#do i have any reason to give my emperor a whole bunch of eyes??? no | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

parachutingkitten · 3 months ago

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I think my main gripe with the side characters is that I don't really have strong opinions on any of them? It's not that I don't like them, it's that they're just fine for the most part. Can't remember most of their names. I think Mr. Frohicky is probably the main exception. He's a new character type and has enough personality that I do genuinely care if he's doing alright. The old show was a lot more hit or miss, but I at least have strong opinions on most of them. And maybe it's that lack of care that gets me thinking about the lore questions more. Additionally, I think the mini cliff hangers at the end of episodes kind of kill my interest in the intrigue. It seems like, especially in season 1, an episode would end on a big question mark, only to be answered the next episode fairly quickly, and it turns out the answer isn't all that dramatic, or they just drop it all together. It makes it less fun.

Anyway, I do agree with you that... I guess having your characters feel like people is good? I like a lot of the moments you list off here. I don't like either of our dragon mentors that much, but that stuff with wyldfyre and egalt was really well done. I like Kai and wyldfyre's relationship a bunch, I like Sora's season 2 story a lot, I like Cole's return, and I like Zane's talking to broom pixal. I think the main problem is that I just don't like the two main character arcs we've gotten so far. Sora's Season 1 stuff is boring, messy, cliched, and while it has a good message in the end, doesn't really make for a cohesive character in that season in my eyes. Lloyd's season two arc is a bit of a rehash, a REAL messy metaphor, repetitive, and also just a bunch of plot disguised as character development when you get down to it. They just take up so much time, and I don't know if it's just unfortunate that the two most prominent emotional beats are my least favorite, or that the fact that they have more time given to them just gives them more space to mess them up somehow.

I think it's fine if the merge isn't a big deal to our characters- it doesn't have to be I guess. But if you want to make that shift, you also have to get me as an audience member on that same page, so that I can ignore it. It's essentially the snap. It erased like half of all people in ninjago. And while they do put it out of the plot a bit, they don't do any active work to assure me that I shouldn't be worried about it. In some ways it makes sense. These characters have had (years?) to deal with the aftermath of the merge emotionally, but it is still a fresh concept to me, and I have not been allowed to do a lot of processing about these concepts through the story, you know?

Again, the ice emperor non-explanation isn't a perfect comparison, but I do think it loosely fits- and I think they have the same status of long standing question that forms the premise of the season. The reason I feel so betrayed by it isn't that there's this unexpected twist at the end that doesn't get explained well. It would almost be easier that way, because it would all be coming at you so fast. It's that the central question of that chapter set up at the beginning, "what happened to Zane?" Isn't given a satisfactory answer. "somehow zane is the ice emperor" doesn't cut it for the main hook of the season. Same thing with the merge. "what the heck happened with the merge?" was my hook into season one, and "it's somehow connected to source dragons" ain't gonna cut it for me. That being said, The ice emperor twist is objectively worse as it never got an answer, and I am certain they will eventually answer the merge question, but still.

I'd say your faith in the writers is warranted. I definitely want to give them the benefit of the doubt. Being the head of something is a whole other animal, and I want to give them a fair shot to tell a story their way. They have followed up on some loose threads, but none of those were really big questions, or big reveals. The riyu thread was at least set up as something that would happen on an extended timeline, and doesn't really require any development or investigation. The worm question is pretty easy to deduce once you know who the bad guys are, so it doesn't feel like an epic pay off as much as loose end that's tied up. Seeing Zeatrix is something I'm glad they paid off, but again, it also wasn't something the story pressed as needing to be resolved soon. It's not especially weird if our central characters aren't bothered by it. The merge actively affects everyone in story. It is weird that the ninja aren't looking into it more. Why give Cole a snarky little line about telling the story of his adventures later if that's not something your going to do the next time the plot has a breath?

It's true that the old show has a habit of ignoring important questions, and that is annoying. Mr. E in particular is a massive waste. But all these smaller questions are more just plot holes. Logistics questions. Not heavily foreshadowed mysteries to be solved. I mean, the opening question of "who's behind these robberies, and why are they happening?" for season 8 is answered in satisfying stages, and with a clear resolution. And trust me, having to watch a tannerfishies video about the latest tommy headcanon is the absolute worst way to learn about lore. Especially important lore. And I am glad that this show, as far as I can tell, has done none of that. That's awesome. In no way would finding out the reasons behind the merge be better on twitter, rather than waiting through, even 15 seasons of avoiding the question to get there. But... avoiding the question still sucks. Especially questions this big.

As far as tags, it's just stuff that's a bit off topic. A PS sort of area. You've already got the hang of it. Imperium is more developed as a location, and the original series certainly does feel a little more boxed up location wise. I do wish the world felt more fluid. I think the show would almost certainly be better if it did flesh out its locations a little more. Ninjago city benefits quite a bit from the amount of development its gotten over the years, and it shows. But when it comes down to it, seabound isn't really about merlopia. Again, for me it's all about those narrative promises. Seabound promised me that we'd get an answer about Nya's powers acting up, and an arc around her insecurities. We got that. Maybe if drs1 was set up as the hunger games-esque fighting an authoritarian government season, I'd appreciate it a lot more. But it was set up, if anything, as the exploring the merged realms season, so imperium just feels like a pit stop on the journey that's going on WAY too long. I'm all for subverting expectations on where your story is heading, but you've also got to do it... for a reason? What you give your audience has to be better than what you promised if you're going to swerve directions like that. And Dragons Rising just isn't good enough to justify those turns to me.

Okay, everyone get in the comments and let me know why you love dragons rising so that maybe I can reverse engineer why I don't-

#i am back from the grave #i got distracted over the weekend #but i do have more thoughts lol #fyi #a lot of these thoughts are probably going to end up in a video at some point #i am a ninjago youtuber without a dragons rising review #it is only a matter of time #anyway #this is genuinely great #long post #really long post #ninjago #dragons rising #ninjago spoilers #dragons rising spoilers #drs2 spoilers

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the-chattering-tower · 4 years ago

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Yup, i’m gonna need a Considerable Amount of these things

#dhnvgnhcnhys mulberry with a touch of blackberry galore #ranna doesnt have feathers but im not gonna pass up the gorgeous extra eyes for her #niltan #marvin #the magnolia system #(alien boyo still unnamed)#rubeola #ranna #dragon share #outfits #scries #for the alien and ruby #tho rubys getting gened in a day or two #do i have any reason to give my emperor a whole bunch of eyes??? no #but im gonna do it anyway bc it looks good and i love them and they deserve it

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ordinaryschmuck · 3 years ago

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Okay but imagine: AU where the Owl House is in the MCU and due to the multiverse breach, variants of Luz start appearing resulting in an army of Luz's from different timelines even dimensions with different goals and personalities but there's one thing that keeps them united, they all love Amity, except for that one Luz who has no idea who's Amity and unfortunately was jumped by a bunch of Luz's who said you don't trust a Luz who doesn't know who Amity is.

(For this one, I borrowed characters form AUs by @wiccsstuffs, @yogurthoopsart, and @moringmark...you can probably tell where this is going)

Into the Luz-verse

"What if she got kidnapped by the Emperor's Coven?!" Amity panicked as she, Gus, and Willow walked to the Owl House. "Or worse, what if she's sick and needs constant tender love and care!?"

"Then Eda will undoubtingly take care of her," Willow dryly told Amity, "Besides, don't you think you're overreacting? I mean, Luz missed one day of school. It's no big deal."

"It is a big deal! Luz loves school! She wouldn't miss it without reason!"

"She makes a good point."

"You're not helping, Gus!" Willow shouted.

"Sorry."

At long last, they made it to the familiar old house out in the woods, with the ever familiar annoying house demon guarding its front door.

"Hi, Luz's friends!" Hooty greeted the young witches, "What brings you here--"

"Is Luz alright!?" Amity cut to the chase.

"Oh, yeah, she's fine! All of them are, in fact!"

"You see, Amity? Luz is--" But Willow blinked, finally catching on to what Hooty said. "I'm sorry, did you say all of them?"

"Yepperoni! See for yourself."

Hooty then swung the door open, revealing...something no one would have expected.

Because inside the living room of the Owl House were eight versions of Luz Noceda, each with their unique outfit, style, and even features.

"...Did you wish really hard?" Willow asked Amity.

"Shut up."

"Friends!" shouted one Luz in a Hexide uniform. "And awesome girlfriend. What brings you here?"

"...You didn't show up to school, and we got worried," Gus explained, "Er, well, Amity got worried."

"Oh, yeah, sorry about that. We've been dealing with a bit of an issue over here."

"Clearly," Willow nodded, "My question is...what are these...versions of you?"

"Well, it's like you said. They're versions of me. But from different universes. Pretty cool, right?"

"So cool..." Amity said, stupified.

"Titan's Elbow..." Willow muttered out of annoyance.

"And they're all totally different, too."

Luz pointed at a version of her sitting on the couch, arms crossed, expression indifferent, wearing a green jacket, ripped black jeans, and a red beanie with two strands of hair sticking out.

"That one's from a universe where everything's pretty much the same," Luz explained, "The only real difference is that everyone's, like, two or three years older and a lot ruder. I call her Hipster Luz."

"Up yours!" Hipster Luz growled, "I'm not a hipster."

"Then why are you dressed like one?"

"Ha. Great comeback, Pipsqueak. Now here's mine."

She then proceeded to give a crude gesture involving one of her fingers.

"Yeah, you see what I mean about the whole rude thing?" Luz Prime asked her friends. She then pointed at the Luz sitting next to Hipster Luz. "The one in the purple striped t-shirt and black jeans is Dark Luz."

"Hello!" Dark Luz waved.

"Why is she called Dark Luz?" Gus asked, "She doesn't seem that dark."

"I'm called that because, where I'm from, the Boiling Isles is in Hell!"

"Ok, yeah, that'll do it."

"You seem pretty chipper for someone who's, you know, in Hell," Willow pointed out.

"Eh, it's not like making a bad situation any worse is going to solve anything."

"...I oddly respect that."

"Ooh! Also, where I'm from, humans can do natural magic! Watch:"

Dark Luz then closed her eyes and clasped her hands. After concentrating really hard, a light yellow ora soon enveloped her hands. Once it dissipated, Dark Luz opened her palms, and a ball of light came out.

"Tada!"

"Woah!" Shouted one Luz in golden armor and a white cape as she ran up to Dark Luz. "How did you do that?! Also, can you PLEASE teach me that?!"

"Maybe."

"That's Golden Luz, by the way," Luz pointed out, "She comes from a universe where Emperor Belos raised her and made her a golden guard alongside Hunter."

"...I'm sorry, what?"

"It's not that big of a deal," Golden Luz brushed off the insanity of her origins. "Uncle Belos is actually pretty sweet...sometimes."

"Did you just say 'UNCLE?!'"

"Pretty sure Belos is the devil in my universe," Dark Luz said, ignoring Willow's outburst.

"Well, that's you're universe," Golden Luz argued, "As we can tell, people from different universes can have drastically different personalities. Like Hipster Luz."

"I'm not a hipster!"

"Or Swap Luz," she then pointed to a Luz in a black hoodie and orange hair. "She looks a lot like the rest of us. The only difference is that she basically has Amity's personality."

"Your versions of Amity," Swap Luz said, "To me, she's basically the same as all of you."

"And mine's definitely not like any of yours," Hipster Luz, "Seriously, if Fwippy is anything to go by, then the rest of you girls are all on easy street. Believe me when I say that the bite marks I got from that witch weren't exactly pleasing...Ok, some were. But most weren't."

"First off, gross. Second, don't call me 'Fwippy,' you Hipster!"

"Why is she called Fwippy, anyway?" Willow asked.

"Because of her ears," Luz Prime said, "When she gets embarrassed, they make a cute little fwip-fwip."

And it was then that Willow, Gus, and Amity noticed the pointy ears on Swap Luz.

"Wait, she's a witch?!" Willow exclaimed.

"Yup, that's why we call her Swap Luz," Luz Prime explained. "Not only is she and her Amity's personalities are swapped, but also their races. In Swap Luz's universe, she's is the witch, and Amity is the human. Isn't that neat?"

"But why do her ears go fwip-fwip?" Gus asked.

"Look, it's just a thing that witches do in my universe!" Swap Luz exasperatedly told him. "I don't understand why it's exclusive to mine, but it is! So don't judge me for it!"

And, because she felt a little embarrassed, Swap Luz's ears actually did a little fwip-fwip.

"Aw, that is cute!" Amity cooed, making the fwipping worse and forcing Swap Luz to pull her hood over her head.

"But why call her 'Swap Luz?'" Willow asked, "Why not call her something simpler like 'Witch Luz?'"

"Because there's already a 'Witch Luz.' And it's her."

Luz Prime pointed to a Luz in a purple cape with some of it covering the bottom half of her face and the rest of her attire looking similar to Luz's casual look but seeming like it came from the Boiling Isles.

"And why is--"

"Because I'm also a witch who came from the Boiling Isles," Witch Luz answered the question before it was asked. "Except my situation is that I'm trapped in the human world where I became what is basically a superhero that fights against monsters from my world while also trying to find a way back home."

"...That sounds awesome!" Gus exclaimed.

"Doesn't it!?" Luz Prime joined in, "I keep telling her that if her life was a series, I would absolutely binge it non-stop."

"And I still have no idea what that means," Witch Luz confessed. "Besides, it's not like I'm the only superhero here."

"Oh, yeah, that's right. There's also a version of me that's Spider-Man...somehow."

On cue, a Luz in white and purple spandex with pink webs hung upside from the ceiling, holding on to a strand of webbing.

"For the record, I'm not a Spider-Man, whoever that is," she said, "My name is La Arácnida."

"I thought you said your name was La Araña?"

"No, it's La Arácnida. La Araña is taken...apparenlty."

"How do you know that?"

"I just do."

"Well, what if La Arácnida is taken too?"

"Then I'm open to suggestions!"

"I have one last question," Gus raised his hand. "Who's that?"

He pointed over to one Luz in the corner, tied to a chair and looking very pouty.

"Oh, that's Evil Luz," Luz Prime simply said.

"I'm not evil!" Evil Luz protested, "Seriously, Golden Luz is raised by Emperor Belos! How is she not Evil Luz?!"

"Hey, Uncle Belos isn't evil!" Golden Luz defended, "Sure, he has a few sour spots, may or may not have abused Hunter, petrifies witches who don't join covens, kills palismans--Oh, my Titan, is Uncle Belos evil?"

"Yes!" everyone in the room responded.

"But the reason why Evil Luz is Evil Luz is simple," Luz told her friends, "You see, she comes from a universe where almost everything is the same except that it's a universe without Amity. Which is horrifying to think about. And when we told her all about you, guess what she said."

"All I said was that I didn't see the appeal!" Evil Luz exclaimed, "How does that make me evil?"

"It makes you a monster is what it does!" Swap Luz yelled at her. "How can you not see the appeal of someone so pure of heart?!"

"Again, that's your Amity," Hipster Luz pointed out. "Ours is actually a lot less pure. Especially mine."

"I don't know. Mine's a little nice, actually," said Dark Luz. "I even drew art of us as best friends the first day we met because she was nice to me."

"Look, I just don't understand it, alright?" Evil Luz spoke again, "I mean, don't get me wrong, looking at her, she's cute. But I don't know how Amity can be the irresistible goddess that most of you call her as."

"Because we have hearts, and you don't, you evil scourge!" Luz Prime yelled.

"I'm not evil!"

"What I still don't understand is how did all these...yous came here, Luz?" Willow questioned her best friend.

"You know as much as I do, to be honest," Luz Prime shrugged. "I was just about ready to head to school when, suddenly, all these versions of me started to appear out of nowhere inside the living room."

"If I had to wager a guess," said La Arácnida, "I'd say someone in the multiverse messed up really bad and caused a convergence of people from different worlds to show up at the same place in the same time."

"...But why is it all versions of you?" Willow asked, "And why was it all in this universe?"

"That's why I called it a guess, not an answer. I honestly have no idea."

"So...what now, then."

"Well, we figured we'd all hang out until one of us figure out a way to get all the Luzs back to their universes," Luz Prime said, "Seems to be going great so far. Eda's definitely into it."

"The more kids, the merrier, if you ask me," Eda said, bringing in a tray of drinks. "Who's thirsty?"

"I am!" responded all the Luzs.

"Can I have a straw for mine?" Evil Luz asked. "I'm kind of tied up at the moment, pun not intended.

"Of course," said Dark Luz, "Because, unlike you, we're not evil."

"I'M NOT EVIL!"

"Sure you're not."

#the owl house #luz noceda #amity blight #willow park #king clawthorne #toh #eda clawthorne #beta lumity #pilot luz #swap luz #witches among humans #spider luz #toh tagteam au #lumity #the hiatus of drabbles

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flightless-rising · 3 years ago

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Made a new Flight Rising iceberg and also wrote an explanation.. man, this took way longer than it should have.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy :D

Iceberg explanation

( If there are any mistakes please let me know and I’ll edit this asap. Also, English isn't my first language so please forgive me for any grammatical errors)

EDIT 28/06: Added some new info! Thanks to everyone who tagged and responded with new stuff to add, I really appreciate it!

The Sky

Naomi

Back in the day, whenever you bought or sold something on the auction house a message would show up in your inbox confirming the transaction. These messages were sent by one of the dragon couriers: Pearl, Spitfire or Edgar.

On January 2016, a strange glitch occurred that replaced the images and names of couriers with the ones of a female fae named “Naomi”.

It goes deeper than that, though: if you looked up her name in the user search menu, a clan would pop up with over 15 million dragons.

It was quickly discovered that all exalted dragons had somehow become part of her clan. Naomi herself apparently didn’t exist, and clicking on her page redirected to an error page. This was later fixed and the original Naomi page can be now visited.

What exactly caused this glitch is still a mystery and today Naomi is still a well-known piece of Flight Rising history.

Missing Tidelord

In the official lore, the deity of the water flight disappeared in early 2018, as described in the short story “Hear Today, Gone Tomorrow”.

In the follow up story (Mixed Elements) posted in April of the next year it is confirmed that the Tidelord is still missing, but alive. This coincides with the fact that the Tidelord account hasn’t made any forum posts aside from festival announcements.

Emperors

Emperors are a type of unobtainable dragon that are formed when several Imperial corpses are left in close proximity to each other, which then fuse forming a multi-headed chimera.

Emperors are described in the lore as having an animal-like behavior and destroying everything in sight. They are extremely difficult to kill, which is the reason why in-universe Imperials have such strange burial rites.

An emperor named Luminax is first described in the Raising a Family short story, and their sprite can be seen walking around on the world map.

The Surface

Old color wheel

Originally, there were only 67 available colors for dragons. On June 8th 2016, 110 more colors were added, meaning that currently there are a total of 177 colors available.

When making a custom progenitor dragon, it is only possible to choose among the 67 original colors because it would be otherwise unfair for those who made their account before the new colors were added.

Imperial breed scrolls

Imperial breed change scrolls are one of, if not the most, rare type of item on the site. They were given only to those who pledged 30 dollars or more on the original Flight Rising kickstarter.

At the time, this was the only way of obtaining an Imperial dragon, which meant that the breed as a whole was pretty valuable. Now that Imperials are abundant this is no longer the case, but First generation Imperials are still extremely sought and probably the most expensive type of dragon on the site.

There were also other items that were only given to Kickstarted backers, namely Skycats, Bonefiend, Golden Idol and Cogfrog familiars, and those are also pretty much impossible to obtain.

Baldwin breed change

When Baldwin was introduced in 2015 he was originally a Pearlcatcher. On September 14th of 2016 however his site art started to gradually change, until his transformation was completed five days later.

In-universe, Baldwin started to change after a lightning strike hit his cauldron during an experiment, which made him slowly mutate into the breed we now know as Bogsneaks.

Trans Fiona

When Fiona was added as a trading post dragon people speculated that she was trans, because the female pose for Skydancers only displays two antennae, while the male one has four.

Since Fiona has four antennae in her site art, many wondered whether it was an oversight or actually intended. Aequorin later confirmed in a forum thread that Fiona is indeed trans.

Boolean

Speaking of rare items, the Boolean familiar was only given to a handful of Flight rising beta testers and as such is extremely rare and valuable.

Plaguebringer coli team

On the Plaguebringer’s page she is listed as being part of a coliseum team.

As of now we have no clue as to why this is, and even more strangely she is the only deity that does this.

Boston & Hope

This story is a bit complicated. I’ve scoured the forums in search of info but it seems like there are still some pieces missing. I’ll try my best to explain anyway.

So, for a long while the Lightweaver was the only deity that had other dragons aside from herself in her lair: these dragons were a Spiral named Boston and a Tundra named Hope. Strangely, they were both Earth dragons and apparently have been there since the beginning (?). When asked why (this happened back when deities would interact on the forums) the Lightweaver responded that they were having a dinner party together.

In August 2014 during a pretty heated dominance battle between Shadow and Light Boston and Hope disappeared from the Lightweaver’s lair.

The Shadowbinder now had them, and both their elements were alsochanged to Shadow. The two deities acknowledged this and changed their broadcast messages accordingly.

If I had to guess this was some kind of inside joke that the admins had, although some people got angry that the Shadowbinder now had both Hope and Boston. Some time later(?) Boston was returned to the Lightweaver and for some reason his element was changed to wind.

I don’t have any more info on the matter but if some of you do I would appreciate it if you tell me.

Shallow Waters

Eyepocalypse

On June 8th 2018 eye type variants were introduced. This update was pretty controversial for a bunch of reasons, and the topic is still discussed today. The majority of people(?) seemed to be upset by the fact the “best” eye types (primarily goat, primal and multi-gaze) could only be displayed on dragons that were born with them, and the fact that every dragon born prior to the update couldn’t have these eye types at all displeased a lot of users.

Another problem was the fact that most of the non-special eye types (i.e the only ones that could be applied to already existing dragons using a vial of Scattersight) were not clearly visible on the grand majority of adult dragons.

A smaller(?) complaint was that two of the primal eye types, Shadow and Plague, were seen as kind of disturbing by some people.

Three years later staff attempted to fix this issue by adding Eye type vials for every available eye type. This resulted in a market crash for special eye typed dragons, as now these eye types could be applied to any dragon. The value of Scattersights also tanked, and the people bought them and hadn’t used them yet lost money as now they were infinitely less useful.

EDIT 28/06: Goat isn’t actually obtainable via breeding, faceted is. Bad mistake on my part.

Also, Scattersights were given away freely by Galore on Flight Rising’s fifth anniversary in 2018 and could not be bought afterwards. I admit that I thought people could be able to buy Scattersights due to how upset people were that the value went down, but whatever.

Courier Breed

The courier dragons (Edgar, Spitfire, and Pearl) are part of an exclusive dragon breed that is currently unobtainable. Even though their eye color still reflects the flight they were born in, in-universe they are considered to be “neutral” and they are granted free access to all domains. This raises the question as to which deity created them, as every other dragon breed (Bogsneaks being the only exception) has been created by one of The Eleven.

Multiaccounting

According to the site’s terms of service, no one is allowed to have more than one account. This is pretty standard for pet sites, as having multiple accounts grants unfair advantages and can mess up the site economy. This doesn’t completely stop people for having more than one account, and the practice as a whole is called “Multiaccounting” or “having multis”.

Some people only do this to have multiple clans or reboot their account without deleting their old one. They mostly do no harm but it is reasonable that the site wouldn’t allow this because of how easy it is exploit.

The real harm of multis comes from a practice called “funneling” which is when someone creates multiple accounts only for the purpose of giving items to their main account. This practice violates the game’s rules and can result in a ban. Funneling is not limited to multiaccounting though, and having an account only to feed another is against the site’s rules whether or not the account in question belongs to another person or not.

Some people fear of being banned for multiaccounting even if they haven’t done so, especially if they share a computer with other people.

Purble

“he purble” is probably among the most famous Flight Rising memes.

In 2016(?) a rant was submitted to the original Dramarising blog by a very angry user that wanted to buy an XXX Purple Ridgeback back when triples were pretty expensive, but got beat by someone else.

I’m not going to copy paste it here because in my opinion it’s one of the funniest Flight Rising related posts ever and I don’t want to spoil the experience of reading it for the first time. You can find it pretty easily by searching it up.

Tert Picking

This is something that refaced recently, even though I’ve seen people talking about this for a while. Some people vividly remember being able to pick their custom progenitor’s tertiary color, even though the developers have made it clear that such thing would be impossible. This is without a doubt just one of those weird situations where a lot of people somehow remember the same thing wrong.

Still, it’s fascinating just how many people claim to remember doing picking their tert.

Swiftwings

Swiftwings were a dragon breed that was scrapped in development. The design was rejected because it didn’t fit the 2 arms 2 legs 2 wings format that every dragon design had to follow before the introduction of ancient breeds.

The reason for this rule is that otherwise it would mess up apparel placement. Although the concept was scrapped, echoes of the design were scattered throughout the site: for example, the empty dragon slots that were present prior to 2019 had the silhouette of a Swiftwings dragon. They are also mentioned in the April Fool’s update of 2018.

“Real” Lore dragons

Most people don’t know that some of the dragons featured on the lore stories are actually real, and you can visit their pages. This is the case for Tetra, Cracklinne, Velya, Liefa, Garote and Mirth, which are currently chilling in Aequorin’s lair.

All of the other dragons in the developers’ lairs are not canon and are used to test bugs and features on the site.

The Middle ground

True deity names

When the site first started the deities used to have actual names instead of titles. Some of these names were based off of the site founders’s usernames on other sites.

The names are the following:

Amogayvhi - Gladekeeper Xhaztol - Arcanist Rhenik - Tidelord Akiri - Flamecaller Thrage - Stormcatcher Undel - Shadowbinder Jhortanas - Plaguebringer Ghurab - Windsinger Artaios - Earthshaker Rhiow – Lightweaver

As you can tell, Xhaztol, Akiri, Thrage and Undel are the usernames of some of the admins of the site, and the flight they are a part of corresponds with the previous name of their deity.

No leg coatls

On January 16, 2015 an iconic thread was posted in the flight rising discussion forum, which displayed a photoshopped image of a coatl with its legs removed. Quickly the thread devolved into a general photoshop thread were people took official site art of dragons and modified it.

The thread was eventually locked due to spam and quote pyramids, but spiritual successors of the original “phoatlshop” thread still exist today.

Dress slot unlocking

A thing that a surprising amount of people don’t know is the fact that when buy an additional apparel slot, the slot opens for every dragon in your lair and not just the one you bought it on.

This is something I also discovered very recently and it’s kind of funny that so many people that have been on the site for very long don’t know this.

Clanbound scatterscrolls

I think the wiki explains it best, so I’ll just copy paste this here:

“Tri-Color Scatterscrolls suffered from an issue where they would only scatter a random range from colors 1-47 (white through sunshine) rather than 1-67 (white through rose). They have been fixed and are now functioning correctly with a random range within the 67 color set. The affected timeframe was from August 15th, 2013 until September 22nd, 2013. The admins allowed users who were unsatisfied with their bugged Tri-Color Scatterscrolls to receive the same amount of them back in the form of Clanbound Scatterscrolls to try scattering their own dragons again with the full color range.”

Beta Mirrors

Ever wondered why they’re called Mirrors?

According to Undel, the main artist of Flight Rising, mirrors originally were supposed to have every part of their body “mirrored”, meaning they had two sets of eyes, two pairs of wings, two tails, and so on.

This design ended up being too cluttered and looked weird shrunken down. The name was kept the same, even though the only mirrored part of the design are the eyes.

Dragons are evil

If you read the “Beastclans on the rise” lore bit, the dragons come across as… very evil, stealing territory from the beastclans when they have been living on Sornieth way longer than the dragons have and killing them for loot.

Furthermore, in the Bounty of the Elements lore bit the Beastclan rebellion guided by Talona is seen by the dragons as unreasonable and wrong even when in canon Beastclans are framed as the innocent party.

The Depths

Scroll of Divorce

In the alpha stage dragons were supposed to be monogamous and could only breed with the dragon they were “paired” with. To break their bond you had to use an item called “Scroll of Divorce” which even featured broken marriage rings in the art.

If I had to guess, this item and the concept as a whole were scrapped because the idea of dragons having “weddings” and needing to divorce before breeding with another dragon felt kind of weird, especially in a game targeted towards teens.

First Festival

The first Holiday festival in Flight rising history was the 2013 Brightshine Jubilee. The items that were available for this festival only are incredibly rare, particularily the Light Sprite which is one of the most valuable items on the site. Apart from that and the fact that the skincent contest only had 6 winners, not much is notable about it.

Offsite drama

Flight Rising has had its fair share of drama both on and off site, but due to the fact that it’s against the site’s rule to discuss user drama on the forums most of the notable drama happened off site (mainly tumblr).

Egg rot

Egg rot was a very early mechanic that was pretty quickly removed from the site. If you forgot to incubate your eggs, they would “rot” and no longer hatch.

It’s the reason why in the nesting grounds the text reads “Eggs healthy” and also the reason why on the stats section of the Account settings it says “Eggs discarded”. The mechanic was removed because it heavily punished casual players and the frequent downtimes of the site meant that even if someone logged in every day they could still have their eggs die.

Also, the images of egg rot look extremely cursed.

Pablo

From what I could gather, Pablo is a dragon which became somewhat popular after user “Desmondtiny” wrote a very long and detailed backstory of them being the Arcanist’s lost boyfriend.

I’m pretty sure it gues deeper than that but I couldn’t find any further information. As usual, if you know something more let me know.

Latest News

On November 12, 2014, a glitch(?) occurred that let anyone post in the Announcements thread. Anything that was posted went directly to the front page, which resulted in quite a bit of chaos.

This was fixed only half an hour later, but the screenshots people have from that time are extremely funny.

Lameforger

On the 2014 Flameforger’s festival announcement Undel accidentally misspelled “Flameforger” as “Lameforger”, which prompted the official account of the Flamecaller to respond aggressively. Lameforger is still jokingly used by users, even after the typo was fixed.

Festival of one (1)

On the first day of the 2014 Greenskeeper Gathering a glitch occurred which switched the site banner for the Starfall celebration banner instead of the Greenskeeper one.

It didn’t end there, in the coliseum Magical shards dropped instead of Bladed Flatleaves, even though skin chests dropped as normal(?).

The weirdest thing about it all was Joxar’s Space inventory, which didn’t display any items at all and had glitched dialogue.

The event was nicknamed by the fanbase “Festival of 1” and even the deity’s official accounts acknowledged the incident.

Vape Juice

As far as I know the original forum thread as been lost, but the vape juice fiasco will always remain cemented in Flight Rising History.

A company called Vape Daugz was making vape juice with Flight Rising dragons plastered on their packaging, completely violating the site’s policy.

The company’s site still exists, and browsing through their products I found that the products that previously had Flight Rising dragons on them still exist, but now feature completely different packaging.

I have no idea whether they changed the packaging spontaneously or staff did something about it.

I think there’s a potentially interesting story buried down there, but we’ll likely never the truth behind the Flight Rising vape juice.

The Abyss

Humans

There’s been some speculation over the years as to whether or not humans are canon in the Flight Rising universe. Some people believe that the “Mages” of the second age in the official lore are actually humans, but we can’t be sure because they are depicted with long robes that cover their whole bodies.

The idea of humans existing in canon has spawned a couple of memes, most infamously Thomas.

Plague healers

Again, I think the wiki explains this one better:

“According to Aequorin, Plague healers are an interesting bunch because rather than administer treatments that counter illness, they use a mixture of magic and contagion that stress the affected dragon further, allowing them to reach a stronger, healed, and resistant state faster than other elements. Plague healers will treat physical injuries with sutures, bandages, and braces, but they won't clean the wounds or apply ointments."

Akitla

As described in the original thread, Akitla was a dragon that user “qunii” saw on the front page, but noticed that she wasn’t accompanied by the username of the person owning them.

After clicking on her, an error page loaded. It was discovered that putting her color combination or ID in the search bar would result in an error page. This was later fixed, and both Akitla and her mate were now displayed as being exalted to the Arcanist. T

here are some theories as to what happened to the Akitla’s user, some think that she belonged to a deleted account, others that it was the result of an incomplete account creation.

As with a lot of things on this iceberg, it will likely remain a mystery forever.

Arcane sprite book

“what is the arcane sprite reading??” is probably one of the oldest still active threads on the forums.

On September 25, 2013 user “Kaadashi” started a joke thread were they wondered what exactly is the arcane sprite reading, and playfully suggested that it could be erotic fanfiction. People went crazy of course, and started to wonder what kind of juicy secrets were hidden within the pages of that book.

I don’t want to say too much because I really don’t want to spoil the experience of reading through this very cursed tread.

Sunshine

Sunshine is one of the most… interesting lairs on the site, and certainly one of the most well-known.

They(?) have a lair (almost) completely full of triple basic sunshine dragons, most of which are Tundras. So far they have collected about 320 triple hundred Sunshine dragons, almost all of which are also named “Sunshine”. They’re not all the same, some of them have apparel, some of them are gened and some have unique art and descriptions.

They’re dedicated and I respect that.

EDIT 28/06: Apparently some people seem to think that the sunshine-dedicated lair is based on a meme concerning the announcement of the color wheel expansion, which became so discussed that the itself site broke. The two things are unrelated however, as the Sunshine lair has been around for much longer.

The announcement of the color wheel expansion was cryptic, with only a few post showing off differently colored coatls and then 3 pages of reserved posts, with no explanation whatsoever.

Simple Farmer

Another very famous thread is the “I am but a simple farmer” thread started by user “someKindOfGenius”. It’s not really about anything specific, it’s just a rather silly thread were people photoshop flight rising dragons onto various crops.

Still, this thread is iconic so I had to include it.

Dragon Deaths

Way back in 2014 former flight rising programmer Thrage revealed on a forum thread that way back before the beta, dragons could actually starve to death if left unfed.

Yep.

Obviously they had to remove this mechanic because it would have been extremely harsh to casual players and make people frustrated with the game.

Zalvador

User “manojalpa” became fairly well-known for the extremely dark lore they(?) had written for their Clan, it was so dark in fact that every single one of their dragon’s bios had to moved to their tumblr where they couldn’t be easily seen by the site’s mainly underage usebase.

Their lore centered around their progen dragon, a tundra named Zalvador, which behaved and had the same powers as a flight rising user: buying dragons off of the action house, having “breeding projects”, exalting dragons, etc.

These things seem pretty normal when done by a player, but when taking them as actual real things that happen in universe… yeah, it was way too morbid for the site.

The Pit

Black linen neck wraps

For some weird reason, the apparel piece “Black linen neck wrap” when put on a male pose Coatl wraps around the dragon’s throat instead of it’s neck. It’s kind of subtle and hard to see, but if you compare it with the female pose the difference is clear. This is probably just an art error, although it’s weird that it hasn’t been fixed yet, since linen wraps are a very old piece of apparel.

Another weird thing about linen wraps in general is that the wing wraps just sort of… go through the membrane? This is not possible. These dragons are in pain.

Icewarden ears

Another very remarkably popular thread is the Icewarden ears thread.

In 2014 user “Llanai” simply makes note of the fact that the Icewarden has teeny tiny ears.

As we have come to expect from these threads, it quickly devolved into nonsense.

Forbidden Snapper lore

Snappers used to have a way different lore section that was changed because it deemed too similar to the lore of another petsite.

This is what the original section read:

"Snapper dragons do not sleep, but exist in a constant state of reverie. They receive and catalogue all experiences and stories told within their dreams. This persistent state of awakened dreaming awards them the longest memory of any dragon species. They are living encyclopedias, and any dragon who is seeking difficult-to-obtain information will have the most luck unearthing it from a Snapper clan - provided they have the patience for it. If you want two dozen quick answers, talk to a spiral. If you want a fully developed answer, camp out around a Snapper. These dreamers move at their own pace, which varies from dragon to dragon. For some, the awakened dream can prove to be more interesting than their surroundings. This leads to a focus upon the dream, and the waking world as filtered background noise. Interacting with these sleepwalkers can be a trying and repetitive task. Other Snappers may be fairly lucid, with a focus upon their surroundings and the constant hum of the dream pushed aside."

Bee movie script

I’ve seen this story around the forums a few times but I’ve never been able to learn the details.

From what I’ve heard someone copy pasted the entire bee movie script into their clan bio in a drop down text format, which completely broke the page for anyone who visited it. This was fixed, apparently, although I have no clue as to who this user is.

EDIT 28/06: Zeus

Zeus is an XXX gold g1 permababy imperial that used to belong to user "happywing".

Their account is now locked because Zeus was created with the use of a duplication glitch on an imperial breed change scroll, which is obviously not allowed (although I've heard some people say that the dragon was hacked in altogether). Before the account was locked, people speculated that Zeus was the most valuable dragon on the site, because an XXX g1 imperial is impossibly rare.

Wegg shaming

On July 2017 user “Dreamnorn” made a thread were they(?) claimed to have a dream where everything was the same except people used the term “wegged” when two dragons would lay only one egg in a nest.

Ex. Aw man! I’ve been wegged again! = Aw man! I bred two dragons and they only had one egg!

The dream ended up being prophetic, as the term catched on and people started to use it unironically.

The practice of “Wegg shaming” I think refers to the trend of people posting pictures of the dragons that “wegged” them in order to “shame” them.

Plague nest skull

The site art of the plague nest features an unique dragon skull that doesn’t match with any currently existing dragon breed or creature: It appears to have two sets of eyes, like a mirror, but also long and curled horns.

It’s probably just for decoration and it likely doesn’t have any significance whatsoever, but personally I believe it would be pretty cool if when they eventually release plague ancient it at least somewhat resembled this skull.

EDIT 28/06: On second thought, the skull doesn’t seem to have two pairs of eyes, It just has the generic shape of a carnivore.

Rock bottom

CAPTAINPLANET

…this is CAPTAINPLANET. Somehow, user “Decres”' managed to overlay a Fae skin on top of a Tundra, creating this horrifyingly fascinating abomination.

I have no idea how she did this, and she seems pretty adamant to tell.

EDIT 28/06: People have pointed out that this skin overlay glitch was actually somewhat common (although I still haven't found another dragon like CAPTAINPLANET). What you had to do was breed change a dragon while attaching a skin to them in another tab.

This glitch has been patched and such thing is no longer possible.

Lair 46264

A cursed lair.

Dreams

I’ve seen a lot of people, both on forums and on Tumblr, sharing dreams they had about Flight Rising.

A lot of people dream of just being on the site, while occasionally weird things happen.

I’ve read of people who dreamed the distribution of a new breed, buying an exclusive item, a new Fiona feat or Swipp trade, or just browsing the forums.

The most common type of Flight rising-associated dream I’ve seen however is being caught multiaccounting and having their account banned.

I’m no psychoanalyst, but I think it’s pretty clear that these nightmares stem from the paranoia of being banned from their beloved petsite instead of showing any actual intention of doing the “crime” in question.

Anyways, I think it’s fascinating how so many people dream about this site, and it reminds me of the dreams people claimed to have about Mario 64 where completely new levels were added or a scary monster appeared.

Dragon Slime

Dragon Slime was an infamous thread which was supposed to be start off point for an ARG.

It was deleted because it was considered too “spammy” and also because ARGs are banned from the forums. The thread has been lost, unfortunately.

EDIT 28/06: Thanks to @randompurple-fr for providing screenshots of the dragon slime tutorial! You can find them here

Cucumber

Cucumber is the only dragon ever to have been exalted with a skin, which is something that should not be possible. This raises some questions as to what exactly did the person that exalted them do to achieve this, but we have no way of knowing who Cucumber belonged to.

EDIT 28/06: Actually, we do know who used to Cucumber belonged to! Its owner was Osiem: an official flight rising artist. I couldn’t find the thread where they(?) acknowledged the glitch though, if someone has it please let me know!

#flight rising #fr #flight rising meme #iceberg meme

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myfriendcallsmeasickwoman19 · 3 years ago

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Not me starting something else when I have another fic I haven't been going attention.

I guess I kinda accidentally made a story put of a scenario I wanted to see. Where a Whumpee willingly takes the drugs and we go through the whole process.

Here's Part 2

@irathgo @luna-rein @smellofsnoww

**********

He felt he had done enough getting to know their new traveling companions, just a bunch of people they met on their way, they would go separate ways soon. He decided to retire to his tent they would continue getting to know each other the next day.

He walked into the tent to find a young man who knelt on one knee infront of him.

"Your highness, prince of life." The young man said head bowed and not making eye contact.

The man was dressed in ordinary clothing so no one knows of that title around here. "Prince of life" was not a title many knew of anywhere near or further. He didn't like the title, being called that sickened him. It seems this young man was sent here and doesn't belong to this land cause such a title was left behind in his past.

"Who are.........." he began to ask, annoyed that he had been found.

"I am the palace herbalist here to retrieve his highness on orders of the reigning emperor." The man answered him before he could finish. The young one was nervous.

He stepped into the tent and lifted the flap leaving enough room for the young man to go through.

"Tell my elder sister you found no one with such standing."

The man looked up at him. He looked unhappy to have to refuse his orders.

"I cannot do that. Prince of life."

He cringed at hearing him say those words again. "I hate that title." He growled at the boy. "Then tell her I refused." He closed the curtain and walked to the boy who had gone down kneeling again.

"She is not taking no for an answer." He said not making eye contact.

Before he could talk back he heard a faint painful cough from the corner. He looked over to see his pupil on the floor, her complexion wasn't healthy and she looked like she was in pain, her eyes were closed and her breathing sounded labored. There were some marks on her arm.

"What is this?" He asked but he didn't need to.

"I think you know what that is." The man replied his voice a little low. He wasn't proud of this either. But at this point the prince was too angry and worried to care about him.

It was true he knew what it was. The reason he was called the prince of life wasn't because he was a saviour but rather because he was a skilled toxicologist.

He didn't like that life, so he became a traveler and healer instead. His student was a woman he met while traveling, she became a close friend, the last thing he wanted was to lose her.

"Am sorry your highness but the emperor has grown tired of your evasion and told me to bring you at any cost." The young man had been watching the prince for a long time and been told of how sly he was and gated he had to come to this conclusion.

The prince didn't pay him much attention just looking down at his student. She probably had some minutes before this was irreversible.

"Elenore needs me that badly." The prince said feeling his anger grow. Why must Bertha be involved?

"There isn't much time I will give your pupil the antidote if you do as I say, your highness."

There really isn't that much time, he's right. The antidote was hard to come by and he didn't have time to find it.

He stood up and turned to the man. Ready to do anything for someone who knew nothing his status of title, or sins.

"Fine. What do you want me to do?"

The boy evaded meeting his gaze. He paid no attention to that. He began to move through his pockets and pulled out a tiny bottle, with a clear liquid in it.

"Firstly take this." The boy said handing it over to him.

He raised his eyebrow a little hesitant of the thing in his hand.

"It's only a precautionary measure." The boy Explained

"Alright." He took the bottle and drank it's content in one go. The he gave it back to the boy. With that the boy gave Bertha the antidote and laid her down on the bed. It should start working soon.

"Please let me say my goodby and see her get better first." The prince turned to the boy, pleading, desperation easy to trace in his voice.

"As you wish." The boy felt ashamed and embarrassed.

The prince sat next to Bertha she was getting better it will take a while for her to fully recover but he just needed to know she was out of danger.

After some time the marks disappeared, he breathed easily now. That's all he needed.

Now he just had to say goodbye. Before he couldn't.

He was growing tired very slightly his accelerated heartbeat before made it spread but even it was relaxing.

He stood from his student to his writing table. He was dizzy a bit but shook it off then began to write his farewell letter.

**********

After some time he was done. It shouldn't have taken him so long to write a letter but he began to feel fainter with each passing moment. He tried hard to shake himself awake and hold on to consciousness. Just to write something short and simple. It began to get harder to get his thoughts in order but he was done now. All that's left is to give it to her.

He stood up swaying and nearly falling but the boy caught him, he forgot about him.

"Be careful I'll help you from now on." The boy said holding him up. He didn't say anything and just nodded and let him lead him to her bedside. She still hadn't woken up.

He placed the letter by her pillow. Then raised himself to a world that was spinning violently. He fell backwards but the boy caught him again. He tried to look at him but his image couldn't form instead everything twisted into unfamiliarity. His eyes grew heavy and were hard to keep open.

"Hate this." The prince said his words slurring slightly. He couldn't focus on the boy or anything. It became hard to focus on his thoughts as well, as the broke away before he could complete even something simple.

What was the boy saying?................. Oh it's time to go .................. To?' he couldn't remember nor speak his tongue grew too heavy. He just nodded slightly.

He was quite thankful that the boy could hold him up his legs growing harder to use as the boy led him out the tent.

***********

The boy noticed the drug working on the prince. Catching him as he nearly fell and leading him to his student and then catching him again.

The prince was growing less aware of things. Barely able to focus or Keep his eyes open. The blue hue in them growing dull.

"Let's go your highness." The boy said to the prince it took the prince some seconds to answer, his half closed eyes trying to find the boy, when he did, he nodded slightly in approval.

The boy placed the prince's arm over his shoulder and began to lead him out of the tent. The prince began to lean on his body more and more as his legs grew weaker.

After a while he couldn't hold his head up and looked down at the ground looking at nothing.

When his legs gave out even more the boy handed him over to another man from the group he travelled with. Their meeting wasn't a coincidence. But the prince's mind wasn't alert enough to notice.

The man took the prince, carried him in his arms and led him to the carriage. The prince eyes gave out slowly like a dying flame. He struggled to keep them open trying was futile and it showed.

Then the closed and his head fell to the side, his body falling limp in the man's arms.

The man laid him in a carriage. Setting him inside with the boy and him. The prince was fully unconscious, his body limp as the man placed his head on his lap.

'Your hair really is like flowing moonlight.' The boy thought looking at the prince's long white hair. People called him the angel of death because of it.

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originalwinnercheesecake · 3 years ago

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First Impressions and predictions based on the coven Leaders

After a full first season their fame adorning the banners and walls, who they are being hailed, yet they themselves being kept in the shadows we now get first looks (and throughout 2a will meet) the emperors top dogs: The coven leaders. I will not lie as a group... these guys dissappoint me. Making the majority of them very human in appearance for me is a big no. Compare this group to the many colorful and fantastical creatures that are shown teaching at hexside and the hexside teachers are far more creative, unique, and fun. Maybe the artists decided to make the coven leaders look more like normal people so the audience would have an easier time understanding their expressions and body language. Maybe the more humanoid whitches are a higher class and have a easier time climbing higher than the more beast and demon like residence.? We will have to wait and see.

Seperate this group into individuals (like how we will hopefully meet them) and most of them become far more interesting, So below lets take a look at each coven leader individually, where the artists may have taken inspriation, and what What kind of characters they could maybe turn out to be.

The Beast keeping coven Leader: One of the only two that are not humanoids. What type of animal is he? At first I was sure he was a hedgehog, but maybe he could also be like a chipmunk or a squirrel. I get the feeling he might be partially inspired by Sonic from Sega. I was really into Sonic back in middle school. I liked the cartoons and read through the archie’s old comic series. But I kinda out grew him since then. I know from helping to take care of kids though that he is still popular with the younger generation. That’s kinda how I thin the Beast Keeping Coven leader will be: less interesting for older viewers, but a real fun charcter for kids.

The Healing coven leader: Now this guy looks like fun villain all around. Is some kind of witch docotor? a Dark Priest? The size the purple Grin, he looks like the phantom boss from those horror films where you get trapped in nightmares. Tell me he has scary theme song music and talks in a very high pitched voice. I’ve heard some people wonder if he could be Selena (oracle girl from hexside)’s dad. I don’t thinks so, the macaroni crescent shape n his head looks more like a fancy cowl than part of his actual head. Also him having a daughter in Luz’s class could be used as a reason for him to change sides, I want this guy to stay as a villian/antagonist. We all know that with this size group some will stay with the emperor and some will defect to Luz’s side (possibility a couple will die, we haven’t seen yet just how dark Dana is willing to go). Personally my view with redemption arcs and if a character “deserves them” is it depends on what it will do for the story/character afterwards? IF redeeming them opens more doors for the characters and directions the story can take, do it. IF it closes doors leave them as they are. I absolutely hate when clever and well written bad guys get “redeemed” in to boring, plot useless, weebs. The only reason I could see having this guy change sides is for him to “cure” Eda and Lilith’s curse, and I would much rather see the two of them gain control over their forms than be “cured” of them.

The Illusion coven leader: Another fun looking antagonist. My third favorite of these nine. If the healer guy is horror movie based. This guy is Disney based all around. Looks like one of those Vegas suave showmen styled character. Love it. I guarantee you he does not actually look that young or slicked back, but is using illusion magic to make himself more pretty. Not sure if he will stay with the emperor or not. Illusion is Gus’s track and I could see Dana having the leaders of Luz’s friends tracks be the ones to stand by them. If so I am fine with that (in the case of the abomination leader I will beg for it). Gaining the respect of someone as high up as a coven leader could be really great for Gus’s character. Just as long as I get plenty of laughs from Gus and this guy both along the way.

The Potion coven leader: My second favorite and in my opinion the most creative idea of the whole bunch. A mosquito that works in potions! Does he suck them up with his nose and carry them in.. whatever it is mosquitos store blood in. Also he looks angry. Like everyone else is either amused or board. This guy is fed up and ready to do something about it. Not sure if it is the Emperor, the other leaders, or the owl gang he is mad at, but it should be a worthwhile show down.

The Abomination coven leader: Yes this is my favorite design. Yes it is because he is such a beautiful man. Would never have expected someone who creates mucks (the pokemon) with legs would be so fine. Its more than that though. He looks the most kind. Their is no malice or guise in his smile and his green eyes are bright and relaxed. I wondered what the purpose of the Abomination track was and why it had “more opportunity” all last season. Well slight spoilers if you haven’t seen episode 2x02 it is the industrialist field. When you learn about Industrialization usually the idea is that it is done to help the human race reach its full potential, and it is up to each individual to decide what to do with that potential. Whether you call that the passion of a creative mind or the carelessness of a fool would also be up to you. But I really don’t want this guy to be all bad. If for no other reason that more spoilers for episode 2 * with the interest/caution the emperor is showing the blights I expect this guy to show up to their house, probably meet Amity, and we really do not need another not so nice adult in her life. She has had enough.

The Oracle coven leader: What is this? He’s got nails/caws at the ends of dread thingys like Kikimore, so is this her father? Does he have anything to do with her being in the Emporor’s coven? But this is my least favorite. Like what was the inspiration behind this guy? With so many legendary oracles in mythology and we get this guy who mostly looks saggy, washed out, tierd, and just Blah. Hope thier is more to him, but here is one who I am not holding my breath for an episode on.

The Plant coven leader: based on her banner I was expecting something like the Swamp Giant from ALTA. Instead they went in the direction of a very traditional witch desgine: An old women with a wrinkled face and really messy hair, who probably lives alone in the woods, with maybe the exception of a cat, and dances around a fire at night. Okay. She is definitely going to become an ally of the owl gang. This is the only female of the group,and it is neither in Dana’s message nor would it be popular with her target audience to make a villain or even an antagonist out of a women who managed to climb the later into a male dominated success level. I am actually looking forward to seeing her, because it will probably be in a Willow based episode, and after 2x02 (which I personally feel should not have been a luminaty episode but rather a Willow and Amity one finishing up their reconciliation arc), Willow deserves an episode with potential centered around her. An episode where she goes against the Plant track Leader would be that. This witches Grin isn’t exactly friendly, but its more mischievous than wicked. She gives off vibes as one of those people who like to test the mains, and if you pass her tests than you earn her respect. I have no doubt Willow could win at her little games, and doing so would be a huge boost the confidence she has spent the show building.

The Construction coven leader: Oh joy here’s the other one I am unimpressed with. Unlike with the Oracle guy I know where they got his design. To everyone saying that we first saw him at the convention, your not backing far enough up. If you have ever seen any cartoon ever where the main character wanders past or onto a construction sight you have seen this man. Every trio of workers sitting on a iron frame eating from a lunchbox. Every pig that makes a catcall at a disgusted women. Every exhausted worker who watches as your slapstick mains chase each other past at quitting time... they all looked EXACTLY like this guy. This is really the character leading the track Dana herself has said she would pick to join? They could have done a Golem made of brick an stone that resembles a palace. They could have done some kind of humanoid ant with super strength. They could have done a wizard with shapes and mathematics on his robe who carried a scroll everywhere that he compulsively scribbled blueprints onto. But instead we get Mr. Generic here.

The Bard coven Leader: This is R, Eda’s old friend from her hexside days. Did I save R for last because of this connection? Partially. I am also unsure what R’s pronouns are. To me R looks physically male. I have seen other posters use “she” when posting about R. One person posted that Dana had confirmed R uses “they” and if so awesome, I would really like to see that tweet. What ever R’s pronouns though their appearance in the show will be tied with Eda, er past, and what she had to give up in order to live free. I look forward to this new insight onto her character

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juminly · 4 years ago

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Invisible String (Napoleon Bonaparte x Reader)

Prompt #4 and #77 by @missmorosis: “Marry me. Now.” and “I can’t say her name without smiling!”

Tags: Fluff + Mutual Pining. PS: Everything in Italic is spoken in French. –♥–

As the song “Sacré Charlemagne” rang loudly in the air, you were whisked into a jolly circle with the children in the little school that Napoleon and Isaac created by the fountain, which you always seemed to forget the name. You absolutely hated using the term “poor children” as everyone referred to them so you made an effort to learn and memorize each one of their names, even if it earned you a few devilish snickers when you stuttered over a few of their names, fumbling through your misconstructed sentences.

Compared to the children, your grammar and vocabulary was absolutely atrocious and it seemed like the infamous Monsieur de Wahaha found way too much pleasure in it, you could see him biting his bottom lip, muffling his chuckle yet his shoulders gave him away before the rambunctious sound escaped him, racking through his entire body. The few swats that Napoleon had to suffer from you did not deter him from losing himself into a fit of laughter. Your expressions never failed to amuse him, his heart feeling lighter than it had ever been in his chest and the adorable pout on your lips that tempted a little too much.

Just to press his lips against yours, Napoleon would always think. Only for a moment, that’s all he wished for. To simply hold you in his arms, engulf you in his warm embrace, where you would be safe and… loved. Feel your soft plush lips and watch as your face turns to a bright shade of red that roses would envy. His thoughts always found a way to drift to you. The petite nunuche with a kind heart, a bright mind and sass that could rival Mozart’s snark.

While you attempted to decipher the words that you were singing, your botched pronunciation did not help much though, the children jumping around, pulling you forcefully into the merry atmosphere that you had absolutely no qualms to join. Fingers that were even smaller than yours wrapped tightly around your palms, squeezed them as tightly as you felt your heart clench in your chest. Even when you were so far from the place you truly called home, with Napoleon, with these children, you found another meaning to the word. How was it that even when you were in the middle of dancing and having fun, your mind was still flooded with thoughts of him? Finding absolutely any hook just to keep him in your mind, clinging to you with no chance for you to escape from them. Even if you wanted to. Was it because he was near? Was it because you felt his eyes on you? Without even looking, you could feel the intensity of his piercing gaze, thoughtful yet kind, that made your body go through a plentiful of sensations that were too many to count on your fingers. Napoleon didn’t realize that he had paused his lesson, his eyes trained on you, seeing you radiate happiness, the happiness that the little ones shared with you even when they lived in some of the most dire of circumstances. If there is anything that you have learned, it was that the smallest things that made a difference. It is the little things that truly mattered. That is a truth that the former Emperor himself has come to realize after being relieved from the responsibility of leading his country and has tasked himself in aiding those that would be the future of France. “Who taught you that song, Clement?” Napoleon called out to one of the boys that were in your circle, shaking his head incredulously and still laughing for a reason that you had still yet to uncover. You weren’t sure what Napoleon was necessarily asking but it was definitely about the song. That was the only word ‘chanson’ that you recognized in his sentence.

“All of you. Come here and form a circle. I think it’s about time that you all learn about what Charlemagne has truly done and why you should be grateful.” Chuckling to himself, he stood from the spot he was sitting in and walked towards you, leaning down so that you were both eye to eye. You didn’t know why every time he did that, it made your heart flutter, doing a bunch of those weird somersaults that kinda made you want to puke.. But not really, at the same time. Being around Napoleon made you feel a flurry of strange sensations. Thinking about him too. That was a fact. “You do realize that this song depicts how much children hold contempt for Charlemagne for inventing school? Whatever you were singing with them right now beats the whole purpose of what we are trying to do for them.” With an eyebrow cocked, Napoleon folded his arms in front of his chest, waiting for a response from you yet the corner of his lips were clearly strained as he fought back a wide smile. “Wait…” You blinked at him in surprise, clearly unaware of the situation that you were put into due to the language barrier. “I… I promise I had no idea! That was definitely and totally not my intention! Oh my God…” It was a funny situation and you found yourself stuck between a state of slight panic and laughter, both emotions reflecting clearly on your visage. The last thing that you wanted was for Napoleon to be disappointed in you. You held him in such high regards, and he did so to you when it came to you, so you didn’t want to do anything to ruin that. A small laugh escaped him, his large hand reaching to ruffle your hair gently before tucking the stray strands away from your face and behind your ear. A gesture that was so simple yet that was done with so much love. Love that you were completely blind to. “This is why you’re my petite nunuche. Come sit and I’ll explain it all to you, princess.” The sly grin he gave you, one that was more like a wide smile, was much too irresistible, your own smile tracing across your blushing face. As he turned away from you and found his seat before everyone, you noticed something. You knew that look in his eyes. It was one that you knew very well, the passion brimming in them, the heart he put into teaching these childrens and sharing with them everything that he had to give. Nothing was ever too much to ask for with Napoleon. God… you couldn’t stop staring at him and you still hadn’t realized why, assuming it was just because he was a born charismatic leader who was now capturing everyone’s attention as he began a history lesson about the medieval emperor Charlemagne and all he had done for France and for the world. Whenever any discussion happened between you, he always leaned down and looked straight into your eyes, especially since you were quite shorter than him. Even when you stood next to one another, he still did the same. Not only with you but with the kids as well, crouching down so that he was on the same level as them, never making anyone feel as though they were inferior. Never looking down on anyone. He spoke to all, treated all, as his equals. No matter who they were. Your daydreams and musings aside, you tried to focus on Isaac’s voice as he spoke in your ear, recounting to you in English all of the stories that Napoleon was painting before all of your eyes. His mind being a wealth of historical knowledge, he ensnared you with his storytelling, even when you had absolutely no idea what he was saying, needing the help of your dear friend, Isaac Newton, to explain it all to you.

“I have a question, Napoleone!” One of the kids, Patrick, raised his hand excitedly and was basically hopping on his cute little butt, curiosity seemingly eating at the young boy. When Leon gave him a curt nod, Patrick giggled and asked. “Why do you call big sister, nunuche?” “Well, there’s a very simple answer to that question. I call her nunuche because she has absolutely no clue that she has stolen my heart.” He declared with a warm smile, his deep voice reflecting the same. As the conversation took a turn, Isaac clicked his tongue, grumbling something that you didn’t catch under his breath and walked away from the big circle that you had formed in the middle of the small town square. Some of the kids were giggling and others were making gag noises. Whatever Napoleon had said really changed the mood. With your eyebrows furrowed, it was a bit bizarre to see the physicist’s face suddenly turn red. Was he that irritated from the story Napoleon was telling the kids about Charlemagne? Now that Isaac was gone, you were left with no one to translate the ongoing discussion for you. Well, upon Napoleon’s instruction, whenever he was addressing the children directly and couldn’t directly translate to you, Isaac would have to step in for him and help you understand the different French expressions and words, especially the most common ones. But… what were they saying now? You did hear the word Nunuche but they were definitely not talking about you. Were they, though? Still, you didn’t want to leave, even if you were completely lost and oblivious to what was going on. You knew that Napoleon would explain it all to you later. “Does that mean that big sister is a thief?” Jacques asked. “Non, non.” He chuckled, shaking his head and sighing out his next words. “It means that I love her with all my heart.” “Is it like how I love my dog?” The little man inquired again. “I love mushrooms!” The youngest of them all, Carmen, chimed in with her own declaration. “Haha, we can all love different things. Love comes in many ways and we all feel it differently.” “How does it feel for you then, Napoleone?” Lea, who was sitting right by his side, inquired considerately, seemingly scrutinizing every word the Frenchman said. He couldn’t help but smile widely, admiring the smart glint in her eyes, the curiosity in her was nothing but meaningful and quite in place. Eyes that reminded of his beloved. You. “Well…” He pondered for a few seconds, trying to find a simple way of putting his feelings into words. “I can’t say her name without smiling.” And just the thought of it did the same, in that very moment. “And sometimes, I think that I might just walk up to her and simply ask her. “Marry me. Now.”” He admitted, the corner of his eyes crinkling a tiny bit as he announced so. God, now you really wanted to know what they were talking about. To know the reason why Napoleon looked almost… giddy in that calm authoritative way of his. “Oh! Oh! That means you want to also have kids with her!” Jacques, ever the talkative one, stated confidently. “Haha, indeed. That is something I do wish to have with her.” As he turned to look at you, you could see his smile turn wistful, the way his eyes fell upon you held so much longing, a yearning for something that may not ever be fulfilled. “I promise, I’ll tell you about everything we just said.” He reassured you with that exact same smile, masking the fleeting sadness that overcame him by clearing his throat, demanding everyone’s attention and returning back to his storytelling. He would tell you all about that conversation he had with the kids. Maybe not on that day… but what he had to say was for later, or maybe never. Luckily for him, none of the children knew how to speak English or they would have blurted out the confession that Napoleon had yet to make. –♥– A/N: Consider this as a snippet from your matchup story with your Leon. I hope you enjoy this @delicateikemenmemes and yes, the title is a Taylor Swift song reference hehe 💜 And thank you @sweetlittlemouse for beta-ing my insecure ass. Tagging: @nafeary @kisara-16 Please feel free to leave some love in the comments or some feedback!💜 You can also check out my Masterlist !

#ikevamp #ikemen vampire napoleon #ikemen series #ikevam fanfic #napoleon bonaparte

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aforrestofstuff · 4 years ago

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Everyone is saying “Forrest we need ur thoughts on blast uwu we know he gives you the bulgy wulgy owo” and while you’re totally right, nobody is mentioning how ZOMBIEMAN HAS SHOWN PEAK SURROGATE DAD IN THIS CHAPTER.

It begins with Child Emperor doing the thing we’re all guilty of as children: thinking adults are better at doing things than they actually are. He feels bad that he misjudged Silverfang and Genos’ character before the assault and therefore excluded them from the team, but nobody is really assuring him that his concerns were completely valid? It’s not far off to assume that Silverfang would be a liability when fighting Garou due to their past relationship and we all know Genos’ backstory is a mystery to every other character in the story, so what else is the kid supposed to think when he receives news about a mole in the hero association? Of course he’s going to take preemptive measures and immediately exclude the one with the most ambiguous past/motivations: Genos. Was he right? No. But did he have a bunch of good reasons to do what he did? Yes.

If he hadn’t excluded Genos or Silverfang, the operation would’ve been botched anyway. I just don’t like how people are telling this kid “improve, improve, improve” when he didn’t even do anything wrong in the first place. Zombieman still gives sound advice, but it’s not reassuring. As much as I love him he fucking sucks at this shit.

Basically, Zombieman says “it’s okay to make mistakes, we’re all human” which is true, but it’s not all that needs to be said. Child Emperor didn’t make any mistakes, he calculated his decisions in a way he thought would benefit the team overall because he is a good leader. He’s not perfect, but he’s damn well the closest thing in that shithole.

Then the juicy part happens: Homeless Emperor rises from the dead(?)

A lot to say about these two pages:

I was fucking wondering what happened to Homeless Emperor. Zombieman got saved by Pig God and brought to the surface, which is great, but there’s still a dragon-threat fucking cadre on the loose??? We never got confirmation that Homeless Emperor was defeated??? I was scared that Murata was gonna let his death be up to the reader’s interpretation, or just straight up forget Homeless Emperor exists as a whole, but this route is way better. Instead of Zombieman finishing off Homeless Emperor all alone, he’ll be doing it on the surface in an effort to protect Child Emperor. How sweet. This fight was definitely worth the tension. Can’t wait to see Zombieman fuck that dipshit up with his bare hands.

I’m aware my experiences aren’t universal, but have y’all ever been pressured into watching gore/shock videos online in the Wild West of the internet pre-2010s and developed some degree of trauma afterwards? If seeing people get ripped apart and burnt alive on the internet during your formative years is enough to fuck someone up, imagine being there as it happens. Child Emperor watched Zombieman get ripped apart right before his eyes. He got his surrogate dad’s blood all over his clothes. Kid needs therapy. That’s fucked UP, yo.

ZOMBIEMAN PUSHED CHILD EMPEROR OUT OF THE WAY GOD I LOVE THEM SO MUCH

can someone please give this shithead a towel or something he still has his dick hanging out like 8 chapters later. His penis has gotten more character development than Tanktop Master, and that’s not even CONSIDERING Kevin the sentient nutsack.

#one punch man #opm #zombieman #meta #Saitama #flashy flash #Amai mask #child emperor #tanktop master #manga spoilers #webcomic spoliers #garou #Silverfang #Genos

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minmotl · 4 years ago

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Ch. 69: Sui Zhou Touches Tang Fan’s Lips As They Sleep On The Same Bed

Context: Continues from Chapter 68. Tang Fan, Sui Zhou and the other men are headed back to the Imperial City and Tang Fan knows that his punishment for letting Yin Yuan Hua get killed will be severe. Sui Zhou tries to help him but is helpless to do so, and Tang Fan plans for him instead, touching and warming the man’s heart.

*Note: Liang Wen Hua is Yin Yuan Hua’s direct supervisor and the both of them have been trying to sabotage Tang Fan for the longest time.

Introduction Post | Masterpost

—

Highlights under the cut

Tang Fan smiles slightly, and then finds a chair next to the bed to sit down on. The red swelling on his face has already faded, so this action naturally looks elegant.

“What do you think will happen?” he asks in return, wanting to hear his good friend’s thoughts.

Sui Zhou is highly skilled in martial arts and has a firm, strong body, so even after sustaining severe injuries, now that he has laid down for so many days he is more or less recovered. Now, as he sits leaning against the side of the wall and chats with his good friend, this is instead another type of rest.

Listening to Tang Fan’s words, he then says sombrely, “A lot of people already think that you are in the Zhang Ying’s camp, but from what I can see, Wan An has been wanting to switch him out and so he definitely won’t sit in the ministerial position for long. Once he leaves, you’ll have to face Liang Wen Hua on your own, but in today’s court there are a few different parties that are competing fiercely with each other. Although Liang Wen Hua and the Chief Minister Wan An are close, but Liu Xu and Liu Ji do not look upon Wan An favourably, you still have a chance.”

The bunch of them have stayed in Gong County for a month, and at this point, Sui Zhou still does not know that Zhang Ying has been assigned to Nanjing, and also has no idea how accurate his premonition is.

“So what you mean is, I should depend on Liu Xu or Liu Ji?” Tang Fan asks.

Sui Zhou nods, “In the internal courts, today’s leading three elders, aside from Wan An, are Liu Xu and Liu Ji, these two men. Liu Xu is righteous and blunt, while Liu Ji is used to patronising others, and they are certainly no easy people to get along with. However, Liu Xu is the Emperor’s teacher and even he has to address the man as Dong Liu-xiansheng. The respect he has for the man is apparent. As for Liu Xu himself, he can appreciate capable young officials, so if you can gain his protection, you will not need to be afraid of Liang Wen Hua.”

And within the internal courts, although Liu Xu tends to be arrogant, compared to others, his personality can be considered one of the better ones. Moreover, he often advises the Emperor to work hard and serve his people. The only thing is, Liu Xu has a bad temper and likes to lecture others. If he sees someone he does not like, no matter if that person has done something good or bad, he will still lecture them from a higher moral ground. This has garnered the resentment of others, and so his relationship with others in court is not good. He tends to spread rumours to the disadvantage of others, which is why he, Wan An and Liu Ji are discussed together in the same sitting.

***

Tang Fan only laughs bitterly at his words, “This is a good solution, but on me, this doesn’t really work.”

Sui Zhou frowns, “Why?”

“My teacher and Liu Xu hold old grudges against each other, detesting one another. They cannot resist but want to triumph over the other. With Liu Xu’s character, do you think it’s possible for him to protect his enemy’s student?”

“There is deep enmity between them?” Sui Zhou asks.

Tang Fan, “Not quite to that extent, but you are also well aware that the both of them have bad tempers and believe in that they know best. You know this, it is easy to determine who the winner is in a physical fight, but between scholars, it is challenging to see who wins. I am not certain how their conflict came to be, but in any case, I once saw my teacher throw water from a cup at Liu Xu with my own eyes, and he said that Liu Xu is just as this water, that he is dirty and hard to deal with.”

Sui Zhou, “…”

Well, since they have already come to blows, it is probably impossible for them to become friends in this lifetime. And Tang Fan, as Qiu Jun’s student, if he approached the man, judging by Liu Xu’s personality, it is not difficult to imagine how Tang Fan will be humiliated as a result.

This method indeed will not work. When he thinks about this, Sui Zhou too is a little helpless.

He is the zhenfushi in charge of the Northern Administrative Court, and although the official hat he wears on the top of his head is Rank Five qianhu only, the rank he has when compared to civil officials of the same rank is very different. Not only do Rank Five civil officials need to give way to him, even the seasoned elders in the internal court will have to stop and exchange greetings with him when they see Sui-zhenfushi.

Moreover, he is also related to Empress Dowager Zhou, while the Emperor trusts him immensely. For him to keep progressing upwards is not a difficult thing.

And yet, for Sui-zhenfushi who holds so much power, he is unable to do anything for his good friend’s career problems. On the surface, it seems that this is due to the entirely differently systems that govern the promotions for Embroidered Uniform Guards and civil officials.

However, Sui Zhou believes that this is the result of him not being powerful and strong enough. If he had the power and authority that someone like Grand Tutor Sun Ji Zong has now, even if Liang Wen Hua wanted to sabotage Tang Fan, he would have to reconsider and they would not be stuck in this situation where they can only react to changes.

Tang Fan sees his frustration and instead comforts him, “You do not need to be like this. I know you are doing this for my own good but whether or not I continue to be an official, this is not under yours or my control. I have already done my best at the things I need to do and have no regrets. You don’t have to worry about things that will happen in the future. We should live in the present, and there will always be things to worry about tomorrow!”

Sui Zhou hears this and does not know if he should be reassured by how open-minded Tang Fan is, or worried that he is so nonchalant.

Then again, if Tang Fan was the the type of official that went after status and power, focusing only on promotions, then the both of them would unlikely have any common interests or views, or become good friends.

It is commonly said that there is a everything happens for a reason, and if you lose something you will also gain something. Although it is impossible for everything to go smoothly, but they headed into Marquis Gong’s tomb, meet bloodthirsty, merciless and ferocious tomb-guarding beasts and originally thinking that they would have to die down there, and they ended up returning safely. This is already a fortunate thing; hey really should not ask for too much.

In any case, he has plenty of savings and when it comes to that, Sui Zhou can definitely afford to take care of him. All he has to do is think of ways to make Tang Fan stay.

Sui Zhou does not realise that unconsciously, he has already been influenced by Tang Fan’s casual, broad-minded attitude. The way he used to regard life in a strict and narrow manner is also slowly changing.

If it was before, he might have gotten angry at Tang Fan’s lack of ambition and competitive drive, and the way he does not seem to want to work with anyone else, but right now, he instead understands Tang Fan and acknowledges his friend’s perspective towards life.

This is because Sui Zhou knows that it is not that Tang Fan does not want to progress upwards, that he doesn’t work hard. It is that he has already done his best within the limitations of his capabilities, and he does not want to force things. He prefers to let things come as they will - he works with the determination of wanting to work towards maintaining peace in this world, but as a person, he is happy being himself and will deal with things when they happen.

To be able to be friends with him is the other person’s fortune.

“You’re right,” Sui Zhou’s mouth curves upwards, and his heart eases.

He does not know when it started; when he looks at this person and thinks about him, his eyes lose the cold and hard edge usually present when he looks at others, and what’s left behind is a light layer of happiness.

***

“Guang Chuan, after we head back, you better make a trip to Yuan-zhenfushi’s. He has been with the Embroidered Uniform Guards for so many years and though he does not think much of power and status, he is definitely not someone who will let others step on him. Since he let you command the whole of the Northern Administrative Court, this means that he obviously is impressed with your abilities and is intent on making you his successor. If you can obtain his complete approval and you absorb all of Yuan Bin’s power and connections, then even if Wan Tong returns, he will not be able to touch you easily. At that point you would control the Northern Administrative Court firmly, and naturally will not be afraid of Wan Tong.”

“And,” Tang Fan sits on the bed and bends at the waist to remove his shoes and socks, then hugs the covers and lies on the bed as he plans for Sui Zhou, “You are Empress Dowager Zhou’s grandnephew and the trust that the Emperor has for you is not lesser than the trust he has for Wan Tong. After you return, you must remember two things and you will be able to stand firmly before the Emperor. No matter how Wan Tong tries to sabotage you, he will not be able to do anything to you.”

Sui Zhou raises an eyebrow, “I’m all ears.”

“Firstly, no matter what the Emperor wants to do, you must not oppose him. If he asks for your opinion, you must not respond. Whatever he says, you do, unless it clashes with your principles. Secondly, after Wan Tong drags Yuan Bin down, you must ask for leniency for Yuan Bin. If the Emperor asks you for a reason, you should say that you are willing to serve him as Yuan Wen served the previous Emperor. Not only will the Emperor not blame you if you say this, but he will also pardon Yuan Bin, and be closer to you as well.”

The Cheng Hua Emperor has plenty of bad habits but at the same time, he is also rather soft-hearted and nostalgic. However, he is also an Emperor and emperors do not prefer their subjects to oppose them day in and out. With this type of personality, the Emperor is indeed a very contradictory person.

Although Tang Fan has only seen the Emperor in person a few times, from the descriptions of people who often interact with him such as Sui Zhou and Wang Zhi, it is not difficult to deduce the Emperor’s character.

What he has just said to Sui Zhou can be regarded as him guessing at the Emperor’s thoughts and this is taboo. If it wasn’t someone like Sui Zhou who he is this close to, Tang Fan will definitely not say any of this.

Sui Zhou naturally understands and his heart warms as he enjoys this treatment.

“I understand, thank you.”

“Between you and I, is there any need for thanks?” Tang Fan smiles.

At night, Tang Fan sleeps rather restfully and these problems have obviously not affected his mood.

Sui Zhou, however, is unable to sleep.

Tang Fan took the initiative and asked to sleep on the inside so that he would not accidentally press on Sui Zhou’s injuries if he tosses and turns. He is lying on his side and his back is almost pressed entirely against the wall. Sui Zhou feels uncomfortable on his behalf just looking at him, but Tang Fan is still able to descend into his dreams.

Sui Zhou’s gaze is sombre and he looks quietly at Tang Fan for a long while, then reaches out to touch that handsome face.

His fingers land on the other’s lips, but he only lightly caresses for a moment. The touch is not made out of lust or want, only respect and sincerity.

Before he met Tang Fan, Sui Zhou was actually incredibly lonely inside.

The Sui family members are not able to understand why Sui Zhou entered the Embroidered Uniform Guards, and in their eyes, Sui Zhou should have emulated his older brother, working hard at the imperial examinations, helping the family to forge a path of honour which will allow them to get rid of the reputation that says they relied on their external relatives for status. Although the authority the Embroidered Uniform Guards wield is great, they have a terrible reputation as well. If he had received an empty title, that’s one thing, but being called a dog to the imperial court, what is this?

However, Sui Zhou does not need anyone to understand him. He is like a single, long wolf, moving forward on a path he has set his heart on.

And then he met Tang Fan.

A person who genuinely wants to help him to plan and strategise for the future.

To be able to attain such a soulmate, what more can he ask for?

He can only reciprocate with everything he has.

The bright moonlight peeps in through the window and lands on Tang Fan’s face. This illuminates his beauty and makes him look like an immortal, unlike a common man.

Suddenly, Deity Tang moves his lips, as if saying something.

Sui Zhou’s curiosity is piqued and he moves closer, but he ends up hearing Tang Fan mumble, “Crab roe… tofu soup…”

Sui Zhou, “…”

Tang-daren’s imposing and noble image has been shattered.

===

Notes:

*今朝有酒今朝醉，明日愁来明日愁 - An idiom that literally translates to ‘I will get drink on alcohol today, and worry about tomorrow when tomorrows comes.” Means to live in the present and worry about things when they happen rather than in advance.

#tsomd #cheng hua shi si nian #cheng hua's fourteenth year #the sleuth of ming dynasty #成化十四年 #tsomd novel #fanzhou #tang fan #sui zhou #suitang #translations #so romantic sui zhou!!!!!

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dangermousie · 3 years ago

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Out of two het Meatbun novels on jjwxc, one has the very first (!!!) chapter of it locked.

I am unironically in awe. (I started on another one whose heroine is a tough MFer and I like even chapter in. It also has locked chapters but I can find those elsewhere.)

In general, jjwxc account and chrome auto translation is a great great invention since I discovered the author of Mistakenly Saving the Villain has a bunch of other novels (alas all modern) and the author of Those Years in Quest of Honor Mine does too and they are period!!! I am going to check some out (tho elsewhere since I prefer deepl to google translate and I can’t paste jjwxc text and also they have locked chapters.) I can see where my paycheck will be going haha.

Oh and I read the Mistakenly Saving the Villain extra and eeeee!!!! Some favorite bits:

1. Memory wiped An Long showing up at Yue Wuhuan’s house going “ugh this is so boring you were busy so you didn’t make the wine I normally drink and then I can’t even drag you out for our customary fun brawl since your spouse is just there.”

2. Qing Luan x Min Hong!!!! My one het otp in this one. The bit where MH finally discovers QL didn’t seal her memories after all.

3. The whole BZH x Peacock thing aka who knew this novel would give me an awesome secondary otp! Where Peacock is all “I don’t want to come back to heaven I finally got a spouse!” And YWH is all “fine here is a permit for coming and going from small world and power upgrade for BZH so he can also run around.” And also since all his feathers are out, Peacock is hiding at home and refusing to peek out or even do his usual lady clothes etc so he just basically hangs around BZH all day and the rumors become that BZH locks up some beauty in a dungeon for kinky times and BZH who is long used to all this insanity is just rolling his eyes.

Honestly, BZH storyline is one of my fave things about this novel because it’s such an inversion of genre stereotypes about bed roles corresponding to externalities so to speak - Peacock literally dresses and acts like a girl to such an extent most those not close to them don’t even know he’s not a woman. And BZH is the reserved, tough, tragic past head of assassin/bounty hunter sect who at the end is the freaking ruler of the Imperishable Peak aka he runs the world. And he’s the shou. (Also I will never be over the fact that while enough time passed, people don’t even know it was him, the vague story of his origins is around but the past got distorted enough that the abuser rapist in chief Jin Feiren is portrayed as an unfortunate victim killed by his cruel terrifying faithless spouse BZH. BZH doesn’t give two hoots - even if Peacock does and commissions books where BZH is an innocent victim rescued by a beauty aka him and BZH still doesn’t give two hoots - but the reason I love it so much is that it basically tramples JFR into dust so much further - to be “remembered” as a hapless little victim and his perfect toy BZH as some sort of sinister monster is the most humiliating reversal and I love it.)

4. All the OTP stuff!!! I saved the best for last. The fact that Yue Wuhuan saw SQS when he was still a stone and he’s always been obsessed with collecting beautiful stones so he asked the Heavenly Emperor for it and HE was all “it’s getting infused with spiritual power when it’s done sure” and then SQS actually turns into a person and HE is all “sorry YWH oops” and YWH goes “he’s a person? But why do I still want to take him home?” Awwww!!! That is why he used to fly by his window every day before the calamity!!!! Awww.

SQS still being a super big research nerd. He adopts that snake in human form and is all “I won’t be picky just one PhD will do!”

I like that a lot of YWH’s issues are fixed once he’s in his proper body/environment since he’s all “my actual body didn’t get get touched/I have a ton and ton of normal not horrible memories to balance the horrors out” but it’s not fully 100% fixed tho it probably will sometime be. Hi there realism!

Those two have a swinging sex life heh. My fave bit is it turns out the blood mole pops back out at some point and he hates it so he wants to figure out how to remove it but SQS is all “scientific research! Let’s see what makes it pop out and go away!” And it turns out it’s if he’s feeling particularly hmmm and if SQS and he have a really good time in bed it goes away again. And SQS is all “don’t need to figure out some insane ways of removal, I am willing to assist any time!” Hahahaha

They build some sort of replica of medicine valley because YWH is all “ugh my palace is too freaking large it takes me forever to track you down and even the bed is way too large.” Heh. I wish I had those problems.

Ok, this is just hilarious but at some point SQS gets so engrossed in his research he forgets to bang his spouse on the reg and when that finally ends YWH drags him into some sort of harem simulation where everyone is various avatars of YWH and afterwards SQS is all “omg I must never neglect him again for long because I can’t do this again I am too exhausted!!!”

5. Lady Nian Nian is 100% lesbian. Fight me.

#cnovel #mistakenly saving the villain

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shangyangjunzhu · 4 years ago

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THIS IS GONNA BE A VERY VERY LONG POST AND I AM NOTIFYING Y’ALL

SPOILER ALERTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

a lot has happened and it is kind of hard for me to remember the sequence but i’ll go through it one by one

a) asu knows that su jin-er’s kid is not zitan’s; from what we’ve seen in the drama so far it can only be tattoo general

b) su jin-er gives birth and apparently it is quite evident that the kid is not zitan’s, which means zitan has no use for her anymore and he is about to kill her tell awu asks for su jin-er and he is like okay take her away

c) su jin-er thinks awu is gonna give her poison wine but it turns out that she isn’t and instead sends jin-er and her baby off to jiangnan to live the rest of their lives together

d) there is this very interesting conversation that takes place between awu and xiao qi about how he is willing to take revenge against everyone even awu’s family, and that kind of sets the tone for future episodes

e) nanny xu misses the grand princess and goes to the monastery and ends up seeing jing-er there and that’s when huaien offs her on wang lin’s command

f) awu goes to look for nanny xu but asu tells her that she wasn’t here (he knows, he saw it and he breaks down but you know he can’t go against daddy wang); xiao qi’s soldiers dig around the monastery to find nanny xu dead; awu is devastated and she is aware that it must have something to do with asu and she obviously like i can’t trust you anymore

g) huaien and yuxiu finally visit awu and xiao qi; difference is yuxiu is here to meet them; huaien is here to plot; he reveals evidence that it was indeed zitan who plotted against him using helan zhen. s/n yuxiu tells awu that she was better off in the yuzhang mansion and that she can’t talk with huaien at all and that she can’t seem to read his mind

h) xiao qi is ready with his troops to kill zitan but awu is like wait what’s going on and after he gives her the evidence she is like “zitan is still the emperor think about the people of the country and the mess it’s gonna create” and xiao qi notices the calm in her eyes and is like “you knew all along” ( which isn’t true she found only two episodes ago)

i) xiao qi is in the court with his army and he is on the verge of killing him but awu intervenes and basically stops from doing so but not without chopping off a block of wood from zitan’s throne; it is then that he leaves but not without awu sending him off by standing on the fortress and they nod to each other (ahhh my heart) and it is then a flashback is shown which may be hinting towards the fact that all of this was done so as to let xiao qi and the soldiers leave the city so as to find out who is plotting what and then come in.

j) zitan has this whole mope session about how xiao qi almost killed him and it is then that awu gives him a whole deal of reassurance that her zitan gege shouldn’t be that way and all (i skipped through it cuz it was just so boring)

k) now that xiao qi is out, daddy wang and co. are ready to put their plan into action and they do but not without yuxiu trying to stop huaien with every bit of might left in her by literally holding onto him but huaien flings her aside and tells her that she isn’t capable of stopping him.

i) they march into the palace and it is then that yuxiu is seen from a very high part of the palace, begging huaien to not continue and telling him how they would have nothing if it were not for awu and xiao qi. she also tells him that all they ever wanted when they were back in ningshuo was world peace and that he is trying to destroy it. she tells him that she could beg awu and the emperor to forgive him and that everything will be alright. huaien is like nope and he shoots an arrow right at her and barely misses probably to deter her. but in this moment yuxiu is like so you want me dead and JUMPS OFF THE BUILDING. I kid you not he does not even go to her ; he has this little scream and his eyes just dilate and then he is like keep going. hu yao, who was left behind by xiao qi to protect awu, sees huaien and rages at him trying to kill him but ends up getting killed instead.

l) they charge and awu is like i am gonna get you out of here safely zitan and tries to use the secret passage but guess what that has been infiltrated as well. so they have no choice but to go to throne room where all the soldiers are there and daddy wang makes his epic entry shocking awu and zitan.

m) daddy wang sits on the throne and is like hahah i made it and awu is like this seat isn’t for you and threatens to kill herself the same way the grand princess did and wang lin is terrified and tries to stop her, which he does but now song huaien is like haha i am gonna be the new king now and he is like get daddy wang out of here.

n) he goes to awu and says xiao qi is useless, be with me, i am useful and pulls out the hairpin she asked huaien to give xiao qi on the day of their wedding and gives it to her. awu slaps him and is like get the fuck out of my face

o) xiao qi comes to the rescue and shoots an arrow at huaien and it is then that he reveals that he never really left and that he has known all long about him being a traitor it’s just that he never knew for whom and it is then that huaien gets up and brandishes his sword saying he did it for himself only for him to injured by a couple of spears. he says a bunch of stuff that i didn’t understand and then he dies. xiao qi breaks down and wails (oh god i cried)

p) awu finds wang lin and they have a really emotional conversation and then he dies right in front of awu.

q) awu, xiao qi, asu and caiwei are seen walking together after a brief time skip and awu tells asu that they plan on leaving the capital and going back to ningshuo, which asu tries to convince them against but realizes they are at peace there. yuxiu’s kid is shown playing with awu’s other adopted children and awu is seen crushed at how yuxiu left behind her child without even giving the kid a name. awu entrusts asu to caiwei and ask them to live a happy life. asu and awu part emotionally and awu and xiao qi leave for ningshuo.

r) zitan steps down from being the emperor and i assume jing-er is placed on the throne with asu acting as the regent.

s) awu and xiao qi are shown in ningshuo with dozens of kids and their friends from hulan assembling a map of cheng and letting their adopted daughter jump on various locations in the map the same way awu did when she was younger. awu is pregnant and they talk about how they want to watch all of their adopted kids and now their kid grow up happily

closing thoughts:

- i loved how they depicted the impact of the greed for power. wang lin, the dowager, huaien, potato, wanru are all dead and the reason lied in their insatiable greed. unfortunately collateral damage takes place too as seen with the hu siblings and yuxiu.

- i will be forever mad at how yuxiu died but jin-er is still alive; i mean i understand how awu still cared for jin-er despite her treachery and i know yuxiu wanted nothing to do with huaien and his evil ways and that she would rather die than be complicit with him but still i am so sorry yuxiu baby you deserved way better

- i do like the fact that the whole show off between awu and xiao qi was actually a secret plot; they’re good actors ngl

- i can see that a bunch of stuff has been cut off because the flow isn’t very clear but that’s forgivable as i know a bunch of stuff was cut down

- the dowager die btw like i don’t even care

- the happy ending was all i ever wanted!!!!!

- it’s confirmed; monarch industry takes the place of #2 on my list and will probably not move down further any time soon.

if you’re still here throw a comment so that we can share our feelings!

#monarch industry #the rebel princess #spoilers

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masterjedilenawrites · 4 years ago

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The Helmeted Hunter: Chapter 23

Boba Fett x Reader

Chapter Warnings: Fluffity romanceness

AO3 Link (In case you like it better over there, it’s okay, no judgement)

< Previous Chapter | Masterlist | Next Chapter >

Chapter 23: The Other Buyer

You could've stayed in that moment forever.

Your lips moving along with his, slowly and carefully. Your fingers skimming gently over the folds of the tunic bunched at his neck, finding purchase in his soft curls. His breath tickling your chin as he continued to sigh in satisfaction.

But each kiss seemed to waken you just a little more, stirring your weary spirit and sending pleasant but restless waves through your battered body. You suppose that energy could've led you to turn those kisses into something more; there was certainly a growing warmth in your core that would've welcomed it. But instead, it was your mind that took over. It was pulling forth memories of your stay in the Crimson Dawn cell, and the ideas you'd formed there.

You pulled back from Boba as your mind raced through those ideas again, confirming they still made any sense.

"That bad, huh?"

He was trying to sound playful, but it was clear he really was self-conscious. You imagined he probably didn't have much experience, and you suddenly breaking away didn't exactly help his confidence.

"No," you were quick to say, squeezing your hands slightly along his shoulders. "No, I... I...."

You didn't know where to begin. But you had to start somewhere. After all the things he'd said to you, you had to let him know what you wanted now.

"I can't go back to my old life," you said, putting care behind each word. "But I also can't start a new one. Not yet, not without ending this mess once and for all. I would love nothing more than to run off with you, and maybe we can someday soon, but you have to understand why that's just not possible right now."

If Boba was hurt, he hid it well, keeping his features in their usual, neutral state as you spoke. Since he wasn't giving you a reaction yet, you continued.

"No one is going to simply forget about this bounty on my head. They will keep hunting me, no matter where we go. That's no way to live."

Boba sighed, though not in the satisfied way he had before. He lifted his hands up to wrap around your wrists, moving his calloused fingers along the bandaging while he looked at you with a sad smile.

"Of course I understand," he murmured. "We can keep searching."

You tried to take comfort in the soothing motions of his hands on yours, a sign that he hadn't pulled away or grown upset yet. However, you doubted he'd like what you had to say next. You steadied your nerves with a deep breath.

"We don't need to search, because I know where to go."

His eyebrows raised, curious. "You do?"

You brought your hands down from his shoulders, grasping his own firmly in the space between your laps. "Think about it. Think about how off this whole thing has been, right from the beginning. We've been looking for answers to questions like where and why. But what about how? How is it that these portals are meant to be random, taking random people from random planets at random times... and yet, someone knew exactly when and where I would be going through one, far enough in advance to get you to wait for me."

The words spilled from your mouth, eager to finally be heard. The thoughts had been eating at you while in Crimson Dawn's cell. It felt good, freeing even, to share them with another.

"Right," Boba said flatly. "So this guy planned it. Or just predicted it."

You shook your head. "He isn't the only one with a bounty on my head. They weren't the only ones who knew I was coming."

"The Empire."

No sooner had he breathed the name did you resume your rambling.

"A personal photo of me was hung up on posters in distant planets just days after I went through the portal, by people who now own my planet. That can't be a coincidence. And their price for my capture may not be as high, but it's still significant. Maybe they want me for the same reasons as this other guy. Maybe they were able to predict or plan my trip through the portal, too. At the very least, they know something."

Boba had closed his eyes and was rubbing the bridge of his nose. It occurred to you he was tired as well, and you briefly wondered how long he had gone without sleep while you were apart.

"So..." He opened his eyes but kept them scrunched in thought. "What, are you going to knock on the Emperor's door and ask him what's going on?"

"Yes," you said firmly. Obviously there'd be a better way to do it, but that was beside the point. "If anyone has answers, anyone that we can go to right away without all this clue hunting, it's the Empire."

He grasped your wrists again, holding them up to you. "And you'd risk going through something like this again?"

"I'll do whatever it takes to be done with this."

You meant it. Despite your attention being brought back to your wounds and the dull ache that had settled in them. Despite the spike of energy your mind had given you now fading back into fatigue. Despite all the suffering and confusion and fear you'd just gone through. You really were prepared to go through it all again if it meant you could then be freed from it. If you could finally move on.

Boba was frowning. "Well I can't risk you getting hurt again," he said, revealing just how much guilt he truly had over what'd happened to you. You were touched, but also defeated. If he wasn't willing to help you, or was actually going to stop you....

But then he spoke again, his tone kinder. "So we'll need a plan. Several plans. Nothing gets left to chance. We'll get you answers, but more important is you getting the chance at a new life."

You smiled. "Thank you," you whispered.

"And we'll do it after you rest," he said, getting up from the bunk and starting to clean up the supplies he'd left on the counter. "You need to heal."

Exhaustion was making its way back into your mind and you couldn't agree more. You were also suddenly conscious of the fact you'd soiled the linens on his bed with the filth you'd acquired on your clothes. You'd also need to get clean.

"Deal," you said, standing up yourself. You were about to ask for some things to help you freshen up first, when a vaguely familiar melody reached your ears. It seemed to be coming from above in the cockpit.

"Is that music?" you asked, tilting your head to hear better. As you caught more of the tune, you realized why it was familiar. "My music."

"Oh, yeah." Boba seemed to have forgotten he'd had it playing. You both had been too caught up in your discussion, and intimacy, to have noticed until now. "Your device wasn't broken, it just needed a new power source. So I integrated it with the ship."

You couldn't help but cringe a little as you remembered some of the songs that would surely be on there. "Well please don't judge me. I haven't always had the best taste in music."

He chuckled softly. "There's some... odd songs on there. But they aren't all bad." He paused, also cocking his head slightly. "I like this one. Reminds me of you."

You both had a shy smile, not quite used to sharing such things with each other. But you were glad he was starting to open up more, showing you the little pieces of his heart and soul that he'd kept hidden for so long.

* * *

You managed to clean up well without a shower. You took your time, not wanting to strain yourself from the effort but needing to get as much dirt and blood off you as possible. It seemed like ages ago that'd you last had a shower and you wanted to get that feeling back as best you could. Boba had also given you your old clothes, cleaned and with creases from having been folded for so long. You couldn't fathom when he'd had the time to get them cleaned.

Once you felt satisfied, you emerged from the lavatory to find Boba waiting for you. He wanted to quickly patch up the cut on your cheek before you went off to bed. You let him, leaning against the counter as he worked a few stitches through it, taking the time to admire him. You still considered his features quite ordinary, but there was now a familiarity to them that gave you a different sort of fondness. You realized that while you'd seen him upset and frustrated, and in some cases angry, you'd never seen his face display the kind of rage or cruelty that people like Dryden Vos had. There was always a thoughtfulness to him, a sense of control and awareness.

The songs from your music player had continued to change, the volume low so you were only occasionally aware of it. The one that had just started now brought a small smile to your face - and a quick instruction from Boba to keep still.

"This one sounds like you," you whispered. He hesitated before smirking back, and then repeating that you really needed to be still because he was almost done.

Were you really saying these things to Boba Fett? Feeling these things for him? He wasn't different than when you first knew him, there was simply more to him now. In your current, sleep-deprived state of mind, you were having a hard time wrapping your head around how quickly he'd grown on you. How easy it was for you to look at him with affection. How badly you wanted to test all the ways you could make him blush and smile....

He eventually stopped his work and tried ushering you to bed. You were already drifting off, but a small part of you still wanted to cling to him. It may have been slightly manipulative on your part, but you couldn't help but mumble out don't leave me just to see if he'd lie down with you.

With a resigned huff, he crawled into the bunk next to you, taking up most of the narrow space with his body. But you were already curling into his side, head in the crook of his arm, and a bandaged wrist across his chest. No sooner had you made yourself comfortable did you immediately succumb to sleep, letting yourself drift off to the sound of his heartbeat.

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sifeng · 4 years ago

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Review: Love and Redemption

While I first started watching this drama out of pure curiosity of why people claimed it to be “the second most tragic drama” (after GMP, of course). While there are certainly aspects of this show that could be better, I find it fair to claim that it is a wonderfully made xianxia, and certainly one of the best in the genre within this decade.

Plot:

According to legends, the god of war saved the heavens in a deadly battle against the demon a thousand years ago. Both fell from the heavens and disappeared from the world. Chu Xuan Ji was born to the world lacking in the six senses which makes her rather clueless and inept. She befriends Yu Si Feng, the outstanding head disciple of Lize Palace who falls for her, thus beginning a xianxia romance that is entangled with the conspiracies from the past. The Zan Hua Tournament is being held in the Shaoyang Sect and its leader Chu Lei has two daughters - his trusted eldest daughter Chu Ling Long, and the youngest daughter Chu Xuan Ji who is lazy and terrible at martial arts. When Yu Si Feng and Chu Xuan Ji meet through a coincidence, they forge a friendship with each other. Yu Si Feng falls for Xuan Ji despite the harsh consequences that he must face as it is forbidden for students of Lize Palace to fall in love. Meanwhile, Ling Long clashes with Wu Tong after she criticized his foul actions at the tournament. In retaliation, Wu Tong accidentally injures Xuan Ji and gets expelled. Having recovered from her injuries, Xuan Ji promises to concentrate on cultivating. Four years later, Xuan Ji and Yu Si Feng meet again. Si Feng wears a mask due to a curse that can only be broken if he finds true love.

Cast:

Cheng Yi (成毅) as Yu Sifeng (禹司凤)

Yuan Bingyan (袁冰妍) as Chu Xuanji (褚璇玑)

Liu Xueyi (刘学义) as Hao Chen (昊辰)

Zhang Yuxi (张予曦) as Chu Linglong (褚玲珑)

My Opinions:

Plot (My Rating - A-):

First of all, I quite like the pacing in this drama. As the matter of fact, towards the end I actually feel like some things were rushed, not dragged out. It’s never a show that allows you to press the fast forward button, because 1. the tragic moments are super intense and dramatic, and 2. you don’t dare skip over the cute/funny moments because you know there won’t be many left. Second of all, I really appreciate that the writers of this drama really decided that they were going to make the most tragic drama ever. They really dedicated themselves to that craft, and I think they succeeded wonderfully. In terms of plot points, I absolutely loved the whole 9 lifetimes idea. It really brings out the tragedy and beauty of Yu Sifeng - he will do anything to protect those he loves, especially Xuanji. I would not complain if every single lifetime was made into a 45 minute episode, though that would be 405 more minutes of Sifeng being tortured by love on top of the infinite amount of minutes that already exist in this drama.

One problem I had, again, was with the misunderstanding that separated our two leads. I understand that this misunderstanding was one that had to do with the morals, backgrounds and fates with both of them, and thus was obviously meant to be a separating factor, but with the way the two characters were written, it felt odd that it created such an amount of misunderstanding. Overall, the plot was good, it didn’t have any revolutionary ideas, but it turned up the tragedy factor and had consistent pacing (if not too rushed towards the end). I’m sure there were probably a few plot holes here and there (one of which is why is it so easy to destroy that huge jar thing towards the end? If that’s what’s keeping the universe at balance, shouldn’t it take more than just one Yuan Lang to destroy it?), but overall, solid plot.

Characters (My Rating - B):

Sifeng is an absolute angel. He’s probably the most heroic lead in a drama who acts totally out of selflessness, who will help his loved ones no matter what pain it puts him through, and who can remain so kind, so unbothered mentally by whatever pain everyone puts him through. However, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have faults. He acts irrationally in the face of love and he often mistrusts the people around him. He’s a very complete character that not only evokes viewer’s sympathy, love and admiration, but also makes sense when taking into consideration his morals. He rarely does things that are out of character. If I were to rate just his character I’d probably give an A+.

But, there are other characters in this drama. I do like Xuanji, not as much as I like Sifeng, but I like her more than most drama leads. Despite the whole lacking six senses thing being a super confusing plot hole of sorts (like she clearly likes people in the beginning, Linglong, Minyan, her father, and dislikes people, Wu Tong, but isn’t she supposed to be unfeeling? Also she screamed out of fear when she fell using the teleport tool etc etc), I liked how she wasn’t stupid, but simply naïve. She’s actually a pretty smart person, especially in the first half of the drama, when she defended Sifeng against the Five Sects, and then Minyan after he was caught from Tianxu Tang. She didn’t let herself be manipulated by her father or Hao Chen, but rather thought for herself, took into account what she knew of their characters and came to the correct conclusion that the Five Sects were being stupid. I found myself a slight bit annoyed when she took the Five Sects side on the whole Mosha Xing issue, but given that the argument was no longer Sifeng vs. her father, but rather demons vs. humans, I can sort of understand why she didn’t trust him. Also, he did lie to her a bunch of times so, I suppose that adds to the fact. Though, she failed to use the trait that I used to really like, which was the ability to take logic and character into consideration. Did she really think that Sifeng never loved her? Because like, with all the evidence right there in her memory, I find it hard for anyone logical being to come to that conclusion. Also, I really like how she eventually became as loving of Sifeng as he was of her. She was literally willing to destroy the world, and herself, just to save him.

As I have said before, no one likes Hao Chen, and that’s good. He’s obviously written to be a character that you should dislike, not only because he gets in the way of Sifeng and Xuanji, but because he is clearly so biased against demons (despite the fact that most demons aren’t even bad at all); because he manipulates Xuanji/God of War so many times and doesn’t even feel guilty whatsoever; because he always says “for the three realms” and yet happens to do things that will completely destroy the peace of the three realms. There are things to like about him, like I am pretty sure that he does actually care about the three realms, and he does want there to be peace, but his ideology about peace, and love, and war are just so skewed that he ends up doing the opposite of what he wants to do.

Other characters were mostly likable, like Linglong, Zi Hu, Teng She, Minyan (most of the time), Xiao Yinhua, Ruo Yu (sometimes), Wu Zhiqi, etc etc. Some were evil for no apparent reason like Yuan Lang (why does he want to control the three worlds? What happened to him in the past for him to become this power hungry? If these questions were answered this character could be sooooo much more compelling) and Wu Tong (again, why did he start out so violent and cruel? I understand why he become a demon and helped them, but like does he not realize that it was clearly his fault first?) Also, the Heavenly Emperor seems like such an odd character. I understand he is the emperor and so he shouldn’t hold his relationship with Bailin and Xixuan above their faults, but like why was he so okay with like letting a totally faultless Xi Xuan endure several mortal trials all ending with painful deaths? And if that was because he was being a good and fair emperor, why does he let a game board decide fate? He also just stood there while the world was ending, and it took Xuanji to convince him to help her. I would like to know more about this guy and his complete lack of ability to care about anything.

So overall, while I think the main characters were written very well, with complex characteristics, some of the villains were just left tools to push forward the plot.

Acting (My Rating - A-):

So first of all, Cheng Yi’s portrayal of Yu Sifeng was absolutely amazing. He brought out all of Sifeng’s traits super well, from shyness initially to the cruelness Mosha Xing to his loving gaze at Xuanji to the heartbreak in tragic parts. I’m pretty sure he’ll become a star after this show, and can I just say, he totally deserves it!

(Like can you see the pain in his eyes?)

I was pleasantly surprised by Yuan Bingyan here. I really like how her acting style changed along with the new role she took, as Xuanji she was bright and cheerful, as God of War she was heartless and cruel. You can see in the nine lifetimes that the way she reacts to Sifeng’s death slowly changes. Her crying scenes need a little more emotion, but overall, a super stable performance.

Chemistry/Romance (My Rating - A):

The chemistry was just amazing. I find it interesting that their kisses slowly got more and more passionate as time went on.

I think part of the reason they have such good chemistry is because of the acting. Like oh my god their tiny reactions to when the other gets hurt really gives it away that they love each other.

The romance was also written nicely. While some people complain that Xuanji didn’t suffer enough, I feel like they don’t have to be equal in suffering in order for them to be a good pairing. You could tell from the very beginning that Xuanji liked Sifeng in a different way from other people. And the fact that they went through nine lifetimes together, each one when Sifeng died because of Xuanji... it just makes their romance so much more epic. Add that with good chemistry, good kisses, and good acting, well of course people love this ship so much! Xuanji would destroy the world for Sifeng, because the only person that matters in her world is Sifeng. Sifeng would put himself through ten lifetimes of torture just so Xuanji can be happy, because so long as Xuanji is happy, he will be happy.

Music (My Rating - A): this one is simple. Just listen to the soundtrack and you’ll understand my rating. I didn’t give it an A+ though, because while all the songs are great, there isn’t one in particular that I love.

Costumes (My Rating - A-): Sifeng’s costumes are really pretty. Some of Xuanji’s are pretty too, they get prettier as the show goes on, but some of the ones early on were kind of meh.

CGI (My Rating - A+): the best CGI in a cdrama. Just look at the scenes where Sifeng shows his wings!

Overall Rating: A-

Recommend For: People who like xianxia dramas and dramas that try to incorporate a lot of themes. People who don’t mind their heart breaking a thousand times while watching a drama. People who want to find a couple that you have to root for. People who like super epic guzhuangs with lots of subplots, mythology, reincarnations etc.

#cdrama #Cdrama Review #I actually like this more than AoL #cheng yi #成毅 #Yuan Bingyan #袁冰妍 #I love the otp okay #they have such amazing chemistry

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k7l4d4 · 3 years ago

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Midnight Striga: Fairy Tail/Owl House Cross Fic Episode 5 Part 2

Hello all, it’s me, back again with another chapter of the Midnight Striga!! I hope you all enjoy. Thank you.

“... And that’s everything I know about human anatomy.” Luz finished, as Gus eagerly wrote down her answer while the others watched in amusement. She quirked her eyebrow at the younger boy’s enthusiasm. For the past 20 minutes she’d been answering his questions as best she could, and each answer got her a huge grin, a bear hug at one point, and frantic scribbling across a notebook he had produced. It was like having a little brother, really, but less annoying… for now.

Clearing her throat, Willow decided to broach a topic that had been on her mind since they started this trip. “So, Miss Owl Lady, is it true that you’re cursed?” Willow carefully asked.

“Yup.” Eda bluntly replied. “One hundred percent.” She shrugged, unbothered by the question. “Not much I can really do about it, but I’ve learned to live with it.”

“So the legend is TRUE!?” Gus exclaimed, eyes wide with shock, and a little excitement.

Eda snorted. “Not hardly.” At the confused looks she got, even from King and Luz, Eda elaborated. “The general idea is right, but the whole thing is skewed.” Eda paused, glancing up at the sky. “I don’t know where the part about the Covens clambering for me in school came from, ‘cause it’s the first I’ve heard of that, unless they’re talking about the times they ambushed me to join at the early Coventions; that honestly just annoyed me, and it’s partially why I don’t like the things. If I’m gonna make a decision like that, it’ll be by myself, thank you!” She huffed, getting soft snorts from the others.

Grinning at her audience, Eda continued. “As for the whole ‘ego’ thing, I was already well-known troublemaker around Bonesburough, so even if it did go to my head, my behavior wouldn’t have changed at all.” This got nods of agreement from Luz and King, and looks of dawning understanding for Willow and Gus. Knowing what she would have to share next, Eda took a deep breath. “For my curse, I can tell you for fact that it wasn’t the Titan, or whatever cockamamy story the EC spread; a Witch cursed me. Specifically, they broke into my room and cursed me the day before try-outs for the Emperor’s Coven.” She said softly, provoking gasps from the group; shock from Willow and Gus, and outrage from her roommates, something that brought a smile to her face. Clearing her throat, she continued. “As for me denouncing the Coven System,” she said, making air-quotes, “All I did was say that Covens weren’t for me and forfeited my match for a spot in the EC.” She finished, gaining bewildered stares from the two Hexside Students.

“You gave up a spot in the Emperor’s Coven?” Willow breathed out, unsure if she was appalled or impressed.

“Why!?” Gus exclaimed, utterly flabbergasted by Eda’s decision.

Eda shrugged, indifferent to their confusion, but willing to explain. “Because I only cared about joining so I wouldn’t have to have any of my magic sealed. Plus,” She sheepishly rubbed her head, blushing lightly in embarrassment. “The other person actually cared about joining the Coven to help people. I could get the same outcome I wanted by not joining a Coven at all, but they wanted to make the world a better place. I’d say I made the right call.” She finished.

Willow and Gus were amazed. They still couldn’t really wrap their heads around her worldview, but the fact that she was willing to give up such a prestigious position that would’ve given her exactly what she wanted because her opponent had more selfless reasons… It was inspiring. King was bewildered; Eda’s motive for forfeiting went completely over his head, as he just couldn’t understand giving up power so someone else could get it, but he perfectly understood her view of being herself, no one could challenge the mind of the King of Demons. Luz… Luz was shocked, face gone white at what Eda had just said.

“Okay, wait a minute, back up. What did you mean, ‘seal your magic?’” Luz demanded, shaking with barely repressed anger.

Eda blinked. “Uh, I did tell you that joining a Coven means you can only use magic associated with it.” She pointed out. She was honestly a little shocked about how viscerally the kid was reacting, with Willow and Gus actually looking a little frightened at her reaction.

“You told me that, yes, but you didn’t tell me they actually made it IMPOSSIBLE!!” She shouted. She was furious. She had already thought the system here was pretty twisted, but this was beyond the pale.

“Well, how does the Human Realm do things?” Willow broached, hoping to change the subject. Gus nodded his agreement to her question, though more as a result of genuine curiosity. Eda herself was a little curious; the kid had mentioned offhandedly that the way the Boiling Isles did things was very different from back home, but never elaborated.

Luz snorted, feeling bitter. “That’s an understatement.” She inhaled, taking a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down. Slowly dragging a hand down her face, she elaborated. “Back home, we have Guilds. Guilds basically act as a way for Mages to get work reliably; as part of a Guild, missions and requests are sent in, which a member can take to complete in exchange for a listed reward. Joining a Guild is neither permanent nor mandatory, it’s just a way to make things more convenient for Mages, that’s all.” She raised her head, looking them all in the eye. “Also, being in a Guild has no bearing on what type of magic you can use or know; while some Guilds may have certain requirements for joining, they are rarely, if ever, connected to what type of magic you know.”

“But how do you keep everything from falling to Chaos!” Gus exclaimed, mind whirling at the influx of information.

Luz shot him a flat look. “It’s not anarchy; we do have an overarching organization that deals with magic-related matters and crimes, but we don’t have anything cementing an absolute structure to things. If you break the law, whether you do so using magic or not, you still have to answer to law enforcement and will be punished. There’s just no reason to suppress or control magic to such an extent. Most people, whether they have magic or not, just want to live their lives, so forcing them into a particular system or group makes no sense.”

“But what about people mixing magic?” Willow asked.

Luz blinked. “What about it? It’s no different from using magic any other way.” She shrugged, not seeing the big deal.

“Well, some kids at school tried mixing magic, and caused chaos! They trashed a bunch of stuff and hurt some of the faculty!” Gus argued.

Luz raised an eyebrow, folding her arms. “And that’s different from any other day, how exactly?” She challenged, causing the two to blink. She continued. “The way you phrased it, they were being reckless; that’s a problem regardless of whether you know or are combining forms of magic. It honestly just sounds like they were trying to show off and went too far.”

“B-But, they wouldn’t have had those problems if they stuck with the magic of their track!” Willow insisted, though she would admit that it sounded fake, even to herself.

“And you know that how exactly?” Luz asked. When Willow clammed up, she added a little more. “Accidents happen, and people get hurt. Those exact same things had to have happened when your people first started practicing the magics that would form the Coven System.” As Willow and Gus seemed to fold in on themselves, Luz relented a little. “Look guys, nobody’s forcing you to learn more than one form of magic. Most people back home don’t learn more than one, either.” As the two perked up at that, she elaborated. “Just because you technically can learn every type of magic, doesn’t mean somebody wants to. People are always going to gravitate towards their personal interests, and that’s just a fact of life. That’s why I think the Coven System is crazy, because it’s putting an unnecessary restriction on people. But that’s besides the point, let’s talk about this sometime else, okay?” She pleaded, wanting to move on from the increasingly frustrating conversation.

“Yeah, as fascinating as this is,” Eda drawled, genuinely being fascinated by the debate, but wanting to get going, “We should really be moving along.”

With that, everyone started heading out.

A sickening crunch ripped through the air. A squelching sound and chewing could be heard as a lumbering figure peaked out of the shadows, teeth stretched into a bloody grin. A shadow darted across the area, silently slicing through the throats of unsuspecting Coven Guards. A Guard uselessly struggled in the air, a long coiled shape contorted around their body, slowly twisting their head to the side as it pulled at them, a snap soon being heard. Figures slowly prowled towards the Covention center, weapons gleaming.

Boscha growled, fighting the urge to snap at the elbows jabbing into her as she walked through the Covention, steadfastly ignoring the glares and whispers aimed her way. Trying to distract herself, she pulled out her Scroll. There were no new messages, aside from another blistering rant from Bo; it made sense, seeing as all of her old clique had blocked her. She snorted at that. It made sense after all, who wanted to deal with the psycho who spent nearly a week beating any and every demon they could find near senseless and had burned the throat of their “best friend.”

Covertly palming her lighter, she subtly raised it to her lips, sucking in the delicate flame with a relieved sigh, the minty flavor balancing her nerves. She wondered if she might be forming a habit. At least she wasn’t lunging at fires to eat anymore, that had been pretty embarrassing. Glancing around, utterly disinterested in the bevy of Covens, she didn’t notice as she crashed into someone.

“Oof! Watch it you- YOU.” A familiar voice growled out. Glancing down, Boscha spotted the furious form of Amity sprawled down in front of her. Boscha slowly backed up, giving the girl room to pull herself to her feet. “Just what are you doing here?” Amity coldly demanded, crossing her arms. Her voice almost, but not quite, concealing the burning malice within. “I thought you always said Coventions were lame?”

“They are.” Boscha bluntly stated, relieved to be on a familiar topic. She shrugged. “But I’ve got nothing better to do, so I thought I might as well come and check it out. Nothing else going on today.”

Amity raked her gaze up and down the other girl’s frame, feeling a little frustrated at just how nonchalant she was asking. “You really don’t care, do you?” Amity muttered, feeling a smidge of disappointment. She turned a painfully steady gaze to Boscha’s face, locking eyes with her. “Do you really not care about what you did to Skara?”

“Since when do you care?” Boscha asked, feeling surprised. As much as she had previously claimed that she and Amity were friends, Boscha was painfully aware of how detached the girl was from the rest of the clique. As Amity’s face gained a dangerous look to it, Boscha winced at how, well, Bitchy she had sounded saying that. “Sorry, that came out wrong. I mean, since when did you really have a relationship with Skara that would make you ask like that?”

‘Boscha… apologized?’ Amity thought, feeling flummoxed. Steeling herself, a familiar indignation filling her, she focused on the rephrased question, answering it. “Since she came to my house bawling her eyes out into my shirt asking what she did wrong.” She uttered gravely, taking a bitter satisfaction at Boscha’s flinch.

“She-?” Boscha started, feeling a little shocked. She knew that she had hurt Skara, but this? Eyes turning downcast, she morosely uttered. “She’s better off without me in her life.”

“At least you recognize that.” Amity scathingly replied. She stepped close to Boscha, chin to chin almost. “I… have more regrets about my life than I’ll willingly admit, and have done things that kept me up at night from guilt. But you? You betrayed the trust of the person who cared about you the most in the world, not in your right mind or otherwise. So I’m only going to say this once.” She carefully tilted Boscha’s chin down so their gazes were level. “Stay. Away. From Skara.”

Pulling back, lightly dusting herself off, Amity turned on her heel. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a presentation to take part in.” She gave Boscha a backwards glance. “Have a nice day.” She said, almost as an afterthought.

Boscha sighed, morose at the confirmation that, yes, she was an awful friend. Still, at least she could use the Coven to distract herself from how crappy she felt. And hey, maybe Luz was here? ...Pfft! Nah! Chuckling to herself in a bitter tone, Boscha wandered through the Covention, steadfastly ignoring the looks, the whispers, the sneers. It wasn’t any different from her dreams really, just less graphic.

“And here we are!” Willow said, forcing a note of cheer into her voice. The conversation they had had prior still weighed on her and Gus, but they didn’t begrudge Eda or Luz any. It was just… a lot to take in. “The Bonesburough Covention center.” She stated, hands on her hips as Gus made an expansive, showy gesture next to her. She felt a hint of pleasure at the snort of amusement Luz gave at their theatrics.

As they made their way through the Covention, Luz quickly picked up on something. “Wait a minute, are these all, like jobs or something?” She asked, feeling bewildered.

“Uh, yeah?” Gus replied, feeling confused. “Isn’t that how those Guild things worked?”

Luz shook her head, still feeling a little surreal at the sight as she processed it a little more. “Not really? A lot of these Covens flat out don’t need magic at ALL! Heck, there’s a Baking Coven, why would you need magic to bake!?” She exclaimed, gesturing to the Coven stand in question.

The two Hexsiders glanced at each other, neither having ever really thought about it. They shrugged. Luz waved them off. “Forget it, I’ll just chalk it up to another reason why the way things work around here confuses me.”

“Yeah, that’s probably for the best,” Eda mused, honestly puzzled herself as she thought about all the Covens and how little some of them had to do with magic, or, in some cases, magic just made things more difficult. But the way Luz phrased it… She shook her head, not letting herself get sucked down the drain following that line of thought. “King already left to start squeezing these clowns for freebies, so what do you two dweebs want to do while we’re here?” She asked, lightly scratching at the bundled cloth holding her hair in place, turning to Gus and Willow as the target of her question.

The two turned to each other, starting up a whispered debate. This hadn’t really turned out how they thought it would. They had been so excited to show their friend some of their world… and she didn’t like it, moreover she nearly hated it! But, they could still have some fun, even if things weren’t how they expected. Turning back to Eda, a woman they had gained some respect for after learning a bit more of her past. “We could go see the Emperor’s Coven exhibit?” Willow offered, knowing that it would most likely be the most directly exciting thing here, even if Eda didn’t like the group. “I hear they have a special guest!”

“Maybe I’ll be able to get some members to sign my forehead!” Gus cheered, heedless of the sheepish looks from Willow and Luz, as well as Eda’s annoyance. The boy was utterly unshakable in his enthusiasm.

Eda snorted. “Ugh, fine! But if this all turns out to be boring, the three of you are manning my Stand for a week, got it?” She faux-threatened; she wasn’t really going to go through with it, but seeing them squirm was good for a laugh, even if it didn’t phase Luz.

With their plan set, the four headed into the center of the Covention, unknowing of the group creeping through the center, malicious grins all around.

#the owl house #fairy tail #owl house au #fairy tail au #owl house crossover #fairy tail crossover #luz noceda #willow park #gus porter #king the owl house #eda clawthorne #boscha the owl house #amity blight #magic

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kbstories · 4 years ago

Text

Axiomatic

ax·i·om·at·ic (adj.)

Self-evident; unquestionable.

The best part of battle is the afterparty.

(Or: Remember that banquet Luffy promised? This is it.)

Tags: Established Relationship, Domestic Fluff, Partying

Set in Wano. Spoilers for all of Wano. Read Chapter 2 here.

***

“What do you think?”

Lipstick glides over thin lips, the wax malleable and smooth as it leaves a coat of rusty red in its wake. Killer makes sure it’s perfectly even before he glances elsewhere. In the mirror, Kidd’s face is all scowled impatience.

One last run-down – eyeliner, mascara, lipstick: done, done and done – then Killer grabs the mask waiting for him. “Alright, let me see.”

Their eyes meet and Killer sighs. Metal over skin-and-bone, Kidd’s arms are crossed; his shaved brows push together further. As if Killer doesn’t indulge his every whim by the regular.

“I’m looking. Show me again.”

Kidd grumbles, “Watch.” He opens his arms, reveals an unbuttoned shirt tucked into his favorite patterned pants, glinting gold over black under a double-belted cinch at the waist. So far, so very Kidd.

No, the point of discussion is the frankly massive coat slung across his neck: Nice soft-looking suede on the outside and glossy-grey fur on the inside, it hugs Kidd’s shoulders in all the right places to then cascade down his back in a display of near-ridiculous opulence.

Extravagant, over-the-top, flashy. It’s hard to tell which type of animal had to die for this. There must be a lot less of ‘em now, with this monstrosity in the world.

Kidd is swiveling it back and forth with critical glances to the mirror, the coat wooshing with the motions. Killer takes in the fluid glide of fur over Kidd’s exposed chest, the contrast of impeccable couture against jagged scars. Loses himself for a moment or two imagining how it would feel like to run his hands over both.

An appreciative hum. In Killer’s educated opinion, Kidd looks damn near sinful.

“Yeah?”, Kidd asks and Killer nods. “Yeah. Heh, told ya the detour’s worth it.”

Perhaps it was, although sifting through Onigashima’s treasury whilst bleeding all over heaps of shiny expensive everything might’ve been a case of skewed priorities. There’s no need to talk about what-could-have-beens, though – they’re here, they’re rich and they’re long overdue at Strawhat’s banquet.

Killer’s practically done, tight jeans under a shirt that’s done up to the third button and left to flare open otherwise. It’s not his old favorite (that one stopped fitting him a good year ago) but similar enough, patterned in geometric black-and-white shapes. Definitely one of his fancier ones, not that anyone will care one way or the other where they’re going.

It’s… been a while since it’s been anyone other than them and their crew. Pirates are pirates, allied or no; Killer eyes the scythes neatly stored next to the bed.

Kidd is touching up his lips one last time, the same shade as Killer’s. “Bring ‘em. That Roronoa guy keeps throwing you weird looks and I’m not allowed to kill him.”

Yet goes implied. Killer isn’t wearing his mask and so he doesn’t roll his eyes. “He’s got every reason to”, he reminds his captain, focusing on the heavy clasps of his weapons to keep the memories at bay. The red mark on his chest stings, stuck in the limbo between a healing wound and a fresh scar for a few days still.

A testament to his failure that Killer won’t hide. If Zoro hadn’t stopped him that day his hands would be stained with blood that cannot be washed off, not entirely.

Kidd’s eyes are on him, dark. “I don’t care.”

Resentful as always. Killer reaches for him, digs his fingers into the fluffy lining of that coat and oh, the fur is as soft as it looks. “I do, though.” A firm tug, one Kidd follows until Killer can kiss him, careful not to smudge anything.

“No killing of allies today, ‘kay? We just came back from a war. The crew’s tired. I’m tired.”

“Mh” is all Kidd has to say to that, a grumpy huff against Killer’s lips more than anything. Kidd does give him a proper kiss, however, and Killer knows he won this one.

All he can ask of Kidd is to try, anyways – with two equally hot-headed captains and a whole host of morons around to rile him up, there’s bound to be blood eventually. The trick is to make sure everyone’s drunk enough not to take it too personally.

A pinch to his ass tells Killer he was caught scheming. Kidd smirks, tells him, “We’re getting wasted tonight”, all triumphant like it’s the best idea he’s had all week, and Killer doesn’t miss the emphasis on we.

“Two Emperors down! Strawhat better bring the good stuff tonight or this alliance is over.”

Killer groans, “Kidd”, but he’s smiling, too. Before he can be called out on it, Killer shoves his mask into Kidd’s hands, metal clanking against metal. “Make yourself useful. We’re late.”

Kidd’s laugh is more of a cackle than anything else – “Yes, darling”, said in that sarcastic lilt Killer knows all too well – yet Kidd complies. His hands, organic or otherwise, handle the mask they’ve built with care and precision. Soon, Killer’s vision is narrowed down to dots, the audio filter of his helmet kicking in soon after.

Killer rolls his neck and hums, satisfied. “Ready?”

Kidd throws a final look at himself in the mirror, grinning into the collar of his new coat.

“Hell yeah. Let’s go.”

The banquet is a sprawling, messy affair that swallows the entirety of the ramshackle village the Strawhats picked as their home in Wano Country.

From the moment the Kidd Pirates get there they are surrounded. Wherever Killer's eyes roam there are knots of people drinking, eating, laughing and crying, sometimes simultaneously – there, at the heart of it all where the crowd is thickest, burns the largest bonfire Killer has seen in a while, perhaps ever. Smiling faces all around and for once, it doesn’t make Killer’s stomach drop because they’re genuine.

Survivors of SMILE just like him, caught in the rush of real emotions for the first time in who knows how long. Killer has a pretty good idea how that feels like.

Next to him, Kidd is so tense he’s stalking, gaze intense, oozing Haki to keep people away; Wire’s hand is clenched to bloodlessness around his trident while Heat exhales a bit of smoke with every breath and yeah, Killer gets it. Can’t help it himself, either, scythes kept close to his sides to make sure they’re there.

The thing is: They don’t do these kinds of things. Parties, yes, many and often but not like this. Killer can count on one hand the amounts of times the population of any island was actually happy to see them, much less willing to send them off with one big feast.

Actually, he wouldn’t need to count at all because it’s simply never happened. Even filtered by his mask it’s… a lot to take in at once.

The entire damn country is here, it seems, all breathing a collective sigh of relief so monumental the air itself carries their joy. For all that the Kidd Pirates were in this for revenge and glory, Killer can’t deny it’s rewarding to see a nation so ravaged by an Emperor’s greed do whatever they want for the first time in decades.

Finally, a few familiar faces start popping up. Some of the samurai greet them with nods of their heads, overly formal like the people from Wano tend to be; here and there they spot the distinctly branded yukata the members of Trafalgar’s crew are wearing and, rarer but all the more noticeable, those animal people Strawhat dragged along from somewhere.

Minks? Or something? Killer is inclined to say it doesn’t matter if they didn’t have the habit to jump on them out of fucking nowhere. Looking for bone-crushing hugs and wet-nosed kisses, of all things, and– Oh no, he did not sign up for this.

Much less for whatever that group of cat minks are gearing up to, staring at the holes in his mask with eyes nearly swallowed by black, round pupils. Killer is absolutely, solidly convinced he doesn’t even want to know what that’s all about.

“Captain.”

And yeah, his tone is a little more alarmed than he truly means it to be. It gets Kidd’s attention, though – himself having fought off a dog mink enamored with his metal arm not too long ago – and he barks a laugh even when he ramps up his presence to an almost stifling degree.

“C’mon, I feel Strawhat up ahead.”

To nobody’s surprise, they find him smack dab in the middle of everything. Strawhat and his crew are lounging around the bonfire, there’s no other way to describe it: All broad smiles and flushed faces amidst the chaos, completely in their element, and it’s hard to tell if it’s the closeness to the bonfire or the vaguely impressive amounts of empty bottles lying around already. They’re certainly boisterous enough for it to be the latter, even Jinbei.

And no, Killer hasn’t quite processed that turn of events yet. The strangeness of seeing someone of that caliber wheeze into his mug with laughter as his (new?) captain takes a disturbingly big bite out of an even bigger chunk of meat is… not helping things, in that regard.

What a bunch of weirdos. In the safety of his mask, Killer allows himself a small smile.

From here the flames seem to reach for the sky, tinged in warm pinks and oranges by the sinking sun and there, very faintly, Killer can make out the first stars. He can’t remember ever seeing them, not with the factories running over night as well.

“Spikey!!”

Ah. Killer’s head turns with Kidd’s and it’s a good thing, too, because there’s a stretched arm coming for his captain – Kidd bites out, “Nope, no, Strawhat”, red eyes going wide – and Killer manages to side-step it in the last possible second. One, twice it wraps around Kidd, fancy coat and all, and then the rubber recoils.

“Killer!”

Oh my, Killer thinks mildly as he watches him go. Behind him, half their crew is flabbergasted and the other half is in stitches. “Captain’s gonna be in such a mood”, Heat says to Wire, and it just sends them into another fit of chuckles.

For Killer, finding a drink becomes his top priority. So much for keeping things peaceful.

>>Chapter 2.

#one piece #eustass kid #killer one piece #kidkiller #fanfiction #one piece fanfiction #this is a setup for smut in chapter 2 ngl #(i just got carried away as per usual)#this fic is also on AO3!!#my stuff #one piece spoilers

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