#cannot wait to expand on this list | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

seresinhangmanjake · 1 month ago

Note

Could we please get Feyd x reader where they have an arranged marriage with feyd and the House Harkonnen expects her to be replused by him . But instead reader is completely obsessed with him and finds him so hot because he is lol and he can do no wrong. LOVE YOUR FEYD STORIES 💌

Unexpected

Feyd-Rautha x Reader

Notes/Warnings: None, i think. I mean, arranged marriages? That's not really a warning though. Anyway, i fear this kind of sucks. My writing has been messed up lately. Hopefully, you guys still enjoy it anyway.

Words: 2100

Feyd-Rautha Masterlist / Main Masterlist / Tag list

They’ve been chattering for what has felt like hours—going on about dresses and parties, servant boys they find particularly interesting—and at some point, your mind could no longer take the dull droning, and so you drifted onto thoughts of him.

You know everything about him, read everything about his family. You saw his face in an updated textbook about the Great Houses, drawn in what you hope is a perfect likeness, because if it is, then he’s absolutely stunning. You’ve never seen anything like the Harkonnens, but then again, they look like no one else. They’re wholly unique and you want everything to do with them—well, specifically, everything to do with Feyd-Rautha.

“I can’t believe they’re marrying you off to him,” one of your friends—the daughter of House Wallach—says.

You snap out of your thoughts, wondering when the conversation turned toward you and your soon-to-be husband. You hum in question, needing more time to provide an answer that won’t induce raised brows and dropped jaws.

“Yes,” the other says—Duke Leto’s daughter, whose bedroom balcony you’re currently sitting on. “How can they do that to you? You’re their only daughter and they are giving you to a murderous House.”

“We’re all murderous Houses,” you quickly say, and from receiving the blank stares you’d hoped to avoid, raise your teacup to your lips to hide your blush. You take a sip, then continue. “What I mean is, history states we’ve all dealt with bloody hands. That’s how our families are where they are.”

“Well, the rest of us don’t kill anymore. Our families are praised, worshipped.”

“So are the Harkonnens.”

“Out of fear,” Wallach reminds you. “The Baron is vile, as if you don’t know, and he trained Feyd-Rautha to be just as insane.”

Insane. That word has been used a lot lately. Your mother shouts it at your father for his willing agreement with the Baron. Your servants whisper it amongst themselves when they think you cannot hear them. That boy is insane, they say. She’s doomed, they say. But you don’t see it that way. You’re not scared of Feyd-Rautha. You’ll admit you don’t so much care for the Baron, but that’s because you’ve heard of his treatment of your future husband.

People claim Feyd-Rautha’s a lapdog—you don’t believe that. From what you’ve learned, you see no puppy in Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen. You see a lion on the prowl, biding his time, waiting for the perfect moment to strike from below. You see a man hunting his dinner. You hope upon meeting, he gobbles you up as well.

“Aren’t you terrified?” Atreides asks. “Don’t you think about your first night with him?”

You certainly do. Another sip of tea hides another blush. “I’m not worried.”

Wallach blows out a huff of breath. “Maybe you’re as insane as he is.”

Yes, you think maybe you are.

—

Your mother struggles to hand you over. You’re the one who has to pry her gripping fingers from your arm so you can step forward and bow to the Baron. When you rise, you sneak a peek at Feyd-Rautha just to his uncle’s right. He’s as beautiful as his picture depicted. His eyes are just as glazed over with steel as you imagined. He looks at you, and the steel melts ever so slightly. His brow pinches. He swallows hard.

“I trust my daughter will be well taken care of,” your father says, a puff expanding his chest. It makes him look no more menacing than he is.

The Baron chuckles. “In the hands of my nephew, you can expect no less.”

You know it’s a lie. One corner of Feyd-Rautha’s lips quirks upward. He has plans for you—good. You like plans. You have plans of your own.

He steps down the staircase that has held him above you and your family and takes your hand in his. He presses his lips to your knuckles. Your blood zings throughout your veins. If this is all it takes for you to feel this way, you can’t imagine what more will do to you. The thought of his lips in new places, his tongue in new places, makes your eyelids flutter.

“My Lady,” he says. His voice is intoxicatingly low.

“My Lord,” you say back to him.

When you smile at him, the smirk drops from his face and his head jerks back. Cold, blue eyes scan your features for falsities, as if you wear a mask he can remove to reveal a frown. He watches that frown fall into place only when your mother comes up behind you.

“Oh, my sweet daughter,” she cries, whipping your body around so she can properly hug you goodbye. “Don’t let them change you,” she whispers in your ear. “You’re too lovely for them.”

“I’ll be fine,” you tell her. You’ll be more than fine. This is the most excited you’ve been in years. And you knew it would be. That’s what he brings out of you…already.

—

He likes you. Well, he likes you in a way—he likes the look of you—but it’s hard to say if he likes the rest of you yet. He sneaks glances where he can, but he doesn’t often allow you to be in his presence for long. He removes you from his training sessions when you peek in to watch. He leaves once you join for dinner, which you’re less than a fan of, considering it leaves you to his brother and uncle’s company. He does not come find you to say goodnight.

Don’t you have better things to do, he’s often snipped at you when he finds you close by. You’ve assumed he means in preparation for the wedding in a week, but you told your new servants and planners to do whatever they want. You don’t care what the damn wedding will look like. You don’t care what you’ll look like. You just want him. You want to be around him. Watch him fight. Watch his muscles tense and shift and strain in the war of death. You want to see his body shine with sweat and his eyes harden with a murderous glare. But he won’t let you.

The closest you’ve been able to get to what you want is by sitting in the stands of the arena, where you have to observe his skills from a decent distance. And while it is wildly exciting to see the man you’re going to marry covered in the blood of enemies, you wish you could be closer. You wish you were close enough so he could grin at you as men’s bodies fall off of his blade. You wish he wanted you close to him because it’s killing you to be so far away.

After days, you still don’t understand the separation. You figured your smiles at him would be enough to get the message across that if he likes you in any sense of the word, then he should be going for you as much as you would him if he’d permit it, but no. He keeps his space between you. Unfortunately for him, you’re sick of it.

—

“I’m tired of you avoiding me,” you call as you chase after him down the darkened hallway. You’d been waiting outside his training room for hours, hoping his keen senses couldn't pick up your unsteady breathing as you prepared yourself for this exact confrontation.

His steps stutter at your words and he pauses. He turns on his heel, and with narrowed eyes, advances on you. His form towers over yours, and in any other situation, you might detest the abuse of power, but here, now, you feel a sharp thrill. You try not to let his lack of shirt affect what more you intend to say, but it’s hard. You’re already swallowing saliva. You’re core is already throbbing.

“Do you have a moment?” you ask.

Feyd’s muscles tighten and bulge as his arms cross over his chest. He huffs. “I don’t understand you. You’re like a little rodent, you know,” he says. “Following me around as if I drop crumbs for you.”

A lump catches in your throat. He hasn’t spoken much to you since your arrival on Giedi Prime, and you know cruelty runs through the Harkonnen bloodline, but you didn’t know he could cut so deeply with words. “I’m not a rodent.”

“You’re as annoying as one.”

“Because I want to be around you?” you ask. “Because I like you–”

His arms fall away from his chest and your head flinches back from the finger pointed at your nose. “You do not like me,” he snaps.

His voice, though low, bounces off the walls of the hall, an echoey repeating of those words that you almost can’t believe you’re having to hear. You’ve not given any indication that what you’re telling him could possibly be a lie, so you don’t see how he could come to that conclusion. Unless there are whispers in his ear.

“Yes, I do,” you say. “I’m marrying you. I want to marry you.”

“You are not supposed to want that,” he spits.

“Well, I do!” you spit back.

“Then you don’t make sense!”

You don’t know what that means, so you just stand there, staring at one another as you wait for him to explain further. He doesn’t, and you tire of the waiting, so instead, you take a risk by stepping closer, and with cautious fingers, you raise your hand to his chest. Your palm plants firmly against his skin, and then you feel it. His heart beating rapidly. For a second you think it’s from the training. But then you look up at him, at how his jaw clenches and how he struggles to meet your eyes. And now you understand.

“I like what you are,” you tell him. “I like that you’re strong. I don’t care that you kill. I don’t care that you crave the feeling it gives you.”

“You should care,” he says, still avoiding your gaze. “You’re meant to be a precious little Lady. That’s what I was promised.”

“And that is what you wanted for a wife?” He doesn’t give you an answer. “I’m sorry if you’re disappointed–” he snorts, irritating you further. “I’m sorry if that ruins whatever fun you intended to have with me. I know the Baron has been eager to see what you’ll do to me once we’re married.”

His head swivels back to yours. “He found enjoyment from the idea that you’d be repulsed by me,” he says. “And so did I. So you shouldn’t feel so comfortable.” He latches his fingers to your wrist and jerks your hand away from his body. His hand leaves yours. It falls back to your side and you instantly feel a chill without him. It won’t do. You see a glimpse of your marriage—a loneliness, a cold side of your bed. He begins to turn away from you.

“You don’t now?”

He stops. “What?”

“You said you did find enjoyment in it,” you repeat. “Do you still?”

You can see his teeth grinding with the shifting of his jaw as he contemplates continuing this conversation. “They said you wouldn’t like me,” he finally tells you.

“But I do,” you say. “I read about you. I liked you before I met you.”

He groans. His hand runs down his face. He steps back to you, an iciness penetrating your stare. “I had plans for you. Ones you weren’t going to enjoy.”

A smirk curls your lips. “I had plans for you, too. Ones I fully intended to enjoy.”

He sucks in a breath, his chest puffing. His eyes narrow as if searching for your lies.

Without another thought, you reach up again and, placing your palms on his cheeks, raise onto your toes to press your lips to his. It might be idiotic of you. It might be the stupidest move you could make. He might gut you for the act, marriage alliance be damned. But the only interest you have is in getting your point across.

His lips are soft—probably one of the few soft spots on him—and they taste of salt from the sweat of his training. He’s frozen for a few agonizing beats, but then nails are digging into the skin of your hips, the fabric of your dress doing nothing to keep the sharp sting at bay. Lips move in tune with yours. You’re pushed backward. You hit the wall, trapped between hard surfaces of stone and body.

You ache for the man you’ve felt you’ve known for longer than you have. You ache for the heat of him. You knew it would feel like this.

When the kiss breaks, you smile. “You’ll like me,” you tell him. “I promise.”

He sighs in defeat and says, “I know.”

#feyd rautha x reader #feyd rautha x you #austin butler #feyd rautha harkonnen #dune 2 #feyd rautha fic

459 notes · View notes

sanguinesky-if · 7 days ago

Text

[Dev Log] November 2024

Hello, happy belated Halloween to you!

This dev log includes announcements of upcoming release dates and a brief overview of what was accomplished over the past month, so you might find it interesting to read to the end.

Announcement [Patreon Members]

With the start of this month, changes have been made to the Patreon tiers [Civilian $1 and Inspector $7].

If you haven't familiarized yourself with the updates yet, please be sure to read this post. Thank you for your support! ♥

Announcement [Release Dates]

Here's the release schedule for the upcoming updates:

Demo Expansion: November 9 [Patreon]

L's Side Story: November 30 [Patreon]

Demo Update [Chapter 3 Part 1]: December 7 [Public]

The full list of changes in the expanded demo will be included in the release post, but you can get a preliminary look at them here [in the "About my plans for the current month" section].

Regarding the public demo release: I had planned to release it earlier, at the end of November, but with L's Side Story release, I just won't have time to compile all the files.

Thank you for your patience and for waiting, I hope you'll find it worthwhile!

What was accomplished last month?

Refined the prologue and most scenes in Chapter 1, as well as some in Chapter 2 [especially I's scene].

Besides fixing grammar, I smoothed out parts of the narrative that felt choppy or awkward to improve the overall flow. Some elements in Chapter 1 still need polishing, but for now, my main focus is preparing the Expanded Demo for release. I would also like to thank everyone who submitted error reports. They were incredibly helpful, and I truly appreciate your time and support in improving my story!

Implemented height difference variables.

I've been working on how to best address the height difference between the ROs and the MC since I want the narrative to be responsive to these changes. However, since the two versions of the same RO differ in height depending on their gender, I had to implement 7 new variables to avoid writing multiple *if statements all the time.

A very simple example of usage: @{M_tall 1|2|3|4} = @{M_tall much shorter than you, around|shorter than you, around|around|taller than you, around} Mentions of height differences in the narrative will mostly if you choose flirt options.

Added additional customization for moles.

Thanks to the MC pictures that readers sent me [created with Picrew and drawn], I've decided to add this option for the MC customization. This option won't be mentioned in the narrative, but I thought it would be nice to give readers this choice, hoping that including it in character creation will help some of the players feel more connected to their MC.

About my plans for the current month.

This month will be entirely dedicated to preparing for the demo and side story releases.

In addition to that, the bonus content on Patreon that will be released this month will include:

T's NSFW Alphabet.

A short story [featuring I].

A detailed content release schedule for Patreon can be found here.

Author's Note.

Due to a heavy workload, I unfortunately cannot be active here and answer asks as often as I used to, and I apologize if you did not receive a reply.

I hope to have more time in December once the public update is released, especially since it will also mark one year since the demo was first released! ☺️

Thank you for reading to the end and for your support! Have a wonderful week and days after that! ♥

#interactive fiction #sanguine sky #sanguine sky if #ss general #dev log

108 notes · View notes

stillness-in-green · 5 months ago

Text

Counting Cliffhangers: The Heroes Are Not the Underdogs in BNHA's War Arcs

(Being a project to tally up which side, if either, of Team Hero or Team Villain is "on top" at the end of each chapter in the war arcs, in consideration of the impact of the overall totals. This is one of those mega-long list posts; do not click the Expand/Read More unless you're prepared for a lot of reading and/or scrolling.)

One of the things that bothered me throughout both of the war arcs was the persistent sense that, for all that the manga was trying very hard to convince me that the Heroes were up against the wall and really having to give it everything they had, I never really felt that level of danger. Of course, one always expects a degree of that—it’s not as though any sensible reader would really think this manga could end with the Villains winning!—but the problem went beyond that. Expecting that the protagonist will win out in the end is the standard, after all, but good stories still find ways to keep readers engaged and believing in the stakes.

So why didn’t I? I certainly believed in the stakes for the Villains—Twice’s death happens very early in the first war, and it sets the stakes quite clearly! Was it just the difference between my own engagement with the Villains compared to the Heroes? That didn’t seem quite right—even if I cared about one side for more than the other, it shouldn’t have been the case that that affection alone was skewing my suspension of disbelief about the dangers faced by the Heroes. The threat posed to Midnight certainly seemed real enough, as was also the case for the Heroes left trampled in Gigantomachia’s wake, like Gang Orca and Fatgum. As I’ve had to tell the occasional asker here before, just because I don’t particularly care about a character doesn’t mean I become incapable of evaluating their story beats!

What was the problem, then? Why did the dangers to the Villains seem so desperately real, while the dangers to the Heroes, for the most part, just had me rolling my eyes and waiting for the next asspull that would save them?

I think there are two primary factors. The first and biggest factor is simply baked into the worldbuilding and the decisions made in the writing: the sides are poorly matched. I’m not going to go into all of that here, but as a thought exercise, go through the arcs of the story that contain active conflict and consider which side has the advantage in each of the following categories: individual combatant quality (stuff like raw power, endurance, and training/experience to improve upon their inherent capabilities), equipment quality, information about the opponent, ability to set the terms of engagement, and raw numbers of warm bodies to throw at a fight.

By my measure, much of the early confrontations in BNHA work because these advantages are divided evenly between the Heroes and Villains. Likewise, My Villain Academia is so gripping because the Meta Liberation Army has virtually every advantage over the League, making the League really and truly feel like the underdogs in the fight. Conversely, the Heroes are the ones with virtually every advantage in the war arcs,[1] meaning they cannot convincingly be the underdogs the story so desperately wants us to believe they are.

1: I swear I’m not going to go into all of it, at least not in this post, but to be very brief, I think the only advantages the Villains could even kind of claim during the war arcs are numbers and combatant quality. The numbers advantage is mostly illusory; the PLF are leveled in the cursory mass arrest of the first war and, despite repeated insistence otherwise, the only place where the Villains’ numbers are a true threat in the second war is at the hospital attack, where said numbers consist chiefly of untrained and easily swayed civilians in a battle it’s desperately unclear why the Heroes allowed to take place at all. The quality advantage, meanwhile, is heavily concentrated in only a handful of hard-hitting, A-to-S-rank threats on the Villains’ side, while the Heroes maintain clear quality supremacy in rank-and-file or side character battles.

The other factor, and the one this post concerns, is the structure of the chapters themselves, to wit, the way that they end. In a serialized story being published and read week to week, each installment’s ending is a crucial factor in the story’s overall tone. What happens on the last page is a major factor in the impact each chapter makes, the feeling the reader is left with while they wait for the next part. If the intent, therefore, is for the Heroes to feel threatened, pushed to the very edge of their endurance, then a very basic thing needs to be observed: don’t end every fucking chapter with the Heroes having the fucking advantage.

I’m so serious here, guys. It’s not that the Villains never have the advantage, never get twists or reveals or reinforcements that turn the tide of the battle in their favor. It’s that, by and large, those advantages come in the middle of chapters, while the Heroes’ twists and reveals and reinforcements get the benefit of being at the end of chapters, so the dominant feeling—the side that’s left wildly cheering for their “team” at the end of the week—is usually the Heroes. While it’s possible that the impression left is different when reading the story in volume form,[2] when reading week to week, that imbalance critically damages the story’s ability to portray the desperation and strain of the Heroes’ struggle.

2: Having not read the arcs in this fashion, I couldn't say. Obviously I don't know how a volume-only reader would experience this aspect of the story, but even reading (or rereading) a bunch of chapters all in one go online suffers from some impaired momentum between chapters by having to specifically navigate to the next chapter webpage and wait for it to load rather than just being able to turn pages freely.

That, in any case, was my thesis when I first started this count, listing which side has the upper hand at the end of each chapter of the two war arcs, as well as the total overall. With the second war arc finally having ended, I figured I’d go ahead and post my results.

Hit the jump!

For each arc, I started counting at the chapter where active conflict breaks out, including as a dramatic end cliffhanger. Thus, for the first war, I didn’t start in Chapter 258, where the groups are still gathering, but rather in Chapter 259, when the forward momentum begins and the first Villain (Ujiko) is confronted. Likewise, the second war count begins with Chapter 343, when the armies confront each other. The counts end with the last chapter containing active Hero/Villain conflict rather than narrated montage. Thus, the first war ends in 295, when AFO and the League flee the field, not in 296 with the looming threat of the long-awaited jailbreak. The second war ends with Deku’s weather-clearing fist in 423.

My basic categories are Hero Advantage, Villain Advantage, and Neither. Fake-outs are categorized as they are perceived in the moment of reading them, not as they read in retrospect. Further, I do not categorize based on the overall tenor of the chapter, but only the impact of the final page. This is by nature somewhat subjective, but I’ve done my best to call them as I think they’re meant to be read.

What is the feeling the reader takes with them into the next chapter? Excitement for the heroes? Dismay and fear? A simmering tension? Which side, if either, got the HELL YEAH HELL YEAH fist-pump? If there's a relative clear answer, I'll call it for one side of the other; chapters that end with no particular new reveals, arrivals, power-ups, or other such shifts in the tides with be called as neither.

Finally, for ease of tracking and reading, my tallies and accompanying brief explanations are separated by volume. I'll provide totals for each category at the end of each volume, and full totals, as well as a total count for which category the volumes end in, at the end of the arcs. Final counts and commentary will close the post.

Let's get started.

FIRST WAR ARC

Volume 27: 259: Hero Advantage. Endeavor and company confront (apparently) Ujiko, catching him completely flat-footed.

260: Hero. Mirko crashes into Ujiko’s lab, to his horror, and kills John-chan in doing so.

261: Neither. Mirko and the High Ends square up for their Round 2.

262: Hero. The Villa gets cracked open like an egg, catching its inhabitants entirely off-guard.

263: Hero. If they were on more level footing, I’d call this Neither, but given the positions Hawks and Twice end the chapter in, and the clear difference in emotional preparedness, this one goes to the Heroes.

264: Neither. The Hawks/Twice fight continues inconclusively; Dabi is revealed to be on his way, but has not yet arrived on-scene to affect any changes.

265: Villain. Dabi makes a strong and, for Hawks, unexpected entrance, pinning Hawks beneath his boot.

266: Neither. Twice dies, which is a huge hit to the Villains, but the narrative sympathy is so clearly with Twice and Toga that it’s impossible to describe the chapter as ending on a fist-pumping note for anyone.

267: Hero. Doubly so, as Endeavor and Tokoyami both show up to intervene in fights that were about to go to the villains, but we'll be fair and only count it as one anyway.

Heroes 5 | Villains 1 | Neither 3 | Total 9

Volume 28: 268: Neither. Basement action. The tube gets cracked; Aizawa and Mic are told not to let Shigaraki wake up. Nothing conclusive.

269: Hero Advantage. Literally ends with Ujiko wailing that the Lord of Evil’s dream is over.

270: Villain. It ends with Deku getting a warning about Shigaraki, which makes it a bit borderline, but Shigaraki being awake at all has to count for the Villains.

271: Villain. Gigantomachia stands up.

272: Neither. The kids start rallying against the Decay wave. Deku gets a new move that doesn’t seem like it should have any effect but is played as being effective. Shigaraki’s Decay wave is being monstrously effective, even apocalyptic, but the tone of the last page is ambiguous.

273: Neither. Shigaraki faces off with Endeavor. Both are known factors on this field of battle.

274: Neither. Deku is on the move in hopes of leading Shigaraki to a more deserted area.

275: Hero. Aizawa arrives at the Shigaraki fight, locking down his quirk use.

276: Hero. Deku and Bakugou arrive in time to save Aizawa from what likely would have been the same kind of blow that will later cost him his eye.

Heroes 3 | Villains 2 | Neither 4 | Total 9

Volume 29: 277: Neither. Mount Lady attempts to stop Gigantomachia. Results inconclusive; both known factors.

278: Neither. Leans a bit Hero side because it’s Momo dramatically getting her head on straight, but it’s really just more preparations for a face-off.

279: Hero Advantage. The League is getting swarmed and Mina is on the brink of delivering what’s framed as a knock-out blow to Machia.

280: Neither. Shigaraki laboriously gathers himself, preparing to monologue.

281: Villain. Shigaraki readies a quirk-destroying bullet with Aizawa’s name on it.

282: Villain. Gigantomachia, who is very much not knocked out, looms over an unsuspecting city.

283: Hero. Deku negates the (immediate) danger of Decay by activating Float.

284: Hero. Deku lands a full-power blow on Shigaraki, who’s been largely unable to fend him off in the air.

285: Villain. It pains me to grant this because I knew good and well Bakugou would be completely fine. But he is a major combatant and face for the Hero side and this is clearly intended to look like it will take him out, at least for the fight.

Heroes 3 | Villains 3 | Neither 3 | Total 9

Volume 30: 286: Hero Advantage. The action moves to the vestige realm. Very borderline, but Nana’s words are definitive: “Let us handle this.” The implication is very much that there’s no need to fear because the vestiges have got this.

287: Neither. Chapter ends with Toga reflecting on heroes and the weight they give to the lives of Villains. Could represent a major turning point for Toga, but it’s still soft-pedaled by making that turning point dependent on a Hero’s yet-unspoken words.

288: Neither. Chapter ends mid-dialogue in the Toga/Ochaco fight.

289: Villain. Machia and his passengers arrive.

290: Villain. A little borderline because the actual very last panel is the plane containing Best Jeanist, but the audience doesn’t know that yet, and the bulk of the final page is dedicated the devastation of the Touya Reveal, so I have to give this one to them.

291: Hero. Best Jeanist arrives.

292: Hero. Mirio arrives with his quirk restored.

293: Hero. Machia goes down because the sedative finally kicks in.

294: Villain. Mr. Compress backstory reveal and big escape moment.

295: Neither. The battle ends save for the wrap-up. The villains are neither victorious nor defeated.

Heroes 4 | Villains 3 | Neither 3 | Total 10

SECOND WAR ARC

Volume 35: 343: Hero Advantage. The Heroes counter AFO’s army by “unexpectedly” whipping out their own via Warp Gate.

344: Hero. The Heroes take the offensive and split up the villains’ army.

345: Villain. Toga lassos Deku through a gate, separating him from the field he’s supposed to be on.

346: Villain. The beginning of Fingervetr.

347: Neither. Borderline because it’s a big dramatic page of Toga, but it’s more conversational then confrontational to me, and isn’t revealing anything particularly new.

348: Neither. Deku flees the island, leaving Toga to Ochaco.

349: Neither. Dabi gears up to provide the answers Shouto has specifically asked for.

350: Neither. Dabi’s coming on strong, but Shouto remains undaunted. I’d give it to the Villains if the last page were Dabi liquidating the All Might statue, though.

Heroes 2 | Villains 2 | Neither 4 | Total 8

Volume 36: 351: Hero Advantage. Shouto unleashes Phosphor.

352: Hero. Shouto appears to beat Dabi.

353: Neither. AFO is talking a lot, but not about anything groundbreaking.

354: Neither. AFO and Jirou exchange smacktalk.

355: Hero. Hawks and Jirou combine efforts to break AFO’s mask.

356: Neither. Endeavor has a big moment, but AFO gets his hands up in time to block and is still shown intact at the end of the chapter. Borderline, but I’d say not quite definitive enough to qualify it for the hero side.

357: Villain. AFO regenerates. A little borderline because it actually ends with Deku, and the approach of what I guessed at the time were the American jets, but I think it’s a similar enough scenario as the end of Chapter 270 to call it for the Villains as well.

358: Neither. No impact from the Hero attack leaves it a little unclear how much effect it will have, and a new attack is not a big enough game changer for me to really count it even unproven. It’d be easy to call it for the Heroes, though.

359: Hero. Return of the Big Three.

360: Hero. Bakugou’s in rough shape, but there’s a hint that he’s noticed something important, which could foreshadow a change in the tides of the battle.

361: Hero. Suneater’s Chimera Cannon, which certainly looks incredibly hype and impressive in the moment.

362: Villain. Bakugou’s “death.”

Heroes 6 | Villains 2 | Neither 4 | Total 12

Volume 37: 363: Villain Advantage. AFO finishes regenerating; full face reveal.

364: Hero. The impossibly moronic Edgeshot-as-Bakugou’s-heart business. Not conclusive, but it steals one of the Villains’ victories out from under from them.

365: Villain. A shift in Inner Tenko’s emotional state heralds Shigaraki’s next form.

366: Hero. Deku arrives at the Sky Coffin.

367: Neither. Deku attempts conversation to ask about Shigaraki’s status.

368: Hero. Deku lands a full-power hit on ShigAFO while Yoichi talks to his big brother about letting this being the day that their battle ends.

369: Villain. A scene change to Spinner that’s timed in such a way that it could really only foreshadow Spinner’s victory.

370: Neither. It’s very close to a Hero call, but mostly what Shouji’s doing is shaking off mundane attackers and making a dramatic proclamation. Not quite enough direct impact for an end-of-chapter Hero Advantage.

371: Neither. Even closer than the last one, but neither blow the kids are gearing up for actually connect on-page. I wouldn’t fault anyone who called it for the Heroes, though.

372: Neither. An extremely effective cliffhanger, for once, as Spinner and Mic call out to Kurogiri simultaneously.

373: Villain. Kurogiri gets up, calling himself the protector of Shigaraki Tomura.

374: Villain. Toga deploys Sad Man’s Death Parade; Hawks proves he hasn’t learned jack shit from the last time he faced this question.

Heroes 3 | Villains 5 | Neither 4 | Total 12

Volume 38: 375: Hero Advantage. Toga’s narrative-destined rival manages to follow her off the island and to the Villa ruins. Close to a Neither call.

376: Neither. Setting up a Dabi/Endeavor clash with Endeavor not caught on the back foot.

377: Hero. Return of La Brava.

378: Hero. Return of Lady Nagant.

379: Neither. Sets up a reengaged clash between Shigaraki and Deku.

380: Hero. Arrival of Shiketsu.

381: Hero. Tokoyami lands a blow that AFO is explicitly afraid to get hit with.

382: Hero. Shinsou and Kirishima arrive with a brainwashed Gigantomachia.

383: Neither. Reiterates that AFO is in trouble, but it’s not new information, and the choppers coming in at the very end are an unpredictable element.

384: Hero. The choppers are full of Hero-supporting journalists here to tell the world how incredibly hard-working and earnest and admirable Heroes are. Gag.

385: Neither. AFO’s belated but impressive show of force gets dampened somewhat by the Heroes refusing to give in, and even getting one of their number back. It’s back and forth, but Stain really tips it for good over to a neutral chapter ending. While he’s obviously not aligned with the Villains, he’s far too murderous to chalk him up as a Hero yet, either, especially on-scene watching two kids he tried to kill last time he saw them.

386: Hero. All Might gets a cool robot suit and the last-page chapter title drop references his iconic catchphrase.

Heroes 8 | Villains 0 | Neither 4 | Total 12

Volume 39: 387: Hero Advantage. Rei is, of course, a civilian, not a hero, but she’s clearly aligned on the Team Good Guy, so I have to give it to them. It’s not a hill I’d die on, however, particularly with the very last panel being the flashback to Touya emphasizing Rei’s culpability.

388: Neither. What a nice vision of hell as everyone burns to death, including Dabi. If I gave it to anyone, I’d lean Villain, because it’s certainly more in line with what Dabi wants—what he’s always wanted. But in terms of impact on the reader, it certainly isn’t going to get anyone whooping and cheering for the Villains.

389: Neither. It’s a good last few pages of Shouto and Iida, but the reader already knows they’re on their way, so it’s not a pleasant surprise to see them enroute. The fact that they are still enroute rather than dramatically arriving to save the day keeps this from being a full Hero moment ending.

390: Neither. Teasing more of the fight between Toga and Uraraka, but no sudden turns, new elements, or grand statements on either side.

391: Neither. Ongoing fight; while Ochaco gets the stirring line, the actual last page is Toga lashing out.

392: Villain. While I’m loathe to give it to them on the basis of an injury I was not for one second actually worried about, the chapter does end with Toga putting a knife into Uraraka’s gut and a flashback to Twice asking Toga about a Villain name. A clear Villain-upper-hand ending.

393: Hero. Ochaco comes through with flying colors, getting a quirk awakening and making Toga an offer she’s dreamed of her whole life.

394: BOTH. For literally the first time in this whole count, I can’t count this against either side. If pressed, I’d call it a Hero win, but it’s a win because it validates both sides.

395: Neither. Sorry, gang. I’m utterly incapable of calling this one in an unbiased way. It’s an all-too-real death scare for Toga and, regardless of how happy she is in the moment, I can’t call her potential death a victory. But since Ochaco obviously feels the same, it’s not a Hero win, either.

396: Hero. And get ready, ‘cause there're about to be a whole lot of them. Good god, but I hate this All Mech sequence.

397: Neither. Ongoing battle, no major tides turning in the final page.

398: Neither. As above.

Heroes 3 | Villains 1 | Neither 7 | Both 1 | Total 12

Volume 40: 399: Hero Advantage. The big turn-around with Aoyama, with All Might dropping the Aoyama-themed laser of AFO.

400: Hero. Stain’s return. Stain’s a Villain himself, but far too aligned with Hero orthodoxy for me to count him returning to help All Might as anything but a Hero-side victory.

401: Neither. All Might’s still kicking, AFO is within range of Shigaraki, but nothing decisive deployed on the final page.

402: Neither. To all appearances, All Might continues to shovel more battle damage onto AFO. There’s a death threat in the explosion, one I don’t think I took very seriously at the time, though plenty of others did. Left to my own devices, I’d call it for Team Hero, but I’ll err on the side of restraint and call it a hero equivalent of Toga’s death threat.

403: Hero. Unequivocal Hero victory—Bakugou’s back up.

404: Hero. Saving All Might with the literal power of prayer.

405: Hero. If I wanted to be snide, I’d point out that Final Boss is definitionally a Villain role, so Bakugou enthusiastically claiming it for himself implicates Heroes as having been the Villains all along, while the Villains are the clear heroic underdogs struggling against a corrupt, violent system. But that’s just my bitterness making me perverse; this is a clear Hero victory.

406: Neither. Exchanging of smack talk, Bakugou gets a good but not definitive hit in.

407: Neither. AFO’s flashback ends with one of the most crushing emotional defeats of his life, but you can hardly call AFO slice-and-dicing Yoichi a Hero win, either.

408: Neither. AFO’s going all-out, but Bakugou remains undaunted.

409: Hero. AFO’s effective defeat at Bakugou’s hands. Yoichi’s regretful glance is not enough to shift the needle.

410: Villain. Shigaraki does what the narrative has long been warning that he can and steals a portion of One For All, grabbing Danger Sense for himself and stealing Shinomori from the OFA collective.

Heroes 6 | Villains 1 | Neither 5 | Total 12

Volume 41: 411: Neither. Deku’s readying an offensive that gives Shigaraki lots of Danger Sense tinglies, but nothing definitive.

412: Neither. The temptation is strong to call this for the Hero side, as it’s the moment Kudou formulates the plan that will soon be leading to Shigaraki’s ultimate defeat, but the caveat that the plan requires losing One For All kiboshes that feeling very triumphant.

413: Hero. There’s some nominal sadness for Deku gearing up to lose OFA, but the tone here is much more about how great and awesome Deku is for being willing to do it, on top of how incredibly fucking rad the art plainly wants us to think that he looks.

414: Hero. I’d normally call it Neither for lacking new elements or definitive actions, but I have to acknowledge the sheer disparity between, on the one hand, the vestiges telling Deku that it’s working and to keep going as Deku gears up to unleash another punch while, on the other hand, all Shigaraki can manage is huddling in on himself and choking out a few pained grunts.

415: Neither. Borderline in that Eri is a clear Hero-side ally with an absolutely game-changing power, but the truth is that she’s at U.A. with no immediately clear way to make it to the battle even if anyone were to let her go, so it’s not too different from any other chapter that ended with a major player en route but not yet arriving.

416: Hero. Deku finally breaks into Shigaraki’s inner mind, over Shigaraki’s protestations.

417: Neither. Deku and Nana make a major breakthrough, but Shigaraki’s backstory yet has terrible bombs to drop. I can’t call it a Villain advantage, though, because it’s still stuff Shigaraki very much does not want Deku meddling with.

418: Villain. AFO returns yet again, spoiling Deku’s hard-won moment of equilibrium and understanding with Shigaraki.

419: Hero. We can’t even get a week to savor/freak out over Deku losing his arms because the actual last beat of the chapter is Aizawa bringing in a pair of classmates via Kurogiri’s warp gate, suggesting (albeit inaccurately) that Kurogiri has settled as a Hero ally.

420: Hero. More of the above and Deku gets his arms back after a world-shakingly relevant and momentous chapter and a half.

421: Hero. All around Hero support, now including from civilians too.

422: Hero. More of the above and now Deku’s punching Shigaraki at the end of it under a chapter title of Midoriya Izuku Rising.

423: Hero. Deku’s triumphantly raised fist clears storm clouds, changes the weather, and kills the man he was trying to save. This is framed as a victory anyway.

Heroes 8 | Villains 1 | Neither 4 | Total 13

TOTAL CHAPTER COUNT FOR BOTH WAR ARCS: 118 CHAPTERS Final Page Hero Advantage: 51 Final Page Villain Advantage: 21 Final Page Neither: 45 Final Page Both: 1

Total Volume Count: 11 Volumes Last Page Hero Advantage: 4 Last Page Villain Advantage: 4 Last Page Neither: 3

---------------------

Now, you could (and I might) write a whole different post about the unbalanced strategic advantages that I discussed at the beginning of the post, but I think this breakdown also serves to illustrate the scope of the problem with raw numbers (percentages rounded off a bit such that they total to neat 100s).

In the first war, 40.5% of the chapters end with the Heroes on the upswing, 35% have no clear advantage, and only 24.5% end with the Villains waxing triumphant. Despite Hawks reflecting at the end of My Villain Academia about how the Paranormal Liberation Front was a power on par with, or possibly even greater than, that of Hero Society, the numbers don't really back that up. Instead, Heroes have the advantage over half again as often as Villains do, and even the uncertain chapters are still more numerous.

The second war is worse—much worse. Hero Advantage chapters account for nearly half of the arc at 44.5%, while chapters where Neither side clears account for the bulk of the remaining chapters at 39.5%. Only 15% of the chapters, well under a quarter, are Villain Advantage. For an endgame that wants to be about "saving Villains," only one single chapter (1%) ends with something you could credibly call both sides winning.

Now, of course, the second war is the climax of the whole series, so of you might say that of course the Heroes are going to ultimately do better. They have to win in the end, after all, so of course the arc will eventually feature mostly Hero victories.

I would counter that, while that is true, the story repeatedly tries to convince us that the Heroes are really struggling, that they've lost so many people, that they're at this huge disadvantage that neccessitates the extreme measures they use. And the numbers simply don't back that up, even less than they did in the first war!

If you look at the totals for each volume, Heroes have a wild advantage in two of the first four volumes (the arc is seven volumes in total), numbers the Villains never come close to meeting. There's one volume (the third, Volume 37) where they have the majority of the chapter-ending advantages, and even there, it's a narrow margin. Volume 38 is then a blow-out with not a single Villain Advantage chapter cliffhanger in the whole book, and in the final three volumes of the arc, the Villains get exactly one Advantage chapter per volume.

Not very convincing numbers, if the aim is to convince the reader of how much Plus Extra effort the Heroes are going to have to exert, if you ask me!

Between them, Hero Advantage and Neither chapters make up a shocking 81% of the two war arcs, with merely 18%, less than fifth, of the chapters ending on Villain Advantage beats that could serve to freshly drum up, "Our heroes are really in trouble now!" anxiety.

Looking back to what I said about the Heroes having the bulk of the strategic advantages for both arcs, that surely can't be all that surprising. You can't expect a set-up that slanted to leave much room at all for Villains to get time to shine; they simply don't have the room in the story for that when, for everything they try, the Heroes already have some countermeasure.

As a final comparison, remember I praised MVA back at the start for being gripping in large part because the "Heroes" of that arc, the League of Villains, were at such a disadvantage?

I briefly ran the numbers there, and I'd say, of nineteen chapters that contain active confrontation of some sort between the League and an antagonistic force (Gigantomachia, Ujiko, and the MLA), the League have the chapter-ending advantage beat in four of those chapters: Toga's victory in 226, Twice overcoming his mental block and starting to replicate himself in 229, and the two chapters covering Shigaraki's ultimate victory over Re-Destro, 238 and 239. That's a grand total of 20% "Hero" Advantage chapters for them, and half of those are the arc climax chapters.

The "Villains" for the arc likewise have the ending advantage in 20% of the arc, four chapters: Machia having comprehensively whipped the League at the end of 419, RD making the League an offer they can't refuse in 223, Skeptic pushing all of Twice's buttons in 228, and RD plucking off Shigaraki's fingers in 233.

The remaining eleven chapters—60%—go to the Neither category. Compare that back to the percentages for the war arcs, and you can see that, while the Villain Advantage percentage is similar (~5% higher in the first war and likewise lower in the second), the Hero Advantage is twice the percentage (40+%) in both arcs, while the Neither chapters are accordingly lower (the war arcs are 35% and ~40% Neither respectively).

In other words, the Heroes in the war arcs just straight-up have more chapter-ending awesome moments and reveals, and spend less time facing chapter-ending uncertainty, compared to not just the Villains they're fighting in those arcs, but also compared to what those same Villains got when they were being Heroes for an arc.

And to think, Horikoshi wants me to think his Heroes are being challenged. Pull the other one, Sensei; it's got bells on.

(I welcome anyone else to run similar numbers with e.g. the trainng camp attack or the Hassaikai base raid. For myself, I'm too sleepy to figure out a better ending for this post, so I'm just turning out the lights and hitting the sack. Sorry if there's any formatting wigginess or the closing analysis is lacking; I will clean it up later if need be.)

#bnha #number crunching #bnha meta #here be percentiles #war arc woes

86 notes · View notes

stuckinapril · 10 months ago

Note

2023 almost over what have u achieved so far?

Graduated a year early with a wholeass degree in biochemistry!!!, traveled solo abroad for the first time ever (and multiple times at that, I was by myself hopping countries 4 times this summer), started embracing the bad moments as learning experiences, pushed myself out of my comfort zone way more, upgraded my skincare routine (and just self-care routine in general), made a concerted effort to be off my phone more, got in touch w my dad’s side of the family/my ethnic roots, drastically expanded my friend circle (younger me would never imagine me having multiple friend groups now and navigating that as well as I do), successfully juggled my teaching assistant positions as a chemistry/genetics tutor in addition to my full-time school workload and organic chemistry research, gave my ex the middle finger and worked really hard to move on from him by immersing myself in my studies and hobbies, got my driver’s license!!!!, got way more consistent w the gym, learned a lot of basic recipes (2024 will be about expanding my cooking abilities), finally got myself out of my reading slump, worked hard on alleviating my abandonment/anxious attachment issues, became way more accepting of people walking out of my life, started doing my hour by hour schedules (literally a game changer), stopped being so fucking nice to people who don’t deserve it, got my curly hair routine down after years of viciously straightening it, indulged myself w things I wanted a lot more this year, started giving far fewer fucks what people think of me, wrote down a list of things I wanted to change about myself and continue to actively work on those, just became a lot more adult in general (which is big for me bc I hail from an overprotective family that has notoriously coddled me). Stopped dimming myself for other people’s comfort/benefit. Really expanded my fashion sense. Tuned way more into myself—I’m only 21 so there’s a lot more to learn about me, but I feel like I’m the closest I’ve ever been to knowing what my likes and wants are. Became way more spontaneous in general. Did a lot of dumb bold young things this year and don’t regret them at all. Made so many memories. Realized my actions have a very real and tangible impact in other people’s lives. The person I am is very different from the person I was, even if I have a lot more to go—and I’m very proud of that. The biggest thing is I think I finally started developing real, genuine self-love. I’ve forgiven myself for a lot of things. I feel like I’m finally present for me/my wants, rather than spending so much time focusing on other people’s. The people pleasing is fading away, slowly but surely. And the best part is!! There’s so much more to come. I cannot wait for next year bc I know the woman I’ll become will be unstoppable

#ask

151 notes · View notes

madanythinglaboratory · 10 months ago

Text

Pact of the Wolf (a DND 5e Homebrew inspired by Puss in Boots: The Last Wish and Dimension 20: Neverafter)

Death is the Great Equalizer. Though they may slip through the fingers of time, fairies, fiends, and celestials alike know to fear and respect Her, and even the undead can only substract themselves from Her grasp for so long.

Thus, many mortals come to see Death as the paramount example of persistence hunting in the wild: a wolf. This aspect is apparently not distasteful to Her, as the mortals who embrace inevitabilty and forge a pact with Her manifest Her powers through the form of a mighty wolf.

These mortals, nicknamed the Sheep-Clothed, are often only asked by Death not to interfere with the natural circle of life. However, while some of the powers She grants are geared towards dealing death and destroying undead, others have the sole purpose of defying Death Herself.

We can only speculate as to why Death would arm the Sheep-Clothed with the tools to fight Her. Perhaps, like the wolves She is compared to, She enjoys the chase. Perhaps She understands that a natural part of the circle of life is mortals fiercely defending their lives. Or perhaps She wants to teach us that even with the powers of Death at their sides, everyone eventually becomes Her subject.

Oath Spells

The Wolf lets you choose from an expanded list of spells when you learn a warlock spell. The following spells are added to the warlock spell list for you.

1st level: hunter's mark, inflict wounds

3rd: gentle repose, phantasmal force

5th: life transference, phantom steed

7th: greater invisibility, mordenkainen's faithful hound

9th: enervation, reincarnate

I Just Love The Smell Of Fear

At 1st level, your patron emboldens you at the familiar sight of someone being terrified to die. When you deal damage to an enemy who is frightened of you within 15 ft using a 1st level or higher spell, you can add your proficiency bonus to the damage.

Hasta La Muerte

At 6th level, you welcome the inevitability of Death, allowing you to partially let go of your life to act one last time. While you are at 0 hitpoints, Before making a death saving throw, you can cast a spell on a creature other than you on your turn. When you do so, you suffer one failed death save.

I Welcome Your Defiance

At 10th level, the power of the Great Equalizer lets you spread Her icy embrace to all your allies, weakening its coldness. When an ally within 30 ft of you fails a death save, you can use your reaction to transfer the failed save to another willing creature within 30 ft of you.

The willing creature remains conscious if they still have remaining hitpoints, but die instantly once they receive their third failed save, no matter their remaining hitpoints. You can only transfer one failed save per reaction.

Waiting At The End Of Every Story

At 14th level, you learn to salvage the raw potential of a life meeting a brutal, early end. When you kill a spellcasting creature, you gain a temporary spell slot of half the level of the spellcaster's highest unexpended spell slot (rounded up).

If you haven't used the temporary spell slot by the end of your next turn, its unstable magical power unravels, dealing you 1d8 necrotic damage per spell level. This damage cannot be reduced in any way.

Once you use this feature, you cannot use it again until you complete a long rest.

#dnd 5e homebrew #5e homebrew #dnd 5e #dnd subclass #warlock #warlock 5e #puss in boots the last wish #dimension 20 #neverafter #big bad wolf

122 notes · View notes

isa-ghost · 7 months ago

Note

Phil and bagi hcs?

YOU HAVE JUST ENABLED A MONSTER.

I AM SO ABNORMAL ABOUT THESE TWO.

Also these will apply to AMFMN!! Because SURPRISE, if no one has checked the fic tags, her name is listed as a main character. ;) She'll be arriving in Chapter 6!! :D

I cannot fucking WAIT to expand upon their dynamic, which is funny because by the time Bagi shows up, Phil is possessed so it won't be exploration through direct interactions until the recovery period waaay later in the fic. Nonetheless it'll be hype! :D

qPhil headcanons masterlist

Phil is a member of the "Bagi can do whatever she wants forever" club. He supports her rights and wrongs and fully believes she could kick his ass no matter how unbalanced of a fight it'd be in his favor (disclaimer I don't actually know Bagi's exact pvp skill level 🤔)

Bagi is a member of the "God I want Phil to take me on a flight some day, I am so sad his wings are fucked up" club. (She would probably be terrified /pos)

I don't know what it is about their friendship but I feel like Bagi is so much more attuned to the way Phil thinks than the average islander. I guess I'd say it's because of how perceptive she is in general, especially with how she's a detective? Whatever it is, Bagi just has this talent for reading Phil like a damn book. And she won't hesitate to call him on his bullshit either. She's much like Fit in that regard. Crow man can't hide SHIT

Like fr if Phil ever gave Bagi reason to be concerned the first thing she'd do is start cornering those closest to him and either ask what's up or be like "hey Phil's on some shit rn, we gotta go force him to confess whatever stupid shit he's shouldering on his own and bottling up"

Phil has definitely been whacked with the frying pan for not venting and acting like he has to brave the horrors alone btw. Bagi's the type of friend that'll kick your fucking ass if you're not self-caring or being mean to yourself. (I am projecting LMAO)

Bagi isn't as Holy Shit We Could Die Any Second about things as Phil, but they're both very protective people, which can manifest in very volatile ways when they're hurt or angered by something (ie: Feds). I would not want to experience their individual wraths simultaneously.

Bagi is one of the top people Phil shows his gift giving love language to. Be it resources she needs, pictures he's taken of her/Em/Tina or of weird island shit, the means to complete cookie tasks, etc. She's one of the first in mind.

GOD Phil wants her to teach him how to wield a frying pan so badly. He's an excellent swordsman and bowman, but PAN?? The enjoyment he'd get out of it would be infinite, he'd love to be kicking ass while getting a laugh out of it bc pan go BONG when it hits a motherfucker.

If one needs something the other says yes no hesitation. They might ask each other a couple questions, but as soon as they have 100% clarity, they trust each other with the rest and know that if something goes wrong, whoever is present at the time will unleash hell on the person or monster that caused it.

I've somewhat already hinted at it but GOD the mutual admiration they have for each other!! Their wits and way with words, their natural sense of leadership, their determination to defend what they believe in, what they think is right, and the people they love, their specific expertise, the list goes on. They just think the other is so fucking cool and brilliant.

Tbh I think in the right circumstances they'd teach each other some lowkey fucked up tricks they have up their sleeves. Like Bagi giving Phil insight on manipulating people into giving the answers you're looking for by asking the right carefully worded questions, or Phil teaching Bagi the best spots to hit/hurt a person/mob to really do some damage just purely as a "hey if you ever find yourself in a Situation, here's a tip" thing

I don't know how better to show this without explicitly saying it: These two are not the other's fucking caretaker. Phil is not Bagi's father figure and Bagi is not Phil's mother figure. Yes, they can scold each other when the other is doing something dumb (cough, 7 hcs ago, cough). Friends do that. They support each other and call each other on their bs. That is not parenting, that's being a good friend. And they are to each other.

On that note, it hasn't come up too much yet but when shit sucks (like when the eggs were lost or lost lives), they're good at distracting each other. But like without halting the process of dealing with their emotions. If they're sad, they'll be sad together, but they're good at picking the right conversation topics to lighten the mood. If they're mad, they'll be mad together, and they'll plan what to do about it with each other.

I think I've sorta demonstrated it well enough in a couple of these hcs already but AUGH, they're just. So on the same page with each other almost all the time. And when they aren't, they're so good at giving each other perspectives they didn't think of before. Which, I don't mean to compare Bagi to her brother here, but is also how Phil and Cellbit can be with each other too; though they've somewhat fallen out of that sync post-Purgatory. The way the Mystery Siblings are so on the same wavelength as Phil makes me so *slams fist on desk*

Phil is normally a very Just Vibin' kinda guy but Bagi can get him into some really deep intellectual conversations sometimes and it's so 🍿🍿🍿 to watch

#qsmp #qsmp philza #philza #q!philza #qsmp bagi #oibagi #q!bagi #qphil headcanons #AMFMN things

51 notes · View notes

quinloki · 1 year ago

Note

humble requests for buggy, killer, and robin for marking with their lipstick (i know robin isnt drawn with any but just for fun), hella softcore femdom, and praise (not for killer i know u already did him and i.. go back regularly to read it and get all flustered and coo and adhjsfldkf) thank yoU!!!

Awwwww ♥ I'm glad you like it that much. Hm... maybe I'll expand on it for this post. Let's see how it goes.

Buggy and Robin - I think this is firsts for both of them \o/ (Oh wait, I've gotten Buggy once before, first for Robin!)

Also, I apologize, I'm laughing at "hella softcore femdom" - I don't know what to do with that, but I'm going to try my best. I'm assuming the qualifier is there because I tend to go pretty hard core, and you're trying to get me to put the mittens on and tone it down a bit.

We'll do this by character as is becoming the norm, and we'll just go in the order you've listed \o/

Buggy:

Marking w/lipstick - Yes - Buggy likes to give you his "look" in the bedroom - not the big red nose, but the exaggerated lips and the blue lines. There's just something quiet and intimate about it and he refuses to let anyone else see you like that. Generally, in the course of the night, the makeup on the both of you is ruined all to hell. Red and blue smears of paint blotched along skin.

You've even "marked" him more directly before, drawing a couple lazy hearts on his chest with the lipstick one time and he found he really liked it. He told you it was flashy and even left it in place until normal daily life wore it away.

Hella Softcore Femdom - Oh god you don't even know - Buggy can be pushed into being dom, he can even be one on his own, but he's a very stressed clown man. Handing over the proverbial reigns and doing your bidding is a tremendous stress reliever for him. It doesn't even have to be sexual in nature. He'll rub your shoulder, massage your feet, bring you snacks and feed you fruits (and/or let you feed him fruits too.) He even enjoys being made to clean or organize things.

Praise Kink - FUCK Yes - You cannot praise him too much, he cannot praise you too much. Buggy is a affirmative words kind of guy. (He likes having degradation thrown at him, does not like dishing it out). He loves to hear he's doing well, and loves to praise you for taking him so well at the same time. He's very talkative when he's with you - not in the screechy kind of fast-talk he has with other people. It's much calmer than that, maybe a little flashy still.

He'll talk a little less as things progress - once you've both learned what the other likes there'll be less instructions and questions and clarifications, but he'll still be singing your praises, and reveling in you praising him.

Killer:

Marking w/lipstick - FUCK Yes - Killer loves to mark you, and honestly the more temporary those marks are the better. As a general rule at least. The best part is how accurate he is with it. He's put lipstick on your lips without getting any outside of the lines, and he didn't use the lipstick on your lips directly. It was some of the best kissing you'd experienced with him.

By the time all is said and done it's often hard to tell what marks on you are passionate bruises, and which marks are Killer's lipstick. At least until you get cleaned up.

Hella Softcore Femdom - Yes - I don't think you'd ever actually truly dom Killer. Even softcore style. He's delighted to let you fill that role, but there's no point in any of it where you're fully in control. He just doesn't have enough "sub" in him for that sort of interaction. Much like Kid though, he's into pretty much all kinks, from all sides, and he'll happily play at being you're good darlin' without complaint.

Plus it's not bad for him to just relax and let someone call the shots for a little bit. Killer's usually non-stop on in that category. So it's refreshing for him to let someone else take the lead.

Praise Kink - Oh god your don't even know - Killer will praise you and accept your praises. But mostly praise you - how well you take him, how sweet you sound, how beautiful your laughter is, how delicious, and warm, and tight and perfect you are. Killer loves to lavish you with praise. You are his good little one, and he'll make sure you never doubt it. He'll even praise you while he's punishing you - especially if you're accepting your punishment without complaint.

It's also easy to tell that praise effects him positively as well. You can hear his soft moans shiver when you praise him, feel him twitch inside you, the flex in his fingers as he works to control himself. He doesn't really need or want anyone else to tell him he's doing a good job, but something about the way you say it, hits him at his core.

Nico Robin:

Marking w/lipstick - Sure - I think Robin wouldn't have much of an opinion on it until her partner marked her with lipstick. The quiet action of it, the subtle intimacy, the ease with which it can be removed and reapplied. Something about it will click with her and she'll be positive toward it more than neutral.

As a general rule I don't think she's one for marking any more "hardcore" than lipstick. Marks maybe from passionate kissing, but considering her past I don't think she'd want to have a show of ownership over someone. I almost think freedom is more important to her than it is to Luffy.

Hella Softcore Femdom - Oh god you don't even know - This is like, Robin's natural state. It's almost how she is just as a person existing. Everything I can think of to describe it are canonical moments in the show. She just very casually and skillfully moves the crew to her desires, and praises them when things go how she wants. It's almost motherly with, say, Chopper, but there's certainly a dom vibe with the rest of the crew.

It's subtle though - "hella softcore" is a good way to describe it. That said, it's something I see her doing to someone quite easily, but I don't think it goes in the other direction. Subtle as it may (or may not) come across in her relationship, she is most certainly the dominate partner.

Praise Kink - FUCK Yes - Degradation is not Robin's default setting. She's 100% someone that's going to praise you for a job well-done. The hardest part of being her partner is that she'll praise you for cleaning the room in the same cadence and tone that she'll praise you for taking her strap. Or hand. Or with you pleasing her.

There's nothing wrong with it, but when she thanks you for something in front of everyone else in that same tone she used in the bedroom perhaps just moments earlier. Well. To say it has an astounding effect is a bit of an understatement (and I'm certain she does it on purpose too.)

Get your asks in, I'm not taking more after tomorrow.

#kinky one piece head canon #buggy the clown #killer one piece #nico robin #x reader #nico robin x reader #killer x reader #buggy x reader

210 notes · View notes

justinspoliticalcorner · 29 days ago

Text

Jonathan Cohn at HuffPost:

Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris on Tuesday proposed a major new initiative: expanding Medicare to cover the cost of long-term care at home. Such a plan could mean the option of staying at home, rather than in a nursing facility, for the millions of seniors and people with disabilities who need help with the daily tasks of life. It could also mean physical and financial relief ― and new opportunities for school or work outside the home ― for the millions of working-age Americans who today provide so much of that care on their own without much in the way of outside assistance. If the proposed legislation is enacted, such a program would represent a substantial boost in federal support for caregiving and, by any measure, one of the largest one-time increases in American history. Harris made her announcement during an appearance on “The View,” the nation’s top-rated daytime talk show, and presented the initiative as a way to help the “sandwich generation” ― that is, the working adults who have aging parents while still caring for children. Roughly a quarter of the American population falls into that category, according to Pew Research.

“There are so many people in our country who are right in the middle ― they’re taking care of their kids and they’re taking care of their aging parents ― and it’s just almost impossible to do it all,” Harris said. “Especially if they work, we’re finding that so many are then having to leave their job, which means losing a source of income, not to mention the emotional stress.” Harris pledged to finance the home care initiative fully, in part by tapping the savings from yet another reform she has proposed: expanding the federal government’s power to negotiate drug prices directly with manufacturers. The federal government acquired that power just two years ago, thanks to Democratic legislation that Harris supported.

[...]

The Home Care Struggle Today

Dollars alone don’t capture the scope of the proposal ― or the change it could mean for individual families. Nearly 20% of seniors require some kind of help with bathing, eating and other daily life functions, according to the available research. The percentage is even higher for older seniors, plus there are non-elderly people who need these services because of disabilities. But Medicare doesn’t cover this kind of long-term care, except in limited circumstances, nor does private insurance. And few families have the income or savings to pay out of pocket for these supports and services, which over the course of a year can easily generate bills into six figures. That leaves Medicaid, currently the nation’s single largest payer of long-term services and, for millions of Americans, a true lifesaver. But Medicaid is available only to people with low incomes, which means that families cannot qualify until they have “spent down” whatever savings they have or figured out ways of transferring those savings to relatives. (An entire legal specialty exists purely to guide people through this process.)

And that’s not the only issue with Medicaid. States manage the program, even though the federal government covers most of the cost, which means eligibility, benefits, management and reimbursement for long-term care vary enormously depending on where people live. That’s especially true when it comes to home care. Many states cap enrollment, creating long waiting lists for services and forcing people into nursing homes (which Medicaid covers more uniformly) even when they would prefer to remain at home. The alternative for many families is to provide care on their own, which is nice in some cases and terrible in others and somewhere in between for the rest.

[...]

But the version Harris is putting forward now is different from the old one. The previous proposal would have essentially taken the existing Medicaid program and made it bigger. Harris envisions Medicare taking on home care for its beneficiaries, which to many analysts and advocates for the elderly seems like an improvement, in part because Medicare is not limited to those in the most dire economic circumstances. “The care that people need ― the long term-care ― is part of their overall health care needs,” Georgetown public policy professor Judith Feder, a co-author on one of the recently published papers sketching out a proposal, told HuffPost. “Nobody should have to be impoverished because they need health care or long-term care. It needs to be a true guarantee of security, not simply a last resort.”

Whether a home care program was part of Medicaid or Medicare, moving from Harris�� campaign pledge to actual policy would require answering all sorts of complicated questions and confronting all sorts of difficult trade-offs, over not just money but also issues like how to balance support for professional care workers and those who prefer to provide care on their own. There would also be questions of whether and how to restructure Medicaid’s long-term care supports, how those would integrate with the new Medicare initiative and what that would all mean for the providers of care, who, undoubtedly, would have a thing or two to say about it. But the potential complications go hand in hand with potential benefits, which include everything from additional savings to Medicare (because some studies suggest home care reduces hospital expenses) to shifting more care out of nursing homes and back to the home setting.

Democratic Presidential candidate Kamala Harris is making a major proposal to help seniors and their caregivers by expanding Medicare to include home-based care.

See Also:

Vox: Biden’s push for child care failed. What lessons are there for Kamala Harris?

#Kamala Harris #Healthcare #Sandwich Generation #Disabilities #Home Care #Home Health Care #Medicare #2024 Presidential Election

19 notes · View notes

witch-hazels-musings · 2 years ago

Text

absolutely certain

Genre: sfw, fluff/angst (some difficult personality traits are mentioned)

-- a few head-canons that I think are 100000% true and you cannot convince me otherwise - hazel is *checks title* (not edited)

Includes: Albedo, Childe, Diluc, Thoma, Xiao, Zhongli

Character x GN Reader | Anthology

Albedo

he loves seeing you accomplish your goals - big or small, if you set your mind to something he is transfixed in watching you figure it out until the solution drops in your capable lap. he will aid you, of course, but only when you’ve exhausted all your options - its not that he wants to see you struggle, it’s that he knows you are capable, even when you feel l like you’re not (he’s your biggest cheerleader)

he enjoys cooking for you - it’s become something of a slight hobby for him (though it’s not often). when the moment is just right, or he finds himself preparing food for later in the day, he will make something extra and bring it your way just so he can see the smile on your face

he’s not touchy-feely - he will hold your hand, and offer respectful touch, but he doesn’t think much on intimacy, especially in public. albedo’s affection comes out in many ways, but physical affection is low on the list - it’ll take time for him to be that close. sit beside him while you both work, trail your fingers over his arm while you’re lost in thought, play with his hair - he will welcome all of them in due time; if there is more, a discussion will need to be had about what comes next. all he needs is to know what you want, all he needs is your clear consent - wherever your boundary is, he wants it defined to know how not to cross it

he has notebooks filled with drawing of you - its not a secret that albedo likes to draw things he thinks ‘capture the meaning of life.’ you’ve seen him sketch a quick portrait while at dinner and give it to the subject he examined, but what you don’t know is that some of his most treasured possessions are the sketchbooks he has where every page is filled with you. engaged in the mundane, he captures your likeness. you’re lost in your work, he traces those expressions. you gift him your smile, he’s captured it on parchment. but his most favorite drawing of all is framed on his desk, protected by shimmering glass reflecting the warm sunlight. looking at reminds him of the wholesome nature of this world because it captures purity in all forms. it represents laughter and joy, of love and family - this drawing is simple but to him its everything: his most cherished person lifting his sister into the air so she can reach the stars

Childe

he adores lifting you into the air - for fun, for love - hugging your back or wrapping his arms around you from the front, the sound of your laughter and the feeling of you in his arms, relying completely on his strength gets him going more than anything else

he wants a family with you - he doesn’t care what it looks like, 1 child, 10 children, no children - he could care less what that family looks like as long as it’s you. make him your family, allow him to expand his own - till death do you part he will never let you go

he will talk your ear off - when he’s comfortable with someone, completely trusts them, he shares his whole world - and perhaps a bit too much - he will tell you stories of his childhood, of the ups and downs, he’ll gush about his family and share pictures he has of them in his wallet. childe wants you to know him -- not harbinger him, not fighter him -- please, will you give him the time to get to know Ajax?

he thinks about things head on - because most of his problems can be solved by direct action, he will tend to offer a lot of problem solving options when you are struggling. sometimes they work and others they make you more overwhelmed; he might not notice his tactics are failing until you snap but when that happens he retreats, relents, waits for you to tell him what to do. -- ‘just hold me, okay?’ -- ‘you got it’

Diluc

he looks at you far too often - even before the two of you started dating, he found himself drawn to you. his eyes, his heart, his want to be at your side - it was practically suffocating. for a while that’s all he’d allow himself, a quick glance, a perk of the ear when he heard your voice - but you reached through the tiny crack he left open for love until he was finally brave enough to take it

he stands so close - close enough for you to feel the warmth he gives off, near enough that every once in a while you’ll feel something familiar press against your lower back - it’s his hand that yearns to touch you but tries so hard to hold itself back. he isn’t affectionate in public, but his proximity speaks every drop of love he feels for you

he’s focused - sometimes too much that it can feel like you don’t exist around him. you can be talking to him, try to ask him a question, or stand in the room waiting for him to notice you but he never does. the boy’s thoughts are consumed completely with what’s in front of him - it hurt at first but you soon learned its not because he doesn’t love you. if you really want his attention, all you need do it walk near to him and run your fingers over his ear - trust me, the eyes that find yours hold nothing but unconditional love

the master of the ‘lifting your chin’ technique - there is something about the feeling of pushing your chin up to look at him that drives him wild. the first time he did it he was nervous, worried he was being too controlling but the way you reacted told him otherwise - now, whether its to ensure you hear him, to see your face before he leaves for the day, or to hold you tenderly as he kisses you hello, he can’t get enough - and neither can you

Kaeya

physical touch is his way of life - kaeya has to be touching you in one way or another. his hand to your back, his arm on resting on your shoulder or head, his back flush against yours, chest to chest as he looks in your eyes. you’ve found yourself swarmed by his desire for touch, smothered in it at times but he just can’t stop himself. it’s his love language -- touching or being touched. the surest way to ease his stress is to place with his hair, run your fingers over his eyebrows as he rests in your lap, gently caress the angles of his face, the corner of his raised lips - let him be close to you, it’s all he needs

seriousness is not a natural reaction - the vast majority of what comes out of his mouth is a joke, a tease, a ‘this isnt very serious’ response which, at times, can be rather fun but at others it’s infuriating. he hates being serious, it reminds him of all the terrible moments in his life, reminds him of the strict world he was raised in - he never did flourish in serious land. he has a hard time shifting gears - more like those gears are coated in high-proof liquor - but if there is something he hates worse than having a serious conversation its seeing you cry ... to freeze those tears he’d do the unthinkable

he’s capable - capable in accomplishing his goals, capable in getting what he wants, capable of twisting what’s around him until it spells out his desires, his wishes - Kaeya is far more capable than he lets on and that is his best weapon. it can be quiet jarring to see him switch from the lazy, ‘go with the flow’ attitude he’s so often employs into a serious, almost terrifying focus. every time you see it it sends a shiver down your spine; not because you know what he’s going to do, but because he so easily made you forget in the first place

he feels everything - he tries not to let it show but every slight against him, every whisper spoken in the shadows he hears like another stab in the back. Kaeya might appear to be aloof, indifferent, out of reach from all the goings on around him but he’s not - in fact he’s so sensitive that he’s learned to build barrier after barrier to keep him in tact. it’s why he’s so much better at working in the shadows -- it’s easier to deal in back-alley agreements than face a world flooded with light. micro expressions, shifts in tone, these are not lost on him -- you wonder why he stares at you so much, it’s because he’s waiting for the truth to come out and hoping without hope you’ll be the one person who never lies to him

Thoma

he gives all of himself - and while this makes him a wonderful person, it also makes him vulnerable to exhaustion. the boy puts everyone, everything before his own needs that there are times you’ve found him passed out in the most random places. once he was doing laundry and you found him face first in a pile of clean clothes. he’ll try to play it off or tell you its fine - good luck trying to convince him to slow down - its like arguing with radiant sunshine (and you often lose)

best house-husband, a tad strict - Thoma doesn’t mind keeping the house clean, making food for the two of you, ensuring things are running smoothly. he will willingly let you do your own part in maintaining the household, especially after a quick lesson on proper cleaning -- just know that he isn’t shy of crossing his arms and giving you ‘that look’ when you try to out-do your limits -- ‘don’t climb so high, its dangerous.’ / ‘slow down when you’re cutting, you could get hurt’ / ‘when you need something come find me’ -- Thoma would do it all if it meant you stayed safe ... just ... let him grab the hot pan for archons sake

he holds your hand - like all the time. wherever you’re going, whenever you drift away, he will scoop your hand in his so he can keep you close, keep you safe. a kiss on the hand is a way for him to share his feelings when words aren’t enough, a gentle squeeze is a reminder he’s here with you, interlaced fingers ensure others know you are his and he is yours -- even in his sleep, your hand is in his, just the way he likes it

he’s SO encouraging - Thoma is the most positive best cheerleader you could ever ask for. he will root for you in all ways, in all cases, and celebrate with you when you succeed. he knows you are capable and can do it on your own - you’ve accomplished so much already that this thing wont hold you down for long (though he will help if you need it; after all, he can’t take seeing you sad)

Xiao

he self-isolates a lot - it’s not because he hates you - in fact, you’ve grown to be a comfortable place for him. strangely enough, his mind wanders to you so often that he has gone to the bubu pharmacy in search of diagnosis to his obsessive imaginations - but there are moments when he needs to be on his own; to protect you or his heart he won’t say. Xiao will come back, no matter how what, he can’t imagine a life without seeing your face

he tries his absolute best - he knows nothing about relationships. the closest ones he had were taken from him long ago, and the only other companions he knows are formal, respectful, and set at a proper distance - this is so new to him that he will fail a lot but he tries again, and again, and again, because he knows what it looks like to see you smile and that is something he desperately wants to see again

he’s dangerously protective - if danger ever reached you, he would show no mercy in eradicating it. in these moments he can become terrifying, almost foreign to you but there is no mistaking the hand that keeps you behind him, the arm that glows as a warning to those wanting to cause you harm, the back that separates you from all danger -- you mean the world to him and he will dive into the deepest darkness to protect your light

boy is touch starved - at first he doesn’t know what to do with himself - you put your hand on his arm and he tenses up, you hold his hand and he pulls away, you lean in to kiss his cheek and he balls his hands into fists. tender touch has never been given to him so he’s unsure how to react, uncertain if this is something he deserves -- but once he knows your hands will never hurt him, that your arms will never cage him, that your heart is as pure as the crystalflies he longs to reach, he melts. he leans into you like you are purifying water; his back relaxes against your chest as you hold him, his expression softens when you caress his cheek, he almost hums when you play with his hair - you’ve taught him so much - but he never imagined he’d learn that someone's hands could be so safe

Zhongli

he buys you the most extravagant gifts - its obvious he wants to spoil you - zhongli see’s gifts as a representation of his admiration for you, the more personalized, special, perfect the gift the more it reflects the honor you hold in his heart - don’t be surprised to see lavish clothes, ornate dishes, rare books, or other random items appear in your house - he saw them while he was out and thought of you

he listens to everything - and i mean everything. there is nothing that gets said around this man that he doesn’t hear (don’t whisper secrets, it’s why his hair is so long). something you’ve learned? he will be attentive in your recollection. something you love? he will sip his tea quietly while you explain every tiny detail - there is something beautiful in the way you shine in these moments; how can you blame him for wanting to watch

he’s a slight hoarder - he doesn’t understand the meaning of ‘getting rid of things’ and though he is very particular about the way his home looks, his office, his environment, he can build up quiet a bad habit of keeping too many trinkets (or bringing home to many for you when he knows full well you don’t know where to put it). luckily, you’ve found some ways to compromise - now there is a rotating schedule of fanciful items resting on your bookshelf

he lets you sit on his lap - like, this is the biggest win. if he’s reading, he simply chuckles at the way you crawl on his lap, the way you nestle against him, hand on his chest as you rest your back against his shoulder. it’ll make him pause until you’re comfortable but whether you stay up to listen to him as he reads aloud, or fall asleep against him, he doesn’t mind - in fact, it brings him comfort that he can’t completely articulate

766 notes · View notes

wisteriagoesvroom · 7 months ago

Note

carcar 39 for the prompt thing hehe

prompt 39 is “dressing room” and you wanted carcar and i cannot sit on a snippet in silence apparently. so here’s a few sentences of something that may expand slightly…

————

Oscar stands at the main cast dressing room. Headset with the mic piece turned upwards and a clipboard in his hand.

Carlos’s posture is loose and sure in the mirror. He really was an actor in every sense of the word, capable of switching the temperature of a room up or down depending on his desire to, or in search of a particular payoff. Lando had that quality too. And if the social media chatter was anything to go by, this was one of the most-hyped productions of Twelfth Night that London had seen in a while. (Not to mention the most potentially profitable.)

Didn’t make Sainz Junior any easier to work with, though.

“Carlos. Can I have a word?”

A few “oohs” and jeers roll forth from the cast.

Carlos barely spares Oscar a glance in the mirror before he turns back to his conversation with Lando.

“20 minutes. We know, cabrón. No need to worry.”

“It’s not that.”

“Is it so important it cannot wait until after critics night?”

“I need you to comply with what I’m about to tell you because it’s critics night.”

Carlos’s face is thunderous in the mirror. To his credit, the look dissipates as quickly as it came.

Because Carlos after all, was a performer. First and foremost.

————

from this prompt list

#Carloscar #carcar #op81 #cs55 #carcar theatre au #with a side of landoscar that is not mentioned here but will eventually be #an anon said theatre lighting AU at one point and that inspired this #toxic vibes in a workplace with jealous feelings? lots of emotional ppl trying to do their jobs? yeah theatre au lmao #thank u mandy #Carlos would make an excellent Orsino no??#wiz.wips #prompt game #Carlos sainz x oscar piastri

38 notes · View notes

ramonag-if · 5 months ago

Note

Oh man I don’t have a patreon but I can’t wait to eventually play the rest of this game when it’s finished. I cannot imagine the drama of the family dinner playing out no matter who you bring (Oren my dearest). Chomping at the bit- Uncle Belahm and Salyra locking horns over her questionable life choices, abandoning not only her kid but the rest of her family in Vinia, Zikar being ride-or-die for MC, Siduri trying to keep the peace between her kids, a potentially fussy new baby, and Danzor NPC-ing in the background. 😂 Poor MC and Rana and Oren. Like a telenovela. 👀 I just imagine them watching all the chaos and potential fighting for a bit and finally making eye contact and being like “let’s eat outside” and MC basically skedaddles with Rana and Oren for a sliver of peace and quiet and awkward conversation.

You basically listed almost everything that happens in the dinner scenes 😆 Nisaba doesn't show up on account if her being too young, so Belahm does not hold back on his opinions. You can also (depending on your choices) make Rana teary in a bad way because why not 😅 I still have a bit to expand on during the end scenes and also do alternative scenes for players who don't attend the family dinner but you've covered the main parts of the dinner.

#crown of exile #answered asks #chapter 9 #family dinner

21 notes · View notes

fantasticalleigh · 9 months ago

Text

!!!!!Hi! Exciting news! I am launching my shop tomorrow!!!!

February 3rd 12pm CST.

fantasticalleighsartshop.bigcartel.com

(If you see that it's briefly open before then, please disregard as I am making final adjustments before launch.)

I have a limited number of prints and stickers available. Most prints except one are matte giclee prints and I cannot wait for them to grace your walls <3 I also put up commission info there in case anyone has been wondering.

(Unfortunately I can't accept payment through Paypal bc they're being dicks and are ignoring me while I'm trying to solve some issues with my account :( )

(I am also offering international shipping to select countries as a sort of trial run before expanding the list.)

Anyway: TOMORROW. Come check it out!

#leigh speaks #reylo #reylo art #leigh's shop things

43 notes · View notes

bookshelf-in-progress · 10 months ago

Text

What the hey. I'll ask for some feedback right here on the blog.

I haven't touched my "Twelve Dancing Princesses" retelling in a while because I'm unsure about the style. When I was brainstorming a list of retelling possibilities, the first line of this one jumped out at me and made me start writing in a non-traditional point-of-view. I like the intimacy of it, but the story started expanding into more detail than I initially intended, so I'm not sure if it serves the story or just makes it more confusing. If you stumbled on a story written like this unawares, would it still make sense, etc.?

So I'm posting the first couple of scenes (2,400 words) to give you a taste of what it would be. It's still pretty rough, so there are some things about character and plot that don't make complete sense, but I could use some general feedback about readability. Is it worth continuing in this way or should I overhaul it to something more traditional? Is the story worth continuing at all? And so on.

(FYI: This is a retelling of the French version of the fairy tale, popularized by Andrew Lang, so all unique details come from that version).

Unseen: A Retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses

We go to the same garden every day, but you never see me. Why should you? You are the Princess Sonatina, youngest daughter of the greatest king on five continents, while I am only a gardener's assistant, with not even a surname of my own, except one that was given to me half as a taunt for my daydreaming ways. If you were ever to ask, I would tell you I answer to Michael Stargazer--but you never will think to ask, and I will never presume to speak.

Instead, I work silently in the gardens, while you wander past with your sisters--eleven of them, all unsurpassed in beauty of face and form and voice--laughing and chatting and singing snatches of songs. You are, all of you, more beautiful and vibrant than any of the flowers I tend, and I feel more alive just being near you.

Then the day comes when your morning songs are silent. You drag weary feet through the gardens, look blankly at the beauties of the world, lounge wearily along the edges of fountains and atop retaining walls. The rumor comes that every night, you are--all of you--wearing through your shoes.

Were I a prince, I would think no quest too perilous to save you from such sickness. I would climb a million trees in search of golden apples, cross storm-filled oceans in search of the Water of Life, work a dozen years at impossible tasks to find the key to ending your curse.

But I'm only a gardener, and nobody's son, so it falls to those with name and fortune to try their hands at saving you. The king has vowed that the man who finds the secret of where you go at night will win your hand in marriage, and there are many who are willing and worthy to try.

They are wonderful men--strong and handsome, noble and brave, with royal titles, vast holdings, great fortunes, and skills and talents that a simple gardener could never match. Any one of them would make a fine husband for a princess. Yet all of them, to a man, disappear within a day of taking up their task.

The rumors turn darker then, casting you not as victims but villains, luring men to their deaths with some dark magic of your own. Those who say such things did not see you in the gardens, or that would know that not one of you is capable of anything near what they accuse you of. Unfortunately, no one will ask a garden lad's thoughts, and I cannot speak unbidden unless I have proof.

So I go to the gardens and find two tiny rose trees. The head gardener tried to tear them out, in my first days at the palace, and I convinced him to let them live. I have watered them, fed them, saved them from disease and decay, told them stories of the princesses they serve. You have never seen them, I'm sure--you have never seen me--but though they are small, they are fine little plants, with dark, glossy green leaves, and little buds that seem always to be waiting for just the right time to bloom. An old woman told me once that they were wishing trees, planted in the earliest days of the kingdom's existence, and my service to them meant I had only to speak to them, and they would give me whatever I asked.

For myself, I want nothing--wishes too easily become the ruin of those who have them granted--but for you, I would dare all. I ask my two rose trees to make me not only unseen, but unseeable, able to follow wherever you go without detection.

The rose tree sprouts a single bloom, its petals so white and delicate they are almost transparent. When I pluck it from the bush, I disappear from sight. I place it in my buttonhole and move about the gardens, unseen by all who cross my path, even in the brightest sun.

That night, I follow you into the bedroom you share with your sisters, and I hide beneath the largest bed while the room above fills with the sounds of rustling dresses, clinking jewels, and girlish whispers. At last, your eldest sister Aria declares you dressed to perfection and calls for silence.

I creep out from under the bed and find you and your sisters dressed in ballroom finery--silks and satins and twelve pairs of perfectly-mended dancing shoes. I take my place just behind you, and find you more beautiful than ever in this moonlit room.

Aria pulls aside a tapestry, and the blank stone wall suddenly becomes an open doorway leading to a torchlit staircase. You all rush through in single file. I keep close at your heels, afraid that I'll be left behind unseen if I give the door a chance to close.

Aria stands back to hold open the tapestry. I rush past where she stands, afraid she'll follow too close and crash into my unseen form. In doing so, I trod too close to your skirt, and the fabric tears beneath my foot as you take your first steps down the stairs.

You shriek and grab hold of Lyra, standing just before you on the stairs. "Someone stood on my skirt!" you scream.

I hold myself flat against the damp stone wall, heart pounding so fast that I'm certain you hear me.

Aria breezes down the staircase, head held high, the crown princess rolling her eyes at her foolish juniors. "Don't be silly, Tina," Aria says. "I was nowhere near you on the stairs."

You protest that you felt someone on your skirt, but your cries for belief are drowned out by eleven dissenting voices, and they all continue down the staircase. You go only reluctantly, looking back at me--right through me--a thousand times as you go forth. Were it not for the weight of my mission, I would cast off the rose in the hope of a single moment when our eyes could truly meet.

After what seems like a million stairs, we emerge into an open clearing that would look like the outdoors if there was any sight of sky above. Trees tower over us with drops of silver on their branches, like rain upon the leaves. Further down the path is a gold-spattered orchard, each precious drop catching the soft white light that comes from I know not where. Even further beyond is a forest full of diamonds, every stone flashing rainbows that remind me of the fire in your eyes.

The forests are strange, but also strangely unsurprising--as though they've always been here, but simply unseen. Your sisters whisper of the night that this place was wished into existence--a place where they might revel in pure beauty and joy, away from the weighty eyes of the watchful world. But the forest, it seems, is only a prelude--the true marvel is far ahead. We emerge onto the shores of a shimmering lake--so vast, so deep, and so darkly blue that I can see neither the bottom nor the opposite shore. On an island in its center stands a castle so magnificent that it makes your father's palace seem like a paper toy. Its white, sculpted spires glitter with gems in a thousand colors, every brick spangled with precious stones. Its windows hold wonders caught in flawless stained glass. Music sweeter than any I've ever heard pours out its open doors, and the light from within forms a shining path across the lake--upon which float twelve sleek obsidian-colored boats.

Each boat has a boatman who rows swiftly toward the shore, and as they approach, I find that I know all the faces. Every one of these men is a prince who failed at finding your secret--or rather, they found it, and did not return. They are dressed in silks and velvets unlike any I've seen in the outer world, too rich for comprehension. As they slide up to the shore and each offer a place to one of you girls, they wear smiles that shine as bright as your own--but there is also something empty in their eyes.

You, as the youngest, take your place in the very last boat of all, piloted by a king's younger son whose sires have ruled half a continent for centuries. He smiles and bows as he takes you by the hand. The way your eyes light up make me wonder if I've seen what you look like in love.

The prince rows with arms strengthened by a warrior's skill--I doubt he's ever held a shovel in his life--but the other boats still outpace us by far.

"Why are you so slow tonight?" you ask him, half teasing, but with a trace of true annoyance.

"The boat is heavy," he says, "and I know not why."

You glance backward, toward where I sit in the stern, and again, I half-wish you could see me. But I let out a sigh of relief when you turn your eyes back toward the castle and give no further thought to unknowable truths.

We disembark on a dock just beneath the castle entrance, and in moments we are inside the palace of enchantment itself. This is a ballroom beyond what I could imagine--floors of marble streaked with gold and silver, towering windows displaying fantastical birds and beasts, spidery silver chandeliers holding thousands of brightly-lit candles, and at the far end of the room, tables tottering beneath food enough to feed an army, and half a nation besides.

But this splendor is nothing compared to the beauty of the music. It is like a living thing--vibrant, rapturous, all-consuming, pulling all into it like a roaring, flowing river, so the moment one steps through the door, there is nothing one can do but dance. Your prince pulls you into his arms, and your sisters' princes do the same, and soon you are swirling through that wondrous room, beauty and motion and life all brought to their fullness and put into perfect order.

All along the edges of that room are other faces--other princes who've failed at your father's quest--and they all take their turn in the dance. If I thought you alive in the gardens, you are a thousand times more vibrant now, laughing and dancing so you glow with pure joy. These princes are your perfect partners, matching you with every step, reflecting the glow that you bring to the room. If I ever thought that I could take a place beside them, maybe win your father's wager and claim a princess for my bride, that spark is snuffed by the brightness of your blaze. You are ethereal, almost angelic, and could never be happy with one whose hands are stained from working with the common, solid Earth.

While the princes take their turns, you and your sisters dance without ceasing, and I no longer wonder how you could wear through your shoes in a single night. Those shoes are little more than tatters by the time the last note of the last dance plays, and the twelve of you trudge toward the boats to reach bed. Your princes are silent as they row the boats to the forested shore, and you, Sonantina, do not say a word about his slowness.

When you reach the banks, the prince bids you farewell, then all twelve of them row back to the palace, choosing to stay in the splendor rather than return to the pressures of their ordinary lives. After what I have seen, I cannot blame them for their choice.

But you and your sisters choose to return to your father. You trudge through the diamond, then gold, then silver-speckled forests, and as your sisters file one-by-one up the staircase, I realize that none of this fantastic tale will have a ring of truth unless I have something to bring as proof. I reach toward the nearest tree and snap off a slender branch. It disappears from sight as soon as I touch it to my clothes, but the sound of its breaking rings through that silent wood like a gunshot.

You jump at the sound, and are suddenly wide, wide awake.

"What was that?" you ask your sister.

Aria once again rolls her eyes. "Only an owl," she says. "You know it roosts in the castle at night."

The explanation does not please you, I can tell, but having no other, you fall silent and leave the silver woods behind.

When you are all safely asleep in bed, I slip unseen through the door and make my way invisibly to my small cot in the servants' quarters. When I lay on my bunk, I take off the rose, and my face reappears in the reflection off the washing bowl. I look as I did before I left, though infinitely wearier, and perhaps--though it might only be fancy--I carry something in my eyes of the enchantment of the night.

In my hands sits the branch I broke, its leaves as green, its silver dewdrops as solid, as they were in that fantastical land. I imagine myself taking it to the king at dawn, having triumphed where the sons of kings and emperors have failed.

Then I imagine the you and your sisters standing by. In a horrible flash, the daydream shatters, and I see myself for what I am--a sneak and a spook, who crept uninvited into a strange woman's room to steal evidence that would cut her off completely from the place she loves most in the world. If I have a role in this tale, it is as the villain, not the hero. I have triumphed in discovering the secret, but if I have any love in my heart for you, I cannot think of speaking.

After a short hour's sleep, I awake with the dawn, but I do not go to the king with what I've found.

Instead, I go to the head gardener and get myself assigned the task of bringing the twelve princesses their morning bouquets. I gather careful handfuls of daisies and larkspur and bind them together with handfuls of greenery. I hand them to your sisters one by one as they come bleary-eyed to your bedroom door. When you come to me, last of all, I make sure that your bouquet contains a single silver-spangled branch.

Then, at last, you see me.

#adventures in writing #fairy tale retellings #the twelve dancing princesses

46 notes · View notes