#havent introduced them to the world yet but

[planetkiimchi]

raven-haired

summary — A soulmate au where all sorts of soulmates have black marks that turn rainbow colours at first touch with their soulmate (ib: this post)

featuring: Lee Min Jun, Cha Minhyuk, Cha Jaeyoung

dedicated to: @rckybowen, who wanted something from the prompt, and @realparkminkyun for all their support <33 reblog for a part two! (with min jun and seungwon, my loves)

Min Jun was lucky to have met Minhyuk, with his fingertips streaked rainbow like a tattoo that gently held them together when they were falling apart.

Min Jun had always been a reclusive child growing up. When they had first met Minhyuk, they had been quietly reading a book in the corner of their kindergarten classroom.

Minhyuk had gone up to them, all smiles, waving his black-stained fingers as he eagerly greeted Min Jun.

"You've got ink on your fingers," was all Min Jun said.

"That's not very nice. This is my soulmate mark. Where's yours?"

"I don't have one," Min Jun replied, finally putting their book down. "My parents think that either I'll be lonely, or fate decided to give me a choice."

"Well, I think you're lucky to have a choice. What's your name?"

"Min Jun," they grinned, crooked teeth on display.

"I'm Minhyuk. It's nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too, Minhyuk."

In the eight years since their first encounter, Minhyuk never touched Min Jun once. Min Jun always had long sleeves or gloves on, and they hated direct skin contact. Minhyuk, being the gentleman he was, respected their aversion to being touched, and as such, his fingertips remained black and Min Jun remained mark-less.

Min Jun's parents, who had always secretly been afraid Min Jun would remain friendless forever, often encouraged Minhyuk to stay over, feeding him well and treating him kindly.

It was one of those times when Minhyuk was sleeping over in Min Jun's room, when they were fourteen and he was twelve, that Min Jun was braiding their hair while sitting at the edge of the bed.

"Can you teach me how to do that?" Min Jun turned their head and found Minhyuk staring shyly at their hair. "It's really pretty."

"Sure." Min Jun patted the bed next to them, and Minhyuk went over happily.

"Here." Min Jun offered Minhyuk their hair after parting it, and Minhyuk grasped it, their hair soft in his fingers.

With a gasp, he let go of Min Jun's hair, staring dumbfoundedly at his fingers.

"What's wrong-" Min Jun's voice trailed off as they looked at the bright colours bursting out from the previously ebony-black streaks on Minhyuk's hand. The soulmate mark they often teased him for was blooming all shades of the rainbow, as well as their hair.

Min Jun hurriedly swept their hair into a ponytail and scrambling up from the bed. They pulled open their closet, tugging a drawer open and grabbing a pair of gloves.

Walking back to Minhyuk, they tossed it at him. "Put these on, quickly."

Minhyuk fumbled with them, eyes wide. Min Jun knelt down in front of the bed, helping him get the gloves on his shaking hands.

"It'll be fine, I just don't want your parents to get worried. I'll explain to mine myself."

Then, they sat back down on the bed, guiding Minhyuk through the basics of braiding. When he finally got it, Minhyuk knelt behind Min Jun, clumsily working his fingers through their hair to braid it, until one messy braid fell down Min Jun's back.

"I'm done," Minhyuk said softly. "It's not very nice, though."

Min Jun got up wordlessly, going in front of the mirror and examining the braid. Minhyuk looked on anxiously until Min Jun broke into a smile, teeth having grown out into a straight line.

"You did really good, Hyukie. It looks so pretty."

Then, Minhyuk smiled too, the gummy grin that Min Jun loved so, eyes shining with pride.

Sharp rapping on the door startled Min Jun, and they visibly flinched as their mother opened the door.

"Hey Eomma-"

"What's that in your hair?" Min Jun's eomma asked shrilly. She took Min Jun's braid into her hands, gently turning it around and looking at the colourful streaks in her hair.

"Did you dye it? Why?" She looked from Min Jun to Minhyuk, who had guilt written all over his face. She glanced down, and saw him wearing Min Jun's gloves.

"Oh," she whispered softly, walking over to Minhyuk and holding his hands in hers. "Oh," again, as she slipped the gloves off and looked at the colours dotting his fingers.

Min Jun's eomma put Minhyuk's gloves back on and stood up, placing her hands on her hips. "Right. I'll tell Minhyuk's parents, I suppose."

"Eomma-"

"Yes?"

"We could be platonic soulmates," Min Jun said hopefully.

"Well, there's no pressure either way. You might grow apart in future, or not. It's not ours to tell." She walked over to the door, and stopped. "We'll inform your parents tomorrow morning, Minhyuk-ah. For now, it's late, you two please go and sleep."

Telling Minhyuk's parents had been hard. They were soulmates themselves, and were torn between their belief in the soulmate mark and not forcing their views on two young children.

Min Jun's parents had to coax them into leaving the children alone, and, albeit semi-reluctantly, Minhyuk's parents had agreed.

Min Jun had been scared that morning, when Minhyuk's parents left the house with Minhyuk in tow. They waved goodbye solemnly, not expecting to have Minhyuk over to their house again.

To their delight, Minhyuk had been able to come over again, and again, and again. Sometimes he brought his younger brother, Jaeyoung, especially to Min Jun's skating competitions. Min Jun was very supportive of Jaeyoung's idol endeavours, especially when it led to him debuting.

Occasionally, they would look up in the stands when they were skating before they began, just to catch a glimpse of rainbow-coloured fingers raised in a wave, and Jaeyoung covering up his coloured cheek with a mask and a cap over his head, but Min Jun was sure both Minhyuk and Jaeyoung were smiling proudly down at them.

[phagodyke]

in a hilarious turn of events my flatmate didn't even know I use any pronouns....

[funkypileofgoop]

Made a short comic(?) about how I like to think magic would work (in my world at least)

Apologies for any typos in the comic-

There’s technically more to the system but I’ll just make a continuation post if I make more comic…

Just in case the image quality gets absolutely fucking ruined and you cant read it I’ll have the writing/written explaination in text form down below.

About soul rot:

Arinuan magic works in mysterious ways. Luckily those mysterious ways have been neatly laid out in a comis strip for you.

The most basic principal of magic is this: The power of magic is derived from the soul.

Considering magic stems directly from the soul, the loss of energy outputted to use magic causes damage to the soul. This is called soul rot.

Don’t worry, however, because soul rot is completely normal. The soul naturally heals itself, and the healthy part of the soul will heal most soul rot in under twelve hours.

Too much soul rot, however, is alarming. The soul needs at least one small healthy fragment in order to be able to heal itself.

If the soul becomes completely rotted, there is simply no saving it. It’s hard to get here, though, because most magic users will tire by the time their soul is even three fourths rotted.

A fully rotted soul will not heal itself, slowly beginning to decay.

The loss of one’s soul can’t be reversed, and is comparable to the loss of ones humanity. Some possible effects of soul loss are: Loss of morals, loss of empathy, loss of logical emotions and logical thinking, violent outbursts for seemingly no reason, narcissism, paranoia, distrust of everyone previously close to you, amnesia.

Those without a soul can also barely use magic, if at all. With the soul gone, any attempt to use magic will put a strain on the body itself. The magic has to draw energy from somewhere else, causing decay and sharp pains all throughout the body.

About the types of magic:

There are two types of magics in Arinuo. Natural magic and Learned magic.

Natural magic is accessible from birth, and is genetic, being inherited and influenced by the parent’s magical abilities.

Natural magic is not hard to access, it is hard to control. Natural magic users often spend years mastering their abilities fully.

Natural magic users have a predeveloped tolerance against their own magic, so it does less damage to the soul by default.

Learned magic is magic that is learned throughout life, and is preformed by writing symbols in the air with a tool or even your finger if one is advanced enough. Learned magic is an art of memorization and power control, some are better at picking it up than others.

Learned magic is something that you have to build up a tolerance to overtime, regardless of if you have natural magic or not.

Until one develops this tolerance, learned magic causes more soul rot than natural magic does.

These Magic symbols are created when a natural magic user tales their own magic and embeds it into a sigil, enchanting it. The process can also be done with written language slash spoken language, but is rarer.

By creating a magic sigil, the creator gives up whatever aspect of their magic they’ve enchanted the sigil to replicate. That’s why people don’t just turn their magic into sigils all the time.

[bumblesimagines]

Imagine:

Imprinting on Bella Swan

Request: Yes or No

Pronouns: He/Him/His, M!Reader

It's hoa hoa hoa hoa hoaaa season y'all they might feel ooc i havent seen the movies in forever

~~~

With the leaves changing and the weather resuming its almost never-ending chill, Bella hoped a new season marked a fresh beginning. Her first year in Forks proved to be far from what she'd expected when her father picked her up from the airport to haul her back to her old childhood home. She hardly expected much from the quiet, peaceful town but being introduced to the Cullens and then learning of a whole secret world hidden away from the eyes and minds of humans had promptly turned her world upside down. 

Vampires and shapeshifters roamed the Earth, some killing and others protecting mankind. She never thought her friendship with the odd boy in science class would lead to her discovering beautiful creatures that glimmered in sunlight and drank blood nor that it would lead to her old friend becoming the enemy of the coven by shifting into a gorgeous yet intimidating wolf. Of course, the thing that'd caught her off guard the most hadn't been blood-sucking immortals or oversized dogs... but the fact she had a soulmate.

A soulmate who was as grumpy and aloof as his twin sister. 

"Bella! You came!" 

She'd never admit it aloud, least of all to Edward, but a warm feeling always rushed through her when she visited the reservation and was greeted joyfully by the boys. Jared shot off the porch, his bare feet leaving imprints on the ground before his arms picked her up and brought her to his chest. She released a breathless chuckle and stumbled slightly when her feet returned to the ground only to be lifted once more with Seth and Embry's greetings. 

"I wouldn't want to miss the bonfire." She chuckled, a thankful smile sent Seth's way when he steadied her. She caught Emily lingering in the doorway and raised a meek hand to wave. "I hear your brother's back in town, Seth." 

As expected, Seth's sweet brown eyes lit up. "Yeah! He and Leah should actually be-" He cut himself off for a moment to scan the woods surrounding the small wooden house Emily and Sam called home. His concreated features softened and he raised his hand to point toward the figures emerging from the treeline.

Despite how much the Cullens fussed, Bella thought the wolves were as equally as majestic as them. She smiled immediately at the familiar sight of Jacob's reddish-brown fur as the three wolves trotted across the field toward them. Jacob's pace quickened and once close enough, he dipped his head and gently pressed it against her stomach. She ran her fingers through his soft yet damp fur in greeting, still taken aback by the sheer size of him and his packmates. 

"Hey, Leah," Bella greeted softly, raising her attention to the woman and earning a grunt in response. Leah was just as beautiful as the others, perhaps more with the mixtures of silver, dark gray, and hints of brown strung along her coat. The shifter gave a quiet huff, and even an eye roll, before she began turning away to shift in the privacy of the woods. 

"This is my brother, Bella. (Y/N), this is Bella Swan, the coolest girl in town." 

Chuckling bashfully, Bella retracted her hand from Jacob's fur and rubbed the wetness off on her jeans before she stepped to the side to peer around Jacob's form and take in the last wolf. He reminded her of a mixture of Leah and Seth with the clash of brown and silver fur and (E/C) eyes that seemed almost scrutinizing until the two of them locked eyes. Her lips parted to greet him but the words died in her throat when she noticed him tense and go completely rigid.

With a frightening snarl that sent a jolt up her spine and made her flinch back, Jacob ripped his head away from her to face the older boy with bared teeth and the fur along his back rising like that of an angry cat. Jared's arms circled Bella, pulling her back and behind them despite the amused grin spreading out across his face. Bella flinched again and gasped when Jacob lunged forward toward (Y/N), their bodies tangling and rolling down the grassy field in a blur of fur and snapping jaws. Leah raced after them swiftly, her body slamming into Jacob's to peel him off her twin and thus turning Jacob's abrupt anger onto her.

"Come inside, Bella. Let the boys handle this." Emily called out to her gently, watching her stumble toward the house and carefully taking her hand with a comforting squeeze. "Sam will take care of them, alright? I made some muffins for you but I'm afraid Jared already took a bite out of one."

"W-What- I- Is (Y/N) okay?" Bella stuttered out, feeling Emily's arm wrap around her shoulder and lead her toward the dining table where the basket of freshly baked muffins waited to be plucked. She took one into her hand and found herself unable to stop from turning toward the window to watch as Sam's bulky black-furred form shoved itself between the three. "What happened? Everything was fine."

"Imprinting happened," Paul laughed as he stepped into the house, snatching the muffin Embry reached for and flashing him a smirk. "Jake's girl got snatched right from under his nose." 

"What are you talking about?" Bella's head snapped toward the short-fused man, her brows knitting tightly together and gaze flickering between the rest of the pack as they piled into the house. 

With a sympathetic smile, Seth shrugged. "I guess you're my new sister-in-law, Bella."

"He won't talk to me, Jake." 

"I know," Jake murmured glumly as he stuck a marshmallow at the end of his stick, the cool breeze tussling his hair but barely phasing him despite the cold nipping insistently at her cheeks. "It's messing with him but he's as stubborn as Leah. He wants to be around you, he can't help it, and it bothers him. (Y/N)'s never been the type to give up control. It took a year for him to even join the pack and follow Sam's orders." 

Bella tilted her head further down the beach where (Y/N) sat on the cold sand away from them. She found him already staring at her but when she lifted her hand to wave, he turned his attention back to the rolling waves. "What's going to happen to him? Can.. he die from ignoring me?" The quiet snort from Jake made her swat at his arm. "I'm serious, Jake!"

"I know, I know, I..." Jake released a heavy sigh, the light of the fire reflecting in his brown eyes. He hovered his stick over the flickering flames, checking on the marshmallow as they waited for it to cook. "It's not good for him to ignore it but it won't kill him. He's making himself uncomfortable."

"I'm making him uncomfortable. I told you it was a bad idea-"

"Bella, you're his soulmate. You'll never make him uncomfortable and that's what's bothering him. Take this to him and just.. talk to him." Jake blew away the flame from the toasted marshmallow and offered her the stick, giving her an encouraging nod despite the way his lips tugged into a small frown. "Try your best.. or else Leah will rip your head off." 

Bella gave a small huff. "I don't think her brothers would like that." 

Taking a deep breath and flashing Seth an appreciative smile when he offered a thumbs-up, Bella began the trek across the short distance toward the seated young man. He glanced at her, the ever-present scowl reminding her of his sister, but the fact he remained in his spot gave her a small boost of confidence. She carefully lowered herself down, crossing her legs and giving the marshmallow a few taps to check the heat before tentatively offering it to him. 

When (Y/N) continued staring forward, she pursed her lips but her eyes caught the way his body seemingly relaxed. "You haven't said a word to me since the bonfire, and I know it can't be a good feeling. Seth said you'd come around eventually but it's been weeks and- and I don't want to see you get hurt, okay? Stop.. stop fighting it." 

"It should have been Jacob." (Y/N) muttered, taking the stick and biting into the marshmallow. "He's the idiot in love with-" His brows furrowed in irritation and he ripped the marshmallow off the stick, shoving the rest in his mouth and tossing the stick aside. 

"But it wasn't Jake," Bella spoke softly, hesitantly reaching out to place her hand over his knee. "And I don't plan on rejecting you."

[filurig]

a guy ive had in mind for a whileee its a crime i havent actually made an oc of my faeries yet so this guy!! this guy is actually the faerie that provides folke with funky fantasy hrt. more on them (and a bit about faeries) under the cut...

krillimir, or as they're known to many non-faeries, (spider's web) glasswing, is a rather newly adult faerie, having emerged about 3 years ago from their pupae. a bit of a free spirit in comparison to other faeries, they hail from the Hemarikkit Till colony to the south of vätterunda, perhaps the largest colony in the area with its main structures occupying a sunlit forest grove. due to the size and relatively stable nature of the colony, there was not a lot of pressure/demand on newly emerged faeries to take up a specific role, and krillimir preferred to keep their options open and thus chose to identify as a generalist.

generalist faeries can kind of take on less specific work than other faerie genders usually do, and especially work which involves collaboration with other species, and curious about the world outside of the colony, krillimir applied to be a participant in the colony's medical program - basically all faerie colonies have a medical program which involves a collaboration with the area's local tomtar, who will provide them with illusory magic to maintain their settlements and keep them hidden/protected. in return, the faeries offer their faerie dust, which can be finely tuned to affect an organism's hormone levels (as well as some other biochemicals) - this of course can be used to treat certain conditions, or as a way to alleviate pain, etc.

gullmar, who is folke's "tomte uncle" in a way, ended up visiting the Hemarikkit Till colony in search of a faerie that could help with folke's Trans Gender Blues (aka: provide him with hrt, after gullmar realised that folke was trans) and the freshly emerged krillimir would be assigned to him. due to the nature of the assignment, krillimir would just be permanently assigned to gullmar and comes by the granholm residence once every few months to readjust folke's hormone levels to the proper ones when the T levels start to fall off. while gullmar can find the faerie a bit neurotic and too energetic, their relationship grows to become amicable - a part of gullmar probably feels a fatherly instinct towards them hehe.

some extra faerie stuff i thought about making this guy so ill include:

faeries do not have a directly "spoken" language like we do, and communicate mostly through pheromones, body gestures and sounds like squeaking, trilling and hissing. they can communicate with other species through their pheromones, but as they communicate with said species in the target's language, things like names are often just directly translated. "krillimir" means "spider's web glass wing". how do we have the "romanization" of their name then? Well through some convoluted shenanigans. basically - tomtar have an anda-powered ability to learn the language of other species. with enough exposure and socialisation they will just naturally begin to gain an understanding of that language, and their ability has led them to be able to learn faerie language, especially helped by it also existing in a written form. while faeries don't speak this written language, it is how they conceptualise more complex ideas internally (the internal voice so to speak) - with the tomte ability, they can somewhat approximate what the language would sound like if spoken - at least filtered through the tomte brain. its most definitely not 100% accurate to what it would sound like though but most faeries accept it as close enough. this probably makes no sense but erm it sorta makes sense to me. LOL. but it means that most species that haven't learn to read faerie will only hear the literal translation when a faerie introduces themself, and thus many call krillimir by glasswing for short.

krillimir is a "generalist", which is one of many faerie genders. i made a post about it a while back! they go by they/them but generally doesn't mind he/she either.

faerie clothing is generally made of a fabric woven together by silk produced by them themselves - this silk is mainly produced by broodtenders or generalists. they also have a special way of "tanning" leaves, ending up with them having leather-like properties, which is part of what krillimir's outfit is made out of there! very popular reccuring symbols in their fabric design are "eye" "mimicry" and sometimes patterns which mimic some other animal/creature.

[mono-dot-jpeg]

too aware - express crew

summary; a self aware kid walks into the express and.. they shock the crew more than a stellaron.

genre/extra tags; headcanons, fluff, slight comedy, the child is aware, the child traumatizes the crew more than anything else /j, they have seen it all, reader is implied to be a vidyadhara

[platonic] [6-7 years old! reader] [gender neutral! reader]

a/n; i have,,, no idea if i'll be writing this correctly at all. honestly it's really reminding me of being really self aware, which i kind of relate to KSDJKSJD, so there will be some of that mostly. i've never really written a character like this. but i hope you enjoy.

also possible spoilers for those who havent reached the xianzhou quests yet. sorry.

what can i even say to start...

let's just say you're a kind of new to the express, you were part of the luofu or at least training to be part of the cloud knights

despite being such an old self-reincarnating species, sometimes you just wanted to start from the beginning, have an empty and open mind to enjoy your curiosities.

you would argue that you were the most cheerful vidyadhara out of the comrades you knew for centuries

but some people knew better

you were sweet, don't get it twisted but when the express crew met you for the first time

let me rephrase, when dan heng and welt met you for the first time .. .

"you... know a lot, don't you?"

you whispered to dan heng

you probably just scared the shit out of him so unintentionally.

you totally know who dan heng really is

you're just as old as he is, maybe a bit younger but you're not stupid

and then you look to welt, and you end up introducing yourself with a cute smile on your face as if you didn't look through dan heng's soul 10 secs ago

dan heng felt whiplash as he watches you talk to welt

welt is concerned for you. he knows that look in your eyes, when you know so much, when you're so aware of yourself and everything but you're so happy

"you must be a smart kid.." welt says softly. "do you know a lot as well?"

"i do."

it's a really interesting relationship that kind of develops as father figure and kid.

you connect to himeko and welt very easily with your experiences

you know a lot and you've experienced a lot, you eventually confess to being of the limited species of the xianzhou, vidyadhara

and you're happily proud of it. you're comfortable as to who you are.

with the trio on the other hand, you're really curious about march and trailblazer the most due to their origins

and they gladly indulged you.

"please tell me more about you!" you would tell them and inquire about them quite a bit

dan heng and you had confusing relations, you knew him from the past and he knew you

and you seemed the same despite your physical age

and dan heng.. you wish you knew more about him

so you end up being curious about him

and as expected, you two are the closest to each other

you're sweet to everyone despite the hardships you faced and you always look at the world with realism and yet you find a way to appreciate the good and bad

while everyone is concerned about how self aware and aware of the world you are as young as you are, you carved a place in their hearts and you never fail to surprise them with your outlooks on everything around you.

[broke-on-books]

I just ran out of tags... give me a second

I've been seeing posts about Scooby Doo popping up, so I thought I'd share this:

(Source: The Scots Magazine, Feb 2023) Full text below.

This actually happened. I am obsessed!

The passion! The energy!

Amazing!

Such signage!

(Images: Daily Record)

A brilliant effort all round! The children of Scotland saved a pop culture powerhouse the world would be poorer without. I can't believe this. I love this so much.

Text of the article:

FROM THE VAULT

Strange tales from the archives. This month – How furious fans of cancelled cartoon rose up in protest.

By CHRIS Ferguson, Jan 12, 2023 (The Scots Magazine)

THROUGHOUT the ages, principled protest has been a hallmark of youth – a rite of passage for many. Today it is Greta Thunberg and her army of teen climate activists, or Extinction Rebellion protesters, who make headlines.

In the 1960s it was the Vietnam War objectors and Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament believers who set out their political agendas.

In later decades young people swelled the ranks of those demanding an end to apartheid in South Africa.

They were at the barricades as then-pm Margaret Thatcher introduced the poll tax and back out again to try to stop the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Another generation, too, had the courage of its convictions. In 1971, youngsters rose in anger at a threat to remove cowardly canine Scooby-doo from their television screens.

This was in February after the cartoon had been running for two years. Although the decision not to commission another series had been taken in the US, the BBC was the target of fans’ fury because it had to pass on the bad news to young viewers.

Within days of the announcement, an army of parka-wearing children sporting knitted jumpers and questionable hairstyles was formed.

Across Scotland children grouped together with placards, just like so many other worthy protesters before them. In Glasgow, the massed kids marched on the BBC Scotland headquarters and, in Dundee, they gathered in outrage in City Square.

Petitions were raised and demonstrations took place across the country and, by April, the BBC announced a further series had been commissioned in the US.

Legend has it these Scots Scooby fans had persuaded the American television executives to reconsider.

Hanna-barbera, the animation company behind Scooby-doo, never forgot the Scottish reaction.

A spokesman for the company said, “We’d never had a response like that before, it was very exciting.”

Beneath the main text of the article is an illustration of Scooby Doo and the gang accompanied by the pull quote: “An army of parka-wearing children was formed”

The title and byline of the article are also accompanied by a black and white photo of a boy in school uniform sitting with a little black dog in his lap, grinning and holding a sign reading "We've saved Scooby Doo" with an illustration of Scooby. The caption reads: Jimmy Brown fought to save the cartoon."]

[fiovske]

Do you have any recs for other non-DnD game systems? I've only ever played 5e, and I'm a little intimidated to get into other systems, but I also want to branch out and get away from WOTC's bullshit.

Sure thing! I am also including a link to the itch.io pages since that's where i get most of these games!

Blades In The Dark: i'm mentioning this first bc the rules are very easy to grasp and if you're looking for a setting that has a touch of ghosts and steampunk, this game is the perfect gateway to that! it's the best for a heist i have found and the game mechanics and names are so soo sick here's just a slice from their itch.io page:

personally i find the setting and the stress mechanic very cool, because it takes into account the mental toil that an action can have and i find games with inbuilt consequence mechanics very compelling! it introduced the concept of clocks to me and i am obsessed.

a) adjacent to Blades, are all Forged In The Dark Games which are third-party blades games, and the most notable of them is Scum and Villiany which is space-western setting and also my favorite and if you're looking to play a game in the breadth of star-wars like interplanetary politics and everything, i highly recommend this game! b) if you're looking for a Blades game with mechanics to suit something more royalty-adjacent, with court-politics and agendas and masquerade parties and all, like say d20's court of fey and flowers vibe then i recommend Court Of Blades! I havent gotten around to playing this yet but it looks really promising and i soo badly want to play a game in this setting!

2. The Ground Itself : this is a world-building game. focused on one single place over time and how it changes and how it's people change, the events of this game can be spaced out from a week to several millennia depending on the rolls of ur dice or your choices! i have found that this game serves very well as say, a session zero game also, for setting up a place before you play in it, and not only a very fun session of making a place together for your party to play in, but also not leaving all the work to the gm! so it's a win win situation!

tbh, all games by everest pipkin are very good! i wanna get my hands on world ending game as well bc it is a game about giving your campaign, your world-building and your characters the perfect send-off.

3. Wanderhome : if you're looking for something ghibli-esque (this is the closest i can come to defining this game thru popular media) then i highly recommend wanderhome! it's got a very cozy pastoral vibe to it and the art is really beautiful and you get to pick from a range of animal-folk to play as it's very cool!

also honorable mentions,

a) Sleepaway is a game by the same creator in which ur a camp counsellor to a bunch of misfits and horror stories around campfires ensue! b) Yazeba's Bed & Breakfast which is an upcoming game which you can still back and it looks really interesting so i'd recommend checking it out as well!

4. Lancer: this game has mechs it has space-battles and you get to be a pilot in a future set years in the future and a thousand directions to take ur campaign in! he relationship between pilot and mech is smth that can be so personal.....

i wanna play lancer sometime it has very cool mech designs and it has very much piqued my interest, if i find ppl who wanna play lancer w me im 🏃🏃!

5. Heart The City Beneath : honestly, one of my fave settings of all time, it has strong horror components so mind the cws! but the classes and the game mechanics are very intuitive and overall it helps you not only build a character that feels natural and organic, but since this is a horror setting, things do not have happy endings... however it will ensure that your characters have a well-built journey whose ends will be terrifying and magnificent.

I got introduced to the fallout mechanic through this game and oooo how i love it, it's the perfect blend of your actions have consequences + every consequence is interesting and will affect your character deeply and emotionally, which is <33

this list got too long so i will just mention some more here:

the quiet year (very good map-making game, for before the frost shepherds arrive in winter.)

beam saber (forged in the dark game that deserves its on mention! austin ramsey's games i highly recommend!)

thirsty sword lesbians (ecactly what it says on the tin, i wanna check this game out also)

lotr's one ring rpg (this one is the closest substitute to classic d&d bc lets be real. tolkien is where d&d got it's shit from. and i have heard good things abt this game even tho i've never had the chance to play it)

mothership rpg (space horror whose build mechanics are very easy and user-friendly and i've had a LOT of fun with this!)

orbital (one very beautifully written rpg about life in space and it's only 32 pages but well-worth the time, highly recommend)

that's all i can give off the top of my head, i might've missed a few but these are strong standouts, so i hope u find at least one to your liking!

[pitchblackveins]

This is me asking about your queer analysis of Suburban Legends!!? Also no rush

THANK YOU

so one of my favorite things about the incredible tournament kelly is running over at @ohdorothea is that its forcing me to actually engage in analysis of songs i havent thought about too much. i'll see a poll with an answer im sure will be sweeping and think to myself huh have i even thought about ways the other song might be queer? and with regard to suburban legends i certainly had not and so i did and it turned out to be queer as hell.

this is long so i put it below the cut

so, when i first listened to suburban legends, i remember thinking it was a bop, but had a bit of a disjointed feeling––like taylor was mashing together different lyrics and song ideas that she liked in a way that was a little incongruous (which is something i think she does sometimes––sometimes it creates a masterpiece, like blank space, and there are some songs where i suspect shes done something similar and it hasnt worked as well). they're adults hiding stuff from each other, theyre in high school, theyre in the 1950s, they nearly live together, what gives. but it makes sense to me know. ahem

anyway. the song is bookended by the real facts of the relationship in the 2010s ( i will not speculate on who the song's about or even whether its about a real relationship). the chorus introduces a phrase––"we were born to be suburban legends"––and runs with it into the second verse, which imagines a world in which they could have become suburban legends, before heading back into the chorus, where the second "you kiss me in a way thats gonna screw me up forever" crashes us back into the reality of her relationship laid out in the bridge.

one could do a lot with the phrase "suburban legends." for me, it evokes two main concepts: a play on "urban legend" folklore, and a more literal reading of a "legendary" suburban high school couple. (these exist in media a lot but idk about real life im not from the suburbs) a couple that seemed picture perfect, the two most popular kids in school, prom king and queen, for years afterward younger kids are trying to live up to them. taylor plays with this idea & the idea of folklore––an urban legend may have its origin in something real, but they're generally understood to be myths, to be untrue.

the second verse paints an idea of how taylor could see them actually BEING suburban legends. its a hypothetical, a thought experiment, a fantasy. what does it mean for a couple to be born to be suburban legends? and more importantly, to fail to fulfill that legacy? we picture a couple so perfect they must be fake, so in love, larger than life, extroverted, charismatic, adored (the high school mini equivalent of fame). and yet. their mismatched star signs would surprise the whole school. why? these legendary couples always seem meant to be together. no one is surprised when the quarterback dates the head cheerleader. but its a fantasy, they dont get together. "when i ended up back at our class reunion walking in with you"––the implication that in this scenario, they went to school together but couldnt be together then, only got together as adults. but they never got together as adults anyway –– "you'd be more than a chapter in my old diary, with the pages ripped out." if taylor crushed on this person in high school, only her diary would know, and it would still be so painful (so shameful?) that she'd rip the pages out. of her most private space. she evokes the "1950s gymnasium," conjuring a specific vision of old teenage dances: back to the future, american grafitti, grease, knee length skirts, heteronormativity. they could never be a "real" suburban legend, they could only ever exist as a piece of folklore, unbelievable and probably untrue. why? you see where im going with this. its cuz theyre gay.

that interpretation of the second verse is what really struck me. but also may i present you:

you know what kind of kiss will screw you up forever? when you have your first gay experience and realize you do not get to have an easy heteronormative life. the kind of kiss that makes you realize you're queer. and she always knew it, that her life would be ruined. it would never be the way she pictured it (romeo save me....) because. gayness.

also "you were so magnetic it was almost obnoxious/flush with the currency of cool/i was always turning out my empty pockets" fits perfectly with my gay betty backstory but we dont have time to get into all that

[moonpaw]

Genuine question for you as my go-to source for One Piece-related things. Have you seen all the movies AND. What would you rate them on a scale of 1-10 asking for a friend (the friend is me) 👀

of course of course

I've watched most of the movies!! (though some of the last watches were a decade ago lmao)

One Piece: The Movie: movie 1!! I havent watched this in a while, it's a very early movie before sanji joins but i vaguely remember there being a few zoro and luffy moments, and it's pretty short (i dont remember enough to rate it LOL)

One Piece Clockwork Island: Fun movie! also pretty short too, 7/10

One Piece The Movie: Dead End Adventure: REALLY fun watch, i'd recommend it, 10/10

One Piece: The Cursed Holy Sword: zoro focused movie, i don't remember much about it other than it wasn't.. all that great? been a very long time though

One Piece: Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island: REALLY GOOD. my favorite one piece movie out of them all 10/10 i love the artstyle and animation used here

One Piece: The Giant Mechanical Soldier of Karakuri Castle: i remember absolutely nothing about this movie lol

One Piece Movie: The Desert Princess and the Pirates: this is just alabasta condensed badly 0/10

One Piece: Episode of Chopper: au version of drum island (in that the straw hats recruit chopper after the timeskip) havent watched it yet, but it seems pretty interesting?

One Piece: Strong World: fun movie :] last movie before the timeskip happens and it's really nami-centered 9/10

One Piece 3D: Straw Hat Chase! don't watch this

One Piece: Episode of Nami: arlong park remastered in movie form, i haven't watched it yet

One Piece Film: Z: pretty good but has a super bullshit weapon thing that isn't canon in the slightest and doesnt really make sense for it to be there, really cool opening though and features EVERY SINGLE marine introduced up until this point 8/10

Episode of Luffy: fun watch but also kinda boring in some places fddf 6/10

One Piece 3D2Y: i havent watched this, do not look into this until you're at the timeskip

One Piece Film: Gold: i havent watched this yet (planning to really soon!) but i heard its really good :]

One Piece: Stampede: this isnt a movie, it's a battle royale LOL

One Piece Film: Red: you've seen this one! 10/10

i also made a post on when a movie happens, timeline wise

[hyper-cryptic]

⟢ Heart of Chaos AU: The Masterpost!

❛❛ Oh, great Master Emerald, please, I wish for a brave hero who is the balance between Chaos and Peace. One who never backs down in the face of danger, who doesn't stop fighting for their friends and what is right! Might a brave equidna warrior be their fiercely loyal friend, let them fight alongside as if they were kin. Seal this evil away, amending the horrors done by my tribe...❜❜ — Tikal The Equidna.

Welcome to the HoC masterpost! Here I'll give the bullet points on each arc and get down the basics of this AU!

Originally posted: 15/11/24 | Last edited: 15/11/24

◊—› So, what's Heart of Chaos about? . . .

In a nutshell, what if Sonic was The Master Emerald? We get Dark Sonic back and also, I am obsessed with werehog, so we get a redo of that as well as every single arc rewritten, for the most part (there's some I don't have enough knowledge about some of the spin off games heheo). There's a lot of themes of generational trauma, self-worth, losing the sense of yourself and finding it again, etc.

↳ Basic navigation . . . Heart of Chaos Tag | Heart of Chaos Bsky tag | Toyhouse folder ↳ Cast's tags . . . Patch The Painted Dog | Maple The Sable | Oakley The Opposum And yes the canon cast don't have tags because I thought it would be redundant since its all I draw...just search their canon names in my blog!

Below are the arc bullet points.

Soon to be added: Illustrated timeline, trivia, and more!

"Origins" segment

Spikes Toodlerhood arc.

- Basically spikes being raised by Tikal and creatures of Angel Island. Tikal seals herself and Chaos in a pond next in Spikes' birthplace.

Ecoterrorism arc.

- Basically the events of Origins. Spikes gets civilized by Miles and Ames. Spikes meets Knux and then Ignis.

House arrest arc.

- SA 1 happens and Spikes feels forced to stay in Angel Island after being revealed to him that Dark Spikes is a thing. He spends the time there training his ass off with Knux. Predictably so, Spikes doesnt like staying in one place, so he and Miles sneak off to mainland, which is where he meets the babylon rogues for the first time.

- SA2 happens. Shade <3

- Sonic heroes happens. Spikes is super excited to have Shade back, he tries to bond with him... Pretty succesfully so.

"Godhood" segment

Speeding ticket arc

- This is basically the Sonjet, or how I like to call em, Speeding Ticket arc. Funnily enough, this is also where Spikes begins to realize he's aroace but not yet. I havent changed a lot bc I rlly like the riders games.

Dimensional travels arc.

- This is where all the weird shit happens with Rings and Black Knight. And also Snoutman. Snoutman is canon to the Heart of Chaos universe. Black Knight is the most focused on, it's more of an open world game, but in the same way frontiers is.

S2HT arc.

- ShTH happens. Eclipse The Darkling is in ShTH events and is presumed dead by the end of it. Sonic 06 happens and we discover what happens when The Master Emerald itself dies. There is Sonalise, this is where Spikes fully realizes he's aroace and only experiences queerplatonic attraction.

Sonic Colors happens after Sonic 06 and is where Spikes has is birthday.

"Happy birthday" segment.

Werehog arc.

- This is A Lot, but basically this is the arc where Spikes is given a wake up call and slap down to his ego. This arc is pretty grim, but it has a lot of good moments too. It spans for more than a couple months while they try to fix Mobius again.

Generations arc.

- After losing Chip and going through the horrors, Spikes begins travelling a lot and finding comfort in his friendnship with Shade. Then crazy shit starts happening, there is no classic spikes or anything, but Mephiles does come back as the Time Eater. More Sonelise and Milkshake moments and actually also Shadlise, YEAH YOU DIDNT SEE THAT COMIN DID YA-

Forces arc.

- Oh god. Well, lets start at the beginning. This is where my oc Patch The Painted Dog, "Sky's Spark", gets introduced. With him there is oc x canon with Howlite (Silver). He's also childhood friends with Tangle and Jewel. We also half meet Whisper during this arc.

- Spikes gets kidnapped by Infinite to power Eggmans invasion with Spikes' chaos energy aka, his life source. Spike is kept chained and restrained without the abiity to move his arms and legs for the majority of his stay there, so much that he loses the ability to walk which he realizes once he's being rescued. This is also where the frienemy-eggdad situation completely breaks as we learn that Spikes is inmortal, because Eggman attempts to kill him when he realizes that he doesn't need his power anymore and he can just create more Phantom Rubies to power his war.

- Pretty much the whole tone switches. During the war, a lot of the characters are forced to grow up, like Ames and Miles. Miles has almost a complete 180 from the cheerful kid he was before as he takes an important role in the war as the one who arms The Resistance. Knux basically makes him man up.

"Humbled" segment.

Post-war arc.

- Basically physical therapy arc for Spikes, he had to rush this slow progress for the sake of the war.

- We meet Whisper fully. Spikes and Whisper ond over being traumatized by war so much so that they feel they are no longer themselves.

- Mr. Tinker is a thing and Spikes has to deal with that. He ends up leaving Shade and The Chaotix on charge of watching him.

- Metal kidnaps Spikes bc he wants his awful dad back. She ends up running off after she realizes Eggman is gone.

- Starline happens.

Zombot arc.

- Pain, pain and pain! Spikes is not coping with this well at all. This arc is grim as hell. Shade sacrifices himself to save the few refuges left + Team Dark, he's one of the first ones gone. Spikes doesnt have his emotional attack dog anymore and he's always so close to losing it.

Milkshake & Co arc.

- Shade is back and now Spikes is codependent /j, he finally gets properly taught how to use his chaos energy in a productive way as well as help manage it.

- We meet Maple The Sable and Oakley The Opposum. Maple has a oc x canon going on with Cream!

Surge arc.

- Spikes gets a break? Too bad, let's break his peace. Starline's back.

- I dont have a lot written but basically, Surge and Kit are around for about 4-5 months. Starline gets fried and drowned by Surge and Kit before escaping.

- Surge and Kit are out to get Spikes & Miles.

- Kit and Miles do get in a fight. Kit loses, miserably.

- Surge is pissed the fuck off about it bc they kidnapped drippy and she's alone...with her thoughts.

- She attacks Spikes at night after following him, planning to kill him. They get in a fight, Surge "kills" Spikes but he's able to finish her in his Shattered form. She's dead for a while before she wakes up again.

- She tries killing Miles and Spikes again, Shade is fed up with her shit for trying to kill his weirdo and atom bombs her pretty much. Now she's gone forever.

- Kit and Miles actually do bond.

Generational trauma arc. - Knux and Spikes' beef finally hits the fan. Knux has been stressing about Spikes being almost killed again and he's just been being the worst pretty much. Spikes and Knux fight each other like dogs.

"Moonlight" segment.

Eclipse arc.

- To be added

Milkshake 2.0 arc.

- To be added

Crown of Thorns arc.

- To be added

[suffarustuffaru]

We need more re:zero fanfics that are just characters being forced to go to therapy. Subaru is ordered by the Royal Knights to attend weekly sessions (that secretly double as interrogations, though due to patient confidentiality the therapist is only able to pass on information that regards other people being put in danger) and the therapist stumbles out of there every week needing a drink because trying to make something coherent out of a conversation with Natsuki Subaru concerning anything related to his fluctuating emotional state and the very obvious/mysterious trauma underpinning all of his actions is practically an Olympic sport — and that was before unearthing his self-harm habit, severe inferiority complex, and what may be suicidal tendencies. Reinhard is so emotionally repressed that he’s refusing to let himself feel anything even regarding having to face off against his grandmother’s corpse and his superiors keep walking back the meager process any sessions manage to make. Otto seems perfectly normal and then he mentions being willing to die for Subaru’s sake as soon as three days after he met him. Ram just sits there glaring for the full hour and a half. Wilhelm uses the time to express his latest revenge plot in very well thought out detail. Heinkel is such a horrible mess that I can’t even make a joke out of what he’d do to that poor therapist’s emotional state. Roswaal doesn’t seem to realize what therapy IS. That poor therapist is in Hell.

anon ive always wanted to see something like this for sure HAH its just such a fascinating idea?? especially when 99% of people in the rz cast desperately need extensive therapy 😭😭 but yeah theres different ways you could take an idea like this and the conditions you set are really interesting.

the idea of it being a therapist appointed by the government, essentially, who’s also there to gather information (but keeps at least some details hidden for the sake of their patients) so the government can keep a leash on certain characters (subaru and reinhard particularly) + subaru is still locked by rbd taboo of course is so fascinating to me. of course—is it ideal conditions for therapy? hell no lmao 😭😭 but its a super good in universe explanation as to why theyre getting therapy (other than all of them being Mentally Unwell)—and given the therapist and everyone in the cast minus subaru and al are working with medieval knowledge, the odds were not in their favors anyway oops. and this is assuming that the cast has the BEST THERAPIST IN THE FANTASY WORLD POSSIBLE for this!! haah theyve got a real difficult job ahead of them.

and also an idea like this is difficult to write. ive always wanted a “rz cast goes to therapy” fic hah but writing the FULL cast is tricky!! tbh id feel bad not including at least a good chunk of the cast in a fic like this given SO MANY of them desperately need therapy. and this idea is Extremely character focused—you have to know every character’s intimate traumas and flaws and personalities to pull this sort of thing off. its inherently in depth character exploration, and depending on how Good you want the therapist character to be, youd probablyyy have to do at least a bit of research (??) (unless you have personal experience in this department already??) there on. how to write a therapist? but thats just me getting fixated on the practical aspects of this wkdndn this is definitely why we havent really seen much fic on this sort of idea yet. i think itd work really well as a collab though, possibly!! you can devote a therapy session to one character per chapter or something and mix it up later the further it goes on <3 or at least thats my idea for this at the moment. i think one therapy session per chapter would be very good leadup though in a Hypothetical Fic about this, and you then have the time to explore each character in depth and introduce each of them!!

ok as for the examples you gave anon—HAH yeah thats a good summary for sure 😭😭 again, this is interesting because these are Not good conditions for therapy.

they all think with their medieval knowledge. subaru cant talk about rbd and everything related to it, which is his biggest core trauma. reinhards superiors dont want him to improve because hes their perfect malleable obedient weapon right now and they chose to break him like that. they probably wont want heinkel to improve much either, given theres implications that people like russell fellow purposely helped make heinkel Worse (such as the false rumors that he kidnapped one of the royal familys kids). and also regarding characters like heinkel—he wont improve if he doesnt get some sort of rehab on top of the therapy akdnd and he wont improve if he doesnt make an effort either. and also i know theres characters like petra who are way more normal compared to everyone else and shes not in dire need of therapy unlike everyone else, but id argue petra should at least have a check up because girl is a twelve year old thats been shoved into life threatening events recently okay 😭😭 AND the astreas are gonna need some hardcore family therapy wkdndn theyll just need individual sessions first to work up to that……… but will the kingdom really allow that to happen either?

yeah so the therapist is in for a reckoning in general 😭😭 with the plot you gave anon—if the therapist genuinely tries their best, this could result in some friction. the therapist hears out all these big important people related to the royal selection—roswaal, the astreas, various other emilia camp members, and people from other factions im sure (such as julius, joshua, ferris, crusch, etc)—but the therapist is held back from fully helping all of them because the kingdom keeps them all on a leash, including the therapist themselves. will the therapist succumb to what the kingdom wants and ensure they never improve past a certain point? or ensure they never improve at all?

it creates this overarching plot to an otherwise standard premise i think—and theres a bittersweetness because the therapist cant fully help them as it is right now. and its hard to help characters like subaru and reinhard who are Incomprehensible in their own ways. even in the fantasy world with its Wide Range of dangerous traumatic events tinged with magic, subaru and reinhard are absolutely outliers. plus as i said earlier, some characters Want to improve so badly and will try their best to do so (such as emilia) and some might not have much desire to even try (such as heinkel). everyone in the cast have their own goals, motivations, and a lot of them to some degree will be unreliable narrators either purposefully or accidentally or unwittingly. the otto example you gave anon is so true because i an SO sure his ass would pretend to be normal bc he doesnt want to be there only to accidentally reveal hes not 😭😭😭 joshua is another good example bc of his hate love relationship with his brother and how he tries to conceal it by gaslighting himself into worshipping his brother’s every move and trying to live vicariously through him (joshua also hates reinhard too but pretends not to so theres that too) 👍👍👍 and also emilia and reinhard are examples of characters whove been taught the absolute WORST lessons in the world so youd have to get into unravelling that 😭😭 like theyre both afraid to be closer to others out of fear of hurting them, they have issues regarding what people see them as and what people expect them to be, learned powerlessness, terrible father figures, guilt complexes, being blamed for things that arent their fault, also the fucked up family history, etc etc. there is SO much baggage HAH.

and again, the poor therapist is getting a bunch of rz main characters and crucial side characters—many of them are well known in some way, or important political figures, and they ALL got the most buck wild stories so the stakes are Very High😭😭 itll be a fun ride im sure!! but i do think this idea is super super neat. id love to explore each and every character and all their nuances—i think a fic like this would only really fully work if youre sympathetic towards everyone, but youre not afraid to get them for their faults too. wilhelm, heinkel, roswaal are good examples. clind too by proxy, given frederica needs to get away from his ass too (RAM ALSO NEEDS TO GET AWAY FROM ROSWAAL ISTG.) and again, a fic like this requires in depth knowledge of all these characters or the premise can fall apart a bit—this is a fic all about exploring their deepest traumas after all <3

but yeah anyway i too am in dire need of a rz cast goes to therapy fic anon!!! T^T thank you for the ask i will continue to think on this idea 🙏

[taxkha]

i love your klapollo ice skating au with all my heart!! do you have a particular story that goes with it?

ahhh thank you, I'm happy you like it!! And yes, I do! I actually have 3 different ideas and I havent fully decided which I prefer, so I'm just gonna talk about them all, but the beginning of each of them is the comic I made where Daryan made Apollo trip over his foot and ended up getting punched in the face So Apollo is a pretty skilled ice skater whos mentor is none other than Phoenix Wright of course lol Apollo hasnt entered any competitions yet, hes just doing this because its fun but everyone around him, especially phoenix, are trying to get him to enter a competition already but Apollo is like, nah, due to stage fright. So Klavier is a very popular ice skater who has won multiple competitions and also has some world records and he also was very impressed with Apollos skating when he saw him skating as seen in the comic only to then find out he isnt actually in any competitions?! Smh. Klaviers mentor was/is Edgeworth. So this is where the different ideas for how the story could go start. Idea 1: Klavier is ice skater for pair skating, but his partner he skated with got seriously hurt and is now unable to continue skating competitively. So Edgeworth and Phoenix both have the idea to pair these two up. So on one day Phoenix and Apollo are at the rink, Apollo practicing a new choreography and Edgeworth is there too, waiting for Klavier so they can introduce the two. And Klavier is then shocked to learn that oh wait. I have seen this guy before. And Apollo also recognizes Klavier and hes very much not amused because he just associates him with Daryan who he very much does not like. So yadda yadda, it takes a lot to convince Apollo to give it a try but in the end he gives in so Klavier and him start practicing and it does not go well at first because Apollo is very >:( about Klavier and Klavier is growing more and more frustrated too so theres. Some arguments. And a lot of bickering. But at some point they start spending more time together, realizing that they actually get along well which also reflects on their performance for their pair skating and when they manage to do the whole choreography successfully for the first time they naturally get very excited. And I guess later they enter competitions and they win with the power of homosexuality and they kiss and all. Okay I will try to keep it short for idea 2 and 3 because they are similar, in idea 2 Apollo and Klavier arent making a pair, they are rivals who enter single skating competitions and at the very end Apollo breaks Klaviers record plus snatches first place and for idea 3 Klavier ends up being Apollos mentor similar to yuri on ice. I really love the idea of Apollo beating Klavier in a competition but I also just love the idea of them skating as a pair and growing closer and closer to each other :")

[beannary]

Bean what have you done?!?! I can't stop thinking about your TOA wip. Those silly little guys putting all of their braincells together to figure out if Douxie is a vampire or not. Is this before Toby officially meets him? Or is he dead ass fully aware he's a wizard and just wants to fuck with everyone? Krel doesn't even know what a vampire is. Your words have consumed my every waking thought. Please tell us more

AKSJDH im glad you liked it!!!! my little bean words have infected your brain

also ok so i know wizards happens right after 3below but this fic would take place like after 3below but like before wizards so like toby, krel, eli, and steve are like a weird little friend group but they havent been introduced to wizards and magic yet

iirc i was going to have douxie be like the most normal guy in the world, like he was going to be very normal when being their server despite how weird toby, krel, eli, and steve were being, like they were going to be like ah yes we would like your finest dish that contains garlic but then i was going to have the restaurant not be serving anything containing garlic so their attempts to catch douxie in some sort of situation where he proves that he is a vampire

eventually after they ordered their food and were eating eli was going to be like ok guys we have to up the stakes here and he was going to purposefully cut himself with a knife just so he can bleed a little bit when douxie was near them like checking on how their meal was going and then douxie was going to be like oh my god and rush off to go grab a first aid kit which you know is a normal reaction but the gang was going to interpret this in the completely opposite way like he was running away from the blood because he wouldnt be able to control himself around it

it was going to end with everyone except for krel being convinced that douxie was a vampire because of their solid proof and douxie being so confused about what just happened because that whole situation was just a thoroughly bizarre series of interactions for him

[trainingdummyrabbit]

I always see a ton of Pokemon AUs for Demon Slayer, but I never see any Digimon AUs! For the AU ask if you're still taking them

. okok iam Absolutely still taking these and ill do my best but anon this is a really funny ask because i. do have a mini digimon au. like its ridiculously self-indulgent and tiny but. getting this was like a kick in the shins (affectionate) WAHAHAHA

so!! i hope you dont mind if this is very blatantly biased, but its certainly a starting point! as well, i havent really interacted w/ digimon since watching the anime years ago + playing world dusk and championship a while ago, so i wont have as much knowledge to pick from as i would other things! with the disclaimers out of the way...!

...hey what if we isekai'd the tokitwins? (post-writing edit: this ended up over 2k words long. This Is A Warning.)

so, you've been oh-so-luckily chosen to be digidestined and whisked away to an unfamiliar world where just about Everything wants to kill you, you have No way to contact your own world, and you have No idea how to get back. great! cool! excellent!

introducing our funny little guys of the week: yuichiro and muichiro tokito! just them for now, before i scope-creep myself to death. but, that aside, you can't be digidestined without a funny little digital partner of your own! so, introducing:

-Patamon, Muichiro's partner! an observant yet skittish little thing that never tends to stray far from its partner. it takes its job very seriously, oftentimes coming across as a bit fussy. even so, it is very easily overwhelmed and may need encouragement to press on. as well, it also tends to take things at face value more often than not, making it very earnest but Very gullible. -DemiDevimon, Yuichiro's partner! a mischeivous little thing that rarely seems to take things very seriously. its defiant and a bit self-centered, and honestly at times seems to genuinely only stick around the twins because theyre entertaining to mess with. it's here for a good time and Nothing Else. despite its yapping, it does occasionally let a bit of protectiveness slip through-- always fiercely sticking by them despite its nigh-constant complaints about how it wants to leave.

this ragtag group of four must make their way across the digital world to find a way back home-- and hopefully remain alive in the process. in such an unfamiliar and dangerous world, however, problems are sure to arise.

the twins, of course, stick together-- but more and more often, their desires and personalities begin to clash in ways that make it more difficult to progress. it's easy to keep your head low and follow along, but just how long can you really take that-- how long can you pretend it's okay? it's easy to keep a brave face, but there's only so much you can do with what you have-- and what you convince yourself that you don't. there's only so long you can stay in such a high-pressure environment before something begins to break.

throughout their journey, they'll discover more outlandish and mystifying places, meet more new faces, and uncover strange secrets-- what's the connection between their digimon partners? how did they get sent to the digital world in the first place? and most importantly: why does this world seem to already recognize them?

///

with that out of the way... time for the fiddly bits.

the twins have an arc with each other much alike the one they get in canon-- but pressed a bit further. the two learn to stand their ground, speak their mind-- and ultimately, learn to really, truly trust one another.

yui oftentimes takes the lead, and tends to do a better job keeping everything in order-- but... he's still just a kid. a kid that cares deeply for his brother, and would do anything to keep him safe. but in a world like this, there's not much that he Can do. so he plays the part as best he can-- even if it means that he has to make hard choices.

mui, on the other hand, wants desperately to be able to help-- he slowly starts getting bolder and more forward, away from that more shy personality he'd been known to have. of course it was more dangerous. of course they didn't know what would happen next. but he would never forgive himself if he just did Nothing.

at its core, the two begin to actually almost switch places through their arc-- mui becoming more active and yui more passive-- as they make their way forward and sort themselves (and each other) out.

and of course: their partners have a whole Thing(tm) going on too! with the twins And between each other.

mui+pata are like odd little peas in a pod, oftentimes found staring at something or other with their big ol owly eyes, going back and forth over this-and-that about it in a way that makes sense to nobody but them. pata knows more about the world and where they might be going, but mui is a bit of an emotional rock for it-- providing encouragement and talking it through any roadblocks it may have come across. theyre odd little enablers! at least, when pata isn't pulling mui's hair over the fact that theyre going the wrong way, they went the wrong way we have to go that way-- no, thats the wrong way too we-- were lost were lost oh no were lost what do we DO--

yui+dDevi are. a goddamn mess. dDevi loves messing with this kid, always talking at him like it knows better-- which it does, technically, but it doesnt have to say it like that, shut up. it talks like a shitty older brother as if it wasn't leagues smaller than him and shaped exactly like a kickball. (yui doesn't vocalize this. he is so very tempted to, though.) despite all the ribbing, yui is pretty much the only person it'll talk seriously with. obviously yui is rather frustrated with it at times, but he can tell it does genuinely mean well. mostly. they squabble, but they do keep each other from doing anything too stupid. and further than that: even if he doesn't say anything, yui can tell when there's something on its mind.

the digiduo are... odd, certainly. but, strangely, there seems to be some sort of tension between the two-- they... really dont seem to get along. pata is deeply distrustful of dDevi, noting its existence as an evil digimon. like, it's in the name! devimon! not to mention how often it leads them astray or messes with them just for kicks-- something's up and it's not sure what.

on the other hand, dDevi doesn't much like pata either. it's a stuck-up killjoy thats convinced it's always right when it can barely make any good calls. always hiding behind its whole spiel of "good" and "evil" like it's so trustworthy. it doesn't even know what it's talking about half the time! if it's going to lecture them, it should at the very least be right about it. get a reason to be upset other than "that ones clearly evil, look at it!"

and then... there's the memories. or rather, the lack thereof. both seem to remember parts of some grand legend that they no longer have the ability to recall the whole of. something important to their reason of being-- and the presence of the digidestined twins.

pata seems particularly insistent of it being a prophecy, a series of steps to follow that foretell what and who they should be. (something about it seems to stress them out particularly badly, though... what exactly is it that they're living up to? why doesn't it know?)

dDevi... pretends not to care, at least. but it recalls the legend too, and hearing the fragments of it seems to make it upset. it wants nothing to do with the legend, and just wants to do... anything else. (anything to get further away from that stupid story. it's not one to be shackled by expectations like that.)

and again, the twins seem to differ on what they make of the story. yui sides with pata, believing its their best bet to at the very least figuring out how to get home. mui, on the other hand, slowly begins to wonder what exactly the gaps in the legend could mean, and wants to find out what it truly is. it's hard to follow a broken path. after all, who's to say its really a path at all? which brings us to... a bit of a conflict.

///

after a particularly rough leg of the journey, things start to get... difficult. theyve had little to no luck learning much of Anything of the way forward-- and things are just getting harder and harder as they go. yui isn't sure how much more they can really take of this. they're starting to barely make it out of these situations alive, so... so maybe they're better off just accepting it. nothing's leading them anywhere, nothing is making sense-- they might as well just... find a place to hide and keep their heads low. live it out as best they can. (he isn't sure how much more they can take.)

mui, of course, protests-- there were so many more places they haven't looked through yet! there was no telling if they found something or not unless they went for it! it was always going to be hard-- they couldn't just give up and wait for the difficulty to find Them. (he can't stand the idea of just giving up after all that...)

the two begin bickering, and it gets... hard. pata starts experiencing some doubt, unsure of if they should really be pressing on into certain death-- they'd just had some ridiculously close calls, and maybe waiting it out would reveal something..? (the knowledge of the unfinished legend hangs above its head, and the thought of unravelling it... is starting to give them a bad feeling.) dDevi doesn't want to sit around and do nothing while waiting for death-- that's boring and pathetic. itd much rather do something with itself even if it's scary. (it needs to know the truth. why so many others know them, why it keeps getting such bitter stares... why? it's frustrating.)

and the bickering turns to arguing. after a few too many harsh words from both sides... they split up. mui heading off with dDevi to find out what was really going on, and yui with pata to... find somewhere safe. figure it out.

for yui and pata, it's... a bit of a long journey. the two rarely speak, mostly just quick words to keep each other alert and avoid attention. yui is mostly pushed forward by his stubbornness, but... it does bother him. it bothers him a lot. he's afraid, he's worried, and he doesn't know what to do. he wants to figure it out, he wants to have all the answers. but he doesn't, and it was stupid to think he ever couldve. legend or not-- prophecy or not, they were just kids. what could they really do? what were they supposed to do?

and as it turned out, pata was worried sick as well. it isnt until a quiet moment that yui catches pata crying-- and they finally talk. because pata hated this too. it hated feeling like it should be able to lead them, but being unable to because of the gaps in its knowledge. it hated giving up, because it knew they needed to do something, and it was letting them down by doing nothing. and most of all... it missed mui. it argued because it was afraid, but it knew this was no better. more than anything, it just wanted to help.

they both knew they couldn't keep going with this. if not for their own sakes, then for the others'.

team mui's progress is... equally difficult. it was already hard enough moving about with a halved party, but they also aren't with their bonded partners, so their Actual Useable FIrepower is much much more limited. the entire time, dDevi goes on and on insulting the other pair, insisting it was really about time this went and happened, and that their own pair was obviously right all along. mui stays quiet through much of this, but after a particularly cruel jab, mui snaps back.

because he knew it didn't really mean any of it. dDevi was smug and irritating, sure, but it was just about always a joke. it was never this mean about it... unless it was actually, personally upset. that was a lot of talk for someone who insisted it didn't care. and even if it were to deny it, mui wouldn't stand for someone saying the people he cared about weren't worth anything. of course they were afraid-- they all were. answers were never easy. it was why they were working so hard to begin with.

and dDevi was genuinely taken aback-- because it was always convinced that mui was the pushover of the group. but just like that, he'd managed to completely read its actions without so much as a word. and... he was right. it wasnt proud of what it said, but it had to stand by it. it just didnt know how else to justify itself-- how else to keep going. but... all of this-- everything had always been for each other, hadn't it? and they certainly wasn't going to stop there.

they just had to find a way to convince the others.

of course, nothing was ever easy. its the risk they knew they were taking, but... maybe a risk they weren't quite prepared for. wherever they go, together or not, some new threat will always find a way to rear its head. but between the two of them, there wasn't much they could do to fight back. and they full well wouldn't have been able to make it... had it not been for team yui showing up at a crucial moment, yuichiro putting himself directly in the line of danger to draw attention from mui-- giving him and pata a chance to actually fight back now that they were reunited.

it's a messy fight, but with all of them together-- and a newfound but concrete trust-- they manage to push through relatively unscathed-- if a bit battered on yui's end. after a few moments to make sure everyone was all right (and ironically, to scold each other over being so reckless,) they finally get the chance to talk. and... to apologize.

///

and now for more scattered notes before i end up writing another minific in a tumblr post.

the legend goes very similarly to a typical fairy tale-- a battle between forces of good and evil, and the champions of each. long ago, there was another pair of digidestined that stumbled across the digital world, and very quickly became unrivaled in power. one half, however, became corrupted by the allure of strength and jealousy, splitting both the digital world and their familial bond. as things came to a boiling point, their conflict brought unseen destruction to the digital world, each of the chosen digimon destroying each other in the battle. crushed and in denial (for varying different reasons,) the old digidestined simply... vanished, one day, never to be seen again. as for their chosen digimon, their data was wiped nearly clean, to be born anew for when they were needed again.

as a whole, it's a story of forging bonds, learning to trust, and breaking cycles of violence.

dDevi hates the idea of digivolving due to lingering memories of that past life. it refuses to interact with it at all, and commits itself to just having a good time and living a life it can enjoy. it doesn't want to become... that again.

pata remembers that betrayal and remembers something awful happening, but... something about having to distrust the other makes it deeply, deeply sad. it want to believe in the best in dDevi, but it also feels the pull of responsibility of having to live up to the legend. that was the only thing it felt it could trust.

the old digidestined are, of course, the tsugikuni twins. whether they show up again or not is still in the air-- yoriichi being pata's old partner and michikatsu being dDevi's.

i dont feel like digging through the digiwiki for another hour but id like to somehow integrate dDevi's original digivolution line being more in line w/ canon, going all in on the Hehoo Evil(tm) thing, but with yui, it follows a more neutral route, following its own desires rather than the course of what the story Expects of it.

SO !!! YEAH!!! DIGIMON AU!!!! i care about this a very normal amount, and if you read this far: thank you, and I Am So Sorry.

[raidenloml]

question 15 for your ocs? 👀

15. who is your OC’s best friend?

grinning from ear to ear (see image below) ready to answer this one with yap of the century....

Arsenic:

Link…. they havent seen each other for a while since arsenic joined his now ex-team but they were glued to each other in school but kinda just drifted apart…. he hasn’t really felt the same connection with anyone else he met (HES GAY!!! ahem anyway) but he probably does have some people from the competitive circles to hang out with (up until the Incident (trademark copyright etc etc raidenloml) after which he felt that he couldnt hang out with those circles out of shame…) he gets better after reconnecting with Link because they did talk from time to time but suddenly Arsenic was unemployed with all of the time in the world yk

Link:

(evil grin) the bestfriendship with Arsenic is in fact mutual… he really admires him but other than Arsenic he doesn’t have very close friends (yet), like he would probably be friendly with customers who are passionate about the repairs he does for them but hes a really private person in general. He does end up becoming friends with a rival team on accident when the second in command becomes his apprentice.. Link plays anonymously so everyone is very much clueless abt his true identity

Zel:

She’s not best friends with anyone in the team but i’d imagine like a cousin/childhood friend from the town she was from, she got picked on for being so different as a child and would probably form a very strong bond with the people who stood up for her. In terms on in-team relationships i think that Zel would have a ton of fun with A4, especially as they end up doing lots of grizzco shifts together but because of A4’s like inability to communicate with others well Zel would worry a lot about if she actually liked her and didnt see her as an annoyance 😭

A4:

A4 has an octarian friendgroup outside of the team, shes especially close with Fern and Violet as she (insert lore im not sure about cuz idk Fern and Violet lore uhhhh Fern was also in military with her maybe???) but yeah she’s also pretty fond of Zel because she views her as VERY hardworking and respects her a lot for that even though she might not show it well. Zel was also the one to introduce her to inkling/splatlands culture and the splatsville community where A4 ends up reconnecting with Fern