#but they mention and use other charas against each other

[tiodolma]

Merlin and Morgan are really cursed to have so much chemistry in every on-screen adaptation only for them to destroy each other.

I have yet to see a screen adaptation of Morgan sending/bringing King Arthur to avalon though.

[todayisafridaynight]

Religiously i think about one of my twitter mutuals pointing out how aoki's design is subtly asymmetrical while ichiban is more symmetrical

when i think of it, masato's design is fairly symmetrical as well isnt it.....

[signanothername]

Reading your head canon, I am surprised that each Murder agreed to work with Nightmare instead of a duel to death and be passively aggressive instead of fully aggressive and non-compliant, and use any knowledge of Nightmare and Killer to hit them where it hurts. Since Nightmare cannot destroy AUs like Error, Murder's only fear would be his own death, not due to the pain, but because of his own self-penance to haunt Dusttale alone and stop the human. Like when he is "recruited" by Nightmare or as you mention in your head canon, brought back by Killer, I would still think Murder would make sure the fights either end with his win or his death. After all, Murder values his autonomy and freedom. Because even if Murder is an adaptive, intelligent tactician, he is still a mortal compared to Nightmare, he would realize he has reached a dead end, so death is the only option, compared to working with two people that remind of the human that he hates. Well, the only reason I see Murder pretending to be compliant is to probably plan a betrayal and join Dream, as Dream is the only weapon against Nightmare, maybe even try to train him, because he doesn't care about Dream, but Nightmare is as bad or worse than the human, so by Murder's logic, he should be put down. Otherwise he has no ability to travel home or power to harm Nightmare, so as mentioned above death is the only other option. Over all, it could be argued that every Murder!Sans has a lot of reasons to defy or fight Nightmare, even if it causes his death. Plus I still think Murder vs Killer wouldn't be so one sided for Killer, since Murder, as Sans spent more time improving his skills during the resets compared to the loads Killer, as Sans spent fighting Chara over and over. So beside loading, I still think Murder might have an edge in battle experience and intelligence.

The ask Anon is referring to for context <33

Oh Murder was not compliant, not at all Anon, in fact, that’s exactly why I think Murder gets replaced the most, it’s because of how non-compliant he is, I don’t think Murder would ever agree to join the gang, I never said he would

You’ll notice I only talked about his passive aggressiveness with Killer specifically in the Murder Time Trio ask, and in fact, do talk about how Murder would pry into Killer’s private matters all just to piss him off, I never went on about Murder’s relationship with Nightmare in depth

And I didn’t go in depth cause the previous ask was for the Murder Time Trio as a whole, and their relationship with each other, so I couldn’t just talk about Murder in depth or in much detail as I wanted cause otherwise I would’ve absolutely diverted from the main point of that ask

But now that I have this beautiful ask I can actually go in depth as much as I want >:)

And you’re absolutely right that Nightmare can’t destroy AUs, the most Nightmare could do is lay waste to the Au, but Dusttale is already a wasteland so nothing much Nightmare could do there, that’s exactly why I say that Murder would try his luck and run back to his Au (and continue on doing it over and over), and it’s exactly why I say that Nightmare struggles with controlling Murder the most, cause Nightmare has no true power over him mentally, Murder doesn’t care about dying by Nightmare’s hand and he knows he could try his luck as much as Nightmare’s patience allows

Murder would definitely perfer death over being under Nightmare, cause if he can’t be useful enough to save his Au from the human what’s the point?

In fact allow me to be bold and say that I wholeheartedly believe Murder is also the hardest to “recruit” by Nightmare, cause I genuinely believe that in some timelines, the Murder that was supposed to be recruited by Nightmare just offed himself before Nightmare could get ahold of him, cause again, better death than be taken away from his Au, something that Nightmare has grown wise to and usually tries to knock Murder out before he tries such extreme measures, then later Nightmare controls Murder in certain ways once he’s got Murder under him

But here’s the thing, when we talk about Murder and Nightmare’s relationship, only looking at one side of the coin (in this context Murder) is missing the point in my humble opinion, cause yes, Murder does prefer death, and yes Murder would be aggressive and noncompliant, but how does Nightmare deal with that? Cause in every relationship there are multiple sides to look at, not just one

Cause while Murder prefers death, wouldn’t it make sense to also believe that Murder would want to preserve his life to be able to get back to his Au and stop the human? I mean Murder cares this much about his Au doesn’t he?

And that’s exactly why I previously mentioned Nightmare’s emotional/mental manipulation tactics, Nightmare knows Murder would try to preserve his life IF he has hope he can get back to his Au, so Nightmare LETS Murder get back to his Au from time to time, all to give Murder the false hope that he can get away, that false hope contributes to Murder thinking that death isn’t the only way out, further lengthening Murder’s stay under Nightmare, all while Nightmare uses the “you can go back to your Aus” card as some sort of reward for “good work”, to condition Murder to (very reluctantly) work for Nightmare to get this “reward”, all while “bad behavior” aka Murder trying to run back to his Au on his own (which literally doesn’t work cause Murder doesn’t have the ability to hop between Aus) means Nightmare punishes Murder by forbidding him from going to his Au, which usually ends with Murder clawing at Nightmare, which only further worsens his punishment

So as time goes on you can imagine Nightmare understanding Murder enough to be able to get to a point in which he can condition Murder enough so he becomes a bit less hostile just to get his chances to get back to his Au, only to be dragged back by Killer when Nightmare deems Murder has had enough “home time”

And here’s an interesting question, why won’t Nightmare go himself to get Murder back from his Au? It’ll be a lot easier and less time and source consuming wouldn’t it?

And to me? No it’s not cause he’s an all mighty King and he just sits on his ass doing nothing and lets his underlings do the dirty work for him (cause while i believe Nightmare deems some things as “beneath him” I despise the idea that Nightmare is an absolute lazy bitch that doesn’t do anything but monologue, which is why I interpret Nightmare my own way) in fact, I like to think Nightmare is so fucking obsessed with being in control, that in fact he’s sure to keep everything under his watchful eye, he knows every little thing about his prey (in this instance it’s the Murder Time Trio) he knows what they do, how, and when, he knows every little weakness and every little strength they hold, he understands them to the littlest detail in order to keep control over them

And in my interpretation of Nightmare, sending Killer instead of going himself is just another manipulation tactic, Nightmare knows Murder would be a bit confident in his ability to fight (and even win) against Killer, something that he won’t believe if it was Nightmare himself that came to get him, it further engraves that false hope that Murder can get away one day, if (or “when” in Murder’s view) he wins against Killer

Which brings me to the question, is Killer vs Murder one sided for Killer? No I don’t believe it is, in fact I agree that Murder has spent his time refining his skills and experience, however, let’s not forget Killer also is just as intelligent as Murder is, I for one think Killer and Murder are almost on bar with each other in terms of who wins or loses

I’m not going to sit here and pretend I’m not biased towards Killer, cause I definitely am, it’s very obvious that he’s my favorite, so please don’t take my interpretation as an objective correct analysis of their fight, i’ll be simply talking from my humble (very biased) opinion

However if we think logically, Killer has a few things Murder doesn’t, and these would be 1-inability to recognize his body’s limit, 2-his soul’s stages, and 3-a much higher LV than Murder’s

Murder is at LV 19 mostly, Killer, while Rahafwabas has stated they’ll leave it up to interpretation, has been shown in a comic to have a glitched LV of 99999, which in my opinion makes sense considering the Determination Killer’s soul holds, and it automatically means that Killer’s stronger than Murder (if we wanted to get technical at least)

But I don’t like technicalities in analysis of fights so that brings me to the points I’m actually interested in

Something to keep in mind, is that Killer is also just as intelligent as Murder is, Killer’s mind moves just as quick as his body moves, he improvises mid battle and is generally very unpredictable, and to top it all off, Killer fights dirty, he uses any means necessary, and he doesn’t rely on raw power, but on his mind to win

Killer is also extremely observant and has a tendency to study people under a microscope, all while pretending he’s the stupidest most idiotic bitch you ever met, so Killer probably has Murder’s weaknesses memorized and probably already studied Murder enough to know how to deal with him during a battle

Not to mention, if we talk about how much experience each of them holds, then it’s really up for interpretation, cause listen, in my interpretation, I believe Murder has amazing experience, but you’re also talking about Killer, who worked under Nightmare before any of the others, meaning Killer not only has just as much experience, but Killer’s experience is vast and varied, as he fights a variety of people from completely different Aus, with different levels of powers/ intelligence, all while Murder only fights the same people under the same circumstances over and over (then again, this is really up for interpretation, your interpretation of whether Killer worked under Nightmare first or not could be different, i’m only talking from my own point of view, it’s not a hard fast truth or a correct objective interpretation, so please feel free to disagree <333)

Killer (at stage 2) doesn’t recognize his body’s limits, he in fact, thrives on pain, Killer could literally reach the point where his body would collapse at any second and yet still fight like it’s nothing, he’ll go beyond that point, Murder won’t, once Murder’s body reaches its limit it’ll immediately mean he lost, cause Killer won’t stop until A-his mission is complete and he dragged Murder back, or B-he’s dead, there’s no in between for stage 2 Killer

Which brings me to the point you mentioned which is the loading, whether Killer can save and load is really up for interpretation, cause as far as I know, there’s no canonical info on whether he can save and load, but I for one, believe he can, and how long can Murder hold his own against Killer before Murder reaches his limit? When Killer holds the same power the human (who Murder keeps losing to) holds?

Another thing to keep in mind is Killer’s stages, they provide a great advantage in terms of fighting, cause while I believe Murder can absolutely hold his own against stage 2 Killer, I don’t believe he’ll have much advantage against stage 3 Killer, and he sure as hell will not ba able to keep up against a stage 4 Killer, now whether Murder would trigger Killer enough to reach stage 3 and 4 is really up to you and what you like to think, I for one think if Murder knew about Killer’s stages, he’d be smart enough not to trigger Killer to reach those stages cause he would know he won’t win if Killer did reach them, however if Murder doesn’t know about his stages, then the possibility of Murder triggering Killer into stage 3 or 4 on accident is possible, which will not end on a good note for Murder

All that aside, do I believe that Killer always wins against Murder? No not at all, I actually like to believe that sometimes Killer wins, other times Murder wins, and other times? Killer had taken his sweet time trying to get Murder who was holding his own pretty well, that Nightmare shows up himself to take care of it (usually Nightmare would be very pissed at both of them, resulting in Killer and Murder paying grave consequences)

As for Murder working with Dream, I honestly can’t see Murder having the patience to actually work with him, cause each second he spends with Dream is another second away from his Au, and I believe Murder is smart enough to know Nightmare isn’t very easy to take down, other than the raw power and intelligence Nightmare holds, if Dream was truly able to take him down Murder would think Dream would’ve already done it, Murder is intelligent enough to recognize working with Dream would be a waste of time and effort that could’ve been used on much more important matters (such as getting back to his Au)

The only reason I’d see Murder making contact with Dream at all is to only request that Dream open a portal to his Au, only to realize whoops!! Dream can’t open a portal to a place filled with negativity, which only would frustrate the shit outta Murder

Murder’s circumstance really makes me sad ngl, the guy just wants to be back home dammit 😔

[summercreolefanfictioner]

the scent wafts in, her name making him beg on his knees chap 1.2

pairing: dabi / todoroki touya x fem!oc / reader (MODERN AU)

summary: He mentions her name after 6 months in therapy, absentmindedly narrating vivid memories of her. She was the only good thing during his darkest times.

(In which Touya returns home after rebelling against his family for 7 years. And no, it wasn't about forgiveness. He wanted to fix himself because of a certain someone.)

themes: nsfw, domestic abuse, violence, alcoholism, cigarette smoking, toxic relationships, mental health, co-dependency and other related themes (YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED)

notes: for this one, pls keep in mind that touya didn't have much scars on his face; mostly are on his body to accomodate the plot; charas might be ooc since this is modern au

It was after 4 days that he finally revealed about the Todoroki family, the scandalous story of Enji Todoroki, and the abuse they have endured in his hands based on what he had experienced until 19. To be honest, everything wasn't really how they started. Touya grew up seeing Enji so proud of him, prancing him around as his firstborn, the one who will continue his dream of being the number one corporation in Japan with the best workforce and highest earning. Touya was actually more excited to learn more about business at a young age, studying how money worked through stock exchange games and trying to beat his father through crossword puzzles.

Then the next year, Fuyumi was born, and they were almost the same age, separated by months. One could even say she became his twin, and they shared the same room, the same bed, the same food, the same unisex clothes, the same words—just not the appearance and gender. When it was just the two of them, they somewhat understood each other even if Fuyumi sometimes find him annoying because of his silly pranks.

As he tells this to his therapist, he realizes a shocking truth.

Their family was okay back then. There were a lot of good times, and he had a hunch Fuyumi was the one who remembered most of them when it was supposed to be him, the oldest of the bunch. That's why it was a lot easy for her to forgive him. That's why she hoped so much for him to come back.

His favorite memory was of Fuyumi asking him to create a large drawing of the four of them because she wanted to give something to them. She was holding the same blue flowers their mother liked, and after everything was done, the two siblings met their parents at the living area where they were having tea. Enji ruffled Fuyumi's hair and told her to wash her hands after, noticing the dirt around her hands and in her fingernails. Meanwhile, Rei giggled melodiously, her laughter making Touya embarrassed as she patted his head. They were all happy. Everyone was happy.

When did everything go wrong?

"I think it was when... when Father found me pushing myself so hard because I was so devastated at my achievements that he had enough of me," Touya continued. "Whenever things won't go my way, I tend to neglect my body's capabilities. I stay up all night. I don't eat until I get the equation right. There were times when at a young age, I ripped my hair so bad due to stress. They manifested so bad that I resorted to violence."

A child who throws a violent tantrum. Torn apart posters of comic characters. Ruined picture frames and shattered glasses. Fearful eyes halting in time and unable to stop him from overworking himself. Scattered test papers with scores of 99, 98, 97, and 96 flooded all over like a burning reminder.

"I should've listened to Mother and Fuyumi-chan when they told me to have fun instead."

------

After two weeks, the therapist had the guts to ask him about Natsuo and Shouto. He used to evade questions about his two brothers, usually opting for silence or quickly dismissing the man with answers like, "I don't want to talk about them," or "It's not good." The therapist thought maybe Touya would never be able to discuss things about them, but he knew he had to bring them to the table. After all, the eldest Todoroki had mentioned before that seeing them born had been the small flicker of fire that burned their family down.

"Father thinks me and Fuyumi-chan were failures; it doesn't mean Natsu-kun wasn't either," Touya started, remembering the infant Natsuo and his cries ringing around the Todoroki household. Of course, disappointment was etched again in Enji's face, realizing that Natsuo did not live up to his expectations.

Touya could hear his familiar sigh in head, the way he was stoic but Natsuo was trying his hardest to please him. It broke Touya's heart, the way he could only watch his two siblings casted aside like him, thrown away like a garbage because their potential were wasted. In Enji's eyes, they weren't his children; they were experiments with his wife.

"His masterpiece was my younger brother, Shouto," he concluded.

"Do you hate Shouto?" the therapist asked.

Touya could only shrug, not clearly having a definition of what he felt towards his youngest brother. True, he felt so many things about his brother. He was the bane of his existence, after all. He despised him the day he was born, and yet he felt guilty the moment baby Shouto wrapped his stubby hand around his long finger, cooing at the warmth as he opened his heterochromatic eyes and gazed at him cutely. That day, Touya instantly felt a responsibility as his oldest brother, but at the same time, there was bitterness. He knew the youngest would be Enji's favorite; he just knew it, with the way he watched him all this time while he thinks he's not aware.

It will never be Shouto's fault that they weren't the favorites; but blaming him was so easy Touya could get away with it.

Shouto was unyielding, though; confused as to why Touya didn't like him but still trying his bestest to get along with him. He would trail behind him, meekly asking him to play with him, to ask their father if he could play with them for a bit because he wanted to be like the other kids and play. "You should be grateful he's spending time with you," Touya snarked at him, not speaking the next words. Because he wouldn't do that with us; with me. Of course, Shouto was so pure-hearted he just replied him with, "But being with Touya-nii and the others is a lot better. You all get to play other than study."

But studying and being the best was the only thing that kept Touya driving; it would be his downfall, though. Enji found out what he did to himself, knew from his teachers about his wellbeing. Touya goes to school with deep eyebags. Touya gets sulky about his grades. He snaps at the other kids at school. He almost got into a fight with another classmate for trying to cheer him up with his grades. And the next thing, Touya will be dragged to the hallway and Enji would not hesitate to slap sense in his face, disappointment and anger in his face as he beat Touya up for bringing shame to the family, for acting all so childish over some silly grades.

This was his usual routine. His parents would fight. His siblings will help him up to his feet. Fuyumi-chan will take the first aid kit and tend to his bruises. Natsuo-kun will try to shield Shouto away from the scene even though the youngest was already crying his eyes out, not wanting to see him hurt so bad. Don't cry for me, Shouto. Don't be that way with me. I hate you. I hate you the most. Please, don't be like that.

Afterwards, he would play the good son card, would keep his bursting feelings in check, watch over everything he would say and play right in Enji's palm. He needed his approval again, even if the attention was all showered on Shouto. It was damn frustrating, suffocating him the more he watched Shouto endure the beatings as he treated the three of them like nothing. At that moment, Touya wanted nothing to do with Shouto. If he did, he might unleash all these intrusive thoughts.

Fate was a trickster, and Touya would always find Shouto pleading for help, especially to him of all people. "Touya-nii, save me! Please!" It kept repeating like a broken record, haunting him in his dreams. The wet streaks. The runny nose. His tight fisting on his shirt. The way he would hiss his name. The eyes that cried so many times. Touya will never give in; a lie he told so many times.

Touya did give in, and without much thought. Shouto brought back those feelings he wanted; how it felt so happy that someone needed so much from him. He liked it. He felt appreciated. He felt blessed. He felt so free Shouto had no idea how much Touya wanted this for so long. That's why Touya tutored Shouto in secret, teaching him a thing or two about business, about stock exchange, about the Todoroki family, about the Endeavor Corp.—heck, he even laid down the basics of algebra and science on him, ensuring Shouto would be able to comprehend everything at the age of 5 and 6. It wasn't the same as when Enji acknowledged him, but for Touya, this was enough.

Enji knew about it, of course, and he didn't mind... at first. After all, he thought Touya was just helping his brother learn, keeping his mouth shut as he let them be. This aggravated Touya, pushing him slightly to the edge.

"The least he could do was acknowledge me," Touya stated bitterly to his therapist, remembering how Enji praised Shouto's performance instead of telling him how good of an older brother he was.

"So you used Shouto's kindness, is that it?" the therapist clarified.

Touya nodded. "But sometimes, I pity him. I felt those things only an older brother would feel."

There was a palpable tension as Touya gripped his knees to even out his breathing. The memories were getting more vivid than ever he swore it happened yesterday? Or the other day? But he was a lot younger back then. He was 14 when it happened, and he felt his bruises and scars getting more painful, his skin shivering from a certain coldness. Maybe it was Enji's eyes on him. The same eye color he and Shouto shared. He didn't know. He didn't care.

"Sekoto Peak," he mumbled in a trance, flashes of memories where Shouto held his hand and gazed at the view below him.

"Touya-nii, this is where you go often? It's so cool here!"

"Sometimes, I sleep here under the stars."

"R-Really? Do you bring Fuyumi-nee and Natsu-nii here?"

"I haven't."

"Let's go here, the four of us."

"..."

"Please?"

"I'll see what I can do."

"I couldn't bring them all," Touya admitted, gripping his head to force himself to remember. The therapist recorded his responses through his notes as he muttered everything in a fast pace. "I tried to make a plan. I brought Shouto there a few times without anyone knowing. I asked Natsuo and Fuyumi for help. Before we could all go, Father found out. I couldn't speak. I couldn't fight. I was hit by the bokken. They were all crying. Mother tried to protect me but Father slapped her. I could feel his kick and punch in my gut."

"... did he—"

"No. NO. HE WASN'T DONE!" Touya gulped nervously, imagining the scars on his body burning. "They were hot on my skin. It burned my flesh. I couldn't move. I cried and cried and cried. I begged for him to stop. I want him to stop. The hot iron. Everything. I want the world to stop. I couldn't become the son he wanted. I couldn't be Shouto's big brother. I couldn't give them everything."

And when he ended the story, that was when Touya finally cried, sobbing as fuck. He couldn't care about the world or the pitiful gazes. The boy cried so much from bearing all the sins he didn't do.

------

Touya spent a few months in isolation, his thoughts circling around his childhood and all the painful memories. When he was alone, he would write them all down, narrating that one moment in his and Natsuo's shared bedroom where Shouto secretly snuck in and apologized over and over. He kept blaming himself for Touya's pain. Everything was his fault that Touya was hurt so bad, and Touya wanted to agree. It was true, though. He hurt when he was born. He hurt when he got all the glory. He hurt when he became Enji's pride.

He just went silent about it.

Why did he?

It was never Shouto's fault.

"Shouto," he whispered, his hand reaching out to ruffle his hair despite the searing pain in his arms. There was a weak smile gracing his lips, bruised and battered yet patched up clumsily by a crying Fuyumi. "As I thought, I couldn't be your good older brother. Not anymore."

(Touya never knew but after a few years following his rebellion, Shouto went to Sekoto Peak and stared at the same view Touya admired so much, slept under the stars when everything became too much, and wished the four of them could be there together.)

ps. I removed the last part and placed it on the next chap in case y'all confused bcos the post is too long to read

next chap

masterlist

[snowblack-charcoalwhite]

You know what? Even though they depicted Aemond as an absolute cartoonish villain, I'm actually on his side because no matter how hard they try to ruin him (and are succeeding) the fact is that he's the only one who actually wants to fight. He is basically everything that's left of TG. Also, that scene on the balcony with Helaena made me feel bad for him because I think he genuinely cares about her, sees her value and acknowledges their bond (come with me to Harrenhal, help me destroy Daemon's army) . And it looked like he had a tear in the eye? It's much more than manipulation, there is something deep age genuine between them. I'm just sad they didn't have more scenes together and that they used Helaena only to make him look worse. The actors at least tried to save something of all that mess so there's that. Also, I really hate how the fans, especially TG fans, are justifying Aegon and even Alicent to some extent, but Aemond is to blame for everything?! How about no? Moreover, I hate what they did to Aegond in the Rook's Rest, but the thing is, even with Aegon and Sunfyre, the greens would be in a great disadvantage (we saw that Sunfyre is no match for Meleys, let alone vermithor, silverwing or caraxes, and Aegon is not much of a fighter either) so they would still need Dreamfyre and Helaena. That's why his request isn't about him being a crazy monster trying to force Helaena to fight (also, would people stop infantilize her), not is actually reasonable.

I won't talk about Daemon's vision and his and Rhaenyra's scene because it's stupid and corny af, but I must say that what deeply pains me is Alicent's character assassination. They literally made her betray her side twice (in ep 3 and now,) coz she practically agrees to Aemond's (and Aegon's) death and promises to open the city gates?? . And for some reason a big chunk of TG think that her actions are more justifiable than Aemond's?? She literally killed TG. And it pains me since she, Aemond and Aegon were my faves.

Anyway, sorry if this was too long. Always love to read your opinions so I had to vent. This is also my farewell to this horrible excuse of the show.

Hello!

As for Alicent - I do love her, and I try my best to keep my frustration about the things the script had her do this season directed at the writers. But damn. The "men bad, women good" agenda destroyed her character - but looks like that's not the main things the wokes care about. To them Alicent remains a decent person as long as she is not siding with her sons (especially Aemond). And the worst thing is that basically since the beginning of this season the writers have been hammering home the idea that there is no such thing as "team Green" (marketing be damned) as a unit. In the words of TB actors (I believe it was Bethany who said it first, though I might be mistaken) "They all hate each other".

And I am totally with you on the matter of Aemond remaining the only one among TG (at least those we know as we haven't met Daeron yet) who is still willing to fight. Rhaenyra literally tells Alicent she will have to eliminate all competition for the throne - and that includes not only Aegon but Aemond and Daeron as well. And people are still claiming that Aemond is wrong for trying to make his mother understand that her actions (or inaction) put all of their family into danger.

Aemond's scenes with Helaena became just a couple of tools used to make Aemond look bad, indeed. It's literally visible through Ewan and Phia's acting that they tried to show there's more to it - but it's nigh impossible to fight against the script in such cases. Ewan utters "I could have you killed" in the most vulnerable way possible - but it's still a death threat towards his sister, and many people will see it as nothing more than that.

I mean, Phia literally said that Helaena feels safer with Aemond than with Aegon and from each and every Ewan's interview where he mentioned Helaena it was clear that he likes and cherishes her character. But writers just had to ruin this relationship as well - and in such a dumb way.

Aemond's request about her joining the war might be questionable - but, once again, to me it felt like it was not even about Helaena potentially being endangered or her trauma as much as it was about her, a woman, not wanting to fight in a "men's war".

Thank you for showing your appreciation! May your next viewing experience be much better that what we had with HoTD👿

[under-lore]

What is the red soul trait ?

This post is a compilation of different small theories regarding the red soul trait, presenting some of the evidence both in favor of and against each of them to portray a rough picture of what options may be on the table.

Unlike the 6 other traits, the one of the red soul is left unclear in the ball game.

As they are the only two known humans in Undertale with this soul color, the red soul trait would likely be something that is associated both with Frisk and with Chara.

There are several hypothesises regarding the red soul trait of varying plausibility.

DETERMINATION

While it deserves a mention for being by far the most popular take, determination is actually far less plausible than all of the theories brought up in this post. A more detailed critic of this take can be found in a separate post here.

HOPE

Hope is an unpopular yet intriguing proposition.

Before killing himself in certain variations of the neutral ending, Asgore makes a comparison between Frisk and Chara by pointing out that the both of them have the same feeling of hope in their eyes. Making a clear association between both of the humans with red souls and the idea of hope.

The eyes are often portrayed as “The window to the soul” in media.

It is also noteworthy that Asgore, who did what he did in order for everyone to have hope, has a red trident. This is possibly a sort of symbolism.

Finally, a comparison can be made with Deltarune, in which the red soul seals the fountains and may be the one bringing hope. As is mentioned in this Gaster tweet :

Hope does suffer from a few issues though.

Most of its evidence feels a bit stretchy. In addition, hope cannot be tied back to the red soul via the ball game either, which is the main place where one would expect a hint at the red soul trait to be.

A combinaison of the 6 other traits

This take is quite straightforward.

As the other traits mainly came from beating the ball game, this theory suggests that the red soul trait actually is given by obtaining the red flag. Simply that its nature is different from that of the other soul colors and thus is presented differently as well.

It suggests that if the red flag is achieved by using the 6 other traits, then the red soul trait would therefore be a combinaison of those 6 other traits rather than a fully unique one.

While traces of several of those traits can indeed be tied to Frisk or Chara, this theory suffers from a lack of evidence.

As all other traits can be expressed by a single word quality, the red soul being be “just a bit of everything” feels quite strange.

In addition, Chara has a red soul and yet is clearly shown to be be an impatient person while Frisk is often portrayed as not being particularly brave. This does throw a couple wrenches in the idea of both of them having parts of patience or bravery traits respectively.

LOVE

Love finds its main argument from a phone call in Hotland with Papyrus and Undyne.

While this pair often says some very silly things on those phone conversations, this one is so specific that its difficult to brush it aside so easily. This could be a direct association of red souls specifically and love.

While there are multiple lines that may make it believable for Frisk, it is however a bit less fitting to imagine love being Chara’s soul trait. They simply lack the ties to it that Frisk has.

However, it is also possible that the word play between love and LOVE could apply here as well. The player’s actions would lead to the red-soul-kids-two-in-one-package to get either love or LOVE.

While love isn’t mentioned in the ball game, it does provide a possible reason as to why the narrator would be purposely avoiding mentioning the red soul trait. Chara might just be too embarrassed !

IPSEITY

(Some variations of this take exist under names like “individuality”, “character” or simply “being yourself”)

The ipseity theory comes from the fact that throughout Undertale, the narrator regularly emphasises on Frisk’s sense of selfhood. The things that make them themself and not anybody else. Mainly via the mirrors.

With the last remaining mirror interaction also being associated to the sense of identity, but this time to that of the second human with a red soul : Chara.

Chara also appears to have a strong feeling of individuality as they hate their own race, in addition to acting quite assertively in the genocide route. Making the option believable for both of the humans.

Ipseity can actually be tied back to the ball game too. After getting the red flag twice, we are told the following :

Which also appears to be describing a feeling of ipseity and tying it to the color “RED”.

The only significant criticism of ipseity would be Frisk being controlled in-world by the player. It could seem to be a bit odd to give them ipseity as a trait given that a significant portion of their actions were not truly from themself.

[sometipsygnostalgic]

Steven Universe/She Ra and how they accidentally turn groups of characters into one awful entity

I rewatched some early Steven Universe with @phosphoricbomb and I came to perhaps a more coherent description of what I hate about the show later on, and if you're a She-ra fan, I'm going to use an episode about that show as an example to make it clear.

I think, She-ra and SU are both really, REALLY good at character crafting. You care deeply for Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl, and Peridot and Lapis, when the show focuses on them individually, or on a single relationship they have which contrasts/complements them against each other.

Same for She-ra, not just its main characters which are a really fine batch, but also its side characters. When it invests time in Mermista, Perfuma, Scorpia, Entrapta, Frosta, Netossa and Spinerella, as INDIVIDUALS or as one-on-one relationships, you care about them.

But if you talk to anyone about "the princesses" in she-ra, they tend to hate them. Why is this?

There are many mentions of "the princesses" as an entity. At the start of the show it's Glimmer and Scorpia saying they get excluded by other princesses. However at no point in the show do you see an example of this occuring. There's Entrapta, where we do see this happening. Not in "No Princess Left Behind", where Entrapta herself INTERPRETS this as happening, but in "Launch". Which is an episode that has been critiqued by many for how the characters behaved. And I think it's "Launch" where people decide that "The Princesses" suck ass.

The reason for it is because they are fused into a single character. All individuality is sort of... eradicated, any different opinions tehy might've had on the situation individually is erased because the story needs them to have an antagonism against Entrapta, and tehy need to have Entrapta antagonise them, which means she needs to behave ridiculous and annoying so that they are "justified" for their response. So what I'm saying is that "Launch" is a disservice to Entrapta AND to "the Princesses" because while to an extent it adds character to Entrapta, it has to also write her and everyone else badly to get to the character moment in the first place. It didn't prove that her perception of a "me vs them" scenario was wrong, but the ending tried to say that she had proven herself to the "them", which shouldn't even exist because the princesses should all be individual characters, not this grouped together mass. I wish the show would've simply decided already if Entrapta was being discriminated and was justified for feeling left out, rather than the characters acting as a single entity berating her for her autistic quirks, and the show acting later in the same episode like it was over her building robots.

ANYWAY, that ONE EPISODE from She-ra as well as some weird comments from the first season COMPLETELY CHANGED how the fandom views an entire group of characters, regardless of how fun and well written they are as individuals.

Why does this relate to Steven Universe?

Because the ENTIRE SHOW KEEPS DOING THIS!!!

Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl are all brilliant characters, but as soon as the show groups them into one entity, or god forbid, groups EVEN MORE CHARACTERS INTO THE SAME ENTITY, that is when it starts falling apart.

This isn't just in the late series either, this is in several episodes in the first few seasons!!! "Full Disclosure" and "Joy Ride" have "the Gems" act as Steven's overbearing guardians, disregarding how, say, Garnet, Pearl, and Amethyst usually have different approaches. In those episodes they all have the same brain.

Steven Universe season 5 and Steven Universe Future are very much "Steven against the World". There are many episodes where, sure, Pearl or Garnet might fuck up and say the wrong thing, but you'd expect Amethyst, Lapis, Peridot, literally anyone who gets him on his level to try and make an individual attempt to connect with him. Spinel gets half an attempt? But every character - Every character, INCLUDING THE DIAMONDS - gets grouped into this category of "The Gems". It's exactly the same as She-ra's "The Princesses".

An early example of complete personality erasure is probably... Lapis and Peridot. The show tried to make them a duo but it didn't really work on their relationship, it just needed to wipe them out of the story so treated them as one character.

The Off-colours are probably the worst example from SU proper. How they all become Lars's backup.

I think it's unfortunately because every time SU really tried to make an ep about a character, it did a great job. Every time it WASN'T about why that character is an obstacle to Steven it did well, but unfortunately when the show focused more on him, it had to make everyone else... the same enemy. Regardless of how their character was written before.

Anyway that was my ted talk, i really love early SU and it was sad watching Jailbreak and On the Run again because those eps are so good at handling the Crystal Gems as individuals.

[hopesndreams-au]

THIS BLOG HAS BEEN ABANDONED.

This AU blog is run by Frisk, Asriel, and Chara.

Some stuff about Hopes'n'Dreams:

This is a Post-True Pacifist timeline.

Chara is male.

Gaster is NOT related to Sans and Papyrus, but is still a skeleton.

Chara is 19, Asriel is 18, and Frisk is 11 and a half.

Frisk is often bullied and harassed by others for being homeschooled as well as for the way they look. Also, they are often misgendered.

Chara is most often the one to stand up for them, mostly because he feels bad for not being able to protect Frisk when they needed it the most.

This AU was originally called Aftertale until I learned that Aftertale is already a thing.

Papyrus is 19 and Sans is 28.

Papyrus and Chara are gay and asexual.

Chara and Papyrus are besties.

Asriel is omniromantic and asexual.

Sans taught Chara how to use the shortcut ability.

Resetting will not put Frisk in the Ruins. It will set the timeline to the day after Chara got his body. (That happened after Asriel got a SOUL.)

Chara can go geno. His eyes and mouth begin gushing a putrid black goop

Some stuff that will not be tolerated on this blog:

Uncensored foul language.

fontcest and incest ships.

shipping Mettaton with ANYONE (if you must know, send an ask. Chara, Asriel, Papyrus, Undyne, or any combination of the four will answer your question about it.)

shipping Frisk with anyone.

Mentioning Jerry. He does not exist in this timeline.

bullying and harassing others for ANYTHING. Unless what they did goes against anything on this list. Then I don't care.

Shipping Alphys with anyone other than Undyne. No, they aren't married, only dating. No, they do not plan on getting married any time soon. They're fine with just dating each other for now.

Soriel or any other Toriel ships other than Toriel×Asgore (because Toriel and Asgore are back together.)

Any Asgore ships other than Asgore×Toriel (same reason as above.)

Any rping using any character from any Fell timeline. (Frisk is afraid of those timelines and Chara finds them annoying)

This is the list of text color that signifies which character is speaking (in an ask or ramble post). These are also the characters whose ask boxes are open. Roleplaying asks not sent by mutuals will not be answered. If one's name is crossed out, then that means their ask box is currently closed

Chara

Sans

Frisk

Papyrus

Undyne

Asriel/Flowey

MTT

Gaster

[chaos-le-mieux]

Error Chara: Profile 2

Felt like it was time to redraw and update their profile. Especially since their Character is more fleshed out now. Back Story: Several fake back stories have already been mentioned by Chara, but that's all they are, Fake. They do not know their true origins yet, that will come much, much, later. That being said, their scars are a vague hint to what happened. Appearance: They have Dark Blue skin, Cyan hair, Red cheeks, Black floaty "Error" messages that hover around them. They also have two sets of Eyes. Their faux eyes, which glow bright red, and look similar to emoticons in terms of simplicity. And their True Eyes, which have Honey-Yellow Sclera's, Cyan-Blue Iris, and Cool-Off-White Pupils. They will only show their true eyes to those they trust, however, if they become emotionally compromised they won't be able to keep up the façade and the walls of their faux eyes will break down. They also have a Silver Locket in the shape of a Monster Soul that they keep on them at all time, usually hidden under their shirt. Stats: ATK: ??? DEF: Yes?.. LV: 1     EXP: 99999Error Attack strength is based on what knife their using. Otherwise they're punching and kicking with the strength of a "human" Defense is irrelevant, since they're already dead, similar to NapstaBlook, Mad Dummy, and Mad Mew Mew Level of Violence is "1" because they don't actually want to hurt or kill anyone. Execution Points are overclocked because of the AU's they've destroyed. Special Abilities: Void Rift: Opens a rift to pass though dimensional intersections. ie; Entering The Void, the Anti-Void, Void Pockets and Sub Dimensions. Lines of Code, or "Strings": Similar to Errors Sans, but Orange. They don't understand code as well as Sans does, so they mostly use the strings for play, and have no idea of the extent of their power. Save Point: Places a Marker that acts like a beacon so they know how to find their way back. Think of it as saving a set of coordinates, so they don't get lost. Knife Summon: Chara wouldn't be complete without knives~ Though some of these knives have special properties. Error Chara's Goal!? They want to undo the damage that the anomalies have done. But what does that mean? Well for this Chara, it's to end the feud between the Sans's and Chara's who have been pitted against each other, while at the same time Erasing any time lines that are deemed in their opinion "rotted". Why do they want to do this? Well, they feel many of the issues caused in most AU's and the Multiverse is from Creators and Players who have pitted Chara's and Sans's against each other. And that the greatest weapon to combat these Anomalies is to have Chara and Sans team up. Enjoy~

[unma]

The Great Time Trio's take on its DustFell trio (see Merg's video on it here) is amazing and really addresses my main issues with Dust fangames: how the attack patterns are set in stone. Absolutely lovely how the patterns used (save for the phantom section) change each attempt. Not to mention the atmosphere set with the sprites. But there's much more to say about this. Excuse me while I ramble for a bit.

BadtrapBBits has said the reason they have unique designs so wildly different from the usual Dust Trio is because he can't draw hoods too well, but I think he did a really good on their designs. Especially their battle sprites, the way they move and subtle change adds so much to the fight.

Sans shows up in different states of being covered by shadow and he even has his smoke surround him near the end which is just so fucking cool.

Papyrus' hoodie has the word written on it change during the battle, his head comes off to attack you, his sprite seemingly seems to clip into its boundaries and partially show up on the other side, and while I'm not sure that last one is intentional (rewatching the battle as I write this and I'm certain it's 100% intentional) it really adds to the atmosphere of the fight.

Chara's whole look is just awesome tbh and I strive to pull off something nearly as cool as them, and don't get me started on when they get their wings and their mask is replaced with that smile we know all too well. The halo too. All that, accompanied with the delta rune on their sweater, really does such a lovely job of leaning hard into that fallen angel part of their character and forcing you to look at it while the trio beats you within an inch of your life over and over again.

Also the fact that they very obviously resorted to determination is just the icing on the cake. Perfect. Explains what the fuck is going on with Papyrus too, who feels less like a monster and more like some ambiguous creature made purely of horror. Sans is 100% the one with the least fucked up shit going on with his body by the end, lol.

The trio designs are awesome too. Nothing much has changed about Phantom Papyrus, he just has the scar that regular Underfell Papyrus would have. Fellswap Sans is... honestly I don't know what the fuck is going on with him but that's just perfect tbh. Fits the whole schtick going on with DustFellSwap (that's a mouthful) Papyrus to a T and it's lovely. Little fucked up creature of horror. Asriel's design almost certainly evokes a strong image of just how he died and there's quite a bit to be gleaned from how you can't even see his face anymore. (Personally, I'd take it to mean that Chara can't remember or recall his face anymore, possibly due to guilt, but those are just my initial thoughts).

All of this does an excellent job at keeping up the downright oppressive feeling the player is burdened with from the fight select screen into the start of the fight. It feels like you're playing a horror game, and with how stacked the odds are against you, that might as well be the case.

Finally, and perhaps most important, the fact that they win is essential to this. You shouldn't be able to beat them, even when it was just one of them. The point of Dust (or at least my take on it, I should probably refresh myself on the original blog) is that the very best the player can hope for is simply retrying endlessly. With all three of them, and especially with Chara encroaching on your ability to save and load, it makes complete sense that you just plain lose. Especially love that they abuse that method to restore themselves to before their amalgamation took a turn for the worse, it's really cool that they've decided to exploit the save system for their own benefit.

I guess that's all I have to say for now until the next update (and Merg video). All in all, really awesome fight.

[farlynthordens]

SKB Volume 7 Summary

get in everyone, we’re going to the cat dimension.

this is a summary of important points, including spoilers and new characters. make sure you’re caught up before reading this one!

Volume 2 | Volume 3 | Volume 4 | Volume 5 | Volume 6 | Volume 7 (here) | | Volume 8 | Volume 9

*Note that names of new charas and places haven’t been officially translated yet, so the way I write them may not end up being canon.

A white female cat, called the great evil Amakusa Geppei, faces off on a burning mountain against a male black samurai cat she calls Youkan, the flickering flame blade.

They lunge and strike at each other, but youkan’s blade is the one that reaches its target. geppei bleeds out and collapses.

... This is just a recounting by the narrator of an old tale, being done for a special event during the Imihama Cat Festival being held on cat day.

The narrator tells another tale of how when the tokyo explosion happened, cats separated from humans and formed a country underground that was only for cats. while human civilization collapsed and people died to the rust, cats turned it into the power of the “flickering flame.” this gave them wisdom, and the abilities to walk on 2 feet and use tools.

The narrator makes some mean remarks about pawoo, who was there listening to the story with bisco. she drags him away as she storms out. they wander around the festival as pawoo fumes.

Cats were too weak to survive the rust and are now nearly extinct, save for a few house cats. they’re worshiped by certain religious groups as a symbol of freedom and economic fortune. this festival is meant to show peoples’ respect for cats (in a religious sort of way), and to never forget their existence.

Pawoo cheers herself up by talking about how she and tirol planned the festival, and how it’ll be good for her image among the citizens as well as neighboring prefectures. she also mentions that the kyoto government has pardoned bisco and cleared his criminal history, so he’s officially a free man. bisco isn’t really listening.

Bisco feels alienated by this modern festival, and how they’re worshiping the cat god in a way that’s different than how mushroom keepers do. he’s not used to cheap snacks and loud music - he thinks of a religious festival as a quiet, formal ceremony. he spots girls cosplaying as the cat god and thinks that’s probably blasphemous.

Pawoo notices how the girls in cosplay caught his attention, and runs off to go change clothes.

As bisco stands alone in the loud, bustling crowd, he thinks to himself how he doesn’t like living in the city. he was a born traveler. right now, he just feels very lost about what he wants to do. (If I went back to the traveler life, Milo would definitely come with me... so, maybe, if he’s with me, then what would Pawoo do?) Maybe the 3 of them could all be together. Maybe they could have a kid...? Regardless, he wished for Pawoo to live in good health in a peaceful world. He had no right nor reason to tear her away from that. (But... I just...! Ugh... Was this never going to work out? Should I just give up hope?)

A fortune teller calls out to bisco. he sits down at their table, and they read his palms. they flee in a panic afterward, saying something about how an arrow imbued with the wish for freedom went into the land of cats, and broke the seal on amakusa geppei’s tomb. when bisco turns to leave, the entire festival is barren of life.

Tirol shows up at imihama’s gates, dismayed that the curse her grandfather warned of has already reached here. she herself is afflicted by it, and had grown cat ears and a tail. she rushes to the hospital to let milo know what’s happening.

Milo is back to being a doctor for now, and is the head of the newly expanded panda HOSPITAL. he trains and directs the rest of the staff. lots of patients have been brought in, all with the same weird symptoms.

By the time tirol shows up at the hospital, she’s already losing her cognitive abilities. she jumps on milo, clawing at his clothes and biting him until he drugs her to temporarily suppress the cat symptoms.

When tirol comes to her senses, she explains how satellite images have captured a cloud of “matatabi (flickering flame) particles” sweeping over the area. in the desert south of imihama, there’s a fuck-all gigantic cat face that’s appeared, matatabi particles streaming out of its mouth.

Tirol reverts into cat mode when she spots a butterfly and tries catching it. a cat-ified pawoo breaks in thru the window. bisco arrives shortly after, seemingly having tried to chase and catch her. mayhem ensues.

Milo uses a numbshroom bomb to knock the girls unconscious. bisco hasn’t caught on to the cat disease thing: “... This the first time I’ve seen someone get so angry they grow fangs and claws. I even did as you [milo] told me to and complimented her hair and clothes and shit!”

Milo tells him they have to go eliminate the source of the disease. bisco perks up, saying “Looks like we gotta get out of Imihama then!” before milo even says where they’re going. he immediately takes off to go get actagawa.

Milo knows full well that bisco hasn’t enjoyed the city, and that he’s really alive when he’s on an adventure. (I know you’ve been forcing yourself to stay. You’re so stupid for that. If only you’d just sometimes take my hand and pull me away when you wanted to go somewhere... Well, I’m sure anyone would love to go with you...) He finds the butterfly tirol was chasing earlier, and lets it outside from the broken office window.

They ride into the desert, and it’s dark as night due to all the particles in the air. the only light is the one in bisco’s eyes from how excited he is. Milo periodically looked at Bisco’s face in amusement. Bisco noticed his gaze after a while and seemed to suddenly get embarrassed, pulling down his goggles and, regrettably, covering up his beautiful eyes.

Tirol is also there, riding inside one of the luggage sacks. the trio video calls with high priest ochagama, and he explains how the choushin arrow bisco and milo shot to defeat kurokawa connected the human and cat realms, OR it connected to an alternate universe where the cat realm exists. basically, this is their fault. he says that using the choushin-kyu technique is now strictly forbidden.

They arrive at the giant cat face, and it turns out to be alive. They climb on top of it, and priest ochagama begins chanting sutras to close the interdimensional gate. once again we see the computer programming-esque nature of sutras as he and 100 disciples call upon Hope’s power to use the “gate closing program.” (vol 3)

The cat sneezes and the trio + actagawa are launched into the air. they save actagawa by using arrows to knock him away from the cat, but the trio falls right into its mouth and disappears.

In the cat realm: news breaks out that Amakusa Geppei has been freed thanks to some humans. little sentient mushroom creatures referred to as “kinoko” (punnily written using kanji meaning “demon children”) also appear and cause havoc. the 8th generation shogun, Yahhashi Youkan, will investigate and solve the matter.

When the choushin arrow landed in the cat realm, it brought with it the rust disease. it’s affecting people within the ruling family (youkan’s family) as well. in addition to the issue of geppei being freed, youkan is also trying to find a cure for rusting.

Youkan goes to fetch medicine for his uncle, when suddenly lightning strikes at the boat docks and destroys his canoe. he spots milo and bisco drowning, and saves them. bisco barely has time to process what’s going on before youkan runs off back to his castle to protect it from the kinoko.

The kinoko creatures are small and have stubby limbs, but carry small flaming axes and light fires with flameshroom spores. the kinokos are cat-people who were transformed by geppei’s magic, which youkan knows because geppei used them before she had been sealed away as well.

The kinoko set the castle on fire, trapping youkan’s uncle and other sickly cats inside. suddenly, an arrow flies by him and blue mushrooms that that rain water-like spores grow from the castle, extinguishing the fire. bisco arrives to return the favor of youkan saving his life, and heads off toward the castle to follow the fleeing kinoko.

Bisco introduces himself to the kinoko, who don’t who tf he is. he isn’t sure how to feel about that. he asks them who their creator is, and the leader of the kinoko group says that geppei’s magical golden arrow created them and that they follow her commands.

bisco defeats the kinoko leader easily and the rest run off. youkan, who had followed him, reappears and attacks bisco. youkan believes that bisco is an enemy because he uses mushrooms like geppei does. they have a battle of blades, where bisco is at a clear disadvantage due to using a survival knife against a whole ass katana.

Bisco suddenly is afflicted by the cat disease (likely from being scratched by youkan a moment before). he grows claws and ears, similar to what happened with the girls earlier. his claws snap his bowstring and send his final shot way off course. youkan calls it divine intervention and leaves, no longer interested in fighting.

Youkan’s friend senbei shows up, alerting him that bisco and milo aren’t bad guys. milo is at the castle right now, curing everyone of rusting! senbei tells them to come see immediately. bisco isn’t in good shape, so youkan carries him.

There’s a short chapter about geppei. it starts with her rambling about how sexy and evil she is. she does the ojou-sama laugh and speaks like a Proper LadyTM, but if she gets angry she slips into a nasty and rude speech pattern. tirol became one of her lackeys after geppei found her yesterday. she likes tirol’s engineering skills, and has her making all sorts of things like mirrors and a perm machine.

Geppei’s magic is the cat version of mantras (shingon), called nyangon.... nyantras? it uses the same terminology as mantras as well, except certain sounds in the chants are replaced with “nya”. i’m serious.

Geppei leaves to do something. tirol starts investigating her room, rifling thru the many magic scrolls on geppei’s desk, looking for one that has the cat transformation spell. she finds one describing the choushin arrow, in which geppei noted how its power allows her to do or create anything she desires. tirol realizes she probably keeps the arrow on her at all times.

Tirol secretly follows geppei around her lair, watching her use a cursed bell to transform jailed cats into kinoko. she then goes to take a bath, leaving the arrow unattended in the changing room. when tirol tries to grab it, thorny vines grow out of it and trap her. geppei spots her and realizes she was a traitor, working with the other humans to take back the arrow. she takes out the cursed bell and rings it, and its strange power starts to do something to her mind...

Back at the castle: milo cures youkan’s uncle of his rusting, and youkan invites him to dinner as thanks. they go to join bisco, who is in a private room already stuffing his face with mountains of food. when they enter, milo screams in shock and practically tackles bisco. he pulls on his cat ears and points at the absurd amount he’s eaten, saying this is definitely not normal.

They get into a petty argument over whether or not it was rude of bisco to eat before they arrived, and youkan finds the whole thing hilarious. despite being a noble and refined cat, he seems to enjoy their silliness. he enables bisco to keep doing what he’s doing, to which milo says “please don’t be so easygoing with him”. youkan replies “you sound like you’re his wife.”

When more food is brought out, they stuff their faces and throw all table manners out the window - including milo, who had been trying really hard up til now to be proper.

The next day, the trio rides horses as they travel thru the vibrant landscape. it seems the boys told youkan about tirol being missing, but he says they shouldn’t worry about her as they’ve sent out many cats to search for her.

Bisco and milo whisper to each other, milo noting how peaceful their country is and bisco saying it’s proof that everyone loves and trusts in their leader. he aptly identifies many of youkan’s traits and how they make him great. milo is curious why bisco is so into this topic. “Hmhm, I get it now...” Milo mused. “...Though it’s not like WE need to know this stuff.” “Why not? With that sort of outlook, you could become a great village chief!” “Village chief, my ass! I’d rather get locked up in Rokudou Prison.”

Milo goes to talk to youkan about geppei. he describes the human version of their story, where the righteous youkan defeated the evil white witch. youkan seems off-put by the mention of “good” and “evil”. he begins muttering to himself: “... I sometimes see her in my dreams. What if, on that day, I had left this country behind and taken her hand instead...?”

Milo can’t help but compare youkan’s amazing leadership skills to pawoo’s, which are still greatly lacking. she has the delicacy of a sledgehammer in both the ways she leads and loves others.

In the following days, they decide that the 3 of them are going to sneak into geppei’s lair. bisco and milo are to act as his secret bodyguards - his oniwaban.

Early one morning, youkan takes the boys to his friend’s clothing store to get them something befitting samurai so that they stand out a bit less. they sneak through town wearing black robes, and bisco and milo have a little too much fun pretending to be ninjas.

They realize one of the attendants at the clothing shop is a spy due to her trying to sneak away. they make her reveal who her boss is, which is the local magistrate and the bell-seller. they had been working for geppei and selling bell collars imbued with her magic, which would turn cats into kinoko.

The trio busts into the magistrate’s hideout. milo is getting a bit too into playing pretend ninja/samurai now that he’s dressed for the part too. “I won’t let you lay a finger on Youkan-sama!” A chime rang out from his bell-shaped earrings. It was a human samurai - his long, blue hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and he wore a matching sky blue kimono. He deftly flipped his hair so it danced in the wind. ... He pulled a flashy move, much in the way that a ninja never should, as he jumped in front of Youkan. “The oniwaban, Nekoyanagi Milo, HAS ARRIVED!” he proclaimed. “An oniwaban would not announce themselves,” Youkan said. “Youkan-sama, check me out! I feel like I’m a real samurai now!” “Um, yes, but...” “Can you believe Bisco didn’t compliment me at all? Hey, do you think I look good in this? Look at my hair, too!”

Youkan pursues the fleeing villains while milo stays behind to take care of the swarms of kinoko. the magistrate was a fellow student of the flickering flame blade, so youkan knows him well. when he backs them into a corner, the magistrate swallows one of the magical bells and turns into a giant, superpowered kinoko. it seems like youkan might not be strong enough to handle this on his own, but bisco comes crashing in to deliver one of his signature kicks. he’s loosely wearing a dark red kimono.

Since bisco can’t use a bow with his sharp claws, he’s throwing arrowheads like shuriken. He uses one laced with drunkenshroom poison, which didn’t kill the magistrate but incapacitated him with a wicked 3-day hangover.

The bell-seller ran away while this fight happened, but milo caught him on his way to regroup with the others. they question the bell-seller about where they can find geppei’s cursed bell so that they can save everyone who was turned into kinoko.

The bell was hidden under the floorboards of the house they just fought in, inside a large dug-out space. youkan uses a special technique to cut it to pieces faster than the eye can see, and bisco asks how he did that. youkan gives an incomplete answer, saying that true flickering flame techniques don’t even need you to use your sword, and that he cut the bell because he simply imagined it being cut. sound familiar?

The bell dissolves away, revealing a staircase leading down into a cave. they enter a long tunnel, which then splits into 2 paths. youkan goes one way while the boys go the other.

It seems like the boys went down the correct path, as the tunnel turns from dirt walls into gold. however, they step on a trick tile that causes the floor to collapse. as they fall, they shoot shimeji arrows into the darkness, hoping to create a cushion of mushrooms on the floor very far below.

Bisco lands pretty hard. he looks around but can’t see milo, and worries about the possibility that he failed the landing and died. he doesn’t want to call out for him in case enemies are nearby... which they seem to be, from the creepy air permeating the dark space.

He wanders around cautiously, when he runs into amli...? “Your eyes, which glow with vigor when in times of extreme danger, also yearn for love filled with passion. ... Bisco, take me with you...” He kicks at her and she morphs to look like Chayka. “My, you spare no mercy!” said the illusion. “Quit showing me cheap knock-offs of my friends. Don’t get cocky just ‘cause you looked in my head!” “But we’re trying to tell you that we acknowledge how you really feel?” “This isn’t a fuckin’ therapy session!” he growled, swinging his sword. It was met by a familiar crimson blade, and ‘Chayka’ slowly morphed into ‘Sisi’. “Amazing, big brother, I can feel the power of your life force. So, why do you keep lying to yourself? Why do you stay within the coil of that black snake when you could be free?” “What are you--” “I’m talking about that woman.”

A blue streak shoots through the air and pierces sisi‘s forehead, destroying the magic tormenting bisco. “Didn’t think you’d escape from the illusion first,” Bisco said. “I’m much less affected by emotions than you, so...” Milo stated. He watched the golden particles of the illusion magic fade away and helped Bisco (who was drenched in sweat) get back to his feet. As he did... “Bisco,” he spoke quietly, “there’s something you haven’t told me, isn’t there?” Milo sounded so deeply depressed, it made any words Bisco would’ve said get caught in his throat. Milo grabbed him by the collar and continued his interrogation as he got up in Bisco’s face. “Illusion magic would normally never work on you. What the hell were you shown?” “W... well, what did YOU see?!” Bisco turned the question back on him. “If you tell me, I’ll tell you!” “It was a really erotic fantasy. There were a bunch of naked-looking people,” he said flatly. “Ero--” “Look at me, Bisco!” It made sense that our very ‘experienced’ panda doctor wouldn’t be fazed by seduction magic. Milo completely let that conversation thread go, and bashed their foreheads together. “The strength of your will is your true strength. The strength of your heart is what got us through so many battles. If your had any hesitation in your heart, we wouldn’t even be able to win against a fucking mouse!” “...” “...You have me.” Milo chose his words carefully as he continued, “You know... no matter what you decide to do, I’ll be okay with it.” Their noses touched as Milo said, “Don’t ask other people what they think. Make your own choices! Even if you chose to destroy the world with mushrooms, I’d gladly be the only person to remain by your side and tell you how beautiful it was. No matter what you chose to do -- even if that’s to fucking kill me -- I’d follow you anywhere, even into to the depths of hell!” he shouted. They could feel each others warmth where their foreheads touched. ... This vow of Milo’s devotion helped bring the light back to Bisco’s eyes.

Suddenly, a gold arrow flies by, narrowly missing them. geppei herself stalks in, applauding milo’s passionate speech. she uses her magic to light up and transform the area into a glittering, golden reception hall. there’s a red carpet with living maneki-nekos lining either side.

Geppei calls for a servant, and tirol walks in. bisco and milo are shocked that she was here the whole time. tirol seems completely under geppei’s spell, waiting on her every need, and takes the abuse for doing things in a way the cat doesn’t like.

Geppei tries convincing bisco to come live in the cat realm forever. his claws are too sharp for the human world, so to speak, but here he could live freely and have as much fun as he likes. bisco rejects the idea, saying that both freedom and order can hold you back, and he wants neither of them. he just wants to live by his own desires.

She’s enraged at how bisco is treating her just like youkan did. just as she’s about to attack, youkan shows up to protect the boys. she summons 7 cat spirits to fight him... which are his 7 older brothers who she killed.

Bisco and milo draw her attention by calling her ugly, sending geppei into a blind rage. when bisco moves in to attack, tirol uses nyantras to form a shield around her. geppei laughs, calling them uneducated fools for not realizing she has an unbreakable offense and defense.

Milo is offended by that remark (”I can’t speak for both of us, but at least I’M educated.” and bisco replies “I’ll fucking decapitate you”). youkan asks if there’s any way to defeat geppei, to which milo says of course there is. he plans to use the mantra bow, but youkan needs to stall geppei, tirol, AND the spirits for at least a few seconds while they summon it.

Youkan defeats the spirits and attacks geppei directly. he’s overwhelmed by the arrow’s power and sent flying across the room. she walks up to him and says she’ll give him one last chance. all he has to do is admit he was wrong for choosing the country over her, but youkan doesn’t give in.

Bisco and milo fire the mantra bow, the intense shot echoing like a bullet piercing metal. geppei barely holds it back with the choushin arrow, and it seems like she’s about to be overwhelmed... but her desire to live imbues the arrow with more power, and she redirects their shot away. it flies up to the ceiling and breaks a hole thru to the outside.

They used all their energy on that one shot, so there’s no do-over. bisco states how the choushin ability can’t be defeated by anything now, and milo asks why the hell bisco ever decided that using the choushin-kyu was a good idea. bisco reminds him that they’re BOTH guilty in this.

Geppei uses magic to shoot the choushin arrow. it takes off one of youkan’s arms, then pierces his leg, then his chest. he collapses and milo holds him, but there’s no time to save him right now. geppei sends the arrow flying at them again, but youkan’s uncle appears from the hole in the ceiling and blocks it just before the arrow kills milo as well.

The uncle explains that geppei was youkan’s wife, but politics and rules tore them apart. geppei succumbed to evil, and youkan hoped to free her using his flickering flame blade.

The uncle willingly gives up his life to hold off geppei as milo and bisco escape. they boys flee with youkan, and milo realizes that as things are now, geppei is unbeatable. Milo: “I get it now. It was no coincidence that geppei received the choushin arrow - rather, it was drawn to her because of her intense desire to win. to take everything back. to be freed. ... in a battle of wills like this, you’d normally win, bisco, but the one most suited to defeating her is youkan. we have to keep him alive!”

The hall and surrounding caves/tunnels are collapsing quickly as geppei’s magic goes out of control. bisco gets on all fours to run faster (you know... like a cat) and has milo/youkan ride on his back.

The royal castle appears to be rising out of the ground when suddenly legs and arms sprout from it. the outside walls become covered in mushroom growth, and it turns into the biggest kinoko ever seen. geppei and tirol ride on it, and geppei stabs youkan’s severed arm with the choushin arrow. the arm transforms into a massive cursed bell.

The kinoko-castle rings the giant bell, and every cat in the country is turned into a kinoko. finally, geppei’s plan is complete. everyone is equal, and they no longer have worries or fears. they can just leisurely exist and be happy.

Bisco and milo let youkan rest in a cave on a faraway mountain, and his powerful regeneration abilities healed his leg. during the battle, he absorbed some of the choushin arrow’s power and its golden particles of magic closed up his otherwise lethal chest wound. however, his arm is still gone and he can no longer use a sword. milo offers to get him a prosthetic, but bisco (as someone also heavily reliant on his arms for archery) understands that he can’t be fixed that easily.

They need someone to use the flickering flame’s ultimate technique in order to defeat geppei. youkan concludes that he has to give bisco a crash-course in swordsmanship to pass it along to him. bisco, who had never used a sword before like yesterday, complains that he can’t do it.

Youkan knocks him unconscious and milo freaks out. but it’s okay, this was part of the plan. he summons a stream of flickering flame particles and they steadily flow into bisco’s body. by using this method, he can give bisco 6 months worth of training from inside his dreams. neither of them can move during that time, but the kinoko-castle is already coming for them.

Milo is assigned to protect them until the training finishes. youkan knows he’s asking the impossible, telling him to single-handedly hold off the giant kinoko, geppei, and tirol, but milo is overconfident as usual.

In his dream, bisco wakes up on the ground surrounded by cats peering down at him. they refer to him if he was a young girl, and say that “she” is a thief who should be killed for “her” crimes. a young youkan arrives to defend “her”, chasing off the unnamed cats. when bisco tries to speak to youkan, a girl’s voice comes out. he doesn’t realize that he can’t control what he’s saying, until the girl states her name is amakusa geppei. this is all a recreation of youkan’s memories that he’s seeing from geppei’s eyes.

Meanwhile: Milo catches the attention of the kinoko-castle by standing atop a giant king trumpet mushroom that dwarfs the massive monster. geppei isn’t impressed, but the kinoko gets angry seeing a mushroom bigger than itself (the kinoko in general are very dumb).

He keeps drawing the kinoko away from youkan and bisco’s location. geppei decides to send tirol to fight him, and uses the cursed bell to accelerate her cat-ification. she becomes more cat-like in form and develops an intense craving for fresh meat. geppei basically tells her to kill and eat milo.

Tirol’s sharp claws destroy the giant mushrooms, causing milo to fall and land on the roof of some house far below. milo uses his mantra abilities to summon many emerald cubes and infuses his blood into them, and transforms them into butterflies. tirol starts chasing the fake insects.

While she’s distracted, milo cuts off the cursed bell around her neck. this removes geppei’s hold on her and she gets sleepy. she’s still very far in her cat-ification though and can’t speak, only meow. milo carries her as they dodge attacks from the kinoko-castle, though she helps form a shield around them when they get sent flying.

Tirol uses nyantras to create a staircase up to the roof of the castle. they then combine their powers to form a giant golden 7-branched sword and horizontally slice the castle in half.

They believe they won. But only for a moment, as each half of the kinoko-castle begins regenerating. they form 2 separate giant kinoko that are even bigger than the original.

In bisco’s dream: youkan and geppei argue about who will be the next shogun now that his father is getting old. she says that all of his brothers are pieces of shit, and only he would be a good ruler. she tells him they should run away and form their own country.

And more memories: geppei sleeps with rakugan (the father) to convince him to make youkan his successor. rakugan lies and says he’ll do it. he later talks to his other 7 sons, and says that the one to murder youkan will become the successor. while hidden, geppei uses magic to stab rakugan and the 7 sons with a hairpin. rakugan is still alive so she enters the room to finish the job. servants come running to see the commotion and she kills them as well.

Youkan later finds geppei in the garden. “I killed them all. I was stronger than them.” “...” “Come, Youkan. Let us leave here and start our lives anew...” Youkan swiftly drew his sword. The tears falling from his eyes were swept away in the wind, and he brought his sword down towards Geppei as she held out her hand to him.

In that moment, bisco’s consciousness is forcefully separated from geppei’s. he and youkan are now in some place that’s frozen in time, looking into that final moment as youkan has no memories beyond it. youkan explains that the secret technique of the flickering flame is “interfering with what’s in your opponent’s mind,” where your mind and theirs merge into one.

Without warning or mercy, bisco attacks him. youkan asks why he’s so angry. “Because you’re exactly like me!” Bisco shouted. “I just decide to do things without knowing at all what Pawoo wants for me... you two could’ve lived happily on your own terms, but you...!!!” Bisco’s eyes wavered. Inside Bisco’s consciousness, Youkan clearly saw a fragment of Geppei that had once been long lost. “Pawoo... I mean, Geppei fumbled through the dark, putting her life on the line to bring you happiness. She was probably scared and felt alone. Why the hell didn’t you think to run away with her?” “Because her path would’ve lead to all kinds of dark magic, and it would not bring happiness to all us cats--” “WHO GIVES A SHIT!!! There was no 'all us cats’, it was just you and her in your own world! If you can’t catch your destined prey, then maybe you should just give up on being a cat!!!!!”

Their fight ends when they’re both suddenly swept up by a storm of flickering flame particles. they get absorbed into bisco, causing him to glow red. youkan says that the flickering flame has accepted him as a new user, but he’s a bit nervous because of how fast it happened - he didn’t even teach bisco anything yet. youkan very quickly explains the general idea of the flickering flame’s ultimate technique before both of them are forced out of the dream world.

Milo and tirol are running from the 2 kinoko-castles. enough time has passed that tirol regained her sense of self and can talk again. the castles are blasting gold petrification rays at them, and milo gets hit in the leg. he’s unable to move, so he tells tirol to run away by herself. instead she uses mantras form a shield to protect him, but she’s barely strong enough to hold off the blasts.

A mushroom arrow flies overhead and knocks down one of the kinoko-castles. another arrow lands near the duo, and mushrooms sprout beneath them that launch them into the air. bisco grabs milo and tirol, taking them to a nearby hill.

Tirol at first is super thankful for the save, before turning back to her usual self and chiding bisco for always showing up at the very last second. B: “At least I ain’t late.” T: “Asshole. Do you know just how much Milo and I--” B: “Have gone through? Yeah, I’ve gone through a lot today too. I got turned into a woman and slept with a tiger.” T: (The fuck is he talking about??) M: “Bisco, welcome back!” B: “Hey. Seems like you’ve been fighting for a while, have you had any trouble?” M: “Not at all!” T: “YES WE HAVE?!”

Milo asks excitedly what the secret flickering flame technique is, and bisco says he doesn’t really know either, but hopefully things will be okay?

Milo and tirol draw attention while bisco moves in to attack. as he’s slashing away at one of the kinoko, he figures out the secret technique. by using the flickering flame’s power to connect to your opponent’s mind, you can forcibly reverse their intended actions. when the kinoko goes to punch him, bisco simply stands there and wills the kinoko to instead hit itself.

The kinoko can no longer regenerate either. instead, they start breaking down into mini kinoko, and the towering castle-kinoko keep getting smaller and smaller. the new mini kinoko latch on to bisco and follow him around like a mother duck being followed by its many ducklings.

Bisco uses the mini kinoko to attack the big one, and has them all hold down the remaining kinoko-castle’s legs.

He attacks geppei directly, trying to take back the choushin arrow. he injures her severely, but she isn’t willing to give up. she imbues one last wish into the arrow, and it begins sucking in everything like a black hole. she says that she’ll completely recreate the cat realm to be as she desires, but bisco and milo warn her that this cycle will just keep repeating, and she’ll end up being all alone.

The congealed matter forms into a giant, red glowing ball in the sky. It starts crashing down like a meteorite, but bisco is strangely calm. he says he finally understands everything. he tells milo to ready the mantra bow, and closes his eyes as a certain woman comes to mind.

Red particles swirl around them, and the mantra bow turns into a red flickering flame bow. they shoot an arrow into the red glowing mass, but nothing seems to happen. after having seen the very flashy matra bow and reibyou bow in action, tirol feels disappointed at how un-exciting this was. she starts freaking out about how they’re going to be crushed to death, until they all look up and realize that the mass is actually rising back up into the sky.

The mass is aimed right for geppei. milo looks at bisco curiously. “When we fired the bow just now, I sensed some sort of very tender emotion that I’ve never felt before... What did you do to Geppei, or her mind, I guess?” “Can’t say I did anything, but I also didn’t not do anything... Basically, she never really wanted ‘freedom.’” “She just wanted to be happy?” “Yeah. All I did was remind her of that.”

Geppei is enveloped by the red glowing mass, and a bright wave of energy erupts as the bubble bursts. everyone is knocked down by its force, but they realize afterward that bisco and tirol are fully human again, and the cats that had been turned into kinoko have also gone back to normal. milo theorizes that geppei’s powers were reset, hence why all the curses she cast have gone away.

To their surprise, youkan’s uncle shows up. apparently he had been absorbed into the kinoko-castle. he asks if youkan is okay, to which bisco hesitantly tells him that youkan “had one last thing he needed to do.”

Milo panics as he realized they need to find and destroy the choushin arrow, but bisco says it’s not their problem anymore. he grabs milo’s hand and drags him off, saying it’s time to go back to the human world. “Hey, what’s gotten in to you? Bisco, answer me!” “I kept you guys waiting for way too long. We can’t waste any more time.” “Bisco...!” “This whole time, it was so simple...” Bisco moved swift like the wind as his eyes shined calmly, as if he finally found the answer he was looking for. “I’m so bad at this... I always have been. Always being such a show-off, and risking my life...” * [see comments] Milo came to understand what his partner’s lamentations meant. He moved closer to Bisco, who continued muttering to himself. He put his lips up to Bisco’s ear and quietly whispered, “So all you have left to take care of is just this one, simple thing?” “...” “Maybe you’re right about that. But it's okay to only have one thing you need - nothing else matters. To be honest, I’ve lost the need for anything besides my love for you.” “...” “Don’t be afraid, Bisco. If this is how you truly feel, then you don't need to feel bad about stepping into other people's lives. Just like how you did when you stole me away from Imihama that day...” Bisco chose to not answer with words, instead squeezing Milo’s hand tightly. A few rays of sunlight began peeking through the clouds over the kingdom of cats, illuminating the pair as they ran.

Sometime later, geppei wakes up in a grassy field. she drags herself along the ground, leaving a trail of blood. she finds the choushin arrow and thinks she’s won the day, but then youkan appears. geppei thinks he’s come to finish her off, but instead he apologizes to her and bows his head.

The police call out for geppei’s arrest. geppei cries as she remembers her childhood as a thief, and that she’s going to die how she was born. she tries awakening the arrow’s power, but it doesn’t work... until youkan also touches it. he says he’ll throw away his country and his sword - all he needs is her. that’s what bisco and milo helped him realize.

They use the arrow to fly off into the sky, towards the gate connecting the cat and human realms...

Back in japan, everyone has recovered from the cat disease. unfortunately, this means pawoo has to go back to being governor where mountains of paperwork and endless questions wait for her. she’s irritable from not sleeping for days, but receiving the official document for bisco’s pardon gives her a spark of joy - all she has to do is stamp it to put it into effect.

Suddenly, bisco breaks in through the window and tells her that they’re leaving. she asks where they’re going, and bisco says “We’re going wherever I’m going.” like milo, it seems that pawoo has been waiting for this moment. but just to confirm this is really happening, she says “If I leave with you now, I’m not ever coming back here again you know?”

Bisco tears up his pardon, saying the government shouldn’t do shit without his permission. he’s made up his mind, and decided that he needs to bring pawoo on his adventures because she’s part of his destiny. Bisco had unconsciously placed an arbitrary restriction on himself this whole time, where he made it taboo to interfere with the course of anyone’s life besides Milo’s. Bisco's ironclad isolationism was broken down thanks to the flickering flame, and he finally was able to take his first steps into his wife’s heart.

Pawoo’s assistant is watching all this happen and panicking, begging pawoo not to leave because the city will fall apart. she gives 0 fucks. she throws her resignation letter at the assistant and says she’s going to go live her true happiness. bisco carries her out the window and they head off to the gate where milo is waiting for them.

Now that they’ve made enemies of both imihama and the kyoto government (again), bisco asks where on earth they can go. milo says they’re going to kagoshima, where sisi and the benibishi have started their own country. they’ll help protect the trio from the government.

Imihama’s army is out in full force, chasing after them and firing cannons. pawoo uses her pole to deflect the attacks, sending the cannonballs into imihama’s walls and shattering them. bisco says “you realize you were the leader of that place til like 2 minutes ago??” but pawoo says fuck imihama and fuck the walls that kept it isolated from the rest of the world.

She looks excited and full of life, like a giant weight has been taken off her shoulders. all of them are happy as they make their great escape, running away to be together like they should have long ago.

THE END

Other notes

Amakusa is a different reading for the kanji of “kenzou” (licorice), and “geppei” means mooncake.

Youkan, Rakugan, and his uncle Shibafune are all named after japanese wagashi.

Youkan is around 30 years old.

Other food names mentioned: Senbei (rice cracker), gohei (savory skewered mochi).

“Matatabi” (flickering flame) is likely a pun, because there is a type of plant used for cat treats that is also pronounced matatabi in japanese.

The way years are written in the cat realm is like that of traditional japanese year numbering, except the period name is silly: Byouei year [number], where “byouei” is the kanji for cat + forever.

Mushroom keeper culture tidbit: In the dinner scene, milo says “aren’t you supposed to wait for the elders to be seated before you start eating?” bisco explains that’s only true if you’re at a drinking party with relatives. it’s not applicable when you’re guests at a stranger’s house.

Milo really hates the super sparkly and maximalist “all gold” aesthetic that geppei has going on. he calls it ugly and pretends to gag whenever he sees it.

Tthe flickering flame blade techniques are mostly water and fish themed.

When the uncle shows up to save youkan, there are some brief flashbacks. we learn that youkan’s father seemed to actively dislike him. rakugan and his other 7 sons are all tigers, while youkan is a black cat.

It is explicitly noted that the humans who turned half-cat still have their human ears. so they have 2 sets of ears.

* In this line, bisco does not use any pronouns so it’s unclear who he’s talking about. I assumed it was himself since that makes the most sense to me.

When pawoo destroys imihama’s walls at the end, she states that the walls have been useless for years now. they were built to block the rusty wind, but the wind has more or less been eradicated by this point.

From the author’s afterword: bisco seems to have parts of himself reflected in both youkan and geppei. bisco and geppei’s real enemy in this volume was society, rather than a specific person... cat. however, the author wasn’t trying to say that society is bad. in the skb world, there is no such thing as pure good or bad - it’s about finding a balance somewhere in between. he also states that there’s something etheral about introspection, and asking yourself, “am I a human, or am I a cat? or maybe I’m an eagle, or a wolf?” - basically meaning, “what kind of person am I and how does that affect the way I want to live my life?”

[bigskydreaming]

Holy shit, I loved the first two issues of X-Men Red, but this third issue just......I haven’t been this invested in a comic, or surprised by the twists it takes, in longer than I can remember. Ewing had me with his S.W.O.R.D. series back in Dawn of X, but his plotting and pacing in XMR is on another level entirely. And his characterizations are just....*chef’s kiss* 

I will ALWAYS agree with the criticism of him being heavily whitewashed compared to his original design and depictions, but writing wise? THIS is the Roberto DaCosta I’ve been waiting to read again for AGES.

The way he played Isca, using the right of challenge by insult to force her hand, tricking her power into ensuring Magneto won his challenge against Tarn, even though he knew damn well how she’d react and what it would cost him......Sunspot is playing 3-D chess out here while all the allegedly more powerful and influential mutants of both Arakko’s Great Ring and Krakoa’s Quiet Council are puttering around playing checkers. He finessed this whole situation from the word go, and even played Magneto to get him into position (though I think Mags at least is very aware of that, and more than a little proud of his former pupil for that. I LOVE that Ewing’s leaning so heavily into their history together from when Magneto was headmaster of the Institute and the New Mutants’ primary teacher).

I mean really, X-Men Red itself is the book I never knew I wanted this badly until now, but its just.....its like Dune meets Game of Thrones but with X-Men. The politics and power struggles, the dedication to examining and subverting colonialist and imperialistic tropes, the larger than life and surrealist backdrop of Mars as a fully terraformed and flourishing mutant homeworld, the way every single main character has multiple agendas and constantly shifting allegiances, the intricacies of the actual fights between the MANY omega mutants on the cast, each and every one of them a potential planet-killer in their own right....

Not to mention the unapologetic over the top DRAMA of it all, lmao:

(Honestly, that’s one of the things that impresses me most about Ewing’s work with the Great Ring. How writers handle uber-powered characters while keeping stakes high and plausible, like, tends to be a very good barometer for their work as a whole. Its HARD to pull off, without making everything feel very paint-by-numbers and with no real risk or urgency, let alone just flat out unrealistic or riddled with plot holes. And not only has Ewing been juggling Storm, Magneto, Tarn, Vulcan and Isca from the start, he’s been laying seeds for Lodus Logos, Lactuca and some of the other GR members to become entangled in the larger plot as well. PLUS there’s the fact that most of these characters are now literally immortal and unkillable thanks to the resurrection protocols, yet he’s still managing to make the now-merely-temporary-deaths feel weighty and significant even without the threat of permanence. And I REALLY want to see Ewing’s take on Ora Serrata).

But like. There’s so damn much to enjoy about this book, I can’t believe its literally only on its third issue:

Brand and Ororo’s ideological war over Arakko’s autonomy and their constant attempts to outmaneuver and keep two steps ahead of the other. (Like seriously, Brand vs Ororo is fast becoming the new Xavier vs Magneto dichotomy for me). 

Cable, Thunderbird and Manifold’s subterfuge, working to undermine Brand from the inside, with even Nate and John’s ‘fight’ in the last issue having just been a deliberately staged bit of theater to sell the idea they hate each other too much to EVER work together against a common enemy....all while remaining true to the fact that its not actually a lie, they really do have beef with each other and are not remotely interested in being friends.

(Also I remain unapologetically stanning one Eden Fesi and I’m so glad his apparent departure from the cast last issue was just a fake-out and he’s not actually going anywhere. BEST CHARACTER IS BEST, SORRY NOT SORRY).

Brand’s blatant manipulations of Vulcan as she attempts to use him as her ‘big gun’ to gain herself an in on the Great Ring, now that she knows there’s no way she can use Ororo to further her agenda. 

Not to mention that every fucking time Gabe gets beaten and humiliated to hell and back, the stakes just keep rising, thanks to how heavily Ewing’s foreshadowing what’s to come once ‘the real Vulcan’ cracks through the shell those aliens from the Fault used to hide ‘his true mind.’

(And I’m like LMAO that freaking MENTALLO has a better read on Gabe’s real thoughts than Xavier. Loooooooool).

Magneto’s breakdown and the reveal of what really made him leave Krakoa and seek solitude on Arakko - how he’d hoped when Wanda made the Waiting Room, it might finally lead to Anya’s resurrection as well, but it turns out she wasn’t even a latent mutant, and there’s just no way to bring her back after all (at least not using the res protocols). 

The way this is juxtaposed later in the issue with Isca’s vulnerability when she’s tricked into basically sealing Tarn’s fate herself, and the fact that for a woman whose own power has made her betray her closest family in the past, no matter how vile Tarn was, the fact that they spent a thousand years fighting on the same side MEANT something to her. She’s not as cold and jaded as she likes to present herself as, and for a brief moment her mask slipped in public, and she’s as likely to hold a grudge against Roberto for THAT as for the actual manipulation itself.

The sheer fucking BRILLIANCE of how Roberto looked at this nigh-all powerful mutant who has literally spent four thousand years being known as THE UNBEATEN thanks to her omega level power to manipulate probability and ensure she literally CAN NOT lose.....and where everyone else sees proof there’s not even a POINT to challenging her, he sees opportunity and is just like....no yeah, I can use that. 

Like, what Magneto did in his actual fight with Tarn was irrelevant before the fight even began, because Roberto had ALREADY ensured his victory just by backing Isca and her power into inadvertently siding with Max instead of her long-time ally, Tarn. That’s so galaxy brain, I can’t even. 

afhslfhalfhal

Like not gonna lie....a BIG part of why I was so bummed when it was leaked that Bobby was just moving over to Duggan’s X-Men title, was because I had genuinely, sincerely convinced myself that he HAD to be the ringer Storm was bringing in to beat Tarn and take an additional seat on the Great Ring, because there was simply no other omega she could both trust AND who was actually capable of beating Tarn. His powerset is a beast and I don’t know that its a given that Magneto could have beaten him without the edge Roberto gave him. Whereas Bobby’s one of the few omegas whose own powerset comes with a built-in immunity/workaround for Tarn’s particular bag of tricks.

I mean I KNEW Gabe wasn’t going to be able to pull it off, no matter how Abigail tried to stack the deck in his favor, but I didn’t think that was where Ewing was going with Magneto either, not for sure, just because I think in most variations of this fight, Tarn WAS the more likely victor there. But the combo of Roberto’s insurance policy and how Max used his helmet.....perfection.

Also perfection? Magneto’s budding bromance-plz-let-it-be-more with the Fisher King. I LOVE their dynamic, and Mags is ABSOLUTELY winning the Magneto/Xavier break-up because of it. LMAO.

As for Tarn’s fate.....eh, its not the last we’ve seen of him. He’s basically the Arakkii version of Sinister, there’s no WAY he doesn’t have clones of himself stashed away somewhere, or some failsafe in place in case anyone ever did get the drop on him. Especially after Ororo humbled the fuck out of him in their duel.....that scene made it clear he’s waaaaaay too big on self-preservation to risk not coming up with some get out of death free card for himself.

But then, I’m ALSO not convinced that we’ve seen the last of Nameless. I don’t buy that she actually killed herself at the end of losing HER duel to Ororo, and I think she just faked it with that lightning strike before slipping away to recover and plan for her revenge another day. 

So I’m kinda expecting that some of these fallen Great Ring members are still gonna be out there, maybe forming a kind of Shadow Ring of their own, to undermine Storm and her allies on the GR.

Of course, even without that, Roberto’s gambit might have won them the Seat of Loss, but it came at a cost as it guaranteed that the formerly ambivalent ‘frenemy’ Ororo had in Isca, has now given way to absolutely-holding-a-grudge-enemy-for-life Isca. And we’ve already seen in X of Swords that ideally, you WANT an apathetic Isca who doesn’t care all that much about what happens to you after her inevitable victory. An Isca the Unbeaten who is INVESTED in beating you.....that’s something to be afraid of.

And lastly, but certainly not least:

I fucking love Khora, and I hope she takes Ororo up on her offer to jump ship from Brand’s camp and join her Brotherhood instead.

[gompereatsall]

DAMIEN LAVEY FOR THE CHARA ASK !!

OOOOO YES THANK YOU HAHN <33

Sexuality Headcanon: ooo he is SO pan (but that's practically canon djdjs) I also love the idea of him being demiromantic!!

Gender Headcanon: Dami uses he/him pronouns, but is chill with she/her and they/them when he's in drag!

A ship I have with said character: Damioz is VERY cute, I love the opposite attracts trope a lot so I immediately loved the ship lol <33 and,,, okay hear me out,,, but I am such a big shipper of damien x miranda. I just,,,, their aesthetics are so cute and they make each other worse <333 love them <3

A BROTP I have with said character: Damien and Scott are ICONIC it would be a crime not to mention the fact they're best friends lol ALSO?? Milo and Damien 🥺🥺 I loved and treasured every interaction they had in Camp. Another one which I don't think people mention is Polly and Damien!! Two friends causing chaos cuz they're bored, gotta love it

A NOTP I have with said character: (other than obvious gross stuff) eh, not really any? Maybe Dahlia, but I'm not really against it or anything, just meh, prefer them as rivals-to-friendly rivals-to-eventual friends

A random headcanon: Damien and Miranda met when they were younger once, maybe even multiple times, but he completely forgot about her by the time they met each other at Spooky High </3 she was very offended lol

General Opinion over said character: He is one of my top favorites on the series, I can never have enough of him <33

[summercreolefanfictioner]

Lol your defending for GabiYui is really on point. I remember some watchers even said 'too bad Gabimaru's heart is stick on his wife, Sagiri is much prettier or hotter' or 'go for it Gabimaru, it's okay to have multiple wives'. Come on, are we now living in an era where a husband being loyal to his wife is something really weird? I need Gabimaru to show his ninjutsu to these people lol.

awww thank you! ofc I will defend GabiYui no matter what since this pair is so close to my heart and has actually inspired me to write better at romance (aside from the other characters from different fandoms I am in) and do my best in life (Nishinoya from Haikyuu is still my main drive but still)

now onto some big points of this ask hehe

re: "Sagiri is prettier than Yui" issue

these two are absolute sisters your honor

I won't deny that sagiri is beautiful like I swear have you seen her and the way she fights back despite men looking down on her and how she swings her sword? plus episode 6 highlighted her being able to balance her emotions, making her gently kill rokurota. ugh perfection. chef's kiss. 1000/10 rating.

but ya know I don't get why people have to be like "Sagiri is way prettier and hotter but too bad Gabi is not in love with her" like what do you mean too bad? like ???? idk if it's just me but does gabimaru have to appreciate her being hot or what? plus ya know gabi is not into the appearance anyways. he even said in the latest episode (which is episode 7 as of this writing) that appearances really don't matter.

plus I don't get why people love comparing yui and sagiri's physical appearance against each other and saying "this girl is prettier" yada yada when they are both best girls with distinct beauty. in fact, there is an interview with Chainsaw Man author Tatsuki Fujimoto about Hell's Paradise author Yuji Kaku where he discussed about drawing female characters. according to Fujimoto-sensei, Kaku-sensei always drew his female characters beautifully in an aesthethic manner and his reason behind this is bcos "all girls are cute regardless so we must always draw them as cute girls" (not exact quote but you get what I mean) that's why Fujimoto-sensei added he has been trying to draw his female characters as cute as possible. so yeah both sagiri and yui are cute and pretty or whatnot. they just exhibit different vibes like sagiri has major main female chara vibes while yui is def softcore cottagecore vibes 🥰🥰🥰

besides, no matter what people say, yui will still be the most beautiful person in gabimaru's eyes. he even said so in both manga and episode 7.

note: he used the word "utsukushii" for the term "beautiful" and in Japanese, using this term means you really find a person so beautiful inside and out that it moves you emotionally so the mere fact gabimaru described yui in this manner despite her telling him that she's ugly is something else 😭🥺💖

re: "it's okay for Gabimaru to take on multiple wives" issue

(THIS ONE WILL CONTAIN MAJOR MANGA SPOILERS AND OTHER CANON EVIDENCES THAT HAVEN'T BEEN TRANSLATED OR MOST PEOPLE HAVE NO HANDS ON DUE TO LIMITED SOURCES)

here's MY NOT SO CONTROVERSIAL TAKE on this one bcos you all know my answer.

it is no doubt that gabimaru can take on multiple wives. after all, gantetsusai mentioned he has multiple wives across japan. plus their time period allows men to marry multiple women so people making this statement knows what they are saying.

HOWEVER!

I actually don't think gabimaru will engage in this sort of thing (see, I told you my opinion on this is not controversial hehe) and here's why.

we all know that osa (aka iwagakure village chief) killed gabimaru's parents and took gabimaru in, even to a point where gabimaru literally lives in the village chief's home like some sort of special treatment.

however, I think one reason gabimaru got special treatment is bcos both of his parents are high-class shinobis (like jonin level) and ofc osa saw his potential that maybe "ah this kid might inherit his parents' ninja skills or something"

plus, osa doesn't have any sons to begin with bcos surprise surprise YUI HAS NEARLY 20 HALF SISTERS with her being the eighth daughter. and accdg to Kaku-sensei, there is a major possibility of yui and gabimaru meeting as children (but alas it is hard to tell since yui has so many sisters). and yes this is all mentioned in Jigokuraku Kaitai Shinsho (pls someone translate this huhu)

so when tsuki (the toasted marshmallow gabimaru that we know) became the 58th gabimaru by killing the 57th gabimaru, he was rewarded for his skills and intellect by marrying yui. but the thing is, it's a common talk among iwagakure ninjas that osa has been looking for a successor and bcos he doesn't have a son, the only choice is to have gabimaru marry into his family (which is common in Japan)

fun fact: gabimaru actually doesn't know why he was married to yui though. he even thought maybe yui has some kind of secret ninjutsu or something. he tried to find out but this boy went home and when yui greeted him with a beaming smile, he was immediately overwhelmed with feelings that he forgot his own agenda 😭😭😭

so what's the point of all this? you see gabimaru has never realized why yui was so adamant abt this sense of normalcy and all that stuff until he finally learned the meaning behind her dream. after all, in iwagakure, when a man is born, he automatically has to be a ninja and a woman has to get pregnant and bear more children that will become ninjas. and if they die during training, then they'll be replaced by another batch of offsprings that will be ninjas or vessels for children.

in short: women in iwagakure are not only beaten, but also treated as baby-making factories (ofc some of them become kunoichis but most of them just become a housewife that takes care of dozen babies). doesn't matter how young or old. as long as you can get pregnant, then you go do your duty for iwagakure. hence why yui loathed this kind of set up and when she voiced out her want for normalcy, she paid the price by having her face scarred.

but what if a girl doesn't get pregnant? ahh then the guy will take another wife, get her pregnant, then process repeat and repeat. it's a cruel cycle that never ends.

in osa's case, it took him like so long before finally accepting his wives cannot give him a son. and in my own opinion, these things can influence gabimaru into not having a harem marriage in the first place. like imagine marrying multiple women just for the sake of a duty.

besides, given how bad he's down for yui, I don't think he would want another woman other than her. like srsly gabimaru has so much respect for her and having a harem marriage would defeat every single thing he and yui are fighting for.

after all, gabimaru hates the idea of women being treated as broodmares. remember, his wife has been "marked" for the same reason. like he really abhors the idea and there are theories of yui being possibly pressured into having children with gabimaru and tbh it all boils down into this canon evidence from the manga.

plus I hate it when people normalize cheating like "gabi might cheat with sagiri" or something like srsly? I thought we were all past NTR and all that stuff? if you are into NTR kinks, there are various media forms that can cater to that and sadly, Hell's Paradise is not the medium for NTR as much as these people want it to be.

that's all for today, folks.

[characteroulette]

Okay in a truly unhinged fashion I have made my s4 Moominvalley pitch because I am obsessed gremlin with IDEAS

placed under a read more because it's a lot

--

Comet in Moominland Arc

-Ep 1-5 are standard fare. Change from Autumn to Winter to spring. Always a hint of weird going ons, always a little background detail of the star w/a tail, but nothing in the foreground yet. (The charas notice, but they've got episode concerns to deal with.) Maybe like one episode dedicated to Little My trying to figure out what's up with Snork Maiden and Moomin, who haven't been as sappy lately, only to find out that the two are content in being just friends for now. (Still soul mates of course who love each other a lot, but not dating.) (Little My like SNUFF MAKE YOUR MOVE!! And Snuff like ??? What are you talking about??)

-Ep 6 transitions to Summer and we get some heavy rains. Not enough to flood, but enough to drive off Snuff. While Moomin + fam muse over storm, Muskrat starts philosophising on the nature of the star w/a tail. (Pappa mentions it's something one of his old friends would draw.) In the morning, the kids go down to the beach! (OH also, rains make Moomin remember when his family first arrived in Moominvalley. He and Sniff were scared, Mamma was desperately searching for Pappa, and their house had washed here from the flood. Also how Moomin First met Snuff by following the campfire trail to arrive at his site!)

-Ep 7 starts w/the world awash in ash. Everyone is freaking out that the world's lost its colour, but calms once the ash is revealed. It's weird, though. And Moomin decides someone ought to look into it. He writes a note for Snuff, who had yet to return, then gathers his crew (Sniff, Little My, + Snorkmaiden; Snork is busy examining the ash thing) and strikes out down the river to the observatory up in the Lonely Mountains. (Muskrat or Pappa mentions this.) They get into some peril, of course, but are rescued by a flute-player who calls himself the Joxter.

-Ep 8, Snuff returns only for Mamma to give him the note. He panics just a little, going straight after the crew. (Snork asks to join? Snuff lets him?) Cut back to Moomin and co. w/this new character. Moomin + Snork Maiden kinda getting Snufkin vibes off him, Little My disagrees whole-heartedly, Sniff just likes his carefree attitude. He notes that his forebodings told him of the danger the signs (star w/tail) brought with them + was looking for higher ground to escape it. Otherwise, he's been living in a fruit tree. (Sniff likes this.) The gang run into a Hemulin bug collector + Joxter pranks the man into releasing all his specimen (??), which is definitely a Snuff thing to do (Moomin decides, much against Snork Maiden + Sniff's opinions). Little My decides this Joxter's aight and the crew keep ascending them Mountains.

-Ep 9 starts w/the crew finding the den of garnets. Sniff is too entranced to walk away, so they all take a detour to look around. (Joxter laments the lack of use pretty gems have? Maybe? You can't eat 'em and they're too heavy to keep!) Right as they discover the lizard who's made this den its home, Snuff + Snork arrive for assistance! Everyone safely out of the den (though their supplies halved due to the backpack getting torn), introductions are made. Snuff doesn't really like Joxter, or that Moomin's grown fond of him (seemingly), but Joxter seems as nervous about Snuff.

-Ep 10, the crew have made it to the Observatory! Though none of the scientists are willing to give Moomin or Snork Maiden the time of day, they are willing to answer Snuff + Joxter's inquiry. That star, which has been growing more + more visible in the sky, is a comet. And it's hurtling straight for Moominvalley. Its impact is estimated for 4 days, 17 hrs, 23 mins, give or take 5 mins. The crew gotta sit with this knowledge a minute, terrified + upset, then Moomin breaks them out of it by saying they gotta warn the valley. They gotta get Mamma + Pappa to safety. Start the scramble down the mountain! In which they land in some peril by a flesh-eating plant! (Snork Maiden + Moomin both get caught, leading Snuff to work w/Joxter to free them. Snork also helps!)

-Ep 11, the world is growing noticeably redder. The water's drying up at a pretty steady and rapid rate. Meaning they can't get back home via that way. Before Snuff can chime in, Joxter professes to knowing a shortcut and leads them to the dried-up sea. Return of stilts! Moomin offers to carry Little My, which she refuses at first. (Snuff is trying not to freak out about this Joxter fellow.) They come across one particularly interesting shipwreck and look inside. Moomin + Snuff get caught by the octopus inside, unfortunately, trying to keep Sniff out of mischief again. This time, Snork Maiden + Little My to the rescue! Everyone glad to be safe, we continue on. (Little My offers to carry Moomin on her shoulders lol, but then accepts him carrying her.) We end at the shores of Moominvalley, just one day left until the comet strikes.

-Ep 12, pandemonium. The Valley folk are in hysterics over the red world of the comet. Moomin rushes home w/crew to find Mamma + Pappa. Unfortunately, tornado strikes at that time + the crew end up getting caught + saved by Mymble and the hot air balloon. Moomin laments that it's a terrible birthday gift, this comet, while Mymble and Joxter are more than shocked to see one another again. (Little My like is THIS my dad?? And both like nope!) Due to some tiff, Moomin ends up getting knocked overboard + plummeting to the forest below. Snuff + co are uhhh pretty upset by this! (Little My calls him bro oop) Thankfully, Moomin's okie, just a bit bunged up. But now he's even more despair and cries for his Mamma and Pappa. Who find him! Surprisingly! Mamma reassures him that even grown adults will need help from their parents from time to time and Pappa asks after the adventure, but no time for that. They've got a comet to take cover from.

-Ep 13, finale! Mymble and Joxter flew off together to escape comet. The rest of the crew comes to help Moomin family move their things to that cave on the beach. (Hang curtains on the outside and use the rest of Snuff's sun oil! Yeah.) Though a bit disorganised at first, they all come together as a team in the end! Although once everything's settled, sniff bolts out because he forgot something! And Moomin + Snuff chase after him. Now is Not the time,but Snuff ends up asking after Joxter any way. Moomin answers distractedly, more focused on finding Sniff, until he notices Snuff just being real upset + they have to pause for that talk. (Meanwhile, Mamma can't find Moomin's b-day cake. Looks like the Muskrat sat on it whoop.) Let Snuff be the jealous one for once is all I'm saying. Moomin reassures Snuff that they're best friends, that nothing could change the way he feel inside, then Snuff blurts out that he wants something more than just friendship. (Let Moomin show off his growth is all I'm asking pls.) Moomin approaches cautiously and Snuff is in panic 'oh shit I have to say this now' mode. Snuff admits tha the loves Moomin, he's always loved him, but it scares him. Such a big, selfish desire isn't right after all. It isn't freeing at all. Moomin steps in and bumps his snoot to Snuff's, saying that love doesn't have to be selfish. Take it from a Moomin who's had to learn the hard way! Sniff finds them (w/Toffle the plush bby) and the gang quickly head back to take shelter.

"It's frightening, of course. It might be something so big that you're sure it would change the whole world. And maybe it will. But if you keep your paw in mine and we weather this together, then it will pass. And though we are changed forevermore, we'll still have each other. From there, we'll just have to take things as they come, step by step."

-Comet descends, but only grazes the surface. Soon enough, daylight breaks into the morning and the sky is blue once more. Everyone piles out and sees the sea returning in big, choppy waves + celebration! Singing, dancing, and hollering gallore! Snuff + Moomin dance together, paw in paw, a sort of excited anticipation about them. They have survived, and they're going to make the most of it as they can.

-End!

(Listen,it either ends this way or w/Winter arriving + Snuff gifting his harmonica to Moomin before leaving on his travels. That shit SLAPPED the 90s anime knew what it was doing!!)

[caretaker-au]

CHAPTER 10

Bright light spilled into Chara’s vision as the world manifested around them. Their body—heavy and fragile—struggled and dropped them to their knees.

As they fell forward Chara caught themselves with their hands. They stared out at their small, feeble fingers that were splayed on the lavender colored floor, each digit tipped with a dull, flat fingernail. Where were they? And what was that awful pounding sensation? They pulled a hand to their chest. That’s right. Their heart. No longer made from monster magic, Chara’s human flesh felt comparatively sluggish and dense. The body they were never supposed to return to. Chara crossed their arms and gripped themself tight. Fierce emotion flooded through their body: a touch of grief for their own death, relief for their survival, and most of all, rage.

“Asriel…” they breathed, their voice a shaking whisper, “How could you?”

After everything they had done, after all that they sacrificed for him, Asriel had betrayed them. Again. As he always had. It didn’t matter how hard Chara worked or how many timelines they chased, their wretched partner threw away everything they had to protect accursed humans. This time was the worst, however. Asriel’s betrayal ended in orchestrating a shared execution.

“You really hate me that much?” Chara’s voice was little more than a shaking growl. They wanted to scream, to declare that they wouldn’t allow it, that they would find someone else who would respect them and carry out their plan. But they didn’t believe it.

“Chara?”

A small voice broke through the fury. Chara looked up and saw them. A child hesitating in a stone doorway just ahead of them: Frisk.

The child’s expression relaxed into a smile, “I’m glad you’re okay.”

Anger flashed across Chara’s face. They pulled themselves to their feet, wavering slightly. They staggered towards Frisk with heavy steps, increasing their speed into a run. Frisk’s eyes widened for a moment before they scowled. The child braced themself and held out their arms, “Chara, stop!”

The caretaker grabbed Frisk by the collar and wrenched them up against the doorframe. The kid’s teeth chattered as their skull thudded against the stone behind them.

“Why?!” Chara barked, hatred seeping from their every pore, “You took everything from us! Our lives, our future, the salvation of all monsters!” Frisk turned their head away, clenching their eyes tight as Chara berated them. “Nothing was stopping you from leaving. So why?” Chara demanded, “Why did you return? To mock me? To torment me?”

“No…” Frisk answered quietly, “To save you.”

Their answer didn’t make any sense. Chara stared back, unable to even articulate a response. Instead, they slammed Frisk against the wall again. “Liar!” Chara cried out, “You expect me to believe that?”

“It’s the truth!” Frisk squirmed and pulled on Chara’s hands to no avail, “Escape isn’t worth anyone’s life. Not even yours, Chara!”

Chara’s fists clenched tighter around the slack of Frisk’s sweater. With a heave, they tossed the child to the side. Frisk splayed across the floor with a grunt.

“You are wrong,” Chara huffed, “And you… are a fool. Did you not learn the first time? I don’t care about your mercy.”

Frisk pulled themself to their feet. They straightened and returned Chara’s frenzied glare with a quiet gaze.

Chara continued, “I will not stop. This time I’ll take the souls, ignore you, and escape to the Surface. There, Asriel and I… we’ll…” Chara trailed off as Asriel’s face crossed their mind again. They sank to the floor, the air feeling heavier and heavier. “That traitor… he will never… he will never cooperate.”

The realization was like a knife twisting in their gut. Even with his betrayal, Asriel was always the most devoted. No one would be able to replace him. Despair crept into their heart as Chara realized they needed him more than Asriel needed them back. Chara had considered Frisk their greatest opponent, but it was Asriel who truly stood in their way.

Chara’s vision swam, so they turned their head away from Frisk, their hair falling in front of their face. Knowing the human was seeing them like this made their skin crawl, and they wished the ground would swallow them up. As Chara spoke, they held their breath to keep their voice from shaking. “Leave.”

Frisk hesitated, surely coming up with a response. Mockery? Pity? Chara wouldn’t bear it.

“Out of my sight! Now!” Chara shouted; their roar made the air tremble. Frisk didn’t wait to be told again. The sound of scuffling footsteps faded from earshot, and soon Chara was alone in the silence once more.

Finally, Chara let the tears fall from their eyes. They were disgusted with the way their breath hitched and sobbed no matter how much they tried to stifle it. Asriel did this to them. Asriel would have to pay.

Chara indulged in several minutes of sickening self pity before they finally wiped their face. Looking around, it took Chara a moment before they registered just where they were. They were deep within the Ruins, just outside the chamber Frisk had fallen into. But that didn’t make sense. From Chara’s experience, time could only be turned back to the most recently fixed point. Frisk should have been returned to just before their battle, perhaps in the jail. Instead, here they were, back to the moment they first met. Was Frisk not confined to the same limits of time travel?

Chara shook their head. They couldn't think about this now. Only one thing mattered: Asriel’s punishment. Drawing the will to stand, Chara pushed themselves upright to follow the child.

In one way or another, Frisk had made it past all the traps, through the house, and—presumably—out the exit. It was for the best; Chara couldn’t stand to cross paths with the child again. Inside the house, they paused to collect a large padlock they had stored in a table drawer. It was heavy and nearly the size of a text book with ornate designs engraved across it. The lock was imbued with abjuration magic, made specifically to lock the Ruins after Asriel was nearly killed by the human years ago. The lock would render any door unbreachable by human or monster, and Chara held the only key.

Chara carried the device with them into the basement, down the hall, and to the large exterior doors that lead to the snow draped forests beyond. The doors were slightly ajar, revealing a set of footprints that dotted the snow off into the distance.

Chara sighed, taking one last look at the snowy view, before pulling the doors shut. For decades, the lock had only been placed on the outside, removed only when Chara came through to patrol the ruins or escort monsters between Home and Snowdin. Today, for the first time, the doors would be locked from the inside with Chara within. They looped the padlock through the handles of the door, and when they snapped it into place, the doors shuddered and clamped together with a jolt. Chara traced a fingernail down the seam of the two doors. No one would be passing through without their permission.

Confronting Asriel directly was not an option. After all, any progress made with Asriel could be undone by Frisk. Not to mention they weren’t even sure what they could tell him. Asriel’s traitorous inclinations were buried deep into his core, waiting until Chara was at their most desperate to stab them in the back.

But there was one tactic that Frisk would be unable to interfere with. Silence. If Chara withdrew to the Ruins without a word, Asriel would surely blame himself for Chara’s sudden absence. Chara knew Asriel well: he’d beg for Chara’s return and apologize for things he didn’t do, all the while ignorant of his traitorous compulsions. Cruel, perhaps, but nothing was as cruel as what he had done in those erased timelines.

Chara checked their phone. They already had one message from Asriel inquiring as to when they’d return home. The caretaker marked it as read before slipping it back into their pocket.

---

As predicted, Asriel came to the door and stayed all night long. Knocking, calling, pleading-- Chara relished each pathetic attempt at reconciliation. He deserved to be confused, heartbroken, and alone, just as Chara was. Over the course of the day Chara received messages from Asgore, Toriel, and many other monsters. They all asked the same thing: Are you okay? Do you want to talk? We found this human named Frisk, do you know them? Even Muffet demanded an explanation. Chara would have to deal with her later.

Leaving everyone wondering and begging for answers was the only power Chara had left. Word was getting to the monsters in Home as well, evidenced by the additional messages piling up on their phone. Chara ignored them too. Eventually they would realize they were trapped on this side of the door as well, unwilling hostages in Chara’s scheme.

No matter. The monsters deserved to be trapped. Every one of them was just like Asriel: eager to please and sentimental to a fault. Chara had devoted their entire life to serving them and in return they never offered to help collect the souls that would free them. In fact, Chara had to resort to time travel to push them in the right direction for just an ounce of support. They all deserve to rot in this dark, claustrophobic hell.

---

“So you just let a human walk on by?” Muffet inquired in a sing-song voice, “That doesn’t seem much like the great caretaker at all!”

The two of them were sitting in her parlor, each on a lavish chair. A full tea set complete with baked goods sat on a low table between them, though Chara knew better than to partake in it. Spider legs stuck out of the scones like coarse hairs, and they couldn’t even imagine what the tea had been steeped with.

“Yes. Well.” Chara said, looking down at their lap, “There is not much I can do about it now.”

“Oh yes, I imagine the sweet thing is the new royal favorite, aren’t they?” Muffet’s fanged smile turned up in a mocking grin, “The queen has always had a soft spot for filthy little strays. You know that better than anyone, right, dearie?”

Chara bit back a retort. With time no longer under their control, they had to be careful while inside of her lair. It had been a week since they sealed the Ruins, and Muffet was the only person they had spoken to since. The crime lord wasn’t their first choice of confidant, of course, but she had been insisting on meeting and they knew better than to reject her invitation.

“I suppose so,” they responded softly.

Muffet giggled to herself, then suddenly reached for the plate of cookies between them. It was only after she grabbed a couple treats that Chara realized they had flinched when she moved. They tried to relax but the attempt only made them more tense.

“So, is that why you locked the exit? Had a bit of a falling out with the in-laws?”

“Something like that.” Chara frowned, “I’d rather not talk about it.”

“Oh of course, a lady like me wouldn’t dream of indulging in distasteful gossip! Instead, I have a business proposition~”

Chara straightened. In their current circumstance, they didn’t have much in the way of influence or leverage.

“How can I be of service?” they asked.

“I want to relocate,” Muffet paused to bite into one of her cookies. It sounded... crunchy. “You see, the Ruins are awfully drafty, and the cold isn’t good for my constitution. I was thinking about moving in the next year or so, but now that you’ve so... graciously sealed us all in here, I predict the traffic in my shop will be slowing down considerably.”

“Understood.” Chara nodded, “I will make an exception for you and open the d—”

“I wasn’t finished, Chara.” Muffet said, her voice lowering. There was a tense pause before she smiled again, “I want a limousine~”

“A—A what?” Chara asked, incredulous.

“A heated limousine that will chauffer my employees and I all the way to Hotland,” she gestured to the spiders that skittered between the tea cups, “A necessary luxury to ensure we make it safely through the biting cold of Snowdin. Should be a simple task for a monarch, correct?”

“Of course. Leave it to me.” Chara smiled, “Is that all?”

“Not much for business, are you, Chara?” Muffet smirked, “This is where you negotiate the terms of the agreement~”

“No need. I am happy to do this as a gesture of goodwill.” Chara outstretched their hand—it wasn’t trembling anymore, thankfully—and Muffet gave it a dainty shake.

Once Chara was safely out of Muffet’s lair, they heaved a sigh of relief. Somehow they had managed to leave in one piece despite Muffet’s attempts to bait them. Now they just had to figure out how to serve her outrageous demands. Chara fished their phone out of their pocket, dismissed several dozen missed calls and text notifications, and opened their address book. They were going to need to call in some discreet favors.

---

One month had passed since they sealed the Ruins. It wasn’t easy, but Chara managed to arrange for Muffet’s departure without alerting the Dreemurrs. Eventually, the royals found out the Ruins door had been briefly opened which led to a fresh barrage of calls, messages, and knocking on the resealed door, all of which Chara ignored, of course.

Chara walked the streets of Home late at night, the crystals in the ceiling sparkling above. They could feel the eyes of the monsters on them, but after weeks of Chara ignoring and scowling in return, the monsters had given up on approaching them. Wordlessly, they did their weekly shopping at the local market. As a member of the royal family, Chara had never needed to pay for any necessities, and it seemed the benefits even extended here. It was only fair compensation, of course. After all, Chara was still serving the undeserving monsters by patrolling the Ruins every day for human threats.

---

“Ugh, really?” Chara muttered. They were nearly done with their patrol, having reached the large trap of spikes that was circled with a moat. Chara pushed down on the edge of the spike panel’s pressure plate with their foot, but the spikes failed to retract completely, the deadly points standing out by a few inches. It wasn’t a good sign: the springs inside were starting to give out. And if the springs snapped while Chara was standing above it…

Chara shuddered. They had witnessed that messy result and they didn’t care to experience it first hand. Typically, Chara would order replacement parts and perform maintenance themself, but the machinist that created the pieces was in New Home. Unsealing the door again was out of the question.

“Of course this would happen now,” Chara grumbled. They moved their foot off the plate and the spikes shot back into place. How many more compressions would it tolerate before it broke? Before Frisk came to the Underground, Chara could risk it and undo any unpleasant accidents, but if the past five months were any indication, Frisk was not nearly as eager to manipulate time. In fact, time had been rolled back only two times since Chara let the child go.

It was inconceivable. How could Frisk resist the urge to erase the inevitable little mistakes that ruined every day? Embarrassing moments, broken tea cups, scraped knees… all could be fixed in an instant with the right application of their power. To have such power and yet choose to carry the weight of their failures—it defied reason.

More importantly, if Chara suffered a tragic accident while isolated here, no one would come to their rescue… whether through time manipulation or otherwise.

“Unfortunate.” Chara said to themself with a resigned sigh, “I will have to dismantle them. All of them.” They turned around and headed back home. While they didn’t have access to their machinist anymore, they did have a few hand tools and plenty of time.

---

Eight months had passed since Chara had let Frisk go. As they walked the path of the now defanged Ruins, they revised and repeated their old plan over and over. If they could just get one more soul to replace Frisk, they would have the seven required to break the barrier and purify the Surface. The only thing missing, of course, was a willing monster to absorb them.

They reached the end of their patrol: the entrance to the Underground for lost, unlucky humans. The chamber was empty, as it had been every day since Frisk fell in. Chara walked into the center of the room and stared up into the vacant darkness looming above. One hundred years had passed on the Surface and only eight humans had fallen in that time. How long would it take for another to arrive? Ten years? Thirty? Without the help of their powers Chara could very well die before seeing the next human soul.

Chara turned to leave, but did a double take as they glimpsed a glimmer of gold on the ground. They kneeled and pushed the grass aside to reveal a small yellow bud, barely beginning to open.

“It cannot be…” Chara breathed, “A Golden Flower?”

Golden Flowers were common on the Surface, but had no presence in the Underground. Chara was so sure of this that they had incorporated them into their original plan over 20 years ago. By requesting to see the wild flowers on their deathbed, Chara could ensure Asriel would cross the barrier with their corpse in tow.

Or at least, that was what should have happened.

Chara clenched their teeth at the bitter memory. It was the first of many perfect plans ruined by Asriel’s cowardice. The caretaker grasped the plant and ripped it out of the ground by the root.

Immediately, Chara felt a pang of regret. They stared down at the pathetic thing. Their favorite flower, somehow growing in this dark, sunless prison. When had it taken root? Did some seeds blow in from the Surface? Or were they brought in by a... passenger?

Chara shook their head. Regardless of how it was introduced to the Underground, it was now a part of the Ruins—their Ruins. It didn’t deserve to suffer for Asriel’s mistakes. Reflexively, Chara attempted to turn back time, but nothing happened.

With a sigh, they returned the flower to where it was and buried its roots back into the soil. The stem was bent and it wouldn’t stay upright, but weeds were resilient. With a little help, it might still make it.

---

Chara hesitated before their latest masterpiece, knife in hand. Resting on a serving plate was a beautiful, hand crafted chocolate ganache cake. Strawberries perched on top of the silky dark topping, and the intoxicating aroma filled the house. Somehow, even without their powers, it had turned out almost too perfect to eat.

Emphasis on "almost". Carefully, Chara slid the knife through the decadent construction and placed a slice on their plate. They paused to admire the moist cross section before sliding a fork through the end and taking a bite.

Absolute bliss.

"Not bad for a humble birthday cake," Chara said to themself. They were thirty-seven today. Chara looked across the dining table into the empty living room. The only sound was the fire crackling in the hearth, emitting heat for a one person abode. They wished this house wasn’t nearly identical to the one in New Home; the similarities made it too easy to imagine Toriel in her chair, Asgore in the kitchen, and Asriel leaning on the table with his elbows, big goofy grin on his face. The Dreemurrs loved birthdays, always spending weeks preparing for a large and lavish party.

This was the first birthday they had spent alone since they were thirteen. They had forgotten how miserable it could be.

Chara checked their phone. They had over one hundred notifications that had come in just today. They scrolled through to find the only contact that mattered: Asriel.

“Happy birthday, Chara!!” the message read, “Mom and Dad and I are thinking about you lots! We even got you a gift, so I hope we can give it to you one day! Wherever you are, take good care of yourself, okay?” A line of party and heart related emojis followed.

Chara read the message over and over. Asriel’s texts would always fill them with disgust and hatred, but not today. Instead Chara just felt… lonely. It was a pathetic, shameful feeling, but a true feeling nonetheless. Despite all the ways Asriel had disrespected them, Chara couldn’t hide from the fact that they missed him.

The caretaker allowed themself to vocalize a thought they had been pushing out of their mind for months. “Maybe…” Chara spoke, their soft voice breaking the quiet, “Maybe it is time to go home.”

They sighed, resigning themself. The eternal silent treatment was never a realistic plan, and while Asriel was the intended subject of the punishment, it was unpleasant to Chara, too. Scrolling up through his messages, Asriel had sent hundreds upon hundreds over the past year begging them to “just talk”. All had gone unanswered. The confusion and desperation in those messages were clear; he was perfectly primed for a reconciliation.

But Chara wanted more than reconciliation. More important than companionship was freedom. Freedom not just for undeserving monsters, but most importantly, freedom for themself.

“There is still a way,” Chara muttered to themself, “I simply… pushed Asriel too quickly. Asriel always responded better to a softer approach.” Chara stood, pacing.

“We will delay soul fusion until the end of my natural life. Nothing barbaric or tragic. My dying wish will be to live on within him. He cannot turn down my final request.”

Chara nodded, they could see it now. After a few decades, Chara would peacefully pass from their old, frail body into Asriel’s strong, youthful one, a benefit of his species’ long life span.

“Then we gather the rest of the souls. But not right away. Asriel will need some time to adjust to sharing a vessel with me. But he will with time. Perhaps even the child can be convinced to willingly donate their soul to the cause.” Even though Frisk wouldn’t be a child anymore, it was hard to imagine Frisk as anything but a meddling brat. Honestly, they’d probably still be a brat in thirty years.

“If not, that is... fine. The child can be suffered to live.” The decision was a reluctant one, but giving mercy to such an undeserving creature gave Chara a pleasant feeling of self-righteousness. After all, it didn’t really matter if Frisk lived or died. The important thing was purifying the Surface and breaking the barrier. One human would not make a difference.

“Yes. This will work.” A smile crept onto Chara’s face and their heart thrummed with excitement. They would return to Asriel, who would embrace them with utmost relief and joy. After all, absence makes the heart grow fonder, and Asriel had shown no signs of giving up on them.

Chara would enjoy a long life in the company of their loved ones until the day they would embrace their prophesied purpose as the Underground’s savior.

It would require patience, but their splendid utopia was once again within reach. They began planning their grand return.

chapter 10 // end

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