#helia man this is all your fault (joking).

[the-heaminator]

me trying to write historical fiction: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH

Me realising that this is fanfiction and that literally nobody gives a shit just make it like 70 percent accurate: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH :')

[spilledmilkfkdies]

PART 2: Outside the Circle Edition

Hiii we're back, I slept and now my hair is bleached. The events are unrelated, but imagine if they weren't. Let's continue <3 This one might be a bit more controversial than the last one, because unlike with the wizard x wizard ships, there are certain ones that I do dislike this time around. I'm not sure to what extent I've said some of these things before, I used to be kinda scared of. Having opinions. It be like that sometimes idk

I'm gonna start with some Black Circle x Major fairy thoughts, because I have those! There's some interesting ones!!

Sibylla x Gantlos has some incredible art, genuinely adorable. I don't mind them at all. Actually I think I've seen Sibylla with a couple of them, but her and Gantlos >> imo. Nebula has been shipped as well, I remember at least Ogron x Nebula and Duman x Nebula, but there might be more idk. It sure is interesting, can't deny that, especially depending on when the relationship happens. Ig that'd be the case with all wizard x terrestrial fairy ships though- There are way more combinations than I'm listing rn, but I just wanna say. Making Anagan specifically someone's ex. Would be extremely funny to me. Bonus points if it's Diana.

Moving on to wizards x specialists. Those have entered my peripheral a couple of times.

I've come across Ogron x Helia, like once. Doesn't do anything for me, but if we're asking what I know? There you go. Add it to the list ig. There's also Riven x Duman (duriven), some of their art serves cunt fr, it has no right to do that. But I once had a joke conversation with someone about them sharing a dad and now I think about that sometimes when the topic of them comes up. Maybe they could have a funny friendship, but I haven't consumed any Riven content in a hot minute so who knows. Another one I actually have something to say about is Anagan x Duman x Timmy?? Terrorised by both of them the whole season, which isn't the dealbreaker, but. I already made this joke in the previous part idc Duman and Anagan really pulled a "My boyfriend and I love your vibe fr" on his ass, that's what this feels like. Intrigued! Timmy’s gonna get eaten alive though. Poor guy.

Anyway! I'm generally not the biggest fan of shipping them with specialists, maybe I just don't know enough idk- However. I cannot move on without mentioning. The dreaded Nabu x Duman (naman). Now, I don't remember who started it, not counting the fics that already existed, but I know who has been actively encouraging and enjoying this in my own social circle. So really it's her fault. The ship is funny to me, I can't say it's not. Just something about Duman going "I'd love a man that could destroy me. Like just straight up kill me lol." and it being TRUE, because mind you, Nabu killing him is a vital part of this ship. It's so stupid fr. 2/10 I do recommend.

Next is the big one. Black Circle x Winx. Ngl I struggle to keep track of all the combinations I've seen at this point, also fear having to make a part 3 so I'm just gonna. Speedrun through a couple.

Least offensive, so to say, is probably Flora x Anagan (floranagan?). I don't ship it, but I get why others might! Flora x Ogron (flogron??) has a fair bit of stuff as well, that one I get slightly less, but Flora slay ig? I don't really like any of Musa's ships, I know she at least has Musa x Gantlos and Musa x Duman, but eh. They're not for me. Neither is Duman x Tecna, I think about that combination sometimes. Also legally cannot move on without at least mentioning Stella x Duman (dumella). Duman gets around for REAL. Still interesting as a duo, but in terms of shipping I could really take or leave them. They're fine, but I'm sticking with a platonic route if any at all.

Most of these I'm just. Not the biggest fan of. Wouldn't say I'm a straight up hater, but you're probably never gonna see content of it from me, y'know??

What I am a hater of, a proud hater, is Ogron x Roxy. Some people say the winx are too young, that's fair, sure- But Roxy?? That is a CONFIRMED teenage girl. Shipped with a facial-hair-having man. At least an adult, possibly centuries old. Same goes for Roxy x Duman as well btw, the points still apply, minus the facial hair. Not a fan at all. It's a shame too, because there's plenty of fun dynamics you can try out with them that don't involve romance. Actually that goes for a lot of Black Circle x whoever outside the Circle ships.

Enter stage left, Black circle x other villains.

Starting off with the Trix, and kinda speedrunning them too, a lot of their ships I’d prefer to keep platonic as well, I think that could be fun. Don’t really get where Ogron x Stormy came from, they’re like the least likely duo to me. Maybe that’s the appeal, maybe I should brush up on my Trix knowledge. Darcy could probably have some fun dynamics as well, but again, not necessarily in a romantic way. I’ve seen her pull both Anagan and Duman though, go off bestie. Actually so has Stormy. At the same time. Icy’s ships are kinda meh to me in this, I’ve seen a couple, they just don’t really click for me. They should all hang out though, the general collab potential isn’t lost on me.

Next up! Valtor. Lots of people out here making them fight, which, valid!! But have you considered. All of them getting brunch. The Black Circle inviting Valtor over for tea. Give the man some wizard friends. Valtor x Ogron is kinda fun, but they lowkey strike me as a couple that would never last long term. If that makes sense. Public apology for Valtor x Duman (dumaltor) btw. One day I’ll explain how that happened and my involvement. Pinky promise, I still have a ship bingo to bring back so I’ll do it there.

Dishonourable mention to ships with Kalshara. Sort of honourable mention to Ogron x Jason, not a villain ship but idk where else to put it. Brought up by a friend, they’re facial hair besties, it’s fun and silly.

I’m leaving it at this for now. Remember! Do NOT underestimate the power of friendship!! Also pls don’t block me byeeeee

[imhereformr]

Hi, the last ask which you answered was from me, thank you so much for answering 😊

Could you answer the same question but for the specialists ? Thanks 😊

Can you please rank each of the specialists in terms of your favourite to least favourite ?

Also please can say what you like and dislike about each of them?

Okay I'm starting this on September 15th 2023. Let's see how long it takes to fully answer and post it 😂 UPDATE: It's now December 11th. Whoops.

1. Riven

Once again, my beloved. My king. My precious kitten that must be protected.

I'm a sucker for the bad boy character, let's start with that.

I hate the regression in his development. Loathe it. The writers should be hanged/burned at the stake/drawn and quartered for it.

But his character development, when it's there is SO SO GOOD. I love my precious damaged baby learning to let himself be loved and open himself up. It's just so beautiful :')

And yeah, it doesn't hurt that he's nice to look at even with his stupid onion hair.

2. Brandon

TBH Brandon and Nabu switch places a lot depending on my mood.

Brandon is a king (just not actually) (that's a joke about the switch, just not a good one). He is loyal, patient, kind, hardworking, confident. Frankly, I'm not sure he has any faults?

And now that I'm trying to think of something I dislike, I can't. Maybe he should permanently be #2?

3. Nabu

I HATE the way Nabu is introduced, let's start there, yeah? Stalking is just not a good look, babe. Even if it was intended as "research into your future wife" and not outright stalking. Lying about your identity, maybe a smidge better cause it's not an actual crime? Idk, I'll let you guys judge for yourselves on that one.

I love his character. He's easy going, charming, confident, funny (and alive, at least in my mind).

4. Timmy

I'm 100% convinced the reason I love Timmy is because of the way he is in my head and not in the show because in the show he has no actual personality besides geek 🙃

I do love that Timmy is genuine and kind. And come on, how can you not love how romantic he is? This man refused to believe Tecna was dead when everyone else was mourning her. And he found her! And then was willing to go to Omega for her.

My issue with him, as with most other characters, is the writers fault. He has no backstory, no character development, nothing. He exists as the geek character and Tecna's boyfriend. Nothing else.

5. Helia

Helia's cool I guess he just had no personality, you know? That's literally all I can say. Much like Timmy, his personality is very 1d (that's one dimentional, not one direction). It's art.

Oh, and "mystery" for a bit there.

And once he and Flora are together, well, sometimes I think the writers forgot about him.

6. Sky

Sky, much like Bloom, had potential. He could have been the prince who is struggling under the pressure, who just wants to do good for his people. He could have been a multi-faceted character who makes mistakes and tries to fix them, who has a personality and a sense of humour. Instead, he's blank-slate, white bread, perfect prince charming. He's boring.

[sustraiii]

TEAM ZRCN ARC 2 - CHAPTER 4

The Bahamut’s finally make their long-awaited appearance.

Also a small note about this chapter: this will be the last main story chapter a while as I’ll be focusing on a couple of specials after this. 

CORDOVAN

Following close behind Neela, Cordovan and Xanthos hurried after their teammate and descended deep into the bowels of the ship. The pair made a wrong turn somewhere, losing sight of Neela, but were able to find their way to the cargo deck following the signs. By the time they caught up with their blue-haired teammate, Zelde, Helia, and a man unfamiliar to the pair of them were already waiting near the now opened linkspan.

Hearing the ragged breaths of the two of them, Neela turned to look at them. “Where did you two go? I thought you were right behind me?”

“We were,” Cordovan pointed out, “but we took a wrong turn and separated.”

“Yeah, it’s not our fault we took a wrong turn. This boat is more confusing than it looks!” Xanthos chimed in from behind him. Neela rolled her eyes playfully at that, turning back to look out across the sea. Cordovan and Xanthos cautiously approached the opened linkspan, getting a closer look out at the sea. In the distance, getting ever closer to the ship, was the pod of Bahamut’s Neela had mentioned when she rushed into their cabin.

Just as Xanthos was about to say something, a booming noise above, followed by a small explosion near the Bahamut’s. Behind them, the man neither of them was familiar with, sounded pleased as he commented that the guns seemed to be working properly.

As the two moved away from the opening, Xanthos put his hands to his hips, and turned to his teammates with a “told you so”. “See that?” He made a vague gesture to the Grimm in the distance, or at least where he assumed they were. “That is why I am afraid of deep water.”

From where they were, they had a prime view to witness the Grimm being taken out by the ship’s guns. It seemed to be working quite well, until the Bahamut’s seemed to become aware of what was happening and took steps to avoid being hit, most of the pod diving and some splitting off to swim to the other side of the boat.

“Ready your weapons,” the unfamiliar man instructed, reaching for his own weapon as he spoke. He owned a mid-sized warhammer, not unlike the one Cordovan’s mother owned. He wondered if they were of a similar model until the man’s weapon shifted into its alternate form of a machine gun. “Those Bahamut’s could resurface anywhere now they’ve dived.”

And sure enough, they did. Three of the whale-like creatures surfaced a few metres in front of the linkspan. Cordovan braced himself in case they rammed the ship, but the three of them seemed more content to stir up the water, only diverging from this motion when they began to fire at them.

Due to their melee weapons, Xanthos, Neela, and Helia, all held back not wanting to get in the way of the others. In fact, Helia hadn’t even unsheathed either of her katanas.

Taking down any of the Bahamut’s was proving to be a difficult task. Even discounting the fact they were partially concealed underwater, there was little room to make a good shot on them. Much of their heads were covered with sturdy bone plates and most of their bodies were littered with spikes and bone plates of various sizes, particularly around the dorsal fin. If not for the aid of the unfamiliar man - whose name Cordovan now knew as Linus thanks to Helia - he doubted they would have been as lucky as to defeat one of them in the time they did.

They were beginning to focus on another of the two remaining Bahamut’s circling them, when Linus stopped, eyes glancing out at something in the distance. He shielded his eyes with a hand, and Cordovan noticed him squinting in an attempt to better see what was ahead of him. When his hand finally dropped, Cordovan noted he had a fearful look in his eyes.

“Holy shit,” Linus breathed.

Cordovan glanced towards where Linus was looking, and Zelde stopped momentarily as well. He wasn’t sure who it was, but somebody moved closer behind, also eager to get a look.

In the distance, a much larger shape had appeared. It was difficult to make out the exact appearance from here, but it unmistakably another Bahamut, albeit much larger than any of those from the earlier pod.

“What is that?” Helia asked, identifying herself as the person who had stepped up behind Cordovan.

“Bahamut,” Linus was quick to say, before rectifying his statement with a more detailed answer. “Leviathan-class Bahamut. Which is not a good sign at all. The big ones rarely make an appearance, and when they do, it never bodes well for the ship. They lack the speed of their smaller counterparts, but what they lack in speed they easily make up for it in strength. One or two rams from a Bahamut that size and the hull would suffer catastrophic damage.”

“Well, that’s comforting,” Neela said from behind them.

“I sure hope you’re joking Neela,” Xanthos quipped, “because that is the furthest thing from comforting I can imagine.”

Footsteps could be heard, and then the next thing Cordovan knew, Xanthos was stood between him and Zelde, one arm draped over each of them. “You know I’d rather not die today; and as cool as it would be, I don’t want to  end up recreating the ending of every sad film about boats.” He inclined his head towards Cordovan a little bit. “I want to take down one of these fishies myself. You up for a little ‘Red Sun’, Cord?”

Cordovan pulled back sharply. “Absolutely not! The last time we tried that, it failed spectacularly and you nearly broke my arm.”

Xanthos pulled a face.”Slight exaggeration, but okay.” He paused for a moment, before asking Cordovan one more time if he’d like to try their team move.

“You’re not the one who has to throw you,” Cordovan pointed.

“And you’re not the one who has to jump on one of those Grimm and try and kill it. So what’s your point?”

This went back and forth for a few moments, before Zelde, in a somewhat exasperated tone, cut in. “How about instead of arguing you just go ahead and do it? Linus and I will take care of the other Bahamut and then we only have the big one to deal with.”

Not wanting to argue, Cordovan reluctantly agreed, whilst Xanthos gave a quiet cheer at having his idea accepted. Standing a few steps in front of the linkspan, Cordovan readied himself, facing away from the water. In front of him, Xanthos was backing up, aiming to get a good run-up. When he was a good enough distance away, he drew out his whip, twisting the grip slightly, and splitting the weapon into a multi-tailed whip.

Xanthos gave the weapon a small twirl, before looking up at Cordovan. “You ready?”

Cordovan made a shrug, as he squatted slightly. He linked his hands together in front of him, giving Xanthos a good foothold to launch himself with.”Ready as I’ll ever be.”

Xanthos gave him a thumbs up before running at him. As his foot connected with Cordovan’s linked hands, Cordovan braced himself for the worst for happen, but much to his great relief it never did. Thanks to Xanthos’s semblance kicking in, he didn’t weigh as heavy as normal, so Cordovan was able to get a fair bit of power behind him as he threw his teammate in the air. Once Xanthos was away from him, Cordovan turned rapidly on the spot, managing to watch as Xanthos did a flip in the air, lashing out at one of the Bahamut’s with his whip once he came out of the spin. He then landed on the back of the creature, his semblance shifting his weight yet again so that he was able to hit it hard, forcing it into the water.

Xanthos and the Bahamut slipped beneath the waves, and Cordovan found himself holding his breath nervously for a moment before Xanthos resurfaced, a fist raised triumphantly in the air. His small celebration was cut short by Neela suddenly shouting out to him.

“Ravi, swim!” She yelled from beside Cordovan, pointing out behind. In the water Xanthos turned in time to watch as the larger Bahamut dived, before it’s dorsal fin broke the surface moments later, heading right for him. Xanthos turned quickly, and began swimming back towards the ship, urged forward by the yells of all three of his teammates.

When he got close to the linkspan, Cordovan and Zelde crouched down near the edge, ready to pull him in. He was nearly there when the Bahamut’s head surfaced not far behind him, its mouth parted slightly revealing a set of pointed teeth. Cordovan thought for sure it was going to try and swallow Xanthos, but luckily they were able to pull him back into the boat just in time. Sensing that it no longer had a real target to aim for, it went to dive again, close to the open linkspan. It would have successfully dived had it not been for Neela suddenly lurching forward, and using Triton’s Maw, create a large sheet of ice in front of them, which seemed to slow the beast momentarily, causing it to harmlessly bump into the side of the ship.

Thrown by this it surfaced a bit more, which gave Helia the opportunity to step forward and finish the job. She came forward and unsheathed both of her katanas. She stood still for a moment before flames licked at the tips of both blades. Helia tightened her grip around the hilts of her katanas, before raising both above her head and driving them down into the exposed body of the Bahamut, killing it quickly.

She waited a moment before straightening up and sheathing her weapon. Now that the pod had been taken care of, they could all breath a sigh of relief.

Linus left them after a few minutes, pointing out that with the pod having been taken care of (they having taken out four of them and the guns seemingly having taken out the rest) he could inform the captain to start the engines again, as well as close the linkspan.

When he left them, Helia moved to check on the team. She spoke with Neela first, resting a hand on one shoulder, and complimenting her for how she conducted herself. The older huntress’s attention then went to remaining members of ZRCN, who were all lay on the floor, having not moved from there after pulling Xanthos on board.

“Are you three alright?” She inquired politely.

Cordovan and Zelde mumbled that they were fine, whereas Xanthos merely groaned in response. He turned his head to one side, so he was glancing at Cordovan. “Next time, we’re getting an airship.” He said, before pulling a face, and covering his head with his arms. “Ugh, I feel sick again Can we go back to our cabin now I think I need to lie down and sleep for a whole day.”

Cordovan laughed slightly, and even Zelde cracked a rare smirk. Cordovan lent forward slightly and gave Xanthos a warm pat on the back. “I daresay you’ve earned that rest, Ravi.”