#everyone has probably connected these dots already but hey

[lliraels]

so I’m thinking about the trials.

they seem to be doing that classic quest narrative trope of “giving the character not what they think they want, but what they need”. or otherwise giving the character what they want, but in an unexpected way.

additionally, the characters seem to be learning their lessons (gaining their prizes) during the course of the trials themselves. it’s the journey, not what’s at the end of it. this makes me think there will be no further prize at the end of the road (except maybe a coven-wide prize?)

or maybe it’s more than the journey - it’s the coven (the friends we made along the way) who actually support each other to overcome the trials and claim their prize

the other theme is - X thinks they want power, but what they actually need is knowledge

but how do the trials look through this lens? and what does this suggest for the upcoming trial(s) - billy’s and/or rio’s?

my ranting under the cut. could be completely obvious and not insightful at all but hey i have to organise my thoughts

jen:

- appeared to overcome a mental/traumatic (rather than actually magickal) block to regain her powers

- her problem wasn’t being bound magickally - it was her lack of confidence

- she wanted power, but what she actually needed was self-knowledge

- the trial (and the coven - particuarly agatha’s pep talk) pushed jen to apply her knowledge and regain faith in her abilities

- i think we will come back to jen once more, to see her fully embrace her potential

alice:

- she thought she wanted to find her mother (or, the audience and other characters did)

- but what she actually needed was to break the curse and overcome her grief and confusion associated with her mother’s death (generational trauma yknow the deal)

- the coven (band) but particularly agatha helped alice to break the curse (it was agatha who pushed alice to confront her memories of and love from her mother, sing like a witch)

- i’m still not convinced that alice is perma-dead, but if she is - breaking the curse and making peace with her mother’s death was the point, and she achieved that

- alice’s trial doesn’t fit as well within the power/knowledge dichotomy. you could argue that alice thought she wanted to bring her mother back (power) but what she actually needed was to accept her mother’s sacrifice and come to terms with her own loss (knowledge?) idk

agatha:

- i still find this trial strange, too short and oddly edited. even with extra scenes, though, i think the core of this trial would remain the same - it is an interesting one that almost seems to break the pattern

- agatha thinks she wants her power back

- but what she actually needs is… to confront the effect of her power on herself and others? to confront her early trauma from the discovery of those powers, her mother and her original coven?

- i suspect that what agatha really needs is a coven itself - and to find her place/value within a coven

- in this trial, she hurt and alienated her coven, by killing one member of it. she chose her own survival over alice

- killing alice was questionably intentional, but i think agatha has at least the capacity to learn how to control her power.

- agatha doesn’t need power. she needs knowledge (about how to control her power).

- OR she needs another form of knowledge - to reach a state of acceptance re her powers, to fully come to terms with her destructive abilities

- agatha helped jen and alice to overcome their trials. nobody helped agatha to overcome hers. alice protected agatha, but this just gave her power - when what she actually needs is knowledge

- this same dilemma will return at the end to test her again, in a similar way (weighing her own survival against someone else she cares about) and perhaps this time her coven will help her and she will make a different choice

- the entire road is agatha’s trial, so i’m not too mad about this one weird ep. her trial is only half-done so far

lillia:

- lillia thought she wanted a return to the glory days, to be a real witch again (power)

- what lillia actually needed was to confront the power she already had, to embrace her sight, to be grateful and proud of the life she’s lived. another form of self-knowledge

- the coven didn’t directly help lillia to overcome her trial (no pep talks from agatha, who was just being kind of annoying godblessher)

- but the coven existing, and needing lillia… the empathy and understanding that lillia received from jen… the familiarity and solidarity between them… pushed lillia to understand that the trial was all about her, her own life and her own abilities

- an aside to say god im obsessed with this episode, i was smiling ear to ear after finishing it. i love lillia!!!!

SO, as of ep 7, im pretty confident that the trials:

- give the witch their prize (the journey, not the destination)

- give the witch what they need, not what they think they want

- are about granting knowledge, particularly self-knowledge (NOT power) (…although there is a question mark over alice, perhaps)

what does this mean for the upcoming trial(s)? billy’s and rio’s, depending on whether either or both of them are considered part of the coven. personally i think they both are. they’re all on lillia’s coven tarot card

billy:

- we thought he wanted power (as he told agatha in ep 2)

- billy thought he wanted to find his brother (power? not really, this is knowledge. but is it the knowledge that billy really needs?)

- i think billy voiced his quest in ep 7: am i billy or am i william? (self-knowledge)

- billy - the youngest, ostensibly the most naive - is actually the only member of the coven to correctly identify his own quest. good for him

rio:

- what does death want? what does death need? arguably, nothing. arguably, everything.

- does she want agatha (because she’s a survivor, because she hid from her, because rio loves her, because rio hates her, because rio wants her little serial killer back)?

- does she want billy (for cheating death, breaking the rules?)

- does she want all of them, one by one, body by body?

- if she wants her bodies, that’s power. but what does she need? is death all-knowing? does death know herself?

- maybe she needs to confront her own nature, and how this has impacted her relationship with agatha

- i literally don’t know but i want to see this play out so badly, i really hope rio gets her own trial.

anyway if anyone else has any thoughts to add to this, or if ive missed anything, pls let me know!

[i2ycat]

playing4u

pairing non-idol!heeseung x fem!reader synopsis college boy heeseung that dedicates his songs to u, plays the guitar for u and never fails to sing u to sleep whenever u want genre college au, established relationship in the second half, fluff warnings not proofread, down bad heeseung… main masterlist

reblogs and comments are very much appreciated!

before u guys started dating

one thing about u and heeseung is that u both LIVE, LAUGH and LOVE music

picture this; u guys are at a music festival, probably something like head in the clouds

u’re singing ur heart out to niki’s set list (as u should) and heeseung, who was just beside u, happened to turn his head at ur direction

and GOD. FUCKING. DAMN.

boy was absolutely starstruck the moment he laid eyes on u, despite the scorching heat that rendered u a sweaty mess

he felt like he was in a movie

and he swore he felt his heart thumping faster and faster, which definitely wasn’t because of the bass or the crowd around him

he was too scared to ask for ur number right there and then, because honestly he’s highkey lowkey a loser…

he doesn’t have the rizz people think he has!

by the end of the night, he left the venue feeling defeated. the post-concert blues weren’t even hitting the way it should because all he could think about was u

in the next following days, he’s probably written songs about how he saw the prettiest girl but she got away, posting them on his private, for only his friends to see

“WHO IS THE GIRL.” jungwon drills heeseung for answers during a group game night at their dorm, which piques the interest of everyone else because when has heeseung ever shown this much interest in a girl, to the point where he would write literal SONGS FOR SAID GIRL??

heeseung describes the girl in perfect detail, from the colour of your hair to the tattoo u had on ur arm

“hey… isn’t he just describing y/n?” niki asks, trying to connect the dots with heeseung’s description of u and his own memory

“didn’t she post a story about head in the clouds a few days ago as well?? i swear i saw it.” sunoo adds as he pulls out his phone, “wait let me find her instagram,” and by this time heeseung could already feel the familiar rhythm of his heart thumping to the same beat it did on the day of the festival

“is this her?”

heeseung couldn’t believe his eyes. after all this time (it’s only been a week please), he finally was able to put a name to his mystery girl!

when i tell this man LEAPED when he found out that u both had mutual friends all this time… yea he was already down BAD.

more under cut!

after u guys started dating

it only took a month or two of talking for u to fall head over heels for heeseung

i mean how could u not when he’s so beyond perfect???

he’s never failed to pick u up from ur classes whenever he could, give u a shoulder to cry on when u were stressed about ur finals, and plan the majority of ur dates without u ever lifting a finger— u were his princess and he made very sure that u and everyone else knew it

because of ur joint interests in music, u guys would always send each other music that u’re currently listening to

“flo milli?”

“what? sometimes guys want to feel like a bad bitch too.”

other than sharing music, heeseung would 100% sing u to sleep whenever u ask for it… actually, atp u don’t even need to ask for it anymore because he already knows

u guys would be on the bed, and as his hands snakes around u to caress ur head lovingly, hee would start humming a soft tune

the vibrations of it lulling u closer to sleep

and when u actually fall asleep, he would kiss ur head goodnight and flick the bed lights off, tucking himself closer to u :((

before u guys even started dating, heeseung was already writing songs about u, so after dating, the amount of songs dedicated to and for u would only increase tenfold

he’d record them just for ur ears to hear

and when he’s letting u hear the songs he’s made, he always has this lovestruck smile on his face, eyes totally glossed over and heart in his hand for you take…

u’ve become his ultimate muse, his inspiration in all aspects of his life

u could tell just how much he loves you from the songs he makes— the melody, the emotions he sings with, the lyrics… all of it just screams that he’s totally head over heels for u

he would even let u have ur moment in his songs, either singing or just talking in the background… because he always wants to incorporate u into his art

when heeseung does decide to post the music he makes, he always makes sure to use ur photos as the cover because almost every song is about u and for u 😭 man physically cannot shut up about u

he’s talked all of his friends ears off ab how u cute u looked in his hoodie, how u pretty u were yesterday, and the day before that and probably tomorrow as well

there would be a point in time when u randomly mentioned that u found guys who play the guitar attractive and u know what heeseung did that day? applied for a guitar class, only to showcase what he’s learnt so far a few weeks later

“hee, i didn’t even know u played the guitar?”

“well i just started learning, like, 3 weeks ago.”

“and you’re already this good?”

“what can i say? i’m a determined man.”

© i2ycat 2024

[blueberri-blu]

Hi Blue! It’s me again coming at you with another request!

This time around, I want it to be a ROTTMNT Leo x Reader. It takes place at the end of season two (and before the movie) and it has Leo trying to confess his love to the reader. He’s bad at it, but god bless him he’s trying his best.

And use writing prompt 1 in it. Thank you and have a nice day!

Hiiiii! Of course!,

Losing It ෆ๑

[rise] Leo x gn!reader

Prompt # 1: "I didn't think you were the type to lose your head over a s/o" "Neither did I"

ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ

"Hey y/n!" "Yea Leo?" "How much does a Polar Bear weigh?" "Probably like 200lbs or more, but how much?" "Ugh, you're such a nerd" "gee thanks Leon" "aanyway, no, they weigh just enough to break the ice" "hm?" "Hi, I'm Leo, and you're cute" *wink* "oh! Haha, good one Leo!"

Leo internally groaned

No matter how many pick up lines he used, you just wouldn't get the hint

I mean, sure, he flirted with everyone, but come on! You were the only one he flirted with while blushing, didn't you notice the tremble in his voice? His Shakey hands? Nothing?

Ugh, he really didn't want to have to be direct with you...

He was already a blushing mess just shooting pick up lines your way

How would he be if he was vulnerable in front of you, expressing his feelings... He'd only embarrass himself!

ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ

A couple of hours later and after dinner

Donnie sat on the couch with Mikey, Raph was picking up dishes, and you and Leo were sat on the floor

You were "watching" the end credits of a Jupiter Jim movie

And by watching, I mean Donnie was on his phone, you were trying to finish your pizza, and Mikey and Leo were whispering about something

>> "why don't you talk to them!! They obviously believe you do this to everyone!!" "Well, Yea, but how am I even supposed to tell them? Oh, hey, I'm a giant ninja mutant turtle man, you wanna go out with me ?!" "They already know you're a mutant!, they obviously don't care" "alright, Mikey-" "this is Dr. Delicate Touch, telling you to suck it the fuck up and tell them! No one can stand your constant cheesy pick up lines anymore!!" ":c"<<

As you finished your pizza, all you saw was this:

You quirked an eyebrow at Leo, and he just looked away, pretending to find something interesting on the empty wall

Recently, he had been avoiding you... Except for the uptake in cheesy pick up lines

Originally you thought he was upset with you but then...

You started connecting the dots, and, stupidly, came to the conclusion that Leo liked someone

It explained his avoidance, and the cheesy pick up lines? Well he was obviously practicing for the person he liked

ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ

You and Leo had this strange dynamic for about a month before you finally couldn't take it.

It was around 1 am, but you just couldn't stand your constant overthinking of the situation.

So, you decided to march down to the lair, and corner Leo into talking

Thankfully, Leo was only with Mikey on the skate ramp

However, Mikey fled the scene once he saw you marching towards Leo with a face of determination and possibly nerves but that's not the point

Leo was confused, but then looked at you and immediately started sweating bullets

You seemed... Upset to say the least, and the way your eyes were locked on his form, it was he's fault

He started stuttering out apologies, for what? He didn't know, but you being mad at him was the last thing he wanted

It was only when you yelled "WHO ARE THEY" with tears in your eyes was he very confused

"wha- who??" "Your... Whoever is you like!" "What are you talking about haha- I don't like anybody!"

You thought he was nervous before, oh honey, he was now pale and confused

Were you really this upset at knowing he likes you???

"you know! You've been practicing your pick up lines on me! You aren't spending time with me anymore! The constant whisper telling with your brothers, followed by you blushing from your ears to your neck!"

And it clicked

You didn't know

You were upset... That he liked someone else!

"uhm... Uh... Y/n, look, I.. uh"

You were full on crying now

"I uh.. I don't like... Someone else"

"what do you mean!"

"I... I mean that I... I... Uhm"

"has anyone called god?"

"...what?"

"because he's missing an angel... Uh... You... Hehe”

He was so red, and through your blurred vision you could see he was shaking..

"are... Are you saying what I think you're saying?"

"uhm.. I mean.. uh.. do you, do you wanna be my, my s/o? Maybe? If not thatstotallyoktheresnopressure"

"Leo... I... Of Course!"

It was the tightest hug you had ever given and recieved

He was twirling you around, happy tears falling down both of your cheeks .

Once you were both calmed down, you thought to yourself and then said

"I didn't think you were the type to lose your head over a s/o"

"Neither did I, mi amor, neither did I"

ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ๑ෆ

[chirpsythismorning]

Motelgate Update

There's been a lot of updates on this already! I just wanted to give my two cents about the situation and tbh it is messy!!!

With the motel being so close to the gas station, it would make sense for the production to just buy out the hotel for the day they filmed there and let the cast/production team hang out there throughout the evening of the shoot, while they got everything ready for filming at the gas station.

We even get a shot that shows the motel in the background during the gas station scene:

And so the main question is, when this line is said by Will, are they referring to the motel right next to them? Because to me it comes off like this motel could be at least a mile away with that phrasing? If it was in fact the motel right next to them, wouldn't Will just say Hey there's a motel literally right there and then have him point to it on their left? And then have the camera acknowledge it's proximity?

Maybe? Maybe not though? Maybe they thought it would be better to throw in a motel line, but not give much more than that? Otherwise people might have connected the dots sooner if they focused on it, only to sort of drop it entirely? I could see how that might have contributed to it being something a lot of fans might have considered as a possibility by now if that was the case.

Regardless of my doubts based on that line, I want to continue bc there is some stuff that still makes this possibility quite plausible.

At the end of this scene at the gas station, they leave and drive to Surfer Boy. There's no way of knowing for certain how far away SB was from the gas station. There is some implications throughout the season that SB is popular enough to have a lot of locations throughout Cali, and now it even has locations in Nevada. So it could have been a five minute drive from the gas station, or it could have been up to a half hour or more. I would take a guess that it was somewhere closer to 20ish minutes though. I just doubt they had them drive another hour or more with all the driving they've been doing already. I hope for their sanity that there just so happened to be a SB in that area.

Now, in the West during the spring time, sunset is around 7pm. This means that arguably, them at the gas station at night, could have been around as early as 9pm, or it could have been as late as 2am.

This is where I think a motel scenario could actually make sense, as we do have some time unaccounted for within that two day time jump.

According to the clock at the library, it was almost 4pm on Saturday that they got to Hawkins...

But if they left at 2AM on Friday, they would have arrived to Hawkins closer to 7-8am on Saturday... not 4pm...

This is literally the first line we get in the epilogue. Them saying 48 hrs makes it seem like it's probably closer to 48 than 26-31... meaning that the Cali crew could have unintentionally turned a 30 hour trip, to something closer to a 48 hr trip?

And this is also noting, that they left SB assuming that everyone was safe bc El saved the day. That was the impression El had up until they arrived in Hawkins on Saturday with Dustin informing them about Max's condition.

Which means it's possible they could have decided to rest for the night after the Vecna mind fight, since it was already so late, as opposed to driving right then and there. After all they've had a really rough last few days, so it would be plausible after a win like that, for them to make a unanimous decision to sleep in actual beds for the night.

So let's say, it was like 2am at the latest that they left SB and turned around and went back to the motel, which was still fairly close by, as they remembered it was near the gas station they just were at a few hours prior.

They would have probably left around checkout the following morning (usually around 11am) and started driving towards Hawkins, assuming all was well.

This would actually have them arriving to Hawkins closer to the late afternoon on Saturday, as opposed to the early hours on Saturday morning.

Basically, based on the distance between Nevada and Hawkins, it's quite possible there is at least an 8 hr sleep cycle happening outside of driving nonstop.

With all that considered, if i'm being honest, I'm not that confident about this theory anymore? It's likely the motel lot was filled with all of their equipment and vehicles, which obviously needed to be hidden from the gas station lot, which is what they were focusing on for those scenes. They would have had to clear that lot and move everything just to get an exterior shot for the motel, whether it was day or night. While it's definitely possible, idk I just doubt it.

Though, another angle I could potentially look at this still skeptically, is that if they were filming night scenes, I don't see why they would need the cast there like 5+ hours before any shooting even started? I feel like filming goes on for hours as it is? We even saw a lot of bts of them inside that gas station at night while they were filming, with Charlie and Finn sitting half asleep in chairs hand in hand jokingly, but clearly tired from hours of shooting into the night.

And so I don't know if it would make sense for them to have been there at like 12pm or even 2pm, hours before the sun was fully set, to sit around and wait for them to set up, not until dark which is like 8pm? Like that seems kind of odd to me. Especially if filming was believed to go into like the late hours the following morning, which is likely to have been the case since again we saw them look half asleep inside of the gas station location. Also ngl I always thought it looked like Noah had bags under his eyes during that gas station scene, which just fits even more with these scenes being filmed LATE at night, like well past midnight.

If they were filming until as late as 4am, I don't think they would have been there any earlier than 4pm the previous day. And that picture of them on set looked like it was taken in the afternoon. Maybe it was taken at 4pm exactly. Maybe they had to be on set 4-6 hrs before shooting started? I guess it's not impossible, but it would be quite unreasonable honestly.

Based on all of that, I can say that I'm sort of skeptical but also very open minded to it. Like I see the vision but also I'm not going to allow myself to get my hopes up too much. I'm just going to have fun theorizing about it regardless so I will continue to support others who still want to consider it! Because it is quite interesting!

[princess-of-the-corner]

Any thoughts about the Reveal concerning Bloom's heritage? Who learns first, when, in what circumstances?

Okay there's different parts of the Reveal of her heritage. There's the general 'this is probably what you are' reveal, the 'your family is from Domino' reveal and the 'oh shit you're a Princess' reveal.

So the general reveal kinda happens right off the bat.

Bloom knows she's adopted. When Stella shows up and explains 'hey there's a world of Magic' and the whole 'Earth doesn't have Magic', they discuss what's happening. Well them, plus Bloom's parents and also Faragonda because Stella brings them all to Alfea.

Given the circumstances, they realize it's likely that Bloom originally came from one of the other Realms and ended up on Earth. It's not even unrealistic, as people do visit Earth (like Stella did in the first episode). So a family on vacation that gets separated somehow makes sense.

As for Domino

That happens during the Miss Magix episode as the focus is being rewritten.

So like. One thing I'm leaning heavy into with this is the 'presented as Fantasy but also very Sci-Fi' where all the different Realms are different Planets and everyone has different funky biology. This would be something kinda in the background but not fully explained until now.

Bloom was initially under a Glamour Spell, created by Daphne so she'd blend in on Earth. But now that she's awakened her Magic and transformed a few times, the Glamour has worn off. While her Faerie Form already had some dragon imagery, this is now 24/7 scales.

She wakes up with dragon-y features, freaks out, and the girls connect the above dots. She gets a crash course of the different alien biology. With Stella using this as an excuse to drag them to the Miss Magix competition as it's a fashion show that really highlights the different appearances (alongside different Realms' beauty standards.

Anyway!

Another plot point is that people, like. Know about Domino. The whole Incident™ only happened less than 2 decades ago, after all. And there's also a handful of survivors.

So people know what Dominians look like and can connect the dots with Bloom.

As for the Princess thing!

The first ones to figure it out are Faragonda and Tecna.

Faragonda is suspicious in general. Like at first she's fine to think that Bloom just 'ended up on Earth'. But Dominian features, plus being actively under a Glamour that someone had to have cast on her, Bloom being incredibly powerful, and then she starts dreaming of someone named 'Daphne' and..... well, if Domino's younger Princess /was/ alive, she'd be just about Bloom's age, right?

Tecna also connects these dots around the same time. Though she's unsure who to bring this up to. She does tell Faragonda who's like 'look I have also connected the dots but we need to investigate and be sure because this is something Major.'.

Later on we also get Timmy connecting the dots when the Winx explain everything to the Specialists.

We get a funnier moment of connecting the dots with Griffin because Faragonda takes Bloom to Cloud Tower to search their Library (instead of the sneaking in from Canon). And as Bloom explains what they know she's just side eye-ing Faragonda like "Girl I KNOW you have connected the dots just tell her already damn it".

I don't think the Trix /fully/ connect the dots, but they do realize that Bloom has the Dragon Flame for some reason. They probably question 'who the fuck is she to get this power???'.

Anyway!

Originally everyone who had connected the dots were doing the 'ya know what let's wait and see what all is happening so it doesn't freak her the hell out' thing and not telling Bloom

But then they realize that the Trix are an actual legitimate threat and not just 'school rivalry gone too far', and they're targeting Bloom, and ya know what she deserves to know why. So now the whole gang knows.

I think they're kind of in denial until they actually go to Domino and see Daphne's Ghost and all and it really hits 'oh fuck she's the lost Princess'.

[bitedownme]

In the last two actual art pieces, now lovingly called “My puppet, your vessel” and “Maestro”, I put a lot of thought. Maybe a little too much as you’re going to see now, because we’re talking about the first one! The latter is making me confused as well, but maybe one day I’ll make similar rant. Or maybe not, better not.

This entire piece does not need context, but, hey, everyone here is being “normal” about SK and Jeser in particular. I have to put my own share of thoughts and I am putting them now, at *checks notes* 2AM. Someone has to be as normal about HK and Ambassador as people here are about SK! And if no one will be, than I WILL BE!

I still need to explain how we got to the image of Ambassador lovingly holding Hanged King’s face. Can I just *places the cut* there we go.

The lyrics I chose for this image should probably speak for themselves, although I have to elaborate that they’re said from Ambassador’s perspective.  They are one of a kind, this is no doubt, as both King and Ambassador are probably a duo you won’t see anywhere, with the first being feared by many for valid reasons and the latter having a reputation of literally speaking and acting on behalf of their King. Ambassador acts like a “Vessel” for a King’s will because the King, while still remains their “Puppet” as everyone here has a role, don’t you dare fuck it up, is not powerless. There we go, an explanation for lyrics choice. Sounds good?

It’s about to get worse, because the part of the song, despite being about Venom and I didn’t know it for two weeks, I associate way too much with them both. This.. is not related to the art itself, so if you don’t want to hear it - I give some more stuff about the piece after the image. Anyway.

For starters: "Thought I was one of a kind, but I'm nothing special / What's under the pantomime? A puppet, a vessel?": Who the hell is Ambassador, really?

“Lights off, anybody home? / Through the window, saw you in there / Hear me knockin' 'cause I'm awful cold / The long road got me winded”: Shocking, but they’re not from King’s kingdom and most likely to be called a traveler of some sorts.

“I'm from another part of town, but we're kindred”: Listen, I don’t know why, but I am 50% sure that at least somewhat Ambassador is not from god knows where, unless it is literally from the place called “God-knows-where” and God definitely doesn’t know about it. Like, somewhere nearby because Kingdom is fucked up to the end. Here it is Neverland, there it is Neverwhere. Wait…

Or you can ignore that and just assume that, they’re both immortals at the very least so that checks out enough. Plus they did got his trust pretty quickly.

“Trust me, if you shut me out and lock the door / The big, bad wolf will blow it off the hinges”: Don't even want to think of the implications of that.

We'll ignore the "Don't tell anyone about me / Hope you're good to keep a secret" part because it... it doesn't... fit.... unless! (NO)

"I can show you worlds without the boundaries / When you're broken, I'm moldin' all the pieces / Lost your better half, want to get it back? / I'm the better half you thought you never had / Drop whatever plans your conscience ever had / Stop pretendin' that you're not already bad": I like how it just makes Ambassador into a trusted Advisor from the start, but slowly degrades into manipulating a God into believing their schemes. Not that They would go against the King… obviously… Do I need to remind that Ambassador technically hanged him themselves? No? Good, because it gets worse.

"Let me in / I wanna crawl under your skin": HELP

I am in the middle of writing this post and I probably look like this after explaining the lyrics. I feel like this honestly.

“I’ve connected the dots” “You didn’t connect shit” No, I did, you just need to be in my place, I am losing my mind!

Anyway, about an actual art piece. I tried too hard to show off some weird things, but I am very proud of it in the most wicked way possible. Hanged King’s face and tentacles are darker than the darkest shadows around (the majority at least). I also tried to show his face as hollow, although you can see if you look closely that the tentacles actually come from inside, wh-…whatever that inside is.

Each eye looks forward, directly at the camera - at Ambassador, who’s holding his head so he looks at them. And he does, WITHOUT HATE. Each this small eye, this small remaining glimpse of his divine power looks forward with no negative emotion. Longing? Curiosity? Or maybe nothing at all! After all the entire exchange or whatever happened after he returned to his throne with the help of Ambassador (who was watching his execution and him till the day he got “free”), so he probably is numb as hell. Or he just doesn’t have anything to feel anymore, not yet at least, he needs to recover before he can get violent.

And after that? After they retract their hands carefully away, the last remaining corporeal evidence of Hanged King’s existence just disappears. Every single eye, that spark of his divinity (remember his Unhanged form? These all-seeing eyes he used to watch over his realms? Yes, them), closed one by one. Tentacles move back into what is now a “hole” in his existence. And he just… leans back in immense fatigue over somehow coming back to life, or never exactly dying at all. Who knows! I don’t know! I AM THE AUTHOR OF THIS INTERPETATION OF THEIR CHARACTER AND I DON’T KNOW! He fucking hates them and yet couldn't do anything about it moments after he was brought to this! I swear I made their relationship more confusing than it should have been!

*INHALE*

I am done.

[shanieveh]

BACK TO DECEMBER — late night drinking buddies !

SCARAMOUCHE — the new kid everyone has mixed feeling about. he rarely talks to anyone not until childe adopted him and forced him to be in his friend group. he didn't know the school had you in it, and when he found out he will do everything for you to notice him again.

CHILDE — will probably already be suspended if not for his rich parents. childe is your average highschooler if not for the way he unsuccessfully causes havoc in the school. the guys hate him, but the girls, oh they write diaries and say incredible confessions in which he awkwardly avoids.

KAZUHA — sweet and gentle guy every single teacher likes. he goes about his day fixing everything and being very patient with anyone he comes across with. he creates ethereal poems, but don't let that fool you, once a drinking session is on course, he says the weirdest shit imaginable.

ALHAITHAM — he was here because he heard that they liked alcohol but now he becomes a tired sad dad of 7 children all of which had too many trauma injected in their bodies. although he is known for his boyfriend, a lot of people still crush on this dude, only to be met with kaveh's broom stick.

AETHER — he is literslly shipped with the whole campus, and even his sister's crush. he is very helpful in every single event but for some reason still not apart of the student council but he doesn't mind. he finds scaramouche annoying at first but they became very close after a while and now he knows the whole drama between you and him.

ALBEDO — the weirdest once you get to know him. scaramouche thought he was the cool guy who is smart and handsome, but boy was he wrong. albedo is a caffeine addict who talks too much about research and science, but they don't mind because he lets you copy off his paper.

CYNO — if this bitch can't shut up about his boyfriend, it isn't about his jokes anymore, it's about how he shows his family everytime he doesn't get what he wants, and even tighnari gets tired of it. but he really doesn't like you for what you did to scaramouche, especially when he sees the dude in tears in their third drinking session.

HEIZOU — he connected the dots, actually he didn't connect shit. typa guy you see with a magnifying glass but doesn't actually use it. he flirts with a lot of people, but hey atleast he asked scaramouche's permission when he flirted with you (scara chase him away)

BACK TO DECEMBER — masterpost || reading club

SUMMARY: you were childhood bestfriends with scaramouche, and with many unanswered confessions and one sided goodbyes, you both meet again, but now he wears a cold glance even turning agressive when his eyes wander yours, and it all came down the day he became the top of your class, beating you and rejoicing in success. his smile was because of your pain. maybe you could turn back time where promises actually never broke, and love was a beautiful thing.

TAGLIST: @yukiipc @wanderchive @user11918163805279 @gekkow @moon-320 @meowmeowmau @mine-lu @sunaaa @lxkeeeee @faaariiii-world @lazy-sanns @starlightaura @ynverse @ukinya @peachysunflowerOx @creammpuff @scarlightsworld @sakurapeach @sketcheeee @divinechicha @trasshy-artist @virette @kyouzki @redsrrrr @ahseya @1999mercury @slu7 @tatiratty @naheana

NOTES: i will fix this and deepen it after i get my laptop for my phone has an image limit thank you for understanding

[aritsukemo]

My Abandoned WIP Works #1

Warnings: Spoilers to the Fontaine Archon Quest up ahead!!!

Summary: Just some works I'll ( most likely ) never finish because I lost motivation, didn't know how to end it, found the plot boring and didn't know how to spice it up, or similar problems like that.

Not what was expected | Mikey S. ( Problem: Lost motivation/Couldn't find a way to wrap everything up )

"So what do you think she looks like?" Chifuyu asked the captains and vice captains as he sat on one of the steps that led to the shrine; The place majority, if not all, of Toman meetings took place.

"Who?" Takemichi—better known in the gang as 'Takemitchy'—asked.

"Oh, you talkin' about her." Ken—more commonly known as 'Draken'—said as he finally connected the dots, "Well actually she's—"

"Bet she has a nice ass," Smiley interrupts, having no shame as he continues, "Or maybe a great set on her. 'Doubt boss would date some pancake."

"Huh?" Takemichi blurted out, feeling dumbfounded as he rapidly turned his head, hastily glancing at each one of them with a mixed look of astonishment and confusion which gets a small chuckle out of Mitsuya.

"They're talking about Mikey's partner. Y'know, the person we're supposed to be meeting today?" Mitsuya clarifies.

"Why else do you think only the captains were summoned?" Chifuyu added with an unnecessary roll of his eyes. Takemichi shoots him a him.

"Well if only the captains are supposed to be here, why are you here?" Takemichi retorts.

"I go wherever you go because you're too much of an idiot to be left alone," Chifuyu explained, earning a loud 'Hey!' from his best friend, "Plus, I got the okay from Mikey before I came. All of us did. Why else do you think only we're here and not everyone?"

Upon saying that, Takemichi looks around and finally takes notice of all the members who actually came. Besides the ones who spoke up, there was only Angry, who was standing off to the side next to his twin. No sight of anyone from the fifth division or any of the other vice captains to be seen.

"I hope she's not an asshole at least.." Angry mumbled after a while. His tone soft despite the scrunched, angry expression that gives off a completely different vibe.

"Actually—" Draken attempts to speak up only to be cut off again, this time by Takemichi.

"I've never heard of Mikey talk about any girls before," He said before murmuring in a lower tone, "I didn't think he'd be interested in dating at all.."

"Apparently they've been dating for a while," Chifuyu spoke up, "Or at least, that's what I assume. I don't think he'd put so much effort into us meeting them otherwise."

"They're pretty close," Draken confirms, "But I think you guys have the wrong idea. Mikey isn't—"

Before the words could leave his lips, the familiar engine of Mikey's CB250T steals everyone's attention. And as the sound grows louder, Mikey quickly comes into view with..

..a guy. Wait, what?

"Hey guys," Mikey greeted nonchalantly despite the multiple reactions of surprise he's met with. Behind him, his partner, a small—even shorter than Mikey—rather thin male cautiously steps off the bike and cautiously walks closer.

"Uhm.. Hi, I'm Y/n, Manjiro's..uh.. You probably already know.." The boy spoke softly, scratching the back of his head, "I- I've heard so much about you guys so I'm glad we finally have the chance to meet. Although I feel a little bad about Manjiro making you guys come all the way out here just for introductions sake.."

Silence.

Baking Disaster | Chifuyu M. and Kazutora H. ( Problem: Didn't think anyone would like the idea and eventually lost motivation all together )

"So, do either of you mind telling me why what just happened...happened?"

Silence. Chifuyu sighs, his eyes involuntarily drifting to the counter where an entire tray—of what he can only assume were cookies—sits atop a towel, the smell it's producing tingling his nose the more it invades it. He looks back over at the two people in front of him, his two partners, both of which covered in flour, batter, and bearing crestfallen expressions. He sighs again.

"It was my fault," Y/n is the one who ends up saying something first, speaking softly as they stare at their feet. And at the sound of their confession, the black and yellow-haired male beside them looks over at them.

"No it's not," He retorts before glancing back over at Chifuyu only to immediately look away as soon as their eyes lock, "It was all my fault. I wasn't paying attention like I should've and now the kitchen's a mess.."

"'Tora's lying," Y/n speaks up again, this time more firmly, "I was the one who set the temperature on the stove too high and burned the cookies. You should blame me."

"I was the one who pour too much butter into them which made them catch fire like that. I'm at fault here," Kazutora says, his guilt-filled eyes locking with his lover.

"We don't know if that's for sure what caused it. I accidentally spilled a bunch of flour into the bowl when you weren't looking and didn't tell you. Not only that, but I completely froze when I realized the fire. You don't have to take the blame for my sake."

"I'm only taking the blame because I'm the one who caused it, love."

"I was the one who caused the fire though, I should be blamed for this." Y/n retorts.

"You wouldn't have made any mistakes if it weren't for me dragging you to the kitchen instead of letting you rest. You've been swamped with assignments ever since your break ended and the moment you finally had a little free time to sleep, I came and bothered you."

"Now you know that isn't true. I offered to help you out since you said you were going to make Chifuyu something."

"Wait, wait, wait," Chifuyu interrupts, his words thrown out rather hastily as his hand waves on beat to his voice, "Those over there.. They're for me?" He questions.

"Well, they were for you, yeah.." Y/n says, voice growing quiet more towards the end of their sentence as they stare at the charred pastries from afar.

"You could say I- er..we wanted to show our appreciation by surprising you," Kazutora says, sounding more dejected as he adds, "But because of me, that didn't happen.."

"Why would you go through all of this trouble anyways?" Chifuyu asks, raising his eyebrow. Not expecting the look of bewilderment he got from the two of them.

"Are you seriously asking us that?" Y/n questions, "Yeah, are you serious?" Kazutora adds, "You do so much for us. You always try to help Y/n with her assignments even though you have no knowledge or experience on the material."

"You did everything you could to cheer up Kazutora when he lost his job at that convenience store a little while back. Hell, you even took on a second job to buy us those expensive ass gifts for Valentine's Day last week," Y/n adds, rolling their eyes as they ask, "The real question is, why didn't we do this sooner?"

Chifuyu chuckles, his hand coming up to scratch the back of his head, "Well all this meant so much to you two, I should thank you guys for your efforts.." Without any further hints, Chifuyu walks over to the counter, both Y/n and Kazutora's eyes widening behind him as he pries one of the black, cindered cookies off the damaged tray, "..It's only right that I give it a taste, right?"

"Chifuyu, wait/No, you shouldn't—" Before either of them could stop him, Chifuyu bites down. He struggles to chew the piece he bit off which cause Y/n to cringe, but it does little to stop him chomping through and swallowing it.

"Wow," He drawls, "This tastes as horrible as I thought it would, maybe even worse.."

"We tried to warn you.." Kazutora says, now feeling even more embarrassed and remorseful about the outcome. To his surprise, Chifuyu takes another bite.

"What are you doing?" He asks.

"What does it look like I'm doing, I'm enjoying my snack." Chifuyu replies, voice muffled as he gnaws at the cookie

"You just said it tasted awful," Y/n says.

An Utterly Devoted Familiar | Furina ( Problem: Didn't know how to wrap things up in the way I wanted to and eventually gave up )

Knocks vibrate throughout the apartment, soft and simple only to become loud and incessant after a while without being acknowledged. The owner of the apartment—who had been so rudely awoken by the noise—arose from her bed with a sour look on her face. Her heterochromic, ocean-like eyes burning with fire as she scans her room for her slippers.

"Coming, coming..! Gosh.." She shouts in a rather grumpy manner when the knocking continued. Understandably so. It was the middle of the night and someone, who clearly has no mind for other people's sleep, was banging on her door like some madman. Anyone in her shoes would've been pissed.

Honestly, do people have no respect these days? To just disrupt someone's sleep without a care in the world what could possibly be so important?

After finally finding her slippers, Furina practically stomped out of her room and up to her door. She was planning on giving whoever was on the other side a piece of her mind for waking her up and then go back to bed when she cooled down, but as the door swings open and Furina is met with the perpetrator, all her anger is washed away like a seashell against a water current.

There, standing before her with their fluffy ears twitching eagerly atop their head and pastries in hand, was the Hydro Archon's—Furina's former companion, you.

"You finally answered, my lady!" You chirped, "I'm so glad! Heh, for a second there, I thought I had the wrong address.."

She was at a lost for words. Why were you here? And why did you seem so happy? After everything came to light and Fontaine found out she was a sham, she was sure she'd never see you again..

So why in the world are you standing at her doorstep?

"Y/n.." She mumbled out in disbelief, but you seemed rather pleased nonetheless. Your name always sounded so lovely whenever it came from her lips.

"May I come in, my lady?" You ask after a while of her staring at you as if she'd seen a ghost, "If not, I don't mind standing here."

"Oh! Uh- No! Come in!" What is she saying? She should be shooing you away, not welcoming you in! "Sit wherever you'd like!" She continues anyway, stepping aside.

Obviously pleased, a smile graces your face and you walked in without hesitation, marveling in awe at her home as if it was made of gold or something.

"This place is so cute! You've decorated well, my lady!" You praise and she has to resist visibly cringing in response to your praise. In all honesty, her place wasn't much to look at. In fact, the place was quite barren since she hadn't gotten around to decorating it yet..

"Thank you.." She forces out, avoiding your piercing gaze as it falls on her. She turns on her heel, showing her back to you as she slowly, hesitantly closes the door.

"So..uhm, what brings you here at this hour?" She finally asks after taking her time to lock her door and turn to you; silently gulping when she locks eyes with your slited ones. Your eyes were always so intimidating to her for some reason.

"I wanted to see you of course!" You gleefully say, "But I've been so busy with running errands for Monsieur Neuvillette lately so I hadn't had the time."

You look so happy. So excited to see her again and here she stands, surprised, looking almost petrified as guilt bubbles in her chest.

She can barely force a smile on her lips and when she does, Furina is almost positive of how crinkled it probably looks, but it'll have to do for now, "I see..so that's your reason.. Well, you've seen me now so you can go and—"

"I stopped by Café Lutece earlier today," You mindlessly rambled, "I cleared out my morning so that I could get your favorite cake.." A small sigh leaves your lips as you continue, "Unfortunately, by the time I got there all sixteen slices had already been sold out..but, I should've expected that. After all, my lady has great taste in dessert, it's no wonder they always sell so fast!"

You shake your head, your ears wiggling as a result of your attempt at physically clearing your head, "Anyways, I'm sorry I couldn't get your favorite cake, but I bought everything else you see here to make up for my blunder so I hope this can earn your forgiveness," While you spoke, Furina's eyes watched your every movement, narrowing in on the pile of small boxes of sweets as you stretched your hands out to dump the pile into her arms.

As she staggered to catch the boxes that threatened to slip through her grasp and splatter all over the floor, her eyes widened at the realization of the mere size of the pile. This variety of sweets isn't at all small. There were so many that even she would take at least a week or two to get through the majority of this. Just how much time and money did it take you to get all of this for her? Furina's heart sinks at the mere thought of you spending even a dime on her..

"H- Hey, how much was all of this exactly?" The question hesitantly, almost fearfully escapes her. Your ears perk up and your rambling comes to an abrupt stop. Nevertheless, your face easily gives away how you feel towards the question; genuine confusion.

"Why the sudden ask, my lady? Whenever I used to buy you sweets before, you'd never care to ask about the prices.."

"Well, you of all people know that..I'm not.." She couldn't even get the words out. To put it simply, the mere thought of the incidents occurred makes her shudder. Everything was so embarrassing it makes her want to lock herself in this home for five hundred years..

Hm, but with that curse lifted, thankfully she's not able to live that long anymore.

Dividers were made by me, pictures used are from Pinterest, post formatting is inspired by @xxsabitoxx

[jackdup]

Stargazing with Timothy for the first time has been one of the most peaceful experiences that Micah rarely receives nowadays. It’s lovely being able to find a time to find only ease, now being when they were having exchanges about themselves and Micah would ramble about the outer space while Timothy would listen attentively. Then there’s a certain point when he complimented xyr freckles. ( His kind words still linger at the back of Micah’s mind, xyr cheeks burning occasionally the longer xe dwells over the compliments. )

The moon reaches at the highest in another hour later. Usually, Micah wouldn’t feel as drained even at this time from insomnia, although after a long day and the deep comfort xe feels from being with Timothy, the lulling sense of serenity brings xem to a sleepy state, not realizing that xyr arm is slowly meeting against Timothy’s side. Micah blinks tiredly at the warm contact and finds xe’s touching him. Part of xem should be alarmed, knowing how restless Timothy can be with physical contacts, but the exhaustion is falling deeper in xem to be as responsive.

“S-sorry, Timostar,” Micah mumbles, yawning. Xe plans to move away from Timothy to respect his space, but xe realizes how deeply touch starved xe is when xyr heart sinks at the thought of moving. Micah glances up at Timothy, xyr gaze all gentle. “Um, actually, is it okay if I can lean on you for a bit before we call it for the night?” xe asks quietly, fiddling with xyr hands, “From tonight, you just make me feel very safe and comfy...” It is a soft given honesty that makes Micah see just how much Timothy matters to xem. ( He is the stars that the moon cares and cherishes forever. )

@solarisgod || and thus i die (´•̥̥̥ ‸ •̥̥̥`✿)

Listen, folks . . . Micah's not the only one still reeling after an unexpected compliment.

Big shocker, right? You tell a guy he looks nice, great. You tell him his smile is . . . what was it, lovely—? Awesome. You tell that same guy already down for the count from the positive attention not to lose his light, because apparently it fits him . . . for some freakin' reason? Yeah, okay: Timothy didn't take Micah for a violent type, but he was really beginning to think they were doing their best to destroy him. In, like . . . a weirdly . . . good way? Does that make sen— No, it probably doesn't. Whatevs. The real point here is that at least both of them are dealing with some semblance of a recovery period after that, not that Timothy really understands why Micah needs it.

Didn't most people tell them things like that? He had a hard time believing he was anywhere near the first, and if he was, he wanted to very badly grab everyone who ever interacted with Micah by the shoulders and just shake them like Are you blind?! (Unless they . . . literally were blind, and then, hey, okay, free pass, but—)

They were silent after some time, still keeping their eyes on the sky, on the stars winking almost cheekily down at them. Timmy hadn't been oblivious to the gradual weight falling against him, starting with that tiny brush of an arm that solidified and became heavier as Micah sunk further down. He's not bothered. Not even slightly. If he was asked to describe the feeling, he'd not really know the right word, but honestly . . . It's nice. It's nice that they trust him enough to let their guard down, to let themselves relax without any reservations, and Timothy decides somewhere in there to remain as still as possible: to not disturb them.

Until, ya know, they catch themselves like some idiot falling asleep on the job—or in a less safe environment—and quickly apologize—

“Ah-tut-tut—!” he interrupts their drowsy words in the space of that breath, no hesitation. “Hey, no, you don't . . . have anything to be sorry about. What are you—? No, it's cool. I mean, it's—” Tim picks up on the slurred speech, on the confession of what his presence does for them. Which, okay, yeah, he probably could have connected those dots himself, but actually hearing them say it is . . . yeah, we're just gonna keep going with that “nice.”

He shuffles, finally. Now that they're awake enough he won't fully bother them. Timothy adjusts his position equally for his own comfort and theirs, moving just slightly enough that his arm is now behind Micah, and their weight can fall against his side. “Sure, I . . . Yeah.” He pauses, thoughtful, then: “Guess you could say we have that in common. I'm glad.”

[calebs-hangout-corner]

Tell me about Horrortown

Goosebumps: Horrortown is an absolutely fantastic city builder game set in a Goosebumps universe. Curly the Skeleton guides you through the game as its narrator, or at least he tries, Slappy likes to butt in with his own commentary occasionally. They are besties (There is one event that has different narrators who are actually based on two pretty cool horrortown YouTubers). It has multiple stories you can play through with the many different characters that are in this universe and live in this town.

It's also really funny because at the start of the game everyone is still new to monsters and such and freak out when they have to deal with them but the more the story progresses the more they're just "hey how much do you wanna bet our new neighbor is a monster?" and "man, another monster attack? This is the third time this week!" and not to forget "what? ANOTHER meteor crashed in town? Are we a magnet for this stuff or something?" They just become desensitized to the whole monster situation it's great. Sometimes the og characters from the books are here and I always love how they are integrated: Sometimes they are just here and will go through their stories (like Carly Beth Caldwell of Haunted Mask fame), sometimes they already went through what happened in their books (like Lizzie Morris, who comes to Horrortown to warn everyone of the Horrorland theme park), sometimes they went through their book with a different outcome (such as Dana from Egg Monsters from Mars, who died in the Horrortown timeline instead of surviving and his skeleton is visible in the freezer he was trapped in in the book, or Nat and Pat, whose sister Ginger, the protagonist of Beast From The East, is suspiciously missing from their life), and sometimes they're just adults and somewhere else (see: Zeke Matthews, who studies at College in Woods Mill and comes to visit, or Lucy and Randy Dark, who study abroad and are frequently mentioned)

The characters and their interpersonal relationships really make this game, idk how they did it but I absolutely adore playing through the different storylines and getting to know the characters!!! I also love some of the implications of the game that they never outright confirm but it feels really nice when you end up connecting the dots.

Example: Mrs. Dark, Randy and Lucy's mother, moved to Horrortown and sent her children to study far away because their father, her husband, was most likely killed by a monster hunter.

Example No. 2: Brooke Buchenberg's father is implied to be a hermit wizard that lives in the snowy mountains and abondened her when she was too young to remember him and she has untapped magical abilities because of it.

Example No. 3: Pat is trans, as she is a girl in the game but was a boy in the books and Nat and Pat are identical twins.

Example No. 4: Emile from Phantom of the Auditorium is probably a ghost in this timeline.

The game also still updates with events from time to time and I just AAAAAAA I love this game so much. I have literally so many ideas for it because the world just lends itself to so many different stories you could tell.

[nattyontherun]

More On To Oblivion:

hi-ho, can't sleep so since i've posted the fic already, short as it is right now, i thought hey! lemme just do some explaining for why the fuck it's the way it is?? that way i make my job less hard with the writer-y bits!

(i can't sleep so i'm talking,,,, shhh i didn't say that)

On the Rating:

thinking of changing that, actually . next chapter, so ch3, will be more of the same - build up for the plot at large which is, ngl, a wee bit more complicated than i thought it would be in writing ch1. i don't have a hard and fast, bullet pointed skeleton for every chapter but i've got a very generalized outline of things i want happening... and the fic being rated for Teens feels lacking. no it absolutely is lacking.

would it be disingenuous to leave it at T until the plot changes up enough to warrant a level up? or should i change the rating now and leave everyone to wonder at my justification as the fic (very slowly, UGH) progresses? questions, questions and no answers in sight as yet.

the cast!

unlike in HF where we really did just have like, two MAIN main characters in shisui and sasuke, to oblivion has an ensemble cast🙏 the taggings are listed in order of both how much of the character we'll see in-fic and how much we'll focus on them. where HF was all about growth and healing with minimal outside interference, this fic is... well it has a plot🥹

in one of those oneshots i wrote after HF, there's this scene where shisui rants up a storm at sasuke about konoha, how rotten it can get yk? just, having to live in the village knowing that the truth of your family's murder has been suppressed to keep the peace - when the "peace" used to justify that extermination didn't even last more than a handful of years. this fic directly confronts that. actually, it's specifically because every single character engages in the village whether as the leader, in kks' case, or as proponents to its growth and success post-war, its kind of a necessity that everybody has an opinion about what goes on yk?

i feel like ppl who came into the fic expecting romance and fucking are gonna be disappointed by that sjshsjshshsh there's gonna be SOME of that, but very minimally, and right at the end lmao. fic subscribes to the idea that there is no room for personal growth within self and relationships in an environment in perpetual turmoil lmao

the polycule 💃

it's still happened lmaooooo, like i just get crazier about the idea the more i sit with it! though, i forgot to say in the AN, and i'm too much of a sleepy cat to go back and edit it in, but i meant to mention that kakashisasu(???!!!ship name???!!!) isn't gonna be like a right angle. like... the dots connect in all directions despite how things are playing out rn! 🙏

i will say, however, that development for each relationship on a personal, one on one level, is different between each pairing because yk, they enter the story in different stages of their lives with different agendas and opinions abt each other. kkss are halfway in love already, but kkshs probably need to fight it out for another several dozen chapters before they can even stand to look each other in the eye without wanting to kill smth and that's not even touching shsasu who haven't!! even!! met up yet!!! (gawd what did i get myself into?? lmao😭)

the timeline

woof. the timeline! WOOF! HF had the benefit of sticking incredibly close to just one stream of happenings in a very linear format,,,, to oblivion? not so much. the past, whether it's ten years ago, during the fourth war or even just prior to the fic happening is AS important to the story as the story itself, unfolding. if i decided to tell this fic in a linear fashion, a, it would be very boring and retrace too much of canon and b, it would be very LONG. like staggeringly long, enough that i'd probably tire of writing the fic long before i even reached where we are right now in the fic - there is SO MUCH yet to uncover

what i will say is that canon largely stays the same except for some staple fanons of mine, some seen in HF, and others very specifically for this AU. for the obvs staples, there's madara is final baddie and no VOTE2 so no losing arms for either of my babies - god forbid. the major deviation from HF is that i've reduced how debilitating Ssk's mental health issues (if you will) can be in presenting themselves, though we do have some of it cropping up within the fic if you're the type who reads very line by line. there's also, ofc, the fact that shisui has been ALIVE for all this time - but i'll save all the explaining for that to shisui when the time is appropriate.

but yes, it's because the past matters SO MUCH for how this fic develops that i really saw no other way to progress with it than mixing everything up. and i do mean EVERYTHING. what i will say is that there are certain periods where we can kinda cluster scenes together to form an idea of how all this shit is happening only Now.

war/between canon era: so far we only got one scene from here, from ch2

pre-tribunal, post-war - a LOT of scenes fall here, so it's broken up even further into two periods: 1. while sasuke is incarcerated post 4th war and 2. after he's left incarceration but before the tribunal (ch1 has a LOT of afterward scenes, in particular)

pre-massacre: these scenes will tend to be more kkshs focused so happy hunting for when there's more of them!

pre-trial, present day after shisui appears: this is the main storyline and will be the easiest to follow, go figure!

pre-trial, immediately post-tribunal: i've only written perhaps a scene or two(?) from this period, i don't see it cropping up as much as the others because it's only there specifically for relationship and character building. i'm squeezing a lot of post-canon pre-fic character development in to explain away why some of our faves may be acting a wee ooc, and i can't begin to explain how consequential the tribunal is, personally and politically for all of team seven oh lawd😭

i can't stress enough that i drafted much of the bedrock of this fic immediately after HF,,,, but while my intention (heh, hehe) (translate what the characters before "to oblivion" stand for, okay, its funny i swear!) remains the same as what it was then, my focus has become more... hm, exacting. sharpened.

writing is an inherently personal affair, i think. to write is to put meaning to the thoughts that swim around your head, whether that's by poetry or prose, through the guise of imagery or character work. i write fic because i like writing fic, and wanna be able to read work that satisfies me personally. i've got an itch in my brain and to oblivion has become, essentially, an outlet for my thought process. so if there's anything you find in it that speaks of a very particular kinda way of thinking, shall we say, keep poking at it. i very much am having a conversation with you.

and that's a wrap, i have a shift in seven hours and i desperately need sleep sjsjsshhsshsh

[objectosexual]

hey gamers, this blog is a huge WIP (and i might change the URL... we'll see) but for a basic intro/pinned post...

my name is carson, im in my late 20's, im gay and objecto. im also trans and use he/it pronouns

my main blog is @clippy + my selfship blog is @ohgodimyearning... consider this blog to be a companion to the latter (most of my F/O's are objects)

i also have a locked NSFW twitter account with similar content that can be found here (you will need to send a follow req to it tho, sorry!) -- keep in mind that it 1) doubles as a vent account and 2) does have NSFW images

this will also be a general animism/POSIC+ blog, tho please keep in mind that i primarily view those things through a lens of being romantically and sexually interested in objects... that isnt to say i want to fuck every object i view as having a soul, but wanting to fuck objects has essentially made me... aware of it, i guess. (that and im autistic so i've always had weird hyper-empathy toward objects)

my literal first crush ever was on Herbie (the VW beetle) so i have a huge soft spot for cars, but i also like other vehicles/modes of transit, robots/computers, toys, roller coasters, and buildings

i also like objectheads and i know those arent inherently an objecto/posic thing, the main one i care about is Cl*ckboy, whose design helps me Process my feelings for the real life object he is based on

^ i will go more in depth about this sort of thing in the future (i think explaining my "journey" with this part of my sexuality will help others who are "questioning" -- i used to talk CONSTANTLY about wanting to kiss cars on main and i've had ppl tell me i helped them connect the dots so. lol) but i currently am fighting w my body for energy so dont expect it soon...

THIS BLOG IS AN 18+ SPACE, MINORS PLEASE DO NOT FOLLOW!

I will block people with no ages in their bio (unless i already know you)! While i will not be sharing mature images, i will 100% be sharing sexually explicit/suggestive/etc text posts.

if i interacted with your post, and you're a minor or don't want NSFW blogs interacting with you, please let me know and/or block me! i wont take offense to you asking me to delete a reblog or being blocked. everyone's comfort is my priority, and i do my best to screen OP's of posts before reblogging to my sideblogs but sometimes i forget/miss things

anyway i think that's all for now...? i will start reblogging things here ASAP i think, but just know im kinda working behind the scenes and probably wont make many, if any, original posts until im a little more settled here

[princessdreamie]

DBH part 22

Back to Na at her room

Na's parent's finally got to to her asking if she really was not going to talk things out with her aunts and uncles. The young girl rejected their advances and asked to leave her room.

Dejected, her parents backed off and left her alone in her room. Na had still not forgiven them about how N and the others tried to defend their actions but she knew she cant keep avoiding them forever.

Dejected, her parents backed off and left her alone in her room. Na had still not forgiven them about how N and the others tried to defend their actions but she knew she cant keep avoiding them forever.

She browsed through the internet until she got a chat invite. Normally she would ignore sudden requests but Mi insists that she should come out of her comfort zone.

„The media already gave your existences away.” she remembered her saying the other day. „And ppl already figured out your relationship with your parents and the rest of the Stanton family. So what's the point to keep doing this charade? It will just get harder once you get older anyway.”

Her friend had a point. It didnt matter if all the posts have been deleted and that the hot searches have been taken down. By now most have seen them and the Stanton fan boys and girls probably have aready connected the dots.

Her existence has been made puplic now so she cant hide forever it seemes.

After a long pause, with some hesitancy she finally accepted the request. There was no name attached to the user, only the phone number.

The person on the other end sent a text: „Hey. Havent heared from you in a while *smiley face*”

With eyebrows raised, the young girl looked at the message for a few seconds but didnt reply.

A new texed appeared under the previous one: „It is me Xavier. The boy from the ranch Incident?”

Na's eyes went huge. She finally remembered. Xa gave her and Mi his number the last time they visited him at the hospice. She just forgot to save it on her phone.

She quickly replied back to him: „Hey, Xa. Sorry i didnt Recognize it was you. And yes, it has been a while since our last talk.”

They wrote back and forth until Na noticed her medicine alarm going off. She asked her friend that they could chat tomorrow. And the the young boy happily agreed. They have been on very good terms since then.

A few weeks after in the big kids school

C sat on his seat talking to some of his baskeball friends until Br stormed in. Everyone in the class truned their heads to the girl. Some began to Swoon on and on about her beauty and style, while others (girls for the most part) feel uncomfortable after hearing some small rumors, on her making moves on to guys in relationships other than Fa. Mainly boys that have media/model connections. Which weren't a lot but enough to make couples stay away from her.

C turned to her as she stood next to his table: „Cous! What a Nice surprise.”, smiling at her with a mischievous grin.

But the girl didnt respond to him, she just kept glaring at the teenage boy. Seemingly waiting for something to happen.

C didnt what this was about but kept her hanging: „Is something the matter, Younger sister? You seem rather upset.”

Br asked him to talk in private, eye rolling he agreed, and follow her to the hall. Their lessons started soon so they had to be quick. The hallway was almost deserted, if not for some of the teachers walking around and a few of their school delinquents hiding from them.

The teachers ignored these 2 bc they were intimidated by the tense atmosphere around them.

„Why did you post this?” Br started her agrument while shoving her phone in his face. As the light blinded the Ferguson, C pushed her arm aside with her phone still attached.

„Just come to the point, Br. We dont have all day.” C had enough of her games and just have this talk to be done with. Things never end well when she gets all riled up.

Br asked him why he posted his vaycay and not invite to it. C was taken aback. He never posted anyhting for the public. The only ppl who had access to his posts were the ppl he tagged them on.

But as it turned out some of his friends, aka. the friends who wanted her to come along, didnt post their posts privately. That made things worse for the boy to explain.

He still wonders why she waited to this day to ask about it. The pictures have been up a long time ago, C doesnt even talk about it with Lv anymore.

Br wanted an explanation, which was pretty difficult to do in fear to make her even more angry. N's daughter kept spouting nonsense at him. Most of it was pretty harmless. Ranging from standard whining to excessive entitlement.

C kept all his words back until she was finished.

Once she was done he made things clear. They were not exactly friends. Her mom and his step mom are related, that was about it. So he had no obligation to invite some girl he was trying to avoid for months on end. Lv and Na were the only friendly connections he had with her family.

He even let her know that since the time she was making her moves onto Fa and, and recently other girls boyfriends as well, he wanted to keep his distance for a while. Only until they have cooled off.

Br screamed at C on being resentful about things that have been ages ago. But C didnt budge, he knew she would react defensively, but he had to say it eventually.

As Br was at the edge of tears, C didn't even try to comfort her. What ever affection he had left for her had been gone a long time ago. He didnt even want to act as her big brother anymore. Those times have gone to past.

He left her standing on the spot as he went back to his class.

[disniq]

Sure! I'm sorry for the delay, it took longer than I thought to make my thoughts into something vaguely coherent lol

Also, this got long, so it's going under a cut and, fair warning; there be spoilers ahead.

Titans has two big failings for me; one is pacing, and the second is, as you sort of mentioned in your ask, that the interpretations of these beloved characters are trying so hard to be dark and edgy that it mostly just makes them supremely unlikable hypocrites.

Both of these come to a head in season 3's Red Hood arc.

It makes sense that they can't do a faithful adaption of UTRH, because Titans is the Dick show, not the Bruce show, and they don't want to try to do the Joker. That's fine, it wouldn't really make sense for this version of Jason anyway - he's older; his childhood trauma is a different flavour; he hasn't been with Bruce for as long; and everyone in this show is more violent and reckless, so Bruce benching Jason for being "too violent and reckless" wouldn't really make sense.

So they kill Jason off in the opening episode, and then they have Bruce kill the Joker and peace out of Gotham because, again, this is the Dick show. We have episodes 2 and 3 of Red Hood causing problems for Dick and the Titans - up to and including killing Hank which apparently we're supposed to be sad about - and then ep 4 where Dick figures out that Red Hood is actually just a pawn working for Jonathan Crane to break him out of Arkham Asylum.

Then we get episode 5, the flashback which shows us that an already suicidally depressed Jason also developed PTSD from the incident with Deathstroke and it's aftermath. He's having nightmares, panic attacks, and is unable to fight anymore. Bruce suggests therapy, which Jason commits to, but then Bruce benches him anyway, which leads Jason to go to Crane because a guy who makes fear gas can probably make an *anti*-fear gas, right?

Well. Sort of.

Crane gives Jason the wrong formula on purpose, and the result is a gas that makes him feel nothing at all. While he's under the influence of this drug, Crane manipulates Jason into proving he's no longer scared by going after the Joker, and then revives him to make him even more indebted to him.

This is all pretty sympathetic, and the next few episodes make a point of confirming that most if not all of what Jason did in ep 2 and 3 was Crane's plan. There's a scene where Jason questions Crane, and is promptly shown that Crane has other underlings who would be happy to replace Red Hood as his second in command.

When Jason undermines Crane again, Crane drugs him (uhh...double drugs him?) and ties him up. The Titans figure out where Crane is hiding and show up to wreck shit, and Jason (now detoxing from the drugs) seems almost pleased about this. Crane escapes, dragging Jason with him, but Jason has had enough of being used, knocks the creep out and runs. He broods on his own for a bit, and then contacts Dick because he realises he maybe fucked up.

So far so good.

I'm not gonna say it's perfect, because there are some really strange choices being made just in general (*cough*confessing that you murdered your teammate to a pair of hookers*cough*), but I can see where they've drawn inspiration from Arkham Knight and tried to connect the dots between the way Jason was treated in season 2 and said well, hey! A kid with RSD up the wazoo is gonna look for approval wherever he can get it, even if that's from a known supervillain who likes fucking with people's heads.

Now, if I were writing the show, this is where I would have Jason's redemption arc start. He walked away from Crane of his own volition, he made the choice himself to reach out to Dick. Crane is desperate and erratic, so having Jason on the titans side isn't any kind of deux ex machina "I know his whole plan and how to stop him" situation.

But because this is Titans, and they so love a bizarre 2nd act team breakup for increasingly stupid reasons, they don't do that.

Instead they pull a fake out, where Crane is evesdropping on Jason and Dick's conversation, and uses that information to lead the Titans into a trap that puts him back in control of the situation. It's never 100% confirmed if Jason was in on this plan or not, but I tend to think he wasn't. Either way, the Titans think he was, so his hope of redemption is dashed and he's drawn back into Crane's circus for another 3 episodes of lacklustre rivalry with Dick that goes nowhere before finally helping the Titans in the final episode.

What's more annoying to me is the way the supposed heroes talk about Jason during this time. When other Titans had been brainwashed, magically controlled, or even just had a violently emotional outburst, they get the benefit of the doubt. Jason doesn't. Gar is the only person asking how this happened, asking how they can *help*. Everyone else is ready to straight up kill Jason for his crimes, even KORI, whose b-plot this season is LITERALLY ABOUT FORGIVING HER SISTER FOR MURDERING HER PARENTS!!

Ahem Anyway.

I'm definitely rambling now lol, but yeah, I think they wrote a decently solid Red Hood plot that fits the Titans-verse, they just tried to make it last a full season when it was a half-season type arc.

Hello yes hi which are these Jason-centric episodes of Titans please? Because I tried it previously and gave up after like 3 episodes because literally every character’s characterisation was annoying me. But I wish to enjoy the Jason hours if that is possible without having to speed run the rest of the 4 seasons. If you please 💙

Oh that is entirely valid, and I would be delighted to help!

So, even though it's not technically Jason-centric, I really do have to recommend season 1 episode 6 "Jason Todd" which, as the name suggests, is his intro episode. It really sets the tone for his and Dick's relationship, and I don't think either of them ever fully recover from this first interaction.

Season 2 is a little trickier, because Jason's story takes place in the background of a couple other episodes - ep 2, 3, and 5, if you did want to skip through them for his bits - but this culminates in season 2 episode 7 "Bruce Wayne", after which Jason leaves the Titans.

Next, you want season 3 episode 5 "Lazarus", which is the flashback episode that bridges how we get from disillusioned Jason to the Red Hood. This is the only fully Jason focused episode, and for unrelated reasons also happens to be my favourite.

The rest of season 3 is... Complicated. It could almost have been good if they'd cut it off halfway through, but they drag it out and flip-flop too many times on Jason's stance for me in the end. I'm happy to give a more detailed breakdown if you want, just let me know!

And last but not least: season 4 episode 11 "Project Starfire" has the Jason Tim interactions, and is well worth skipping through for that alone imo. Jason is so much more settled in himself here that it makes all the suffering almost worth it.

[arent-i-the-fairest]

Can i request s/o blowing dorm leaders a kiss in public?

𝐬𝐦𝐨𝐨𝐨𝐨𝐨𝐜𝐡!

author’s note : i love this request!! ♡ it’s so cute. just as cute as how flustered some of these boys get by a simple kiss blown their way.

riddle rosehearts

(oh, you do this all the time to fluster him. and it works like a charm every time!)

riddle purses his lips and starts walking off to class with no response, as if he didn’t see it— but cater happened to be walking by. and just by seeing how embarrassed riddle looked, he was able to connect the dots.

— and yes, he told you about it. (though you probably already knew, given how your boyfriend does not know how to take flirting at all.) so now, riddle has not just you teasing him, but cater too. but he tries to swear up and down that he wasn’t flustered— as if he would get so worked up over some little gesture, hmph!

“i was not blushing!” riddle hisses. “cater, i’d appreciate for you to not go spewing lies, thank you very much.”

“you were too blushing, dorm head!” cater chuckles. “you don’t need to be embarrassed about it. you know why?”

riddle glares, eye twitching. “i’m not the slightest bit embarrassed, but tell me. why?”

“—cause it’s so cute, that’s why!” you jump in, placing your hands on his face. and he turns red all over again.

leona kingscholar

completely ignores you. it’s not that he’s embarrassed— he just knows you hate it when he ignores you. he wants to see you get all mad. why? because it’s hilarious. and cute. he also ignores every other little flirtatious advance you make at him following after it for the same reason of finding you annoyed to be funny.

but here’s the real kicker, right before you two have to part ways, boom, he blows a kiss back. and it’s always really hot. he just snickers, glancing over his shoulder to look at you just standing there, flustered and defeated.

he does this same thing pretty much every time you do anything flirtatious, and you hate it— but hey, two can play that game, right? you’ve just got to do the same thing when he initiates something. (spoilers : he hates being ignored even more than you do.)

“aww, is the widdle kitty mad that i finally gave him a taste of his own medicine?” you cackle, and leona’s frown deepens.

“yeah, yeah, whatever, get all your laughs out..” he mutters, resting his head in his palm.

azul ashengrotto

thinks he reacted in a normal, cool way, flashing you a charming smile and winking. when in reality? it was the total opposite of cool. his smile was all wonky and his face was red, and he didn’t even wink— he closed both eyes at the same time. he’s not good with handling your flirting, can you tell?

he gives reactions similar to this pretty much every time you do something flirty, and it’s actually adorable— but azul is still unaware about how bad his reactions are. that is, until the twins happened to catch sight of it one day and started clowning on him for it.

“ha-ha.” azul scoffed sarcastically. “this is just so funny to you two, isn’t it?”

the twins, right at the same time, nodded yes, and azul narrowed his eyes. he shouldn’t have expected any other response from these two.

“you turn as red as goldfishie does when he gets all angry, ahaha!” floyd taunts him and makes a kissy face, and jade could be heard chuckling in the background. azul clicks his tongue and pushes floyd’s face away.

“you think humiliating your boss is just such a great idea, do you, floyd?” azul huffs. you chuckle, patting his shoulder.

“don’t let them get to you, azul. i think your reactions are cute.” you smile, giving him a side hug. he freezes.

“wahaha~! look look, he’s getting all red again!”

kalim al-asim

immediately blows one right back to you and forms a little heart with his hands!! later on in the day, he blows one to you— then later, you to him. seems like a little blow kissing-war has started, and neither one of you are backing down!

everyone around you two are jumping between finding all the pda they’re witnessing (so… so much pda….) to be cute and cringe. but there’s the ones who exclusively find it cringe (prime examples being jamil, grim, and ace) and the ones who exclusively find it cute (prime examples being deuce and.. just deuce). but hey, you two don’t even notice a thing, you’re too wrapped up in the fun!

“i won today!” kalim beams. “i blew 15 kisses and you only blew 13 kisses!”

“13? i did 16!”

“nope, can’t fool me! i counted!” he laughs.

“fine, fine, you’re the winner,” you press a kiss on his forehead. “but i’ll win tomorrow, just you see!”

vil schoenheit

the act makes him laugh. he finds it incredible how bold you are sometimes. he won’t ignore you, but he won’t do anything flirty in response, as he’d rather not have someone see it, then have some gossipy article titled “schoenheit showing pda, indecency at it’s finest!” or something along the lines come out (；ω；)

— anyways, back on topic, he won’t ignore you! he’ll just give a little wave to let you know he acknowledged it. but for all the affection he doesn’t give you in public, he makes sure to make up for in private! (you’d be surprised how cuddly he can be!)

“i know you want to be pampered right now, but i’m a bit busy.” vil said, gently patting your head.

“you said you’d be free for a while though..”

“darling, you know how fickle my schedule can be.” he sighs. “but i suppose i could spare a couple of minutes to tend to you. the deadline for this is quite far… no, i shouldn’t procrastinate.”

your grin falls and he feels a pang of guilt.

“.. fine. just for 5 minutes, i’ll let you indulge. now come here.”

idia shroud

his heart rate goes up by like 100, he’s so flustered and starts panicking because he doesn’t know how to respond to you— so desperate to give any kind of response back to you before you turn away, he just throws up a thumbs up. then face palms.

(he may or may not think about this for the day and suddenly text you a paragraph at like 2AM apologizing for the fact that he’s “lame”—)

idia really wishes he was suave enough to just automatically blow a kiss back. or suave enough to just blow a kiss in general. and so now he’s trying to find an opportunity (and the confidence) to do it— and when he finally did, he felt a part of him die.

idia, right after blowing you the kiss, started speed walking— damn near running— to a more crowded area (something he’s never done in his life), hoping you’d lose track of him.

“that was so weird of me to do!!!” he hissed under his breath. “it’s over, they think i’m cringe, they 100% threw up in their mouth when it happened—”

quickly turning to glance at you, he freezes. ‘THEY’RE BLUSHING???’

malleus draconia

had absolutely no idea what the gesture you just made meant, and lilia had to explain it to him real quick— but now that he knows, malleus is oddly giddy and would also like to make cute little affectionate gestures to you!! probably doesn’t know much human ones though, so he just does fae ones.

—and of course, they’re all unfamiliar to you. god you’re so confused. you have to have lilia act as a translator.

(you tried to make sebek your translator at first, but his explanations were too complicated— what he could’ve explained in a single sentence, he turned into an essay. and they also all ended in rants about how lucky you are to have the great malleus showing so much affection to you :’))

“oh! there’s malleus over there!” lilia points out. peering through the sea of students in the hall, you grin when you finally see him and wave. he makes another one of his mysterious hand signals before walking off to his next class.

“hm, that’s a new gesture to me. what did it mean?” you ask your fae friend.

the corners of his lips quirk up before he bluntly tells you, “it signals deep love!”

[spinchip]

Cut The Act

Wordcount: 1900 Ship: Gen A/N: This is a fic set in the movie!Verse :] I wrote this ages ago, after i first watched the movie, and only recently cleaned it up enough to feel comfortable posting lol. This takes place a few years after the movie, and Zane has grown a lot during that time so he's a bit uhh OOC, sorry lol Warnings: Mentions of an off-screen injury that's already healed.

Summary: After Zane get a bad scrape in a fight, he decides to acknowledge the elephant in the room and come clean about his nindroid nature. It'll be anxiety free- All of his friends have connected the dots and figured it out by now anyway... Right?

In his defense, he was pretty sure they already knew.

It’s not as if he thought he was dropping some huge life changing bombshell on them, because they had been dropping pretty un-subtle hints that hey! We know you’re a robot, and we love and support you anyway! Which is why, when he walks into the hangar on that Saturday afternoon, he didn’t think to like, brace them or anything. It just that he wanted to share this part of himself with them more intimately, and also in one of their last fights he’d been damaged- he’d walked it off, fine enough to make it home so Father could see to it, but now he couldn’t quite stop thinking about what would happen if something were to go really wrong, and he needed emergency maintenance on the field.

Of course he trusted Jay and Nya more than anything, and would gladly lay his life in their hands if it came down to it- they were nearly as capable as his father, and should honestly meet him, but that's a story for another day. The duo had worked together to build their mechs, and if anyone could put his intricate wiring back together in a worse-case-scenario type of event, it would be them. So really, this was all very practical, and the obviously logical choice, made totally easier by the fact that he honestly thought they already knew.

So the reason he was at least 95 percent sure they’d caught on was that, during the early years when he was still learning, he was very much not so great at blending in. Turns out, being a normal teen did not involve dropping the words ‘normal teen’ into every other sentence, or casually downloading yourself into most electronics, or perfectly vocalized dial tones. With upgrades and time, he’d picked up on some of the intricacies of human emotion and nowadays people would rarely look at him twice (This isn't exactly true- even as much as he'd grown and learned, he's pretty sure he'll always be on a different page than everyone else, but that stopped bothering him a long time ago. He was weird, and his friends liked him that way.) if not for his friendship with Lloyd Garmadon and his status as the white ninja, he would totally blend in. To people who knew him from the start, though, there was definitely a clear… learning curve, so to speak.

When Father had been repairing him after that particular fight and Zane had brought up the idea, Dr. Julien had been all for it.

“Being honest with your friends is good,” His father had said, pulling back his goggles to smile kindly at Zane, “If you trust them, you should tell them.”

Though his father had probably not intended for Zane to make a very forbidden copy of his own blueprints to give to his friends, but what dad doesn’t know won’t hurt him.

And, well, it’s not like they ever acted like they hadn’t caught on. Most other kids in their grade would look at him like he’d grown a second head, voice turning stilted and judgemental whenever he let slip his more mechanical aspects- but never his friends. They accepted it, and loved him anyways.

For example, last year during English class after a particularly comprehensive personal software update, Zane had sighed. As in, for real, actually sighed, instead of just saying the word out loud. Cole, who had English with Zane each year, had smiled at him with this playful sort of look and said, “Hey, your voice modulator got an update!” And he’d winked as if in on a joke, “Sounds good on you!”

As endearing as it was after the fact, that Cole not only noticed but complimented his fathers work, in the moment he’d felt his processor drop into his feet, sensors flooding with adrenaline. They’d never outright stated they knew like that, and it’d never been so obvious. Sure, sometimes they asked him to run statistics or look up something really specific, but never before had they directly referenced his voice modulator or anything of the type.

He’d ducked his head, anxiety and nerves ramping up, hesitating for a fraction of a second before what Cole had said sunk in. Sounds good on you. He brightens a little at the support, “Thank you,” He says honestly, smiling, “Father installed it over the weekend.” he offers timidly, still dancing around fully admitting he’s a robot, though coming closer than he ever figured he would.

Things like this happened more and more frequently over the years, where they would super obviously hint they had connected the dots. It would be something everybody knows but no one acknowledges sort of situation. He was comfortable with that.

Until he very much wasn’t.

So here he was, one saturday afternoon, very seriously walking into his friends hang-out session with a fancy document tube containing xeroxed copies of his own blueprints, all ready to lay out his innermost mechanisms to his friends in the ultimate show of trust, and to finally acknowledge the elephant in the room. Plus, over time, it started feeling weird and wrong to keep such a serious secret from them. He wanted to be completely open and honest… And now he was finally ready to make that leap.

“My friends.” he announces, stepping in front of the old TV Kai and Nya had brought in sometime sophomore year so they could play video games and watch movies together, “I have something serious to discuss.”

“Wait- I’m almost done with this lap!” Jay stretches his neck to try and see around Zane, mashing blindly at the buttons on his controller.

Nya reaches over and smacks him playfully on the back of the head, “He said this was serious, Jay. Just pause it.” He blinks a little and nods bashfully, tossing the controller aside.

“So whats up?” Lloyd prods, as the rest of his friends all sit up a little straighter to offer their attention, Cole going so far as to take his headphones off his neck completely.

Zane feels a surge of nerves rush through his head and he fiddles with the cap of the document tube for a moment to gather his courage, “My friends, as I believe you already know… I am an android.” he says the last part without pause, pushing through it so he doesn’t stumble or second guess himself.

All of them, who had been getting increasingly tense as Zane stood there, seemed to exhale collectively, “Is that all? You had me scared there for a second!” Kai jokes.

Cole smiles, “Yeah man, we know about the robot thing. It doesn’t change anything.” he picks up on Zane's anxiety, smiling reassuringly at him.

Feeling emboldened by their response, Zane finally twists the cap off of the document tube, “You have no idea how much this means to me. I feel it is important, now that our fights are getting more dangerous, that I give you all these.” He clears a spot of the coffee table before dumping out the papers across its surface, kneeling down to smooth out the stack and organize them, “My blueprints.”

He glances up and sees them all smile easily at him, Jay and Nya leaning forward curiously, “You have to keep these a secret. My Father built me, these are his notes, and he doesn’t know I took my own copies.” he notes his friends expression pinch, like they don’t quite compute what he’s saying, and he assumes they must not like that he took these without permission, “It’s the logical course of action to share these with you all, in the event that I am damaged and need emergency repair, you will be unable to help without studying my build.”

He spreads the pictures out, sliding a few closer to his friends so they can look themselves, and Nya carefully picks up a page. She laughs awkwardly, analyzing the information in front of her with wide eyes, “These are… awfully detailed, Zane.”

“Yeah, I mean, how long did these take to make?” Jay peeks over Nya's shoulder, the others looking at the different pages themselves with wide eyes, “These mechanics look actually legit!”

“My father has been working on my mechanics for his entire life.” Frowning, Zane looks back down at the papers, “Of course they are legitimate, they’re mine. Here, look-” He strips his sweater vest off, folding it and setting it aside and starting in on unbuttoning his shirt.

“Woah!” Lloyd holds up his hands to shield Zane, “Lets keep your clothes on, Zane!”

Zane’s confused, his button up pooling in his lap, leaving him kneeling on the floor in only his shoes, khakis, and undershirt, “My construction is completely unique to anything in Ninjago, I do not mind showing you.”

Cole tilts his head, the crease between his brows growing more pronounced, “You’re… not making this up, are you?”

“Making this up?” His frown deepens.

“You mean you’re actually…” Kai trails off, eyes widening.

“But… a fully recognized AI is years off…”

“I already told you I am like nothing in Ninjago.” Zane explains, “You thought I was… lying?” The word rankles, and he feels his emotions plummet.

“Not lying!” Lloyd is looking at Zane like he’s seeing him for the first time, “We just thought you were… playing. Y’know, like, pretend.” He finishes with a wince.

Zane lets that process before a laugh bubbles up out of his chest, and he covers his mouth to stifle it, looking back at all his memories with a new filter. All the playful smirks, the joking comments! They must have thought he was so strange- and still, they had embraced him and even joined in! “I do not mean to laugh, just- thank you. For playing along, I suppose.”

The smile fades as the reality sinks in, he has no idea how they’ll truly react to his robotic nature, “But… I am telling the truth. I am an android, my father built me to protect those who cannot protect themselves.” At this, he tugs his undershirt off over his head, revealing the seam where his synthetic skin stops, metal casing continuing and taking up most of the expanse of his chest. He slides his hand along the panel embedded where his ribs would be, popping open his front compartment and revealing neatly routed wires and the glow of his power source, “This is not pretend. I hope you can still see me as your friend.”

He looks up earnestly, hoping their playful enthusiasm from before will come back, and each of his friends have varying reactions. Nya and Jay look intensely curious, Cole looks calm as usual, and kai and Lloyd…

“I support you one hundred percent, bro,” Kai points out before Zane can assume the worst as he cringes away from the imagery, “But from a strictly human perspective, I am looking at your guts, and that’s a little…”

“Morbid.” Lloyd agrees, looking bashfully green around the gills.

“This is so totally cool!” Jay announces, grinning, “You’re like a- a nindroid!”

“A what?”

“Ninja Android. Nindroid.” Jay explains before he calms down, smiling sincerely at Zane, “This doesn’t change anything. You’re still one of my best friends.”

“Same for me.” Nya nods, “We support you through thick and thin!”

“We’re your family.” Cole confirms, “Nothing could change that. You’re still our Zane, just more… gears.”

Zane closes the panel, smiling brightly, and Kai perks up, “No matter what you’re made of, you’re still our brother.”

“Thank you all.” He says sincerely, feeling lighter.

“Yeah!” Jay grins, “Yeah, and how cool is it that I can honestly say "My brother is a Nindroid?"”