#he was probably about 50 when he died? and he died in battle

[heniareth]

Crying over Adralen, elven Grey Warden who's already been dead for a few weeks by the time Astala arrives at Ostagar

[catgirl-catboy]

Which Ace Attorney characters can you beat in a fight:

Phoenix: I know he looks like a weakling, but this man has canonically gotten into a fistfight before and the other guy died right after. Even after the death, he was still PISSED. Do not fight Phoenix Wright. Not only would you lose, Phoenix would not stop punching if you went down.

Maya: You can easily win- Maya learned how to fight from anime and it shows. You'd think spirit channeling will help you out, but it takes time and focus, neither of which Maya would have when she's busy eating pavement.

Edgeworth: You could win, but it would not be worth it. He would file charges for assault, and you'd have to deal with Gumshoe hating your ass for the rest of your life. Can you imagine having to explain having Gumshoe as an enemy? That being said, before you take the dive, be sure to ruin his dumb ass cravat. You're doing him a favor.

Gumshoe: I don't think he'd fight back unless he's on the clock, but he absolutely could beat you.

Franziska: 100% my most controversial opinion on this list, but I like your odds. She has a whip, but I doubt she has actual fight experience. Who would fight the daughter on Manfred Von Karma? You, that's who! I also think you'd avoid the legal charges you'd have to deal with from Edgeworth, because Franziska would want a rematch.

Pearl: It'd be tough, but you'd win. Cartoon logic aside, she's eight and wouldn't know any of the classic dirty tricks. Since you have longer arms, I think you could prevent her from doing too much damage. That being said, the fact that it was close at all would make you a laughingstock. Also, Morgan would go all Karen on your ass for fighting Pearl, even if she started it.

Mia: There's no way to sugarcoat this, but you're going down. Mia can and will fight dirty- that magatama would get jammed into your eyes if we're talking a serious fight. Redd White, despite running a blackmail company and looking much stronger than her, opted for a weapon and so should you.

Godot: Out of all the people on this list, I'd want to fight him the least. Hot coffee directly to the dick, and then he'd start bludgeoning. Depending on what point in the timeline, he's been in prison too, so fight experience is a given. Your only hope would be to say something ??? enough to make him decide a battle of words is the better option.

Apollo: His perceive ability would give him an edge in a fight, but he's such a butt-monkey it wouldn't even matter. You're winning this, but like Edgeworth, he's going to get legal about this. He's too poor to afford a good lawyer, so I wouldn't be too worried though.

Kristoph: You can win, but you'd die of a mysterious poison two weeks later. We just don't know what could have happened!

Klavier: You can easily win, but for the rest of your life you're going to be known as the asshole that beat up beloved rockstar, Klavier Gavin. Its social suicide. Just take the dive and maybe destroy his career after if you're vengeful.

Trucy: She absolutely knows how to kick your ass, but she's socially astute enough to know when it is better to take a dive. My gut says that she'll probably let you beat her up, then talk about how her entire family is made of lawyers so you settle it out of court. Even if you win, you lose.

Ema: You have about 50/50 odds, but unlike most people, Ema has no limits. This isn't about pride, its about morbid curiosity. Realistically, this is the second most dangerous fight after Godot, since who knows what chemicals she has on her?

Athena: Simon absolutely taught her how to fight. That being said, she isn't in the right headspace for fighting, and I imagine it would remind her of the UR-1 incident. The fight would be with her past, not with you. That being said, Athena can and will tell everyone present about about why you are so bloodthirsty, which is worse, actually!

Juniper: Mess with Juniper and you get Athena.

Simon: He'd kick your ass, but he'd do it in a way where you're pretty much fine the next morning. He'd be fair about it and not hold grudges. Pretty enjoyable fight experience overall.

The Phantom: easy L, you've signed your death warrant. Even if you somehow win this, you're still dead. This isn't even a fight, this is assisted suicide.

Nahyuta: I know he looks like a twink, but with his background he can and will kick ass. That being said, I think you should fight him anyway because it'd be good for his pent up frustration.

Kay: I think its pretty safe to say you'd lose. She was raised by a cop, and would fight dirty. Still a 50% chance of getting sued by Edgeworth, even though Kay begged him to let it go.

Sebastian: He's a joke character. He'd win, because him winning a fight is the funniest thing that could have happened. He probably didn't even realize you were fighting. And if you're talking post AAI2, I think he'd genuinely be able to beat the average person with his baton. It'd be close, but he'd win.

Ryuunosuke: I know he has a sword but still one of the easiest fights on this list. Do it. You know you want to.

Susato: This one is a pretty canon no.

Kazuma: No fucking way, and after what he did to the Payne family you shouldn't even try. Sword aside, he could do this unarmed.

Van Zieks: This may be controversial, but unless you happen to be British he's too busy thinking racist thoughts to notice you punching him in the gut. Not only should you fight him, I think you're morally obligated to do so. Steal some of his wine while you're at it it'll be wasted otherwise.

Sherlock: He wouldn't fight back because he finds the concept boring. Bring him a bear to fight, maybe then you will see the powers of a great detective!

Iris: Ignore everything I said about Pearl, this isn't even a fight, this is a massacre. Not only will she beat you within an inch of your life, she'll over you tea right after so you think the two of you are cool. Do not be fooled! The latest edition of Sherlock Holmes needed a fight scene, so your shame is broadcast all over the world!

Gina: Regardless of if you win or lose, you're losing your wallet.

[lavender-butterfly-cookie]

I meant the isekai x self-aware fic with the team that you would never fight. I love it and want to see a part 2 of it. (sorry if I worded my previous ask incorrectly and confused you into thinking I was talking about another fic!)

OH- Butterfly- be more specific next time. I got around 3 different self-aware crk au's going on and you ought to specify which one you're referring to. I'm gonna mix them up if you don't T T Anyways, part two coming right up

Previous part

The ball's in your court pt2

While the battle between the heroes and Shadow Milk cookie raged on, Y/N cookie was just chilling with the kids and watching from the side eating popcorn (From where? nobody knows). The fight was pretty much still a 50/50 battle since neither team was taking enough damage for defeat. When did Shadow Milk cookie become THIS resilient??? Oh well, provided you got the healers doing their job and everyone else is holding up it would be fine.

Gingerbrave: So...

Strawberry cookie: The baker, hm?...

Wizard cookie: I thought you'd be bigger...

Y/N cookie: the feeling is mutual. And take as much time as you need to come to terms with it.

Strawberry cookie: And those cookies- the ones you brought to fight. Are... they the really like the ones we know? As in- the white lily cookie and dark cacao cookie. I don't know who the other two are.

Y/N cookie: Yes and no. Unlike the cookies of this universe, these ones are solely brought in to fight the enemy on my command. And if they crumble it's not a permanent death. They'll always come back provided I choose to use them for battle again. And even if I don't, they're on standby. Though I don't exactly think I'll need to put any of them on the bench with how well the battle is going.

Y/N cookie looks back at the fight, which hasn't calmed down in the slightest. But at least they were slowly getting the upper hand. The three other cookies looked at each other before looking at the baker.

Wizard cookie: So you're saying that anyone you choose to fight for you can and will appear?

Y/N cookie: Yeah, but that'll probably only be possible once I beat this boss or they lose.

Gingerbrave: Wow! This is so cool! It's like some awesome video game in real life!

Y/N cookie:... riiiiiiiiiiiight......

Strawberry cookie: I have a question.

Y/N cookie: Ask away.

Strawberry cookie: Earlier you said something about... Elder Faerie crumbling?... I-is that really gonna happen?

Y/N cookie: Uhh

Wizard cookie: Oh so I wasn't the only one who heard that.

Y/N cookie: Well-

Gingerbrave: Wait- he's gonna crumble?! When?!

Y/N cookie: Ok just calm down so I can speak, geez!

All three cookies go silent, looking up at Y/N cookie with visible concern as they sigh.

Y/N cookie: So originally, he supposed to die. I'm not gonna go into too much detail cuz that's way too many spoilers but yeah, he dies. I was admittedly hoping it wouldn't come to that since a whole lot of dialogue was changed, but I guess there odds of the story changing were pretty low.

Gingerbrave: W-when does it happen?! Maybe we can stop it?!

Y/N cookie: Considering how long the fight's been going I'd say right about-

Just then there was a yell of pain from the battle grounds, causing all the cookies to look at the source. Surprise surprise, Elder faerie was dying.

Y/N cookie: Now...

The four went to the scene. (skipping the whole using the guardians strength part because it's gonna take forever for me to finish this story if I don't.)

Y/N cookie: Can't you heal him or something, Mystic flour cookie?

Mystic flour cookie: No.

Y/N cookie: Why not-

Mystic flour cookie: I'm not about to interfere with a canon event.

Y/N cookie: Ah- fair.

Burning Spice cookie: And so the old fool dies. And yet, I still feel nothing.

Y/N cookie: Wait is that a ref-

White Lily cookie: WHY ARE YOU GUYS SO NOCHALANT ABOUT THIS?! I JUST BECAME A GUARDIAN FOR TREES SAKE!

Moonflower Faerie: You'll get over it.

White Lily cookie: Wait- really?

Moonflower faerie: No- that's gonna haunt you for weeks to come, trust me.

White Lily cookie: oh-

Dark Cacao cookie (Dragon lord): Now, let us make haste and seal that wretched beast once and for all.

Y/N cookie: He's gonna be back in- like, Beast yeast episode 7

Burning spice + Mystic flour: What?-

Y/N cookie: Nothing- let's just go!

[real-fire-emblem-takes]

thinking about the fe games w/ routes (fates and three houses specifically but probably others idfk)

i think there needs to be more tragedy there. or opportunities for it i guess? or that fire emblem has to make unique death quotes for characters in general man

death in fire emblem feels so blah for me. more of an inconvenience than in other media. like when im playing DnD and an npc i love dies it isnt "man that sucks. anyway" but even w characters i love in fire emblem its just "man do i wanna reset the chapter for this that was so lame"

make death and especially betrayal related deaths Hurt More.

lets say youre byleth. youre teaching the black eagles, yay! but you have a b support with claude. you and claude are good buddies, maybe you just like claude as a character or its accidental because of x y z does Not matter. either way you are one of claudes closest friends. then the war starts, and you choose to side with a woman claude sees as a future tyrant (or at the very least a driven warmonger who might crush the alliance underneath her boot). imagine the hurt. the absolute fucking agony for claude.

and for byleth! byleth wakes up and their friend is gone. on another side, unreachable, 5 years of emotional distance *yawning* in front of them.

and then they reunite in the midst of battle, weapons drawn. theyve both come so far and have goals they *have* to achieve.

"I don't want this."

too bad. if you roll over, you get a game over because you fuckin failed the route. or you have to make someone else kill claude because sumn sumn mechanically you have a 0% hit rate bc of that b support. you cant do it.

too bad. claude cant run away, hes the last line of defense for a place hes responsible for. if he leaves what is he? a coward? a turncoat? would he have to believe in edelgard's future? would he have to slay his own allies, friends, the people who relied on him?

he cant. you cant.

he begs you to reconsider. you cant.

as he falls he reaches out a hand. you kneel beside him as he says a few things. calls this whole battle a clever gambit, praises your cunning in using effective weaponry, etc etc. but his voice is weaker. theres no option to spare him, you couldnt spare any *other* unit, could you? couldn't spare hilda. cant spare claude.

he mentions sometimes dreaming of the monastery. the food was good, right? hope the foods good in the future you build with edelgard. hope you name a town after him, thatd be fun. dont get stupid, teach, dont join him too soon. maybe he'll even wait for ya. keep a seat warm.

(fire emblem unit death sound)

then also: units in your own army.

lets say youre playing black eagles. its nearish endgame but not too close so i dont say any spoilers, but regardless bernadetta and yuri have an A support. they might get hitched postgame man, you havent done the A support of anyone else w those two. its a rough battle, your healer is severely low on psychic uses, you sold all your fucking vulneraries because you thought dorothea was more of a beast than she is. its dire.

unexpected sniper crit. yuri is on 0 hp.

bernadetta is within 5 tiles and instead of yuri's canned death quote, bernie interjects with one of the most well voiced anguished screams youve ever fucking heard. on the next turn, bernie gets +50 hit *and* crit on that enemy, and if she kills it the rest of the scene plays.

bernie is holding yuri, one of her few friends in her hellish fucking life. hes not gonna make it, she knows that, but shes still gonna try. shes wailing and begging him to stay like she wished she had all those fucking years ago, shes babbling about all the things he'll miss if he goes, all the things shes planned for them to do now that shes brave enough to leave her bedroom. he cuts her off to laugh. now is when she gets brave and honest with her feelings? when hes dying? oh bernie come on. he wraps an arm around her shoulders and pulls her in for a hug, kissing her temple like an old boyfriend and not a quiet yearning crush. he murmurs that hes glad she left her bedroom. that hes glad she can see the world beyond what abuse happened to her behind closed doors. that she'll find some other person to hold in his stead, one who wont so rudely get his blood on her battle leathers. one who wont leave her time and time again like he has. she wails into his shoulder as she drops the scraps of cloth she had been trying to use to stop his bleeding and just holds her dying friend.

(fire emblem unit death sound)

if death felt like An Event and not An Inconvenience i'd play with permadeath more man. make me sad fire emblem youre so shit at it

.

[achickennamedcheese]

OHHHH CHEESE~

I HAVE BROUGHT MORE UNDERTALE AU LORE FOR YOU

and yes, it is Bloodmoon related :3

There he is, the guy himself. He’ll set up traps all around Snowdin and the forest in order to capture (or outright kill) Lunar. Lunar though spooked actually finds the twins to be cool, but they both kinda intimidate them so they’d only actively want to befriend them both in a replay. Now as for Blood’s fight.

He technically has five total fights, but the first four are more just him ambushing Lunar and attacking a bit and then getting distracted with something else. In those four first fights he’ll use a mace, a bow, a scythe, and a chainsaw to fight. One of those fights, probably the scythe one, would be interrupted by Snow complaining about Blood stealing her favorite weapon, which would lead to a small argument between the twins which Lunar would use to run away. In short, Lunar has to run away from all four fights. And then, the actual fight. In the outskirts of Snowdin during a snow storm, Blood will use every single weapon they had used before and some knives to try and fight//kill Lunar, by then he’d be pissed by the fact he hasn’t been able to kill them and would absolutely not hold back. There’d be multiple insta kills at various points in the fight. And of course, the blue soul mechanic. Lunar would have to actively avoid traps that had been set in the battlefield by Blood all while dodging the bot’s attacks. It’d be a very fun fight over all, well, for the player, Lunar would be terrified on their first run. And then comes the special attack, Blood chases Lunar all around the battlefield with the intent of leading them to a giant fucking bear trap hidden in the snow or something. If activated, the trap is an insta kill. If not…

The trap still activates. And Blood falls on it.

from here there are five different ways the battle could end, I have made a chart though I forgot one of the variants.

There are two turns where neither Lunar or the player can act, due to the shock (and angst >:)) of the event. Once free to act, there are three turns left to the battle. This isn’t the case if Lunar had been fighting prior to this happening and had lowered Blood’s health over 50%, in that case Blood would straight up die from the bear trap, EXP would be gained from this. If his HP is over 50%, he’d lose a good chunk of it, the rest slowly draining as the turns pass.

If the three turns are up and nothing has been done to either help, escape, or end things, Blood will die, no EXP would be gained from it.

If choosing to attack, Lunar will hit the trap so it hurries draining his HP up, Blood dies, EXP is gained.

The canon thing that happens in Lunar’s first run is they run away. They exit Snowdin, shaken up by the events that just transpired, and will refuse to go back to Snowdin if the player tries to go back. They would try to not think about it and keep going through the underground, only other mention of Blood being Solar (haven’t thought that through yet), and it isn’t until they reach Judgement Hall that they remember that. They are confronted with what they did by facing the person who’d be the most affected by Blood’s death, though she doesn’t mention it at all, she just gives Lunar their judgement and leaves, her wearing her dead sibling’s scarf being the only giveaway that they know what happened. Needless to say Lunar feels extremely guilty about it, but y’know, final boss, so they deal with that post game in the phone call, where Snow addresses them coldly and uncaringly.

The happy ending is the one where Lunar helps Blood by disarming the trap. He scrambles away and the battle ends. Lunar looks around and finds him sitting against a tree, processing what just happened, when he notices he doesn’t know what to say, he simply stares at Lunar then at the trap then at Lunar. He mutters a small thank you before running away. That’s all Lunar hears about both twins for a while. And then, the second half of waterfall is reached, and Lunar receives a phone call.

“Uhhh, is this the human? Hey. Hey! Hi, it has been some time, uhhhhh. So I uh, I wanted to say thanks for helping me out back there, I uh, I appreciate it… god that feels weird to say— anyways! I know we got off in the wrong foot, so uh, sorry for trying to kill you? I can, like, make it up to you? Just drop by our place or something, I got rid of all the traps (I think) so, yeah… Wha? How’d I get your phone number? Other caught it while looking over your shoulder as you used it, anyways— later!”

And so, the blood twins can be befriended.

You might notice I’m missing a variation of the fight, and that’s because the No mercy route is so incredibly different that any other. I also have a thing to illustrate what I mean with this

Blood will straight up not fight in the No Mercy route. The first four encounters do happen, but by the time the outskirts are reached he has decided he simply won’t fight you again. You had no reaction to any of the traps, you hadn’t even flinched when he took out the chainsaw, he’s creeped out by you. He tells you he won’t even bother since no human in their right mind would ever not react to any of that, he also gloats about it also probably not being a fair fight because he’d probably win easily if he didn’t hold any punches. The fight starts, and there are two ways to go about this, kill him or don’t.

If you kill him, he’ll be very taken aback by the strength of your attack, he won’t say anything, he won’t move, he’ll just stare at you. In the last second he’ll turn away to run, but it’d be worthless by then, he’d turn to dust a few feet behind you.

If you don’t kill him he’ll be relieved, he had been very anxious about this confrontation for what he assumes to be no reason, he’ll just be like ‘cool’ and walk away. Just like him living in any other route, he calls you once you reach the second half of Waterfall, though he isn’t as chipper as he could be, in fact he’d still be very creeped out by you, but be willing to talk about murder and bones over some prepackaged meals or whatever.

That’s all I have for now, please give me your thoughts and please give input on if this is too much or something

Later ;P

BRUH PLS I- AHDJFKWJFJJEF

You even got everything down to the routes and mechanics??? Dude omfg this is sick

Also- love how... how should I say this- uh- fruity/zesty Blood is 👍

[sereinlikessleep]

Little rant about Grusha because I had time

So uh listen to my ramblings I had nothing better to do and I’m bad at articulating my points and thoughts 😭 ok cool? Cool

Rant about Grusha because I have nothing better to do. So like I’ve been noticing a lot of people are dissatisfied with Grusha’s injury and it’s been bothering me a tad because the main reason is that it isn’t lining up with their head canons or the severity isn’t enough. That’s fine feel that way but people are treating it like Grusha’s being dramatic and while I agree the little shite can be dramatic at times with all of his ice puns he’s not wrong. As someone who has a former athletic background and has dabbled in snowboarding a bit and has multiple people around me who do snowboarding on the regular I feel qualified to give my 2 cents on the topic. So based on the anime Grusha has a leg injury and as someone who has and has a family with a loooooong history of knee injuries it isn’t a small thing. When your sport requires balance the knees are crucial, while I sustained a minor knee injury for pushing myself too hard in running I have family and friends who had to go through literal years of physical therapy and muscle training and they still can’t achieve the same results they had before and after injury. And that’s why this injury is so big for Grusha, it’s been well established that this man is a perfectionist and cares about results more than anything else. (IE why he quit snowboarding and failed Liko) I also don’t think people understand how fast snowboarding is, a turn that Grusha took at the speed he was going (average snow boarders go 30-40 mph since Grusha was at a pro comp we can assume he was going at least 50-65 mph) and the fact that it was his leg got hurt likely meant he fell feet first or landed on his knees which makes the likelihood that he broke his leg even higher. A close friend of mine was snowboarding and tripped while she was doing it and she’s not pro, she was doing it casually but she landed so hard that she cracked her helmet into 2 pieces and would’ve died if she wasn’t wearing it. Lesson take away is that snowboarding is dangerous and Grusha is very lucky he only ended up with the injury he has now. 

Now comes the hard part after a sports injury, physical therapy. A broken leg is going to require months of physical therapy at the least and knowing Grusha and how closely his identity as a snowboarder was this was probably hell for him and when he was finally cleared to go back he can’t get the same results he used to get. I’ve seen this happen, someone can’t get the results they used to and because you’re just trapped in this cycle of going from the best to only mediocre and you can only go as far as mediocre. For someone who was once considered the 2nd best snowboarder in the world this has to hurt. I didn’t mention it but even after physical therapy you still have to be careful because now you’re more at risk of re-injuring that part of your body. My cousin used to be good at basketball but she had a knee injury and had to quit because she couldn’t keep up and she was always close of injuring her knee again. For someone who likely did snowboarding almost 24/7 much of Grusha’s identity was intertwined with the sport not being able to return to his glory days is world shattering. Now he has to find something else to do, and pokemon battling was that next thing, he obviously threw himself into it with the same and possibly more effort than snowboarding because this is the one thing he has left and cannot let it go. So forgive him if he sounds dramatic or his injury wasn’t as sever as you expected it to be just know that Grusha is a perfectionist who values results more than anything else, snowboarding is dangerous, injuries suck and can last long times and be career ending. Thank you for coming to my ted talk :3

[dangermousie]

Finished.

God, what a glorious, glorious, glorious ride, a truly solid epic drama in a way I haven't seen in a very long time - there were two other flawless cdramas for me this year - Lost You Forever 1 and The Ingenuous One - but TIO was a smaller scale story and LYF ended in medias res. AJTL was the only complete, epic cdrama this year for me, but oh boy, was it beyond.

First, my two tiny niggles - this is a drama where the 40 episode limit fit badly, like tightly pinching shoes. You can tell how they had to speed and cram to get in the resolutions of dynastic struggles in An and Wu and the war with Beipan. This drama really needed to have been 50 eps. (The cramming also resulted in the sole plot arc that made me go huh - LTG random decision to try to marry Ruyi before he rides off to what he thinks is his last battle and his just as random decision to go "oh well" and agree to release NYZ and then when NYZ shows up before he can be released because he broke out and wreaks havoc, let them walk out. Maybe if they had more time, it would have made more sense, otherwise it felt like an aberration in a character arc that before and after was consistent and made sense.) Second niggle is not really one because it's clearly due to censorship - the last minute redemption of the Wu emperor etc - the writer made is as believable as she could but you could feel the censorship sticky hands all over it.

But those are minor complaints. Overall this was solid from beginning to end, very adult and with secondary characters who all felt real and complex and interesting. A few thoughts:

Our main OTP was incredible. So adult, so competent, so badass but still feeling human. I bought that those two were larger than life legends AND flesh and blood people. And that chemistry!

I loved that this drama allowed relationships to be messy. Yes, we have our epic main couple but I especially loved what happened with Chu Yue and Shisan and LTG and Ying. I loved that neither was an epic romance. With CY and Shisan, I loved that they didn't make him realize he loves her forever blah blah - he was an incredibly consistent character - charming, loyal and utterly clear he's incapable of permanent commitment to a single woman and she never could change that. And yet he died in large part to protect her, and it's in keeping with his character and it makes sense that this solidified her remembering him forever - he's not just the one who got away, but he DIED for her. It's very clear if they both lived, this would have gone nowhere and ended with him wandering off or her moving on wanting commitment from someone who is capable of it, but as it is, it froze the possibility of love in ember.

And I loved the narrative of LTG and Ying. They both come into marriage in love with someone they can never have (Ruyi and YL), they both have similar backgrounds (royals but neglected and looked down upon), they both share the same goals (power but to take care of people) and they really are friends. I love that when we last see them, they have what is a great period marriage - no love but respect and common goals. And she still mourns YL and he probably still thinks of Ruyi but the thing is, I love that the narrative leaves the possibility of them eventually falling in love with each other (or other people) because as she tells him - you think you will always love a particular person but life is long. (And it's so true - she will remember YL until she's old, once again in part because of the unfulfilled possibility of it - but it doesn't mean she won't be able to open her heart to someone again.) It's a surprisingly hopeful ending for them and I love it. I'd totally watch a show where they discover love with each other tbh.

I did love that no character (except possibly Prince Danyang) got everything they wanted even if they emerged alive. They got some and had to give up some.

I loved what it had to say about having to be worthy of your power and position - you are not owed fealty by birth but you have to earn it. It was a surprisingly anti-imperial show for a recent cdrama.

All the deaths of our faves gutted me, none as much as Yuan Lu's. Oooof.

As to the ending, I can tell people are gonna have fits but I like it. I love many an ending legendarily reviled in cdrama fandom (Princess Agents and Novoland Eagle Flag have perfect endings in my opinion; I realize that opinion, especially about PA is enough to get me throttled in certain quarters but it is what it is) and I came to cdramas back when pretty much every costume cdrama ended horrifically tragically - think of the endings of the Chinese Paladins, The Myth (for a long time my n1 drama even though it made me cry so hard I threw up, ending-wise), The Young Warriors, Little Fairy, even Lan Ling Wang, Glory of the Tang Dynasty and Bu Bu Jing Xin if we are going somewhat later. I mean, one of my favorite dramas ever is Royal Nirvana and that ending is like drinking a thermos full of depression. This is nothing.

Honestly, I would have been fine if the ending for our OTP really was them dying pretty much together, in their different battles. That hint that they are alive and living with their kids is lovely and welcome, but I'd have been fine without it and it raises a lot of questions (though if anyone could fake their deaths and survive that sort of thing, it would have been them so fair enough.)

Anyway, this is basically my love letter to this drama. It was amazing and I am so glad I watched it.

[lav3nder-bees]

It's probably been said before but it's entirely possible that the captain lived his entire life in the war

Assuming he was about 50 when WW2 ended, he would've been around 19 when WW1 first broke out, meaning he could've joined the war effort in 1914 and perhaps actually fought in battle, which would explain why he owns the swagger stick he always carries (as far as I'm aware they were only handed out to lower ranking soldiers during the first world war and were considered obsolete when WW2 first broke out)

Assuming he continued to serve in the army he would've worked his way up the ranks to become a Captain in time for WW2 in 1939 when he would've been about 44 and was stationed in the home front, probably due to his age. He must've lived through WW2 in order to receive the medals that he's wearing, but likely died pretty soon after that because he looks about 50(ish) in the show

Basically what I'm saying is he's probably very traumatized and I love him a lot

[freddie-77-ao3]

random facts about random riordanverse characters from my characters doc:

percy jackson: thalia once dyed his hair neon green (which, he has black hair, so no clue how) and it lasted for two weeks before washing out entirely

thalia grace: actually very close to will solace. he treated her when she first woke up, and reminded her of jason. she's basically a big sister now. she threatened nico about him.

nico di angelo: got so nervous about asking will out he accidentally asked in chinese, before reverting to welsh, and then latin. finally, he stutters it out in a mix of greek, italian, and english (luckily will understands all three). unfortunately, will responds in sign language for some reason??? nico doesn't know sign language.

meg mccaffrey: meg has a horrendous obsession with gatorade. like. she won't drink water, it's gatorade or nothing. apollo is SO concerned because he doesn't know what gatorade is and also it looks VERY unnatural.

leo valdez: not only can he cook tacos, he knows how to make tamales. actually, while on the argo ii, he and percy made most of the food. this man can COOK.

will solace: has a habit of always carrying pens around with him (both as a way of keeping close to michael, who collected pens before his death, and just bc he's in the infirmary so much) and he clicks them ALL THE TIME as a fidget. people forcibly take them from him sometimes.

Annabeth Chase: she's autistic and so is her dad. part of why they have so much trouble having a good relationship with each other. they both have really black and white thinking styles.

Calypso: she's like 7 feet tall.

Magnus Chase: he really likes the chronicles of narnia series. when he was a kid, he dressed up like the lion for three halloweens in a row. his favorite is the lion the witch and the wardrobe.

Alex Fierro: felines are easier than canines in regards to shapeshifting.

Sadie Kane: she likes strawberry ribena the best

Carter Kane: he wants to grow his hair out. when he's in his twenties, he does. sadie helps him braid it.

Clarisse La Rue: after her mission in ttc, she's extremely claustrophobic.

Piper McLean: the reason she was so against feminine stuff in TLH is because she was so sexualized by the media when she was girly. so she openly rejected it.

Travis Stoll: makes oddly specific t-shirts about what happens at camp. like, “I defeated the greek personification of time this summer and all i got was this lousy tee shirt.”

Connor Stoll: isn't dyslexic. loves reading.

Katie Gardner: she drops out of college after her first semester. it just wasn't for her. she owns a flower shop called petal to the metal, where she says "have a punk rock day" to all her customers.

clovis: he doesn't actually need to sleep 24/7, he just doesn't want to interact with people.

Cecil Markowitz: a threesome baby. no, really. he's 25% his mum, 25% his dad, and 50% hermes. he-- he has a lot of questions and no answers, and that's probably for the better.

Lou Ellen Blackstone: she's black, and usually keeps her hair in braids. before alabaster torrington defected he did it (he's white, learned just for her), and after, beckendorf did her hair.

Zoe Nightshade: she's regenerating. she was a titaness, she'll be back.

Lee Fletcher: he dropped out of high school. it wasn't for him. got his GED and took college classes on the side til he died, but personally modern schooling wasn't really for him.

Rachel Dare: when she turns 21 and gains access to her trust fund, she immediately donates the entire thing.

Hazel Levesque: definitely the person who always has a cardigan/sweater for you to use if you get cold.

Frank Zhang: goes back and finds his grandmother after HoO

Jason Grace: jiper was comphet. he's gay.

Reyna: didn't actually join the hunt. i don't think that really is a natural character ending? she is ace though.

Grover: turns out pan passing his spirit on to grover actually made grover a god?? yeah grover didn't realise for //years//

juniper: fought in the battle of manhattan. she just brought a couple of her berries with her.

Chris Rodriguez: following going insane and becoming sane again, he develops anorexia to regain his sense of control over his life.

Drew Tanaka: she's actually aro-ace.

Malcolm Pace: in an effort to always be prepared he sleeps in jeans and street clothes, and always has a bag of supplies on him.

Ellis Wakefield: is from somalia. his first language is somali. he speaks somali, english, arabic, and greek.

Mitchell: went to military school for a bit. has a habit of calling people sir/ma'am after every sentence now.

michael yew: has the gift of prophecy, knew going into manhattan that he was going to die.

miranda gardiner: summer only camper, takes over counselor during the summer (katie doesn't want it. also she's vietnamese. i know thats two facts i just think it's important.

sherman yang: he has two dads. his mortal dad's name is jeff. sherman sees him like, one week every two months? jeff lives in seattle.

jake mason: he's got a fish named bubbles. he says it's because harley wanted to name it. he lies.

silena beauregard: summer only camper, she volunteers at a domestic abuse shelter during the year, and hopes to go into social work.

charles beckendorf: he was 16 when he died, but had finished HS work 2 years early. had been accepted to MIT. he wouldn't have gone, anyway, because of the expense, too far from camp, but-- it had been a nice dream

Nyssa Barrera: she's a year round camper, and always been mad that taking care of harley fell to her.

Lacy: physically disabled. she's got JRA, and is in a wheelchair part time.

Harley: really likes unsweetened cheerios.

[wheelercurse]

st5 leaks discussion (from yesterday)

You know the video and the pictures of Mike and Hopper. For context, this scene is in the epilogue in front of a monument with the names of people who died during the battle. And it's Memorial Day, when they commemorate soldiers who gave their lives serving the army.

Mike looks devastated, so yes, he's mourning. At the end, he's going to lose someone again. To me, it's a bit unfair that he's the one getting the more bittersweet ending, more because he also had to deal with survivor's guilt and was very depressed during s2.

Now who could have died? My first guess it's El. I'm 50% sure that she's the one. Or maybe she didn't die, but she's gone to another dimension/timeline. And that's why Hopper isn't that sad because yes, it's a loss to him, but he learnt to let her go. I think it's more likely El because he's sharing this moment with Hopper, and it's Memorial Day, like it's about heroes giving their lives. And it appears that Hopper was also crying when he walked away.

My second guess is Karen. That death would hurt Mike a lot. And if it's graduation day, he probably felt her absence more, and he decided to walk alone, until Hopper found him. There were rumours that Karen was with the military, so maybe she got in the battle too.

My third guess is Nancy. If she died, she would definitely be fighting Vecna. But I highly doubt that Hopper would be the one who comfort him for that death. I think, he would share that scene with Jonathan, his mother, or Holly.

I have read theories that he loses his entire family, except probably Holly. To me, it's a bit extreme, but maybe he lost both of his parents. That I can see it happening. Conformity really killed them, uh?

Now, I don't know what's going to happen with byler. I hope they end up together, but if El is gone, I hope it doesn't feel like Will is his second option. The best-case scenario is that they reveal Mike's sexuality during 1987, and maybe they end up together until the epilogue. When time passes, and both are ready. The worst-case scenario is that Mike ends up alone and heartbroken without El, Will moves on from Mike and has a new love interest. For the way they wrote s4, it would be a really shitty ending.

[kimdokjas]

Hi, do you know any fics of joongdok that retains Dokja's sass? Preferably an au because novel angst hurts. Tyy in advance.

OH BOY DO I *pulls up my [redacted number] pages of ao3 bookmarks* this is gonna be long so i'll put it under the cut!

okay so, some of these are a bit heavier on the humor than others, but in general i feel like these fics do a great job of retaining kdj's snarky personality!

Joongdok AU Fic Recs

the pros & cons of caramel by sunwarmed

“What’s in this,” Yoo Joonghyuk demands. “Peruvian dark roast.” Yoo Joonghyuk looks as if he’s about to commit a crime, so Dokja takes pity on him and continues, “And sugar, ice, whipped cream, cookie crumbles, caramel, hazelnut syrup, chocolate, and a little bit of almond milk. Really, I put a ton of work into making this, and you’re not even thanking me.” Yoo Joonghyuk’s eye twitches — once, twice, three times — before he takes the cup and squeezes it so hard Dokja’s a little afraid the drink will fly everywhere. [or: 5 times kim dokja makes yoo joonghyuk (the wrong) coffee & one time yoo joonghyuk returns the favor.]

loving out of tune by almostprimary

After a truly tragic series of events, Kim Dokja gains a new neighbor who also happens to be the only person in the world he would, without hesitation, push in front of a moving vehicle.

you're home by ksalientian

Yoo Joonghyuk is sick. This is not, strictly speaking, a problem, except for how Joonghyuk has never been sick in all the years Dokja knows him other than when he's been actively dying, which he is probably not at the moment, but how is Dokja supposed to know that, he's never taken care of a sick person, Dokja barely even takes care of himself when he's healthy because Joonghyuk is the one doing that most of the time, and now Joonghyuk is sick— Okay, Dokja thinks, staring at the thermometer that reads 39.2°C in cheerful green, this may be a problem.

new activity by oronine

In a strange turn of events, Kim Dokja meets one pro gamer on Google Documents and begins a correspondence.

pretty strangers by HeavenlyDusk

A stranger at a party drags Yoo Joonghyuk around town. Somehow, in the span of one night, he falls in love.

Moving Out of the Closet by Sinnatious

Yoo Joonghyuk meets his neighbour Kim Dokja, who at first glance seems to be living in what he thought was the building's janitor's closet.

two hands of the same clock by furihatachlookie

The hour hand falls upon the fifth hour, and Yoo Joonghyuk dies before the clock can chime in answer. In which a crown prince and a commoner, unaware of one another's existence in this seemingly unbreakable time loop, inevitably cross paths.

"can u tattoo 'i love u' in flowers?" by crispy_scoliosis

In which Kim Dokja, a florist, reunites with his estranged childhood friend, Yoo Joonghyuk.

a new reality with you by fruitastic

Yoo Joonghyuk is a beta tester for the unreleased game “Ways of Survival'' and gets way too attached to a simple NPC, Kim Dokja. When the final battle looms over his head, will he be able to say goodbye? ...Hmm…Maybe Mia was right about touching grass…

to begin again. by frostfall

(In which Kim Dokja goes on a blind date. It's just his luck that he runs into his ex.)

salsa doesn't count as tomatoes by aphrodisiac

Yoo Joonghyuk has a roommate. (And a crush.)

couples discount by anemotions (realdefonge)

When junior manager, Yoo Joonghyuk wins the grand prize of their company’s raffle–a five-day trip for two to Hawaii, all expenses paid–the senior manager, Kim Dokja, who’s had no luck with raffles, asks the junior manager to bring him along as a travel buddy. Yoo Joonghyuk eventually agrees and they go to Hawaii. But things only escalate from there because apparently, there’s a 50% dinner buffet discount for couples in the hotel, and Kim Dokja would to absolutely anything to avail it.

gimme choco (or gimme love) by beewithouthoney

Every Valentine's day, Yoo Jonghyuk's desk is buried in a heaping pile of chocolates. And every year, Kim Dokja gets one from the pile.

on the art of unplanned serenadingby sunwarmed

“Then prove it,” says Yoo Joonghyuk, voice low, and Dokja is struck with a few realisations at once. One — he isn’t a good cook at all. He relies on microwave meals for the vast majority of his diet. Two — when it’s revealed that he’s not a good cook, he’ll almost certainly never hear the end of it. Three — Yoo Joonghyuk has a really nice voice. Goddamnit. [or: kim dokja keeps accidentally asking yoo joonghyuk out on dates. he swears it's only because he likes annoying the hell out of him. probably.]

When I said I hate isekai tropes, I wasn’t sarcastically praying for it to happen to me. by Waltzfor-Zizi(azro_zee)

Kim Dokja wants it on the record that he absolutely loathes those cringey royalty isekai stories and even more so the cliché archetype of cold and murderous but devastatingly handsome black-haired dukes with a troubled past. He really should learn by now that the universe has a hobby to throw him into the lion’s den and make him swallow his own words. After all, he and the God up there do not share the same taste of humor.

there are more but this is getting a bit long orz

i hope these are similar to what you're looking for! if you want any more recs feel free to let me know <3

EDIT: if you're looking for even more recs (and also some of my absolute faves) there's now a Part 2 here!

[tranquilpetrichor]

zb1 as honkai: star rail players

— may this journey lead us starward.

synopsis: you end up getting the zb1 boys to play the popular hoyoverse space fantasy rpg called honkai: star rail, and this is how it goes...

genre: headcanon, fluff, crack

wc: 944

warnings: mentions of video game deaths, cursing, there may be unfamiliar video game terms

a/n: haha please lemme summon all the zerose that play this game. very self-indulgent headcanon. i actually have not played this for a couple weeks because college = busy so... yeah.

taglist: @restlessmaknae

sung hanbin

he now thinks it would be a fun idea to have the members play video games like this for content so there you go

i can see him looking at bronya and thinking "she's a great leader" because honestly so true

he starts off with a fairly standard team composition (shielder, healer, support, dps) because you know less is more

likes the story, finishes it fairly quickly

thinks the feature where characters text you is cute

gets really happy whenever you use his support character

kim jiwoong

absolutely confused as hell and really, you can't blame him

"wait, why i can't jump?"

you spend a bit of time explaining the turn-based combat stuff to him and now he does get it... sorta

doesn't play too much but sometimes does it on a free day

pulls for characters he finds pretty (so valid)

and that's how he ended up with luocha, imbibitor lunae, jing yuan and kafka

has decent luck too

zhang hao

plays with chinese dub, chinese dialogue text

pulls for as many characters from the xianzhou luofu as he can

a lore enjoyer, probably excitedly talking about his favorite parts with you

probably got sucked into all the side quests

busy testing out the simulated universe, enjoying every second of it

has the ost samudrartha on blast, he'd love to cover the song one day

having a field day with any lore-heavy updates

seok matthew

he probably tried memory of chaos with f2p characters "because he was bored" and already did it w cracked as hell 5 stars

i can see him having a bunch of the standard banner characters from losing the 50/50s

he prob saw welt and said “haraboji" which means grandpa. if y'all know that joke i love you.

curses a lot if he dies

if something actually ends up being too hard for you to beat he gladly tries to help you (he's sweet like that)

named the trailblazer (main character) woohyun

also loves exploration and just running around the map even if he can't find everything

finds it fun in his free time

kim taerae

plays it casually (because he’s probably already too dedicated to valorant or something to pick up another game)

yk i think he would be a fan of the music, this game has a very good ost

in the parlor car of the express there’s a phonograph and one of the songs you can play on there is called “take the journey”, it’s this acoustic guitar song with soothing vocals

if that’s not taerae, idk what is

as a music lover, he's probably listening to the whole ost for this game

a very proud serval main (no did you see that pic of him with the electric guitar on his birthday? i'm sure he can appreciate a fellow guitarist)

thinks it's funny that gepard uses serval's guitar case as a weapon

probably builds at least two good teams

and complains when realizing he didn't get that many materials from beating the calyxes (same)

ricky

plays with chinese dub, english text

lazy af, turned on auto battle feature we stan

plays maybe twice per week

dialogue skipper

yk this man is buying whatever the equivalent of the battle pass is for this game

he can and will whale for the characters he wants (and this man already has better 50/50 luck than you, for sure)

probably doesn't give a shit about meta when deciding to pull on banners even though because oh wow that character is cool

actually pulls on the lightcone banner (because he can)

sees asta and her constant purchases and goes yep that's relatable

he jokingly tries to name the trailblazer something like youngandrich

kim gyuvin

sometimes starts leveling up relics randomly not giving a crap about stats even though he probably should

"it's a 5 star one and the correct mainstat, so here we go!"

he shows you relics leveled all the way with absolutely shit substats just to troll and annoy you

another proud dialogue skipper

but when the trailblazer speaks, guyvin picks all the funny and wacky dialogue options

lets your support character do all the work for him

probably let excess exp accumulate until he finally does his equilibrium trial or whatever

thinks it would be funny to main sampo or qingque. so that's exactly what he does

says fuck it we ball and puts 4 dps characters on one team

randomly says character voice lines like "HELP ME MR. SVAROG" and you're just like "please shut up"

probably named the trailblazer eumppappa

park gunwook

the most likely to enjoy the game imo

also ends up getting good at it (because he’s talented and good at learning new things)

doesn’t like to auto battle, actually enjoys grinding battles

started laughing at you because he got gepard for his beginner pulls and you don’t even have him yet (but you laughed when he lost his 50/50 to himeko of all people so you’re even.)

has a decent amount of characters

you give him so many credits because you keep using his gepard

to return the favor, he uses your characters occasionally, mostly seele.

he likes putting shielders and healers as support characters because "some people need to be able to not die"

easily finds the chests, is a completionist

always updated and knows when new redeem codes are out

han yujin

very intently focused on the game, you find it hilarious

but since our maknae is very dedicated, you’re quite surprised at his trailblaze level..

“yujin, slow down, you’ve been playing for what, two days?"

he’s probably already reached somewhere around trailblaze level 25 already

truly a yanqing enjoyer, he likes everything about him and sees a bit of himself as yanqing is also young and dedicated to his particular craft (yes i wish i had him on my account shut up!)

sulks whenever he loses a 50/50

ngl i imagine ricky probably buys some stuff in-game for him

[edai-crplpnk]

Some Abruame OCs!

It's Shino's birthday so I rushed to colour the lineart I commissioned from @calvin-arium!!

I have a bunch of other Aburame OCs (I have a master post about them here!) and I hope to do more eventually, but it was only right to start off with Shino and his closest family.

[CW: mentions of death and infant death, mention of homophobia]

Shikie is Shibi's father and the clan head at the time of my main Aburame fic, The Smell of the Rain (circa 2025, blank period). She was a young girl when the clan first joined Konoha under the impulsion of Kodama, her mother and the first hive-bearer. She became the clan head after her in her 50's. She is very much a shinobi of the old guard and has been alive through both the warring state period and the 70 years of global wars that followed. While she does, to a certain extent, support the Shinobi Alliance, she is also still very wary of its future, and has learned to secure the safety of her clan above any other matter. She has had to make sacrifices for it throughout her life, but knowing that her people are where they are today, alive and well, eases a lot of her regrets. (Although, of course, never all of it.) She and Shibi are very different in a lot of ways, but she is proud of him, and he will most likely be the one to inherit her place in the near future.

Yoshino was Shikie's second son and Shibi's younger brother. Very talented Shinobi from a young age, he was promoted to Chuunin during the first exam opening after the Second War, alongside his teammate Amanmori Nagomi. They kept working together a lot after that, working on combined attacks that used Yoshiki's hive as a catalyser and guide for Nagomi's Lightning Release. They started dating as teens, secretly at first, then shortly in front of Nagomi's family, who came from a civilian background with much different pressure surrounding relationships and bloodlines. He came out to his mother shortly before the Third War, who answered she couldn't, given the political context and the state of their clan at the time, be supportive of a childless union. Both young men were deployed together during the Third War, and died in the same battle.

Mahono was born to the Sarutobi clan, of Sarutobi Natsumasa, Hiruzen's older brother. She was a skilled Fire Release user, a technique she used both alone and in combination with chakra blades. She faced Shibi during their first Chuunin exam and overpowered him quite significantly (although, to his defence, the age difference did probably play against him). She still took note of his persistence and willingness to take risks in battle. They met again later and became sparing partners, him to improve his hand-to-hand combat, her to improve her options against wide-range techniques. She joined the Anbu in her late teens and he eventually first asked her out when he was 17 and her 20, a couple years before the Third War started. They had a first daughter shortly after the Third War, Yukatomu, who died from hive implantation-related complications during her first days of life, and then Shino a bit over two years later. She died on a mission when he was five.

[thegeminisage]

oooh envesseled, please!!

HI wow thank you for asking, because i love talking about this, and i promise no one is obligated to read the whole answer lol. envesseled (partially, but only partially, up on ao3...) is part of cambionverse, which is a sort of spin-off about some EXTREMELY minor characters in s*pernatural that my buddy @callowyn and i have been chipping away at since 2011 or so.

for anyone with a passing familiarity with the show: we were so sure they were going to kill lisa braeden at the end of season 6 (can you blame us?), we whipped up a little scenario where her son ben was partially raised by sam, dean, and bobby instead...until sam and dean go mysteriously missing, a la john winchester, and now ben has to go and look for them the same way they once searched for their own dad.

but since supernatural has those big 3 characters (sam dean cas) and ben is our dean-character (he is sort of like a dean who broke the cycle of abuse and is also a huge lovable dork), we also needed a sam-character and a cas-character. for our sam we picked jesse (a one-episode wonder, the antichrist kid who turned cas into an action figure), and claire novak, the daughter of acstiel's vessel, who at that point was also a one-episode wonder and also had a collective total of less than 50 words of dialogue. we made her up on our own, essentially. jesse struggles with anxiety and controlling his demonic half and trusting hunters/himself after doing so has burned him in the past (or...gotten other people burned, i guess), and claire struggles with trusting anyone at all and the total emotional unavailability/other after-effects that come from being possessed by something with a thousand eyes at age 11.

in the first two "big" stories (one for jesse, one for ben, though there's a shit ton of additional content) they battle meg (my beloved, don't worry, she'll NEVER die), find the missing sam and dean, resolve various other personal traumas, be mentally ill together, and flirt ever closer to a three-person situationship that would make dean actively long for death if he ever found out about it. meanwhile cally and i kind of throw tomatoes at various things in the show proper that annoyed us, such as how much they hate women, how often they forget their own canon, or the double standard of sometimes letting monsters live when they're dangerous and sometimes killing them when they've done nothing wrong.

envesseled is the third "big" story, for claire, and it takes a significant turn because at the very beginning of it, while she and ben are in the middle of a huge argument, he dies (fridged a la MARY winchester), debatably because of something claire did, and the only way to resurrect him is to ask castiel for help. except he can't help because his various misadventures have left him broken into a thousand pieces and his current jimmy-vessel has no soul to put them back together. and so she's still dealing with this castiel trauma, and the grief/guilt over ben, and the grief /guilt over her dad she never processed, while going around collecting all the broken pieces of castiel in her own body so he can envessel HER (hence the title), bring ben back to life--except the catch is the more grace she takes into her body, the sicker she gets, so it's a question of whether or not she has enough time to finish collecting the pieces, and whether or not she can actually bear to be in castiel's presence and also say yes to him in order to allow him to do this.

as one might guess from the summary it is. an INCREDIBLY niche fanfic series with like a dozen fans worldwide, though i am proud to say pretty much everyone who's tried it has liked it, probably because it's diverged so heavily at this point it aaalmost reads like original fiction. like, i wish there were words to convey how deeply you do not need to have seen the show to read it. we are still writing "envesseled" which is why it's on the wip list (it is fighting with us SO MUCH) but we really really really hope we get it finished in time for "cambion day," which is march 29 (jesse's birthday). i tried very, very hard to find an excerpt from what we haven't posted that isn't full of giant spoilers, but i can't, so i'll post an excerpt from what we have on ao3 instead that i really like. this happens right after claire absorbs the first of many of castiel's broken pieces and is kind of a microcosm of the dynamic in general:

Castiel stands, not far enough away, watching her like a crow inspecting carrion. "How do you feel?" Claire takes a deep breath, assessing. There's no apparent difference between the new grace and the old—after all, both are pieces of the same angel—but she feels their presence more keenly, a stronger heat than the one she's been accustomed to for so many years. Apparently she's more sensitive to the powers of the Antichrist, too. "I've stopped feeling like there's a stab wound in my side, if that's what you mean." "Hm." Two fingers brush across her forehead. Claire's entire body thrums, and then she's grabbing Castiel's wrist, crushing it in her grip as she pulls his hand away. "Don't touch me." Her heartbeat is wild, squeezing the bones under her hand with all her strength, knowing she can't damage him but too angry to care. "Don't you ever touch me." Castiel holds motionless in a way no human could ever achieve, lights flickering over his head. "Let go of me, then." He could break free of her grasp with a fraction of effort, but it's still satisfying to throw his hand aside. Claire catches Jesse's eyes, and sees just a moment of ink-black there before he blinks and the light fixtures stop shaking. "Very well," says Castiel, after a long tense silence. He leaves the kitchen, giving Claire a wide berth, and moves to stand in the center of the dusty library. "Try this one."

let people send you an ask with the WIP title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it!

[thehollowstarsaga]

Hollow Star Saga Book Four Predictions

okay so since i've finished agasv it's time for my predictions for the next book:

the CeLeTheo polycule

so i remember Ashley mentioned that there's possibility for a polyam and the moment i heard that i was just immediately like, 'oh, they're definitely talking about Theo, Celadon and Lethe right?'

like i'm not the only one who thought Celedon and Theo had insane levels of chemistry in both agasv AND acafl???

and Celedon and Lethe are already super cute and canon by the end of agasv too??

I'd honestly love it if Lethe and Theo end up being into each other too like the dynamic sounds super fun.

anyway that's the prediction Celedon x Theo x Lethe is canon next book (i'm gonna look like such an idiot if i'm wrong)

2. dragon Theo???

now i'm not too sure about this one but maybe (just maybe) Theo's a dragon?

i remember i made this prediction all the way back when adahs was released and there was that random paragraph in the beginning on how people can be dragons without realizing it. i was like 'okay, so one of the characters we care about has to be a dragon right??'

by process of elimination i reached the conclusion that Theo was the dragon out of all of them.

i remember when we found out that his grand aunt is a dragon i freaked out like i was so proud of myself for reaching that conclusion cause there's a high chance that he inherited those traits.

buuuuuuuuuuuut i'm not too sure whether that's actually going to be explored or bought up or even be true in the next book so this is a very tentative theory.

3. if Riadne dies, then who's killing her?

okay so i'm not too confident about this because i don't actually know if Riadne will die in book 4, at least in the traditional sense. but if it does happen the potential candidates are;

Theo: NO LISTEN I'M NOT BEING BIASED ACTUALLY FR HEAR ME OUT; Theo wants to rule over seelie summer, and if i'm not mistaken you need to defeat the existing head in order to do that so... maybe? admittedly its not very likely though cause there aren't enough emotional stakes. unless Riadne just murders his parents or smth in the first half lmao. i'll say 5% chance

Arlo: since we're talking about murdering parental figures... yeah. i'd say there's like a 10% chance that it's Arlo who kills Riadne maybe?

Celadon: 25% chance it'll be Celadon simply for the emotional stakes... and murdering parental figures. but actually if we're talking about someone who needs to stab their mom in order to get over their mommy issues...

Vehan: him having some kind of arc in which he's vaguely unhinged would go so hard. sadly, however, it probably won't happen. he's still most likely to kill Riadne at 50% chance, because the angst would be so good.

others: this is just me covering up my tracks in case my top guesses are wrong so that i don't look like a total idiot. Lethe, Nausicaa and Aurelian take up the remaining 10%. although i seriously doubt it'll be any of them. if it is though, Lethe's most likely to and Aurelian's least likely to.

honestly the more i think about it Riadne probably won't be killed by someone else. either she'll manage to get herself killed in her quest for power or she won't die at all. it doesn't feel like all the loose ends would be tied up if she did (watch as she dies at the hands of someone i didn't mention on this list.)

5. Vehan does some insane shit

this actually isn't me pushing my let Vehan go batshit crazy agenda. i mean insane as in he's going to have a major battle or show off some huge feat of power.

extra points if it happens in front of Riadne.

i think the best case scenario is a Riadne vs Vehan fight scene.

6. Who's the big bad?

see this is more of a discussion than a prediction cause i know Riadne's our main antagonist but i feel like there might be an overarching one as well.

easiest answer to this is Cosmin, and honestly, yeah it probably is him. however, Luck seems like they have a good head on them and that they might stop him from doing anything that would harm Arlo, so i actually think that maybe, just maybe it's someone else.

Fate, maybe? i'm not sure, but it seems we don't like them.

it could be another one of the titans but i'm not too sure they'd introduce a completely new major antagonist by the fourth book.

7. Theo has a bigger role.

there's no evidence no nothing i'm just manifesting stfu

[lesmerovingiens]

chlothar i: overview

(sometimes spelled clothar, lothar, or clotaire)

chlothar was the king that first grabbed my attention when I was learning about the franks. To give you a quick view of his character--he killed two of his nephews (who were still children) to remove the possibility of them growing up and making a claim on a portion of the kingdom. It wasn't even his own idea, it was his brother Childebert who had originally pitched this scheme.

The impression most seem to get from Chlothar is that of a scheming, amoral king, doing whatever needs to be done to seize and hold onto as much power as he can. This strategy seemed to work out decently well for him, as he did outlive his three brothers and in turn obtain all of their lands and more.

Chlothar was the youngest of Clovis' sons, inheriting the smallest share of the kingdom upon his fathers death. (Clovis had his lands divided among his four sons, rather than choosing a single heir. I will discuss this more in the future)

He would have been a teenager when he first became king, over the region of Soissons. Over the next 50 years, Chlothar would accumulate six wives, nine children (and probably more that were not legitimized/documented), and the lands of Orleans, Reims, and Paris. Around 558, he would gain his father's title, "King of All Franks"

Chlothar frequently teamed up with his brothers to subjugate neighbouring peoples like the Thuringians and Burgundians. He also teamed up with his brothers to attempt to wrest power from his other brothers, or sometimes was the one being teamed up on.

Chlothar's wives:

After the death of his brother Chlodomer, he married his widow Guntheuc as a means of obtaining his assets.

His second wife Radegund was a Thuringian princess, who he took as a war prize when she was still a child. She would go on to found her own monastery and become an influential religious figure free from her husband.

His wives Ingund and Aregund were sisters. Gregory of Tours describes a story where Ingund asks Chlothar to "find a suitable wealthy husband" for her sister. Chlothar then decided he would be a suitable husband, and goes ahead with marrying Aregund.

->E.T. Dailey's biography of Radegund makes an interesting argument for these two women not being "official" queens at the time, instead given the title retroactively, since they were the mothers of the kings that Gregory lived under.

His wife Chunsina is mentioned one entire time in The History of the Franks as being the mother of his son Chramn.

Finally, he took his grand-nephew's widow Vuldetrada as a wife for a very short period of time, because the church got so mad at him about it that he annulled the marriage.

Another event that contributes to Chlothar's infamy is the murder of his own son. After accumulating a large portion of land on his own, Chlothar's son Chramn sought to break away from his father's control. He even teamed up with his uncle Childebert to attempt this, but was unsuccessful. What ensued was a war with his own father, where he fought with his half brothers and was eventually chased into Brittany, where he took refuge with their king Chanao.

The war ended with Chlothar himself defeating both Chanao and Chramn in battle, after which he would have Chramn stranged to death and burned with his family in a cottage. What a supportive father!

Chlothar lived into his 60s (a big deal for the time, giving him the epithet "the old") and died from a fever (sometimes people say it was out of remorse for killing Chramn--Gregory even describes it happening exactly one year after the death of Chramn). Gregory attributes some very conceited last words to him:

"What kind of a God kills such great kings in this way?"