#i actually fought demons when i was painting this thing
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"My Autumn"
#murder drones fanart#serial designation j#tessa elliot#tessa#j x tessa#jessa#ripping royals#i actually fought demons when i was painting this thing#murderdrones fanart#murderdrones#murder drones#fanart#digital art#digital drawing#illustration#this is Requiem fanart#it was written by Pocketknife in Ao3#you guys should check it out#its good
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Anyway this is what I mean by I want to see Adam and Jesus talk
#graphic design is my passion#listen while I'm super excited to hopefully maybe see angels & demons in the GO universe actually form an identity that isn't just not#their adversary and start taking actions based on something other than a game of spiritual Telephone#the symmetry of human raised Antichrist averting the first Apocalypse with humans and the Human raised (and killed sure) son of God (possib#le part of the Trinity?) help avert the second one#I mean I'm curious how we're gonna get all of them vs all of us with Jesus so. 🤷♂️#anyway. I literally could not sleep without expelling this awful thing#I have leave in in my hair bc I left my shower to let it sit when I realized I was not gonna stop itching to do this nonsense#do not @ me#I only use MS paint and meme generator and I did my best#cmo's log#I guess#also I fought for my life to get transparent Jesus and I am could not get the freeform crop on paint to work not to mention my hands are#so unsteady they evoke the concern of strangers#I might regret this in the morning#and by mornign I mean presumably like 3p tomorrow when I wake up#I untagged this bc it should never see the light of day#ok actually just execute me#good omens
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Amazing fanart by Joanacchi! Posted here on tumblr with their blessing. Each one is based on a style that reflects a particular ancient culture's art history. (See below for descriptions provided by the artist!)
Store (buy these prints!) Twitter Instagram
Aang: Tibetan Thangka
"Thangkas are traditional Tibetan tapestries that have been used for religious and educational purposes since ancient times! The techniques applied can vary greatly, but they usually use silk or cotton fabrics to paint or embroider on. What you can depict in a Thangka is really versatile, and I wanted to represent things that make up Aang as a character."
Zuko and Azula: Japanese Ukiyo-e
"Ukiyo-e is a style that has been around Japan between the 17th and 19th century, and focused mainly in representing daily life, theater(kabuki), natural landscapes, and sometimes historical characters or legends!
Ukiyo-e was developed to be more of a fast and commercial type of art, so many drawings we see are actually woodblock prints, so the artist could do many copies of the same art!
I based my Zuko and Azula pieces on the work of Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798-1861) one of the last ukiyo-e masters in Japan! He has a specific piece which featured a fire demon fighting a lord that fought back with lighting, and that really matched Zuko and Azula's main techniques!”
Toph: Chinese Portraiture from Ming and Qing Dynasties
"Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) was one of the longest in China! It was also a period where lots of artistic evolutions were happening, especially when it comes to use of colour! There was not a predilection for portraits during this time, but there are a lot of pieces depicting idealized women and goddesses from the standards of the time. For this portrait of Toph, I imagined something that maybe their parents commissioned, depicting a soft and delicate Toph which we know is not what she is about ♥️
Qing Dynasty (1644-1912) was the last Chinese Dynasty to reign before the Revolution. One of the most famous emperors of this period was Qianlong, and he really liked Western art! He commissioned a lot of portraits of his subordinates, and I chose a portrait of one of his bodyguards as a reference for the second Toph portrait, which I believe is much more like how she would want to be represented! The poem on top talks about the bodyguards' achievements during a specific war. I had no time to come up with a poem for Toph, so I just used the same one for the composition!”
Sokka and Katara: Inuit Lithograph
"For a long time, Inuit art expressed itself in utilitarian ways. The Nomadic lifestyle of early Inuit tribes played a huge part in that: most art pieces are carved in useful tools, clothing, or children's toys, small and easy to be transported, and depicted scenes and patterns representing their daily lives!
That changed a lot during the colonization. Since the settling of the Inuit tribes, many art pieces began to be created in order to be exported to foreigns, so they started to sculpt bigger and more decorative pieces.
Lithography, which is a type of printmaking, was introduced to Inuit people by James Houston, that learned the technique from the japanese. The art form was quickly embraced by the inuit, as part of the process is very similar to carving. Prints that are produced by inuit artists are still being sold today!
As lithography is not an old art style and it's still commercially relevant to the Inuit communities, since creating these in 2021 I have been donating regularly to the Inuit Art Foundation, not only all the money I get from selling some prints of these but a bit more, at least once a year. Hopefully, I can increase donations this year!”
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thoughts on the chapter
“these differences, both internal and external, allow us to run towards other people and search for a point of intersection” kid out of 8 chapters you spoke like 5 sentences to Shigaraki. What intersection. (I know, I know - the crying child. the only thing Deku can care about.)
Aizawa and Mic visiting Shirakumo's grave
Compress reading Spinner's book with a sad smile...
Did villains just magically stop appearing? because AFO is gone? Because everyone is a bit nicer to each other? Because the rankings got expanded and now everyone wants to get the Eiyuu title?
Shoji says "This award goes to those who rose up 8 years ago." GEE SHOJI. I WONDER WHO IT WAS THAT GOT THEM TO SHOW UP IN THE FIRST PLACE.
I know he's thinking of the heteromorphs that stopped that day. But i just. can't get over the fact that it was Spinner's call to action that inspired them first to even come out.
"peacefully resolving prejudice-based incidents in the rural areas" Peacefully telling a man to put down the rake they're about to hit a heteromorph child with.
I know the intention is de-escalation or something. And that's a good thing! Ideally I don't want the man holding the rake to be smashed into the ground. I don't want the dumbasses spray painting slurs on a wall to be punched around. But the word peaceful here feels like it implies that... it would be victim's fault if they use force to resist violent discrimination. Equal responsibility on all parties and it's up to Shoji, it depends on Shoji to resolve it nonviolently. The originator of the violence doesn't enter the equation.
idk. rubs me the wrong way.
Did Shoji resolve the heteromorph riot peacefully? Not really. He fought Spinner (ah, you might say - well, Spinner was using violence! Shoji has to react to that with punching as well! Yeah. That's what I mean.) Koda had birds shoved someone off a building. What actually stopped everything was one rioter feeling doubts. It's credited to Shoji's words, but Shoji also admits that it's good they showed up and in the chapter here, he calls it an "uprising".
And they showed up because of Spinner.
Well. Maybe Shoji turned to "peaceful resolves" afterwards.
Just to clarify so that no one misunderstands me. Peaceful resolutions are good. I'm glad that's how Shoji is stopping anti-heteromorph incidents. What I dislike is the shallow framing.
"Quirk Counseling Expansion Project" EXPANSION???
Toga became the way she was because she didn't go to Quirk Counseling enough. Needed Expansion. The counselor saying she'll make Toga "nice and normal" didn't go far enough. Needed Expansion.
Again, I get that probably reform is implied in that, or the intent is probably expanding the concept/ideas/tools/methods/scope to include better methods. But wow.
All Might + Crowd of Supporter Statues is the creepiest thing I've ever seen.
Story literally breaking the ending fourth wall to give a happy ending to Deku.
I expect the volume extras to have Shigaraki to come and decay the ending and rescue the league.
It's amazing how the answer to "can someone quirkless be a hero" is a NO. Because Deku's feeling sad and lonely being quirkless and just a teacher and saving a kid from tripping and encouraging a future student. It's not enough. It's not Heroism. So he gets a support item and gets to be a Hero again
And then Shigaraki's Star Wars ghost is just there, not tied into the theme happening on page because Deku failed to saved the fucking guy, but he remembers Shigaraki. for one panel.
Just to repeat this because it's hysterical: This ending is "Can a quirkless person be a hero (and be happy and feel worthy?)" We get a gentle bittersweet but resounding NO. Until All Might comes again to help him out with a 'gift'.
"Remember that day when I used support items to inject acid into an immortal child demon on global TV? The day that you killed a man? Well, data from that day made you this support item. Use it to be a Hero."
Also being a quirkless Hero after all depends on knowing people and having lots of money.
All Might is now about 64 years old.
Shigaraki ghost...........
Something about shigaraki in his original outfit has me all choked up.
That's the appearance he chose to present as in the vestige realm before he disappeared.
The appearance he had in that flashback of him and Spinner bonding over games.
I like how Deku looks back, sees the ghost, but then turns forward and smile. Not even a smile as he's looking at shigaraki. I know this is nitpicky. jfc tho.
"You already destroyed it"/"That depends on what you guys do from now on." I see that there's barely any credit to Shigaraki forcing this amount of change in this chapter. As far as I can see, Deku barely thinks about Shigaraki or even Tenko this chapter. Shigaraki's just a ghost hidden vaguely in all this.
"I'll never forget" lol. The ghost is just like an afterthought from the story to make sure Deku keeps his 'promise'
I don't think a single villain's name is mentioned here. Not a single League member's. Uravity's work towards quirk counseling is not publicly or explicitly credited to her experience with Toga (the vaguest of implication). We don't know Dabi's fate and Shouto is only known as "Endeavor's son" - which might be good? because it's Endeavor's who was the main perpetrator, but still. Spinner lead the uprising but Shoji doesn't mention that. Spinner wrote his book but there's no impact, except for making Compress smile sadly and that's it. Twice has been long forgotten. Deku thinks of Shigaraki's words at the beginning of the chapter, then sees his ghost at the end, but otherwise, nothing.
Truly they've been swept under the rug. A lid put over everything.
Whatever!!!! Shigaraki and the League - the absolute best part of bnha.
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༘⋆𓍢ִ໋🌷 𝙵𝚕𝚘𝚠𝚎𝚛𝚜 𝚝𝚘𝚍𝚊𝚢
。゚•┈꒰ა ♡ ໒꒱┈• 。゚
Relationship(s): Charlie Morningstar + Vaggie (romantic), kinda Yan!Alastor + Fallen Angel!Marionette!(implied)fem!Reader (platonic or romantic, whatever you want), slight Husk + Angel dust
Genre: Fluff :))
Warnings/notes: Spoilers(?) For Hazbin hotel, reader is able to make plants and stuff, reader is decently human and fought in war, they fell from heaven too, Emily sees the reader as a “mother” figure, death mentions, Alastor being alastor, Angel being himself as always, Alastor has been made.. somewhat yandere, Drugs and other hell stuff mentioned, ooc? Suggestive content (mostly from Angel), Cannibalism, toxic dependency, SWEARINGGGG
Format: Long/Short stories + Headcanons
A/N: GOD. SCHOOL SUCKKSKSKSKSKKSKS. Sorry i’ve been gone for a bit again- sickness is very much not fun. Anyways, here’s an late Valentines present for you all featuring our favorite deer demon! :)) - Also, you can just see Niffty and Charlie calling you a female (if you aren’t) an accident on their perception— HUGGEEEE inspo taken for an idea/convo in this from @/princekeerys :))
Reminder: YOU are responsible for your content consumption!
There’s a reason why you’re here now.
Everyone is.
Perhaps heaven made a mistake when they first allowed you to enter heaven after your death, allowed you to live amongst angels and other pure beings whom had never done a single horrible act in their lives- or well, since their creation.
The morals that they purveyed were so.. impeccable, granular too.
Everything here was having a pernicious effect on you, these individuals were so much better than you. They didn’t take the life away from others without a second thought. They didn’t grow up to become a weapon. They didn’t feel wrong for the things they did in their lives or just in the past-
They weren’t like you. A monster.
It’s basically an antithesis. Between you, and the ‘winners’.
But you tried your best to fit in. And it worked.. for the most part..
You decided to pick up working as a gardener and freelance artist, which was.. quite fun. You felt genuinely happy after so long where you have been deprived of it, not allowed it, and not given it before. You actually managed to make it to a high ranking position, The Head Archangel.
“(____)?” A feminine voice speaks up from behind you, it’s gentle- dulcet. It’s like they’re afraid to speak up in the slightest. You pause, removing yourself from your memories. That’s right— you’re painting. You place down your brush into the cup filled with paint water as you shift around on your stool, looking at the woman.
Catherine Stockholms, that’s her name. She’s a young 18-year-old girl who died in the 1940’s due to a train going on the wrong track and crashing into the one she was riding that day. Her light blonde hair, cut short and curly in the back, frames her face with the side parts gracefully reaching just at her shoulders, slightly longer than the back. Her hair is adorned with a dark purple headband featuring a bow. She has pale yellow eyes which are nervously looking around while she starts hugging herself.
She wears a white collared shirt with sleeves that extend slightly above her chest, ending in a square-like shape near the shoulders and neck. Layered over the shirt is a charming dark purple dress that falls to her knees, boasting puffy sleeves and a skirt that puffs out, followed with a nonchalantly worn black coat from her era with some intricate details of flowers vines on it. Her attire is completed with white socks adorned with lace and simple black mary janes.
“Good evening, Catherine.” You say with all of the warmth you can, smiling as you tilt your head to the side.
“Is there something I can do for you?” Tone quizzical as you ask your question, causing Catherine to tense.
She stayed silent for a good few seconds before she answered your question.
“..(____)” She started again as her eyes nervously darted around the room.
“You’re being taken to.. the Angelic Court.”
Eyes widened, your mouth went agape as your breath hitched. No. There’s actually no way. What have you done?.. What’s going on??
“May.. I ask why?..” you mutter your words, almost slurring them as you try to hold back the other words and tears threatening to spill out. You don’t think you’ve done anything wrong… unless… perhaps they figured out their judgment was incorrect—
“They haven’t told me but- they want you to arrive in an hour from now. Today.” Catherine fiddled with a piece of her hair, face painted with worry.
“..I see. Alright. Thank you for letting me know.”
Catherine simply nodded before heading off, leaving you all alone with your thoughts as they raced. Causing you to slowly stand up and start pacing around, hugging yourself. No. Nonononono, please don’t do this now. Not now.
Why does this have to happen now? But hey, at least they could correct their judgment. You would no longer be in a place where you did not deserve to be in from the start ever since you died so many years ago.
Your eyes drifted off to your violin, custom made just for you. Flowers all over, intricate details engraved into the instrument as you stride on over to it within the corner of the room, picking it up. A shaky sigh escaped your lips as you tried your best to keep a cool-head, fingers coiled around the fretted neck of the instrument while the other went to circular body’s strings.
Not playing anything as you simply just tried to remember the good moments as you played it, the times where you made flora flourish and beauteous. Dying plants now brought back to life due to your abilities, that made you feel like something- it gave you a purpose. Something you needed to live.
..God, you hope this is all a fever dream.
You’ve heard how Hell is dirty, filled with disgusting freaks who didn’t deserve the true salvation of Heaven.
But perhaps you should be down there, after all, you killed so many..
Yes… you deserve to be burning with all of those same sinners.
. . .
“(____).” Sera loudly speaks, her voice firm as she looks down upon you. You’re in the supreme courtroom of Heaven and the operating place of the Heavenly Court. The courthouse is quiet, however there are the occasional whispers between the angels as they look down at you in shame, anger, or sympathy.
You try to control your tears as you dip your head down low, gripping your upper-arm as you dig your nails into the flesh of your skin.
“Yes, Madame?” You pathetically utter out as you tried to relax yourself with the thought of you being able to stay here. But either way, it would still be a harsh situation..
Doubt gnaws at your soul, questioning whether you truly belong among the pure and righteous. The fear of being exposed as a true sinner, unworthy of such divine tranquility, consumes your thoughts.
Yet, as you contemplate the alternative, the prospect of hell sends shivers down your spine. The thought of being surrounded by vile beings, perverse and wicked, fills you with revulsion. The idea of enduring torment alongside the depraved and despicable is a horrifying prospect.
“We have found that you are…” The Seraphim pauses for a moment before she continues.
And you almost fall to your knees.
“Guilty, of the sin of Pride.”
"I understand, Madame," you spoke softly as your heart weighed heavy as you watched the angelic court dismiss and the whispers among the decision grew. Guards surrounded you, all with perfect posture as they motioned for you to follow them as hands were put in cuffs.
You simply nodded and you were escorted towards the pearly gates. Your gaze was avoiding everyones as you bit your bottom lip, trying to suppress everything you felt in the moment like you had for years. You’ll remember the feeling of the soft clouds beneath your feet as you walked through these gates the first time, truly a beautiful feeling.
Emily, the second seraphim, slowly walked over to you with her head lowered. She stood there for a moment as she stared at you while the guards stopped in their tracks, waiting for Emily to say or do something. She was the first person you looked at directly, and just looking at your despair-ridden face.. She just collapsed into your arms, she couldn’t even utter anything besides sobs and hiccups.
"There is no need to cry, dear. It'll be alright," you comforted the best you could, a smile plastering itself on your lips as you awkwardly managed to slightly hug her back. Emily took a deep breath before pulling back, still hiccuping as she handed over your violin.
"I love you.." Emily mumbled through tears. With nods of farewell from the angels, you were whisked away once more, now standing tall at the heavenly gates.
"Goodbye, dearest friend," Sera's voice trembled as tears welled up in her eyes.
"I will miss you too, Madame," You replied with a nod, before you stood near the edge of the giant fluffy cloud that held you up, along with the entire of Heaven. Near the edge, handcuffs forcing your hands to remain behind you just in case before you fell backwards.
You plummet down, it is that of beauty intertwined with tragedy. It looks like a falling star. The descent feels inevitable, as if you're being drawn inexorably into a hellish abyss. Doubt creeps in: do you truly deserve this fate? But nevertheless, you are destined to crash into the unknown location below, a city.
..city?
Yes, Pentagram City.
The sky is overcome with a red sky- dark to light, a sun far too bright, no wait. That’s where the angels come down here for the extermination. The city is separated into different sections, as far as you can tell, 7 of them. 7 deadly sins.
You wonder if Lucifer is still here. Alive.
Well… he has to be!
Nevertheless, as you crash with a loud smash of nearby items and such, you can’t find the energy to get up. Your once purely white wings, fluffy and all now covered in dirt along with whatever feculent things from beneath you and with a slight ash gray hue. It feels like you’ve broken something in your body, or maybe multiple things as your once glowing halo that hovers above your head lowers- slightly cracking.
Who knew it could do that.
Taking a guess, you’re probably in the pride ring. What did you even do that was so prideful?…
Although struggling a bit, you manage to lift your head up and survey around.
These.. demons have their businesses in these places, where it seems like they’re allowed to sell everything from cigarettes to drugs. How unholy…
There is a Clock Tower located in the city that seems to be glimmering with a gold shine, which serves as a counter for the 365 days that pass until the Exorcists return for the next Extermination. Yes, you know about the extermination, you once heard Lieutenant Lute speaking of it before to Adam.
Are you to be killed like the rest of these filthy creatures? Criminals, drug dealers?
You don’t wanna get up. Scratch that, you can’t. Your body won’t allow you to do anything besides breathe. This hurts, it hurts so bad, why does this have to happen to you—
Writhing around for a moment, you manage to utter out some words to yourself;
“Am I.. really allowed to live?”
“Just keep living.”
“But am I allowed? Why.. why must this happen to me, they should’ve just sent me here in the first place.”
“(____), stop. Please. Live, even after all of these horrible acts.”
“But-“
“No. No, I will not have any refutes here, (____). Live, for all of us.”
“..Yes, sir.”
You stumble upwards on your feet, managing with a motion of your hand to put your violin in the safe inter-dimensional pocket dimension, just for you to place all of your items into it, safely. The feeling of your wings heavy behind you as you come to find you’re in a hidden alleyway, filled with cigarettes, condoms— filthy sinners.
Fighting the urge to cry, you intake a sharp breath. An angel would not cry over this. But it doesn’t really work.
But you’re alone, you have no idea about anything in this place of what it’s like, how the people are, you can only imagine all the terrible things they’ve done to be punished and sent down here of all places. Hell is just the definition of unholy, it’s the exact opposite of heaven. The only thing going through your head is to cry, scream, try to get heaven to take you back and get out of this horrible place.
But then again, don’t you deserve this?
You don’t know anymore.
It’s all hurting your head.
It hurts to think about, and the tears which have now started slowly pouring down your cheeks sting.
It didn’t work.
This is pathetic.
Your body reacts before you can do anything else, running in some random direction. You can just feel the millions of eyes staring you down like predators carefully marking down their prey, burning through you. It doesn’t feel safe here, it’s hell after all.
The trial had to have been all a lie, fabricated with evidence that was made up. You haven’t done anything prideful, nor lustful, not even envious or any of those other sins that ended mortal souls or other angels whom were truly guilty of the crime. But you— no, you weren’t them. You aren’t guilty.
Someone must’ve made something up!
That trial was unfair, arbitrary, unjustifiable.
Tears spill as you’re too busy with your thoughts and your legs almost fail on you a few times due to it, well, it does happen when you just can’t do it anymore. Hugging yourself pathetically as you fail to notice how luminescent, thin yet strong strings are tightly wrapped around your ankles, neck, hips, and arms. Yes, hell uses some of the worst things you feared or hated in life, and it’s using the idea of a marionette for you. These strings really won’t do much, but they’re not entirely safe. They just make things.. difficult.
That’s unfortunate..
Just another soon to be hindrance.
“…..’lo??”
Someone’s speaking, but the ringing drumming through your ears is so loud, it’s hard to hear them—
“Hello?..” A feminine voice tries to capture your attention, even going as far as to snap her fingers in front of your face. Your head immediately raises to stare up at her, as she looks panicked.

“Sorry- so sorry! You just..” She stuttered out an apology, but you weakly waved your hand.
“..No worries. It’s okay.” The woman in front of you looks relieved as a sigh escapes past her lips.
The woman is very tall, and slender. She has pale white skin, her cheeks a rosy red that compliment her red eyes. She has long, blonde hair, mixed with a lighter blonde and even pink highlights, which is tied into a twice-banded low ponytail. Her blonde bangs flip to her left with a curl.
She has an untucked white, long-sleeved dress-shirt with a simple black bowtie. Over this she adorns a fitted red tuxedo jacket with pointed sleeves, dark-red lapels and a pair of red fitted dress pants. She wears black and white saddle shoes, which remind you of an older time in human history.
“I apologize- again,” she awkwardly laughs with a somewhat goofy smile on her face before leaning forward and holding out one of her hands to you, which shocks you. Aren’t demons in Hell supposed to be.. well, hellish?
“I’m Charlie! Charlie Morningstar!” As she introduces herself, you take her hand albeit hesitantly, lithe fingers wrap around your hand and she pulls you up. Her touch is gentle, although it feels like her nails are going to scrap you- they don’t. She seems.. too nice as of currently for her to hurt someone she just met.
“..Previous head Archangel, (____). It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Morningstar.” You know that last name. At least it feels like you do. As she lets go of you, you curtsy as Charlie’s cheeks heat up a bit while waving her hand dismissively at your actions.
“Same here! Um… would you mind telling me why you’re down here?..” Her tone is fearful almost as she inquires about your predicament.
“..Some fabricated trial where they found me guilty. But— I….” You halt, taking a deep breath and shaking your head.
“It’s nothing to be worried about.”
She understands before continuing to speak.
“Would you like to try and.. get back into heaven?” The blonde’s question intrigues you as you raise an eyebrow.
“I… that would be nice.” You reply almost monotonously as you lower your head, but the woman places her hands on your shoulders, causing you to tense a bit. But she doesn’t seem.. threatening, not in the way you imagined at least. So you loosen up a bit.
“Well, I think I have the solution for you, Head Archangel!”
“That would be?”
“Coming to my Hazbin Hotel to get redeemed!”
. . .
The idea was ludicrous- or well, close to that. But when you first arrived here, you weren’t expecting any of this to happen. You don’t regret coming here— too much, that is.
The hotel is tall, elaborate amalgamation of arched windows and turrets, one of which seems to be broken. It appears to be at least seven stories tall, with at least five of which being guest floors. An ocean liner, a sailing ship and a carousel litter both sides and appear to have been incorporated into the structure of the building itself; there is also a train with some tracks looping the first and second floor exterior. Located on the top right of the building is a small radio broadcasting room, used as the work area for… someone Charlie referred to as ‘Al’.
Many signs are displayed outside the hotel: One atop the entrance reminiscent of the Hazbin Hotel logo, a large pink one atop the building with the hotel's name in lights, a neon 'HOTEL' sign at the bottom right and atop the building where Al’s broadcast room is located, a small 'On-Air' sign is visible. Also located on the outer facade are various arrows pointing to the entrance and the broadcast room.
The entrance has a tented cover with a booth in the center reminiscent of a circus or theater ticket booth. In a sense, at least!
The interior however— theres wooden boards covering shattered windows, signs warning of asbestos, bloodied tools left lying around, and paintings are shown hanging off the walls. Much of the furniture in the lobby are strewn around haphazardly or remain boxed up in several large wooden crates.
The bar, why is there a bar in a place meant to discourage sin? You have no clue, uses skeletons, snakes, and bones as general themes, along with card suits and candles, and advertises itself as a casino. The area the bar in has glowing green wooden walls instead of the usual red wallpaper, given that it’s been sorta… merged with the lobby of the hotel.
Despite the shabby and poor condition of the hotel, the overall theme of the building remains ornate and regal, with stained glass windows, (semi?) lavish furniture, and generous usage of gold. Like the rest of Hell that you’ve seen so far, the hotel has a largely red color scheme.
Along with like.. almost every person here and around the place.
“Charlie?” A more deep, feminine voice calls out. You snap your head in the direction of- …Vagatha?
The silver haired woman appears to notice and remember you as well, due to her expression changing immediately.
Holy.
“Honey- please don’t attack her!!“ Charlie stammers, moving in front of you. But you gently push her aside and walk towards her.
“..Agatha?” She bites her bottom lip, giving you a look saying: l‘please.’ You know what she means by that.
“I haven’t seen you since.. well, life.” You almost trip over your words, given that you haven’t lied in about a few years or so. Despite that, she looks relieved. She gives you a small nod before looking at Charlie’s surprised expression.
“Right.”
“How.. OHHHH! Wait- you guys know each other from Earth!?” The Blonde exclaimed in absolute delight, cupping her cheeks. Vaggie quickly nodded in response, giving you a look of appreciation before walking over to Charlie who held her captive in a bear hug, babbling on about how she was so happy for the two of you.
You stared at them for a moment before bursting out into a fit of giggles. Vaggie pouted, but she really did love it. Even if it didn’t show.
You’re glad she found someone who made her happy. Even if it’s the daughter of Lucifer.
Wiping away the tears of delight from your eyes, you sigh contentedly before you started to survey around the hotel more while the two lovebird’s were being all adorable. Two figures- a black and white cat wiping down the bar, and a tall spider-like character were talking (mainly the spider one) as the cat seemed entirely done with everyone and everything.
Blinking repeatedly for a second, your head turns to the door of the hotel. You don’t know why, but you almost head towards it, you’re unsure why- but it almost feels like something is beckoning you to leave, to run out and leave this place.
But you can’t.
Why?
Simple: you don’t have anywhere else to go.
“ANOTHER WOMAN?” A voice shrieked out, causing you to recoil away and snap your head to the voice.
A smaller demon was looking up at you, a cyclops-like demon with pointed limbs, white skin and one large eye. Her eyes light yellow iris, hot-pink sclera with a yellow gradient were basically the size of atoms as she continued to stare. This is certainly awkward…
Her red-pink hair is kept into a slightly messy bob cut with swirls on each side, and a single light yellow streak located at the top. Her mouth has sharp light yellow teeth inside and black lips, and small hot-pink dots on each of the corners.
The bug-like woman wears a neckerchief around her neck, red-pink maid dress under a white apron with three hot-pink dripping splotches. She also wears long black gloves which covers most of her hands and arms, along with matching-colored tights.
“…Hello, Miss?” Choking out the words, you smile the best you can despite how tense you were.
“Nifty!!! It’s nice to meet you!” She squeals out, a large toothy grin on her face.
“Right well- Hello, Miss Nifty.” You bobbed a curtsy to the small woman who seems far too excited to be here.
“Y’know, I was kinda wishin’ you’d be a bad boy, but whatever! Anyways- this place is filthyyy so, I gotta kill more bugs to make sure they know not to come here anymore!” Niffty bounces up and down elatedly,
“Pardon?-“
“Okay, BYEEE!!” And with that, she was running off in the opposite direction.
Your breath hitches, and your body tensed. Is.. everything super fast here? Everything feels too fast for your liking.
You take a moment to breathe, trying to relax your tense body. It’ll all be okay… you just, need a moment to let everything sink in.
Striding over to a chair, you sat down and leaned your head back, making you stare at the ceiling. A sigh slips past your lips as you rest your hands in your lap. Surprisingly, the couch is.. much more softer and comfortable than you had imagined before.
“Why, another patron?” How many people are going to approach you today?
You tense, turning to the voice speaking- it sounds like that of an old radio…
A slender, darker brownish beige-skinned demon with a dapper appearance stands before you, a slightly messy, red-pink bob-styled hair with black tips and a pair of rather large, black-ended fur-tufts on top of his head which evokes the ears of a deer. On the back of his head is a brown undercut, while small black antlers protrude from the crown of his head.
Kinda cute… you admit.
The man wears a high-collared, fitted red pinstripe coat with darker-colored sleeves, strawberry-red cuffs, white-trimming on darker-red lapels, and the bottom hem being ragged. Under his coat is that of a strawberry-red dress-shirt with a black cross on the chest, and an accessorized black knotted bow tie with a strawberry-red center on the top front.
He has black gloves- are those his hands???… probably not. You hope.
Nevertheless, they have strawberry-red fingertips, black dress pants with cuffs the same color as he coat, and black heeled ankle boots with strawberry-red pointed toes, with his hands behind his back he’s holding a thin cane with a vintage styled microphone attached to it.
“..Good evening, Sir.” You say, voice drained even when you try to keep the politeness you still have left. A drowsy smile plastered its way on your face, attempting to straighten your posture. The man seems amused by your words and current situation as his smile gets ever so wider.
“Manners? My, what a rare thing to come across in Hell, mm?” He quips as he motions for you to stand up. You tilt your head in confusion as you leisurely rise up from your spot to stand up from the couch, and he approaches a bit closer before dipping down, grabbing your wrist while dipping down and kissing the back of your palm.
…
You don’t think you’ve ever blushed that much before.
A man has never done this to you before, when did this ever happen in time???? Does he just- do this whenever he meets someone new??? Why in heavens name is this attractive and why are you finding it so?????? What is going on..
It takes you a good long minute to process what just happened as the man straightens up his posture once more, letting your hand fall to your side. You can hear him laughing a bit at your flustered expression, making the blush become more apparent and darker in color.
“Now who are you, my dear?” The way he emphasized ‘my’ in his sentence was.. odd, but nevertheless: you didn’t comment on it.
“(____). It’s a pleasure to meet you, sir.” You curtesy at the man in respect despite your flustered state.
His smile grew wider in amusement and satisfaction- in a way— this is certainly something.
“And, you are, sir?”
“Alastor! Quite a pleasure to be meeting you, my dear, quite a pleasure!”
. . .
Well.. this place has started growing on you.
And the people too.
Charlie by far has been the friendliest to you, trying to get you comfortable over the few months you’ve arrived here. She hasn’t forced you to do anything, only given suggestions and her ideas, asking for your opinions, etc.
But you’ve taken the role of a musician for the hotel!
She could not be more overjoyed.
Vaggie and you don’t speak too much.. but have a friendly relationship. Any chance you got, you would also ask for her opinions on the music you’ve been working on, if it sounded good enough because.. Charlie would just be a bit vague in her rating, but Vaggie could be much more blunt and straightforward.
You’re thankful for that, musically that is.
Even if it might hurt your feelings sometimes, it’s better to know your mistakes.
Husk hasn’t interacted with you much, but has decided to give you a record for you to possibly use as a reference for a song, or even play it! That.. honestly gives you a bit of a confidence boost, given that he really doesn’t reveal much of his past to anyone.
But he trusts you enough to at least give you one of his favorite records!
You’ll make him proud, no matter the cost.
Angel Dust has attempted to make an advance or two upon you, flirting with you like he does everyone, but you’re a bit too awkward for that and instead decide to invite him into your room to listen to you play.
Genuinely? He’s impressed. That façade of being the porn-star that he is fizzes away a bit as he simply stares at you while you play on one of your instruments.
He might just get more fond of you.
Niffty is.. okay!! You find her to be quite adorable like.. 90% of the time, despite her habits with bugs. You try to help her clean sometimes, but most times it doesn’t work. Though the times when it does, she thanks you a lot! And you even let her test out some of your instruments.
As long as she doesn’t break them, or ruin them in any way. To which she promises you she won’t, and you hold it to her.
She enjoys your company quite a lot, though!
Sir Pentious is an interesting figure. A villain genuinely turned good- however, you don’t really see him often anymore. His little egg boys however, you truly want to adopt all of them! How could you not want to, they were simply so endearing!
He’s heard your music a bit, by passing near your room in the hotel, and he will admit that it is damn near relaxing to listen to you play and compose your pieces.
You’ll certainly try to interact with him more.
Alastor now… he’s quite the character! He was the second person who persuaded you into letting him hear you play your music (with the first being Charlie despite how scared you were.) He even gave you some songs that were some of his favorites to play!!
All of them were jazz, but you didn’t mind. They weren’t too bad, after-all!
However his behavior now has… ringed bells in your head.
Made you frightened.
You decided to ask Vaggie what she knew of him, and eventually told you his story. How he had gained all of his power from those overlords and deals..
It made you unnerved. How could someone of a mortal soul kill so many people???
And despite being an angel, why is he so interested in you?
You, for one, don’t consider yourself to be very interesting. All besides for your species and musical abilities, you don’t see why..
But, you didn’t question it for so long and kept quiet.
He appeared to enjoy your presence more than others, even being as willing as to ask you if you want him to send some of his shadows to follow you around town when you went to do errands for Charlie, Vaggie, Husk, or just one of the members of the hotel.
Of course, you denied but thanked him for the offer. It’s not like it stopped him. It was only for your safety.
What if one of the Vees approached you?? Or Vox used his manipulation powers on you??? What if you got attacked??? He can’t let his new source of entertainment get harmed, or be taken away!
You weren’t some delicate flower.. but he definitely saw you like it.
He even offered you deals.
Ones for your soul.
Denying every-time, of course. You liked your freedom. The mere idea of a deal for your soul felt like every bit of freedom would be drained from you, everything taken away from you. They could do anything to you.. even kill you.
God forbid.
It scared you.
But that didn’t stop him from trying to own you.
Whenever he was listening to you play and you did a wonderful job (especially if it was one of his favorite songs or jazz in general), he would pat you on the head while merrily singing praises to you of how well you played!
It got to the point where Angel Dust even has made some.. inappropriate remarks about Alastor’s words to you. It makes you blush out of embarrassment every time, and you yelp back a response.
“Damn, toots, didn’t know you were baggin’ smiles over there. You two had-“
“NO. NOTHINGS HAPPENING BETWEEN US!”
“HE DOESN’T EVEN LIKE THAT STUFF…”
It’s infuriating at times. And you had to do it by yourself, as Alastor usually wasn’t around during those times when Angel Dust made his remarks.
..It’s.. whatever.
But it doesn’t help your case when Alastor offers you his hand for you to hold, or with his arm for you to link with, to walk around with you, walk you back to Hotel…
Most times you accepted! Back when he wasn’t so…
…Possessive.
It wasn’t bad, at first. You thought he was just being kind to you. He had manners- proper decorum. How could you dislike a person with manners, after-all!
You didn’t notice it.
But that possessiveness grew.
Almost like a corruptive infection.
Now, it’s just straight up.. bone-chilling at times.
It’s like he was infatuated with you, trying to get you to do everything with him—
Most times you deny it now.
Still he was a persistent one.
And even got you to say yes.. a lot.
You don’t even know what even led to this behavior from him, why everything you seem to do he has an interest in already.
He’s even tried persuading you into getting a radio for yourself in order for you to listen to his radio shows! And honestly? The idea didn’t seem too bad, in your opinion. And.. this was before any of the bells started ringing in your head about his behavior, so there was really nothing bad about it! At least, to you. So, you headed out and found yourself a radio (although, you have to say it was certainly quite the adventure).
Alastor was especially pleased by this.
Yet, ever since you got it, you didn’t even feel safe in your own room anymore. Main cause of it being like a thousand eyes watching you when you were just simply trying to work on your music, sleep, draw— anything. The only time it went away is when you were going to dress yourself. Thank whatever saving you for that. But, even around the hotel- you could still feel the hairs rise up on your neck due to the sensation.
A part of you wanted to tell Charlie, or even Vaggie of your troubles. Hell, even Husk or Angel Dust about it. But, Charlie would.. more than likely blame herself a lot more, and you didn’t want her to worry her to the point of exhaustion since she was already doing so much. You don’t believe you’re close enough to Vaggie to even… tell her much, especially about a problem as banal and close to unbelievable as this. Husk could try and help, but probably would be too indifferent about the situation and your wellbeing as the two of you aren’t that close either. And, for Angel Dust… he probably wouldn’t help you as much as you wanted. Niffty? She was kinda out of the question because you really couldn’t see her taking you seriously, nor finding her around much.
So there was only one option, probably one of the worse ones: Alastor.
Honestly, you believed he would probably just laugh at you. But maybe he’d take you seriously. Maybe he wouldn’t.
God forbid, this is horrible.
Like the foolish idiot you were, you told Alastor about your worries one day.
“Mister??..” Your voice is a mere whisper as you gently knock on the door to his room. Knuckles softly hitting the wood, you recoiled your hand back and fidgeted with your fingers as you awaited for a response you were, more than likely, weren’t going to receive. Well..
Those were your thoughts. Before the door quickly opened, causing you to jerk backwards, stumbling over yourself. That’s certainly the fastest anyone has answered the door for you. He took a moment to stare down at you, surveying your expression, you suppose.
“Good evening, my dear!” His normal orotund voice speaks up with the radio-like effect still filtered over it. You nod in greeting, waiting to see if he continues on.
“Is there anything you need? You know, I could’ve been doing something terribly important!” He emphasizes ‘terribly important’, and the way he does it has you worrying now. Did you interrupt him?
“Oh— i’m sorry. I can leave and come back later. Or just,, not come back if you’re not available.” There’s silence that follows your response as you wait. Until there’s..
Laughter.
Hysterical laughter.
“No no! It’s a joke, my dear! I’m available. Come in.” He stepped off to the side, motioning for you to enter. And, you gave a nod of appreciation before approaching any further. So.. now you know that half of Alastor’s room is a bayou.
One that appears to always make it seem like its night. Fireflies flit around, their lights illuminating ever so slightly. The bayou is mainly cool colors, blues, and greens (for the trees mainly, which look reminiscent of weeping willow trees), and even a tint of purple to it, not including the light from the fireflies. The only thing making you uneasy is the fact that there’s a.. dead deer. Resting on a table. In the middle of the bayou area. And a fork is poking out from its chest, with a knife properly placed down on the side of it on the table. There’s even a few puddles around the grassy floor, and a larger lake in the back you can slightly see
For the rest of the room which is decently normal: an intricately designed fireplaces, being its sharp teeth designs, and golden colored swirls. A neon green light is shining from inside, slightly dimmed due to the darkness. Upon it there are skulls, and oddly shaped candelabras with lighted candles. On the walls are pictures within picture frames to which you really can’t depict, some tilted and others straight. Then, there’s the large buck antlers and what you can suspect to be its teeth hung proudly above the fireplace in a wooden frame. A long, red and golden trimmed carpet is spread out from near the door to a small desk off to the side, covering some of the wooden flooring.
The stag sits down in one of the red cushioned chairs next to the fireplace after having the door closed for privacy, and motions for you to sit by the one in front of the other. When you do find yourself comfortably sat in the chair, your eyes drift off to look at the rest of the room.
On a wooden bookshelf, he has… a lot of books, all of different sizes but with a similar, burgundy color. There’s also one of his signature radio’s on the top shelf, along with another on a lower one. An animal skeleton, and a golden statue that’s matched with intricate designs of swirls with a bottom compartment with what looks to be voodoo symbols for the handles. Not even mentioning the gator skeleton on the wall with little fairy lights you can suppose, there’s a small container for papers on his desk, a black and dark orange lamp, and a bottle of ink all neatly placed on it.
“So.. what is it you need from me, darling? Perhaps a deal?” Again with the deals..
“No. I just— .. you have to promise me you won’t laugh, even if you find it stupid.” Please, please, please, agree. You cannot deal with these thoughts and feelings anymore, god forbid.
“Mm… Is it that serious?”
“To me- yes. To others I might just seem.. delusional or paranoid.” Replying to his inquiry, he hums a noise of satisfaction.
“Alright. Go ahead then.”
With those words, everything you’ve been holding in ever since these sensations have started spilling out almost naturally. You tell him almost everything, how you’ve been feeling someone watching you, how you’re scared for yourself and the rest of the hotel staff if its soon going to happen to them, if anything bad is going happen to the hotel itself- or any of the residents. Being the bleeding heart you are, now?
The overlord quietly listened, grin never leaving his face as he felt so many things at once. It’s almost annoying to him why you’re like… this. The fuming hatred is something that cannot be fathomed by merely anyone, something so deep, it’s incomprehensible for him even. Someone who has murdered so many innocent people, someone who can never show his true emotions beyond that cursed smile that’s plastered on his face. He loathes you so much for simply everything you do. Isn’t that the reason he liked you for the things you did??..
But then there’s the other feeling.
It’s confusing.
Say, if you were to start… disliking him, ignoring him, avoiding him at all costs. He feels like he’d go insane. Like he needs your attention on him, or else he cannot function. And yes, he likes the attention from everyone on him, but if he lost yours- dear satan, he could actually be insane. Why do you think he’s offering you so much?? A twisted part wants him to own every little piece of you, everything about you, and he cannot deny that he likes that idea more than you could ever possibly imagine. Ripping away every little bit of innocence you have would just be delightful to him, it’s all making him have this awful feeling swirl within his chest. One that twists and tugs at his dead, tar colored heart.
He wants to rip it out.
He needs to. Perhaps then these vile feelings that you’re causing him will eventually.. wither away.
This is making him weak. Making him go soft.
And what will that do to his reputation?
“Well, my darling..” Alastor cleared his throat.
“If you would like, I suppose I can offer you a deal.”
“Alastor-“
“Not for your soul, this time. Just a simple deal between friends!”
To say this intrigued you would be an understatement.
Well now, you’ve made a deal with the devil!
Or, a devil.
He offered you his protection in the way of being by your side for most of the time, or having one of his shadow spies with you, in exchange for a favor from you later on, of his picking. And you were desperate, you didn’t even think first about negotiating the terms of your now first deal in Hell! With.. the Radio Demon!
And thankfully, not for your soul.
Oh freedom how you love it.
He’s thankful you still haven’t figured out who has been watching you all this time, who you were worried about.
Nevertheless- ever since you made that deal, you and Alastor were practically connected at the hip. But the rare times where you weren’t together, one of his shadow spies was with you! You have to admit it- they were adorable. You had to at least pet them a few times on the head while gawking at them. Of course, they squealed in delight due to the sudden display of affection shown by someone. Even when they at first, didn’t trust you, they definitely started to warm up to you now.
Charlie, Vaggie, nor any of the other residents have said anything about this so far- besides Angel Dust and his usual remarks.
..But then Husk spoke up one time.
Being at the bar, resting on a stool as you tried to unwind a little bit, and given it was quite lonely at the time- you decided to just.. simply relax for a moment in the company of probably one of the quietest people within the Hotel. It was the right opportunity for him.
“Kid.. a word of advice: don’t get too close to that asshole. He may seem all nice and charming, but he’s in Hell for a goddamn reason.”
Those words stick with you.
And with passing months, you think more deeply and deeply about your deal. And those little spies don’t seem so cute in a way anymore. And Alastor..
Maybe you’re overreacting.
“Okay, okay! So.. I have a great idea!!” Charlie merrily exclaimed as she clapped her hands together, bouncing up and down in delight. Her smile was wider than ever, and her girlfriend beside her was softly smiling with hands planted on her hips. Vaggie was so in love with that princess..
It was adorable!
Charlie had called a staff meeting to the living room, where everyone (Including Husk even) were resting on the couch or floor.
“I thought, if we wanted to get more in touch with the idea of rehabilitation, we might want to become more.. human! By getting in touch with certain, good aspects of human life!” The princess continued, surveying everyone’s expressions.
“So, me and Vaggie picked some holiday’s we could possibly celebrate here at the Hotel!” She motions to a writing board where the handwriting is rushed but, legible. Some ideas on the board are scribbled out, and 3 main ones are circled, followed bullet points displaying what each are about, what they would do, and how the Hotel would celebrate.
‘Halloween’ , ‘Valentines Day’ , ‘Christmas’
“..Are you fuckin’ kiddin’ me?” Husk huffs out, grimacing.
“Language. And, seriously?? Let’s just try it.” You try and persuade the cat.
“I’m with Husk on this one, toots.” Angel adds. Your head snaps to the Spider, furrowing your brow as he simply shrugs in response.
“Don’t care for these anymore like I used to. I bet most of us even celebrated ever since getting here, including you! Whens the last time you celebrated goddamn Christmas?!” He continues on, raising an eyebrow at you.
“..When it last happened in Heaven?” The confusion in your voice had Angel looking at you in an awkward manner as he just… turned his head away from you.
“That’s even more of a reason!” Charlie exclaimed, quickly turning to her girlfriend and motioning for her to speak which led to her giving a small sigh, and a gentle smile before turning to the rest of the group with a now blank expression.
“So- we want you all to take a poll. You’ll all get a small slip of paper, and a pen. Then write down your answer. After you’re all done with that, then just slip in into the bowl.” Vaggie explained, gesturing to the bowl resting on the surface of a wooden table with a dark pink cloth draped over it.
And just as said, Vaggie and Charlie gave everyone (including themselves at the end) a small slip of paper and a pen to write with. Husk grumbled about how stupid this was, but still scribbled something down, Angel doing the same but with a huff of annoyance beforehand. Niffty had to be more excited than either of them, being the first to put her answer into the bowl. Then Charlie put hers in, then Vaggie did, then Angel and Husk (begrudgingly- that is), where Sir Pentious followed suit. So there was just you, and the Radio Demon.
You didn’t know what to put down.. honestly. Biting your bottom lip, you slowly wrote something down onto the slip. Arising from your spot, you treaded over to the table and dropped the paper into the bowl.
“Pardon me, darling!” Alastor excused himself, causing you to come to the realization that he was standing right behind you. Turning on your heel, you held out your hand.
“Sorry— here, I’ll put it in for you. As… an apology? Of sorts?” You awkwardly chuckled.
“Well, aren’t you a lamb!” He laughed, placing the folded piece of paper into your palm and you turned back around and dropped it in, before heading back (being that Alastor has already went back to his seat) to your spot and sitting down. (You.. aren’t a lamb. What the hell did he mean by that??)
Charlie almost jumped out of her seat, rushing on over to the table while gripping onto Vaggie’s wrist. She was practically bouncing up and down as her girlfriend first picked up the bowl, shaking it gently, before she pulled out the first slip and cleared her throat.
“First holiday of choice...”
“Christmas.” The angel stated as the princess happily clapped her hands in delight, before she was given the bowl where she shoved her hand inside of.
“Next isssss…”
“Valentine’s day!” She beamed, grinning widely. The couple went back and forth passing the bowl.
“Valentines- WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS NOTE, ANGEL!!!??”
“Halloween!”
“Valentines, again.”
“..Whatever Angel said!!..I guess..?? Huh.. Okay um, so whatever Angel answered…”
For the last one, Vaggie allowed Charlie to say it (to which she was ecstatic to do.)

“And last but not least.. Valentines!!”
. . .
“Soooooo..” Charlie started as she looked at Vaggie, holding her hand tightly as they smiled at each other before once again turning to the group.
“The holiday is that we’re going to be celebrating is going to be..”
“Valentine’s day!!”
This was going to be fun.
Charlie had Husk save all of the red wine possible, Vaggie was discussing possible decorations for the hotel, and you were left to find some romantic music to play on your violin and possibly on the piano.
Niffty was making sure that the Hotel looked more perfect than ever as to not have to worry about it after the soirée, and for the after party for just the employees and patrons of the hotel. (although, got more distracted by roaches more than ever.)
Angel Dust was feeling especially romantic, trying to advance upon Husk at the even more than usual, to which Husk had to endure and ignore.
For Alastor? God knows up to what he was doing.
Like— you could barely find him around anywhere..
But nevertheless, you tried to play some romantic pop tunes, romantic jazzy tunes, anything that would work for this holiday. Took you quite a bit, but when you got it- you felt very accomplished!
And this.. got Charlie to actually get a venue where you could play at..
Oh lordddddd….
Of course, you asked for Charlie and Vaggie’s opinions on it, and they were elated to hear it. (Mainly Charlie!)
You’d tried figuring out what outfit you were going to wear for the holiday, searching and scanning everything you possibly had in your wardrobe for something.
And you found that very something.
The outfit that you’d chosen was lovely, in your opinion. A white collared dress up shirt underneath a red, button up tailcoat. The back was a large, ruffled fishtail hem, and with puffy sleeves that turned into long, fitted sleeves to the wrists. 4 golden buttons embroidered onto the chest area where the coat ruffed out into a darker red. The buttons had small, thin chains that connected them to the one across from each other. White fingerless gloves where a bit of it wrapped around your middle finger were chosen! Nicer than you thought. This was then followed by some black trousers, which were a bit baggy and flared out near the ankles (but not too baggy it looked like they were hanging off of you). And to top it all off, you put on some black heeled boots.
If you were to say you weren’t excited to show everyone your outfit and see their’s, you’d be lying to yourself.
..this holiday thing actually might be a bad thing!
(Not that you thought so in the first place.)
You’d even play in that outfit as practice, just to see if it was comfortable and playable! (Which it very much was).
With every passing day approaching the Holiday, everything mainly felt like bliss. Charlie was more elated than ever, starting to teach more lessons about how Valentine’s day could help the Hotel more, Vaggie was.. very high strung (yet tried her best to relax for her girlfriend when asked by her). You yourself even started helping with decorations around the Hotel just to get the couple to relax for at least an hour or more. You ended up working for almost the whole day, yet it was worth all of that time and work. They deserved all of that resting. And the best thing at that? You did it mostly by yourself!
Very rewarding, if you might say so yourself.
Before you got self-conscious about everything you helped on.
Especially when the special day had arrived.
What if they don’t like it?? What if they don’t like your music? Don’t like your outfit???? If you make a fool out of yourself, then what next?? You’ve become so tense, your shoulders almost reaching to your ears— this is not going as ‘stress-free’ as you’d planned.
Fidgeting with the cuff of your overcoat, you bit your bottom lip and anxiously awaited for the inevitable knocking that would arrive at your door soon. As an angel, you’ve gotten quite stressed due to a multitude of reasons, but this might be one of the more stressful and worrying situations you’ve been in since.. a bit.
The hand twiddling with the cuff then turned to your other hand, playing with your fingers. A part of you really didn’t want the string of knocks to arrive, but.. there was really no control over the current circumstance. Only to freak out about something you’ve worked so hard in, something you thought you’d looked decent enough in, decorations they’ve probably already seen and possibly laughed at- your breathing hitched at the thought. God, you feel so stupid. They’re going to hate it, you’re going to embarrass the Hotel, aren’t you?
Knock, knock!
And there it is. That dreaded sound. Your nails started digging into the flesh of your hands through your gloves, and you felt your stomach drop. This is going to be ruined- you’re going to ruin it.
Hesitant to open the door, another knock sounded out as you further approached the door. And with a final deep breath, your hand rested gently on the cold metal of the doorknob before twisting it and swinging it open.
To someone you.. weren’t exactly suspecting to see!
Alastor!!
“…Good evening, Alastor!” You almost stuttered over your own words, forcing a smile to plaster itself onto your lips.
Even more surprising, the man was dressed much more differently!
A black, long collared dress up shirt where it’s sleeves slightly poke out with a red cross on the chest under a Bordeaux red pinstripe coat with same colored lapels. A ribbon red waistcoat with rosy pink colored, vertical strips decorating it along with 2 wine red buttons. A pair black dress pants and his usual shoes, along with his gloves.
It takes you a moment to realize the stag has put up his hair into a small ponytail. Good grief… how can a man be so attractive.
“Good evening to you, my dear! I do believe it’s time for your little performance soon at this soirée!” His head tilts to the side a bit, trademark smile always on his face as per usual as he stares down at you. Your smile immediately turns into a small frown with a sigh from you, causing you to bury your face into your hands.
He halts for a moment, before continuing on.
“Now, what’s got you all a mess? I thought you would love this!”
“I do!! It’s…” The words lodge in your throat as you falter to continue on, turning away from the man with your arms wrapped yourself in a hug.
“..What if I fail- what if I look tacky?? In my performance, and by just.. looking at me and my appearance!!” Facing the man once more, you motion to your ensemble with a fearful look as your gaze downturns to the ground.
“If I fail.. I ruin the image of the hotel. I ruin my image, I ruin everything!! If i’m not perfect in this.. I don’t even know anymore…” Internally, you’re questioning on why you’re telling your deepest fears to an overlord known for being mostly apathetic to most. Who knows.
The overlord grin remains the same as his eyes narrow looking down at you. He’d be lying to himself if he didn’t like the little thing you had going on here! He enjoys the amusement of people failing so much!!.. but, theres something that pangs him right into his unfeeling and dead heart like a knife.
An exhale escapes past his lips as one of his hands rest upon your shoulder.
“Darling.” The biggest part of him is telling himself to say something akin to his normal snarky remarks.
But he can’t now.
Whats stopping him? Has he gone soft?? What in hell is wrong with him??
“I’m more than certain you’ll do wonderful in your little show for the Hotel. Have you disappointed us before?” Your head raises a bit as you open your mouth to speak, before a clawed hand reaches for your jaw and lifts it up to fully face him, making you avert your gaze almost instantaneously.
“You’re going to say ‘oh, I don’t think so. At least I hope so.’ And darling, only half of that is semi-correct. Your performances have not once failed to amaze us, including me, beyond belief and words that could describe it. Your voice is delightful, and your playing is even rivaling one of my favorite jazz songs from back in the day!! I can understand your stress, but you shouldn’t worry much about it, my darling doll.”
The mans words had you actually speechless.
“However, you can never beat me at piano!” He laughs, and you huff in response before he clears his throat.
“Now.. hasn’t this been enough dawdling for now, doll?” Alastor inquired, to which you leisurely nodded due to yourself still processing his words.
He hand already laced his arm with one of your arm, almost making you squeak out from surprise in response. Like a second instinct, you moved slightly closer to him, mainly behind, and bit your bottom lip once again.
“Off we go, now!” The deer explained in a sing-song-like tone, marching out of you, trailing behind while struggling to close your door…
Walking down those stairs is nerve racking as you keep your gaze downcast at the steps and your shoes, almost clinging to Alastor’s arm now with both of your arms wrapped around it.
As much as he despises touch- ..he doesn’t seem to mind this much.
“..Tell me if my touch makes you uncomfortable.” Oh? How thoughtful! His grin strains a bit as he strides on over to the group, you clinging to him as you take a moment before you start raising your head to the couple to which you have stopped in front of within the lobby of the Hotel.
And, they’re certainly matching.
You have to stop yourself from squealing like a fangirl.
Vaggie's ensemble has a black and purple mauve dress featuring asymmetrical layers and a feathered tailcoat of a matching red that Charlie has, eye-like designs embroidered into the fabric. Similar colored fingerless gloves she now wears, with a black ring with a bunch of hearts on her ring finger. Her hair has been tied up with her usual bow but now into a ponytail. A shawl-like garment is adorned with three bold red hearts along the left side in a line. She finishes up with dark lace stockings and white flats.
Charlie wears a black overcoat draped over her shoulders that reaches to her upper calves, and small golden sun shaped pins on both sides of the coat with a thin chain connecting them across her chest. She wears a black choker with a dark red heart pendant hanging off of it, and a golden bracelet around her right wrist. They even have matching, black rings with hearts all over it with each other!! Black petals adorn her hair, which is tied in her usual hairstyle. She wears a sleeveless, red top followed by a black and golden belt where the center is a golden shaped, empty heart. To top it off, she wears black baggy pants with black boot heels.
“..You both look-“
“WONDERFUL!!” Squealing, you start happily bouncing up and down, gawking at the couple with linked arms in front of you.
“Oh, thank you!! YOU LOOK AMAZING TOO!” Charlie beams, stars practically shining in her eyes.
Vaggie gives a nod as agreement with Charlie, and one of appreciation at the same time.
As the couple and Alastor engage within a conversation for who knows whats, you find your eyes wandering off to look at the rest of your friends to see what they’re doing.
Over at the bar, a certain well dressed spider demon and a slightly underdressed cat demon are.. ‘interacting’.
“Ohhh c’mon, babycakes. We could-“
“No. Go fuck yourself..”
“Only if ya’ watch me!” Husk groans at Angel, who has now slightly climbed onto the counter of the bar, to which Husk pushes him off.
You try to suppress the urge to giggle out-loud and decide to look for a certain small bug demon.
But.. you can’t find her—
“WOAHHHH!” Gasping, you almost recoil at the familiar voice, but ground yourself as your head snaps down to look at Niffty- who is all spiffed up!
Niffty’s hair has been put up into one that appears to look more like one from the 1950’s as it’s far more curly than before. It’s accompanied by two white roses which are held together by a thin, red wine piece of rope in the shape of a.. bow slightly sagging.
Her outfit incorporates a short sleeved, white dress up shirt, matched with 5 coral pink buttons aligned in the middle of the shirt. Added on, she has two pearl earrings and a white, and pink pearl necklace which is matched with a silver chain. The skirt of her dress has a sort of.. belt incorporated into it already as it has a slightly white, rectangle belt holder in the center of the blush pink skirt- which reaches to her ankles. White polka dots along with venetian red roses matched with a Russian green stems are embroidered on the skirt scattered all over it. To top it all off, she has simple white Mary Jane-like shoes.
Heat rushes to your cheeks as you smile.
“Awwh! Nif, you look adorable!!” You pat the small demons head. Not in a condescending way.. just.. as a spur of the moment decision.
“YOU LOOK VERY PRETTY!!” She squeals out, bouncing up and down.
And before you could actually start speaking once again, the small demon… bunny hops onto your chest, making you stumble back with a squeak-like sound and unlace your arm with Alastor’s in order to have both hands on Niffty to make sure she doesn’t fall either..
You’ve noticed that the couple and Alastor have stopped their conversation, probably looking at you and Niffty now…
“I could add something to make you look better!”The words don’t sound too sinister, but she’s grinning like a maniac.
“..Like?” You anxiously smile. Her toothy grin grows wider.
“ROSES!! IN YOUR HAIR!!” Yelping out her words, which makes instantaneously nod her request, she giggles happily.
Suddenly the small demon… now has a bouquet of red and white roses. How? You have no clue. While she climbs her way to your shoulder, plucking some petals from both colored flowers. You try your best not to move as your gaze drifts off to look at the trio beside you.
Yep.. they’re staring at you.
“..You guys good?”
“Of course, my darling!” No. Nothings alright. Why is that little miscreant touching you?- why did she make you stop being so close to him now? He’s owned her soul for quite some time now, and knows how she acts, being quite fond of her! But, why is she acting ever so.. friendly with you?..
His smile has become more strained than ever as his head turns to the couple still looking at the display of you and Niffty. Charlie looks more excited than ever, and Vaggie is.. more surprised.
“Now! Where were we?”
As the conversation now resumes, Niffty finishes up with placing the rose petals in your hair, and finishes by placing a red rose near your ear- tucking the stem beneath your hair.
“Okay!! I’m done!!!” Niffty practically shrieks out, clapping her hands as shes placed down on the ground.
“Thank you, Nif. It’s beautiful.” The small demon merrily bows before rushing off… somewhere else.
Nervously, your head turns to the center of the foyer, where the piano to which you’ve avoided up until causes to gulp. But, in response, you take a deep breath.
You just.. need to be calm. You need to relax.
What causes you to come back to your senses is a small tap on your shoulder.
“You ready?” Vaggie quietly asks, moving closer to you. And you pause for a moment before nodding, now putting a smile onto your face. She even gives a smile back.
“Alright, everyone!! Gather the hell up!” Angel and Husk both appear from the darkness of the Bar, approaching the center to where the small stand with the piano atop of it rests. Niffty has rushed into the room, happily bouncing from adrenaline, you suppose..
“We’re headin’ out. And we aren’t going to mess any of this up for the hotel.” She loudly exclaims, resting a hand on her hip as the rest of the group nods. Safe to say you’re panicking so much internally
Please, please do not let this venue end horribly because of you…
. . .
Backstage, you’re pacing.
The venue is lovely from what you’ve seen so far. Velvet curtains shroud the stage as of currently, which has you awaiting for your time to step up and play those lovely songs you’ve been practicing all this time.
As you had first entered: seating area is adorned with cushioned chairs arranged around tables draped in cloths of white, pink, red, or regal purple, each adorned with intricate heart designs. Silverware gleams under the soft glow of candlelight, while glasses of wine shimmer with anticipation. Plates overflow with delectable cuisine from most sinners and overlords who’d arrive here at the Princess of Hell’s invitation (of course, with threats unknowingly added by the Radio Demon!!)
Candelabras cast a warm, flickering light across the room. A polished and lavish golden chandelier hangs from the ceiling, its crystals catching the light as dangling heart pendants gently sway, casting a romantic glow over the scene.
At the bar, being ran by Husk, patrons are usually having ‘lively conversation’, as they await for their entertainment.
But thats also worrying for you, adding more stress. They’re awaiting you.
What if—
The curtains part slowly, and you tense. Goddamnit, no time to think, and no time to have these silly worries replay in your head. You impatiently wait for the curtains to fully open, as rehearsed before. And when they fully do, you can see the eyes of thousands just.. staring inside, from the wings. It takes every last string of restraint for you to try to relax yourself during this.. ‘predicament’.
Taking one last deep breath before the inevitable fate for you on that stage.
You stride with as much perfect posture you can, hands clasped in-front of your lap as you make it to your grand piano, stationed on the mahogany floorboards of the stage. It takes you a second to settle down upon the stood, but when you do, you hover your fingers over the keys of the instrument, recounting every single one in your head as best as you can.
With nothing more to think of besides playing, you start playing the first few chords..
And just like that, you’re immersed within your passion, and everlasting fears as you play key after key.
To say each of the residents and sinners were baffled would probably be an understatement. A great understatement.
You’ve been practicing.. so hard for this very moment, and everything you’ve done has been paying off. Charlie is just absolutely blown away, Vaggie is.. speechless, Husk has his eyebrows raised and arms crossed as his listens to the tune and your singing, Angel Dust is just grinning with an ‘I knew it’ look, Niffty looks like shes going to… explode, and Alastor.. is smiling. Smiling more than ever before- no, this is.. a genuine smile.
Turns out his word really was true.
As the last chord of the piano and last note of your singing lingers within the air, you awaiting for well.. anything.
Booing, laughter, anything.
It only took a few seconds for loud clapping to echo throughout every nook and cranny and your head snaps to the audience. They’re all cheering, all in a slightly similar way of course. Husk is nodding, softly clapping his hands with an amused smirk plastered on his lips. Charlie is vigorously clapping, bouncing up and down merrily as she hugs her girlfriend who was clapping at your performance with a small smile, as well. Angel is cheering the loudest, proclaiming “THATS MY FUCKIN’ BESTIE!” Or… something along the lines of that. Niffty is actually about to jump from her seat, and people start whistling in awe at your play.
Heat crept on your cheeks as you gave a sheepish smile towards the crowd, standing up to slightly shift away from the piano in order to curtesy in respect as they continue on with their cheering. Before you could process, flowers- specifically roses were being thrown onto stage. With widened eyes, you stand up straight again and stare at everyone, trying your best to ignore the heavy light which felt too warm for your liking- but you shouldn’t complain..
Flowers are constantly being tossed onto stage, the applause continues and you take another curtsey before scurrying off stage, making the lights dim.
You don’t really know why you ran off in such a beautiful moment, but you were going to have to leave eventually. The main thing is that you really aren’t.. used to such big crowds applauding for you. It feels much different than just being in a theater, for example.
Finding yourself backstage into the single dressing room it has, you almost collapse onto the sofa with a drawled out groan. You haven’t even bothered to turn on the lights within the room, or the lights on the vanity off- being your only light source as of currently.
..Not gonna lie, you’re probably going to fall asleep if you lay down like this for the rest of the evening.
That would be nice.
Yeah.. you might just do that.
Your eyelids slowly start to get heavier and heavier, making you shift to your side and slightly curling into yourself for warmth. May all be damned because this was surprisingly comfortable despite how you were dressed and.. well, everything else. And with just a few more seconds, you shut your eyes with a content smile gracing your lips.
“Now.. was I wrong, my darling doll?” A voice beams from the side, causing you to immediately rise up out of fear and shock. Well, so much for getting some rest now.
“Oh— Alastor! Hi!..” Trying to pull yourself together, ruffling up your hair a little with a hand, leaning back on the couch as you sit more in a tailor position on the couch.
He takes a moment survey the room, tapping a clawed finger against the side of his microphone before turning to face you. You swear you can see him hiding something behind his back- but you can’t prove anything, can you? You’re too tired for this anyway..
“What are you doing? Don’t you know, the people are quite excited to see you outside?” The inquiry has you blushing even more from embarrassment and hope that the floor magically eats you whole.
A huff escapes you, now turning to bring your knees up to your chest and bury your face into your legs instead of facing the one man who would make fun of you as he found you just trying to rest. It’s.. irritating. And, not really because of Alastor. Just, upsetting.
“Sorry. I’ll.. be out in a moment.”
“Before that, my darling. I have another question for you.” It takes you a second to raise your head up at the stag, staring at him as a motion for him to continue on speaking. He seemed almost hesitant to continue, but slowly managed to get the words to come out.
“Do you have a Valentine so far? Has anyone asked you?” Oh fuck.
He’s so going to mock you. Holy shit.
“..No.” Please please, please do not make any remarks. Don’t. Please.
“Mm.” The mere hum in response freaks you out, but you manage to keep a straight face as you’re internally screaming at the top of your lungs, probably crying as well.
Biting the inside of your cheek, nails digging into the cloth of your pants, close to the flesh of your legs as you await the interchangeable fate from this encounter.
“How would you like to be mine then, darling?”
..what?
You’re honestly.. shocked by this. The amount of time it takes for the cogs in your brain to process this new information is.. quite a bit. And, just before you can even utter a single word to the man’s advance- he reveals what he’s been hiding behind his back this whole time: wilted red roses. How romantic.
Blinking repeatedly at the gesture, you find yourself leisurely getting up and walking closer to the buck, gently wrapping your hands around his holding the roses.
“..I would love that.” Simply staring at the roses, you can’t help but smile and then look up at the man.
“And, is this you asking me out?” The query is mainly a joke as you chuckle a bit, his face still the same as ever: smiling, staring back down at you. However, you thought this mainly as a platonic gesture instead of a romantic one, being that you know a lot better. He chuckles for a moment before clearing his throat.
“Perhaps. Would that be so bad?” That definitely had your heart fluttering.
You’re still reeling from the unexpected gesture he’s made. His usually charismatic demeanor has softened, revealing a vulnerability you never thought you'd see in him. He should be withholding this. His eyes, although still half-lidded have a.. gentle warmth that draws you in. The air is charged with tension, a palpable mix of anticipation and uncertainty as you try to comprehend the depth of his actions. And with your thinking in that moment, you realize that this enigmatic figure before you is more than just ‘The radio demon.’ More than just a demon that has been feared for centuries.
He’s another mortal soul. Just like you.
Yet however, curiosity pangs you right in the heart as you recount the things he’s told about himself to you.
“Wait, Alastor,, are you sure?.. Please- I would not want to lose you over this. I know-” The more you overthink this and try to babble on, he slides his hand from under yours and brings it to cup your cheek.
“My darling doll, do you think I don’t love and cherish your company more than any of the others at the Hotel? it’d be a downright shame to not have a beauty as talented and great like you on my arm. Yet, I don’t believe you feel such similar feelings, no?” He laughs obnoxiously at his own words, but inside he’s.. he doesn’t know what he’s going to do if you don’t-
“Oh- no, of course not!”
He swear he can feel his undead heart halt like it had been beating all of this time.
“I wouldn’t want to ruin your image anyways..” With a shrug, you feel guilt wash over you. Why did you lie?
“..It wouldn’t, my darling doll!” The reaffirming words seemed much more disappointed than before and it almost made you freak out even more. Did he know?
As silence passes through between the two of you, trying to figure out what to make of each other’s feeling and words. You start to speak.
“Alastor.. are you actually trying to court me?” The words come out as a whisper, a hand of your own reaching up to place over his on your cheek while the other still held the rose bouquet.
..Static.
Radio static fills the room.
You’re afraid.
“My darling doll.. would that be such a problem?”
“…No. I don’t think so..”
His grin widens even more than you could possibly think of after being strained for such a long while. His thumb brushes downwards to your jaw and tilts your head upward more, stopping as soon as he has you looking more at his own jaw and the lower part of his mouth.
“Now tell me, why would you lie to me? Quite the bad habit, doll!” That static from earlier has still not left- in fact, it’s gotten louder than you’ve noticed up until this point in this encounter. He’s even lowered his head to go face to face with you this time.
Goddamnit.
“I didn’t want to make things awkward between us. I truly value our friendship, and I didn't want to risk losing that by admitting.. that I saw you in a far different way than probably you did for me. It's not that I don't appreciate your affection or the effort you've put into courting me before or even now, it's just that I didn't want to lead you on or give you false hope. Not only that- I was certain that you didn’t have any romantic attraction to or for anyone for a matter of fact.” Speaking faster than you intended made it harder to even keep up with your thought process.
“Not in a rude way! Just- I care a lot about making you comfortable and not passing any boundaries of yours. You don’t like romance much, you don’t like when people touch you if you don’t initiate it first.” Your shoulders slumped as you continue to ramble on, or at least try.
“All that? Dear.. I told you exactly how I felt. I wouldn’t mind if it was you.”
“..Are you sure you like.. aren’t pressuring yourself to feel this way?? Or something?”
“Darling, I force myself to do nothing. It all comes naturally!” Oh yes, naturally. That obsession? As much as he despises it- it did happen.. naturally.
“Besides…” The feeling of his claws starting to dig into the flesh of your cheek causes you to whine in pain, flinching even. You almost drop the roses due to the sudden reaction. This.. is not something that’s happened before.
“You aren’t dating anyone, correct?” His odd sing-song-like tone made you so.. uncomfortable. Dear goodness, all the color drains from your face as your eyes widen a bit at this. Immediately pulling your hand off of his, now wrapping both arms around the bouquet.
His claws stop digging into your cheek, almost making you instantly cry if you weren’t restraining yourself, wanting to run away, yet he brushes his thumb against your bottom lip ever so gently. How can the same person who just hurt you be the same person with such a gentle touch, told you such comforting words and possibly be the same person who just hurt you?
Stumbling backwards away from the man with hitched breathing, your eyes anxiously survey the man who hasn’t moved but, his smile has become more tense as his eyes have become narrowed as he stares you down like prey.
Why in Heaven’s great name is this happening??
Feeling a warm liquid trickle down your cheek, you instantaneously raise a hand to feel the damage done- already knowing what it is. It’s fucking blood. The sensation of tears start welling up and you lower your gaze for a long moment as you try to piece everything together.
“You- why!?” You cried out, with the tears now pouring down and mixing with the blood on one side. Unintentionally, you back yourself against one of the walls of the dressing room.
Oh you’re so screwed.
“Oh? Are you against me now? But, you don’t know even the beginning of how deep these vile feelings course through me for you!! You started this, darling.” Screwing your eyes shut as you hear his footsteps start to approach, you can’t help the whimpers that leave you.
With the subtle touch of one of his hands on your shoulder, you no longer think you can see him as the same person you did before, even after the sentimental moment. Even after the few times you’ve revealed your feelings to him, no matter how kong you’ve spent time together.
“Everything I’ve done for you so far was because of these wretched emotions started fluttering around, making me feel so much at the same time. It’s infuriating. They’re filthy, disgusting, but they’re still there. But, perhaps if I finally do something about these, I’ll finally be able to be rid of them. Perhaps it’s time that I take action on these, no?” You desperately want to shake your head no- but being frozen with shock with everything currently happening does you no good.
“You’re my valentine, darling. Always mine, and mine alone!”
Those are the final words spoken as your tears continue to pour, but he couldn’t care less and kisses them away. He enjoys this anyway. After-all, you’re helpless. The entire situation is helpless. And with no other thought in mind, he finds his lips on yours in a chaste kiss.
You physically have no idea why this took so long- and I’m sorry y’all. ILY POOKIES, ENJOY YOUR FOOD.
#hazbin hotel#hazbin alastor#alastor#the radio demon#hazbin charlie#hazbin husk#hazbin lucifer#hazbin vaggie#x reader#alastor x reader#im so happy rn#i love this man#hazbin angel dust#yandere#yandere alastor#valentines day#alastor the radio demon#fanfiction#emily#emily hazbin hotel#sera#sera hazbin hotel#🌹 — hazbin hotel#🪦 — writing#🪽 — ang3lofdivinity
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MISHA IS SUPERNATURAL BIGGEST MISTAKE.
CASTIEL COULD HAVE BEEN AN INTERESTING CHARACTER, IF HE HAD BEEN PLAYED BY A TALENTED AND PROFESSIONAL ACTOR. ESPECIALLY PROFESSIONAL AND SERIOUS.
WE DON'T DESERVE MISHA'S LIES AND QUEERBAITING.
BUT I THINK THAT MISHA ONLY TALENTS ARE LYING TO PEOPLE AND QUEERBAITING HIS DESTIEL FANS FOR MONEY. THIS ARE THE ONLY THINGS HE KNOWS HOW TO DO.
DESTIEL ISN'T CANON. JENSEN SAID THAT SO MANY TIMES.
HE EVEN SAID THAT WHEN HE WAS ASKED ABOUT "THE CONFESSION 'S RESOLUTION".
HE SAID THAT THERE WAS NOTHING TO BE RESOLVED. BECAUSE EVEN IF THE "CONFESSION " WAS ROMANTIC, FOR DEAN NOTHING WOULD CHANGE.
DEAN ISN'T IN LOVE WITH CASTIEL. HE ADDRESSES CASTIEL AS DEAN 'S FRIEND AND ONE OF THE PEOPLE CLOSEST TO HIM. BUT THAT'S IT.
JENSEN NEVER ADDRESSES CASTIEL AS DEAN'S POTENTIAL LOVE INTEREST.
JENSEN (AND JARED) SAID MANY TIMES THAT SUPERNATURAL IS ABOUT SAM AND DEAN AND THEIR DEEP BOND AND UNCONDITIONAL LOVE.
15X20 IS THE PROOF OF THAT LOVE. WINCEST IS MORE CANON THAN DESTIEL WILL EVER BE.
I'M TALKING ABOUT PLATONIC LOVE OF COURSE.
I SHIP WINCEST BUT UNLIKE THE HELLERS I KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WHAT IS CANON AND WHAT IS JUST A FANTASY.
15x20 SHOWS TO THE VIEWER THE ESSENCE OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SAM AND DEAN.
SPOILER FOR 15X20.
SPOILER FOR 15X20
SPOLER FOR 15X20
DEAN DIES, BUT EVEN IN HIS LAST MOMENTS HE COMMITS HIMSELF TO ONLY LOVE SAM. HE SAYS HE LOVES HIM AND THAT IT'S ALWAYS BEEN THEM TOGETHER AGAINST THE WORLD.
" IT'ALWAYS BEEN YOU... AND ME". THAT'S WHAT DEAN SAYS.
THE PAUSE IN THAT PHRASE, THE WAY THEY EMBRACE, THE FOREHEAD TOUCH. EVERYTHING IN THE SCENE IS POINTING TO WHO IS WATCHING THAT DEAN GREATEST LOVE IS SAM.
THIS IS A CONFESSION. PLATONIC AND SO BEAUTIFUL. BETTER THAN ANY OTHER "ROMANTIC" CONFESSION THAT I EVER SEEN OR I EVER HEARD.
END SPOILER FOR 15X20.
OF COUSE DEAN IS ALSO SAM GREATEST LOVE, BUT I WANTED TO GIVE MY ATTENTION TO DEAN 'S BEHAVIOUR TOWARDS SAM VS DEAN BEHAVIOUR TOWARD CASTIEL IN THEIR LAST SCENE TOGETHER. THERE IS NO COMPARISON BETWEEN THE TWO.
WE ALL KNOW THAT SUPERNATURAL WAS ALWAYS ABOUT SAM AND DEAN AND THAT A LOVE STORY CAN BE ABOUT TWO BROTHER WHO SAVED EACH OTHER AND FOUGHT MONSTERS, EVIL CREATURES, DEMONS, ANGELS, THE DEVIL AND GOD FOR STAYING WITH EACH OTHER.
OF COURSE WE CANNOT SAY SAM AND DEAN WITHOUT TALKING ABOUT JARED AND JENSEN. THEIR ACTING, THEIR CHEMISTRY INSIDE THE SHOW AND OUTSIDE TOO, THEIR KINDNESS, IS WHAT MAKES SUPERNATURAL A SHOW THAT CHANGED MY LIFE.
I ALWAYS GET EMOTIONAL ABOUT THIS SHOW. THAT'S WHY I CAN'T STAND PEOPLE LIKE MISHA WHO ALWAYS SAYS SHIT ABOUT THE SHOW AND THE ACTORS ( JARED AND JENSEN)
THANK YOU FOR LISTENING TO MY RANT, SORRY FOR MY ENGLISH, IT ISN'T MY FIRST LANGUAGE, AND I HOPE THAT I DIDN'T ANNOY YOU OR BOTHERED YOU.
MAY LOVE AND KINDNESS ALWAYS FIND YOU.
I have to agree. Also, your English is fine and I definitely understand the need to rant about all this nonsense sometimes, that's why I've got this blog! <3
I do actually feel like Misha was a perfectly serviceable actor way back at the beginning. I even get why they decided to keep him around when he proved popular with the fandom. It was indeed proven a mistake in so, so many ways as time went on, though.
Yeah, first and most egregious is the kind of person Misha turned out to be - or at least turned into after so many years of fans blowing smoke up his ass. A bitter, entitled, ungrateful, lazy backstabber who is perfectly comfortable telling blatantly obvious and contradictory self-serving lies and nonsense. Whether that's about the ship or his relative importance to the show directly, whether that's skeevy sexual comments about Jensen/Dean, whether that's trying to paint Jared as some kind of evil bully that abused him. He keeps proving again and again there is no bar he won't limbo under.
Next is I think his performance on the show and what his continued presence on the show resulted in plot-wise from the writers. He was fine at first when he was just playing a non-human mysterious figure that only appeared now and then and had a major role in the whole structure of the apocalypse. He even had a pretty good arc leading up to the Leviathans. The problem was they kept him around as a "fan favorite" after that when they really didn't have anything for him to do but eat up screen time to give J2 time off. Would we have really gotten so much bad, circular angel politics if there wasn't a need to give Castiel something to do to keep Misha employed? I personally doubt it. Even worse than that, though? As time went on, Misha seemed to recognize that his only relevance was baiting shippers and wasting time and leaned into turning Castiel into the type of character he gets written as in so much bad D/C fanfic - a pathetic mostly human woobie who is completely useless for anything but the projection of bizarre teen romance fantasies that don't make any damn sense. Which culminated in that bizarre ambiguous queerbait he and Bobo the Clown cooked up for Castiel's exit. Which doesn't even touch his later seasons' presumable attempts at acting where his choices for Lucifer!Castiel & AU!Castiel & Empty!Castiel were all ... entirely made up of bad accents and gurning. It wasn't about any of those character's motivations or places in the narrative, it was about the laziest possible attempt to differentiate them from his normal character. Even in latter season's SPN, which IMNSHO had so, so many issues dragging things down, Misha's lack of interest in anything but the size of his paychecks and con earnings played into some of the worst.
Which brings us to D/C and the whole supposedly canon thing. Canon is literally what happened. D/C didn't happen, it's that simple. Castiel rambled some ambiguous bullshit about love and got sucked into the Empty while Dean looked bewildered and sad at him from several feet away. Misha can make up as many stories about what the character was totally thinking and how he was totally coming back in the finale and queerbaiting about what will totes happen in a revival, but not a word of it actually makes what Castiel said "I'm IN love with you". Nor does it magically manifest a reciprocation from Dean. What doesn't happen on screen but actors or TPTB say about the canon is often called Word of God. Which yes, Misha's does not outweigh everything Jensen and Jared and various showrunners have clearly said. Jensen might have gotten less confrontational about shooting it down over the years, but the underlying message hasn't changed. Meanwhile, not only do the details of Misha's stories constantly change, but the general message of his claims has flip flopped so many times. The show was about the brothers, no actually the brothers and the angel! He joked about wincest, no actually he'd never heard of it! He didn't want to say what that scene meant, no actually feel free to attack anyone who says it wasn't a homosexual declaration of love! There's more, but Misha's not worth the effort of looking them up.
As you say, at the end of the day, anyone watching the totality of the show and seeing how it ended? It's very obvious the center of the story was a platonic love story. A complicated one, granted, but Sam and Dean so many times made it very clear that it was them ... and everyone else. Except in the same way that acknowledging that doesn't serve the hellers agenda in demanding a continuation must center their ship so they can finally have visuals to go with their fanfic, acknowledging that doesn't serve Misha's agenda of fleecing them out of money for telling them it will happen for as long as he can get away with it.
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aww yeah ep 20 GOOD
I guess I do (very casual, broadstroke) episode commentaries now, halfway through the show lmao. Spoilers below!!
Bai Jiu BETRAYAL?
Wen Xiao WANTED?
Zhuo Yichen DETECTIVE-ING?
Ying Lei BACK?
*crowd cheers*
The dots are connecting like crazy with the big bad's whole inner core crusade and also with the simultaneous demon case like I did not recognize Ao Yin as the demon Li Lun first released eight years ago but oooh do I enjoy that minor payoff.
Love the repeated use of the demonic-spell-restraining sigils now that we've been introduced to them though I wonder why the Bureau doesn't ever seem to make use of them. Maybe they don't deal with enough powerful demons to need to paint those in their own (very empty) dungeon? Or perhaps just plot convenience. (edit: someone has pointed out the Bureau indeed uses them!! I'm just blind <3)
Anyway I kind of wish in the Chongwu Camp dungeon PSJ fought a little bc she's so cool in action and their bailing was a little abrupt, but it makes sense that they'd have an immediate getaway plan. Also this is an ep 19 comment but that line Mr. 3-Face Mask delivered about PSJ being fated to always be betrayed by her little brother(s) HURT. So good.
Back to the Bureau, I do love me a good framing, and I'm also happy to get a tiny bit of the episodic demon-murder-case style back. WX was v clever to hide out in Situ Mansion, and (small detail but) I appreciate that the others catch her up on the Bai Jiu thing onscreen. As an aside, I also like that the actress for WX got to be double-casted even just briefly. Seeing some of the actors get to play around with portraying various extremes in characterization and costuming is a ton of fun.
And then yay Bai Jiu backstory at last~! It's crazy how much that blood moon fucked up everyone's lives eight years ago huh.
Everything ZYC says to him is on point (and honestly, ZYC is really quite adept at comforting others, he just sucks utter ass at it when it's his fault and he has to apologize lmaooo) but of course my favorite scene in the whole episode is as follows:
The very slight shine in the waterline, the bittersweet smile/grimace as, deliberately or not, ZYC's words indirectly echo everything about the circumstances between the two of them right now??? Whew. They did that for me specifically.
Anyway, this was a good one to chew on for me, packed with plot movement enough that I didn't feel unsatisfied with just one episode. I'm glad that so far it seems like the release schedule bears in mind what episodes should be watched in pairs for maximum effect (eps 16/17, 18/19 specifically) and which ones are okay to stand alone for the day, but I also don't want to speak too soon haha. We'll see how ep 21 fares.
Also since this is a ZYC stan account (lmao) I have some obligatory ZYC thoughts that I haven't managed to fit anywhere else. I've been meaning to comment on this for a while now and was reminded by this episode: I love the fact that ZYC actually smiles quite often. I think it's a bit surprising every time he does because he so easily fits the archetype of stoic broody action hero, but it really is just an archetype he's fit himself into, and it's never clearer than when they flash back to smiley baby!ZYC (how freely and purely he used to give those smiles away...).
On the other side of this is also how caustic and biting he can be with his words, whether sarcastically or otherwise, and how clearly his face telegraphs his emotions in general. I love that he actually emotes quite a lot and isn't cold and unaffected in the least, just pouty frowny and awkward.
The last piece to this for me is probably his age (which I very much appreciated being established super early on) and how convincingly TJR portrays him as young and inexperienced and extremely earnest. He's so sincere in everything he does that it really doesn't take much to move him, which also (imo) makes his arc less overdone.
We all know from the start what direction his development will likely go, how he'll learn he's mistaken about ZYZ and how he'll grow to have a more nuanced view of the world as he creates more bonds with others. But he's so emotional and emotionally aware that it doesn't really take much push and pull to get him there. And actually, it's not untread ground to him—he is moreso thawing, in part returning to the open-hearted nature that he had to very abruptly shutter away rather than fundamentally changing as a person. I think to me, that makes his character more compelling to watch because his cynicism about the world is perhaps the least sincere thing about him. It's entirely learned, and not by choice. Relatable.
#fangs of fortune#zhuo yichen#fangs of fortune spoilers#spoilers#tian jiarui#episode commentary#meta
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You are literally the goat if you make a fic about Shujinko and you make me like him
“DECEPTION ROOTED IN THE SOUL” SHUJINKO X ANTI-HERO FEM!READER
SUMMARY : Shujinko is on his quest to find all the kamidogus when he meets you, a cambion (a half human half demon) in the Netherrealm. You will decide if he is worthy for you to help (Shujinko is 18)
A/N : Okay, for context, I bet all my followers that I could write a fic about Shujinko and they would still eat it up bc I’m just THAT good so that’s why this exists
A/N : for y’all that will not understand, this plot is based on Mortal Kombat Deception
WARNINGS : none I think?? Besides descriptive making out
MASTERLIST
Time was of the essence. It was far greater than anything. He had believed that the Elder Gods trusted in him. He had to complete his task.
Hearing that his soul was tainted, Shujinko questioned some of his methods in order for him to complete his konquest because now the man was able to enter the Netherrealm.
The Netherrealm was filled with evil souls and evil people. It was a place not for the weak. Shujinko wasn’t necessarily scared just uneasy.
It was weird to say the least. The way people spoke and acted was much different than the people that resided in Earthrealm, his home.
Sometimes he could understand what people were saying but then there were others who would speak a language he was not familiar with. So, it made it hard for him to communicate.
Shujinko had already prepared himself for the worse but he was not ready for this.
As he walked through out the poor excuse of a “city” he had spotted a woman, you, arguing with a monster.
He was confused because you didn’t look like a monster. In fact, you looked very human besides some dark face paint on your face.
Actually…you were beautiful.
“I have told you for the last time, Baraka, I will not aid in Shao Kahn’s army. He offers me nothing.”
“Then you are the enemy!”
The warrior pushed you down to the ground. You hissed a little at the impact. You were about to stand up so you could fight him but somebody was already beating you to it.
Shujinko made his appearance known. Baraka, the warrior, turned to look at him. “Who are you? Speak now! Or be slaughtered!”
“I am Shujinko. The Elder God’s champion.” He stated very simply. “I think it is best that you leave now.”
Baraka laughed as if what Shujinko had said was the funniest thing in the world. “Me? Leave? Are you challenging me?”
“If you see it as a challenge then so be it but it is a warning.”
“Ha! I will feast on your bones for your insolence!”
When Shujinko saw Baraka was getting into his fighting stance, Shujinko got into his and prepared himself.
You watched as the fight happened. As he fought, Shujinko picked up on all of Baraka’s moves and started to use them against him.
It was actually very interesting.
How could someone have that much knowledge and wisdom that they were able to pick up on something so quickly?
You didn’t know if Shujinko was just that good of a fighter or Baraka was a terrible warrior but Shujinko was winning. Very easily may you add.
You should’ve took this as your opportunity to escape but you couldn’t help yourself. You were intrigued.
Even more intrigued because of the fact that Shujinko did not look like a powerful demon. And if he claimed to be the Elder God’s champion then he definitely wasn’t.
Baraka was down on the ground in pain. You were waiting for Shujinko to finish Baraka. He did not.
When Baraka recognized that Shujinko showed him mercy, Baraka took it as his chance to escape.
You watched as Baraka ran away. You turned your attention towards Shujinko. “I could’ve handled him.”
“I’m sure you could’ve.” Shujinko agreed with you. You were surprised that there was no hint of sarcasm in his voice. He held out his hand to help you off the ground.
You stared at his hand, contemplating on taking it. He did help you. (Even if you didn’t ask for it.) You took his hand and allowed him to help you up.
Curiosity took the best of you. “How did you do that? I saw you copy his fighting style and use it against him. And Baraka is the best Tarkatan warrior. He would not fall to someone as easy looking as you.”
“Easy looking?” Shujinko questioned a little amused. “I have been granted the gift to pick up on people’s fighting styles fairly quickly.”
You nodded a little at his short explanation. It made sense. “You don’t look like you belong here. You’re…very human looking.”
“I am a human. I am from Earthrealm.”
Your eyes widen at his statement. How was he able to coexist in the Netherrealm then? “Earthrealm? How is that possible? You must be filled with evil.”
Not being able to help yourself, you touched Shujinko’s shoulder slightly. He allowed you to do this. You closed your eyes and looked into Shujinko’s soul.
When you opened your eyes, they were white. Shujinko did not seem frightened by this and observed what you were doing.
You continued to try and look into his soul but you found barely anything. You closed your eyes again and your eye color went back to normal.
You removed your hand from his shoulder. “There is very light corruption. Nothing outlandish.”
Shujinko was a little happy to hear that he was not completely corrupted. “I have been informed that while doing my quest, I may have gotten my soul tainted a little.” He looked you up and down and it was his curiosity that got the better of him. “You also do not look like a demon.”
You chuckled a little at the realization. “That is because I am a Cambion. I am half human and half demon. I can either take on my human form or my demon form.”
“You are in the Netherrealm. Why would you want to look human?”
“To separate myself from these fools.” You placed your hands behind your back as you spoke. “I am a powerful sorcerer. My father is Quan Chi.”
Shujinko was stunned by your confession. “Quan Chi? He is-“
“The devil? I know. As you can see, I am not aligned with him.” You told him. “I’m (Y/N).”
“Shujinko.”
You chuckled a little at the name. “Interesting. Your name means protagonist. How fitting.” Shujinko smiled slightly. You changed the subject. “What brings you to the Netherrealm exactly? It is not the ideal place for you.”
Shujinko did not want to give you too much information but you seemed friendly enough. I mean, you haven’t tried to kill him despite everyone else in the Netherrealm trying to. “I am here on a quest from the Elder Gods. What I need resides in this realm unfortunately.”
You nodded at his vague explanation. You suppose he was in his right to not completely tell you. You were a demon of the Netherrealm. “Well, I hope you are good on your quest, Shujinko.” You started to walk away from him. “May we meet again.”
Shujinko watched as you walked away from him. He had to admit, he was slightly disappointed seeing as that you were the only one in the Netherrealm that did not give him hell.
Hopefully you would meet him again.
Later on in his quest in the Netherrealm, Shujinko had encountered you. Again, you were fighting with someone but this time you were winning.
He decided to watch you as you held the warrior in your hands. Then you began to suck the soul out of them. The warrior’s body started to desiccate,
When the warriors body turned into old brittle bones, you flung them to the ground.
Shujinko decided to walk over to you. “What did he do to you?”
You turned to Shujinko, a little startled that you had seen him again. “Exist.” You stated simply. “You know…” You began to say as you walked closer to him. “You are not as good as I figured to be. You watch me kill a man?”
Shujinko raised his hands in his defense. “I have no authority of what you do. You also seem…alright. He must’ve done something to you.”
You chuckled at the nativity that was Shujinko. “Do not be so easily fooled of who I am because I show you kindness.” You walked over to him. You grabbed him by the chin and forced him to look at you directly in the eyes. “Remember, I grant you kindness because you have earned my respect.”
Tilting your head, you examined his features. He was a very handsome man. He had long hair to the back of his neck and big brown doe eyes. His lips were actually a little plump and he had soft masculine features on his face.
“And because you are very handsome.”
Shujinko allowed you to touch his face as he was not threatened by you. If you had wanted to kill him, you would’ve by now.
He was a little taken back by your compliment, wondering where it had came from. “A demon calls me handsome?”
“Oh, dear. If I hadn’t grown to like you I would’ve fed on your soul by now.” You let go of his face and laughed slightly at his expression. He showed no reaction to what you had said. “You’re very calm for someone that could kill you in an instant.”
Shujinko watched as you began to circle around him. He kept his eyes on you the entire time. “I am not so convinced you would hurt me.”
“Oh?” You stopped behind his back. Your lips go to his ear and you began to whisper. “Maybe I showed you too much of my kindness.”
“Perhaps you have. But you are not as evil as you make yourself seem.”
You take a step back from him. In reality, it was true. I mean, it was the reason why you were not helping Shao Kahn. It was the reason why you abandoned your father.
You did not partake in their kind of evilness.
You would never admit it though. Especially to the Earthrealmer that stood before you. You decided to change the subject. “How does your quest come along?”
Shujinko noticed your change in topic but decided to play along. “It is…far more difficult than I anticipated.”
“Difficulty? For the Elder God’s champion? I figured it be not.” You teased slightly before stopping in front of him.
Shujinko recognized your teasing. “Oh? Does the great cambion sorcerer have anything to teach me?” He teased back.
“Oh, I might have a couple tricks.” You ran your hands up and down his chest. “You’re very interesting Shujinko. Let’s hope you don’t disappoint me.” You removed your hands from him and started to walk away from him.
Shujinko, again, watched you walk disappointed. “May we meet again?”
You turned around and smiled at him. “You know it.”
Throughout his journey, he was stumbled again when he was greeted by another woman that looked basically human.
Maybe she was also like you, a cambion. But that was quickly disproved because she explained herself to be a demon but she had purged her soul of evil.
Her name was Ashrah and she offered to teach him the ways of her kombat. He agreed.
Once he picked up on all her fighting styles, she congratulated him on a job well done.
Ashrah had just defeated a Tarkatan warrior in front of Shujinko to show him her abilities. “The Tarkatan was not a pure demon but a mutated hybrid of demon and mortal races.” She said.
It made Shujinko ponder to you because technically, you were a hybrid yourself but you appeared very much human like. Maybe it was because you were also a sorcerer.
Ashrah continued to speak. “There was not much to gain from his death. We’re I to defeat the powerful demon (Y/N), however, I would surely ascend from this place much sooner.”
The mention of you caught him off guard. Her? Defeat you?
Not only did he not like the idea as he had grown to like you, but he thought it was foolish. Sure, Ashrah was a powerful demon herself but he had watched you fight that warrior. Not to mention you also claimed to be a powerful sorcerer.
How could she possibly defeat you?
“(Y/N)? The Cambion sorcerer?” He questioned her.
Ashrah went wide eyed when he had known who she was talking about. “You know of her? Where is she?”
“I do not know but I don’t think it is wise to test her.”
“You underestimate me, Earthrealmer. If you shall encounter her again, lead her to me. It is here that I am most powerful.”
Shujinko did not like this but he did not want to argue with Ashrah. “If I see her, I will do as you ask.”
But if he were to do that, he would warn you of Ashrah’s true intentions.
It took Shujinko some time but he had finally found you. He located you by doing small quests for people in order to gain information about your whereabouts.
He walked to the house and knocked on the door. He waited a few moments and the door opened. When he did, he saw your true form.
You were in your demon form. Your whole body was red and and your eyes glowed white. There was something about you that was enticing to him.
Even though you were a demon you still had your feminine beauty.
When you had realized that it was Shujinko, you sighed. “By the gods..” With a snap of your fingers, a gust of green mist appeared and you were in your human form.
Shujinko blinked a little. It stunned him by the sudden transformation. He didn’t see why you would though. Did you think he would treat you differently if he saw the real you?
“How in Netherrealm’s name did you find me?”
“I did small quests in exchange for information.” Shujinko replied simply.
You grabbed Shujinko’s shirt and pulled him inside. You shut the door behind you. “Whomever they are, they will feel my wrath. Why are you standing before me?”
“The demon known as ‘Ashrah’ wants to purge her soul by slaying you.”
When Shujinko had revealed this information to you, you rolled your eyes at the name. “I cannot stand her. She’s always so…infuriating. Does she have a death wish?”
“I should’ve asked…”
“Well where is she? I will deal with her and skin her alive.”
When you went to walk out of the house, Shujinko grabbed onto your arm to stop you. “I do not think that’s a good idea.”
You gave him a look and snatched your arm from him. “You do not think I can do it?”
“Quite the opposite. I do not want you to kill her.”
When he had said that, the statement made you angry. You walked towards him in a fit of rage but Shujinko did not back away. He stood his ground. “You dare protect her?”
“It is not more so protection as it is goal oriented. Killing her as of right now invades my quest.”
Saying that, it clicked for you. You chuckled some and backed away from him. “Wow. I was really wrong about you. You are selfish.”
Shujinko was not pleased to be called such a word. Not at all. “I do what is best to complete my task.”
“Mmhm. So you say.” You told him. “I can give you something that can help you on your…quest.”
Shujinko was ready to hear anything that could help him on his journey. “Anything would help, (Y/N).”
“I can grant you some of my power. It will help you fight off the demons that try to challenge you in the Netherrealm.”
“You would do that? For me?”
“You came to warn me about Ashrah’s doing. I have never met anyone so loyal to me. I will reward you.”
Shujinko was just happy that he was being granted something to help him complete his quest. “What do I have to do to receive this power?”
That’s when you smirked. You stepped closer to him. So close you closed a lot of the distance between the two of you. You stared right into his eyes. “Kiss me.”
Shujinko stood there. He was shocked. He was not expecting that in the slightest. Though he had to admit, he didn’t really mind. “I have a feeling there is actually an other way but you are choosing this one.”
You chuckled. You wrapped your arms around his neck and pulled him down towards you. “Don’t act like you don’t love it.”
Shujinko’s lips meant yours. He was a little taken back at how sweet your lips tasted. I mean, you were a demon.
He cupped the back of your neck with his left hand and continued to kiss you. You started off slow.
The kiss quickly turned heated. When Shujinko realized you weren’t going to pull away anytime soon, he placed his right hand on your waist and pulled you even closer to him.
You deepened the kiss. The kiss started to turn sloppy with your lips entangling with each others. You licked all over his bottom lip and sucked on it.
Shujinko let out a moan into the kiss. He felt your hands tangle in his hair and lightly pull at it, making him let out another moan.
You two kissed for a few more moments before you pulled away. The two of you stared in each others eyes, admiring one’s beauty.
Removing your arms from him, you held out your hand and then made Shujinko hold out his. You concentrated and soon enough, a green glowing light appeared in his hand.
Shujinko smiled a little. “It worked.”
“You doubted me?”
“I was just not convinced a kiss would give me such power.”
You closed his hand up. “You have the minimum of sorcery in you.”
“How long does this last?”
“If I die, which will never happen, the magic will go away.”
You walked away some from him. Shujinko watched as you did so. “You are so keen that you will not fall.”
“I am far too powerful to have any doubts.” You stated. You were walking close to a room but did not go into it. You turned around and smirked at him. “You know, you should stay awhile. I get bored.”
Shujinko knew what you were implying but played along into your innuendos. “And how would I be able to entertain you?”
“Oh I think you know how.” You held out your hand for him to take.
Shujinko was thinking. Even though you showed him an immense amount of kindness given your nature, he knew that deep down, you were still evil.
He did trust you to a certain extent. You giving your power to him only proved that. And he was grateful for it.
He tried to think of what could go wrong if he gave in. What were the consequences that were to come?
Off the top of his head, he couldn’t think of any. And he had to admit, you looked more than enticing as of now.
So, he walked over to you and took your hand.
You kept your smirk and brought him into the room before shutting the door.
A/N : Alr now, I ain’t gonna give y’all a heart attack so I won’t include smut in this. I lowkey wanna make a part 2. Now I’m invested
#mortal kombat#mortal kombat x reader#mortal kombat deception#mk#mk shujinko#shujinko x reader#mk shujinko x reader#mk baraka#quan chi#shao kahn#mk ashrah#liu kang#johnny cage#kung lao#raiden#mileena#kitana#kenshi takahashi#mk 1
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Fratt Week Day 1 - Blood
Pairing: Frank Castle/Matt Murdock Word Count: 2089 Rated T Tags: Canon-Typical Violence, Blood, Not quite actually Fratt yet, More Frank just making some observations
I haven't actively participated in anything fandom or posted any writing in over a year so shout out to @frattweek for giving me the inspiration to actually do something. Even if that something is writing 2k in a day and posting it unedited because it's late and I'm already a day behind 😬
Read on AO3
Frank thought a lot of things about Red.
About The Devil. Daredevil. Murdock. Matt.
All stupid names in Frank’s opinion. Red suited him better.
The Devil was probably the stupidest of all. I didn’t pick it, Frank. Though Daredevil wasn’t much further behind. Again, I didn’t pick it. Murdock was so unfortunate he almost felt bad for little Red, having to deal with that on top of everything else life had heaped onto him. I genuinely can’t tell if you’re just trying to be rude or if you’re actually just racist. Matt was too human. I…Frank, I am human. You know that right?
Frank knew. He just liked, every now and again, to hear Red say it out loud. Maybe to remind Frank, but maybe also a little to make him remind himself.
They didn’t always fight together. They didn’t even frequently fight together, but sometimes things just lined up in a way that Frank refused to classify as either good or bad, and they ended up on the same trail.
It had been the same shit as always, just under a different name. Drug dealers this time. The real deal, not kids trying to be inconspicuous in the alleyways, but the main runners, meeting suppliers at what was supposed to be an empty warehouse. The drugs weren’t the reason Frank nor Red were really after them, but putting a stop to that felt like a bonus.
They’d split up shortly after they’d arrived, Red slipping in through an open window, high enough it hadn’t been considered a priority to guard, while Frank had taken the perimeter, eliminating any threats -with beanbag rounds, Red, don’t be a bitch about it- before they could notice anything was amiss inside.
The bored guards outside hadn’t been an issue, but the armed security just past the bay doors had given Frank a bit of a run for his halfhearted promise to try to use nonlethal force. The problem was, nonlethal was much more difficult and time consuming than simply painting the concrete with brain matter, which meant Frank was slightly behind schedule when he finally made it to the sounds of Red’s fight.
He had intended to be backup, and he didn’t intend on slouching the responsibility. Frank took up his position alongside a wall of half broken crates, the stock of his gun pressed hard to his shoulder just in case anyone seemed about to slip past Red’s defenses, but he doubted he would be needed. Not with the way Red was fighting tonight.
It’s something my dad used to say, Red had told him one night, speaking low and slightly detached, the way he always did whenever he shared something about himself. About his past. There never seemed to be any rhyme or reason to his sudden decision to share. Frank half wondered if he was just talking to himself when he did, forgetting Frank was even there. When he’d go dead eyed in the ring and just turn into a monster as he beat the shit out of the other guy. He called it ‘letting the Devil out’.
Frank had never met Red’s old man, and he knew exactly three facts about him. He was a boxer, Red had loved him more than anything in the world, and if his version of letting the devil out was anything even close to Red’s, he was a fucking force to be reckoned with.
Because Red didn’t act like that devil business was a metaphor. Red was a fucking demon when he fought.
For everything he’d done and everywhere he’d been, Frank knew he’d never seen anything move the way Red fought. He moved like he was created to fight, like everything else he could possibly do with his life was just tossed on at the end like a bonus if he ever got bored of the incredible way the universe had decided to put him together. Every move was coordinated, almost liquid in the way he ducked below punches and arched himself out of the way of kicks.
Everything about him was power and speed, moving in ways Frank knew he hadn’t been able to bend at even in his prime, before delivering hits hard enough that Frank could hear the other guy’s bones snap from across the room. A pipe flew clumsily past Red’s head and he dispatched of its thrower so quickly, Frank wasn’t even sure exactly what he did to get the guy to make that exclamation of pain before he was slumping to the ground in a spray of blood.
A few drops of it hit Red’s chest plate, but the marks were lost among the myriad of streaks already decorating it. The red and black of his stupid devil suit made it hard to tell what was clean and what was filthy with blood, but the entire picture came together to create something so unsettlingly otherworldly that it hardly mattered. Blood streaked across his mask and was running over his chin, either from a lost tooth or a broken nose, or maybe none of it was his at all.
The bandages on his hands were a darker red, the color so thick it looked like they’d been dyed and not just stained. Blood was flecked and splattered across his chest, the wet spots glowing against the matte red and black. It was running down his chin, dripping onto his neck in a way that reminded Frank of an animal after a hunt. If he had turned right then and had taken a bite out of one of the men on the ground, Frank couldn’t say he would have been too terribly surprised.
Red tilted his head in that unnatural way he had, assessing the last man lying prone at his feet, or maybe the room as a whole. His shoulders were still hunched, fists curled at his sides as he remained locked in fight mode, his body clearly uncertain how to proceed without something else in front of him to punch. His lips curled back in what might have been a grin or a snarl or maybe just an animal reaction to the adrenaline still coursing through him.
Frank, for all his flaws, was 100% human. There was no mutation, no alien DNA or secret government experiment gone wrong. Just normal government black ops shit that went sideways and a stupid jarhead they’d tried to make a patsy. Just a human man with a short fuse and the memory of his daughter’s limp weight in his hands and nothing left to lose.
Red was a different story.
This was why he couldn’t call Red Matt. Matt - Matthew- was a human name. A normal name for a normal man, and Frank for all of his eye rolling at Red’s choir boy bullshit, didn’t think he would ever fully be convinced that Red was human.
Frank could see it in the way he moved, the way he slipped when he stopped talking. When he stopped trying to force himself down into that tiny box whose walls were made of religion and society and legality. When he let the devil out and went out hunting for blood.
He’d never tell him, had to keep the thought down low, but Frank thought he understood why Red didn’t kill. Not because God told him it was wrong, and not because of the law or whatever other bullshit Red liked to tell whoever had to listen to him talk about it. No, Red didn’t kill because of that animal thing inside of him.
He didn’t kill, because Frank was almost positive Red might like the feeling a little too much.
Red didn’t kill, because he wasn’t sure he’d be able to stop.
It had to have only been seconds, not more than a brief pause in the chaos of the night, but Frank felt time slow down for the first time in a while as he stared at Red’s form in the half light, his chest rising and falling with the effort to breathe through the fight he’d just finished.
In those brief seconds Frank thought of the leopard he’d once seen while on tour, dragging a carcass up a tree. Thought of the way its fur had shown in the sunlight and the blood had marred those distinctive spots. He thought of the sound his old man’s GTO had made when it started up, that deep vibration that echoed in his chest. He thought of the glint of moonlight on his Ka-Bar, the kick back of his gun against his muscle, of the look Maria gave him over her shoulder the first night they spent together.
The last one kicked him back into reality, and he cleared his throat, spitting the taste of copper out of his mouth before he lowered his gun. Red’s head jerked the other way, a dog picking up a scent, as Frank finally approached.
He could forgive himself for the mix up of his thoughts, blaming it easily on the adrenaline and the scent of blood in the air.
He thought of that leopard again, of the way its muscles had moved beneath its fur as it had dragged its prey up that tree. Of Red’s fist slamming into the jaw of an idiot who didn’t know when to get out of the way. With a silent prayer of an apology to Maria, he begged her to understand - it was hard to see a predator move the way they did and not think it was a thing of beauty.
Frank had meant to grab Red’s arm, try and jerk him out of whatever blood fueled stupor he’d lost himself in, but his hand landed instead on the side of Red’s face, thumb pushing hard against his jaw as it swept through the blood not yet dried against his stubble. If Frank still felt fear as strongly as he used to, he might have been worried about getting bit.
“Easy there, Alter Boy, they’re down for the count.”
Red exhaled low and long, and Frank watched the struggle happen. Watched as Red tried to fight back that inhuman part of himself to resemble something decent. He made a sound almost like a huff - like he knew he should be annoyed with Frank but was going through the motions just because he thought he should. He didn’t pull away from Frank’s hand.
The idea of Red, of this wild cat in the shape of a man, tucked into a suit and tie and handing over legal documents at the courthouse and calling a judge ‘your honor’ was almost a joke.
“Not for long,” Red finally managed, his voice low and thick. “We need to get going.” He titled his head in a way that if Frank wasn’t careful, he might have said seemed like he was pushing further into Frank’s touch.
Frank thought of the heavy weight of a knife in his hand and the smell of gunpowder. He tried not to think of Maria’s skin beneath his fingers as he dropped his hand to Red’s shoulder.
Red was still tense, still poised to pounce at the slightest provocation. There was a hum beneath his skin, stronger than blood but not quite animal enough to call a growl. It burned beneath Frank’s fingertips, under muscle and blood and bone and leather. He squeezed once before he let go, but knocked their shoulders together as he turned.
“Then let’s get fucking going.’
Red gave a sharp incline of his head instead of a nod. He leaned away and spat a spray of blood, some of it flecking across the face of another man on the ground. The blood was bright red, a superficial wound in Red’s mouth, nothing to distract Frank from the blood still humming too fast through his own veins.
With a swipe of the back of his sleeve, Red halfheartedly cleaned his mouth before straightening back up. When he turned back to Frank, the pull of his lips couldn’t have been anything other than a grin, wide and vicious and sliding straight through Frank’s chest.
“Let’s get fucking going,” he echoed back, voice low and too excited for the amount of blood still smeared across his pale skin. His footsteps were almost silent as he led the way back out.
Frank slung his gun back into position, finger on the trigger and stock his shoulder, focusing on the weight in his hands, and not the sound of echo of Maria’s soft sigh against his ear.
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Gonna finish off this series with episode 8 and then go binge watch Bluey while I paint my walls today
Alastor distorting video feeds like a cryptid that can't be captured on camera is one of the most interesting things about him tbh
I still really, realllly feel like an all-out war with Heaven should be like, a giant show finale and not the end to the first season. Where do we go from here?? We already know God doesn't exist in this universe, so what other lore is even left to be explored?
Once again Charlie giving some big heartfelt speech really doesn't feel earned when we've barely spent any time with these characters
Hate to keep beating a dead horse here but Alastor when did you start caring about the hotel and its residents
He's a good dad to Nifty though, 10/10
"You have always been a worthy opponent" Pentious we didn't see you fight Cherri Bomb once in the show
Oh fuck off this More Than Anything reprise is really good
THEY FINALLY KISSED FUCKING HELL
And ofc they had to immediately follow it up with Adam lmao. Not even Alex Brightman can save this character
"That's how they can kill us? With our OWN weapons?" HOW DID YOU NOT KNOW THIS. WHY WAS THIS TREATED LIKE SOME BIG MYSTERY.
It's so fucking wild to me that we're seeing angels get slaughtered by the dozens and yet we're expected to believe no other demons have ever fought back against them until now??
FUCK HIM UP ALASTOR- WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY VOX???
Al's voice in this part??? Hello????????
Charlie why are you apologizing to the angels who are literally trying to slaughter your friends and family
jfc why did those two kiss, how does this show have zero idea how to write romance
oh he's fucking dead lmao
DAMN RAZZLE AND DAZZLE BEING BIG DRAGON BOYS, I'm GAME though Charlie why didn't you do this at the start on the battle
SHIT NO DON'T HURT THE DREG BOYS
FUCK HIM UP CHARLIE.
Vaggie should've taken Lute's eye tbh
Oh yeah you'd think Lucifer would've been here sooner considering the angels are attacking his kingdom but here we are
Honestly I think Charlie should've been the one to defeat Adam. He was fucking awful to her from the start.
NIFTY GOT HIM LMAOOOOOO
Lute why do you care about Adam?? He was awful to you too???
Also what happened to Alastor?? Is he good??
Also kind of wild we're dedicating an entire song to Pentious but his actual death was played off like a joke
Ohh fuck we're gonna demonize Lilith for being a less-than-perfect parent but completely ignore Lucifer doing the same thing aren't we. This happened in Helluva Boss and I can see it happening again
I love how literally no one gives a shit that Alastor's gone lmao
Oh wait there he is
Ooh so he definitely made a deal with someone, very interesting
HE'S AN ANGEL OH MY GOD
Also Lilith??? Is in Heaven???? What??????
Honestly nothing I can say hasn't already been said about this show and finale. Kinda stupid Al literally got hit once and then just fucking dipped until the end, like good job man way to show you cared. BUT ITS OVER AND I'M FREE. I'm gonna go paint my walls and sew some stuff
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Ya I don’t feel all that bad for naomi 🫢 like you said, what did she expect going into a relationship with a guy who broke up with his baby mama a week ago like that situation is just ripe for drama. Also the way she passively let y/n be trampled on by satoru and his demon of a mother. Just going with the flow and smiling pretty when they did the family portrait and holding Yui as if she was hers (like why did she have to hold her? Did satoru lose function of both arms at the time or?). I know some of y’all wanna make excuses for her that satoru enabled her by not putting a stop to it and whatnot but that’s a grown ass woman. She is a grown ass full on adult woman, and you’re telling me that without satoru holding her hand and explaining to her about boundaries and having empathy and treating someone with basic respect, she wouldn’t know how to act?? Come on lmao let’s not be silly now
If she doesn’t know how to act in situations like that, how is she coping with the intricacies of social interaction in her day to day life, at work etc? I’m not buying her whole “I didn’t know I was doing anything wrong” act, therefore the only other explanation is that she knows her actions were out of line and she did them anyway cause she’s an asshole who thought her behaviour could go unchecked because at the time she was favoured by satoru and his mother lol it’s gonna be a bitter pill to swallow when she finds out satoru doesn’t love her and in fact loves y/n
Also we thought miss girly in permanent mark was innocent at first too but she turned out to be a snake in the end so I wouldn’t be surprised if Naomi turns out similar (I agree with the anon that said she’s giving off baby trapping vibes). I think she enjoys the attention and privileges and prestige that comes with dating the Gojo Satoru too much to go down easily. I wouldn’t at all be surprised if satoru’s mother tries to get her to do something shady when they have their meeting. She’ll probably try and paint y/n in a bad light and say she’s seducing satoru or some shit (Which is so dumb cause it truly seems like she thinks satoru has no autonomy of his own like? He’s a grown man but alright go off) Knowing Naomi’s ass, once their plan backfires and satoru becomes aware of their ugly personalities, she’ll say she was only doing what his mom told her to do and she had no idea that she was doing anything bad 👉👈
Speaking of I hope Satoru gets wind that his mother actually physically assaulted y/n because it didn’t seem like he knew in the last chapter when he woke up and interrupted their fight. I feel like he would’ve had an angrier reaction than just pleading with his mom to leave them alone. Yeah that woman is literally the worst. All that money to her name but no class 🙃
ooh, that family picture, i got a little more story about it. i mentioned in part 5 that naomi liked to think about satoru and yui as her own family. even before they became official, it just crossed her mind but it's more of like just her imagining having a family of her own. and when that picture taking stuff happened, they were just starting their relationship that time and that's when she really felt like they were a family, especially with the fact that satoru's mom favors her and thinks she's the better woman for her son :'')) it was a painful memory to yn bc she had to stand there and watch them :(( but anw u got a lot of things right, like his mother badmouthing yn, and trying to get her to do something shady😭 the slap was explained, he saw it when he moved her to bed and fought w his mom abt it. and the only reason satoru couldn't react more then, was bc yui was there :((
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There’s definitely some stuff pre Miranda in terms of pagan imagery, no? Between the ancient Kings with clawed hands and feet protecting the “holy grail,” or the Lord of the Castle creating a dagger to slay demons, or goats and goddesses and so forth — I wonder, why Miranda didn’t necessarily get rid of it all. And on top of that, there’s a lot of Christin art in the ruins from the ceremony site to the alter. The stronghold was once occupied by non “heathens,” so — the history feels rich here.
Well, firstly, calling everything pre-Miranda 'pagan' is simplifying a lot. Here's some of what you can find around the village which presumably pre-dates her:
The statues of the four founders, which are referenced in a diary which seems to be centuries old (They don't have clawed hands in the game, though I guess they have kinda weird nails in some of the concept art? Is that what you're referring to?) We don't know if they worshiped the megamycete, or whether they perhaps even claimed the 'grail'/Giant's Chalice was a legit Christian artifact, so 'pagan' isn't really accurate.
Images of Orthodox Christian saints painted on the walls of the village church and other locations, implying the building was repurposed by Miranda for her cult.
The statue and relief of the Maiden of War protecting the village from a demon with her goat's head shield, and a recurring motif of goat heads or goat sacrifices for protection.
The dagger has no obvious spiritual motif, and probably doesn't even come from the village (poisons on it supposedly come from "across the continent"), so not much to say on that one.
"The stronghold was once occupied by non “heathens,”
The term actually used is 'heretics', not that it makes a lot of difference. But given what part of Europe we're in, 'heretics' could well be a reference to the Ottoman empire ‒ or heck, maybe even just some other Christian sect to whoever's defending it. The letter exists to contextualise the existence of the stronghold (past battles fought in the region), and to emphasise the age of the statues (though it's undated, so all we really know is 'they're old'). I wouldn't take it as necessarily significant of much more than that.
"I wonder, why Miranda didn’t necessarily get rid of it all"
So, here we get to the real crux of the question! But really, why bother? None of that history threatened Miranda, and plenty of it enhanced her own image. Being able to claim her four lords were descended from ancient founders with those enormous statues could only boost her authority. Images of Miranda from around the village are thick with appropriated catholic or orthodox imagery too. And why discourage a tradition of goat sacrifices if people could just sacrifice goats directly to her? You don't have to rebuild everything from scratch.
Savvy religions do this sort of thing all the time. It's not unheard of for newly Christianised regions to turn local culture heroes into saints, recast fairies as fallen angels who tithe to hell, and add a layer of religious overtones to older seasonal festivals like Christmas and Easter. It creates the illusion that your new religion has been part of the landscape since long before it actually arrived, and saves on disillusioning locals who don't want to give up old traditions.
Obviously, there are also plenty of histories and cultures which have been lost under the spread of Christianity (or Islam, or whoever else has just moved in and reclassified whatever it doesn't like as pagan heresy). But not all conquerors bother, and even major religions can be remarkably pragmatic when it suits their purposes (and I'm sure plenty of individual locals will do likewise, when they want an excuse to carry on like they always have). Heck, half the real-world cults out there today start with someone sharing their weird bible fanfiction. Try and build it all from scratch, and you'll just alienate people.
As for RE8 specifically, well, it's pretty safe to say that any village which has gone merrily on treating goats' heads as a protective symbol well into its Christian era is not going to be an village that's keen to throw out all its old traditions overnight. Why build a new church when you can just retrofit the one you've got?
Maybe some of this history dates back to when there was supposed to be a whole section of the game set in the past. Other elements were clearly there in concept work from long before Mother Miranda became the centre of the cult. There's guaranteed to be a wealth of other unused material written to flesh out the village and its history that we never got to see.
Now, as I said in my post on the goats, I don't know how many of these beautifully-formed sedimentary layers of religious history were laid down by the writers deliberately, or how much was simply an artifact of a complicated development history, but I love it anyway. Real European history from places like the village is frequently every bit as layered as this, and then some.
Miranda's cult may have been around for a century, but that's nothing in historical terms. Before that, the village was presumably Orthodox Christian. But the mould had clearly left its mark on the landscape since long before Miranda's day, and the giant's chalice attests to something much, much older. The note from the stronghold suggests those statues were ancient even in medieval times.
Was the demon pictured on the maiden relief a mould-empowered monster? Was the goat's head pictured on her shield the origin of the protective goat's head superstition, or merely a reflection of it? Who knows ‒ even the writers may not have had specific answers in mind - but you can imagine you see remnants of these pre-existing eras and superstitions still reflected in Miranda's cult in the present, and that creates something that feels genuinely organic to me in a very satisfying way.
There is a wealth of material hinted at here that could easily form the basis of RE9, but I have no idea whether Capcom means to do that. What matters is that what's already in RE8 works on its own merits, even absent hypothetical further lore dumps from future installments.
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So I was rereading some of your old posts bc u have the Best loz takes and you mentioned theorizing the fierce deity is the first hero and as a certified first hero stan I NEED to know more abt this!!! Can you go more into depth?
Oh dear mutual oh my dear friend- I have SO MANY thoughts about how the fierce deity may be the first hero, let me walk you down my whole thought process as I'm wholly so unwell over the very concept of the fierce deity.
First of all, this whole idea came to my brain during my majora's mask playthrough and I really enjoyed how it was such an interesting parallel to hyrule. With... the exception of two very important things, Ganondorf and Zelda, power and wisdom, the two things that seem to consume every single bit of hyrulean history no matter the time period. Another thing that's interesting is that they're are far fewer instances of the triforce in termina compared to hyrule and if you prefer the 3ds remake- which I played- over the n64, the triforces that were on the statues were removed.
That means it's definitely hinted that termina doesn't have a triforce or at least it's so far ago in the past and its people have little to no attachment to it. There's no princess, there's no demon king, there's no triforce! But the one thing that it does have that hyrule does not is actual evidence of the hero, the fierce deity mask.
One thing that's always stumped me about the greater loz timeline or just all of the various games- there's little to no... influence of the heroes spirit, or courage, whichever you like to refer all of the Link's under. Ganondorf and Zelda can exist on their own without relying on the other's existence, but Link can't! At most the only real things we see that carry Link through history is faded legends of a hero, but that's it. The hero holds no presence in the minds of the people of hyrule, they simply appear and disappear when disaster calls for them.
But, as I mentioned, termina is the sole exception to this as the fierce deity mask exists and it holds Link's exact visage. Hylia is painted in Zelda's features, Demise is painted in Ganondorf's features, so what does that make the fierce deity?
Another interesting fact to me is that nothing relating to the hero exists in skyward sword, so that must mean that whatever the fierce deity is- they must've existed beforehand. Also, we really don't have any idea for just how old termina is, but if you see them as being a direct mirror to hyrule then it makes sense that they've been around just as long.
So here's my idea: the fierce deity must've existed before even skyward sword, meaning that they likely existed around the time of Hylia's and Demise's first initial battle that brought hylians to the sky. But at the same time, the fierce deity had to be gone from memory by the time of skyward sword.
Which leads to another idea of mine: why is termina hidden away? Virtually no one is ever going to stumble across it, the only reason Time did was because he was literally dragged by skull kid. The portal is hidden deep inside the lost forest at the bottom of a hole that none with rational sense would ever think about going down. One of my first thoughts during my playthrough was that it seemed to be on purpose, to hide its very existence away.
Its said that the goddesses created termina, but did they covet that land as they did hyrule? Did they give it the same blessings and care as it did to the land that Hylia and Demise reigned over? I would say not as the goddesses have seemingly abandoned it and so has its people, the goddesses and triforce have no power there.
All of this leads to my final conclusion: the fierce deity is the first hero and perhaps either fought by Hylia's side during the war against Demise, or the fierce deity was the very thing who dealt the killing blow to Demise.
But here's the thing that really interests me about the fierce deity, its in his very name. Demise, Ganondorf, the Demon King... he's commonly seen as one of the strongest entities in the entirety of hyrule, so much so that his visage and tales of his strength carry through all of history. Despite all that, he only carries the title of king? Which makes the fierce deity even stranger in comparison because what is stronger, more intimidating, so much so that the very name of a god- is in his name?
Wouldn't you think such a grand title would undoubtedly carry some kind of weight in the greater sense of hyrules history? But it doesn't, which leads me to my next thought.
The fierce deity was purposely taken to termina, whether it was willingly or not is up to you but I personally think it wasn't. All of that power was sealed into a mask and then that mask was trapped in a world that was hidden away from the rest of all the worlds and dimensions. What does it mean that Time comes across a mask that looks just like him and holds such immense power? A power that rivals darkness itself but not with light, just the willingness to meet that darkness with its own.
The fierce deity in my mind is... powerful, the first hero ever to exist and his strength reflects that. Someone who was able to go toe to toe with Demise at his strongest and win, not only that, but to prove his strength as a god even over Demise. This is me saying that the fierce deity and the first hero are one and the same!
Also why the fierce deity was trapped inside termina is genuinely up to interpretation. Maybe the goddesses and Hylia both became fearful of his power, maybe the people themselves became scared of him, maybe he was trapped. Who knows! That's the beauty of creativity you can truly do whatever you please lol.
But yeah here's my incredibly elaborate, detailed headcanon that the fierce deity has way more worldbuilding than what's shown and is actually the first ever wielder of courage. I also have a whole headcanon that only the Link's can wear the fierce deity mask but that's a WHOLE other meta in of itself lmao
#thebleedingeffect talks#can you tell I'm not well over the first hero and the fierce deity <3333#echo talks loz
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Canon Jiang Cheng (a bullet point timeline)
This is every instance I could gather where JC is in the novel. I made this around 2 years ago, because I felt like I was being lied to by the fandom about JC's actions, so I decided to create a linear timeline so as to help myself. This contains every instance that JC appears, with the chapter numbers (ExR translation), and all the times he did things, whether good or bad.
It was mostly created to help me understand what I actually thought of JC's character, and how I interpreted him. You guys can check it out, and cross check with the actual novel, lol. Under a read more bc it's Long As Hell
Random Backstories
Chapter 16
How Suibian was named
Chapter 18
JFM picked wwx off the streets, where wwx grew with his fear of dogs
Jc laughed at him for this
Chapter 29
No one ever told wwx about his parents. JFM did not bother, Madame Yu did not talk to him unless she was whipping him, and telling him to stay away from JC
Chapter 25
jfm found him in the streets, JC had dogs, JC was forced to send his dogs away, but once they got closer, jc would protect him from dogs
Chapter 32
Wwx would shoot kites with JC. JC was always second to him
Their kite was made by JFM and painted by jyl
Chapter 35
Jc smashed a bowl and cursed when wwx cooked
Chapter 47
JFM has said wwx's handwriting was careless yet poised
Chapter 71
extension on how angry jc was about the dogs in his youth. He's jealous that jfm hugged wwx
He rejects when wwx calls him shidi. Interesting to note that WWX never calls him shidi, again
Cloud Recesses
Chapter 13
JC talks to wwx, seemingly blaming him for the way he fought with lwj, however, he was completely fine with wwx breaking rules, and even demanded the emperor's smile that WWX broke the rules to get
He was also very amused by wwx's antics, and told him, "good luck" when LWJ came towards him
Chapter 14
JC criticizes WWX for discussing the theoretical possibility of demonic cultivation
He informs him that LQR has punished him
He says that both LWJ and his uncle hate him now
Nie huaisang does WWX's punishment, and wwx cheats for him, and is punished once more. JC informs him of that as well
Lqr sends a letter to JFM, and JFM replies saying that wwx has always been like that, and to take care to discipline him.
Chapter 15
Wwx gives lwj porn. JC is mad about this because WWX has brought shame to the clan
Chapter 16
JC and WWX finagle their way into a nighthunt, and then they drink in caiyi town
JC gets jealous of wwx talking to lwj
Chapter 17
JC gets mad at wwx flirting with lwj
He laughs when he gets the loquat, guessing that wwx has been flirting again
Chapter 18
Sleepover in wwx and jc's room
Wwx and jc often have fights
Lwj comes in the morning to punish him, and wwx explains the situation to jc
Wwx is punished, and jc carries him on his back out of his own volition
Jc remembers that he encouraged wwx to break the rules, so does not pin the blame entirely on wwx when lxc asks him what is going on
Jc has no idea what the severity of wwx's injuries are
Jc tells wwx to stop focusing on lwj
The jzx thing happens
Wwx throws the punch, getting jyl's betrothal cancelled
Jc tells wwx off for losing face for jyl, and then admits he would have done the same if wwx hadn't
Wwx mentions that if jc had been the one fighting, maybe jfm would not have come
Jc feels hurt about this
He tells wwx to go back to yunmeng, bc he does not like that lwj keeps following him around (interesting, bc this is the reason WWX left, while fanon holds that he left because he was kicked out)
Yunmeng Before Qishan Wen Competition
Chapter 51
JC is established as a mama's boy
Jiang cheng and wwx are having an archery competition with the kites. Wwx wins
Madame Yu's maids get mad
Madame Yu criticizes JC for fooling around, then blames wwx for his bad influence
Wwx defends himself. Jc tells him not to provoke her
Qishan wen competition is revealed
Everyone agrees that qsw is shameless
Jyl gives food to wwx, and Madame Yu gets mad
Jc tells Madame Yu that he'll go and not to be mad. Madame Yu then tells jyl to stop acting like a maid
She gets mad that wwx has any choice in the matter, and that jfm won't force him to go
Madame Yu gets mad at jc for defending wwx
Jc tells wwx not to stir up trouble at the competition multiple times
Jc holds wwx down when wc comes, warning him not to get into trouble
Jc warns wwx abt wen zhuliu
Jyl had given them snacks
They see lwj, and jc tells him not to pay attention to him
QishanWen/Xuanwu arc
Chapter 45
Qsw competition
JC tells wwx that LWJ hates him, and is once again jealous of how wwx pays attention to lwj. He gets mad because he told wwx not to mess with lwj
Chapter 52
Jiang cheng rolls his eyes when wwx flirts with mianmian
Wwx asks to carry lwj, lwj refuses, jc gets mad that he pays so much attention to lwj
He tells wwx that lwj hates him again
They go into the xuanwu cave. Wang Liangjiao threatens mianmian, jc holds wwx down. Lwj and jzx defend mianmian
Wwx gets free of jc and argues with wen chao
Xuanwu awakens
Chapter 53
Jc calls wen chao an idiot
Jc fights wen zhuliu
Wen clan retreats entirely
Wwx jokes about jc eating his flesh, jc finds it annoying
Jc carries him and tells him to to shut up
Wwx tells jc to let him go
Lwj finds the escape route
Jc leads everyone to safety, except lwj and wwx who get stuck
Chapter 54
Wwx feels insecure and asks if he's as annoying as jc says he is
According to wwx, jc will take some time to get back
Chapter 55
They have to wait for jc to rescue them, and wwx gets impatient
Post Xuanwu Lotus Pier/ takeover of lotus pier
Chapter 56
Wwx is rescued
Jyl makes soup
Jc is angry that wwx fought
Jfm congratulates wwx for killing the xuanwu
Jc gets angry, and says that wwx deserved to die there
Jfm tells him that that isn't appropriate
Madame yu gets mad, and says that jc will never be able to beat wwx in jfm's mind
Madame Yu blames wwx for what happened, says that wen chao would not have hurt lan wangji and jin zixuan
Jc becomes sad, and plays victim about how no one gives him the credit he deserves
Wwx promises him that they'll be together forever
Jc is more similar to madame yu and they both do not have the jiang sect outlook to life
JC says that he doesn’t need to follow the Jiang Sect values to be a leader, citing Lan Yi as an example of a sect leader who did not
Jc asks if wwx actually likes mianmian, and that she isn't worthy of him bc she's a servant's daughter
Wwx says that then they would match well, since he is a servant's son
Chapter 57
Lan wangji goes back to his sect without help, and JC is pleased about that
JC and WWX agree that the wens are gross
Wwx is bored with playing kites
The wens have taken their swords
The youngest shidi is missing, and jc is worried
Wang lingjiao arrives
Jc is contemptuous of her
Wlj gives insane justifications for taking the youngest shidi away
Jc is angry
Wlj tells Madame Yu to punish wwx, and Madame Yu does
Jc is annoyed
Wwx tells jc not to worry
Wlj tells Madame Yu that a whipping isn't enough and that she must cut off wwx's hand. Wwx is okay with this, but JC gets very distressed
There is no hand cutting, but jc helps wwx
Chapter 58
Takeover of lotus pier
Madame Yu gives jc zidian. She tells wwx that she hates him and brought this to lotus pier
Madame Yu tells wwx to protect jc with his life
Jfm comes back
He tells wwx to look after jc
Jc is upset
They see wen ning
Chapter 59
Wen chao and wang lingjiao have a romantic moment, and everyone is disgusted
Wwx tells jc not to go back to lotus pier, and jc gets mad
Jc pins wwx to the ground, asks him why he had to save lwj, and tells wwx to die
Jc cries and is catatonic
They decide to go to meishan yu
Jc goes back to lotus pier
Wwx meets with wen ning, who saves jc, and gets back the bodies of jfm and Madame Yu
Chapter 60
Wn takes them to wq's office
Jc has lost his core, and he's angry at being in wn's superwisory office
He tries to choke wwx when he discovers this
Jc wants to die so he can turn into a ferocious ghost. Wwx tells hims that that isn't possible because of all the soul calming done on him since birth
Wwx says he knows baoshan sanren who can help jc get his core back
Wwx says that this core would be for him, and not to reveal his identity
They go to a remote mountain, and jc has the golden core transfer surgery
Wwx gets captured and pushed into the burial mounds
WWX becomes demonic cultivator/sunshot campaign
Chapter 61
Jc has been looking for wwx for three months. He meets with lwj
Chapter 62
JC and wwx meet again when wwx tortures wen chao
He is very happy to see wwx, and excited about demonic cultivation
Wwx does not tell him he had been in the burial mounds
LWJ asks wwx to come back to gusu, but JC says no, and says that wwx is of the jiang sect, and that lwj has no right over him
Jc is happy abt wwx killing wc and other wens
Chapter 48
During sunshot campaign
Everyone celebrates wwx's actions in the sunshot campaign except lwj. Jiang Cheng is especially vocal about his support
Chapter 69
jyl cooked soup, and the jzx misunderstanding happened
Post Sunshot campaign
Chapter 49
After the sunshot campaign
WWX tells JC that NMJ is taller than him. JC asks him if he wants to die
JZX asks JC about JYL, WWX gets mad at him, and tells JC that he doesn't want to see JZX's face
JC is polite and says that JYL has been well
WWX leaves, and JC says that he is always rude
Chapter 69
Phoenix mountain
Jc tells lwj not to pay attention to wwx who is flirting with lwj again
He shouts at wwx for throwing flowers at lwj, and asks if he's a girl
Wwx jokes about throwing flowers for jc, and jc tells him to get lost
Jc and wwx make fun of jzx
Wwx decides to blindfold himself, and jc tells him to take it easy, and to back down when it's enough
Jzx flirts with jyl
Jyl is not responsive and jzx gets mad at her
Wwx tries to take her away, and JZXun stops him
JZXun is offended wwx doesn't remember him
JZXun calls wwx presumptuous and a servant's son.
Chapter 70
Wwx tries to defend himself, JYL tells him to be quiet and diplomatically defends him, calling him her brother
Madame jin is embarrassed and JZX then confesses to JYL
Sect leader yao tells JC that wwx is "quite a character"
Everyone is angry and jealous abt wwx taking one third of the prey. Good to remember that Nie Mingjue did the same.
They talk about staying away from the jiang sect and not going to night hunts with them
They say that yunmengjiang grew in fame only because of WWX, and JC feels a darkening in his heart at that
Chapter 71
Lwj asks wwx to go to gusu lan with him again, but this time, he is more diplomatic, and wwx is not actually offended. They get along well
Jc tells wwx not to hang out with lwj anymore, and tells him to carry his sword with him
He says that JGY is only good enough to greet the guests, nothing more
Wwx asks jc if he wants jyl and jc together. WWX does not, but jc is happy about this match
Wwx asks jyl for comfort. She gives it to him and spoils him
Jyl makes soup, and jc and wwx bond. JC eats all the meat, and WWX doesn't get any
Wwx finds wq
Chapter 72
Wwx calls out the lanlingjin sect
Jgs tells him not to be so presumptuous just because JC isn't there
Lwj tries to calm him down
Wwx frees the wen prisoners
Burial Mounds with Wen Remnants arc
Chapter 73
Crisis in the cultivation world, everyone has a meeting
JC offers to compensate the Jins
He says that they owe wen ning and wen qing
Nmj says wq never stopped the violence wrh wrought
Jc does not disagree with him
Jgs warns jc about wwx getting too big for his boots
He tells him that wwx said he did not care about jc
Lwj stands up for wwx, says that he never said that
Jgy stands up for jgs, and jc believes jgs
Mianmian defends wwx, and leaves her sect. Lwj talks to her, they part happily
Jgs talks about how wwx has been plotting to go to burial mounds
Jc says that wwx is just like that
Jgs says he's like that because jfm spoiled him
Jc then agrees to deal with wwx
They meet at burial mounds
Wwx doesn't intend to leave LP
JC sees that the prisoners are the old, the weak, and the young
Jc tries to get rid of wn's corpse. Wwx stops him. Jc tells wwx that he's too ambitious
Jc is angry, but wwx says that if jc cannot protect him, then he will leave the ymj sect, and cut all ties
Jiang cheng then says that wwx is unaffiliated with him and an enemy to the entire cultivation world
Chapter 74
Wwx has not heard anything from the outside since he and jc fell out. He heards of jyl's marriage from lwj
He makes excuses for jc
Chapter 75
JC brings JYL to meet with WWX
JYL is dressed up in her wedding clothes and brings soup for wwx
Wwx names JL
Chapter 76
Qiongqi path
Wwx is invited to the baby shower, and buys jl a gift
Jin zixuan dies
Chapter 77
Wq and wn decide to sacrifice themselves, and wwx is angry
Jyl is upset
Chapter 78
Nightless city
Wwx kills many cultivators, everyone is toasting to their bravery, jc says nothing
Jyl gets injured, jc tells wwx to make the corpse go away
Someone tries to shoot jyl, and she defends wwx and dies
A random dude accuses wwx of causing the death of jfm and Madame Yu
post wwx resurrection
prologue
siege of burial mounds, no one knows exactly how wwx died, but it was confirmed that JC was a major force and led the siege. This is a political fact
chapter 7
We meet JC. He is cheating to make sure Jin Ling wins. LWJ destroys the nets he used to trap random cultivators
Anger issues come out, when JC strokes his ring, he has the intent to kill. This is also obviously not from wwx POV, but from omniscient third person pov
chapter 8
jiang cheng decides not to fight lwj because he isn't sure if he'd win. Also in omniscient third person POV
Chapter 10
WWX summons WN, JC thinks he is WWX
With Zidian, any rational person would assume that he's wrong, but he doesn't
He thinks about taking wwx back to torture him. It is clearly his thoughts that are shown as he talks about having done something like this before
He and lsz discuss about WWX's importance. LWJ takes WWX back to CR
Wwx calls JC competitive, but his strategy works exactly because he's right abt JC
Chapter 11
Jingyi gossips about Jiang Cheng, and his torturous ways
Chapter 23
Jiang Cheng and Jin ling are there.
They both have an inability to be nice
JC sees wwx, captures him, and the YMJ disciples pay off a shop owner, who looks extremely scared
YMJ disciples all form a barricade around the shop
Jin Ling finds the expression on JC's face scary
Chapter 24
JC borrows JL's spiritual dog to help torture wwx
He asks wwx if he has anything to say to him
Wwx says he doesn't
He says wwx "never learns"
Wwx says that jc hasn't made any progress
Jc sets the dog on wwx, and wwx calls out lwj's name. This makes jc mad
Jc says some homophobic things abt LWJ
Wwx tells him to watch his language
Jc tells wwx that he didn't watch his language with jin ling
Jin Ling saves wwx, and wwx apologizes to him for saying that he didn't have a mother to raise him
Chapter 25
Wwx was hit by zidian, and his leg was numb. He didn't notice until lwj pointed it out. He says it was a good thing Jiang Cheng didn't kill him
Chapter 32
Kids playing cultivator talk about how JC led the siege that led to wwx’s death
Chapter 35
Jl is afraid jc would really break his legs for letting wwx go
Chapter 36
Wwx tells JL not to imitate his uncle by participating in his shenanigans and criticizing him
Chapter 38
Wwx tells jl to take out ymj's clarity bell
Chapter 43
JL tells everyone abt how WWX betrayed the jiangs, and how jc is the only one left. He says that Madame Yu wasn't "that horrible to him"
WN has heard of how JC led a siege and killed wwx
Chapter 45
Jiang Cheng never told anyone WWX was afraid of dogs, and if he had, no one would believe him
Chapter 47
Discussion at carp tower, jc asks lwj why he has taken a sudden interest in sect meetings despite not being interested before
JL is too afraid to meet jc without jgy
Jgy defends jl
JL says his appetite has been bad, but jc gets mad and says that he looks very healthy
Wwx says that jc can't teach kids
Chapter 50
Jc asks zewu jun what is happening after jgy kills his wife
Jgy confirms that mxy is wwx
Jgy explains why mxy wasn't caught by zidian
Chapter 65
Jgy says wwx betrayed ymj
Chapter 66
Wwx roasts jc's naming style
Chapter 68
Juniors are captured in burial mounds, and saved by the cultivators
Jl is afraid of jc, but jc threatens him
Jiang cheng is surrounded by the cultivators who hate wwx, and they ally with him
Chapter 79
Jc threatens jl because he's not injured for getting into trouble
Everyone loses their powers
Chapter 80
Jc says that they're not stupid enough to not notice problems
Chapter 81
Jc gives zidian to jl when only juniors have powers
Jc is mad at wn
Jc threatens jl again
Chapter 82
Jc tells jl that if he goes with wwx, then not to call him uncle anymore
Jc laughs when someone accuses wwx again
Chapter 83
Jc lets wwx come back to lotus pier, even though he's disgusted
Chapter 84
Jc is mad bc jl is crying
He threatens ouyang zizhen
He talks to the guards
Chapter 85
Jc lets the prostitutes talk
Chapter 86
Jc calls wwx mannerless for roaming around LP with LWJ
Chapter 87
LP Ancestral hall
JC gets mad, more about wwx bringing lwj to the hall than about him
He accuses lwj for the takeover of lotus pier
Chapter 88
JC fights with wwx
Golden core reveal happens
Chapter 89
More core reveal
Chapter 90
Lwj is mad, wwx makes excuses for jc again
Chapter 92
Wwx and lwj talk to the locals, who are too afraid of jc to go to the jiang sect for help
Chapter 99
Jiang cheng is angry and confused
Chapter 101
JGY tells wwx that jc doesn't care about him. WWX takes this casually, but JC gets very upset.
JGY tells JC that he is so strong only because he has wwx's core
Chapter 102
Wwx is upset that JC knows
JC is upset that WWX hid it for so long
He mockingly tells wwx that he's so much better than him
He asks if he doesn't deserve to hate wwx
Jc asked wwx why he left
Wwx apologizes for breaking his promise
Jc feels terrible about himself
Chapter 103
JC apologizes
Wwx says not to take it to heart, and to take it as repayment
Jc then brings up everyone in his family
Wwx tells him to forget it
They both are mad, but there is no reconciliation
Chapter 104
Jgy takes a pragmatic outlook about blaming wwx
Jc is very upset
Jgy makes fun of him and tells him that nothing would have happened if he had protected wwx, and tells him he was the one who killed wwx
Chapter 108
Jc gives chengqing back to wwx
Chapter 110
Jc wants to tell wwx that he did protect him with the wens, but does not
He also does not hit jl despite almost doing it
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Are We Writing Fantasy Species Correctly?
Let me paint a picture that may be familiar to the average fantasy fan. In a world with only one distinct human culture, the humans are surrounded on all sides by the other races. The Elves are living in their forests and are snooty, or wise, or druidic hermits. The Dwarves live in the mountains as either warriors, or miners, or crafters. Goblins are either greedy, or envious, or dirty kleptomaniacs. The evil Orc raiding parties terrorize all the kingdoms. What is this world supposed to represent?
Many accuse that many fantasy and science fiction races are racist. Often they do have merit. Indeed, some depict other sentient humanoid beings as being biologically evil or have their culture taken directly from racist propaganda. But some critics argue that most depictions of “races” as being inherently racist are due to them being bio essentialist in nature. But how else can there be different species? If there is no change in biology, there can’t be fantastical races or species. There can be differences in biology, but what many fantasy writers fail to consider is that the use of species isn’t racist because they don’t depict one race as evil, but because the lines between races become biological certainties rather than social constructs.
For as long as fantasy and fantastical stories have existed, human-shaped creatures have been metaphors for something else. Greek Gods were metaphors for forces of nature, ghosts were representatives of an unresolved past, and fairies were (among many things) landmarks for the contemporary norms. But when writers try to make fantastical races that cast a shadow and bleed like anyone, the metaphor no longer becomes one of greater laws and trends but instead about people and populations. And to look at the history of this trend in fantasy we have to examine the grandfather that crystalized the genre: J.R.R. Tolkien.
The Origin
Tolkien, in his grand epic, drew from what many fantasy writers at the time drew from: religion and myth. He borrowed heavily from Norse mythology and their heroic tales for his protagonists, but also a dividing line between the Good races and the Evil ones (yes, he did borrow a stark line between Good and Evil, that is an assumption of cosmology and how species might work that is not assumed). But then he had those forces fight in a haunting depiction of the horrors of war he personally experienced. Many points he made about war were valid or outright correct: he values not the weapons but what they fight for, one must fight for what’s right and push through despairing times, and that the horrors of war irrevocably change people. But the problem with these metaphors, both the cosmological structure and the metaphors of war, is that they do not mix with each other without some worrying implications. Trying to make a realistic war using unrealistic people on one side says something (whether he means to or not) about real wars. World War 1 did not occur between literal angels and demons; it happened between people. The people he fought were not biologically more evil than him, and the enemy had their own civilians who weren’t responsible for the actions of their country. And the people he fought with weren’t biologically determined to be on the right side. Tolkien did not set the story during the Third Age’s civil war, with humans fighting humans, what actually happened in WW 1. He set it during a war with a clean and solid line between the countries, cultures, and races. All the good Kingdoms of Men, Elves, and Dwarves fought bravely against Sauron and his nation of soldiers. I’m not saying he did this in bad faith, but I think too many people haven’t noticed the nuance and repeated the foundation of fantastical races without improving.
The Result
You see it all the time in fantasy, with too many examples to count. How many times have you seen a world where there’s only one human nation surrounded by nations consisting of only one race each? Or, failing that, how many times have you seen a world where all human nations are specifically European and only other species have vastly different cultures? They’re in young adult novels, comic books, cookie-cutter fantasy manga, and most predominantly, it’s seen in games, both video and tabletop roleplaying. It’s especially concerning that it’s seen in engaging media like video games or TTRPGs (table top role playing games). I understand why, often the decision is economic or due to laziness. If every species can be a part of every country, then you need one model for each species for each country, much more efficient if each country has only one species, but those economic decisions negatively impact amateur creative ones. TTRPGs are a method of play that encourages — and sometimes requires — people to start making their own worlds and write their own stories. If everyone gets into the practice of imagining worlds with these divisions, they may not break out of it as they create stories outside of the system. Now I’m not saying all writers are making stories where one species is Good and one is Evil, that’s not as common nowadays. But defining nations and cultures by species makes a metaphor about real life whether the author intends for it to or not. What it does is establish the social construct of race into a biological fact without any distinction of nuance. Worse is when the non-human races are given traits that justify their own oppression. But I’m not addressing those that want to justify racism, I’m addressing well-meaning people who want to avoid this trend that fantasy can’t seem to move past.
The Solutions
There are three solutions we have for this trend: and none of them require writing a comprehensive epic covering every aspect of the world and race. The first is to represent our real world races as humans. By having more representation, the writer proves they understand all humans aren’t biologically separated. This gives a lot more breathing room for the use of nations and cultures of other species. This solution is best for those that want to explore the other species as actually alien as opposed to “weird” humans. By actively recognizing the actual diversity of humanity, one’s perception of humanity and its hypothetical relationship with another species is better solidified as being truly something other than human.
The second option is to narrow your lens of focus without cutting reference to others. A lot of simple fantasy does narrow its focus down to one kingdom, but the problem is that they narrow it down to the point of cutting off contact, relations, or even reference to other countries and races to the point that readers may assume they’re the only countries in this world. There’s a difference between setting a story in New York City and setting it in a New York City with the only reference to other places are the evil Lizardfolk that resemble rural stereotypes. You can narrow the lens while including the existence of trade routes, treaties, or other intercultural relations.
And the final option is to not have it matter. But you can’t just not care, you have to commit to not caring. You have to make all fantasy “races” literally have no cultural differences or divisions at all. For this option you can make elves, orcs, goblins, and dwarves not different species, but just a type of human mutation that some people have (for the last example they literally exist in real life). Goblins don’t have to be vermin representing corruption on two legs, they can just be humans who happen to be short and have a green skin disorder due to random alchemical mutations that have passed down. There isn’t a “nation of elves” separate from The Kingdom of Men; there just happen to be businessmen, or rednecks, or fast food workers in Urban Fantasy America that check “elvish” on their medical files for blood transfusions. Think of them more like the My Hero Academia “quirks” or just have it as an aesthetic for readers, players, and other contributors to have fun with.
To my fellow sympathetic writers, don’t fall into the trap of putting too much focus on making diverse cultures and personalities for each of the species. It’s good, the “Planet of Hats” trope is boring for most of us, but it distracts from the problem. If the only representation of a religion, ethnicity, or culture is found in another species, the work is still suggesting they’re somehow biologically separate from humans, otherwise known as “normal” people. Don’t get me wrong, if you want to write Jewish Elves or Taoist Orcs, go for it, the exploration of the self through reflection of the other is great. But putting those traits only into the biological “other,” might send the wrong message. Don’t forget those differences are within each other too.
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Seeing Stars rewrite
Notes: Scrap M&M plot. Make them stay behind to handle Loonas job as a receptionist bc Loona can track Ocatvia so she, Blitzo, and Stolas are useful as a group of 3. When Stolas shows up and is panicking, Loona takes video of it finding it funny and Moxxie tells her to cut it out but she doesn't listen to him. Let Blitzo mention replacing her bc Millie and Moxxie tell him to but Loona is rightfully upset Blitzo says this because he doesn't understand why shes so upset with being told to just act nicer. This can be because clients that show up are actually incredibly rude and when they get home it turns out Loona is doing a far better job than the M&Ms think. These are people who just died and a surprising amount of clients refuse to understand they have to be able to pay and that IMP doesn't take hits on other demons in hell. Or bc Blitzo isnt specifying enough what be nice means because its vague.
When Blitzo and Stolas are cut off from Loons despite the strain to their relationship Stolas asks whats wrong because Blitzo seems more upset than he was when they last interacted. Blitzo says "i just don't get what Loona's problem is." And when Stolas hears this he doesn't understand, but he says "she should know you only mean the best for her right?" And blitzo says "sometimes she feels like more trouble than she worth." We then cut to Loona who while looking for Octavia passes by a animal shelter. She has a brief flashback of being being brought in one of them for the first times. But shakes it off. She doesnt have Octavia's sinstigram [why would she]. But she is able to ask around because people think she's pretty. And gets more of an idea where Octavia went since the scent is pretty muddied with everything going on between cars spilled alcohol and piss on the sidewalks. She almost wishes Blitzo didn't adopt her because this wouldn't be her job or problem
Back at the sitcom plot we see Blitzo getting ready like prior. Cut stolas flirting. Just make him tell Blitzo to act like when he used to in the circus. The small teleprompter bit works alright though imo maybe he actually pulls it off believably Cut back to Loona and while shes looking around for Octavia and orders food from a stand (hotdog one likely but idk whats calis thing) and a stray dog steals it from her. This prompts a flashback to when she was in the pound and the hellhounds she was kept with stole food from her until she had enough and actually fought with them resulting in the bite that left a mark on her ear. Potentially if there's time show this was an adoption day and this means a bunch of families saw her do this. Meaning she was put in the back of the shelter. Cut back to Blitzo. The pug peed on the couch and hes considering giving the dog away and like normal this is when we get the flashback from Blitzo. Painting the rest of the picture. Loona hasn't been adopted inawhile and the lady who worked there tells Blitzo shes "more trouble than shes worth. Nobody knows whats wrong with her and always gives her back. You'll probably be the same." He really feels bad for her over this. And because the pug is meant to parallel how many times shes scared away clients despite Blitzo telling her not to he actually goes off script. Saying "No. No I-...look you guys seem nice but...I can't just give up on my daught- dog like that. Adopting means you sign up for whatever comes in the package. We don't always anticipate every issue but be it scaring people or...peeing on the couch, its my responsibility to try to find out whats wrong and fix it. What kind of a dad am I if I give up on someone the moment the need me?" The audience is cued to "aww" and while Stolas is moved we see someone in the background recording this. The live episode is over and Blitzo is praised for his improvised acting because "we thought you were gonna ruin the entire script but to make a touching speech about looking out for family and comparing your pet to a child? We are SO going to get greenlit for another season!" And this is when blitzo uses this moment to slip away with Stolas. We have Loona finally find Octavia. Its when Via starts talking abt her dad that Loona opens up a video on a youtube knockoff. (Doomtube?) and sees Blitzo's speech because shes wasnt initially interested in listening to Octavia and sees Blitzos speech was recorded by an audience member she watches out of curiosity before she goes back to listening to Octavia by the time she says "he probably doesn't even know I'm gone" and Loona has a light bulb moment. She pulls out the video she took of Stolas freaking out over her being missing and says "this guy doesn't even know you're gone?" (It is a key note Stolas should mention "i need you to drop everything i dont care about Stella right now I need to find my daughter!") Which makes Octavias eyes start watering because here it is shes seeing exactly what she wanted to see. Stolas caring about her more than he hates Stella. when Loona says her thing about how Blitzo and Stolas arent perfect but try she pulls out her lighter with the note of Blitzo saying he loves her.
When they go back down to the ground and Blitzo and Stolas finally find them both, Blitzo hugs Loona promising he'd never get rid of her and he never specified how she could be nicer but hes willing to work with her every step of the way to make sure they're on the same page. Loona doesnt like the hug. But she tolerates it because she saw what he said about her. Stolas apologizes to Octavia saying he should've paid more attention and it wasn't right of him to get so caught up in fighting with Stella he forgot what it was even for. (As in he forgot this was all to look out for Octavia who Stella just wants custody of to make Stolas miserable more than look out for her) (Worth noting i think the M&Ms only get one cut to them if at all and thats a classic Blitzo: im sure they can handle Loona's job how hard can it be? And we cut to them panicking over being yelled at through the phone and not being able to keep track of files early on in episode but I don't think there's a ton of time so prob scrap that its very optional) While Octavia's sad they wont see the star tonight they have a moment of "what whats that sound?" And see fireworks go off that look a lot like the star described earlier. (As in perhaps for goetia like Stolas who cant even dress in modern clothes this is what was actually being described with the star. Demons who visit the human world know what fireworks are. Its just of course stolas wouldn't! He even dresses out of date! And i really doubt he interacts with many other demons to be fully up to date on human advances. I mean even sunglasses were enough of a novelty for him to grab and run off with yet not even wear over his eyes suggesting he thinks theyre meant to push your hair back as opposed to shielding your eyes. We then get one more flash back. Where as Loona is crying in her cage facing away from the door (I don't think youd call it enclosure) she hears footsteps and looks to see Blitzo. Who sits in front of the bars and says something like "Hi I'm Blitzo. Do you have a favorite Balloon animal? Im not very good at it but i can spend all day trying if you want." Its light hearted and funny enough to make her laugh a bit and maybe we get a pull out shot of her coming over to sit by him and talk though we don't hear what they say bc its not really needed. Its also a bit of a subtle connection to how Blitzo didn't care if Loona was considered difficult. He was willing to try. And that's something that set him a part from everyone who gave up on Loona prior. Goes without saying but at the start of the episode their fight shouldn't get physical. Keep it to a verbal thing
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