#do not let one man's bad actions destroy you when you were not involved in any way

[kinthulou]

,

With truly all the love and empathy in my heart: crying daily over the sexual assault allegations again at Gaiman isn’t healthy. I’ve seen multiple people –especially fans of GO – saying this since they came out, and it’s really fucking concerning me.

I wonder if it has to do with the insidious ideas that 1) people are either Bad or Good, 2) Bad people can only do Bad things, and 3) liking Bad things or Bad people makes you Bad.

None of these things are true.

People are mixed up and incredibly complicated. Someone can be an incredible artist/chef/ally against racism/drag queen and still be predatory/homophobic/antisemitic/never tips their wait staff. People do things that harm others in big and small ways all the time. You do too. I promise.

(Also the idea of dehumanizing anyone, even people who do genuinely insurmountable harm, as somehow less than human is an inherently fascist ideology)

The fact that you (yes, you!!) do harmful things doesn’t immediately make you Bad. There are certainly things that someone might do that causes more harm (say, assault) versus less, but, perhaps unfortunately, that doesn’t somehow infect all the things they’ve done in the past with their Badness. Gaiman helped write Good Omens. There’s no way now to say “I was wrong and this book was Bad all along” or even “oh, all the parts I like were written by Pratchett, the Bad parts must have been Gaiman.” You didn’t miss an inherent evil by liking the book in the past. It doesn’t make you Bad for liking it now.

(It also doesn’t mean that people associated with Gaiman, like David Tennant, are also Tainted by Badness. This is also a slippery slope argument into dehumanization and fascist ideas)

By all means: stop giving Gaiman your money. Stop tagging him in your Azi/Crowley fanart. But do this as a way to disentangle yourself from parasocial relationships that are actively causing you grief and to vote with your wallet, not because unlinking yourself from Bad Art and Bad People will somehow absolve you and make you Good again. If you already have a copy of Good Omens or Sandman, whether you reread it is between you and your gods. Interacting with a text you find important doesn’t make you Bad or Good. It’s just reading. What you do with the stories is what matters (ironically, that’s the message of a lot of both Gaiman and Pratchett’s work).

Maybe take a peek at Good Omens and re familiarize yourself with its other core message: People are not Bad or Good. People do bad and good things.

Then maybe drink a cup of tea. You need to rehydrate.

[blueteller]

Greetings oh wise one! I come asking for advice/analysis.

How would you describe the type of chaos Cale starts? Like, is there a play by play of Cale’s usual migraine inducing shenanigans?

"Oh wise one" - that's a new one haha! I'll try my best for you~! 💖

In the past, I made short joke posts on Cale's typical step-by-step MO, like: "scam, loot, destroy", or "fight with overwhelming advantage, run, smack them in the back". And while those steps are hilarious and quite accurate – since you've asked for an analysis, let's dive a little deeper into the subject.

First of all, why is Cale's personal brand of chaos so enjoyable? Simple; it's because it's always targeted at people who 100% deserve it. Civilian casualties? Not an option with Cale in charge. This man takes his 10+ years zero casualties record completely seriously.

And no, there are no exceptions to this. While at first it might seem impossible – for example there were times when Cale and his group attacked buildings with servants in them or destroyed whole ships with crew on board – and it can make you wonder, weren't any innocent workers there? But no. If you look closely, any time there were any civilians involved (any people who weren't onto the whole murder and torture thing the bad guys were doing), Cale made sure to either capture, evacuate, or leave them alone. From the first heist with Choi Han when they freed Raon, to the Unranked Monster battle at Puzzle City, or heck even robbing the Sekka estate, they always made sure to not kill the civilians. Even with the battle ship, I'm 100% certain there were only armed people on board, prepared to be the ones who would murder civilians without hesitation. Cale left no chances of innocent people getting hurt.

That's what makes his MO so wonderful. Because Cale only screws over those who deserve it. Of course, Cale doesn't see it like that. From his perspective, what he's doing is "vicious", so he must be the bad guy. And while his MO is definitely ruthless… It only matches the weight of the crime of his opponents. Cale only gets involved and makes a s***show when he is really pissed off. And by pissed off, I specifically mean innocent people getting hurt. Because that's what it all comes down to, really. He can delude himself and claim he's doing it for profit, but there's nothing wrong with profiting off well done work. He never cheats his allies off their right rewards, either. Despite him being so chaotic with his actions, he... never actually does anything that crosses the line.

(Yeah you could try and argue that torture crosses the line, but uh… At least Cale never ordered torture for personal pleasure? The first time it was to help a child heal from their trauma, and every other times since it was to extract information from particularly nasty and stubborn murder cultists. It might be morally grey of me, but I don't believe it was wrong of him. That's a matter of personal opinion of course.)

So, the starting point is always Cale facing people who pissed him off through messing with innocents in some way.

It can't be some petty political squabble either, Cale doesn't mess with those – remember how he reacted when the King of Whipper Kingdom wanted to agree and give up 100,000 citizens of his country to Adin, just to save his own skin? Raon offered to loot the king's safe… and Cale totally could have done that out of pettiness? But Cale left it alone, because it never came to that. So yeah, Cale only messes with those who already hurt people on a large scale, not just crooks or cowards. Even the bandits who messed with the Super Rock Villa entrance, he just had the leader beat up and made them work for him – he even had them formally employed and educated. Which honestly, probably improved their living conditions drastically, now that I think about it. …Cale is such a freaking softie, I swear.

But we're going off track – Cale and his specific brand of "migraine inducing chaos", that's the main topic here.

First, Cale always gets information. Who are his opponents? What have they done? What kind of powers they have? What dirt does he have on them? Where is their money located? Stuff like that.

Next, there's the planning & preparation phase. However, we rarely see that part because of the "no repetition rule" of storytelling. The only time we ever see characters make plans and explain them to their allies is when things are about to go south. In case of TCF, we only ever find out what kind of plan Cale has is when either 1) it's already ongoing 2) something went wrong and Cale wonders how it happened, for example when Cale set up the trap for the White Star in the Dark Elf city.

Then, with a solid plan and allies all prepared, Cale infiltrates the combat zone. Be it Real Arm uniform, priest get-up, pretending to work for some unnamed scary higher-up; you get the idea. Even during open-field battles like the Maple Castle, Cale made sure to have multiple hidden assets and key players disguised. It's a very important part of his MO; making sure he and his allies are as safe as they can possibly be.

Once everybody deals with their designated obstacles, be it simple head smashing or straight up scamming his opponents, Cale loots stuff. Sometimes the looting comes before the combat for the element of surprise, but usually combat happens as a distraction for looting anyway. Naturally, this is the part Cale enjoys the most, because according to Cale's logic, nothing feels as good as pissing off the people who pissed you off first. Not to mention how money is extremely useful, and Cale whole deal is that he always makes sure to take full advantage of anything and everything he finds useful – be it people or treasures. Classic Cale behavior, really.

After the looting stage, here comes the destruction! This part gotta be Raon's favorite, as he's usually in charge of it. Considering how his first destruction spree happened without Cale's input – the cave he was trapped in – I think it's a natural draconic trait lol. Everything that cannot be looted and can be still useful to the enemies must be demolished, that's the rule. After all, the revenge can only be complete when the enemies are left totally furious and powerless.

As for clean-up… pfff, what clean-up? Cale doesn't do clean up! That's the job for the janitor- I mean his dear Hyung-nim 🤣 I bet it's Cale second favorite part about making a huge mess; that he doesn't have to clean it up himself thanks to Alberu hahaha

So, a general play-by-play of Cale's chaotic shenanigans goes something like this:

Cale finds out there are troublemakers "messing up his slacker life", aka. people are getting hurt and his soft, squishy heart cannot ignore it

he gathers his team, info and gets down to planning

cue in hilarious scamming and Mission Impossible flavored undercover shenanigans

looting for fun and profit

destruction mostly for fun but also profit

when things go awry, Cale gets to overuse his Ancient Powers and spill blood like chocolate fountain spills chocolate at fancy events, it's just the same never-ending cycle really 🤣

retreat if necessary, but that rarely happens (I think couple of times throughout the whole series, really)

the enemies are left furious and/or utterly defeated

Cale's fam is left generally more worried over Cale being reckless again, than whatever epic chaos is going on around them, causing lots of delightful misunderstandings and comedic moments as a result

Alberu Crossman gets a headache once again

…aaaand that about sums it up! 💖

[beautifulterriblequeen]

War is Easy, Peace is Hard

ᵗʰᶦˢ ʷᵃˢ ˢᵘᵖᵖᵒˢᵉᵈ ᵗᵒ ᵇᵉ ˢʰᵒʳᵗ ᵇᵘᵗ ᶦᵗ ᵍᵒᵗ ᵃʷᵃ�� ᶠʳᵒᵐ ��ᵉ

Please enjoy the Gren ficlet I busted out this morning! Rating it T for uh, bad feelings.

tags/warnings: betrayal, PTSD, imprisonment, emotional manipulation

"Please," Rayla begged, "I can't leave him there alone. Not after what happened last time!" Her hands shook around the small glass jar, and the light from the sentinel bonfires across the Banther Lodge grounds danced along its smooth curves.

But Corvus only repeated his earlier gesture, a firm shake of his head. "Soren just arrested him, Rayla. I can't be involved in anything like this right now. And he did kill King Harrow. It's what I hunted you for, remember? Your leader’s actions are how you and I met."

Rayla's face dropped into a glower. "Yeah. Be glad I'm not dragging you off another cliff for not believing me this time either."

"I do believe you," Corvus said earnestly. "But I can't be the person to help you. I'm sorry. But I can't."

His teacup empty, Gren finally decided to stop accidentally lurking behind a nearby tree and stepped out into the firelight. "Is... there a problem?" he asked, heading toward the two. They flinched slightly in that way Gren had come to understand meant they were trying to hold a private conversation in public and had failed.

"No," said Corvus at the same time Rayla growled, "Yes."

Gren shot Corvus a sympathetic look. "Let me see what I can do. If something needs Queen Amaya's attention, I'll make sure she's aware. You should go be with Soren. He's had a... rough day."

Corvus' brows bent up, and he looked aside. "Rougher than most.” His eyes drifted westward toward the fresh ruins of Katolis Castle, though its distant smoke couldn’t be seen at night. “And that's saying something." He sighed and nodded, but he added one more thought before he left. "Commander, if anything goes... awry tonight, come to me first." He glanced meaningfully at Rayla and nodded again. "I do believe you." But she only offered him a flat stare.

Gren nodded and waited for Corvus to walk out of earshot. But Rayla was less patient.

She grabbed his wrist in a vice grip and looked him in the eye. "I need your help."

Gren did his best not to flinch. "What can I do?" he asked warmly.

Rayla held up the small glass jar. "Just... Get this to him. It's berry juice. Last time..." She paused and gulped. "Last time, he stopped eating. He thought he was going to die alone, that that was a better option than anything else. Better than Viren's torture, better than that awful coin prison... Better than facing those he loves after what he's done."

Gren was surprised to see tears forming in the corners of her eyes, but she brushed them aside and pressed on. "He'll know it's from me, and he won't feel alone. Please. I don't want to break in there and give it to him myself, but I will if I have to. I'm not leaving him to suffer alone this time. I won’t!"

Alarmed, Gren pressed a worried hand to Rayla's shoulder. "Take a breath, Rayla. I'll help you. Both of you. It might be the only way I can help, all things considered, but... I don't want him to suffer alone again either. "

Rayla's brows lowered as she studied him, a silent question on her lips.

Gren shivered. Runaan's dying scream was etched in his memory forever. He still didn't fully understand what Lord Viren had done to the prisoner down the hall from him, but he knew it had destroyed the man utterly. He'd gone into the room to check after the guards had freed him, but nothing remained. Not even a body.

He licked his lips. "I heard it," he said quietly. "When Lord Viren..."

Rayla's eyes widened as she realized he couldn't even finish his sentence. Her shoulder tensed under Gren's hand. "We can't leave him in there alone! We can't!'

"It's not a cell, here," Gren began. "It's just... the basement. And no one is going to hurt him. Not here. King Ezran wouldn't do that."

But Rayla's glower told him that didn't matter. "Runaan doesn't know that, Gren. I'm afraid that all he can think about is the last time humans locked him up. And that didn't end well! Viren killed him!"

Very aware of where they were both standing, Gren put a finger to his lips and widened his eyes.

Frustrated but wary, Rayla shook off her tension and let out a sharp breath. "You said you'd help. Just get him to take the jar. Then he'll know I'm still here. That I didn't... run away. That I didn't abandon him."

"I can do that." With a nod, Gren began to head toward the lodge doors.

Rayla caught his shoulder. "Oh, but... Don't linger. He's not very big on eating around strangers. Security conscious at all times, that's my dad." She let out a soft, uncertain chuckle.

Gren's eyes bugged. "Runaan is your father?" He couldn’t imagine how she was staying so calm. He must've trained her very well.

Rayla met his eyes and nodded. In a low but firm voice, she said, "In all the ways that matter. Thank you for this, Gren. I won't forget it."

She pressed the cool glass into his palm. Gren took it and glanced down, seeing the liquid slosh inside, red as blood. Cautious and curious, he pulled out the stopper and took a sniff, and the rich aroma of ripe berries filled his nose.

"Gotta work on those trust issues, Gren," Rayla chided lightly.

"Sorry."

"Don't be. Now you can say you've checked it yourself."

He nodded. It's what Amaya would've done. The juice sloshed in the firelight again. "I think certain allegations could've been avoided if you guys had picked a different-colored berry-" he began, but when he looked up, Rayla had already vanished.

He shook his head. Moonshadows.

Alone, Gren made his way through the Banther Lodge, careful to avoid sight of Corvus, the Sunfire Queens, King Ezran, or anyone else who might wonder what he was up to or try to distract him.

This mission, Gren was taking to heart. This time, he wouldn’t fail.

Every step closer to the basement flooded his memory with more details of those horrible days in Viren's dungeon. He himself had barely been mistreated, but the real horror lay in the chasm between his experience and that of the prisoner down the hall.

The real horror was the guilt he carried, knowing he'd been whistling contentedly while another man was fighting for his life and losing. That he hadn't known anything about how Runaan had been treated until it was too late. The man had killed King Harrow, it was true. But he was still a person, just like Gren.

Gren paused on the stairs to the basement and swallowed hard, getting his face under control. He'd served under King Harrow's rule for years. And this prisoner was one of those responsible for ending that era, and everything that had followed.

He remembered some of Amaya's earliest advice: "War is easy. Peace is hard. Do your best."

Commander Gren straightened his shoulders and headed down.

At the bottom, he found a room lit with an excess of torches and packed with heavily armed human troops. Through all the soldiers, he couldn't see Runaan anywhere.

"What's going on here?" he blurted. Had they done something to the elven prisoner? He knew how they talked about elven assassins in the barracks...

"Oh, Commander Gren." Marcos' black shock of hair turned in his direction, and Gren nodded to him. The soldier approached. "Can I help you, Commander?"

"I'm here to see, er... Where is the prisoner?"

"Right where we can see him, sir." Marcos nodded aside.

One of the basement’s central wooden pillars bore a sturdy wrap of rope around it. Gren squinted in confusion for a moment, seeing no one tied to it, but then he looked lower.

A pair of dirty elven knees peeked out on either side of the post, and a few fingers and a solitary horn showed around one of its edges.

Gren's heart rate rose. He took a step to the side and looked again. Down on the floor, Runaan had twisted around to face the pillar and tucked his knees against its sides, hugging it. His forehead pressed against the wood, his arms were knotted in the ropes over his head, and he was shaking.

Runaan was not alone this time. But his situation seemed to be its own flavor of hell. In that moment, Gren decided to lie.

Gren was not very practiced at lying. His mouth went dry at the very thought. "I need the room," he blurted.

"What?"

"Uh, General- uh, Queen Amaya was very specific, and she asked me to uh, in-interrogate the prisoner immediately, but it's confidential, my questions are confidential, so- so you all have to leave. And take these torches with you."

Marcos looked at him dubiously. "Take the torches?"

"No, of course, you're right. Leave one - no, two, two is good."

"Sir. He's a Moonshadow elf. They like the dark."

"Yes, they do. And I, well, I like answers. Which I'm more likely to get if he's comfortable. Does he look comfortable to you?"

Marcos glanced at Runaan. "Five minutes. And we'll be right upstairs."

"Ten."

Marcos gave Gren a long look. "Right upstairs. Sir."

"Understood."

Gren very carefully studied the floor so his eyes didn't give away his nervousness as the soldiers collected their extra torches and thumped up the stairs. He could get into so much trouble for doing this - but it felt like the right thing for him to do, and he wouldn't be sorry if he got caught.

He only hoped Queen Amaya would forgive him for using her name as his shield.

When the room was dim and quiet, Gren walked closer to the huddled elf and dropped to one knee. He took a moment to focus before he spoke. "Excuse me. Your name is Runaan, right?" he began gently. "I've brought you something. It's from Rayla. She says it's berry juice."

The shadowed figure raised its head, and two luminous blue eyes flared out of the dark before hiding behind the pillar again.

"Rayla?"

Gren's chest tightened at the breathless shake in the prisoner's voice. He sounded like he was about to shiver into pieces. "Yes," he said. "She gave me this little bottle and wouldn't take no for an answer. Not that I refused her… She was trying to ask someone else, and I... Well, I offered. You... might not remember me, from... before... But I remember you. And how I couldn't help then. I didn't know, I didn't understand, and I wasn't..." Gren got his tongue under control and tried again. "I can help now. So I'm helping. If you'll let me."

"I-I don't..." Runaan's gaze scoured him.

"I told you about my cats growing up?" Gren prompted. "How little Mittens always slept on my hands at night when it was cold, and her sister Scarf would half smother me with her fur?"

"Scarf. Your... cat. I do remember." The trembling in the prisoner's voice eased. Then Runaan's breathing hitched, and he pressed his forehead back against the rough wood grain of the post he was tied to. "I just want to go home. I made a promise. It's all I care about now. It's going to kill him to see my lotus sink twice. I can't bear the thought." He began to repeat a shaky refrain of I'm sorry that whispered out of him with every shallow breath.

Aghast, Gren had to stop himself from reaching out. He wasn't at all sure the elven man was in any state to handle being touched. "I... I don't know what punishment King Ezran will decide on," he began carefully, "but I will speak on your behalf, if he'll allow it."

A single blue eye blazed at him, unblinking. "Why?"

"I witnessed your, er... death. I don't think it's fair to make you die again."

Both eyes opened at that, and blinked in confusion. When Gren added nothing further, Runaan slowly admitted, "I am... unaccustomed to mercy."

Gren decided he didn't need to say anything to that.

Runaan was silent for a while longer, as if chewing over what else to say. Finally, he settled on a simple, "Thank you."

Something loosened in Gren's chest then, a tension he'd been carrying for years. He offered a genuine smile. "You're welcome."

"Rayla sent you with berry juice?" Runaan asked.

"Here." Gren held it out. Its contents sloshed scarlet in the dimness.

The juice seemed to captivate Runaan. He stared closely, as if reading its blank bottle. "A trick," he murmured.

"What?"

Runaan blinked and focused on Gren. "Drink some yourself, so I know you're not tricking me with poison."

"Oh. Of course. I smelled it earlier - it smells delicious - and Rayla said it was good that I did it, so I could say I'd checked its contents, in case anyone-"

"Drink." Runaan sounded exasperated.

"Right. Sorry." Gren tipped the bottle and gulped a nervous mouthful. "There, see? It's just berry-"

"-juice," he finished.

"Yeah, we know it was the juice!" Soren yelled. He seemed taller than usual somehow.

"Laced with sedative," Corvus deduced, eyeing the sticky red residue in the bottle as he held it up in the torchlight.

Nearby, Marcos paced back and forth around two of the basement pillars, and Gren realized he’d fallen to the floor. "This is bad, this is bad, this is bad," the guard repeated.

Gren tried to sit up, but his head swam. "Um... What's going on?"

"Runaan is gone," Corvus said, offering him an arm to steady himself.

Gren took it, and then nearly let go in shock. “He’s what?”

Soren stomped by, looking harrowed. "I just arrested him, and now he's escaped! This is not great! Ezran is gonna send me after him! After Rayla!"

"Rayla's gone too?" Gren blurted.

Corvus set a hand on his shoulder. "She gave you the juice, my man. This was her plan all along."

“Oh…” Gren's chest felt like it was crumpling. He'd only been trying to help her, to help them both. But she hadn't trusted him with the full truth. And now she'd broken an assassin - a kingkiller - out of lawful custody. And Gren had helped. "Oh no. Oh, this is bad."

"You think??" Soren cried. "Callum is not gonna be happy that I have to hunt down his girlfriend!"

"I'll go with you," Corvus offered. "It'll be a package deal. We can talk specifics later."

Soren's gaze clung to Corvus, and he seemed to read some extra assurance in his gaze, because he finally calmed and nodded. "Okay. Okay, yeah. Maybe that's good."

"And you just fell for a Moonshadow trick," Corvus told Gren. "You did nothing wrong."

"We were making progress, too," Gren bemoaned.

"He was really telling you things?" Marcos asked. "He refused to say a word to us."

Corvus gave Gren a steady look. "People tell Gren things. He has one of those faces."

"Maybe he should come too," Soren grumbled. "Then maybe Rayla will explain everything for once, and we can figure out how all of this went down, and what to even do about it."

“Not a bad idea,” Corvus agreed.

Hurt and angry and sad, Gren took a breath and let it out. War is easy. Peace is hard. Do your best. "If it'll help, I'll come too."

[telvess]

Headcanons for all the characters including Jack since it’s based on Hamlet watching The lion king with the reader. (the original animated movie not the live action remake.)

Record Of Ragnarok Characters x Reader watching together The Lion King (headcanons) 🔞

You know, I haven’t watched The Lion King in… well I watched it once when I was kid and that’s it. Mulan, Hercules and Tarzan were my movies. Anyway I ended up watching The Lion King again to refresh my memory.

Qin

A what? Are you involved? Then Qin would agree to do anything.

He’s like a big kid - chill and carefree, even more than usually. Both of you goof around, Mr. Emperor tries to sing without knowing words, popcorn flies around, you pause a movie in stupid moments to make him laugh etc.

You get a stomachache from laughing too much and Qin obviously has to get infected.

Just two morons have time of their afterlife.

The only moment when there is silence is when Simba loses his father. That scene just hits too close to home and remains Qin about Chun Yan. However he doesn’t let it bother him too much.

HAKUNA MATATA

You both loudly encourage lions to battle.

At the end he asks what other movies you like.

Jack

Because he isn’t familiar with the concept of love and how to express it, spending time with you is probably Jack’s way to show his affection. If you ask him to watch an animated movie together, he’d politely agree, even if it’s not his thing.

Expect tea. And cheddar apple pie.

Jack sees Simba’s journey as a lovely and naive story. Deep inside he does compare himself to that lion cub and wonders what kind of person he would've become if he had only received help from strangers. On top of that Jack actually killed his parents, so it’s odd to him to see how much Simba struggles with remorse over Mufasa’s death which wasn’t his fault.

Truth to be told Jack might mentions some quotes from Shakespeare IF you point out similarities between the movie and Hamlet. These resemblances aren’t very visible. But it may be enough to start an interesting conversation.

The ending of the story may seems a bit bitter to Jack. Whoever was meant to be good, stayed good, and whoever was meant to be bad - stayed bad. Kinda depressing outcome for a man who’s trying to change himself, right? You’d have to talk about it and remind that it’s just a simplification made for children.

Now it’s time for a cuddle session.

Loki

Do you really want to do this to yourself? You’re very naive if you expect to have a fun with this guy while watching this kind of movie.

At first it’s just boring to him, but after awhile he amuses himself by coming up with new ways to destroy the show. He makes a loud comment every time the opportunity arises. For example, there is a scene where Zaku tells young Simba and Nala that they’d be married one day, to which Simba replies: No way! She’s my friend! You can hear a loud snort on the side, followed by She’s your SISTER, dumbass!

Loud chewing.

Hey, y/n, do you know that once Simba becomes the king, he will have kids with every lioness? Even his mom?

Do they have to sing all the time?

DON’T YOU DARE mention that you can see a similarity between him and hyenas or forget about chips, popcorn, whatever you two are eating.

Phew! It’s finally over. Wanna do something funny, y/n?

Adamas

Childish entertainment but once he sees that your eyes get wet with tears, he quickly agrees.

A cheerful start bores him but except tactless way of sitting, he doesn’t do anything to ruin your fun.

Even if Mufasa’s death was expected, it still hits hard Adamas. Basically catches him off guard. It remains him about his last meeting with Poseidon: his brother’s pure contempt towards him, that dead, indifferent expression of his face when he pierced Adamas with his trident, then cold surrounding body and Poseidon’s back as he walked away. But while the movie continues, a new digression haunts Adamas. He plays that scene again in his head and it hits him harder, because he realizes that he almost became Scar to Zeus.

So now he sits stiffly on his ass with a very depressed expression. One look at him is enough for you to know that you have to pause the movie and talk to a guy. At first he rejects your attempts, but very quickly ends up letting you hug him tight. Still plays a tough idiot tho…

Beelzebub

Most of the time he just sits next to you with lifeless expression.

Hakuna matata his ass.

Beelzebub secretly enjoys when you sing, but it’s really hard to catch him with a smile on his face. If you manage to do so, he reluctantly admits it. Good luck with convincing him to join you.

He doesn’t have any deeper thoughts about the movie.

If you mention that Timon and Pumba remain you Samael and Azazel, Beelzebub would just give you a dull look. After awhile he starts to notice that too and has mixed feelings about it.

Hrist

She finds this idea very sweet. It’s relaxing and enjoyable.

When Scar kills Mufasa: RAGE MODE ACTIVATION!

Since then you sit with angry Hrist who really does not like phrase hakuna matata. She starts to hate Simba for being so thoughtless.

Screams SHUT UP every time they start singing.

When Simba lets Scar leave, Hrist in heat of the moment chokes you and loudly screams how dumb he is. You wonder if it can get worse and the answer comes very quickly - Simba fights Scar on the TV screen and you fight for every breath on a couch.

Hermes

Hermes approaches the movie from a different angle: he focuses more on a soundtrack. The movie itself is simple story with moral, standard for humans’ approval.

You both consider an improvement of some songs and probably start doing it in the middle of a movie. Sorry, Simba.

Ares

Ares doesn’t care much about Mufasa’s death - it's necessary plot twist to move on with thread… but the ending kinda touches him. It's very climatic in his opinion.

He is NOT crying, okay?

Well you are. Or you pretend very convincingly so he doesn’t have to play tough boy. He has no idea…

Hades

Because he is a gentleman, your wish would be granted.

It’s animated movie but Hades drinks wine. No cola, no popcorn or other snacks. Please, have some dignity.

Hades has weird uncomfortable feeling in his chest when Scar kills his own brother. Scene just awakes something he doesn’t like to mention: conflict between Poseidon, Adamas and Zeus. Hades never could bring himself to blame any of them for how things turned out, so now he doesn’t try to look too deep into Musafa’s murder.

Afterwards he would share his honest opinion with you, almost like professional critic.

Poseidon

No expression throughout the entire movie.

Scar is pathetic.

Mufasa is pathetic.

Simba is pathetic.

Timon and Pumba aren’t even worth mentioning.

That movie proves that humans are lower forms of life.

At least you have chance to hug Poseidon. If he spends time with you, it means he demands it.

After a movie: Y/n, such entertainment is unworthy of the gods.

Leonidas

Books are better than movies. But fine, if you insist, the King of Sparta would spare some time.

The best comforter: Why are you crying? It’s fiction! It’s not even human! By the way - that lion could kill you with a single paw swing. These mfs are huge! Better him than you, hon!

He smokes so much that you have trouble seeing the TV screen.

Stop couching, hon! I can’t hear what they’re sayin’!

The moment Pumba approach, Leonidas starts talking about his love for venison.

You need truly heroic self-denial to not kick him out. The only option to get him to shut up is to kiss him. He doesn’t get why the kiss is angry but he likes it that way.

You two probably miss the ending. Leonidas thinks Simba isn’t worthy of being king anyway.

Apollo

Ah, y/n, aren’t you adorable for loving such innocent enjoyment? Of course he agrees!

You have to feed him snacks.

He sings along with the characters and makes the movie much better. You end up watching him showing off instead of the movie. Your dirty side may bait off a bit more mature show.

He knows exactly what you're doing and doesn't mind at all.

Later you might catch him humming songs from the movie.

Hello, dear. May I be your king tonight?

Rudra

Simba’s and Nala’s childhood brings nostalgia. Rudra spent his entire youth with Shiva and they were both free spirits. Watching these lion cubs brings back many funny memories.

Rudra’s favourite moment is Simba’s reunion with Nala. He gets mad if he notices you smirking.

Parvati, Kali, Durga and Shiva

You decide it’s time for girls’ night out.

None of you is focus on the movie, it’s just an addition. You mostly talk and laugh. Very loud that it may attracts Shiva.

He just sits down between you with Whatcha doin’? then proceeds to eats all the popcorn and other snacks like vacuum cleaner.

[audsthoughts]

I get it, live actions aren’t for everybody and that’s totally fine. Not everyone’s gonna like it. But to shit on the stupidest things, or draw the dumbest conclusions??? Blocked. Y’all look dense as fuck. Views will be mixed as they always are, quit clogging up the tags with your negativity and find some chill 😂 The originals are still there to watch or read and enjoy…so go do that…it’s literally on the same app 👏🏻 I’m trying to be understanding I am, but some of y’all are so damn hung up you’re letting it completely destroy something you’d otherwise enjoy

Anyways!! Here’s some of the stuff I loved from the atla live action!

•cinematography, soundtrack, costumes - all on point

•getting to see the airbenders flourishing!!! Also the dude who played Gyatso?! Didn’t think I could love him more!! Even though it was painful as FUCKKKK getting to see the first invasion of the fire benders was an epic masterpiece

•speaking of, the first scene?? With the earthbender soldiers in the fire nation?? Iconic

•Omashu: unpop opinion I’m sure (bc y’all hate change but simultaneously hate when it’s carbon copy????????🤦🏼‍♀️) I loved how they incorporated like 3 or 4 episodes into one, and they flowed really well together. Jet is FOINEEE. Mechanist was perfect & his son is a freaking badass, amazing casting! Even though it was change, the secret tunnel scenes were still really freaking cool and the badgermoles were SICK AS FUCK. Also I love that Bumi was still cooky but not just randomly cooky? Like mans was run down from being king basically the entire war…which FAIR. And it made sense that he was peeved with Aang BECAUSE they were such good friends. Like the other avatars being mad at him? Yea that’s whatever. But for Bumi it was kinda personal. Also CABBAGE MAN WE MISSED YOU 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 Oh! And the way they mentioned other episodes like they were lore when Zuko was trying to find Aang? That was an amazing way to tie back to the OG series

•I love how they incorporated the blue spirit, Koh, the fog of lost souls & parts of the ep where sokka and Katara got sick & Aang had to get them frogs - just reimagined it. Oh also Hei Bai! Yea, I loved that whole episode. Koh & Hei Bai were SCARY as fuck, it was awesome!!

•HAHN MY BELOVED…I ADORE YOU! Favorite character that they added/changed. Katara getting the other women involved in the battle?! Tui & La? The oasis?! 😭😭 stunning!!!! I also LOVEDDDDD Aangs avatar spirit that he turned into, literally perfect! And I loved the change that he gave himself over to the spirits wrath..fucking SICK. Also right before aang turned into the spirit/whatever that’s called, I was praying they’d do the line and thEY DIDDDD!!!

•Fire lord Ozai?? 😳😚 nothing needed to be said - perfection

•Kyoshi?! The Kyoshi warriors?! SUKI?! - speechless

•I like that they’re making more of a point to show how smart Sokka is! Mechanist calling him an engineer…I hope they play more into that! Ik they did a bit in the show with the subs (cartoon), but still

•”~hE rAn~” seriously my favorite line, I was DYINGGGG!!! The scenes with Zuko and Iroh, Zuko before the war meeting, the leaves from the vine being in the background at the funeral….ARE YOU FUCKING WITH ME?! Zuko’s crew being the crew he SAVED?! And when they find out they all do the fire nation bows to their prINCE?! 😭😭😭😭

I’m being fair y’all - things I don’t love/hope they change:

•this one I’m 50/50 on - I don’t love that they tried to give Kuruk a reason for disappearing. They tried to pull shit from Korra to make him look meaningful & not useless as an avatar and it didn’t hit for me

•some of the wigs: obviously we won’t see Yue again, but I wanted her hair to be white. I didn’t love the wig but it wouldn’t have been as bad for me if it wasn’t so grey. Also do NOT love Azula, Tylee or Mai’s hair. Ik they look just like the show but whether that’s wigs or their actual hair (I’m clueless) it needs some serious improvement. Azula’s looks great down, I just don’t like how big the side pieces are that frame her face when it’s up.

•Katara, my love, I am PRAYING part of your development is also going to be her becoming more outspoken and badass, bc this season we saw the tiniest of glimpses of it, not a fan (unless it’s a part of her development…she did grow up in a tiny ass tribe so I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt)

• IK they’re going with a much more serious Aang, but pleaseeeee give us some actual moments of him being a kid. We saw that like twice 😭

•Dante is the PERFECT ZUKO, I will hear NO slander. However, I need him to be more of a dick. I’m hoping we’ll get that when he gets super desolate when they’re on the run & then we have Zuko alone & he has his inner battle. I need snarky dickhead Zuko, so you can truly see the big differences between what he’s fighting (himself vs. who his dad wants him to be)

Have fun kids!

In case I haven’t made it clear, idgaf if you disagree. I go so hard for these live actions because it’s fun! It’s just supposed to be fun and different and new. If you get so serious about it you’re ALWAYS going to be disappointed, there’s no way around it bc nothing is ever going to be as good as the original book, the original show, the original tale. OG atla is ALWAYS gonna be the winner, nothing will compare! So sit back ~relax~ and find some joy in the little things

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Do you think they should have made Colt a good father to Felix? Or are you fine with him being a bad father?

I don't think that Colt should have been anything. He died off screen before we even met Felix and Felix is a minor character. Why is he getting more backstory development than Kagami when Tomoe is alive and actively involved in the plot? Wouldn't it have been far more interesting if the play was her story?

But if we must include the mustachioed cowboy man, then I would make him a good father or, at the very least, a mediocre one. I'd do this for reasons that have nothing to do with me wanting Felix to have a happy childhood. I'm fine with him having a tragic past! The problem is that this is a story and, in terms of story telling, there is no reason to give him a tragic past. It adds nothing to the story. In fact, I'd even go so far as to say that it detracts from the story, but we'll get to that in a minute. First let's go over why it's a pointless addition.

In his titular episode, Felix is a brat who tries to destroy Adrien's life. Those actions actually made more sense when we thought that Felix loved Colt and was acting out over Adrien not coming to Colt's funeral. Now that we know the full story, we're left asking, "Okay, so, why did Felix do any of that?" And don't say that it was to help him get the ring because it didn't help him get the ring. He got it from hugging his uncle and there were far simpler ways to get a hug.

And why did Felix even want the ring? That has yet to be explained because, in Strikeback, he was planning to go out of the country as "Adrien" without ever offering to exchange the ring. He simply stole the fake peacock and got out of dodge. He had no possible way to know that Ladybug would come to him for help, allowing him to offer up the miraculous and use the ring to sweeten the pot. I also don't believe for one second that he needed to sweeten the pot. He could have offered up the miraculous and nothing else and Gabriel would have gone for it. So once again, what was the plan with the ring, Felix? What was the plan?

While we're on the topic of Felix getting the peacock, Colt being abusive adds nothing to that plot either. Whoever has the peacock can snap any sentimonster out of existence. Felix could have the best damn childhood on the planet and it would still make perfect sense for him to want the peacock!

The only reason to make Colt abusive is if you want to explore that and use it to develop Felix's character, but I have absolutely no faith that they're going to do that. Colt is the Jagged Stone nonsense all over again. They're introducing a very serious issue that would dramatically affect the psyche of most people and then acting like it's no big deal. I think I saw someone say that Colt was only introduced to shut up the people calling Gabriel and Emilie abusive by showing us "real" child abuse as if abuse was an Olympic sport and you need to qualify for the team. I'd buy that theory, but I wouldn't bet money on it.

Even if I'm wrong and they are going to explore Felix's trauma, I still think it's a bad move. There's a thing called compassion fatigue. It's commonly experienced by health care workers who deal with traumatic cases day in and day out, resulting in thing like the inability to feel compassion for your patients because your compassion meter has been rung dry. You can experience a lesser form of this just from watching the news. Story after story of people in need to the point that you're desensitization to these events evoking horror or sorrow.

When you're telling a story, you need to keep this phenomena in mind and be very careful when introducing multiple sources of trauma. The more trauma you introduce and the quicker you introduce it, the less impactful that trauma will be for your readers. If you're a good writer, then it will also be less impactful for your characters. Allow me to explain with a quick example.

I had a brief Marvel phase and, while I never wrote anything for that fandom, I made up a few stories in my head. A lot of them revolved around my favorite character, Tony Stark (aka Iron Man). Tony becomes Iron Man after being kidnapped by terrorists and I love confessions of traumatic backstories, so I was working out how to do one for him and the Avengers to help bond the team. Then I realized that his teammates are all orphans and that the majority of them were raised in poverty. Most of them have also gone through scientific experimentation of some sort and not all of it was voluntary. In other words, in the world of the Avengers, Tony's trauma isn't really special. His team might sympathize with him, but they wouldn't be deeply impacted by his story the way I wanted them to be because most of them have gone through equal or worse trauma.

Circling back to Miraculous: they keep heaping trauma on these kids and it's a terrible move. When Adrien was the only character with a messed up home life, things were interesting.

Now? Well, this is the current list of characters with a messed up home life: Kagami, Zoe, Chloe, Adrien, Felix, Luka, Juleka, and probably Lila. Add in Rose's serious illness, Mylene's mother abandoning her, and Marinette's traumatic past dealing with a straight up hate campaign on top of all the trauma introduced over the course of canon and I just don't care anymore. I am drained dry. They have introduced way too many serious elements without exploring any of them in depth and that is a massive writing faux pas.

Generally speaking, when telling stories, you should default your characters to whatever a happy home life is in their universe unless you're going to do something with the non-happy home life. Non-happy home lives complicate stories and you don't want to introduce a complication if you're never going to explore it. This is why I think that Colt should have been at least a decent parent. It's also why you'll see me say that Emilie should be at least a semi decent parent even though canon has made that option impossible unless you ignore a lot of the unpleasant implications found in Adrien's backstory.

While I love evil villain couples, Emilie is in a coma, so she can't be Gabriel's co-conspirator and I personally have no interest in her waking up to start a new villain arc. When she wakes up (or finally dies), the Agreste's story is over and so she basically has to be nonthreatening for that ending to work. It also circles back to the issue of keeping the trauma tight and focused so that the trauma you do include really pops!

Reminder that the above is a discussion of story telling, not a commentary on what makes real people interesting or the commonality of home life issues. There's also nuance I didn't get into because this was already really long. Writing trauma well is a really fascinating and complex topic.

[codenamesazanka]

Two things I'm noticing more with the series ending is that the heroes and series have these two very shitty ideas

1 "Actions have consequences but only if the person is labelled a villain,"

Endeavor as a public figure and major player law enforcement has engaged in a list of crimes including: Child neglect, mental & emotional abuse, physical abuse, quirk marriage. To the point his eldest had a mental break when his youngest was born because he was blatantly being replaced, his wife five years later has a mental breakdown and maims the youngest, eldest shortly after has another breakdown and 'dies'. Doesn't need consequences he just needs to give a half ass apology and barely improve over the buried bar he has set.

(from the team up mission side series) Man's quirk dispels a poisonous gas from his mouth, he is not allowed to use it ever as he isn't a hero. The gas builds up leading to a medical emergency, and is no longer able to hold it back. Despite him literally having a medical emergency and being unable to control it, tries to getaway from people. The heroes (Mirko, Deku, and Dynamight, maybe more) assume maliousness and go to attack him. Deku realizes and informs the others what is happening. And at the end Deku informs us, this man who was having a medical emergency from following the law, will get a light sentence.

The violent quirkists who attacked Spinner, Shoji, Himiko's parents, they totally don't need consequences, their victims need to be the ones to inspire them to stop. And if they can't well we can't be expected to hold these poor violent quirkists accountable for their actions

Etc

2 So long as there is one exception to shitty behaviour of heroes & society, nothing needs to be done

I haven't watched the third movie but I have a general idea. Rody has to care for his younger siblings after his dad is kidnapped, heroes, social services, etc do nothing to help this child who is caring for his siblings for years. Deku who isn't even from this country helps once, Heroes are perfect

Deku's a good hero so we don't need to worry about the commission having assassin's

Etc

I'm in a rush but I can probably think of more later

(That Team Up Mission chapter pissed me off so bad!!!! It qualifies as a medical emergency, doesn't it??? He has no control over the poisonous gas build-up in this body! And it destroys his body! But to release the gas is to use his quirk, so he can't, because quirk use is illegal and he'll be arrested as a Villain. Which happens anyways! And in the end, Deku says "when the full story of the day's events hits the news, there's sure to be a petition to lighten his sentence," and while that sounds hopeful, you realize that mercy for this guy is solely on if people know and can offer some sympathy. It's so fucked up.)

I'll also add Iida running off to be a vigilante and kinda ready to murder a guy... but because (he had friends who got there in time to stop the screw up from going FUBAR and) he's promising young student, he's let off the hook. (Meanwhile, Gentle, who tried to help save someone, does fuck up, and iirc is expelled and given criminal charges.)

I think in all the examples you've used, there's also a line between whether quirks were involved or not. Domestic violence, bullying, village blood cleansing (jfc) - No (or technically no) quirk use, so we don't really see those actions resulting in any legal consequences. Heroes' (and the story's) focus is on Villains, so it often feels like they're willing to ignore non-Villain crimes.

So long as there is one exception to shitty behaviour of heroes & society, nothing needs to be done

Oh yeah. This. I hate this.

Man I really hope the epilogue might address this. (said without hope)

Thank you for your observations and sharing them!

[dropintomanga]

The Accidental Trauma of the Negators (Undead Unluck)

The past few years, the word trauma has been thrown around a lot. Everyone's going through something. While one can argue who is suffering more, there's one thing that's certain - we still don't know how to talk about trauma in a healthy manner that heals everyone involved.

And I see this in the case of the Negators in Yoshifumi Tozuka's Undead Unluck.

Undead Unluck starts off with a young girl named Fuuko Izumo wanting to kill herself after causing a lot of death around her. She curses how unlucky she is until a mysterious person named Andy shows up to save her. Andy is someone who is looking to die as he is living a virtually-immortal existence. He believes Fuuko is the key to dying and decides to drag her on an adventure that would end up joining an organization made up of people with unique powers like themselves called Negators.

The Negators are individuals that have abilities that negate certain rules placed by the God of their world and by beings known as Uma. These abilities usually start with an "Un-" prefix, so Undead and Unluck are on the list. How those abilities are activated can be random, but there's consequences. Once Negators awaken to their power, they end up causing tragedy to those they love and most of the time, they kill them.

I'll talk about 3 Negators in particular.

Fuuko Izumo (Unluck) - Due to her ability to generate extremely bad luck on those she loved the most, her parents were killed in an airplane crash when she was 8 and with them. Three years later, Fuuko kissed her grandfather and he ended up dying some time after

Tatiana (Untouchable) - Her Negator ability activated at the age of 5 and destroyed an entire town as anything near her would be incinerated, including her parents.

Chikara Shigeno (Unmove) - When his Negator ability activated, he accidentally caused his parents to not be able to move by looking directly at them in front a speeding truck. Hence their imminent deaths.

You can guess why I want to talk about those 3 in particular - because they accidentally killed their parents.

In mental health, there have been cases of people living with mental illness who killed their family members. While this may not be shocking to some, it's still harboring to hear and a risque subject to talk about. Years ago, while working the front desk at my local NAMI, I took a phone call from a woman who was looking to inquire about what to do regarding her brother, who killed their parents. She was in tears and I said I understood and transferred her over to the helpline.

I recently listened to two stories about people who accidentally took the lives of others. One story focused on a woman who ran over a homeless person near an expressway. While she was mourning the loss and processing what she did, everyone around her was like "Oh, that person was just an outcast to society. You don't need to mourn them." The woman didn't know how to take that. The second story was about a man who was struggling with alcohol addiction for years. Things came to a head when he killed a small group of family members while drunk driving. While the man is making amends through advocacy work against drunk driving, he can't help but wonder if he will truly be forgiven for what he did.

What's scary is when you accidentally kill someone, it's easy to let the trauma define your entire identity. Fuuko, Tatiana and Chikara were like this before meeting Andy. They were afraid that their powers couldn't help anyone. They felt that they couldn't redeem themselves no matter what. If the 3 of them can't get close to anyone anymore, then so be it.

Thankfully, all three have managed to find ways to cope and grow. Fuuko realizes how much her power can save lives and knows how much her parents loved her. The best thing Fuuko can do was live and protect those she cares about just like her parents once did. Tatiana felt the same after Fuuko befriends her without judgement of her past actions. Chikara admits that his parents want him to live first and foremost while being kind to those who need it.

I will not lie that society will always judge anything violent in a black or white manner. I just wish that those who know they did something devastating are treated with compassion by more than just people similar to them. In Undead Unluck, the Negators only get sympathy from fellow Negators. The God who "blesses" them only sees them as pawns to be played with.

It's okay if you can't forgive yourself as long as you don't fall into total despair. Try to make the world around you a better place. If you can't, then definitely make your inner world a better place. And definitely find a community that you can feel safe and at peace with. This is why I appreciate Undead Unluck and understand why it was made a big deal at Anime NYC in 2023. Community (and some professional help) goes a long way to heal the trauma.

And more importantly, try to honor the victims as best you can. Do good for their sake.

There's absolutely no good card for this at all, but shrinking yourself to the abyss and wanting to die like some Negators have felt is not a good answer to live up to any grave mistakes you made. Do the UN-believable and prove to the awful voice that unfairly blames you that you are so much more than what you did.

If you are or know someone who accidentally hurt or killed someone, the Hyacinth Fellowship is a place to find help and I totally recommend visiting their website at: https://hyacinthfellowship.org/

[marcynomercy]

Fate written in blood

I have a doubt, do you think the narrative is running? Something very shallow? Please tell me that I will improve the writing.

Thank you @tragedybunny for beta-reading.

Summary: The blood has always been her way until the day that fate changed, After being kidnapped by mind flayers and the fall of the Nautiloid Calamity had a new opportunity for freedom and strangely her fate crossed with that of Astarion when the elf put that dagger around her neck. 

 Their fate until now was written by others, but now they would write with their own hands in blood. 

Warnings: Violence, blood, game events, mentions of trauma, distress/comfort, mention of abuse, flashback of torture. (That’s it for now)

Ship: Astarion and Calamity (Tav), Shadowheart and Carniex (Tav), mentions of other characters.

Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3.

Chapter 2 - Pleasant cold

They got up early and left the camp to continue their search, Calamity had previously planned their actions and done it in a way that they could readjust quickly if something during the day changed the plans. It was  something she learned in her work. Never rely on a single plan, always have options and anticipate possible setbacks.

 So first she decided to go behind the place that had the letter she found in that hidden Kagha chest. The Grove didn’t seem to be a bad place to have as a "resource" and it was a safe place, so it would be very bad if it was closed because of that ritual of thorns. Doing so earned them a fight with some guardians, but that was no big deal as the answers were worth it.

"Oh, apparently Kagha was really getting involved with who shouldn’t be." Calamity hummed with a satisfied smile on her lips.

"So... what are you planning?" Astarion asked, annoyed. 

"Something that benefits us in the long term until we find this Halsin." She replies holding onto the letter. "Now let’s continue and take a look at the temple that was infested by goblins. It would be good to take a look to make sure what we will face when the time comes."

 They were relatively close to the site so it wasn’t a problem, just before entering the ruined village they found the group of adventurers who were in the Grove before whose leader was the same guy that Calamity had punched. After a little dialogue with him and getting the information about a reward for a treasure called "Night Song" they made their way to that temple. The first time she used the tadpole’s powers was in the entryway  with the goblins by reading one of their minds and using that to get in smoothly.Then in a few steps before crossing a bridge they fell to the ground being crushed by a terrible power and a voice that oppressed them demanding obedience. They managed to get rid of it thanks to the artifact that Shadowheart carried. 

 Shadowheart was revealed to be a follower of Shar at this point Being honest, Calamity didn’t really care much for it, only worried about the artifact. What was he? Why did Shar want him? Because he could protect them? Who were those people in the vision they had? What did it all mean? Without these answers she could only rely on the cleric oath to keep this artifact safe even if it cost her life.

 They passed through the party and the guards, the temple desecrated with the goddess statues broken and destroyed, that yielded depressive and sarcastic comments from Shadowheart now that she felt more free to express her beliefs. A goblin was branding the followers with hot iron and turned to them with a certain enthusiasm. She called them "True Soul" and offered the brand - something that was immediately denied. Then a familiar sensation, darkness seems to swallow the temple, leaving them with a vision of the goblin priestess, receiving instruction from a handsome young man. One of the Chosen… The vision dissolves away. They stand before the goblin priestess in the temple once again, Calamity severed the connection abruptly, now she knew that this goblin also carried the parasite.

 She said something about shadows in her mind and offered to help.

"That’s a bit particular..."  Calamity replied.

"Of course we go to my chapel, where it is private, we don’t let others interfere in the dealings between us True Souls."

 They followed her to the place, the door was closed and the priestess called them closer.

"Ready to clear your mind?"

 Until that moment everyone thought that Calamity would make the stupid decision to trust this goblin, Astarion himself was rolling his eyes at the situation.

"Actually, I changed my mind..." Calamity smiled sweetly saying these words calmly and in the blink of an eye her hand moved and the goblin’s throat was cut. "I’m gonna kill you now."

 The priestess fell to the ground,blood gushed, and everyone was staring at the atrocious scene. And when she pulled that blade? The most disturbing was the smile she kept on her lips, a sweet and innocent smile that became disturbing in this situation. Astarion was perplexed by the way she hid her murderous intent, none of them realized, HE did not notice. 

 "True Souls, they’re infected like us but think they’re thinking talking to a god." she commented, rifling through the goblin’s body.

"Was this the intended destination for us? Blessed in ignorance to think we could talk to a God? What joke of bad taste..." He mocked angry in the end.

 When the priestess tadpole abandoned her body everyone was disgusted, but this power... her body moved on its own from the influence of the tadpole. Calamity just accepted it and kept the tadpole for now. She knew she should not trust this, should not accept, but at the same time, something within her wanted this power and desired more. Unfortunately they could not go very far after finding the secret passage, they began to feel some symptoms and preferred to take a rest at the camp. The heavy air, the sweat and the sore fingertips.

That was not good. 

 Lae'zel attacked Calamity by putting a dagger around her neck saying they were transforming. Everyone told her to put down the blade and stop it. Tempers began to flare, mixed with pain, fear, despair and distrust. Calamity’s head hurt again... she hated this atmosphere, this feeling. She was drowned in the same for many years and now everything could end up that way. No, she wouldn’t let me.

  She used the tadpole to spy on Lae'zel’s mind and felt the uncertainty and disgust. She used it to convince her that it was just a fever and that it would pass with a rest. 

"Gah, I don’t trust my own mind. So I think I should trust yours. I will wait. But know this I will be watching. If the sickness does not pass, come dawn... I will end us all." 

That threat was a beautiful knot in the stomach for everyone and that night was difficult. But then a figure appeared in her dreams... with the face of her brother.

 The dream visitor was wearing his face and said he was protecting her, this was a very low blow to her as she only trusted him briefly because of the face he was wearing. He promised that when she woke up she would be better and... really he did not lie. More questions hit her mind and when talking to all her companions the stories hit, same dream same message. 

 Unmasking Kagha was easy and quick, getting rid of the shadow druids was simple and with that they ensured the Grove as a safe point. Calamity talked to the druids about Halsin who had not yet found him, but did not believe he was dead . Her suspicions were that he would  be stuck somewhere in that lair since if they had killed a druid who could turn into a bear the least they could do was have his head was stuck on  a spear and displayed as a trophy. 

 Astarion remembered the scene from the previous day, the way she kept that same pleasant and calm expression while slicing the goblin’s throat. The slight smile drawn on her lips, the smile she was now using to be friendly to the druids and the tieflings... he was impressed how vile she could be and still maintain the appearance of "good girl". 

"We chose a wolf in sheep’s clothing as leader." He commented.

"I don’t think it’s bad, I even like this side of her is practical and makes people lower their guard easily." Shadowheart argued, watching her too. "And she doesn’t really seem like a bad person."

"No?" Astarion questioned.

"Look at her well." Gale said watching her talking to the children. "She saved that girl from Kagha, that boy from the harpies  and was being kind to the others Look into her eyes, see the compassion reflected in her and that’s something you can’t fake Astarion."

  Astarion said nothing more, really she had this compassionate look at that moment while interacting with the children and he became even more confused. How could a killer like her have such a side? Be so ruthless and at the same time so kind.

 The village seemed to have good resources and while exploring ordinary conversations became natural.

"So Calamity, do you have  some love waiting for you in the city?" Shadowheart asked humorously.

"I don’t have time for romance." It was an anticlimactic response for the group.

"Really? So who were you looking for?" Astarion asked curious. "It was impossible not to notice you scouring the rubble of the fall."

"I was looking for my twin brother, we separated before I was kidnapped, and maybe he was taken too, but after not finding him I think he was lucky not to have been taken."

"Or in the worst case, he is one of those ignorant people we meet." Astarion replied, hardly interested.

"Hope that’s not the case." Calamity warned. " My brother is as skilled as I am and much more brutal. Even I would have trouble facing him in a fight... and I would hate that." Her voice became a weaker tone and had a lot of regret, her feelings were clear. 

"It’s understandable, twin ties are often very strong I can only imagine how painful it must be for you to be in that position." Gale laid his hand on her shoulder and even though it was barely noticeable, Astarion saw the way she trembled even for a second in aversion to touch.

"Thank you, Gale, well let’s hope he’s had better luck."

Unfortunately not everything was quiet after all. A devil appeared, playing his game with rhymes of a poem and dragging them to a banquet hall.

"Great now I have a devil in my pocket? Continue with your rhymes and offerings, I will never accept." Calamity was firm in her words. 

"Still, I’ve a feeling you’ll change your mind before it’s changed for you. Try to cure yourself. Shop around - beg, borrow, and steal. Exhaust every possibility util none are left. And when hope has been whittled down to the very marrow of despair - that’s when you’ll come knocking on my door. Hope. Hahaha! Such a tease."

"Keep dreaming about it, no matter how much despair I’m in, even if it’s death before me, I’ll NEVER make a pact with you." The certainty she had in her words and in her eyes made everyone be impressed, even Raphael.

"Hahahaha, I’ve heard those words before and only one was true to them... hum."  He approached her and held her chin to better see her face. 

 The way Raphael looked at her, that he looked in the back of his eyes as if he were spying on his soul. Calamity pushed him in disgust.

"What an interesting twist."

"Are you done with your silly little game?" she mocked.

"I believe your words, but what if it was to save someone else? Your brother perhaps?" Calamity was losing patience to the point of moving her  hand to pull her sword.

 Astarion was faster and held her wrist.

"Are you crazy?! Think well before you act." He warned as he received an angry look from her.

" What a sad situation perhaps I should do a little favor."

"Leave him out of this devil! You made your offer and I denied it!"

"For now." Raphael, with a gesture, teleported them back to the village and the group looked in.

 Calamity was very upset, that devil quoted her brother and he was right... If it were for him, she would make a pact without hesitation.

"Now there’s a bloody devil trailing after us? This gets better and better." Astarion commented angrily.

 I think he wants something from us. Badly. " Gale commented thoughtfully and worried.

"Sure he does, but apparently he’s devoted special attention to our dear Calamity."

"No matter. We’ve dealt with every other oddity thrown at us lately - we can handle this one too. Now, as for this “Raphael”... He knows our secret, he claims he can help… what do you make of him?" Shadowheart asked.

"We don’t trust him, simple!" Calamity responded adamantly. 

"No doubts at all? Good. That’s what I wanted to hear. He’s clever, my order uses the same tactic when dealing with enemies of Shar. You don’t need a scourge or a rack to break people. Fear and self-doubt are sufficient. When actual pain comes, the victim’s already done the heavy lifting for their torturer. There were no right answers with that devil. He was toying with his food - us."

"I didn’t realise you were so… well-versed in mental and emotional torment. It’s a good thing to know."

"And it seems that you are very familiar with this, did not doubt and did not hesitate even though you lost the line by having your brother cited."

"What can I say, part of the trade. I just... Never mind, we need to focus on the current goal and prepare to kick a devil’s ass if we have to." 

 Back at the camp after an exhausting day, Raphael returned to Calamity’s mind. Her concern was turned to her brother but maybe Raphael is the least of the problems, two days... she had been missing for two days. What would they be doing with him now?

 Were they torturing him? Or worse? 

 The best chance is he’s chained up in his room... Shadowheart is right, fear and doubt is sufficient. She was too thoughtful even now in front of the fire listening to the conversation of her companions, her attention was not really there.

"So we’ve all talked a little bit about ourselves at least enough for this group to work." Astarion said looking at Calamity. "But our leader hasn’t said much yet Sorry darling, but I think it won’t hurt to say a little bit."

She stared at him but without any hostility and sighed.

"Well, what can I say? I’m an assassin in Baldur’s Gate... I’m part of the Assassin’s Guild, being more specific."

Astarion raised a puzzled eyebrow.

"Are you referring to the Assassin’s Guild of underworld city? The one that clashes with the Thieves Guild over business?" 

She agreed with a nod.

"Me and my brother... well they called us Black Dogs."

 Silence. 

 Astarion stared at her in shock, even he had heard of them. A pair of terrible assassins who accept any job, the nickname came on account of their unwavering loyalty to the Guild Masters. Without question, without hesitation, they did the work, and it was always so bloody that even the cultists of Bhaal were impressed.   

"You are very different than I imagined." Astarion broke the silence.

"I don’t appear to be someone with blind loyalty? Of course not, I was bound to be so. They recruited us when we were very young, we had no other option to survive and they took advantage of that. They trained us, tortured us, they no longer wanted subordinates with ambitions and opinions of their own." She laughed. "No... They wanted dogs that would obey any order without complaining or hesitating. And that would be happy with it, well that last part we learned to pretend very well. Funny, it was thanks to all this confusion I finally managed to think more clearly for myself after years... I ruined the night apparently, I’m going back to my tent." She got up and left.

 It was dark, she was back in that place, chained to the wall. She was facing the floor... what are they going to do with her?

"Hello little girl." A dark-haired elf entered the room and stood in front of her. " Look at me!" He ordered and she obeyed. "Much better, you know you’re going to be punished for letting that child escape, right?"

 Right, they were ordered to kill a noble family of the city... all of them without exception, but when she saw that crying child cowering in a corner felt pity and guilt, she helped that child escape.

"Can we get started?" A Drow entered the room dragging her twin brother with her.

"B-Brother? Wait! I WAS THE ONE WHO MADE THE MISTAKE! I SHOULD BE PUNISHED! PLEASE LEAVE MY BROTHER ALONE!" She pleaded, begged in tears.

"Oh my dear doll..." the elf bent down and held her face. "It wouldn’t be an effective punishment if I just beat you or tortured you, no...  it hurts you much more if he suffers." She was trembling in despair.

 The Drow chained the half-elf boy facing Calamity so that she would be able to see his face perfectly while he was tortured in her place.

"Caly, don’t worry, it’s okay." Her brother tried to comfort her, but then he screamed in pain as he felt  the flesh of his back being torn by Drow’s blade.

 The first cut was made slow and very precise.

"NO!" She fought, pulling the chains that bound her arms. "LEAVE HIM ALONE!"

 It did not help, the Drow continued cutting him slowly and agonizing. He screamed at every cut scratching his back while his sister was forced to watch and see his face in pain. 

"See? Your brother is suffering because YOU made a mistake! You are to blame for his suffering, every cut of his back is your fault!" The elf grabbed and pulled her hair, forcing her to keep her eyes on the scene.

"Brother... Carnifex... Carn... forgive me..." She cried his name as she watched the torture. "FORGIVE ME PLEASE!" 

 

Calamity woke up with a suffocating a scream. It was just a nightmare... a nightmare and a memory. 

 She wiped the sweat from her face and sighed heavily... hell. He may be suffering again that same way alone now, and it’s her fault... it’s always gonna be her fault. 

 "Carnifex my brother... You forgive me, don’t you?"

 She got up and left the tent. Looking around, it seemed that everyone was still sleeping. She walked quietly to the river near the camp and felt that near the shore, the water reflecting the night sky was a calm sight for a disturbed mind. 

 After that day that she watched her brother being tortured she never dared to have mercy on anyone... even if it was a child. 

 She was tired, but  didn’t feel like sleeping anymore, so she just took off her boots and put her feet in the water, it was cold but pleasant. Calamity hugged her knees and took advantage of the calm and cold sensation of the water against her skin. 

"Oh... I didn’t expect you to be awake." It was Astarion’s voice, but she didn’t move. 

 Astarion had gone hunting and decided to come down to the river to wipe his face that could be stained with blood. But he did not expect to find Calamity huddled by the river.

   Honestly, he didn’t know what to think about her, but he had thought a little about what she said. She was shaped to be someone without opinions or ambitions of her own, practically an object so to speak... it irritated him. Now seeing her shrunk there without saying anything, out of curiosity he approached her and saw her eyes full of tears.

"Are you crying...?" he asked, surprised.

"Me? Crying?" She hadn’t even noticed the tears running from her eyes. "Oh... It’s been years since I’ve cried."

 Shit... she looked so helpless. 

 The expression so sweet and sad, but her eyes were empty and cold as a doll... it could drive someone crazy. 

"Astarion... Are you a vampire?" He froze.

"Why the question, dear?" He was sweating cold.

"Well... I don’t see your reflection." She replied tone innocent, as she pointed to the water.

 Unbelievable, he was caught by such an oversight because he lowered his guard to this vulnerable face?! He had to agree with Shadowheart, Calamity had a knack for keeping people off guard.

"Don’t worry, I won’t kill you." She declared at last.

"Excuse me?" he continued, perplexed.

"I have no intention of killing you, Astarion." She stated again with the same empty look and innocent expression.

 He just laughed it off.

"Hahahaha, gods... you really are a figure, dear Calamity." He sat next to her. "What will you have in return?"

"Pardon?" she tilted her confused head.

"Well, you’ll lie secret in exchange for what?"

"Nothing."  She answered automatically.

 Shock again, impossible! She wanted something, everyone always wanted something!

"Don’t be shy, darling, I know you want something." He insisted.

"I don’t want anything." She replied again.

 He looked into her eyes and saw nothing, ulterior motives, malice, lies... nothing but emptiness.

"You..." He held her face and kept looking into her eyes.

 Was that it? She was broken?

"Do you really not want anything? Even after being free?" 

"I want to remain free, and I want my brother to be free too, I want nothing more than that." This could not even be seen as ambition. 

"Gods below... I really thought you’d have some ambition, apparently I’ll have to teach you to be a little more ambitious." Her eyes lit up with these words.

 She looked like an innocent puppy.

 Calamity leaned back a little from his touch and wet her hands in the water and then wiped his face.

"Your face was a little bloody." She explained quickly, and then she held his face gently. "I like the touch of your skin, it’s cold and pleasant like river water."

 Was she serious? Few would say that the skin of an undead is something pleasant, but her words were so genuine and innocent. What was that feeling? For some reason he wanted to take care of her, why?

Well that’s it! Thank you for reading the second chapter.

@spacebarbarianweird @spacesquidlings@thechaoticdruid @vixstarria

Who wants to be tagged in the next chapters please tell me in the comments.

[idolofm4dness]

I'm currently in the middle of writing about Ninjago au. Centering the relationship between Lloyd and Harumi has a strong chokehold on me that I can't believe. I betrayed myself by shipping them with the rest of the ninjas and testing Lloyd about his crush. Its was a slap in the face. She was the villain of the second season. I was shipping them hard even though I have a love-hate relationship with shipping myself.

Bleeding Hearts au -

What if Lloyd and Harumi had a final fight where Lloyd, because of the saying "beware the anger of a good man times 100," confronts Harumi about her actions. Harumi gets her own version of the cave and now has a scene where Lloyd makes her see the pain she has caused. He points out all the people she hurt with the destruction of the Jade Palace, how she only focused on the king and queen, but her plan killed others who were innocent. He mentions that the people of Ninjago asking her if their praise Garmadon, and how, as saviors of Ninjago, people are living in fear as they know they're imprisoning people who should be against them. A protector is supposed to bring hope, not fear. Also, he is angry at her and the Sons of Garmadon.

He Agree with her about his father being a savior. He did it twice. As the great devour attack, he too saw him as a savior, but saw the good in him when he sacrificed himself to repent for what he did when he was evil, basically. They see what they did as disrespectful.

He's done playing nice with that girl, and I really want him to put on the mask of hatred, or else we'll have more glimpses of his oni side, showing that he hates her just as much. In her diary, it's explained that he seemed to care for her, but he talks about how she destroyed two people, Hutchins and him, who actually loved and cared about her. Let's be real, I love Lloyd, but sometimes I feel like he's too passive. He needs to go apeshit once in a while because the villains mess with him too much, and at some point, they're going to realize that they should stop mentally torturing him. He basically becomes her villain in a way. They say he was mostly inspired by a piece of fan art where Lloyd is a manifestation of Harumi's guilt. Also, he actually does try to rebuild his relationship with Garmadon.

My second AU is inspired by Revue Starlight. Funny enough, I've actually finished writing the first chapter for this one. In this AU, the two main characters are essentially like Karen and Hikari, but with a twist - they have bad blood and attend rival schools. In this version, they actually meet as children in a gift shop, where they both see the same play and quickly become friends, promising to become actors together like in the anime. I'm still working out the details, though. I haven't figured out Harumi's relationship with Lloyd in this AU because, unlike in the show, he isn't responsible for killing her parents. Her parents died in a car accident, which doesn't really involve Lloyd at all, so I don't know why she's so angry at him. I don't have much else planned for it, but I really like this idea. I was actually inspired to write this while re-watching some Revue Starlight revues, specifically the revue of the hunting. Is this is Anime is like figure out your problems via song. I feel their relationship is much better in this version and they actually do forgive each other.

if you guys wanna give me some suggestions, I like it to give us some suggestions of some revue titles.

[fireemblems24]

Golden Wildfire Ch 15 (Final)

Guys, I think this is finally it, the last chapter

MAIN STORY

We're . . . not going to get an answer about Shez, are we? Would I if I recruited Byleth?

Which, now that I think about it, that was really anticlimatic death.

Also, Claude wants Dimitri and Faerghus to survive, but Rhea to die. Edelgard doesn't want Dimitri and Faerghus to survive, but also wants Rhea to die. So why the hell is Claude letting Edelgard right Dimitri while he fights Rhea? What's stopping Edelgard from killing Dimitri and taking all the Faerghus land she desperately wants? He knows Rhea was only an excuse for her.

I guess just another "Claude is an idiot" point or the writers not giving a single shit about him or this route and only caring about Dimitri and Edelgard.

Claude is suddenly reading Dimitri's mind. He thinks Dimitri wants him to dissolve the central church. This is . . . beyond stupid. Claude is literally imagining the enemy wants he wishes the enemy would want. This is such a stupid thing to do in war. Dimitri has never showed signs of wanting the church dissolved.

Also, blaming all of Fodlan's problems on Rhea is so dumb and such childish thinking too.

They really were like, go Claude, we'll give you nothing! in the writer's room.

If I cared about Claude, I'd be livid. I doubt many Dimitri or Edelgard fans are upset though.

Man, the character list is so much smaller in this route.

MAP/SIDE BATTLES

So annoyed this one has a bunch of side quests. I'm sooooo close to finishing this game.

Aww, an Alliance NPC talked about how much she likes Seteth and hopes he survives.

Ouch! Yuri! When he questions the validity of Claude's plans, Shez assures him it's the only way to pave the future, and he has the audacity to say "I guess now isn't the time to be wondering who exactly is included in this future we're dreaming about." He's calling Claude out on his shit big time. Yuri just does not fit here.

Ashe keeps talking about Dimitri. He's miserable.

Hapi doesn't want to kill Rhea :(

Ohhh, interesting, so Raphael doesn't like how we've been fighting. Shez can agree or disagree. I agreed in both SB and GW. In GW, she says their actions are too haphazard, but in SB, she says they're being too brutal and not letting anyone surrender. Curious differences (ofc Raphael just wants to eat and party, that's what he disagrees with, it's Shez's perceptions that made me interested).

Gilbert and Dimitri talking. Dimitri arriving has boosted moral. But it's the same for his enemies.

Dimitri's concerned about Rhea and learns that they're prepared for battle. Dimitri can't help them :(

Dimitri ordered his citizens to evacuate because he's worried about what the Alliance will do, but isn't convinced Claude wants to destroy his Kingdom.

I love Dimitri doubling down on protecting his people above all else here. Gustave is upset about abandoning Rhea. Dimitri is too, but he's willing to be the bad guy if it saves a single life in Faerghus.

A side mission involved defeating Cyril :( And now Flayn :(

SHEZ & RAPHAEL A

Soldiers are happier. Shez can guess war turning in our favor or pay raise.

If you ever needed proof that Raphael is an idiot, he argues that wouldn't make sense because not everyone is motivated by money. Like, seriously, tell me a single soldier there who gives a flying shit about what some king says. The only route this wouldn't be true in is AG since they're fighting for their lives.

Anyways, it's actually the food.

Shez talks about how a good meal rather than scapes is a good motivator. And honestly, good point.

Raphael talks about being an innkeeper. Honestly, he'd be such a fun boss to have, but he'll need to hire someone to handle the logistics lol.

Raphael asks Shez to tag along. I can either be nice and agree or not make promises. Being mean to Raphael is basically bullying.

Shez either way still considers being a mercenary, but I love the idea of Shez and Raphael running an inn together.

LYSITHEA & RAPHAEL A

Wonder why they choose Lysithea of all people to reach A with Raphael.

She studied too long and is out after dark, so obviously scared. She tries to convince herself the weird noises is Raphael.

But it's not this time, bc he shows up and asks what's the creepy noise lol. Poor Lysithea.

Now she's properly freaked out. Poor girl.

It's probably just a cat, but she thinks it's a ghost.

Lysithea goes to investigate too or else she'll be alone.

I guessed wrong. It's a puppy, not a cat. Poor doggy is hungry, and Raphael knows the dog.

Lysithea is like, if you knew the dog, how come you didn't know that? lol.

HILDA & DOROTHEA B

A fan gave Dorothea a bracelet, and she appreciates the support. Hilda wishes she had one too.

Dorothea tells Hilda no one is better in the whole army at makeup and accessories.

The support addresses how Hilda makes her own accessories.

Dorothea talks about plant design trends. So like real life lol.

Hilda asks Dorothea about her makeup. She tries to stick for ones that are actually good for the body. Which, is really good considering what they used to use for makeup.

They want to keep chatting over tea.

Honestly, I love seeing two girls just chat about girly things without anyone putting it down.

It's nice, in general, how the Fodlan games don't put down the women who are really into fashion and the ones who don't care. Everyone is allowed to just exist, and it's great.

LYSITHEA PARALOGUE

Does she get her own because her paired up one is in SB?

She apologizes to Count Glouster for all the chaos Ordelia causes, but he apologizes for not taking care of it. She understands how important it is for him to protect the bridge.

Her father is buddies with Lorenz's father.

Shez comes with news about Ordelia under attack.

No one else can help. Lysithea says she didn't realize how Claude could be so cruel. Shez tries to defend him by saying she's all the way out here, and Lysithea claps back. Team Lysithea here.

Shez thought Count Glouster would we dead weight. She was right. Idiot almost died. Shez and Lysithea were fine.

He looks forward to the day both aren't leaders anymore so they can just be friends and thinks Lysithea would be a worthy heir :( Poor Lysithea, she faltered at that.

Glouster did nothing to help Lysithea's father because he led the pro-Empire nobles.

MARIANNE & YURI A

Yuri sees Marianne out late and worried that she was going to leave like she thought about, but she was just walking her horse.

Then we get the classic "..." and "..." response. Since the ye ole days characters have done that in FE supports.

Marianne is like, why were you worried, then goes off how she's just a burden, and Yuri is like stop that, now.

Yuri is allergic to horses and cats? :((( Poor guy. That would suck.

That's why he was always giving Marianne funny looks, because he was about to sneeze and she's always around horses, lamo.

It's nice seeing Yuri be nice. But if he was mean to Marianne, like how can you be mean to Marianne?

Yuri dreams of being able to spent time with the animals he's allergic too, so he accepts Marianne's offer to use magic to try to help. I hope it works.

HILDA & DOROTHEA A

Hilda is trying to figure out what's wrong with one of her accessories. She thinks it's missing something.

Dorothea offers to help out, and is really impressed with Hilda's craftsmanship. And honestly, there's a picture and it looks pretty.

Hilda likes Dorothea's suggestion.

Dorothea also offers to buy the accessories for the opera, and use that to advertise them too.

Hilda is more than happy with that suggestion.

Hilda actually wants to open her own school to teach people craftsmanship, and thinks she can partner with Dorothea on that too.

MARIANNE & IGNATZ A

A pegasus that Ignatz was helping said "bring me more hay, four eyes." to Ignatz, Marianne interpreted. She rightly called it rude lamo.

Ignatz used to ride pegasus with his mother, she used to be a pegasus knight. I wonder if that's why he wants to be a knight.

He was really impressed with the view, understandably.

It made him want to become a pegasus knight, but they're sexist lol. Women only.

That's why he wants to help with the pegasi so much, it's the closest he can get.

Marianne is like "I can feel your feelings in the paintings" and Ignatz freaks out until she keeps going and saying she can tell how much he loves pegasi. I wonder what he was so worried about . . .hmm . . . Liking Marianne just proves taste though.

Marianne thinks that maybe the pegasus will accept Ignatz. But I don't think it went well lol. She grabbed his clothing with her teeth, not on her back. OMG, poor Ignatz.

It ends with Ignatz begging for Marianne's help lamo.

MAIN (& FINAL) BATTLE

Alright, guys, this is it. 2/3 done once this battle is over. Sadly, I'll probably have to kill Rhea though. But who knows, she got to be the hero of SB in the end, maybe GW too, or is that asking too much?

Rhea's like I should've killed these bitches years ago (rather than protecting them after turning her genocided family into weapons, poor woman has seen some shit).

Rhea thinks she'll have the goddesses' protection. Too bad Sothis is dead :(

It seems like Rhea is expecting to die. She's telling Seteth and Flayn to run. And saying her time is at an end.

It's funny that Rhea also thinks she's fighting for the future and humanity because she thinks she knows what's best. She and Edelgard (and Claude in this route) are really the same. Then there's Dimitri, the only sane one who doesn't have a bloated ego that thinks he knows best for every living soul in Fodlan, in some case, without ever even talking to some people from a particular country (looking at you, Edelgard, ding dong thinks she can rule Faerghus better than Dimitri without ever even having bothered to TALK to someone from Faerghus).

OK, so why did Edelgard only get 40 points, but Claude gets 70?

OMG, one of Claude's tactics is to burn the enemies alive (elite archers turn enemies into ash, not sure how else to see that).

I don't want to kill Cyril two times in one night :( Thankfully, he retreated.

Great, now Alois is here, claiming he'll fight to the death, which seems major OOC even with Rhea under attack. This game really forgot that he had a family, didn't it? I think he, Claude, and Caspar got the biggest downgrades in writing.

Oh, shit, he died for real. And he mentioned his family this time.

I had to fight Seteth too, but he retreated, thankfully.

DON'T MAKE ME KILL MERCEDES!!!!

Oh, fuck, Cyril died :((( God.

Jeritza came to save his sister :(((( So he turned against the Empire in GW. That's kinda touching, much better than in Houses. Seems Mercedes is now flipping, better than having to kill her like poor Cyril and Alois.

Now I have to fight Flayn :( Thankfully, she withdrew.

Now I have to fight Seteth and Flayn again, but on the upside, Rhea did badass magic and took away my captured strongholds.

I'm not clear if Flayn died or retreated, but Seteth is pissed off at me.

Oh, thank God, they're both running away.

Time to kill Rhea :(

Cut scene time. Wow, Claude, that's rich. He's telling Rhea to go walk away. But, to like where? The guy's been hell bent on killing her and blaming her for everything from racism to arranged marriage this entire game?

Why the random flower getting crushed? Usually that's a sign of crushed renewal, not a brand new world like Claude's been blowing smoke about this whole route.

Lololol Idiot just realized Rhea's the Immaculate One.

Lamo, even in the final battle Marianne's not convinced Claude not coo coo for coco puffs.

More cut scene. Shez and Claude killing Rhea. Shez turned into Arval. Wonder what happens if you recruit Byleth.

This was such a watered-down version of SB's final battle. They both had Rhea as a final boss, but SB got Thales too and it was A LOT harder because of that. Either that or Lorenz is really that silly stupid good.

Another abrupt, non-ending.

Claude wanted the war to end, and shock of all shock, killing Rhea didn't work!!! The idiot. All those people died, for nothing. I also predict greedy assholes will still enforce hierarchies and be racist, even without Rhea.

This ending may have been even worse than SB's? Because at least Edelgard still has a goal she's working towards, it just cut off mid-way. Claude accomplished his and nothing changed - he only made the world worse.

Are either GW or SB better endings if you get Byleth? I'm betting that's what happens. Because that can't be the real ending, lol.

MVP time. Wonder when it'll turn into the Lorenz show. As soon as Ch 5, pretty much no one but Lorenz got MVP. He's just absurd, but in a boring way. He's invulnerable to damage, but doesn't play very fun. If I ever did GW again, I'd main Lysithea. She's a unit type I like way more, hella strong and fast, but low defense. Lorenz made GW super boring to play since I didn't have to think at all. He's that good of a unit.

It's funny seeing nothing but Lorenz's face on an endless scroll (except paralogues or like, women units only battles)

I can't believe I'm getting a letter from Lorenz. If I knew I'd get a letter, I would've picked a character I actually liked, like Marianne. Hubert's letter was better. Lorenz's was really generic.

Still pissed there's no paired endings.

And these endings are so bad, wtf. I'm glad I did this twice so I know AG is also just going to randomly end.

xxx

[unclassedguy]

The Details of Genderbend Naoya Au:

*yap incoming*

Just a collection of my thought process and ramblings about this collection of drawings to scratch the itch in my brain.

General ramblings:

This is not a fleshed out au. There isn't much of a storyline and I don't exactly know if I will ever make one.

The au doesn't follow the jjk canon apart from some general things like Toji leaving Megumi and Tsumiki etc.

The ‘story’ follows Naoya Zenin after an accident that should have killed him instead leaves him unscathed. That is, until he wakes up the next day with a girl's body, a kogane companion, and the ability to see strange creatures (cursed spirits) and people who should have been long dead.

Bro is basically now part of a culling game-esque event involving people who were saved from death like him, those who died long ago and were resurrected, and creatures that should have never entered the living realm. Some people such as him with bad karma for their actions, are given certain handicaps and/or punishments when they're brought back from death. Hence girl-Naoya.

But, by destroying the souls of beings with even more bad karma than you, you can gain points that will give you access to abilities (cursed techniques) or lessen your own punishment or handicap.

The Kogane function the same here as they do in canon.

Basically, this is me drawing fem Naoya with a bunch of extra steps 💀

Drawing one:

A lot of the ‘story’ of this au just happened randomly as I was doodling, Kenjaku and Takaba running Naoya over being part of that.

I wanted to draw Naoya reacting to him becoming a girl for the shits and giggle, yk, the sillies

And before I knew it I had Naoya getting run over by a truck 💀

The reason Takaba is the driver is because of that one scene in Kenjaku vs Takaba, Kenjaku is in the passenger's seat just because.

There is no reason as to what they're singing besides me wanting them to have been distracted by something goofy 

You might have noticed Naoya is holding something. Idk what it is though 

Its like….a wand…a club…? It's based off his first form as a cursed spirit, the one where he looks like a worm

Yes, his shirt does indeed say “why women deserve less”. It's based on that one fanart of him reading a book with the same title. 

Drawing two:

The first thing I thought of when I imagined Naoya going on a ‘quest’ to become a man again was that ant carrying a bindle.

(It gives pathetic energy, which i enjoy giving my Naoya drawings)

This is actually my first time drawing Hana, I actually like drawing her

I'm so sorry to people who like Nobara and Maki, I can't draw them that well 😭😭😭

I'm thinking Hana/Angel are trying to fix whatever is going on with the souls of the deceased/players, and are thus gathering allies (though they also want to defeat a certain king of curses even in this au as well 👀)

Naoya ends up joining her, Maki, and Nobara as allies (no one is happy about this)

They will put him in his place, especially Maki.

(I wonder what would happen if he met Yuki…)

Naoya and Hana is a combination I didn't think I'd ever draw interacting tbh 💀

But for some reason that's what ended up happening

Other thoughts:

It's so cute how the kogane have different designs sometimes based on who they belong to. It reminds me of the crows in kny.

I wonder if they're meant to represent something about each player???

For example, the one we see with Naoya when we're first introduced to his curse form has a skull like face, which we later see on Naoya's second curse form.

His looks so crusty and I love it

I rlly wanted it to be his companion in this au

Honestly, I was thinking Naoya upon turning into a girl would try everything he could to make himself look more traditionally masculine

But I still wanted to draw him in a skirt, you know, because

So…uh…yeah 👍

His ass doesn't even want to be a woman, but let's be fr, he be styling his hair in the mirror or some shit thinking things like ‘if only every woman paid half as much attention to how she holds herself as me!’ Thinking he's giving everyone a good example or something 💀

Stfu Naoya 

I have a third addition to this collection of drawings in the works. It'll probably be up in a few days, depending on if I have time to work on it or not. This will probably be the last piece of this au for a while.

Part 1 , Part 2 Edit: Part 3

[theburgessobserver]

ROTG canceled Sequel-SCRIPT!(Found media!!!)

La fin du monde

Extateres arrivent

The Moon made an announcement to the world at large revealing his true intentions: a mind like ourselves, an intellect vast and cool and unsympathetic regarding the plain of existence and our planet at the center of it with envious eyes and slowly but surely drawing his plan against us…

Tonight important news!ACTION NEWS MODESTO CA.

Greetings people of Earth I am Moon soon to be the grand ruler of all.I am here for my moonrocks to give them to me at once!

(Reporter 2)Wow!will you look at that

He made an address to the Earth

Saying it in every country in every language.

Bonjour les genstes de le terre earthy

Saudandons as gentsos de la terra firmy

Saluti,la gentes di terra earthy

Pozdrav vy genty na Zemisky terry?

I SAY Ello you lot down there and terra firma

I have come for you…all of you!

I have been there since the beginning every day growing stronger and fauxing you and your mighty military forces and alleged myths and legends. My Lunar fleet is ready so I can sail off the moon with my army of Lunar robots and Moths to annihilate your civilization afterwards.

When North saw this he calmly drank some cocoa and the flipped ultimate emergency switch.

Moon's forces attacked in the first wawe only the most important towns:New York,Paris,Los Angeles,Rio,Quebec,Pencaster,Pilsen, and Pontypandy,Wales.

This isn't a war, the Chief fire officer Boyce said. It never was a war, any more than there's war between man and ants.' Pontypandy doesn't have a single police officer let alone army base due to the town being involved in so many fires it was decided to give all the funds to the F.D. and canceled the other to keep the town in one piece.Which turned out to be an supringly unsurpisingly bad idea.

1-B1 Lancers were diverted on a there”milk run”to destroy the moons earth base.

The President had a quick speech

“My fellow americans…you know what I must do so let's just skip to it…and promptly pressed the Nuke launch button.”

North and Jack were having a great time talking about and eating rabbit stew and talking about boiled rabbits and how tasty they are unbeknowst to them Bunnymund was there.

In the secret underground safety bunker there was a big argument.

Gentlemen please!NO FIGHTING IN THE WAR ROOM!The President said.

Bunnymund was putting on at full blast the song LEGAL TENDER

Will you please turn that infernal racket off!!!!!!!!!

Cmon Monger we can't have the end of everything without a rocking song to go with it.

Frost manadged to redeem some of the robots with an big speech that made them realized the truth

"Uhhh...why are you bad?Why cant you be like..I dont know?Good?"

The robots imeaditly killed all there former friends which were also robots after this realization.

Moon came across a kid and said:WELL,WELL WELL If it isnt,Sandy!?His mother came in"His name is not sandy". "Shut up Toothiana"Moon replied

Bunnymund and his entire egg army was getting ready to fight

"Why must the world come to an end on Easter"he said to himself angrily.

NEWSPAPER:PREZ JIMMY CARTER SAYZ:TIME TO PRAY…

meanwhile

North was so speechless he lost his voice

Phil the yeti to Dingle the elf

“North has lost his voice!”

“I hope he finds it soon," Dingle said in reply.

Monger couldnt help but start to cry...sniff..."my entire life was but a prelude to this magic moment"He said while shoting armies of moonbots with rocket launchers...and seing sandys giant dynosaurs stomping them to pieces made him add"This is not a dream...its the great reality of life!"

Jack Frost was angry:MIM YOU HAVE KILLED MY FATHER!!!AGAIN!!!!HE WAS FURIOUS

“Now,when you came here I said you were fools who would never accomplish anything and would only die….and now I see….that I was right.

Meanwhile a mad scientist(actually not really mad, quite kind and cheerful)was busy at work creating…a boggity…boggity…MONSTER!!!!

Yes…the Monster…………..CHICKENSTEIN!!!!!!!!

HAPPY APRIL FOOLS!

[generalluxun]

For the ask game: 3, 9, 10, 15

3.) Part of canon that almost nobody understands.

Hmmm. There are many ways to take this. Maybe the Lore bc t's too confusing? 🤣

How about this- Chloé's home life. And it's not that nobody understands, but some people Very Vocally misunderstand or worse, misrepresent it. I don't blame fandom because the head writer himself denies the very truth presented on screen, so what are some kids to do? The abuse narrative accidentally(?) shown for Chloe is very detailed and clear, yet some will fight tooth and nail to justify the most bizzare takes on it. I spent a couple hours the other day having a baffled back and forth with someone who thought being sent away with an abusive parent was a good/Just/proper writing choice. By the end I got them to admit that having Andre just let Audrey(the woman he wouldn't stay married to because of how she treats him) take away his daughter was a *bad* thing to portray, but it took way too long to get there.

Still, small victories I guess.

9.) The three worst things about the source material.

a)The head writer's inability to take critique/his insecurity. So much time and energy is spilled 'proving him right' that we are losing out on better plotlines. When the man writers his twitter rants into the scripts, you know he's got a problem.

b)The end of Season 5. Just... yeah so much of it. Things wobbled now and then before, but man it went off the rails, burst into flames, and destroyed a nearby orphanage at the end there.

c)I don't know? Like, so much can be traced back to 'A' above, that it's hard to pick at other stuff? There's a root cause, and it permeates. If that were fixed, the rest wouldn't happen and you'd have a more coherent and healthy narrative.

10.) The three worst things about the fandom

a)Character Salt- Holy heck people. As a Chloe fan I expect some salt thrown her way, but Jesus in Heaven *waves at what people do to Alya* What the hell is THAT? Alya is amazing, she's a wonderful bestie, Salting her? WHY? It's insane. Salting Chloe goes way too far too. She is not your personal bully. This is not revenge porn. What about the Marinette/Adrien Stan one and Salt the other? What the heck is that? They're the main couple! If you want to salt the writing, do it! It's so full of holes Plagg thinks it's cheese. Leave these poor kids alone though.

b)Purity Tests- A different kind of 'salt' than above. There are big segments of the fandom who cannot handle the slightest analysis or critique of the media. Anything but a slavish devotion and acceptance of everything on screen as the best/rightest/most moral and ethical take is considered 'hater/salt' without question. Either you are ostracized for voicing any dissent, or actively attacked.

c)Segregation- Maybe it's something common now in fandoms, but I'm struck by how compartmentalized people are. There is very little flow between the spheres. Like Love Square? then you stay away from any rare pairs involving them. Lukanette? Love Square is your bane, etc etc.

15.) Canon needs more...

Love Conquering all. S5 really drove this home. Love fails miserably time and time again in S5. It's kind of weird. People use love to *justify* actions left and right, but in the moment love tends to lead to failure and loss more than anything else. I don't understand how this was seen as a good idea.

[oh-phineas]

Your Name: Emma

Characters: Phineas Flynn, Tiana Truitt, Aquata Triton, Anna Sommers (Closed) Bruce White, Anastasia Tremaine, Tanya Tiwari, Mirabel Madrigal, Lightning McQueen, Samuel Smiegel, Roz Peterson-Boggs

Pick one of your characters and talk about their growth (we recommend choosing an older character, but it’s up to you!) What about their story has surprised you? What are you proud of? How have they changed from their original inception to now?

Let's talk about Annie! She can be kind of a volatile muse for me— sometimes I am exploding with muse and I am just obsessed with her and other times I really struggle. But I love her and I've gotten to do some really fun things with her.

One thing that has really surprised me about Annie is her writing career. I did not plan that at all when I first got her, and I think I mostly took her in that direction because there were fun plot opportunities with Toby (shoutout to that man for getting her a job she absolutely was unqualified for) and only then did I realize this actually made so much sense for her. She loves gossip, she loves creating narratives around people, and she has a ruthless side that comes out in these harebrained plots with Toby. This was a 2022 plot, but I absolutely loved when they teamed up to "expose" Elena and Dian's relationship, and that little plot has snowballed to some fun ones that followed: investigating Hatter, and now this new attempt to expose the merperson they are writing to!

The thing that's fun to me about Annie's growth is that she is absolutely not becoming a better person, but I think she's becoming a more confident one. Which is... well, it's not a good thing, but in some ways, it still is? Part of the reason Annie is so heinous is that she basically had her whole sense of identity destroyed when she went through her divorce, she'd based her whole sense of self around this man and this life that ultimately betrayed her and she came to Swynlake basically floundering and taking that lack of self out on other people. Now, she is starting to build a career that she's proud of and she has something that's all her own. And it is um kind of destroying lives in the process but I DO think idk there's a way this could still lead to her being less horrible (or maybe it won't and you know that's okay we need villains!) I think a lot about this text post that's like "they make each other worse but in the same way they connect and feel less alone and discover they have the same complexes and as a result and grow as people and then somehow loop around to making each other better" and like I could see that for Annie. Maybe. We'll see. That crazy girl surprises me all the time!!!

I'm also really excited to have Drizella in town, and they've only interacted a little, but I just love them so far. You know me. Sucker for complicated sibling relationships.

Okay okay one more thing it was an AU so it doesn't really count toward her arc but her plot during the Happily Ever After AU was some of the most fun I've had in AUs. Such a blast. I loved her fucked up little situation with Gaston. More of that please.

Pick another character (or the same character if you only have one) and talk a little about where you WANT them to go. What are your plans for them going into the new year? 

I have some big plans for Lightning McQueen, still figuring out exactly how to put them into action. He's trying to get his shit together, to prove to Cruz that he wants to be there for her and he does care about her, even if he's historically been really bad at showing it in any meaningful way. So I want to continue with his journey to learning how to do that. His friends are going to be a big part of that, namely Doc and Agustin. So I want to do more things with them. I've found something I really enjoy is having my character ask for advice from another character and then have that influence their actions, I just find it so fun and a good way to involve a bunch of different characters in a plot.

I think the thing that's a little daunting to me is figuring out how I'm going to handle his career and such. The difficult thing about Lightning is that his life is really defined by Racing Season and the Off Season, and if I don't get my plotting shit together by Racing Season I have to scramble. So I want to be really intentional about that this year and have a solid plan going in. That doesn't necessarily mean Lightning is going back to racing, but... it could. I just want to be intentional about it, basically.

Pick a thread or a plot that you’re proud of and talk about why you loved it. 

So last year I talked about closing Henry and I hope it's not boring for me to talk about closing Anna this year. I think closing is just such a big production for me and even though it can be difficult I end up taking the opportunity to coordinate some of my biggest and favorite plots around closes and that's why they're fun to talk about.

I'm proud of my Anna close because I feel like I did some creative things with it! I'd been setting this up since before Peri was even closed, laying the groundwork for them to stay in touch and then for Anna to put together that fundraiser in December of 2022. Then I organized the spring break trip to Norway, which was really fun to get other characters involved in, and there was also the Ashleigh and Evy stuff going on in the background. And we got to send her off with Olaf, which was just the perfect ending and I'm so happy Laur wanted to do it that way. Even if this close wasn't as crazy and dramatic as Henry's, I feel like I wrapped up the major beats of Anna's arc in a satisfying way and I got to do some unique things along the way. Hate to see her go but love to write her off <3

In terms of your own writing, identify 1-3 things you love to write about (metaphors? Sibling relationships? Physical description?) and talk about why you enjoy it! 

Complicated family and friendship dynamics. I think I'm at a place in my life where this is really one of the most important things to me, especially being from a big family and being at kind of a crossroads with a lot of relationships in my life as we all get older and have to navigate new weird dynamics. So I really love relationships where things are a little strained sometimes, where people love each other but don't always know how to express it, where people hold onto deep resentments or misunderstand each other, where people know they want to be in someone's life forever but that doesn't mean their relationship is perfect or even great, they just know they love them. I feel like I could go on and on but yeah to me I enjoy writing romantic relationships but the platonic and the familial are really taking center stage I think.

Situational comedy, silliness, and irony. I love a wacky plot, especially when it's satirizing something or or poking fun at the weirdness of our world and the people in it. And I think there's a lot of opportunity to do it in a low-fantasy setting like Swynlake. I think SSHIIT is a good example of this, or all the jokes about being dead that Tanya makes, and I feel like I do this a lot with Smee. Bruce's fish-out-of-water antics fit in here too, like I know all the people he bit was pretty bad but in a way it was also kind of funny to me lmfao. I think it's why I play a lot of villains who are total clowns. Idk I just always love a plot that starts with an incredibly wild concept but it's actually getting at something real and true. If that makes any sense lol.

What major updates have your characters gone through this year? (For example: beginning/ending a relationship, moving, starting a new job, adopting a pet, etc). Think if it as anything you would have put in the #character-updates channel. If you have a pinned post, consider adding these updates so everyone is aware of them in the future.

Phineas: Started his newest business venture, Build a Brand. Also built an app with Kim despite some setbacks and weirdness between the two of them. Played Kenickie in Grease. Started dating Fawn! Tore his ACL and underwent surgery to repair it. Worked on creating a new version of SSIC called SPF with Pip. Soon will be saying goodbye to his big sis who's going off to grad school.

Tiana: Helped bring Aurora back to the waking world! Said goodbye to Ella and Willa when they had to move away :( Started seeing Cora, first more casually and then slightly more seriously, though it is an open relationship.

Aquata: Moved in with Boo after Lana moved in with Jake. Graduated from Pride U with her master's degree in sport management and left Swynlake Secondary. Got rejected from the Pride U coaching job she thought she had in the bag. Began studying to do personal training at Olympus Gym. In an undefined situationship with James.

Bruce: Was broken up with by Snow, and ultimately became friends with her again. Played Vince Fontaine in Grease. Started his merperson support group with the help of Gil. Opened up to Herc about being a merman and even told him some things about life in the ocean. Began taking on more responsibility at Whosits and Whatsits.

Anastasia: Went to court with Tom over custody of Levi and got custody for one day/night per week. Played Patty Simcox in Grease. Investigated the disappearance of the Unbirthday Blend with Toby, only to have it return to the menu before they could publish. Launched a new investigation over the existence of mermaids in Swynlake. "Fired" Herc as head of the neighborhood watch, "hired" Kim only to have her quit, and is recruiting again. Had her sister show up in town.

Tanya: Crashed Pip's birthday party, sparking feuds with Pip, Milo, and Mim. Apologized and made up with Mim! Volunteered for tech on the summer play and began an online situationship with "Charlotte," aka Penny's online alter ego who looked like Jenny. Had a massive blowout with Penny when the truth was revealed. Began working at the Inn's dining room. Got back in touch with her sister, decided that she will eventually move on, and told Zero about this plan. Told Mim the truth about being a revenant.

Mirabel: Started dating Alice, and then they broke up when Alice left to be queen of the fae realm. Kissed Candace at a party and then started crying about Alice and ruined the mood. Stage Managed Grease. Bridesmaid in her sister's wedding. Started playing DnD with Eilonwy, Ian, Tony, and Dipper.

Lightning: Had a weird one-sided love affair with a fictional ghost named Thea that Jessie impersonated. Began volunteering with the kids' summer Magick Grand Prix camp, only to quit/be fired when Cruz overheard him talking shit about the program Rust-Eze. Officially decided to go on hiatus and take a step back from the racing world. Went on a disastrous date with Cass.

Smee: Decided, along with Hook, to leave Swynlake and go after the infamous crocodile monster. Injured his knee in July and it hasn't been quite the same since. Got involved in an art forgery project with James.

Roz: Made her debut! Karen moved back in and things have been tense ever since. Advised on the mission to go after Clayton and brought Leo in. Started to befriend Elinor.

Talk about your dash reply style and your Discord reply style! (And if applicable, also your doc reply style). What do you like about each type of interaction? What is something you feel is difficult? Do you have preferences regarding how many times you’re tagged per day, or do you prefer for your replies to be queued for a certain amount of time?

I'll do all three! I tend to suggest dash as the default, Discord when I want to do something quickly (or if I'm away from my laptop but want to do something) and docs for something that needs to post on a certain date or again if I want to do something quickly. I basically like all three the same, but the latter two are more likely to cause me to lose something so I just might need to be poked. I don't have any preferences on tagging per day, but I do tend to reply the next day (unless IRL stuff sets me behind schedule) so I just ask that people let me know if they want stuff queued! I also try to keep track of people who only want to be tagged once or twice, but as a general rule I will reply to everything unless otherwise told.

And now, a wishlist! Jot down a few themes or stories or genres etc that you want to maybe pursue in the upcoming year! (i.e. a good ol’ fashion forbidden romance, maybe you want to dig deep into racial identity etc) This doesn’t have to necessarily be attached to any characters or stories you have now– it’s just meant to help you see for yourself what kind of stories call to your heart.

I don't know how to make this happen but I would love to do an exes plot where they can't let it go and keep crawling back to each other. Basically I just want an excuse to pull this shit lmaooooo.

More messy breakups in general

MORE ORGANIZED CRIME

A road trip

Being Tempted By The Forces Of Darkness

More sports???

I always want to do more stupid uni shenanigans like idk remember when we taped someone to the wall

Get into more backstory stuff for my older characters, like Smee and Roz

The idea of this intimidates me weirdly but an absolutely hopeless crush. Like extremely down bad territory. UNREQUITED. With lots of ooc communication ofc

Rivals and sabotage

Weird wacky magic shenanigans, like random curses and stuff. I'm always forgetting we live in a magic town and we can just do that!

OPTIONAL: Why do you RP?

Because it's fun, because I love storytelling, because writing doesn't HAVE to be a solitary activity it can be a fun group project. Because I can experiment and try out new things and explore things that idk how to express in any other creative form. Because I love when I can do something I love and not feel like I'm competing with everyone, we're just all working together. Because I think having free hobbies is rlly important. And because even after all these years I still love playing pretend!

[mixelation]

hi i made myself late writing more. unproofed first draft so prepare for typos and weird pacing and things like "i did not double check the wiki"

Kushina hunched her shoulders and ignored the stares as she walked to Hokage Tower. She didn’t even know what some of the stares were for. Some people looked sympathetic; some people looked awed; some people just looked afraid. 

Kushina was the Fourth Hokage’s grieving wife. She was the hero who’d single handedly stopped the Kyuubi. She was the monster who now carried the monster inside of her. 

Kushina thought the old version of her would have been offended by the fear. Her jinchuriki status had been a tightly kept secret before, but it was something she was doing for Konoha. These people had known her for years, had accepted her as one of their own, all because she’d agreed to move here to be their jinchuriki. Now they knew what she was, and so many of them were afraid?

The current version of her couldn’t bring herself to be angry. The Kyuubi had killed hundreds, because she hadn’t been able to fight back against the masked man. It had ruined the homes and businesses of the living, ripping away their loved ones and leaving them traumatized. If she failed again, it would continue it’s rampage. Of course people would be afraid. 

Her meeting, like all these meetings, happened in a tightly secured room in T&I. Danzo and his cronies stared down at her as she sat there for hours, being grilled on what had happened that night. Sarutobi had been to the first few of these meetings, but he’d stopped attending. 

Her answers were always the same, although today she managed not to break down into sobs. A masked man had appeared and grabbed her baby, killing Sarutobi Biwako in the process. Minato had engaged him and fled to take Naruto to safety. The masked man had cracked open the seal in Kushina belly and drawn out the Kyuubi, and Kushina had been too exhausted from childbirth to stop him. 

Usually here Danzo would say something like, “If bearing a child would make you too weak, why did you and your husband decide to have one?”

Sometimes Kushina would cry here. Sometimes she would yell in anger. It wouldn’t matter. Either way, the council would stare at her, and she’d feel hysterical and crazy. 

“Because the Uzumaki clan is dead,” she snaps back today. “In case you forgot.”

That had been the main reason, why they’d decided to have a biological child instead of adopting. There’d also been some vanity involved, them wanting to make something together. And then: both she and Minato were fuinjutsu masters. The seal was the strongest version any jinchuriki had ever had. Minato was Hokage. It should have been safe. 

Danzo had made fun of her, last time, when she’d said that last part. 

She and Minato had wanted their baby so bad. She’d felt so full of love right before everything had been ripped away from her. Why couldn’t she have died instead, to let Naruto live? To get to grow up?

Kushina took a deep breath. No tears today. 

“Tell us more about the masked man,” Koharu pressed. 

Kushina repeated this part again too, still unable to conjure up new details for them. The man had said very little about who he was or what he wanted, other than to destroy Konoha. He’d been strong enough to go toe-to-toe with Minato. He had a sharingan. 

That part always made Danzo’s lip thin. Sharingan meant renegade Uchiha. Kushina understood why this was a problem. 

“And then you miraculously regained your strength,” Danzo would always drawl when Kushina started to explain her next actions. “Conveniently after the Kyuubi was extracted.”

“I…” Kushina never knew how to defend herself here. In a strangled voice she said, “My baby was in danger. My village was in danger.”

Nothing she ever said was good enough. They wanted more details, or they’d berate her for her and Minato’s decisions. Kushina stared down at her hands in laps. She’d picked her cuticles raw over the course of this conversation, and one of her thumbs was bleeding. 

“I don’t see how rehashing the same story every day for three months,” Kushina said, voice rough as she fought back more hysterics, “is helping you find the man who killed my husband and son.”

Koharu at least managed to look slightly ashamed. 

Then, Danzo broke the script they’d been using to harass her for months. 

“We noticed Uchiha Mikoto has been visiting you,” he said. “Today she even brought her children.”

Kushina blinked at him, unsure of where this was going. She’d been friends with Mikoto for years. 

“Has she said anything about the masked man?” Danzo asked. 

“No…?” Kushina replied, her brain trying to muddle through this new line of conversation. The masked man was a missing-nin. Probably Mikoto knew him, as she was an Uchiha, but he no longer had anything to do with his clan or Konoha. Like all the clans, the Uchiha would have surrendered to Konoha any information on missing-nin or possible love babies. 

“What does she talk to you about?” Danzo asked. 

“Why does it matter?” Kushina asked. “She’s my friend. She’s been… helping me.”

“Helping you how?”

Kushina tried to explain. They knew she’d been mentally unwell. She’d show up to these meetings everyday, often unwashed and already crying. It was embarrassing to admit to needing it, but Mikoto had been a lifeline. 

“So she’s keeping you complacent,” Danzo said. 

“What?” Kushina replied. 

“You don’t find it strange,” Danzo said, leaning forward in his seat, “that the only person who seems to care about you, is from the family who did this to you?”

The meeting was ended after that. Kushina walked out of the tower feeling confused. Mikoto was her friend. She was Minato’s friend. She’d offered help with Naruto. She was a strong and loyal kunoichi of Konoha. 

What the hell was Danzo talking about…?

xXx

Kushina never used the rooftops anymore, despite the stares. The rooftops meant most of her trip to and from Hokage Tower would give her an unobstructed view of Hokage Monument. She’d have to see Minato’s face looking down on her, judging her and her greasy hair. 

He wouldn’t judge me, Kushina reminded herself. No matter how pathetic Danzo makes you feel, Minato would NEVER. 

She still didn’t want to look at him. 

xXx

January 25th is Minato’s birthday. He would have been 25. Kushina had asked their doctor if Naruto could eat cake by then and been told no. 

She doesn’t get out of bed at all that day. ANBU shows up to drag her to her meeting. 

xXx

“It’s no trouble!” Kushina insisted, waving Mikoto away. “You helped me so much. It’s the least I can do.”

The new Uchiha compound was only partially constructed, but it had been deemed fit to live in. Kushina turned back to assembling boxes to pack things into. Itachi had been doing this, but she chased him off to go babysit his brother. 

Kushina had been doing better. She’d held Sasuke herself a few times, but every time she’d think about Naruto’s still little body, and she’d regress. It was a shame, because Sasuke was a cutie, but she couldn’t help it. 

Kushina hoped to one day be able to play with her friend’s kids without getting weird, but… well, mostly Mikoto tried to stop her from interacting with Sasuke. It hurt Kushina’s feelings a little, but she understood. 

They got most of the way through packing up the kitchen, before breaking to split cups of tea. 

“Say, Mikoto,” Kushina said, having wondered about this for a while. “Did anyone ever interview you or Fugaku about the masked man?”

Mikoto’s hand froze, although her little smile stayed in place, perfect as always. 

“Whatever do you mean?” Mikoto asked. 

“Everyday at my stupid interview,” Kushina continued, blowing on her tea, “they ask me if you’ve told me anything about him. But why wouldn’t they just ask you directly?”

Mikoto put down her cup. 

“I don’t know what ‘the masked man’ is,” Mikoto said calmly. 

Kushina frowned. Hadn’t she told her…? She’d told Mikoto a lot of things in a disorganized mess, between crying her eyes out and refusing to leave her bed. 

“The man who attacked me,” Kushina said. Mikoto refused to meet her eyes, gaze glued to her tea cup. “He had a sharingan. So, I thought they’d have asked you and Fugaku about him…”

“Is that so?” Mikoto said. 

“To help us,” Kushina said. Obviously that’s how it would work, right? “Like, if there were a renegade Uzumaki, Minato would come to me and—”

“With all due respect,” Mikoto said, voice suddenly tight. “Minato is no longer Hokage.”

Kushina’s mouth clicked close. 

They finished their tea in silence, and then Kushina hopped to her feet to clean up. 

“No,” Mikoto said firmly, then her gaze drifted away from Ksuhina’s face, fixing on a spot on the wall somewhere behind her. “Kushina, there is something I’ve been meaning to tell you for a while. I don’t think it’s good for us to remain friends.”

“Wh—” Kushina started. “Are you joking?”

“I appreciate your company, but I do not think I can continue,” Mikoto said flatly, still refusing to meet Kushina’s eyes. “Please do not contact me or my family any more.”

Kushina walked out of the Uchiha compound, feeling like she was a ghost. She didn’t know what to do with this, or what new emotion this was. She was just empty. Nothing left to feel. 

Above her, Minato’s face stared down. 

xXx

Kushina had gotten better about getting out of bed, and her home was mostly clean. But it was still taxing to take care of her hair. 

She’d enjoyed it before. It was work— it took over an hour to wash and then brush out properly— but she’d loved it. She liked the way she looked; she liked how it marked her as an Uzumaki; she liked the way Minato would pull a strand to his face and smell it right after a shower. She liked that it was a symbol of Minato’s devotion to her. 

Now it was deadweight. She kept letting it get tangled and greasy, and it hung around her like a dirty, blood curtain. 

Why was she keeping it this long, then? 

Kushina went through the drawers under the sink and found the hair scissors she used to trim Minato’s hair for him. 

She cut it all off. 

xXx

“Where have you been?!” Kushina shrieked, propelling herself into the tree. She landed hard on the branch, and Kakashi yelped and dropped his book. 

“K-kushina-san!” he stammered out. “Um… oh, you cut your hair…”

“Is this Jiraiya’s stupid porn?” Kushina demanded, snatching the book form where it had caught on the leaves and branches below them. “You’re too young for this, you know!”

Kakashi just stared at her, his one exposed eye wide. Kushina tried to make herself calm down. Kakashi was Minato’s student, not hers. He didn’t actually owe her anything, and she wouldn’t have wanted him to see her all depressed and gross anyway. 

“Do you want to catch up sometime?” Kushina offered. 

Mikoto had broken off her friendship, and it was becoming rapidly apparent that all of Kushina’s other “friends” had really been Minato’s friends who now didn’t want anything to do with her. Kushina was desperate for anyone to socialize with, even if it was fourteen year old Kakashi. 

“I…” Kakashi seemed to squirm in front of her. “I have a mission.”

He left. Kushina squatted in the tree, feeling oddly betrayed. 

She climbed down slowly and walked home in a haze. That had been in character for Kakashi, really. He had the emotional IQ of a chipmunk. He was undoubtedly dealing with his own grief, and Minato had spent a lot of hours fretting that Kakashi dealt with grief by overworking himself. 

Kushina took a deep breath. Even if it was starting to feel like there was a conspiracy against her, it wouldn’t make sense to get mad at Kakashi for being Kakashi. It was nothing personal. 

Kushina stood in her empty kitchen, with all her appliances and cooking ware that friends had gifted her and Minato for their wedding. The notes she had on prenatal and postnatal vitamins were still pinned to the fridge with a frog magnet. 

Where were these friends now? It seemed like somehow, they’d all evaporated into the ether. Either they were too busy to talk to her, or they were like Mikoto and just didn’t want to. On top of that, Kushina still has to report to T&I every day for circular conversations about how it was her fault her family was dead, how she needed to somehow remember details she simply didn’t know. 

For the first time since October 10th, Kushina manages to feel anger. 

It’s not fair, she thinks, balling her hands into fists. All this bullshit, and they expect me to just lie down and take it?!

xXx

Kushina pushed aside Sarutobi’s poor secretary. He’d replaced the one Minato had. Kushina had no idea who this new chunin lady was, nor did she care. She pushed open the office doors. 

Sarutobi was currently listening to a group of chunin’s post-mission report. 

“Kushina,” Sarutobi greeted. The chunin looked nervous. 

“Scram,” Ksuhian tells them, pointing at the door. 

They follow her command without hesitation, and Sarutobi watches them leave without comment. Kushina has no idea if they obey her because she’s the scary Kyuubi lady now, or some holdover from Minato’s tenure as Hokage. She doesn’t know if people would have listened to her like when Minato was still alive. Minato had never made her feel like she needed to try it. 

Kushina marched right up to Sarutobi’s desk and put her hands on her hips. 

“Did you or did you not,” Kushina hissed out, “ban people from talking to me?”

Sarutobi held her gaze, furious as she was. 

“I gave no such order,” Sarutobi said. He did not, Kushina noted, promise no one gave such an order. 

“Then why,” Kushina asked, fighting to keep her voice level, “are my closest friends suddenly not around?”

“Kushina, forgive me,” Sarutobi said slowly, “but your reputation is… changed. It’s natural that people will have different opinions of you.”

Why are you trying to make me feel crazy? Kushina wondered. Some of her friends already knew she was a jinchuriki. Mikoto had seemed eager to be her friend until the masked man had been brought up. 

“I must also remind you that your husband is no longer Hokage,” Sarutobi continued, like Kushina was a spoiled child. “It is not appropriate for you to walk into my office without an appointment.”

He threatened to call ANBU on her if she didn’t leave. Kushina stomped out.

xXx

Kushina ambushed Mikoto at the Uchiha family shrine. She didn’t feel good about it, the way she never jumped on Kakashi at the Memorial Stone. But she knew Mikoto came here once a week to pray for her brother, fallen in battle, and that she’d be alone. 

“Kushina,” Mikoto said, smiling in a practice way she didn’t smile before, when she’d been Kushina’s friend. “Short hair suits you.”

This was a blatant lie. Kushina didn’t care. 

“Is someone threatening you?” Kushina asked, point blank. 

Mikoto cocked her head to the side. “Of course not. Konoha is a safe place.”

Mikoto turned back to the shrine and finished her prayer. She didn’t tell Kushina to leave, or explain to Kushina that she’d been honest about not wanting to be friends. 

Mikoto turned to leave without so much as glancing at Kushina, and Kushina followed her. Rather than head deeper into the village, or even in the direction of the new Uchiha compound, Mikoto headed towards the forest. She stepped off the path, weaving her way between trees. This would take them outside of the usual ANBU patrols, Kushina realized. There were some gaps, inside the village, because they did not have the manpower to cover every inch of the village. 

Kushina mostly knew about these from trying to find places to make out with Minato without being caught. But that wasn’t the point. 

Mikoto stopped under the bows of an especially huge Hashirama tree. 

“Itachi encountered the masked man,” Mikoto said.

All the air escaped from Kushina’s lungs at once. 

“Where?” Kushian asked, followed immediately by, “Have you told anyone? We should follow-up immediately.”

Mikoto let out a hollow, bitter laugh. 

“Kushina, they don’t care,” Mikoto said. 

“What do you mean?” Kushina asked. Of course they cared. The masked man killed Minato. He killed their baby. 

The rage was back. Kushina would find him, and she would kill him herself. 

“They want a scapegoat,” Mikoto said. 

“Who is ‘they’?” Kushina demanded. 

Mikoto didn’t answer her. Instead, she said, “They’ve been coming for the Uchiha for years, and that a sharingan has attacked Konoha only works in their favor. You should watch your back, Kushina. You’re not safe anymore, and neither are we.”

Mikoto turned and flash stepped away, not leaving time for Kushina to ask anymore questions. 

xXx

Sarutobi was at this meeting. It started differently. 

“We have discussed your matter in depth,” Sarutobi told her. 

“My matter?” Kushina repeated. She tapped her foot impatiently. These meetings were really starting to grate on her. 

“We have decided that it is not safe to allow a jinchuriki to fall pregnant again,” Sarutobi said.

Kushina raised her eyebrows. “Good news for you then,” Kushina said hotly. “I’m not planning on it, you know.”

“Your word is not sufficient,” Danzo said. “The Council has already caught you in several lies and deceptions.”

“Excuse me?” Kushina asked. 

“How was it that you were able to stop the Kyuubi, but helpless against the masked man?” Koharu asked. 

“If the Kyuubi was truly extracted via the method you described, how are you still alive?”

“Why were you colluding with Uchiha Mikoto, a known sharingan user?” 

“Did you or did you not coerce the Fourth Hokage into birthing such a dangerous child?”

“Excuse me?!” Kushina yelled, on her feet in an instant. 

Sarutobi held his hand up, like that might calm her. 

“We are not making any accusations, Kushina,” he said. 

But you are! Kushina wanted to scream. 

“But the fact is that Konoha was nearly destroyed,” he continued. “We are grateful for your service, but in an attempt to increase your own safety as well as the village’s, we are requesting you voluntarily submit yourself for sterilization.”

“No,” Kushina rejected immediately. She had no plans to have any babies with anyone but Minato, but like hell would just let these fucking geezer take that choice away from her. “No, and you’re insane for asking.”

“If you will not do it voluntarily,” Danzo said, “then we will make you.”

Kushina stared at him, then stared at Sarutobi. 

“You’re not serious,” she said. 

Sarutobi sighed, suddenly looking ancient. 

“The alternative is that you will be permanently detained,” he said. “You will be held in a safe place, kept away from the general public. Kushina, this is not what any of us want, but twice now the Kyuubi has attacked this village under the hypnotic persuasions of the sharingan…”

Oh, Kushina realized, listening to Sarutobi spin a story of pure facts which managed to also be a complete lie. This is what Mikoto had been afraid of. This is what Mikoto had warned her about. 

“What about the masked man?” Kushina asked, interrupting this speech about how Kushina was too irresponsible and dangerous to just walk around with a functioning uterus. “Just kill him, and problem solved. I know Uchiha Itachi found a lead on him. Has that gone anywhere?”

“The masked man is not the only one with a sharingan,” Danzo replied. 

Kushina turned to him, cocking her head to the side. Danzo stared back at her, chin high. 

There’s no winning, Kushina thought. There’s no winning, because he doesn’t want to kill the masked man. He wants to control Konoha.

Kushina did not feel rage like she did before, like she would if it were just her. But it wasn’t just her being threatened. This man was threatening the one person who’d given a shit about Kushina since Minato’s passing. He was threatening Minato’s legacy. He was threatening the idea of Kushina ever being a mother again. 

So she didn’t feel rage. She felt a cold, calculating anger. 

What’s more important to a village, Kushina wondered. A Hokage or a jinchuriki?

Kushina took a deep breath. She clenched her hand into a fist. 

Chains sprang forth from the chairs, binding the elders in place. All of them had once been formidable shinobi. But now they were old, they were off-guard, and they had just pissed off the most powerful woman in the village. 

The Hokage had a hidden guard scattered throughout the room, of course. Kushina crushed every elder at once, turning them to bloody paste in their chairs, even as a sword cut into her. 

She shrugged it off. She could afford to take major hits in favor of killing her targets. Now that the guard was moving, she could pick them out, and she picked them off, crushing them in her chains as well. 

Kushina walked out of the room, and her sandals left bloody footprints. 

okay here is the opening to my sequel to parenthood. yes i started the sequel before finishing the first one LEAVE ME ALONE

sooo as i talked about a little before, the sequel is about minato & naruto finding a third timeline where kushina is the one to survive. konoha basically turns around and starts treating kushina like shit (hiruzen's leadership is slipping due to age/grief from losing his wife, and kushina doesn't have minato or mito to protect her). so end game is missing-nin!kushina. i'm imaging the first chapter is just Depressing to set the scene, and then the second one would be her meeting minato & naruto

*****

Mikoto threw the curtains open. Kushina pulled her blanket up over her head further as sunlight spilled into the room. She didn’t want to be awake. Awake meant she was thinking about how she was alone in her bed, about how cold Minato’s side was, about how Minato’s side would never be warm again. 

“You need to eat before your meeting,” Mikoto told her. “And you’ll feel better if you bathe.”

Kushina was having another meeting with the Council today. She did need to get up and eat. She needed her strength. She’d told this to Mikoto yesterday, while she’d been struggling not to cry, about how not eating made her even more confused and upset at her meetings. 

Mikoto fussed around her room while Kushina very slowly dragged herself out of bed. Kushina had kept a neat house, before. Minato was a phenomenal multitasker when in shinobi mode, but at home he’d relax into his natural chaotic state, getting sidetracked midway chores or putting objects down and immediately forgetting about them while his brilliant little brain focused on some new thing. Kushina was the one who’d kept him on task. She’d loved having a beautiful home, having a place to brag about, having a place to raise her family.

Now she didn’t see the point. She’d given up on even putting her dirty clothes in the laundry hamper. 

She watched Mikoto gather up her dirty laundry for her, like Kushina was some petulant child and not a grown woman, and suddenly Kushina felt frustrated with herself. 

“You don’t have to,” Kushina said, tossing her blankets back. They smelled old and musty. She’d been afraid to wash them, to wash away Minato’s scent. Now they just smelled like months old sweat. “I can do it.”

“Kushina,” Mikoto said, straightening herself up to eye her, a bundle of clothes in her hands. “I told you I’d help you.”

Mikoto had told her, extremely in passing, that she’d help her after she had her baby. Mikoto had only made the vaguest of promises, because Kushina’s pregnancy had been a secret, and Mikoto had only found out a few days before Kushina gave birth and everything went to absolute shit. 

Mikoto had not promised to show up at her house with tupperwares of food and bully her into eating, or to help her clean, or to make sure her garden got watered and the bills got paid. Mikoto had had no way to anticipate that Kushina would lose both her baby and her husband in one horrible night. 

One horrible night, where Kushina had failed to hold back the Kyuubi, and Mikoto had lost clansmen because of it. Her house had been damaged. And she was still here, had been here for three months straight, making sure Kushina was okay.

Kushina must look extremely obvious in how hard she was working not to burst into tears. Mikoto dropped the clothes into her hamper. 

“Here,” Mikoto said. “Make the bed, and I’ll start the laundry.”

Kushina stripped the bed and put on new sheets. It didn’t make her feel better, and she debated keeping the dirty ones, like maybe if she just tried hard enough she could still smell Minato on them. 

Get yourself together, Kushina prompted herself. Minato would want you to take care of yourself. 

Kushina showered as fast as she could. Her hair always took too much effort to manage, and she’d been neglecting it. 

So pretty, Minato would tell her, running his hands through it. I bet our baby will inherit it. 

No, he’ll be a blonde, Kushina would insist. 

She’d been right, but what did it matter? Naruto would never get to grow up to have an opinion on his hair. He’d never grow big enough for her to see if his hair was smooth like hers or wild like Minato’s. He’d never… 

A gross sob escaped Kushina’s lips, making her shoulders heave. She pressed her hand to her stomach, remembering how Naruto had felt growing inside her, how she’d been so excited to hold and love him, and then how he’d looked, impossibly still and pale.

Kushina sobbed loudly for several minutes, and she knew Mikoto must be able to hear her. She left her alone, and Kushina was grateful. 

When Kushina composed herself, she simply brushed back her greasy hair and tied it in a tight bun. 

She put on a clean set of clothes and went downstairs to find little Itachi in her kitchen, baby Sasuke tied to his back. 

“Mother told me to make omelets,” Itachi said very seriously. 

Kushina felt a smile crack across her face, the first she’d had in ages. Itachi was so funny, how serious he was despite being all of seven. 

“Do you know how?” Kushina asked. 

“Of course,” Itachi replied. He then insisted he could do it, that it was his assigned task, when Kushina tried to take over. 

Kushina sat at the table and watched as Itachi carefully scraped sauteed vegetables into his omelet. He had a bunch of plates around him on her kitchen counter, some holding things like eggshells, some with various vegetables and mushrooms he must have cooked, and two with omelets that looked perfectly edible but had fallen apart. 

Her kitchen was less painful to look at, Kushina thought, with someone else here, chasing out the ghost of Kushina’s past life. 

Baby Sasuke gurgled and reached up and tugged at Itachi's hair, and Kushina felt herself smile faintly again. She was actively fighting thinking about how her own baby might have looked, bundled up and on Minato’s back, but that didn’t stop the sight from being sweet. 

“Itachi-chan,” Kushina said. “How are the repairs to your house going?”

Itachi turned to her, blinking curiously. “They stopped,” he said.

Kushina tilted her head to the side. “Because they’re done?”

“No,” Itachi said, turning back to stare studiously at his omelet as it cooked. “Hokage-sama is allowing us to move to a new place instead.”

It took Kushina a moment to remember that by Hokage-sama, he meant Sarutobi. 

“He’s allowing you…?” Kushina repeated. “Do you mean your family is moving to a new part of the Uchiha compound?” 

The Uchiha compound wasn’t hit as hard as some other residential blocks by the Kyuubi attack, but they’d been having a housing shortage before several buildings were made unliveable. Maybe it was some sort of privilege as clan head…? Except why would the Hokage have any say in that?

“No,” Itachi said, reaching over his back to wave Sasuke’s grabby fingers away from his hair. “We’re all moving to a new compound. They’re going to build us a new one, Hokage-sama said.”

Kushina narrowed her eyes. That didn’t make sense, unless Fugaku had requested it for some reason. Maybe Itachi had misunderstood? He was supposed to be a genius, but he was still only seven. Even Kakashi had been easy to trick at that age. 

Kushina didn’t inquire further, because Mikoto appeared at the door. 

“Itachi, if you already have finished ones, let Kushina eat…” Mikoto started, moving to give one of the broken omelets to Kushina. 

“No!” Itachi protested, looking comically offended. “Those ones are bad! I want Kushina-san to have a good one!”

Mikoto set the plate back down, raising her eyebrows at Kushina. For the first time in months, Kushina laughed.