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dragonie · 5 years ago

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oc aesthetics + associations

tagged by @rebelfatebinder yonks back! tysm fghgjf <3

tagging: anyone who wants to!

Jane Finn (Fallout: New Vegas)

COLORS red. brown. orange. yellow. green. blue. purple. pink. black. white. teal. silver. gold. grey. lilac. metallic. matte. royal blue. strawberry red. charcoal grey. forest green. apple red. navy blue. crimson. cream. mint green. cobalt blue.

ELEMENTS fire. ice. water. air. earth. rain. snow. wind. moon. stars. sun. heat. cold. steam. frost. lightning. sunlight. moonlight. dawn. dusk. twilight. midnight. sunrise. sunset. dewdrops. magic.

BODY claws. long fingers. fangs. wings. tails. lips. bare feet. freckles. bruises. scars. scratches. wounds. burns. spikes. feathers. webs. sweat. tears. feline. scales. fur. chubby. curvy. short. tall. average height. muscular. lean. piercing. tattoos. lithe.

WEAPONS fists. sword. dagger. spear. arrow. hammer. shield. poison. venom. guns. axes. throwing axes. whips. knives. throwing knives. pepper sprays. tasers. machine guns. slingshots. katanas. maces. staffs. wands. powers. magical items. magic. rocks. pyre. teeth/fangs. rifles. words.

MATERIALS gold. silver. platinum. titanium. diamonds. pearls. rubies. sapphires. emeralds. amethyst. metal. iron. rust. steel. glass. wood. porcelain. paper. wool. fur. lace. leather. silk. velvet. denim. linen. cotton. charcoal. clay. stone. asphalt. brick. marble. dust. glitter. blood. dirt. mud. smoke. ash. shadow. carbonate. rubber. synthetics.

NATURE + WEATHER grass. leaves. trees. bark. roses. daisies. tulips. lavender. sunflowers. petals. thorns. seeds. hay. sand. rocks. roots. flowers. ocean. river. meadow. forest. desert. tundra. savanna. rainforest. caves. underwater. coral reef. beach. waves. space. clouds. mountains. poppies. galaxies. stardust. sky. rain. storm. sunny.

ANIMALS + MYTHICAL CREATURES lions. wolves. eagles. owls. falcons. hawks. swans. snakes. turtles + tortoises. bugs. spiders. doves. robins. ducks. vultures. whales. dolphins. fish. octopus. sharks. horses. cats. dogs. rabbits. hares. crows. ravens. mice. lizards. unicorns. pegasus. dragons. rats. livestock. tigers. panthers. deer. foxes. bats. bears. crocodiles + alligators. coyotes. seals + sea lions

FOODS + DRINKS sugar. salt. bitter. candy. bubblegum. wine. champagne. hard liquor. beer. coffee. tea. soda. spices. herbs. apple. orange. lemon. cherry. strawberry. watermelon. vegetables. fruits. meat. fish. pies. desserts. chocolate. cream. caramel. berries. nuts. cinnamon. burgers. burritos. pizza. french fries.

HOBBIES music. art. watercolors. gardening/growing plants. smithing. sculpting. painting. sketching. fighting. writing. composing. cooking. sewing. training. dancing. acting. singing. martial arts. self-defense. electronics. technology. cameras. video cameras. video games.computer. phone. movies. theater.libraries. books. comic books. magazines. cds. records. vinyls. cassettes. piano. violin. guitar. electronic guitar. bass guitar. harmonica. harp. woodwinds. brass. bells. playing cards. poker chips. chess. dice. motorcycle riding. flight. climbing. running. swimming. healing/medicine.

STYLE lingerie. armor. cape. dress. tunic. vest. shirt. sweater. boots. heels. leggings. trousers. jeans. skirt. jewelry. earrings. necklace. bracelet. ring. pendant. hat. crown. circlet. helmet. scarf. brocade. cloaks. corsets. doublet. chest plate. gorget. bracers. belt. sash. coat. jacket. duster. trenchcoat. hood. gloves. socks. masks. cowls. braces. watches. glasses. sunglasses. eye contacts. makeup. ties. uniform.

MISC balloons. bubbles. cityscape. light. dark. candles. war. peace. money. power. clocks. photos. mirrors. pets. kisses. diary. fairy lights. mental health problems. sadness. bittersweet. happiness. optimism. pessimism. loneliness. family. friends. assistants. co-workers. enemies. loyalty. smoking. drugs. kindness. love. hugs. revenge.

Noora (Pillars of Eternity)

ELEMENTS fire. ice. water. air. earth. rain. snow. wind. moon. stars. sun. heat. cold. steam. frost. lightning. sunlight. moonlight. dawn. dusk. twilight. midnight. sunrise. sunset. dewdrops. magic.

Irwaen Nightshrike (Elder Scrolls Online)

ELEMENTS fire. ice. water. air. earth. rain. snow. wind. moon. stars. sun. heat. cold. steam. frost. lightning. sunlight. moonlight. dawn. dusk. twilight. midnight. sunrise. sunset. dewdrops. magic.

Lackadaisy (DnD)

ELEMENTS fire. ice. water. air. earth. rain. snow. wind. moon. stars. sun. heat. cold. steam. frost. lightning. sunlight. moonlight. dawn. dusk. twilight. midnight. sunrise. sunset. dewdrops. magic.

#<3 #irwaen nightshrike #courier jane #watcher noora #lackadaisy

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sensamlove1 · 6 years ago

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Top Rated Alabama Attractions

When you have to make a plan for Alabama on this vacations then this is your best choice, because this is the best place for the vacations and also peple called the great destination point for the vacations. In Alabama there are several number of attractions are available and this city is rich with the historical and natural beauty. Also, there are lots of fun and lots of things you can do and many places to visit. From soaring mountains to sparkling lakes, there are many things to do and see in North Alabama. Not only you just find the outdoor adventure there, also there are an array of wonderful attractions that will keep you and the family entertained for weeks on end.

Here we have List of Some Top Rated Alabama Attractions that are explained below:

National Memorial for Peace & Justice: Stark and harrowing in its simplicity, this memorial stands in the honor of 4400 African American victims of execution. Make great rectangular steel slabs, each the size and shape of a coffin, are inscribed with the name of a county, and the dates of every documented execution incident within that county or the name of the fatality. The enormity of the space and the mute documentation of the slabs underlines the ubiquity of racial violence in American history.

Sloss Furnaces: The Sloss Furnaces establish one of Birmingham's can't-miss sites. From 1882 to 1971, this was a pig iron–producing blast furnace and a pillar of the Birmingham's economy. Nowaday, instead of a wasteland it's a National Historic Landmark, a red mass of steel and girders rusted into a Gothic monument to American industry. Quiet avenue pass cobwebbed workshops and manufactured the lines that form a photographer's dream playground. A small museum on site analyze the furnaces' history.

Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge: Many Year ago, salt-lashed oak forest, inundated coastal prairie and best quilts of sawgrass covered the Gulf Coast. Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge gelatin this environment, and it is heart-meltingly beautiful. Ypu can also find here Foxes, ospreys, otters, alligators, blue heron and sea turtles, as well as you can also found the four trails, none of which exceeds 4 miles in length or has appreciable elevation gain.

For the more information about Alabama then you have to visit the VisitMontgomery Site. On the website there described the all information about the Alabama attractions and what things to do in Alabama. All are mentioned on the website and also give all detail of the places with the location.

#things to do in Alabama #Alabama Attractions #Attractions In Alabama

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tired-reader-writer · 1 month ago

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Finally— FINALLY THIS PIECE IS DONE. AFTER A MONTH AND A HALF (technically almost two months if we count the previous version whose file corrupted but we'll get to that in a bit). I'm SO proud to finally finish this, the ordeal of my surface pro repeatedly crashing when I was first working on the previous version of this piece, so being finally able to finish it now feels like overcoming a particularly annoying demon that's been haunting me for a while. Hurrah!

(look, I know I said I'd try writing today, uhhhhhh plans spontaneously changed, bear with me)

This is my Naruto OC, and the protagonist of Foxes, Pillars, and Sea-salt Rust: Uzumaki Hoshiori! She's a granddaughter of Mito and Hashirama, only four months younger than Tsunade. Her father, Kazuma, Hashirama and Mito's son, married Uzumaki Tsurue, a priestess of the sea, and Hoshiori is their only child.

So in this AU, shinobi are part of the burakumin caste, aka an underclass regarded as “impure” and “untouchable” due to their dealings with death, and they are kept under control via things such as poaching laws, being banned from owning land, being barred from pursuing higher education, etc, and are utterly reliant on mission money and wars to survive. There were some exceptions, which I won't get into here, but the Uzumaki were part of said exceptions— enjoying a fair bit of autonomy due to their island being difficult to get to. They were partially pirates who menaced anyone who wished to traverse the Fuchi sea, aka the sea between the Continent and the Kiri archipelago.

This is what the prologue of the fic (sadly the only chapter that's up right now) had to say about the Uzumaki and their island, narrated by Tobirama:

Off the coast of Toyonabe city, Niezaki region, in the midst of treacherous waters of the Sanzu strait, there lies the island of Uzunoshima. Mighty as it is small, buildings of local stone that appear as though they'd been carved directly from the island or burst out of the ground fully formed, kawara tiles the same red of their coral reefs, the same red of the people's hair. A clan of roguing pirates— fuuinjutsu masters peerless in their craft.

Home to the world's strongest and most violent tidal waves that form deadly whirlpools, the aptly named Sanzu strait makes the eastern shore of the Continent impossible to traverse. Impossible, that is, to all but the Uzumaki.

The island, Uzunoshima, went without a Daimyo to oversee it, instead being led solely by the matriarch of the Uzumaki clan. They are matriarchal in this AU.

When the Founders sought to change things, improve the world for shinobi, they turned their gaze to Uzunoshima, in hopes that it would become a strong support for Konohagakure when the latter would negotiate for better and better terms, such as raising the graduation age for shinobi, pushing for shinobi to be able to pursue other careers, for them to be able to own land, and so on— The Uzumaki and the Senju in this AU shared a close bond, and they had hoped it would be a foundation for a long-standing alliance between Uzunoshima and Konohagakure. Tobirama in particular, was also concerned about the future safety of the Uzumaki:

To say many fear the Uzumaki would be no exaggeration. Unconquerable, untouchable, a thorn in the world's side, shinobi and civilian alike.

Nobility does not tolerate insurgents.

The extermination of the Sabi clan, and others before and after— it only serves to prove this fact.

Exterminations pay well, and while they might have been able to withstand individual lords, with the establishment of Hidden Villages, many clans under one banner and country…

If he cannot broker a solution, if he does not help quell the discontent—

He fears for Uzunoshima. He fears for the Uzumaki, their sister-clan, the clan from which Senju came.

There was, however, a catch. Uzunoshima would adopt the Continent's way: install a Daimyo, create a Hidden Village, and follow the system that the Founders had designed. A granddaughter of the current clan head (Uzumaki Haine, Mito's niece) was chosen to become the Daimyo, and she would wed a son from the court of Hi no Kuni to signify an alliance. And so Uzunoshima became Uzushiogakure.

However, things went south pretty fast.

Hashirama and Tobirama both died in quick succession during the First Shinobi World War, leaving behind a successor who did not pick up where the Founders had intended— you see, Tobirama picked a successor in the middle of a battle, and because the choice was made without the oversight and approval of the Hi no Kuni court, the nobles are rather unhappy, and so to preserve the Hidden Village, Sarutobi Hiruzen bent over backwards to appease them, leading to the deterioration of the system that got to the point where young genin were sent to war, and where mere six-year-olds could become genin.

Kokuen, Haine's husband, the “import groom” as he was referred to by the Uzumaki, also held the Uzumaki in contempt, and repeatedly tried to impose more and more arbitrary divisions between “civilian” and “shinobi” in the veins of mainland customs onto the island and brandished the power of the Hi no Kuni court, much to the disdain of the islanders. Haine, the Daimyo, was in love with Hoshiori's mother Tsurue, and Kokuen felt threatened by it because:

And though two women may formally join their households for love, and raise their children together as though they washed ashore from the same waters, that is, born from the same womb, the same cannot be said for men— even though there lies a bond-oath not too dissimilar to the one women may swear, unite two households into one it does not.

*“to wash ashore” here is an Uzumaki metaphor that means “to be born”

Which means, once two women wed each other, their two households combine into one, and any children they may have had independently are now counted as part of the same household. If Haine were to successfully bring Tsurue to her side, Hoshiori would be counted for a legitimate heir to the Daimyo seat just as much as Kokuen's own daughter with Haine is. Considering the close bond the Uzumaki shared with the Senju, and Hoshiori's blood ties to the Founders, and the fact that the Uzumaki are very unhappy with Kokuen and the current system, there would be a chance of Hoshiori being used as a rallying point for the Uzumaki to take the reins and try to pick up where the Founders left off.

This would spell bad news for Uzunoshima, because the Hi no Kuni court would try to squash that rebellion, which in turn would endanger the Uzumaki, so Tsurue always declined Haine's advances. This didn't stop Kokuen from trying to put down harsher divides between the two “classes” though.

Despite the fact that she technically should've counted as a “civilian” due to the fact that lineages are traced by the mother's line and Tsurue being a priestess, Hoshiori was nonetheless pushed into being a shinobi because Kokuen had wanted to weaponize what is basically the clout given by Hoshiori being Hashirama's descendant. This was not helped by the fact that Tsunade became a genin at age 6 and became known for being a prodigy.

(Hoshiori is also not counted to be part of the line of succession to the Uzumaki clan head position, because Tsurue is not part of that line. Basically she got locked out of both sides. Yeesh.)

WHICH IS ALL TO CONTEXTUALIZE HER POSITION IN HER HOMELAND. UGH.

So Hoshiori was a soft, gentle child unsuited to combat and the shinobi lifestyle. She did great at theoretical stuff, had great chakra control, but when it comes to sparring? Hoo boy.

She hesitated a lot. She chickened out of blows and stuff because she was afraid of hurting people. She would always lose at spars. She hated, hated being made to be shinobi. She wanted to be an apprentice priestess instead. Or, well.... there's another thing.

Hoshiori and Haine have a... strange dynamic. Basically they pretend and play house. They both want to be each other's family, so they pretend. After Hoshi became genin, Haine would stick her on “baby-sitting missions” where Hoshi (and her team, but mainly Hoshi) would be made to accompany and “guard” Haine's daughter, Gyokuen-hime, and being kinda “allowed” to be with Gyokuen when the latter was receiving lessons and stuff, enabled Hoshi to take an interest in things such as poetry, literature, even a dash of politics.

(The irony was that Gyokuen would've done numbers as a marauding pirate on the sea, while Hoshiori was made for softer stuff, but, y'know, things turned out Like That™. And that introduced... complications into the dynamic between Hoshiori, Gyokuen, and Haine.)

After Kokuen finally railroading things to send Hoshiori's genin team into a mission on the Continent, into the throes of war, though...

Things went very sideways.

Hoshiori tried to save a pair of civilians and it cost her her teammates. In the end, even the civilians were killed.

The experience caused Hoshiori to... dissociate from the world. Detach. Not process anything she ever does on the field emotionally, just doing whatever fits the mission criteria so that she can go home and be “real” again. She stops perceiving anything outside of her life in the shrine as real life, just obstacles she must overcome in order to resume her life in the shrine with her family.

Things change again, years later, when Kushina gets picked to be the next jinchuuriki. A young child among many who are tutored in fuuinjutsu by Hoshiori.

She chooses to try and take Kushina's place, despite the fact that it would've been easier for her to think to herself, “that's none of my business”, and continue to live her detached life.

I won't spoil you with the details, but when Hoshiori eventually gets to Konoha, accompanying Kushina with the plan to convince Konoha to send Kushina back... Mito passes the crown she used to wear onto Hoshiori.

Hoshiori at first doesn't realize why Mito would do this, but... Well. I shan't spoil it. It's tied to a lot, a lot of things— Uzushio politics, the larger world politics, Mito's own personal reasons, etc etc etc. I'm saving all that for the fic.

Hoshiori doesn't wear the crown during her stay in Konoha. She doesn't dress like an Uzumaki there at all, instead seeking to blend into the Konoha populace.

She'd only reclaim these things once she breaks free of Konoha's hold and basically becomes a leader of... something. Which will happen, but I won't say how or why yet, not in this post anyways. I might in future posts.

So that was one lengthy character intro post! What do y'all think about it?

Some close-ups for bonus:

I really wanted her hair to look like copper rather than a more vivid red. I tried to shoot for a metallic look with the rendering!

The silk was so fun to render. One day I wanna draw a full-body portrait of Hoshiori in Uzumaki clothing like she's wearing here. It's heavily based on ryusou— the traditional dress of the Ryukyu Kingdom (Okinawa)! Not so much the patterns bc, uh, I don't think I'm equipped to draw those yet, but the general silhouette and styling!

The pearls were SUCH a pain to draw. Also the scribbles were traced from this one... I think document? from the Ryukyu Kingdom.

Me: drawing pearls was such a pain! I'm never drawing pearls again!

Also me: how about we try drawing iridescent mother-of-pearl?

Flat colours!

Aaaaaand the only remnant of the previous version where I lost my file to corruption, which was FUCKING ANNOYING as I was already trying to render the fucking crown. Ugh T_T

As ANOTHER bonus, here's a quiz result of something I nabbed from @/woodblxssomcrowned's blog:

What kind of herb are you?

Cardamom

You're lonely but it's okay. It's okay. It's okay. You've always been okay except you're not and somehow you've made yourself and everyone else around you believe that too. Connection to anyone is harder than you could have ever dreamed when you were young and unloved and invisible to everyone who was supposed to care about you and save you from the voiding hollowness in your chest, in your throat. You smile and say you're okay and you are, or at least you tell yourself you are, but is anyone even worried? You tell yourself that they are or maybe that it's good they aren't. You'll be okay, one day. One day.

(the mention crossed out so that I don't bother the blog! we're not mutuals and we don't know each other so I'd rather not be overbearing. I am however shameless with friends.)

OH and the AU has a playlist!

#uzumaki hoshiori (oc)#foxes pillars and sea-salt rust #naruto #naruto shippuden #naruto oc #naruto au #senju tobirama #because his narration was mentioned #rotten egg's shitty art #this is basically what Hoshi looks like when she becomes a... Daimyo #look it was a Process™#do you realize how much I'm holding back by not mentioning the other Uzumaki politics details? or Mito's stuff?#OR UZUSHIO'S FALL?????

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tired-reader-writer · 2 months ago

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What kind of love do you embody?

love as a choice

[ love is beautiful because it's built deliberately ] when casey mcquinston wrote "that's the choice. i love him, with all that, because of all that, on purpose. i love him on purpose" and when jenny slate tweeted "i just want someone to grab my little face and scream on purpose, on purpose i am going to care about you" and when jodi picoult wrote "after fifteen years, love isn't just a feeling. it's a choice" and when the good place said "if soulmates do exist, they're not found they're made"

I took the quiz twice with slightly varying answers (because Hoshi is. uh. about as solid as water at non-freezing temperatures, such is her nature) and both times her result was this. And honestly? I think it's pretty damn fitting. The inciting incident of her fic is her giving up her home, her safe space, chances to be with her family, became an active participant in her grandmother's death which wrecked her, actively and deliberately as a choice so that Kushina would be spared from being trapped as a jinchuuriki, after all, and she would later choose to rebel against the world and go on a years-long project to reshape it for the same love she bore her almost-daughter Kushina and the gaggle of students she'd pick up during her stay in Konoha. In the prologue, she weaves a sturdy armor-silk for her cousin Tsunade: “The silk would catch any steel, warm her against the cold and cool her against the heat. Hoshiori herself made sure of it, with her own two hands. Threaded the loom herself. Imbued the threads with chakra herself. Wove the garment herself, row by row by row.” She had very complicated feelings about Tsunade for a number of reasons. She could've given her cousin a less involved gift. But no, she chose to give Tsunade something that she actively shaped with her own two hands.

Hoshi is someone who learnt to detach and dissociate as a defense mechanism to keep living in a world so incompatible to her— she shuts off parts of herself to “do her duty” so that she can pack up and go home after the mission ends. She's never been suited to being a shinobi, far too gentle, far too soft, but this allowed her to become a terrifyingly effective one. But she would choose to break down the glass walls she herself built up to shield herself from the world. Face the horror. Become an active participant in the world again instead of drifting. Out of love, out of the love she holds for Kushina, for Uzushio, for the shrine she was raised in, for her students, for her people, her friends, for the love she bears all of them.

She could've chosen to continue like she was.

But she chose to be reborn anew.

Not-quite tagged by @woodblxssomcrowned , I hope you didn't mind me jumping on the bandwagon of yapping about my OC! 😭

TAGGING— Uhhhhhh. Whoever wants to do this!

@akatsukitrash @concernedbrownbread from my Naruto sphere of mutuals 🤗

#trying to get into the habit of yapping about my OCs unprompted don't mind meeeeee #uzumaki hoshiori (oc)#foxes pillars and sea-salt rust #tag game #ask game #< not really but for organizational purposes #I probably should take the quiz as Mahina and the others too #the drawing is by me and yes it's a drawing of her #buuuuuut it's unfinished pls don't look at the clothes #cropped her eyes out bc they look kinda dead (as they're meant to but STILL)#her fic only has the prologue up rn #I'm... working on it. hopefully.

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tired-reader-writer · 1 month ago

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Where does your soul feel at home?

Hoshiori

where you are comforted

not shattered, not cracked, just hurt. you've grown so used to this state you call "permanent" that you sometimes feel you're nothing at all. you've carried it alone, you've turned your pain into certainty and reassurance. it's still there, it's always there, and you're afraid they might take it from you if you showed them everything. why would you be the only one who's not allowed to exist? why would you not have the right to be loved and held and treasured? people don't think of you as sneaky or resilient but you Are. you're like water, you fill your own gaps and those of others, you're a source of life, hope and stability - a lake to build your village next to - and so many have done exactly that. but you're also a hurricane turned inwards, a tsunami that's not allowed to come ashore. a storm in a glass bottle marveled at by the "saviors" like you're an animal in a zoo. you deserve better than that, and you're allowed to think and scream out loud that you deserve better than that. you deserve comfort without being patronized. you deserve people who don't connect your sadness and pain to weakness nor romanticize any of it. you deserve people who pay attention, and who see you for who you are, every single expression and mannerism part of a whole. a complete person that's allowed to cry, laugh and exist as much as they wish, in whichever way they wish to do so.

Mahina

where you are understood

you, i recognize you. you constantly chase this beautiful, desire to understand and be understood in return, yet more often than not you find yourself tripping over your own feet. what does it truly mean, to you, to "understand"? i can't say, i can't know. but i can share what i think, if you'll allow me. we're ever-changing, the world is ever-changing, our friends are ever-changing, when our desire to understand is limited to understanding things how we, as an individual, perceive them right now, we can get lost in time, we get frustrated, we become so many things we never intended to become. you're ridiculously intelligent and harbor such unique love for the tiniest details of our existence. there's probably nothing i could tell you that you haven't told yourself, and you're probably already writing up a counter-argument to everything you conclude from this (i wish i could sit down with you and listen to every word). the thought of you makes me smile. i wish a lot for you. i hope you can relax. i hope you can allow your emotions to be what they are. to allow yourself to be who you are. i hope you can find people who will ask you just as much as you ask yourself, people you feel safe with, safe to answer, to enjoy giving and taking with an absence of judgement. safe to bounce ideas off of and - at the end of the day - to simply embrace and be embraced back. hearts overflown with silent knowledge.

Tagged by: no one, but I nabbed it off of @woodblxssomcrowned 's blog LOL.

Tagging: @akatsukitrash @concernedbrownbread

(the ArSen side of this will come!)

#foxes pillars and sea-salt rust #uzumaki hoshiori (oc)#uchiha mahina (oc)#i feel like I should have a tag for these quiz result posts #hoshi hasn't felt real in a long while #and it makes sense that this is her result considering that she only felt at home in a kind little pocket in the world— the shrine #and mahina seeks to understand everything. observe. maybe it was a response to how people never sought to know her.

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tired-reader-writer · 1 month ago

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About two of Hashirama and Mito's children, and their daughter-in-law

(this post was supposed to have drawings of these three OCs accompanying their segments but I.... could not find the energy to draw, like, seeing a pretty cloud a couple days ago made me suicidal for some reason so you could imagine how unwell I was, hahaaaaa 😭 I think I'm feeling better today, and I did start on Kazuma's piece at least, so maybe I'll edit the pictures in when they're done, maybe I'll make a separate post, who knows)

But before we get to the actual OCs, the first order of business is ESTABLISHING AU CONTEXT.

The island, Uzunoshima, went without a Daimyo to oversee it, instead being led solely by the matriarch of the Uzumaki clan. They are matriarchal in this AU. When the Founders sought to change things, improve the world for shinobi, they turned their gaze to Uzunoshima, in hopes that it would become a strong support for Konohagakure when the latter would negotiate for better and better terms, such as raising the graduation age for shinobi, pushing for shinobi to be able to pursue other careers, for them to be able to own land, and so on— The Uzumaki and the Senju in this AU shared a close bond, and they had hoped it would be a foundation for a long-standing alliance between Uzunoshima and Konohagakure. There was, however, a catch. Uzunoshima would adopt the Continent's way: install a Daimyo, create a Hidden Village, and follow the system that the Founders had designed. A granddaughter of the current clan head (Uzumaki Haine, Mito's niece) was chosen to become the Daimyo, and she would wed a son from the court of Hi no Kuni to signify an alliance. And so Uzunoshima became Uzushiogakure.

However, things went south pretty fast.

The political/worldbuilding context of this AU taken directly from this previous post of mine because I was too lazy to type it all out again and the character stuff won't make sense without this context.

Now with that out of the way, we can get into the actual OCs!

Senju Ochiba

Ochiba (落葉) meaning falling/fallen leaves— chosen for the imagery of decline and loss, while also both reflecting and undermining Konoha. I don't remember when they came up with the name Konohagakure, I just thought it sounded like a name that Hashirama and Mito might like to give to their child, reflective of their dream of peace and the village thing but also associations with the forest. Ochiba also rebels against Konoha eventually with a push from one of her nieces, thus “falling leaves” could represent the downfall of Konoha and the Hidden Village system as a whole.

Ochiba is the firstborn child of Hashirama and Mito, born approximately (???) years before the foundation of Konoha. She doesn't really speak much, and always has a tired look on her face. She was initially passed over for succession because Hashirama appointed Tobirama as his heir— it does happen occasionally, and Hashirama has some complicated feelings about the concept of family and clan (due to Butsuma, thanks babygirl) which he avoids by basically Not Thinking About It, and he simply doesn't see his children the way he sees his fellow Founders, and also I kinda associate Tobirama with a prince from our history, Prince Kanaung, who was supposed to be the heir to the throne instead of the king's sons which made them assassinate him but Ochiba harbors no such feelings towards her uncle ANYWAYS THIS WAS A DETOUR— which served to make her feel invisible and neglected in her father's eyes, but she was content to support her parents and uncle and gain experience that way. On top of the neglect though, she also has inferiority issues because she was essentially living in the shadows of her parents, especially Hashirama who caught people's attention due to the Mokuton. Also because she remarkably looks like him, at least where coloring is concerned. (She inherited Mito's features but Hashirama's coloring, which is in contrast to one of her younger brothers who inherited Hashirama's features but with Mito's coloring.) Due to these reasons, she was actually afraid of becoming clan head, as she knew she could never compare to her parents and uncle, and being measured up against them makes her feel small and inadequate, and so she wishes to be far from the spotlight. Tobirama being appointed heir was an out that she was willing to take.

However.

HOWEVER.

Shortly following the foundation of Konoha and the establishment of the Hidden Village system, the First Shinobi World War broke out and her father and uncle died in EXTREMELY QUICK SUCCESSION (they were likely targeted, nobles feeling threatened by them since they successfully cornered the nobles once to establish the system and the nobles were afraid of them daring to ask for more— and so they sought to eradicate such “treasonous seeds”) and Ochiba was suddenly saddled with the responsibility of leading her clan in a tumultuous time, young and unready because she thought her family would live long, long lives— hell, they seemed amazing and nigh invincible to her! She did not think they would die. She did not think they would die so soon.

People from her clan would also get targeted during wartime due to their association to those “treasonous seeds” and also for the potential of Mokuton— the world was simultaneously afraid of another Hashirama emerging from the Senju and coveting the Mokuton for themselves. Hiruzen… did nothing to mitigate the deaths because he was desperate to please the nobility, and the nobility themselves felt threatened by what they saw as extensions of the Founders. Hiruzen and his Council abandoned the plans and projects the Founders had laid out as well, even making things deteriorate to the point six-year-olds were allowed to be acknowledged as shinobi. Ochiba felt that she ought to try to keep her father's dream alive, and protect the clan in his stead, but her concerns fell to unwilling ears, and she was shut off the same way Mito slowly lost her freedom in the village. I haven't decided what Mito's life would become in Konoha as time went on— if she would be forced to separate from the Senju or not as the Council would be afraid of them colluding together or Mito influencing them as the last surviving Founder who's still in the village— but I imagine it would be nothing good. The question is how severe the bad situation would be for mother and daughter.

In any case, though, Ochiba would feel powerless— she knew she could never measure up to the people she looks up to but she didn't think it would be this bad. That she would be so… inept. She couldn't protect her mother, her people, even her niece Tsunade as Tsunade's father married out the clan (such marriages were being encouraged at the time because Hashirama had wanted the clans to loosen up) and she wasn't allowed to take Tsunade in (just as Tsunade would later be refused custody of Shizune to which her response was to nab the girl and ditch the village— she'd had enough) and her niece is only six and she's already being made into a genin—

Both of her brothers left her behind. Both of them married out of the clan, and while Tsunade's unnamed father still stayed in the village… the youngest one did not. He married into the Uzumaki clan. Hashirama and Tobirama had each other and Touka to support them. Ochiba… had no one. She felt lost, weak. And despite her best efforts the clan continued to decline and she's watching Tsunade from afar and… eventually she just lost hope. Just going through the motions and being resigned to the terrible situation because she sees no way out. She's so… exhausted. With everything. She wishes she weren't her parents' daughter, thinks her being born to them surely must have been a mistake because she was not meant for this.

(Eventually, though, her other niece makes it into Konoha and things take a sharp turn because the niece, Hoshiori, convinces her to take action again, and eventually she, Hoshiori, the latter's gaggle of students, the Hatake, maybe a number of the Uchiha, and what remains of the Senju would up and leave Konoha. The specifics of it… I may or may not talk about in another post, or save for the fic itself, but… yeah!)

(Senju) Kazuma

Kazuma: 和守, 和 meaning “harmony, peace, concord, sum/add” and 守 meaning “protect, defend, obey, guardian”, together it can mean something like “to protect peace”. It just sounded like something Hashirama and Mito would name their child. (the “Senju” is in parentheses because he married out the clan and I couldn't decide whether or not I wanted him to keep his surname)

A couple years younger than Ochiba and the youngest of three children, Kazuma has a lighter demeanor, a little “jolly” like his father though he has his own fair share of issues with his father. He harbors the same feelings of being neglected as Ochiba, and it manifests in him trying to get away, so to speak. He grew up yearning for his mother's homeland, chasing any scrap of Uzunoshima (later known as Uzushiogakure) he could get his hands on from his mother and anyone in the clan who married in from the Uzumaki and such— and in his teenage years, he falls in love with an Uzumaki girl, an apprentice miko (the Uzumaki don't regard themselves as shinobi and enjoy a significant amount of autonomy due to geographical protection coupled with their might, there's not as much of a cultural divide between civilian and shinobi as there tends to be on the Continent, there is only The Uzumaki™), and after dating for a while he decides to marry into her household as the Uzumaki are matriarchal, though exceptions happen sometimes where the occasional Uzumaki women marry into the Senju. He does so for love, but also a desire to get away from the mainland, and all the fighting, all the expectations placed upon him— I'm sure his father wanted him there to support the dream of peace, but Kazuma, rather than hedge his bets on a dream he only half-believes (and even if the Hidden Villages were established, it will be a good while before shinobi are free from the many confines that restrict them) whereas on the island Uzunoshima he and any child he sires will outright have the option to choose.

Things don't go as he hoped, however.

Shortly after the establishment of Konohagakure, Tobirama and Mito are sent to Uzunoshima as envoys to convince the Uzumaki matriarch into adhering to the system the Founders devised, the Hidden Village system, and Uzunoshima would finally have a Daimyo.

Which would have been fine, if the Founders didn't drop dead shortly thereafter and Kazuma's mother got severely restricted, and due to politics and “marketing”, his daughter Hoshiori would be forced into becoming a shinobi anyways.

Like, can you imagine? You go away into one of the FEW safe spots where your future child would not immediately be shoe-horned into an untouchable caste and be shadowed over by their grandparents' reputation, and your uncle who helped you get here comes like three years later and— the reforms he left behind made this place hostile to your hopes and your child! Unless he was willing to take his family to be nukenin— which is wildly unsafe considering they'd be without support and protection and nukenin generally don't survive long in those days— his child is basically doomed! It'd be one thing if said child was actually suited to being a shinobi, but she isn't! She always chickens out of delivering blows during spars in her Academy days because she's too gentle for her own good! And he and his wife weren't allowed to pull her out of the Academy despite the fact that they should be able to because following the reforms and segregations, Tsurue is still considered a “civilian” and as the head of the household their daughter's fate should be on her say! But it wasn't. And he watches, helpless, as his daughter descends into a depression and becomes increasingly detached and distanced from the world around her.

Things finally snap when it's time to pick Mito's successor as the Kyuubi's jinchuuriki. Kushina, a young girl tutored in fuuinjutsu by Kazuma's daughter, gets picked. The adults around her are not happy and they won't tell Kushina anything so the girl runs crying to Hoshiori and Hoshiori decides to try and take Kushina's place for a number of complicated personal reasons and…

It's just. It's a representation of the entitlement the Hi no Kuni court and by extension Konoha holds towards Uzushio, the latter essentially becoming something of a satellite state of Hi no Kuni, that the mainlander “allies” can just demand reforms and what is basically a human sacrifice from Uzushio. Kazuma's not the only one unhappy with this. Tension and discontent have been rising from a substantial portion of the Uzumaki populace towards the mainlanders, and especially towards their Daimyo's consort who is from the mainland. Despite their complicated feelings towards the Founders because they were the ones who kicked down the first domino, many are at large sympathetic towards them and regards their successor and the mainland nobility as the corrupting forces that must be purged. After Hoshiori accompanies Kushina to Konohagakure in hopes of convincing the Council to let her be the jinchuuriki instead and send Kushina home, rebellious fires are stoked in her name, probably spearheaded by the shrine she was raised in and especially her parents. Surrounding countries caught wind of this, and fearing that the rebel faction might actually succeed in deposing the Daimyo, and that other clans might get similar ideas or the Uzumaki might try to recruit others, a swift response was made— Kirigakure and Kumogakure allied to wipe out the Uzumaki out of fear. Such eradications were not unheard of during the Warring States Era as well— rebellious clans usually gained a bounty on their heads pretty quick and… eradications pay well. With Uzushio's forces fractured and feuding against each other, the lack of aid from Hi no Kuni and Konohagakure because they too felt threatened by the Uzumaki's rebel movement, Uzushio fell.

Kazuma would not survive it.

Uzumaki Tsurue

Tsurue: 鶴衣, 鶴 meaning “crane” and 衣 meaning “clothing, garment”, and so her name is a reference to The Crane Wife folktale, because she is a weaver. The miko in the shrine weave special cloth to honor the gods for a festival of theirs, and Uzunoshima's culture in general is very crafts-focused as they find ways to incorporate chakra into stuff like, say, threads and cloth!

Tsurue is a miko, not part of the “core” of the Uzumaki clan as she is not descended from a clan head (well, she may have had some distant ancestor who was from the main house, but it'd be pretty distant) and so is not part of the line of succession. She is, nonetheless, the head of her own household. (I did this mainly because I was so tired of fics where the bloodline and pedigree of the focal character or the OC is given wayyyyy too much weight and it was starting to feel uncomfortably classist in some regards and Hoshiori's storyline involves her becoming a ruler and it would feel pretty reductive to say “she was directly descended from amazing people so that's why she's special!” and. No. She isn't a chosen one, she upped and chose herself and we'll also see that Tsurue leads a rebel movement without any blood pedigree qualification and ANYWAYS I'm getting side-tracked back to the main topic)

Tsurue is talented— as in, absolutely pigheadedly devoted to her craft of weaving rather than necessarily picking things up easily— and is pretty assured in her identity and place in the world unlike the previous two. As a miko, she regularly took part in ceremonies and rituals, doing the kagura dance on the sea, footsteps in rhythm with the living waves, donning an ayakashi mask (I would ramble about Uzushio's religion and their relationship with the Shinigami buuuuut I'm just gonna direct you to this post aka the author's note to what is currently the only chapter that is published) (the chapter does go in detail about it, if you might wanna check it out), so while she isn't a combatant, she still is very much in tune with her own chakra and the chakra in the world around her because the rituals and the weaving and the fuuinjutsu and her role as a miko necessitates that she be able to do that. And although, traditionally, Shinto shrines were not places of learning and education in general, Uzunoshima is a little different so that I could make it a thing where people send their kids to learn from the miko, who would tutor them in fuuinjutsu. Tsurue was no different, and in Uzunoshima's fuuinjutsu ranking exams, by the time of the prologue Tsurue is at rokudan (rank 6 out of 10, 10 being the highest). There would be at least ten years between the time frame that piece of information was mentioned in the prologue and the chapter after that, so surely she would grow even more.

Tsurue, though she wasn't part of the line of succession, did grow up in relative proximity to it as her best friend, Uzumaki Haine, was a granddaughter of the clan head. They were very close to one another, and Haine… would catch feelings for Tsurue further down the line.

And that's where the complications start.

The issue is not that Tsurue is already married. In Uzumaki culture, it is permissible for women to have multiple partners, be they men or women, and two women marrying each other counts as joining two households. This is what the prologue had to say about it:

“It is not the bride that joins a household in the Whirlpool Isle, but the groom instead. It is why Kazuma, his nephew, could exit Konoha with his marriage, though not without his brother's approval, for which Tobirama helped obtain.

Despite that, though, matches such as his brother and sister-in-law's are not unheard of. The Senju and Uzumaki share the same roots, both born of the sea, and even as the Senju broke away to leave the ocean's cradle they still nurtured close ties between them.

[...]

No, the problem was something else entirely. For you see, Haine was picked to become the first Daimyo of Uzunoshima, as giving that role to a total outsider would have spelled problems as the Uzumaki, strong-headed as they were, would not have accepted that outsider as their ruler. So it had to be an Uzumaki, someone from the line of succession who nonetheless was not the current heir. And so Haine went. But she had to marry a son of the Hi no Kuni Daimyo to solidify the “alliance”. The Founders intended it as such, but alas things devolved really fast as you know. Have these snippets from the prologue for funsies:

“Kiho-sama will likely pick one of her granddaughters to be Daimyo, to be equal to the mainland's lords. The marriage between her and the import groom from Hi no Kuni would tie the two nations together.”

“The island must have a Daimyo, he said, and so a woman of the main line was selected to wed lord Kokuen who was the Fire Daimyo's son. They broke off and formed the house Kaiten, for they were not permitted the Uzumaki name.”

Tsurue knows trouble when she sees it. She knows that if she were to accept Haine's advances now, Kokuen would not sit by and watch. If Tsurue and Haine were to officially join their households together, Tsurue's daughter would be made just as eligible for succession to the Daimyo seat as Kokuen's own daughter was, and that would threaten his noble sensibilities, and also spook the mainland court who, might I remind you, let Hoshiori's grandfather and granduncle be targeted in order to weed out the “treason”. A descendant of theirs being allowed a path to power, no matter how suppressed or small it may be, would simply not be tolerated. At “best”, her daughter and family would be targeted and at worst the whole of Uzushio could be targeted. So she refused. Went to live within the shrine where she used to commute. Tried her best to keep her daughter away from Haine but things got really complicated when Haine and Hoshiori kinda started playing pretend house because they both yearn to be family and Hoshiori in particular wants a fantasy where she gets to escape her confines as a shinobi. That abruptly ended after Hoshi's first disaster mission as a genin— the girl fully shut down and Tsurue… can't do much of anything other than be there for her daughter and give her an outlet for creativity and a life outside the one she's been forced into. All the while grappling with the increasing resentment and discontent she herself feels on her daughter's behalf, on her friends' and neighbors' behalf, on her people's behalf. Between Hoshiori being admitted to the Academy and Hoshiori's choice, there was a fifteen-year gap. Heck, between the first establishment of the system on Uzunoshima and Hoshiori's choice, the gap was eighteen years.

She's been harboring all that for… at least fifteen, but more like eighteen years considering she also had to witness her friends' families going through similar things since before Hoshiori was enrolled into the Academy.

And then, of course, the fateful moment came. Hoshiori, still carrying that hurt from when she realized Haine couldn't protect her, is subconsciously determined to be better and so claws her way into even just getting the chance to convince Konoha to let her take Kushina's place.

And Tsurue has had enough.

As described in Kazuma's section, a rebel movement starts to bud and bloom and things fall into chaos and…

Tsurue, as well, does not survive the genocide.

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tired-reader-writer · 1 month ago

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What is your curse?

Hoshiori

The Sculptor's Skin

You've always been soft. Bruise easily- wear down quick when cold eyes grate against you. This is your curse. Every finger that brushes your skin, every breath, to help or to harm, lingers there. You wear them. You change. You are clay under the sculptors’ hands and you cannot help but let yourself be shaped. With every thumb that leaves its spiral behind, you feel yourself move farther from what you used to be. It's hard to remember what that was. One day you will be something else altogether, pinched and molded and mended until you are nothing true. Barely even human. And then you will change again.

Mahina

Poor Man's Prophecy

How is a prophet meant to live? When you can see the threads of fate and watch as they fall into folly's knot. You can see the mistakes a year away. You know best how to weave them. When it comes time for your own hands to work, you know they are naturally clumsy-- you know they ache; you know why; you know what would make them whole. You know why you choose to keep weaving. You know why you know why you know. No one can help you because you already know-- what can they say that a prophet has not already weighed? What new stones can they turn when you spend your nights watching the butterfly's wings? Some things do not have easy answers. You know this too. And yet still-- you hurt. You will always hurt. You know.

Tagged by: ...yeah no I'm gonna not tag bc I took way too many quizzes from the blog and me pinging OP constantly will probably bother her a lot LOL

Tagging: @akatsukitrash @concernedbrownbread + anyone who wants to do this

#foxes pillars and sea-salt rust #uzumaki hoshiori (oc)#uchiha mahina (oc)#BOTH THE RESULTS RING TOO TRUE WTF

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tired-reader-writer · 5 months ago

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“She is a lantern-holder on the water, a task for the apprentice miko, but the kannushi allowed her this, and none protested this allowance. [...] The kannushi recites a prayer aloud, and the miko trace the rhythm of the ripples of the water's surface as she does. Upon the kannushi's face, the mask of the Shinigami. Upon the miko's faces, the masks of the ayakashi that serve him, of the countless and many Uzu-no-Mikoto. They flicker to life in moonlight, glow like ghosts upon the darkened sea. The kami they represent are neither gentle nor serene.”

The shrine of the sea in Uzushiogakure, formerly known as Uzunoshima.

—Foxes, Pillars, and Sea-salt Rust: Chapter 1

There are other descriptions of this shrine in the chapter, of course, but they're so specific it's honestly hard to find photographs that fit them, and yes the kannushi and miko are all Uzumaki, they're supposed to be red-haired, but good luck finding any photographs of miko with red hair, LOL.

The shrine (and what it represents) is very important to our protagonist, Hoshiori, and will be quite the part of her character further down the line.

If you haven't seen my fic announcement post, Foxes, Pillars, and Sea-salt Rust is about Hoshiori, the younger granddaughter of Hashirama and Mito born in Uzunoshima (Uzushiogakure), offering to take Kushina's role as a jinchuuriki. The prologue, or rather chapter 1 here, serves to set the context for that decision to come. The chapter, and the fic as a whole, will cover a lot of worldbuilding and political dynamics of the Elemental Nations.

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tired-reader-writer · 5 months ago

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Working on the author's note for SSR first (the summary is next) and... this has got to be the world's longest author's note on a fanfiction. It's 2,468 words.

#foxes pillars and sea-salt rust #naruto #naruto fanfiction #naruto au #I had to explain my worldbuilding choices and inspirations okay!!!!#man I really did stuff a lot of it in the chapter

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tired-reader-writer · 1 month ago

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How do you need to be touched?

Hoshiori

gently.

you need to be held as though you're going to break. you need someone to trace your scars like cracks in a wall, crumbling. their touch is almost painful; you've been without it for too long, without someone to hold you. but, you cannot bring yourself to pull away.

Mahina

fervently.

you crave a hug that cracks your ribs... the feeling of your wandering soul being crushed back into the bones that can't seem to hold it. you need a hand gripping yours so tightly you almost fear it may leave a bruise, a reminder that you are here. and that you are not alone.

Quiz nabbed from @thexsenjuxheirs !

Tagging: @akatsukitrash @concernedbrownbread

#foxes pillars and sea-salt rust #uzumaki hoshiori (oc)#uchiha mahina (oc)#yeah hoshi's result tracks #mahina's is. as always. INTRIGUING.#girl who I can't fucking grasp despite the fact that I'm her creator <3 #will probably not end up doing this quiz for the wolfsong side of things bc the questions kinda didn't fit them???? if that makes sense????

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tired-reader-writer · 1 month ago

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“She's empty. Her chest is open like a hole, and her eyes are about as dead as a still body of water. Even if I gaze into it, only my figure is reflected back, as though there's nothing and nobody behind that.”

“Pretty girl. Where in the world are you? You're right in front of me, yet there's this grating sense that nobody is actually here.”

“Have you finally woken from your dream?”

“She numbs herself with that fog, puts herself in a glass shell so that she won't have to face the pain. Listen. To feel no pain means you're not in touch with the world. You're not processing anything, you're not part of it. To put it roughly, it's like not having a body in the first place. I'm sure it's hard to feel like you're alive at all. But no matter how much she can't feel herself, she's still Uzumaki Hoshiori. The loss of her homeland was the largest blow that broke her shell, but honestly the cracks were already forming. The sense of pain she's finally regained is triggering her revenge.”

Couldn't really write, so trying random stuff to hopefully pump the creative juices again. This is me trying my hand at writing things Uchiha Mahina, one of my Naruto OCs (and Hoshiori's future wife), would say about Hoshiori. It's still very rough and unpolished, but essentially, Mahina is someone who has taken a step back from participating in the world as well— or at the very least, refusing to participate under parameters set by the society around her. She was born to a union between a shinobi and a civilian, the civilian essentially marrying down into the untouchable caste. Shinobi-civilian matches are rare, and incredibly hard to make things work. Already there's a chasm between them, the battles and wars fought by shinobi tend to wreck farmlands, rural areas often get caught in the crossfire, and since it's war, there have been terror tactics that involve civilians being targeted and killed. Commoner civilians, therefore, view shinobi with contempt and fear, seeing them as bringers of death and suffering. Shinobi on the other hand, view civilians as “of weaker stock” because they can't fight and will “never understand our way of life”. This is not helped by the fact that civilians will tend to leave their shinobi partners due to both backlash from their society (for marrying down into the untouchable caste since shinobi can't marry up) AND they truly can't handle the lifestyle. I mean. Imagine having a child and suddenly realizing that your child will have none of the rights you as a civilian had in your childhood, will be deprived from so many avenues and paths the same way the children of your civilian family and friends won't be, will be trained in ways that are horrifying to you, will be formed into a child soldier and sent to war where they can die. And that's just one aspect of it. Of course many can't handle it.

I bring this up because yes, Mahina's civilian parent did leave. Left her behind too, because the Uchiha clan didn't want the genes of their Sharingan getting out of the clan and into a civilian population where it can be snatched by others. Mahina is naturally seen with suspicion as well, because of her civilian parent, with the expectation that she will be weak.

Instead of wanting to prove herself, however...

Mahina grew to be a curious person. Questioned everything. Questioned if this is truly the extent of her worth, the only path she has, desperately trying to prove herself and chasing standards that were set for her. At some point in her life, she became disillusioned with everything, and decides that the system will get no more use out of her. So she removes herself from it. Hides the development of her Sharingan. Stages an “accident” where she loses an arm and an eye, citing that she can't possibly be a viable combatant now that she can't form hand signs and perform ninjutsu, she “doesn't have much of anything else going on”, and her Sharingan is “not very advanced”.

She becomes an observer, though she breaks the rules on the sly to get what she wants— civilian research papers, developing ways to “spy” on the world, just generally wanting to sate her curiosity. The world is a stage, a story, the people in it characters and props, and she's grabbing the metaphorical popcorn.

Enter Hoshiori.

The thing about Hoshiori is that she, by nature, is unsuited to being shinobi. She as a child balked at the idea of harming another person. She always lost in spars even though she had great chakra control and did well in academics. She hated it. But she was forced into being shinobi due to... circumstances. I've talked about it in a post before.

But she had no choice, so she chose to dissociate from the world in order to be able to handle her lifestyle. Also she found ways to kill from a distance, kill in a way that doesn't trigger her visceral discomfort towards violence. Ranged combat and genjutsu, basically. Also plays a “support” role in teams, facilitating the circumstances that lead to the enemies' deaths, but not directly killing them. She couldn't handle being a shinobi, so she found a way to make the job palatable to her.

And she carries this dissonance all the way to Konoha when she accompanies Kushina there in hopes of convincing them to let her take Kushina's place. Her doing this inherently implies a distrust in Konoha, and a knowing that being forced to be a human weapon for Konoha can't be anything good for Kushina, that Kushina will forever be ripped from her home, but on a conscious level she suppresses that suspicion and resentment, convincing herself that she does trust Konoha, that she loves it, and that she's ready to call it home because that's the place her grandparents created. That's what she tells Mahina when the latter prods and pries and teases Hoshiori about the truth. Prattles out a perfectly polite line about how she totally doesn't suspect Konoha of anything.

But there's always actions that betray her lie.

So during their stay in Konoha, Hoshiori sticks her Kage Bunshin on Kushina, disguised as accessories and such because she's afraid Kushina might be snatched while she's not looking. There was an incident— whether it was someone picking on Kushina and taking things too far or a legitimate attempt to snatch Kushina, I haven't decided— where the Kage Bunshin(s) reveal itself to protect Kushina. And Mahina catches wind of this. And one day, when they run into each other again, Mahina tells Hoshiori that she knows. Knows what Hoshiori did. She confronts Hoshi about Hoshi having told her that she totally trusts Konoha. If Hoshi truly did feel safe with Konoha, had faith in it, why would she feel the need to stick bodyguards on Kushina? Hoshi is rattled bc she was in denial about her mistrust towards Konoha, she's been trying to convince herself that she *trusts* Konoha but this is making her reconsider (well, she still tries to deny it). She says smth about how she's sorry if she offended Mahina as a resident of Konoha by insinuating with her actions that she didn't trust Konoha, that totally wasn't her intention, and Mahina just rolls her eyes. Somewhat affectionately. Like she's a smug fox and Hoshi is her new favorite toy.

Mahina does this because she sees that Hoshiori is a Lying Liar Who Lies™ even to herself, and wants to see what interesting things might happen if the lies are peeled away. Reminder: Hoshiori couldn't handle being a shinobi, so she found a way to make the job palatable to her.

If Uzushio didn't fall in this AU, if Kushina was indeed sent back, if things did go according to Hoshiori's plan, despite her misery she would've found a way to cognitive dissonance her way into making service towards Konoha palatable.

And that'd be a boring outcome in Mahina's eyes. So she seizes the chance to be the among the first in Konoha to influence Hoshiori. She pokes holes in Hoshiori's logic because she wants to see where Hoshiori will go with this. Shakes Hoshiori's “self-suggestion” just enough to make Hoshiori unable to unsee the lies she tells herself.

Hoshi is high-key using courtesy as an armor, being Polite™ and Diplomatic™ and Not Acknowledging Her Feelings™ and Mahina's like “you're so cute. I want to see you snap.”

Mahina's someone who can see the truth in many ways, even though she herself lies too, lies to herself, even as she comes to care for Hoshiori, Kushina, Sakumo, and many others, she insists that she only cares about them in a way a reader might care about a favorite character. But then again, her wife and husband-in-law can see through that, I think.

Her name, Mahina, is written as 真瞳, 真 (ma) meaning “truth, reality, genuine” and 瞳 meaning “pupil, eye, iris”— so her name as a whole can be translated as “the eye of truth”.

So. Yeah! I hope y'all enjoyed this OC of mine.

#Uchiha Mahina (OC)#Foxes Pillars and Sea-salt Rust #rotten egg's shitty writing #naruto #naruto oc #naruto au #uchiha clan #yes she genuinely psychoanalyzes people she's Like That™ <3 #I guess she's what would come out if Xerxes Break Aozaki Touko and Sohma Shigure did a fusion dance #both her ancestors and Hoshiori's must be having a heart attack at their marriage hehehe

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