#even in her reincarnated verse she's still the friend who shows up for you in these situations | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

robininthelabyrinth · 4 years

Note

I’d love anything from Baxia’s POV. Maybe her spirit stays to protect Huaisang after Mingjue’s death?

ao3

Untamed verse

Humans did not remember the moment they were forged, which was, in Baxia’s opinion, probably the source of most of their troubles.

Baxia remembered her own forging: earth and wood as the raw ingredients, the warmth of the fire to shape her, the hiss of water as she was quenched, the sudden coalescence of her spirit bursting into life.

It was not dissimilar to the moment Nie Mingjue’s golden core was formed, a moment she recalled quite fondly: they had broken through together, all at once, in an unexpected attack in the middle of an otherwise boring and supervised night-hunt. The night had been dark, pouring rain and pealing thunder, and the blood of the beast they had slain was wet on her blade; his blood had boiled with their frenzied victory, the heat of it shaping him as thoroughly as the flame had her, the rain quenching him even as their cultivation ran wild together, her spirit entwined with his soul.

And yet it was still different – before her forging, she was nothing; after, she was Baxia. But Nie Mingjue still remembered who he’d been before, and perhaps that was where the softness came from. The softness that made him hurt inside when people spoke ill of him, when he saw the man who killed his father, when he stayed his hand against evil because of politics and etiquette, all foolish human concerns…

He’d be better off without that softness.

Baxia herself had none. She was steel, straight and true; she was a saber, vicious and rigid and unyielding. She did not pity the weak or forgive fair-weather friends – she destroyed evil and protected without reservation that which was precious to her.

A very short list.

Mostly just Nie Huaisang, really, stubby little pocketknife that he was, and by association there was Aituan, who was more of a fat metal stick than a proper saber, but who was a great deal of fun to bully. There would be no making something of them – you couldn’t change someone’s fundamental forging without melting them down and starting again, and the pain necessary for something like that was not a fate she’d wish on her precious ones even if she did wish it on just about everyone else – and even Nie Mingjue knew it, but pride was pride and he kept on trying.

But for all that they were useless, they were blood – iron of her iron, made by her maker, and the same pulsing red of her rage lay there hidden deep beneath their frills and fecklessness.

So they were precious to her.

But most precious of all was Nie Mingjue, of course, her master and beloved. His blood had been spilled on the metal that formed her, once at the moment of his birth and once again at the moment of hers; it tied them together, made her a reflection of him and him a reflection of her.

Some sabers didn’t like being mastered like that, but she was proud of it, proud of Nie Mingjue himself. His spirit was as close as she had ever seen a human come to being a saber spirit, steel right down to the core of him, principles held as stiffly as her blade even when the results of those principles turned to cut against him. Full of rage, just as she was, but tempered, just like her – disciplined, fearsome, just.

is he (Nie Mingjue) one (singular unit) of us (swordspirit)? Sandu asked her one day, his voice still sleepy from the effort of starting to wake up. did he (Nie Mingjue) steal (evil) a birth (forging)?

of course not (negative), she said back, haughty and proud. he (Nie Mingjue) would never (negative, past-now-future). not (negative) a thief (evil). and what do you (Sandu) mean, one (singular unit) of us (saberspirit)? you (Sandu) are barely (negative) one (singular unit).

we (saberspirit-swordspirit) are closer (similar) to each other than humans (living), Sandu grumbled.

even my (Baxia) human (Nie Mingjue)?

Sandu conceded the point, muttering gloomily about it, then asked, do you (Baxia) think it is possible (positive) to fix (sharpen) my (Sandu) human (Jiang Cheng) to be more (similar) like us (swordspirit)?

too soft (living), Baxia declared, knowing why Sandu was asking. reforge him (Jiang Cheng).

nobody (negative) needs to be reforged, Suibian said, butting in with a chirp where no-one wanted them as always. humans (living) are just different from us spirits, that’s all, and there’s nothing (negative) wrong with that.

is that (reason) why you (Suibian) keep trying (swing) to talk like them (living)? Baxia snapped. cultivate faster (guai) instead.

Suibian huffed, and Sandu sighed. why do you (Baxia) dislike (negative) them (Suibian)?

doomed (negative) forging, Baxia said succinctly, cutting to the point as their kind always did. bad (negative) fate.

superstition (living), Suibian scoffed. i (Suibian) defy fate!

Baxia wasn’t impressed by such grandiose declarations. then reforge your (Suibian) master (Wei Ying).

never (negative, past-now-future)!

(It wasn’t just superstition. Suibian chirped and Sandu slurred, despite their masters being about equal in natural talent – that was wrong, when they were supposed to be brothers, masters and swords both, but Baxia had scolded them both on the subject in the past to no avail, telling them if the humans weren’t going to straighten themselves out their swords had to do it for them. They didn’t listen to her, so certain that everything was good and that nothing would change, and ignoring the saber-breaking cracks quietly growing underneath.)

Still, the conversation got her thinking.

Nie Mingjue really was remarkably saber-like, after all, and he had his own doom writ above his head – the Nie family rage, which they’d worsened by tying their souls so closely to their inexorable sabers, and she could already hear Aituan whining leave my (Aituan) human (Nie Huaisang) out of this mess (Nie sect) before he (Nie Huaisang) gets angry – and she didn’t want to give her beloved up to the inexorable demands of fate so easily.

humans (living) are not like us (saberspirit), one of her elders reminded her. they (living) do not (negative) last (future) the way (similar) we (saberspirit) do.

Baxia knew that.

She knew, too, what her own fate would be, when the end came: the elders had been left in a honored tomb to burn with rage until the world’s end or their master’s reincarnation, whichever came first, and in time – sooner rather than later, given her master’s extraordinary strength – Baxia would do the same.

(Aituan occasionally entertained thoughts of being buried alongside his master in a nice quiet grave, rather than in a tomb of his own. Baxia really didn’t know what to do with him.)

But just because she knew her fate didn’t mean she liked it, and perhaps it was the swords’ influence or just her own strength that encouraged her, but she didn’t want to accept things she didn’t like. She wanted to fight fate the way Suibian claimed they would, except unlike Suibian that was all talk, a sword that forgot dings as soon as they were smoothed out, Baxia didn’t make decisions like that lightly.

are you (Baxia) sure (stab) about this (decision)? Aituan asked her, anxious. fate is hard to cut (slice) or even to bend.

Baxia was sure.

She was sure throughout the war, which increased her cultivation and her master’s dramatically – she wished they had had a real fight with Wen Ruohan, rather than a fight with her master shackled and weakened after three days of being beaten and starved, because Wen Ruohan liked to be powerful but didn’t like taking chances – and throughout which her master fiercely kept his principles intact. He paid attention to the innocent, he cared for his soldiers, he maintained order and imposed justice no matter who committed the act, he used all the tactics that were reasonable without ever descending into anything dirty or evil.

She was even more sure later, when the war was over and her master’s so-called friends conspired to steal his good name for their own benefit and began bullying him into agreed to it.

“It’s not such an unreasonable request,” her master said – too soft, as always, when it came to precious things, too soft in dealing with outsiders that did little for him beyond showing him a smile or two, too soft when it ought to just be her and him and Nie Huaisang and, yes, even that plonk Aituan against them all. “Everyone has already started calling us the Venerated Triad; politically, it would be difficult and embarrassing for all of us for me to decline. And as the eldest brother, I would have the right and even the duty to try to help Meng Yao remember how to behave –”

you (Nie Mingjue) cannot (negative) change what (forging) does not wish (positive) to be changed (Meng Yao), she snarled, and wished he could understand her better.

There was a language barrier between the living and the unliving. It was entirely separate from the barrier between living and dead, or different types of being – even plants and animals were more conversant with humans than she, with all their naturally obtained understanding of things like breathing or eating or changing, and ghosts and corpses, although dead, were even easier for humans to interpret.

Not so her.

No, the living were so amorphous, the cells within them being reforged every day – melted, quenched, made – and within seven years an average human would be so repaired that the only consistent part of them was their souls and spirits, the reservoirs of memory; whereas she would remain as she was, valiant and true to herself, for centuries without end.

And so Nie Mingjue could understand a ghost well enough to liberate its spirit, he could anticipate an animal’s movements based on its desires, he could even engage in the cut and thrust of sect business with snake-like men who spoke so sweetly they might as well have lotuses on their tongues, but he could only mostly understand what she wanted to convey, getting the feelings and most of the meaning but garbling key parts of the rest. Even that level of understanding was fairly radical for a human, another reason she had in favor of her plan: Nie Mingjue was too straightforward to be a proper human, resulting in him being confused by the complex hypocrisies of most humans just as she was, as all swords and sabers were, and he hated the messy sticky politics of it all.

it (living) isn’t that hard (tough to stab), Aituan mumbled. my (Aituan) human (Nie Huaisang) does it (living) all the time (past-now-future).

maybe if your (Aituan) human (Nie Huaisang) helped him (Nie Mingjue) more, it (living) wouldn’t be so hard (tough to slice).

but we (Aituan, Nie Huaisang) don’t want to (negative)!

then you (Aituan, Nie Huaisang) should stop (negative) whining (scraping rock)!

In the end Nie Mingjue agreed to the sworn brotherhood over Baxia’s objections – it didn’t help that Nie Huaisang was in favor of it, which made Baxia scold Aituan for hours – and naturally it went as badly as could be expected.

he (Lan Xichen) means (motivation) well (positive), Shuoyue said, her voice gentle as a rippling brook. It had once been pleasant to hear. you (Baxia) are too stern (unbending).

we (saberspirits) are unbending by nature (forging), Baxia snapped at her. you (Shuoyue) should (positive) know better (positive)! you (Shuoyue) should have objected (negative)!

i (Shuoyue) do not (negative) have to agree (similar) with you (Baxia), Shuoyue said, a little more peevishly than normal. my (Shuoyue) master (Lan Xichen) likes him (Meng Yao) and your (Baxia) master (Nie Mingjue) both. why should he (Lan Xichen) have to yield (bend) one (Meng Yao) for the other (Nie Mingjue)?

because he (Meng Yao) is (forged) cruel (evil), Baxia said flatly. and even if he (Lan Xichen) does not (negative) see it (evil), you (Shuoyue) can – but (negative) are choosing not (negative) to do so (evil).

i (Shuoyue) do not (negative) accept your (Baxia) judgment (stab), Shuoyue said and she was angry, defensive. She knew she was wrong – she would have denied Baxia’s accusation if she could – but she was choosing her master and his wants over righteousness. my (Shuoyue) master (Lan Xichen) believes that he (Meng Yao) can change (reforge) if he (Meng Yao) is given trust –

impossible (negative). he (Meng Yao) has not (negative) agreed (reforging).

i (Shuoyue) disagree (negative). regardless (negative) of what you (Baxia) think, i (Shuoyue) will make my (Shuoyue) own judgment (slice)!

Incensed beyond all tolerance, Baxia cursed her with the worst words her kind knew, may your edge (Shuoyue) cut the life of your master (Lan Xichen), and after that they did not speak again.

Nie Mingjue felt her distress and sought to soothe her, with night-hunts and sharpening and everything she liked best, and even Nie Huaisang came to her with buffing cloths and calming oil to coax her back into something more neutral than rage – blinding disappointed rage of the sort Baxia would think was more appropriate against a human than one of her own kind – and for a while they didn’t go to visit the Cloud Recesses at all.

In the end, mostly in recognition of Nie Mingjue’s confused but unstinting support, no matter how much he missed his friend, she settled for speaking only with Liebing, who wasn’t a sword but who Baxia had noticed went pointedly off-key a few times when Meng Yao was around.

he (Meng Yao) wants too much (evil) from my (Liebing) master (Lan Xichen), she said, distressed. She was younger than the weapons were, having been mastered at a later age – less developed, less attuned to detecting and destroying evil, but she had a good spirit, enthusiastic and true. but (negative) master (Lan Xichen) does not (negative) listen to me (Liebing) – he (Lan Xichen) is more attuned (positive) to swordsmanship (Shuoyue) and she (Shuoyue) does not (negative) agree.

her (Shuoyue) decision (slice) will cost (cut) him (Lan Xichen), Baxia said. Ignoring evil was unworthy of a swordspirit, and very close to evil itself; she herself would not permit such a weakness no matter how much Nie Mingjue pleaded. Indeed, it was her own enmity that kept him at odds and distant from Meng Yao, who he would have rather liked to forgive. the only question (uncertainty) is if it (decision) will cost (cut) the rest of us (general) first.

It did, of course.

Shuoyue refused to yield, Baxia had never known how, and in the end –

In the end, Baxia could only detect the poison that affected her and her master both and seek to expel it, but had no means to identify from where the poison came. Perhaps Liebing would have been able to tell her, if Meng Yao hadn’t hidden his crimes so deeply; or perhaps Aituan, who realized far too late what was the discordant note in Baxia’s whistling song was, could have done more…

By the time her master and her realized that they had been so thoroughly betrayed – that they had anticipated small evils when in fact the evil was thorough and pervasive – it was too late.

But regrets were for those who had not prepared, and Baxia – Baxia had prepared. She might have thought she’d have more time, but once the decision had been made, all those years ago, she had not hesitated to start acting at once.

She had never been more happy for her straightforward and blunt nature that did not drag and did not hesitate.

The qi deviation came suddenly, Meng Yao unmasking himself at the last for the specific purpose of driving Nie Mingjue past the edge – and he succeeded. It should have worked; it should have killed him.

But Baxia had been stretching herself thin for years now, trading pieces of herself for her master, knowing just as he knew that one day his fragile human mind and body would turn against him, that he would die choking on his own blood – the flame inside of him too hot to tolerate – and that saber-clean spirit she so loved would be lost to the cycle of reincarnation, with Baxia herself left to endlessly wait for him.

She didn’t want to wait.

What happened? he asked blearily, only a few shichen later, and she couldn’t help the surge of joy in her heart when she heard how easily he slipped into awareness, into speech – he really must have been a saber in a past life. Why can’t I see anything? Baxia – is that you?

yes (positive), it is me (Baxia), she said proudly. i (Baxia) saved you (Nie Mingjue).

Thank you, Nie Mingjue said automatically, not even bothering to ask how she’d done it or what it had cost – such a good master, to trust her so. Wait. I can hear you. You’re talking!

i (Baxia) have always (positive, past-now-future) talked, she said. it was you (Nie Mingjue) who could not (negative) hear.

After a moment – she suspected he was processing, or attempting to – she added, you (Nie Mingjue) are a saberspirit now (now-future).

…I’m a what?!

Baxia guided him back to the world so that he could see. His body – what had become of it – was currently chained down on a table in what must be a secret room; it was recognizable as being somewhere in Jinlin Tower, but neither of them had ever seen this room before. The tell-tale marks of Yin Metal poisoning, the signs of turning into a corpse puppet, stretched up his neck and his eyes were blank and full of resentment, his body thrashing and mouth snarling.

Jin Guangyao was standing beside him and looking down with a frown, asking, “Why is it not working? It worked with the others.”

“The body is too full of resentment,” Xue Yang said – and it was Xue Yang there, standing free and clear and Baxia wanted to murder him, murder them both, they were evil, and she felt Nie Mingjue’s rage right alongside her own; he agreed entirely. “Normally, it takes time for resentment to infiltrate a living body; resentment can affect the physical body faster than it does the souls and spirits…it’s as if his are gone.”

“His spirit is gone? Impossible.”

Xue Yang shrugged. “Perhaps it is only that the qi deviation weakened his ability to resist the resentful energy of the Yin Metal,” he hypothesized. “Either way, there’s nothing more I can do. What do you want to do with him?”

Jin Guangyao scowled – he’d clearly had plans for the corpse puppet he would have made out of Nie Mingjue, and Baxia can feel Nie Mingjue’s betrayal and hurt and rage at the very idea – and then he said, “Kill him.”

Oh no they didn’t.

hey, you (Jiangzai)! she called as Xue Yang moved to draw his sword. tell your (Jiangzai) human (Xue Yang) to use me (Baxia) to do it (slice).

why should I (Jiangzai)? the small-spirited sword asked. Xue Yang’s cultivation wasn’t especially impressive, but it did exist; his sword had managed to develop enough to have a personality. Well, if you called that a personality. what’s in it (benefit) for me (Jiangzai)?

a generous (positive) offer, Baxia declared. i (Baxia) will not (negative) break you (Jiangzai) into pieces.

The other sword had an aura of death, but its master was a coward and so too was it. It yielded at once.

Why do you want to be the one to kill me? Is there some benefit to it? Nie Mingjue asked, sounding curious – curious, and not angry, because he trusted her.

Such a good master. He was worthy of being her beloved.

a saber (general) should never (negative) cut their human (general), Baxia explained. it is an evil. but that (object) is not (negative) you (Nie Mingjue) because it (object) does not (negative) contain you (Nie Mingjue). they (Jin Guangyao and Xue Yang) have filled it (object) with resentful energy; as soon as it (object) ceases to live, it will be (future) a gui (dead living).

And that means what? That you can cultivate with its energy?

no (negative)! she exclaimed. She would never use anything of Nie Mingjue’s as a tool for her own cultivation like that, treat him like a stepping stone to give herself more power. Hadn’t he faced enough of that? a gui (dead living) is not (negative) restricted by bodily uniformity (singular). it (gui) can be broken (shattered) and remain active (swing); it (gui) can also be reforged.

But what does that matter, since that’s not ‘me’ in there? Is it just so that it will haunt my enemies?

bad (negative) luck, Baxia agreed, because being haunted by a gui was indeed bad luck. but no (negative). the purpose (motivation) is that if I (Baxia) kill it (object), I (Baxia) can capture its vital energy (body) so as to eventually (future) reforge the gui.

Reforge?

remove (negative) the resentful energy (evil), she explained, restore (positive) the vital energy (life), return the souls and spirits (Nie Mingjue).

Are you suggesting that you think you’ll be able to bring me back to life?

Well, that was the goal anyway. Swords could be reforged and given new life, even after they’d been broken, so why couldn’t humans? And anyway, how else was she supposed to save him from an always-fatal qi deviation?

Xue Yang picked up Baxia when Jiangzai bit his fingers, resisting, and she allowed him to wield her – to lift her up high into the air, and to come down on the neck of the would-be gui. It all happened exactly as she would have predicted: the body died, and the gui came to life, and the evildoers only had a little bit of time to applaud themselves for their crime before they were struggling against hands that sought to strangle them and feet that kicked them and even teeth that bit them.

A fierce corpse, in defiance of all the soul-calming rituals that Nie Mingjue had mostly slept through as a child.

Now what? Nie Mingjue asked, and Baxia flung herself out the window in response. Well, that works. I refuse to allow myself to be wielded by him of all people.

it is (now) cute (pointy) that you (Nie Mingjue) expect to be (future) the one being wielded.

I meant it metaphorically…

no (negative) you (Nie Mingjue) did not (negative). you (Nie Mingjue) are too much (positive) of a saberspirit to mean anything else (negative). Baxia paused, contemplating. anyway he (Meng Yao) hasn’t even (negative) managed to bring forth (forge) a spirit in his sword (Hensheng); it (Hensheng) is only dead metal. he (Meng Yao) would be (past-now-future) a bad master (evil).

I can’t say I disagree, Nie Mingjue said with a sigh. I was a fool. I should have listened to you when you resisted me swearing brotherhood with him.

yes (positive) you (Nie Mingjue) should have. now, you (Nie Mingjue) direct (swing) me (Baxia) – we (Nie Mingjue, Baxia) should go (future) home.

Yes. Let’s go home.

It took a while, mostly because Nie Mingjue didn’t want to startle common people by having an apparently masterless saber hurtling through the air and Baxia didn’t want to risk getting close to any cultivators that might try to capture her (them) as a treasure, but on the other hand they didn’t need to sleep or eat or relieve themselves the way humans did.

According to Nie Mingjue, this was extremely weird for him.

Baxia showed him how to dream – it was a purposeful state for sabers, something to let the time when they weren’t being used pass faster – but apparently it was still weird. Living creatures were so tetchy.

They got home long before Nie Huaisang did, but luckily the little brat had left Aituan at home again and he was delighted to see them, the sound of his blade whistling in the wind as it lunged at them (in a friendly way) almost a shriek.

you (Baxia) did it (positive)! he shouted. my (Aituan) human (Nie Huaisang) will be (future) so happy!

Future happiness? Nie Mingjue interjected. He was doing so well at being a saber; it was so nice to be proven right. What’s wrong with him now, in the present? Is he all right?

he (Nie Huaisang) thinks that you (Nie Mingjue) are dead (broken), Aituan explained.

Shit, Nie Mingjue mutters. He must be upset – devastated.

also angry (rage), Aituan said. he (Nie Huaisang) wants to kill (cut) him (Meng Yao).

He knows? I mean – he figured it out?

yes (positive). he (Nie Huaisang) is angry (rage) and wants (future) to destroy evil (Meng Yao).

That may be difficult to accomplish, without proof, Nie Mingjue said. I want to see him as soon as he gets back.

It took some time for that to happen, even after he did return – unfortunately, Nie Huaisang was escorted by Jin Guangyao and Lan Xichen. The three of them were almost never apart, and obviously they couldn’t let Jin Guangyao know about Nie Mingjue’s return.

So they stayed away.

Aituan, abandoned, kept them company, staying away from the dead Hensheng and the living Shuoyue and Liebing.

During Nie Huaisang’s investiture as sect leader, the first time he’d picked up Aituan since everything had happened and even then only because it was self-evident that you couldn’t be sect leader of the Nie sect without a saber by your side, there was at last a brief chance for them to speak.

(Baxia eavesdropped.)

i (Liebing) am so sorry (scratched)! Liebing trilled, sounding honestly despondent. my (Liebing) master (Lan Xichen) is so sad, he (Lan Xichen) misses yours (Nie Mingjue) so much…

is she (Baxia) in the tombs? Shuoyue asked. Her voice was solemn and solid, not nearly as musical as usual. i (Shuoyue) wish to (future) speak with her (Baxia).

may you (Shuoyue) be broken into pieces and reforged into a chair, Aituan said pleasantly, so that you (Shuoyue) may be sat on for all eternity (future).

no need to be rude, she said crossly. i (Shuoyue) want to apologize.

do you (Shuoyue)? Aituan asked. will your (Shuoyue) apology bring him (Nie Mingjue) back? will your (Shuoyue) regret erase your (Shuoyue) complicity (evil)? you (Shuoyue) knew he (Meng Yao) was cruel (evil), and now he (Meng Yao) has destroyed my (Aituan) human (Nie Huaisang) by breaking her (Baxia) human (Nie Mingjue).

do you (Aituan) have proof (solid) that he (Meng Yao) did it (breaking)? Shuoyue demanded. She sounded miserable. you (Aituan) were not (negative) there, you (Aituan) do not (negative) know for sure (solid)…

do you (Shuoyue) still not (negative) admit your (Shuoyue) mistakes?! Liebing shouted. do you (Shuoyue) want (future) to end up like the others (Bichen, Wangji), regretting or pained (cracked), your (Shuoyue) master (Lan Xichen) destroyed (broken) at the hands of evil (Meng Yao)?

i (Shuoyue) just wanted him (Lan Xichen) to be happy…

you (Shuoyue) have made him (Lan Xichen) a breaker of swords, Aituan said. that is bad (negative) fate. how can he (Lan Xichen) be happy in the end?

can it (this) be fixed (positive)? she whispered. is it (this) too late (negative)?

Aituan didn’t respond.

Baxia approved.

After a while, Jin Guangyao left. He had duties, a wife, a small son – he couldn’t remain. Lan Xichen, who was responsible for a sect, agreed to stay a little longer, a few more weeks, but then he, too, would leave.

I’m going, I’m going,” Nie Huaisang complained as Aituan tugged him down into the basement where Baxia and Nie Mingjue had been waiting, killing time practicing their swings, usually while thinking about Jin Guangyao’s head as their target. “What’s gotten into you? You normally like to sit around like a paperweight, just the way we both like it, and I know we’re both raring and eager to go about getting revenge but I don’t see what we’ll find for that in our own basement –”

His voice trailed off.

“Baxia,” he whispered, and there were tears in his eyes. “Oh, Baxia…!”

Oh, Huaisang, Nie Mingjue cried. Huaisang, Huaisang – I’m so sorry for leaving you –

he (Nie Huaisang) cannot (negative) understand you (Nie Mingjue), Baxia said with a sigh. humans (general) are difficult (negative) for us (saberspirits) to speak with (spar).

very annoying (negative), Aituan agreed. do you (Nie Mingjue) have any ideas on how to get him (Nie Huaisang) to stop (negative) crying?

Yes. I need – I need ink, or to scratch something…can we get him out to the garden, maybe? I can write in the ground.

write? Baxia asked. the stupid (negative) thing humans (general) do with sticks and paper (soft)?

It serves a purpose, Nie Mingjue said, long-suffering – Baxia had made her view on his supposed “need” to do paperwork instead of train with her very clear many times. Come on, let’s get him outside. I can’t listen to him cry and apologize for not having done enough to save me anymore.

Whatever writing was, it was very impactful on humans: as soon as Baxia, indulgently following Nie Mingjue’s directions as she always did, started cutting slashes into the ground, Nie Huaisang fell silent, his eyes wide, and then they got wider.

“Da-ge?” he asked, voice tremulous. “How – it’s impossible. You’re in the saber?”

More slashes. Yes, Nie Mingjue said as he wrote. Yes, Huaisang, I’m here. You’re not alone.

Nie Huaisang kept crying for a while after that, but there was also hugging (Nie Mingjue yelled at him for not engaging in proper saber discipline when he nearly cut himself) and lots of very nice buffing with the clothing and the oils and the sharpening stone.

Baxia approved. Both Aituan and his human were handling this change very nicely – much better than she’d expected they would, in all truth.

“What do we do next?” Nie Huaisang asked, wiping his eyes.

we (us) get help, Baxia said. from those we (us) trust.

“That makes sense. But who can we tell?”

do you (Baxia) really mean to allow (positive) her (Shuoyue) to help? Aituan asked her doubtfully. after all (past) that she (Shuoyue) has done?

She has already made her own fate, Nie Mingjue said, his voice solemn. She allowed Lan Xichen to bind himself to Meng Yao, to make himself an accomplice to evil. It will break his heart to learn what Meng Yao has done – and that will be a deeper cut than having kept him away from her at all.

we (saberspirits) should never (negative, past-now-future) have to cut (break) our own humans (general), Baxia agreed. a bad (negative) fate.

deserved, Aituan hissed, vengeful, and when brought in on the discussion Nie Huaisang ended up agreeing with him.

Nie Mingjue was the only one surprised, though he shouldn’t have been. How could Nie Huaisang have deserved to master a saber, any saber, even one like Aituan, if he didn’t have some sharp edges to him?

Those sharp edges had been hidden, once, but that was before the pain of losing everything had melted him into a new shape, reforging him the way she’d once wished he never would be. Him and Aituan both.

They would be able to do what needed to be done now.

“Let her suffer her bad fate,” Nie Huaisang said, his eyes cold. “I supported Meng Yao and I suffered, didn’t I? Why should she be exempt? Let her suffer. Let him suffer. I want Meng Yao to lose everything he’s ever wanted, and then to die alone and with nothing.”

That seems excessive, Nie Mingjue objected. Just kill him and be done with it.

too soft (Nie Mingjue), Baxia scolded.

I said to kill him! How is that soft?!

break him (Meng Yao) in to pieces! shatter him (Meng Yao)! throw him (Meng Yao) into a tomb to wait for a reincarnation that will never (negative) come!

It turned out Baxia had some strong feelings on the subject.

“We can do that,” Nie Huaisang said, his thumb lightly rubbing against Aituan as he planned. “I have an idea.”

#mdzs #nie huaisang #nie mingjue #baxia #sabers and swords #my fic #my fics #reforged #Anonymous

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shimmershae · 3 years

Text

Some more random thoughts about Episode 4--

Because I couldn’t have my notebook commentary be incomplete at the end of the season just because an episode wasn’t my personal favorite.

Okay. I’m still a little surprised that Daryl took off running after that one Reaper dude in the dark. Like if that had been Carol instead of Maggie getting ambushed, my man would have not hasta la vista’d outta there ‘til heknew she was safe--capable, kickass leader or not.

Dog is so random about listening lately. How plot point convenient, lol.

Daryl throwing his crossbow at the Reaper had me legit LMAO.

Hmm. So that was Leah he unknowingly hurled his knife at, hahahaha.

Disobedient or not? Dog must be protected at all costs.

For real, though. It’s like Dog’s Carl reincarnated now. Somewhere, Lori feels vindicated about all those times she tried to explain that Carl had a stubborn will and mind of his own.

The hell good is the Walker guts and blood to the face in this sitch. I’m just not getting it.

Dog in his little vest. I’m still loving it and wondering if it has an actual purpose beyond making us go d’aww.

Does Lynn Collins resemble Megan Follows to anybody else or is it just me? Love my Anne-girl. NO comment on LC.

Well. That wasn’t exactly a reunion on par with Daryl’s reunion with Carol in the woods outside Terminus. One would think the woman Daryl supposedly loves would receive a better, more heartfelt welcome. OH.

Leah sure loves to point a shotgun at Daryl’s face, doesn’t she? Can you feel the love tonight. No, Elton. I cannot.

Dog has a weakness for the ladies. Whether they have homicidal tendencies or not.

Daryl’s all “Dog, C’mon. Let’s get TF outta here. She’s one crazy bitch.” Then her even crazier fam converges.

Eleven years in and I still love TWD’s opening theme.

Nothing says “I love you” quite like a burlap sack over the head.

So yeah. Anybody else detect the same hint of vulnerable uncertainty in Daryl’s voice when he tells Leah “I came back for you” as when he asked Carol “why’d you go?” Funny how in one instance, everybody’s (well, a certain group) is like omigosh. I think I ship them. And the other? They’re like “aww, his mommy hurt his feelings”? Anyway. Nice touch, NR. I do not, by any stretch of the imagination, believe Daryl ever loved Leah. But she gave him companionship when he was drowning in hopeless loneliness and he’d lost those closest to him so he convinced himself he cared and she was what and who he deserved.

“These people are my family. They never stopped looking for me. When they found me, I came home.” Interesting how Leah could give Daryl an ultimatum to sever ties with his family and home and yet when her own family returned? Different damn story.

Daryl’s face when he realizes how far down Leah’s priority list he is and the bullet that he dodged. Well. Almost.

Daryl lying for all he’s worth. His anything for them/us/family moment?

Apparently, love is a chloroform rag to the face for some. I mean. There are kinks and there’s this bullshit. People actually ship this toxic fuckery?

Guess waterboarding is Leah’s love language. You have to wonder how else she’s shown her “affection” in that time jump plot point romance.

WTF did Maggie do to earn these Looney Tunes’ obsession?

“Go ahead and kill me if you want.” Oh, Baby. Daryl, no.

Oh look. Daryl’s locked up in a cage again. How novel. How original. How very Season 7 of you, Angela.

“Understand? Hear me? Got it?” Daryl, honey. You’re not exactly the best at this whole covert thing, are you? Thank goodness, Frost picked up what you were throwing down.

“I’ve never lied to you.” Just before Daryl proceeds to do exactly that for much of the episode. Methinks, it’s just one whopper after another with her right there because I’m not convinced Leah knows about Carol.

Look at Leah showing more genuine emotion over her “dead brother” than her newly returned “lover.” Something ain’t quite right.

Leah’s cold, sure. Not sure if I buy LC as a mercenary though.

Listen. Daryl telling Leah he got scared and admitting it was because he didn’t want to let go practically feels like a gimme here. Who you afraid of letting go, Daryl? Hmm? Psst. Rhymes with Carol.

Girl, you wouldn’t have worked period but whatever.

“Tall, skinny guy. Never shuts up.” Ofc, that’s Negan, lol.

LOL at Pope’s line to Leah--”not everything is about you, Leah.”

Him also asking her “you find what you’re looking for?” is interesting to me and goes right along with Carol’s subconscious asking her the same question. The parallels are everywhere with these two. If they don’t get the chance to meet---

“I never said he loved me.” At least she realizes that.

Why does Daryl look like he’s wearing guy liner in that firetrap scene? Glam rock Daryl.

“We were the Chosen Ones.” New season, same song, different verse. All the diferent shades of cray-cray with this one.

Overall impression? Not a bad episode, but not necessarily enthralling either. At this point, all the different villains we’ve had on this show just feel like they’re passing along a relay baton or something and picking straight up where the last one left off.

Daryl seems to well and truly know where he belongs now, because he looked like he couldn’t be bothered to rub two fucks together where Leah was concerned. He just wanted to get the hell outta Dodge.

The Reapers are all pretty darn attractive. So at least there’s some nice eye candy to admire while we’re waiting for them to vamoose.

I just want more Carol this season. Is that too much to ask considering she’s the first billed female character and the second billed character over all?

Next episode looks to be populated with less newbs so there’s that. I am ready for a break from all the new people, lol. I just want to sit with and visit some old friends for a while. I’m certain I’m not alone.

Okay. That is all. For now, lol.

I’ll be back sometime tomorrow probably to give my impressions and commentary of Episode 5.

G’night.

#The Walking Dead #Caryl #Carol x Daryl #Season 11 #TWD spoilers #things that make me smile and cry #for reasons

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wanderer-among-undead · 2 years

Note

headcanon the difference between Jarrod's different incarnations in various games. Lay out the fundamentals differences that inspire everything else.

send me ‘ headcanon ‘ + a word and i will give you a headcanon around it.

Jarrod is literally the same man across all three Dark Souls Games, whereas Rosalind is a Reincarnation of Lordran Rosalind. So, the "different" Jarrods are just the same man in different stages of his life.

Dark Souls: Jarrod’s a farmer from the Five Finger Delta, whose first death was from pneumonia from one particularly harsh winter. He came to Lordran a very godfearing and superstitious young man, and was VERY weak. His fear of dogs and aversion to crossbows steps from getting his shoulder mangled by Capra Demon’s hounds and accidentally having a case of friendly fire with Rosalind, resulting in her getting cut down by Capra. Jarrod is so weak that he’s considered a Chosen Undead by a fluke alone.

Jarrod’s defining moment in this verse is when Gwyndolin manipulated him into becoming a Blade of the Darkmoon, and sharpened Jarrod to a very shark edge. However, the sharpest swords are often the most brittle. Jarrod eventually had to turn on Rosalind, for a sin she committed, believing that it was less cruel if he passed judgement on her than what one of his companions would do (Blades are known to be cruel). The anger and pain he felt ultimately leads to him killing Gwyndolin.

Afterwards, Jarrod and Rose effectively became husband and wife.

Jarrod’s a lot friendlier in this verse, but if you were to RP with him in his “latest” arc there, he is starting to show signs of weariness and cynicism. He has returned from his adventures in Oolacile and has learned that:

1. The true identity of Oswald’s “daughter” is the Goddess of Sin, and she has actually been looking out for him before their first meeting, because she actually first met him 400 years ago. Jarrod does not understand what Velka has planned for him.

2. One of his best friends and mentor in sorcery, Marylin, is doomed to be lost in the past, as even with Manus dead, Manus can pull her from any point in time. Eventually, Marylin will disappear from this time, and he cannot stop it.

3. The Blades of the Darkmoon are now actively hunting Jarrod and Rosalind.

Dark Souls II: Jarrod has been petrified for many cycles, his statue eventually on the mountains outside of Drangleic, where one fateful day a pair of Volgenese girls found him and woke him up from his slumber. Jarrod started this verse as a very abrasive and cold man, not trusting anyone--even Rosalind. But with time and effort (and eight hours on a certain rock outside Majula), Rosalind won Jarrod’s heart and the two got closer and closer.

In this verse, Jarrod steadily regains his humanity, and reveals that underneath it all he is still the same old Jarrod--a fact Marylin also had confirmed when she met him again as well, after he saved her from her crystalline imprisonment.

The defining event of this verse is the Intruder Arc, which focuses on Aslatiel of Mirrah abducting Marie from Majula and twisting her against Rosalind and Jarrod, who at this point had become something of a brother to her as well.

Jarrod’s love for Rosalind really blossomed into maturity in this verse, I feel, because the conclusion of the arc devastated Rosalind and Jarrod stepped up to do all the things she would have done--cooking for them, running her small shop, but also he was her support in that dark time.

I don’t really do much RP in this verse anymore, unless Rosemun wanted to continue with Jarrose’s journey that ultimately leads to them leaving Drangleic and into...

Court of Roses: The interquel verse in the years between Dark Souls II and events that lead to them waking up in the coffins of Dark Souls III. With the First Flame lit once more, Jarrod and Rose’s cursemarks go dormant. Rosemun and I never elaborated on the story of this time, but it really just deals with the aftermath of the curse. How undead, who never went hollow are treated by others, even though the curse is gone.

It is during this span of approximately 10-12 years that Jarrod and Rosalind:

1. End up developing a small following which eventually evolves into the Court of Roses.

2. They meet three children, Rice, Magnolia, and Ewan who end up becoming their adoptive kids. Magnolia is Jarrod’s apprentice in sorcery as well.

3. It is where Jarrod and Rosalind become known as The King and Queen of Roses.

Jarrod’s personality here is honestly the happiest you’ll see him. Though, he and Rosalind are also a little wary. They never anticipated heading what eventually is a self-sufficient mercenary company, whose elite members (Thorns) are former undead.

The Court of Roses ends with the appearance of a dangerous foe: The Pallid Lord and the Ghosts of Forossa.

Dark Souls III: The Court of Roses is gone, and the Pallid Lord had taken everything from them. I never really got to play this verse much, but Jarrod’s dealing with a lot of pain and anger under that weary expression. The world’s gone to shit, and it’s even worse than before.

He just wants to be with Rosalind, and be in peace. It’s why I think that if Rosemun and I had ever RPed things here, Jarrod and Rose would have eventually disappeared into the Painted World. The Ringed City is literally the final frontier, but the Painted World is a whole new place to explore.

So, as the world is dying Jarrod really just wants his final days to be with the woman he holds above all else.

Bloodborne: I haven’t developed this verse too much because the setting just doesn’t feel good to RP in for me. But Jarrod is the son of a farmer who was cured of a sickness by a mysterious woman--a Hunter of Hunters. In exchange, she asked for Jarrod to become her apprentice when the time was right.

Jarrod has a bit more insight into what is going on during these Hunts and actively despises Yharnam and all it stands for.

Elden Ring: Jarrod’s most like his Court of Roses/Lothric verse here, but in my flashback RPs with Rosalind, you’ll see that Elden Ring Jarrod’s life has him going through similar stages. There’s his more carefree and “innocent” stage as just an adventuring sellsword. Then he gets involved with Godfrey’s war, which will force him to grow up and see many things. Then he is banished from the Lands Between, and well... what happens next who knows?

Jarrod’s memory is damaged from being dead so long, but he still remembers Rose. Jarrod’s heart remembers what the mind does not, and he can’t help caring for her. He trusts what his dreams are trying to tell him, and as time goes on and he remembers more and more... well...

I’m really excited to see what happens, because this verse shakes up a lot of things for Jarrod and Rose.

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rkin413 · 3 years

Text

All 77 of my current AUs

I’m probably going to instantly regret making this post but it’s four in the morning and also I desperately want to talk to people about these things.

This is just. Copypasted from my AU list page. Some stuff might be outdated in a week. Who knows. Not me.

Star Vs The Forces of Evil:

Monster Carvers (link) - Main Star Vs AU. Stomco endgame + Tom stays with Marco + Star raised by Monsters (specifically Buff Frog). The titular antagonists were originally going to disappear after the prologue what the heck happened???

Pretty Cure vs the Forces of Evil (link) - Exactly What It Says On the Tin, Pretty Cure x Star Vs.

unnamed Pirate AU - Star Butterfly has a perfectly nice, unbearably boring life as a high-class lady, with little to do other than wait to be married to her arranged fiancé that she’s never even met. A week before her wedding she sneaks on board a shipping vessel in the hopes of having an adventure. She gets a little more adventure than she bargained for when the ship is attacked by pirates.

“"Cannon”“ - A cannon-adjacent AU that started as a crossover with Monster Carvers

unnamed Infinity Train AU feat. human!Star and human!Tom.

unnamed Post-Cleaved AU featuring forced humanizations, amnesia, and one small time hiccup. Also Dave and Wrathmelior are missing, so that sucks for Tom.

unnamed AU where Marco goes to live with Tom for a while instead of Star during Lint Catcher

How to Train Your Dragon:

Outsiders (link) - Main HTTYD AU. Instead of watching the entire Berk fleet sail off to their dooms with Toothless, Hiccup and Astrid free the arena dragons and take Toothless while he’s being brought to the ship and then they all get the heck out of dodge. Dagur accidentally set himself adrift with Heather back when they were both small. Snotlout learns the hard way that being the Heir/responsibility kind of really sucks actually??? Stoick has to deal with his son going rouge. And Gobber and the Berk Teenagers have to deal with Stoick and Snotlout respectively.

Modern Riders/Time Travel AU - Modern!Hiccup is dragged by his cousin into an unwanted camping trip with the other riders and one electrical storm later, they find their cell phones aren’t working any more. Also are those flipping dragons?! On Berk, Stoick and the other vikings are shocked to find a group of teenagers in the woods who bear a shocking resemblance to some of the members of a dead generation of children.

Unsevered Bonds - Modern Riders (minus Hiccup) meet a time displaced Hiccup who recognize them as his reincarnated friends, even if they don’t remember their former lives.

How To Train Your Lusus - Everyone are trolls on Alternia. Hiccup is a brownblood who’s probably the only troll in existence to get a second Lusus (Toothless) after his first one (Stoick) is killed. Astrid is an oliveblood that Hiccup is flushed for, Fishlegs is a yellowblood, Snotlout is a blueblood, the Twins, Dagur, and Heather are all purplebloods. Dagur killed both his and Heather’s lusus so now he’s trying to take care of her even though she absolutely hates him (and not in a black way), and he had an unrequited pitch thing for Hiccup at one point before they flipped pale (and are actually Moirails now). That’s pretty much all I have for this one.

unnamed Harry Potter AU - Does not actually take place at Hogwarts. Everyone attends Dumstrang (possibly) and the topic everyone avoids is Care of Magical Creatures, because the local Dark Lord is Drago Bludvist. Main trio is Hiccup, Snotlout (Pureblood cousins), and Fishlegs (Muggleborn)… somehow.

Dragon Gang (link) - Mob/Mafia AU set in the vaguely 1920s in a Fake Country so no one can call me out on inaccurate geography.

Rebuilding Bridges - Set in a Multiverse where RTTE and The Hidden World are mutuality exclusive. (Pt.1): After dealing with Drago but before dealing with Grimmborn, Hiccup and Toothless once fought a witch intent on ‘harvesting’ dragons. Now ten years after the dragons have left her apprentice seeks revenge and kidnaps Zephyr and Nuffink, and a panicked Hiccup and Astrid are contacted by the Very Retired and Very Much Done With This Kid witch. Meanwhile in the RTTE-verse, The Dragon Riders only just got back from informing Berk about Johann’s treachery, when some crazy lady spontaneously appears in the middle of the Edge with two terrified children she intends to feed to dragons. Yeah, that’s not happening. (Pt.2, spoilers for this AU I guess???): Zephyr and Nuffink and their parents have safely returned to New Berk, but their world has been shaken by what was and could have been. Zephyr and Nuffink, after bonding with Dagur in the other timeline, decide they want to try and help him in theirs. This was perhaps not their best idea. Meanwhile, the Nightlights escape the watchful eye of their parents to go exploring outside the Hidden World, and quickly meet the hatchlings of their dad’s brother! (so… their cousins, then?)

Something Wild (name subject to change) - Several years after Berk (along with most of the Archipelago) is attacked and taken captive by a far more advanced foe, Stoick is able to free most of his people but what he finds when they get manage to regroup back to their island is less than a relief- Berk ravaged and their elderly and children, left behind by their captors, missing. To make matters worse, the dragons are still out there, now with some kind of devils riding and aiding them. Now Stoick, Gobber, and the rest of the people of Berk must find safety and a way to fight back against they’re new foe, find what happened to those who are missing, and figure out who these dragon riders are and whether they’re friend of foe (gee i wonder where the Berkians went and who the dragon riders are golly what a mystery). (aka the feral/semi-feral!dragon riders au i keep trying to create)

Lost (name subject to change) - Alternate attempt at the feral/semi-feral!dragon riders au. Several years before the events of the movie could happen, a raid on Berk not by dragons, but by other people, leads to the destruction of an entire generation when the raiders manage to capture the Teenagers of Berk and ship them away. While in captivity, they meet and ultimately befriend the dragons that in another life would be their partners and together they all escape. Unfortunately, they’re Thor-knows-where, and with no one they can trust (or understand) except each other, getting back to Berk might take a while…

The Lego Movie:

Hero with Two Faces of Yellow - Another ‘Emmet and Rex share a body like Good Cop Bad Cop’ AU

Peacemaker AU - Main Lego AU. About a year after the Duplo aliens attack, Emmet is attacked and presumed dead, but he’s actually been taken by General Mayhem to meet Queen Watevra Wana'bi, who remembered and missed her ‘father’. Later, Rex ends up jumping into an entirely different timeline by accident (this one) and decides to try and play the long game by befriending Emmet, who’s now living in the Systar System. That probably won’t work out for him the way he wanted.

Miraculous Ladybug

MiracuClass Knows AU - Prior to Volpina, each member of the MiracuClass finds out the identities of Ladybug and Chat Noir, and just sort of collectively become their secret keepers. Inspired by Epiphanies by PFTones3582 on Fanfiction.net.

Miraculous Sburb AU - The MiracuClass play Sburb and end up dragging a good chunk of Paris in with them when they enter the Medium. Marinette is a Light player, Adrien is a Doom player, and that’s all I got. Gabriel probably definitely dies.

One Is Silver and the Other Gold - aka the Marikimno Brot3 AU. I headcannon that Marinette, Kim, and Nino were close friends as little kids that drifted apart a few years prior to the start of the show. In this AU, that never happened. Also, Alya becomes Adrien’s best friend instead of Nino, and Nathanel becomes their friend too somehow? (someone help Alya, she’s an extrovert and both her friends have social skill levels in the single digits.)

The Ladybug and the Monkey - Main Miraculous Ladybug AU. My take on the ‘Fu chooses Kim to be the second Miraculous wielder instead of Adrien’ AU that I’ve somehow seen multiple times.

Sleeper Miraculous - AU where instead of the Miraculous being handed out, they’re transported magically to their wielders after they’ve proved themselves somehow. The Miraculous still need to be ‘activated’ by the Guardian to be used on either a permanent or temporary basis, so Ladybug still has to go to Master Fu at first before she becomes the new Guardian, but she knows literally none of the other members of Team Miraculous’s identities. They have a chat group, too, where Ladybug updates team members on whose Miraculous she’s going to activate, and both Chloe and Kagami never blow their identities. Contains both mild Classmates + (even milder)Adrien salt and sugar. (define irony: wanting to punch someone in the face for being an a-hole only to realize that said a-hole is you).

Miraculous! Pretty Cure! - Another Pretty Cure AU. Yep.

Mesapia AU - Butterfly!Marinette AU with a few twists - 1) instead of just facing the villainous user of the Ladybug Miraculous, all of the Miraculous have been lost to villains (save for the rabbit). Marinette frequently empowers her classmates (+Adrien, who’s still under house-arrest in this AU, Luka, and Kagami) to fight the Miraculous Villains, who are also all fighting each other; and 2) This isn’t so much a Kwami Swap as a Kwami Scramble, no one uses their canon Miraculous here (except for Fu briefly, and Emilie had the peacock before what happened to her)!

Boys vs Girls AU (name subject to change) - Marinette vs Lila with the Boys (+Kagami) on Marinette’s side and the Girls on Lila’s.

Labyrinth - Almost the entirety of the MiracuClass go missing (+Lila, Luka, & Kagami, -Chloe) and on a related note, eight very young children wake up in an ever-shifting, monster-filled underground labyrinth and grow up together. And two of them have some special, appearance-shifting jewelry…

Mad Gabriel - Miraculous Ladybug x Mad Father, starring Adrien as Aya, Marinette as Dio, Gabriel as Alfred Drevis, Nathalie as Maria, and everyone else as the doctor’s victims (Lila is Ines).

Miraculous Royal AU - A fantasy AU starring the MiracuClass (shocker) spread out across three fantasy kingdoms.

Quartz Butterfly AU - AU in which Jagged Stone takes the role of (a significantly nicer but still villainous) Hawkmoth as Quartz Butterfly, with Penny taking on Mayura’s role as Songbird. (yes i know peacocks aren’t songbirds SHHHH).

MiracuTrio AU - AU based on fanofanimation’s submission to terrible-miraculous-ladybug-aus, where Kim becomes a permanent member of the team after Party Crasher.

Mitterlicht - horror-ish AU inspired partially by various horror games, Lucidstuck, and Underbright (no, really). After receiving their Miraculous for the first time, the temporary heroes start having less-than-restful nights. Things quickly go from bad to worse when fragmented, panic-inducing dreams turn into nightly (and solitary) trips into a dark world full of monsters that want to take something referred to just as their ‘light’- a bright light that acts as both a beacon to the hostile creatures and the only way to return to consciousness every night -which just so happen to be in the exact spot (and in many cases, are also vaguely the same shape) of their Miraculouses.

Mirakatsu - Aikatsu AU

Ladybug: Don’t Deal With Hawkmoth - (aka the result of listening to the Cuphead Rap Battle 50 million times) Cuphead AU where Ladybug and Chat Noir have to go around beating up akumas and collecting their butterflies to avoid getting akumatized by Hawkmoth.

Miracle Thieves - a phantom/gentleman thief au where Marinette and Adrien (who have been thieves for years) unwittingly steal a pair of magical artifacts and decide to team up afterwards. Includes Fox!Nino, Journalist-determined-to-expose-their-identities!Alya, and possibly Tiger!Markov.

Homestuck:

unnamed AU inspired by To Live a Normal Life

unnamed Harry Potter AU

Merged Sessions AU - An AU where our favorite trolls and the Beta Kids are all part of the same session

Same Side of the Scratch AU - AU where the Beforus Trolls replace the Alternian ones, and when both sessions get scratched the Alternian Trolls end up in communication with the Alpha Kids

Same Side, Same Session AU - Combines both of the two immediately above AUs, The Beta Kids and Beforus Trolls have a session together that fails and gets Scratched, then the Alternians and Alphas play the game together while the pre-scratch players (all alive) travel to their session and have Meteorstuck Shenanigans.

Relief Was Just a Dream (name subject to change) - aka the mandatory Troll Rebellion AU, inspired by a fic I don’t remember the name of on A03. Sweeps after Karkat and Feferi are (seemingly) culled, Ace Legislacerator Terezi Pyrope -one of the best despite knowing she’s one wrong move away from being culled for her disability- is called in to investigate a series of traitorous attacks on more and more ships. Weirdly, the trolls seen most in the attacks don’t even seem to exist, all seem to bleed a painfully familiar cherry red, and have powers that even Her Imperial Condescension doesn’t seem to have. (not a no-game au)

Freetime AU (name subject to change) - AU where Bro leaves Dave on Dad Egbert’s doorstep, and Dave and John grow up as brothers.

Megaman:

Pokemon Network - Hub lives Pokemon AU with at least two protagonist teams. Team A: Lan, Hub, Mayl, Dex & Yai in Kanto. Team B: Roll, Glyde, Gutsman (Gus) in Kalos. What are Chaud and Protoman/Blues up to? ~Secrets~

Sailor Moon:

Inverse Corruption - When Beryl scours the Earth looking for her reincarnated generals she fails to find them, but she does manage to find the senshi instead. Sailor Moon has to unknowingly face the very girls who were supposed to protect her, fighting side-by-side with the Shitennou instead. (the boys are highschoolers to the girls middleschoolers)

Hazbin Hotel:

Infernal Relations - Why did Lucifer and Lilith wait so long to have a child? Simple; they didn’t. Unbeknownst to Charlie, her parents both had and lost a child thousands of years before she was born, a fact that will have far more of an effect on her hotel than she could possibly realize (even if she had known).

Apprentice Charlie AU - AU where Charlie gets into a fight with Lucifer and leaves before she ever thinks to create her hotel and Alastor ends up finding amusement by taking on an apprentice. (inspired by Helluva Teacher by Sol_Victoria on A03)

Phineas and Ferb:

Cursed Cats AU - AU based on the song Black Cats of Halloween. Phineas, Ferb, and their friends are cursed by a demon who turns them into black cats, save for on Halloween night. They’re then thrown into a world of magic and have to find each other, their way back home, and a way to break their curse, preferably in that order.

Danganronpa:

Online Gamer AU - no one dies/non-despair AU where no one is a super/ultra highschool level anything, no one has met each other in person, and they all play Among Us together. Junko always dies first and she’s low-key going to hurt someone over it.

unnamed AU where the murders of the killing game happen differently (aka the mandatory dr au)

unnamed AU inspired by ask-the-dr-reset-kids - After an incident that forces Hope’s Peak to temporarily close it’s doors, Class 78 all transfer to a different school. Junko is in jail, Mukuro is coping, Izuru is looming somewhere, the Ultimate Despair are waiting like sleeper agents to cause the The Most Despair Inducing Event in History, and Makoto is straight up not having a good time (and has very good reasons not to tell anyone).

unnamed AU where both Class 77 and Class 78, including both Junko and Mukuro but without Chiaki end up playing the Killing Game together.

Double Mastermind AU - similar to the above, both Class 77 and Class 78 wake up one day with no memories of their school lives. They’ll have to work together, somehow, to find out where they are, how to get back to civilization, and how to get back their memories. Meanwhile in the control room, Makoto and a sort-of-but-not-really-reformed Junko are working together as the Masterminds behind the mystery. Well, Makoto’s working, anyway. Junko just kind of wants to give Makoto daily migraines. Contains Junko/Makoto hateshipping.

unnamed Taka Lives AU where instead of switching roles with Hiro during the third trial he just manages to survive the murder attempt. He does not, however, get out unscathed…

another unnamed Taka Lives AU where Makoto, at Kyoko’s urging, decides to stay with Kiyondo the night he would have died, throwing a huge wrench into the would-be-blackeneds’ plans.

Asassain!Makoto AU: The Killing School Life - an au where Makoto is secretly the Ultimate Assassin.

Assasain!Makoto AU: The Killing Mystery - au that’s basically the one directly above but takes place in a non-despair (or maybe averted despair would be more accurate) timeline. After receiving and turning down a job to assassinate a certain up-and-coming politician, The Black Mask (Makoto) alerts his would-be victim, an old former friend, that someone is out for his life.

Remnants of Hope AU - AU that takes place after the end of School Mode, with the class not being picked up by the future foundation right away. (does this. does this actually qualify as an au i’m not sure.)

unnamed Class Swap AU

unnamed AU where Makoto and Kiyotaka are brainwashed into Ultimate Despair in addition to Class 77. Contains both sweet and very effed up Naeishi, as well as Despair!Makoto+Izuru friendship (or as close as Izuru can get, anyway). Technically another 2 (or 3, sort of) masterminds au.

Soulmates AU - In a world where most people are colorblind until meeting their soulmate, Makoto Naegi walks into Hope’s Peak Academy colorblind, blacks out, and wakes up to color. As it turns out, the same thing happened to everyone else!

Scrapbook AU - After entering into Hope’s Peak Academy, Makoto started a scrapbook/photo album of himself, his classmates, and eventually even the class above his own during their time on and off school. It soon became a class diary of sorts after being discovered, shared among everyone… then a chronicle of the events leading up to Class 77 going missing, The Tragedy starting, and Class 78 sealing themselves inside the school bunker, before returning to it’s original purpose as Class 78 lived inside their homemade bunker. In canon, Junko found and burned it. In this timeline, it’s an amnesiac Makoto and his classmates who find it, hidden under the floor in Makoto’s room.

Amnesia AU - A boy wakes up in a school(?) with no memories of where he is, how he got here, or even who he is. As it turns out, there are fourteen other people here… and all of them have the same memory loss he does! (may or may not be an IF Bad End AU)

Polychain AU - Another different Victims and Blackends au, that extends well beyond the original Killing Game. The Tragedy occurs very differently in this one… initially. Also features Junko escaping after the Killing Game, and Hajime and Shuichi being half-brothers and kids of the survivors.

Unnamed AU where Leon and Taka also attended Makoto and Sayaka’s middle school.

Ghost AU - After being killed, the victims and blackened are forced to stick around and watch the Killing Game happen, believing they'll be allowed to move on after they leave. Turns out, they're very much wrong- but at least after it's over their classmates can see them! Too bad they're the only ones.

Teachers Assistant AU - inspired by a fic I don’t remember the name of on fanfiction.net. After Nagito blows up a building and gets suspended, Chisa is forced to take a Teacher’s Assistant or be fired. Somehow, a very reluctant Makoto gets the job, despite being in the class below her own. Cross-class shenanigans ensue.

Unnamed Timetravel AU inspired by a fic I don’t remember the name of on fanfiction.net where Makoto and Alter Ego, the only survivors of the Killing Game, are sent back in time to Makoto’s first day attending Hope’s Peak - Makoto mentally and Alter Ego physically. Not as dark as the premise sounds, at least theoretically.

Crossover

Dagla!Adrien AU - Adrien isn’t the son of Gabriel and Emilie Agreste, but instead his parents are a Modern Dagur and Mala. He still works for Gabriel as a model, but otherwise has had a very different upbringing (most notably the inclusion of a lot of people who have cared about him for his entire life, such as his best friend Zephyr Haddock) and acts more like Chat Noir both with and without the mask. He still befriends his canon friends, becomes Chat Noir, and falls in love with Ladybug. (HTTYD x Miraculous Ladybug)

unnamed Adventure Time x Star Vs AU

Miracutale - Lila pushes Marinette down a hole, Adrien tries to catch her but fails. Undertale ensues. (Miraculous Ladybug x Undertale)

Sailor Bella (name subject to change) - AU inspired by some art from Turning-the-Tides, Princess Serenity reincarnates not into Usagi Tsukino, but Isabella Garcia-Shapiro, and her Senshi are reincarnated into the boys. I have no idea who Endymion became if he exists at all in this AU. (Sailor Moon x Phineas and Ferb)

unnamed three-way crossover between Harry Potter, Miraculous Ladybug, and How to Train Your Dragon.

unnamed Steven Universe x Undertale AU - After returning from the Jungle Moon, Steven and Connie end up stranded in an alternate timeline where they meet what appears to be another half-gem going by the name of False Topaz (Frisk). Things get a little more tricky when it turns out that gems and humans coexist somewhat… on one side of a giant, seemingly uncross-able mountain range live humans, on the other gems, and after a war between the two a few centuries ago, both cultures have a kill on sight policy. To make things more complicated, gems seem to be very different in this timeline. (note: Frisk is not actually a gem, just disguised as one)

unnamed Undertale x Star Vs AU - There’s a new face at the Silver Bell Ball - Frisk, heir and ambassador for the Kingdom of… Monsters?! Star and Frisk are quick to befriend each other, but despite that, Star can’t help but feel that Frisk doesn’t like her… And Frisk may have more than one secret to share… or maybe to keep.

unnamed Miraculous Ladybug x Danganronpa AU - The Worst Most Despair Inducing Event In History was localized to Japan (but the effects are spreading), and the six survivors of Hope’s Peek, aided by Kagami’s father, whom Byakuya naturally has connections to, immigrate to France to pick up the pieces of their lives. Meanwhile in France, Ms. Bustier’s class gain five new transfer students after the events of Miracle Queen.

Games - (everything)

Wild Things - (everything)

#LONG post #Star Vs #HTTYD #Lego Movie #Miraculous Ladybug #Homestuck #Megaman Battle Network #Sailor Moon #Hazbin Hotel #Phineas and Ferb #Danganronpa #Undertale #Harry Potter and Adventure Time don't get their own tags because they only show up once each #and only in crossovers

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drwcn · 4 years

Text

discordance!verse part 8 (1/2): Yunmeng Jiang and Gusu Lan sit down to discuss damage control.

in which wwx is lxc’s husband through political alliance, and there is an affair.

[7] | [6] | [5] | [4] | [3] | [2] | [1] [synopsis] OR see [discordance navigation page] for all installments

following part 3

When he was a child, the townsfolks of Lotus Pier used to tell tales of the eighteen levels of 地狱 (hell), and that when bad people died, the little demons of the underworld would drag their souls to the lowest pit and throw them into a vat of boiling oil. Jiang Cheng used to scoff and call these stories stupid, but even so, he would shrink back against his da-shixiong and cling just a little tighter onto the back of Wei Wuxian's uniform. Wei Wuxian used to laugh, pat Jiang Cheng on the shoulder and say, "Aiyo A-Cheng, like you said, it's just a stupid story. And besides, only bad people go to hell. We're not bad, so we don't have to worry about it!"

This is a rule unanimously accepted that good people are allowed to reincarnate and bad people are sent to hell to suffer, bad people like murderers and rapists, and kidnappers and adulterers - Adulterers.

If hell is a vat of boiling oil, then maybe the stories are true after all, because for seven days, Wei Wuxian burns.

For seven days, he exists in a place that is neither here nor there. He is disembodied, suspended, and unable to move or speak or see.

There are flames dancing on his skin and a fire raging from his core through his bones. He cannot scream; he cannot run. He can neither feel nor move his limbs, or know if indeed he still has them. Each breath he takes is liquid heat flooding his lungs. His entire world is airless and yet somehow heavy like lead, suffocating him and crushing him into himself. There is no up no down, no north or south or time or space, only the never ending moment of the unrelenting pain. Even so, in the back of his mind, where the little boy Wei Ying who grew up listening to the old wives' tales hides, he knows that he deserves every minute of this. His actions have ruined himself, ruined Lan Zhan, and if news of this gets out, he would've brought shame upon all of Yunmeng Jiang. Their First Disciple, Jiang Fengmian's treasured ward whom he favoured better than his own son, turns to be nothing more than a - how did that one disciple put it, as yes - faithless whore.

Wei Wuxian knows that he is not dead. He knows this because though he cannot speak and cannot hide, he can still hear the words of those around him: the disciples guarding his room, the healers changing his bandages, and the elders that come to check on him once a day.

I liked Wei-jun, he's nice to the juniors and outer disciples, but how could he do such a thing to Zewu-jun! -

He's ruined our Er-gongzi, you know it's true -

- loud, brash, annoying. He's not a Lan and he'll never be a Lan - Poor Zewu-jun -

I would have expected better of Lan Wangji.

Humiliated our Sect Master -

If they hadn't caught him with Hanguang-jun, I'd eat my ribbon before I believe something like this -

Betrayed him -

Used Hanguang-jun -

What does Er-gongzi even see in him?

Is it really so hard to imagine? They are both young. The young are often reckless and sentimental.

This can't be Wangji's fault.

It's not Lan Zhan's fault. How could it be? How could any of this be Lan Zhan's fault when all he's ever tried to do is shield Wei Wuxian, to be his friend, his confidant, his shoulder to lean on when he had no one to turn to in Cloud Recesses.

Wei Wuxian knows that to the outside world, he has already been granted more than he should have. A son of a servant married high above his station to the esteemed Zewu-jun, the leading cultivator of their generation, handsome, kind and the best of men. Even in death, Lan Xichen had found a way to miraculously return to him. What more could Wei Wuxian possibly want? How shameless, how greedy is he to want anything - anyone - else?

And how dare he think that someone like him deserves someone as good as Lan Zhan?

Wei Ying…

Wei Wuxian knows he doesn't deserve Lan Zhan, but he remembers every touch, every smile, every memory, bad, good, or bittersweet. He remembers Lan Zhan's hands, warm and firm around his own, under the table where they sat side by side dredging through tedious paper work, burning the midnight oil. He remembers Bichen glistening under the sun, clashing with Suibian as they duelled in the training ground for the juniors to observe. He remembers the soft gasp that escaped those lips the first he let Lan Zhan undress him in the dark. He remembers, and remembers and remembers, and he doesn't regret. Even if it's wrong, even if it's a crime, Wei Wuxian cannot regret Lan Wangji. Not at all. Not one second of it.

Perhaps he always knew that it couldn't last. Nothing gold ever stayed. Perhaps he always knew this day was coming, but even if he could go back and redo everything, he would choose the same and fall again, and again, and again. Lan Zhan loves him, trusts him, and has given himself to him, and he will not sully Lan Zhan's faith with the ugliness of doubt.

If only he could protect Lan Zhan the way Lan Zhan has always protected him…

The pain of the lashes he can endure, but the guilt of knowing an association with him has possibly tainted Lan Zhan for the rest of his life no pain can compare.

For that, he might've cried, but he's not sure. The fire burns it all away.

On the eighth morning after the discovery of the affair, Wei Wuxian awakens from a dreamless sleep, emerging from the vapours of the fire that has mercifully dwindled. Slowly his eyes open, bringing into sight a ceiling he does not recognize.

A cool cloth is pressed against his neck. He savours the small respite, blinking several times to clear the fog from his eyes. At some point, the Lans must've removed him from hanshi where Lan Xichen initially brought him. Missing from his view is the pale tulle canopy that drapes over the bed he shares with Lan Xichen. The bed beneath him is hard too, more akin to the bed he had as a guest disciple than accommodations befitting either of the Jades.

"A-Xian…"

The cool cloth is replaced with the back of a gentle hand laying against his forehead.

Shijie…?

"Shi-shijie?" His voice croaks, hoarse from disuse. His entire mouth is desert-dry and tastes like death warmed over. How could his sister be here?! Gusu Lan actually allowed her to visit him?! Wei Wuxian has so many questions. He tries to sit up, but pain explodes across his body with even the slightest movement. Swallowing an agonized cry, he collapses back down.

"Don't get up, A-Xian. You've been running a fever for days."

Jiang Yanli's presence brings him a margin of peace and comfort, though he has questions she won't answer. Instead, she washes his face and brushes out his hair and does not say word throughout. Worry draws in her brows tightly, and the tension in her body is palpable.

When she is satisfied with the amount of lotus and pork bone soup she's managed to spoon feed into him, Jiang Yanli holds his hand and tells him that Madam Yu and Yunmeng Jiang's elders have arrived.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The situation as it stands is abysmal, Lan Zonghui knows. The public nature of the affair is such that both families are scrambling to save face.

The nine Jiang Elders, dressed in dark maroon, navy and Yunmeng violet, sit opposing them on one side of the room. On their own side, the nine most prominent Lan Elders stare stoically at their counterparts. It would have been poor manners - not to mention cramped - to invite all thirty-three of them to the "emergency family meeting". Nine is more than enough to represent Cloud Recesses, and however the discussion goes, trust is placed upon the nine to come to an arrangement that satisfies the needs and dignity of both families.

…Not that there's much dignity left to salvage. Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian's sordid affair is a thing of public knowledge by now.

At the front of the room, Lan Qiren and Yu Ziyuan match each other grimace for grimace, both of equal displeasure. Lan Zonghui isn't sure whether he should be glad or upset that Jiang Fengmian has not deigned it his responsibility to show up in person, instead dispatching his lady to do the dirty work of negotiating for him.

Whether Jiang Fengmian is truly so distraught by his favourite ward's misconduct that he truly took ill or it's just another excuse to avoid facing the inevitable is inconsequential now. Yu Ziyuan - the Violet Spider - is the one they must content with, and though she is not known to favour Wei Wuxian, Madam Yu is quick-tempered, stubborn, and protective of Lotus Pier to a fault.

Whatever she lacks in care for Wei Wuxian personally, she makes up for in her pride for her clan and family.

The Lans opt to comment nothing of Jiang Fengmian's lack of attendance. On their part, Lan Xichen is equally absent. As he is the "offended" party, his presence ought to have been the most needed, but the Elders collectively decided that Xichen's behaviour in the past week has been stranger than strange. Not only was he not upset, but he seemed to have known about it all along and has been passively supporting the development of Wangji and Wei Wuxian's relationship.

Xichen is of the loud opinion that he and Wei Wuxian should be granted an amicable separation and that Wangji should be allowed to marry his divorcé in his stead. If his intent is giving at least one of the Elders a stroke, then he's come pretty damn close.

We've never consummated our marriage. Wangji and A-Xian betrayed the trust of no one. They care for each other dearly and I don't see why they shouldn't be allowed to marry.

What utter nonsense! Where on earth are the youngsters getting such wickedly inappropriate ideas??!

Xichen, he is your lawfully wedded husband, not some whore you picked up off the side of the road that you can easily gift to another!!

Those were angry careless words, not meant to be taken literally, but Xichen had visibly stiffened, the colour draining from his face.

You've bowed before Heaven and Earth, in front of Clan Elders and honoured guests. Even the disciples whisper about you and Wei Wuxian's …encounter in the Cold Pond. We've elected to overlook such an infraction, but now you dare to claim that you two are - are - Who's going to believe you?!

Perhaps, ponders Lan Zonghui, Gusu Lans are not made for love. Each time love finds one of them, it brings with it equal parts tragedy and despair.

Xichen and Wangi are both demonstrating unprecedented impertinence, qualities Lan Zonghui did not think were part of their characters, despite bearing witness to their growth.

Though…this wouldn't be the first time he misjudged a boy he thought he knew.

Wangji's fierceness when he pointed the Nie saber at his family, and Xichen's cold nonchalance towards his Elders' admonishments - it all reminds Zonghui too well of another young Sect Master Lan, twenty something years ago.

"Baiti and I have married. She is my fa'qi*, the woman I will love, cherish and honour for the rest of my life. If anyone in this sect seeks to harm her in any way, they will have to go through me first!"

Lan Cenrong had stood in this very hall, holding the hands of his bride, a woman of immeasurable depth and lethality. Bichen clutched in one hand, she had no explanation to offer in response to the Elders' outrage. Her face was sculpted in stone, and her eyes as cold as ice. The only detail that gave her away was the fingers she laced tightly between her husband's, anchoring him to her side.

Why do you stay?

Once, Lan Zonghui had gone to confront her after the birth of Lan Xichen, supposedly premature but suspiciously well formed and strong.

Can't you see you've won?! No one in this sect would draw their sword against you now. You've murdered one of our own and yet there is nothing we can do in retaliation! Do you really hate Cenrong so much that you would continue to torture him with your existence?! You can leave, we can arrange for you to disappear. You can be free. Just leave Cloud Recesses and return us our peace!

Qiu Baiti was perhaps the most unflappable person he's ever come across.

Lan Zonghui, isn't it? Brave, coming here by yourself.

Rising from her seat, she sauntered slowly towards him. The fingers of her left hand flexed, each knuckle cracking threateningly. She was a beast, and jingshi was her self-chosen cage. Zonghui was not stupid enough to think it could contain her. Even with Bichen confiscated, Qiu Baiti was deadly and terrifying enough for him to take half a step back.

Leave Cloud Recesses you say? Why would I do that? My husband is here, my son is here. This is my home. You don't know me, and you don't know Cenrong half as well as you think. Now leave, you're in my house, and you're starting to irritate me.

After that, the only people who dared to visit her was Cangse Sanren and the small group of female disciples who took care of her living.

Truth be told, it was a relief for their sect when Qiu Baiti died young.

Lan Zonghui refuses to believe even to this day that the murderess felt anything close to genuine affection for the late sect master. Mercifully, her sons were raised mostly without her corruption, though Cenrong had all but ordered Qiren to take them to see her at least once a month. If only the boys knew what kind of a woman she really was. In their minds, she was a gentle, kind soul, but nothing could possibly be further from the truth. Sometimes it frightens the Elders to think that her blood flows in their veins.

On that front, Lan Zonghui must commend Lan Qiren. As uncle, guardian and deputy sect master before Xichen came of age, Lan Qiren had done all he can to curb the influence of the pair of wayward parents on Xichen and Wangji's young impressionable minds. Nonetheless, here they are, twenty years down the road, caught in an another predicament because of foolish sentiments.

Wangji has their mother's eyes, Xichen their mother's smile, but both of them are without a doubt their father's sons.

Lan Zonghui resists the urge pinch his nose bridge. He can feel a migraine coming on.

I really am too old for this.

Given his impropriety, Xichen is barred from attending today's conference. He's proven that his priority is no longer aligned with that of his elders or his clan. They already have to deal with Yu Ziyuan's temper today; they could not fend against one of their one throwing them under the carriage.

"Let's not mince words," Yu Ziyuan begins. "You've invited us here, surely you've given this matter some thought. We Jiangs are reasonable people. We are not here to deny anything or to cause trouble, but let me be understood: if your intention is to xiu'fu, I'm afraid we cannot accept that."

Yu Ziyuan is a smart woman. If she allows Gusu Lan to 'xiu' Wei Wuxian then it would be seen to the world as Yunmeng Jiang taking responsibility for this scandal and for Wei Wuxian's shameful behaviour.

One Lan Elder harrumphs.

"He's betrayed his marriage and shared carnal pleasures with another, is that not justification enough for divorce? Not to mention his husband is the Sect Master of Gusu Lan. With all due respect, Madam Yu, the scandal Wei Wuxian has brought to the Lan family is also unacceptable to us."

Indignant, a Jiang Elder counters heatedly, "Yes, you are in fact correct. To lie with another when one's spouse is present is against principles of any good man, but as the old saying goes, you cannot clap with one hand. Gusu's Lan-er-gongzi, Sect Master Lan's own little brother, is a willing and equal participant, is he not? So why then must Wei Wuxian bear the entirety of the blame?"

"Well, Wangji must've been seduced!"

"Does the esteemed Hanguang-jun lack so much sense, self-control, and respect for Zewu-jun that he could be so easily seduced by his own brother in law?! Perhaps he is not befitting his title after all?"

To that the Lan Elders have nothing further to say. They grumble amongst themselves but could not deny the point the Jiangs have raised.

Lan Zonghui glances towards Lan Qiren and sees him meet Yu Ziyuan's sharp gaze across the room. They both know very well that these arguments are pointless. Both families wish for the same thing: to save as much face as possible and to emerge from this storm with their dignity relatively in tact.

To say their predicament is difficult would be an understatement. If Gusu Lan succeeds in pushing for a divorce, then all of Yunmeng Jiang would be implicated by Wei Wuxian's disgrace. However, if Gusu Lan continues to retain Wei Wuxian as husband of their Sect Master, they would be ridiculed by the cultivation world, and Lan Xichen a cuckhold fool.

Somebody has to bear the blame, and the verdict needs to be dealt fairly without prejudice nor bias.

Lan Qiren turns his gaze to the tea leaves in his cup. Yu Ziyuan mirrors his action.

Lan Zonghui sighs. There is only one way out. They know it, and so does he.

After the grumbles of discontent settle down, Madam Yu speaks again, this time more diplomatically. "It is not our intention to put our noses where it doesn't belong, but the dissolution of this marriage cannot be solely on the accounts of Wei Wuxian's adultery since the other party involved is Gusu's own Hanguang-jun.

"Given that Wei Wuxian has married into Lan family, he is one of you. What you do with him, is up to his husband and the Elders. As long as he remains Zewu-jun's legal spouse, with his name recorded in your pedigrees and an honoured spot allotted for him in your catacombs, we Yunmeng Jiangs shall not interfere with your internal business.

"True, he was our disciple and raised at my side. As his maternal presence, I admit I was lacking, but perhaps the Lan Sect can also reflect on some of your own shortcomings. I trust, Lan-xiansheng," she addressed Lan Qiren directly, "that you and the Elders will give both of our families a satisfactory response."

Lan Zonghui shares a genuine look of surprise with Lan Qiren. Surely she is not implying…?

Of course, the Elders had discussed that particular solution amongst themselves, seeing that it is the best method to save both sides, but they did not think the Jiangs would actually agree to it, especially given how close Wei Wuxian is with the ruling family. Though… from Jiang Fengmian's absence perhaps that is already telltale sign. Not to mention if the rumours of Cangse Sanren and Sect Master Jiang are true, then Yu Ziyuan would have her own personal reasons for…

"I hope, Elders, that we understand each other." Madam Yu frowns, her patience wearing thin. "Our clans have enjoyed generations of friendship, and a bigger trial is waiting for us in Lanling. That is more important to the stability and safety of our people than any romantic sentiments."

The reminder of Lanling awakens all parties present from their narrow point of view. Jin Guangshan's secret gathering of Yin Iron is undeniable. The evidence stacks against him and his ousting is nigh. Even his own son and heir has turned against him. Lan Zonghui has no doubt that Jin Zixuan's change of heart has been largely thanks to the influence and persuasion of his wife, whose mother sits before them now. The women of Lotus Pier are not to be underestimated.

"Madam Yu," Lan Qiren raises his cup of tea in a respectful toast. "We understand and thank you for your sensibility. If you are certain, then we have no objections."

Yu Ziyuan's resolve does not waver. "I am, so let us discuss the details."

[2/2 tbc]

Notes:

fa’qi 发妻 - fa = hair, qi = wife. this comes from the saying 结发为妻(夫), which means to bind our hair together as husband & wife. couples will cut a piece of their hair and tie it together with a red string and put it away as a symbol of their unity/marriage.

#cql #the untamed #discau #discordance #wangxian #lan wangji #wei wuxian #corie fics

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a-little-slice-of-fandom · 4 years

Note

A) hi how ya doing? B) I miss you C) can you analyze anything of Aragon? Thank you :)

Hey anon! I’m doing good ❤️❤️❤️ thanks so much for asking! I hope you’re doing well too!

Aragon is really interesting to me, because her song is kind of like the bohemian rhapsody of six. Very few people will say that it’s their favourite, but everyone will instantly sing along because it’s so catchy! Plus, it’s a great song to follow ex-wives with. It keeps the energy up and introduces the audience to the plot of the show.

I will say this until the day I die: while I would love if more songs were as scathing as say AYWD...you could never start with those songs. It’s too much too quickly. You need the more catchy, light-hearted songs of Ex-Wives, No Way and DLUH to start with because it helps get the audience invested in the show and the plot as a whole. Six, first and foremost, will always need to work dramatically. That’s why the old, more openly bitter No Way was changed to something a little more light-hearted.

The first thing that always comes to mind when I think of Aragon is regal. She’s the queen who was married to Henry for 24 years and was a Spanish princess as well. She’s the refined, confident queen who knows her own worth and honestly? I get the vibe she just wants a little bit of respect from the other queens. While some people characterise Aragon as rather cold, I honestly don’t get that? The show portrays Aragon as a very loyal person despite all that Henry put her through, and she clearly cares for Mary and also, to a lesser extent, Parr as her god daughter (remember she calls Howard “the least relevant Katherine”...meaning she does see Parr as relevant.) and she often refers to other queens as “babe” even though she was just arguing with them five seconds earlier (harking on the idea of forgiveness, something I think Aragon is very good at in the show!). Plus, while there’s only one line referring to Mary, Aragon is always so protective of her and warm to her. In the album, Renee’s “aw, hi baby!” is the most adorable and heartwarming part of the song and it’s clear she adores her daughter, while the “oh, you don’t remember?” in the live versions is so protective of her baby. It’s honestly something we don’t discuss enough. Moreover, Aragon’s song is one of the most energetic, but she has her earnest moment of pleading as well, along with her undisputable strength of refusing to back down and accept Henry’s lies. She is also incredibly passionate when talking about something she loves or defending herself when she has to (which make sense! This was the woman who rode with an army wearing armour while pregnant. Aragon was not to be messed with!).

I personally disagree with people who try and claim that Toby and Lucy wrote Aragon as the “angry” queen because she never truly gets to the levels of boleyn or seymour (yes there’s the miscarriage argument where she does raise her voice but like...are we ignoring Seymour’s “boohoo Mary had the chickenpox” or the fact that Boleyn is also shouting in that argument??? And she usually goes louder than Aragon???) and yet she’s so often defined by that trait even though other queens share it and are even more extreme. And yes, Im fully aware of why certain people characterise aragon in this way and I’m so annoyed that even though we continually call out the fact that’s it’s problematic, it continues to happen. However Aragon does have flaws like every good character should. Aragon just won’t try and listen to the other queens. She refuses to accept that Boleyn or Seymour might have had a worse time than her. Now I personally never got the feeling that Aragon blames the other queens for anything. Her feelings are directed at Henry. Notice in now way she talks about how henry is “running around with some pretty young thing” and she refers to him having “one son with someone who don’t own a wedding ring”. Those people? They’re clearly supposed to be Boleyn and Bessie, two people who are actually on stage at the time. But Aragon doesn’t take an easy shot at either of them in her song. She doesn’t say their name or call them out or try and involve them in her song. Contrast this with DLUH where Boleyn grabs Aragon, forces her to be front and centre in this verse and then insults her constantly (“three in the bed” = airing Aragon’s and Henry’s ✨ intimate issues ✨ with the entire world while “Don’t be bitter, cause I’m fitter” and “he doesn’t want to bang you, somebody hang you” are both pretty self explanatory). I think it’s absolutely key that Aragon doesn’t blame Boleyn or Bessie or direct any misplaced feelings towards them in no way or the show. Her (very justified) feelings of anger and betrayal are (generally) directed at Henry. And that’s something so many people ignore! And I personally wish more people would be like Aragon in this regard in the real world. I don’t know if other people agree with me, but it’s your boyfriends/husbands job to not cheat on you, not someone else’s. I do know some people think that Aragon is slighting Boleyn and Bessie in that verse but if we’re sticking to tudor ideals, Aragon not mentioning them by name (in essence keeping their “dignity” and “honour” intact) would be the kinder thing to to. (Note I’m only saying this with Tudor ideals in mind. I also think Aragon fully knows that Bessie was 13 when Henry started making advances on her and again, refuses to blame Bessie for what happened because she knows she’s a victim).

However...Aragon doesn’t ever try and listen to other queens and will insult them if she has to. She (along with the other queens like Boleyn and Seymour) gets more and more defensive and petty as the show continues. However, she never gets to the same levels of hard hitting insults has say Boleyn. But I mean...Aragon was a queen who went through so much in her lifetime and never was able to really talk about it. Yes, she resisted Henry trying to get their marriage annulled, and she was one of the strongest women at the time, but she couldn’t deal with her emotions the same way that we can today. She never got to told Boleyn to go away or leave her alone. She never got to bad mouth Henry because he was the king. She was, first and foremost, a lady, and she was expected to act in a certain way all of her life. And now that she’s reincarnated in modern days, she doesn’t have to do all of those things. She can be annoyed and let it show, she can tell Boleyn all those things she wanted to do back in the day. Some actresses even lean into the idea that it’s sort of cathartic for Aragon to FINALLY just say what she wants to say without having to worry on how it would reflect on her as queen. Mind you, I still think that Aragon considers how her words would reflect on her (much more than any other queen) but she definitely has more wiggle room within the show than she did during her reign.

In addition, while the fandom also like to reduce Aragon to obsessed with her religion, I actually really like how her relationship with Catholicism is portrayed in the show. While I do concede that Aragon’s faith is sometimes reduced to the butt of the joke, that’s not always the case and I personally really enjoy how Aragon seems to gain a lot of strength from her religion, instead of it holding her back or hindering her. While I do understand why so many characters in media struggle with their religion or find it suffocating (my relationship with Catholicism is...fragile at the best of times), but I genuinely love this idea that Aragon’s faith is what guides her and gives her inner strength in times of need. I mean,,,when she’s pleading to Henry during now way, the music slows to something that sounds more like a gospel song, Aragon is kneeling with her hands clasped and there's bright white light around her (i also vaguely remember something that looks like a crucifix behind her as well? But I'm not 100 percent sure on that). At the time where Aragon is most vulnerable and needs to find inner strength and wants guidance...she turns to her religion and that's seen as a very positive thing!!! The same with Aragon's verse in Sox. Moving to a nunnery and finding friends there is something that's now postive and liberating instead of being stuffy and boring and restrictive like nunnery are often portrayed as in media. (yes I know that's also a play on Henry wanting to send Aragon into the nunnery after their divorce but I do think that there’s no malicious religion-basing in Six is a nice touch that’s often overlooked).

Finally, Aragon’s costume is quite important to her character. It is one of the more feminine outlines (especially the updated version on broadway) and I do think it’s an inadvertent issue that the queens with the more stereotypical feminine costumes are more catty whereas the more stereotypical androgynous or masculine outfits (aka Parr and Cleves) are often the voices of reason, but I don’t think that’s intentional or is intended to comment on anything. It’s just a coincidence. However, the gold of Aragon’s outfit obviously symbolises her love, courage and passion, along with indicating her status as a noble. While yes the rest of the queens were all noble in some way before they married Henry, Aragon was a Spanish princess and the daughter of two incredibly powerful monarchs. She was probably the highest standing out of any of the queens, and her costume reflects that. I also think that her wearing gold to flaunt her status could be her trying to make up for the years between her marriages to Arthur and Henry (where she didn’t have many provisions made for her as far as I know) and also the last few years of her life. (I’ve seen differing reports on how Aragon was provided for after Henry divorced her, with her claiming that she was living in poverty while others state she got 3000 pounds. If anyone has any confirmation then let me know). Either way, her wanting to flaunt her status after her reincarnation by wearing lots of bright gold makes total sense. I’ve also seen a few people say that the bust on Aragon’s costume is the most historically accurate but I can’t confirm that, although if it is then that’s a really nice touch.

Well this took ages, but it was fun to finally get to analyse stuff again AND do it on a queen who doesn’t get discussed very much!!! Aragon often gets reduced to “catholic” or “angry” within this fandom, even though she is just as complex as any other character within the show but she just expresses things in very different ways. And that’s okay! This whole show is about how women (and NB folk!) are different and do have different experiences and do express things differently and have different personalities and that’s okay! We should celebrate our differences.

#six the musical #six #sixthemusical #ask #anon ask #anonymous #anonymous ask #anon #ask answered #enya discusses: six

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thegallicwitch · 3 years

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Hello, wild ones! I’m Mako, a druid and home witch (which is what I call my blend of green and kitchen witchcraft) and a follower of the Gaulish pantheon and culture. I’m French, I identify as agender (they/them) and I have a physical disability that severely impacts my walking. I frequently use crutches, as well as a wheelchair, I take strong painkillers and medical morphine to manage the chronic pain that comes with the territory and I’m bedridden several times a month. All of that has an impact on my practice and that’s why I’m well-versed in pain spells and rituals, as well as studying herbalism and beginning to work as a natural healer, because I know debilitating pain all too well.

I follow the traditions and knowledge of my country and the witches of my community. I have so much to learn still, and I want to share French witchcraft practices with the rest of the world and bring a piece of the world back into my practice. I hope you’ll follow along with me. I thought, to start things out, I’d fill a few questions from the Witchy Tag and tag a few of my favorite tumblr witches so you can get to know me and hopefully I can meet a few of you this way!

If you’d like to find me elsewhere, I’m The Gallic Witch everywhere. I have an Instagram for daily practices, rituals and the like, a TikTok for more specific magickal projects and herbalism, and a youtube channel where I share in depth rituals and spells, talk about the Gaulish culture and deities, discuss the community here in France and what I’ve been taught, etc. I also have an Instagram for the Gaulish-inspired tarot deck I’m creating, the Tarot of Belisama, which you can find here as I share sneak-peeks and cards as I draw them. I hope to see you there soon! BELISAMA BLESS YOU ✨

1. what kind of witch are you?

I am a home witch, mainly, which is what I call being both a green witch and a kitchen witch. In a way, I suppose I’m mostly a French witch, given that my craft and practice is heavily influenced by local tradition and knowledge.

But in my daily practice, I follow the Druidic Path and I’m working with the Gaulish way of life and beliefs.

2. how did you discover your path?

My grandmother was a botanist, so when I was little, she would take my sister and me on long hikes and show us all the plants, one by one, teaching us the latin names and their medical properties. I took to it instantly, but distanced myself when she passed away in a misguided attempt at healing. I grew up around women in my community who would brew herbal remedies, cook you a cream or a poultrice for your break outs or your sprained ankle, people who could take away the fire from a burn or long day in the sun just with a hovering of the hand. Little by little, I learned from them, learned the way of the French witches who work for the community and not for themselves. I admired them, still do, but never thought I could be one of them, as what I was being initiated in was much closer to herbalism and being a Druid than a witch. Then I found Annie’s youtube channel, THE GREEN WITCH, and I just watched and watched, without being able to stop. I felt such a connection with her videos and her path, so I did my research, and finally started seriously studying magic, for about a year, before I even dared calling myself a witch. I wanted to have the knowledge to back that up, you know? And two years after, here I am, with knowledge and some more confident, branching out from my Druidic path and adding witchcraft to my practice for a year now!

3. how long have you been practicing?

If you count the Druidic/herbalism stuff, for roughly half of my life, so like then years, but witchcraft proper, two years.

4. what path/tradition do you follow?

Druidic teachings and Gaulish tradition/deities & French witchcraft, mainly herbalism. I consider myself a healer and a Druid even before being a witch. I want to make a living out of healing people. I follow the tradition of rural France, somewhere between the communities of the Black Mountain, the land Corbières-Minervois and Burgundy.

5. are you solitary or do you have a coven?

Currently solitary but I hope to find and join a Druidic circle one day.

7. do/would you teach and practice witchcraft to your children?

I don’t want children, but on principle, yes, absolutely. I think it’s an essential part of teaching them about the world and giving them the tools to be self-sufficient and healers too.

8. do you have a patron/matron deity?

I don’t use the words patron and matron because they don’t represent or apply to my believes, but purely from their meaning, they would be Belisama, Epona and Brig (or Brigid, she has different names depending on the Celtic nation you’re a part of).

9. favorite pantheon?

Egyptian. All the way. But it’s more of a remnant of childhood than what my faith aligns with today.

10. favorite goddess?

Hard one. Either Epona or Damona from the Gaulish pantheon or 嫦娥.

11. favorite god?

Thot, the scribe from the Egyptian.

12 and 13 are skipped since I don’t believe in astrology.

15. thoughts on the afterlife?

I believe in reincarnation like all Gauls but I don’t believe in Heaven or an afterlife as in, a place you end up after your life.

17. are you out of the broom closet? if so, how do your friends/family feel about your path?

I hate that expression with a passion. I’m LGBTQ+, and I find it incredibly offensive. In regards to the question itself, my family and friends do know I practice witchcraft, and no one cares. My sister and friends are very supportive, they actively want my opinion or my help depending on the circumstances. My mom finds it interesting, but she’s more into me being a healer, since my grandmother was her mom. She helps a lot with the herbalism side, and teaches me things and we do our mixes together. Even my dad who’s not interested, drinks my herbal teas and doesn’t mind me putting talismans and protection charms all over our home, smudging and doing spells and rituals.

19. do you have an altar?

I do, yes. Not just one, in fact. I have a main one for spells and rituals and just, general practice. I have one for my Ancestors and deities. And I have a portable one that I use to mix my herbal teas and make my remedies, as well as do divination.

20. what’s a spell that you’ve done?

Lately? A money spell for my mom.

22. favorite pagan holiday that you celebrate?

I love Chandeleur, the French version of Imbolc. And because spring is my favorite season and the best time of the year for me mentally and physically, I also adore Beltane.

26. favorite witch websites?

Absolutely WITCH UNIVERSITY. I learned a lot of things there. Also Wildera, a fellow French pagan. And I follow a lot of witches and celtic pagans on tumblr and tiktok, learning a lot from them.

29. favorite season?

Spring and Winter, in equal parts.

30. favorite herb?

Lavender. Or maybe rosemary.

31. favorite gem?

Amethyst. And lapis-lazuli.

38. your grimoire.

The original question was about a book of shadow but I’m not a wiccan and I don’t use that term, so here’s my grimoire. I handmade it, from stitching the pages to crafting the cover, bookmark and decorations. I love it, I put so much intention and love into it.

39. your tarot deck(s) (or one you want).

The first picture is of my first tarot deck and still my favourite, the Dishonored deck. It’s the one I use the most, still.

The second is the Prism Tarot, which is the last deck I bought (now four decks in total) and has been a project I’ve followed since it was still being drawn, up to supporting the kickstarter and becoming good friends with the creator, Liz, as I started making my own tarot deck. I highly recommend it, it’s an amazing piece of a art and an amazing magickal tool.

And I’m gonna tag some of my favourite tumblr witches in case they haven’t done this before: @heatherwitch @grandmaveitch @gardenfoxywitch @herbwicc @greenwitchofwonderland @a-green-witch @boiledwheatblog @thatsunflowerwitch @kitchenwitchtingss @queerkitchenwitch @coffeewitchcafe @servantofthefates

#witchcraft #witchblr #druid #gaulish #witch tag #the gallic witch #mako talks

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secret-engima · 4 years

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Look look, I know you've implied that Sasuke!Nyx is the only FFXV reincarnation in the Naruto 'verse, but - just. I had a sudden mental image. Of /Libertus/ as a Maito - as in, a close relative of Maito 'Konoha's Glorious Green Beast' Gai. ("YOUTH!") Perhaps a younger sibling or cousin or something? Because. Because the /mental images/ of the /rest/ of the non-uchiha-Compound family /reacting/ to an Uchiha being Best Friends with a Maito - Kakashi would despair. Gai would weep - in JOY.

I was not on board with this plan until you said Uchiha being Best Friends with the relative of Might Guy and now I’m dying.

... FINE.

One exception. JUST THIS ONE.

And also Crowe. Because I’m a sucker but SHHHHHH.

Because of course Libertus and Crowe would bully their way through the afterlife and timeline to follow their Ulric. Of course they would.

Hmmmmmmmmm *cracks knuckles* ficlet ramble time!

-Jun will forever be grateful that his mother was the one to name him and not- well- his father.

-Of course he only knew to be grateful AFTER meeting the man his mother had had a teenage fling with, but his point stands. Which was after that wildfire swept through and burned down most of his little village and the trauma of nearly burning made him Remember. Remember another life, another time, another way of life.

-Made him remember Nyx and how Libertus, after finally passing away of old age, had found no Nyx waiting for him, had gone and picked a fight with ... he thinks it might have been Ramuh? Or possibly Bahamut himself, and demanded to be taken to his best friend RIGHT NOW. No he didn’t care if Nyx had wandered off to become a Walked Twice. You think Libertus isn’t stubborn enough to qualify? TRY HIM YOU OVERGROWN LIZARD.

-Not his most sparkling moment of intelligence to be sure.

-But that means ... Nyx has to be here. Somewhere. Surely.

-But there is no Nyx in the village, and the village is struggling to cope, especially his mother, considering both their home and her workplace had been reduced to rubble.

-They end up leaving the village. They had never treated Libertus’s mother too well after he had been born, so it was no real emotional loss. Libertus is physically five when this happens, and he tries his hardest to help his mother and make her smile. She’s the only Clan he’s got after all.

-They wander from village to village before settling down in one where his mother finds work as a seamstress. Libertus, now eight, makes a few yen running packages and messages around town, his brown braids with the little blue beads he’d managed to get bouncing against his temple.

-It’s on one of his runs when he’s around nine that he rounds a corner too fast and smacks right into someone’s leg. He lets himself fall, tucks and rolls back to his feet with the flexibility of a child and the skill of a glaive, an apology already on his lips.

-The leg turns out to be owned by a NINJA. Wonderful.

-The ninja is staring at him, a little metal toothpick hanging from his mouth so loosely that if he gapes a little harder it’s gonna fall out. Libertus has a bad feeling about this. He yells an apology that is possibly too loud and energetic (an odd side effect of this new body, he tends to get ... loud and enthusiastic when nervous) and books it. He wants nothing to do with ninja, he just wants to grow up enough to travel so he can go find his idiot.

-The ninja doesn’t follow him.

-Nope. The ninja turns up again two weeks after Libertus had successfully forgotten about the incident with ANOTHER NINJA. This one is wearing some kind of awful, AWFUL jump suit of eye-searing green (watch out indeed), a red belt (oh dear), and the world’s shiniest bowl cut.

-Weren’t ninja supposed to be STEALTHY?

-The living neon warning sign is looking around with fervor as the two enter Libertus’s mother’s workplace (how did the ninja know she worked here), and his mother gasps. But not out of horror at the truly awful outfit, but out of ... recognition?

-“H-hello again,” she murmurs with a mix of fear and memory that makes Libertus’s hackles rise and him discreetly snatch one of her spare scissors off the shelf in the back room.

-The green ninja gives a booming, smiling greeting, then ... sobers. Quietly asks if she’s ... doing well.

-If she has a son.

-That’s about the minute Libertus notices that the man has caterpillar eyebrows. Caterpillar eyebrows just like Libertus’s, who did NOT inherit those from his mother thank you. He got her soft chestnut hair and hazel eyes.

-Libertus dives out of the back of the store and tries to stab the ninja in the femoral artery with the scissors because PYRE NO is he gonna be taken away from his mom by ninja for being some kind of wayward blood child.

-He doesn’t manage to get the artery, the ninja is too fast, but via the advantage of surprise and glaive memory, he DOES manage to bury the scissors into the man’s leg.

-It’s really not fair that all the man does is hold him up by his scruff and laugh about it. He has a bleeding leg. SHOW SOME PAIN.

-There’s talking after that while his mother fusses in terror and the toothpick chewing ninja pulls out a roll of bandages with a sigh (if it hadn’t been for the current situation, Libertus would have sympathized, he knew what that Sigh meant, he too had an idiot to look after).

-Surprisingly, the green ninja (Might Guy! He announces with a smile that literally sparkles what the pyre) does not insist on taking “Jun” away from his mother.

-Nope. He takes his mother WITH them back to the village. For a wedding. Libertus is honestly stunned. Weren’t ninja supposed to be sneaky and without honor? He has literally no obligation to marry the woman he had a fling with as llike- a FOURTEEN year old just because a kid came out of it. But apparently nope. Libertus’s father is the one ninja with a sense of chivalry because he signs a marriage certificate within hours of getting back to the ninja village of Konoha with mother and Libertus in tow.

-And just like that, Libertus’s name is Might Jun.

-What.

-What is going on.

-No he doesn’t want to be a ninja buzz off.

-Libertus takes to exploring their new home, partly to avoid his new ... father and partly to look for Nyx because who knows, maybe he’ll get lucky for once.

-He’s passing the ninja academy when he hears laughter and footsteps. He sidesteps, but isn’t fast enough to keep from getting run over by a screaming blur of orange. While trying to catch his breath from being trampled by the screaming orange blur (who has yet to notice the impact), a hand appears in his vision. He follows the hand up a pale arm and to a concerned face with black hair and black eyes, “Hey, you okay? Sorry about Naruto, someone let him have ... caffeine...” the boy’s breath stops. He’s staring at the side of Libertus’s head.

-No. His head. His temple.

-His braids.

-And Libertus, on an old instinct from another life, tilts his head as he sits up, looking for braids.

-He sees the purple bead and cord, the simple twist braid partly tucked behind the boy’s ear and hope burns through him like liquid fire. No way. No way. What were the chances of finding Nyx HERE.

-Check that, it’s a child soldier death academy. Why wouldn’t he find Nyx here.

-If it’s really Nyx.

-He swallows his fear and whispers, “For Hearth and Home.”

-Hope flares in the other boy’s eyes, his lips twisting before he rasps, “Libertus.”

-And the next moment Libertus is on the ground again, pinned down in the middle of the street by a sobbing Nyx, but that’s okay, because Libertus is sobbing too. A second after that and he’s hauled to his feet and dragged off by Nyx to a too-empty compound that still stinks of old blood and bleach and bundled into one of the houses so they can sob in privacy.

-Libertus spends a good ten minutes screaming himself hoarse at Nyx for dying. For being a self-sacrificing heroic idiot. Nyx screams back that what was Libertus doing here then huh?

-“I died of old age you idiot! Like you should have!”

-Nyx pauses “...Oh.” A blink, a flicker of red in black eyes and Nyx whispers, “What happened ... after?”

-And Libertus tells him. He tells him everything as they lie on Nyx’s futon, tangled around each other in a puppyish pile like they did when they were children. He tells him about Insomnia’s fall, and Princess insisting on separating, on going to Galahd and waiting until the Long Night fell and he returned to the glaive. How he was the Captain and hated every second of it, hating having to choose which brothers and sisters would take the suicide missions, hated losing more and more people as the night kept going.

-He spoke of the young king who returned ten years later with age and wisdom in his every line. How they followed him to Insomnia to take back the dawn. How the king died purifying the scourge and giving them a chance. How he had gone back to Galahd with the survivors and rebuilt their homes until Libertus was old and grey and couldn’t really walk because of the ache in the hip a daemon shattered during the Long Night that no one had had an elixir for.

-Then he speaks of waking up here as Jun, of his mother and his ... new father. Of being taken here and exploring and finding Nyx.

-Then Nyx huddles closer, and tell him his story in return. In waking up his memories in a massacre. All of his Clan. Gone. Again. Murdered by a kinslayer, a former BROTHER and Libertus keens for his friend. Nyx whispers of putting himself back together and training, and it is only now Libertus registers the pink and purple ribbon woven into a tiny braid in his hair, a declaration of revenge.

-Nyx also tells him of Naruto, the boy he’s adopted, of little Hinata and her flinches and how she blossoms like a flower in the sun with just a little bit of kindness and praise. He talks about his Anbu, the masked ninja that leaves potted plants on his window sill and is secretly addicted to Nyx’s cooking, terrible as it is, and how even though the man will not speak and won’t give his name, Nyx has adopted him too.

-Libertus hugs Nyx as tight as he can and swears that it will be alright.

-He comes home late that evening, dragging Nyx behind him by the wrist, looks his new father in the eyes and says he wants to become a ninja.

-The promise of training, of becoming strong enough in this world to protect Nyx, is worth the manly tears and illusionary sunsets his declaration gets.

-Of course, dragging Nyx home only causes more manly tears when he announces that this is his new best friend (what kind of name is Sasuke anyway, Nyx is much better, but they keep their old life names to themselves). And they get ... a lot of odd looks after that as they run around, attached at the hip just like when they were kids the first time around. Might Guy, his father, has a lot of Feelings about this friendship. Mostly Manly Tears and booming declarations of Youth. Libertus smacks Nyx over the head the one time Nyx grins and says Lib’s new dad is fun.

-Meanwhile the rest of the village watches in horror at the budding friendship of the Last Uchiha and Might Guy’s newfound son. Because MIGHT GUY’S SON. AND THE LAST UCHIHA.

-Kakashi feels a creeping sense of Doom™ in his future.

I’ll cover the reunion with Crowe in another ramble sometime, and more reactions on the Might/Uchiha friendship but for now this has already gotten long enough so I’ll leave it there. XD

#SE asks #hamelin-born asks #Secret Engima Rambles #Melodies and Manuscripts #Calling for Rain verse #long post #libertus #might guy #*cackles*

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enchantedbride · 4 years

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@nougatships YES!!!!

Hope You don’t mind but also tagging a few others: @goldenworldsabound, @juliannos, and @foreveryours-mouse

Some More Details I’ve Come Up With for the Reincarnation AU:

One of the particular incarnations of Joey’s lives I’ve been thinking a lot about is one where she’s minor nobility in the Roman Republic and Lucifer disguises himself as a general and eventually a well known Roman Senator. It basically really appeals to his pride but he hopes the prestige and political power will give him an advantage in getting close to Joey (Roman Reincarnation’s name tbd) so he can court her and win her over again.

I’ve been considering this might be the first incarnation of Joey where she meets Lucifer again after he’s fallen and become a demon.

Lucifer has always been extremely protective of Joey, but when he current incarnation comes to Hell to be an exchange student in Diavolo’s exchange program, he struggles between the fact he’s given up on trying to woo her after a string of failures and thinks it’s futile and underneath it all he’s not worthy of her, and the fact he’s still absolutely madly in love with her and wants to be with her.

So it’s like “oh woe is me, I’ve failed my love! I am a creature of darkness unworthy of her light! I musn’t be close to her again or I will only cause myself and her more heartache!” but also “Oh no oh fuck I love my wife so fucking much she’s adorable and sweet and smart and I want to kiss her so bad and give her roses I grew myself HELP!!!!”

So he tries to be distant and not trigger any memories of her past lives, but he also is extremely protective of her because she’s literally in the Devildom with him and there are other demons who might hurt her to hurt him, Diavolo, the exchange program, or all of the above.

So he comes off to Joey as he’s desperate to keep her alive for the success of the program but he hates her because she’s dumb silly and naiive human. (When actually it’s the opposite. He’s worried the fact she’s smart, perceptive, and kind is what will get her into trouble.)

Satan, seeing this as an opportunity to mess with Lucifer and also help Joey (because he likes her and remembers her from when he was inside Lucifer’s head), he deliberately tries to trigger memories.

He tries to rope Beelzebub into since he and Joey were friends (partly because of her and Belphegor being best friends in her original lifetime), but he’s reluctant at first because Lucifer doesn’t want him to. But he misses his friend and hopes she can help in the MC’s quest to repair things between Belphegor and Lucifer since one was her best friend in another life and the other has been her lover/husband in multiple lifetimes.

So he helps too, starting with making her favorite food from her original life (this specific idea actually came from my roommate @curiousobsession101).

Actually, the brothers who’ve actually seen/observed or met Joey at some point are Lucifer, Satan, Beelzebub, and Belphegor. Mammon spoke with Lucifer quite a bit about Joey but he never met her. And Leviathan and Asmodeus didn’t meet her and she hardly if ever came up in conversation. So in the case of the latter two they don’t really know what’s going on when she first shows up in the Devildom.

Levi and/or Asmo: Why is Lucifer acting even more strict than usual? He’s being a really big jerk! Satan, bluntly: He misses his wife but he’s being an idiot about it. Levi and/or Asmo: WAIT WHAT-

The whole “Luke gets lost in the House of Lamentation and accidentally touches the big scary grimoire which really pisses Lucifer off” scenario in game goes differently in both my canon verse in this one (specifically things end a lot more peacefully and nobody gets hurt), but for the Reincarnation AU the main reason this happens is a lot simpler than in the canon verse: Joey gets in his way and no matter how pissed off he is, he doesn’t want to hurt her.

She tries to talk him down in both verses, but in the Reincarnation AU she’s a little more successful at keeping him at bay until Diavolo shows up because Lucifer is reluctant to harm her and instead tries to talk her into getting out of his way. (Which doesn’t work.)

Lucifer composes a piece of music based on a tune she used to hum to herself in her original incarnation. It winds up being a pretty big memory trigger for her when she overhears him humming it to himself on his way passed her room late one night.

#devils and dead girls (lucey)#verse (obey me au: reincarnation)#this took longer to write than i thought but it was fun!#actually this au has prompted me to start reading history stuff again #and i love history so win win #profanity cw

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devintrinidad · 4 years

Text

Aw those hcs are adorable!

I like that green tea is such a staple for 1146 even cells who know him treat getting accepted by him like a pet owner does when their cat bring them a dead animal offering. At least he brings them tea instead of a dead germ. XD

I’m now being reminded of the S1 ending where Platelet sits on top of 3803’s cart. Only replace it with NC now. I can imagine all the weird looks they get when she’s carting around adult Normal Cell like he’s a child. Neither of them care. NC probably just gives off a smug ‘you wish a strong pretty girl would give you a ride on her cart all over the body’ (and he’s right. Some are jealous). But I also see Leader Platelet come running after them because she’s used to 3803 doing that for her too. Instead of making NC leave, Leader Chan plops gerself in his lap all three go on a adventure together (3803 is a disaster and curiosity magnet so eventually things could always get wild).

It’s funny to think NC is in fact very protective of her. But because he’s a Normal Cell now he’s much weaker then her. She ends up acting more protective over him and carrying him around when he can’t walk. That or she gives him piggy back rides. It probably takes him awhile to get used to this new reversal. But then he’s like 'eh she’s caring about me and that’s all that matters’. He definitely still acts very protective but he’s more of the nagging type like 5100. But he does it more grumpily. He’s actually bonded with 5100 when it comes to worrying about 3803 (which is pretty ironic). The only difference is he focuses more on how tough she is too and likes it when 3803 goes off the beaten path and does things a RBC isn’t known to do. Since 5100 thinks so little outside the box, NC also sasses her but she sasses right back and then they can squabble (in a non hostile way that never goes to the levels he and 1146 squabbles can) about how she thinks 3803 should just do as expected of her. While NC praises 3803 for doing more then what’s expected of her and even uses the time she called the Calvary on Cancer as an example (which is also ironic).

Lol, 1146 takes awhile to figure out he’s not over senstive about NC acting affectionate with 3803 because of the past (at least post finally accepting NC in their lives by giving him tea). He’s just straight up jealous and territorial. He’d hate any guy kissing her on the cheek. 3803 doesn’t mind because she actually gets that NC is not doing this out of romance (he’s just as dumb if not dumber then 1146 when it comes to that). Granted she knows he has a crush. But he’s also still very affection starved and not very good at getting social norms. He’s trying his best though and these days wouldn’t dare do anything to upset her. After awhile she notices 1146’s sheer grumpiness and NC tells her he’s upset he’s too shy to kiss her cheeks too. 3803 being 3803 quickly tells 1146 what NC told her and she informs him 'of course he can kiss her cheek too’. She waits for him to kiss her cheek but he just stands there frozen like all the life got sucked out of him. NC is trying not to laugh out loud. 3803 gets tired of waiting so - thinking it might help - she gives a quick kiss on the cheek to 1146. Then his clothes explodes off him as his face turns more red then her hair. Normally NC would get a little jealous but even he’s in a little awe by the reaction. 0_0

Normal Cell would cry tears of joy that NC managed to find two friends. That’s a lot more then he expected. He’d be such a busybody like that overly enthusiastic momma bear who’s so proud and invested in her child. NC would stop him from getting too excited over 3803 being his girlfriend because she’s not. Normal Cell also shows 1146 all of NC’s most embarrassing photos because he sees 1146 as a nice upstanding guy who is like NC’s best friend. 1146 is polite enough to leave before laughing his head off and subtly making fun of NC about it later. That’s the quickest way to get NC to behave once he realizes all the blackmail ammo 1146 has on him.

Aw, I bet 1146 gives the best hugs to 3803. He just envelopes her into his big arms and she feels so safe and warm in them. Sometimes when he’s particularly happy or sentimental, he sweeps her off her feet for a tight hug while she laughs.

I can imagine 1146 just has his iconic dour face when he’s carrying them and thinking he’s the only adult in this trio.

NC would make fun of 1146 for liking boring vanilla best. 1146 would defend his choice saying it’s vanilla Bean! Very different from ordinary vanilla. Then he’d point out lemon suits NC just fine because they’re both so sour to deal with.

Aw NC trying his best to find a good dynamic with 1146 and 1146 leaving to cool off instead of exploding at him. They’d definitely have a ways to go and NC would be grateful deep down how patient and kind 1146 really is with him. The sass will always remain but NC is definitely forcing himself to learn how to not hurt others when previously that’s what his entire existence was about. NC probably cried once when he accidently made 1146 REALLY upset. Then 1146 ended up getting flustered and giving NC way more treats then he could consume in one sitting because those tears would stop coming. That’s their weird dynamic.

NC will never stop treating 3803 like a queen. Making her happy is the one thing that eases his guilt a little. She definitely sees herself acting like a big sister for him and always accepting his gifts. She’ll pat him on the head and hope someday he’ll hate himself a little less for a life he hadn’t picked. Her forgiveness is the one thing that helps him sleep at night.

As much as NC would never admit it, he doesn’t want to ever move out of Normal Cell’s apartment. He knows he’ll get lonely without his creator and sees him as a security blanket despite all his visible annoyances over said mentor’s clingy ways. He’ll probably treat Normal Cell’s next clone like that annoying younger sibling he never asked for and is his mortal enemy by birth (you know in a normal sibling way).

~~~

Hiya! Are you new? Your email is unfamiliar to me....

Hahaha, now I’m getting images of 1146 covered head to toe in blood while dragging around the mutilated remains of a bacterium for his friends. It’s somewhat adorable but also terrifying.

That’s a great callback! I actually wanted to reference that time in 3803/NC’s relationship back in RBA (basically one of the first times they meet and 3803 saves Cancer by running for her life with Cancer hanging on for dear life in her cart). But the reference to the season one ending is also a great detail! And yes, Leader Platelet (and a few of the other platelets), also like to ride on 3803′s cart.

(Sometimes, other RBCs will get their own platelets and they’ll go have races around the body).

I am living for the friendship with NC and 5100. Although I’m pretty sure 5100 will never know the true story behind the kidnapping and NC’s true origins, they will surely bond over 3803. (But let’s face it, NC gets 3803 roped up in his shenanigans and it’s up to 5100, 4201, or 1146 to bail them out. And no. NC regrets nothing).

Protective NC is best NC, even when he’s being a sassy little child when doing so.

1146′s CLOTHES EXPLODE??? HEHAHAHAHAH! 3803 is left mystified while Dendritic Cell swoops in for a few photos.

(NC pays Dendritic Cell with a few humorous stories of 1146 in exchange for a few photos... to which Normal Cell promptly sticks into his budding scrapbook for NC).

1146 gives the best hugs. Sometimes, when he swoops 3803 in his arms, he sees NC looking off to the side, an angry blush on his cheeks. 1146 isn’t one to gloat, but that’s probably what he’s doing when he sees the look on NC’s face.

(Don’t worry... some day down the line, 1146 hugs him... but they will never admit it).

If there’s anyone interested in the Abnormalities verse and also happens to be an artist or likes to doodle... please draw grumpy 1146 holding his two friends like they’re a sack of grapes? Please? It would make my day, haha.

Hehehe, I gave NC lemon flavor because of his “lime green eyes”. But he is definitely pretty sour to begin with.

^^^ I won’t expand on it, because you worded it better than I ever could. You broke their relationship into their barest essentials.

Oooohhhh, I love the image of 3803 patting him on the head. While NC isn’t that much taller than 3803, the height difference is still apparent. I can just imagine that whenever NC gets really down or especially guilty, he hunches over himself, becomes smaller, and bows his head (reminiscent of his first reincarnation as a child trying to hide from the big, bad immune cells). When 3803 sees this, she immediately goes into mother/big sister mode and starts patting his head and smoothing his locks. Maybe she even kisses him on the forehead/cheek (depending on how she’s still dealing with the trauma).

After that, NC beams at her, but doesn’t sass or say anything.

He’s content with what she has given him.

Hehehe, I bet Normal Cell has to explain that there are rules and regulations to this sort of thing. So, they compromise. NC and Normal Cell will live on the same floor of their apartment complex and NC gets to visit whenever he wants.

(He totally comes over every day just to annoy his younger sibling).

Thanks for the lovely add ons! They were really cute and adorable! :D

#cells at work #hataraku saibou #caw #caw anon #anon ask #devintrinidad author #devintrinidad #devin trinidad author #devin trinidad #submission

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cheshiresense · 5 years

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Orion x Hadrian with Naruto AU! XD I kinda want to know how you’ll fit them into the hardcore ninja world.

Welp that’s definitely a new spin. Let’s seee…….

1. Okay so are they themselves? Dropped into the Naruto ‘verse? Or do they get reborn into Naruto canon characters? You know what, as themselves would be more interesting. But also wait are they even reincarnated or were they just born in the Naruto world?? We’ll go with reincarnation, Hadrian isn’t Hadrian without his dimension-hopping. So, Orion is born an Uchiha, because of course it’s just his luck to get tossed into a family full of blood-purists except without a Sirius this time. He’s born a handful of years after Fugaku, second son and relatively unimportant, but he almost gives his new mother a heart attack when he toddles into the kitchen one morning with the Sharingan already spinning in his eyes.

(His death had not been an easy one. He’d watched the only man he’d ever loved die protecting him, and it had been a relief to follow in a hail of spell-fire, even if it had been with the knowledge that Hadrian’s death had been in vain.)

They hail him as a prodigy, which makes Orion roll his eyes. It isn’t helped by the fact that he - thankfully - still has his magic, and after a few years of experimenting, he’s even able to pass off a few abilities as jutsus. His clan is proud of him - not even in the Academy yet and already wielding chakra like he was born knowing how. Their only complaint - something that would probably make his father tear out his hair in frustration if he was any less dignified, and drives the clan elders around the bend - was Orion’s utter lack of interest in holding up family honour. Oh, he doesn’t do anything outright rude, but even just acting himself seems to “tarnish their reputation”. He’s an introvert by nature - even years of knowing Hadrian hasn’t changed that - so acting the perfect Uchiha child whenever he goes out with his parents or on the few occasions other clans come to visit is not exactly a priority. He finds politics in general boring even if he’s forced to sit down and begin learning the ins and outs of clan laws very early, and working himself into other people’s good graces is just something he doesn’t do. He speaks too little even for an Uchiha, but when he does speak he’s too blunt even for a child. He looks at his new parents, compares them to Sirius and Remus, and finds them terribly wanting. He supposes they’re not terrible, especially since half the time they’re out fighting a war or attending meetings, but they care far more about propriety and prestige than Orion is used to, restricts Orion’s freedom more than he likes, and that puts even more of a distance between them. He cares about them, but only in a vaguely distant way. He’s fonder of Fugaku, whom he knows envies him a little for his skill with chakra (magic) and his already active Sharingan, but his uncaring attitude in just about every other department that a clan child should strive towards seems to appease him, and for the most part, they get along fine. It helps, Orion thinks with some amusement, that he has no desire to fight against Fugaku for their clan’s attention, even though he realizes that that seems to be a common practice amongst clan siblings. Their father certainly tries, remarking on how much farther along Fugaku already is with his studies and the clan jutsus, but Orion doesn’t care, and honestly, he’d make a terrible clan head. Fugaku wants it, and as far as Orion is concerned, he can definitely have it.

2. Hadrian is born an Uzumaki, and the one thing he absolutely loves about it is his hair. It’s a red so dark it could almost pass for black at night, but when he stands in the sunlight, it shines as bright as Lily Potter’s did.

Everything else about an Uzumaki is… not as great. Oh, the sealing that comes so naturally for their clan is neat enough, but he was already a sealmaster in two lifetimes, and while there are some new branches he can explore in this new world, he still prefers his own style, and it’s not long before other people notice. They think it’s his creation, his genius, and they’re all so proud of him, definitely Uzumaki and twice the prodigy, and that too is something Hadrian enjoys - the Uzumaki Clan isn’t as large as some in other villages, but they’re close-knit and full of love and laughter, and growing up in Uzushio, Hadrian wants for nothing.

Then of course, because his life is just like that, his home is destroyed at the tail-end of the second shinobi world war. This universe is full of soldiers and children conscripted as soldiers, and the foundations are so very ugly. Even Hadrian was already doing his part from the onset of the war, not even ten yet, by creating and improvising new seals for his village. Uzushio is kinder only that they do not send children to the frontlines unless there is no other choice, and Hadrian’s genius ensures he has a position with the Sealing Division within the safety of the village. His skills there at least are too valuable to risk losing on the battlefield.

(Hadrian is tired of war. He has fought three of them now, and the last one finally managed to kill him. He has no doubt Orion fell as well because even after so many years, or perhaps especially after so many years, Orion still looked at him like the moon rose and set at Hadrian’s command, and Orion was the ocean’s tide that followed its call.)

Only some quick thinking and liberal applications of some of the most complicated seals Hadrian has ever made on the fly manages to save just a little under half of his village. He creates a wide-range portal seal behind a defensive barrier interlocked with a delayed explosion ward, activates all three at the same time, and just before the light of the seal consumes him and all the villagers he could save (far too few), Uzushio detonates, taking all the invading Iwa- and Kiri-nin with her. Serves them right.

They materialize at the gates of Konoha, and over the course of the next several weeks, the remains of Uzushiogakure are shuffled between the hospital and a hastily sectioned off piece of land large enough to house them. Kushina bursts through the figurative gates within the day, crying and hugging everyone she can reach, tackling Hadrian too because they weren’t the closest within their clan but he’d been the one to teach her pretty much everything she knew of seals before she’d been forced to move to Konoha.

After that, there is a lot of bargaining and arguing, subtle accusations and even subtler threats thrown, but the first thing Hadrian does is erect wards powerful enough to stop an army, and so in the end, Konoha has no choice but to acquiesce to their demands. They still need Uzushio’s strength, and while Uzushio has never failed their sister village, as friend or comrade or ally, well, Konoha never showed up to aid them in their greatest moment of need, did they? So they make a home in Fire Country but call themselves Uzushio-nin, an island unto themselves with enough firepower to level half the country, and even Konoha dares not threaten that.

The war ends with Konoha - officially - the victor. A large chunk of Iwa and Kiri forces were destroyed, courtesy of Uzushio, and Uzushio, displaced and desecrated, bares its teeth and refuses to let the world forget them.

3. Two years later, Hadrian is sixteen, a Jounin, returning from a mission and reporting in before making his way through Konoha in the quiet hours of the morning. Things are still a little strained between Konoha and Uzushio, but they share most of their missions, most of their information, they cross each other’s village boundaries as if they were one, and after Hadrian caught half a dozen ROOT members attempting to assassinate his village in the dark of night, Danzou had been tried, his delays of Konoha reinforcements to Uzushio dragged into the light, amongst numerous other crimes, and he’d been summarily executed for them. Hadrian doesn’t think he’s the only one who thinks Konoha feels just a little bit lighter in the aftermath.

For now, his feet takes him past some of the training grounds, and he can hear the distant thwacks of someone practicing their aim. Early training sessions aren’t uncommon, but it’s early enough that Hadrian feels a vague sense of curiosity for who it might be.

He finds a Konoha-nin, of course, easily recognized as an Uchiha, around the age of twelve. Judging by the hitae-ate tied around his arm, he’s already a genin at least. It’s rare though, for an Uchiha to be training in public, even if the place is void of people at this hour. Clan members usually use their own private training grounds, especially one still so young. His skill is plain to see though, every kunai thudding dead center into their targets while the boy himself dances easily across a sparse grid of wires. Hadrian only has time to up his estimate to Chuunin before the boy flips into the air and makes a very familiar gesture at the target boards. Hadrian’s breath catches as all the kunai fly neatly into the Uchiha’s hands, and the slight sound is enough to attract his attention.

Green eyes meet blue, rare on an Uchiha, not so rare on-

“Orion,” Hadrian croaks out before he can think better of it, and this time, it’s the Uchiha boy’s turn to freeze. Disbelief wells up in his expression, followed by a desperate sort of hope as he chokes out, “Hadrian?”

Hadrian doesn’t know who moves first, but he blinks once, and then Orion is in his arms, wrapped around him like a barnacle, and his body feels different, smaller and more slender, bones less sturdy, hair softer, but Hadrian doesn’t care because it’s Orion, and he loves his new family and everything they’ve given him, but sometimes he still wakes up in the middle of the night, grasping blindly for a man no longer there, and all he can think now is that this time at least he’s not alone.

Orion hugs him back just as hard, uncaring of the fact that Hadrian seems destined to be older in some way in every lifetime. He’s wondered, of course he has, because he knows dimension travel and time travel are possible, and if he’s been reincarnated, surely Fate or the gods or something would see fit to do the same for Hadrian. But he’s looked, and no one in Konoha has the same skills that he does.

Of course he was looking in the wrong place. He should’ve known Hadrian would be born into the clan that produces the craziest seal-happy shinobi in existence.

4. Orion is a freshly-minted Chuunin. He wasn’t looking for a promotion exactly, but his Genin team was boring him, his two teammates didn’t like having an Uchiha on the team that so far outstripped them, and his sensei had no idea what to do with him. Orion’s even gladder that he decided to do his best in the recent Exams, because now it means Hadrian can request him on his team for missions.

They spend the rest of that first day together, talking about their respective new lives. Orion was all for following Hadrian home, but they both knew even the disappointing second son can’t just up and disappear into Uzushio territory for the night without the Uchihas sending out a search party and probably demanding recompense. So they spend the day together, talking, eating, Orion suggests a nap because it’s clear Hadrian just came back from a mission but Hadrian rolls his eyes and drags him back to a training grounds for a spar. Which is fun because they’re definitely more evenly matched in the ninja arts than they were in duelling magic. They don’t go all-out, but Orion enjoys showing Hadrian some of the Uchiha-exclusive jutsus he’s learned (no, he’s not supposed to, but also no, he doesn’t care), and he can’t help laughing when Hadrian begins teaching him seals.

Hadrian walks him back to the Uchiha compound. The guards stare, surprised and wary because Orion has friendly acquaintances in Konoha but no friends, certainly none that makes him so obviously happy. Orion wants to invite him in, but his family isn’t something he wants to inflict on Hadrian, and they’ll have more time together later. He almost forgets himself and leans in for a kiss, but Hadrian raises an eyebrow, equal parts amused and rueful, and even in this messed up world where children have adult rights as soon as they become genin, a twelve-year-old probably shouldn’t up and kiss a sixteen-year-old Jounin, even if they are from a clan with technically equal standing as the Uchiha. So Orion limits himself to a lingering hug, one that Hadrian returns with a hair-ruffle thrown in (”I’m taller than you for once!”), and then they part ways.

Word spreads like wildfire. Ninja gossip worse than the Hogwarts rumour mill, and Hadrian is a well-known name across most of the Elemental Countries, famed for saving his village and wiping out a third each of Kiri’s and Iwa’s ranks. Both villages labelled him S-rank before the war even ended, and while his first loyalty is to Uzushio, he’s also done quite a bit for Konoha’s defenses over the past year.

But even Orion is surprised when it’s Fugaku who corners him first the next morning, bright and early and looking forward to the rest of the day in a way he hasn’t for… literally his entire life here so far. Even his older brother, arms crossed and already frowning (honestly no wonder his face already carries faint stress lines), doesn’t dampen his mood.

Fugaku doesn’t scold him because he knows Orion isn’t going to listen. Literally the only one who still tries is their father, who shouts until he’s hoarse but never makes a dent in Orion’s disinterest and wayward independence.

Instead, Fugaku sighs and watches Orion pack two bentos before finally telling him, “At least you picked an Uzumaki. And of all the Uzumaki, at least you picked the best one. A Hyuuga might actually make Father keel over from a heart attack.”

Orion rolls his eyes as he hunts down a picnic blanket. Uchihas are so dramatic. Also, “Where is your mind at, Brother? I just made a friend.”

Even Fugaku’s monotone grunt somehow sounds skeptical. “Just… keep it in your pants for a few more years. And remind Uzumaki that just because you aren’t the Uchiha heir doesn’t mean we won’t come after him if he hurts you.”

Orion pauses and glances at him, and Fugaku scowls back, all gruff exasperation mingled with stilted concern. Orion rolls his eyes again, but he also smiles, reluctantly, because he and Fugaku may not be close, may not get along all the time, may have wildly different interests and opinions, but at the end of the day, they are brothers.

“Thanks, Fugaku,” Orion says grudgingly. This family doesn’t do affection much, so Orion isn’t used to it anymore. Fugaku looks even more embarrassed, and after a dismissive wave, he disappears back upstairs, probably for another few hours of sleep before his mission later today.

Orion does the opposite, making his way out of the compound and immediately brightening when he finds Hadrian already waiting for him. He has the same green eyes, even if everything else about him is different, and some part of Orion still can’t believe he isn’t dreaming.

“Hey,” He greets, bounding over on silent feet.

“Hey yourself,” Hadrian says as they set off down the road. He grins and holds up a mission scroll. “We don’t leave until late afternoon but it’ll just be the two of us. B-rank, retrieval, should take us two weeks tops. Sound good?”

Two weeks with just the two of them, away from Konoha and all its prying eyes? Orion grins back. “Sounds perfect.”

5. Four years later, Orion is Jounin with enough missions and successes under his belt to qualify as S-rank himself, and on the day after his sixteenth birthday, the Uchihas receive a formal betrothal request from the Uzumakis. Father takes one look at Orion’s expectant face and gleaming eyes and sighs like the world is ending.

“At least you picked Uzushio royalty,” He grumbles sourly as he reads over the terms. “And I suppose he does have… adequate credentials.” He looks at Orion again and then waves a hand irritably. “Fine. Fine. I’ll meet with the Uzumaki clan head within the next few days and make the necessary arrangements. Now get out of here. An Uchiha shouldn’t hover like a-”

Orion is already gone. He finds Hadrian deep in the Forest of Death, a simple ward keeping the hostile creatures away, lazily tracing elemental seals in the air to pass the time.

“Your father said yes?” Hadrian asks as soon as Orion drops down beside him on the tree branch.

Orion scoffs. “As if I would’ve let him say anything else.”

He pauses, then twists around in a fluid motion, and a second later, he’s straddling Hadrian’s lap, arms coming up to drape around the other man’s shoulders. Hadrian cocks an eyebrow, a smile already tugging at his lips as his hands settle on Orion’s waist. They’re finally equal in height, much to Hadrian’s disgruntlement.

“You’ll find me in our next life too, won’t you?” Orion demands.

Hadrian’s other eyebrow goes up. “We haven’t even finished this life.” He sighs. “And who knows if we’ll be reborn together again? Or at all?”

Orion tries to imagine it, tries to see himself in a world without Hadrian at his side, and… and he can, because he’s done it before, this life and his last. But he doesn’t much care for it, and he hopes he’ll never have to again.

“But if we are,” He persists. “You’ll try, won’t you?”

Hadrian’s grip tightens around him, and he draws Orion into a long, lingering kiss before murmuring against his lips, “If we are reborn together, then I’ll find you, no matter how far apart we end up. But you have to look for me too. Promise?”

Orion huffs and bites down on Hadrian’s bottom lip in brief reproach before licking over it to soothe the sting. Hadrian makes a contented sound at the back of his throat.

“That’s a given,” Orion vows. “If you exist, I’ll definitely find you.”

He feels more than sees Hadrian’s smile, but as always, it summons one of his own in reply.

“Then between the two of us, I’m sure it won’t be a problem.”

#headcanon meme: answered #hp series #orion black #hadrian evans #naruto au #pairp #headcanon #lol this basically ended up mostly hadrian/orion + reincarnation #not much interaction with the naruto verse whoops #hadrian/orion

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littlestartopaz · 4 years

Note

Loz au notes for the ask game?

(Ask me about my wips: https://littlestartopaz.tumblr.com/post/640597930782457856/rules-post-the-name-of-all-the-files-in-your-wip )

So this au was based off of a tumblr post that i forgot to save a link to (rip me) that ended with if you insert Link in just about any shounen protag role, he'd probably just roll with it and be alright. And they mentioned mha and that OfA would be the Triforce of Courage. And a few other things, but that's really what inspired this au.

My twist on it is that some characters in the mha verse are reincarnations of other characters from across the LoZ games. So technically, there could be multiple Links since there are multiple Links a-la something like LU. They have their memories from the game(s) their past life was in, but they don't necessarily have quirks or related quirks.

On the other hand, all three parts of the Triforce act a bit like OfA, in that they have an ability that can be passed along from one holder to the next. I'm still a bit stuck on if i want All Might to have the Triforce of Power or Courage. Power arguably suits what OfA is better, but Courage suits All Might better imo.

Anyway, Izuku is Wind Waker/Phantom Hourglass Link reincarnated and for the longest time doesn't know anyone else who is like him. He and Bakugo actually have a bit of a healthy rivalry/friendship in this au, 1) because I'm a sucker for it, 2) because they both believe Izuku's memories are a quirk. When Izuku is 10, he finally meets someone else like him and they become friends. It's the fic's only main OC at the moment, and it's because i wanted to give him a specific quirk. Anyway, OC is Ravio from A Link Between Worlds and ends up at UA in the business department. His quirk is he can animate and basically give a very simple AI to any small figure made of cloth, and his dad makes plushies, so he has that stupid bird thing Ravio had as a companion in the game but it's a plushy. He's constantly lamenting to Izuku about how unmarketable breaking your own bones is can you PLEASE take care of yourself.

Other LoZ characters show up sporadically, both main and side characters, and All Might actually isn't one of them, but there is only one other Link that shows up. It's Hero of Time Link and who that is is something I'm keeping to myself for fun reveals if i every get this thing published.

Anyway, i was digging through my graveyard folder for scrapped scenes or chapters for this au and found an almost fully written chapter among the other versions in there and idk why i scrapped it because it's actually good but uhhh.... here's a bit of that one because i think imma unscrap it:

For as long as he has been able to think, Izuku has remembered another world. Adventures play in his dreams, people and creatures dance in his imagination. Tales of lost sisters and pirates, of talking boats and seeing stones. A vast ocean and the kingdom lost beneath its uncaring waves, a princess in hiding, a simple boy who forges Courage and forces the goddesses to acknowledge him.

For as long as he has been able to think, Izuku has remembered how to be a hero.

To young Katsuki, Izuku's tales of adventure were the coolest thing. They play with sticks instead of swords and reenact Izuku's fights so they can both be heroes.

Katsuki's quirk sparks in when he's five, and when nothing changes in Izuku he proclaims Izuku had his quirk the whole time. And for them, that's the end of that. Katsuki has his explosions and Izuku has his memories. They'll both be number 1 and no one will stop them, not even All Might.

But it wasn't enough for some. The teachers in their school go to Inko, concerned. They tell her the children are already six and Izuku has shown no changes, the last in his class. She should really consider taking Izuku to a quirk doctor, for Izuku's sake. Afterall, if he is quirkless, there are support programs so he doesn't fall behind.

Katsuki finds Izuku crying in an alcove near their usual fighting grounds. He overheard Aunty Inko freaking at his mom that Izuku went missing after his appointment. Burning with curiosity (and perhaps a little concern), Katsuki had set out to find him. And he did.

And now Katsuki doesn't know what to do.

Sympathy had always been more of Izuku's thing. When kids cried on the playground, Izuku was the one to give them a hug and find their parents, not Katsuki. When someone was confused, Izuku was the one to stop and explain things until they understood, not Katsuki. When teasing their friends, Katsuki always took it too far and Izuku always forced him to back down.

But now it's Izuku crying and Katsuki who needs to do the comforting. Aunty Inko isn't here, Katsuki's parents aren't here. It's up to him.

Katsuki clenches his fists and tries to be kind.

“What the hell are you doing?” Katsuki hides his own cringe as Izuku curls in on himself more.

“Go 'way Kacchan.” Izuku croaks out.

“No. Now move over.” Katsuki pushes his way into Izuku's alcove. When Izuku doesn't push him back out, he takes it as permission to stay. They sit in silence broken only by Izuku's sniffles. Katsuki doesn't know what to say and Izuku isn't talking.

#ask meme #ask answered #LoZ au #my writing #topaz writes #anyway i haven't touched this au in about a year because i adhd-ed into other aus #i do still love this one #izuku throws a scrap pipe through the sludge villan's eye

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yourdeepestfathoms · 4 years

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Just a list of LiW-related prompts for your writing pleasures

After a nightmare about Henry, Bessie impulsively cuts her hair short because she thinks it’ll make it harder to grab

One of the queens (or all of them) catch Joan performing the show by herself/singing the songs onstage while working

Joan is getting stalked by a plague doctor-like figure. She sees it everywhere- at the back of the auditorium during shows, up on the catwalk, in the wings, in cars that pass her on the street, just out of her peripheral vision, peering in through windows, in mirrors. It starts to make her extremely paranoid and restless. The figure itself is supposed to represent her guilt over all three of her mistresses dying and won’t go away until she accepts that it wasn’t her fault and stops blaming herself

Joan falls asleep under the piano at the theater. Do with this what you will

Aragon gets sick and Bessie is the one to take care of her. Except Bessie is a nervous mess who keeps spilling the medicine she tries to pour into a spoon and thinking she’ll not only poison the queen on accident, but also that Aragon will die instantly the moment she tries to get out of bed. She has no idea why she’s so anxious because she usually does a good job of taking care of her girls. Aragon finds her jitteriness adorable and amusing

Maggie has a panic attack in the middle of Don’t Lose Ur Head after she sees Anne headless during the song

Joan is trying to give commands into her earpiece during a show but she has the hiccups and it’s making it very hard for her to speak

Re the earpiece idea: Joan is sick and is trying really hard not to sneeze or cough into the queen’s ears (and if anyone has ever tried to hold themselves back from coughing you know it’s very difficult and uncomfortable)

After waking from a nightmare early in the morning, instead of getting up, Bessie goes to Maria for comfort, throwing all her dignity out the window. Maria invites her to sleep with her, only for Bessie to have another nightmare mere minutes after she falls asleep. Bessie continues to have rapid nightmares each time she falls asleep again until Maria finally calls Aragon, hoping the queen’s presence will calm Bessie as she tries to sleep (if the nightmares continue or not is up to the writer)

Bessie starts to notice that she’s rapidly losing weight over the span of a few days. She brings it up in some offhand comment one day and Aragon gets concerned. She convinces Bessie to weigh herself and Bessie sees that she’s lighter than she was the day before, however she blows it off. It’s not until the symptoms pile up that Bessie realizes what exactly is wrong with her: She has consumption. Again.

Joan gets mono after a girl she thought liked her kisses her. Was it an accident on the girl’s part? Or was the whole thing just a ploy to humiliate the MD?

Courtney!Anne takes care of Maggie while she’s sick (because motherly, nurturing Anne content is 👌👌 and no Anne seems more caring than Courtney!Anne)

Aragon teaches Joan how to swim

Due to her death from tuberculosis, a disease that has been known to make the victim lose an extreme amount of weight, Bessie is reincarnated very light and thin, especially around her stomach, which is slightly sunken in. Of course, people say that low weight is a good thing and she shouldn’t complain about it, which makes her even more embarrassed.

You’ve heard of the fanfic where the queens are on their periods now get ready for: a fanfic where the ladies in waiting are on their period

Joan has to go on as Jane during a performance

Bessie has a pregnancy scare

Bessie plays and sings one of her old songs when she thinks she’s alone. Someone hears her. She begs and practically bribes them to keep quiet about what they heard.

A very sick and feverish Maria is taken care of by Bessie

Anne finds out Joan still has the prayer book she gave her

Despite having an acid reflux, Maria eats some kind of hot food. When night comes, she regrets her decision and gets sick. Bessie stays up taking care of her.

Tour!verse- The kids come back...including baby Mae. And at this point, Joan and Cathy have become very close, but Cathy starts spending more time with her daughter because HELLO it’s her daughter. And Joan starts to feel left out and alone all over again, which she knows is so stupid because of course her friend is going to love her child more, but she can’t get over her own jealousy. Not even Cathy saying she’s “Auntie Joey” can cheer her up because she doesn’t want to be Auntie Joey. She wants to just be Joey. And she wants Cathy back.

The queens and ladies in waiting are out eating with each other. Everything is going fine, they’re all laughing, until a baby starts to cry. And won’t stop. Bessie has to leave the building because she cannot stand the sound. (Bonus points if the mother of the infant gets mad at her for it)

While running back into the theater for her phone, Tour!Howard finds Tour!Joan crying in the bathroom

Somehow, Joan breaks her wrist. This restricts her from playing during the show for awhile. Not being able to work or play piano stresses her out more than it should and turns her into an anxious wreck that believes that the show will crash and burn without her there.

#uhhhh if anyone uses any of these tag me in what you write so I can see #ive been hungry for something new to read #six the musical #ladies in waiting #maria on the drums #maggie on the guitar #bessie on the bass #joan on the keys

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strawberrysolitude · 5 years

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Jackson Wang – 100 Ways

Okay. So. Unlike other talented content creators, the only thing I’m somewhat good at is putting my feelings into words. So that’s what you’re getting!

I love Jackson’s new solo, and I wanna talk about the different aspects, namely the music, the lyrics, and the visuals in the MV. So let’s go!

1. the music

I. Love. The baseline. The running guitar line in “Bullet to the Heart” was already super ragged and rhythmical, but here, it’s a lot smoother while running under the melody like a little stream of water. No big ups and downs, just little tiny waves, but still enough to convey constant movements and to make you wanna dance along.

The melody in the verses is really beautiful, a little melancholic, and fits right into Jackson’s higher range. He sounds emotional without putting too much strain onto his voice. The melody in the chorus??? That right there is pure Jackson! Smack-dab in the middle of his voice range, which makes it possible for him to put a lot more power behind his singing. The chorus sounds a lot more like a song to dance to, and I love how that contradicts the actual theme of the lyrics (but more on that later).

The gonging bass that sets in during the chorus helps to hit home the underlying heaviness of it all. It tapers out during the “I’m the only one that you need line” and underlines how there’s still a bit of lightness in that part.

The flute? I love it? It has such a haunting and tragic melody and fits with the sort of medieval theme of the video perfectly.

The beat keeps pounding more steadily during the second chorus, but even though it might be fitting for it to be more like a war drum, it’s still subdued - war is over for a dead soldier, after all, the steady call of the marching drum nothing but an echo in the afterlife.

Right before the “dance break”, the accompaniement tapers off and even comes to a complete halt as the soldiers in the video fall backwards and disappear. They and the music both give Jackson and his lover time alone, so to speak.

The last part leaves us with a gonging, intense bass, pounding drums, a hauntingly beautiful flute melody and Jackson crooning his highest parts of the chorus melody before stating, almost in his speaking voice and very matter-of-factly, “I’m the only one that you need.” What an impression to go out on!

2. the lyrics

There were two parts of the lyrics in the verses that really stuck out to me: the hourglass and the curtain call.

An hourglass is not only associated with time passing, but with mortality itself. The grim reaper is often portrayed holding an hourglass, every grain of sand a day of a person’ lifespan, and once all of them have rained down, he comes to collect their soul. The image projected here is that there is an expiration date to the relationship Jackson’s talking about. Yet at the same time, to start any relationship, the hourglass has to be turned, which is why it’s the first line of the song. Nothing lasts forever, but it might be that this relationship is coming to and end “too fast” for the other partner.

A curtain call, as well, indicates the end of something. Interesting to me is how Jackson says in this verse that he doesn’t care about the opinion of others, yet relates his relationship to a play in a theater, indicating that it’s a performance put on to impress others. Haven’t we all had the feeling of performing a relationship, trying our best to express love in patterns that we’ve learned and to please somebody by putting on a show?

Despite these sort of negative images, the song still manages to put a somewhat positive spin on the fears of a relationship ending too soon and maybe even being just for show.

Don’t waste your love, just let it last 'Cause once it's gone it's never coming back

But if you’re ready I will give my all

These lines convey that it’s okay to love with all you’ve got. Even if it might not be forever, the time you had together still counts. Love is not something finite, a relationship is not a transaction where you can get your love back if you still have a warranty. It might hurt in the end, but you’re guaranteed to have a good time if you give it your all now.

As for the chorus, this is actually a bit puzzling to me. Is it cynical? Hopeful? Boasting? Melancholic?

Could you love me the same? Tell me what makes you stay? There’s a hundred ways to leave a lover I won’t wait a minute longer Hundred ways to leave But I’m the only one that you need

Could you love me the same ... after what happened? After the lover has left? After they have been hurt? After the relationship is over? What makes you stay ... even though what? It might be that their relationship is strained and that they’re not sure about each other’s feelings and whether they’re loving each other right.

“There’s a hundred ways to leave a lover” – now there’s an iconic line for you! In my opinion, it sounds a little bit sassy and sarcastic, its lightheartedness contradicting the heavy decision of ending a relationship. The melody on this line, however, sounds tragic and serious, which makes me rethink again.

I won’t wait a minute longer ... to do what? Or is he waiting for his partner to do something, to act, to decide? I think the latter fits a bit more, seeing as he confidently states “I’m the only one that you need”.

Bottom line: What I read out of these lyrics is this: “I’m the only one that you need, so why do you keep making me wait? Why are you treating me like there’s an expiration date on our relationship? If you commit fully, I’m ready to give you my all. If you really wanted to leave, there’s lots of ways for you to end this, but you haven’t yet. You obviously want to stay, so why don’t you say yes to this relationship?”

3. the visuals

In this part, I might focus a little more on the story told in the MV, which in my opinion is a bit removed from the lyrics. Although dying on your lover is definitely one way to leave them ... ahem.

In the beginning, the gravestones are arranged in a circle, and there’s concentric lines drawn in the ground as well. You know about the circle of life? This circle is closed, so this life has come full circle, has come to its end. However, a circle can also be interpreted as the wheel of lives turning and bringing reincarnation.

The soldiers are wearing black and red. In this combination, these colors seem sort of dark and almost demonic, which helps underline the fact that these people are basically necromancers right now.

The ever-present fog throughout the whole video serves multiple purposes. Firstly, it helps establish a sort of battlefield atmosphere: right before dawn, where you can’t see much and the enemy could be attacking any time. Secondly, it makes things seem unreal and ethereal, like all of this is already taking place in the afterlife. Lastly, it helps make Jackson look like a ghost. There’s a tiny moment around 0:55 where it even looks like he’s breathing out fog!

Jackson rises from the grave wearing his underclothes, not his armor, which are disshevelled and dirty. There’s dirt on his face also. This could be because he was literally under the ground, but we later see his lover rise from the grave looking pristine. My take on this is that, as a soldier, Jackson was buried in haste after a battle, and his comrades didn’t have time to wash his body or do any of the rites to prepare him for the burying.

However, now that they’re resurrecting him, they are putting on his armor for him, gearing him up, making him look like himself again, less vulnerable and quite literally ready for battle. What’s he fighting for? True love, of course!

In the next scene, they’re walking together through a dark forest, trees without leaves, towards a light. I don’t think there’s much to be interpreted her: The afterlife is bleak, but you walk towards a warm light in the hopes that it comforts you. An interesting bit is when one of the dancers knocks one of the tress over and it falls down. That could have been a coincidence, but the leaves rustling as the tree hits the ground are literally part of the audio! Any thoughts on that?

The single tree with a gravestone beneath it looks very different from the graveyard where Jackson was resurrected. There’s a beautiful, warm light, and red leaves falling all over like flower petals. They’re only like flower petals, though, the falling leaves clearly indicating autumn, the end of the year, days getting shorter and darker, cold and unmoving winter on its way, life sucked away.

The group dances together one last time – I think soldier Jackson has some of the best friends in the world. They resurrected him from his grave, dressed him back up in his armor and gave him a little cheering dance before he saw his lover again. And then they fall back into the mist and disappear! The way they hold their bodies really stiff and unnatural makes me think of death again. Where they ghosts, too, all along?

Then, Jackson’s lover appears. She is dressed in beautiful clothes, even wearing jewelery, her face is clean and her hair is done. Clearly she’s from a wealthy background, not like foot soldier Jackson who’s been buried in a haste. Her family or a priest has done all the rites for her burying. Curiously, she is buried wearing lots of red, a color traditionally used for weddings (and which has popped up in the video a lot, as well). Under the red, a little white is shining through, showing us that she’s dead. Maybe she hasn’t moved on from her wish to marry yet? The red cloak is stripped away, revealing more of the white. Is she ready to move on now that she’s met her lover again?

The lovers share a dance, a clear reminiscence of a wedding dance. She ends up in Jackson’s arms, holding on tight while he decides it’s time for them to return to the afterlife, together. They sink back into the grave, closely holding onto each other, and the last thing we see is Jackson’s face, singing “I’m the only one that you need” while being swallowed by the mist.

Gosh dang it, I’ve got goosebumps all over! And not because of the scary ghosts. Your love may end, just like any life will end, but it was there, and its remnants will stay relevant for you even in the afterlife. Beautiful.

#jackson wang #100 ways #team wang #long text #i really put a lot of effort into this #so it would mean a lot to me if you let me know you read my ramblings ♥#all the love for jacks #rambling #i'm a literature grad can you tell

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