#emotional questions tend to be harder to answer for him

[sabertoothwalrus]

tips for getting people to like your ocs

*disclaimer: this is based on what’s worked for me, aka an artist that likes to make comics/storyboards. so this advice is directed at people who do that

you can do things like this:

Which is fun! Character sheets like this are great, especially for personal reference! But frankly, I don’t think most people engage with this (at least I personally don’t). You could have the coolest character in the world, but it will be harder for most people to feel invested when they’re presented so neutrally like this.

My main piece of advice is: get better at writing.

That might sound harsh when said like that, but let me explain what I mean! (Not trying to imply you’re bad at writing either!)

What I tend to do is just throw characters into situations with as little handholding as I can. Give enough context that readers can follow along, but don’t feel like they’re being explained to.

what can you learn about the characters through their designs alone? (age, personality, economic status, occupation, etc)

what can you learn about the characters’ relationship though their interactions alone? (are they close? familial? romantic? is there hostility? are they tense/relaxed?)

what are the characters currently doing? what were they doing previously (how long have they been talking)? what are they going to do next? can you convey this without dialogue?

how do they feel about what they are doing? are they content? focused? over/understimulated? would they rather be doing something else?

where are they? does it matter? would establishing a setting in at least one panel clarify the scene? is there anything in the enviroment that could tell some of the story?

what time of day is it? what time of year is it? what is the weather like?

Now, with all this in mind, I'm going to give you another example. I'm going to use completely brand new characters for the sake of the experiment, so you won't have any bias (aka I can’t use Protagonist from above, since you already know all about him).

Did this get more of an emotional response from you than the first example? Why do you think so? Who are these characters? How do they know each other? What else can you infer about them? What happened? Who is "she"?

Now, you don't have to actually answer all those questions. But think about them! You can tell people a whole lot about your characters without ever showing them a list of their likes and dislikes.

Obviously, comics aren't the only way to get people invested in your original characters! But regardless, easily digestible formats will grab people's attention faster than huge blocks of text, and comics are a lot less work than doing wholeass storyboards.

Now go and share your ocs with the world!!!

[daydreamabout]

Flowers [Tim Bradford Imagine]

Summary: You catch Tim buying you flowers.

It’s a Wednesday afternoon when you catch him in the flower shop, hands awkwardly gripping the edges of a bouquet. Tim Bradford, serious as always, looking about as out of place here as a bull on a playground. It’s hard to believe it’s actually him standing there, not in a tactical vest or leaning against a patrol car, but in front of racks of roses and daisies, scrutinizing petals like they’re the most dangerous thing on earth.

You lean against the doorframe, just watching him for a second, your lips twitching into a small smile. Tim’s posture is stiff as usual, like he might snap if anyone asks him a question that doesn’t have to do with police work. His usual energy is dialed up to eleven as he lifts a single flower in the air, squinting at it like he’s trying to figure out if it’s armed and dangerous.

You push off the doorframe and step into the shop. “You know,” you say, your voice light but laced with the same dry humor you both tend to use when the world gets a little too… ridiculous. “If you’re looking for a good weapon, I think a bouquet’s not your best bet.”

Tim doesn’t even flinch at your voice, just turns, his brow furrowed as if he were trying to figure out why you’re here—what you might be thinking. It’s not like he’s bad at emotions, but with Tim, everything is a little more complicated, a little more layered. You can see it in the way his eyes flicker briefly, just a hint of uncertainty in the sea of gruffness.

“Had to make a stop,” he mutters, voice rough around the edges, but it’s softened by the way he holds up the flowers as if he’s offering them to you, even if it’s more like a tactical surrender. “For you.”

A beat passes. You glance down at the flowers. They’re nice. Simple. Not too flashy. Probably not what you'd expect from him. But that’s Tim, right? He might not wear his heart on his sleeve, but there’s always more going on under the surface than most people realize.

“You’re not trying to bribe me with these, are you?” You ask, a playful grin tugging at the corners of your mouth.

His lips twitch. He gives you a look, but it’s not the usual deadpan. There’s something almost fond in his eyes. “You’d be surprised how well flowers can work in negotiations.”

You step closer, running your fingers lightly over the petals. “A pretty good tactic. But you’ll have to work a little harder if you want me to go easy on your parking tickets.”

He snorts, the rare sound breaking through his usual serious demeanor. “You’d be the one to use that as leverage.” His lips quirk again, and there’s this brief flicker of something warmer between you two. Something you both rarely acknowledge, but don’t shy away from.

You glance up at him, meeting his gaze. “Thanks, Tim. This means a lot. It’s… sweet. Unexpected, but sweet.”

He nods once, like that’s all the acknowledgment you’ll get from him on the matter, but the quiet moment hangs between you both, full of unspoken things.

As you take the flowers from his hands, you can’t help but think that maybe—just maybe—he’s not as everyone thinks. Not when it matters. Not when it’s you.

“Next time, though, try a card,” you tease, giving him a raised eyebrow. “Just so we don’t have to do this whole ‘Tim Bradford emotional transaction’ thing again.”

He glares at you, but it’s the familiar, comforting glare. The one that means he’s not mad at you, just… trying to keep up appearances. His voice, though, is softer when he answers. “I’ll get you a card next time if you stop making fun of me.”

“I can’t promise that,” you reply with a wink.

Tim grumbles under his breath, but there’s an easy warmth between you now—something that goes beyond the dry humor, beyond the sarcasm. A quiet understanding, the kind you don’t need words for. Just a small moment in the middle of the chaos that you both find peace in. And maybe, that’s what makes him different. That’s what makes him yours.

[starcurtain]

I wish everyone collectively understood aventurine’s character like you…things would be so much easier! I genuinely don’t understand how people keep getting his motivations wrong??? Could it be because some of the most popular Aven fanfics were written prior to his release? That could have contributed to some of the takes we tend to see about him…thoughts?

I struggled all day to come up with a concise way to answer this and couldn't think of one, so here, have a long-winded ramble:

I don't think early fic writers have much impact in the situation with Aventurine's character now, since most people can look at when a story was posted and go "Oh, this was before we had ____ information."

I think that Aventurine's problem is being a male character in a gacha game. Gacha game characters are designed to sell. Hoyo can sell female characters very, very easily. Give her huge tits and a visible underwear strap and you're good to go. I love all my guy friends, but I'm not gonna sugarcoat it: straight men are not the hardest audience to please. Hit a particular fetish (feet, spandex, dommy mommy), and you're gucci.

Nah, we all know why Jade's trailer is Like That.™

Male characters in gacha are harder to sell because women as consumers are a little harder to predict. Does every woman want a tall, ripped hunk? Shit, no, small cute boyish models like Aventurine are selling better now? Why?! Would a bad boy be more popular than a nice guy??? It's harder to account for women's tastes, especially because they are often (a little) less visually-oriented.

Hoyo is good at what they do though, and they've figured out that male characters sell very well when they possess at least one of two specific traits:

Endearing vulnerability/helplessness

Gay ship tease

Give a character both, like Aventurine? They might as well be printing money.

That sound you hear is Hoyo's stock prices rising.

So, from the very beginning, Hoyo is incentivized to create a character that appeals to people, a character people will want to crack their wallets open for. And they achieved this, first and foremost, by giving Aventurine traits that female players (in particular, but men too), find especially appealing: emotional and physical vulnerability.

We see Aventurine's pain. We sympathize with his grief. We identify with his struggle to make meaning of his difficult life. He's our woobie, blorbo, babygirl, whatever the hell they're calling it now.

He can't hide his suffering anymore. He's on the very edge. He's a dude in distress. He's surrounded by enemies! He misses his mama! He's been betrayed! No one understands him like you do, dear player!

The ultimate feeling evoked is: He needs to be saved.

When people talk about male power fantasies, I think they forget that women can experience them too, and "Emotionally vulnerable man that only I (or my favorite character) can fix" is actually a female power fantasy.

And from there it's really easy, right: the people who shell out cash to buy warps for their harmed-husbando feel like they've saved him; the people who are into mlm ships look for the nearest hot dude to be the savior Ratio was waiting for his time lol.

Morally and intellectually, this type of deep-down-golden-hearted, emotionally-wounded male character is very easy to digest. There is nothing to dislike about this type of character or role in the story: this character is a good guy who has just gone through so many terrible situations, whose victim status makes him endearing, and whose lack of agency means that any of the questionable or downright bad things he does are always the result of someone else forcing his hand, and never something he would have chosen himself.

His motivations are always clear and consistent: get free, heal, and live happily ever after.

Insert the Wreck-It Ralph meme: "Do people assume all your problems got solved when a big strong man showed up?" But to be fair, a big strong man did kind of solve Aventurine's problem, so--

Anyway, it's simple. It's straightforward. Morally, it's pretty cut and dry, black and white: Aventurine is our hero, which means everyone dictating the course of his miserable life is evil.

Hoyo is not remotely discouraging people from literally buying into this emotional appeal.

And trust me, I get it. I'll be the first to admit that hurt-comfort is its own entire genre in fandom because it is so appealing. People eat up Aventurine's tragic backstory like candy! The idea of watching a character go through hell at the hands of bad guys just to finally find a happy end is like the definition of everyone's favorite story.

In fact... people love Aventurine's suffering so much, they have invented whole new ways for him to suffer that aren't even in the game.

This is where we get all the headcanons that Aventurine was a sex slave, every single person he meets hates him because of his race, the Stonehearts are executioners holding knives to his throat, Jade enslaved him to the IPC with a lifelong contract, his material possessions belong to the company, the IPC is forcing him to take only the most dangerous missions where he is being required by his evil jailers to continually put his life on the line... You name it and I promise you, I can find a fanfic where Aventurine suffers from it. 😂

Bro can't even sleep in on his day off; life is so hard for this man.

Being serious: if the game is telling us that Aventurine is a victim... Why not make him the perfect victim?

Why not envision an Aventurine with no freedom, who bears no responsibility for any of the horrible situations he is in or any of the dubious things he does?

It's so natural to like that version of Aventurine, so appealing to see a totally powerless underdog use his own wits and charms to claw his way up to freedom. Or, if you're the kind who really relishes angst: It's even appealing to see Aventurine lose more. To delight in fics where he loses his wealth, where the IPC punishes him for past crimes while he's powerless to stop them... (I assure you, this is many people's cup of tea and the fanfics prove it!)

Ultimately, there's nothing wrong with liking characters who are exactly this straightforward! It's completely fine to embrace characters that are intentionally written to be morally above-board, whose primary role in the story is to generate angst by being a good person who suffers, or those characters who never show unlikable traits, bad decisions, or contradictory actions.

The problem is that that's just not who the game is telling us Aventurine is.

Hoyo may be capitalizing off people who love to envision poor Aventurine still living his life as a slave... But the game also needs to tell a complicated enough story overall to appeal to people who don't care about this specific husbando--Aventurine's role in the actual game's plot has to be interesting enough for almost everyone to appreciate it, not just Aventurine's simp squad. (Don't get mad, I'm in the simp squad with you.)

So his character doesn't stop at just being a pure-hearted victim who is still waiting to be saved.

Aventurine is not that easy to label, and I think the biggest struggle in this character's fandom right now is between people who prefer the even-more-angsty, still-a-slave Aventurine versus people who want a morally grey, self-destructive character instead.

To me personally, while I greatly understand the appeal of fanon!Aventurine and the joy of a really juicy angst fic where characters lose it all, I think that missing out on the depth that canon is suggesting would be a real loss on the fandom's part.

The character motivations that Aventurine shows in the game are complicated. They cancel each other out. They're basically self-harm! He makes almost every situation he's in worse for himself--on purpose.

He is a good person, but also a person who has done unspeakable things. He does have morals, but he's not above allowing those who don't have them to use him to their advantage.

He's both the victim and the victor. He's his own worst enemy. He's a lost little boy who's been making terrible decisions for himself since he was like eight years old, and a grown ass man who is barely managing to fake his way through an existence that destiny is not letting him quit.

This kind of character is a lot harder to embrace. He's done things that most people would find appalling--like willingly joining up with the organization that let his entire race be massacred. He's invented a whole new peacock persona to frivolously flaunt riches he doesn't even care about (Poison Dart Frog Self-Defense 101). He actively plays into racist stereotypes about his people to manipulate others through their preconceived expectations. He's made a mockery of his mother's and sister's hopes and dreams by endlessly trying to throw his own life away.

He has flaws! He bet everything he had on a ploy without doing his homework to find out if the people he was risking his life for were even still around. (Maybe he already knew, and couldn't bear to admit it, even to himself.) He's intentionally off-putting and obnoxious to everyone he meets (Poison Dart Frog Self-Defense 102). He terrifies everyone who gets close to him by (seemingly) carelessly throwing himself into the jaws of death without the slightest provocation.

He knowingly allows the IPC to exploit his power and talents for profit. Did everyone forget that his role in the Strategic Investment Department is asset liquidation?! Like, his actual day-to-day job is ruining people's lives. Canonically, Aventurine kills people when his deals go bad.

His motivations change off-screen in two lines of story text. We're told in one line that his biggest reason for joining the IPC was to make money to save the Avgin, then in the next line we find out that's impossible. And... then what? What motivations does he even have now? The whole point of his character arc from 2.0-2.1 is that he was on the edge of giving in to utter despair and nihilism because he couldn't even perceive a single reason to stay alive. He has no purpose in life before Penacony, and that didn't start with the Stonehearts at all??

People keep saying Aventurine was held in the IPC by golden handcuffs, but how do you tie down someone for whom profit is meaningless? What can you offer to a man whose only desire is to bring back something already lost forever? How do you imprison someone whose only definition of freedom is, canonically, death?

Working for the Stonehearts is obviously not healthy. But that's why Aventurine was doing it--because taking dangerous missions allowed him to put himself at risk. The job that he originally pursued hoping to save his people became a direct means to self-harm, and the IPC's only real role in that was just happily profiting off the results.

The journal entries for Aventurine's quests are there deliberately to tell the player what is on his mind, and none of it has to do with escaping from his job:

Like... Work is the least of this man's problems.

At really the risk of rambling on too long now, he's also just a massive walking contradiction:

Aventurine is among the most explicitly religious characters in the game, yet he's one of the only people in the entire game that we have ever seen actively question his people's aeon.

You might be tempted to think Aventurine's risky gambles with his life as an adult are a result of giving up after finding out about the Avgin massacre... Butttt no, Hoyo makes sure to tell us that even at knee-high in the Sigonian desert, Kakavasha was already willing to risk himself in a fight to the death against monsters because even back then he found his own life to have less value than a single memento.

He's the "chosen one" who will lead his people to prosperity... except they're all dead.

He's explicitly suicidal... andddd also a pathstrider of Preservation.

He wants to die... He doesn't want to die. He wants to make it end, yet goes to staggering lengths to continually survive. (Every plan risks his life on purpose--but every plan's win condition is also to live.) He life is the chip tossed down, but his hand is trembling beneath the table. When faced with an otherwise unsurvivable situation, Aventurine literally became a winner of the Hunger Games. He beat other innocent people to death with his own chain-bound hands just to come out alive.

He knows the IPC failed the Avgin and left them to die... and he still willingly sought out a position of power in their organization. Maybe he really is after revenge... but maybe not.

He starts his journey in the IPC with a truly noble goal in mind: to help his people using his newfound wealth and power. He's a good guy who did genuinely want to save the Avgin and repay all those who helped him. But once it became clear he was too late, once it was obvious he would have no use at all for that monetary wealth and power he risked his life to get... What did he do with it? Unlike Jade, we don't see him over here donating to orphanages. (I'm not that heartless; I'm sure he does actually do a lot of good things with his money on the side, but the point is that the game does not show us that--it shows us, over and over again, Aventurine putting on a wasteful, over-indulgent persona toward wealth. We've supposed to feel how meaningless money is to him, how meaningless everything is becoming to him.)

He outright refuses to use underhanded tactics or to cheat at gambles, which is meant to show us that's he's more morally upright than his coworkers. There's an entire exchange where he says that he'll never stoop to using manipulation the way Opal does. But... he doesn't have any issue fulfilling Opal's exact agenda. He was never remotely morally conflicted about denying the Penaconians their freedom by dragging Penacony back under IPC control.

He's willing to risk his own life, which is one thing--but he's also willing to risk other people's well-being. Topaz accuses him of constantly egging their clients on into dangerous situations; we've actively seen him shove a gun into Ratio's hands and pull the trigger with no care for how Ratio would feel about that on their very first meeting... Dragging the Astral Express crew into the entire Penacony plan in the first place was exceedingly dangerous...

To me, I just think it's vital to understand his character through the lens of these contradictions because they demonstrate the extreme polarity of Aventurine's life: from rags to riches, from powerless to empowered by multiple aeons, from willing to kill to survive to killing himself... He has quite literally lived a life of "all or nothing," and while he is the victim of many terrible situations out of his control, his arc as a character involves facing the truth of himself and the future his own actions are hurtling him toward.

Frankly, the Aventurine that canon is suggesting is a little annoying. You want to grab him by the shoulders, shake him, and say "Why are you like this?!" And he won't even have an answer for you, because he doesn't even know why he's still alive.

In the end, to me, this is so, so much more interesting. I can read an endless supply of hurt-comfort fics where Aventurine escapes the evil IPC and Ratio is there to fill the void in his life with the power of love and catcakes and be a perfectly happy clam online, but I want canon to continue to serve us this incredible mess of a man who constantly takes one step forward and two steps back.

Who is fully aware of his role as a cog in the grotesque profit-wheel of cosmic capitalism and still manages to say he never changed from the rags-wearing desert rat of the Sigonian wastes.

Who over and over again flirts with nihility but, ultimately, even if he has to wrest it from the grip of the gods themselves with bloody, chain-bound hands, chooses life.

[dakusan]

hihi! first of all, i love your works. i binged them SO hard and now i’m left with some questions… do blood dolls get anemic from too much blood loss? do they scar from vampire bites? what’s common for vampire-blood doll aftercare?

i know it’s a little more biology focused, but i’m so invested in this universe i have to know!!

from, an anemic anon <3

OH HELLO MY ANEMIC ANON. 🩸💌 You radiant little hemoglobin-deficient blood goblin. You just served me a question laced in SCIENCE, FANGS, and NEED—aka my personal food pyramid. Let’s bite into it.

· · ──────༺♱༻────── · ·· · ──────༺♱༻────── · ·· · ──────

🧬 D O B L O O D D O L L S G E T A N E M I C I N T H E V A M P ! S K Z U N I V E R S E ?

Short answer? Yes, they can. Long answer? Not if their vampire is responsible.

Let’s break it down with some juicy vampire biology:

🩸 1. BLOOD LOSS & ANEMIA – THE RISK IS REAL

In real-world terms:

Losing ~450 mL of blood = what’s taken during a standard blood donation

Doing that too often = iron depletion, fatigue, weakness → anemia

In the vamp!SKZ AU:

Feeding = a controlled blood draw, but not always small

Frequency matters: ▫ Once every few weeks = manageable ▫ Once every few days = get your ass in a transfusion chair, baby

🧛 Abnormal vampires especially have a harder time regulating when emotional or aroused—so if your vamp’s obsessed? He might overdrink unless he's anchored by rituals, bond rules, or your safety cues.

But the moment you show signs of dizziness, cold limbs, or pallor?

“Stop. You’re not okay. We feed only when you’re strong. You come first.”

They will shut it down FAST.

💉 2. DO BLOOD DOLLS SCAR FROM BITES?

TLDR: Not unless something goes wrong.

Bite wounds are like surgical punctures—small, clean, deep. But in this universe, vampire saliva contains:

✅ Anticoagulants (to keep blood flowing) ✅ Mild anesthetics (to numb pain) ✅ Regenerative enzymes (especially in Abnormals) that stimulate tissue healing

So for most blood dolls? No permanent scars. Just fleeting marks, like hickeys with purpose.

Exceptions:

If the bite was rough, rushed, or feral

If the vampire was in bloodlust and tore instead of pierced

If it’s part of a ritual (some Abnormal bonding marks are designed to scar permanently)

In those cases? Yes. You might carry soul-bound scars—usually in pairs, just where the collarbone meets the neck.

🛁 3. VAMPIRE–BLOOD DOLL AFTERCARE: THE SACRED ART

Aftercare is NON-NEGOTIABLE. Especially when blood, power dynamics, and possible overstimulation are involved.

What it usually includes:

🩸 FOR THE BLOOD DOLL:

Fluids: iron-rich tea, juice, broth, electrolyte packs

Warmth: heated blankets, skin contact, body temp regulation

Pain relief: soothing balm applied to bite site

Emotional check-in: “Are you dizzy? Cold? Do you feel okay with what happened?”

Feeding you: vamps tend to hand-feed you afterwards, like a reverse communion

Resting with you: most vampires curl around their Dolls after feeding like you’re the altar and they’re the sinner repenting

🧛 FOR THE VAMPIRE:

Grounding. Feeding can make them euphoric, high, or emotionally cracked open.

Soulmate bond flares? Feral urges? They need your voice to calm. Your hands. Your presence.

Sometimes they shake. Sometimes they cry. Sometimes they beg you to let them stop—even when you’re okay.

It’s intimate. Messy. Holy.

💘 BONUS: VAMP!SKZ AFTERCARE FLAVORS

Chan: Warm compress on your neck. Tucks you into his lap. Feeds you iron tablets like they’re candy.

Minho: Silent but thorough. Disinfects everything. Stays beside you all night, watching your breath rise and fall.

Changbin: Carries you. Literally. Gives you protein shakes and wraps you in his hoodie.

Hyunjin: Cries because you bled for him. Kisses the bite. Paints you while you rest.

Jisung: Panics. Apologizes 15x. Brings a care kit he labeled “🧛‍♂️ Post-Chomp Essentials.”

Felix: Hand-feeds you strawberries dipped in chocolate. Whispers gratitude against your skin.

Seungmin: Doesn't speak. Just makes you tea, hand feeds you medicine, stays and cuddles you.

Jeongin: Tries to act chill. Secretly tracks your vitals on his phone. Has a pillow fort and 3 blankets ready.

🩸 T L D R

– yes babes you can get anaemic 🫠 – your vamp better be hydrating you with broth and apple juice after he munches on your neck like a snack pack – most bites heal clean, but if he’s feral or in love? maybe that scar’s permanent now 🥰 – aftercare = sacred. it’s giving blood-soaked boyfriend privilege – if he bites you and doesn’t wrap you in a blanket burrito while whispering you’re his moonlight, drop him.

· · ──────༺♱༻────── · ·· · ──────༺♱༻────── · ·· · ──────

Thank you for your absolutely unhinged and medically delicious question. I approve. Your blood is valued. Your iron levels are being watched.🧛‍♂️🧃

[acquieesce]

some might say it's love (fluff)

reeeally long story, hope you like it! 🩷

words: 2k

it was just another ordinary day. you were at your friend liam's house, lounging on the couch while the tv played in the background.

liam had become your closest companion ever since his brother—and your best friend—noel had gone on tour as a roadie for inspiral carpets. noel had been gone for months. at first, you both tried to keep in touch, but as time passed, it became harder and harder. eventually, you two lost contact.

you spent a lot of time at peggy and liam's house, helping her with the dishes, assisting in the kitchen, and setting the table. whenever she needed a hand, you were there. that’s how your friendship with liam grew—through small acts of kindness and shared moments. he became your partner in crime, someone you could confide in. it was almost funny to think that, just a few months ago, the two of you barely had real conversations.

but there was one thing liam didn’t know—your love for noel.

you had known noel for as long as you could remember, practically growing up together. despite being a year younger than him, you attended the same school, and he had always treated you like a little sister. you used to love that. until one day, you didn’t.

as you grew older, you began noticing him in a different way. noel was a little taller than you, lean but not too thin, with long hair that always seemed slightly disheveled. but what captivated you the most were his eyes—piercing blue, the most beautiful you’d ever seen.

the first time you realized you had feelings for him was the day he helped you after you fell in the street. he had been so worried, fussing over you, carefully bringing you home, tending to your scrapes with such gentleness, as if you might break at any moment.

and in that moment, you knew—he wasn’t just your best friend anymore.

the sound of the doorbell at the gallaghers' house jolted you from your thoughts. you glanced at liam, expecting him to get up and answer it.

"what?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "you want me to open the door? you go!"

you shot him an indignant look. "the house is yours! you open it!"

"i'm way too cozy right now, and besides, you're closer to the door," he said, leaning back further into the sofa with a smug smile, hands resting behind his head.

rolling your eyes, you sighed. "fine! i'm coming!" you called out as the doorbell rang again, more insistent this time.

as you swung the door open, your breath caught in your throat. standing in front of you was noel.

his hair was shorter than the last time you'd seen him, and he held a few bags in his hands. the moment his eyes met yours, he let them drop to the ground without hesitation. before you could even process what was happening, he pulled you into a tight embrace, holding you as if it had been years instead of months.

for a brief moment, you stood frozen, overwhelmed by the rush of emotions. then, slowly, a wide smile spread across your face as you wrapped your arms around him, holding him just as tightly.

"my god, i missed you so much! looks like you've grown up!" noel said, stepping back to take a proper look at you.

you rolled your eyes with a small laugh. "come on, it wasn’t even that long."

"felt like years to me," he admitted, running a hand through his hair. "i couldn’t wait to get home."

"oi, rkid! you're back!" liam's voice rang out before he practically tackled his brother in a hug, catching him off guard.

"come in! i want to know everything!" liam continued, barely giving noel a chance to breathe. "how was it? is the road cool? what was the band like?" the questions spilled out one after another.

noel chuckled, shaking his head. "liam, slow down." he glanced around. "where’s mum?"

"she went to the market, she’ll be back soon," liam said, flopping back onto the couch. "okay, so? how was it? did you meet any bird?" he shot noel a mischievous grin, wiggling his thick eyebrows.

your stomach twisted at the question. you weren’t sure if you wanted to hear the answer. instead, you forced out a small laugh, waiting for noel’s response.

"of course not," noel scoffed, rolling his eyes. "i went to work, not to chase girls." he shrugged like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"wow, man, you really don’t know how to have fun," liam teased, shaking his head.

you laughed along with them, secretly relieved.

a little while later, peggy arrived home, immediately pulling noel into a tight hug and planting a kiss on his cheek. she had missed her son terribly—and, judging by the way he held her just as tightly, he had missed her too.

that evening, the four of you sat around the table, catching up over dinner.

"you have to see, love," peggy said, shaking her head with a fond smile. "liam barely stays at home anymore—he’s always off rehearsing with his band. what was the name again, dear?"

"oasis," liam answered proudly, puffing out his chest. "and we’re going to be the biggest band in the world."

"y/n’s already heard us rehearse—tell him!" he turned to you eagerly.

you let out a small laugh. "they’re actually pretty good, trust me." you glanced at noel, watching for his reaction.

he raised an eyebrow. "and what exactly do you do in this band, liam?"

"i sing," liam said, as if it were obvious.

noel burst out laughing. "he sings? i think you need to clean your ears, love."

liam stuck his tongue out at him.

"these two have been inseparable since you left," peggy chimed in. "she’s always here—it’s like she’s becoming my daughter at this point." she laughed softly. "and she and liam do practically everything together."

you felt your cheeks warm as you looked down with a shy smile.

noel said nothing. he just nodded—and changed the subject completely.

some time later, you found yourself in noel’s room, sitting across from him as he talked about life on the road—what it was like to be a roadie for an up-and-coming band, the long nights, the exhaustion, but most importantly, the dream it fueled in him.

"one day, i won’t just be setting up guitars," he said, eyes shining with determination. "i’ll be on that stage, playing my own songs for the whole world to hear."

you watched him intently, admiring the way he spoke with so much passion. it was inspiring—beautiful, even. but no matter how much you wanted to listen, your mind kept drifting.

all you could think about was how much you had missed this. the late-night talks, the warmth of his presence, the way everything felt lighter when he was around.

"oi, earth calling—are you even listening to me?" noel snapped his fingers in front of your face, smirking.

you jumped slightly at his words. "what? yeah, i’m listening," you said, blinking rapidly, trying to refocus.

noel hummed in response, then, as if it were the most casual thing in the world, asked, "so, you and liam got really close while i was gone… did something happen between you two?" he absentmindedly played with his fingers, not looking directly at you.

"what?" you let out a loud laugh, tilting your head back. "are you crazy? liam is five years younger than me! that would never happen."

noel just gave a small, weak smile.

for a moment, neither of you spoke. you simply stared at each other, a comfortable quiet settling between you. god, you had missed this. you had missed him—his warmth, his jokes, and especially those piercing blue eyes, more beautiful than the ocean itself. the ones you had always loved getting lost in. you wondered if he had missed you too.

"you know," he started suddenly, voice softer now. "while i was with the inspiral carpets, i kept thinking about you. about us."

your breath caught in your throat as he leaned in ever so slightly, closing the space between you.

you froze. "a-and what were you thinking?" you stammered, heart pounding at his closeness.

noel sighed, running a hand through his hair. "i don’t know. just... wondering. if i hadn’t left, if i had stayed here, would things have stayed the same? or would they have changed? you know, the usual ‘what ifs.’"

you let out a small chuckle, trying to mask the growing tension in the room. "well, i guess we’ll never know, right?"

noel tilted his head slightly, a small smile playing on his lips as he shook his head.

"what?" you asked, laughing nervously.

he exhaled, still smiling. "seriously, you haven’t noticed yet?"

your brows furrowed. "noticed what?"

he let out a small, disbelieving laugh before muttering, "god, you’re such an idiot."

you opened your mouth to protest, but before you could say anything, he looked straight into your eyes and said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world—

"how have you not realized that i like you?"

you stood there, completely still, just staring at him. had you heard that right? noel gallagher—the boy you had secretly been in love with—had just confessed that he liked you?

the room felt suffocatingly quiet until noel sighed and broke the silence.

"i know this might seem like a lot, but i needed to get this off my chest," he admitted, running a hand through his hair. "i really like you. hell, i liked you even before i went on tour." he exhaled sharply, as if he'd been holding it in for far too long. "i think i realized how real it was when we lost contact. i spent every single day thinking about you—wondering if you were okay, if you were eating, if you were sleeping. god, i couldn't get you out of my head!"

you just stood there, frozen, letting him speak, letting his words sink in.

"and i missed you. so much." his voice softened now, his eyes searching yours. "i wanted to see you every day. i wanted to hug you. talk to you. kiss you—"

he froze, realizing what he had just said. your eyes widened, heart hammering in your chest.

and then, before you could even think, you threw yourself at him, pressing your lips to his in a sudden, desperate kiss.

noel tensed for half a second, startled by your boldness, but the moment passed, and he melted into it, his arms wrapping around you like he'd been waiting for this forever.

the kiss was filled with everything neither of you had said before—affection, longing, relief. nothing else mattered.

noel’s hands instinctively went to your waist, his fingers pressing gently against you as if memorizing the moment. one hand slid up to cup your face, his thumb stroking your cheek as he deepened the kiss. your arms wrapped around his shoulders, your fingers tangling in the soft hair at the nape of his neck.

time didn’t exist. it was just the two of you, lips moving in sync, tongues teasing and exploring, hearts racing. you felt like you were floating—like all your dreams had suddenly become real.

and then—

"oi, dickhead, mum is calli—what's happening here?!"

liam’s voice shattered the moment like a brick through a window.

you and noel immediately pulled apart, eyes wide, faces flushed.

your cheeks burned with embarrassment as you struggled to meet liam’s gaze. he stood in the doorway, mouth open, eyes flicking between the two of you like he had just walked into a crime scene.

noel groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. "liam, get out. now." he pointed toward the door. "and close it behind you!"

liam held his hands up in surrender, smirking. "alright, alright! just—maybe don’t make babies in my bed, yeah?"

"get out!" noel barked.

liam chuckled, backing out of the room, muttering something under his breath before disappearing down the hall.

silence.

then, you and noel locked eyes.

and suddenly, you both burst into laughter.

as the laughter faded, a comfortable silence settled between you and noel. the weight of what had just happened hung in the air, but it wasn’t heavy—it was warm, almost electric. he reached for your hand, intertwining his fingers with yours, his thumb tracing slow, reassuring circles against your skin.

neither of you needed to say anything. the confession, the kiss, the unspoken emotions lingering in the space between you—it was enough.

somewhere down the hall, you could still hear liam grumbling to himself, likely making a mental note to never leave his room unattended again. the thought made you smile.

noel gave your hand a gentle squeeze before pulling you into his chest. his chin rested lightly on your head, and for the first time in months, everything felt right. the world outside could wait—right now, in this small room filled with old posters, unfinished song lyrics, and the faint scent of cigarettes and aftershave, you had everything you had ever wanted.

and noel had finally realized that he had, too.

[literallypyro]

Scout x autistic reader that has ADHD ? They break up , (angst?)

⚠️THIS IS NOT A DRILL! FIRST ANGST REQUEST!⚠️

Although ADHD and autism have a lot of overlap, I know they're still different. I only have ADHD that I know of, so I will do my best to do the autism part justice. I also did my best to make Scout and reader equally to blame, but you do have to do a little reading between the lines for some of it.

That being said, I hope you enjoy

Now that you're gone

You had recently had a meltdown, which was ultimately the catalyst. The heightened emotions tended to stick around longer, so when he came to talk about it while you were isolating in your room, you felt attacked.

You knew he wasn't trying to, but the autism and ADHD were battling each other and digging up your mind in a way that would only make the situation worse.

"You can't just ignore it! Nothing will get fixed if you just shut down and shut me out." He argued.

"Jesus, Jeremy, it's like you don't listen! I just need time to process!" You rebutted, feeling the adhd-amplified anger bubbling dangerously.

"Not this again! You always need time! It's always when you want to talk about it. It's always about you! What about when you wait so long that I don't want to talk about it anymore, huh? Does that just not matter?" He crossed his arms with an accusatory expression on his face.

"Don't start putting words in my mouth. You know why I need time. I'm self aware enough to know that if we don't wait, I'm going to just make the situation worse because I'm not prepared to handle it." You hold your arms out, palms up in a defensive and uncertain shrugging motion.

"Oh, yeah? What, you want me to just ignore my own emotions to accommodate you?" The side of his lip twitched in a silent snarl.

"No, that's not what I want-"

"Well, it's the situation you're putting me into. Every single time, I have to set aside my emotions and needs for you. Look, I understand you got some disorders or whatever, but that doesn't make you more important than me!"

You felt a sharp sting in your heart. You never wanted to make him feel like you didn't value him equally. "Jer-"

"No! Don't speak, don't try to fix it! I ain't gonna let you drag me back into this!" His voice started to rise in volume, making you flinch slightly.

"What are you saying...?" You reached out towards him.

He swatted your hand away with the back of his, not hard enough to hurt physically, but the emotional pain multiplied exponentially. "I'm done! I'm done with this! All of this! We're done! Don't talk to me again! I don't care anymore! If you really care, then stop. I hate to put it this way, but your love isn't enough for me. How could it be when it's hardly ever even about me?"

That's when you could feel something snap. Suddenly, it was harder to breathe. It was like your lungs were a thousand pounds, yet completely numb at the same time.

Your emotions were so intense that you started to actually shut down. Your face softened and your eyes refused to fully focus.

"Yeah... Sure, not a... Not a problem..." You said with a nearly absent voice.

Scout rolled his eyes, assuming it was some type of manipulation tactic to make him feel like the bad guy. "Yeah, glad you finally understand something." He shoved his hands in his pockets and stormed off.

All you could do when you heard the door slam was fall to sit on your bed. It felt like your entire body wanted to go completely limp. You looked out the window, as if for some kind of consolation. But there was none. It was just a desolate wasteland out there, reflecting what was going on inside.

There you stayed, unmoving. Time went by. It felt like hours, but something in you wouldn't let you move a muscle. You had just lost the most important thing to you. Now you were stuck with nothing but a question you couldn't answer.

What will you do?

[partycatty]

Hiee! I love the way you write bi han. When i read new tricks i IMMEDIATELY ascended. The depression i got when i finished reading them was tragic…

Me thirsting: I really wanna make out wit that man, like… imagine a situation where all you do is stare at him and hope he telepathically gets what you wanna do, but he just ignores you cause he dunno know how to initiate that shit 💀 he just needs a little push per say! Maybe one day you decide enough is enough and you sit your happy ass right down on his lap and bat your lashes at him like a menace 💕

ps: i hope u don’t mind me yapping… ik cage is your man, i apologize 😔🙏🏾

bi-han > see me now

notes: i've noticed i've kinda diverted my attention to other mk boys lately... namely raiden, kuai liang, bi-han and liu kang... so this works perfectly for me...

[ masterlist ]

• bi-han was a common victim to your teasing, particularly because it would render him entirely speechless and still. for a man that tends to rant about glory and strength, you shut him up like nothing else.

• it was really hard to ignore the fact that you were super into each other, the air thick and tension high when you two were in each other's presence. his brothers would roll their eyes as their grandmaster stands dead-still, as if you had the ability to sense fear when you'd bat your eyelashes his way.

• he can't go to anyone for advice. what, he's gonna talk about his feelings? like a loser? no. real ninjas let emotions fester.

• which brings us to where we are now

• bi-han sat at his desk, physically straining himself to focus on the scroll in front of him when he sees your presence in the doorway. shit, he recognized your footsteps down the hall the moment you were in earshot.

• trying to act as if you weren't shitting your own pants at the thought of your plan, you plant your ass on his desk, sitting and dangling your feet from the wooden furniture with a singsong look about you.

• the silence is so thick is almost halts your breathing. his stone-cold face makes you wonder if this was a bad idea in hindsight, at least, until his lips part to speak.

• "what are you doing?" a simple question, really, but the answer was completely lost on you. thinking back, you didn't actually have a plan. what did you expect to happen? this is bi-han we're talking about.

• "sitting," you reply with your nose high, looking down at him like his question was idiotic.

• "on my desk?" another long silence hurts your ears as he pinches the bridge of his nose. "what do you want." his question sounded less like a question and more like an annoyed statement. then again, everything he says sounds annoyed.

• "what's your deal?" you ask your questions in such a light tone, bi-han feels more obligated to feel threatened. "do you like me or not?"

• clearly this isn't getting far. "what?"

• you huff and decide it was now or never. sliding from his desk, you saunter your way around and swing one leg over his thighs, then the other. his hands shoot out to support you, right on the plush skin of the outside of your thighs. bi-han's eyes are wide.

• "you see me now?" you try to sound triumphant past your nerves, looking up at the ninja through your lashes. "always so afraid to look at me. you're not subtle, grandmaster."

• forced to face you, his gruff words feel choked as they come out. "i don't—"

• "yes you do," you smile, albeit a little wickedly as you shift on his lap, making a cold breath slip past his lips.

• "what are you getting at?" he seems eager to end this, to cool his heated temperature.

• you hum in thought before wrapping your arms around his neck. "i want you to kiss me."

• "now?"

• you roll your eyes at his chipping resolve, tugging him in by the back of his head. both of your eyes wander across each other's expressions before bi-han hesitantly meets his lips with yours. as expected, they have a bit of a chill as he makes contact, but even still you feel him melt into the touch, gripping harder on your thighs to ground himself.

• you only get a moment to pull away and breathe, relishing in taking what you wanted from the hard ass grandmaster. the triumph is short lived when he thrusts his head back in, connecting his lips with yours with more fervor after successfully testing the waters.

• he's hungry, craving more of what he sampled after successfully tearing down this stupid barrier he put up. god, your taste drives him wild as his hands guide your hips along his, grinding with hard pressure.

• it becomes open-mouthed and messy rather quickly, bi-han's hands wandering up from your thighs to your waist, the touch making you shiver and gasp as he uses the opportunity to lick his tongue into your mouth, completely absorbing every whimper you give.

• your hands snake into his hair, deepening the kiss when you snag a fistful of his dark locks, and he groans into your mouth just as the tie falls loose. strands litter his face and swirl about, you hadn't even noticed they were wavy from how often he keeps his hair up.

• the want for more is overpowered by your critical thinking skills. "weren't you busy?"

• bi-han shakes his head slightly, jumping up from his chair and bringing you with him. instinctively, your thighs clasp around his middle, holding his shoulders as he shamelessly uses your ass to hold you up. you're slid onto the desk as various items clatter and fall to the floor, his hard body fitting perfectly between your legs as he reaches forward to kiss you again, chasing your lips when you pull away.

• "it can wait."

[bleue-flora]

About that dialogue with c!Prime in the prison, its hard for me to tell if c!Dream is being genuine about changing or if he is manipulating, I'm torn. Like, was his apology to c!Tommy in the prison real? I doubt it.

How do you know when c!Dream is being genuine or not?

-date: July 16, 2024-

So clearly I’ve had this question for awhile and one of the reasons is because it’s hard to answer. The other reasons include, around the same time I had written this I was looking at Dream’s bouncing around and was considering whether that gave an inclination to when he is and isn’t telling the truth, which would be relevant to this post. Unfortunately, I’m still undecided there. The other thing, is that around this time, although I didn’t post it till August, I had noticed the map definitely placing staged duo’s experiments after prison [post] which really started to change my perspective of how I see Dream and question what is truth and what isn’t… reguardless I wrote most of this back in July and I think even though some of my opinions have changed since then, this methodology still applies.

The fact is, that is a hard question, one I don’t think anyone seems to have a definitive answer on, after all I’ve talked about this before but since there are lots of behind the scenes and lore we didn’t get to see it is hard to decide whether or not it is true. Though that’s typically with like his claims I guess. He always tends to weave truth into his manipulation and lies which also can make things harder to decipher. But in some ways we don’t always know? I’m not sure we have enough evidence to support one way or another for sure, because the most we see of Dream is actually talking to his enemies so if our assumptions are based on that then it’s already going to be kinda flawed isn’t it? But that doesn’t mean you can’t tell when someone’s lying, there are tells and reasonings, obviously it’s easier in person to read physical tells and in general if you know that person well.

In general though, here are some things to look out for:

1) What is the context? Where is he? What is happening? What just happened? What is going to happen later?

2) Who is he talking to? What side are they on? How do they feel towards Dream? What motives do they have?

3) Does it align with his actions? Is it consistent with what he’s said before? Does it make sense? Is it a reasonable conclusion to make based on the facts we know for sure?

4) Did his voice change? What does his body language tell you (aka movements or positions or items he’s holding)?

5) Is it something he’s said before? Does what he say change - like if you lie sometimes it’s hard to keep your story straight?

6) What is his larger motivation? Does he have an objective? What does he hope to gain? How would someone possibly go about that? How would lying or telling the truth change the outcome or help him achieve his goal? As in, is it productive to achieving what he wants? Is it productive in achieving what he says he wants?

7) Is it logical? Is it intelligent? Is it counterproductive or dumb?

8) What could he be feeling? What emotions could he have based on the situation or person?

9) What mask is he wearing? Is he wearing a persona? Is he playing a part that’s advantageous for him?

10) Did he answer already? Did they reject or not listen to what he said? Did he change his answer?

Again it’s kinda hard, but at the same time, Dream tells the truth a lot. He is very honest unless he feels it’s necessary to lie. He’s not the type of person to just make something up or lie about a story for no reason. Nor to make up lies about another person. He seems to me like he doesn’t enjoy lying, I think he actually wants to tell the truth - he does tell the truth, but when that isn’t accepted he turns to lies instead. Especially at the beginning, but even past that. For example, when he tells Pogtopia that he’s changed sides because of something Schlatt has given him, Tommy asks “Why” and he answers because “I’m a business man” in other words, it wasn’t personal it was about something beyond the politics and sides. But Tommy doesn’t accept this answer again asking why so Dream responds with “I was never on your team” [clip]. This is not the first time he does this type of swapping answers to one they’ll accept. His stated goal for a big happy family and peace is not unique to one instance. In Doomsday in the same conversation he’s talking about how he and Tommy’s story will never be over and how he’s having fun, Tommy asks “Why?” And Dream answers “The server will be at peace now.” [clip] but Tommy doesn’t accept that answer instead asking again why Dream couldn’t have just punished him with the discs, to which Dream responds “This is much more fun.” [clip] He changes his answer, because Tommy didn’t accept his first one. Tommy wasn’t going to accept any answer other than the one that fit the narrative in his head, so Dream gives him just that - okay you didn’t want the real answer? Fine here’s what you will believe - which also helps set up his next objective: the staged finale. And this is not the first time nor the last time he talks about peace and a happy family. That thread he sticks too, from the very beginning to the very end, which means part of our dissection should be whether it makes sense knowing that motivation? Even in the finale, Tommy asks “Why?” trying to stall for time and Dream once again repeats the same things he’s said before, but it’s not until Tommy dies, and lives as Dream that he actually accepts the answers and asks for more. So, one thing to look for is whether he answers and nobody acknowledges it so he then changes his answer.

Another interesting thing is his voice, it changes. The most obvious being the “maybe I’ll kill you again and revive you and kill you again and revive you and kill you again…” [clip] scene where he sounds so unhinged even Tommy calls it out, “Stop speaking like that.” If you listen to his tone of voice when he’s very clearly being a villain, for example standing near the Skeppy Cage while talking about the prison and the “One of you’s gonna die, one of you’s gonna live and the thing is—it’s your choice,” [clip] you can hear the depth of his voice is different, his speaking is also a lot smoother when he’s playing the villain (specifically when he’s on the offensive not the defensive), which I assume might be because he has to think a little bit more about what he wants to say or even planned it out ahead of time. Being very methodical and strategic with his words to make sure they fit his persona. If his voice raises in emotion like the Spirit speech or after the jailbreak his “Let’s go to the beach—Let’s have a party! Maybe I can enjoy the beach for once in my life…” [clip], especially if he uses a cuss word like “fuck” his emotions are leaking through like: “give me my fucking armor!” [clip] and “I don’t give a fuck about Spirit!” and based on context it tends to be obvious whether it’s more so lies or truth, but even if it is truth, his following statements might be lies to cover up his emotional vulnerability. So for the Spirit Speech, one second he’s willing to do anything for Spirit and the next after taking enough humiliation he changes. Again here’s him changing his answer, and based on his next action of dethroning George to protect him, and the context of the situation with the blackmail we know he’s spitting BS. And if you don’t believe me, then I’d say it’s pretty confirmed later when Dream goes to get his armor after jailbreak and asks for his armor back because it’s “sentimental”. If we look at the other mentioned scene, we can again look at context - he was tortured, Tommy did put him in prison (even if part of his plan), and he’s justifiably enraged by what happened so his emotion there is true and raw and his words match up with the context. But then as Tommy insists still that he’s meant to be in prison despite what happened, Dream changes his voice, going lower and more unhinged as he threatens to make everyday a living hell for Tommy. Plus contextually, Dream is more geared than Tommy so if he intended to go through with his threat Tommy would be dead. He even highlights this as he remarks about how he’s not trying and just toying with Tommy “I could have killed you already if I really wanted to.” Just like if he really intended to kill Tubbo, he’d be dead, something he points out to Sam in Daedalus, which is fairly obvious when watching that stream anyways because Dream stalls for awhile with his monologue then giving them ample time to say goodbye. There’s no reason he should wait or stall except that he doesn’t plan on going through with it. After all, Dream is a man of action if he says he’s going to blow your nation down to bedrock he’s not gonna give you days to prepare, he’s gonna do it tomorrow.

I’ve also noticed that when he is full on playing the villain his words are so creepy and ominous and smooth - “In the end chaos wins.” [clip], but when he agrues that can be a good sign that he’s being more truthful, since after all he’s trying to be their fantasy, so if he’s arguing against them he’s frustrated enough to break the illusion. “Evil is in the eye of the beholder. You’re evil to me” [clip]. Context is key and if it sounds like something a marvel or cartoon villain would say or does, or if it sounds insanely evil and moralless, then it’s probably not fully honest.

There are also times where he is being honest even if not the context everyone else assumes. For example in Daedalus talking about betrayal. Sam thinks he’s talking about Punz, but we know Punz is his friend and ally, so we can deduce based on who he’s talking to that he’s actually referring to Sam and his betrayal as the Warden abusing his power over Dream. There is also this scene in the flooded community house, “I trusted you for once—Ever!”[clip] where I personally feel like his emotion is pretty raw and while everyone else thinks it’s because of the house being blow up, but I actually think it might be because he knew they were planning to kill him at the Green Festival, where he said he would actually honor their rules for once.

One of instances I think is the most telling is Dream’s meeting with Sapnap [vod], where you can hear the switch of his voice from the line “what have you been up to, Sapnap?” Because he pleads with Sapnap to give him the armor, talking about how they can start over and answering Sapnap’s questions. Hell he even offers to give up his current armor for his set, but Sapnap stays firm saying that he’ll have to take it off him and Dream says “it doesn’t have to be like this” before he switches to finding out about what Sapnap cares about and threatening it in a completely different tone of voice.

As far as your specific example with Dream in prison, here we can notice a few things. The first is the context, Tommy just said how he’s not going to leave and stuff even though Dream says he can be better. So, Dream goes further and offers an apology to prove his words, but notice his voice change there. Does that mean he’s not sorry at all? Hard to say, we can’t exactly know what’s in his heart, but in this instance he’s not being entirely truthful and genuine either. We can also look at motivation too, if his motivation is to be let out like I think [post] then it makes sense for him to double down and try to convince Tommy that he can change. Some of the other things he says we can know are true or not based on fact - of course he’d be sad he lost all of his lives and friends (notice how that contradicts his speech in the staged finale “I had to lose everything to gain everything”) he’s only human and we know he misses his friends if nothing else since he practically begged for them to stay. And notice how Tommy calls him out on whether he misses George and he doesn’t answer instead pushing Tommy to leave…

And yet, I think what it mostly comes down to is that if we can view things under the lens of Dream being an emotional and flawed human being and consider the motivation he’s stated all along founded by the truth of “I just don’t want to ever be alone” then a lot of times the truth can be clear…

[dreamwreaver]

mmm post-fight charlastor sex 🤤

Not sure if you're talking about the big battle against heaven or not. Either way yes. And if it's the former please know that as soon as I get back to where the cards fall that WILL be happening.

But for the sake of conjecture; Charlie and Alastor get into a fight about something. Doesn't matter what. Could be important, could be inconsequential. Either way they're fighting and the thing is that when Charlie's mad she gets emotional and furious and wants to confront the problem. Alastor's rage is icy and restrained. He'll be petty and a dick but it's a lot harder to notice given how cool he acts in comparison.

Everyone in the hotel is miserable as they determinedly ignore one another for days. Even though they crave the space of their beloved like air and wake in the middle of the night reaching for them. Nifty has taken to hiding in the vents, Husk's fur is constantly standing on end from the tension in the air and no amount of alcohol can tamp it down. Vaggie and Angel hide out on the roof to avoid everything. It's not helped by Vox constantly spreading the malicious rumors to the point that even Mimzy and Rosie are checking in on them.

And when both of them finally break, they end up getting into a fight over who was more wrong and who needs to be the one apologizing. But unlike other fights, this one turns physical, and carnal, fast. Alastor plays dirty and starts tickling her just because it's been so long since he saw her smile, heard her joyous laughter and Charlie can't be mad at him when she's laughing. But predictably she's trying to wriggle away and the obvious happens.

What happens next is likely a mash of desperation and intimacy. Their desires for closeness and care and affection battling now with their more demonic natures that demand harder, faster, more. Greed and gluttony and lust in a tangle of limbs while shredded bits of clothes end up on the floor and the plaster of the wall gets chipped into a giant hole from the force of the headboard slamming into it. The radios all across hell begin frequency switching wildly, every now and then through the static voices can be heard. Some of them are the anguished screams of his former victims. But other times, it's faint and guttural but these moans and cries are notably different.

Then the vacuum tubes begin to pop. The electricity across Pride goes out. Rolling blackouts continue across the ring for the next day or so. Everyone that makes the hotel their home vacated the premises and nifty ends up being the one they send back to check if the coast is clear. She's got one hell of a mess to clean up but so long as there are no bodies she's fine with it. Husk is miserable until the scent manages to clear up, Vaggie tries to resume normal operations until Charlie and Alastor FINALLY emerge from their room. At which point she tends to take a week of her paid vacation ANYWHERE else (thankfully being an angel means she's not confined to Pride like the rest of them are Wrath is as good a place as any to stab someone consequence free). Husk and Pentious or Baxter (whichever timeline for this you prefer) end up bothering Angel with all sorts of intrusive questions because the film star is the only one who will answer without gutting either of them.

[unhappytimeleaper]

Character analysis; main concepts

A lot of this references some hints to lore and stuff I found. Not a lot are direct spoilers, but since Venti is built on his vagueness to his past, this likely will be able to be subject to change as time goes on.

Also, I wasn't sure if I asked if anyone would reply to whom to pick for my analysis. I asked some friends on a Yandere discord server, and in passing, one of them mentioned Venti, so I just went with it. Shout out to them. I hate making decisions. And leaper lore, but Venti is the reason I got into Genshin, so I guess it's fitting he is first.

The final quick personal note is I wanted to thank everyone for the 150 followers. I know it's not a lot, but I am thankful for the handful I know have been around for a while and for those who have considered following; Tumblr and most other SNS are rough for creators as reblog ratios are so low and other issues, but I am very grateful for those who keep coming back.

Venti [Barbatos]; Unedited. Gender neutral reader. Part 1

Warnings; yandere!! It touches on every main category of the troupe, so if you are sensitive to manipulation [emotional and mental], alcoholism, codependency, guilt [even self-imposed], obsession, lying, stalking, some general creepy behavior, breaking and entering, possessiveness, delusional thoughts, unwanted touching [sfw], and anything else you can think of being related to yandere troupes, then it's best to just not read. Also, a massive warning for talks about religion, idolization in the 'church,' and abuse of power within religious settings.

Word Count: 8.4K

This blog is 17+ please have your age in your bio or tagged; any ageless blog and below the age asked for will be blocked at the end of the week.

Maxed Stats

General manipulation

As a key component, Venti is a general trickster; he comes naturally with the skills of forgery, fabrication, pilfering, and illusion-making. These tools under his control make him naturally an enigma but build into easy traits of manipulation as he needs not just to you but to anyone. And for an early establishment, Venti's natural manipulation is not just tied to these specific skills. Still, it almost comes coded into how he exists as more of himself is revealed. Though these particular skills of lying are much harder to pick up on, between the riddles of his words and decent, innocent appearance, it's easy for him to pull off a twist of words or lie his way out of a situation.

As pointed out, manipulation is a skill that Venti can best use against anyone. To you, he is likely able to find excuses to keep up his actions. Outside of the wall of Mondstadt, he can quickly find reasonings as to why he's there, too. More often than not, he's somewhere close. While in areas like Windwail and Brightcrown, he can stay hidden, only needing to reveal himself if you find yourself in trouble, in regions like Starfell and Galesong, you can often see him not too far off in the distance. Even if you doubt his reasoning, it's hard to find proof of his stalking, making the moments unsettling, but his cuteness and way of words make it hard to get upset. Guilt festers as he looks so sad with accusations of something more sinister and that he has ulterior motives. Or how within the walls Venti is quick to find you and cling on, either in close proximity of walking or physically bound to you somehow— it's easy to tell when he's been drinking as he tends to be much more touchy in those moments. While it takes a lot for him to truly get drunk, he likes to play it up as there are so many more benefits and things you let slide. You have to take care of him in some way, and he always has a reason to be around longer.

In cases of late nights together, Venti sometimes lets you feel as if you have the upper hand, too. Pretending to be more drunk than he is and more open, allowing you to handle your chance at burning questions as he wistfully gives answers. Often, they are still vague but do let you delve more into his past, the trauma he has endured, or the loneliness that has come into his life. The more you learn, the more guilt grows at the idea of rejecting him. Of leaving Mondstadt in favor of exploration or answers. It's also not one where everything he shares is a goal of manipulating these feelings or actions.

Venti's love is absolute; for that, he wants to share what he can, with his goal of being bound to you, which means sharing these personal moments. For him, learning about you is so much easier with his status and age. Still, you can seldom learn about him in the same way, even more, as he can't fully spill his guts about his past at a moment's notice. However, he can think of this as an added benefit; manipulation, even if it's not the goal, is still emotional manipulation.

These times, there often are levels of manipulation about other places and people he puts in place. Different regions and gods aren't free from their past either, and Venti is known to share moments of these in his riddles. Aspects of how the lands have changed, how they have changed, but the imposing struggles carry through their lands. It's not really shit-talking them, nor a full-on slander campaign, but the language and words he uses are often dulled in favorability of what they could be. Similarly, he might often find ways to weave in things that could cause greater fear in you to manipulate you into thinking you are much too weak for the creatures that lurk there. While some parts you can chalk up to his story-telling nature and that by making it more dramatic, it sounds better, there often is a growing uneasiness about how vicious parts it could really be. More than countless times, there have been moments of your own danger, only saved by the grace of the wind and Venti nearby… In contrast, he speaks of Mondstadt and its people much more positively, and while he has some jealousy of those in his region you gain closeness with, he also tends to have a much more positive relationship with them, allowing those to be better tools to help in his love life than those in say Sumeru or Inazuma. He tends to maybe add in some more lighthearted jabs that can have an air of jealousy in them, even more if Venti feels you've been around them a lot recently, but in the way he talks, it often is more of playful bad-mouthing than down right insults.

As touched on, Venti's manipulation of you isn't always intended or done with negative goals. One side of this is again linked generally to how he speaks. Being this enigmatic person whose words are always wistful and hold more profound meaning, there is a natural draw to learn more. It's only made more of something that is hook when he doesn't often go around sharing this self-lore to someone so known but distant in Mondstadt to just anyone. It's almost like a balloon or bubble; the hints that are added build up little by little as time goes on without seeking out Venti for more until it pops. A droplet of information at a time until it consumes your mind, going back looking for more details to answers to the questions you'd had running in your mind for days. Soon enough, you are the one asking where the mysterious bard is to the townspeople, only cementing more in their minds the nature of your relationship being more than platonic. It also, again, just makes you feel special, a self-imposed superiority that you are the person who knows him best [which this ego can be inflated more if you know him as barbatos as well]. Venti knows these actions are manipulative in a sense, and again. At the same time, it doesn't truly harm anyone; it's still manipulation at its core in building this unique reliance on him.

And Venti's manipulation is ever present in the town and the people of Mondstadt. The key ways he uses these are to get more information about you and, as usual, get away with things. However, as briefly stated, Venti uses the wind and himself as a factor in starting rumors that there is naturally more to what is happening between you that can be exploited for later use. But back to the first point, Venti is able to once again use his 'charm' and way of speaking to easily coax others to give out more information about you. He literally likes things about your past, interests, personal relationships with others, likes, dislikes, and such through his friendly demeanor and guiding the conversations. And while he can easily track and monitor you through the wind, by talking to others around and having them tell him where you are, it helps set up a close alibi if you were to question him later. Essentially, in this case, the guards and townpeople become effective scapegoats for his stalking if needed. Furthermore, these questions end up helping intensify any rumors as the questions, over time, can become more and more romantic.

His manipulation does also be a benefit as he really is one with the people, if not distant in details. By having personal connections to groups like people in the Adventure's Guild and Knights of Favonius through people like Jean & Kaeya, they easily can be tools to help with his… well, propaganda. Even the temple with Rosaria. You ask about traveling and other nations to people in the Adventure's Guild, and they tend to often only share more gruesome or darker aspects of their stories. Of have plenty of tragedy by the time they reach the 'positive goal' that it's a natural persuasion to not want to often venture too far outside of Mondstadt. Or say you are one to leave; Venti could use points of manipulation he's built to have, say, Rosaria or Kaeya go with you, depending on where. The wind can always join you, but Venti isn't up and one to fully be able to run off from Mondstadt for long periods of time. If you plan to go on just a trip for travel, it's one thing for him to run off and join you, but freedom itself in Mondstadt is unique. It's not necessarily true freedom, and while he's awake with a purpose, he can't in his heart run from Mondstadt to travel with you. And while he'd be able to do anything in his power to persuade you to not leave, he's one to physically force it unless you're genuinely trying to run off for something dangerous. However, if someone else were to go. Friends of you and Venti… you'd have to come back, right? Kaeya can't leave his post forever, and it was him who accompanied you for this task, so it would be unfair to go on alone and not see him back… Yes, through others, you'd always be lured… guilted into returning home to him eventually.

Manipulation is also used here in more of a test; he does this often with people but imposes an idea or thing involving you. Those he wants to use in a way of getting close, he bluffs some lies out, and their reaction or steps they handle in regards usually is how he tests to see if they are reliable in what he needs. It's nothing extreme, but it's best to know if he can trust their feelings and opinions on you before letting you get too close. If they fail, well, a little bending of the truth to make it so neither of you wants to interact and never really hurt anyone.

This all helps build into how appearance tends to help. Not only for the general public but even for you, as his boyish charm and looks naturally tend to frame him as innocent. People are quick to brush off his questions even if they progressively get more concerned as 'puppy love' or that it's simply 'too cute' to see the young love from the bard. Many might even favor this as they see it as him likely being willing to turn a new leaf and grow into something worth settling down [i.e., get a job and place to live, though really, instead, it grows more into him crashing at your home and still playing song for whatever he can— money or alcohol]. His verbal actions are easily brushed off, but even the physical side of things, too. Pilfering is a great talent of his, but when caught with your items or breaking in when you're out, he tends to be pushed aside if he plays up his demeanor and lies. Scolded with warnings, sure, but scratching his head and sighing with a 'promise I won't do it again' tends to get everyone to roll their eyes and back off. As mentioned, his appearance can even present him as harmless to you; if someone brings it up, you might also awkwardly laugh and brush off the events. It's just Venti being Venti. He truly is primarily harmless, and he's stayed over so much at this point him breaking in was likely just a result of a habit of being in there…

And the limits of manipulation can be pushed if he so chooses. Call it divine intervention, more or less cause while he does so more with a dirty conscience, he can be driven as Barbatos to truly step in. Religious intervention. It seems weird when the Church of Favonius suddenly comes in contact with some old documents, ones with never seen details of an old love interest to their beloved god. The news and rumors sweep the nation, and even weirder, most of the details and notes recount someone… like you. Things seemed to get stranger, and from there, only more documents could be found of this exact figure appearing throughout history, like some sort of reincarnation. The fascination of it all quickly became the center of the topic, and with the likeness you bared in the story and aspects of appearance, you're status seemed to shoot up within the night. Not so much a holy figure but deemed with some strange uplighting in the way people spoke. That is, or how Barbatos ever seemed to come back to Mondstadt, you'd need to be there just like how the past reminisced. For those who do know, it weirdly only pushes you away from them if you ever seek help, that that story must be bound to fate, and that Venti can't be as much of a nuisance if you give it time. The problem is only dug in worse as Venti creates poems and ballads of the sort, claiming he actually had heard of these but never sought to share them until now. As the stories grow, you're pushed more and more to the church with the idea of gaining barbatos' favor and attention. Leaving… just became much more complex.

Dependence [reversed]

Dependence comes in a weird form, at least compared to others. While in general fashion, dependence typically is the idea that they want you to solely rely on them for everything, not only for power and love, it can even be with money, housing, or other necessities. While Venti likely would be much more dependent on him being really the main source of your love and affection, the rest… he doesn't care so much about. Power may be a little; he doesn't need or want you to depend on him for it, but it does give him a little ego boost when you have to or ask him. And too many other aspects of actual dependence go against aspects of his belief in freedom. Venti's course of manipulation never truly prohibits your own freedom; again, less you actively seek to do something he knows poses a threat; it just often forces you to rethink and become more hesitant in actions or thoughts.

As for other forms of dependence, well, Venti doesn't have them. He steals, only really eats apples, to your knowledge, and is homeless. It's quite pitiful in a humorous way. However, as you get closer and bond more with the bard-friendly nature, it is hard for you to let him live like this. Well, in certain ways, stealing alcohol or bribing others to give him some with songs you can't really stop unless you plan on going bankrupt. But more frequently, you invite him for meals and shelter him in your place. Even more frequently if the weather is bad or as winter approaches. Venti isn't manipulating you necessarily into these tasks, but dependence some with a factor of self-guilt. He's your friend, someone you've gotten close with, and with that, he's come to truly rely on you for these things. He was fine in the past, but to leave for who knows how long and let him fall back into such a life would make you a bad person. Right?

Logically, Venti knows he doesn't need to depend on you for these things as they don't have any real effect on his life, but it's so domestic. He gets access to all your items; you put time and love into meals, or even sharing what you purchased from Good Hunter fills him with warmth. On cold nights, he finds it easier to slip under your blankets and, even if it's fake, pretend to sleep like how couples would. Being a god comes with a lot of good but a lonely life, and after seeing so many, there comes a time when it's nice to indulge in it. Gluttony has always been a crime of his, it seems, such as with alcohol, but this also can't be that bad if no one is getting hurt. So just let him depend on you a little longer. At least until he can find out some solution before he sleeps again.

Self Harm

Similar to dependency on basic things, one form of manipulation that Venti doesn't do on purpose but knows that there still is a benefit to his actions is his indulgence in drinking. While it takes a lot for him to truly get drunk, as noted, he does like to play it up for you, and it's not uncommon for you to have to take care of him or come help him. In all sense, Venti, while not necessarily drunk, is an alcoholic, and to a detriment, it is a form of self-harm. Through learning more and hearing the tales and songs of his past, it's apparent the wounds run deep, and Venti's only way he knows to deal with them is through drinking in an attempt to numb or forget. The reality of knowing this is hard; you see it with others you've likely gained closeness with and how drinking has affected the lives of so many.

This leads to two outcomes: this, again, guilt that breeds when thinking of leaving. The connection Venti has formed is tangible with how deep it is to you, even if you don't reciprocate in that way. That's if you were to leave, would things only get worse with his drinking problem? Unlikely, he would died from drinking, but it's more than just drinking; it's the mental state of him in that position and how the loss of more people would rip the wound open even more. Furthering, if you had actually spent time talking about his past and working to unpack and find better ways to cope with the trauma outside of alcoholism, leaving would be a dick move and revert all that progress no matter how you explained it. How much could you're conscious take knowing this? How far could you make it without the guilt of him back home as the stories of his past cloud your mind? The wind tickling your skin and almost like a whisper reminding you of it. It's one thing to share a drink or two with the bard and have a fun night in the tavern, listening to his songs and dancing. It's another to picture him alone under a tree, empty bottles scattered from stealing from him alone, reminiscing about his lost friend and the imagery of war. The wind gets colder, licking the back of your neck, and the guilt is painful, ready to burst out your chest for even thinking of it. Some wounds you cannot heal, but the idea of making them worst or abandoning the person who's come to need you most is mentally crippling.

General obsessiveness

Venti doesn't necessarily read as obsessive. Not outwardly, at least, though it's easy to blame his charm for that. Okay… well, maybe not charm, but within his manipulative nature and looks, his actions and questions regarding you don't play as obsessive to those who listen. It's unlike many others who you can just look at them and feel in your bone there is something off, or in how they speak, they care just a little too hard. His sharp tongue and trick of words allow people to very easily give up information without thoroughly having them aware they have, making his tendencies go far under the general public's radar still. And for those who do somewhat witness it, he doesn't mind playing up his role a little more. Just a young, helpless bard looking to woo someone. It isn't a crime, right?

The mask he wears holds many layers. The bard, the god, the lost wind. Not many will ever get a look at what really goes on and what is an exaggeration. Or under exaggeration when it comes to you. In most cases, Venti stretches his stories up, his words riddled and larger than life that people have to dim down to work out the true meaning. So when he sells his obsessive love as much less, people are quick to brush it off or dim it down further to avoid those actual layers of emotions being peeled forward.

A chunk of this also extends to the shame and questions it brings out of freedom. Venti has never tried to take it away in a solid way, but is it true freedom to either of you when you fill so much of his thoughts that you can't really do anything without him? It is the thought that replays and replays of you and him doing things; it's the obsessive nature of having to know where you are, who you're with, and what you're doing. Are you safe? Are you planning on leaving? Should he come to find you just to be sure?

What about the images. The visions he remembers from the wars, from the people he's lost, and that truly, at any time, perhaps something will happen, and you'll be next. The flashes of violence and fear that only make the goal of getting his next drink to numb them go away— or you. The sight of you, the smell of you. Having you hold him and remind him that the past is gone.

You'd be able to see it, maybe not the full extent, but you've come to know the bard enough to tell when the cogs in his mind are turning and the way he tries to drown out aspects of himself. It's hard to tell what he's thinking, but you know some of it is tied to the past as he holds the stolen wine in one hand and grips you so tightly with the other as you try to stumble back to your home and out of sight. You can tell something is off when he's snooping through your things early in the morning as you're just waking up and when he's clearly been inside your place while you were out with a friend. Or that he's been leaving more and more questionable lyrics? No, less like poems or lyrics but ramblings about love and fear and what can only be aspects of you on the counter as he runs around god knows where. It's worrying. It's uncomfortable to an extent, but not enough or in a way that you can just cut him off. Kick him out. Maybe just talking or setting a little break, but the pressure in your chest and bile in your throat at the thought of cutting contact brings you to a sobbing mess each time.

But, what does keep him from being fully obsessive is that Venti still has things to do. Freedom of Mondstadt and giving up his title as the god doesn't mean he's abandoned his role truly, and if he's awake, that means between drinking, being with friends, telling stories, and everything about you, there is something he has to do. He still is out fulfilling a duty no one, but he knows of, and really, part of that seems more scary than anything he's done to you. You know he'd never hurt you; it's not a fear of that, but as Venti opens up more to you, the parts he still keeps hidden remind you that this is only a fraction of what you know. Guess it's good that you still have some time and space to yourself, but as obsessive as he is in his thoughts and other flaws, he can dial it back if needed for a short amount of time. At least from your perspective.

Wrong idea; type 2

In a sense, Venti is give an inch; he'll take a mile. Like a stray cat. You feed him once he keeps coming back for more. One thing is that this wrong idea can start more slowly, but the second you mess up and do something more romantically affectionate, it instantly becomes much more intense in the progression of what he's willing to take or do.

As mentioned, for anything to start, you need to be at least on a friendship level basis with Venti, and a sorta higher level of one. Nothing extreme, but the type of friends who do spend a considerable amount of time together and, for example, willing to open your house to him to stay in occasionally. Not even in a 'stay in the same bed' type way, but he knows aspects of your personal life, and to a level, you learn more of his 'Venti' side for any of his traits to really start manifest. However, it is already very easy to set off more and delve into the realm of leading him into the wrong idea territory.

Some ideas of how this might be are such as gaining more physical contact. While the intent is friendly, Venti is from a different time, and being touchy already seems less common than you already have a 'flirty' aptitude. Grabbing his arm or hanging off of him when sober makes his heart flutter that there could be more. Certain gifts, flowers, or making uniquely special foods just for him. Not just any meal, that's normal, but if you were to make something sweet with apples that wasn't a typical dish, it leads his heart to beat just a little harder. Or that one time when he did stay over and you fell asleep holding onto him rather than the usual routine of wandering off to your own spot after putting a drunk Venti 'to sleep.' You must have been exhausted… but this is his first time really getting to see you up close.

You must be doing all this with some… ulterior motive. Sure, he's heard of courting; he's older than people think and knows more of the ins and outs of things. People treat him like someone far more innocent by these looks— not just with drinking. And yeah, it comes in handy sometimes, but not when people talk down to him about this. At first, there was some apprehension. Teyvat was in a dangerous time, and as carefree as he plays himself up, he's always guarded about his next move.

Obsessiveness starts more simple. His questions are more of curiosity about many things, and what is better than to trick it out of people and you. Sure, he knows most basic things of your life, but that couldn't mean you aren't linked to more questionable things and had figured out he was Barbatos, either. He comes off a nosey at best. When digging to see if you'd ever been caught doing 'bad things' most inform sure— but in the sense you had been a kid and teen once. You'd easily gotten into trouble more than a few times but never was it for anything imminent or serious. He digs more into the lineage of your family and the other people you associate with. Nothing strange… fine, but perhaps a different route. He remembers some old common courting techniques, and he's seen some of them in this era, too. He's not blind to it, but as he shares more of the details, the more people tell the 'young' bard. It's probably a hint that he should reciprocate. I mean, he already hangs off of you like a hangover anyway. It's surprising he isn't already attached at your hip with how much you both sort of rely on each other. Although you tend to treat him more as a companion than him, he depends on you like a leech.

And the switch flips.

In certain aspects, if you did have some sort of crush, it likely would melt away with how quick his obsessively wrong idea notion takes over. What was harmless flirting testing the waters is instantly blown into a large scale. Even if you didn't like him in that way and other signs were one of platonic closeness or accidents, it doesn't seem to make a difference. His touchiness is insatiable, and the amount of time he starts demanding you spend with him is much more intense. If you try to brush him off, his poutiness damps the air, and things just an uneasy tingle. You find him trying to make all sorts of snacks and now haggling not just for drinks but for gifts. Every story he tells, every song he sings, and every poem has some romantic undertones that, paired with former questions and actions, people know it is about you. And the stalking doesn't help.

Venti's turning point makes him feel like there is more and that there could be more. He's not fully delusional. There are aspects of a lucid point that you're pulling away, but that just means he needs to try harder, right? He's seen so many relationships go like that. If you stop trying, if you let them pull away, that's really how you lose them. It's obvious how much time he puts into this, how much he thinks about how to move forward, and how he can use things like his skill sets of manipulation to keep you bound to him [not literally but in a figurative state]. However, it is only time before you get worn down from trying to fight and redirect… adapting does become just so much easier. Conversations, trying to explain, just don't seem to reach him. Lucid and all, you can't understand him or his goals anymore, and even when he does calm down back into a slight breeze, the second you give him a bit of that former closeness back, it picks back into a blustery.

Stalking

While Venti's stalking habits have mostly been pointed out, there is one other big thing that needs to be recognized. Sure, in Mondstadt and the borders of other regions, he often can find himself about to sneak away and physically follow you around for extended periods of time [days, weeks, etc.]; what happens if you leave. Of course, Venti can easily manipulate others to go with you as a safety net and use it to get you back home, but things are rough when you're gone. Luckily, or to your dismay, you aren't ever really alone as the wind follows you. No matter how far you go, how pleasant the weather is, or how rough the wind is a constant companion following in your wake. It's often a nice breeze, though it picks up a significant amount if you're nearing danger or in danger. Though a strange pattern of it picks up when you spend a little too long talking with locals…

Yes, the wind itself can't do much, but its following reminds you of your faithful companion back home, the one you'll have to eventually return to. And while 'freedom' is given, it's never truly 'free' as the wind follows far and wide until you come back to your love.

Final [unique]

Where final comes in is related more to Venti's 'sleep.' From the context, it seems Venti has less control over when he sleeps and for how long. It's not that he chooses to abandon his land in the time. It's that he cannot fight when he goes into his slumbering state. For hundreds of years, and the times he wakes up are only that when there is something of great importance. This wouldn't be much of a problem before you— Mondstadt was given their freedom, and it was just how it was. He awoke, he came, he helped, and he left; nothing more or less.

However, he had been awake for longer than usual. There was something, even outside of you, that had brewing. Something deeply important kept him awake, even if he didn't know what. And he established a life. A true life this time, with friends in the taverns and everyday 'enemies' with his habits. He found a 'job' and a 'home' within his city as one of the people. And he fell in love. It's one thing to become intrinsically a part of an environment, and even if you don't feel the same way, have that connection knowing any moment it could be lost. To go back into a long-standing sleep with every person, even facet of that life is potentially gone when you are to wake up again. To lose that loved one to time.

Venti has lost so much, each person he's established a bond with passing or having to move on to more incredible things. When he awakes, everything is different; every person is mostly a new face, with few exceptions of those only being a few like him. Is it wrong for love to be so fragile when he knows the change of fate of it being lost is greater than the reward? That if he were to fall asleep, you would easily be able to move on. Find someone new, forget about him, or at least be nothing more than a distant memory. He knows other types of love can be platonic, that the affection you give to the city kids isn't the same, or the way you play with the cats as he watches from a distance. He knows that when he sees the couples in Mondstadt, he's supposed to be happy for them, and imagine if it was you two rather than have the breeze pick up ruining their outing. That he shouldn't be this jealous or bitter; it's unsuiting of his persona, but how else are you supposed to know when love is useless if not with you, the one person he could so quickly lose. When you're not around, this gets worse. Celestia, be damned if he were to fall asleep without at least getting to see you one more time.

This acknowledgment does considerably bring out more of his obsessive nature, almost like paranoia, but in a way that no one can quite place. That he needs to have knowledge of where you are and how long you've been gone, or that he needs to be with you to make up for the time. The obsession leaks into you're time together; since he doesn't need sleep, he'll just lay there watching you. Hands sometimes ghost your face as he pulls you close, worrying about if he can't save you if he were to suddenly fall back asleep tomorrow and never see you again. It's the way sometimes he grips your arm a little too tightly and breathes in too deeply when hugging. That he needs to find a solution to keep you immortal so if he does sleep, you'll still be there when he awakes, or even better, you can sleep with him [and awake] at the same time. You'd never have to be alone, he'd never have to be alone. And sure, it's a stretch, but it's not a loss of freedom because once awake, you can still go anywhere you want together, and even with this idea, you still have full mental awareness and control over your mind.

General Delusional [unique]

Venti isn't delusional. His perceptiveness to things around him and his need to protect himself, plus his lifetime, has made him more or less hyperaware of things and life around him. He hears the prayers of people and the lives of others, and being lucid/logical is simply a must for that of a god. But he hears the prays, he hears the others speak, and he yearns in a sense to be able to have the luxury of being delusional. Of just being able to let everything go and pretend things are good or that you like him back in that way. It sounds nice. Easy. To be able to imagine your life together as some fantasy story, he's the knight who'd come and save you and live happily ever after.

Scratch that. barbatos isn't delusional, but Venti can be. The mask, the person he's playing can be. He isn't just a storywriter; he's a storyteller. An actor, a character of his identity. So no, deep down, he knows the truth; he's extremely aware of that, but why not just play the part. Let him play as if he was lost in those delusions and that whatever it is can be that way. When you're cooking dinner for each other, Venti knows you're just making a meal as always, but why not play it up. That you're coupled and that this is making a meal together as a such— it was a little weird when he came over to help, but you didn't question it. At least he was doing something. But meal times together when he would help progressed weirdly. Putting his arms around you as you try to cut things, holding out utensils for you to try things on. It got very strange the one time when baking, he leaned over and licked a crumb off your face. You didn't bake for a while after that.

Or going out. What once was normal progressed into him inching closer and closer, then hands briefly touching. You didn't think much. It's the bard unless your Diluc. He's been pretty much harmless around the city. You think. So what if he was one to try to hold hands or brush arms that just matched his bubbly personality. Though the linking of arms and leaning into when waking, staring into your eyes with such affection did change things a lot.

It's nothing more than a role, or sort of game to Venti. The delusion is there, but it is more like oil sitting on top of water. He can turn it off at any moment, but where is the fun in that when everything in his life is so serious. With you, it's easier to just pretend. At least he still has all the control and lucidity of the problems when needed.

Projection

This has been touched on already, but to relate it back, Venti isn't so much delusional in the sense he believes it's real but that if he projects the message hard enough through stories, through songs, and to the people of Teyvat that you're together then in some way, that will be true. The projection of his words he knows are false, and he knows in some way, even if it isn't true, that if a story is spread enough, people take it as fact. And if everyone takes it as fact, then it's just easier for you to accept it as well. He really doesn't have to do anything to force you. It's not taking away anything. It's just altering it so that way things work out in his favor. Much like the general sense, it pairs as well. If he tells himself it's true, perhaps he can force that delusion to cloud the lucidity he feels about all of it. It's almost like in a state of being drunk, where you know what's going on to a certain level, but it's foggy. It's rose-tinted enough that if everyone thinks it, he can, too.

This projection is only made worse if he gets involved as Barbatos. It changes things from just the slightly weird couple who, honestly, the people of Mondstadt can't really explain how they ended up that way. They remember bits of it, but it seems like someone through someone, though some random grandma just mentioned you were taken, and everyone ran with it. But if the church were to find the falsified relics and stories, then there just is nothing you can do. Now, it's not only Venti trying to project something there but the whole church following, believing that you are some saint and by having you married? Honestly, you aren't really sure what all this goal is to have you 'connected to Barbatos' even means, but whatever it is… it doesn't sound good. The expectations of you are doubled, and the projection of you being more than human is suffocating. But it's only made worse when Venti comes forward as Barbatos to you, saying you should just play the part. Stay with the church as some saint and with him. You'll still have a life of freedom outside of it, just with some more expectations about how you interact with others. You'd be bound by the marriage of some sort, and he'd find a way to make it eternal. It doesn't sound too bad, right? Freedom isn't truly free, but it never has been. It's an elusive concept, something subjective, but if you still have the right to enjoy your life and the good of being such, then it should be okay. You can still leave the church figuratively and travel, arguing it's on some journey for something. You aren't restricted in how you speak or think, but things like infidelity and how you speak of love need to be more kind. Yet you'd live a life of peace, one of never needing to be allowed and have the blessing of a god in your favor.

If not, think of the projection people will have if you say no. If you try to run away, you lose everything. That would be the true loss of freedom. The loss of your friends, your loved ones. Your home. Venti projects this idea of love and what love should be for you two, not between you and him necessarily, but to everyone else, making it all the more terrifying at the consequences when he finally does. Not if, but when.

Monopoly

This is where things get rough because Venti is possessive in a way that can't be controlled. He feels it settling in his chest when he spends too long talking to the shopkeeper or giggling a little too hard at a friend's joke. He hates it when you work and when you dedicate your time to the kittens outside The Cat's Tail. He whines when you have to leave in the morning and when you turn up to Angel Share just a little too late, begging to know who you are with. It hurts him. He can't explain it in the way it crushes his soul, seeing you give your time to others, your energy, and your care. It pains him so deeply to see you run yourself thin for the world around you, for those who could never understand you like he does.

Venti knows it would be easy to whisk you away. To use his godly powers to keep you safe, to keep your attention and love only on him. How things would be so much better for you, for each other, if you could just monopolize your time for him and you and no one else. The idea weighs on him like a pile of bricks. He knows it's wrong; he knows it goes against everything he stands for. And call him childish, but he can't help how he feels.

It's true he never really acts on it. Clinging onto you and carping over it, sure, the way he tugs slightly on your arm after you keep talking to the passerby you bumped into, an old friend, ready to drag you off to somewhere in Mondstadt, you can be alone. How he holds on just a little too tight when you talk about events at work and the people you chatted with, quickly wanting to move to a more interpersonal topic.

Venti never really monopolizes you or your relationships, but his bratty and more childish act really is brought out more with you around. You still get the socialization and ability to be around whoever, but it always needs to be rightfully compensated with some alone time with the god as well, so pick your battles sparingly and just go with him when his fuse starts to burn out.

Bizarre Seeking [unique]

Tying back to his sleep issue, the case of bizarreness only relies so much on how far he's willing to push to keep you immortal, either through godhood or other means. It's surprising he'd even consider it; his testament for Celestia is apparent in conversations, and the path to godhood is not seen in a much higher light based on conversations. But Venti knows sacrifices need to be made to get what you want, and if that means the pursuit of godhood or immorality to not lose any more of his loved one, then that's a sacrifice to be made.

Because of this, Venti ends up pushing you into countless more and more weird scenarios. You end up visiting a certain alchemist more, not really ever knowing the reasons why, and stranger things of yours seem to be going missing. What is that strange bruise on your arm, and why does this one piece of hair seem slightly shorter than the rest? You also swore that Caramel Pinecone tasted weird last time, but even when you ordered the Love Poem instead, it was still off…

The limits of Venti's morality are very much pushed with the goal of finding a way to extend your life more permanently, and while the actions he takes are questionable, they aren't anything he would do less deemed necessary. Beyond that, once he finds the key to unlock it, his bizarre-seeking tendencies end up dying down or stopping altogether.

Also, while he considers and will try to push for a Celestia ascension if push comes to shove, the ability to actually achieve godhood this way is much more complicated and dangerous. Something he might keep trying for, but this way is much less likely to succeed, and he knows this, which is why other bizarre tendencies take priority.

General protectiveness

Overall, protectiveness is a standard feat. Venti doesn't want you to get hurt and will do nearly anything to prevent it, hence a considerable factor of his stalking outside of walls of the city or towns. Even with others, if he thinks they pose some physical threat, Venti has little fear of stepping between you and 'the threat.' It's not so much a protective coating or an extreme case where he needs to check everything you do, touch, eat, drink, or interact with. Still, there is a natural sense of him wanting to protect you and watch over you to make sure that nothing can gravely hurt you. This mirrors why the wind follows you if you travel and picks up to warn you and redirect you away from dangers, a protective aura of Venti that trails after you. It's not even a doubt that you can't, but the inherent need to make sure you make it back in one piece.

There is, again, only one primary reason Venti will use full force to intervene, and this is if he knows you are purposefully trying to run off somewhere that will put you in danger for any reason. Often downplaying his strength of wind, the storm, if needed, will border Mondstadt making it. Hence, nothing gets in or out until you agree to drop it, tearing nearly everything that comes in contact with the barrier if you don't agree to listen to him first and think of a genuine plan. The wind sees all, and while terraforming isn't much on his bucket list anymore, Barbatos has no fear of proving his worth and power if in the name of love and protection. Even if it hurts you to know whatever your goal is foiled, if it's the one-stop against your freedom, there are some things not worth being risked.

Lowest Stats

General [none]

The one trait Venti inherently lacks is sadism. Nothing he does to you or others is derived from the pleasure of hurting or seeing others hurt. And while those such as the abyss creatures for fatui foot soldiers are at the whims of his fighting, it's not done with the goal or satisfaction of a battle but rather a necessity for 'his' people and you.

It's apparent that actions that long-term hurt you or have serious effects, both mental and physical, that fundamentally change you aren't truly a goal. Yeah, the immortality would literally change you, but not with the goal of making you conform or transform into a new mental mindset. At least not right away, as he knows that a long life naturally changes people, but there never is a purpose to rid you of traits. To tie you down and break you until you love him the way he loves you.

Freedom, as touched on, is never truly free. Not of people, not of actions, or even of mindsets. But is it that Venti wants you to be you; be the self you choose to be and the freedom that comes with that, even if aspects of it hurt him. It's why if he has to let you go to Sumeru for a festival he knows wouldn't be possible for him to also attend, he lets you know you'll come back to him without the burden of being changed or conformed to have to come back. It's why, in every case, Venti does whatever is in his power to keep you from being genuinely hurt, even if he can't always fulfill that promise. It's why, despite everything, he can't hurt the people who create the fires of jealousy in his core being.

Venti has an awareness that many of his actions are immoral and that he has dirtied his hands in the past just as much. he knows of the guilt you struggle with, and then he is using his skills to manipulate and play everyone like a fiddle, but in the eyes of a god and one who believes in freedom, it is not in his role to harm anyone in the light of you. It's a turning point he could never come back from if he were to directly hurt you or anyone else with the goal of keeping you with him, and it would be a dishonor to everything he was created from. A stain on the nameless bard he honors so deeply, so while the envelope of what is okay is pushed every day with his other actions, there is never once a hand that is laid on you for the sake of 'love' from Bardatos.

──⭒─⭑─⭒────⭒─⭑─⭒──

Statistic diagram; Venti [Barbatos]

[insociometry]

Darling Inso I hope you’re having a good day!

I was thinking about the nesting scene while doing a reread of chapter one today and I got to thinking.

You’ve established that MC is not very in touch with her omega instincts.

It’s clear there are some in the pack who are a bit more primal than others (Hyunjin vs Binnie, for instance), and that being primal in this world is kind of a default.

Is someone’s likelihood to be more or less primal related to how in-touch they are with their a/b/o instinct? Are the instincts their own entity, like in some a/b/o stories?

Are the two unrelated?

If mc were to be more in touch with her instincts, would we see her be more primal?

I hope this makes sense? 🫣

I guess I’m just curious about instincts the way they relate to people’s behavior in the RONverse?

“Are the instincts their own entity” Is this the ‘her omega’ stuff?? I had never heard of the concept before I started posting this story!!! It’s fascinating and I have so many questions about it!! Oh, but no, none of that here 😊

Ohhh this is a fun and complicated question… I know I’ve posted these before, but just to review before I blab, here are my preexisting notes on instincts:

People aren’t ruled by instincts, but the instincts are there

Tend to be most intense during: first presentation (around age 12-16); early to mid twenties, when adults would traditionally be settling into packs; periods of hormonal fluctuation (heats, ruts, pregnancy, etc); and highly emotional moments

Alpha tendencies: protectiveness, possessiveness, jealousy, competitiveness, devotion. Active-types and busy bodies, pushy and intense. Strong desire to help; take it really personally when things go wrong. Fixers and fussers. Kind of like a guard dog that keeps bringing you sticks and will bite if someone comes at you too quickly. Instinctively submissive to omegas and wary of unfamiliar alphas.

Beta tendencies: social submissiveness, emotional meddling, curiosity, keeping the peace. Level-headed and personable. Instinctual needs are less strong than alphas or omegas but still present; sometimes betas undersell what/how much they need from other people. Good friends and partners, but martyrs; don’t tend to communicate well. Focus more on others’ issues than their own; also fixers, but in different ways. Instinctively submissive to omegas.

Omega tendencies: social dominance, possessiveness, emotional intelligence, control. Less likely to meddle, but strong desire to keep; instincts are like a dragon with a hoard, whether that’s re: nest, items, space, mates, pack, whatever. Tendency toward hard boundaries but also respecting boundaries; respectful and not pushy. Sometimes distant. Entering an omega’s space without an invitation is a bad idea. Loving, but bossy.

So to actually answer your question: I guess for me, primal behavior is an active thing, like it’s something you do; versus instincts are just something you have 🤔 Discussion of instincts is complicated and divisive with IRL humans (evolutionary psychology rearing its head in the background again…) but for our purposes in RON you can kind of think of them like animal instincts! Like you can train a border collie but it’s always going to try to herd young children like corralling sheep, and get zoomies, and sometimes its prey drive might get activated in disastrous ways — that’s kind of what alphas are like. Except with humans! So they have a bit more self-control than a dog, theoretically 😆 Some people lean into their instincts a little too much, some people really restrict themselves, and most people fall somewhere in between.

Tangent but this kind of relates to what I've said before about the effects of modernization in RONverse; as people live closer together and are less and less likely to form packs, it becomes harder and harder to do all the things your alpha/beta/omega hindbrain wants you to do! For example if your omega boyfriend has to go to work with a minor cold, you can’t force him to stay home or follow him around all day growling at nothing just because your alpha brain is barking at you. If two coworkers you don’t know well are arguing over direction on a project, you can’t force them to sit down and work it out then and there no matter what just because your little beta heart demands it to be so.

It was probably a little simpler in the past, when most people were in packs, and mostly interacting longterm with either their own packmates or members of another established pack; instincts are kind of built to maintain the harmony of a pack. But nowadays there’s like, all of these overlapping social circles outside of packs (like multiple different friend groups, coworkers, college roommates, neighbors you’re friendly with, that girl you met on Tinder, etc) so there’s a lot of conflict between even one individual’s instincts inside their own head. Most people you have a relationship with don't fall neatly into 'packmate' or 'definitely not packmate', whether you're in a pack or not; it's all a little blurry. Add in how other people sort them in their own brains and it only gets more complicated. Here’s an example I gave previously:

Heavily scenting people can be considered rude. Most commonly done by and affects alphas; can mess with other alpha’s instincts. Example: you’re Soohyun (alpha), and you heavily scent your girlfriend (beta), who you lizard-brain think of as mate/pack. She goes to work and interacts with her coworker (alpha) who lizard-brain thinks of her as THEIR pack, and doesn’t know you. Conscious brain “this is silly, don’t get upset” vs lizard brain “who’s this other alpha. where did they come from”

So I guess in this example, wanting to scent your girlfriend heavily all the time is your instinct, but actually doing it is primal behavior 😊 Omegas liking to collect things is instinct, nesting is behavior. Want versus action! Stuff like that!

Wow I’ve talked a lot already, let me try to hurry this up!!!!!!

So MC is on the far side of restricting her instincts because of a mix of societal factors (being an unattached omega opens you to a lot of attention and potential danger, so she doesn’t want to seem like an omega) and personal reasons (her mom hated omegas and MC has a lot of deep-seated shame she doesn’t want to examine, so she doesn’t want to feel like an omega). She essentially keeps herself on a tight leash all the time.

Hypothetically, as MC grows to love and accept herself more, she’ll probably accept her instincts and subsequently act accordingly, at least in certain situations. So — yeah, I do think primal behavior would increase, especially in private! The two are technically separate but I think the restriction of both in MC’s place kind of comes from the same place.

For the guys, I think it’s less about being in touch with your instincts or not and more just about how you choose to behave and what your social role is, especially in your pack. So for example, Chan acknowledges somewhere that he gets to act out his alpha instincts a lot, because he’s the pack leader; that’s kind of like, the maximum amount of alpha you can be. He also acknowledges that the younger batch can’t as much, since they’re acting from under him; the innate busy-body activeness of alphas is kind of meddled and managed.

Here are some silly categories I sorted them into as we finish this up based on stuff I mentioned above:

Guard dog: Chan, Lino, Hyunjin, Seungmin, I.N

Border collie: Lino, Changbin, Han, Felix

Forces their sick omega to stay home: Chan, Lino, Felix, Seungmin

Follows their sick omega around growling at nothing: Changbin, Hyunjin, Han, I.N

(Lino has the ambiguous honor of being both guard dog and border collie 🫶)

And then there’s primal behavior explicitly in a sexual context, which we’ve brushed on a little bit! Or I guess we've talked more about primal kink which is maybe a little different (maybe...???). But that’s a whole other thing and I’ve talked enough for now I think 😆

Anyway, thanks for the question! Sorry if I got off-topic hahahaha, did this make sense??? I hope it made sense!!!

[ciaossu-imagines]

Idk if you ever had this quesrion but---

The vongola guardians and any additional characters you want : ... How do they grief? After a small thing that happened, like loosing a precious item, then maybe something more upsetting like breaking up after a long time of being with someone up to actually losing a person to death. How do they cope? How do they handle life from then on out?

You dont have to answer but i thought this might be interesting to ponder

I don’t think I’ve ever had this question! It’s a little surprising, because it is such a really interesting, thought-provoking request! Thank you so much for sending it in and I hope I’ve done such an intriguing concept justice in my answers, that everything feels organic to the characters, and most importantly, that you lovelies all enjoy the headcanons 😊 Because this ended up being so long, I do need to make it into separate posts for Tumblr to allow me to post it, so the question will be answered along multiple days. And honestly, since this took me nearly four hours to answer and edit, I kind of like being able to get multiple queued posts for it, sorry!

Tsuna

Tsuna is someone who is actually a little prone to grief. His emotions tend to run deep, he gets attached to things and people pretty easily, and it hits him hard when things end, get lost, or stop being the same. While he knows change can be a positive thing, sees how change has helped his life be better, major changes will affect him emotionally quite badly, especially if that change is one that he did not want.

He’s not always the best at figuring out how to handle his emotions, even the positive ones, and that is something that is even harder for him to do when the emotions become larger and more profound. He struggles to wrap his head around feelings of grief and loss, what to do with those emotions, or how to properly move on from them. He finds it hard to start properly grieving. He doesn’t really know how to. He doesn’t let it be instinctual – he gets caught up in feeling like he should be grieving in this or that way and because of this, he often finds that his grief lasts longer, or that he feels like he’s got over something that made him grieve, only to find himself taking steps backwards and getting caught up in the grief again. He can sometimes take the view that grief is something that has all these properly laid-out steps and actions that you need to progress through to get completely cured of that grief, instead of something that is very personal and individual.

Now, Tsuna is someone who will definitely feel grief over small things. He does place sentimental value on objects. He’s someone who really does treasure things that were given to him by the people in his life. We see this in the charm from Kyoko that Tsuna gets really anxious about misplacing in canon. I think it’s this way for a lot of things – the first real birthday gift that Lambo and I-Pin got him with their allowance money or his favourite hoodie, the one his mother went out of her way to buy, even though it was stupidly expensive, just because he’d mentioned how badly he wanted it. I have always had this headcanon that Tsuna also collects pictures of him and the other Guardians and his other friends through the years and that those mean the world to him. He’ll cherish his first apartment.

When Tsuna loses one of those sentimental objects, he gets really upset about it. He gets anxious, unhappy, and he tends to immediately feel a lot of guilt about it. He defaults to blaming himself for whatever happened to those objects – he didn’t take good enough care of it obviously, it’s his fault for losing it, he really is no good. He takes losing something that was given to him really hard and he’ll drive himself a little crazy looking for it. He feels so bad about losing that thing and he fully expects whoever gave it to him to get really upset at him for misplacing it if he cannot find it. He is just that angry and upset at himself, after all.

An avid gamer, someone who loves reading manga, and someone who really gets into the tv shows he loves, Tsuna forms connections with fictional characters pretty easily. When his favourite characters die, he definitely gets sad and upset about it. He won’t cry about these little moments of grief, but he’ll feel crummy about it for several days. He’ll vent about it to friends and he’ll be upset. He might even stop watching the show or playing the game, feeling that everything’s been ruined about it now that it’s made him feel that emotional reaction.

For small things that make him grieve, like growing out of a favourite piece of clothing, leaving his house for the first time to live on his own or for moving on from his first adult apartment, the moments will be very bittersweet. On one hand, he knows that all life chapters have to end and that there are still many beautiful things to come, but at the same time, he finds himself quite sad. He finds himself remembering every single good moment spent in that thing or that place and he does get glassy eyed. He really relies on his friends and loved ones at these times to keep him positive and excited about the things to come, because without that, he could find himself wallowing in those sad moments instead of embracing the future.

Things that hit harder, that are more serious grief-inducing moments, hit Tsuna hard. To use the example of a break-up, Tsuna is really going to feel miserable. He’s really sad about everything and he definitely does cry about it, when he’s alone or at least thinks he is. He doesn’t want anyone else to catch him crying like a baby because of something like that, but at the same time, he can’t keep himself from needing that cry. Everything just feels bad and hopeless and like it will never be happy again.

A running theme, I think Tsuna’s first instinct, in the face of this kind of grief, is again to blame himself for whatever caused that grief. Even if it logically doesn’t make sense, even if others assure him that it wasn’t his fault, he still blames himself. He feels this distinct amount of guilt and pain about it. He makes himself shoulder all the blame for the situation, convinces himself that all the pain he’s feeling is because he failed in some way. He just wasn’t good enough to stop this from happening. There must have been something he did or something he didn’t do that caused this.

It isn’t a feeling that will just go away. There isn’t going to be a day when Tsuna just wakes up and has an epiphany that, no, this wasn’t my fault. I did everything I could. This person leaving me was on them and not on me. That’s not something that will happen to him. That grief will always be there in his brain, and he will always blame himself for the situation that caused the grief. It’s just that, with time, Tsuna will be able to push that grief and blame out of focus. He’ll be able to start coping with it, in his own way, and he’ll start being able to tune it out a little. He’ll go back to being able to live his life, though he won’t live it ever quite the same again. His life, his choices, his attitudes on things will change, even if they change by such a small degree that it’s barely noticeable to anyone besides Tsuna and those who know him best. He’ll learn to not think about the grief as much, with it really only popping up every now and then, when he’ll feel those emotions again just as strong as the day it happened. When he does feel those emotions, over and over again, he becomes better at pushing them away though instead of focusing them, with each time that wound is reopened.

Surprise, surprise, but that habit of blaming himself for situations that make him grief is also very much carried over to the large moments of grief. Those around him dying and leaving him behind makes him not only unbearably sad, but those moments fill him with so much anxiety, guilt, and regret that it’s almost unbearable. By the time those moments start happening, Tsuna has already been trained on how to continue on in his duties, despite the overwhelming waves of emotions that are washing over him, and he does his best for those left behind with him. Honestly, if it wasn’t for that act of needing to be there for those others left behind, if it wasn’t for needing to be strong for them, Tsuna would probably crumble a little in the wake of that amount of grief. He kind of does appreciate having them there, appreciate having something to concentrate on besides his grief, at moments. At other times, he feels burdened by them, though he would never admit it out loud, and feels resentful for not being able to have the choice to wall himself off from everyone and just let the grief run its course.

Someone he loves dying…it’s his fault, obviously. It’s because he either wasn’t strong enough to save them or because he exposed them to danger because of the life he was forced into. In the case of the person dying in a way that could not conceivably be his fault, such as dying from old age, it’s still his fault. It’s his fault he hadn’t expressed more how much he loved and cared about them. It’s his fault he didn’t thank them more for all the things they did for him. It’s his fault for not making every single second they were alive count – how many hours did he waste, for example, he would think when Iemitsu died, hating or being resentful towards his father? How long did he hold out on having any kind of relationship with his father? How many years were wasted in bitterness and hurt feelings instead of letting his father connect with him? There’s all these regrets, all these ‘what-ifs’ in the face of grief and they all feel like they’re about to drown Tsuna in their heaviness.

Much like with the smaller grieving, it’s not so much that Tsuna will come to grips with these thoughts. It’s not that he’ll forgive himself, not entirely. It’s more that, with time and with life continuing to go on, with the expectations on him to keep soldiering on, he learns to live without that person’s presence in his life. He learns to keep going. He learns to find happy moments again that aren’t overshadowed by thoughts of the person. He learns to tuck that person into his heart and his mind. He learns how to come out of the grief still intact, though changed forever by his regrets and sadness. There will be days, months, years he can go without thinking of them, but he’ll still have days, even years after that person’s death, where something will trigger that latent grief he hangs onto inside, and he’ll find himself needing to hide away and cry all over again.

[lilsocksiswriting]

Academic Weapon Chapter One

Summary:

You were like a lot of humans, born with just enough curse energy to see curses but not enough power to do anything. Your greed has helped you hold in the Jujustu Sorcery program. it is this same greed that tends to blind you to the danger you are in.

Sukuan sees you as a weak pretty thing that he can hold a conversation in his class. This is what he tells him to do he falls for you, his student because the curse refuses to believe this is love.

Oh, then there is the murder.

Characters: Reader, Ryomen Sukuna, Satoru Gojo, Suguru Geto,Ieiri Shoko, Iori Utahime,

Pairings: Sukuna X Fem!Reader

Tags: College AU, Professor X Student, Modern Fantasy AU, NSFW

Masterlist  || Chapter Two || Ko-fi

Notebook, pencil case, hydration, iPad…. You go through the mental checklist to make sure you are not forgetting anything before heading out for the day. Behind you Utahime is sitting on the livingroom’s old couch as many students had done so before the four of you moved into the on-campus apartments last year.

Mei-Mei is perched on the edge, leaning just the slightest to have a look at your finalized schedule. Shoko was still  dead asleep, having pulled an all-nighter in the infirmary to help out with influx of the wounded sorceress coming back before the new semester started. Mei-Mei and Utahime thankfully not being one of those wounded and came back from their missions safe and  exhausted last night.

Giving the two a brief look as you mosey around the kitchen island to grab two mandarins and a small bag of bite sized cookies then return to put them in your bag. you frown, Here we go. Utahime’s wide eyed expression the slight tremble in her fingers were a dead giveaway. He was always so fidgety. Mei-Mei was a little harder to tell, but there was a small crinkle of concern knitted between her perfect brows.

"Alright, " you cross your arm look in between your two roommates. "I know you two are worried but-“

"Of course, we're worried! just look who you have for curse theory!" Utahime turns the phone screen to emphasize her point. She practically climbs over the back of the couch to shove the phone in your face. As if you were not the one to enroll yourself in his class.

You step back from the screen Then venture into the kitchen. “I know who I’m taking Utahime. I’m the one who enrolled in the class.”

Mei-Mei nods in agreement with that cool smirk of her's a mask that  hides her true emotions so well, "Even I must admit that you may be biting off more than you can chew. Barley anyone passes his class after all.”

"I want the challenge and he's like a 1,000 years old. Imagine what he could teach me?” you argue.

"Imagine what he can do to your GPA!" Utahime argues.

"And your mental health," adds the silver-haired woman.

You pout, this was not something new. They were about this with everything  that posed a threat of  harm to you. You turn your back on the two women and go back to finishes packing book bag. You your lucky enough to be paired with the three since freshman year. It was nice to have roommates you were such close friends with, but sometimes….They need to let me be a dam adult.

"Is it because of my curse energy?" your voice is quiet while your question is point blank.

"No," Utahime is too quick to say.

While Mei-Mei answers with an honest, "Partly."

"Mei-Mei," Utahime scolds the women on a hushed tone.

you grab your water bottle and grip it tightly, the urge to pick at the stickers strong, but they’re really cute so you resist. You try and remember they do not mean to hurt you with their concern. And as long as you are never said what was really on your mind, they would continue to be oblivious to that.

You take a deep breath to dissipate all the angry thoughts festering instead you head, you tell yourself that hurting them back would do no good. So instead, you sling your book bag over your shoulders and turn back to the two women with a one of you bright reassuring smiles.

"I have until add drop next week to decide if I can take it. So at least let me try."

Though your intention was not to hurt your tone was still a little too sharp and as a result Utahime cannot look you in the eyes as she says, “That seems fair enough..."

"We'll be waiting to hear how it goes at dinner?" Mei-Mei offers an olive branch, and you gladly accept

"With all the gory details, bye!"

Since you live on campus the walk the Jujutsu Tech building was a short one. It is the tail end of summer, late August too. Autum was already creeping across campus in the form of a leaves from a lazy, cool morning breeze. It would not be too long  now, and you cannot wait. Because when all leaves from the oaks and maples die leaving behind pretty colored corpses , when you have  sweaters and cardigans to protect you soft skin form the sharp cold, and you are knee deep in research for class assignments at hat one table in the cursed collections library,  that is when the semester will rally get started!

Professor Sukuan on the other hand ,just sees the upcoming 16 weeks as another dull way to pass his time. The curse has been teaching curse theory along with a few others Jujustu  classes for decades now. The modern age of sorcery was a lot more diverse and entraining than it was in the Heian era, just enough so to let the maggots live and continue this petty war they have with cruses.

He watches with an unimpressed expression as once student after another entered his lecture hall and takes a seat. Even in his human form he stands over most humans tall and intimidating. At the front of the hall leaned against the desk he crosses  his arms over his broad chest.

weakling, weakling weakish, Mabey promising, oh a curse speech user? Never seen one this old.

Then you step into the lecture hall.

You, with your bright eyes and excited smile. A long-pleated skirt swishing back and forth as you walk down the lecture hall steps. A pretty silk ribbon tying  back some of your hair  out of your face. It bounces along like it too was excited to be here. The sight of this adorable mortal with barley an ounce of her own curse energy bounding  into the King of Curses class?

Oh, how foolish this one is, Sukuna thinks. I will have fun breaking you today.

You drop your book bag by your chosen seat then tuck your long skirt under you as you take a seat in the third row. You go about pulling out you water bottle, pen and notebook , and  the two pieces of fruit, all while feeling like you are being watched by a hawk.

Glancing up your body tenses as the professor's red eyes narrow in on you. You look to your left then your right. Yup it is definitely you he is staring at.  No one had taken a seat by you yet. You look back at your professor with a weary expression written all over your face.

            There is a small part of you that feels giddy to have the Professor’s attention. That   would be the over achiever in you  who tries so desperately to make up for your lack of what everyone else in the program has.

 A more grown part of you knows that it will neve be enough.,

The pictures and glances you have seen of him around campus really did not do Sukuan justice. He is a dangerous, quiet kind of handsome.  A monster dressed  up in a nice long sleeve dress shirt and black slacks held up but a brown leather belt. You wonder what the product he uses to slick back his hair smells like?

 Pinned down by the King of Curses glare you feel like you can’t do a thing but stare back like a doe caught in the headlight. A flush crawls up the back on you neck when  the eye contact become too prolonged .

Ok.... maybe Mei-Mei was right, you admit to yourself.

Sukuna breaks eye contact looking down at his watch. 9 a.m. on the dot.

"Alright, " his authoritve voice echoes in the lecture hall grabbing everyone's attention. "You know who I am, I won't care who you are until you prove you worth my time. You all are adults with what I hope is enough sense to read over the syllabus on your own time."

He unbuttons his cuff links. You swallow thickly as he rolls them up his think forearms. Two thick bands circle each wrist that are the same color as the sharp markings on his face. And peeking out the front of his shirt.

"And with that, we're going to go ahead and get into lecturer."

the flurried sounds of people digging to something to write opening their laptops and adjusting their seats. You click your ink pen. This was to be expected. You had done your research before deciding to enroll in the Curse Theory with Professor Sukuna. You read all his reviews on Rate My Professor. Students had a lot of cons about his classes and the only pro was his tendency to end class early. You had even managed to speak to a few who had managed to pass his class. They all agreed against taking his class. It was an elective for the jujutsu sorcery program. You could have gone your whole four years without taking it.

But something that each person and review noted was what they were learning. Professor Sukuna was one of the leading experts on curse theory. He had such a deep understanding of curse energy and how it works that it would be such a missed opportunity to not take this class.

You just had to be brave enough and smart enough to not drop out....or fail.

Your hand cramps from jolting down so many notes. You are thankful for the 15-minute break. As Sukuan erases everything he had bothered writing on the board you pay a little too much attention to his back flexes under his dress shirt as he goes about doing so.  A sudden chill runs down your spine.

Fuck he’s so big, he could just fall over onto oh my and I’d go SPLAT

It doesn’t take much for you mind jumping form Sukuan falling over and killing you, to being on top of you , to having a lot less clothes while on top of you. You  tear your eyes away and reach for your water bottle. Your clumsy finger pushes  it off your desk. You watch with your heart in your stomach as the hydro flask clanks and clangs down the steps of the lecture hall.

Professor Sukuna’s red eyes are back on you the next second a a water bottle covered cutesy stickers stops at his feet. His eyes look down at the water bottle, then back up at your horrified expression. He takes this as an opportunity to confront the foolish girl who possess the gull to prance into his class.

You watch as the professor reaches down, grabs your water bottle, and makes his way up the steps in slow even strides to your seat.

The sound the water bottle makes as he slams it down on the desk quiets the students who decide to stay in the lecture hall for their short break.

Sukuna leans in close getting into your personal space and dominating it as his own. His eyes, that's all you can see of the professor. A red so deep you can get lost in them in the worst way. Like a never-ending nightmare you  would not want to wake from.

What is wrong with me?

"Do not let it happen again," he warns.

"Y-yes sir," you nod.

Sir, Sukuna likes that. Many students have called him such in the same fearful tone. But this is the first time he suppresses a smile when a student does so.

You let out a breath you did not realize that you were holding in as Sukuan stands back up to his full height. He still stares at you, making you feel so small and vulnerable, but you refuse to wither and die under his gaze. That was for the leaves and you are no leaf trebling in the wind.

"What are you even doing here?"

The corner of your lips twitches. You have spent so long having to fight for your spot in the Jujutsu Sorcery program that you can tell when someone is mocking you.

"I'm here to learn curse theory to apply to my research."

That mean smirk spreads across Sukuna’s face. Oh, this one has some bite.

"You barely have any curse energy yourself. Those old fools are losing their wits if they let you into the program,” He announces to the whole class.

you look the last bit unphased continue to smile, " I am aware of my curse energy. your point professor?"

"Weaklings don't last long in my class, fool," he forewarns.

You watch as Sukuan turns his back on you and makes his way to the front of the class. This was not at all new to you. The names, the looks,  and the assumption have become common place shortly after you began university. You have developed a pretty thick mask to hide yourself behind over the past few years. You usually try to ignore people like Sukuna. You motto has been keep you head down and go on. But there is just something about Professor Sukuan that really got under your skin. Sparking a need to prove yourself further and to stand out amongst the rest your cohort.

"Alright," he announces taking his place at of the front of the  lecture hall. His eyes scan over the seats filled with students. Picking out those that are now empty. "The first part of the class is the lecturer, and the second part is applying what you learn though discussion. Which you all will be graded on."

Sukuna’s eyes land back on you. He is not sure why his attention was drawn back to you. he is not as all pleased with what he sees. You are flipping back through your notebook looking over all the shorthand notes you had taken while other students around you are put into a panic. You are looking forward to class discussion as is a way you can prove yourself to the curse.

When you look up back towards the front of the class Sukuna sees a spark in your eyes he wants to watch die.

"You, the clumsy girl,” the professor singles you out. He won't bother to learn your name unless you prove to be worth his time and energy teaching you. "Reverse curse technique, explain it to me."

You feel your heart drop to your stomach again as the curse waits for you to answer. His expression looks bored and uninterested in what you might  have to say, but those eyes. Sukuna stares you down making suppress of tremble of excitement. You …like it? you like the way the curse stares at you like he is challenging you to dare to even speak in his presence.

"The way I think of it is like algebra. Multiply two negatives to make a positive but it’s something easier said than done since most sorcerers aren't used to using cruse energy this way."

Sukuan has to admit he is a bit impressed that you seem to have a good grasp on the concept, and you speak so confidently in front of him, but he doesn't let it show. "Now dumb it down for those who are looking as clueless as newborn babes."

"So, you basically take two different sources of cursed energy and multiply them against themselves. And on top of that you'll need to do so by using your brain, not your gut like we’re all used to using when it comes to cursed techniques."

"We’re all,” Sukuan mocks. “Just because you have a good understanding of basic curse techniques does not make you a sorceress. “

His jaw clenches when you smile at him. That was not meant as a damn complement.

You cannot help but to smile. You did not make a complete fool of yourself and actually got something that Sukuna deemed worthy as right in his ancient mind.

"You with the annoying bright hoodie, what's it used for?"

a guy from the last few back rows of the class in a highlighter yellow hoodie answers in confidence," Healing, sir."

Sukuan rolls his eye. Of course, a Zennin brat has confidence but no brain. “Useless, ” his eyes shifted away from the gawking man and back to you. "Water bottle girl.”

  Your back tenses up all over again. Professor Sukuan glares at you, waiting for you to answer, looking like he wants to eat you alive. You want to crawl under the table and hide form his gaze.

"Well, it can be used for healing...but at its core RCT is the opposite of cursed technique. So, in theory, instead of energy that destroys RTC is energy that can create," you click your pen you have something to fidget with. "I feel like this is where the difficulties in wielding RTC come in because in order to use it to heal you first would have to have a deep and précised understanding of how the human body works on a cellular level. You can't just go on slapping skin cells over a cut and call it healed."

"But" yellow hoodie cuts in trying to redeem himself. "If you can just visual the cut being healed that should suffice."

"Silence,” Sukuan demands not bothering to look his way. His red eye are still trained on you much to your chagrin .

You turn in your seat to look back at the man which Sukuan finds annoying for some reason. "That can work, but that's like having fleshy cotton stuffed into a cut. If it's a small wound I guess it can work, but when you start to get into more serious injuries like cuts that get  into muscle and bone - or even a major blood supply you have to be able to visualize all the working components of a human body to properly heal them."

"She has a point," A girl sitting in the same row as you  hums tapping her Apple pen against her glossy lip in thought. Sukuna finds himself sucking on a sharp canine in annoyance  when your attention is now on her instead of fretfully looking at him. "Sure, it's easy to visualize a wound being healed, but then you got to manipulate the positive energy you've created to create what it takes to heal the wound."

"Well, at least some of you know the basics," Sukuna comments letting his eye linger on you until moving on to the rest of the class. " So, let's get into the theory of that."

If you think that Sukuna moves on to interrogating the next poor soul with such intensity, you are sorely mistaken. In his defense, the curse does not mean to keep singling you out. The faces you make whenever he calls you by that horrid nickname never fail to amuse him. Plus, you are far more entertain to converse with.

by the end of class, you let out a breath and finally let your shoulder relax.. Before Sukuna dismissed everyone to flee from the lecturer hall he assigned the first assessment of the semester; a two-page paper on today's topic, RTC, printed. He does not waste his time with modern technology.

"Water bottle girl!"

you nearly jump out of your skin and end up almost dropping your water bottle again. Sukuan rolls his eyes. He is mostly annoyed with himself for being so intrigued by such a weakling.

"What's your name?"

your chest does an odd little flutter, and you forget to stop from smiling.

Sukuan hates it.

"Y/N, sir," you answer.

" Well Y/N, wipe that look off your face and get out of my lecture hall."

­­___

"And then he told me to get out,"  you finish recounting your morning class over a late dinner at the university's cafeteria.

Shoko hums stabbing at her salad, "So not a bad first day."

"Wow," Mei-Mei agrees with a nod. "Look at you’re becoming a teacher's favorite so quickly, our little overachiever."

you stifle a laugh, "Please. I felt like I was being interrogated the second part of the class. I could barely breathe."

"So... do you think-" Before Utahime can finish her question another voice cuts her off.

"Heyy Untahahiimeee~"

Satoru Gojo, not only the Jujutsu sorcery program but the entire jujitsu world’s progeny , sling an arm around the women. Being born with both the six eyes and the limitless technique of the Gojo clan, good looks, and a charming persona Gojo was one of the most popular students here at the university. If Sukuna was thought to be a devil by some then Gojo was their god.

"Gojo," Utahime grumbles. “ Get. Off.”

"We heard Y/N's taking one of Sukuna's classes this semester," and wherever Gojo was Geto was bound to be close by.

"Hi, Geto," you greet the dark-haired man with an easy wave that he returns.

Suguru Geto ranks right up there with Gojo  in terms of the strongest. Very much like the white-haired man Geto was handsome and his calm, laid back personality attracted just as many  people like Gojo’s confident, snarky demeaner did. Unlike Gojo and more like yourself however Geto was not form a sorcery family

You know the two-star students mostly through Shoko, the three being friends since high school. Though sometimes, from the way the two seemed so close, you wonder if there was something deeper than friendship between the two man.

"So," Gojo shakes Utahime’s shoulder as if it were your own. “How’d it go?"

"Good? I'm still going on Wednesday."

"Really?" both Utahime and Gojo asked in union both carrying that same note of concern.

you pop a fry in your mouth to letting the salty taste subdue your anger subside before speaking, "Yeah, I think I can do it. I like the way that he seems to want us to push ourselves to think outside of what's been traditionally taught to us."

"But this the Ryomen Sukuna. Don’t you find that a little daunting having to be in the same room as him twice a week?" Geto asks.

"Yes, he's terrifying,” You agree. " But come on guys, have a little faith in my capabilities."

"Well, if anyone could keep up with that hellish course load it would be Y/N," Shoko points out. "Just don't go doing that thing you do when you take on more than you can handle."

"I'm getting better at it..." You mumble.

You have had the need to be an overachiever and deep down you know it was your way of making up for what little cursed energy you possessed. If you cannot prove yourself with a curse technique or master over curse energy then you will through your knowledge. Sure, Gojo and Geto had powerful curse techniques, Utahime could make any curse technique more powerful, and Shoko's control over RCT made one of the best healers of their class, but you were the one who put in hours and hours to understand how that all worked.

Later after dinner, you stay up past 12 to get to work on your paper for Sukuna's class. The assignment is pretty open ended , he just wanted a 2-page paper over what you all had discussed in class, the reverse curse technique. It should be easy, if this was an easy class and Sukuan was just any other professor in the Jujitsu program. Dyslexia isn’t making it any easier.

Just the first class you can tell that Sukuna does not want some generic paper over the inner workings of RCT that you could pump out in a few hours. No, he wants the students to delve into theoretical territory, and honesty that is exciting to you.

Becoming a great Jujustu Soccer was a lot of learning the basics then applying that to  your own technique and refining said technique to a lethal degree. This is what you wanted to take curse theory. You want to spend more time on the basics part. In this class, Sukuna is pushing students build on existing knowledge and go beyond what is known. To use the exciting knowledge ponded into everyone’s head during freshman year, for some student like Gojo since childhood, and build upon it to reach something new.

Said Curse was also up this late. He lays in his  California King bed staring to at the ceiling of a just as big house. The higher-ups paid him well to behave.

He cannot get that weak girl out of his head. The way you came into class,  and that pretty bow bounced with each step as you walked down the steps to take a seat before him. The way you look so terrified the whole class, just like the rest of those maggots....so what made you the one to wiggle you way into his mind?

Once of the curse’s four hands idly trail up and down his stomach, tracing the ink marking near his hip. In the privacy of his home, he dropped his human form and let himself relax in his true form. Over the years he has found that humans tend to be easier to deal with when confronted with something of the same shapes as them.

 His thoughts wonder to how he can crush your spirt. Somone like you did not belong in the world of Jujutsu Sorcery. He is suspiring you have lived this long. Sukuna does not care how smart you are, he just wants to rid himself of you.

How cute she’ll look in tears, terrified before me…below me?

from his bedside table his phone buzzes. One of his bottoms hands reaches out for it. Although it is tinier in his true form hand, he can still use it. Tapping his screen to life he sees it is an email from the dean Yaga to all professors.

 Opening the email and reading over it an excited smile stretches over his face, "How interesting."

[niyana-the-ambiguous-mobian]

Alright, alright, alright! New story drop time! After working on this for several months, it's finally time.

This little beauty is a part of the awesome Sonic the Hedgehog Big Bang 2024 event that was ran by the mods over on the discord. ( @sthbigbang ).

Another huge thanks goes to the absolutely wonderful artists for their collaboration art pieces for this fic.

@vanlikespaintingclouds (X), @kkomsed (X), and @mmollymercury (X). Links will be updated!

I See Your Monsters, I’ll Chase Them All Away.

Central Characters: Shadow the Hedgehog, Maria Robotnik, Gerald Robotnik.

Summary:

In the grand scheme of things, Shadow's existence in this world was so short, so inexperienced, yet for Shadow himself, it feels like he's been here as long as everyone else.

Even keeping his best friend, Maria, happy each time they see each other and hang out started to come so naturally that he didn't question how to improve on it, he just did it and the results were better each time.

He wanted to help her, he wanted to save her from this illness, to let her visit that planet that was filled with so much wonder and beauty, something they could experience together.

He wanted to keep her safe.

But just like a fire trying its hardest to burn its last spark of embers in the darkest night to share its glow and warmth, that hope doesn't always last forever.

It's a story about the values of trust, the strength of friendship and the power of love, a story of Shadow the Hedgehog and how he was able to be the last burning ember in the darkness that fell over the entire colony. He will be the light that chases the monsters away.

——————————————————————

Chapter 1. I see you…

✧⋄⋄✧⋄⋄✧

He doesn’t tend to look back on the past too often, mostly because of what is available for him to look back on, which wasn't much.

His memories are usually hazy, out of order and hard to comprehend at times, and that was before he was aware that his own memories were altered after he was woken up.

Whenever he tries to remember those days of his past, the early days of his creation, he could never clearly remember the time where he first opened his eyes or heard sounds for the first time, only things that happened soon afterwards.

His first memories upon his creation were always a blur of images, incomprehensible to his newly born mind.

The lukewarm feeling of the water surrounding his entire body as he floated in the capsule.

The tight yet secure feeling of the mask wrapped around his muzzle that allowed him to get air that never seemed to run out.

It was a whirlwind of emotions and sensations that was overwhelming to him even though he didn’t feel scared.

The various, tall, unrecognizable figures that passed by in his field of view, staring at him with either wonder or bewilderment. Sometimes standing close up to where they talked among themselves while looking at him as if he was a bomb that was getting ready to blow if they got too close.

Humans.

They are called Humans.

Somehow he already knew that; he didn’t know how he knew this answer, but it seemed to match with how he saw them and accepted the notion.

He would tend to imagine what they were actually talking about, since all he could hear was the muffled sounds of their voices. Some were higher in pitch than others, a lot of them were deeper, which made it harder to understand them other than hearing the noise.

The duration of time was unfamiliar, he didn’t know how long a day or a week was while he was in there, only knowing that once the lights had been turned off, it was quite a long time before anyone else came back into the room.

Eventually, he did see one person that caught his eye during one of the dark periods of the day. Somebody he'd never even seen before.

A smaller human?

A child. It is a child.

Again, he already knew despite him never meeting said child before.

He saw her walk into the room, stepping in slow, careful steps; her head glancing around at the endless equipment that towered over her. Eventually her line of sight finally landed on his incubation chamber. At first he thought he was imagining things, with how still she was standing in the near pitch black darkness of the lab until she finally moved closer.

She was smaller than he originally thought, much smaller than any of the humans. She was taking small slow steps towards the capsule, staring at him with wide eyes, tilting her head as he stared back.

Her eyes were a color that he didn't recognize, they were…bright and luminated against the dim, thick liquid of his capsule. The same color was seen on her attire, covering her entire torso to her feet from what he could see.

They were hidden behind some odd, rectangular shapes resting on her face, the light from the capsule reflected off of them each time her head moved.

The one color that stood out was the even brighter color that was seen on the top of her head and was trailing over her shoulders. He couldn’t explain it but as soon as he saw it, he felt… ease. Like the color of this oddly looking mane from this tiny human suddenly made him feel comfort and didn't know the answer why.

If there even was an answer.

He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't notice the human walking even closer to his capsule and started to knock lightly against the glass. His eyes locked directly onto her's, making her jump from the direct eye contact and take a step back, but not too much where he could still point out the distinct details on her face. Like the light dusting of tiny dots that was around her nose and cheeks or how the square objects on her face were constantly slipping down her nose so she kept having to push them back up towards her eyes.

She brought her balled up fists close to her chin and mouth, shrinking back and stepping backwards away from the capsule and into the shadows.

Why was she backing away? Was she apprehensive?

Or was she scared?

Or was she scared of him? He wouldn't be able to harm her from where he was, not with the thick glass separating them from each other.

Maybe she didn't know that, maybe the smaller human was scared due to how he appeared to her. He still didn’t know how his full appearance looked other than the brief times he was awake and was able to see his reflection and take note of how dark his own body looked, a stark comparison to the human’s light clothing and hair.

It was only when she started to back up more away from his capsule was when his hand began to reach out to her, he didn’t realize until his hand came in his line of focus.

The human paused, eyeing his outstretched hand and hesitating, finally stepping forward into the light once more. She stared curiously, giving a small, timid wave at him.

Raising his hand slowly, he copied her wave, earning him a smile from her and watched her cautiously when she came up close and placed both her hands against the glass.

She studied his face, tilting her head from side to side, making him unconsciously do the same. She then tilted her head to the other side, with Shadow following closely.

This brought an even wider smile from her, she continued to rock her head back and forth while he followed every move. He noticed as she was doing this, her shoulders were moving up and down, while her stomach moved in and out in a manner that looked like she was breathing rather rapidly, but she was still beaming at him in a way that didn't seem like she was in distress.

She even pressed her face up against the glass, crossing her eyes and puffing up her cheeks, creating a small fog with her mouth.

He didn't know much about humans, but they were already so confusing to understand.

The girl's head suddenly whips around, almost in alarm towards the door, making him see where she was looking right as the doors slid open to reveal another human, his silhouette was immediately recognized by the overtaking detail of the long and giant length of the hair follicles that protruded from under his nose.

It was the human that he had seen the most the moment he first opened his eyes. He still didn’t know why he always felt at ease whenever he was around; perhaps it was the way he didn't react to him in a manner the other humans did, more-so bringing a calmer, comforting aura to him whenever he approached the chamber during each visit.

The same aura this child was carrying as well.

The taller human walked over to where she was, taking a quick glance at him through the glass before kneeling down next to the smaller human, saying something to her that he wasn’t able to pick up due to how softly he was talking.

A few moments passed, where the girl nodded her head, her shoulders slumping down and looking at the floor. The man's face softened as he gave her a gentle head pat, got up to his full height and reached out his hand to her.

The girl took it and the two started towards the door. Shadow could feel a sudden wave wash over his body, growing more and more each second as they got farther away.

He didn't want them to leave, he didn't want to be alone. He wanted to follow them outside this tank, to move his legs and arms and not have them be bumped against the glass. To hear their voices clearly and remember the words that they say and hold onto each one in his memory.

The girl waved her hand at him again, her eyes locking once again with his and her mouth moving as if she was saying something to him.

Even though it was during the moment right as the doors closed behind them, he had been able to distinguish certain words that they would repeat around him.

“Bye.”

Though, he could only hope that this was less of a “bye”, but more of a “see you again”.

For the first time, he really hopes that he will be able to see her again.

All he can do now is wait.

———————————

Read the rest of the story here!

[dittomander]

Hi! Okay I know I'm sorry I've lowkey been stalking a lot of what you're doing but it's because I really really click with where your brain's at, and I have so much respect for your takes on the show. I'm just so lucky I ran into you just when I was starting to compile an eoa spellbook in my head, lol.

So! Magic questions!

It took me far too long into a rewatch to start paying attention to the magic colors cast by wizards/malvagos (it was Ash who tipped me off that certain casters tend to have certain colors). I know you kind of got into it a little, but I was wondering what helps determine the unique colors? If it's not tamboritas, could it be something more intimate, like personality? Or something deeper? What does Mateo's signature orange glow mean? Would another wizard stereotype him a certain way because of it? I'm inclined to think that color is linked to a caster's spirit/soul, especially since Alacazar's book-spirit is yellow, as is his magic.

If that's the case, is magic itself tied to a person's soul? Elena's emotion-magic is obviously deeply intimate, and though her magic is different than studied spells, maybe there's some linkage between the two? Is magic, at its core, something that touches you inside, something that you kinda "be"? (jeesh okay i see I'm taking "The magic within you" far too literally)

Lot to dump out there but I hope it's food for thought! I have nothing but brainrot so

Hiiii! Thank you, and I'm so sorry for letting this sit for so long 😭

Obviously, there's nothing in the text of the show that defines why different wizards get the colors they do, so all of this is totally speculative. You pose some really interesting questions, though!

The Boring/meta answer is that the colors are just a convenient way to distinguish between who's casting & also what their rough alignment is - warm colors for the good guys, cool colors for the bad guys. Magic battles would be a lot harder to parse if everyone's magic looked the same. But there's a surprising number of interesting edge cases that open the way for magical worldbuilding questions.

Like, there's the case of certain spells tending to be certain colors, regardless of who is performing them. Conglari is usually green when cast, with a few exceptions (orange when Mateo (& Olivia) first use it in "Wizard-in-Training" and pink when Olivia uses it in "Team Isa"), and mitsomo ticarsi's blue overrides both Mateo's orange and the royal guards' red. And like. I have no clue what to make of the implications of that. Like is there something inherent to the spell? What decided those colors? The wizards that first performed the spells? The magic itself? I do love the idea of "living" magic and wizardry as an act of communication with it but there's not really enough examples of these specific-color spells in the show to make any concrete statements about them.

And then there's the case of how Victor's magic stays the same indigo color even when he changes alignment. This case pretty handily dismisses the idea of magic color being defined by alignment as any sort of in-universe rule and makes me lean more toward the idea of the color being intrinsic to the caster. It could be a personality factor, which could help explain in a correlation vs. causation kind of way why so many malvagos have colors in the purple/dark blue range. I.e., whatever trait they have that makes their magic color trend toward purple is also the trait that makes them more inclined to turn to dark magic in the first place. It explains why those colors would be so common among that group while also accounting for cases like Ash's white magic - even if she has the "purple" trait, maybe her "white" trait is just more strongly expressed. This could also explain why all the royal guards have red magic in "Crash Course" - if they've all got the types of personalities that could lead them to joining the guard, maybe that type of personality just manifests as red.

(On the note of "Crash Course", the one thing I'll say for sure is that the magic color probably doesn't come from the tamboritas, since Bronzino's magic is yellow while casting from that same wand. Similarly, when Alacazar uses Mateo's tamborita in "Spirit of a Wizard", his own magic is still yellow instead of Mateo's orange.)

(Also on the note of "Crash Course", that episode shows us what I think is the only example in the show of a wizard actively taking control of someone else's spell. Mateo pulls the wand out of Rico's hands and is able to carefully set Miguel back down from being levitated. The magic stays red instead of turning orange, which I guess is somewhat relevant here? It at least tells us that the caster has a strong influence on the color. But I mostly bring it up because holy shit Mateo took direct control of someone else's spell. Like. Is that. Is that something any wizard could do? Is that significant? Look, I know the writers probably weren't trying to make a statement about Mateo or his relative magical strength there but in-universe I feel like that should be noteworthy. What in the heck.)

But I think the most interesting edge cases are the ones where someone's base magic color actually changes over the course of the show. The two examples I can think of are Elena, whose tamborita magic changes from purple in "Not Without My Magic" to orange in the "Spring Cleaning" short, and Olivia, whose magic changes from orange in "Wizard-In-Training" and "Movin' On Up" to pink in "Team Isa". Elena's kind of a weird case because her own magic does have specific color associations - both her scepter powers and her emotion magic. It's possible that her tamborita magic changing colors implies that the mental state of the caster can influence it as well as (or instead of) personality. While Elena certainly grows and changes over the show, "Not Without My Magic" and "The Magic Within" and associated shorts aren't really all that far apart in the timeline, so such a dramatic change seems unlikely, and like, other magic users grow and change too without their magic changing. But Elena's anxiety magic post-TMW manifests as purple, so maybe her stress about not having her scepter in "Not Without My Magic" is affecting her magic color there?

I don't think tamborita magic color is always indicative of emotion (unless Mateo is just pissed off 24/7 which. not an accurate read of his character, but admittedly a funny one), but I can actually think of one other example in the show that suggests it might contribute in extreme cases. Because while I fully admit it could just be the color settings on my computer or the lighting in the episode or my own perception, I swear to God that Mateo's magic is yellow specifically during "By My Side".

Like. Am I losing it? Am I cherry-picking too much? That's a different color, right? Like I can see a bit of an orange ring around the outside but his magic is usually so much darker/more uniform. Is it just the location/lighting? Like, it's gotta just be that, but the fact that there are butterflies there too makes me wonder if it's a deliberate choice to make his magic lighter for this song. Dude's in such a good mood he temporarily hijacked Elena's emotional symbolism.

Although another possibility here is that his magic is more yellow in that song because he's specifically learning from Alacazar, whose magic is yellow - in both Elena and Olivia's cases, their magic is orange like Mateo's when he's instructing them, but purple and pink respectively when they're casting without him around. If all that's intentional, the Doylist explanation is just Symbolism™, but in-universe it could suggest some sort personal influence - like if you're trying to do magic Like Someone Else, you may mimic their magic color, whether intentionally or not. Although that doesn't really track with the guards' magic being red to Bronzino's yellow. Still, there's room for exploration there, I think.

Expanding on this with Olivia's case, it could be something like, a wizard starts out with magic colors influenced by how they're learning it, and as they get more experience and come into their own as a spellcaster, their own colors start to show through. And this cycles us back around to it potentially being something deeper to their identity, like their personality or something tied to their spirit. It could be a form of self-expression, tying it in with how Shuriki banned magic alongside music and dancing. There's a lot of possibilities here.

I think having worked my way through this post, I really like the idea of it being influenced by a combination of things - personality, emotion, the people you look up to, intent, etc. In that vein, I also really like your comment about wizards potentially stereotyping each other based on their magic - if they perceive their magic as being one color for one reason, it could be easy to assume another wizard's magic is the same, even if another factor is behind it. I wonder if magic color is something wizarding communities even understand in universe.

Anyway, thank you so much for giving me all this good stuff to chew on, and apologies again for the delay. I know I didn't exactly, like, answer anything here but I hope it's still enjoyable to think about!

[kokelek]

Hi, I have two questions for

CreeCree-WendallPie relationship

1. Who fell frist and who fell harder

2. Is that true love? Or it's just one of them begin' in love and other just going with it?

Also, another small question, does CatFigure have any love intrest? Or friends in general? Or maybe everyone hates him?

(also, I love you work, keep going!)

~ Wasabi

Hello! Sorry for the late reply, I was a little busy.

Enjoy the silly doodles

CreeCree fell in love first and harder. Although it was WendallPie who made the first step, while CreeCree was stuck in the "denial phase"

2. It's a bit difficult to describe their love dynamic.

Their love for each other is real and VERY strong, but quite immature. CreeCree is confused by his past relationship, while WendallPie has never been in one. They are still figuring out some things. Sometimes they act overly dramatic or overprotective of themselves, etc.

Yeah... CreeCree's and WendallPie's relationship is full of ups and downs... They love and care, but they don't know how to love and care.

3. CatFigure is respected by the audience and fellow circus members for his fire performances and fire dancing skills. He even has a small circle of devoted followers, who sometimes carry him around or clean his equipment.

Those who are more familiar with CatFigure, well, they don't think so highly of him. CatFigure tends to treat his peers and their feelings as if everyone were an actor on stage. (Literally. And he doesn't take himself seriously either.)

Love for Cat Figure doesn't mean much. He's been in a lot of different relationships, but those were all temporary. He views love more as a tool that can be used to get something, but also as a form of art that should be admired but not possessed. (He's weird, i know)

His enemies are FreakShow (obviously), EyeHatted, and SkyRocket (Cat's former boss). WendallPie doesn't like CatFigure either, but it's not a strong hatred.

CatFigure and CreeCree are kinda friends? There is no deeper emotional connection between these two, but they do enjoy setting things on fire together. 👍👍

Thank you for asking, It's been a while since someone gave ma an OC-related question. I love answering them!