. He caught it, and looked over at Diavolo, who was applauding like he just witnessed the greatest feat in sports history.

“Okay! Throw it to me!” Diavolo waved his glove in the air, Lucifer rolled his eyes and smiled. He threw the ball at Diavolo with... a lot of force. Enough force to probably dent steel... Diavolo caught it like it was nothing.

MC suddenly feared for their safety.

“Okay MC, catch!”

Diavolo threw the ball with enough force to break the god damn sound barrier. Well, maybe that was an exaggeration, but the ball sailed way over MC’s head and crashed right through a window.

“Oh my...” Diavolo put a hand on his hip and surveyed the damage to the window. “This isn’t so bad, I believe in human world TV shows this happens quite often. Look! The glass broke in a perfect circle!”

“Yay... property damage...” MC murmured.

Lucifer sighed and pulled out his DDD. “I’ll phone someone to replace the win-”

“Lucifer no! Now according to human world customs we must,” Diavolo took a deep breath, rushed forward, grabbed both Lucifer and MC’s hands and started sprinting away from the Demon Lord’s Castle. “RUN FOR IT!”

“Di- Diavolo!” Lucifer gasped.

“Who are we running from?! That’s your castle!” MC squeaked.

“I don’t know! Just run! That’s what the human TV show says to do!”

Weirdly enough, Diavolo was the best flight instructor. MC’s ability to fly increased tenfold after Diavolo found out that MC was learning to fly.

“You’re doing amazing MC! That was a perfect turn!”

“Thanks Lord Diavolo, I’m surprised I haven’t crashed into anyone or fallen yet!”

“Well, I highly doubt you’ll be crashing into anyone anymore, your flying is practically perfect now!”

Mammon proceeded to fly past them holding what looked like Lucifer’s wallet.

“M-mammon?!”

“Oh... I wonder what he’s doing. Look, MC! It’s Lucifer! Hello Lucifer dea-”

Lucifer ended up colliding with the two of them and sending them all crashing to the floor.

That was the last time MC fell during flying practice.

(We currently have a Go Fund Me set up for Mammon to get the funds necessary to flee the Devildom after that incident. Please donate to save- oh shit hi Lucifer-)

[naomithespirit]

Puppet Waltz - Some Random Thoughts

It is now currently Oct. 2nd at 4:09 AM and I am writing this out because I have the energy. This is mostly going to be a post sharing the random thoughts stewing around in my head. And I will now be sharing as many as I can. The New Addisons: I mentioned in the previous post I had that I made some Addison OCs and, yeah. They exist. They're present and I think they're very cool. So lemme list them off. Red - Red, with the name of Adrian, is the first of the new Addisons and uses She/Her Pronouns. What she advertises is stuff mainly focused around weapons. Things like halberds, boxing gloves, swords, a lot of things. She's very proud of this stuff but she doesn't like hanging around the other Addisons. Not because she dislikes their whole dynamic, but because she's just so focused on making sure everything about her craft is right. Purple - Purple, with the name Adonis, is the second of the new Addisons and uses They/Them pronouns. Further, they're also the second tallest Addison with the third one that I will mention shortly, being the tallest. Adonis very much advertises for various gardening supplies as well as a main flower shop. But they also partially advertise for different horror movies. It's certainly very interesting finding them sometimes. They're completely cool with the main Addisons and their found family dynamic but wanted to make a new group. Adonis and Adrian are actually pretty good friends. Lime - Lime, with the name of Adio, is the third and one of the last new Addisons I've made and uses He/Him pronouns. Of all the Addisons, he is by far the tallest, even taller than the ones that already existed. Adio's advertisements are for an organization that involves research into helping Monsters that have "Fallen Down" and Humans that difficult to treat/presently incurable illnesses residing in their SOULs. He became a close member of the main Addison dynamic while also being good friends with Adonis and a friendly rival with Adrian. He's generally very nice and patient because he understands how hard things can be sometimes. Though...everyone wishes his ads didn't get discontinued. Even if it was for a "rework", they miss him every day. Okay! So those are the three Addisons that I created and wanted to share. But I felt bad that I didn't do it last post. So there's that and I'm glad I've done it. Now onto the next stuff! What is Spamton and Kris' deal in this AU? Well. To put it simply, they become good friends as the story progresses in this AU. To be more detailed about it(and I'm not sure if I've already mentioned this so please forgive me).... Kris encounters Spamton NEO but, before any fight can occur, Spamton's dialogue changes. He says completely new things. KRIS. I NOTICED THAT YOU SEEMED TO [Shake] AND [Tremble] WHILE WAITING FOR ME TO [Transfer] INTO MY [Workout-Ready Body]! Kris says nothing. Spamton NEO then turns and raises both his arms up grabbing and pull on one of his strings. THESE STRINGS. WHY? WHY DO I HAVE THESE [Strings Attached] TO ME? SHOULDN'T I FINALLY HAVE IT, KRIS? MY [Freedom]? WHY AM I STILL JUST A [Puppet] ON THESE [!?$!]ING STRINGS?! WHY IS IT SO DARK? SO....SO DARK....? There's a pause in Spamton NEO's words as his head moves up and down and his arms spin rapidly. Kris begins to tremble more but they seem to be trying to repress their emotions. Eventually, Spamton NEO speaks again. KRIS. THERE IS SOMETHING I NEED TO KNOW. BUT I CAN'T FORCE YOU TO ANSWER. I CAN'T. I WON'T TRY TO FORCE YOU. BUT. He turns around, now facing Kris. He notices their trembling and his head tilts. YOU'RE [Shaking in your boots] KRIS. THEN THAT MAKES MY QUESTION MORE [Important]. His body sways closer to Kris. Kris doesn't move. KRIS. He moves closer. Kris doesn't move, but their trembling worsens. THAT [[SOUL]] YOU HAVE. CALL IT A [Hunch] BUT. HAVE YOU [Lost control of your life]] BECAUSE OF IT? Kris' mouth noticeably moves and they collapse onto the tracks. Then, suddenly, a black box appears with two different choices and The SOUL in the center. And, although faint, Spamton

NEO can see this. He sees The SOUL flickering between these two options. And he also sees Kris' trembling becoming worse. And so he does the first thing that comes to mind. He destroys the box with a single [BIG SHOT]. And as though it were on autopilot....he speaks something that feels natural to him. I WAS TALKING TO KRIS. I DON'T THINK I ASKED [[YOU]] FOR INPUT. BUT. THIS GIVES ME ALL THE ANSWERS I COULD EVER NEED. YOU'RE A [HEART] ON A [CHAIN]. A [PUPPET]. JUST....like....[Me]. Fun fact! Most of this dialogue is based off a dream I had where I was watching from an outsider's perspective. Not from Spamton's POV, not from Kris' not even from The SOUL's. I could see every angle, like I was a camera circling the scene itself. It was incredible. Even the way his voice seemed to echo in the long hall of tracks. Every rustle of clothing from Kris' side of things, to Spamton's occasional creak and groan, to the whooshing his arms made whenever they made a full circle. Even the sounds the wires made sounded so....real. It felt like I was really there. Funny how that works out. There's a lot more to this that I wanna share but I don't want to write a post that takes two days to complete so I'll leave this here.

[snickertoodles]

Megalist of Tropes and Themes to Tag Your Story With

If you’re prone to staring at your tags on AO3 wondering “what the hell do I put here?”, knowing you want to add a tag like “friends to lovers” or “found family” but not remembering all the popular tropes and themes everyone is into, this is for you. I basically spent an entire night on this so I hope it helps.

Notes:

I tried to keep it general and avoid really obscure tags no one would ever use.

This is made for AO3 and thus there’s a lot of fandom or fannish stuff in here. 

I didn’t include any “inappropriate” tags. Feel free to make your own list.

Romance tropes and themes at the bottom. (Not all of them have to be romantic, but if they’re generally associated with romance and there are very few gen fics with that tag, it went there.)

Under cut because I’m probably going to edit this often and I’d like reblogs to be up to date. Please suggest any ideas you have.

Genre: Action, Adventure, Apocalypse/Post-Apocalypse, Contemporary, Comedy/Humor/Parody/Satire, Coming of Age, Crime, Cyberpunk/Steampunk, Drama, Dystopian/Utopia, Fairy Tale, Fantasy/High Fantasy/Low Fantasy/Urban Fantasy/Isekai, Family, Friendship, Gothic, Historical Fiction/Alternate History/Period Piece, Horror/Slasher, Mystery/Murder Mystery, Paranormal, Philosophical, Poetry, Romance, Slice of Life, Supernatural, Surreal, Suspense, Sci-Fi/Science Fiction/Space Opera, Spiritual, Thriller/Psychological Thriller, Tragedy, Urban, Western

Genre (Fandom): Angst/Light Angst, Case Fic, Crack Fic, Crossover/Fusion, Dark Fic, Fix Fic/Fix-It/Deconstruction, Fluff/Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Kid Fic, Podfic, Missing Scene/Gap Filler, Self-Insert, Shipping, Sickfic, Songfic, Whump

Length: Drabble, Ficlet, Flash Fiction, Short Story, Novella, Novel, Epic, One-Shot/Two-Shot/etc, Series/Duology/Trilogy/Saga/etc, Long, Short

Pairing: M/F - F/M - M/M - F/F - F/F/M - You get the idea. Also [Character] x [Character], Slash, Yaoi/Yuri (if people still use those...)

POV: POV Alternating, POV Multiple, POV First Person, POV Second Person, POV Third Person, POV Outsider

Ending: Happy Ending, Sad Ending, Bittersweet Ending, Ambiguous Ending

Diverse Characters: Gay Character/Nonbinary Character/Asian Character/Disabled Character/Autistic Character/Jewish Character/etc.

AU/Alternate Universe: (I do not have the time to list out Coffee Shop AU/High School AU/Canon Divergence/What-If/etc, I assume if you’re writing one then you already know to tag it lol)

Abuse

Adoption

Afterlife

Aftermath

Aged Up

Alcohol

Aliens

Amnesia

Androids

Angels

Animal Transformation

Anti-Hero

Awkwardness

Babysitting

Backstory/Origin Story

Band of Misfits

Best Friends

Betrayal

Blood

Bodyswap

Bodyguard

Bonding

Bounty Hunters

Bromance

Bullying

Canon Compliant

Character Development

Character Study

Childhood Friends

Children

Chosen One

College/University/Higher Education

Corruption

Criminals

Crying

Curses

Cute

Death

Delinquents

Demons

Depression

Destiny/Fate

Disability

Domestic/Curtainfic

Dragons

Dreams/Dreamscape

Drugs

Education

Ensemble Cast

Epilogue

Fanon/Headcanon

Father Figure/Mother Figure

Feelings

Feels

Fights

Flashbacks

Forgiveness

Found Family

Freedom Fighters

Frenemies

Future

Genderswap/Gender Change

Ghosts

Gods

Good Versus Evil

Gore

Grief/Mourning

Growing Up

Healing

Heartwarming

Heroes to Villains/Villains to Heroes

Holidays

Homesickness

Hospital

Hurt

I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping (A very legitimate tag.)

Imprisonment

Injury

Introspection

Illness/Sick Character

Immortality

Isolation

Jealousy

Kidnapping

LGBTQ/LGBTQ Character/LGBTQ Themes

Light-Hearted

Locked In

Loss

Love

Mafia

Magic

Magical Girl(s)

Major Character Death/Minor Character Death

Manipulation

Medieval

Medical

Melancholy

Mental Health Issues

Mentors

Merpeople

Mind Control

Military

Misunderstandings

Modern

Monsters

Morally Grey/Ambiguous Characters

Murder

Mythical Beings & Creatures

Mythology

Neighbors

Next Gen/Next Generation

Nightmares

Original Character/OC/OCs

Orphans/Orphanage

Out of Character/OOC

Parenthood

Past Lives

Peggy Sue

Pen Pals

Pirates

Platonic Relationships/No Romance

Platonic Soulmates

Plot Twists

Politics

Possession

Post-Canon/Pre-Canon/Mid-Canon/Bad Ending/etc.

Prompt Fill/Prompt Fic

Protectiveness

Rags to Riches

Rebels

Recovery

Redemption/Redemption Arc

Regret

Reincarnation/Resurrection/Rebirth

Rejection

Relationships

Religion

Rescue/Rescue Missions

Restaurants

Reunion

Revenge

Revolution

Rivalry

Road Trip

Robots

Roommates

Royalty

Sad

School

Secrets

Secret Identity

Self-Discovery

Self-Harm

Shapeshifting

Siblings

Single Parents

Slow Build

Soft

Spies

Spoilers

Substance Abuse

Suicide

Superheroes

Sweet

Sympathetic Villain

Teamwork

Team as Family

Team Bonding

Team Dynamics

Teenagers

Tension

Time Loop

Time Travel

Training

Trapped

Trauma

Travel

Undercover

Unreliable Narrator

Vampires

Villains

Violence

War

Weapons

Wedding

Wilderness

Witchcraft

Worldbuilding

xxx to Friends (Rivals to Friends/Enemies to Friends/etc.)

Zombies

ROMANCE TROPES

Battle Couple

Blind Date

Breakup

Confessions

Dating

Divorce

Dorks in Love

Drunken Confessions

Established Relationship

Eventual Romance

Falling in Love

Fake Relationship/Fake Dating/Pretend Relationship/Pretend Couple

First Kiss

First Love

Forbidden Love

Heartbreak

Idiots in Love

Long-Distance Relationship

Long-Term Relationship

Love/Hate

Love at First Sight

Love Confessions

Love Potion/Love Spell

Love Triangle

Marriage/Accidental Marriage/Arranged Marriage/Marriage of Convenience

Marriage Proposal

Mutual Pining/Pining

OTP

Pregnancy

Rarepair

Secret Relationship

Sharing a Bed

Slow Burn/Slow Romance

Soulmate/Soulmate AU

Tsundere/all of the other -deres

Unrequited Love/One-Sided Attraction

xxx to Lovers (Enemies to Lovers/Friends to Lovers/etc.)

[couldyouspeakmyname]

OK I HAVE A BEASTARS OC AND I AM GOING TO TELL YOU ABOUT IT: (you don’t have to answer if you don’t feel like it, kind of just dumping information for myself and maybe you to share with other people /gen )

(Template made by Mandy on Amino, go check them out :) )

Also, I tried to make this so that there was other canon character, but I realized that I had so many oc’s I might as well make a new kind of universe following the beastars world-building stuff

So basically a fancy furry world but the world-building is based on Beastars

I apologize in advance for the spelling (I didn’t check/edit this :p) and also the long form (I like details lol)

BASIC INFORMATION

Full name: Cecelia Aksha Brown

Pronunciation: Cecelia (s-E-s-e-l-E-a) Aksha (pronounced how it’s spelled) Brown (B-r-ow-n)

Nickname(s) or Alias: Blind One (Given by Doctor Cato, her doctor), Lead vocalist of Athaza (Given by fans), Cece (Given by Naomi, a friend), Dead Legs (Given by Emily, the lead vocalist in the rival band)

Band Name: Athaza

Reason for band name: Cece originally wanted to name her band based off of a phobia she had, so she searched up her greatest fear (the fear of being forgetting, being forgotten, ignored, and/or replaced) and found out that the world was Athazagoraphobia. And that was like a really, really long word (both for her and me, the author, to write down) so she chose to shorten it to Athaza.

Gender: female

Species: Black Tiger

Age: 28

Birthday: September 1st

Sexuality: pansexual, poly, asexual

Religion: Atheist

City or town of birth: Belgum

Currently lives: Belgum (although she hardly even goes home, with her work being on the move and all, it is hard for her to get a break and relax in her own home.)

Languages spoken: Japanese

Native language: English

Relationship Status: single and happy about it (she doesn’t have time for a relationship when she is always on the move, and with her job, she just won’t have time to take care of someone else when she can barely take care of herself)

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE

Height: body length is 4’5, shoulder height is 31 inches, tail length is 24 inches

Weight: 220

Figure/build: she is very small and tiny for a tiger (being the smallest measurements that a tiger can be at). Her eyes tend to be more rounded and bigger then most tiger’s.

Hair color: she dyed her hair a split dye, half a dark and almost dusty blue and the other half black (left half dusty blue and right half black)

Hairstyle: ummm, idk how to describe it but like the Levi styled hair

Facial Hairstyle: N/A

Eye color: electric blue

Skin/fur/etc color: she has a white base color with black stripes, ears, shape on chest that looks like a broken heart, and tail-tip

Tattoos: she has the words “heaven“ written on her knee, and a tongue piercing of a pentagram

Piercings: double piercings and a tongue piecing in the middle of the pentagram

Scars/distinguishing marks: she has a long light pink scar running up the left side of her leg (and she still can’t walk that good on her last leg, causing her to limp), and her right eye has a long scar running down it and she is blinded on that side

Preferred style of clothing: alternative

Frequently worn jewellery/accessories: lots of silver rings

HEALTH

Smoker?Drinker?Recreational Drug User? Which?Addictions: N/A (she doesn’t have any addictions, although she might drink from time-to-time. She doesn’t mind other people doing those things around her)

Allergies: pollen

Any physical ailments/illnesses/disabilities: she can never walk on her left leg again and she is half blind in her right eye

Any medication regularly taken: N/A

PERSONALITY

Personality: funny, smart, protective, loyal, patient, clumsy, fearful, childish, disorganized, and forgetful

Likes: flowers, bee’s, singing, and playing Instruments

Dislikes: arguments, spoiled brats, discrimination (as she should), and sour foods (she has a sweet tooth)

Fears/phobias: Athazagoraphobia

Favorite color: gray, black, dark purple, brown

Hobbies: singing to music, listening to music, picking flowers

Taste in music: she is the lead vocalist to a scream rock band, however, she likes listening folk music more

SKILLS

Talents/skills: she can sing well and learn instruments quickly

Ability to drive a car? Operate any other vehicles?: she can drive a care and that is pretty much it (although she doesn’t usually need to drive a car since her band is on tour 99% of the time and they have a driver to take them places)

EATING HABITS

Omnivore/Carnivore/Herbivore (Vegetarian): carnivore

Favourite food(s): steak

Favorite drink(s): Monster Energy and coffee

Disliked food(s): insects

Disliked drink(s): tea

HOUSE AND HOME

Describe the character's house/home: she has a pretty large home, the house is hidden deep in the forest and is mostly covered by the tree’s.

Do they share their home with anyone? Who?: She shares the house with he rest of her band

Significant/special belongings: a picture of her parents

CAREER

Level of education: high

Qualifications: singer

Current job title and description: lead vocalist in band

COMBAT

Peaceful or aggressive attitude?: peaceful, she hates getting into fights with people

Fighting skills/techniques: she has her claws and her teeth (also carries a taser, just in case,)

Special skills/magical powers/etc: N/A

Weapon of choice (if any): taser

Weaknesses in combat: she is very slow and not skilled in combat

Strengths in combat: she is impulsive and that usually benefits her

FAMILY, FRIENDS AND FOES

Parents names: Chanda (Mother), Sarendar (Father)

Are parents alive or dead?: dead (died by some unknown prisoners killing them in jail)

Partner/Spouse: N/A

Children: she can barely take care of herself, what makes you think she can take care of a living, breathing, child that does nothing but cry?

Best Friend: Galen (best friend, convinced her to start the band, drum player in band), Naomi (enemies turned friends, joined the band shortly after it formed, lead guitarist)

Other Important Friends: Khalo (band member, back up vocalist), Futun (band member, second drum player), Bilwa (band member, any other position that needs to be filled in),

Acquaintances: Davi (driver for the band), Doctor Cato (his doctor for years)

Pets: Root (a yellow tabby cat)

Enemies?: Emily

Why are they enemies?: they are in rival band‘s, and also Emily makes fun of Cece for being half blind and having a limp

BACKSTORY

Describe their childhood (newborn - age 10):

She had a normal childhood (as normal as a main character’s childhood can get that is). Her parents nearly forced her to join their religion but Cece refused. Soon they argued almost every day, some days is was about grades, some days it was about religion, while others it was about her sexuality.

Describe their  teenage years (11 - 19):

The arguments got so bad that she couldn’t bare it any longer, the moment she turned eighteen she ran away from her parents house and went to her friends house (Galen). Soon the two of them formed a band.

Describe their adult:

Once the band got kind of popular, she was living her best life. So she chose to forgive her parents for what they did to her. She went over to their house for Thanksgiving, her parents asked if she could spend the night. Cede was happy to (seeing how she didn’t see her parents in so many years). While Cece was sleeping her Mother got some water and boiled it, adding some sugar and waitI got 15 minutes for it to cook. Once it was done, her Mother poured the boiling water on her own daughter. Cece screamed from the pain, once her Father heard her screams he rushed into her room and called 911. Cece was admitted into the hospital with burns across her legs, arms, and face. The sugar made the burns extra hard to get off and Cece spent multiple weeks in the hospital. Her Father was found guilty of letting her Mother attempt to murder Cece and Cece’s Mother was found guilty of attempting to kill her own daughter. They both got time in jail together, in the jail cell every prison found out what they did and some unknown prisoners beat up Cece’s mother and Father. Cece was left with a blinded eyes and a leg that was doomed to never work the rest of her life

That sounds fun!! I'm assuming it's kind of an AU then?

Also, it's a real shame more characters in Beastars don't dye their fur. It could be fun, but then again...it'd be difficult?

-Maeve

[techouspeaks]

Healin Good Precure Final Verdict and thoughts on Tropical Rouge Precure!

First off, sorry I haven’t been around that much to even talk about Healin Good. First, I just kinda lost interest in doing reviews for a while and then some personal snit just had to be thrown in when I really wanted to discuss somethings. So this review is kinda gonna be slightly unorganized but I’ll do my best and I’m really sorry about Precuruary again not being this year. This past year has been whoo! Just yeah...Anyway! I will try to be more active when I can be but I can’t make any promises right now. So onto the review! 

I know every year I’ve said that each precure seems a little better than the previous ones in some aspects. Like for example, Star Twinkle I felt was a little better than Hugtto in terms of overall enjoyment and characters, but it lacked developing the plot and the lackluster in the personality of the princesses. They could have had each princess have the certain traits expected from their signs such as Virgo being a perfectionist and Aries being hot tempered. 

Than again, maybe it’s cause I just think anything is better than Kira Kira! lol! I know I get a little harsh with that series. Given the other series that came before and after, can you blame me? There are better series than that. (In my opinion, anyway.)

Healin Good, I can definitely say this was a good ride for both plot, character, music and animation! Yes, the designs for the cures were a little lack luster and I still can’t help but get Cure Flora vibes from Grace, but eventually, I got used to it. In fact, while I know it was the anniversary of Yes Precure 5 Go Go!, I almost felt like they should have just made that into a separate movie and have Healin Good meet Go Princess since the cures there have a lot in common!

But of course being their own thing. They’re not copies of the GoPre girls, but they share definitely some things in common such as Cure Grace and Cure Flora’s flower theme, Cure Sparkle and Cure Twinkles love for fashion and star themes and Cure Fountain and Cure Mermaid for the water themes.

In terms of plot, it wasn’t like the most amazing plot ever, but it was decent and coherent. It was a serviceable plot that did the bare minimum and not be too crazy and outlandish and the morals at least made more sense unlike Twinkle. There was no getting grumpy dog people to learn to smile and be happy. 

Yes, the one thing that doesn’t make sense is how Cure Earth came to be and I will admit she as well as Fountain are the least interesting girls. I know people love Fountain/Chiyu! For me, blue cures have interesting stories but a personality that doesn’t fit it. They’re okay but I always feel like they’re just the cool kid that’s typically the responsible role model and nothing more, with the exception of Cure Marine and Cure Beauty, the later fits that role but she also has a bit more to her in terms of personality. The backstory for Fountain/Chiyu doesn’t make sense either. She sees the horizon line between the ocean and the sky and wants to jump that high. Then at first she’s just sees high jump as fun, which annoys a rival of hers and thus she’s pressured to like it more than just a school thing. It’s weird and almost complicated...

Cure Earth/Asumi is sorta a motherly kind of character since she’s in her 20s in appearance, but still a fish out of water. I’m glad they didn’t make her a teen so she had to go to school with the girls and she’s like the first adult main cure (Like I get Cure Flower, ancient cures and the Hugtto Cures, but I’m talking as in the main team member and not a side character type thing.) Which is nice, it shows that yes adults can be heroes. I mean we had adult superheroes all the time and the teen was just the less experienced side kick. 

As for personality, she’s a bit of a blank slate but I love her design! I know Green Cure and all wah, but hate to say it, the more people complain that there isn’t a green cure in every season, the more I’m kinda glad cause people get sooo uptight like they’re whitewashing a character or something. Like stop! It’s just a team color for Pete’s sake! Like even if they did her as a green cure, she’s kind of bland in personality so would you be happy with a green cure that’s sorta the blank slate?

I’m not saying she’s bad. She can be funny and it can be enjoying to watch her understand feelings and things since while an adult physically, she was basically born out of a whim and only knows how to talk and understand the basis of the Healing Garden as well as Princess Latte and Queen Teatinu. Shoot, she couldn’t even eat on her own.

My two favorite characters by far have to be Nodoka aka Cure Grace and Hinata aka Cure Sparkle. Hinata is just a fun character. She’s emotional, got a go getter attitude and I like the fact she’s into fashion but isn’t over the top annoying or particularly snobby, kinda like Cure Twinkle but different that Cure Twinkle has more of a professional attitude and higher skills, while Cure Sparkle is a bit clumsy and overly excited about everything. She has insecurities and flaws but thanks to Nodoka and Nyantoran, she gets over these rather quickly.

As for Nodoka, I know people are disappointed that her illness turned out nothing more than Daruzen, I don’t blame them for going this route. Yes, it kinda gives an unrealistic impression that the disease just simply needs to jump out of someone and they’ll be okay. I can’t help but think it might have backfired especially given the time since we had the you know what virus. So many kids were watching their families get destroyed and while, yes, it would be good to teach kids to stay strong and fight through it and that it takes time for people to recover fully, it could also be too overbearing for them as well if they happen to have a loved one who is sick or they themselves and are just constantly reminded of the suffering.

Put it short, there’s kind of no best way around it. You can either do it this way and there might be some kids that think well the virus can just jump out or do it the other way and risk kids getting depressed and anxious, which would be bad as depression and anxiety in kids has risen a lot since 2020. For me, I think kids are smarter than we give them credit. They are gonna be aware that stuff in cartoons/anime works differently than in the real world, so I feel like the route they took was better. It was already risky having the main character be sick and being put in the hospital to begin with.

With that being said, Nodoka is a good character for more reasons than her being sick and fighting an illness. She wants to be supportive because she needed support. Just because her illness turned out to be some alien germ from another dimension, doesn’t make her desire to help any less meaningful. She did suffer a lot, fought through pain and suffering through an unknown amount of time. Just cause she healed miraculously doesn’t make her suffering not real and her inspiration and influence on others less so.

Bottom line, it doesn’t matter how she healed, she still suffered, got inspire by those who helped her and thus inspired those to work hard on getting better. The message is still there.

But there is another thing that makes her special and that is when Nodoka told Daruzen off! That alone was the most inspiring thing ever done in a Precure series in a LONG time! It’s not just her standing up to a bully. She stood up to her abuser! And yes, I do like Daruzen and at first I thought they would be a cute couple, but I will admit when Daruzen took things too far and as someone that’s been sexually harassed and known people who were forced on, I can’t push forward with the ship or Daruzen for that matter. 

When Daruzen needed help, Nodoka pushed him away and then he outright made her feel bad about it. “I thought you were about helping others.” This is a tactic used by abusers, taking advantage of the kindness their victim usually has and congrats to Rabirin for being the best partner to a Precure. 

Nodoka holds no responsibility for Daruzen. He used her thus abused her, he caused so much pain not only onto her but to those around her. Put it short, Nodoka doesn’t owe Daruzen anything! That to me is one of the most important lessons to teach anyone especially young kids. It’s good to teach others to be kind and forgive folks, but if you don’t want to than don’t especially if they have done nothing but hurt you. Your health including mental health comes first above all else. It’s not selfish especially if the one needing help was selfish first and didn’t think about you in the long run.

So as much as I think that Daruzen X Nodoka could have been cute, I can’t help but applaud Toei for going this route instead. Especially these days, I feel it’s really important teach kids that it’s okay to think of what’s best for you, including putting a limit on helping people and setting boundaries. I’ve known even family members and friends that were in this situation where they had to stop helping someone, because that person took advantage of them and they had to put their foot down, cause they had to finally think of their own health and well being. It’s not selfish. It’s important to take care of yourself first!

Speaking of mascots, all the mascots are useful including Latte, which is the main mascot that is in peril the most since the villains make her sick. However, she is far from a passive pup as some people pass her off as. She does know when to put her paw down and even in the midst of her suffering, she does try when she can to help. Even go as far as refusing Nodoka’s care until she and Rabirin settle their differences to work together. She also has the ability to sense when the earth needs help and is the only animal that can do this. She also refuses Cure Earth’s/Asumi’s overly servitude towards her, showing she knows when to speak out about her own well being. True Latte doesn’t get too much to shine but when she does it’s rather welcomed.

Normally with mascots, I don’t care for them since they tend to be typically one note. The mascots for Healin Good are all memorable with their own personality  and they grow along side their respected cures. The only mascots I know that grew a lot was Yes! Precure 5/Go! Go’s Coco, Nuts and Milky, Go Princess Precure’s Aroma and Puffu. Mofurun only showed much growth in the movie where they became a cure. Though Mofurun is still more useful than the mascots in Kira Kira. (Yes, I will always take the opportunity to slam on that series!)

Speaking of Kira Kira...Oh boy. Well I was a little excited to finally have an ocean themed precure series with a mermaid, my excitement kinda dropped when I noticed the transformation compact and transformation. I’m gonna go a head and review the first episode since I watched it. 

I’ll first start off the with positives and move on to what I wouldn’t say are horrible things, but more so my overall concerns with it.

First, like others, I’m glad we got a lead cure that isn’t pink for once. This is a first since Splash Star Precure, whom I don’t think Cure Bloom counts. I mean in the first season, she kinda is pink, but then when she becomes Cure Bright her colors change so I kinda count her as being mix color, while Cure Dream was the first official Pink Cure.

I also like that while Manatsu/Cure Summmer is another happy go lucky type, she does have a bit more zest and isn’t the overall cutesy happy go lucky cures we’ve come to know. She’s different from Cure Star and Cure Yell, in which she’s happy go lucky in a more of a hot headed sense, than the cute, been bullied but still brave kid which was Cure Star and Yell.

Manatsu/Summer reminds me of Lina Inverse from Slayers and other similar red head characters from that era, which makes sense she is a red head. (Least Manatsu is).

The transformation and battle scenes are better too. I was worried that because the pact and start of the transformation looked so similar to Kira Kira, I was worried it would be exactly the same but it’s different enough it seems. My only gripe is that maybe Cure Summer’s final pose at the end for her transformation sequence could have been a bit more dramatic. Her pose look lack luster compared to the rest of her transformation.

The animation in Cure Summer’s attack is amazing but the 3D part of is a little distracting somewhat. I feel like the sun could have been done in 2D. Other than that, animation is gorgeous! Bright and colorful with nice detailing within the characters and background.

I also can’t help adore Cure Coral/Sango’s design and character. She hasn’t appeared that much, but already I kinda already adore her! She’s so precious and I can tell she’s already gonna be a fan favorite among many! I also like how she seems sweet and quiet but isn’t shy either. She’s rather just down to earth, just doing her own thing but still being polite. Refreshing take especially on a purple cure!

Now onto my issues with it. Starting with a bit too many similarities to Kira Kira such as the transformation pact and the overly energetic, silly theme. I don’t mind silly when it’s balanced out right. For me, it’s a bit too crazy and kinda the issue I had with Cure Princess and sometimes Cure Marine. I get that it’s about motivation VS procrastination. I hope they work it out to teach kids there’s an importance of both. Just teach that you need a bit of balance. Right now, it’s just not. Manatsu kinda gets on my nerves a little bit and then you have Laura...

I kinda have mix feelings about Laura. On one hand, I do relate to her. She’s a little vain and I like the fact that despite being a main character, she’s actually quite selfish! Her whole desire to do this mission is out of hope that she’ll be the next Queen, which apparently, the current Queen isn’t her mom I guess, but she’s chosen to be in line and she seems to want to be Queen simply for the selfish reason to be praised and adored, not cause she wants to help her people. I like this for the fact that it makes her far different from Cure Milky/Lala, whom many have said she was probably a little too responsible for her age, but I digress, Lala/Cure Milky is one of my favorite cures. 

What I’m concern is the fact that Laura will outshine the cures and take over the spotlight especially when she becomes a Cure. There’s no denying this will happen especially since it’s been confirmed the Midseason Cure is called Cure Le Mer, which is her last name. She seems to already outshine the mascot for the series Kururun, who is the first mascot to not meet the lead cure in the first episode because the poor thing barely gets any screen time!

I noticed this especially when the products for the series came out that Kururun is barely in any of the merchandise. I guess after focusing so much on the mascots for three seasons, having at least one be the token mascot to save all humanity, they decided “Eh, lets just make a mermaid the star seller and just have the mascot be squeezed in for those who want a stuffed animal.”

I get that the Midseason cures tend to take over the spotlight anyway, but I don’t always agree. Cure Scarlet and Cure Earth kinda grew along side the other cures. Taking time for both them and another Cure or character to shine as well. With Laura, because she’s already part of the group, hopefully won’t  outshine  the cures, but being how much they merchandise and show her off, it’s looking a bit bleak for anyone who isn’t Manatsu/Cure Summer when Cure Le Mer takes the stage.

I also fear since the series was announce that Asuka/Cure Flamingo maybe too much like Cure Chocolate given how her design is similar. I love her design, her’s is my favorite design of the bunch, but you can’t deny she looks like Cure Chocolate with longer hair. I hope they give her and the other cures more personality and growth especially before Laura becomes a cure.

Other than those gripes, I don’t hate it and do like some things about it. Maybe I’m just used Healin Good’s more relaxed theme that I’m kinda skeptical for this more wild, eccentric series. Maybe it will grow on me in time. Hoping it does since as said, been wanting an ocean themed Precure series with mermaids in it for a looong time!

Without further a due, I give Healin Good Precure 8 out of 10 stars. Won’t rate Tropical Rouge Precure until the end of the season. Seeya in the next review!

8 Stars Level: “Great!”

[flying-elliska]

What are the important bisexual characters that you said helped you? I am having a hard time finding good bi representation in which they aren’t considered promiscuous or unstable

Hiya anon ! What a quality question, thank you ! Here’s another mini essay about bi rep lmao.  If there are some that I forgot please tell me ! And to everyone, tell me about the bi characters who made an impact on your life, I’d love to know !!!!

Okay so.

-  When I answered the anon and talked about the characters that helped me come to terms with my sexuality, I talked about two in particular. Jack Harkness from Torchwood is depicted as very promiscuous, and somewhat instable. He still meant a lot to me because a) him sleeping around was never that much of a problem, it was because he was from the future, where things were different, which I thought was refreshing and b) his instability was because of the weight of being an immortal hero. Also fanon!Dean Winchester from SPN, as an older, more macho, emotionally witholding, badass dude written as bi meant a lot to me, but he doesn’t really avoid that stereotype either. But at least they were heroes.  However, I can understand wanting bi characters that actually don’t fit that stereotype, because bi people irl aren’t all like that, even if there is nothing wrong per se about sleeping with a lot of different people, or having mental issues to struggle with. And that was a while ago and now we have more and more cool characters ! Such as :

- Rosa Diaz from Brooklyn Nine-Nine. One of the best portrayals of bisexuality on TV imho. She didn’t start out as bi, she was this tough, cool, scary but with a heart of gold cop who had a lot of other plotlines before. But then, since they saw that a lot of wlw got this vibe from her, were really into her, and the actress came out as bi herself, they decided to use this. So it was super organic, and the way they introduced the subject was true to Rosa herself ; she’s a super private person, she doesn’t like anybody knowing about her life (it’s actually a running joke and Rosa Diaz has been implied to not even be her real name). But then she is dating a woman, and struggles with her parents not understanding and her coworkers find out, help her and support her. Her gay captain is there for her in his typical stoic but hilarious way. They organize game night with her when her parents won’t anymore. We see her crushing on women and dating, but it is treated exactly as the other character’s love life, they never make a big deal out of it. She isn’t the token queer character. She says outright she is bisexual and there is a specific point about her mom not understanding it’s not a phase and thinking she’ll end up with a man anyway, which #relatable. The focus is on the team as found family. Also right now she’s dating a butch woman, which is awesome since they are so underrepresented on TV and I hope we see more of her. That show really is my comfort show, it’s still bloodly hilarious and it really transcends the format to say some really deep woke stuff too, but never in a way that feels on the nose. Everyone should watch it tbh. 

- Korrasami ! Oh my god, I was so blown away when they got together. They’re two characters from the animated series Legend of Korra, they start out as rivals in love who have feelings for the same guy, but as they have to fight baddies together, they become bestest of friends, and both fall out of love with the guy. Then in season 3 and 4, their relationship becomes central to the show, as Asami stands by Korra through some really tough shit. Also, they’re both ultra badass and fight really well together. A lot of fans started reading their chemistry as romantic, but we’d never thought they’d actually go there. But the show ends with them walking into the ‘sunset’ (well, the spirit lands) together, holding hands. Now, it was never completely explicit on the show BUT they were dealing with a lot of censure from the networks and you have to be willingly obtuse not to read it as romantic. And after that the creators drew them on dates, and there is a comic series in which they are shown kissing, talking about their feelings, introducing each other to their families, etc. It made me feel so validated when it happened, and I just adore the whole ‘love triangle ditches the middle one and fall in gay love with each other’ trope. (is it a trope yet ? it should be.) It’s still a kids show at its core, but it has amazing depth and deals with some very deep shit. Korra starts off as a bit annoying but she has a really cool development, she’s a girl character we need more of - brave, dynamic but also brash and reckless and action driven in ways that are almost always exclusively shown for boys. And Asami is a more typical girly girl but she’s also a brilliant engineer and has a spine of steel and she’s also very slyly funny. They’re amazing. And the comics are super cute. 

- Now there are a lot of characters who are bi/pan that I love, and are good characters in themselves, but their arcs do intersect in some ways with promiscuity and mental instability. I’m thinking about Even from Skam and all his remake variants, Magnus Bane from Shadowhunters, several characters from Black Sails, Sarah Lance and Constantine from Legends of Tomorrow, Eleanor Shellstrop from the Good Place, Bo from Lost Girl, Ilana from Broad City, Joe McMillan from Halt and Catch Fire, God/Chuck from Supernatural (lmaooooo), several characters on Penny Dreadful, or in a totally different category, Vilanelle from Killing Eve or Hannibal from the series (who are hella bad guys but it’s never linked to their sexuality, and are also incredibly compelling to watch.)

 And even though these characters taken individually, I would argue, are good rep because they’re complex and layered and interesting and never one-dimensional (and watching them feels incredibly empowering at times)....it’s still a trend. I feel like when writing a character that is attracted to multiple genders, there is always this sort of...tangle of tropes that writers default to, unconsciously. Some negative and some positive. It used to be this trope of bis being villainous, instable, jealous, flaky, immature, perverted, manipulative, cheaters, amoral, greey, etc...and then it evolved into something of a reclaiming and subverting this trope. So now you feel like the Bi Character kind of has to be badass, glamorous, seductive, often superpowered or extraordinary in other ways.. And they also for multiple reasons (they’re immortal, they’re sensitive artist souls, they’re from the future, they’re psycho, they’re exccentric comic relief, they’re daring adventurers and pioneers) don’t care about social norms which allows them to sleep and fall in love with whomever. And so they tend to have those super busy romantic/sexual histories and very troubled backstories. In the past it was a bad thing, now it’s often presented as this positive, enlightened or at least fun and badass thing. They’re heroic, with big hearts, a tremendous lust for life and a cool rebellious attitude. They’re complex, dramatic, tortured. Which can be super cool, too. 

But it would be nice to have more ‘normal’ bi characters. I mean, boring bisexuals need to see themselves represented too ! Our sexualities don’t give us super powers. At the same time, it is true that bisexual ppl have higher rates of mental illness, which deserves to be explored, but it would be nice if it was actually articulated and not just part of this trope.  But still. We need rep, I think, that is more grounded and varied. So I think that’s also why I read a lot of fanfic. (I was really into the idea of bi Steve Rogers for a long time, partly also because he’s both very mentally resilient, kinda boring in a good way, and very unexperienced in terms of sex/romance, which is pretty much the opposite of the trope)

- I think books, and YA in general, are a good place to find these ‘normal bis’ characters. I’m thinking in particular of Leah from Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli (from the same book series that gave us the ‘Love, Simon’ movie) which is a super sweet coming of age/romance story about a super normal teenager who just happens to be also into girls (esp her best friend) and is loud and funny and very lovable and has zero doubts about being bi. You also have Adam Parrish from the Raven Cycle, another one of my forever faves ; he has an abusive family so PTSD from that but it never feels tropey, and it’s completely detached from his sexuality. He has magic powers, too. But his character feels completely opposite to the trope. He’s hardworking, somewhat withholding, prickly (and sometimes awkward), ambitious, determined, down to earth, and has a beautiful love story with another boy. And also Jane, from Jane Unlimited by Kristin Cashore, also really cool ; she’s a nerdy, smart girl who is actually inspired by Jane Eyre who has cool adventures in a weird house where we can follow her on different paths depending on the choices she makes, several of which are love stories. And finally the main character from The Seven Husbands from Evelyn Hugo, kinda fits the trope yeahhh since she’s a super glam actress who well, has seven husbands but it’s a pretty clever deconstruction since it turns out (slight spoilers) that Evelyn is actually through most of her life faithful in heart to the same person and the rest is mostly out of necessity, and her story feels very real and raw and down to earth. 

- I don’t go there yet but I really want to check out Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Schitt’s Creek which I have read have very good bi rep. And I want to catch up on Orphan Black (Cosima and Delphine both don’t have exact labels but they’re multi-gender attracted and they’re this cool couple of scientists in a relationship that gets a happy ending). I will never forgive what they did to Lexa so I stopped watching but I do think that Clarke Griffin from The 100 is very good bi rep. Alexia from Skam France, meanwhile, is a bit of a boundary case for me because, even though she’s presented as the ‘weird one’ from the group, very colorful and liberated and exccentric, she’s still a very normal teen who’s happy and comfortable in her own skin, which is awesome. 

- Disclaimer, I included characters in here that are also pan/omnisexual or don’t have a label but are attracted to several genders, for the purpose of this discussion i don’t think the difference is all that relevant at least to me (i mostly identify as bi for the sake of simplicity but tbh i could also fit under pan so i feel represented by all those characters). But I understand the importance of characters that state their identities more clearly and with pride. 

- So in conclusion : there is nothing wrong with having a sexually active life or struggling mentally (even tho that one is not fun). And I do love all my badass casanova time travelling super powered bis. 

But we need more bi characters that don’t fit that trope. We need bi characters in children’s shows, or that don’t have more than one relationship, or that don’t have a relationship at all, to break the tendency to always show bisexual ppl as overly sexual. We need bi characters in committed relationships to break this idea that bi characters are bound to cheat or can’t be satisified with only one person. We need bi characters that are mentally stable and successful and happy, to show that it’s possible. We need bi characters that are boring, bookish, nerdy, ordinary, clumsy, not particularly seductive, socially awkward, rule-sticklers, etc...to show that bi people are not all party animals, or doing it for attention, or to be wild, rebellious and socially progressive. It’s just a sexuality, it doesn’t say anything about your personality. Even though there are some correlations with MI or being bi might bring you in contact with more progressive ideas and to see life a bit differently, there is nothing automatic about it. 

- In conclusion, reading testimonies from real people also helped me a lot. It’s a very dated but I got the book “ Bi Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out “ when I was struggling with my own sexuality and it helped a lot, to read that even back then (1991) you had all sorts of regular ppl claiming to be bi and that it was not a phase or a fad or whatever. 

[dndeviants]

Madame Eva’s prophecy

Aric and Jeeves made their way into the Blue Water Inn close to the center of town. They entered the Inn... it was empty except for Ruki, who was sitting at a table casually sipping wine, waiting for them it seemed. Aric looked at her. Her demeanor gave no clues as to how long she was waiting. He and Jeeves were about to settle in when Vasili, Linda, Ismark, and Ireena entered in discussing the upcoming Wolf’s Head Festival... which Vasili admitted knowing nothing of, despite him being a native of this place and having residence in Vallaki...

"It must be something the burgomaster is throwing together,” Vasili conjectured, “He is allowed to do that, but I agree... mandatory festivals are... odd."

“Jeeves and I thought the same thing when we arrived,” Aric agreed, “Since we are all gathered, while we were with the Vistani, we were approached by a Madame Eva; she has requested all of us go and speak with her soon. I suggest we go before we leave the town.”

Ismark and Ireena looked to each other with a puzzled expression. Vasili betrayed no emotion at the mention of Madame Eva.

“Madame Eva?” Linda questioned.

"The Vistani's leader?" Ireena asked.

Vasili sighed, "What is it n- Whatever for?"

“It seems she... or rather the cards want to speak to us to help us on our journey here and hopefully return home,” Aric looked to Vasili, puzzled, “You seem bothered by this request Lord Holtz?”

"Forgive me, but I have my own... superstitions,” Vasili folded his arms, “I've had my fortunes read before, and no good of it has come... no ill either, but certainly no good. But perhaps this time will be different, no?"

“Perhaps... should we go ahead and go see this Madame Eva?” Linda turned to the rest of them.

Aric held up a hand, “She said she wished to rest, but she also said to let her know when we all arrived...” he shrugged, “Perhaps we should go now.”

"I agree,” Vasili nodded curtly, “The sooner we get this over, the better."

Ismark gestured to the bar, "I think I will stay in the Inn for a bit. Carriage ride was a bit much."

Ireena curiously began to walk around in the common room, "Do you think we could walk around Vallaki? I'm so excited to explore this new place!"

Ismark sat at the bar, and made a dismissive gesture, "Sure, after a quick drink..."

Jeeves stood, and clasped his hands, "Alright. I believe I remember the way to the encampment."

Linda nodded at him, "I'll follow your lead then."

Jeeves rose from the table and helped Aric up. He lead everyone outside of the town, passing the people with plastered grins placing decorations across the buildings. They made it outside and followed the dirt trail to the encampment. Young Vistani children giggle at their arrival and run past the group into the woods, talking of playing games of hide and seek around the guards... despite their people being banned from the town. The adults work on their chores and converse in their own tongue as they examine goods.

To most of the party, the goods do not seem out of the ordinary... but Linda spotted various charms that warded against undead, holy symbols of various faiths, charms against detection...

Some very powerful stuff on the table, she thought. As a monster hunter, she grew to know a few of them herself.

Madame Eva hobbled out from a colorful wagon and raised her cane in acknowledgement to the party, "Very good to see you again, young Pasha... Greetings, Lord Holtz. It is good to see you as well..."

She turned her gaze to Linda, her eyes twinkling, "Ah, and miss Sharaden, all grown up... Tacklemeyer now, right? You look better than before..."

Linda was puzzled that the woman knew her birth name- and even more puzzled that she was so... familiar. 

"Before?" Linda questioned.

The old woman smiled knowingly, "Oh, think nothing of it. It means almost nothing now..."

Madame Eva turned to a tent, "I have the cards set up in here. Let me fix you tea. We can have a nice chat. And I know better than to fix you anything, Vasili. Come, come..."

Madame Eva hobbled on her cane into the tent. Linda raised a brow before following, everyone else falling in behind her.

As they entered the tent, they found it to be cozy, but cluttered. Various tomes and books are piled on the ground, on top of ornate rugs and overstuffed pillows... Aric wrinkled his nose as the smell of herbs assaulted his senses in a way it failed to earlier... He could smell lavender, rosemary, calendula, belladonna, wolfsbane... 

Wolfsbane... it unsettled his stomach. He figured it had to do with his oncoming curse, but managed to ground himself and ignore the scent... but was still wary of its presence.

Madame Eva sat at the table, splaying out cards with macabre designs. She took a tea kettle in hand and began to pour cups for all gathered, save Vasili. Everyone sat at the table.

She handed out the cups, “You all are here for a purpose. Each of you have a quest, a mystery of your own to solve. Betrayal, kidnappings... murder... the past, the present, the future... Foul beings afoot, and old enemies giving rise to the new... the stability of Barovia... and maybe even your own world may depend on your actions here."

Linda sniffed the tea. Sweet and black. She looked up to the old woman, "So why did you want us all here?"

"Because you are the future, children..." the old woman’s blue eyes glinted. She gestured to Aric and Jeeves, "Here, we have a young Pasha, fire in his soul, and justice in his heart... set against his rival, a man of greed and self-righteousness... both of them desire to be King... but only one may rule... What happens in this land will shape that."

Madame Eva pointed at Linda, "You too may also rule... reclaim a throne to which you belong, and perhaps you will find the answers you seek here, and return a boy to his family."

She gestured to Ruki,  "And she is the future of our people. All of you here, are rulers in your own right... even Vasili,” the old woman cackled.

Linda quirked an eyebrow and looked to Vasili, “I don’t really see Vasili and I being rulers...”

 "Agreed,” Vasili said hastily, “I don't think I am well suited for that anymore."

The old woman continued her cackle, "Disagree all you like. Despite what I See, the future is ultimately in your hands. All I am is a guide..." She took her cards in hand,  "Now, children... are we ready?"

Madame Eva waited for them to give her their approval before drawing the first card... the Tax Collector. 

 “This card tells of history, knowledge of the ancient will help you better understand your enemy... The Vistani have what you seek. A missing child is the key to its release... But this is only the first of many… Only after the child is saved, will your allies help you to complete the ancient puzzle.”

She laid down the card for all to see, then drew another, “This card tells of a powerful force for good and protection, a holy symbol of great hope...” She laid down the Philanthropist. “Look for a giving man, one who follows the teachings of the Sun. Coming to his aid will give you what you seek...” 

She continued her prophetic reading,  "This is a card of power and strength. It tells of a weapon of vengeance: a sword of sunlight..." The card that was drawn was the Warrior. "Look for the warrior’s tribute… an abandoned shrine touched by sun has the artifact you seek."

"This card sheds light on the one who will help you defeat your enemy…" Madame Eva revealed the Beast, "A werewolf harbors a secret grudge against your enemy, find her and use her hate to your advantage."

"Your enemy is a creature of darkness, a being beyond mortality...” She shuffled her deck, “This card will lead you to him!" She laid down the final card: the Artifact. She tapped her finger on the macabre skull in a cloche, "He lurks in the darkness where morning light once shone, a sacred place…"

Madame Eva examined all the cards, then nodded to herself, "That is what the cards wish to tell to you, these things bind you together... but if you have questions about your own endeavors... I may answer those as well," she began to pull the cards back into the deck.

 "I have questions,” said Linda, “How does all this, relate to me trying to find Timothy?"

The old woman shuffled her cards. Executioner was drawn. "The boy's life is in peril... held hostage by the very same enemies you all are working against..."

"I see...” Linda thought about the other reading, “So to rescue him we have to follow what the cards said.... Is there any other things I should focus on here other than finding Timothy? Do I keep researching this place?"

The Bishop appeared. "You have to be methodical...” Eva explained, “Search for clues, and discover the truth... Truth will appear to you in the dark of the once holy... In Krezk."

"There's Krezk again..." Linda mused.

Madame Eva shuffled her cards, "Are there any more questions?"

"What do you think of Strahd?" Linda blurted.

“Yes, is he someone to be trusted?” Aric jumped in.

Madame Eva cackled and shrugged, "Well, he has been good to the Vistani, leaves something to be desired on... management of relations with his people. But Strahd can at least always be trusted to follow his own word... you just have to pay attention to his wording. His is a born cunning man... But he will always follow whatever is in his best interests... so my advice to you is to prove that his best interests lie in trusting you..."

Vasili clears his throat, "Well, that is astute Madame, but I can guarantee you that there are no games this time, and that Lord Strahd's best interests do lie with this particular group of individuals, and has already made concessions on their behalf."

She laughs at Vasili, "Oh? What a wonderful change of pace. Feeling cornered, is he?"

"You certainly don't make things any easier for me in regards to him..." Vasili muttered through gritted teeth.

Aric raised his hand, “Madame Eva, I was told by another Vistani that I could find another lost treasure with a man who seeks to restore his village to order and faith , but we are unfamiliar with the villages of Barovia, is there anything more you can tell us?”

"I can..." Madame Eva shuffled the cards again and drew the Wizard, "This man you seek who wishes to restore order and faith to his village is a learned man... In a village that has suffered most from the Shadow of Ravenloft, and all of it's magics on the land."

Madame Eva drew the Myrmidion and laid it before Aric, "He is a man who has served with others, preserving order and peace... and now leads them. Find a captain of the guard, in Barovia village... you will know him, for he will be wearing what you seek, unaware of the treasure's true value."

She shuffled the deck of cards once more,"You may always ask me for insight, even when having your fortune told by another Vistana. And for you, these services are free of charge...” She smiled at them, “I enjoy the company"

“Thank you, Madame Eva,” Aric said.

 "Much appreciated," Linda echoed the sentiment.

"No questions today, Vasili?" Madame Eva grinned coyly as she shuffled her deck.

"No, madame. Thank you," Vasili easily replied.

"Pity,” Eva grunted, “I enjoy our talks..." she placed her deck within a silk bag, and then set them within a wooden box, "Well, children. I wish you luck, and may fate be on your side. I have a feeling that this time... things may actually go right..."

The old woman stood and began to organize the tomes gathered in the tent, "You should be heading out. There is an entire world for you to discover... and secrets to uncover."

Linda sipped the last of her tea and stood, "Thank you for your insight."

Madame Eva turned to her, "You are welcome. Safe travels... and remember that All is Well..." she returned to her books.

Linda turned to face everyone, “Shall we go meet back up with Ireena and Ismark?"

Vasili stood, all too eager to leave, "Of course. We've been gone long enough already... and I don't know, I just have the feeling something isn't... right."

Vasili exited the tent. Linda raised a brow, following him. Aric and Jeeves shared a look of puzzlement before falling behind.

The demeanor of the entire camp had changed... no longer were the children playing about, but rather, were speaking to adults of the camp. The children spoke frantically...

“Papa! Arabelle! I don’t know where she is! We were playing, and the rest of us knew to come back, but we’ve been searching for an hour, and she’s not come back!“

The man paled with worry, "Oh no, we have to tell Luvash!"

Linda blinked, “A girl is missing?”

Ruki’s heart lurched... Arabelle was her cousin. She recalled the fortune Eva gave, and knew that rescuing Arabelle would be the key to unlocking the first part of the prophecy... and should not be delayed... She could sense that her cousin was in danger...

Ruki’s eyes glazed over as she received a small vision... A tied bag... voices of men... “She will be perfect wolf bait...” “...use her for the festival...”

Nothing about where her cousin was held.

Ruki snapped back, “My cousin.. they plan on using her for the festival.”

“Using her how, exactly?” Aric asked.

Ruki gripped her staff, “I do not know...”

"The more I hear about the festival, the less I like it," Vasili murmured. 

“Agreed,” Aric placed a hand on the hilt of his dagger, “Let’s not wait to find out what they have planned.”

Linda matched the gesture, putting a hand on her revolver, "Let's help find her."

"Wolf's Head Festival, I recall?” Jeeves rushed ahead to scout, “Do you suppose it has something to do with real wolves?"

The group made their way back to Vallaki, quickly, wasting no time dawdling. The guards allowed them to pass, no question... they began to head back to the Inn to regroup when they came across a rally of some kind in the town square...

A squeaky male voice shouted above some unenthusiastic cheering,  "Wolves are agents of the Devil Strahd! I am going to offer one HUNDRED gold coins to whoever can deliver the heads of the most wolves by the 17th! Not only that! But the winner of this festival game gets to ride on the float! Next to me! The Parade will last hours, rain or shine! Remember citizens, ALL IS WELL!"

There was a little hesitation, before some fake enthusiastic cheering rings out through the square.

Vasili steepled his fingers and quirked a brow.  

Aric looked to him, “Does Strahd even employ wolves?”

“This is dumb!” Linda fumed, “Even if he employed them, wolves are just animals, minding their own business."

“Well said, Linda...” Vasili acknowledged her before nodding to Aric, "They are as loyal as dogs to Strahd, but he can only call on their support when he is nearby. It isn't like all the wolves in the land are actively working for him... “

Vasili looked to the square with distaste, "What a morbid and dismal occurrence... so close to my birthday of all times. Honestly, it seems that Vargas only does these things to spite..."

"Your birthday?” Linda mused. She took Vasili’s arm, “Well we can't have them doing all this cruelty to animals on your birthday! Let's go." 

Linda marched toward the square with a very startled Vasili in tow... when Ismark, with a bloody nose, cuts and scrapes... and burns on his clothes ran up to her, panic stricken.

"Linda! Everyone! You have to help!" Ismark shouted.

Linda dropped Vasili’s arm, horrified, "What happened?"

Ismark panted and huffed as he clutched his knees, “Ireena!” He choked, “He took Ireena! Some man with a flaming arm! I-I tried to stop him, but he was too much...”

He clenched his fists, “And he had his posse of thugs beat me up for good measure! We... we gotta find her, heavens know what he’ll do to her!”

[pauputoot]

finish your fic pls ill give u a doodle if u do

Ok i did it finally ahsjadfkgklj

“Hey, Xion? I know we all agreed we wouldn’t talk shop…”

Xion pokes her head up from the picnic blanket to see a bob of red hair and a face that matches her own.

“Oh, hi, Kairi!” Xion says, struggling to balance the mountain of watermelon on her plate. She hadn’t been to the beach since she was with the original Organization, so she was thrilled when the Destiny Island kids invited everyone over for a cookout to welcome Kairi back.

Kairi’s eyes dart from the blanket to the plate and back. “I have kind of a personal question, if you don’t mind.”

“Wait, so is it a personal question or a keyblade-wielder-journey question?” Xion asks, giggling.

Kairi smiles. “Both, I guess.”

The girls move to a large piece of driftwood nearby and take a seat. Xion shovels watermelon into her mouth and nods to say “go ahead.”

“Why do you look like me?” Kairi asks. “I know it has something to do with Sora’s heart and memories, but honestly that could apply to a lot of people here, and they usually look like him, not me.” As if on cue, Ven muttering something about finding Lea’s frisbee.

“Haha, you’re right about that.” Xion gulps down her remaining bite of watermelon and places her plate on the sand by her feet. “Remember the replica stuff? Back when the organization – the first one – was making replicas, I was one of the first ones. I was supposed to be a replica of Roxas, but our connection to Sora and his memories of you got all twisted up in the process. So I ended up with my own personality, but with your looks. Which I’m really happy about, by the way! You’re so pretty, and I’m glad I ended up being a girl.”

“Aw, thank you! And that’s pretty much what I thought, but it’s nice to hear it from you.” Kairi’s face shifts to a scrunch. “Wait, does that mean your trans?”

“Excuse me?” Xion says, with a curious twist of her head.

“Sorry!” Kairi rubs the back of her head apologetically. “That’s not polite of me to ask.”

“Oh no! I just don’t know what that means! I’m still pretty new to the world, all things considered. There’s a lot I don’t know yet.”

Kairi’s eyes light up with excitement. “Oh! Ok so, basically being trans just means you ended up with a gender that’s different than the one you were assigned. So for example when my dad was a kid, everybody thought he was a girl. But as he grew up, he realized that being a man felt better.” She holds an identity in each hand, as if weighing the options. “So he’s trans!” she says with an enthusiastic clap. “That just sounded similar to what you said. You don’t have to call yourself trans if you don’t want.”

“Hm.” Xion closes her eyes for a moment “I like it! I think that fits me, actually,” she answers with a toothy grin. “But, you said it wasn’t polite to ask?”

“Well,” Kairi pauses to find her words. “It isn’t really my business or anyone else’s. Unless the person wants to share. My dad told me I have permission to talk about him being trans to other people, though. He says that if the mayor is trans, that’s a good example for trans kids.”

The girls listen to the rest of the cookout revelry in the distance. Lea is recounting some dramatic story to Terra as Isa, deadpan, is correcting some of Lea’s wilder details. Terra is barreled over laughing.

Kairi smiles. “You can tell those two have been friends for a long time. It must be fun to hang out with them all the time.”

“Yeah.”

At the end of one of his trademark eye-rolls, Isa catches Xion’s gaze. He quickly looks down and turns back to his conversation.

Xion winces.

Kairi notices.

“Xion? You ok?”

Kairi searches Xion’s face for signs of distress as she replies, “Yeah its just… Isa and I…” Xion trails off, her eyes tracing the palms trees in the distance.

“Do you wanna talk about it?”

“Oh no I’m ok! It’s just…”  Xion fists clench around the end of her skirt. “He’s apologized so much and I know he didn’t mean it at the time and he had to do his job so he wouldn’t get caught and–“

Xion is interrupted by Kairi’s hands meeting hers. “You’re basically my sister, right? You can vent to me. I won’t tell.” She winks.

Xion nods as she traces a pattern into the sand with her shoe. “When we were in the organization together – when he was Saix - he was awful to me and Roxas. And I can’t be around him without being reminded of how awful he made me feel.”

“Hm.” Kairi turns back to face the laughing group ahead of them. “You know, when Axel and I first started training together, I didn’t trust him at all. I mean, he caused all sorts of pain for my friends, and at one point he even kidnapped me. But as I got to know him, I saw how much he cared about his friends too, and how much he truly felt bad about what happened, and we were friends in no time.”

Xion casts a dubious glance in Kairi’s direction, but Kairi continues, “I know you’re probably tired of hearing ‘Just give him a chance!’ And I’m not saying you have to forgive him at all! But, if you’re both open to healing that relationship, I think it’ll happen. It’ll just take time.”

By this point, Roxas has joined the other conversation. He playfully punches Isa’s shoulder.

“I know. Thank you.” Xion’s eyes dart to the rinds of her watermelon by her feet. “And Roxas is sort of there already. But for me it was… different. Saix barely spoke to me, barely acknowledged my existence. He didn’t see me as a person. Well, none of us saw each other as ‘people,’ we were Nobodies. But he saw me as something worse than that. A puppet. An ‘it.’” She chokes on the last word.

Kairi goes in for a hug. Xion returns it.

“You know,” Kairi says, her face resting on Xion’s shoulder, “People called my dad that, too. Some still do.”

“Do you think, maybe I can talk to him sometime?”

“He’d love that!”

“Um. Hello.”

The girls release their hug and spot Isa standing by with an open cooler.

“We’re breaking out the ice cream early. It’s already melting a little because SOMEONE-“ he raises his voice and turns to Axel, who shrugs, “forgot to put ice packs in the cooler.” Isa returns his attention to the girls on the driftwood, and his face softens. “Would you ladies care for one?”

Xion smiles in response. A genuine smile, but there’s tension behind it. “Of course.”  

The girls accept the dessert – it’s all sea salt flavor, of course. As if Axel would ever buy another flavor. It’s also definitely melting, but not enough to make it inedible.

“You know,” says Isa, “I once read somewhere that when ice cream is slightly melted it tastes more potent. That’s why soft serve was created.”

“Too bad it’s harder to eat this way.” Xion sighs. “Thank you, Isa.”

Isa lightly, apologetically places a hand on Xion’s shoulder. Xion removes it with a similarly light touch, but gives it a squeeze. Not yet, but not never. He nods and leaves.

Xion goes at her ice cream, struggling a little, but Kairi keeps an eye Isa as he retreats.

“So,” she says, breaking the silence, “I’m gonna say it. The fact that he showed up right after we stopped talking about him was a little spooky.”

Xion laughs, which escalates to a snort, which makes Kairi cackle with a similar intensity. Soon, the girls are sharing a laughing fit that rivals the boys’ laughter from before.

The laughter eventually subsides.

“Ok,” Xion says, “Now I get a shop question.”

Kairi grins. “Hehe, go ahead.”

“How exactly did you come back?”

[janiedean]

Why is Kylo even considered abusive tho

...... hahaha. uhm. this is gonna be fun.

(ps: anyone who hates kylo or reylo pls skip this post okay? k.)

people have decided that any relationship (not even romantic, any) that’s like, even moderately problematic or not healthy or in between a villain and a hero is inherently abusive, because of course EVERYTHING is abusive now, and villains that aren’t, er, how we shall say, Approved By Tumblr Standards, are inherently horrible abusive people;

kylo is, sadly, technically a mix of All the things tumblr finds automatically problematic in someone, ie that he’s: a) white, b) a cis man, c) comes from a **privileged background** (let’s just say that for the sake of simplicity), d) has obvious anger issues, e) a villain, f) heterosexual as far as we know (or better: we don’t know he’s not, but you know that for people on tumblr when they hate someone and their sexuality isn’t specified straight becomes the default because obviously if u r evil then you have to be straight. ofc kylo could be bi for all we know, but never mind that, right?), g) not conventionally attractive (or, in tumblr lingo, UGLY, because of course everyone’s canon of beauty is the same!!), which means that given point one above, he’s of course abusive, not even a shred of doubt given. (of course if one or more of these fail to happen, tumblr does the contrary and excuses whatever the bad person does but I’ll shut up before I say things I’ll regret.)

which means that of course any rship he could have with rey is abusive when it’s fucking dumb because in order for a relationship to be abusive you actually have to know that person and be in a relationship of any kind with them - your parents can be abusive (but they’re your parents and you grew up with them), a friendship can be abusive (but then you have had to know this person and be friends with them), a romantic relationship can be (but you have to actually be in love with them or at least be together), and kylo and rey have no such relationship because they met, he captured her, they had their mind-force argument where he tried to get inside her head and she got into his (compare that with what happened with poe I mean XDDD) and then they fought and the next time they met each other it was through the force bond and then you can say they developed a relationship.... where she was the one pretty much taking the first step most of the time and where she saw that there was some good in him? I mean, there’s no bloody way any of that falls under abusive relationship. is it problematic? obviously it has problematic elements because any relationship you have with a dude or woman you fought with/tried to kill/is on your opposite side of the fence can’t not have problematic elements. is it 100% fluff unicorns and rainbows? no. but like, from that to say he’s abusive in general is ridiculous, at most he could be to hux but I mean kylo and hux are generally terrible to each other in turn and that relationship is your usual rival/hateship that’s been around since the beginning of times. at most it’s mutually toxic if you ask me, and anyway no one who ships either reylo or kylux goes around saying it’s The Purest Ship, or at least no one who’s not the usual bad apple that you find in any shipper group.

this also is a perfect mirror of how people on tumblr can’t distinguish what’s coded as abusive and what’s not, because if there is one relationship in the new trilogy that’s explicitly coded as abusive it’s.... snoke and kylo, and kylo is not the abusive part, he’s the abused part of it. I mean, tlj made it overtly clear and the point is that whether you like it or not this guy has been groomed/tormented/lied to by snoke (who is, uh, THE BONAFIDE BAD GUY I mean guys it’s star wars being the palpatine stand-in in the dark side part should say everything really) same as palpatine did to anakin and guess what kylo wants to be anakin/thinks that he’s honoring his grandfather’s footsteps it’s kind of heavily implied, and while obviously there’s no overt sexual subtext because it’s still a disney movie made for kids too I’m fairly sure it’s kind of very subtly implied and other people wrote about it more in-depth than me, but tldr: kylo’s issues (he’s unstable, he’s angry, he doesn’t really know what he wants, he’s volatile and blah blah blah) are all direct consequences of a) being heavily force sensitive, b) feeling like his family failed him (and luke AGREES because wow what did he do before they fought in tlj? apologize to him for failing him, and if you don’t think that han let him kill him also because he thought he failed him idk what movie you watched), c) being groomed and lied to by the evil bad guy of the situation for most of his life, which makes... him... an abuse victim.

of course, tumblr has a really unhealthy approach to how you get to be an abuse victim, which is a whole other wasp nest, but basically on this bloody website anyone who doesn’t meet the Good Victim Standard (ie: they fight against their abuser immediately, they do Good Things, they Show Clear Morals and it’s obvious that They Are Good Guys) is automatically Not A Good Victim and is therefore denied any basic empathy/decency, and anyone who tries to be nice to them or to help them out is there to help the villain’s storyline HOW BAD, OR, if the Bad Victim dares being a man, of course it’s all OH MY GOD CHARACTER X IS GETTING SACRIFICED ON THE ALTAR OF Y’S STORYLINE AND THEIR MANPAIN, because of course if you’re a man you can’t, like, suffer, without it being manpain and not, like, legitimate feelings. which means that poor kylo cannot win because even when the story is coded otherwise and rey helping him out/wanting to reach the good part of him/seeing him as ben solo/etc people don’t see it as, like, rey being a good person and regular character development (nvm that the entire point of the light side in SW is, like, forgiveness, but okay then), but as her character being sold off for the male’s development or whatever else they think it is. which is obviously not true, but the fact that you take a character who has being a decent person in their basic traits and think that in order to Be A Good Person they should want to murder their adversary who is most obviously coded as someone who needs help and has issues but not as the ultimate bad guy rather than, like, did what rey did in tlj ie trying to help them out, says more about whichever anti thinks such things (ie: nothing good) than about the sw writers or whatever. I mean, I unfollowed people for reblogging fanart where rey killed kylo and finn/poe were doing the cheerleading and not just because I don’t want that kinda toxicity but also because it’s absolutely OOC that finn, poe or rey would cheerlead each other over murdering anyone that’s not snoke or the likes -

ah, but wait, who killed snoke?

I mean, given that kylo killed the guy who abused him for years because he threatened to murder the one person who had taken the effort to be nice to him and see his side of the story I think that it’s fairly obvious that he’s not abusing anyone himself and that next movie he’s going back to the light side no question also because they’re not gonna kill the last character with direct skywalker lineage around.

but of course most people around here can’t see past their own preconceptions and don’t understand that if you want to care for mentally ill people/abuse victims you also have to give a fuck about the kylo rens and not just about the finns. let’s just put it out there, I care about finn more than I care about kylo and I’m light side trash so of course I’m into the character and I love that finn understood at once he couldn’t kill people and defected and I love the journey he had, but you can’t just support the people that immediately see the way out and do things the way Good People Are Supposed To Behave. because if you support the finns but ditch the kylo rens then you really will end up with horrible people, because if someone who has the potential to not be a terrible person is left to their own thing without anyone trying to help them out of course they’ll convince themselves they’re not worth it and the more time passes the worst they get. and you can’t go around parading that you care about victims/mentally ill people/abuse victims/whatever if you only think the good ones are worth it. it’s such a calvinist way of thinking that makes my skin crawl tbh but then again tumblr is puritan calvinism hell so what do we even expect.

tldr: because tumblr is calvinist af without knowing it and because people have decided to give up on text comprehension for the joy of being asses to anyone who actually enjoys fictional villains, characters who aren’t necessarily the heroes and the likes.

and before anyone decides to murder me for the above and thinks that I’m a ride or die kylo fan or whatever, I’ll close this saying that: in tfa I really couldn’t care less about kylo (really, I was 100% indifferent), my favorite new trilogy character is actually poe which I find way more interesting/relatable/whatever than i could find kylo, my main ship investment in the new trilogy is finn/poe and before tlj I couldn’t care less for reylo (after... well it’s obvious I’m shipping it, but I started when it turned out to have infinite h/c potential/redemption arc potential because that’s what appeals to me in ships, I don’t care for mutual rivalships/hateships or villain/hero ships just for that, I only am into it if there’s the whole potential h/c angle so I wasn’t into it from the get-go). but I’ve liked enough characters who had stuff in common with kylo to at least recognize the pattern and I’d be fairly not coherent if I stanned theon and hated kylo on principle. ah, and I don’t find kylo particularly attractive either (honest I’d take oscar or john over adam any moment if I had to pick based on attractiveness level to me), but I also don’t feel the need to shame poor adam driver over it, especially when I think it’s a very good thing that people find attractive a type that’s not very hollywood-common and that’s actually considered not pretty/beautiful by canonical standards, so I mean, who cares. but it’s a question of intellectual honestly. *shrug*

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[gascon-en-exil]

I Liked Fates Before It Was Cool!: Birthright Part 1

Prologue

Opening Chapters

Chapters 6-11, in which Hoshido’s military is extremely disorganized and only regroups because the mere idea of Ryoma is just that awesome.

Chapter 6

Not much to say here. Corrin tells Xander they’re siding with Hoshido against Garon and implores him to do the same, Xander accuses them of being brainwashed and, after repeated refusals, tries to kill Corrin. Following this is a chapter that will probably be finished during the first enemy phase unless Ryoma gets really unlucky. I suppose it makes sense that this is the shortest of the three versions of Chapter 6 as Corrin went to the border already with the Hoshidans. While it’s kind of neat that all the Hoshidan royals are playable on this map as a bit of a preview, note that this is the fourth of just seven chapters in which Ryoma has appeared as a unit prior to his formal recruitment. We get it already, the guy’s an OP powerhouse and a clear favorite of the writers.

This is also where I should probably bring up My Castle, but I don’t have much to say here as it was never a feature I particularly enjoyed. Other FEs have addressed the concept of a base for your army integrated into gameplay far better than this. Genealogy and the Tellius games and others may not let you perv on your units taking a bath or disgust them with your horrendous cooking, but what does that really add to the experience? I know, I know, a bunch of small and scattered stat boosts....

Chapter 7

Oh, silly banter in the middle of an attack while surrounded by wounded and dying soldiers. Never change, FE. But seriously, even if he’s just Cordelia with a dick whose semen produces more Cordelias let’s take the time to appreciate that Subaki is the series’s first playable male pegasus knight. Fates’s take on classes is actually very egalitarian, a fact that often gets lost in its sea of fanservice and subtle story-enforced misogyny and everything about <insert character whose gender/sexuality-related presentation offends you most>. Moving on.

I’m still not entirely clear what happens to the Hoshidan army between this chapter and the preceding one. They really appear to just break ranks and scatter: Corrin and co. go fool around in the astral plane with Lilith, Ryoma and Takumi lead some of their forces toward Izumo (why?), no one cares about Hinoka, and Sakura retreats here to Fort Jinya to tend to the wounded at a makeshift military hospital. It makes sense that the Hoshidan army wouldn’t have the strictest organization thanks to their years of protection under Mikoto’s barrier, but the problem is the game never tells us that and we’re left to infer these things based on the events of the next few chapters.

The Nohrians meanwhile are still on the offensive, but they screwed up by sending Silas’s unit to attack the fort. Silas has an unhealthy attachment to Corrin that frankly rivals Camilla’s, and his abrupt defection here because he wants to hang out with his partially amnesiac BFF undoubtedly bodes ill for anyone associated with him when news of it reaches Nohr. I guess it’s cute in my case that Silas’s obsession with Corrin knows no gender, but the guy probably steals underwear to sniff. Saizo is entirely justified in being suspicious of him.

Paralogue 1

Oh yeah, I forgot all about this chapter. Mozu’s just not as memorably meme-worthy as Donnel, and recruiting her is less frustrating since you’re not forced to make her poke things in her joining chapter. It does make the Faceless seem like more of a threat to Hoshido, although as a consequence playing through this paralogue in Conquest always feels a little weird. This plus the first Castle Invasion were mostly for EXP and support farming. For anyone wondering, I’m going to be keeping most of my characters in their default class sets since I don’t feel like grinding skills or anything elaborate like that. Also, I’m playing on Normal, so I’ve got a lot of latitude in how I play which is how I prefer FE anyway.

Chapter 8

Hinoka sums up my feelings on her and her retainers. Azama’s got some amusing lines and if I knew more about Buddhism his...interesting take on philosophy would probably be even funnier, but that’s about it. And yeah, Hinoka really just does pop onto the scene with no explanation except that she’s also trailing her brothers and I guess everyone really did forget about her. Sucks to be a late development addition.

Iago tosses the conflict ball to ensure the party’s trip to the Wind Tribe village is a rough one, though since Fuga was set on testing Corrin’s worth by sending a bunch of his tribesmen to get slaughtered by their army anyway I wonder why he even bothered. This is a rare case of a desert map that isn’t a frustrating pain in the ass, because it’s small and there are Dragon Veins to reduce the amount of sand. I also like how even on the lowest difficulty of the easiest route the game is already throwing a boss at you with some annoying skills. Fuga’s motivations may be silly, but at least he leaves us with the memory of a good chapter, some cryptic foreshadowing for the Yato, and a shota wind mage who unfortunately continues in the tradition of Ricken stepping away from their archetypical dynamic after Tellius made it just a little too close to explicitly gay.

Chapter 9

Izana, huh...Izana is...

Let’s talk about Zola!

Zola is one of the rare Fates villains who isn’t (always) exactly what he looks like. On first glance he’s just a typical simpering syncophant with a fitting talent for illusions, but he actually comes with a bit of a character arc in Birthright which I have to say I wasn’t expecting. It was almost as unexpected as Leo’s unexplained appearance at the end of this chapter to kick off said arc by leaving Zola exiled. One big problem I have with Fates is how characters have a tendency to teleport around off-screen as the plot demands it, distance between locations or basic geography be damned, but it’s marginally more forgivable here since Leo is shown later in this route to know how to perform literal teleportation.

I believe this is also one of the only times in Birthright where Hinoka gets to do something that affects the plot, so good on her for acting suspicious of fake!Izana. She’ll go right back to being overshadowed by her brothers - including being overshadowed at being overshadowed - soon enough.

Izumo’s role as the designated neutral nation is delved into more thoroughly in Conquest, weirdly enough. Here Corrin and co. get left only with a vague directive to head toward the Bottomless Canyon and some of Azura’s song lyrics. That’s kind of a good thing, because I’ve got nothing on Izana now. I get that he’s an amusing surprise the first time around, but...who wrote him like that?

Chapter 10

Allow me to divert for a moment from the Takumi angst to pick some very large nits with the geography of this game. In the previous chapter Corrin learned that Ryoma and Takumi had been pushed to the Bottomless Canyon, which is nowhere near their location - but hold onto that thought. The canyon is clearly northwest of Izumo, yet the party goes south to Mokushu allegedly in an effort to reach them there. Fates has a bad time in general with giving a good impression of where its events are taking place, partly because the scale of the map is odd and not helped by it being a topographic rather than a political map like in every other FE, partly because there are times like this where the information presented appears to be simply wrong. What’s worse, the major plot development surrounding Takumi’s possession in Birthright does not, at least so far as I recall, necessitate that he have been possessed by Anankos or anyone else connected to the Bottomless Canyon. I’ll certainly be revisiting this when the time comes.

But...whatever. In spite of everyone getting lost except Ryoma (because of course) this is actually a good chapter, with a cramped map filled with environmental hazards to add challenge. The treachery of Mokushu spans all three routes and is one of those set pieces that benefits from development in each of them. Kotaro’s connection to the, er, Christmas ninjas (and elsewhere, Shura) isn’t developed here unless you choose to have them engage him in combat, but that just saves stuff for the other routes. 

Chapter 11

Pictured: easily one of the most forgettable playable characters in this game. It’s a shame too, because she’s the only default kinshi knight and her bits of dialogue and few supports offer hints of an interesting backstory that would speak to gender roles in Hoshido. Alas, she’s merely a Corrinsexual.

This chapter itself is filler, but mechanically it’s good filler. Your new OP archer royal gets plenty of targets for his bow, there are some promoted generics to spice things up, and the Dragon Veins can either help or hinder you depending on how you use them. I don’t care for the antagonist fake-out between the opening and closing cutscenes and the chapter proper - where did possessed!Sumeragi the mysterious swordsman go while you were fighting the fliers? - but that’s a minor quibble. Corrin already beat that guy.

A larger problem is with Takumi’s development, or rather lack thereof. As I said last time the events of the opening chapters explain his initial hostility to Corrin (and Azura) quite well, and Mikoto’s death only reinforces that feeling. Why then does that hostility vanish so quickly in Birthright? Just one chapter after recruitment and he’s already turned his characteristic prickliness onto Zola instead, and I don’t recall it appearing much again except in the context of possession. It’s only the route the ends with Takumi as the final boss that allows him space for his feelings to develop organically (albeit in a negative direction), possibly because Conquest is the only one in which he’s not beholden to love Corrin like all playable characters in Avatar-centered games.

Next time: Birthright Chapter 12 - 18

[abocd]

I’m Not a Robot

So I watched a kdrama recently that really encouraged me so I wanted to share it :3

So. There is this guy with an allergy to humans:

due to trauma from relationships he had when he was a child. And if his cuteness alone is not enough to get you to watch, I have a list of reasons:

1. Kim Min Kyu (the guy’s name) shows a struggle similar to many mental illnesses.

Due to the unheard-ness of his problem, one can input a lot of mental illnesses into the place of the one he has in the show. Personally, this show encouraged me to keep fighting against my anxiety, OCD, physical ailments, and also to give myself a break. He displays similar symptoms to those of OCD in that he can’t eat food made by anyone other than himself, or he worries about if they messed with the food. Also, he has a lot of trouble interacting with people “normally,” because he has hardly ever had the chance to have a healthy relationship.

2. Strong female leads.

And by strong, I don’t necessarily mean they can beat up a room full of soldiers. Although I like me some of that too. We have the heroine:

Jo Ji-A

Who can be a force to reckon with at times, but she has her mistakes as well. But! Best part! She has an interest other than dating/marrying a man. She invents awesome stuff and keeps at it even when things aren’t going well.

Sun-Hye

Also, there’s her friend, who is just so comfortable, confident, and transparent and she’s great.

Ye Ri-El

We also have the “rival” for Min Kyu’s affections, who works at his company and is clearly intelligent, competent, has goals, confident, and compassionate. But also doesn’t put up with BS.

Pi

Finally (well sort of, there are more but these are my absolute faves), we have the research assistant to Professor Hong Baek-Kyun. I was a little dissapointed at the end with her (spoiler alert!!!) because they give her a makeover, and honestly I thought she was really cute before. But maybe that’s just me.

In any case, she is smart and hard working and takes care of people around her. In fact, she reminded me a bit of my sister xD

BTW, not all of those descriptions did them justice >.> definitely watch the show!

3. Gray areas.

There are for sure “villains,” but a lot of the characters do things that they end up apologizing for, and that includes the main characters. There are people that chose inactivity and silence instead of actively hurting a person, people who hurt people they care about, and romance doesn’t just fix everyone’s lives. Forgiveness takes time, understanding, and patience on all sides, and the show portrays that in a very interesting, fairly realistic, I think, manner. It shows the complex nature of have relationships with imperfect people.

Anyway, I really liked this show and found it encouraging. I hope this show can help/encourage someone else as well. ^_^ In any case, keep fighting, you’re doing great! There is hope, and you can get better!

[arkus-rhapsode]

What If Azuma Turned Good? A Fairy Tail Discussion

Hey there guys! Rhapsode here, and this is something different I wanted to try. After being inspired by other creators like MasakoX, I wanted to try my hand with the “what if” scenario game only with Fairy Tail. I thought it would be nice to start of with an interesting villain character that sadly didn’t get much done with him so I thought I would ask the question, ‘What if Azuma turned good?” I don’t know if this’ll be a permanent thing, but if you want to see more stuff like this done by me, please send feedback. Also, I need to put this as a disclaimer.

This is completely a fan based work, this isn’t me saying the series of Fairy Tail would’ve been better with this change. This is just simply me wanting to explore a scenario for fun. Also in terms of context this will be me building off what Mashima has already made, there won’t be any drastic changes in canon from before this what if, so for good r for ill thing like Lisanna still being alive, Jellal still having been controlled by Ultear, and Juvia being gaga for Gray still exists regardless if I think they were good story choices or not.  With all that said, let’s ask, what if Azuma became good?

So we open all the way back on the Tenrou Island arc, where Azuma makes his first appearance easily defeating Rune Knight and Pantherlily. Azuma at this point shows himself off as cold and unfeeling to things that stand in his way. He meets Mirajane and Lisanna, provoking Mira into a fight. Though instead of a bomb Azuma just captures Lisanna in branches saying that he’ll crush her, which causes Mira to attack.

After a brief scuffle, Azuma comes out on top, securing himself as a threat to FT, but shows a level of nuance to his character by refusing to kill Mirajane out of respect for this fight that she gave him. This moment is crucial for Azuma as character as it illustrates he is not another cut and dry villain, but has a layer of depth that separates him from guys like Yomazu, Kawazu, Kain, and Zancrow.

Eventually we get to the climactic battle where Azuma and Erza fight, stating that his purpose for join Grimoire Heart was find himself a worthy opponent and he sees that in Erza. After a long battle, Azua looks like he has the upper hand and Terra Clamare on Erza. This results in and almost decisive win for Azuma and he gets a scene where he turns his back a utters some catchy badass anime warrior thing like, “You fought well, Titania”. But Erza survives and with her last ounce of strength she strikes and cuts through Azuma.

Now in canon, this is where Azuma dies, but in this universe, Erza still wins, but her slash doesn’t kill Azuma, but rather cuts of his right arm. This way we don’t diminish the badassery of Erza’s comeback, but we don’t make it so overblown that it seem like overcompensating. This also is symbolic for Azuma as not only has he tasted defeat at someone who is stronger than him, but Azuma also now has lost right arm thus crippling him and significantly breaking his pride as a warrior. With Azuma not dying, he and Erza manage to talk for a little bit, with him questioning how she got so strong that not even lost magic could beat her. Erza states that it was due to having a place that she could return home to, that she didn’t want to let down Fairy Tail. Azuma hears this and says that it must be some great place.

When Azuma asks to be killed, Erza refuses, showing the same respect Azuma showed Mira, but Azuma does manage to pay her back by revealing the part of the Grimoire airship that stores Hades’ devil heart. (Which when we think about it makes more sense why team Natsu would take the fight to Hades’ airship). The battle still commences with Azuma, after patching himself a bit, leaving Tenrou before Acnologia shows up, I mean, Ultear and Meredy made it out of Tenrou and in filler Rustyrose did, so it isn’t farfetched that Azuma couldn’t. And here’s the big moment, Acnologia “kills” FT, with many like Lahar, Mest, and yes, Azuma watching.

We go 7 years into the future, with Romeo coming back to FT after a mission, and I mean the first FT building, FT never lost it. We see Romeo return to FT, but he is harassed by a few Twilight Ogre mages who make fun of the fact FT has kids working at it and all of their mages are weak now if their best couldn’t beat a dragon. Romeo is stopped from fighting by Master Macao who says to not deal with them. Here Romeo highlights the actual problem with this universe’s FT and not because they are financially struggling, but rather they have no respect and are seen as a second rate guild by the tabloids and big name guilds like Sabertooth.

However, we see another big change with this universe and it is an Azuma who is doing missions for FT. Azuma is now an ally to FT, but not a mage for FT, rather he did work in their time of need after Tenrou was destroyed as a way of paying back Erza, however he is not a member of FT. As Azuma’s sense of honor is why he is working to support FT, but his sense of guilt for what he did to members like Pantherlily, Mira, and Lisanna still haunt him.

I have to imagine Azuma looks different as well given the whole time skip redesign. My image of him is that he has shaved his hair, but kept those two little hair locks in front of his forehead and still has his goatee. Also his outfit having changed, still rocking the baggy pants, but his top resembles loose short-sleeved African-style robes, still with his green and orange color scheme. The biggest change in his appearance he now has a wooden arm that his manipulates with his magic (and this will come into play later) Azuma also now lives in East Forest close to Porlyusica and she doesn’t mind him as he is one with nature, making a hut out of trees with cutting them down and living off self farmed food.

An issue with Azuma being an ally with FT and not a member also crops up as while FT is grateful for what he has done, they are now looked down even more as “outsourcers”. When someone , lets just say Jet, suggests getting rid of Azuma, the person who comes to the defense of Azuma is Laki. Yeah, I wanted to take some time to at least re introduce some of the FT cast who was the background cast, and while guys like Nab having a running gag, Jet and Droy being tied to shadow gear, Macao and Romeo being already helped members of the guild and Max fighting Natsu, there really is nothing to reintroduce Laki except that she is also the other female in the group. So why not give her some tether to a Azuma, and the reason why… Well let’s dive into that later.

Suddenly, all of FT is off with BP who have revealed the re appearance of Tenrou with Azuma also coming along. They all meet and there’s definitely some awkward reunions with FT and Azuma. Erza isn’t quick to jump into forgiveness and Mira is still pissed after the whole almost crushing Lisanna. Laki seems to be the only one who speaks up for all the good Azuma has done and Laxus even states that they should forgive Azuma if they were capable of forgiving him and if what Laki is saying is true then Azuma has done more for the guild than Laxus has. However, while guys like Natsu, Happy, and Gajeel take to Azuma easily, there is still conflict between him and Mira.

We then get an eventual goading into the games as each of the tenrou FT members realize just how outclassed they are now: maybe Natsu meets Sting and Rogue Early and is shaken by learning that they could beat a dragon while he couldn’t, Gray meeting and sparring against Lyon only to discover that he can’t lay a finger on them, Erza seeing Jellal again and feeling how much more power he has now etc (there’s a whole bunch of ways that team tenrou could’ve come to realize how far their star has fallen. This leads into them wanting to train and instead of Ultear just hacking their bodies to grow even stronger, they do actual training. Speaking of Ultear, she knows of Azuma’s involvement with FT, but knows he has no interest in destroying Zeref and rather has something else, which we will get to.

Azuma offers to train team Fairy Tail, putting them through a trial that’ll hopefully make them stronger for the tournament. While this happens, Makarov is able to speak with Azuma and questions why he’s done all this and Azuma reveals he still holds a great respect for Erza and what she has done for him is worth being paid back a hundredfold. He states that he also sees Erza as his one true rival and that he refuses to fight her again till she is at her best, thinking that beating her now would be unsatisfying. This shows Azuma still has some of his old habits like his lust for battle, but now it isn’t the only thing about him. Finally, the GMG comes and all of team FT shine with their own events, however during the end of day one, something very important happens. Erza meets Kagura as well as Azuma. Erza is deeply troubled by meeting Kagura, feeling her enormous power and conviction. Azuma meeting Kagura results in him feeling the same sensation of setting her sights on Erza as he has had.

When Azuma begins to talk to Erza they both discuss her ability and that she can beat Kagura. Erza is still doubtful as Kagura’s sword style is almost the opposite of her magic, this leads to Azuma showing Erza his fake arm and recounts a tale when he first began assisting FT. Remember that Laki loyalty? Well the reason why is in the first few months of helping FT, Azuma was working with only one arm. Laki had followed him and witnessed Azuma’s arc of the Great Tree. Laki really is impressed by the wood magic and reveals her Wood-Make skill. Laki shows him the basis for remaking his arm with his wood. It isn’t crazy as Ur was able to remake her leg from ice. Azuma with his new arm developed a whole new fighting style with his tree arm. The moral of his tale is that what seems like a weakness can lead to developing a whole new skill. Overhearing this is Mirajane who still is uneasy about Azuma.

On the second day, Mira does snap at Azuma when he says the she might want to use her satan soul sitri. Mira wins without the use of sitri (and lets be fair Jenny isn’t that tough). Eventually we get to the dragons where Azuma and Ultear met again killing hatchlings. Ultear knows why Azuma has also helped FT and states that she knows the limit of the arc of the great tree and that’s Azuma will become a tree eventually. Yeah, did you think I forgot about that little limit to Azuma’s magic. This creates Azuma’s goal outside of seeing Erza as a rival and that is he is searching for a way to stop his magic from turning him into a tree.

Eventually GMG ends and we go to Tartarus, but not before a little exchange with Warrod in the Sun Village when Erza mentions that Azuma is a tree mage like Warrod, but when saying Azuma uses arc of the great tree magic specifically, Warrod reveals the sad part of that magic and how after prolonged uses of it it’ll eventually turn him into a tree. Erza, who also fought hatchlings realizes that Azuma’s new style wasn’t only to to regain his arm, but also to limit how much of his magic he uses. As well as there being a double meaning to Azuma’s story of your weakness being turned into a new skill.

Before Tartaros we also might get some lip service as Azuma is off searching for that ability to stop him from becoming a tree and that’s why he doesn’t show up for a while. But it just so happens that when FT is looking for the councillors Azuma is in the same town as Elfman and Lisanna. (Hey plot convenience still exists) Azuma she’s the now Macro controlled Elfman and when trying to stop him, Sayla wants Elfman to defeat Azuma as Sayla flees with Lisanna.

Azuma subdues Elfman, and while he brings him back to FT to warn about Tartaros, there is a bomb dropped on the FT building, but thanks to Cana, everybody is safe. While many go off to fight their own battles, Azuma and Elfman go to save Mira and Lisanna. This leads to Sayla and Lamby fighting the two, but not off the cuff. Sayla offers both Azuma and Elfman chances to join Tartaros as she can take away Azuma’s fear of becoming a tree, but Azuma says he won’t throw away all he’s done with Ft and justifies this by saying that he’s “dying to fight an etherios”. Eventually Mira joins Azuma in fighting Sayla while in Sitri form. Elfman goes to help Lisanna with Lamby, because he won’t lose his little sister again. Azuma and Mira come to terms with each other as they beat and Sayla and this means that all members of FT now forgive Azuma from Tenrou. However, the good times don’t last as After Tartaros, FT is disbanded.

We get to the Avatar arc after one year and Natsu runs across Azuma after a tip he got from Lyon. Why Lyon? Well as a rival to Gray, I think over the one year where Azuma travels to find a way of preventing his magic from turning him into a tree, Lyon and Azuma met and bonded over the rivalries they have with FT members. Now, Azuma is still struggling to figure out how to prevent himself from becoming a tree, but Natsu comes into ask him to become a full fledged member of FT. Azuma says he can’t do that, but Natsu shuts him up and says that everyone forgives Azuma and accepts as well as being together means they could help him search for a cure to his magic. Azuma is silent and Natsu says they need to speak to each other a different way and that’s via a battle. It is short, but ultimately Azuma accepts the offer to joining the new team FT. They also bring back Gray in the assault on Acatar and all that jazz with Ikusa-tsunagi. Azuma is now an FT mage, but still searching for his cure saying if he does find it, he wants to fight Erza.

Azuma doesn’t go to Alvarez to pick up Makarov, but an important event happens with Dimaria’s introduction as Brandish and Dimaria’s banter leads to a small nod about Dimaria being unable to to fully call her magic her own. A little foreshadowing to God soul and possibly something else, perhaps?

Another important moment is the assault lead by Ajeel as Erza’s participation in it is what DImaria takes interest in and sets her sights on DImaria and is why she wants the southern front, because that’s where Erza went. Azuma also ends up in the southern front with Wendy, Gray, Laxus, and Juvia. Also in the south is Lamia Scale so not only do we get a reunion with Wendy and Chelia, but also a small cameo of Lyon and Azuma interacting.

We see, Dimaria killing a bunch of people with her besting Kagura after we see Dimaria drink from an odd liquid. This liquid is odd as she drinks from it right before she attacks. When Dimaria learns that Neinhart lost to Erza she goes after her, but Azuma, Wendy, and Chelia interfere. This leads to the reveal of Chronos and the time stop. Ultear reappears saving the three and states that she became one with time thanks to Last Ages that she used in the GMG arc. Azuma is stunned by this, but the CHronos attacks, who also starts to seem different from the old DImaria. We see Chronos take a swig from that same odd drink and she begins to sound like Dimaria again. Dimaria reveals that god soul is different from other take over as the take over is able to retain its individuality. (We saw  this in the manga with a sudden personality shift from her normal self to more Chronos like in Chronos form) The liquid we’ve seen her drink is actually an element to negate Chronos from fully taking over, saying it was harvested from some rare fruit or lake with the ability to suppress a certain quality of magic.

Chronos wipes the floor with the three, Wendy getting beat to the point she can’t continue. Chelia knows that she stands the best chance, but Chronos is too powerful. Azuma then knows that last ages performed a miracle, at the cost of becoming one is the magic, so Azuma decides to sacrifice all restraint by using all of his Arc of the Great Tree and becoming a tree. When Wendy yells at him over what he is doing the states it’s okay and that if he’s going to die here “He’s going to do it against the most powerful challenge he’s ever faced giving everything he has”.

Super Azuma and Chronos fight and it is big, with tree manipulation and clock hands made of magic flying and explosion. Azuma gets to the point where he knows his limit so he ennares Dimaria in a massive tree trunk piston and has Chelia finish her off with her Sky God power. This works as Dimaria falls, but Azuma slowly becomes a tree. Chelia tries to grab the liquid Dimaria was using to make Azuma human again, but being a spoilsport, Dimaria destroys the liquid and says that Azuma can rot. Azuma becomes a tree, but thanks Fairy Tail for giving him more than he possibly would have wanted. Chelia feels very bad, but during this Wendy says that if Dimaria has been using that liquid for long, then she can go find where it is made in Alvarez and get it.

Wendy tells Azuma to wait, but she goes off to Fight with Irene and uses Azuma’s sacrifice as extra conviction of not wanting anyone else to die her in this war.

Finally, Azuma gets one little cameo as team Lamia Scale is hanging out by his tree form before FT arrives at Hargeon and says they need Fairy Sphere. We get the huge holding hands moment with Meredy even connecting to what is Azuma and in the epilogue we see Wendy and Laki embarking to Alvarez to find a cure for Azuma.

So that’s my idea of what would’ve happen if Azuma had became good. Please, tell me what you thought, and if you would like me to do more stuff like these, let me know. Hope you had fun and I’ll see you next time.

[attempted-writing]

A strange new chance

fandom: Homestuck setting: Humanstuck summary: Meenah and Damara go on a date to see if they can patch things up between them (it is humanstuck so it would be normal ‘red’ romance). warnings: food, drinkin, implied nsfw (nothing graphic)

pairings: dameen word counter: 3617 author notes: this fic was written for @ejusticeonthenet and the first paragraph was inspired by something she wrote and i borrowed with her permission.

It was a Saturday morning when Meenah woke up with the biggest hangover she had ever had. She sat straight up in bed when she noticed something… or rather someone. She couldn’t quite see who it was, a big mess of hair hid the face of the girl. She closed her eyes and tried to remember the things that happened yesterday. She remembers going for drinks with Porrim and Aranea but after that it was all fuzzy. As she was thinking the girl woke up as well. Her hair fell away from her face as Meenah stared at the girl who just unintentionally revealed herself. The girl she had apparently spend the night with was none other than her biggest high school rival with whom she had multiple fights: Damara Megido. They stared at each other in disbelief. Until Meenah broke the silence with just the words “I’m gonna get something for this head ache” and as she got up Damara only said “yes please”. After having gotten some head ache pills the Meenah left Damara to get dressed. After that Meenah offered Damara a meager breakfast… after that she took off. As soon as Meenah’s guest had left, Feferi started asking about who that was, but the only answer the curious sister got from Meenah was to leave her alone. She was dealing with a massive head ache and a nosey sister was in no way gonna help that situation.

 That evening, Meenah called Damara to talk about how they got in the situation they got into. The call ends with the two agreeing that they had a strange kind of fun and agreed to meet up again later that week. Meenah was the first to arrive on a Tuesday afternoon. the coffee shop was kind of empty but she still picked a small 2 person table in the back of the place. Damara arrived mere minutes after her and after ordering a cup of black coffee and walks over too Meenah. They sit across each other. Damara has a cold expression on her face and the first thing she says was not a greeting, instead she got straight to the point "you wanted to talk face to face? fine, talk". Meenah drops a silence for a good 30 seconds to really think about what she's gonna say and how she's gonna say it. "I am sorry for all the grief I caused you" she starts off slowly. Damara gets ready to yell something like "you better be sorry" but Meenah stops her and continues. "the reason I did it was because I was jealous". Damara looks at her and in full confusion asks "wait... you like Rufioh?". Now it’s Meenah’s turn to be confused. "what? no! I was jealous of him, not you. from the first time I saw you I wanted to get to know you but you were always with him” and you never had eye's for anyone else! so when you two broke up I thought it'd be my chance and like the dumbass I am I started saying all the wrong shit! and when I started doing that I was like "well, better keep this act up" because hey, you noticed me! we spoke to each other! I hate the words I said but at least you noticed me and… and…” Meenah broke down in tears with her hands in her face. every one else in the coffee shop had looked over to the two of em. Damara just sat there. She slowly took a sip of her coffee and just stared into nothing as she was processing all that just was said. She didn’t know how to respond to this. A girl she had hated, who made fun of her was now crying? Because she had a crush her? Eventually Meenah took a deep breath and with red eyes and running makeup she looked at the girl she had just confessed her deepest secret to. And what did the subject of the secret do? She just sat there. Sipping coffee… and she just couldn’t bare it anymore. Meenah ran out the coffee shop. Leaving Damara to finish her cup and leaving a half empty cup one behind. Meenah ran for home and when she got there the first thing she did was bury her face in her pillow and scream her lungs out before she started to cry again. Feferi stood in the door opening and carefully asked what was wrong. Meenah got up from her bed and slammed the door in her little sisters face without saying a word. After that she just crashed on her bed again. Time wasted by. She missed dinner which made mom Piexes more concerned than angry... but still a bit angry.

 After Meenah had left the place in a hurry Damara was just sat there. Spacing out while drinking her coffee in an attempt to figure the situation out. “we both got drunk as hell at some pub… we ended up leaving for her home… and now she confesses that she was crushing for me all this time… while she was bitching at me… she was belittling me… but something in those odd fuchsia eyes… I don’t think she was lying… or was she?... is this another one of her fucking pranks… a deliberate joke to see my reaction?...” all these thought and more ran through Damara’s head. She tried to take another sip but an empty cup got her out of her train of thought. She got up and slowly walked out. And while she walked home thoughts raced through her head. She was wondering if she could. She was wondering if she should. Forgiving this one person.

When she got home she made herself another cup of coffee. She liked the drink. She always got her best ideas over its black and bitter taste. She decided on one of two plans. She was either going to ask Meenah on another date and see how that goes or she was going to tell her to never call her again. But she wasn’t sure which would be the best course of action. She decided to sleep on it. Damara went about the rest of her day doing the stuff she normally did, but the thought of what to do with Meenah was stuck in the back of her mind. When she was in her bed she quickly fell into a deep and dreamless sleep.

 After a restless night Meenah woke up in a cold sweat. She quickly grabs her phone to check the time… only 5:14… damnit. What a weird nightmare. What was it even about? Something about Damara and falling into a bottomless pit… she sighs and turns on her side again and she rolls from one end of the bed to the other but she couldn’t fall asleep again. She got out of bed while recent events weight on her mind and if she couldn’t sleep, she might as well make a nice breakfast. She started baking some eggs and juiced some oranges. Two hours later her mom and little sister came down the stairs to the delicious meal. Making food was one of those things Meenah just loved to do and as a bonus, it was a great way to get her mind off things. This was one of the few times she lamented her school day started late. Once at school and in class she couldn’t concentrate. Cooking class was easy because she was keeping bussie but during English class, she just couldn’t stay with it. The teacher kept yapping on while she was dozing off till all of a sudden her phone went off. It was a message form Damara “I’ve thought hard about this and decided to give you one chance. Take me on a date this weekend and we’ll see after that. Now you better react fast before I change my mind.” Meena felt like she was gonna be sick. It would have been so much easier if she had messaged something like “I’m moving to the other end of the planet” or “please forget I exist” or anything like that, but no! Damara was giving her a chance and knowing her, she’d never want to talk again if Meenah were to screw it up. Cold sweat broke out on her forehead. She got up and left the classroom but before she was gone the teacher asked where she was going. “lady troubles” was the answer… the trouble she had revolve around a lady so she didn’t even lie. She went to the bathroom and looked at her planner. All it said that Friday was leg day at the gym. She had never missed leg day and she want about to start now! was Saturday was movie night with Porrim and Aranea… if she… told Porrim about her situation… would she understand? Meenah thought to herself. She decided to ring her friend. “Porrim speaking” the voice on the other end of the line said. “eeh, hi its Meenah!” after a bit of chitchat Meenah got to the point. “so, about movie night… would you mind if I… didn’t turn up?” “is something the matter, Meenah? You sound worried” “I am! I’ll tell you what’s up but first you need to promise not to tell anyone. Anyone at all” Porrim sounded worried now but slowly answered with an ok. Meenah told her everything. How she found her high school crush and rival in her bed, the cup of coffee she ran out on after confessing and the text she had just received. “oh dear… that’s quite the predicament isn’t it.” Meenah sighed “yeah, you can say that again” after a small silence Porrim answered “its fine by me if you miss movie night one time… ill just tell Aranea you had family business to take care of or something like that.” Meenah sighed another sigh, this time of relief “thank you Porrim, you’re a great friend”. The two said bye and hung up. They had been talking for fifteen minutes! No way, the teacher was gonna be pissed! But, first things first. She texted Damara “cool, let’s go see a movie this Saturday, any film genre you like?” Meenah knew movies made for useless first dates because it made it impossible to talk to each other and that was exactly what she was looking for. The less they could talk, the less she could fuck it up. An answer came quick “horror” was all it said. And that was all Meenah needed… she still had most of the week to find the perfect film.

 It was Saturday late in the afternoon. Meenah was at the same coffee shop as were she had confessed to Damara. She was having the strongest coffee the place had to offer and even that could hardly calm her nerves. It was date night and at 9 pm she would be sitting in the cinema with the girl she had been crushing on for years now. She started thinking about lighting a cigarette. Perhaps that could help her relax? NO! she had quit that shit half a year ago and she wasn’t about to start again! Not even for this! And so her mind wandered until she saw someone walked through the door. It was Meulin, a girl she knew from high school. She ordered a coffee and when she turned around, she saw Meenah in the corner waving at her. They never were great friends or anything but the few times they had spoken, it had been friendly. Meulin came and took the seat across Meenah, which was a bit of a surprise for Meenah but she could use the distraction. They talked a bit about the weather, about school and a couple of other things. Eventually Meulin’s phone rang “hi babe… no I’m at the coffee shop… you know the one, with the cute lined sunscreens outside… yes that one… of course babe… see ya in a bit” Meenah looked up at her and asked “the significant other wants some attention?” Meulin looked at her and answered “officially not anymore but Kurloz and I are still very close” she got up and said “bye, good luck with the date” for a moment Meenah wanted to say thanks but then she realized, she never told her about that. She jumped up, ran over to Meulin, grabbed her by both shoulders, stared her right in the eyes and asked “how do you know about that, who told you!” Meenah felt her face turn red and Meulin moved in close to her ear and whispered “don’t worry, no one told me, I have a good eye for romance” she moved back and with a genuine smile told her to have fun and took off after getting the coffee her friend wanted. Meenah stood there stunned… what the fuck had just happened. She got back to her seat and finished her cup of coffee contemplating what had just occurred… just what she needed, stress over the girl of her dreams and now someone who she barely knew started messing with her head in way’s she couldn’t even comprehend. She ordered another cup of the strong stuff but just like before it did nothing against the shakes.

 It was finely 8:30 and Meenah had agreed to meet Damara at the corner of the street she lived at. Damara had made more of an effort of her makeup than Meenah had expected, she had done hers quite modestly. Oh well, Meenah isn’t clairvoyant now is she. The two of them talked precious little on their way to the theater, Meenah out of fear of messing up and Damara had never been all that talkative when Meenah was around. They were sitting next to each other both with a box of popcorn. The movie started and even though Meenah can handle horror films very well, at one of the bigger scares she grabbed Damara’s hand. At first Damara shot her a look that asked her “what the what the fuck are you doing” but right after that there was another scare that made Damara grip Meenah’s hand tight. They spend the rest of the movie hand in hand, clenching at every scare. When they left the movie theater they both happily talked about how great the movie had been. “so, uuh… want me to take you home now?” Meenah asked and Damara was visibly thinking about it for a moment. “no. I wanna play a little game” she answered. Meenah had not seen this coming. She thought she would finally be out of the woods regarding this date thing. ”what kind of games?” Meenah asked… in one of the view conversations they shared when walking to the theater Damara revealed to be a massive horror film fan and to then come up with a quite like that had Meenah a bit worried. Damara answered “I don’t know, pool? Darts? Beer pong of all I care” Meenah was happy she didn’t refer to the kind of games from the movie she was thinking off and she was quite ok at pool. “I think I know just the place” she answered.

 Meenah took her to a pool center right above a bar were a rock band was playing. They had to wait for a table to become available so they had a drink. Damara asked for a whisky-cola and Meenah for a normal cola. She figured if she’s gonna fuck up let it be because of her, not a strong drink. Meenah looked over to her date and asked “you having fun?” with a bit of played confidence. Damara answered with a slight nod. The two talked little until the bar man came over to them and handed them a box of balls and a triangle rack to line them up and said that cue sticks were at every table. The two went over to the only available table on the floor. The place was packed. Groups of friends at some tables, just two people at others. Damara and Meenah set the game up and Meenah insisted that Damara would go first. And so they played. One by one every ball got sunk except for the 8-ball of course. The two played for a long time until Meenah finely got the 8-ball in the pocket as well. On one end this made Damara happy,  Meenah was not holding back to please her… one the other end she didn’t like losing. She was getting the balls back in the triangle for the next round when she heard her date talk to a familiar voice… a voice that belonged to a buy she really disliked… a dude with a round pair of sunglasses peached between his messy hair. He visibly jolted when he saw her. Meenah had not seen him do that ”they Damara! I’d like to introduce you to a friend of mine-” Damara interrupted her “I know who he is.” She said with an eerie coldness in her voice, Meenah started to worry and her conversation partner started to sweat. Desperately trying to fix the awkwardness Meenah continued “so... what brings you to this part of town?” with a very acted tone of voice he answered “oh you know, the bf is out of town for the weekend so why not take the little brother out for a game or two, ya know” right that moment he said “little” his brother walked up to them. A guy only a few centimeters shorter than him but unlike him he clearly enjoyed his workouts. The tank top he wore did little to hide this guy’s clearly very fit physique. He joined the group in silence, after all he didn’t know anyone there.  “have I introduced you to my little brother yet?” the thin one asked “no you haven’t” Meenah responded as she held a hand out to introduce herself “I’m Meenah” she said as they shook hands. He responded my only saying “Equius”. Damara shook his hand as well, more out of politeness than anything else. This guy had done nothing against her and it’s not his fault his brother had, but she still would have liked to not run into anyone who had anything to do with her ex. Meenah asked the brothers for a moment between her and Damara “I have an idea” Meenah started “how about we challenge these chumps to a round of pool” Damara’s face changed from slightly annoyed to rather curious “what do you mean” she asked. “I know Horrus well enough to know he wouldn’t pass up an opportunity to prove he’s good at any game. And I know him well enough to know he is absolutely terrible at this game. So what do ya say? are you in?” Damara was visibly thinking about it until her answer came with a nod. “good!” Meenah exclaimed and turned around. Meenah did need to convince the Zahhak brothers who’s original plan was to leave but she succeeded anyway. And so they played. Meehan and Damara in one team and the siblings in the other. Horrus claimed challenger advantage and was the first to shoot. Nothing went in so it was the girls turn to play. Before they could have talked about who would go first Damara was already at the ball. She shot the white ball back into the cluster that was left after Hurrus’ start. As it just so happened the red solid ball got sunk in the corner pocket. And so they played away ball after ball until there was only the 8-ball left to sink. Horrus and Equius had to shoot it into one of the side pockets and Meenah and Damara had to aim for one of the corner pockets on the same side of the table. After a lot of shooting the snowman back and forth between both pockets it happened to get lined up perfectly for Horrus. The white ball had to be shot lengthways across to knock the 8-ball in which was on the edge of the pocket. The lanky guy shot, and the 8-ball went in… followed by the white one. Equius stood at the side of the table sweating profusely while his brother apologized and the girls were giving each other an high-five. “so, are you going to the bar?” Meenah asked Horrus who looked at her in confusion. “we were playing for a round of drinks, remember?” Horrus’ expression changed from confusion to annoyance. “and if I say no you’re gonna blackmail me, aren’t you?” he says with a less than impressed expression. Meenah looked at him and answered in the most acted tone of voice she could manage “black mail? Me? Horrus, I wouldn’t dare to even think about it” and as Damara heard that a nasty smirk appeared on her face as Horrus plainly said he’d be back. When he came back he had three beers and a glass of water with him. He gave both girls a beer and his brother the glass of water. The four of them talked about a whole lot of nothing while they drank. When the drinks were gone the girls left. They were both tired, not strange at 1 am. Meenah walked Damara home. They were at the front door of the Megido house as Damara turned to face Meenah and with a genuine smile said she had fun. And that she wouldn’t mind if Meenah called her again sometime. Meenah’s parting words were “will do” after having left the street and view of Damara’s house she jumped with pure excitement and in her happiness ran for home.

[theroyalwords]

Teen Olympians, Chapter 28

-Artemis-

It took a long time for Artemis to realize how fate worked.

It came with the territory of being an immortal. As much as she detested the whole notion, she'd learned the hard way that there are just some things even the gods could not change. Some things couldn't be explained. Granted, there wasn't much. One of the things she never understood was the oracles. It was part of the chaos, the magic, of the world. They were closely tied to the design, seeing all the possibilities that could be, along with the ones that would never change.

Artemis was still trying to understand the girl, especially now that she knew more about her.

Cassia stood at the bar in the kitchen, looking uncomfortable under Artemis's gaze. Orion stood between them, concern marking his brow. It might have been perfectly normal for people to wake up at this ungodly hour on a Sunday, but the harried voices, the tension and concern in which she could hear them speak, did nothing to calm her. She promptly got out of bed to see what the hell was so important to wake her up when she walked in on the three of them discussing this girl's hair brained scheme over breakfast, of all things. Her family wasn't due to arrive until this afternoon, so she fully intended on spending the morning being lazy. Not that she didn't enjoy a good hunting discussion, but this was madness. Orion would want to help her, which would only get him killed faster. She didn't forgive the idiot just for him to die before he had too! It didn't matter what the girl had seen. There was no way in Hades she was letting Orion go on a quest that would end in his premature death.

"It's suicidal," she snapped. "Stealing from a goddess is never a good idea." Cas shrank at the iciness in her tone, towards Apollo. He playfully bumped into her, trying to ease the tension.

"She's not going to kill you, Cas," he explained. Cas quickly glanced at Artemis while biting her lip.

"He's right, you know. I'm still deciding if you are useful enough to keep around."

"Or until you temper gets the best of you," Cas countered. She opened her mouth to add something else before quickly shutting it.

"Her temper?" Apollo questioned. Cas reluctantly nodded her head.

"I mean no disrespect, my lady," she offered as she turned back towards Artemis. "It's just that, um, in some futures, you do kill me."

"Really?" Artemis mused. "Well, since you are a being of forethought, I would assume you would have the intelligence to avoid the situations that end in your death."

"I try," she offered before stealing a quick glance at Orion.

"It's not that simple, Artemis, and you know it," her brother huffed. Artemis simply rolled her eyes.

"Fate, grand design, yadda, yadda, blah, blah, blah. Whatever. It doesn't take a genius or an oracle to see that this plan is doomed from the start." Yes, some things were meant to be. She had an eerie feeling that this girl appeared in their lives at the right time for the right moment. She didn't feel any particular ill will towards the girl. In fact, she intended on helping her brother free her from the curse. Artemis just wanted to make sure that Orion didn't die before he had to.

"It was just an outline," Orion countered. "It's not like we are going to walk into the Egyptian fortress with a t-shirt that says, 'We are here to steal your book.' We were just talking, Artemis."

"Really, because that's exactly what it sounded like to me! And a damned book, for Hades' sake, will not fix your problem."

"I believe this book will. It contains some of the oldest and most powerful spells known to the universe. I can clarify some of the specifics if you like?" Cas supplied. "It may be the solution I need, but I'm still figuring out the best way to obtain it. We'd really just started discussing it, and I'd love to have your strategic input as a goddess. After all, you are the ultimate hunter, and it is extremely rare that you are denied your prey."

"Hasn't happened yet." Artemis smiled, a chilling one that promised death and pain should anyone cross her. She had to admit, the girl knew her way with immortals. She offered the right amount of flattery. Cas's gaze was steady, unrelenting. She'd stand her ground, no matter what Artemis threatened her with. That was something she respected about her. "So your solution is to steal something of the Egyptians? What book, exactly, do you want to steal?"

"The book of Tope," Orion answered.

"Thoth," Cas corrected.

"That's what I said!"

"The god of intelligence?" Artemis clarified. It'd been a while since she'd interacted at all with the Egyptian pantheon. They usually made a point to stay out of each other's business. They were too obsessed with their spells for her taste.

"Yes. Although, I think he may lack some common sense."

"I wouldn't let him here you say that," Apollo mused with a grin. Cas smiled back at him.

"He would probably agree with me now." Cas frowned. "That is, if he doesn't kill me first. I die at his hands just as much as your sister's."

"What did you do?" Orion spurted.

"I did what I was told to do," she countered. "I didn't purposely pick a fight with him! He's nice enough, I suppose. Not my fault that he had this insane idea to write down all of the mysteries and knowledge of the world so that it could be used for future teaching. All he wanted was proof that he does, in fact, know everything."

"Mysteries of the world? Like what specifically?" Apollo asked warily.

"Everything. And I mean, everything. There is the usual stuff, like burial rights, rules of humanity and conscience, how empires should be run, laws of nature, etc. He didn't stop there. There were entries about magic and power that created the world, ways to exploit the weaknesses of immortals. Basically, some pretty nasty stuff that would be disastrous in the hands of the wrong person, which is why Isis hired me to steal it."

"What makes it any better in her hands?"

"It doesn't, really, except that she would make sure no one could use it but her. Thoth tends to be a little, um, scatterbrained?" She laughed a little at that. "He gets easily distracted because there's so much going on up there." Cas tapped her temple. "Set was sneaking in, getting little peeks of things he definitely doesn't need to know about and was using it to his advantage. From what I gathered, he exploited some info that almost caused the end of the world a few years ago. She and her son, Horus, demanded that Thoth give it up, but he refused, because it was his book, his baby, I believe was the endearment he used. While I think Thoth would be more honest in its use, she was the lesser of the evils at the time. I think she eventually plans on giving it back, at least from what I've seen. Probably to teach him a lesson to keep his more dangerous toys out of the wrong hands and actually apply that intelligence he boasts about so much."

"I highly doubt that. How can you possibly know a goddess's motives? It's not like you are an oracle or something," Orion chided her. "Artemis is right."

Cas's face immediately fell before she looked down at her mug, sorrow overtaking her features. Artemis had to admit, whatever tiny portion of compassion she retained in her immortal soul felt for the girl. It was a wonder she wasn't more damaged than she already was, constantly being put down and disregarded. This curse was her and Apollo's responsibility to fix. Artemis sent a tiny zap of power into Orion, making him jump and yelp.

"Ouch! What was that for!?"

"A reminder. Orion, she is an Oracle. Remember, the whole cursed thing? She sees the future."

"Oh…right. You're cursed?" he asked Cas in clarification. She smiled grimly before exposing the top of her shoulder.

"Fifteen years and counting."

"Back to the topic at hand. This is all well and good, but I still don't understand how this will help," Artemis mused. "How will this book fix things? Are you going to use it for leverage? Trade your freedom for the book?"

"Well, not exactly. Now that my name is out, all the nasties that I stole from and tricked know who I am. Isis may not swing the sword, but she effectively gave everyone free rein to kill me. Without her protection, the threat of her retribution, there's no way that I'll be alive for long. It's only a matter of time before my luck runs out."

"She can't be reasoned with?"

"Um, trying to reason her will not go over well. I mean, she might can be, eventually, when she calms down, but how would you react if you thought someone close to you, a supposedly loyal servant, betrayed you to your rivals?"

"I'd wonder who else you were talking to," Apollo admitted.

"And eliminate the threat before it became one," Artemis added.

Cas nodded her head. "I need leverage. And there's a spell in that book that will give me one. Having that in my arsenal will keep Set and any other Egyptian immortal that values their existence far away from me."

"And that is-?" Artemis began.

"A spell to scatter the essence of an Egyptian immortal. I think you all used something similar with Kronos, but I'm not an expert."

"That's a pretty bold move," Artemis noted. "And why don't they have it already?"

"I have to give Thoth some credit here. See, from what I understand, unlike the other pantheons, they don't really have demigod children. I don't know the specifics nor care to do so, but they use descendants of their Pharaohs or whatever to unleash their will upon the world. Anyways, that spell, created by Chaos itself, can only be read with mortal eyes. Thoth put it in there to keep it safe. The book hasn't been in mortal hands in thousands of years. So yeah, that's why I want to steal that book, and it's the only possibility I see where I don't die."

"It would be a definitive solution, I'll give you that. Still an insane attempt to try it. Do you have a plan or any idea on how to do that?" Artemis questioned.

"Nope. Haven't really had time to research or experiment with my parents disowning me and avoiding death at every turn. Good news? I helped put it where it is. Isis doesn't know that I know of the spell, so I have a slight advantage there."

"That's something to handle tomorrow. Today, we need to deal with the family," Apollo responded. Cas grimaced and laid her hand down on the table. "Not excited to explain things to your grandfather?"

"Ugh, don't say that. All of this is weird enough."

"Please tell me you are not her grandfather!" Orion stuttered. Both Cas and Apollo looked absolutely appalled.

"Gods, no!" Cas snorted.

"Absolutely not!" Apollo yelped.

"Hermes, right?" Artemis pondered. "Well, Mercury, I guess, since your parents were Roman demigods."

"Yeah, he was my Mother's father. My dad is a child of Bellona."

"Interesting combination," Artemis noted. War with the talent of thieves? No wonder she was recruited at such a young age. She'd make a good hunter, for sure, but something told Artemis that her brother would be displeased with that.

Cas's gaze seemed to fog for a second before she rubbed her head. "Athena will be here earlier than expected. She wants answers."

"Of course she does," Apollo grumbled. "Probably already has about fifty different plans laid out."

"More like six, but, yeah she does," Cas said, her tone patient and understanding. However, there was a frown on her face, her eyes narrowed in confusion. "I'm going to get a shower." She downed the last of her coffee before disappearing.

Orion turned to Artemis, probably to ask about using her shower, and she waved her hand half-heartedly. Orion offered her a wink before striding down the hall. She waited until she heard the door to her room open and close before she turned to Apollo. He was sipping on his coffee, gazing out the window with a contemplative look on his face.

"It'll get stuck like that," Artemis teased him. He gave no response other than taking another sip. "Are you mad at me now or something?"

"No," he ventured. "Just thinking."

"About?"

"Everything." His whispered words were soft, full of regret. He turned to her, his normally sky blue eyes a few shades darker than normal. "I need your help with this, Artemis. I want to set things right, to help her. I know we can't interfere much, but I have to find a way to fix this."

"Have you thought of going to Isis yourself?" Artemis wondered.

"It'll only bring it to father's knowledge, from what Cas has seen," Apollo explained with a deep sigh. "Wasn't worth the risk, as she put it. The poor girl is trying to keep us out of trouble, too."

"Her burdens are heavy," Artemis said.

"Heavier than they ever should have been."

"Do you trust her, brother?" Not that Artemis didn't believe the girl, but they'd been down this road before. It'd been millennia since mortals were so close in their affairs. The last time ended in the Trojan War. Was history repeating itself, their follies coming back to bite them in the ass, just like last time?

"Unequivocally."

Artemis nodded her head. "She knew I would meet Orion again. She knew how much it would mean to us. " It felt like a betrayal, whispering those words, admitting the depth of her feeling for the mortal hunter. If there was anyone in the world she could admit it to, it was her brother.

"I know you worry for him, but trust that the last thing Cas wants is for him to get hurt. You don't have to be so goddessy with her."

"She could get him killed," Artemis countered. Obviously, they were close enough that Orion wouldn't let her do this alone.

"Cas wouldn't let anyone harm a single hair on his head. She's done a lot more for him than you can possibly imagine," Apollo added. Before Artemis could ask, her brother vanished, leaving her alone in the kitchen.

Hope you enjoyed! :) Sorry it has been so long! 

Thank you for sticking with me! Please reblog, if you feel like it.