#honestly feeling like I tricked people into believing I can draw eventually

[alyona11]

Looking back at my old Hadestown art I can say 2 things:

1) I was so funny and I forgot most of the memes I’ve made

2) people who followed me for my 2021 hadestown art really witnessed some progress going on here. It’s was so incomparably worse lol. One thing that proves that if you are obsessed enough people will start trusting that you can draw stuff

[aurae-rori]

okay so hear me out i have a genius idea

yanqing in sumeru. (yes, the obvious option would be to put him in liyue, but i honestly don't feel like writing that right now).

yanqing and cyno interactions.

YANQING AND WANDERER INTERACTIONS.

now that i've caught your attention-

yanqing falls through a wormhole or something. ends up stranded in sumeru. like, right in sumeru city. he wakes up in an alleyway and is like genuinely, what the mcflipping fuck. so he wanders through sumeru, talks to a few people who have NEVER heard of the xianzhou luofu, and eventually, someone reports him to the corps of 30 because there is an unsupervised foreign child who keeps on talking about a xianzhou luofu, what the FUCK is a xianzhou luofu.

they take him in to the matra, he answers a couple of questions, EVERYONE involved is confused as shit, so they pull out cyno. yanqing talks to him and hes like. you remind me of my dad. hahaha. and cyno is like. okay this kid is telling the truth. so we're gonna have to keep him around until we figure out a way to send him back to the luofu.

(this gets really long)

he does not want to go into a fucking rainforest, so he ends up rooming with kaveh & alhaitham after spending a few nights with nahida and bonding with her (i believe they r friends,,,) and she reccomends that he go to stay with them. yanqing is very polite and doesn't make his prsence known a lot because he is genuinely kind of afraid of the two of them even tho they are really nice to him, and one day he goes out and he just wanders through the streets of sumeru and bumps into the wanderer. he introduces himself as 'hat guy' and a friend of nahida's, so yanqing is like, oh, cool. wait, what? your name is HAT GUY?

cue bullying wanderer. and wanderer is like, this kid doesn't know who he's fucking talking to wtf and maybe they end up sparring or something. i think they would bond over fighting and yanqing would pick up a few tips and tricks from wanderer, who probably is secretly like, 'this kid has talent what the fuck where did this child even come from'. eventually after they spar for a bit yanqing ends up telling him more about the xianzhou and from that interaction with wanderer, he starts to come out of his shell more. he eats dinner with kaveh and alhaitham, and gets used to their bickering. he goes to see cyno again and meets tighnari and collei, even faruzan who probably takes a liking to him. people take him to nilou's shows. when candace and dehya visit from the desert he gets to meet them too.

and slowly, over time, they start to get to know him more. he tells them stories of the high cloud quintet, from their rise to their fall. he tells them about the borisin, and hoolay, and feixiao. he tells them about jiaoqiu and his bravery, sushang and her determination, huohuo and tail. he tells them about yunli's bravery and brashness, about jing yuan's patience and slyness, of moze's shennanigans and loyalty.

he tells them broken bits and pieces of stories and then, he tells them about the xianzhou history. he tells them about mara. he tells them about how he's had to cut down soldiers so much older than him that he wouldn't even know when they were born.

he tells them about the disciples of abundance, in little, clipped stories.

and they listen.

he draws his friends, too. he's not too great at it, but he draws them, and tells cyno that he reminds him so much of his dad. he plays tcg with them, joins them for game night. drags wanderer into social interactions, explores sumeru, watches the sun set from the trees.

he makes them little mementos of himself. he commissions someone to make a little bird charm out of materials he gathers up. and then he gives them to his friends, and when jing yuan inevitably comes to see him home (he wants to go back, he loves it here but he loves his home more) they will be able to remember him.

yanqing learns that defeat is okay. he learns that he can be loved. and that people are really complex, and that love can be shown in different ways. yanqing learns that he can love, too. :)

wow this turned way longer than i thought it would so uh. hope u enjoy my nonsensical ramblings!

[astralexpressarchives]

Bailu the Bloomborn Scion

Bailu is, of course, a young Vidyadhara currently titled the High Elder of the Xianzhou Luofu. There are lots of theories and misinformation about her identity floating around as of patch 1.3 so I want to make this post to share my thoughts on the topic.

Most people who only do the main story quests and companion quests in Honkai: Star Rail will know Bailu as the Healer Lady who is constantly trying to escape the maids assigned to watch over her. You'll know that there are some crazy politics regarding assassination attempts and that some people want Dan Heng to replace her as acting High Elder. You may even believe that Dan Heng's previous identity, Dan Feng, chose Bailu as his successor and that she holds part of Dan Feng's High Elder power, specifically the power to heal.

I'm writing this post to let you all know that this is all a hoax and you're successfully being gaslit by the Alchemy Commission and the Vidyadhara.

To understand the truth behind Bailu, it's imperative to understand the Bloomborn Scion experiments. Almost everything that we know about the Bloomborn Scion comes from the Undestroyed Letter found on the corpse of Dan Shu.

Dan Shu

Keep in mind that 30 years ago, Dan Shu was the chief alchemist of the Alchemy Commission and a loyal believer in Lan the Hunt. Her special friend, Yufei, was sent to fight in the 3rd Abundance War. Yufei did not survive the war, getting caught in radius of Lan the Hunt's lux arrow and dying, along with everyone else in the vicinity. This incident turned Dan Shu towards Yaoshi and set her on the path of Abundance, eventually leading her to becoming the head of the new Disciples of Sanctus Medicus and starting much of the drama regarding the Alchemy Commission and Sanctus Medicus that we see in-game. For those curious, Dan Shu's Diary and the Longevous Disciple set outline much of her backstory.

The Vidyadhara

There are many records in-game of certain Vidyadhara members cooperating with the Alchemy Commission. In fact, the previous chief alchemist was a Vidyadhara lady. The topic at hand is usually smuggling arbor branches out of the Scalegorge Waterscape for some purpose. For example, you can see this recorded here in a Vidyadhara egg:

The glimmer of the crystal-clear Vidyadhara egg catches your eye. You gently touch the Vidyadhara egg that looks like a pearl. Fear squeezes your heart like a giant hand. "Send these branches to the Alchemy Commission?" It is clear to you that the vessel you are holding contains a strictly forbidden object on the Xianzhou. "If we get caught by the Ten-Lords Commission… I…" The vessel in your hand feels heavy. You breathe carefully to avoid dropping the vessel. An authoritative voice comes by your ears. "Our line of succession has been broken because of that sinner. Now, here is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" The elder’s voice is youthful, but it sounds weary and emotionless. "If you can complete this, you’ll become a hero, and I’ll guarantee you a seat in the council of Preceptors. What do you think?" You nod, then shake your head. The elder laughs eerily like a screeching owl.

This poor egg was tricked by a Vidyadhara elder (likely a Preceptor) into smuggling out some arbor branches for the Alchemy Commission's experimentation. They were promised power but... well, considering they are now an egg I don't think their fate was kind.

Note that the elder refers to the Preceptors as a council - this is important later.

Take note also here that the elder still believes that their line of succession has been broken. They have not been able to successfully restore their High Elder.

Honestly, though, this should not be a surprise because a High Elder commands some of Long's power, technically making them an Emanator of Long. Emanators are created when an Aeon recognizes an individual and allows them to draw on the power of their path. Since Long is currently out of commission, successfully creating a new High Elder out of nothing should be theoretically impossible.

The Bloomborn Scion

On Dan Shu's corpse, we find the Undestroyed Letter containing communications between Dan Shu and a Vidyadhara known as Gouchen.

From Gouchen, the important parts of his letter are:

We have no choice but to entrust that young girl to your esteemed commission in pursuit of knowledge. This is our sincerest intent. Though young and not chosen by selection, she possesses remarkable potential. Placing her under your tutelage will facilitate careful observation and documentation of her growth. We hope that with time and guidance, she may become a powerful support for you. Your esteemed commission has inherited and undertaken a great legacy. Regrettably, the present times are perilous, and the scepter of power has fallen aside. Though possessing the talent to change the tide, the opportunity to do so was not present. Now that the obstacles have been removed, that opportunity has arrived, we have faith that you can revive what has been lost and reverse the course of events! With this letter, I send a servant to deliver ten samples for your experimentation.

The young girl mentioned here is clearly Bailu, made clearer in Dan Shu's response letter later.

Notice how he specifically states that Bailu is both 'young and not chosen by selection.' This directly contradicts information in Dan Heng: Imbibitor Lunae's companion quest where you "find out" that Dan Feng picked Bailu as his successor. Considering Bailu was evidently only created recently and that Dan Feng 'died' almost 800 years ago, the story clearly does not line up.

Gouchen also claims that 'she possesses remarkable potential.' This is another thing that directly conflicts with Bailu's general treatment. Though she is a powerful healer, she is belittled and gaslighted into believing she is lacking power. In fact, regarding Bailu's power, from her Character Story: Part 4 we know that her maid reported:

Furthermore, since the high elder has already demonstrated her powers of calling lightning and commanding the waters, I have instructed one of our finest crafters to make the Dragonhorn Pilory to shackle her tail, to prevent a loss of control over her powers and a repeat of the disaster of the Sedition of Imbibitor Lunae.

If you speak to Bailu standing in the Alchemy Commission and ask her about her shackle, she says this:

"Talking about that always makes my blood boil! The Preceptors call it the Dragonhorn Pilory, which is a noble jewelry piece exclusive to the high elder of the Vidyadhara. They are treating me like a three-year-old! This heavy thing drags my tail down, and I can't even take it off when sleeping. You think jewelry is supposed to be like that?"

Clearly, they have lied to her about the truth of her shackle. She believes it is just a jewelry decoration for High Elders and doesn't realize that it is shackling her demonstrated powers of 'calling lightning and commanding the waters.'

Gouchen also requested the monitoring of her growth, to which the maid responded, also in Bailu Character Story: Part 4:

Still no physical change in the high elder. She has not grown. This is not unusual as slow development is common among Vidyadharas. I am more concerned about her having no dreams than the slow growth of her body.

So slow growth is common in the Vidyadhara. This also goes against the idea that Dan Feng picked her as a successor because, as that was 800 years ago, Bailu would most certainly be causing alarm with her slow growth. The average Vidyadhara lifespan is 700 years, so that would not be 'not unusual' development. The truth is that she is still a child.

Regarding her dreams, we do know that Bailu's first maid told her not to tell anyone about her dreams so Bailu has been keeping them to herself. From The Dragon Returns Home:

Timid Voice: The Preceptors are very fearful of you, Miss Bailu. They asked every maid to record your dreams and daily activities. And I did so, at first. Timid Voice: After a while, I felt that the Preceptors were asking this not out of concern for you, but for some malevolent purpose... so I stopped. Bailu: ...Yuanli, don't worry. I never told anyone about my dreams. Timid Voice: Good, good, then I needn't worry. They'll be assigning me to a different job soon — I hope we have another chance to see each other one day.

It's very clear that no-one knows the truth about Bailu's creation except those directly involved. Other Vidyadhara make claims that we know are not true like this:

Twisted Voice: I have never believed in the High Elder! You are unworthy of the condemnation you spout! Twisted Voice: Especially you, Miss Bailu. You simply do not have the power of the High Elder — the power to summon the forces of nature... Why should I believe you are superior in any way to Master Dan Feng?

Regarding Gouchen's statement about 'the scepter of power falling aside,' I believe he is referring to the fact that the presence of a High Elder by Vidyadhara law takes away power from the preceptors. In the Preceptor Assembly Chronicle Fragment, soon after the sedition, the Preceptors discuss this:

"The Preceptor Council is a stop-gap measure for when the High Elder position is vacant or governance is untenable, but Xuepu's message rings loud and clear. She wants to take advantage of [Missing] being cut off to completely replace the High Elder position with the Preceptor Council."

it appears that the Preceptors were agreeing to function as a council in the absence of a High Elder. Bailu's presence directly threatens that council and, for a council established for a few centuries, returning to the High Elder rulership is a drastic and potentially undesirable change for many of them. This is most likely why they want to assassinate Bailu, especially considering that Dan Heng is both stronger and proven easy to manipulate in the past.

This is likely why Gouchen reported battles at the start of his letter - Bailu's titling of High Elder most likely created a mini civil war of sorts among the Vidyadhara.

And, of course, along with Bailu, Gouchen sends 10 more samples for experimentation.

Dan Shu's response reveals more information but it's also worth noting that, because it is was on her corpse, she most likely did not find an opportunity to send the letter.

I have received the samples that were sent. However, after transplanting and cultivating them, all the samples turned to powder. It is likely that they were constantly constrained by the waters of the ancient sea, causing them to lose their vitality upon separation from their original body. After all, both the samples and the ancient waters are mystical celestial traces and are elusive to comprehension.

Dan Shu received the samples and was trying to cultivate them but it was failing.

As for the girl, she has learned quite well under the supervision of my predecessor, but she lacks sufficient experience and tends to be overly rebellious. The servant you sent must watch her every move. There is no need to worry, as she is not likely to break free from our control in the foreseeable future.

Further confirmation that they are talking about Bailu, as she is the rebellious Vidyadhara girl with a servant watching her every move in the Alchemy Commission.

There is no need to send new samples after receiving this reply. Back then, we unintentionally created the miracle of Bloomborn Scion, but there is a limit to mere luck. Until I make further progress in my research, such a miracle is unlikely to occur again.

And this part confirms that:

Bailu was a miracle created by the Alchemy Commission and Vidyadhara. Her creation is considered 'mere luck' by Dan Shu and she does not believe it will happen again.

There's a lot to Bailu's story and I could keep talking about all of the details but I'll stop this section here. I'm happy to further discuss details with anyone who is interested and I'll likely make additional posts on the topic of Bailu's creation in the future.

[nefastum]

Honestly re: the Griffith hate, I found myself unable to hate him. I hated Miura’s poor writing decision and excessive sexualization of SA, but not the character himself. His story is way too tragic and the way Void and Ubik took advantage of him and tricked him is heartbreaking and sad. He presents himself and the godhand as Griffith’s “family” (he uses that word in the spanish translation) when he’s alone and desperate in the dungeon and it made my blood boil. He was only 19 years old when this happened, basically still a heartbroken and dumb teenager that didn’t fully know what he was really getting into and that desperately wanted to escape his feelings and broken body because he felt they obstacled him to reach the castle and make the deaths of all the people that died for his dream worth it. Is just sad and tragic. He has done a good ammount of shitty things of course, but so has Guts (including SAing Casca) and everyone is willing to justify and forgive him just because he’s the main character, so I don’t understand people hating on randoms and sending d*eath threats just for liking lines on a paper (very pretty lines on a paper) is just obnoxious and ridiculous behavior.

Hello, love ♡ My apologies, this will be a long one. I have a lot of feelings about the overly simple “Griffith did everything wrong” angle. Dislike of him is warranted, but the telegraphing of hatred on to real life people for liking him is bizarre to me.

_______________

I agree Griffith’s character is oft relegated to an over simplified villain. The ‘bad guy does bad things because he was born bad’ trope. But, in Griffith’s case we are explicitly shown during Golden Age that is just not the case. We are introduced to a character who is struggling against medieval/monarchal class structure to assert self-worth and attain a dream that someone with his upbringing would have been barred from otherwise. He is ambitious, driven and skilled. Naturally he draws others to him that have similar aspirations of being something more than common rabble. Over time we watch him push himself further and further into things he isn’t even comfortable with, in order to achieve his goal- not just for himself but for all the men who believe in him. He says as much at the river with Casca. He deeply cares about his comrades, much to his denial, especially those who he considers closest to him. He regrets their deaths when he loses them. It’s enough to make him sacrifice his body, so that they don’t die in vain. That isn’t the action of an inhuman monster, it's the act of a young man burdened by the dream he sold to them and pressured to achieve that goal as efficiently and effortlessly as he could appear to. He could have wasted more mens lives, demanded that they fight harder for him- win ten more battles to make up the money they need. But he didn’t. He cared, maybe more than he wanted to admit. But he did. A truly selfish/heartless man would have never made that offer to Gennon, for any price. He would have found something else to barter, perhaps giving the pick of one of his own young soldiers as fodder to the lord in his place if he was able to. But, he didn't.

It took time for him to build up to the villain we know him as now. He didn’t start out that way. Possessive to an almost manic degree? Absolutely. But there is a big leap from that to massacring everyone you love. As he gets more embroiled with royal court politics, as he witnesses first hand the schemes they pull to prevent him from rising up- to kill him, he becomes more and more willing to push his morals aside for success. Not just wooing and leading on a princess, but assassinating the king's brother– or hell, getting a child killed (although that was Guts’ mistake) Eventually even killing the queen. All in the name of furthering that dream. His dream and the dreams of those he carried with him. This isn't without hesitation, though. We can see when he asks Guts if he thinks him cruel that Griffith is struggling with his choices. Once again feeling dirty in front of someone he loves, just as he did at the river with Casca. To say it was a one step process and Griffith would have done any of this were the situations different/less dire is just over simplifying the morally grey character that he is. He had tough choices to make, and with some of them he chose wrong.

When he is at his most broken down emotionally and physically, and only then, does his broken mind make sacrificing the band a possibility. Heartbroken at the loss of Guts and crushed by the fact he’d ruined his own dream in haste– not to mention horribly tortured beyond what most humans could take while still remaining sane. A behelit activates upon extreme distress, it does not mean you have already decided to throw away your loved ones. It means you've reached your limit, and Griffith had. Suddenly the voices who have been whispering into his ear through his torture, telling him that he was chosen for greatness, appear before him to nail in the notion that this was the right path all along. He is told it is the only path he can walk. After all, he’d already thrown away the lives of so many men who believed in him. How can he let the weight of carrying their deaths on his shoulders mean nothing? The Godhand convince him, the only real sin would be not carrying their memory to the finish line. And so a broken bodied young man breaks under the pressure and does the unthinkable. He gave in. It wasn’t strong. It wasn’t brave. It wasn’t right. But, it was human. He wanted to survive.

And we all know what happens after that.

For a villain as complicated as Griffith, he often does not get the depth of narrative dissection that he should. He shows us how humans are fallible. We are weak sometimes, it doesn’t make what we do in those moments right. I love Griffith because of how interesting of a character he is. He is tragic and inspiring and detestable and relatable.

And this was my essay on why the blind hatred of Griffith and his fans on the face value that he is the “bad guy” makes me sad. It is disingenuous at best. Hate him because of his choices in world, if you like. But, that hatred should not transpose onto fans who do take his entire character into consideration when choosing to like him or relate to him. D*ath threats are never acceptable. I don’t care what your opposition is into in a fictional setting. It's fiction, no matter how abhorrent.

Whew! I think that was my longest answer yet, love. My apologies for the wordiness. I have a lot of thoughts on my boy Griff. He has done a lot of fucked up stuff, certainly. But no more than is reasonable given Berserk's setting and ethics. It is dark, it is grim, and for some that is too much. If morally grey characters– of which Guts is also– are difficult to handle, perhaps a different series is in order.

I've probably missed tons of examples for and against my own argument, but I can't think anymore right now, haha ♡

[olivyh]

Hi! Your twst self insert drawing + introudction was great. Its nice getting to know the admin behind the blogs, so hope we get too see more of them eventually! As for the drawing. How did you nail the twst style? I m struggle with it still. T_T (hope u wont find this messege cringe or smth T_T).

TYSM!!! And its not cringe at all!!!! I actually got super into this ask and made a tutorial on how I made my sprite!!

To preface this, I do strongly recommend references! Anime isn't my usual style, so I very much needed references to get this project done! Also please use references for color, anatomy, clothing folds, etc etc. No shame in using references, people!!!! When I was drawing my TWST sprite, I always had a picture of either Epel or Riddle off to the side to make sure that I was getting everything as close as I could!

Body: 

Honestly,,, the best I can recommend is to find a reference to start off with for the poses (as any drawing), but make the head a little larger to match the anime art style! Or, as a cheat, crop off the head of a twst character/ use the same pose as them,,,,,,.,,

Face:

So for the face, I took the proportions of Riddle's face and applied them to my own, as TWST characters' facial structures are a little different from one another (For example, the way Jack's face is longer and more stretched out than Lilia's). I present as more feminine, so I went with his basic face shape and proportions (Sorry Riddle), but you can also use whichever character you'd like! You can also use Eliza and Najma's facial structures' features  if you'd like if you'd like to look more fem! I believe you can also use the fairy sprites,,,, but I'd have to double check how their proportions even out. Even for younger ocs, theres characters like Cheka and Ortho you could use as a reference!

If you want to look more masc, most of the cast does have the proportions for it!

If you want to look like both, or neither, you can always choose some of the characters that have  in between proportions, like Kalim, Adeuce, Ruggie etc etc...

Eyes: 

Again, you can copy TWST characters' eyes if you want, or you can make up your own shape! We're very lucky as a fan base because TWST has a lot of diversity in their facial features (example, Epel, Ruggie, Floyd, and Cater all have downturned eyes, but they're drawn very differently!), so there's a lot of options to look from! If not, here's a few tips on how to draw twst eyes

-They're roughly in a weird C shape, with the inner corners being open!

-TWST also puts three lines in the character's eyes- one branching off from the eye, one slightly above, and the third one being much higher! If you have a monolid, you can also exempt these lines completely, as they're more obvious in some characters than others (for example, the line's of Floyd's eyes are very spread apart, where in other characters, they are so close that you can only count one or two!)

The eyes themselves (the colored part,,, i forget the word) come in many different shapes, sizes, and colors. The best advice I can give is to find a reference and color it in that way. As a base for the eyes, there are a few tricks:

-The eye is two colors, with a dark shade of your chosen color on the top, and a lighter shade on the bottom. 

-The pupil is a darker shade of the eye color, not black

-In some characters (its very obvious in characters with larger eyes, like Kalim), the devs do draw small, light lines under the pupil, like how you would draw rays of the sun (with the pupil being the sun)- but it's only really in the bottom half. (In characters like Malleus and Riddle, they're not there at all from what I can see.)

-The twst artists do not add a ton of sparkle to the character's eyes! In most sprites, theres no shine at all, but for mine I did add a little circle of light (because i feel like without the sparkle they look a little scary!)

To sum it up, here's it all drawn out on Floyd:

Nose: 

The nose is fairly basic,,, it's a diamond shape (the top half longer than the bottom!), the left side is a very light shade of the skin tone, and the right side is the same shade you would use to shade the rest of the body! It's a little hard to explain, so here's a diagram!

Shading:

The shading in Twst characters is broken up, and some of them are different from others. Again, this is where using references play a huge role!

For basic shading (as in, sprite shading, not card shading), it's normally just a darker, less vibrant version of the chosen skin tone! Here's some examples for diff skin tones that I have for when I want to draw the characters (Feel free to screenshot):

Of course, there's not a ton here (since I only selected a few from my character ref sheet), but it's a basic idea! The shading of the characters is also very similar to the shading on the orbs, very clean lines, and it's not blended out on the skin. The shading on the skin is around the eyes, the hair, the sides of the face, the neck, and of course, the skin (where clothes meet skin, where normal shadows would be). There is also, occasionally, a gradient where the clothes meet the skin- which happens in real life too!

In the Riddle diagram, notice the skin where his wrist is a little duller than the shading? That's because the devs made it so that the color of his white shirt reflects off his skin! (To see it irl, put your hand near neon or brightly colored clothing, you should see the color reflected off your skin!)

For clothing and hair, they have gradients! It goes from very light at the top, to a darker shade at the bottom! It's a similar shading technique to the one on the skin. Of course, in clothing, do the darker shade first, and then a lighter shade on top!

For the hair, separate it into thick chunks and shade them as you shaded before, but add the shine (which looks like drawing a pretty long diamond shape!) in white or a very light color of the hair.  This is for straight and/or wavy hair, as the techniques are similar in Riddle and Azul's hair

Now, TWST does not have the best hair diversity, the only example of a different hair type would be Sam, but of course, he just has one hairstyle of many. 

Sam has locs (please correct me if I'm wrong), and the TWST team did follow the basic shading pattern, but they put texture within each individual loc, as well as added texture to the shaved side of his head (which seems to be another light-to-dark gradient of hair, but with the aforementioned textures). There arent' large highlights like in other hair styles, bit a lot of the highlights are embedded in each loc! It's a lot lighter than in the picture, but underneath each shadow, there's a highlight to counter it!

For braids, I believe using the braided side of Jamil's hair would be a good starting point. There's lines drawn to show which direction the hair is being pulled again (again, shaded in chunks), as well as drawn lines to show his scalp. The highlights are a lot smaller than on the straighter hair, but they're drawn more towards the back of the head. Of course, this is not exactly what other hair styles would look like, but it's a place to start as reference. 

Now for loose hair and hair types that I didn't mention, I'm unsure of how they would look in the TWST art style. You could look through the Black Butler manga to see if there's any characters who could have a similar hair type and draw it based off that. I would follow the basic "rules" of the Twst art style: use a gradient as a base, have both darker colors for shading, and lighter colors for highlights. There are also lots of TWST creators who I've seen around who are very good at adding their hair types in that style! If you know of any references, please comment them or dm me and I'll add their username into this post for people to use (with said creator's permission, of course)!

Finally, the biggest thing that I've seen twst do!!!!

The blue!!!!!!!!!!!!

On the borders and in the backs of many twst characters, theres this sort of... blue glow that highlights certain parts. You can even see it in the Jamil picture above, in the hair right below his ear. Again, it's best to use a reference to see what spots exactly you need to hit with the blue! If you have an airbrush tool in whichever program you use, it's a good idea to use that!

These are all the little things I've noticed while I was drawing, and I hope you can use them all too! If anyone else noticed anything different or wanted to add anything, please do! I love seeing what other people pick up on, and it'd be nice to see what I missed.

And if it doesn't look exactly like a twst character, no worries! The most recent sprite that I made was my sixth? Seventh? try, and it's still not perfect! Don't stress out too much about it- inserting yourself or ocs is a fun thing! 

Have fun!!!!!!! I hope this helped!!

[cinnamonest]

Diluc Ragnvindr - Yandere Profile

Yall are so kind and I am so undeserving hhhhh

If you stand idly by that flower girl in Mondstadt her idle line is something like "All I can think about is Diluc" And honestly same

This man exudes bde I'm sorry I just... It is a known FACT that Diluc is packing and I refuse to believe otherwise, lord have mercy I'm bout to SIMP

tws: yandere, mentions of violence

tws (below cut): noncon, kinda misogynistic in 1 part

------

What are they generally like? Lucid, aware? Obsessive? How do they behave?

Acutely aware, and in the beginning, frustrated with his own self. He's very much a loner type of guy, and he likes it that way -- in his mind, people are distractions.

He doesn't talk to you too much, but you'll slowly and subtly notice his presence with increasing frequency. He hovers. Silent, but intimidating. He's always there, in the background. Somehow, everywhere you go, you can spot him somewhere if you try, and even if you don't see him, you know someone is watching you, from the skin crawling feeling of eyes on you. It will never go away, and it's easily enough to drive you to paranoia.

In reality, he'd like to talk, really, but he doesn't know how. For the first time in his life, he actually has the urge to speak with someone, not for his own desire to speak so much as speak with you- to learn about you, to hear your voice. But the poor thing has no idea what to say. He's used to just going about his day and only speaking to others when they need something from him.

When he does talk to you, he finds himself even enjoying the silliest and most trivial of things you say. Normally he hates small talk, and he's normally annoyed by anything outside of very serious matters, but even if you're raving about something he has no interest in, he's happy to listen just because it's you.

He's fairly aware, too. Not a delusional for the most part, and he's honestly a bit afraid of rejection - he knows he's not the most pleasant or charming person to be around, and certainly not the best conversationalist. He tries to make up for it in thinking that his money, status, and protective ability can be something he can use to draw you in, so he makes sure to subtly and frequently remind you of those things.

How likely are they to kidnap their darling? How quickly will they do so?

Eventually, it's inevitable. It will happen, it's just a matter of time. His reasoning is less about your fragility and safety, even if he pretends it is, and more of a selfish thing. He doesn't want to be, and he'll certainly feel guilty for it, but he's a silently jealous person. Hearing you talk to others, seeing you smile at others, it drives him up the wall. Even during the day, he can't focus, thinking of what you're doing, who you're with, what you're doing with that person, and so on. He can't get anything accomplished, and people notice something is wrong with him. Really, it won't be a very long time at all.

He's not a very good manipulator, and he can't really think of a good reason to get you to walk into the winery backrooms on your own, so as barbaric as it may feel, he'll settle for the old fashioned way, just taking you, probably when you're walking all by yourself late at night. He is very intelligent, and will most likely formulate a way of making you seen responsible for some crime upon your disappearance, to discourage you from leaving, and to make it seem less mysterious when you disappear. People will assume that the darknight hero got to you. And, well, they’re not wrong.

How difficult is it to escape from them? How do they keep you restrained? How do they deal with attempted escape? 

Initially, he's watchful, staying at the winery so that you can't get far without him noticing. He'll cancel his plans elsewhere and make sure he's never more than sight distance away from the building. With time, he'll have to leave, and when he does, he'll probably invest in some very high quality locks to keep you in. Should that prove to not be enough, he'll have to use chains to keep you attached to the wall, instead. Needless to say, it's difficult.

If you manage an attempt, he'll be angry, sure, but he understands why. The first time, at least. Don't push it. If you manage to keep trying, his sympathy for you will slowly erode with each successive attempt, and soon he'll run out of mercy, and decide maybe just forgiving you isn't enough, and you actually need to learn a lesson to prevent this from happening again.

"Again? You really... Really don't give up, do you. This is the fourth time now... You've really pushed it, you know, I've tried to be nice. If you're not gonna get that, I'll make you understand."

How easy are they to trick, deceive, or manipulate?

Canonically speaking, he's fairly good at predicting the actions of others. He's clever like that. However, he's not the best at reading faces. As far as lies go, he will detect it maybe 80% of the time, but you can probably get away with a bit - once he catches you doing it once, though, he'll suspect you from there on out, and be much less likely to buy your lies.

When it comes to manipulation, he's one of the ones where it's like, he kinda knows, and lets it happen anyway, if it's for the sake of you being happy with him. That, and he's just flat out weak to your smiles and begging for little things. He's got his limits, though, so you'd be wise to only use this sparingly and not push it.

How lenient are they? What privileges can you have, and what will you be denied?

Protective to the maximum degree. Probably the worst of genshin boys.

Absolutely zero contact with the outside. No family, no friends, he might even go to the extent of faking your death to ensure there's not even anyone who will look for you.

Unlike Childe, Zhongli, or Albedo that I've mentioned as allowing you for walks or outside visits... That's not happening with Diluc. No, he's insanely protective, to the point that you very well might not see sunlight again, except through a window.

And he gets that it can get depressing, he really does, it's just the one thing he can't do. He'll try to substitute it, get you nice large windows to let the sun in that you can sit in front of - provided he's there - and maybe after a while build a little screened-in porch for the winery that you can walk around on - again, provided he's right there. You really can't expect him to let you out there when you're alone. What if someone saw you and tried to hurt you?

You get the feeling it's less about keeping anything else out, and more about keeping you in, though.

He's actually good about letting you do things for yourself, though. He won't restrain you from cooking or kitchen utensils or anything like that, unless you do something stupid like try to hurt him or yourself, in which case it'll be a revoked privilege.

What kind of rules do they have? What kind of punishment would they use?

Initially, he tries to go easy on rules, as part of his attempt to make you more accepting. He'll keep you more restrained for the first little while, and later on you'll be allowed to walk, but certain sections of the building will be off limits. He's fairly simple - be obedient, stay inside, don't try to fight. He'll invent new ones based on your behaviors as time goes on, but for the most part, he doesn't want to control you too much.

He fears getting too mad and making you scared of him, so, he struggles to punish you initially. He's probably willing to let quite a bit slide, but once he senses you're taking advantage of that, he'll put an end to it. Once again, he can thank the fact that he's naturally intimidating - he'll grab your jaw and force you to look at him, and honestly, just the look on his face is enough to send chills down your spine. If you're persistent, he's not able to leave you all alone and isolate you, no, he can't handle being away from you for that long. He'll appeal to the punishment of boredom, tying you to one spot and giving you nothing to entertain yourself with will get you to crack in a fairly short amount of time.

Humiliation works well, too. You're all alone except for him, you don't need clothes. So if you want them, you'll have to behave.

How do they deal with rivals, or perceived rivals? Will they get rid of them? Will they kill them themselves, or find another way?

This man only has to look at people to send them running. He's very grateful for his scowl once he realizes the power it holds. You'll be none the wiser as to why everyone you meet seems to end up avoiding you, why people get nervous when you approach, why you can walk into a public place and it will clear out within minutes of you walking through the door. It's ok, though, since you have him to go to for your problems. He'll shrug and tell you he doesn't know why it happens to you, but it's no big deal, you don't have to worry about it, because you don't need them anyway, right?

He's not above having chats with people either. If they're not driven off by the glares, he'll give them another chance by spelling out very clearly that they should back off.

With persistent offenders, though, he has to come up with other means. He's not a delusional, and he knows deep down that this is selfish, that they're not really doing anything wrong per se, but his anger is violent and ultimately overrides any guilt. He'll find a way to make them out to be criminals, spies, or some other form of bad person, and they'll meet their fate at the hands of Mondstadt's mysterious nighttime vigilante.

How easy is it to make them mad? What does their anger look like?

His default personality is... Irritated. He scowls a lot, he gets exasperated easy - even if he tries to be a bit more pleasant for you. His irritation is so common that seeing genuine anger is a bit rarer.

When he does, though, it's one of the worst. To really, really make him mad, you'd have to be exceptionally, intentionally bratty to the point of antagonism - he's understanding and lucid enough to understand why you fight him, why you try to run, but do it over and over relentlessly, or just be a childish brat and ignore his warnings, and he'll snap. His voice bellows when he's mad, it's deep and terrifying and echoes off the walls, his eyes narrow and he stomps heavily with every step. He'll grab you by the arm hard enough to bruise, and if you refuse to follow and dig your heels in, he'll just roughly swing you onto his shoulder and carry you.

He has to exert the anger in some way, though. He's not like some yanderes that can be talked down or calmed, or are going to go easy on you if you apologize and beg. Once the anger is there, it's there until he physically takes it out in some way.

So they see you as above them, beneath them, or equal to them?

It depends, really, because he's highly lucid, so he has very little delusions about you. Unlike many of the others, he's willing to acknowledge your mental competence, and if you're intelligent and have life experience he'll acknowledge it. He won't recognize physical capability, though, since you're nothing compared to his strength. If you are a capable, independent person, he won't delude himself into thinking otherwise. It will, however, have a negative effect, probably the opposite of what you hope for - he's going to feel a bit intimidated by it, really, because if you're capable and independent, you don't need him as much. He's more likely to find ways to force your dependency on him, if so, but deep down he knows you're an equal on a mental level, and it's frustrating.

Now, otherwise - if you're a little more on the ditzy, airheaded side - it will be below. He's realistic, again, and if you genuinely do fall into the category of being naive and a bit dumb, he'll recognize it. He feels more secure in your dependency, and he's more likely to baby you this way, and will absolutely be more protective.

How determined are they for you to love them? How hard will they try to make it happen? Or are they content just having you?

He really wants you to. He's not sure if he deserves it, though. He's acutely, painfully aware of how awful the things he's done are, and to top it all off, he knows that he should wish he was a better man that had self control, yet... He doesn't. He can't lie to himself and pretend to even have a shred of regret, even if he feels guilt. If he hadn't done all those things, you wouldn't be here with him like this, and even though he knows it's selfish, so very, very selfish, knowing that the horrible things he did got him the result he wanted makes it worth it. And given the opportunity to go back, he'd do it again.

He wants you to genuinely love him, and even though he struggles with human affection and communication, he'll try his best to be sweet to you, say nice things, try to be less irritable, try to talk more.

But if dependency, isolation-induced attachment love is the best he can get, well, that's still love.

Bonus: Is there anything that makes them unique, in comparison to other yanderes?

He likes to just... Spend time in your presence. He's still ultimately not much for talking, he runs out of things to say very quickly and even if you're not talking, he's very very happy to be around you. If you're being cold towards him even, he wants to just sit there and be beside you, if you get up and sit on the other side of the room, or walk to another room (provided you have the privilege to do so), he'll follow you wherever like a little lost puppy and just silently sit right back down next to you again. He soaks in your presence like sunlight, it makes him happy.

If you show him affection, especially after an abduction or when stockholm syndrome starts to set in, it's one of the few times you'll see him smile. His smile is soft and faint, and it's less his mouth so much as his eyes that seem to light up. If you show him affection, you can eventually reach a very vulnerable, very soft side of him. He keeps up walls for everyone else, and he kind of desperately wants someone he doesn't have to do that with, so he'll crumble to your affection fairly quickly, once he's assured of your love.

Also, he's one of the ones who fully understands why you're mad. He gets it, he's lucid, and he honestly knows how awful what he's doing is. He still hopes you'll get over it, though, and if confinement and isolation except for him is what it takes to achieve that... So be it. Rather than justifying his actions, he acknowledges what he's done, but he's aware that psychologically, he's already long past the point of no return, and he can't bring himself to stop.

“I know this wasn’t... what you wanted, and, I know it’s, I know this was really, really bad, but I only did it for your sake. If you just... try to get used to it... maybe you can be happy, if you try.”

General perverseness: how sexual of a person are they? What’s their drive like? How touchy do they get? Do they have any reservations about sexuality?

High, but embarrassed as all hell. He likes to maintain a very respectable and serious image, and people knowing that behind that neutral poker face is a brain running through nasty, nasty fantasies would not be very conductive to that image.

And that's what he does - working the bar gets very, very slow sometimes, and there's not much to do but sit around and let his mind wander. The more bored he gets, the more involved in these fantasies he becomes, and sometimes you might have to tap him on the shoulder to snap him out of it.

He feels guilty, really, for how he feels about you, and he knows that it's wrong and violating... But. But if you don't know, it won't hurt you, now will it? Nothing about the fact that he just thinks about bending you over the bar tables and fucking you raw is going to actually do anything bad. It's harmless.

He won't be touchy or perverse towards you by any means, and while that's nice, it causes something of a... Buildup. A lot of urges and needs have gone unmet, a lot of desperation to just feel you skin that has never been filled, and the thing about buildups is that when you reach a certain point they'll eventually burst, which is going to be what happens once you're in your new home.

How forceful are they? Do they care about your willingness?

He's moderate. He'd like you to want it, he's not highly sadistic and doesn't get off to your struggling/crying the way Childe or Kaeya would. But, in the end he's very set on what he wants, and if you're not open to it, he's not going to wait long. As aforementioned, he's got a lot of pent-up need that has gone unchecked, and while he normally strives for self control, at the point of kidnapping you, he's built up enough sexual frustration that he's not going to be very patient. Again, he's not going to be mean about it, he's more the type to just kiss your forehead and mutter a few reassuring things, even as you hiss at the pain of being impaled. That's another issue - he's convinced you might just be intimidated by the size, so he'll keep reassuring you that it's not going to last long, your body just needs time to adjust, even though you feel like you're being split in two.

He's content with knowing that, even if you mentally aren't wanting it, your bodily reactions show that you're clearly not repulsed or anything.

He's also another one to use that very thing against you, much like Albedo. He can feel you twitch and clamp down when you're close and he'll tell you that if you love him you'll cum, and if you don't love him, you won't. But no amount of trying to bring yourself down is enough to override the overwhelming stimulation.

He's also one to get rougher/more intense with time. At first, he's a bit afraid of hurting you, and he's not entirely familiar with how this all goes, and even can be a bit prudish and reserved. But the more he fucks you, the more and more he realizes he really likes having a sense of control and dominance over you, and just how nice it feels to come home when he's frustrated from a bad day and just fuck that energy out. Once he realizes you're not going to break or anything, you'll notice him gradually getting rougher and harder with time, until it becomes a norm.

What sort of kinks or fetishes do they have, or would they fill?

Stomach bulging/size kink

He's not normally an outwardly prideful person. His pride is more of a silent aloof type of pride, rather than a smug showoff type. He's not one to emphasize his positive traits just to look good. But, fuck, if there isn't something very, very pleasing about being able to physically see his dick making a bulge on your stomach every time he fucks into you. He'll make sure you don't close your eyes, grab your hair and pull your head down so you're forced to watch it fill you more than you can take, over and over.

He doesn't want to hurt you, really, but of all the things to whimper about, you just had to squeal that it's too big, that it hits your cervix, that it's splitting you apart, and as much as he really wants to be a good guy, you're really making it difficult. Hearing that just breaks something primal in him and makes him want to fuck you harder.

It's one of the few things he can actually get smug about, watching you clutch your gut and whimper from bruising and soreness even long after, and as time goes on he might lose enough shame about it all to make a smug comment. He knows he should feel bad. But again, you make it hard to.

Breeding

It's a possession thing, really. There's something so utterly satisfying about just watching cum drip out of you, listening to you whimper whenever you feel it filling you up. It's kind of cute, when he tells you he'll cum inside you and you panic, you squeal and wriggle and unintentionally clench down hard enough to make that happen, you practically just milk the cum out of him when you do.

Forced feminization?/housewife kink/I dont know what to call it but hear me out dammit

He has in his brain this idea of a perfect little housewife and you're going to fit that model whether you want to or not. When he breaks into goes back to your old apartment to bring clothes for your new home he'll only pick the most frilly, feminine of all the things you owned, and if you don't have too many, he'll buy ones for you.

He just likes the idea of having a nice, sweet little wife to come back to, especially after being so stressed with whatever bullshit he's had to put up with that day. Really, any darling in captivity is kinda sorta filling that role, but he's got a very specific image in his mind of you being very... Domestic. Submissive. Frilly little clothes and aprons and cleaning things and making food, it's very cute and gives him a weird sense of dominance that will inevitably turn to arousal - something about the whole ownership and submission aspect of seeing you walk around in those clothes, doing your little chores makes him really want to grab you and bend you over the nearest surface and just - well, you get the idea.

And he's not gonna listen to your whining, either, even if you're a naturally tomboyish person. You could have been the roughest adventurer there was out there, all ragged and getting covered in scrapes and climbing mountains and fighting monsters, but that's in the past, now. Now, is time for you to give that lifestyle up, in favor of a better one, one that will make you happier... if you just let it. 

How do they feel about pregnancy or babies? Do they want them?

He's yes and no, but mostly yes in theory. It fits into his little housewife fantasy and he feels it would be a good way to keep you attached to him. It would make you less likely to leave, it would give you something to do all day, you'd be happy. He's a bit worried about his own capabilities, though. He's not super empathetic and he's not very talkative. Ultimately, it would probably end up an accident that results from the aforementioned breeding kink.

What kind of (nsfw) punishments would they use?

Another one kind of like Razor, he's not gonna think it out too much, but holy fuck, if he's mad, just fucking feels like a punishment in and of itself. You'll realize just how much he's holding back on the regular when you see what it's like when he hold nothing back. It's bruising, it's brutal, and it's a little frightening to witness that kind of raw strength. He'd be one to pick you up into the air completely, holding your whole body up with his arms, forcing you to cling to him so as to not fall while he bounces you up and down on him. And really, once you account for the affect of gravity, so it's slamming into you at unprecedented force, and fuck, it's likely horribly painful, even if that pleasure is still there.

If he's exceptionally mad, he's another one willing to belt you, and while he'll certainly get off to it, it's something he'll only do when he genuinely has a reason to punish you.

What body parts of their darling do they like the most?

Thighs. He likes hooking them over his shoulders, grabbing the fleshy soft parts with his hands, running his hands up and down the sides. One day, one you're comfortable enough, he'd really like to just lay his head down on them like a pillow, they look so soft. And he loves looking at them too, loves things that show just enough of the curve of your hips to your legs and the soft skin underneath.

[wingletblackbird]

Hi. I've been a long time fan of your meta posts. I've been wondering from a purely legally perspective if, as a senator, Padme had the authority to pardon Anakin following his confession in AotC?

Thanks for the compliment!

I'm pretty sure Padme does not have the authority to forgive Anakin's actions on Tatooine from a legal perspective. This isn't just because she is a senator though, and I don't think senators unilaterally have that authority. Even if she did have that kind of authority, and had it on a planet not in the Chommell Sector, she would lack jurisdiction on two counts.

The first is that Tatooine is really only nominally a part of the Republic. It is ruled by the Hutts. Padme has no authority here whatsoever. On top of that, there is no local law enforcement on Tatooine. There are Jabba's enforcers, and your blaster. There is no real law at all. This is the Wild West at it's worst. That is why when Shmi is kidnapped, Cliegg gathers up his farming buddies, and they go after the Tuskens. They can't call in the police, or the military, or any one else to do it. It's a harsh world, and it is just them to do what is necessary. That is why, from a Tatooinian legal perspective, Anakin has not violated the law. On Tatooine justice=vengeance. It is hard to break the law when there isn't one. Sure people will think what he did was excessive, but everyone hates the Tuskens, (you could even call it speciesism), so no one will do anything about it.

The second reason Padme has no say is because Anakin is a Jedi. The Jedi, as seen in Ahsoka's trial, handle all legal matters concerning violations by the Jedi, if not all Force-Sensitives. Now, this system does have room for abuse. However, there is good reason for this system to exist. Force-sensitive beings can choke you from afar, mind trick you etc. The Jedi are the only ones who can ensure a sound judgement, and/or minimal chance of an escaped convict.

Not only do the Jedi need to be in charge in this case for security, they are also the only one's who can truly appreciate how difficult the Force is to handle. What I mean by this is that there is a difference between falling to the Dark Side, and brushing against the Dark. The former is a choice you can be condemned for, the latter is more like manslaughter. Think in ANH when Obi-Wan tells Luke, essentially, that the Force can also control you. You need to be careful how you draw upon the Force. What might be murder for a non-Forceful, could be manslaughter for Forceful if they are overwhelmed by a Force they cannot control, but controls them.

Taking all of this into context then. When Anakin finds his mother, he is grief-stricken, guilt-stricken, furious, horrified, terrified etc. He decides someone needs to die for this, and fair enough. His mother has been tortured to death over several weeks. He gets out his lightsaber and kills the guards. After that, Tuskens come running up to him, he swings his lightsaber. Fade to black. The fade to black symbolizes his brush with the Dark Side. Anakin intended to kill the guards. This is not against the law. This is justice on Tatooine. However, Anakin is also Force-sensitive, and extremely off-balance. He draws on the Force wrong, gets overwhelmed by the Force, and more and more Tuskens, and next thing you know, he's gone and killed the whole village. This was not intentional at all. (As an aside, I think drawing on the Light Side the wrong way can be just as bad, even if not as obviously destructive, but that is a meta for another day.)

Anakin is shocked, horrified, sickened. We can see him struggle to come to terms with it when Padme comes to find him. When he was using the Dark Side he was on a high of power, all the justifications whispered in his head he remembers, now he's awake and trying to cope with what he has done, and why, and how it felt. He has no clue how to handle this. He is a trainwreck. Now, if he'd been bragging about it, I think Padme would have noped out and reported him. He wasn't though. He felt bad. He should be better than this. She forgives him. This is not on a legal level, just a personal one. Padme's gift and flaw is that she always looks for the best in people. Anakin has committed no wrong on Tatooine, and the other wrongs are a Jedi matter she has nothing to do with. In the same way she likely assumed the Jedi would handle Shmi, she thought Anakin would go to the Jedi. Then the war broke out, and there were other things to worry about.

As for Anakin, he was horrified about what he did, and knew he would have to tell someone. He was scared to tell Obi-Wan/the Jedi though. He had never quite fit in. He didn't want to let them down. He didn't expect them to understand how losing his mother affected them. How could they? What should he do? So, he goes to Palpatine first for advice. Palpatine will tell him what he should do. Had Palpatine been a decent man, he would have been sympathetic, but still would have told Anakin that this was beyond his area, and Anakin clearly needs the Jedi's help. Anakin would have gone to the Jedi. Palpatine is not a good man though, and wants Anakin to feel miserable and dark and dependent only on him, so he isolates Anakin further. Of course, the Jedi would never understand, my dear boy. And, besides, it's not like what you did was really all that bad, right? After all, they killed your mother. All water under the bridge! Anakin may not believe this, but it is permission for him to not face his fears, so he doesn't. He vows to do better, and leaves it at that. If Padme brings it up, he tells her he got help. He legitimately thinks he did. Even if he mentioned it was Palpatine he went to, at this point in time, Palpatine is an old friend/mentor of Padme's. She trusts him too. Problem solved.

Now, had Anakin (or Padme) actually told the Jedi what happened. I do not think they would have risked expelling Anakin outright. First of all, they could not have condemned the murder of the Tusken guards, as that could be considered justice under Tatoonian law. However, the rest is manslaughter, arguably even involuntary manslaughter. (Anakin definitely would not have killed kids at this point in time intentionally. He could barely do it even when he chose to fall.) Given Anakin's remorse, he is not beyond hope, and they do not want to expel a man who still could be a danger to himself and others, (and they want to keep track of “The Chosen One”), so he is punished and offered extra meditative training.

I think generally 1-5 years is the typical penalty for involuntary manslaughter? Up to a maximum of 8-10? I don't know. I'm no expert, but I reckon it is pretty similar for Jedi. I imagine the council would suspend him from all further duties, place him in confinement for a year for meditation, counselling, therapy is that too much to ask for?, after that, they would let him out for remedial training under a watchful eye. If improvement was seen, he would eventually be allowed to return to active duty. His knighthood would be put off for quite some time. Alas, this does not happen.

Even if it had though, I don't picture Anakin ever being knighted. Honestly, the increased supervision would have also meant he couldn't see Palpatine or Padme. I think the latter would be the breaking point. Anakin would insist on seeing her and he would get expelled. He would still be expected to do his time, of course, but after that he would leave and never look back.

[minor-solemnity]

Curiosity pt.6

“Are you implying that I’m not good enough to blackmail?” Which well, that maybe isn’t what you should be annoyed by.

A month passes. You don’t talk in class, just keep your head bowed low, eyes fixed firmly on the ground. You ignore Tom in the hallways and in the lessons you share. You suppose that you should probably revert to calling him Riddle, but referring to a man you’ve had sex with by their last name, even in the comfort of your own head, makes you feel dirty.  

He tries to talk to you twice. He doesn’t try a third time.

You don’t tell Marie or Stephanie what’s transpired between you and Tom and eventually, they stop asking. You’re content to let them believe that whatever courtship or relationship they thought had been budding between the two of you had died. It’s easier to pretend that you’re just sad that you’ve missed your chance with Hogwarts’ most sought after bachelor. The truth is so much more complicated. 

The last of the bitter Scottish winter gives way into Spring and with it comes blue skies, crisp winds, and luscious greenery. Stephanie’s attention is fixed firmly on the final quidditch matches of the school year and Marie begins her yearly fretting over exams. You’re left in blessed peace to ruminate on and stew in your own misery. 

It’s far too early on a Saturday for you to be up, but the Great Hall is always empty until at least nine on the weekends and you’ve taken to avoiding large crowds lest you accidentally run into him. As expected, you’re alone save for the ghosts this morning. You’re stirring honey into your tea when a shadow falls over you. You don’t look up. The shadow coughs politely. You glower at your tea. The shadow sighs and there are footsteps and the sound of someone taking a seat opposite you. When you finally look up, Tom is watching you intently. Merlin, it’s so frustratingly easy to get distracted looking at him. The first thing you notice (and you hate that you do) is that he looks somewhat tense. His expression is a mask of polite indifference and his hands rest casually on the table in front of him but there is a tautness to his posture, as though he’s steeling himself for a fight. 

You think that that should please you. At one point, it definitely would have done, but right now you’re still too raw from the events of a month ago to feel anything other than resigned fatigue at his appearance. “You’ve been ignoring me.” He says, and though his tone is placid you can detect a hint of something hard lacing his consonants. 

“What good observational skills you have. Though that’s hardly a surprise, seeing as I’ve been on the receiving end of your interest for months at this point.” The anger at your own stupidity and his manipulation rears its head once more and you’re somewhat taken aback by how much venom has crept into your voice.

“Perhaps, if you’d let me explain-” 

“No.” You cut him off, gathering your things and shoving them into your bag with more force than is strictly necessary. “No, I will not let you explain. I think you made yourself perfectly clear the last time. You have what you want, your curiosity is sated. You have your own blackmail material on me, should you ever feel the need to use it, and all it took was-” You can’t finish the sentence. All it took was a little flattery and his clever tongue touching and playing with you until you’d… Really, it had taken nothing at all. “I don’t know what else you could possibly need to explain to me. I understand what I am to you and what this entire thing was about. Now, if you don’t mind, I’d appreciate it if you just leave me alone.” You don’t hang around to see understanding dawn on Tom’s face, nor do you hang around to see resolve settle firmly on his shoulders.

Fifteen minutes later you’re sat with your arms wrapped tightly around your knees underneath a yew tree by the lake, your bag thrown haphazardly a few feet away. You stare at the lake and determinedly blink back the tears that are threatening to spill down your cheeks. A horrible mix of embarrassment and anger is bubbling in your stomach and your hands shake as you reach down and tug blindly at strands of grass as if they are what your ire is directed at. Merlin, you’ve been stupid. Incredibly, horrendously stupid. You’d known that Riddle was bad news. You hadn’t trusted him from the moment he’d smiled down at you that evening in the dining hall. Almost every meeting between the both of you since had been a constant push and pull, neither of you willing to back down or give way… And now…

Now he has the information that he wanted and the game is up. You’ve lost. And all because somewhere along the line you had forgotten exactly why it was that he’d been interested in you in the first place. You’d let your imagination get the best of you and for a moment you’d let yourself believe that it wasn’t about Mr Larkins anymore. That he was there because of you. Just you and not the secrets that you had tried so hard to keep.

Merlin, what was he going to do with you now that he knew. Blackmailing a teacher (and you have to admit to yourself now that that was exactly what you had been doing) was a serious offence. Enough to get you expelled for sure. Muggles went to prison for blackmail, didn’t they? Would you be sent the Wizengamot? Or would Tom just hold it over your head for eternity? Surely not. He had no use for you now, after all; you can’t keep kidding yourself that he liked or wanted you. You can’t keep kidding yourself that that was part of why this was so painful. 

Beyond the fear you feel for your future, rejection is a bitter pill lodged in the back of your throat. 

“You might appreciate it if I left you alone, but I’d appreciate it if you stopped running away from me.” Tom’s voice is conversational, cheerful almost. You let out a strangled scream of annoyance. He hums a soft little laugh in response. He settles himself down beside you, long legs stretching out in from him, crossed over at the ankle. You notice he’s holding the folder. “You honestly think I’d blackmail you?” He asks, still in that conversational toned and you feel your hackles rise.

“Are you implying that I’m not good enough to blackmail?” Which well, that maybe isn’t what you should be annoyed by.

“You seem intent on misunderstanding everything I have to say, I see.” He says and, at last, something approaching annoyance enters his voice. Out of the corner of your eye, you can see that he’s frowning slightly. As in the Great Hall, his posture suggests he’s at ease, he’s taken his tie off and the top two buttons of his shirt are undone. But something is lurking beneath his relaxed exterior that suggests he’s nervous. “I have no intention of blackmailing you. At first, perhaps, but not any longer. And…” You drop the pretence of not looking at him entirely and turn full to face him. He doesn’t look at you and you get the impression that whatever he’s trying to say does not come easily. “I apologise if that’s the impression I gave you.”

Your eyes widen in surprise at the apology, which whilst stilted, appears genuine. Then, almost immediately after narrow in suspicion and indignation. “What other impression could you possibly have given me? Apart from, maybe, toying with me for your own amusement.” You ask acidly.

His jaw clenches and you notice dimly that he’s making hardly any effort to hide his emotions. He’s almost an open book. Which is… strange. You’re reminded of all the times that Tom’s treatment of you has left you feeling confused. Confused because he doesn’t act the same way around you as he does with the rest of your peers. He’ll put on a facade of politeness, sometimes, but it usually unravels within minutes. You’ve watched him charm and flatter the worst of your professors, that small careful smile never faltering until they’re putty in his hands.

He’s tried to intimidate, taunt, and seduce you but he’s never tried to charm you. The realisation hits you harder than you’d like. But so what that Tom doesn’t seem to think you’re worth the effort? Does it matter that he drops his perfect little persona around you? Yes, the quiet, treacherously hopeful voice in your mind whispers, yes it matters. Of course, it matters.

“That we were having fun, perhaps?” He says at last and he looks pained just saying it. As though telling you that some part of him had enjoyed your company and had assumed that you enjoyed his is physically uncomfortable to admit. Maybe it is. “That I believed you and I had some level of understanding regarding our relationship?” 

You ask incredulously, “Has this been your way of flirting with me, Tom?” At the sound of his name on your lips, he turns to face you and you can practically see him come undone. His throat constricts around a swallow and you can’t stop yourself from tracing the column of his neck to where his collarbones, surprisingly delicate and sharp protrude from the collar of his open shirt with your eyes. He follows your gaze intently. “You never tried to charm me.” You murmur, finally bring your gaze to meet his.

“I’ve only ever been honest with you,” He replies, his voice equally soft. An admission that his persona is mostly a lie, used to trick and manipulate everyone else. Maybe that should put you off, make you turn away from him for good. It doesn’t. “You can’t blame me for wanting to know you when the few things I did know were so interesting. You can’t blame me for liking you more when I found out the rest.” It’s strange, knowing that the parts of you that usually stop people from liking or trusting you are what draws him to you. Then again, maybe it isn’t strange at all. You’re remarkably similar in so many ways, after all. “I thought, perhaps, that you regretted it.” Regretted me, is what he means. Is what he won’t say. Is what you hear nonetheless. 

You’ll need to talk more later; you need to know what he intends to do with the knowledge of your blackmailing schemes but later. Right now… You lick your lower lip and you don’t miss the way he tracks the movement. “I don’t. Regret it.” He nods once, a short decisive shake of his head. You’ve made up your mind. “You should kiss me now.” And he does. He shifts and suddenly you’re being dragged to his side, one large hand curving around your waist and another cupping your jaw, his fingers tangling in your hair. 

You feel like maybe, you’ve just won the best kind of game there is.

(part 1) (part 2) (part 3) (part 4) (part 5) (part 6)

[snuggetfish]

Majidad and spouse headcanons?? 🥺🥺 (nsfw too if youd like e h e)

Hell yeah 👀 I tried to keep them mostly gender-neutral, but some headcanons will fit more to a female partner. Everything under the smiling Maji cut!

Let’s start with the cozy, wholesome ones! 😊

You know how cute Majima’s genuine smile is? The one he doesn’t show quite as often once the Mad Dog takes hold?

Well, I think a sure-fire way to bring it out would be watching his partner and child doing just about anything together: 

...Cuddling on the couch when it’s well past the little one’s bedtime and they’re already sound asleep, but neither he nor his spouse have the heart to move them to bed. 

...Baking a cake, with the kid just barely tall enough to peek over the counter and stick a tiny finger into the chocolate ganache.

...Getting ready for school, tying shoelaces and buttoning up their coat so the cold doesn’t creep in. 

Honestly Majima can’t believe how lucky he is to have been blessed with such a family. He could stare at them for ages and never get tired... which is exactly what a picture is for. One he could keep in his wallet, in his desk drawer at the office and on his phone. Cliche for a parent? Yeah, but who’s gonna stop him? He anyway doesn’t talk about his family while at work. Who knows what ears might be listening...

He wouldn’t stop at one picture though. Since the games have thoroughly established how sentimental he is, I think he’d take lots, to capture everything from important occasions such as birthdays to more casual moments like going to the park or the zoo. And, as much as he’d like to be there all the time to experience each milestone, he knows that’s not gonna be the case... so instead his partner would promise to photograph and record everything he might miss: first words, first steps, first drawing, first day of school... 

Ohhh about those first words, I think Majima might get a bit competitive. Is it gonna be “mama” or “papa”? He loves his spouse of course and he’d be happy either way, but... in his heart of hearts, he kinda wants it to be papa. Maybe he’ll cheat a little and try to double his odds: how about Goro? Well it would sound more like Gowo for sure, but he’ll take it!

When it was still just the two of them as a couple, I think Majima was very much the little spoon in bed. It made him feel warm and loved, all while the Hannya kept watch over his partner. But if we’re talking pregnancy, then he’s switching to the big spoon, for comfort reasons, but also because there’s really nothing better than holding both your beloved and the tiny life inside them all at once. Only once the kid grows a bit older does he revert to his usual position, though it turns out he’s most often the middle spoon now: partner on his back and little munchkin nestled in his arms. Truly the coziest spot in the world, sandwiched between his two favourite people.

As we’re on the topic of bedtime, I think both he and his partner would complement each other well as storytellers. They do the narration and Majima does the voices and sound effects. With his sing-song tone and his silly faces, he’s got the kid completely fascinated, even if it’s largely all improv. After all, he doesn’t need to look at the book, he can make up a better plot on the spot. And when he can’t... well there’s always the narrator to set things straight again. The only problem is, he’s so good that the kid refuses to go to sleep before hearing the end of the story!

Now what if Majima’s child inherited his uncontrollable energy? Well I think the two of them combined would be quite the handful for his partner. They’d zoom around the house doing pretend chases, incorporating all the costumes Majima can dig out of his closet (bonus points if he gets matching ones done for his toddler - imagine the disco outfit!) and eventually they’d have to be shooed out to expend all that energy on a more outdoorsy adventure. When Nishida delivers them home later in the evening, Maijma’s carrying one very tired kid and an equally exhausted look in his eye... but it’s made instantly better with a kiss and a soothing bath.

I’ve touched on the topic of bath time briefly before, but I really think it would be a valuable bonding moment for Majima’s family. It’s not unusual for parents and children to bathe together in Japan and this would give Majima an opportunity to flaunt another hidden talent: haircare. Imagine if his daughter was keen on growing out her hair and her go-to person for that was always daddy. He somehow knows all the tricks that make her hair looks shiny and gorgeous: combing through slowly, detangling from the bottom upwards, using only the gentlest shampoos and conditioners... His partner is of course familiar with his past and knows he’s far better at handling long hair than one might infer just by looking at him... though maybe they can’t help but feel a tiny little bit jealous of how much of a daddy’s girl their daughter’s shaping up to be.

All right I’ve gone through the SFW ones, but a couple does need their intimacy, even with a kid around, so... 👀

Given how hectic and overwhelming first few months of parenthood are, nobody’s surprised that here’s not much time for sex. Nights are sleepless... but so is Majima. He’s not going to grumble if his partner isn’t in the mood after spending half an hour trying to put the baby to bed, though if they’re willing and just a bit too tired, he’ll focus solely on their pleasure. Slow movements accompanied by kisses everywhere. They deserve to lie back and be spoiled and feel his full appreciation for all the joy they’ve brought to his life.

Once the child gets older, the energy and libido return, but now they’re also more at risk of being caught. Majima may be a clingy dad by nature, but eventually even he realizes some time away from his little one would do them good. Kiryu and Saejima can help there. On that first quiet morning with the kid staying at their uncle’s place... the Majimas aren’t leaving the bedroom until well into the afternoon. He’s really, really missed making love his spouse and that’s gonna show in his long and deep strokes, how he keeps his body pressed close to theirs until they’re both lying in the dewy sheets, spent and sated.

Speaking of sated... Imagine that one day the kid blurts seemingly out of nowhere: “I want a baby brother/sister.” Majima would glance over at his partner, curious for their reaction... maybe with a hint of the same pleading look. He knows it’s their body, their call... but if they agree, he’s overjoyed. A sibling means the child would have another outlet for their energy and someone they can hopefully lean on later in life... although, that’s long-term. Short-term, it means that whenever Majima and his partner find a moment to themselves, there’s no more holding back. He fucks like a man on a mission and fills them up over and over...

Think I’ll stop here for now! Thank you so much for the ask! 💙💙💙

[chrichri-chan-18-love]

For you (Yandere Harem x Reader)

OUR YANDERES FOR THIS HAREM:

ILLUMI (HUNTER X HUNTER)

CHROLLO (HUNTER X HUNTER)

IZAYA (DURARARA)

LIGHT (DEATH NOTE)

DAZAI (BUNGO STRAY DOGS)

You... you were one of the most unlucky creatures you’ve ever known. You had once been a strong and proud yokai. The lengedary nine tail fox, descendant of one of the most noble bloodlines among your kind. One day, a shinigami asked for your assistance, claiming that a “friend” of his, needed a much stronger ally.

Light Yagami, a child that was arrogant and saw himself as a just and noble person. You disguised yourself as a normal human girl and gave him a good lecture about that little fantasy about his, when he threatened to write your name in the Death Note, you revealed yourself and told him off.

“If you think that this little notebook can help you become a god, you are mistaken. You are a human that will live and die, then whatever legacy you think you can create,will be forgotten with time.”

Your words had an impact on him, you however, had an even bigger one. He became obsessed, coming to you for advice, talking to you for hours and trying to charm you. However you knew better, you never allowed him to know anything but the bare minimum about your kind and abilities.

When Light became too invasive, you didn’t hesitate to use an old techinque to cross dimensions. The only good thing about Japan was that no matter how many universes there were, with all the crazy abilities and people, yokai still existed. That’s why you could cross over... the world you entered was weird, yet you paid it little attention, you became friends with a mortal teenage girl named Honoka, the two of you got into a lot of mischief...but one day, she began acting like a mindless puppet... and it wasn’t long before you figured out why.

That made you cross paths with Illumi Zoldyck.The two of you met after you stopped his needles easily and rescued his little brother from another yokai that had come after you, growing closer after a while and becoming friends with him and Gon. Illumi was intrigued with you and after your meeting, which resulted in a fight that ended as a draw, decided to investigate more about the nine tail fox. Seeing as having by Killua’s side was beneficial for both Killua and him.

However after three weeks, you gained the attention of another man, Chrollo Lucilfer. He watched in awe as you revealed yourself during a fight over an ancient relic that originally belonged to your kind.Chrollo studied you with fascination, obsessing over the unknown that you represented, his calm behavior never betrayed a thing about this... but he wanted to have you, keep you to himself and learn everything about you.

And he wasn’t the only one.

Illumi tried to control you but he failed again and again... and seeing as you were able to fight him without any problem, he slowly began to fancy you, even thinking of marrying you...Killua liked you and you were strong, you were mysterious yet welcoming to those you deemed worthy of your trust. Viscious to your enemies, never hesitating in battle. He... liked that.

The two didn’t meet until you revealed to Gon and Killua that you planned to leave. You had sense Light entering this realm, probably with the help of another yokai. You gave them a parting gift, the fangs of your childhood years. They carried some of your power and thus they would be protected, you also asked them to give a small hairpin to Honoka and tell her how thankfull you were to have her as a friend.

Just in time too, because Illumi, Chrollo and Light appeared and preapred to subdue you. Using your power, you once again crossed dimensions without noticing that the three males had entered the portal too, this time ending up in a dimension you had been during your childhood... you recalled that there had been one boy that had tried to mess with you... his name was.. Osamu Dazai...he was quite weird, always talking about suicide and how wonderfull it would be if you and him could die together. He... creeped you out back then and he still did, the second he saw you he wrapped his arms around you, talking about how pretty you had become, how much he missed you and how you two could die together after years of seperation....you literally pushed him aside and went to the nearest shrine dedicated to a foc spirit to settle down. Dazai didn’t leave your side, becoming a pest as he told you of his life, of his filled with bloodshed and war... being overly dramatic about it too.

“You haven’t changed a bit. I swear, if I had thought it a bit more I would have stayed back to deal with Light or Chrollo and Illumi.”

“ Light... Chrollo.... Illumi... huh?” Dazai said, his tone dropping as he looked at you seriously... you felt a chill run down your spine, yeah, that was the reason you had left from this dimension, this... tone, that gaze and that possessive aura... oh, it was making you feel sick.

“Well,well. Look at what I found.” A new voice said, turning around you saw a man looking at you two with a smirk.

“Oh great! Now who are you, exactly?” You asked and he came closer, Dazai became stiff at the sight.

“Izaya Orihara, at your service, my cute little fox girl”

You scoffed at that, another weirdo... wonderfull.

“Another mortal with a problematic attitude, at this point I might even call myself cursed.” You said, turning around and leaving the two alone. 

“Stay away from her, Izaya. I’ve long since taken my rightfull place in her life.”

“Aww, now that’s just rude. I’ve been watching you two from afar for a very long time. I wanted to get along with her too, you know. She is so cute when she’s mad, sad or excited about something.”

“So, you’re a stalker? I’m shocked...not.”

“You’re no better Dazai, my friend. I know that you’ve been after her for a very long time and that you’ve done the same things as I, if not even more.”

“What do you want, Izaya?”

“Let’s become partners in crime! See if those three males she spoke of are anything special. If they are, I am not against sharing.”

Dazai thought this over before eventually agreeing, if the men you spoke of were strong, then sharing would be the only thing left to do... and not even a day later, all five of them met, they exchanged information and formed a plan to get you. 

You never stood a chance against all of them.

They sealed the majority of your power through a contact made with blood. Thus making you something of a guardian spirit... you were tricked by them and you payed the price by becoming their precious servant.

Izaya, Dazai and Chrollo didn’t mind spoiling you and letting you go out, with the condition that you behaved and did everything they wanted. Illumi and Light weren’t really into that, prefering to isolate you and slowly break you into accepting them, Light wanted you to love him and Illumi wanted to ensure that he would always be in your heart, that his memory would live on with you even after he was long gone.

Honestly... you really did believe that you were the most unlucky creature, anyone in your place would think so... but you hoped, begged that one of them would die sooner rather than later... especially when one of them talked about a baby born from a human and a yokai, you couldn’t remember who it had been... but the idea spread like wildfire...

Once they were all dead, once they died... you would be free... you just had to hold on... you just needed to wait, even if you suffered, hope still remained in you. 

Untill then,you had no choice but to listen to what them... to become a doll meant to make them happy.

Really, you were just unlucky... because you might fall for one of them as the years pass by... and then... then you’d probably join them in death... because they clearly didn’t plan on ever letting you go.

[pbaintthetb]

quick fic

wrote this because i need to write but lack motivation, and I’m not posting it because it’s not neatly wrapped up but anyway

“I’m here to see the Sect Leader,” Xichen tells the Nie disciples who greet him at the gates. He’s greeted with a nod and a fond eye roll, his presence here is not unfamiliar, frequently coming to drag poor little A-Sang out of trouble.

(How much of that had always been a lie? How much had these disciples known it was a lie. Is it all an act? All of them?)

“He’ll meet you in his office,” one of the disciples tells him pleasantly, “Feel free to wait for him there.” In the corner of his eye he can notices a flurry of green, but he nods and walks the familiar path.

A-Sang, A-Yao. It’s too late for Da-ge, Mingjue is gone, and it’s like a gaping hole in his chest, but maybe he can stop the rest of the tragic story playing itself out again. Stop Huaisang from ruining himself.

“Er-ge?” Huaisang says warily as he enters the office to find Xichen standing there. His fan is up over his mouth and his eyes are wide, but this is just how Huaisang had looked in the temple, and it sends eerie chills down Xichen’s spine.

His silly, foolish, lazy, idle little brother is none of those things. At least not anymore, but maybe Xichen can restore it. Now that he’s looking for it, now that he knows it’s there, he can see it in Huaisang’s eyes. A certain sharpness, warily tracking him.

Or maybe Xichen’s imagining it, so desperate for it to be there, for there to be a sign of everything Huaisang was and will be (won’t be, Xichen will fix it) again. But if even A-Yao had never noticed...

There is no point in wasting more time, so he swallows everything down and lays his cards out on the table. Mingjue had always valued forthrightness and honesty and had tried to instill those in Huaisang. Huaisang had hated Jin Guangyao because he had lied. Honestly should work, it has to.

“I know what you’re planning, A-Sang,” Xichen says, doesn’t whisper it, says it bravely and solidly so his confidence doesn’t abandon him. He needs to do this properly, needs to save as much of his brothers as he can. He can’t watch themselves tear themselves apart once more.

“Planning?” Huaisang says after a short pause, “I don’t know what you’re talking about? I really don’t know. I promise Er-ge! What do you mean?”

It was one thing to listen to Huaisang’s frantic denials and confusion when he had thought it real. It had been almost endearing, if sometimes a little worrying or irritating. Now, when he knows it has so much falseness in it, it sends a trickle of ice down his spine. He resists the urge to shudder, but maybe not enough because Huaisang’s eyes go wider still.

Xichen reminds himself that his sword is at his hip and his erhu hangs on his other side. Then he mentally prods himself, because why does his brain think he’d need protection from Huaisang? No matter what, Huaisang, his da-ge’s didi, would never hurt him. And, not to be rude, but Huaisang never had a particualry  strong core.

He shakes himself to get over the silliness and takes the plunge.

“I know about Da-ge and what you’re planning with A-Yao. How you want to destroy him, make sure he could never come back and-” He doesn’t finish his thought before Huaisang interjects.

“Er-ge? Are you okay, what about Da-ge? I don’t know what  you mean?”

“No, Huaisang.” He blocks off once more, he won’t play this game now. He fell for it before, in the temple, and A-Yao had died. He had done unforgivable things, but he hasn’t necessarily done them all yet this time. Maybe he can be saved, and he didn’t deserve to die.

“I have,” he pauses, “certain knowledge, Huaisang. I have seen, some things.” He swallows, and sees Huaisang watching him like a hawk over his fan, but his brow furrowed to keep up the illusion of confusion. A-Yao had said he’d never see through Huaisang’s mask, but Huaisang is still early in his game, and Xichen knows, he thinks he might now.

“San-ge led to Da-ge’s death.” Xichen tells the other man, as though  Huaisang doesn’t already know. “And I know you want to destroy him for it.”

There is no response, just the feeling that every inch of him is being measured and none of it is being deemed good enough.

“But why would San-ge hurt Da-ge?” Huaisang asks him eventually, voice trembling- and was Xichen too early? Has he ruined everything? Would Huaisang never have come for A-Yao? Or maybe this is right, and they can talk it over, and get justice together and without utterly destroying A-Yao in the process.

“Their relationship was very strained by the end,” Xichen acknowledges heavily. It didn’t make it right, but it made it make sense in hindsight. “I think San-ge...” he trails off, unsure how to continue. He shakes his head, this isn’t the point anyway.

“I know what you’re going to do, Huaisang. I’ve seen it. You’re going to trick him, and trap him and kill him. But you’re smart- no, I’ve seen that too. If we work together we could help him.” He swallows, “please, A-Sang.”

There’s an odd laugh.

“The way you talk, Er-ge. You make it sound as if you’re from the future,” Huaisang chuckles lightly again, and it is an absurd thought.

Xichen nods.

“Oh,” Huaisang tells him, ugly and flat, fan snapping shut to reveal a very displeased expression. “So tell me, Zewu-jun, did it hurt, what I did to him?”

Xichen gapes, he hadn’t expected this, at least not this fast.

“I’m not an idiot-” Xichen knows that now, “And I’m guessing, despite everything. Despite probably knowing more than me about what that bastard had done, you’ve still come to me first? He murdered my brother, and you’ve come to me to tell me to stop?!” Huaisang’s voice is full of venom, but no louder than a hiss.

The smaller man stands up loudly and clumsily, knee banging into a desk as he does so.

“Leave, Xichen,” Huaisang tells him, full of anger and rage. Xichen doesn’t know how it went so wrong so fast. “I thought you just didn’t know, and that was damning- but this?” Huaisang spits, such an unrefined action for such a carefully composed and elegant man.

“Huaisang,” Xichen says a little warningly himself, “I don’t think you want to challenge me either. A-Yao needs to be brought to justice, but you want isn’t justice. It’s barely revenge- it’s blood thirsty vengeance and I cannot condone it.”

He thins his lips, deciding whether to say his next sentence as Huaisang glowers at him, knuckles whitening around his fan. He needs to save as much of A-Yao as he can, it’s clear Huaisang is mostly gone, but maybe saving A-Yao will help save A-Sang.

“You don’t want the Lan as an enemy, Huaisang. My reputation is far better than yours, I could say all kind of things and they wouldn’t be lies. Please, leave him alone, let me deal with him.” It only feels a little wrong on his tongue, Xichen can live with it.

He’s met with a spluttering laugh from Huaisang, but his eyes are so very firm and steady and hard. Huaisang really is like Mingjue, but not in sharing honesty.

“If you tell anybody about this, about the Headshaker plotting, Zewu-jun, you think anyone will believe you? The only person who would is Jin Guangyao, and then you’ve signed my death warrant as well. Do you want this on your conscience? Can you live with the deaths of both my and Da-ge on your head?

Xichen steps back, his mind screaming at him, and Huaisang takes that as an opportunity to move around his desk and slither up to his side.

“Come back to me with his head, or don’t come back at all, Er-ge.” Huaisang strides back to his desk. “After all, I think we’ve established that I really don’t need you. Maybe I’ll drip all kinds of poison about you into people’s ears. I’m a terrible gossip, and just really don’t know how to hold my drink after all. Someone really ought to stop Sect Leader Nie from spending so much time in Taverns.”

Xichen suddenly has the nasty feeling that he’s walked into a snake’s den. That he really, should never have come.

“But that won’t be you,” Huaisang continues, “Seeing that you don’t like me anymore? Or do you? In which case then I’m still so useless, and not scheming.” Huasiang throws him a clearly false beam, and Xichen just wants out.

“Nice talking with you, Er-ge, now I’m fed up of watching you squirm.”

Xichen leaves as quickly as he can, not taking his eyes of Huaisang, who locks eye contact the whole time Xichen backs out of the door. He doesn’t even try to lay on a threat or impress for Huaisang not to go after A-Yao once more. He’s said all he can say to Huaisang. Now he’s stuck here, in the past with the sick feeling he’s made everything worse.

“The Sect Leader’s a real character, isn’t he?” one of the Nie disciples on the door comments with a slight laugh as Xichen focuses on not looking like he’s stumbling out. “Can really drive you up the wall.”

Xichen looks at him, and can see nothing but friendliness and banter.

“Well-meaning, but dumb,” the woman on the other side comments. The two disciples laugh together again.

“don’t worry, Zewu-jun, I don’t think he knows what he’s doing.” They snort.

Xichen looks at them both, tries to see if it’s a facade, if it’s real or-

He draws himself up, “You should show your Sect Leader some more respect,” he intones seriously. “The-”

“Oh, don’t worry,” Xichen is interrupted, “We respect Sect Leader Nie. He at least knows when he’s got an enemy in front of him. He’s not totally useless.”

Xichen swallows. He’s not quite sure how. But the only thing he’s certain of is that he’s made everything worse. So much worse.

[the-dragongirl]

Hello tumblr. I have returned from a long period of inactivity, because I must bring the good word to the corner of the Star Wars fandom that used to be my main fannish home: there is a new era of Star Wars canon that was made just for our taste. It is called the High Republic.

WHAT IS THE HIGH REPUBLIC?

The High Republic is an giant multi-media project being carried out by the Lucasfilm story group to create a brand new era of Star Wars canon. It is set a few hundred years before the prequel era (so, a long time after the Old Republic era), in a period of peace and stability within the Republic. It currently includes several English language adult novels, a YA novel, two serialized comics, a manga, some short stories, and some short video blurbs published on facebook and youtube. A TV show for Disney+ has also been announced, but is a few years off. This project is unique in Star Wars, in that all of the different parts are being written together by one writing team, and are coordinated to tell a cohesive story. Also, what has been announced is just the beginning – they have stated that there will be three different sections of the High Republic, and everything we have had announced so far is just part one. As a note: this is an era for which there was NO pre-existing canon in Legends, so it is totally new territory.

OKAY, THAT’S NICE, BUT WHY SHOULD I BOTHER TO CHECK IT OUT?

There are SO many reasons why the High Republic is worth your time to explore. I will try to outline some of them here below the cut (without any significant spoilers).

IT IS A LOVE LETTER TO THE JEDI

This is the era for everyone who loves the Jedi and wants to understand how they got to the point they did in the prequel era. It shows Jedi at their best: saving people, working together, being completely in tune with the Force (in so many beautiful and original ways), demonstrating creativity and flexibility and being rewarded for it, actually thinking through the ethics of things like the mind trick, and DEALING with their emotions rather than repressing them. It shows us how the rigid Jedi culture was saw in the prequels was a corruption of something that was originally healthy and uplifting. Jedi in this era are allowed to be flawed, and to grow, and have a community that supports them in doing so. This is the Jedi culture so many of us created as fix it fic for the prequel era, but made canon.

IT IS AN ERA OF HOPE

There are some serious problems in the High Republic Era. Without spoilers, the era opens with a terrible humanitarian crisis, laid over the Republic equivalent of the New Deal from US history.  We see a lot of examples of people doing their best to be good to each other, and working for a more just and kind galaxy. They acknowledge that things are not perfect, but people from many different backgrounds (Jedi, politicians, farmers, pilots, business people) work together to try and make things better. I don’t know about you all, but with the darkness we see in the world today, I NEED some of that optimism in my escapist media. The High Republic provides that.

IT WILL GIVE YOU FEELINGS

The existing material so far is structured to really let you emotionally invest in the characters and their struggles. Unlike with many eras of Star Wars canon, characterization is not sacrificed for the sake of plot (though never fear, there is PLENTY of plot). That means there is huge scope for empathy. I’m not going to lie; I cried within the first three chapters of Light of the Jedi, as did several other people I know. It is POIGNANT in a way that feels truly genuine.

IT IS FUN

The writing team understands that, in the end, Star Wars is space fantasy. If your space fantasy is nothing but serious, gritty grimdark, it becomes pretentious and unbearable. So, for all that there is some heavy content in the High Republic (VERY heavy content – the Nihil should really have their own content warning), it has many moments of levity that keep it from taking itself too seriously. For example, the High Republic made Jedi bodice rippers canon. Also, characters like Geode exist (yes, that rock there is a CHARACTER). The result is something which honors the spirit of Star Wars, and keeps you engaged without being tedious or ridiculously depressing.

THE WRITING TEAM HAS DIVERSE PERSPECTIVES

The main writing team consists of five people: Justina Ireland, Claudia Gray, Charles Soule, Daniel José Older, and Cavan Scott. You will note that includes two people of color, two women, and one out Queer person (in fact, one of the writers is all three of those things). This is a far cry from the white-cis-straight-man-dominated writing teams we have seen in the past. And when they bring in other people to the project, they make a point of looking for perspectives that aren’t represented on their team – for example, the manga is being co-written between Justina Ireland and Japanese writer Shima Shinya, and Ireland has stated in interviews that Shinya is taking the lead on the writing.

IT VALUES MEANINGFUL REPRESENTATION

That diverse writing team means a cast that looks WAY more like the real world than any other era of Star Wars we’ve seen, in terms of representation. There are multiple characters of color, who are both heroes and central to the story. There are at least five canonical queer characters to date (a MLM couple, an Ace character, and two NB character).  [EDIT: Thank you @legok9​ for letting me know about the NB characters]. Among binary gendered characters, there is a very even balance of men and women. The writing team has also stated that they will be incorporating more representation of disability in the works to come. And the story is so much better for it – representation is included here BECAUSE it makes for more creative, believable, and original storytelling.

IT IS ACCESSIBLE

Because of the multiple formats, and the fact that it doesn’t rely on you knowing any prior lore, the High Republic offers many avenues to engage for people with all kinds of needs. Know nothing about Star Wars canon and feel intimidated about catching up? The canon is all new in this era anyway, so you’re fine. Can’t handle flashing lights? No problem – the little bit of video content that exists is totally free from the strobing effects that caused seizure and sensory issues. Need purely audio content? You can still have a full experience of the High Republic with the gorgeously sound-scaped audiobooks. Don’t have the attention span for books or long movies? Then the comics are your friend.

THERE IS SOMETHING FOR ALL

Between the books aimed towards adults and teens (and their respective audiobooks), the kids books, the comics, the manga, the short stories, AND the eventual TV show on Disney+, there is going to be content in the High Republic that suits most audiences. And that is just what has been announced so far – there is still more to come for phases II and III. This isn’t Star Wars written towards one group or demographic – it is Star Wars for everyone.

DID I MENTION THE FANCY JEDI UNIFORMS?

Because cosplayers and fanartists? This is the era for you. We are getting Jedi in silks with elaborate gold embroidery. Jedi with jewelry other decorative elements. Even the practical field uniforms have tooled and embossed leather. If you want to draw or make Jedi that have some of that that sweet LoTR-esque high fantasy aesthetic, the High Republic has your back. (Not going to lie – I am ALREADY imagining the time travel AUs. Put Obi-Wan in fancy clothes!)

OKAY, YOU’VE SOLD ME. WHERE SHOULD I START?

I strongly recommend everyone looking to get into the High Republic (who is old enough to be on Tumblr) start with Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule. I alternated between the physical book and the audio book, and found it delightful in both formats. After that, you have a lot of options. You can read or listen to the audio book of the YA novel A Test of Courage by Justina Ireland. You can check out the currently running Star Wars: The High Republic comic from Marvel, or the Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures comic from IDW. Or you can skip straight to Into the Dark by Claudia Gray. Honestly, there is no wrong order to try out most of the High Republic.

IN CONLUSION

The High Republic is Star Wars written for people who DON’T want Star Wars to be a good ‘ol boys club for salty white dudes who don’t want to see anything but more of Luke Skywalker. It offers broad representation, and optimistic narrative, and whole bunch of awesome Jedi content. If you are someone who fell in love with Jedi in the prequel era, the High Republic will give you more of what you loved. And if you are totally new to Star Wars? The High Republic is here for you too.

So, go check it. And then go write fic for it (please, there are only, like, 14 fics on AO3, I am dying).

[ojcobsessed]

oliver jackson-cohen for flaunt magazine, by jessica romoff, july 2019

***

The first horror movie I ever saw was The Exorcist on my grandmother’s RCA console TV, midnight on Christmas Eve. My grandmother is a Catholic Portuguese woman who was devout to cross stitching and Jesus Christ, resulting in crucifixes nailed into every wall of the living room. So, as every flash and jolt from the TV screen would animate the tortured figurines with chilling white light, I prepared in panic and thrill for each one to flip upside down.

Not only did this movie ignite my passionate love for horror, but actor Oliver Jackson Cohen’s passion as well. Mine lead me to accumulating random 70’s slasher movie memorabilia and sporadic nightmares, while Cohen’s lead him to eventually being the star of hit Netflix horror miniseries The Haunting of Hill House as his character Luke Crain, with a few nightmares as well. The 10 episode show is a modern reimagining of Shirley Jackson’s novel “Hill House” and follows the Crain family during the summer they lived in the haunted home, and flashes forward on their lives decades after the tragic events.

During a phone interview with him, I learned Cohen is much more than just a dedicated actor with a jawline that can cut glass; Cohen is a whirlpool of empathy, an artist who gushes his heart into everything he does, and demands that his character Luke, and those battling with similar struggles, are portrayed more than just their addiction.

With your role in last season, I was really impressed by how you portrayed a character with drug addiction, and how you refrained from making him a stereotypical, one dimensional person - and I was wondering how you avoided leaning on this cliche when approaching Luke?

Thank you, number one, I think we all have seen drug addicts portrayed in movies and tv shows before. Most of the time, they are always portrayed as their addiction, and I don’t think that’s very true for anyone who knows anyone who has substance abuse problems; there is actually a fucking person there. So it was very clear from the get-go that I had a responsibility to present a fully formed human being, and they actually brought in a specific writer to write Luke’s character- who was a heroin addict in recovery. I said to Mike, the director and creator of the show - before we even started that it’s very important that Luke is the sum of all his parts and is not just his addiction. So I think that the way I approached it, is that when I first began doing all the research and the pre-work before we started filming, I started looking at documentaries, because I had never done heroin before, so I thought, Oh I’ll start looking at documentaries - but then I realized quite early on that that was putting a judgement on him. And I don’t think it’s fair - because behind anyone who has fallen into this trap is someone who is deeply struggling. And I felt it - I felt a huge amount of, not pressure, but a need to show the person behind the addiction and show the person who is actually struggling, and why he had become an addict. So I focused on that - so I spent no time whatsoever seeing Lucas as a drug addict; I saw him as someone who was struggling to come to terms with everything that he had experienced and happened in his life. And so I focused on anyone who is trying to numb themselves, that know they’re running away from something. So I built up the terror of that, instead of focusing on “I need my fix.”

Was there something that happened in your own life, that was out of your control and not your fault, but regardless someone judged you because of that - perhaps driving your connection to Luke’s character?

Oh 100 percent, and that’s what is so interesting, because I don’t have a substance abuse problem - but I think that out of all the characters I have ever played in the past 10 years, there’s the most of me in Luke. Like, all of that stuff of just trying to function, and the vulnerability, and just trying to be normal, and being so ashamed - all of that is my own shit, and so [laughs] I didn’t need to be a heroin addict to understand the pain that he was going through, so, so much. I think it’s incredible getting to play someone like that because, in a weird way it felt like therapy - I was able to go to work everyday and just be all the parts of myself. I think it’s interesting as well for men, there’s this whole thing about having to be a certain way, having to always be strong, and I think inherently a lot of people do feel incredibly fragile. So all of that stuff of Luke is me, and my stuff, and I didn’t have to pretend - I just got to go to work and be as vulnerable as I feel. You know we all have incredibly complicated lives and incredibly complicated upbringings,  and I used all of my stuff: I was diagnosed with PTSD a couple of years ago so all of that is in there with Luke - and it felt incredibly cathartic to be able to kind of put it all out there and be there.

When your work is something that is so emotionally rigorous, and strenuous, it must be very draining dedicating yourself to a character who is really struggling his whole life  - How do you unwind and decompress from this intensity?

[Laughs] I….you know what, I’m not very good at it. I feel like I’m one of those people, I’m sort of with the school of thought that you either go to work and you fucking do it  - and you do it for real, or go home. I’m not into this whole I’ll just pretend! thing, so it’s probably not the healthiest way of working. But I feel it’s necessary, and then I don’t know how to handle it. There were a couple of days on set where specifically we were filming all of Luke’s episodes or the stuff where he’s sort of roaming the streets - that got way too intense. We would rap at 6 am and I would go back to my house and sleep for a bit, and then wake up and just be so out of sorts: I would have to call people at home to reassure me that everything was okay.

I imagine the intensity can be overwhelming

Yeah, I mean, it sounds really wonky - but I think that when you’re messing around with stuff like that, and you’re tricking your brain into thinking something is real, and then on top of that you’re drawing from your own personal well of shit that probably should be kept untouched - it’s gonna be messy at times. So yeah, it gets… it did get a little hairy. But again I felt that it was important - and I think all of us across the board in the cast felt that it was so important to do that - to give Luke a voice. And what’s been so interesting when the show came out, it was so overwhelming, the response, specifically from people that have struggled with addiction. And it was so warming to hear these stories from people, so I think it was necessary for all of us as actors to go to those dark parts of ourselves, and put that out on screen.

Is there something that you wish you knew before you began acting in a horror TV series? Or about a TV series with intense family drama with horror influence?

Hm..I don’t know. Just… it’s all good. [laughs] it’s gonna be all good.

Honestly, that’s pretty solid universal advice. And I was wondering, are you a fan of horror in general?

Yes! Huge

And is this a genre that you want to continue with?

Yes, I had never done anything horror before, so this was a dream. I remember I watched The Exorcist when I was like eight or something, and it completely terrified me - and I still to this day have nightmares about it. I think what’s so clever about horror, and I think specifically with what Mike has done on our show, it becomes a metaphor for something else. So specifically with Hill House, if you take away the house and all the ghosts and all the horror elements, it’s about childhood trauma. So you can swap out what all those kids went through, the horror they experienced, can be swaped out for sexual abuse, or physical abuse, or anything like that. So you manage to kind of navigate all of these horrific things we kind of don’t want to look at, in the veil of ghosts, so it becomes palatable for an audience. I never knew this, Netflix told me this, that horror is the most watched genre in the whole world.

Really!?

Across the board, yeah! I thought it would be comedy. But that’s why Netflix made the show. Because they realized that actually there was such a massive market for horror. So yeah, a really long winded answer to your short question - yes I was a fan of horror, I always have been.

Me too! I’ve never thought about how horror can be a metaphor for trauma. That’s so fascinating. Just one last question - I know that you can’t say too much about the second season… right? Or they’ll shoot you.

Right [laughs]

So, see if you can answer this: if Season 1 and Season 2 were mythical creatures, what would they be?

[Laughs] What would they be… ahhh...I genuinely don’t know how to answer that question. They’re both just beasts from the darkest corners of our minds. Season 1…. Uh… what I can say - is that season 1 I believe was amazing, and with what they’re doing with season 2 is even…. More incredible.

[letapollojusticesayfuck]

fuck it, Klapollo Camp Rock AU (where I change like half the plot to make it fit the characters better lmao)

Apollo and Trucy are Phoenix’s adopted kids; Phoenix has a catering business and gets hired last-minute to cater the food at Camp Rock

Trucy’s 12 and has been dying to go to the camp since she read about it on the Gavinners fan forums--they’re her favorite band and that’s where they got their start. She’s hoping to eventually start a magic-themed band where she integrates magic tricks into their stage performances

Apollo’s 19 and really does not want to spend his summer at some music camp--he’s not a fan of being onstage or performing at all, though he knows guitar and has a notebook full of songs he’s written over the years. He’s not sure they’re any good, but they’re personal and they’re his.

(He’d also been planning on spending his summer going on an epic road trip with his best friend Clay, before Clay found out he got into an intern program at GYAXA and they had to abandon that idea--leaving Apollo at loose ends for the summer)

Phoenix insists that both Trucy and Apollo come to the camp with him and help out--Trucy gets to participate in camp activities, and Apollo’s supposed to be a counselor who can sit in on some classes if he wants. Trucy’s thrilled; Apollo less so.

Meanwhile, there’s been some drama within the Gavinners--amidst rumors of unruly behavior and accounts of an uncooperative, pop-diva attitude, Klavier Gavin is unwillingly pushed into spending his summer taking some time off from the band and acting as a guest teacher at Camp Rock, under the supervision of his former mentor and owner of the camp, Miles Edgeworth

Shortly after arriving at camp, it becomes very obvious that Phoenix and Miles already know each other--and Apollo and Trucy start wondering if they’re going to have to start making bets about if they’re going to have a new dad by the end of the summer

Trucy finds a group of friends to fall in with almost immediately--she ends up moving into a cabin with Athena, Pearl, and Juniper Woods

Meanwhile, Apollo’s stuck having to live with Phoenix in the staff cabins--and having to go through camp counselor orientation, where he meets fellow disgruntled counsellors Ema and Kay, who he bonds with over mutual distaste for having to supervise a bunch of kids with ~musical dreams~

(Kay got drafted into being a camp counselor by Edgeworth, who’s not quite her dad but who might as well be. She dragged Ema along because they’re dating and Ema needed a job to help with her grad school debts--studying forensics isn’t cheap!)

Sometime during the nebulous time period before camp Officially Begins, Apollo’s helping clean the dining hall and takes a break to chill and play some guitar and hash out one of his newest song ideas

While he’s doing this, Klavier just so happens to walk past the open window, on his way back from trying to argue with Edgeworth that he’d had a world tour planed for this summer, and what if the fans forget about him? He’s gotta get out of here!

Klavier’s entranced by Apollo’s singing--who is this mysterious singer with the fantastic voice and incredible music composition skills? He runs into the dining hall, only to find an empty room and a guitar propped up against the wall--no trace of the person who’d been playing

But Klavier can’t get the song out of his head--and so he vows that, before the summer’s end, he’s going to find out who was singing

The first time Apollo meets Klavier properly, he does not get the best first impression of the rockstar--Klavier’s supposed to be teaching a class about song composition and music theory, but he basically goes at it with the least enthusiasm possible and uses a bunch of technical terms that go way over the heads of the group of 12-to-14-year-olds Apollo’s supervising (including Trucy et al.)

Somewhere in here, Trucy finds out that Apollo has literally no idea who Klavier is, despite her having been obsessed with the Gavinners for at least three years now. She makes fun of him mercilessly.

Apollo ends up making some snarky comments about Klavier’s teaching ability to Ema, and Klavier overhears

The next time they encounter each other, Apollo’s moving some baking supplies from the storage into the kitchen, and Klavier stops him halfway--he asks Apollo what his problem with him is, and Apollo tells him straight--he thinks Klavier is acting way too high-and-mighty and not letting the kids have any fun in his classes. He chides him for his perfectionist attitude, telling him that the camp isn’t about putting together the perfect performance, it’s about learning and making mistakes and having fun.

(He’s mostly saying this because Trucy was really upset that she couldn’t follow the lesson the other day, and spent days stressing about how this might mean that she can’t be a real musician magician, and Apollo’s basically gonna defend Trucy with his life, even if he himself doesn’t want to be at camp)

Apollo asks Klavier about his experience at camp--surely everything wasn’t about being perfect the whole time back then?

He leaves Klavier to think about that and gets back to his errands--and Klavier does take Apollo’s words into account

During his next lesson, Klavier actually plans a kind of fun, hands-on activity, and Apollo’s surprised (and kind of touched, honestly)

They end up hanging out a lot more during their free time, after that, and realize they actually get along pretty well

Meanwhile, there’s background Narumitsu shenanigans going on where Phoenix and Miles keep having emotionally charged moments over really mundane things, like double-checking the food supplies and confirming the amount of music-themed cupcakes to be made for the weekly Music Event

Trucy and her group of friends are working to put together a performance for the Final Jam at the end of the summer--it’s just been announced that the winner of the Final Jam contest will get to record a song with Klavier, and it’s basically a guaranteed jump-start to their career

They’ve got stiff competition--(though I haven’t decided from who yet, OOPS, lmao--open to suggestions! Who’s around their age and Mean? Bonny and Betty DeFamme, perhaps?)

Apollo has no plans to participate in the Final Jam at all--again, he doesn’t like performing onstage in front of a bunch of people who are going to judge him

HOWEVER--the rival group to Trucy’s plot a scheme--they’re going to frame Trucy and her friends for masterminding a sabotage of the competition! Whoever the “leader” of this group is plants evidence around Trucy’s cabin and drags Edgeworth into it to investigate--though Edgeworth believes that Trucy and her friends are being set up, his hands are tied--the rival group have Connections and famous family members, and the camp’s already struggling financially. He can’t afford to have these rich parents pull their support

And so, Trucy and her group are banned from performing--until the end of the Final Jam. 

Obviously, Apollo and Phoenix are outraged. Phoenix goes to confront Miles about it, and finds out about the financial situation--and Apollo asks Trucy if there’s anything he can do

And Trucy sees an Opportunity--because she’s Noticed Apollo and Klavier spending time together

She asks Apollo to perform at the Final Jam on her behalf, and Apollo, although kind of uncomfortable with the idea, agrees, because he wants to make his sister feel better, and if he’s got to face his fears to do it...well, he’s going to do it for her, even if he makes a fool of himself

Meanwhile, Klavier’s been trying and failing to find out who his mystery singer from the start of the summer is--and he’s running out of time. 

And Then...

it’s the Final Jam!

A bunch of performers perform various musical numbers, and they’re all pretty good

Klavier is one of the judges, along with the rest of the Gavinners and Miles Edgeworth

Apollo actually hadn’t technically entered the competition during the designated sign-up period, so he’s not on the official program--he gets announced as a surprise late entry, and Klavier is taken aback

because he had no idea that Apollo could sing, or play an instrument, or anything--Apollo had basically just made out that he was here against his will and got dragged into this to help out his dad, Phoenix

So Apollo walks out onstage, looking very awkward and holding his guitar, and all eyes are on him

and Klavier recognizes the guitar, doesn’t he? It’s the guitar that was in the dining hall, that first day

But wouldn’t that mean...?

And then Apollo starts playing, and he opens his mouth to sing, and from the very first notes, Klavier knows this is it

This is the song! 

Anyway, he’s stunned, shocked, until without realizing it, he’s stumbled up, grabbed a microphone, and he’s onstage, singing along with Apollo in a Dramatic Duet(TM)

Apollo’s also stunned--he’s spent the entire summer listening to Klavier lament about his mysterious singer that he’s trying to find, and this song that he’s never gotten out of his head (that Apollo never actually got to hear, come to think of it...), and it turns out that in the end...he was Klavier Gavin’s mystery muse?

They finish the song, and Edgeworth announces that that’s it--it’s the end of Final Jam!

The judges go away to tally the scores, and...what’s this?

The curtains go up, the lights turn on, and it’s a surprise performance, from Trucy, Pearl, Athena, and Junie!

They get to play the song they’ve been working on all summer, and it’s a hit--surprisingly good for a bunch of kids between 12 and 14!

(Trucy’s integrated magic tricks and it looks Super Cool)

The votes come in, and...

turns out Apollo got disqualified for the fact that Klavier ended up singing with him, oops

(He’s secretly glad--he didn’t really want to get roped into more public performances with Klavier)

The winner actually ends up being Vera Misham, who’d entered with a heartfelt ballad set against a backdrop of her own drawings

But Trucy’s made a bunch of new friends and got to surprise everyone with her magic/music combo!

And Apollo meets up with Klavier out by the lake, after the show, to talk things over

because really, Klavier spent an entire summer pining after him?

And Klavier’s like, “Wow, I’m an idiot, I spent the entire summer torn between hoping I’d find this mysterious singer who stole my heart right at the start, and wanting to get to know you more--and it turns out you’re one and the same, and all my worrying was for nothing.”

to which Apollo responds: “You’re sure you’re not...disappointed? Because I’m just...me, and I don’t really want to be a performer, and I’m really not that cool, and--”

Klavier cuts him off: “Nein, don’t talk like that! You are perfect, exactly as you are--and I can’t tell you how happy I am that it’s you”

And Apollo lets himself believe Klavier, and they just smile at each other with these stupid huge grins on their faces, standing out on the dock on the lake, before Apollo finally decides that fuck he’s gonna go for it

and he kisses Klavier, right there, arms wrapped around his neck so he doesn’t go falling over with the combo of standing on a dock and standing on his tiptoes so he can reach

They only break apart when they’re interrupted by the sound of raucous applause from the bushes by the shore--

where Trucy and her band were watching, and they cheer them on

(Apollo turns exactly as red as his signature hoodie, and even Klavier is hard-pressed to just laugh it all off)

Klavier and Apollo make sure that they’ve got each others’ contact details, and confirm that yes, they want to try this dating thing, even though they’re both going to be pretty busy and not in the same place

The only thing left is to get all packed and ready to go home--so Klavier walks Apollo (and Trucy) back to the cabin Apollo shares with Phoenix--

--only to walk in on Phoenix and Miles finally having gotten their acts together, making out on the couch.

(Trucy wins a lot of money that night, and everyone at the camp learns definitively not to enter into bets with her)

In the end--Trucy’s got lifelong friends and promising feedback that her music/magic idea is gonna work out; Apollo’s got a boyfriend and more confidence in his songwriting abilities; Klavier’s also got a boyfriend and learned that it’s important to not forget what’s fun about making music; and Phoenix and Miles found each other again after Several Years Apart (and later decide that they’re going to try running the camp together--but that’s something that’s not immediate).

Vera gets to record her song with Klavier; and Kay and Ema actually end up having a pretty good summer, despite their cynical outlooks at the start (and Kay’s attempts at stirring up mischief)

fin.

[lov3nerdstuff]

Voluptas Noctis Aeternae {Part 7.29}

*Severus Snape x OC*

Summary: It is the year 1983 when the ordinary life of Robin Mitchell takes a drastic turn: she is accepted into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Despite the struggles of being a muggle-born in Slytherin, she soon discovers her passion for Potions, and even manages the impossible: gaining the favor of Severus Snape. Throughout the years, Robin finds that the not quite so ordinary Potions Professor goes from being a brooding stranger to being more than she had ever deemed possible. An ally, a mentor, a friend... and eventually, the person she loves the most. Through adventure, prophecies and the little struggles of daily life in a castle full of mysteries, Robin chooses a path for herself, an unlikely friendship blossoms into something more, and two people abandoned by the world can finally find a home.

General warnings: professor x student, blood, violence, trauma, neglectful families, bullying, cursing

Words: 3.7k

Read Part 1.1 here! All Parts can be found on the Masterlist!

______________________________

The very moment Robin was back inside the castle, every possible doubt about what she was about to do had vanished entirely if it had ever been existent in the first place. On her haste down into the dungeons, people jumped out of her path at the mere sight of the sinister expression on her face, and honestly, she was more grateful than ever that nobody dared to as much as look at her for too long. Sometimes a reputation was a curse, sometimes a saving grace. Right now the latter was the case.

She didn't say a single word when she opened the door to the potions classroom in one swift move. Still stayed silent when she made her way through the rows of desks and students, straight to the front where Snape was working at his desk like always during detention. She didn't need to say a thing, and yet all eyes were on her in an instant. The students' many ones in surprise and nigh intimidation at her mode of entrance, Snape's merely in instant concern. He knew that she wouldn't just show up here, bursting into detention if it wasn't for a matter of utmost importance. So she only looked at him in silent confirmation of what they both knew was happening right now.

"Detention is over. Get out. Now." Snape spoke up with a brief glimpse at his students, in a tone to match Robin's grave expression. Then however his eyes found and never left hers as he rose to his feet in an instant to round the table to come over to her side as if the rest of the world beyond them simply ceased to exist.

"But professor, it's still over an hour until dinner… Are you sure we're allowed to go already?" A young boy, probably a first year, remarked carefully, which earned him a few groans and curses from his peers, and an instantaneous but deathly glare from Snape.

"Question me again and you will spend the entire remainder of this term in detention." He snapped at the boy, then turned to everyone else who had stopped in their tracks or not yet started moving in the first place. "What on earth are you waiting for?! Is there a part of 'get out' you dunderheads failed to understand?"

It took exactly five seconds for the students to rush out the door while the echo of his words still ghosted through the masses of stone. Then, in the very instant the last people had left, the door to the classroom flew shut, was locked and warded in a now long practiced procedure that, to Robin's knowledge, was yet unbreakable. Ever since new year's, they had become more careful with their every step for a multitude of reasons. Morgan being one of them.

"What on earth-..." Snape didn't get further than that before Robin had dropped her backpack and winter robes on the ground and wrapped her arms around him so tightly that her muscles started quivering, urged into this impulsive need for closeness by the sudden and sheer overwhelming realization that she had come way too close to never seeing him again. In the end, it was a gift of fate that they were still here, still together. This thought as well as the hot rush of welling tears it brought along was only quenched when he held her tightly in return, and her composure collapsed once and for all.

Sure, there were more important things to be dealt with right now and Robin had promised herself not to let her emotions get in the way of that, but she couldn't help it anymore. Repression and putting on acts for her own mind only worked for so long. And thus she let herself dwell in his embrace for now, clawing onto him like a lifeline of reality, basking in the comfort and safety she needed now more than ever. The world could wait. It had to.

"Whatever it is, we will be fine." He said after a while of drawing soft patterns on her back, and Robin almost had to smile. She had never told him just how soothing she found that gesture, nor his voice and words of encouragement, but somehow he still had always known anyway. There was no measure for how much she loved him for that, for just knowing. "May I see for myself?"

"Please do. I couldn't logically explain what happened anyway, not even if I tried." She sighed in return without even having to ask what he meant, and then waited for his presence in her mind as she had felt it so often before. It was a truly pleasant procedure at this point, like a gentle caress, like the patterns on her back. And therefore sharing her memories of what had happened brought an immediate and breathtaking relief to her troubled mind as much as his presence did to her soul. The panic faded, the anxiety and sickness made way for reason and even a strong sense of safety. She might not need him to protect her… but she still was more than glad to know that he wouldn't let anything stop him from doing so anyway.

For a while longer neither of them spoke, even once he had seen all there was, all there had been. His hold on her only tightened, and moments later the scratch on her eyebrow started tingling with the warm echo of magic. Perhaps she should ask him to teach her some of those miraculous healing spells… If fights over life and death were to become a normal occurrence in her days now, it might yet prove useful to have some of his tricks up her own sleeves as well. But that would have to wait; for now, she had to get over herself and deal with the more pressing issues. With a deep breath, she pulled back when she finally felt ready to face the world and the worries it brought at last. They could do this. Together, like always.

In the following minutes it in return took Robin quite a bit of convincing to remind Snape that, one, she had won the fight and had come out more or less fine after all, only cold and bruised, and two, that they had agreed that killing Morgan was still not an option. No matter how very tempting the idea was under the current circumstances. Robin did agree with one point though, when Snape said that if it ever came to a moment where it was either Morgan's or Robin's life, he wouldn't waste a second of thought to save her no matter what might be the cost in return. She did agree, even though she knew that it had never been meant as a question in the first place.

Indeed, the thought made Robin smile. He would gladly set the world and skies on fire for her if the opportunity should come, without a single doubt or hesitation, and while that thought should have been at least somehow disconcerting, the unshakable fact only made Robin feel ineffably proud. There had never been such a thing as 'normal' when it came to him and her… They had always been living by extremes. Living through passion for life. And in that intensity, in the way they lived and were going to live, she found her fear replaced by determination.

"I believe to have a lead on Morgan's reasons, to find out what this is all about. A start." She said, and was met with the most attentive, intrigued gaze in return. "Or at least I finally have an idea where to look for one."

"Other than his sheer insanity being reason enough, you mean?"

"Actually, I'm rather sure that he is quite as sane as you and I." Robin sighed, while a half smile found its way onto her lips nonetheless. "But no matter what he is or isn't, we will find out what makes him do what he does and we will put an end to it. In a different way than by killing him. A better one."

"You're terribly rational. As always." Snape replied in a huff, and yet let his fingers trace the outside of her hand in a feathery touch to replace some of the past embrace's comfort. It was remarkable how much better he had gotten with such simple signs of affection over the last few months, even if still ever so subtle. "I wish I had your level of optimism."

"I'm not optimistic, but realistic." Her half smile turned into a full one as she took the opportunity to interlace their fingers in return. "This mess with Morgan has been going on for almost seven years now, and I need it to end on my terms before it ends on his. We have to see to it that it does, and we will."

"Tell me more about your lead then; I must say that neither his words nor your thoughts on the matter made much sense to me."

"They didn't make sense to me either, until I went shopping with Cas and Jorien."

"You almost died, and then you went shopping right after that instead of coming straight back here?"

"Yes?"

"You hate shopping. And you almost died."

"Yes…?"

"I am honestly not sure if I should be impressed or irritated. You really are perfectly impossible."

"Why, thank you!" Robin had to smirk upon his incredulous expression, but soon enough her thoughts and expression went back to business as she tried to put the mess of thoughts into a stringent sentence. "To be honest, I just went shopping because I didn't want to let the girls down, and I hoped it would bring me some diversion from the events I did not even nearly understand at that point. But it was Morgan's words that made me think, and even throughout the hour where I tried to focus on other matters, they never quite left me alone no matter what. To make it short, I have an idea what he could've meant with some of what he said. The part about looking at my being but not me, the earrings and also comparing me to some other person who is me and not me at the same time."

"And?"

"The painting in the room of hidden things." Robin finally got out the very core of her thoughts, of her suspicion, and it didn't take more than that for Snape's mind to visibly halt at her words. "We have to find it and see if the woman who looks like me has earrings or not. Because then Morgan's comments-..."

"Would suddenly make a disconcerting amount of sense." He finished the sentence for her with a deep frown as his thoughts finally caught up with hers. "It still doesn't explain why he does what he does, but it certainly is a starting point indeed."

"The best lead we've ever had. And the only one."

"Then we cannot wait any longer." His tone went from considering to beyond determined. "We should be able to get up to the seventh floor unseen even at the present time, if we make use of the hidden paths in the castle."

"Lead the way then." Robin said with a small but sincere smile, then gave Snape's hand a gentle squeeze and finally let go to take her robes and bag to his office for safekeeping. The classroom was a mere shed in comparison to the fortress of spells that surrounded the office these days, and if today had proven anything to her, it was that she couldn't be careful enough. Not even with her belongings. After all, objects could be cursed just the same, and do perhaps even more damage than a simple one-time spell. She wasn't keen on finding out just how much more.

… … …

They made their way up to the correct seventh floor hallway in a matter of minutes, unseen in the rising darkness of the castle, and it again took only a minute and an illusionment charm to summon the grand door to the room of hidden things. The extraordinary place didn't fail to fascinate Robin even now upon their entrance, and she inevitably had to think back to the last time she had been here. The only time, to be exact, because she hadn't dared returning alone. A lot of things had been easier back then… But she wouldn't want to go back for anything in the world. She couldn't even bear the thought of going back to the torture that was loving from afar.

"Do you remember where the portrait was located?" Snape asked once he had closed the heavy door behind them, and broke Robin out of her marveling and memories. Yes, this reality was far better, no matter what.

"I, uh… I was rather distracted the last time we were in here." She admitted with a small shrug, which made him raise an eyebrow at her. Robin rolled her eyes in return. "I was trying not to jump at you for how close you kept coming to me, if you have to know. So no, I don't remember the path to the portrait."

"Pity." He sighed in feigned disappointment, then merely took her hand again and started walking off in absolute certainty where to go while pulling her along. Of course he knew where the portrait was… Robin had to smile against her will as she couldn't help rolling her eyes again. Insufferable idiot. Her idiot.

In a matter of minutes they reached the mountain of objects Robin very much recognized as the place she had discovered the portrait in nonetheless. The flipped chairs, the pile of pink teacups, the bucket filled with yellowed scrolls. Yes, this was the right spot indeed. But there was no painting anywhere in sight.

"It's gone…" Robin wondered out loud, brows furrowed and the hairs in her neck standing on edge. She hadn't quite considered that people other than them had access to this place as well… other people who might not have her best interest in mind, with the portrait or not. Or who came in here not to hide something, but to hide something that already was in here. The thought made her shudder.

"I can see that." Snape replied flatly, with very much the same irritation colouring his features and occupying his mind. His concern was all the more reason for Robin to feel everything but at ease in this place, even now that their hands were still tightly interlaced. Perhaps they were both scared to part again any time soon. But still, bloody portrait… couldn't anything ever be easy at Hogwarts?! Perhaps this room wasn't such a great place after all. Then again, maybe it only was almost getting killed that had her on edge far more quickly than usual. That explanation for her unease was more likely. Gods, she couldn't even keep her thoughts in line properly.

"Perhaps someone moved it while in the search for something else?" She suggested in an attempt to keep her recently regained calm. This was not a setback, that they hadn't found the portrait where it was supposed to be. It was rather a mystery, a riddle, and those were supposed to have edges and corners. Yes, that made her feel better about the situation. "I know tracing spells don't work in here, but perhaps we could have a quick look around nonetheless?"

"I have a better idea." Snape said with a thoughtful gaze at the spot where the portrait had been. Then – much to Robin's dismay – he let go of her hand and instead made them both move to the side, almost leaning into the next mountain of objects behind them as he went on. "How likely is it that Morgan, the perhaps only professor who has a habit of being constantly short of time, would spend precious minutes every morning and every night, according to his own words, to come here to look at the painting?"

"Unlikely, I should say. Practically impossible."

"Yes. And what does that thereby mean?"

"You just love to make me guess, don't you?"

Snape rolled his eyes, partially at Robin and also partially at himself if she wasn't mistaken, but then answered his own question nonetheless. "It means that he must have taken the portrait elsewhere. Either to his office or his private chambers, I presume."

"Oh bloody hell no…" Robin groaned under her breath, then leaned her head back into her neck for a moment to place that very logical piece of information into her mental puzzle. "I'm afraid you're right, but I still very much hope you're not. The thought-..."

"I know. It concerns me no less."

"Can we do anything to find out for sure before I break into his office for nothing?"

"Before we break into his office. Don't even think that I would let you do any of this alone." He protested immediately in a reproachful scoff, but when his words only made Robin smile ever so slightly, his expression mellowed out in return. "There is no way to be entirely certain about the whereabouts of the painting, seeing as the room's magic to protect its contents is older than the castle itself. We cannot undo it, not even nearly."

"Pity." Robin sighed in a mirror of his own favoured expression, which earned her a not-smirk before he went on.

"What we can do however is to trace a person's movements. If Morgan ever was in here, we should be able to see where precisely he went, which in this case is the next best thing."

"That's bloody brilliant!"

"Don't look so surprised…" He scoffed again, but the not-smirk lingered on even as he worded the according spell. It wasn't an unfamiliar or difficult one, but what made Robin feel both in awe and proud beyond reason was the very idea in the first place. Tracing the person and not the object was such an out-of-the-box approach to the problem at hand that it might as well have come from her own mind. But coming from Snape now, it made Robin realize all over again how much they had grown into each other's ways of thinking over the years. She couldn't help feeling proud of that even in a situation like this.

A mere few seconds later, the ground before them lit up with a straight line of glowing footsteps that came from between the mountains of things from the direction of the door. It led straight to the point where Robin vaguely remembered the portrait to have been, then it took a sharp turn straight back to where it had come from. No detours, no looking around. A straight path here, a straight path back.

"The spell only shows the last time he was here, not possible times before that." Snape explained, and Robin found herself nodding on instinct as her eyes followed the footsteps between the mountains where they disappeared from her sight.

"Yeah, I know…" She mused, frowning to herself once more. Obviously she knew the spell and its specifics, but something entirely else was nagging at her mind again, something she should take notice of but hadn't as of yet. It was terribly irksome.

"Perhaps a summary of the state of affairs might help?" He suggested, and it didn't even come as a surprise to Robin anymore that he knew exactly what was going on in her mind. In more instances than she could count, he just knew indeed.

"Very well, let's see…" Robin mused with a sigh, while they started making their way back towards the exit in a slow saunter. "Morgan wants to kill me. He is not insane, he rather seems to have a reason for what he does. One he doesn't quite agree with, or at least is somewhat troubled by himself. The chance that he can win a duel against me at this point is near non-existent, so his only chance is to catch me by surprise or trickery, like he did today. He would find it easier to kill me if I fought back, but he still doesn't plan to stop trying either way. He cannot stop for some reason, or so he says at least. He wants to kill me, and yet he doesn't want to see me dead."

"He has a twisted obsession with you, whether that be for you as a person or you as a representation of something or someone else." Snape went on in the wake of her words. "He clearly adores you, while yet he has an ineffable hatred for you, which makes him both enjoy and dread seeing you suffer. The obsession with you led him to take the portrait out of this room, which he came to discover by yet unknown factors. He came in here at least once and took the portrait out with him to presumably either his office or his rooms. There he looks at it every morning and every night, as for his statement, because he rarely sees the real you outside of class. Through that or perhaps for other reasons, he has formed some sort of bond with the woman in the painting, which he recognizes to be you and not you at the same time. He wants you to be his, and yet he wants you dead."

"Exactly." Robin sighed again. "That makes so much sense and yet it doesn't make sense at all. It's as if he is two people at once, at war over one thing he is made to do and one thing he wants to do. If you would've asked me a year ago, I would've said it could be an Imperius curse. But after reading the book Dumbledore gave me for my birthday, and you'll know this because we both have read it a gazillion times by now, the curse just doesn't quite fit in with the facts of the case."

"I agree. He is far too aware of himself and his struggle on either end to be cursed. Especially unlikely for an Imperius curse."

"Good… But that also means that nothing fits in with the facts. We have a bunch of new questions, but no answers whatsoever."

"Yet."

______________________________

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[ask-funnel-cake-cookie]

Fireball! What’ve you and the lady been up to lately?

It seems that you’ve caught the two of them on the tail end of one of their dates! They’re sitting on a park bench together by a trail that’s mostly empty save for a few other lovebirds like them, leaned up against one another with the moonlight glistening on the canal that’s drifting along sleepily in front of them. With his suit coat on her shoulders and her heels in her hand, Pirouline listens lovestruck to Fireball sweet, soft, bass voice as he finishes off the old song he’s strumming out on a guitar he had summoned up out of a plume of flames before they sat down. She had raised an eyebrow at the little trick, coupled with a smile, but when she asked him if he had learned that for her or just to look cool, he smugly purred that the things go hand in hand before tugging her down on the bench with him.

“Has anyone ever told you how handsome your voice is, mon rayon de soleil~?”

“Aye, well, it takes one to know one, now doesn’t it, love~?”

He snickers as she blushes, rolling her eyes as she laughs herself. She presses a kiss that he melts into against his cheek before letting him shift to set the guitar aside, but to both of their surprise, a clattering rattling sounds from inside. She gives him a curious look to which he answers with a shrug, just as confused as her. 

“Maybe Righ put somethin’ in it by accident.”

He gets down on one knee to give himself a little more leverage to shake out whatever is inside. Pirouline can’t see it when it falls out, only can see his expression and hear his seemingly annoyed grunt when it drops somewhere on him.

“Huh. Well, there was something in there-” He sets the guitar aside, looking up at her. “But A don’t think Righ put it in there.”

It takes a second, it honestly takes a second. She meets his eye and he gives her a gentle, nervous smile in return before her eyes drift to what he’s holding out to her. It’s a ring-That’s a fucking ring. Her hands fly up to cover her mouth as she gasps, tears springing to her eyes as everything clicks together. He’s on one knee, he’s got this ring and that smile and he’s on one knee, this is- it’s- it can’t be-

“I-Detective-You-This--”

“A-A know it’s a little out of nowhere and A ain’t really good with words, but A...A really love ye, lass. And A know that A want to make ye happy for as long as ye’ll let m-!!!”

Fireball’s hair ignites underneath his hat as she bends to kiss him, cupping his cheeks to draw him up a little. It’s a long kiss and the light of Fireball’s flames eventually draw a little of attention, people curious of what a couple could be so excited about this late at night.

“A’ll take that as a yes, A’m guessin’~?” He slurs deliriously, her lipstick smudged on his lips.

“Yes! Yes yes, oui, of course!!”

Pirouline is bouncing as Fireball slides the glittering golden band on her finger. His hands go to her hips as she throws her arms around his neck, the two of them laughing against each others lips as the few people watching cheer and clap from their places dotting the path. Pirouline squeals as Fireball spins her around and even lifts up a few feet into the air with her, settling them both back onto the bench with even less space between the two of them now as she rests her head on his shoulder.

“Can’t believe you beat me to it.”

“O-Oh?” She’s so fond of the way she can feel him heat up, poor detective all flustered.

“Mhm, I had the proposal all planned out and everything. I was going to take you out for dinner and then set out the box for you to see when you went to steal my sweatpants to sleep in when we got home.”

Fireball blushes as she playfully jostles him, taking his turn to roll his eyes at her claims (true as they may be). She turns their laced hands over so his is on top, staring down at them with a soft smile as if his ring is already there on his finger.

“Sorry to have beat ye to the punch, love, but ye know that A’ve never lost a race in me life.”

“Oh, shut up.” He snorts and she pokes his cheek with a pout. “I might still do it, honestly. Are you free next week to go to that barbeque that you’ve been oh so secretly eyeing downtown?”

“For you, love?” 

He cuddles up to her, running his thumb over her knuckles and brushing that shining ring. 

“A’m always free.”