#calling for the malevolent fandom to notice me

[electraascending]

Hello!

If you're interested in angsty Oscar fics you're in luck! Because I've just posted one on ao3 🩷

Cat Oscar by @vandealism who proof read my work 🩷

[rosiesdisneydrama]

I am only on the fringes of this fandom but the Pre Series aus (and old man yaoi) slowly sank into me until my brain was tricked into making an au.

Behold! Witch Stanley! (I've been calling it the Witch Way Next au)

Basic idea is pretty simple, after he was kicked out, Stanley stayed with someone he found out was an actual Old Witch. Who, after hearing what happened, decided to all-but-legally adopt him and started to teach him magic. (Bc they were old and, despite being a witch, weren't immortal and have never had a family to pass on their skills to.)

They helped a lot with his mental health/internalized issues while he lived with them. Making him more stable and put together than canon.

They passed away after a few years, but gifted him basically all their tools (like a near-bottomless suitcase and dufflebag to help him carry it all without anyone noticing) to use and self-study/learn after they were gone. A lot of his work while traveling was as a Magic Fix-it/"Handyman" instead of sales work and cons. (Unless someone needed to be taken down a peg or two.)

Now some other notes (Some of which are one the drawing)

He uses the witch's surname most of the time, to denote that he was their student/succsssor. He also has their book of contacts for other magical people/shops they knew around the country (which he's been adding to)

He smokes herbal cigarettes now, which he makes himself. They can be used to cast spells since many of the ones he was taught use smoke/burned herbs as part of their ingredients!

His lighter helps him conjur/fight with fire magic.

Wears a protective talisman all the time. He sleeps with it on, even.

Every hotel/motel he's stayed in smells like lavender and sage when he leaves. (Lavender and Sage are protective/purifying and can keep malevolent and violent magic and creatures away.)

His clothes and health are better when he and Stanford meet again because he's in a better mental state than cannon. (Thanks to lots of soul-searching and identity-grappling while learning to use magic)

His messy mullet-like style is actually semi-intentional because of a spell he uses a lot when he's in a tight spot.

He actually didn't come to Gravity Falls because of his brother. He was asked to go there as a favor to someone he knows and bumped into his estranged twin by accident.

And that's the basic gist of how Stanley is different in this. As you can imagine, a lot of things probably will change from canon, if I continue adding to this.

I would actually like to talk more about it, so please send asks if you want me to ramble about anything in the au!

[servethelight]

Shit I’ve noticed during my clone wars rewatch and my interpretation (very Obi-Wan focused because he’s my favorite character lmao):

(Includes spoilers obviously)

+ I love this show to bits, but it has horrible issues with consistency. Every other episode there is a new weapon or something introduced and we’ll never see it again. This is very prevalent in especially the first seasons.

+ Obi-Wan is such a fucking enabler. Like he tells Anakin his plans are stupid at least twice during the Malevolence episodes, but then joins him on all of those. It’s literally like: “Anakin this plan is reckless and won’t work, anyways what’s my part in your plan?”

+ Rex running into that metal pipe. I forgot about that and laughed for 20 minutes straight.

+ Anakin pulls a “Are ya winning son?” on Obi-Wan about Ahsoka.

+ I once saw a post that it isn’t confirmed that Obi-Wan and Cody are friends, but you have Obi-Wan literally marveling on how competent the commander is and Cody always going the extra mile to save his general’s ass. To me that’s pretty much a friendship.

+ The Jedi are in general very gentle, but quite touchy. They might not go for hugs, but there is always someone touching someone’s shoulder or waist. And they’re just so fucking kind. I don’t think I ever noticed that as a kid, but they’re so respectful about life and culture and always helping someone. I just love them so much.

+ And I love the understanding and kindness the clones have. They’re soldiers and programmed to kill, but they’re also good people in most cases. I just wanna hug most of them.

+ My mother told me I cried as a child during the episodes with the Zillo beast. Well, I didn’t cry again, but I’m still so fucking mad at Palpatine for putting that poor creature in that position. If he just had listened to Mace Windu (more of the characters should actually, just saying) that poor animal wouldn’t have killed people and found its end like that.

+ Mortis is quite hated by the fandom but for me it’s a defining showcase of Obi-Wan’s, Anakin’s and Ahsoka’s relationship. I’ve seen people in the fandom saying that Anakin would’ve turned out differently if Obi-Wan would’ve told him he’s proud and took care of his feelings. This episodes literally show that he does exactly that and Anakin still doesn’t give a shit.

+ Anakin tells the son in his dream, that he’ll never come to the dark side willingly. Only to walk over to the literal manifestation of the dark side like 10 minutes later to save Ashoka. I came to the conclusion that the only way to tempt him was by promising to save his loved ones. I still think it was a really awful and greedy thing to become Vader for that, but I must admit it’s a noble character trait to put others first.

+ Kit Fisto doesn’t have nipples. Therefore I’ve concluded he’s isn’t a mammal and hatched from an egg like Nemo the clownfish. (And no, that isn’t a animation thing, Rex does have nipples when his shirt is off).

+ The discussion with my gf about Kit Fisto nipples and Star Wars biology also touched the topic of “how does Maul use the bathroom”. My conclusion is: he has a stoma, because the lower abdomen, where that would be, is always covered.

+ Hardcase mentions he is hyperactive. I now see him as my favorite ADHD clone, because having ADHD myself I can fucking relate.

+ I forgot Waxer died on Umbara and bawled my eyes out. Waxer is one my favorite clones and when he cried while dying I just couldn’t take it.

+ My friend spent the entire Umbara arc just simping for the clones (mostly Jesse), while I was suffering. So maybe they look hot or something for people attracted to men in this episodes.

+ In the episode after the Umbara the duo usually consisting of Waxer and Boil is sent out, but this time it’s just Boil and I was about to bawl again.

+ For being called “the negotiator” Obi-Wan gets his ass beat quite a lot after his “negotiations” (aggressive flirting).

+ While I’ll never forgive Obi-Wan for doing that Raako Hardeen shit, I nearly pissed myself when the Ziro the Hutt’s ex gf is flirting with not one but two women there. Like I didn’t expect her to be the fucking gay rep in clone wars.

+ I’m seriously never forgiving Obi-Wan for that. I can’t get over Ahsoka’s tear filled eyes while she’s holding his corpse. Also she doesn’t seem angry like Anakin just massively sad and disappointed after it is revealed that he’s still alive. Personally I believe she’s starting to doubt the order here.

+ Point three on hating on my favorite character for that shit, I feel like Anakin becomes quieter and less playful after that disaster.

+ Maul is me. He’s obsessed with Obi-Wan and mentions that he has massive problems what is going on inside his head. As a mentally ill person, that makes me feel really seen lmao.

+ The underwater episodes and the ones with Ventress on that train were just the most beautiful worlds I’ve ever seen. Like the planets in general are so beautifully designed in clone wars, I’m so in love.

+ Motherfucking “I said fuck the council and became a child soldier for a rebellion at 13” Obi-Wan Kenobi seems very reluctant on doing it again. There are two entire arcs of him disagreeing on helping rebels. First I didn’t understand, because like dude you literally did this before, but since he talks about his worries about bringing the separatists in or worsen the situation, I think the poor man is just a little bit traumatized.

+ After the events of Onderon I’m pretty sure Ashoka is already filled with doubts about the order, the republic and the war. I also feel like she’s feeling massively led down by Obi-Wan again, which broke my heart because I love their relationship.

+ I just realized he fails Ahsoka a third time, when she is captured by Hondo and Obi-Wan is supposed to help her. Instead he gets attacked by Grievous and is forced to postpone the helping them until they help themselves. I mean it’s not his fault but in Ahsoka’s place that wouldn’t feel good to me.

+ This particular fight with Grievous ignited my love for Obi-Wan again. Before he attacks Grievous he helps an injured clone and when he goes into the fight, Grievous directly kills a clone. Instead of his usual witty remarks, he just goes: “you’re gonna regret that” and jumps Grievous. He just loves his clones as much as I do.

+ One of the most beautiful shots in the entire series for me is in the episode before the droids find Gregor. This WAC droid looks into the desert and it reflects in his eye. Because of the cracks in the desert ground it looks almost like a retina. Beautiful metaphor of combining something artificial and metallic with an organic and almost human part. This was such a fucking raw shot for me, it took my breath away.

+ Tarkin is an asshole, but he’s climbed the asshole latter so hard after he has been mean to Plo Koon.

+ Shotout to Obi-Wan for convincing the order to let Anakin go after Ahsoka. Additionally the whole time he acts in her support only to be shut down by the council. I didn’t remember him doing that so I was surprised.

+ Fives tells the plot with the inhibitor chips to a cab driver. Do you think the cap driver ever thinks back after the war and is like: “Fuuuuuuck”?

+ I kid you not, the clone bar has gender neutral bathrooms (and no, it’s not bc the clones are all male, in the bar are also women). The bathroom are just decided by humans, hutts and a third species I cannot quite recognize.

+ I forgot Teckla gets shot, NOOOOOOO

+ I always say clone wars anakin is better, but Jesus stop acting like a jealous bitch. Padmè deserves an award for putting up with his bullshit. Obi-Wan too. He even tries to give him reassurance by telling him that feelings are not forbidden and Anakin just bitches at him.

+ Obi-Wan casually passing on babysitting duty for Jar Jar fucking killed me (and yes, taking care of Jar Jar is babysitting duty).

+ Never in a million years I would have thought to see Jar Jar admitting to fucking this queen, but here we have him saying he was making love to her last night. Imma set myself on fire and I believe Windu will join me.

+ You could also call the clone wars the exposition wars. Every episode has their one minute exposition in the beginning, but I feel like a lot of the dialogue is used for exposition.

+ Obi-Wan doesn’t learn shit. That man got drugged by Hondo, but yet still accepts drinks from the Pykes. MY BROTHER IN CHRIST PLEASE DONT

+ I AN GOING TO SCREAM. You have been informed that the Clones have a behavior influencing chip in their brains and then you find out Dooku was behind the creation of the clones and no one connects the fucking dots. I love the Jedi, but goddamn are you all dense.

+ Do you think Hunter thought Rex was screwing his general? Because their conversation sounded kinda suggestive and then they trail off to do something secret.

+ Ahsoka going “my older brother thought me”after kicking a guy where it hurts most. I now imagine Anakin going to Ahsoka as soon she got to be his padawan: “Listen up Snips, if you ever facing a creepy guy, you kick them right there”

+ When the sisters make their escape I don’t get why they don’t let Ahsoka fly. She’s clearly the more capable pilot.

+ Controversial opinion: I have a strong dislike for Bo Katan. She’s a fucking terrorist who doesn’t betray the deathwatch when they murder an entire innocent village, no but when there’s Maul trying to take their authority. Says a lot about her character if you ask me.

+ I mcfucking cried when the clones painted their helmets according to Ahsoka’s face markings and my flatmates gf came in and asked me if everything’s alright. I am fucking embarrassing I have seen this scene three times already but I still bawl like a baby.

+ Also my dear Obi-Wan can you quit being an ass? A “hello Ahsoka, nice to see you” wouldn’t have killed you.

+ Through the whole show most of the characters seemed to appear increasingly tired towards the end. Especially Obi-Wan and Ahsoka, but other characters aswell. The only one who seems to stay energized is Anakin. He becomes more serious but I feel like he’s the only one at the end that is still going into battles with full energy. It almost felt like he’s especially thriving in a war scenario which is incredibly sad.

+ The beauty of that last scene with Vader is truly unparalleled. I don’t ever think a tv show can recreate that.

+ I still love this show to bits and I cried 5 times total during that rewatch, shit this was nice.

[bats4will]

Hey guys,,, I know Arkayne Faith (Oscar x Kayne) Isn't a super popular ship in the malevolent Fandom, but for those few Arkayne Faith enjoyers, here's a quick fanfic I made of them. It might be slightly out of character, I'm sorry, I haven't relistened to any episodes with Oscar in them recently.

TW: Mentions of blood, injuries, a little bit of angst (I can't help myself)

Arkayne Faith 💕

Oscar stumbles to get his footing. He looked around this new, strange place that he had suddenly been placed into with no explanation as to why, all he knows is that he was in the hospital, resting off his arm injury after Arthur had severed it, and now, he was in a cold, dark expanse, feeling the breeze blow about his exposing hospital gown, and the cold stone floor leaving his bare feet feeling numb. But he was far to confused, and far too angry to focus on that yet. All he could think about, and had been thinking about was how Arthur had just...left him. Of course, he knew there must have been some reason for Arthur leaving, but he still felt completely unbridle rage towards his former friend. And now, he was alone, confused, and afraid, with no idea where he is, or why he's there.

He slowly lowers himself down onto the stone cold floor, and draws his knees up, hugging them against his chest, hiding his face in his knees as warm tears of fear and anger well up in his eyes. As he was letting all his emotions come through, however, he hadn't noticed a new presence in front of him, until the thing spoke up, at first in an overly cheery sounding voice, which quickly changed up.

"Sorry about that, I just had to check on how Arty was doing on my special mission, and i forgot all about bringing you here! I swear, sometimes my mem-"

Kayne pauses as his wild eyes search over Oscars scrunched up form, how he didn't even look up at him as he spoke, and instantly knew something was wrong. Kayne had not only been watching Arthur in his journey in New York to evade the Butcher, but he also kept a close eye on Arthur's new acquaintances, mainly Oscar, and he knew that this behaviour was definitely out of character. His grin did not dissapear, but fell slightly as he crouched down next to Oscar, cocking his head like a confused puppy, and slowly lifted Oscars head up.

"Hey, hey, lefty... whats wrong? Why the long face, huh? It's not about the whole "Arthur cutting off your arm and leaving you for dead" thing, is it?"

Kayne did not even give him time to answer, springing back to his feet with a cackle.

"Ah, well, who needs Arthur anyway, huh? Not us, thats for sure! Tell you what, I can be your new purpose, instead of Arthur, how 'bout that? Like my own little... sacrifical lamb. Suits you, too. You remind me of a little new born lamb, with that fluffy hair! Just precious."

Oscar slightly lifts his head, looking up at the thing in front if him, slightly confused. How did It know so much about him, and Arthur? He sniffled a little, and wiped his eyes, now frowning as he stands up, studying Kayne. He takes a step closer, and asks in his thick, Scottish accent,

"Who....are you?...And where are we?..."

Kayne cracks another grin, also stepping closer, mirroring Oscars movements and almost closing the gap between them, when he starts circling Oscar, looking him up and down like a particularly interesting bug.

"Well, I go by many, many names, lefty, mainly the crawling chaos, the God of a Thousand Forms, Nyarlathotep, blah blah blah.... But... you can call me Kayne. How does that sound, huh?"

He cackles once more, starting almost as abruptly as it finishes.

"And as for where we are...hm.."

He rubs his chin, feigning thought.

"Well, just a nice little place i fixed up for the two of us, Oscar. You and me, since Arty is out of the picture for a bit."

He stops right behind Oscar as he finishes speaking, the slapping of his bare, bloodied feet coming to a halt as he does. He leans in close, speaking lowly right next to Oscars ear, as his other hand comes up to gently hold Oscars other shoulder.

"I think you'll quite enjoy it here, with me. I won't leave you, no, not like Arthur did. You can devote yourself to a real, true god, Oscar. How does that sound to you?... Fabulous, isnt it?"

His hand creeps up the side of Oscars neck, leaving traces of dark brownish blood against his skin and clothes, till its resting in his hair, carding through the dark curls, staining them with reds and browns, but he doesnt care, chuckling to himself as he kneads through them. Oscar swallows thickly. Despite being utterly terrified, he can't recall the last time someone was quite so gentle with him, and he found himself almost...enjoying the company of this new character, however unsettling he seems.

YIPPIE YIPPIE YIPPIE I might write more for this but it is almost one o'clock in the morning rn 🏃 So uuuuuh yep. If you've read up to this point and enjoyed it please, please, please reblog. I can't stress enough, it helps other people see my stuff, and gives me a whole lot more motivation to see people enjoying my stuff so yeah. Laters 💛💛

[raccoons-under-a-trenchcoat]

Uh, I think it's time for me to actually do this!

INTRO!!! FOR ME!!! (+ Important Info)

About me:

Trans (gender Flux, leaning agender)

My name's Toby or Keegan, but racc, apollo or any silly nickname is fun, too!

They/it/he interchangeably

I'm a minor

My Art commissions are: Open!

I age- and petregress :3 (often at the same time, when I'm in pet-/littlespace and u notice, please it/its pronouns :3)

Also I do art!!! I've got a separate account for that tho

All my important stuff is tagged under "Raccs trashcan" (hehe get it? Raccoons? They dig through trash? I'm 3 raccoons under a tre- okay I'll shut up)

PLEASE TAG ME!!! I'm serious, I love being tagged in shit. Picrews especially :3

FREE PALESTINE!!! 🇵🇸 (Please don't send me GoFundMe links, I can't donate! And with the amount of asks I get about this, sharing would not be effective.)

Boundaries:

No bigotry

No NSFW (I'm a minor lol)

NO ABLEISM!!! I'm audhd, and I will come after you

Cutrent hyperfixations:

Call of Duty

Bikes (especially Kawasaki bikes)

Military (I'm planning to enlist in a few years)

SCP

More facts about me!

I've participated in artfight this year!

I have two cats

I'm german, but live in the US

I'm a therian too!

Also I use :3, :D, >:] etc

I suck at socializing, so please forgive me for being extremely awkward at times

I'm aroace-spec (aceflux and something aro-adjacent?)

I've got them AAAAAAA (Autism, Adhd, Agender, Anxiety, Asexual (spectrum), Aromantic (spectrum), Avoids eye contact at all costs

FANDOMS!

Tma, Tmagp, Malevolent (the podcast), Bsd, Mh, Atla, Toh, Gravity Falls, Marauders (but fuck JK Rowling), Good Omens, Link click, CoD, SCP, Motorcycling (can't wait for 16)

And also some really good music:

Will wood (and the tape worms)

Modern Alibi <333

Måneskin

Mcr

Queen

David Bowie

ABBA

Cosmo Sheldrake

Arctic Monkeys

[the-tragic-heroine]

死鬼祭 | Shiki Matsuri

fandom: tokyo revengers

characters: kurokawa izana, kakucho, haitani ran, haitani rindou, madarame shion

pairings: tenjiku x female reader

cw: blood, violence, minor character death, supernatural elements, she/her pronouns used for reader

—✧ SUMMARY ✧—

The villagers say that you cursed them all. You believe that they were the ones who cursed you. (Or, in which the circumstances of your unfortunate birth woke a forgotten, slumbering god.)

Very vague depictions of the supernatural here, and a few cameos of specific yokai if you can spot them! Title is based off of a song by KODOKULOVE! More characters may be added as the story progresses.

Read on AO3 Read Chapter One | Read Chapter Two

CHAPTER 参 THREE

Though you did not know it, Izana and his followers had been watching over you ever since their awakening, cloaked in the veil that separated the world of the living and the spiritual. As you murmured daily prayers and polished floorboards until they sparkled under the sunbeams filtering through the trees, Izana revelled in the sensation of life flowing through his veins. Some days, he stood right by your side, eyes twinkling in amusement as you jumped and looked around, searching for a figure that was just out of your mortal vision.

“You’re not gonna show yourself?” Kakucho asked, eyes following Izana who in turn, followed you as he always did.

“Not yet,” the white-haired god said, smile never leaving his face.

Kakucho merely nodded, and vanished.

Unlike Kakucho, who frequently appeared to accompany his master, the rest of Izana’s followers were not so willing to linger. Now that they were finally awake, they were quick to tire of watching the little human’s mundane routine—which consisted of a pitifully boring cycle of eating, cleaning, and sleeping. Alone. So instead, Izana sent them to wrangle with the troublesome demons that managed to enroach onto the shrine’s holy ground.

“We could cleanse them all for good,” Rindou said one day, after having dispersed of yet another. “They’re just gonna keep repopulating themselves unless we purge the entire village.”

“Not yet,” Izana said again.

“I don’t know what you’re planning,” Ran sighed, twirling a braid around his finger, “but it better be good.”

When finally, in the dead of night, a commotion sounded right outside the building’s walls, Izana allowed his hand to part the veil. One-by-one, each of his fellow spirits followed in silent understanding. As expected, there was a horde of malevolent spirits trailing after the gaggle of teenagers—and more slithering close behind. None had noticed them yet, too eager to gorge on the turbulent energy surrounding the village kids—until Shion leapt forward, of course.

“Hey there, demons,” he barked, cracking his knuckles and throwing his arms wide open. “It’s me, y—“

He disappeared with a muffled yell under the ensuing swarm. Rindou rolled his eyes while Ran ignored his plight completely, calling out to Izana, “We’ll handle the perimeter.”

“I’ll leave it to you,” he replied, robes fluttering as he descended further into the shrine. When Kakucho moved to follow, Izana halted him with a raised hand.

“No,” he said. “Ensure nothing makes it inside. That’s all.”

—✧—

Perhaps Izana had underestimated himself, after all those years of lying dormant and powerless. Surely the others felt the same, although none would ever admit to it. Instead he allowed his growing irritation to carry him down the corridor—just in time to hear you scream. At that moment, he saw something. A tiny fragment of a long, long dream, etched with centuries of tears and stained with the blood of a mother who offered him his very last worshipper. Izana threw his head back and laughed, for he may be a god, but fate was surely a stronger force than he.

I know now, he thought, a grin splitting his beautiful face in two as he rushed forward. I know why this was meant to be.

The moment he reached you, the flame being pressed to your face went out. Your tormentors had not a second to react before Izana’s hand was gripping the face of the nearest person and slamming it right through the floorboards, raining splinters upon the horrified group. With his other arm he hoisted you against his torso, dropping the now unconscious body to hold you fully.

“Sleep,” he murmured, pressing two fingers to your forehead. Your sobbing dissolved into one huff of breath before you lost consciousness.

At the same time, Kakucho stepped inside, followed by Ran, Rindou, and finally, Shion—who looked particularly scuffed up and disgruntled. Izana did not need to ask them to know that they had cleared the shrine of demons. Now, their attention was turned to the ruckus caused by frantic shouting and scrambling limbs.

Like fleeing insects, Izana mused with a sick sort of glee, and spoke. “Don’t let them escape.”

—���—

While Izana focused on healing every crevice of your smouldering face and bleeding head, he basked in the sound of cracking bone and pained shrieks, softly humming his own little tune as he worked. The task would likely take up all of his current energy, so as much as he would have liked to join the fray, he acquiesced to sit away from the violence and simply cradled you on his arms. Every time you stirred, he shushed you with a gentleness unbefitting a man who just minutes prior had nearly crushed a person’s skull.

“Don’t let them escape,” Izana had commanded earlier, “but don’t kill them. Ensure that they will live, then send them back home.”

He lifted his head to watch.

Ran was seated on the back of one boy, who lay flat on his stomach while blubbering incoherently, laughing as Rindou leisurely snapped every joint in his hand, finger by agonising finger. Shion was a simple creature, choosing to pummel their faces while guffawing at each consecutive spurt of blood. Kakucho, however, stood off to the side, brows furrowed and staring down at the kid he had just cleanly knocked out in one hit. The unconscious boy was the one who led the group, Izana realised—and white hot hatred, masked beneath his ever present smile, surged to the surface.

“Kakucho,” he said. The black-haired man froze, then slowly turned to look at Izana.

“I’m giving you a special task,” he said, all the while stroking the contours of your sleeping face. “Wake him up and make sure he stays awake until you have beaten him half-dead.”

Kakucho did not answer, but Izana was not worried. He watched, beaming, as his most loyal of followers placed a hand over the kid’s eyes. The moment they opened, Izana turned away and closed his own, continuing to hum; as expected, the rhythm of Kakucho’s pounding fists was the best for your very own special melody.

—✧—

Your knees buckled, body falling right against Ran whose arms happily encircled your much smaller frame to keep you steady. Shion grumbled something about the beanpole hogging her all to yourself but it all went in one ear and out the other. Between the lingering memory of searing pain to their nonchalant retelling of utter brutality, you did not know which was worse. It was then that you realised, with a mounting horror that sent bile rising up to the back of your throat, that perhaps even worse of all was the tiny voice at the back of your head whispering, Good. They deserved it.

“You realise now, right?” Ran cooed, as if having read your exact thoughts. “There’s no need to act like you’re above enjoying revenge. You might be a shrine maiden, but you’re human too. Aren’t you?”

“I…”

“Think of it as divine retribution, or some shit like that,” Rindou piped up. “Izana’s a god and we fucked ‘em up on his orders, right? They got what was comin’ to them.”

You couldn’t look at any of them.

“I don’t get it,” Shion groaned. “Didn’t they try to kill ya? Why’re ya feelin’ sorry for those bastards? We just gave it right back.”

They’re right. They’re right, and yet…

“What are you guys doing?”

Kakucho’s curt voice jolted you out of your thoughts. For a moment, you were relieved to see him return home—only for the thought of him coldly beating a human being into a coma to flash through your mind.

“Ran,” he continued, not noticing your growing discomfort. “Let her go.”

“Aww, you’re no fun. Just wanted to get to know our little princess a bit more.” Still, the taller man released you, and you hurriedly scrambled to find your footing before Kakucho would realise something was wrong. You grabbed the broom that had been discarded earlier.

“I have to sweep the other side of the building,” you announced, forcing your voice steady. “Bye.”

“[Name]—“

You pushed past Kakucho and rushed off.

When your footsteps receded, he turned his attention to the men now sitting innocently around him on the floor. “What the hell did you tell her?”

“Nothing that wasn’t true,” Ran drawled, lying down on the engawa with his arms behind his head. “I’m taking a nap.”

“No, you aren’t—“ But Ran was already snoring. “…Fine, do what you want. Just don’t blame me once Izana comes back and sees the chores unfinished.”

And with that, he whirled around and went after you.

—✧—

“[Name], open the door.”

No response.

“Please?” he tried again.

He heard you shift around inside of your room. Then, a soft but petulant, “No.”

“Why not?”

A pause, before you said, “If you really wanted to, you’d be able to come in, anyways. Doors can’t stop you.”

“Are you…” Kakucho swore quietly to himself, making a mental note to put the others through the wringer. He swallowed. “Are you afraid of me?”

Your ensuing silence answered his question.

“[Name],” he sighed, “I don’t know what they told you, but I would never hurt you. Ever.” He would sooner off himself if he dared lay a hand upon you—if Izana didn’t kill him first, that is.

More silence followed, broken only by the sound of a barely audible sniffle.

“Alright,” he said. “I’m coming in.”

You were sitting in a fetal position at the farthest corner of the room, back pressed up against the wall and face buried in your arms. Kakucho slipped in through the closed door and made his way carefully toward you. The sight of your shoulders shaking ever so slightly as he approached hurt more than any injury a demon could inflict. After a brief hesitation, he crouched down. To his surprise, you were the one who spoke first.

“All I wanted was to live,” you whispered. “I just wanted to live normally and not be a burden to anyone.”

Kakucho was already a man of few words—but this time, he truly did not know what to say.

“Why did it have to be me?” Your grip around your knees tightened. “Everyone hates me just for existing. Why did my mom have to die and leave me all alone here?”

“You’re not alone,” he interjected. “Not anymore.”

Slowly, like someone trying not to spook a cornered animal, he placed his hands on your arms, gently tugging them apart—and to his relief, you put up no resistance. Your shoulders slackened, though still trembling with muted sobs, and after setting your limp arms aside Kakucho reached forward. Calloused fingers stroked underneath your chin and tilted your head up to look at him. The sight of your utterly broken, tired expression sent a pang right through his chest.

“We’re just like you,” he said, cupping your face in his hands. “All we ever wanted was to live.”

You stared at him from behind wet lashes.

“The world is cruel,” he continued, brushing your cheeks free of tears with both thumbs. When more trickled from the corners of your puffy red eyes, he wiped them too. “You’ve experienced the worst of it. Let us protect you and our new lives—even if we must be equally cruel in return.”

He watched your gaze trace the scar that sliced down his forehead and over one misty white eye.

“Izana treasures family more than anything else,” he whispered. “So… don’t be afraid of us. Please.”

He waited with bated breath as you continued to stare at him. Then, so quietly he didn’t even notice, your arm shifted—and you placed one small hand over one of his. Underneath his palms, he felt the corners of your mouth lift.

“Okay.”

—✧—

When Kakucho slipped out of your room, he nearly walked right past the younger Haitani brother who was leaning against the wall with his arms folded, next to the door. He stopped, then turned to face him. “Were you eavesdropping?”

“Whatever you wanna call it.” Rindou pushed off the wall and strode toward the garden. Without even checking to see whether Kakucho was following him or not, he asked, “She alright?”

“Now you’re concerned?” Kakucho sped up to walk beside him.

“I wouldn’t say that,” Rindou grunted, adjusting the round glasses perched atop the bridge of his nose. “Just figured that Izana wouldn’t be too pleased if our only remaining human follower started losing faith in him.”

“Maybe you should’ve considered that before you told her everything.”

“Hey, hey,” he said, holding his hands up. “We haven’t been around humans in a long fuckin’ time. Got too excited and forgot that they’re sensitive. ‘Specially the girls. Besides…” Serious lavender eyes glanced over at Kakucho. “She ought to know. What Izana is really like, I mean.”

Kakucho stiffened. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Really? You don’t?” A sneer stretched across Rindou’s face. “Don’t play dumb, now. I thought you were better than that.”

“I’m leaving—“

“Izana isn’t the same benevolent god as he was back then and you know it. More than anyone else.”

His fists clenched at his side. Before Rindou could say anything else, Kakucho was gone, disappearing into the warm summer air and leaving behind only the loud droning hum of cicadas in his wake. He sighed. “Alright, you bastard, you can come out now.”

A chuckling Ran emerged from behind a tree. “Seems like you’re getting soft yourself, little bro.”

“Shut the hell up.”

A bush rustled nearby. Both brothers turned their heads to see Shion pop out, leaves clinging to his shaggy blond mane. “Why the hell is everyone eavesdroppin’ around here?”

“Fuck off, Shion.”

“Yeah, fuck off, Shion.”

—✧—

Once again, days passed idly by. Especially now that you were banned from returning to the village for the time being (not that you were very keen to go back anyway) you found yourself spending more time with Izana and his odd group of servants. Before long, though you hated to admit it at first, you gradually began to enjoy their company. The various yokai that lived in your vicinity were friendly enough but nothing could quite replace the value of human companionship. Or, at least, human-shaped; on occasion you caught yourself forgetting that they weren’t of this world. Their manner of bickering and daily shenanigans reminded you much of your own neighbors’ antics, back when you still lived in the village, and it left you feeling an odd sense of both warmth and longing.

Still, there was no doubt that despite watching Ran chase Rindou around the garden while holding a particularly disgusting gremlin of a demon; or Shion knock himself out by accident yet again; or Kakucho’s face flare with the brightest shade of red when he walked in on you changing… they were powerful, dangerous entities all the same.

“Hey, don’t wander off,” Rindou barked at you, snatching a demonic spirit from midair and crushing it in his fist. “If you go too far we can’t protect you properly.”

You glanced over your shoulder from where you had been perched on a boulder right at the boundary separating the shrine grounds from the forest, watching the malevolent dark shadows twist and dart through the trees. After mulling over your thoughts for a few seconds, you spoke. “Can’t I learn how to do it, too?”

“What?”

“To protect myself,” you huffed. “So you guys don’t have to worry so much about me.”

Rindou’s answer was immediate. “No.”

“Why not?”

“Because.”

You scrunched up your nose at him. “It’s not like once I know how to do it, I’m gonna start trying to beat them up for fun. I’m not Shion.”

The two of you ignored the sudden loud sneeze that erupted from inside the house.

“Look,” Rindou said, moving to sit beside you. “There’s a little you can do with the help of talismans and spells and shit, but even with Izana’s blessing it would take fuckin’ years for you to reach a level where you can get rid of even one of ‘em on your own. Self-defence isn’t gonna cut it; just ‘cause you can see ‘em now, doesn’t mean your physical body can touch ‘em.”

“That’s okay,” you said, perking up visibly at the mention of talismans and spells. “I still want to learn. With you guys around, taking care of the shrine has gotten a lot easier—and some days I just get so bored, you know?”

“…You still feel lonely, huh.”

Your shoulders stiffened at his remark, then relaxed as you heaved out a sigh. “Sorry,” you mumbled. “I don’t wanna sound ungrateful or anything… but there’s still a part of me that wishes I could still be normal. Have a family. Chat with neighbours. Attend celebrations. Not hide, afraid of everything that lies right outside—at a distance so close, yet still can’t reach.”

Rindou was quiet as you talked, but in his mind he was frantically trying to recall how either Ran or Kakucho would comfort you; their way with words was far better than his in this sort of situation, much to his annoyance. Coming up blank, all he could think to do was grab your hand and pull you to your feet. “C’mon.”

“Wha— Where are we going?” Your round eyes darted from Rindou’s face to your clasped hands and back again, as if you couldn’t quite believe it.

“Inside, to get a paper and brush. Don’t get mad at me if you get tired, though; I’m not a nice teacher.”

He couldn’t help but sneak a glance at you, out of the corner of his eye. When he glimpsed your face bursting into a brilliant smile, he finally understood what Izana had been trying to save all along. Closing his eyes and allowing himself to feel the way your much smaller hand gently squeezed his, he could only hope that when the time eventually came, you would understand, too.

[organchordsandlightning]

20 questions for fic writers!

tagged by @bluejayblueskies!

1. How many works do you have on Ao3?  175, all told! Looks like twelve anonymous.

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count? 

3,404,353!

3. What fandoms do you write for? 

Currently I have ongoing longfics in: Phoenix Wright M*A*S*H* Malevolent House, MD

But I've also recently written for Pentiment + Pathologic. Big previous fandoms include TMA and Disco Elysium. I also really want to start writing Sherlock Holmes again, tbh.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

Moving Forward, Circuit by Circuit (DBH) (💀)

Some Air (Nimona)

The Catacomb Killer (Disco Elysium)

Tenth of a Second (Disco Elysium)

To Spare Little Revenges (Our Flag Means Death)

(it's so so so funny that none of them are Malev + TMA)

5. Do you respond to comments?

I do! Around once a week I'll go through and try to get them. Sometimes I can't think of what to say, sometimes it's a quick 'thank you!'.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? 

I can think of two: Catacomb Killer explicitly ends with war breaking out after the case is solved. I debated on this for a long time, but in the end, one of the main decisions the protags make in the end is to give a sensitive piece of intel to what would be the rebels, knowing that it might encourage them to act quickly. And, you know! Consequences.

road trip of the damned (an ode to good cows) doesn't end angstily necessarily, but the entire fic basically ends with 'and Jon gets home and goes to his grandmother's funeral and grieves'. The fic didn't revolve around grief until about halfway thrugh outlining it.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? 

Lighthouse might take the cake - many characters are back from the dead and living in an extended family situation. The Prodigal (or, a Planet Called Petunia) is one of my biggest 'from rock bottom to right on top' stories (because god bless, even Arthur Lester only gets the gift of having more horrors once he scrapes himself off the pavement).

8. Do you get hate on fics? 

Every once in a while! Usually not anything intentionally malicious, though. Mostly people not reading the room.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? 

Typically not exclusively smut! A sex scene every once in a blue moon, though, if the characters vibe. I think subconsciously I include a similar amount of sex that is in the source material.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? 

Not regularly, but a few! I've cross-overed Mistholme with TMA once, and Monstrous Agonies with TMA + Malevolent.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? 

aw man let's hope not

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? 

I have! Incredibly kind, it always makes me want to learn the translated language.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? 

I have not!

14. What’s your all time favorite ship? 

I think Spirk is the one that will always stick with me, but Johnlock and Jonmartin have had such an impact on me.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? 

I've got two Holmes longfics all outlined out that really excite me, but... oh, man. For some reason sitting down to write them hasn't happened. I also have a Malevolent longfic based on the original stories of the King in Yellow book - which I do want to finish, but it will be horrifically long.

16. What are your writing strengths? 

I think I'm decent with 'oh, so this is what the story's about' moments - like, oh, this story is about discovering meaning or falling in love or learning forgiveness or w/e. I like big, flashy finales. I've also been told my pacing is very good, and generally speaking, I think I'm halfway decent with humor.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? 

Sometimes I think in my drive to push the plot along, I strip away a lot of the fluffier character-buildy moments - and emotional throughlines for characters can be a bear. I've also noticed a recent thing where I'm, like. Omitting a very important part of the scene and just writing a reaction to it. Which is wild and fun to edit with.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? 

Sometimes! Usually when there's no direct translation (or the 'direct translation' is way too stiff).

19. First fandom you wrote for? 

BBC Sherlock, 100% positive.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

Oh, I don't know if I could pick a favorite! Catacomb Killer was so fun to play with the dialogue, and doing the research for formaldehyde and i'm afraid to come home in the dark was cool. I think I might actually pick Interim? (I Hardly Know Him) just because my usual longfics are angsty-ish, but writing Wooden Overcoats fanfic was like writing a sitcom. Was fun!

tagging @magnetarmadda, @romanticslimecreature, and @shadow0haven if y'all want to do it!

[oopey-doopey]

ive hardly seen anything about it but from what I have seen wally seems to have big BS spam energy

I’m using this as a dump about welcom home specifically Wally’s current interpretation by the fandom but I feel like this is really off.

Like don’t get me wrong, Wally definitely knows more than he’s letting on but whether he’s complicit in it, a part of it or semi unaware of its existential threat is up for grabs. Yeah, he’s a bit uncanny due to the difference in his design and attitude and description but nothing reads as malevolent considering the context clues or what he has done. It reads more that he’s just still there after the dust has settled in a home figuratively and literally, unnerving by the aspect of what once was.

A lot of people take the phone call or the letter combo as Wally hiding something or planning something but it reads more as following instructions or rules to what he could believe to be a game. A big reminder about Wally’s character is that he’s like a bit unaware and not knowing? Idk how to put it but he is kinda still learning how to be alive and do things in a normal way, Clown regularly mentions him not knowing how to do basic interactions like hug or kiss or even realize obvious things like him being the shortest. You need these little written details for the whole picture cause they show he’s a lot less on it than people give him credit for

Take the picture of him carrying Eddie (I would’ve used the barnaby one but anything before January 2021 is outdated and NOT to be used to explain current lore) That imagine is very forboding but it goes in conjunction with a sequel image of Eddie being okay and stretching and Wally happily tending to him. The odd stare he has is just what Wally does when he knows we’re watching and he has no worries about the others noticing. (I’ve noticed he tends to stare at us when the others are not there or occupied with something else) he’s just a lot less in cahoots or in line with what’s happening. He’s involved, quite possibly THE center of it along with home. But he’s not like BS Spam to me cause a big factor is willingness and awareness of the situation they are in. Wally is clearly aware in a lot of aspects but what he actually knows and plays a part in is way to vague for how I feel he’s being characterized already.

This could be neater and more detailed but that can be later.

[yyunari]

SIREN’S LAMENT — k.sn

SYNOPSIS . From the day she got her powers, Y/N knew they were given to her because she was meant to use them to get what she wanted. After all, sirens were notorious in Greek Mythology for hypnotizing sailors and leading them to their deaths. She would be a fool to waste her abilities. If you were gifted like her, wouldn’t you do the same?

GENRE . Angst, fluff if you squint, greek mythology AU, highschool AU

PAIRING . Kim Sunoo x Fem! Siren! Reader

WARNINGS . Depictions of violence, vulgar language, Y/N is kind of manipulative sawry <3

WORD COUNT . 4.8k

A/N . my entry for @iyeonjuni’s power of love collab !! this was rly fun to write hehe <33 i guess this is also my celebration for 700 bc it’s the first written fic i’ve written for a while so :)) the idea that i’m more than halfway to 1k followers is insane like i can’t believe it :(( ily narinators take this as a thank u bc i love u all 🤍

TAGLIST . @muhwaa @hoori @yizhoutv @ja4hyvn @koakyuu @carayat @one16core @enhacolor @jangwonie @soobin-chois @moaengenesworld @en-boyz @msxflower @ohmy-fandoms @yunki4evr @centheodd @jungwonize @yeongwonie @strwberrydinosaur @duolingofanaccount @butterflyy-ningg @yjwonz @jaeyunnsworld @sunsunu

Y/N L/N GIGGLED AS SHE CORNERED THE GIRL,

her hair waving elegantly through the wind. However, her intentions were anything but elegant, or kind for that matter. The quivering first year a few feet away from her was surrounded by walls, as the malevolent girl sauntered forward with seemingly no care in the world. The younger was petrified, and Y/N loved it.

As heinous as it was, Y/N bathed in the fear she caused others. It was nothing but a pastime to her. Backing people into a corner, messing around with them a little, and getting them to do things for her. Her powers made it too simple.

"P-Please! leave me a-alone! I'll do anything... just please stop!" The first year, a girl named Hana, begged. She was crouched down with her hands in a pleading position.

It was pathetic.

Seeing her at such mercy only made Y/N feel high with exhilaration. All that begging just for her to leave–

Y/N couldn't get enough.

She knew it was immoral, sure, but she could care less. She was gifted with the power to control whoever she wanted after all, it would be a waste to not use them. Getting people to do her bidding was just how she went about using her powers. Besides, no one ever got hurt. It was all in good fun! Just as long as she never got caught.

Y/N put a hand to her chin, feigning thought. "That's a good idea, Hana! I should do that!"

Hana’s eyes sparkled with relief, delighted to be out of danger. It was almost saddening to see how quickly she thought she was safe. As Hana stood up to say 'thank you', Y/N started vocalizing.

"Ahh, ahh~'' Her perfectly pink lips excreted the spell that made people's knees weak and clouded their minds. She started to approach closer to Hana, and eventually encased her in her arms. Essentially 'kabedoning' her. Y/N’s petrifyingly sweet face was close enough to Hana that she could make out every small detail, every crevice.

Her voice is so nice, Hana started to think. I could just fall a...asleep.

Just a bit more.

Y/N continued to hum her song, as the people passing by stayed blissfully unaware. And anyone who did notice assumed that the two girls were having an intimate moment in a dark alley. Normal high school things.

They couldn't be more wrong. Poor Hana was being hypnotized right under their noses.

Y/N continued her song until Hana was fully under her control. As soon as the victim's eyes turned dull, she smirked.

"Whoops, my bad.”

"That’s it for today, your homework is to annotate the worksheet that you received.”

Everyone thanked the teacher as she left, then dispersed amongst one another to head to lunch.

"N/N!" Runa called out, grabbing onto the said girl's arm. Runa was Y/N's self proclaimed best friend, and an exchange student from Japan. Truthfully, Y/N didn't care much for Runa. But she had to pretend that she did, because she planned to use something for Runa.

She wasn't quite sure why Runa clinged onto her in the first place- seeing as Y/N was dubbed as both terrifying and intimidating. Even if she was doing something casually, there always seemed to be a glare that graced her face at all times. All the students feared her, and often cowered in her presence. Her sharp eyes glared into their souls, intimidating others to no end.

Runa, in contrast, was the sweet beauty. Everyone loved her, guys and girls alike. Her deep brown eyes and shiny brown hair were captivating in their eyes. and her angelic personality was a plus. Runa was all around, utterly perfect.

Y/N hated it.

But she faked their friendship for an entire year.

"Hey, Runa." Y/N groaned out. Runa always dismissed her dismissive behavior because of her reputation. "I need to meet Kim Sunoo during lunch for a project, so i won't be able to sit with you"

"Sunoo? Isn’t he a third year?" Runa scratched her chin, recalling the tall senior.

"I take third year Chemistry." Y/N answered. Despite popular belief, Y/N was incredibly smart. However, she didn't feel the need to take the test required to skip the second year science class, so she used her powers on the principal to help her move into a specific chemistry class. the one with Kim Sunoo. her crush.

Somehow, even the heartless Y/N could harbour feelings for someone. She wasn't sure how it developed, seeing as she had no other connections with the cheerful male besides the one class they had together. But seeing him in the halls made her chest thump and her mind fuddled. She had feelings for him, and she would do anything in her power to be with him.

Maybe it was his captivating smile, or maybe it was the way he made it his own personal mission to befriend everyone in the school. Whatever it was, Y/N constantly found her eyes drawn to the schools’ resident ‘sunshine’. No matter what situation she was in, her gaze never failed to wander to him. It was annoying, really.

But Y/N never minded. After all, Sunoo was just the most enchanting person to be infatuated with.

Unfortunately, her powers weren't strong enough to make someone love her back. Trust her, she's tried. She figured it was due to the fact that being in love was such a powerful emotion— one she hadn't experienced yet. She liked Sunoo and was deeply besotted by him— but she wasn't in love with him. Not yet.

It was a miracle that Sunoo was the one to approach her for the project. She would've used her powers on him, but luckily she didn't need to.

"Oh, okay then! I'll see you next class!" Runa smiled her beautiful smile and left.

Y/N hated that smile.

But she softened at the thought of spending time with Sunoo. She kept this fondness internal, just to protect her notoriety.

"Y/N" a whisper came from a table at the back of the library, trying to grab the delinquent's attention. His whispers traveled to her line of hearing, and she turned to see him. Her one and only crush, Sunoo. "Over here!'

Mentally, Y/N's lips tipped into a grin. "Afternoon." she nonchalantly greeted, which contrasted the rapid beating of her heart.

"Good afternoon! You brought your chemistry book, right?" Sunoo asked, sliding her chair back for her to sit.

Such a gentleman... Y/N inwardly blushed, but quickly shook it off. "Yeah, it’s in my bag."

The surprisingly excited third year ruffled her hair. "Good! Let’s get started then.”

These small actions Sunoo did confused her. Did he like her back? Or did he do this to everyone? Her brain stayed multitasking as she focused on both the project as well as what Sunoo may have thought of her. Deep down, she knew no one would bother to spare a second thought for her besides being frightened. She understood them. as much as she knew, she couldn't bear to consider the fact that Sunoo didn't share the same feelings as her. So she pretended that wasn't the case, and opted to believe he liked her back.

“So it comes from the gaseous particles in Earth’s atmosphere and charged particles in the sun’s atmosphere colliding. And colors come from the type of gas particles.” Y/N explained the magnetism behind the Aurora Borealis to Sunoo since he had asked about it. “For example, the greenish yellow color comes from oxygen molecules, and red colors come from high altitude oxygen-”

Y/N’s explanation was cut off by Sunoo’s (not so) subtle laughter. Before she could ask why he was laughing, he answered for her.

“Sorry for laughing, I just find it a little funny that one of the most scary people in our school is a Chemistry nerd.” Sunoo teased. “But it’s cute! You should show this side of yourself more often.”

If it had been anyone else who said that, Y/N would have rolled her eyes at them and walked out of the room. After all, how could anyone tell her what to do? She was always the one telling people what to do, which made her automatically above everything. She would only abide by the rules when she wanted to. And if she wasn’t in the mood on that particular day, she would hypnotize who she needed to get what she wanted. It was what sirens did.

But somehow with Sunoo who told her, she surprisingly didn’t mind. In a way, him calling her cute made her feel bad about her resentful persona. If cute was what Sunoo wanted, then she could be cute. She would just have to… try a little harder.

As their study session progressed, Y/N gathered a strong emotion radiating off him. On one hand it was good, because she fed off of the strong emotions of others in order to strengthen herself and her siren powers. On the other hand, she was quite worried. For the emotion Sunoo felt, was love.

Love towards whom? That she didn't know. But she could only hope it was her.

“So Y/N,” Sunoo began speaking as he typed his part of the project on his computer. “I feel like we don’t talk a lot during class, and I want to get to know you more.”

His statement caught Y/N a bit off guard. He wanted to get to know her? It somewhat made sense, since Sunoo was a well known social butterfly and was friends with many people in her grade, but it still didn’t fail to make her feel giddy inside.

Kim Sunoo wanted to get to know her….

Maybe she could act normal just for a little bit.

“What do you want to know?”

“Hm… anything?” He shrugged, and looked over at the section of books next to their table and noticed a cookbook. “What’s your favorite fruit?”

“Strawberries.” Y/N answered. “My second favorite would be mangosteen though, because they’re fun to peel and also look like butts.” She let out a small chuckle at her juvenile joke, and she felt proud when Sunoo laughed at it as well.

She’s loosening up… Sunoo smiled.

“Butts? Seriously? I’ve always thought they look more like onions.” Sunoo said.

“Have you ever seen one before?” Y/N couldn’t help but pull up a picture of a peeled mangosteen to show him. “Look, doesn’t that look like a buttcrack to you? They’re really juicy too– not in a weird way though.”

Towards the end she realized what she was saying. Was she really trying to explain to her crush why she thought mangosteens looked like butts? The fact that she was showing any emotion besides anger or indifference was surprising enough. But Sunoo just had the ability to make her act more like a normal person and not a supernatural being. It was relieving, in a way.

To Y/N’s surprise, Sunoo burst out into a fit of laughter. “Hey! Do you even know what you’re talking about? It looks nothing like one.”

“It does though! Next thing I know you’re going to try to tell me that lychee doesn’t look like a vagina.”

Sunoo pursed his lips. “You’re going to ruin eating fruits for me.”

“Hey, you asked a question, and I answered. That’s on you.” Y/N shrugged. She noticed how Sunoo kept checking the time every so often. It was as if he was in a rush to get somewhere. But that couldn’t be right. After all, he wanted to be there, right?

It didn’t matter either way, she would just have to try even harder than before. “Do you like mythology?”

The question surprised Sunoo. He hadn’t expected that she would start the conversation, but he wasn’t complaining. It made his plan a little easier. “It’s not something I actively indulge myself in, but I think it’s very interesting. Are you into it?”

“Yeah, especially Greek Mythology.” Y/N answered. “Percy Jackson got me into it in elementary school, and I’ve been studying it ever since.”

Sunoo pushed aside the neglected chemistry project and leaned on the table ever so slightly. “Tell me what you know then.”

Y/N pulled out her book on different creatures in Greek Mythology, and handed it to Sunoo. “Here, you can flip through it.”

“You really carry this around? You’re an even bigger nerd than I expected.” Sunoo mumbled the last part, and opened to the page about the Hydra. “The hydra is a serpent-like creature, born as the child of Typhon and Echidna. It dwelled around Argos and bore multiple heads. However, anyone who tried to cut off one of the heads would soon find out that two more grew in place of it. Inevitably, the hydra was killed by the Greek hero Hercules.”

“I love Hercules! Like, the Disney movie.” Sunoo giggled. Y/N mentally facepalmed at that. Of course the Disney depiction of Hercules was wildly inaccurate, but she couldn’t complain. It wasn’t as if they had a way of knowing the full accuracy of everything.

Sunoo then turned to the next page, which was about sirens. Ironic, wasn’t it? “Sirens? As in, from My Little Pony- Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks?”

Y/n actually really liked that movie, because it was more accurate as to how she acted as a siren. So of course, Adagio, Sonata, and Aria were her favorite characters (heavy on Adagio, that girl was basically a cartoon version of her). “No, but that’s a really good movie.”

“It is, isn’t it?” Sunoo looked back at the book. “Sirens are creatures of Greek Mythology. They're seductive creatures, embodied as half-woman and half-bird. Their intoxicating voices lure sailors towards the 'sirenum scopuli' islands in which they reside. These sailors were led to an unfortunate fate, as the captivating singing of the sirens distracts them and ultimately leads them to crash into the rocky islands.”

Sunoo closed the book when he finished. “That’s horrible, honestly.”

“Oh? How so?”

“Well, it’s one thing to outright attack people. The hydra for example, at least it can’t trick you. It’s moves are predictable and you can create a plan to get around it. With something like the siren, you’d never be able to predict when they hypnotize you. And once they do, you can’t snap yourself out of it.” He explained, not aware that the girl he was explaining it to was a siren herself.

To say she was a little offended was an understatement, but she easily concealed it. “I’m sure the sirens have their own reasons.

“...They’re seductive killers, Y/N. I’m sure any reason they had would be completely one dimensional.”

Ouch.

“That’s true.” Y/N pursed her lips and stood up. “I’m going to the bathroom real quick, I’ll be right back.”

“Come back soon!” Sunoo whispered out when she left the table.

I can’t believe Sunoo and I are getting along. Y/N thought, as she walked back to the library from the bathroom. I knew talking to him wouldn’t be hard, but I didn’t think it was going to be this easy! It’s almost like we were made to be friends…

The idea humored her.

She never realized how easy conversation came with Sunoo, but it just did. After they got past the initial breath of awkwardness, and when Y/N decided to drop her tough girl act, it was as if the two were made to be friends.

Or maybe it was just the fact that Sunoo was an excellent conversationalist. Whatever it was, Y/N felt extremely comfortable in his presence which was surprising considering the nature of her crush on him and the nature of her character. She didn’t feel the familiar racing of her heart that she normally would’ve if her and Sunoo interacted, nor did she feel her body temperature change in any way. She didn’t feel the need to use her powers on him for her own selfish needs. She just felt, normal.

"It’s going according to plan!”

As Y/N rounded the corner to go back into the library, she heard Sunoo speak on the phone. And maybe it was a little rude, but she was curious and decided to eavesdrop. How bad could it be?

“Yeah, we’re becoming good friends. You know, she’s surprisingly nice when you get to know her.”

That made Y/N feel happy. Sunoo thought she was nice… how could she ever go back to her old ways after hearing that?

Well that was an overstatement, but maybe she would tone it down. Just for him.

“I know right? I was really shocked when she started a conversation with me.” A chuckle was heard from the other line. Perhaps it was Park Sunghoon, Sunoo seemed particularly close with him. “Maybe I’ll introduce you two. I feel like you would get along.”

He’s not Sunoo but if Sunoo wants us to be friends… I’ll consider it.

“Runa?” As she heard that name come out of Sunoo’s mouth, Y/N’s gaze hardened immediately. “I’ll ask about her soon. After all, I can’t make it seem like I’m just using Y/N to get to Runa.

Y/N was about to sigh in relief because surely, it was a misunderstanding? He didn’t want her to think he was using her to get to Runa because he genuinely wanted to be friends with her. Surely that was the case.

But Sunghoon’s words made her break on the inside.

“Isn’t that what you’re doing though?”

Y/N could hypothetically feel her heart crack. Right down the middle. She couldn't speak or think, her mouth was shut tight. Her breathing slowed and stayed heavy. It was a new feeling, one that she wasn’t particularly fond of. Was she experiencing her first heartbreak?

No! she internally yelled. It’s not supposed to happen like this! I'm supposed to break hearts! I don't get heartbroken.

But if that was the case, then why did it hurt so much? Why did she want to crawl into a six feet deep hole and stay there forever?

“Well yeah, but if she catches on then she’s going to tell Runa. Then I’ll never get a chance with her.”

Before either Sunghoon or Sunoo could say anything more, Y/N decided to make her presence known.

“Is that how it is?” Y/N clutched her heart, as she stepped out of the shadows. Sunoo, who was previously holding his phone to his ear, dropped it out of surprise.

“Y/N! H-How much did you hear?”

Y/N looked at his eyes, the eyes she once held dear to her emotions, and gave him the coldest stare she had ever given anyone before. “Enough.”

“Listen I-”

“It’s okay, I understand. Runa’s perfect in every way. She’s kind, cheerful, and pretty. I don’t blame you for doing what you did. After all if it weren’t for me, Runa would never give you the time of day.” Y/N spoke with indifference laced with her words. “We can finish the project another day.”

With that, Y/N stormed out to find her best friend.

It was the first time she had ever felt hurt. It made her feel shitty and unwanted. And frankly, she never wanted to feel it again.

Runa Minami.

I hope you eat shit.

"Oh, N/N!" Runa giggled and waved at her friend. Y/N turned to see the person she despised the most. the one who took Sunoo away from her. the one who hurt her.

"Runa" she disgruntledly huffed out. "Meet me in the abandoned hallway in ten minutes"

She didn't pay another thought to how suspicious she sounded. All she wanted was to teach Runa a lesson.

The innocently unsuspecting girl agreed, and let Y/N saunter off.

Runa followed Y/N's orders and turned the corner to the infamous abandoned hallway ten minutes later, notorious for being the place where couples made out. The invitation confused her, seeing Y/N wasn’t the type to be into romance. But Runa cared about Y/N because she reminded her of herself in elementary school.

Cold, indifferent, and unwelcoming.

It was the reason as to why she stuck with her for their first year, and the reason why she was so quick to dismiss her cold behavior.

She thought Y/N was about to confess to her, which is why she followed her to the hallway. Even if that wasn’t the outcome, she was curious as to what it would be.

"Hey N/N—"

"Come closer."

Runa's breath got hitched in her throat, as she approached closer. to her, the atmosphere was intimate. if you take into consideration the context of the hallway, you might think so as well. But to Y/N, it was anything other than intimate.

In a flash, Y/N had slammed Runa against the wall. In truth, she had a thing for kabedoning girls. It was, for a lack of better words, hot.

But that was besides the point. there was a confused glint in Runa's eyes, one that Y/N desired to crush.

Just as Sunoo had crushed her.

She knew it was cruel. Runa wasn't in control of Sunoo's feelings. She didn't even know the male liked her. And in all honesty, Y/N really did not want to harm Runa.

But she couldn't hold back. Her heart ached too much to not do anything, and she would rather hurt Runa than Sunoo. God forbid she do anything to him.

As sorry as she was, the bottom line was that Y/N was angry. Y/N was angry, and jealous. She needed to ease the pain. and the only way to do that was by inflicting pain from the source of all her problems.

"Sunoo likes you.”

Runa leaped back, not expecting that to be said. Her heart stopped when she realized what the situation was. Her friend got her heart broken, and it was all her fault.

"Oh... does he?" Runa answered, still stunned. She barely even knew the guy, after all. "That's good for him"

Still muddled with her resentment to her friend, Y/N kneed her stomach, and Runa fell to the ground as a result. Y/N placed her foot over Runa's head.

"N/N?" confused, she looked up at Y/N for the answer she so desperately seeked. "What’s going o—"

"Shut up! Just shut up!" Y/N yelled. "Fucking hell— shut up for once!"

She let out a large breath, before not hesitating to throw a punch at the defenseless Runa below her.

Runa, who was untrained in self defense, could only take the pain as the girl she cared for attacked her for seemingly no reason.

By the time she had asked why, Y/N burst.

"Why!? Because he chose you over me! The one guy I actually like chooses my friend over me??" Shegroaned and continued to strike at her. "I'm Runa, I'm perfect and everyone loves me!" she mocked Runa's voice. "You’re so annoying— god! I can't stand you!"

She didn’t blame Y/N for hurting. Maybe she was too careless and didn’t care enough for her as much as she thought she did. Maybe she neglected Y/N’s feelings too much and prioritized her own. After all, it was usually Runa who dragged Y/N around to go out.

But in any case, wasn’t Y/N going overboard?

Runa's chest started to hurt. not from Y/N's fists, but from the emotional pain she felt.

Yelling. Yelling was all she heard. Yelling from the principal. Yelling from her parents. Yelling from Runa.

Yelling from Sunoo.

Y/N had ended up in the principal's office, in a situation in which she couldn't get out of. She couldn't help it! She had been emotionally hurt for the first time, and didn't know how to handle it. But her actions were far from forgivable.

Although she was a bully, she only went after people's emotions. She never physically hurt anyone. At least she had some morals. But this time, she let her sentiments get the best of her. and Runa came out hurt in the end.

"Wait— you like Sunoo? Never mind, doesn't matter. Did it ever occur to you that i don't even like him back?? I don't even like men!”

The words that Runa had spoken to her stuck in Y/N's mind all while she was being berated by the school staff and her parents. It had never occurred to her that Runa wasn’t into guys. Perhaps that may have been why Runa stuck to her throughout their first year, because guys would never approach Runa with Y/N there.

Guilt had begun to seep through, once she realized the weight of her actions. I’m getting expelled, my parents are mad at me, Sunoo hates me, and my now ex-best friend got her heart broken. By me. Her head throbbed. She couldn't handle all of it happening at once.

And so Y/N stood up with such hostility that made everyone in the vicinity jump. She didn't pay any mind to it and snatched her bag, then proceeded to storm out of the room. It didn't matter anymore. She was bound to be expelled anyway. She would handle the scolding later.

She wondered why she felt so guilty, seeing as she was a siren. She was meant to cause misfortune upon others. She was somehow granted with such powers, the least she could do was use them properly. Properly, as in seducing others with her voice and then using them. And generally, she never felt regretful of her actions. Instead she would be proud when she saw others fall to her command. She thought she would be especially content too, due to the fact that she didn't care much for Runa.

But no. the moment she retreated, Y/N felt like, for a lack of better words, shit. The pleasing feeling she usually felt when she inflicted distress on people was not present, but rather replaced with guilt.

Did that mean that she would learn from her mistakes and use her powers for the better?

Of course not.

At the end of the day, Y/N knew she would always be the same disgusting creature that held such powers. no matter how much she tried to sugar coat it, that fact would never change.

Sunoo stood outside of the room and waited for Y/N to leave. Once she did, he grabbed her arm.

“What the fuck is your problem?!” Y/N yelled as she ripped her arm out of his clutches.

“Everyone was right about you. You’re cold, heartless, and selfish.” Sunoo glared at the girl he once almost considered a friend. “I can’t believe I ever wanted to befriend you.”

That made Y/N laugh. “Wanted? You only talked to me because you wanted me to help you get closer to Runa. Even if I thought we were getting closer, you only had your own interests at heart.” Her glare on Sunoo hardened. “If I’m selfish, then so are you. I was just more physical with it.”

“And that makes it any better?!”

“I’ll never deny that I’m a horrible person. You, on the other hand, act like you’re innocent when in reality you’re not.” Y/N pulled out her book of mythology. “Remember sirens?”

“...Yeah.” Sunoo hesitantly answered.

Y/N took a breath out of her nose. “You said that it was horrible that they lured people to their lands so they could kill them. But it’s okay for you to do the same thing? You acted like you genuinely wanted to be friends, and then you broke my heart. And all of a sudden, you think you can high road me?”

“Still, you hurt Runa. She was your best friend.” Sunoo criticized.

“I know I did and I feel extremely guilty about it. But there’s nothing I can do to atone for it, so it’s better if I just leave. I’m getting expelled anyway.” Y/N mumbled. “I’ll apologize to Runa before I leave, and I’ll face any punishment the school gives, but I don’t want to hear you of all people criticizing me for it.”

“So you’re just going to leave?” Sunoo inquired.

Y/N looked at the injured Runa, who was woefully scrolling through her phone, and sighed. “Yes, it’s for the best. And I’ll stop liking you, so don’t worry about that.”

“Goodbye, Kim Sunoo. Thank you for being my friend, even if it was just for a moment.”

Something that most people would see as a blessing ended up breaking an innocent girl beyond repair.

And Sunoo realized one thing. That he never truly knew Y/N L/N at all.

[laf-outloud]

Ok, as someone who watches an unhealthy amount of CW shows, genuinely I don't understand people who hate on Jensen, Jared, or Misha for being bad actors. Because they are ALL bad actors, THAT'S why they're on a CW show. I love Supernatural, I love all three of them, but their acting skills are mediocre at best. And that's okay! I enjoy watching CW shows because they're melodramatic and fun without taking themselves too seriously. CW shows are like higher budget soap operas, you know exactly what caliber of acting and writing you're getting. I've just been thinking about this for awhile and wanted to ask fans and antis from all sides about this. While in anon, of course, because I DO NOT need this fandom coming for me. But I looked through your blog and you seemed nice and respectful enough. So, why do you see Misha as a bad actor compared to Jensen and Jared? And let me be clear, I don't hate Jensen, Jared, or Misha. I love all three of them and want them all to have successful careers post-SPN. So this isn't me attacking you for being anti-Misha. You just seemed like someone who might have a polite response to this question.

First off, watching tv is only unhealthy if it interferes with your daily life! LOL! (And thank you for thinking I'm nice and respectful - I try - most days).

In regards to bad acting, I'm no expert (my acting experience consists of business voice-overs and one line in my Junior High Christmas play), so what I share will be based on how I perceive things, certainly not from how an acting coach or director would see things.

I have to disagree with calling television actors/soap actors straight up bad. I think acting is relative and quality can be based on our expectations. I don't expect network tv actors to wow me like movie actors, but I do expect them to tell me a story without pulling me out of it by bad acting. What do I mean by this? If I'm watching a scene for the first time and an actor does something that makes me think, "Ouch, that line fell flat," or "What kind of acting decision was that?" then I'm no longer thinking about the scene or the character, I'm thinking about the actor instead. That's what I think of as bad acting.

As for J2M - I've put that below the break.

Speaking of noticing acting choices in a scene, the reason I refer to Misha as a bad actor is because he's the one on SPN that pulled me out of the story the most, and it didn't happen right away. I feel like he did a goo job with Castiel S4-6 as well as Castiel's return to form in S14's Lebanon when he had to play S4 Castiel again. I especially appreciated his nuance when he started to understand humanity and felt more like a fish out of water. It's his acting in the later seasons, particularly when he would play a separate character that I would full on cringe while watching it.

Bad examples include Casifer, The Empty, and AU German Nazi Cas. With Casifer, he actually practiced doing Mark P.'s version of Lucifer, except he was basing it off of Hallucifer, which was Sam's mind's interpretation. The real Lucifer was much more subtle and felt like a truly powerful being. In fact, Jared's Lucifer in 5.04 and at the end of S5 (and S15 dream sequences) was understated. I could feel the malevolence behind this all-powerful being. Casifer came off as a parody of what Lucifer should be, simply because Misha tried too hard. He lost the subtlety required to create that commanding presence. I was no longer watching Sam and Lucifer, I was watching Sam and Misha playing Lucifer.

His other characters, mentioned above, also felt like over-the-top caricatures. Jared and Jensen have proven with Lucifer, Michael, Gadreel, Demon Dean, etc. that you don't need to ham it up to inhabit a different character.

As for Nazi Cas? That was just an offensive choice by Misha that the directors let him get away with. There was no reason for Cas, the angel, who only showed up in recent years for the apocalypse to be German. It perpetuated the stereotype all Germans are Nazis, and therefore the villains.

And finally, Castiel's goodbye scene. I understand it was Misha's last scene, and there's certain to be some character bleed, but there was so much bleeding, I thought he was going to need a transplant. Cas' voice was gone, his stoicism, his posture, Cas just disappeared, and in his place was the actor.

I know those are the extreme examples from Misha, and I think he did fine with his other scenes later in the series, but he certainly wasn't helped by writers who didn't know what to do with him and had him standing around a lot of the time.

Anyway, I hope what I've said made some sense. I appreciate that your willing to seek out different opinions. If you get responses from other fans, I'd be interested to see how we differ.

P.S. If it helps, I also don't like Jared's acting choice in Walker when Cordell gets nervous. He's getting better about it, but his speech pattern takes on a staccato style, which can be annoying once you notice it.

[idreamofplaid]

Request

Summary: Sam turns to Crowley for help in getting rid of the Mark of Cain. The reader takes over the situation which does and doesn’t surprise Sam.

Characters: Sam x Reader; Crowley

Word Count: 1027

A/N: I am so thankful for every reader I have. Recently, @the-departed-potato made a comment on one of my fics that touched me so much I messaged to ask if I could write a fic to say thank you. Here’s the result of that request.

It wasn’t often the King of Hell was allowed into the sanctuary of the bunker. Even more rare, were the times Sam called on Crowley for help. He was desperate to get the Mark of Cain off his brother, and Crowley seemed like his best option. If the King of Hell didn’t know about all things malevolent, who would?

“I do indeed have information that might be useful to you, Moose.” Crowley swirled the very aged and very expensive scotch in his glass with a slight twist of his hand. Sam had dipped into Dean’s private stash for that, but anything that might bribe or persuade Crowley to be helpful was worth Dean’s wrath when he found out, even the kind of rage he possessed now with the Mark of Cain on his arm.

That was the reason Sam had gone against every instinct he had and allowed Crowley into the bunker. He was desperate to get that mark off his brother, desperate enough to turn to the enemy for help, and it was clear Crowley was enjoying every minute of it. He focused his eyes on Sam, his gaze was penetrating and purposeful. “What would you be willing to do for my help?”

To this point, you had been sitting quietly in a chair listening to the exchange. You were done being quiet. “Stop playing your games, Crowley. Sam isn’t doing anything for you.”

The expressions on the faces of the two men as they watched you stand and walk over to crowd in Crowley’s space were a study in contrasts. Crowley watched you with a challenging curiosity. Sam’s eyes widened in surprise, then narrowed in concern. Meanwhile, you didn’t miss a beat with your verbal assault on the King of Hell.

“You’re lucky Sam hasn’t killed you long before now because he absolutely could. And you have the nerve to come waltzing in here acting like you’re doing him a favor. All you do is stall when every day Dean is getting worse.” Crowley nonchalantly took a sip of his whiskey, and you felt your blood pressure rise.

You felt Sam’s familiar hand touch your shoulder. “Honey, maybe you should….”

You turned to face him, your eyes flashing with a clear intent, your voice quiet but strong. “Sit.”

Sam let go of you and took a couple of steps back. He ran his hand through his hair and let it rest on the back of his neck. His tongue circled the inside of his mouth from his cheek to his lower lip. “Yep.” Sam knew when to surrender to your will. He took the few steps to the leather chair by the bookcase and sat down.

Crowley smiled at you, clearly pleased by your performance. “Well, aren’t you the fiery one? Should you ever get tired of the Moose, please do give me a call.” Your only response was to glare at him.

He drained the rest of the scotch from his glass and put it down on the table. “Well then.” He raised his eyebrows and adjusted his jacket, then the King of Hell rose and with a nod in your direction said, “There’s a shaman in New Mexico I need to see.” He snapped his fingers and was gone.

You braced both your hands on the table and took a minute to steady your breathing. Staring down the King of Hell could be overwhelming when you paused to think about what you’d done, but it was something you wouldn’t hesitate to do again. You’d do it for Dean, and that meant doing it for Sam too. Anything that hurt his brother, hurt him.

Sam spoke from the corner where you’d sent him when your adrenaline was flowing. “Maybe it should have been you dealing with Crowley all this time.”

You went to him, needing the reassurance of his closeness now that the heat of the moment had passed. Sam reached up, silently asking you to put your hand in his. You gave him your hand, and he pulled you down into his lap. He dragged the pad of his thumb across your bottom lip. “You’re amazing. You know that?”

You smiled and shook your head. “Either that or stupid.”

Sam returned your smile. “Well, that was the King of Hell.” His dimples deepened as his smile got bigger. “Should I be jealous of him by the way?”

You laughed and settled your arms around Sam’s neck. “Not hardly. Crowley has a thing for Dean. That’s why he’ll talk to that shaman and anybody else he can think of to get rid of that mark. He’d love it if Dean went dark for good, but Crowley’s not stupid. He knows Dean would destroy himself before he let that happen. So, the King of Hell is going to do whatever he can to save Dean. He just needed an excuse to do it. I gave him one.”

Sam moved his head closer to yours. You could feel the warmth of his breath on your skin as he spoke. “You’re smart too. Do you know how sexy that is?” You noticed the deep gray green of his eyes before they closed and his lips touched yours, soft at first before his tongue tangled around yours with an intensity born out of relief and passion.

Sam broke the kiss and stood, lifting you in his arms as he did. His eyes had darkened even more, and they were locked on yours. He ran his tongue out over his lip and pulled it back into his mouth. “How ‘bout I show you just how sexy it is?” 

His smoldering look quickly turned adorable, and his tone was playful. “Unless you want me to sit down again.”

“Sam Winchester, don’t try me. I’ll make it so you can’t sit down at all,” you challenged. 

He leaned in, took your earlobe between his teeth, and nibbled on it before he whispered in your ear. “Is that a promise, baby?”

Sam carried you to his bedroom where, for a little while, you both forgot about the Mark of Cain and the threat it posed. Many promises were made and kept. Repeatedly.

Everything: @gambitwinchester @princessmisery666 @peridottea91 @logical-princey @emilyshurley @beenlovingromansincedayoneish @fangirlxwritesx67 @waywardbaby @atc74 @tumbler-tidbits @fandom-princess-forevermore @terrarium-jpeg @emoryhemsworth @crashdevlin @jules-1999 @cosicas-cuquis @sammyimpala-67 @queenoftheunderdark @dean-winchesters-bacon @timelordy-fangirl2 @sweetness47 @hobby27 @awesomesusiebstuff @kickingitwithkirk @becs-bunker @sandlee44 @supernaturalgrandma @volleyballer519 @kdfrqqg @lizette50 @sorenmarie87 @lovealways-j @mrswhozeewhatsis @spnbaby-67 @wayward-and-worn @petitgateau911 @thinkinghardhardlythinking 

Sam/Jared: @girl-next-door-writes @stunudo @feelmyroarrrr @idabbleincrazy​ @evansrogerskitten​ @focusonspn​ @autumninavonlea​ @durinsbride​ @deansyahtzee​ @waywardnerd67​ @fullmooner​ @sams-sass​ @beskaradberoya​

[sylvanfreckles]

Nice Day For A...Wait For It (4 of 5)

(For no.11: "911, what's your emergency?")

Fandom: Supernatural Rating: G General Warning: chronic illness, internalized ableism, disability, violence

Summary: Sam and Eileen's wedding is just a few days away, and Dean and Castiel join them for some relaxation at the hotel before the ceremony. But Winchester Luck strikes again, and they find themselves at the center of disaster as secrets are uncovered. Cas has gotten stronger since the ritual that tore his grace away and left him human, but will it be enough when he's targeted by a malevolent spirit? (Read on AO3)

...

“I seem to have loved you in numberless forms, numberless times, in life after life, in age after age forever.”

( Unending Love - Rabindranath Tagore)

...

“Damnit,” Dean lowered his phone as his call rang through to voicemail. “Cas isn’t answering.”

Sam had twisted around in the seat to talk to Eileen but pulled his attention back to his brother. “Drop us off at the corner, we’ll see what we can find out about the estate sale those ornaments came from while you head back to the hotel.”

“You sure?”

“You can pick up Cas and meet us there.”

Dean sucked his lower lip between his teeth as he maneuvered the car closer to the curb. If Cas was okay. And sure, he could be napping or reading or in the shower and unable to answer the phone, but that didn’t stop the heavy feeling in Dean’s gut. They shouldn’t have left him alone.

“Hey,” Sam had a hand on Dean’s shoulder. “He’s okay.”

He barely nodded as Sam and Eileen slid out of the car. The doors were hardly shut before he was off again, roaring back down the road to the hotel.

It was almost noon now, the sun high in the sky. He pulled into a space near the door to the hotel and strode in, not noticing the front desk clerk’s greeting. Down the hall to their room, where the door swung open at his touch. Unlocked.

“Cas?” Dean stuck his head into the room. Nothing looked disturbed, except the sheets on the bed where he’d left Cas. The bathroom was empty, and the wheelchair still sat in the corner of the room, but Cas’s crutches were gone. So he’d probably left on his own.

Back out into the hall. Dean looked up and down it, as though Cas would just be hiding around a corner. Then he hurried down to the desk, where the clerk was talking with one of the young women who’d been complaining about the odd happenings in the hotel.

“Excuse me,” Dean interrupted them. “I’m looking for my…my partner?” He felt stupid saying boyfriend, which was stupid. Hell, he had a ring in his suitcase and still couldn’t say the b-word. “Skinny guy, dark hair? Probably walking on crutches?”

The clerk shook his head, but the young woman nodded. “I think I saw him in the hall, but I don’t know where he was going, sorry.”

“When was this?”

She shrugged. “An hour ago? Maybe more?”

Dean rapped on the counter with his hand. An hour ago. Cas could’ve left the hotel for all they knew.

“No, wait, it had to be an hour.” She shot a look at the door leading to a staff only area. “The lights were still on in the staff room after I saw him, and when I went back with a load of laundry they were all out.”

“The lights were out?” Dean’s eyebrows raised.

The young woman nodded. “It was weird, it was like they all exploded.”

“Yeah,” the clerk leaned forward. “That was when everything fell over in the basement, right?”

“Basement?” Dean wanted to shake them both, to get the information out faster. “What basement?”

“It’s just a bunch of storage. I peeked in the door, but all the shelves were knocked over, and I don’t get paid enough to pick them up,” the clerk explained.

“Where?”

The hotel employees jumped at the angry tone in Dean’s voice, and the young woman meekly pointed at the staff door. “But you can’t go in there…”

He was already pushing past, through the staff area, ignoring the other hotel employee on her knees cleaning up the broken glass.

“You can’t be in here!” she called after him.

There were big washing machines on one wall, with a wooden door next to them. Dean pointed to the door. “Basement?”

“Guests aren’t allowed in the basement!”

He shoved the door open to take in the sight of the room beneath. Several rows of wire shelving had toppled over, scattering bins and boxes and their contents.

“Sir, you’re going to have to leave, or I’m calling the police,” the employee scolded. She tried to take hold of Dean’s arm, but he pulled away from her.

“Cas!”

“This area is staff only, Sir.”

Something silvery caught Dean’s eye and he swore, thundering down the steps into the mess of the basement below.

A lone aluminum crutch lay near the base of the stairs.

“Cas!” Dean started shifting through the detritus of the basement, shoving containers and crates aside. He heard a faint moan and redoubled his efforts.

“Oh my god!” The hotel staffer had followed Dean down the steps, probably to try to force him out of the basement but drew up short when Dean uncovered Cas’s shoulder. “I’m calling 9-1-1!”

Dean ignored her and kept shifting things away, finally freeing Cas’s head from the debris. “No, no, don’t move.” He rested a hand on the back of Cas’s neck. “I’m right here, man. I’ve got you.” It looked like Cas had managed to wrap his arms around his head before the shelves landed on him, which probably saved him from a more severe injury, but Dean wasn’t leaving anything to chance.

Someone called down that an ambulance was on the way, but Dean barely noticed. He shoved a little more of the debris away, then whipped his jacket off and laid it over Cas’s body. “Help’s coming, Sunshine. It’s gonna be okay.”

…

Sam knocked on the door to Cas and Dean’s hotel room before pushing it open. “Dean?”

Dean waved Sam in from his perch in the armchair he’d dragged over next to the bed. “He’s asleep.”

“How is he?” Sam walked up to stand next to Dean’s chair and look over Cas. The dark-haired man was curled up in the bed, one hand holding Dean’s. There was a new bruise on his temple, and clean white bandages wrapped around the scratches on his throat.

“He said the spirit threw him down the stairs then brought the shelves down on top of him,” Dean explained. His thumb stroked the back of Cas’s hand as he talked. “We’ve got bumps and bruises, a broken rib, and an EMT with very awkward questions about the scars on his back.”

Sam winced. Cas’s scars couldn’t be explained away very easily. Naomi had literally carved glyphs into Cas’s flesh during the ritual that had burned out his grace to leave him human. “What did you tell them?”

Dean shook his head. “I called Charlie. Pretty sure she came up with something about him being forced into a cult by a bad ex.”

He sighed and rested his forehead in his free hand. “I can’t do this, Sammy.”

“This isn’t your fault.”

“I just didn’t want him to get hurt.”

“Hey,” Sam crouched down and put one hand on Dean’s knee. “You didn’t do this.”

Dean lifted his head enough to stare at Cas’s sleeping form. “What do I do, man? I can’t…I can’t fix this. No matter what I do he’s gonna get hurt.”

“It’s kinda up to him,” Sam replied softly. “Right? You wanted him to make his own decisions, live his own life? Sometimes we get hurt.”

They were silent for a few moments. Sam didn’t really know what to say to this. He loved Castiel, they all did. It hurt to know you couldn’t protect someone you loved.

Maybe Cas had gone through this, too. In all the years Cas had known them when he was an angel, he’d lived through so many changes. His powers had been lost or diminished time after time, but he’d still wanted to stay by their side.

Angels were supposed to be above emotions, but Castiel had loved them long before he knew what love really was. Looking at him now, in the limitations he faced as a human, Sam just knew they had a lot to make up for.

Dean let out another sigh. “Right. Get anything on that estate sale?”

“Edith Greene,” Sam stood up and pulled a folded sheet of paper out of his pocket. “Found dead in her home three months ago. Police believe she was strangled during a robbery, body discovered when her maid arrived for work in the morning.”

“Explains the bruises on Cas’s neck,” Dean shrugged.

“And she targeted Cas because he had one of her belongings in his possession.”

“Great.” Dean leaned back in the chair and rubbed his hand across his eyes. “So, we’ve got a vengeful old biddy with tchotchkes in every living room in the city.”

“I do have some good news,” Sam offered. He grinned when Dean finally looked up at him. “Edith Greene was buried in her family plot next to her dearly departed husband.”

Dean sat up. “No cremation?”

Sam shook his head. “We’ve got a body to burn.”

...

(Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 5)

[ashintheairlikesnow]

To that last anon, I thought you raised some really interesting points, especially on how differently society and fandoms, and by extension the whump community, tend to treat female characters compared to others. I'm kinda biased myself since I've always been drawn to reading and writing male characters (and lately nonbinary and every flavor of trans), but don't often feel a deep connection with woman in fiction. I guess a part of the way Nova is or isn't loved can come from that, but I think a big part of it is mostly from the way she seems "unsafe" to someone who is definitely a fan favorite. She is of course a survivor herself and, like Jameson, deserving of understanding for her mistakes, but maybe the fact the we never had a glimpse inside her head has a lot to do with it. I didn't like Jameson at first and I love him now because we got to understand his thoughts and feelings.

The closest we ever got to Nova was her therapy session (which was still not from her POV) and a couple really short bits way back in the beginning, so maybe that's why she's hard to relate to. But make no mistake, there's a bunch of Nova stans around here, I've seen them lol

About the whole infantilizing Chris thing though, my view as an autistic person is that it's both a complex thing and actually very simple lol. There's definitely an issue irl with babying disabled people and/or seeing us as babies/angels/cinnamon rolls too perfect for this world. BUT, I personally very much do just call every character I love "my child". There are characters ten years older than me (and a couple immortal ones with centuries to spare) that I very much do call my babies and a part of being a very invested fan is usually the whole "they can do no wrong! Murder isn't even that bad!"

So yeah, while the way other characters act around Chris can be discussed as possibly infantilizing sometimes*, I think the way we act about him doesn't have anything to do with his neurotype lol

*(I mentioned in a previous ask that this could be from having met him as a kid and their brains not updating the fact that he's an adult. Or that he needs help and support with some things that make him seem as he's being treated as a child when he's actually just getting the support he needs)

-🍄

Yeah, long before I was specific on Chris's diagnosis, when some of my regular readers were starting to ask me if he was autistic (largely because, in a lot of cases, they were picking up on stuff even I hadn't noticed was working its way into my own work yet!), people were already big Chris fans! He was adored right from his very first appearance.

I also think you really hit on a good point at the end when you note that he appears still very much a teenage boy, and that especially with nonlinear writing, it's easy to just kind of keep seeing him that way. And also, because he IS sunshine boy a lot of the time, it's easy to read that as 'childlike' as compared to the occasional cynicism or anger of the others around him.

I actually love Nova more the more I get to dig around inside her head. I've got some ideas on her brewing, but unfortunately have been far too busy to write much the last week or so! But I like her, and I think she's going to really find herself soon.

She was unsafe to Chris, for sure - but she is ALSO hurting, and badly, trying to find her way out of conditioned behaviors. She's fairly clear even when she assaults Chris that she's acting out the way she was taught to 'fix' the bad mood of the people who are important in the household - originally her Miss, and now Chris, Jake, etc. That mixes with her sort of latent crush on Chris (which is less on Chris and more on the way he seems, to her, like he's come impossibly far from being a pet) and just becomes a very dangerous combination... but not a malevolent one.

Nova is very complex - low-empathy but deeply injured and traumatized, working hard but taking the wrong direction with it at first. She likes the people in the household but hasn't figured out how to act around them quite yet.

She's not a villain, she's just not a perfect victim or survivor, she's a difficult one. So is Jameson. But I see a lot in them both that I love.

[mantis-in-the-dirt]

alright then, boys. i have quite a few thoughts and questions to consider about the inbetween and generally karl’s lore from today- i won’t be adding thoughts about the actual tales (the pit), although i might make a post about that later. just be warned, this might be kinda long-ish! i will probably expand on details within these posts later. it’s probably a bit ramble-y, but i,, cannot collect my thoughts better lmao. also, spoilers from the most recent tftsmp, in case that wasn’t clear. 

(also, forgive me if there’s any bad grammar, i’m pretty tired.)

unless i refer to them as cc!, i am talking about the character!

tw for mentions of manipulation, mentions of blood, mentions of the prison.

this is set up like a list, mostly because i will absolutely fail to keep my points in check if i don’t do it this way.

1. let’s start where Karl does- in spawn. he spawns in the inbetween, and based on what we’ve seen, his respawn point does seem to be set within the inbetween. my thoughts on this aren’t super specific, and they tangle a bit with minecraft mechanics, so. if his respawn point is set in the inbetween, that means, with Minecraft logic, he will come back right inside of the inbetween next time he leaves his time travel. what i am assuming is the inbetween is put in the/a world’s overworld, while the other side is through the nether, which means that the set spawn is naturally in the inbetween. unless Karl has a respawn anchor within the inbetween, he is naturally going to spawn there if whatever marks his respawn is destroyed. but other than that- he hasn’t set a spawn point of any kind within the other side, so technically, by Minecraft laws, he should be respawning within the inbetween. this doesn’t necessarily mean anything- for story purposes, it’s likely he’s just in the other side anyways, but it’s interesting to think about.

2. another quite glaring point from tonight’s stream. the inbetween’s threats to force karl to stay. this implies that it somehow has a way to stop him from leaving, which could involve many things. we don’t know the logic of how he joins and leaves the inbetween after he travels, and therefore we don’t know where he is. is the inbetween a separate physical plane? is it in his mind? if it’s in his mind, how would he be restrained? if it’s physical, where is it in relation the the rest of the smp? also, keep in mind this strange physical-mental-no info plane kinda idea. it’ll come up in another point soon.

3. whoo boy, this one. probably the one i’m questioning the most, if i’m being honest. one of the things we have the least answers on.. who the fuck is the inbetween? is it the castle itself, some kind of sentient being who has control and can grow itself? is there someone or something controlling the castle, making it place those books or placing the books themselves? is this force necessarily malevolent? it’s obviously not all powerful, because whoever was working to get karl out had spots that the entity couldn’t see before, and karl managed to get messages. it refers to itself as person, it refers to itself by calling itself ‘i’, implying it is some kind of sentient entity, so what and who is it?

4. i do not think either place is benevolent. neither of them seem even close to truly friendly, and both of them give big red flags in every way they talk. the inbetween is more obvious, because we have quite a bit more info on it. it’s used manipulative techniques, it’s tried to force karl into doing things and to stay. the other side hasn’t done anything specific enough to garner direct dislike, but for multiple reasons, i don’t trust it. this may be a personal opinion, but i think greeting karl like he’s familiar is strange. it said welcome home, which implies a few things (that he’s been there before, that it knows him, that it is somehow familiar with him) that we haven’t learned enough about to properly analyze. i still find it weird, however. (this is less of a concise point and more of a kind of guess/theory.)

5. this is something i said in my last short little post on the tales, but i noticed it once again within this tales, especially with a fewer specific lines. the inbetween continues to use extremely similar and the same methods of manipulation as our green smiley man himself does, which may or may not be important, but i find worth noting. 

6. there was blood in the supposedly secret room. it was a ‘surprise,’ phrased like it was supposed to be some kind of happy thing. first off, there was blood with the sign “don’t stray from the path :]” which is undeniably creepy. of all the ways you could’ve sent a message, that’s horrifying. secondly, this is one of the first (the first, possibly?) physical threats of violence within the inbetween, and we’ve observed quite often in this fandom the difference between physical and mental attacks. last, where did the blood come from? we’ve seen no physical bodies other than karl himself and the many copies of him. did something hurt the karl copies? if not, whose blood is it, and how is there so much of it all over the room?

7. this is likely a complete coincidence, or even if it isn’t it won’t matter to lore, but the blocks that we’ve seen of the other side are mostly the same as the prison. there’s a lot of blackstone and possible obsidian and such.

8. the inbetween and the other side seem almost inverse of each other. each different part of them that we are able to compare so far seems to be exactly opposite from each other. from the obvious things- the color schemes, the flowers- to the less obvious details- the way they speak to karl. the build of the other side so far seems to be foreboding and creepy, kinda strange and unusual type of build. the build of the inbetween looks peaceful and calm, very gentle and pretty. it’s obviously purposeful, and i think there are some connections with the nether (the other side) vs. the overworld (the inbetween.) 

9. there are still the karl’s wandering around all over the inbetween, and we got more information on them today. they are versions of karl who have ‘lost themselves’ and become stuck here, cursed to wander the halls of the castle together. this is a very, very interesting idea. first off, let me be clear. time travel is a tricky thing, and depending on the world and the lore of how cc!karl has decided he wants to do it. logically, these copies of karl cannot be from the past, because if they are stuck, then karl himself would be stuck, and none of the rest of the copies would be there. this then implies that either versions of himself from the future have come back and gotten stuck, and/or that there is some form of alternate reality talk coming into play here. also, to go back into the previous point, are there going to be any kind of flip-side karl’s in the other side, or are there going to be no entities at all?

10. who is warning karl out of the inbetween? the inbetween has shown us no people other than karl and his copies, but someone or something is putting the books there to warn him, and something obviously seems to know that the inbetween isn’t right. however, is this force actually trying to be helpful? is it trying to warn him away from the inbetween because they want to help him away from malevolent places, or do they just want him to come to the other side? is there some force within the castle that holds enough power to put out books with differing opinions to the inbetween’s books, or is someone manually setting out these stories?

11. where is the inbetween, and how does karl get there? we haven’t been given specific information on how karl arrives or leaves the inbetween, or where the inbetween is. is it an entire other dimension? is it within karl’s mind, or is it in a physical plane? what does it mean that karl has gone into another dimension in wherever he is? will this cause difficulties in leaving or coming back to this area in general? adding onto this with a small idea, we have been given the ‘other side’ and the ‘inbetween.’ does this imply that there is a third side, and if so, what is it? is it something we already know, like the dreamsmp, or is it a completely new world?

12. i do not think the other side is a good thing. i do not think it is going to turn out well for karl. however, it currently seems to be the better place for karl to be. it seems to be the ‘good’ out of the two, just from what we’ve seen. despite this, it seems to fight all these common stereotypes of being ‘good.’ it’s dark and scary and seems very dreary. does this or will this reflect on the dream smp itself? does it mirror anything that the dreamsmp does with stereotypes or characters?

alright then, that’s it! if you made it to the end, i hope you agreed with a couple of these points, and i hope a couple of these questions are ones other people are having as well.

sorry for the ramble essay lmao 

[veliseraptor]

Hey Lise, I was wondering if you could maybe just give me a quick and dirty synopsis of The Untamed characters? I really like your fics and wanna read them, but I have NO idea who anyone is hahaha

I was gonna like. Link to someone else’s rundown of this, but then I decided it might be fun to write my own, which was a mistake. But I make all kinds of mistakes! So unsurprising.

This is going to, by virtue of being a character overview, contain spoilers, so if you think you’re gonna want to watch and want to avoid spoilers then watch out for that. This is also broken down by sect because that makes it easier.

The degree to which I explain the plot here varies wildly and I’m not actually sure how coherent it is. If you want a more detailed rundown that has pictures and shit and also other information, see here; also some of these characters have more than one name, which I’ve noted where the usage of multiple names is likely to pop up in fic.

This is very much QUICK and DIRTY and NOT COMPREHENSIVE, just to underline that a few times. It’s also show focused rather than novel focused, because that’s most of the canon I’m working with. I have also not translated titles here (Hanguang-jun, Zewu-jun etc.) because they just sound better untranslated.

THE JIANG SECT

Wei Wuxian: Also known as Wei Ying or (if you’re nasty) the Yiling Patriarch. One of the two main characters of the show. He died (killed himself) in disgrace, universally reviled as evil, but it’s okay, he got better. Or rather, his soul got swapped into the body of a man named Mo Xuanyu, whose life really sucked and who almost never gets acknowledged by the narrative. Sunshine boy on the outside, but it’s complicated. 

Sort of invented necromancy, or at least perfected it. Will kill you with his magic ghost flute, but mostly only if you deserve it. Mostly. Self-sacrificing to a fault due to basement level self-worth and a tendency to believe that he can handle things other people can’t. Swapped out his ability to do magic to keep his brother alive via nonconsensual surgery. This had a lot of somewhat unexpected consequences, it turns out. Got thrown into a very bad place called the Burial Mounds and came out with new powers and a whole new pile of trauma.

Rescues the Wen remnants from being killed in a prison camp after the war against the Wen Sect; this is not a popular move. Founds a commune with them in the aforementioned Burial Grounds. Also raises Wen Ning from the not-dead. 

Adopted older brother (ish) to Jiang Cheng and younger brother to Jiang Yanli, adopted father to Lan Sizhui, eventual husband to Lan Wangji (at least according to novel canon and many, many post-canon fics).

Jiang Cheng: Also known as Jiang Wanyin, but only if he’s being a little bitch. He technically has a title (Sandu Shengshou) but I don’t remember if it’s ever actually used in the show. The youngest of the triad of Yunmeng Siblings (Wei Wuxian, Jiang Cheng, and Jiang Yanli), and possibly the most dysfunctional. Expresses all his feelings as anger, and he has a lot of feelings. Abandonment issues and inferiority complex the size of the lake that he grew up on. His entire family died and it fucked him up pretty bad, along with all the other terrible shit that happened. 100% Slytherin especially in terms of “protect my own people first and probably nobody else second.” 

Adopted younger brother to Wei Wuxian, biological younger brother to Jiang Yanli. Uncle to Jin Ling (see below). 

Jiang Yanli: I’ll take “oldest daughter who doubled as parent figure” for 500, Alex. Jiang Yanli is relatively quiet and mild-mannered but she loves her brothers very much and will throw down for them in a pinch. Tends to wilt in the face of people treating her poorly; not very good at standing up for herself. A professional at taking care of other people and not herself (Wei Wuxian and she have this in common!). She dies and it really does a number on her siblings.

Oldest sister of Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng, wife of Jin Zixuan, mother of Jin Ling.

Jiang Fengmian & Yu Ziyuan: Parents of Jiang Yanli and Jiang Cheng and source of the above’s dysfunction, in a lot of ways. Jiang Fengmian plays favorites (with his adopted son Wei Wuxian) and takes out his feelings about his wife (complicated) by ignoring Jiang Cheng and Jiang Yanli. Madame Yu is straight up abusive; physically of Wei Wuxian, emotionally of everyone else. In her first appearance she walks into dinner and specifically targets everyone’s weak spots, demolishing three children emotionally in about two minutes, then leaves.

This family! It’s a disaster.

THE LAN SECT

Lan Wangji: Also known as Lan Zhan or Hanguang-jun. The other main character. Has a reputation for being very upright and righteous and rule-abiding; is that, sort of, but also kind of a socially awkward, deeply lonely boy who is trying to be a good person and thinks he can get there by following the right rules. Eventually figures out that’s not how it works. Doesn’t make friends easily but when he loves someone it is with all 500% of his heart. 

His circle of people is very small, though. It’s kind of just two: his brother and Wei Wuxian. That’s all! Lan Wangji could use some friends, maybe.

He’s good! Also learns to rebel when appropriate, and “appropriate” especially involves things having to do with Wei Wuxian, for whom he will do just about anything, at least after he comes back from the dead. Before that it’s a little harder. 

Younger brother of Lan Xichen, nephew of Lan Qiren, adopted father of Lan Sizhui, eventual husband to Wei Wuxian (see above).

Lan Xichen: Also known as Zewu-jun. He does have a birth name (everyone does!) but it doesn’t get used in canon. Also parented his younger brother (there’s a lot of sibling parents in this show!). Is the peacemaker, does not like conflict, diplomatic to a fault. Noticed how everyone else is very quick to jump to conclusions and decided he has to take all of the giving of the benefit of the doubt and good faith and “let’s wait and see and not jump to murder” because no one else is going to.

People in fandom give him a lot of shit for being stupid but he is not! He is just conflict-averse and cautious and inclined to reserve judgment on people. It just turns out that he happens to place his faith in the wrong person, which is to say Jin Guangyao. It does not work out. He ends up getting tricked/manipulated into killing Jin Guangyao by Nie Huaisang, and is about to stay and die with him when Jin Guangyao surprise pushes him away and thus saves his life. 

At least one of the Lan brothers gets a happy ending!

Older brother of Lan Wangji, nephew of Lan Qiren, sworn brother/boyfriend of Jin Guangyao and Nie Mingjue.

Lan Qiren: Lan Wangji and Lan Xichen’s uncle who essentially raised them due to family dysfunction involving a mother who was basically on house arrest (because she killed someone??? not sure what happened there, information minimal) and their father seems to have been absent, and both died before series start. Rigid and hidebound, very much not a Wei Wuxian fan, very strict with both the Lan brothers and sometimes that involves corporal punishment and yelling.

There are no good parents or parent figures in this series.

Uncle to Lan Wangji and Lan Xichen.

Lan Sizhui: Also known as A-Yuan / Wen Yuan. Originally a Wen kid, first adopted by Wei Wuxian when he founded the commune with the Wen remnants, then adopted by Lan Wangji when everyone in his family was killed and also Wei Wuxian. Grew up a Lan with no memory of his past. Lan Sizhui has two dads.

Cousin/brother (??) to Wen Ning and Wen Qing, adopted son of Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian.

Lan Jingyi: Sassmaster extraordinaire; the Lan kid who gets to say everything the rest of the Lans are holding back. Of the younger generation quartet formed by him, Lan Sizhui, Ouyang Zizhen, and Jin Ling. If a Lan kid in a scene is sassing someone, it’s Jingyi.

THE NIE SECT

Nie Mingjue: Also known as Chifeng-zun. Very strong opinions about right and wrong with not a whole lot of room for nuance. Formidable warrior. Anger issues, also daddy issues but we don’t get into those as much. Not exactly the friendliest of fellows but it’s not completely his fault, he’s being gradually poisoned by the malevolence of his own weapon. It’s a thing. Dies as a result of being poisoned by evil music courtesy of Jin Guangyao.

Sworn brother/boyfriend to Lan Xichen and Jin Guangyao. Older brother of Nie Huaisang.

Nie Huaisang: Mastermind (sort of) of questionable morality, sometimes in order to get revenge for the murder of your older brother you have to wait ten years while building up a reputation as someone utterly useless, then get your old best friend resurrected as part of a series of dominoes meant to demolish your brother’s murderer’s entire life and reputation. Loves art and fans, not a fan of losing his mind to violent sabers as is traditional for the Nie Sect. Smarter than he wants you to think he is, and also just really good at winging it.

Younger brother of Nie Mingjue.

THE JIN SECT

Jin Guangshan: The actual worst. Sect Leader for the first half of the show. Should’ve been kicked down several sets of stairs; the world would’ve been a better place.

Father of Jin Zixuan, Jin Guangyao, Mo Xuanyu, and too many other bastards to list. Possibly Jin Zixun? I’m not clear on that.

Jin Zixuan: Disaster Straight. He comes off as aloof and arrogant but partly this is because he’s just really bad at interacting with people and incredibly awkward. Eventually marries Jiang Yanli after failing to express his feelings for 26 episodes. Shortly thereafter ends up dying when he’s fisted by Wen Ning (through the chest, you filthy animal). 

Husband of Jiang Yanli, father of Jin Ling.

Jin Zixun: The other actual worst. When Jin Zixun is having fun no one else is, and when Jin Zixun is not having fun no one else is either. Just generally a tool. As far as I can tell has no redeeming qualities. His ambush of Wei Wuxian provokes the rolling disaster that results ultimately in the deaths of (in order) Jin Zixuan, Wen Qing, Jiang Yanli, and Wei Wuxian. 

Cousin of Jin Zixuan.

Jin Guangyao: Also known as Meng Yao and Lianfang-zun, the former before he gets promoted by his absolute bastard of a dad. He’s complicated! A good boy, also responsible for a lot of the bad things that happen, with varying degrees of culpability depending on who you ask. Son of a (in everyone’s words, ever) prostitute, and he’s really got a problem with it. Made some valid points but also got possibly too much revenge on people who hurt him, including some preemptive revenge on people who might have. Does a lot of murder but mostly via other people or evil music. Gets kicked down the stairs twice, which if you ask me is a pretty good reason to be kinda worked up about things.

His hat is very silly and I will not pretend otherwise.

Dies at the end and it’s real sad, if you ask me. Incredibly gay for Lan Xichen, and who can blame him? 

Son of Jin Guangshan, half brother of Jin Zixuan, sworn brother/boyfriend of Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue. 

Jin Ling: Part of the quartet of juniors including Lan Sizhui, Lan Jingyi, and Ouyang Zizhen. A mess of a child. (Half)-raised by Jiang Cheng and it shows. Spoiled brat but also just like. Brimming with loneliness and desperation for someone’s approval. 

Son of Jiang Yanli and Jin Zixuan, grandson of Jin Guangshan, nephew of Jiang Cheng and Jin Guangyao (and Wei Wuxian, and Mo Xuanyu, and too many other bastards to name, he’s got a lot of uncles). 

Mianmian / Luo Qingyang: Mostly known as Mianmian, which is her nickname. She’s technically a servant but Jin Zixuan is her best friend. Ditches the Jin Sect when they start being jackasses about Wei Wuxian in a seriously epic mic drop moment. Actually lives to the end of the show which makes one female character!

THE WEN SECT

Wen Ruohan: The first Big Bad of the show. Pursuing world domination by the power of the Yin Iron, aka evil metal that lets you control corpses. It doesn’t go well for him. 

Dies at the hands of Jin Guangyao - going, at the time, by Meng Yao.

Father of Wen Xu and Wen Chao.

Wen Xu: The oldest son of Wen Ruohan; he barely appears but he does exist. Or did, he doesn’t make it very long.

Wen Chao: Absolute worm of a human being. Like Draco Malfoy in early Harry Potter, but with more killing people. Dies an absolutely horrifying death courtesy of Wei Wuxian, but he did throw Wei Wuxian into a place he was supposed to horribly die in, so I don’t feel that bad for him. 

Younger son of Wen Ruohan.

Wen Qing: Incredibly gifted physician, can probably fix anything, including transferring a golden core from one person to another which no one has ever done before. (That’s how Wei Wuxian’s ended up in Jiang Cheng.) Starts out as determinedly loyal to Wen Ruohan basically to protect Wen Ning and keep him safe, but keeps ending up helping our protagonists basically against her better judgment. This does not earn her any points with the Wens, and being a Wen does not earn her any points with anyone else. 

Ends up getting swept up by Wei Wuxian when he finds her destitute in the street and they charge off to save her brother together. Subsequently lives in the Burial Mounds commune up until things go to shit and she goes to give herself up with Wen Ning in the hopes of mitigating damage after Jin Zixuan dies. She is executed.

Has a non-thing with Jiang Cheng because they’re very alike in ways that mean that, under the circumstances, they keep missing each other.

Older sister of Wen Ning, sister/cousin (??) of Lan Sizhui, adopted older sister of Wei Wuxian, sort of.

Wen Ning: Also known as Wen Qionglin, but like, once in canon. So you probably won’t see it much. Neither he nor his sister are actually related to Wen Ruohan - they’re from a branch of the family but serve him. Wen Ning doesn’t get to have a lot of nice things. He saves Wei Wuxian’s life (after Wei Wuxian saves his), and (along with Wen Qing) helps get Jiang Cheng out when he was captured by the Wens and protects Wei Wuxian, Jiang Cheng, and Jiang Yanli after their family and sect are killed. 

After the Sunshot Campaign he is killed by Jin cultivators (or almost, it’s complicated) but brought back to unlife by Wei Wuxian. Unfortunately this makes him vulnerable to control to make him do things like, say, kill Jin Zixuan and Jin Zixun. He and Wen Qing go to be presumably executed in an attempt to mitigate the damage to Wei Wuxian/maybe?? save his life; Wen Ning gets kept in a dungeon for sixteen years and comes back when Wei Wuxian does. 

Younger brother of Wen Qing. brother/cousin (??) of Lan Sizhui, adopted younger brother of Wei Wuxian, sort of.

Wen Zhuliu: Mysterious assassin/bodyguard of the Wens, we know almost nothing about his backstory save that he owes them some kind of debt and he and Yu Ziyuan seem to have some kind of history. The main thing is that he’s capable of destroying the golden core of cultivators, aka rendering them an ordinary person devoid of special powers, forever. Gets killed by Jiang Cheng, whose golden core he destroyed. 

Various Wen Remnants: You don’t get a lot of individual characterization from these folks - basically they are the remains of the Wen Sect after the Wen Sect is defeated in the war (called the Sunshot Campaign) that forms the arc of the first part of the show. Pretty much everyone wants them dead. Wei Wuxian rescues them and takes them off to the Burial Mounds, where no one else wants to go, and builds a commune with them, which works for a while until it doesn’t anymore.

They all die. It’s bad.

YI CITY CREW

These got long because I felt like I had to explain more about plot stuff.

Xue Yang: The gremlin! Will cheerfully murder just about anyone at the drop of a hat, he doesn’t really need a reason. Driven initially by a revenge quest for the guy who crushed his finger when he was seven; he kills his whole family, which is a reasonable response when you think of your own life as worth significantly more than anyone else’s. Subsequently and also during fixated on Xiao Xingchen. Kind of a genius?? but he’s pretty low key about it.

Really involved with the plot in a lot of weird ways. Introduced Wen Ruohan to the Yin Iron and taught him how it functioned-ish, worked with Jin Guangyao for a while on necromancy stuff, after the inevitable betrayal ended up getting picked up by a now blind Xiao Xingchen (more on that later) and a-Qing, and lived with them in domestic semi-bliss for three years while also tricking Xiao Xingchen into murdering a lot of people, up to and including his sort-of-ex-boyfriend Song Lan. Turned Song Lan into a zombie, sort of. Fell apart when Xiao Xingchen died (killed himself, on account of Xue Yang demolishing his entire life, whoops) and spent the next decade or so trying to bring him back from the dead.

Dies messily, as you might guess, and I’m still sad about it.

Xiao Xingchen: Grew up on a secret mountain isolated from the rest of society, came down from the secret mountain to help make the world a better place, it really does not work out for him. Travels around for a while being best friends/boyfriends with Song Lan, getting poetry written about him; unfortunately then he and Xue Yang run into each other which is widely regarded as a bad move. Things get messy, Xiao Xingchen ends up with his eyes in Song Lan’s head and blind, he adopts a teenage con artist (see below) and rescues Xue Yang (who he doesn’t know is Xue Yang). 

Three years of domestic bliss (sort of) ensue, with the wrinkle that while Xiao Xingchen’s sword Shuanghua can sense corpses so he can still hunt things, it has a glitch where sometimes the corpses it senses are in fact living people that Xue Yang has poisoned and cut out their tongues. Whoops. 

After he kills Song Lan (whoops), Xiao Xingchen finds out from a-Qing who he’s been living with and, uh, is upset about it. Xue Yang drops the bomb of “oh yeah so you’ve been killing people this whole time and also! yeah! killed Song Lan too! eyyyy” upon which Xiao Xingchen, his entire world wrecked, kills himself and shatters his soul.

He ends the series basically fragments of soul in a little pouch being carried around by Song Lan. When I put it that way it sounds kinda funny but it’s really not.

A-Qing: Teenage con-artist who pretends to be blind and adopts Xiao Xingchen after stealing his money (he notices, but he also just gives it to her). Knew Xue Yang was bad news but didn’t know how bad. Smart cookie. Xue Yang blinds her and cuts out her tongue (he just loves doing that) after she tells on him to Xiao Xingchen; she gets her revenge by leading Wei Wuxian & co. to figuring out what’s going on, and ultimately enabling the first mortal-wounding of Xue Yang. 

Unfortunately, also dies.

Song Lan: Also known as Song Zichen, rarely. A Daoist priest (I think that’s right?) and “rogue cultivator” (in the sense that he’s not affiliated with any sect). He is definitely affiliated with Xiao Xingchen. “Affiliated with.”

Ends up getting caught in the vortex of Xue Yang when his entire temple-family is killed and he’s blinded; says some harsh things and a guilty Xiao Xingchen trades out his eyes to pay him back for being the cause of Xue Yang targeting his temple, then vanishes. Song Lan spends the next long time trying to track him down, eventually finds him in mid-domestic bliss (sort of) with Xue Yang (yikes), promptly attempts to kill Xue Yang, ends up getting his tongue cut out and himself corpse-poisoned and killed by Xiao Xingchen, who thinks he is a random evil corpse instead of his best friend/ex-boyfriend. Xue Yang turns him into a zombie controlled by him. He gets better (from the control, he’s still a zombie).

Literally the only one of the Yi City Crew to make it out alive and he’s not technically alive.

MISCELLANEOUS OTHERS

Ouyang Zizhen: Part of the juniors quartet with Jin Ling, Lan Sizhui, and Lan Jingyi. A budding romantic. Very good, has the misfortune of having Sect Leader Ouyang as a dad, but at least it’s not Sect Leader Yao (see below).

Su She: Due to a confluence of factors having to do with jealousy but also class/rigid hierarchy issues, ends up as Jin Guangyao’s right hand henchman. He’s very loyal when you’re actually nice to him. Really doesn’t like Lan Wangji. 

Sect Leader Yao: Mostly just there to have really bad opinions all of the time.

[antihero-writings]

Hearts in Cages

Fandom: Muted (Webtoon)

(Spoilers for some of the more recent chapters!!)

Fic Summary: What does it feel like to have a part of you caged and tortured? Avaline knows this feeling all too well. But maybe Raum can help end the cycle...or at least alleviate the pain.

Character Focus: Avaline Severin, Raum, Beau, and Athalie Severin--(mentioned).

Notes: I wrote this for Mabs Drawlloween club prompt 6: "Familiar". I'll put a link to the prompt list in a reblog!

I'm trying something new with this prompt! For a long time I've wanted to try and do a sort of no-edit-run thing, where I write a fic and post it within the same day. I thought an inktober prompt or two would be a great way to try it out!

I have a couple Inktober lists saved to choose from, and when I saw "Familiar" I thought of Muted! I've been wanting to write about Raum especially for a while so I thought this'd be a great one!

I was expecting forcing myself to post in the same day as writing to be impossible, but this ended up being super fun!

If you have any other ideas for me based off of any inktober prompts, don't hesistate to send me prompts!! I'll probably post the lists I've saved here at some point for you guys to send me prompts from!!

If you enjoyed this fic, I'd really really appreciate if you'd say so in a comment, and/or reblog!!

Hearts in Cages:

The Queen of Hearts steps down the stone stairs in a black dress, and a glistening crown, like blades growing out of her head, a vulture perched on her shoulder. Her hair is grey, her expression immutable. That, and the malevolence betrayed by the lines of her face, makes her look like a much older woman than she actually is.

Her footfalls sound rhythmically against the stones as she descends deeper into the dungeon, passing sconces; tongues of red fire blazing within them, which dance in her imperceptible eyes.

When she reaches the dungeon there are no cells, no prisoners reaching their hands through the bars, begging for mercy.

It is a single room, small, and the walls are shelves, lined with boxes emanating faint light from their locked lids.

She stalks up to one side, finding one amongst the many. It’s nothing special, in look or placement within the rest.

She glares down upon the name marked on the front:

“Avaline.”

Her expression barely changes but…There is such distain on her face.

The vulture is holding a ring of keys in his mouth, and at this moment he lowers his head, offering them to her.

It takes her too long to find the right one. Once she does she slides it into the lock.

After the click, she returns the key to the ring and raises her hands—boney and pale, always too cold—and lifts the lid.

The box is full of a foul-smelling, red liquid. Without hesitation the queen reaches her hands into the blood and pulls out—

Inside the box, inside all the boxes, is a heart. A heart, thumping, glowing slightly. It begins to thump faster as she holds it—(and far away a lonely girl grimaces and turns over in her sleep)—

The worst part is that, upon Athalie’s ever-emotionless face, a smile ruptures as she squeezes.

Avaline wasn’t quite sure what was real when she opened her eyes, all she knew was pain; pain radiating through her body, sharp and unassailable. A crow was screeching in the other room, and she could almost feel her mother’s cold hands.

She didn’t know how long it went on before it subsided, and even when it did, she remained, shaking on the floor.

She put a hand on her face, air a burden to her lungs, searing the back of her throat.

Avaline told Camille she was lucky. That keeping her familiar locked in a cage for years was mild compared to having him locked away on top of a blood sigil.

Her words were dull and blank…along with the rest of her.

Beneath all that…she wanted to scream, she wanted to cry.

She wanted to stand up, shove her chair back and shriek:

Do you know what it’s like?! Do you know what it’s like to have a part of you ripped away?! Stripped away by someone you care about?! To have something you can’t live without trapped in a cage?! To have that piece of you tortured again and again?! Do you know what I’ve been going though?! No, you don’t, do you?! You only care about yourself!

She may not quite mean the last few sentences…but she wanted to shout them all the same.

What did it feel like? Well…it felt a little like withdrawals from a drug your quite fond of…and a lot like being beaten with a closed fist.

What did she do wrong? Why was she being punished for Camille’s disobedience?

Why couldn’t Camille just come home? It was so simple. Everything would go back to normal. And maybe normal wasn’t quite happy…but at least it wasn’t this.

Was mom right? Did Camille never care about her? Did she only tolerate her? Was she just a nuisance everyone was putting up with? A mosquito sucking the life out of everyone around her so she could breathe?

Avaline Severin. You are a vision. You do not need to make a wish with me in order to find love.

She put her hands on the sides of her head.

Damn him too. Damn him for making her believe there was hope, that she was anything more than worthless, when she should just be put out of her misery, just face the truth.

She tried not to cry. Crying was for wimps, who couldn’t handle the world, and other assorted lowlifes.

…She wanted it. She craved tears, emotion. She craved them so much, sometimes, when she was alone, the cracks in the vase just broke.

But she didn’t get to cry and yell and make them listen. She didn’t get to stay away and sort all this out on her own. She didn’t get to make grand displays of defiance. She didn’t get to break down, and take down the world with her, like Camille did. She had to stay, and play, and get hurt, over and over, for everyone else’s indiscretions…because she was the only one close enough for her mom to take it out on.

Like she wasn’t even a thing herself; just a punching bag, a mirror, for everyone else to bounce off of.

She was so, so tired.

So tired from getting punched over and over.

Mom didn’t have to hurt Beau just to get to her, did she? He didn’t do anything wrong. If she was going to hurt her, why couldn’t she just do it directly?

To say she missed him couldn’t cover it.

Would one say they missed their arm if it was wrenched out of its socket? Would one say they missed their heart if it was ripped out of their chest?

She hated how far he was from her…but she hated more how close he was. Just down the hall…worlds apart.

(Just like Camille.)

And she couldn’t do anything to help, or be with, either of them.

The pain that ran through her every time her mother put her hands on the sigil…

She couldn’t believe her mother would do this.

Her mother certainly wasn’t the kindest, most nurturing people out there…that much was obvious. But Avaline never thought of her as cruel. Each time a thought too malicious ran through her, she tempered it by telling herself her mother was doing this all out of love. She told herself that she was right, tradition was important after all. That maybe they deserved all this.

And yet, on nights like this, waking or sleeping, she wondered if the Red Queen wrenched people’s hearts out of their chests, and put them in boxes in her dungeon, and, when her subjects misbehaved, calmly walked down the stairs, opened the boxes, and relished as she squeezed.

Because she was guessing that that would feel more than a little like this.

******

The door creaked as Raum stepped into Athalie’s office.

“Mom, you’re back!” A child bounced happily into the room, blonde hair flickering.“Look, look!”

Athalie didn’t turn around.

“Avaline.” The word was cold, yet something of a growl in her throat. “What have I told you about—”

Athalie turned around just enough to catch a glimpse, and now froze, her eyes shimmering with horror and distain.

“WHAT. DID YOU DO. TO YOUR HAIR?!” The shriek was like—(what are they called? Oh, yes!)—microphone feedback.

Raum grimaced appropriately, his ears drooping.

“Your blood. You bodies. Your soul. It doesn’t matter what a demon requires when it comes to securing the future of our family. You will give them to them without hesitation. So long as it is a fair price for what you have wished for.”

How was it possible to get everything so wrong? What wish could possibly equal the price of a human soul?

And they call me a demon.

Even the the air in here tasted bitter.

Though Athalie was gone at the moment, the traces of her may never leave the room.

“Who…there?” Came a weak caw from the other side of the room.

He spun around to see the object of his quest: a crow in a cage.

Beau wasn’t even standing; he was laying down on the table in the cage, his wings wrapped around himself, trembling, his red eyes doleful. There were some patches where his feathers were thin.

Raum’s face drooped even further.

How could she do this to her own daughter?

Well, he knew how—he’d watched the scenes play out—yet he still couldn’t believe the cruelty of some humans at times.

Was it so hard to love one’s daughter?

He took a step closer.

“I did it! A crow! Just like Matriarch Vanessa!”

Another, and the crow buried his beak in his feathers, sure he was going to get hurt again.

The crow buried his face in Avaline’s chest as the grey lady yelled, and the red girl’s woodpecker was taken away.

Raum knelt down in front of the cage, putting his hand on the table—(careful not to touch the blood sigil).

“Well, hello there.” Raum said softly. “You must be Beau.”

The crow peeked an eye out from behind his wing to look at him. Raum tried to smile, though his brow was still creased, his ears still down.

“My name is Raum. You may have noticed I’m a demon too.” He smiled more genuinely. “Avaline summoned me.”

He began to lift his head.

Beau snuggled up to Avaline, and she was warm, and gentle, and he would never leave her side.

“A-Avaline?”

“Yes. I’m here to rescue you, as per her wish.”

“R-Rescue?” His head was fully lifted now.

Raum snapped his fingers and the crow was in his hand.

“Rescue.” He confirmed.

Beau looked around at his new surroundings, without the bars surrounding his view, then up at Raum with big eyes, cocking his head to the side, unsure.

“I promise I don’t eat crows.” Raum put a finger to his chin. “I feel like that’s cannibalism in your case, so, yeah, I won’t be doing that.

“You’ll be hanging out with me for a little while.” He petted Beau’s head with the back of his finger. “I hope it won’t be too boring. In fact, we might even have fun together.” His ears perked up.

Beau shifted, beginning to stand up on his palm, his head cocking to one side, then the other, as his scrutinized Raum’s face.

The crow cast his gaze at the door.

“Avaline.” He cawed softly. “Avaline hurt.”

Raum’s expression fell.

“You rescue Avaline too?”

“I want to…But she only wished for me to free you, and for the truth.”

He hung his head.

“Want to help.”

“Me too. But we’re doing what we can. You are helping, Beau. More than anything what Avaline needs right now is friends like you, who care about her. She will feel much much better once you’re okay.”

Beau looked back at other demon, the uncertainty beginning to fade from his eyes.

“I promise, no one’s going to hurt you on my watch…Nor Avaline, as much as I can help it.”