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candycandy00 · 1 year ago

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The Trade Part 4 - A Dabi x Reader Zombie AU

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Smut. 18+. Mentions of attempted rape. Final part!!!

Touya’s grip on your hand was almost crushing as he pulled you into both a figurative and literal storm. Thunder cracked above your heads as the rain became heavier, dousing both of you. Rotting arms reached for you, cold and clammy hands grasping at your shoulders and thighs. Even being right next to him, you could barely hear Touya’s angry yells as he swung his bat one-handed, completely lopping the head off one particularly decomposed zombie and smashing the skull of another.

You remembered something Toga had taught you: if it starts raining, run! Rain, and especially thunderstorms, could be loud and make it harder for you to detect threats, plus it reduced visibility. These were both issues you and Touya were dealing with as you battled your way back to the van.

A zombie’s hand grabbed your arm, and you broke free, using your knife to stab it through the ear. The best you could do was watch Touya’s back and make sure nothing attacked him while he was mowing down the corpses in front of him. You swiped the blade in an arc, slicing through several faces but killing nothing. A hunting knife really wasn’t a great weapon for crowd control.

Finally, Touya’s efforts opened up a big enough gap between the zombies for the two of you to run through, your hand still in his vice like grip.

The woods were chaotic. Shadows everywhere, many of them moving, the sky growing darker by the second, lightning flashing, and the rain pouring as if from a bucket. It was hard to find the van even though you remembered exactly where it had been parked.

But you did find it, and curiously, there were no zombies around it. So what had disturbed the cans and alerted you? There was no time to think about it. You and Touya climbed inside and he started the engine just as the first of your zombie pursuers appeared behind you. Touya drove out of the woods and onto the road, then sped ahead so fast that no zombies could ever hope to follow.

Several miles later, he pulled back into the woods and parked. Being on the road for very long was dangerous, and Touya had told you two days ago that he was low on fuel. So the two of you sat in the van, watching the rain beat the windshield.

Thunder rumbled loudly, making you jump. Touya looked over at you and said, “The storm is making too much noise for the zombies to follow our sounds.”

“That’s comforting,” you said, rubbing your arms to try to warm them up. You were soaked to the bone. Your thin, flimsy white shirt was basically see-through at this point, and you couldn’t help noticing Touya’s eyes shifting to your chest.

“We need to warm up,” he said, shutting off the van’s engine and opening the door. “Let’s get in the back.”

You climbed out of the front seat, remembering that he had sleeping bags and blankets back there. But when you met him at the back of the van, you found him stripping off his wet clothes in the rain.

“Can’t get warm like that,” he told you, gesturing toward your clothes.

He was right. You blushed a little as you pulled off your own wet clothing, leaving only your damp panties, then hurried to climb into the back of the van with him.

He was fully nude, water dripping down his body as he rummaged through boxes. He pulled out a nylon duffel bag and dropped it on the floor, then tossed you a towel and dried himself off.

“What’s in the bag?” you asked, blotting your hair with the towel.

He unzipped the bag and pulled something out that was rolled up. It only took you a moment to realize it was an air mattress. He hooked an automatic pump to one end and pressed a button, then watched as it inflated and subsequently filled up almost the entirety of the empty space in the back of the van. It was flocked on top, and looked very soft.

“Sorry, I only have one,” Touya said, pulling out a blanket. “Not that there would be room for another one.”

You looked from him to the air mattress then back again. “You wanna go to sleep?”

He gave you a flat look. “No, I wanna warm up. Figured we could share body heat.”

“Oh,” you said. It made sense. You were in the first days of autumn and the air was getting a chill to it. Your own body was shivering. But cuddling up with Touya in a bed while you were both naked? It seemed awfully intimate, even if it was in the back of his van.

You watched him crawl onto the mattress and spread the blanket over himself. Then he held up one side of it and said, “Come on.”

It didn’t take you long to decide. You got onto the mattress and scooted over until you were under the blanket with Touya. His body was warm against yours, despite being wet and cold just a few minutes before. Did he really need to warm up? Or had he just noticed that you were shivering? Despite your bodies being pressed together, Touya’s hands never touched you. He probably didn’t want to make you uncomfortable.

Your mind was racing. What exactly was your relationship? You’d done several sexual acts with him, and were now traveling with him. He occasionally made flirty or suggestive comments but never touched you without a trade taking place. And there had been no trades at all since he’d asked you to stay with him. He shared his supplies freely now.

Did that mean there would never be another trade? Were the two of you in a relationship now? You weren’t sure, but you knew one thing: you wanted to touch him and be touched by him again, regardless of any trade.

You rolled over on the air mattress, turning to face him. He was on his side, facing you. His beautiful eyes were staring into yours. Neither of you spoke or moved. Then, slowly, you reached one cool hand up to touch his face, where scars met healthy skin. He leaned into your touch and then wrapped one arm around your shoulders, pulling you closer to him.

Touya kissed your neck, then moved down to your shoulder, his hand sliding down your back and tugging at the waistband of your panties. You let him pull them down, and you kicked them off your ankles. Then his hand was between your thighs, his middle finger stroking your clit. All the while, you were face to face. His eyes never left yours, as if he wanted to watch every little expression you made as he pleasured you.

You could feel his erection pressing against your abdomen, and all you could think was that you wanted it inside you. Your eyes slid closed as he withdrew his hand, and you let him gently roll you onto your back. Then he was on top of you, his face flushed, his eyes watching yours for any sign that you wanted him to stop. You leaned up and kissed his lips, making your own desires clear.

He shoved the blanket aside and rose up onto his knees, straddling you. Then he bent down and positioned himself at your wet entrance. He shoved all the way in, making you wince and close your eyes. When he pulled back out, he looked down where your bodies met with surprise, then his eyes flew back to your face.

“Are you…?”

You nodded, knowing what he wanted to ask. You were embarrassed, but he didn’t say anything else. He just eased himself back in, more slowly and gently this time. You exhaled a breath you didn’t realize you’d been holding, looking up at him and into those eyes. He began pumping in and out of you, carefully, and very gradually moved deeper and faster.

His face hovered over yours, and he leaned down to speak right into your ear. “Are you okay?”

“Yes!” Your voice came out a little louder than you intended, and sounded a bit like a moan.

Touya smiled warmly at you, then kissed you, slipping his tongue into your mouth. He was using one hand to brace himself while the other moved from the side of your face to your neck, his thumb rubbing your throat.

His thrusts became deeper, but still slow and deliberate, as if he were savoring the feel of you around him. He was beginning to hit a spot within you that made your toes curl. Your hands moved to his shoulders, one of them gripping scarred flesh and marveling at how it felt beneath your fingertips. Did it hurt him? He didn’t say, but he groaned in pleasure as he plunged into you.

Outside, in the distance, thunder rumbled through the sky. You were vaguely aware that the storm was passing over, even as the rain slowed to a gentle thrumming upon the roof of the van.

Finally you felt delicious pleasure race through your body like lightning. This was so much more intense than the other times you came in his presence. You were moaning loudly, crying out his name as you clenched tightly around him. He was breathing hard, his own voice making sweet wordless sounds, and you could feel him twitching.

He suddenly pulled out, and hot cum spurted across your stomach. He looked down at it, panting. “Sorry,” he mumbled, “I forgot to put a condom on.”

You shook your head. “It’s fine. It all happened pretty suddenly.”

He sat there above you, on his knees, for a minute while you both caught your breaths. Then he stood up and found a towel to clean up the mess he’d left on you.

You understood why he pulled out. Risking pregnancy in this world was something two people would have to thoroughly discuss beforehand, and you certainly weren’t ready for that discussion. But you kind of wished you could have felt him cum inside you.

Ah well, maybe you could find something to help with that later.

Regardless, you felt exhausted but satisfied. Blissful even. Touya was grinning at you as he pulled some clothes on and tossed you yours.

Once you were both dressed, he stepped over to the door. “I think the rain has stopped. I’m gonna check the situation, make sure no zombies managed to follow us.”

You walked over as well. “I’ll go with you.” If there were any zombies, you didn’t like the idea of him going alone, even though you knew he could take care of himself. Both of you were pretty tired after the run through the zombie herd and then the workout you just had in the van.

He opened the door and you both listened. Hearing none of the telltale signs of zombies, you jumped out first and walked around the side of the van, toward the front seat.

And you froze dead in your tracks.

Standing there beside the van were the two men who’d tied you up, each of them holding their rifles up, pointed at you.

“Hey, what are you two doing here?” You said it loudly, hoping Touya would hear you and know something was up before he came around to this side of the van. Apparently he did, because he hadn’t appeared yet.

“We have business with you, girlie,” one of them said. You noticed that the one who didn’t speak was pale, his gun unsteady in his hands. Your eyes moved down, and you saw that one pant leg was cut off. The exposed calf was covered in red, angry burn wounds, some of them leaking puss. You had no medical knowledge whatsoever and even you could tell the wounds were badly infected.

“Look what you did to my brother, cunt!” The man’s voice was near hysterical as he gestured toward the other man’s leg. “You set him on fucking fire! When we try to bandage it, it rips off the skin when we try to take it off!

“It’s infected,” you say, unable to take your eyes off the leg.

“No shit, Sherlock! We’re gonna have to chop it off! But he insisted we track you down and kill you first, while he can still walk.”

You looked at the wounded man’s face. He looked dazed, like he was barely conscious. There was a sheen of sweat on his pallid features. You didn’t say it, but to you it looked like they had already waited too late to cut off the leg. You almost felt sorry for them, but then you remembered the grotesque glee in their voices when they’d talked about their plans to rape you, and all pity evaporated.

“So the zombies in the woods…” you started.

“Yeah, that was us. Lured in a nice little herd for you. Had to when we realized you were traveling with him,” the man said, then paused. “Wait, where’s your boyfriend?”

“He went to the river to get water,” you lied. “But when he comes back, he’ll kill you both.”

The man laughed even as he scanned the area. “He probably will. He’s got a reputation you know. Everyone knows not to mess with the scarred man in the van. But I think we can kill you and be gone before he comes back.”

The wounded man just stood there, his gun drooping toward the ground. He probably didn’t even know where he was. The other man leveled his rifle at you. “Shame we don’t have time for some fun first, but we’re in a hurry.”

Just as his finger began to pull the trigger, Touya suddenly leapt down from the top of the van, bat in hand. He swung with such fury that the rifle was knocked out of the man’s hands before he could fire, and his hands were utterly smashed. The man screamed out in pain and fell to the ground.

The wounded man’s eyes snapped wide open, as if he suddenly realized what was going on. He tried to lift the rifle up, to point it at Touya, but you ran over and kicked his injured leg. He dropped immediately, screaming in agony and holding his leg, the rifle falling uselessly to the ground. You kicked it farther away from him and looked over at Touya.

He was standing over the other man, holding his bat in both hands. “I think we’ve got time for a lot of fun,” Touya said with a maniacal grin. Then he swung the bat down on the man’s crotch. You heard a crunching sound followed by screams, and you had to look away. You heard several more hits, and finally the screaming stopped.

All that remained was the wounded brother. You looked down at him and realized he wasn’t moving anymore. His eyes stared up at nothing. The infection must have killed him.

“You okay?” Touya asked, walking over to you.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Thanks for the save.”

The sound of broken groans drifted from the trees. All the screaming and commotion must have tipped the zombie herd off to your location. You and Touya hurried back into the front of the van and drove out of the woods.

Once on the road, he spoke up. “The woods are too dangerous now. Way too many zombies. We should think about another place to go after we grab some gas.”

You noticed he said “we” and smiled. He was apparently including you in whatever plans he had. You nodded and asked, “Got any ideas?”

He ran a hand through his hair as he drove. “I got one, but I’m not sure you’ll like it. I know you don’t like groups.”

“You know a group?”

He shrugged. “I never met them in person, but we were online friends. We agreed to meet up when all this shit started but I didn’t go. Thought I could make it alone. Now I’m not so sure.”

You gaped at him. Could it be? It had to be. You hesitated, then asked a very important question. “Are you… Dabi?”

Touya almost swerved the van in his shock. His eyes darted between you and the road. “Where did you hear that name?”

You grinned. “That’s a long story. The short version is I heard it from Toga.”

“You know Toga? Okay, you’re gonna have to spill this story.”

You laughed and then began recounting how you’d met Toga and the others, how you’d liked the group and sometimes regretted leaving them.

Touya listened intently, then he asked, “Wanna go back to them?”

“Sure,” you said with a smile, “as long as you go with me.”

He smiled back. “Anywhere. Always.”

The dark storm clouds had passed over, leaving a beautiful autumn sky overhead as the two of you drove down the highway.

Tag List:

@crunchtits @jabberwocky-92 @myst1cfish @missrosegold @dreamybxnny @hotvillainapologist @faetheral @touyasmaid @dabislittleprincess @cutebutdelulu @snowprincesa1

#dabi x reader #dabi smut #dabi #touya x reader #todoroki touya #dabi x you #x reader #bnha x reader

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zoetheneko · 11 months ago

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MY THEORIES ABOUT ACHT'S EYES

Spoiler warning!!!

Acht's eyes are seen for a brief moment during side order's gameplay, and later where seen from pictures of Acht when they were not sanitized yet.

But thanks to @splatoongamefiles for providing more details of Dedf1sh's model, their eyes where confirmed to be of a Yellow colour.

But why are their eyes like this tho?

_________________________

As far as we know about sanitized octarians, they were almost all potrayed with black scleras and teal irises (the sanitized octoling's eyes were never revealed, but they were probably the same as other octarians. Many fans got the memo since i saw a lot of fanarts of them with those eyes).

During Octo expension, Dedf1sh was said to be no different then any other sanitized octolings, drained from all willpower and no memories of who they were, being nothing then one of Tartar's pawns. Their passion for music was the only thing that Acht wasn't stripped from, so they could only play their tracks that echoed thought the Deep sea Metro.

In Side Order however, Acht doesn't seem to be this mindless pawn in the slightest anymore, their green skin and blue hair being the only thing that remain from their sanitization. Strangely, their eyes returned to their original colours. That's it. That's all that changed of Acht's appearence.

Why? How?

WORRY NOT!!! I THINK I KNOW WHY!!

First and foremost, Marina has got to have to have something to do with Acht's redemption arc since the two were close friends during their time in the army.

And also, the reason of Acht's eyes going back to their original colours is it may be because they were no longer under Tartar's control.

The black scleras and teal irises indicates that a sanitized octarian is still brain-washed by the "test-subjects-based ink", and their purpose is only to follow Tartar's orders.

What could back up this theory is agent 3's sanitization. It was only partial, but 3's eyes were still different from their usual colours, but when they woke up after being knucked out by agent 8, their eyes were back to normal.

That being said...

I have 3 possible theories about Acht returning to their senses and restore their memory:

Theory #1:

Following her escape from the Octarian army, Marina was trying to reach out Acht since they left as well a long time ago, but they never responded to any of her messages.

After Tartar was defeated, Marina went to wander the Deep Sea Metro. She must have listened to the music echoing and recognized the voice of her lost friend despite the fact that it was affected by the sanitization.

Marina went on a searching spree across every corner of the metro to find a sign of them, until she finally found them in their sanitized state. Marina had no choice but to bail them out of their hellhole.

She was determined to help Acht regain their sense of self and catch up on them.

Marina never told Acht about the Memverse though.

Theory #2:

After Tartar was defeated, Acht was still working as a DJ at the Deep Sea Metro for a while. Then maybe because they were not under Tartar's control any longer, the sanitization of their mind slowly died out, their eyes fading back to their usual hues, and they were able to flee containment, seeking to restore their memories.

After Acht fully regained themselves, they ran away from the Metro to find Marina. Unfortunately, Order caught them and brought them to the Memverse.

Theory #3:

Acht was still under the influence of the "test-subjects-based ink" even if we beat Tartar, but Order somehow found a way to get throught their mind to be put into the Memverse.

If you have anything to add to this theory, go for it. I'm open to feedbacks and opinions.

#splatoon #splatoon 3 #splatoon 3 side order #side order #splatoon 2 #splatoon 2 octo expansion #octo expansion #acht #acht splatoon #ahato mizuta #dedf1sh #octarian #eyes #sanitized #theory #autism ramblings

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aquaquadrant · 4 months ago

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Popping in to say that I’ve been following ur htp au since like,,, October last year? I’ve left some asks before about how much I love it (I was that anon who was needing out about tango and bravo’s names and the international flag code from several months ago + a few other asks)

The ending was the most beautiful and SATISFYING piece of literature I’ve ever written. Genuinely. Wtf. And I’ve read a lot of books. I’m an English/creative writing major and your work is so beautiful, the story arcs, every loose end was tied up, you’re like the new standard for awesomeness. Seriously.

every loose end was wrapped up so well, all the closure and follow up we wanted, explanations of things like Scáil, hels meanings, their admin, even other hermits at the end there that were mentioned about in asks before but I never thought would be relevant in the main story. Things we didn’t even need to know like bX I was not expecting at all, I was content with just what we knew about him but you made it even better.

also the callbacks to earlier chapters, earlier moments and little jokes, bravo and Timmy’s not a builder moment was awesome, the way you portrayed bravo and tangos mindsets was phenomenal and with such intricacies. Stunning. And you didn’t force a reconciliation between bravo and timmy either, so natural.

Everything had a reason, an explanation, even the intricacies of herobrine? wasnt expecting that at all. Or Alex???! You didn’t need to include that detail BUT YOU DID AND I LOVE IT

the way you explained the greater player universe learning about hels, also the pausing on the red stone tutorial!! Loved that part. The pov switches and pacing of the last chapter p 1 and 2 were perfect. Well executed to keep the reader able to understand but still enough suspense. Not to mention once again your way of capturing each persons way of talking. Bravo having similar vocab to tango especially really drives home their similarities.

The way atlas breaks. It’s so hard to make an ending with someone like him SATISFYING because man I’ve read so many stories where it’s just not it. But you did it so fucking well. And subjected to retail salesman lifestyle on top of that? Wonderful. His damn glasses finally broken. Good. Or The watchers and listeners in the background too! Loved that. You explained things that were talked about in asks so well that even those who don’t read the asks could understand.

Most of all emotional and moral nuance. So perfectly explained. As someone who used to have a hard time with moral ocd I relate a lot to the obsession with good vs evil that I’ve had to come to terms with in my own journey and I can really see that mirrored in this fic, just like the characters learn.

And in addition to it all, I loved the ending with the Minecraft credits end message. You not only made it interesting and beautiful story and awareness of the player’s existence without being too confusing, but perfectly replicated the voices of the end credits characters. The tone and language that the original has. Last week I beat the enderdragon for the first time. I used to only play on public servers or private worlds with friends, even in single player I was a big coward and hated fighting mobs even with keep inventory and no mob griefing, they just stress me out!! But I did it for the first time and I read through the entire end credits of a game I’ve loved for so long for the first time and it made me cry. And you replicated it perfectly which is SO hard to do. The benevolence of the universe, no plot holes to be found about the logic of hels, the voices of the two people and their storytelling and acknowledging of the story. The universe is described so similarly in cannon about the good and bad that it’s like the au fits perfectly. The “why them?” Beautiful. It was like deja vu scrolling through like the end credits with the same benevolent warmth that envelops you like a wordless, comforting presence from this fictional universe. A touching moral about games and stories and people. And just like the end credits of both the game and this fic said, there will be another game and another story. The universe still loves the player just as it did before. This was such a special story to read and I am so glad I did. Genuinely, this will stay with me for a long time, we can learn a lot not just about writing and storytelling techniques, but about ourselves and eachother too.

Thank you.

AUUGHHHH…. genuinely one of the loveliest reviews i’ve ever gotten… your reaction to the finale is everything i could’ve hoped to achieve. thank you thank you THANK YOU <333

#hels to pay au #HTP ask #lost track of how many times i’ve reread this since it showed up in my inbox #it really means a lot

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wheredidhiseyebrowsgo · 11 months ago

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Omg omg omg I almost missed the ask box being open! First of all though: thank you ever so much for all your hard work.

My question is this: I really like Mpreg fics. And I remember reading one where Derek thought Stiles rejected him and the baby. Only Stiles didn't even know male werewolves could get pregnant. I can find fics with this trope where it's Stiles who is pregnant but not the other way around

I think so!

Naps are nature’s way of reminding you that life is nice by FicLogia

(1/1 I 3,033 I General)

Melissa puts the patient chart away and comes closer to the omega. “It’s normal to change your mind. Especially for someone in your position.” Young, unmated, barely graduated. The omega ob-gyn has seen it one too many times.

Derek shakes his head, runs a hand over the arc of his belly, relishing the feel of it, a quiet sigh escaping his lips. “I want this baby. We wouldn’t be here if I didn’t.”

“Then why? Why didn’t you say anything?”

Little Dash Of Pink by AsagiStilinski

(1/1 I 4,790 I Teen)

Derek always thought those stories he heard about male pregnancies in his family were just old wives' tales and bad jokes

Suddenly, that's no longer true, and he's not too sure how to tell his husband

ay it out loud, love by pineneedlepants

(4/? I 29,137 I Teen)

When Derek first finds out, it's a rainy thursday that reflects his mood perfectly. He's been oddly dizzy lately, with bouts of nausea that don't make any sense to him, and he's pretty sure he's never slept as much as he is now, not even as a carefree teenager. He thumps his forehead gently against the table top, willing the water he drank not five minutes ago to stay down. He's rubbing his head on the wooden surface when he hears it.

There's a soft thump thu-thump coming from somewhere near him. He lifts his head slowly, as not to make the world spin and tries to concentrate where the soft beat is coming from. Because it couldn't possibly be -

Derek cannot be -

With growing horror, he directs his eyes downwards, to his slightly softened belly. His hands have stilled on his skin, trembling lightly. The soft thump thu-thump comes again, and again, and again, the sound getting louder with each soft flutter, until the pulse matches Derek's own. It's almost mesmerizing, a beautiful cadence that flutters in and out of rhythm of Derek's own heartbeat. --

Or the one where there's a misunderstanding of the century, a little angst, a surprise baby and a deliriously happy ending.

A Legend of a Lonely Boy by bunnymaccool

(1/1 I 42,991 I Explicit)

Peter Hale managed to climb his way back up from death only long enough to do one, terrible, horrible thing. It was enough to accomplish his goal. To leave a legacy. Two months after killing his uncle for the second time, Derek is feeling sick and weak, heavy in his own body. What Deaton is telling him should be impossible... but...

There is a werewolf legend. About unmated alpha who desperately desired to have heirs, so he studied the moon and the stars in such great depth that he discovered a secret. On the night of the full moon, when the stars aligned just so … he could plant his pups into whatever body he desired. Regardless of species, regardless of gender.

The danger is this ... werewolves are not meant to carry pups alone. They need someone to guide them, love them, protect them during this time of vulnerability. A partner. A mate. But Derek Hale has none of these things. He has no one. If he and his pup are going to survive, he may just have to follow the ridiculous suggestion Deaton puts forth. The completely annoying, loud-mouthed, pain in his ass suggestion that makes Derek want to rip someone's throat out. With his teeth.

Through the Dark by WriteByNight

(11/35 I 93,401 I Explicit)

Stiles is down on his luck and out of money, just trying to finish his last year of college. Out of ideas, he goes to donate his sperm and meets Derek Hale, who is looking for a surrogate to carry his and his infertile girlfriend's baby. Stiles is instantly attracted to the alpha werewolf, but pushes his feelings to the side in order to fulfill Derek's dream for children.

Derek and Stiles grow close, but try to deny the feelings growing for one another because as soon as the pregnancy is over Stiles will have to give the baby over to Derek and Braeden, and walk out of their lives. However, the closer he gets to his due date, the harder it is to come to terms that he'll have to let go of the man he's come to love.

#teen wolf #sterek #stiles stilinski #derek hale #rape #mpreg #anon

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demonslayedher · 8 months ago

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Filler Arc with Character Beats: Intro

Some time ago, I posted how I would direct a Gokangumi (Five Senses Squad)-centric anime filler arc to go between the Swordsmith Village Arc and the Hashira Training Arc, specifically what foreshadowing and character beats I'd try to make it hit, and what small changes I'd make to make it slip in as seamlessly as possible (like Muichirou being curious about the Mark and doing his own investigation into it before Amane simply tells them about it). As it turns out, over a year ago, I tried writing it in fic form, but lost steam after 5577 words because I didn't have the energy for a long fic. But I just reread what I wrote, and man, I looooove thiiiiis. So I'm sharing what I had below! It's basically Episode 1 of Hashira Training all over again, just with the same content presented in different ways from more fanfic-y character perspectives and off-screen character interactions, so this is nice timing for it since episode 2 of Hashira Training isn't out yet. No plans to continue writing it, but please enjoy the setup I had!

----

Nezuko…

“Good morning…”

Tanjirou relaxed deeper into his sleep as the sunlit scene replayed in his mind. For the first time in years, his sister had smiled.

Good for you, Nezuko… I’m so glad.

It was wonderful that she could walk in the sunlight again, and that she didn’t need to wear that muzzle. Finally, she could again speak for herself. All this time hadn’t been in vain.

All this time hadn’t been in vain.

Creating all those demons, granting an excess of his blood to the Twelve Moons, it hadn’t been for naught—Hantengu had lasted a whole night against the demon hunters so that he could witness a transformation Muzan had waited centuries for.

Kamado Nezuko…

His chosen demon, the one who had at last mastered the sun. A pesky one for how she had slipped out of his control, but with the hoard at his disposal, catching one demon wouldn’t be a major obstacle. Or so he had hoped to think, but Nezuko had stood her ground against Daki. With three of his Upper Moons already gone, that left fewer demons who stood a chance of containing her.

It was good he had so many of them, then. Muzan could stand to sacrifice any handful of them in pursuit of the chosen demon.

Hiura had heard a single twang and wondered if it was a biwa when he found himself in a different space than the cave he usually occupied. ‘Different’ rang though his head again to try to describe it, as there was no sense to make of it other than that he must had been in a dream. In any of his waking life, he was certain he had never seen a place like this.

“What is this? How did I get here?”

“What’s going on?”

With all those confused murmurs, Hiura’s dream was not his own, and he concluded that this must have been that space he had only heard rumors of. To his knowledge, only the Twelve Moon demons had ever been there, and there were many more demons here than twelve.

“Silence.”

Hiura shook when that voice spoke, and he spotted the eyes paired with that voice immediately—six eyes. It was his first encounter with any of the Twelve Moons, and it was just his luck that it was the most powerful one. He must have been brought here to die; there was no other reason Upper Moon One would waste time on lesser demons.

“Muzan-sama is present.”

All of Hiura’s shaking went still as his eyes scanned everywhere for the owner of that name. Up, down, sideways, nothing here made sense. There he was directly in front of him, red eyes blaring as icy as they did the night Hiura first encountered and tricked him into turning him into a demon. Tricking him was something Hiura knew he’d never be lucky enough to do again, and even a private inkling of it put him in danger. Muzan’s cells within him reminded him of that at every moment.

Before he had realized it, Hiura was bowing. Everyone was.

“Why do you all cower? You’re all demons who have pleased me.”

Pleased Muzan?

“You’ve eaten humans and gotten stronger. Developed the blood I’ve given you. You should be proud. Unless you’ve done something to displease me?”

Mind games! Muzan was playing them. They couldn’t dare take any pride in his presence. He was looking for a reason to find displeasure in them.

“None of you will speak?”

“Because it’s not enough yet,” thundered Kiritsuna.

Muzan’s lips stretched to a smile that narrowed his eyes. “Precisely.”

Damn that Kiritsuna! Always so self-assured, he must not have felt a shiver of fear in his life! Sucking up as always!

“Why would you have brought us here?” asked Zessou, always at Kiritsuna’s side. Dumb as rocks but always got away looking smart with that pretty face. What was he trying to do with his demon development, improve upon what used to be a lucky human form? Probably didn’t even realize he was doing it.

“I have three openings in the Upper Moons to fill. If any among you can fulfill for me a task, I’ll consider your promotion.”

The demons all grew excited, gasping or exclaiming with some shrill noises. Idiots, all of them. Muzan didn’t like them that much and they were all fools to think so. Hiura found this his chance to distinguish himself by a more productive question. “What task do you wish fulfilled?”

“A demon that has slipped from my control and uses fire against other demons, Kamado Nezuko. I want this demon brought to me, alive.”

Kamado Nezuko? That was a different name than Hiura had thought he heard before about that broad who got away. Fire, though. That was new and unusual. Not something Hiura wanted to deal with.

Not directly, anyway. If there was one demon to lure her out, another demon to contain her, then he could be the one to subdue her. The one to earn Muzan’s true pleasure.

“Why us?” asked some demon Hiura didn’t know. “Why not from among the Lower Moons?”

At this, Muzan’s smile was gone. “They no longer served any purpose.”

Although there was no sound, there was something like a weight pressing on all the demons, like it was across their shoulders and tied around their necks. Hiura wondered if this was Muzan forcing his will upon them to scare them, but he just as soon realized it was his own cells cowering in their own instinct.

If Hiura didn’t fulfill this request, he’d be dead.

“Prove your worth to me by fulfilling this task. My patience has already been tested enough.”

“Muzan-sama!” cried out one who was dumb enough to use that name. “More of your precious blood! Just a little more, and—”

“Moon Breathing, First Form—”

“What?”

“Breath Technique?”

“Dark Moon, Evening Palace.”

The demon who had spoken out and stood up was in pieces, having been torn apart by crescent blades. The other demons around her shrieked and cowered away from the blood. They screamed louder and sloppily scattered faster as Upper Moon One walked among them to the carnage, but Kiritsuna stayed put with no reaction to the blood splashed across his face, and not a tremor as the superior demon stood next to him. Upper Moon One lifted his hand over the gasping, crying demon spilled in pieces on the tatami, who squeaked, “Muzan… sama…”

“If you fail his expectations as you are… then this task… is meaningless to entrust to you.”

Her scream was cut off as he grabbed her head and absorbed it into his flesh. The rest of the pieces of her rattled and kicked until a dead silence; limp, melting demon remnants. Muzan was long gone. Upper Moon One turned his back, leaving them with the words, “Talent will be rewarded… from whomever proves promise…”

Another twang from the biwa and he was gone. Another twang, and another demon disappeared, then another. As the tempo picked up other demons were standing and ready to disappear, and Hiura lunged his hands out to grab Kiritsuna and Zessou’s sleeves. “There’s three spots,” he said, hurrying to get a smile out at them before the twang of the biwa came for them, “spots to reward all three of us, together—”

Tanjirou awoke to the sensation of his Breath being cut off. "Ah!" he sat up with a start, which made Muichirou release his hold on Tanjirou's nose.

"Your response is still pretty dull," he said. He had an impish grin, a light in his eyes, and bandages here and there around his face.

"It's not as if you meant any harm," insisted Tanjirou, but he guarded his nose with both hands anyway.

"How are your injuries?"

"My foot might take some time. How about you and Kanroji-san?"

"We'll probably be back to work by next week."

"What? Amazing! I've got to work on my recovery to match you two!"

"We can't all be geniuses."

"That's right. I heard you're descended from the original Sun Breath user. Your crow told me and Kotetsu-kun."

Muichirou sent Ginko a look through the window, and she cowered from his gaze, for they both knew she wasn't very nice about it. "It's not a big deal. It's not as if I know anything about Sun Breathing. Mist Breathing is so many steps removed from it that I've only got tiny bits and pieces from my ancestors."

"There's got to still be something, though! I even had memories inherited from my ancestor."

"...huh?"

"At least, that's what Kotetsu-kun said. Now that I think about it, he probably only said that to make me feel better. Sorry, it's weird, I know."

"Make you feel better about what?"

"I thought I knew the person Yoriichi Type Zero was based on. The original Sun Breath user, your ancestor."

"Doesn't that not make sense, though? You're the only one in this whole Corp who knows Sun Breathing, after all."

"No, no, no, no, that's just because my family's practiced Hinokami Kagura for generations! There's nothing inherited about it, my father had to teach me everything!" Tanjirou waved his hand as fast as Zenitsu swiping a plate of dumplings.

"But how did your ancestors learn that?"

Tanjirou paused as he thought back to that vivid dream, and how he had asked that samurai how he must be sad with no successors. That samurai had to have had children later if Muichirou was there now, but something felt off about that. Not that he could say what was off about a passing fantasy in a dream, though. It wasn't even real.

"You've even got the same earrings."

"Eh? You've met him too?" he asked and put his hands to his ears.

"Yoriichi Type Zero."

"Oh," he thought back. Now that Muichirou mentioned it, that doll had indeed been wearing the same ones. Tanjirou had never asked his father what made the earrings special, but the samurai in his dream was wearing them too. That samurai still had them when he left, though, while he was saying he wasn't anyone special. He had to have been special, though, for the Kamado family wasn't the only one to keep memories of him. "The original Sun Breath user was mentioned in a diary of one of Rengoku-san's ancestors too. I don’t know if it'll help me use Hinokami Kagura to fight demons better, but his younger brother Senjurou has been searching through their family records to see if there's anything helpful."

"Maybe they'll find something there about the mark."

"Mark?"

"I heard that when I fought Upper Moon Five, there was a mark on my face. Around the same time it would have been visible, I felt my heart rate increase to about 200 beats and my body temperature rise. Based on the 39-degree temperature reading Kochou-san took, I assume it was higher than that."

"You can tell in that much detail? Wow!"

"You should have more physiological awareness while using Breath technique too, you know. Still, it did help to get the number from the thermometer. You should have seen her, I've never seen Kochou-san so shocked, even though I insisted I felt fine."

"Oh?"

"And then the little girl who was with her mentioned you could run a fever of 38 degrees for over three days and feel fine, too," he said, then smiled. "You might be in trouble."

"Oh..."

"You get it though, right? How the feverish state made your Breath technique more powerful?"

"Yeah," Tanjirou agreed, "I don’t know if my fever ever got as high as yours, but being in that state makes me feel like my Hinokami Kagura had more of the power its capable of, and like b-b-b-BOOM, BASH, and like... gggrrrraaaahhh, and... you know?"

"...huh?"

"I'm saying something weird again, sorry. There was something else that helped me fight Upper Moon Four, too. When Nezuko burned my Nichirin blade with her fire, it turned red."

"A red blade? Aren't those supposed to be rare?"

"I don’t know if it's like the red blade Haganezuka-san always wanted to see, it turned black again later. But when it was so hot that it glowed, it cut through demon flesh more powerfully than I've ever felt before. Maybe, you think, it's like the same thing? Getting really hot? That BOOM, BA-BA-BA-BA-BA-BA thing?"

"Huh? You lost me."

"Sorry..."

"It made sense until that last part. Nichirin Blades work because they've absorbed sunlight, so glowing red may be due to an increase in the power of the light. Makes it all the weirder that Nezuko can be in the sunlight now! Doesn't that make her invincible?"

Tanjirou's expression softened at the mention of his sister. "It's such a relief. I'm so glad she can walk around in daylight now. She's out of that danger."

"Still weird."

For someone who had known her for twelve years as someone who could walk around freely in daylight, there was nothing strange about it. To Tanjirou, this was a return to what was just.

In many ways, he enjoyed the return of a sister from long ago. Back in the Swordsmith Village, it was like he had his four-year-old sister back, playing with toys and enjoying being tickled, and as feisty for attention as any little kid. Maybe she'd have enjoyed putting her hair in braids back then too, though her 12-year-old self would have only mildly hummed to herself with pleasure having done up her hair as she liked without needing to bother anyone. Nezuko was always like that, even Nezuko of ten years ago was always patient and obedient and sensitive to others like Takeo and baby Hanako. Maybe if she had been stuck in a box every day she'd have had that much pent up energy back then, too.

Now that they were back at the Butterfly Mansion, Nezuko had the best person around for helping her work off that excess energy: Inosuke, or as he had finally succeeded in teaching her, Boss Inosuke.

"Cave Explorers! Cave Explorers! We're the Cave Explorers!"

"Caff effporor!"

"Wait! Wait up right there!" he pointed to the ground. "You see that?"

Nezuko leaned her head on Inosuke's forearm to see where he pointed. "Hmmm?" There on the ground, stumbling over roots twice its width was a fledgling, too young to have taken a purposeful dive. Inosuke ran over and skidded to his knees for a look, startling the baby bird with his snout and looming eyes, and it stumbled backwards with panicked cheeping. Nezuko knelt and cupped her hands behind it, and it nestled against them for safety.

"Ha! That makes this your mission, Underling! Take that kid and put him back up in the nest!"

Though he was already pointing to where he felt the nest was, he looked upward past his finger, and Nezuko followed the same glance with a curious 'hmm.' The nest was easy to spot, but higher than Inosuke anticipated. He felt a smidge of regret because he didn't want to put a girl on such a risky mission right away, especially not a girl so precious to Tanpachirou. Nezuko had no such hesitation, and her claws scratched the bark as she climbed. In a couple of tricky spots she looked around left and right first, but found new spots to grip as swiftly as Inosuke would have, so he found himself more and more pleased and excited with her progress.

Trouble came when Nezuko's long hair got stuck in the branches. It caused her some distress, but the nest was close enough that she could let her hair be pulled taunt as she stretched. "Hmm... mm!!"

"Like that! Just a little further!"

"Mmnhh!" she grunted and willed her reach longer. Vines poured out her veins onto the surface of her skin and her hand extended such that she could pick up the whole nest if she pleased. Her horn had little room among the branches and pressed against one in such a way that it made her head sink down against her neck uncomfortably, but she paid that no mind as she let the fledgling tumble from her hand to the nest.

"That's it, Underling, nice work! Whoa--watch out!"

A screech zoomed toward Nezuko. When she looked up to see the parent swooping toward her with talons arched, she guarded her face with her own arched claws. She caught the bird's foot, and it reacted by flapping and tugging and cawing. When the feathers flapped in Nezuko's face she closed her eyes and leaned backwards.

"Nezuko!!" Inosuke shouted her name. He could tell exactly where she was going to fall before the branches cracked. He dove and caught her inches before she'd have hit the ground rump first, and then chunks and splinters of branches rained on them. The bird kept screeching from the tree top as it settled into its nest, and Inosuke brushed the branches off the top of Nezuko's head as he asked, "Hey! Are you alright?"

"Thank goodness!" she popped her head up and smiled.

He looked her over for injuries, but had she gotten any, they were already healed. Blood was coming from somewhere, though, and as they both looked for where, they spotted a gash down Inosuke's forearm. "Hngh," he grunted in acknowledgement.

Nezuko's eyes were glued to a bead of blood that pooled and gathered weight, then broke free of the injury and ran a bright red trail down his toned arm. After it came similar crimson streams, leading her attention back to the broken skin and what layers of flesh might had been revealed.

She clenched her eyes shut, grit her teeth, and pulled herself away as though caught on a fishing line. That momentum took her to her feet and a few steps away from Inosuke. Inosuke could sense the tension down her arms as she squeezed her fists, but he had no moment to ask about it before Nezuko cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted into the forest, "Halp! Halp, halp!"

"Help? No, this is nothing, I'm not injured--"

"Ha-a-a-a-lp!!"

"I'm not injured!!"

"Not injured? Then is that paint? I didn't know you were an artist, Inosuke-kun."

He and Nezuko both looked to a tree behind them and spotted a Hashira in a butterfly haori perched there. Shinobu had the same smile as ever and descended on dainty feet. Nezuko approached her with long arms out for a hug, exclaiming with relief that someone had answered her calls, but without Nezuko taking notice, the impetus to hug her faded as Shinobu took a defensive stance. Nezuko, not conscious of this, stood in front of her to insist with gibberish that Boss Inosuke needed help, and Shinobu looked Nezuko up and down and far back up, to the tip of the single horn. She had heard about this form of Nezuko's, but it was unnerving to see it up close, especially when Nezuko posed no threat and basked in sunlight. Shinobu relaxed, then said to her, "the Butterfly Mansion is that way, Nezuko-san. You were calling to the mountains for help. The mountains. I might not had heard you if I wasn't on my way home."

"Thank goodness!"

"Fighting demons?" asked Inosuke.

"Picking herbs," she said, revealing a satchel. "There's a few in here I can spare for that, but all the bandages are at home. Let's go."

"I'm not injured--"

"I don’t specialize in delusions. If you keep saying that I'm afraid I'll have to send you to a different doctor."

Inosuke didn’t know what she meant by that or why it made her aura so threatening, but he didn't want any other doctors. He followed along, keeping an eye on both the girls from behind as Nezuko walked alongside Shinobu, towering over her in scale. As they neared the hospital Shinobu suggested Nezuko go play with Mitsuri while she has a chance before Mitsuri would be cleared to return to work, and the horn and vines faded as Nezuko shrank to a portion of Shinobu's size, hopped up and down and cheered, and then scuttled off.

"It certainly is a wonder to have befriended a demon," Shinobu remarked.

Shinobu and Inosuke continued to her office, where she instructed him to sit down and cooperate as she cleaned the wound and pulled out the splinters. He didn’t like that part, but the moment Shinobu expressed sympathy that he must be scared, he growled that there was nothing scary about it and proved it by staying as still as he could while she poked and prodded around. He convinced himself he wasn't whimpering. Without commenting on how brave he was, for this was of course obvious, Shinobu rubbed on some soothing ointment and began wrapping a bandage.

"This will be prone to reinjury if you catch it on anything. You don’t need stitches, but the skin needs time to heal."

"I'm not scared of this."

"Oh? Then you're not scared of it getting infected and filled with pus? I am."

"Why? It's just pus."

"I wouldn't want anything else to hurt you, after all the care I try to take of you. Is it so bad that I don’t want to see you hurt?"

Inosuke flushed behind his mask, his head went all spacey and fluffy, but something in her words and gaze made his neck tense up and his chest feel heavy. He relented, "You can put a bandage on it if you really want to."

"You won't take it off, right?"

"Hngh..."

"Inosuke-kun. Promise me you won't take it off?"

"Fine. I promise."

She offered her finger. "Pinky promise?"

"What's that?"

"It means you'll break your pinky if you break your promise. You'll give me that proof, right?"

Inosuke felt what she really meant was that she personally would break his pinky, and he respected a threat like that, so he offered his and they shook. Shinobu's voice took a light and airy tone as she sang 'pinky promise' in tune with the movement, and Inosuke was awash with a sense of familiarity, and an odd curiosity for Shinobu. He stared as he pondered, and Shinobu could feel his stare from behind the boar mask.

"What is it?"

"Your pinkies are weak."

"That's not strange."

"Your face is pale. Are you alright?"

Her face betrayed surprise, and then she smiled deeper. "You can tell? That's amazing! It's just low blood pressure. There you go, you're all set. Be careful."

She hurried him out because she had work to do with the herbs, but Inosuke stood outside the office door a moment wondering where he'd heard that song before.

It was another day before Kanao returned from a solo mission. She had been on more of those lately than missions at Shinobu’s side. So long as Shinobu wasn’t away on her own tasks, Kanao would start and end every solo mission reporting to Shinobu. She occasionally had advice, but all Shinobu usually instructed her was simply to cut the head off the demon.

That made it feel simple. Kanao didn’t have to think any more than that, and it had worked so far.

But that was what made her afraid. What would happen if she couldn’t reach the neck, and had to decide something else to do? She was vulnerable when taken by surprise, if ever there was something she couldn’t see coming.

“Good morning!”

Kanao nearly jumped out of her boots the moment an unfamiliar girl’s voice yelled at her. There were just as soon giggling voices that she knew from Kiyo and Naho.

“It’s too late for ‘good morning’!”

“You should say, ‘welcome home,’ Nezuko-san!”

“Nezuko?” Kanao asked, and then she found herself face to face with gleaming pink eyes and a fanged smile.

“Welcome… home!”

What was—but this—she shouldn’t—but--, a swarm of broken thoughts swirled through Kanao’s mind, until at last she blurted, “Is it alright for her not to wear her muzzle?”

“Most people would ask about her being in the sunlight first,” said Aoi, coming up behind Kanao with a bemused smile. She took satisfaction in watching Kanao flush and look back and forth between her and Nezuko as it dawned on her.

“Good morning!” Nezuko added, and Kiyo and Naho started laughing.

When Zenitsu at last returned to the Butterfly Mansion, his sparrow was chirping away something or other at him. He could never make out what words that bird wanted to convey, but it was easy to tell when Chuntarou was angry. He had probably heard how much trouble Zenitsu was in with the Corp. Jiichan might know already, too.

The one time he tried to do something to help, and it was unnecessary. All blew up in his face. What was the point of ever having tried? Ever having tried any of this. All this time in the Corp, chasing some dream that he might be useful to someone someday, anyone, just one person, it’d all been—

“—Aa?”

A heartbeat thumped through his ears. A girl’s heartbeat.

Zenitsu looked up and was caught by the most beautiful—nay, that trite word could not capture it—the most sublime sight he’d ever encountered in his life. It was Nezuko, and she was glistening in the sunlight. She was smiling—smiling at him!!

He screamed.

The other girls surrounding Nezuko all covered their ears as Zenitsu, doing the only sensible thing there was to do at such a glorious moment, confirmed that this meant she was eligible to be his wife now. And then—heavenly sounds!—she spoke words to him for the first time.

“Welcome back, Inosuke!”

There weren’t many quiet places around the Butterfly Mansion when both Inosuke and Zenitsu were home, but since Tanjirou hadn’t spent any time with Zenitsu since they started their mission in the pleasure quarter, he relished in his company despite all Zenitsu’s threats about murdering Inosuke. It was hard to find an opening to get any words in, but Tanjirou found a way to make Zenitsu temporarily quiet and turn his mood around entirely when he thanked him for his words about Thunder Breath and told him how it helped save the day. As Zenitsu skipped off, Genya lied still with a pillow over his head, aghast with how Tanjirou always had such a way of defusing the people around him. He always had the weirdest thing to say.

He wasn’t so bad, though.

Over the course of Tanjirou’s recovery, Inosuke and Zenitsu kept coming and going on their own missions, as did Kanao, though she went on more without her master nowadays. Genya joined them as soon as the little girls got him healed up and fed and back to full strength. From what Tanjirou heard, the demons had been very active lately. Going out of their way to cause trouble instead of keeping to the shadows like they had for centuries.

The one who knew this best was Ubuyashiki Kagaya, confined to his bed and helpless to aid his children. It made meetings with his Hashira harder to find chances for, though any one of them would drop anything but slaying demons in order to answer his call.

“Oyakata-sama, please, don’t trouble yourself to sit up. You don’t seem well.”

“Thank you, Gyoumei,” he replied. Always one to have keen senses, Himejima had stopped him just before he gathered his strength to sit up and be polite with his visitor. He relaxed against his pillow and smiled in the direction of the Stone Hashira’s voice. “I know you’ve had your hands so full, taking over extra territories.”

“You say that like I’m the only one. Shinazugawa, Iguro, and Tomioka have stepped up just as much during Tokitou and Kanroji’s recovery.”

“I’m glad to have you all supporting each other. With Shinobu being busy, I know you’re all spread thin.”

“Could Uzui be convinced to lend a hand?”

“I’ve sent summons, but it doesn’t seem they are reaching him,” Ubuyashiki replied, smiling at the reason why. As the crow told him, one of Uzui’s wives had swatted him with a room and yelled that her husband was retired. He had thought of sending summons to the former Flame Hashira, but he was satisfied that he had only recently begun to take care of himself again, and he preferred to let him rest until the time was right. “Muichirou and Mitsuri will be back to help soon, but with how active the demons are now, I wish for you all to have more help.”

“We’re Hashira, Oyakata-sama. You can entrust us with anything.”

“You say that like you’re unconvinced of anyone else being useful.”

Himejima frowned, for Ubuyashiki was right. “With all due respect, the caliber of swordsmen is not what it used to be.”

“It’s unfair to compare them to the unusually competent Hashira I’m blessed with in this day and age. Their will is the same as yours, Gyoumei. What they need is a chance to rise to your level.”

“You wish to raise new Hashira, you mean?”

“They have a way to go, but they’ve shown amazing resilience in the face of challenges. Even Genya gained experience fighting an Upper Moon, didn’t he? I hope you’ll have more faith in him, and the rest of his batch. If possible, I’d like to see what they all can accomplish against more and more powerful demons.”

“Left on their own?”

“Maybe not right away,” he smiled. “But a mission altogether, that could be good for them.”

Tanjirou was eager to go help his friends and progressed smoothly in his functional recovery training. He made it a point to try to keep his body temperature down to normal levels so that Shinobu wouldn’t hold him back, though. She had asked him about it and smelled angry. For now, under Muichirou’s advice, he kept that phenomenon to himself and waited to hear what Muichirou might find out about it as he investigated what archives the Ubuyashiki family might have. Still, Muichirou was a Hashira, and he wasn’t likely to have much time for that, so Tanjirou would have to try to keep refining that skill on his own (as soon as he was out of Shinobu’s watchful eye).

Haganezuka came and visited him, delivering a sword like Tanjirou never laid eyes on. Although, having commented so, Tanjirou was rudely reminded that he had not only seen it, but he had laid hands on it and nearly ruined it forever. As Haganezuka seemed to be in pain from his injuries and exhausted by the sword polishing process, Tanjirou decided to ask him more about red blades another time.

While the others were busy, Nezuko was there to train with him, and she never tired when running alongside him and cheering him on. She misunderstood and thought she was helping when she lifted up the rock on a rope that Tanjirou was training with. It tasted so good to laugh with her again, like it came out of him in a way that resounded with hers. Nezuko’s laugh was irreplaceable, and it was back. If it weren’t for all the demons out there, he’d happily stay put and bask in it forever.

Chachamaru, one day, delivered a letter. Tamayo and Tanjirou were in ongoing correspondence, and they had already exchanged a few letters since Nezuko mastered the sun. Like always, Tanjirou showed it to Nezuko when she peered over his shoulder at the paper.

“It’s from Tamayo-san,” he explained to her. “She says there’s no need to worry anymore about the sun! Your cells aren’t going to go back to the way they were, you get to stay like this now.”

“Hmm!” she replied with a wide, bright smile.

“Let’s see what else she says. ‘…Like how her blood allowed another demon to break free of Muzan’s control, it might also be used to grant mastery of the sun to other demons.’ Isn’t that great, Nezuko? You could help Tamayo-san and Yushirou-san too!”

“Thank goodness!”

“Thank goodness, for sure! Let’s see. ‘Kibutsuji Muzan is sure to be looking for her…’” he trailed off, his mouth dry at the name that just rolled off his tongue. Nezuko did not seem to recognize the name as well as she’d recognize the cells, and she tilted her head as Tanjirou read on, more quietly. “’With all the increased activity, it will be very dangerous if any other demons know about her abilities. For Nezuko-san’s sake, would you reconsider leaving her in our care?’”

He looked up to Nezuko as soon as he said it, aghast at such a proposition after all this time. Nezuko stared back at him, questioning what such words implied. Did she realize it would leave them separated? When she had heard it from Tamayo directly that one time she had understood, maybe it was harder to understand from a letter.

Even without words, Nezuko had made herself well-understood back then. She had a will of her own, and Tanjirou had every intention to respect it.

He smiled and patted her head. “Don’t worry. We’ll never be separated again. You’re going to be fine. Niisan won’t let anything happen to you.”

“Thank goodness,” she beamed and hugged him.

Tanjirou hugged her back, grateful all over again for how far they’d come.

#my fics #character beat filler arc #kamado tanjiro #kamado tanjirou #kamado nezuko #hashibira inosuke #kochou shinobu #kocho shinobu #tsuyuri kanao #tokito muichiro #tokitou muichirou #agatsuma zenitsu #shinazugawa genya #himejima gyomei #himejima gyoumei #ubuyashiki kagaya #and others briefly or mentioned #AND GOSH DANG IT I WROTE CUTE STUFF

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plzfeedmebread · 2 years ago

Text

The Lie of Providence - Chapter 1 - Dreamweaver

word count: 1257

Rating: Adult, Explicit (eventually) Pairing: Recom Miles Quaritch x Female! Sully! Na'vi Reader Tags/Warnings: Slow Burn, Romance, Redemption Arc, Angst, Comfort, Family, Sibling Shenanigans, Eventual Smut, Fluff, Hurt, Comfort, Dreams don't make sense, Eywa is testing you and you have not studied (chapters will come with their own tags/warnings if need be) Author's Note: I don't know what I'm doing LMAO! I havn't written fanfic in over a decade?? But I keep reading deliectable Quaritch x Reader fics so I got inspired to try my own! I hope you enjoy :)

"blue text" is spoken Na'vi. 'Italics' are inner thoughts.

· • —– ٠ ✤ ٠ —– • ·· • —– ٠ ✤ ٠ —– • ·· • —– ٠ ✤ ٠ —– • ·

The first dream comes when you are 6. The nestling warmth of your family is suddenly gone; replaced with a thick humidity. It clings to you, wrapped almost too tightly. Awareness seeps into you as you realize you are no longer in your family’s embrace. You’re somewhere high up on a cliff, and in the distance you can see a large Home Tree.

Is that the old tree of the Clan? Strange. You’ve seen the large fallen tree when your parents flew you over and explained a little bit of where your clan used to live. But this tree is standing upright and strong. It’s so far away though.

A huff to your left immediately interrupts your thoughts. You head quickly snaps to the direction of the sound and you freeze. A few feet in front of you, someone is standing near the cliff edge. No tail. No blue skin. And far to big for his height to be another kid. This is no Na’vi. That is one of the sky people.

Your voice is caught in your throat, you don’t recognise this stranger from any of the Sky People at Hell’s Gate. He stands with his arms crossed and back to you. His hair is as white as your skin, while his skin is dark as though he’d been out in the sun far too long.

“That is one big damn tree.” You hear him say though the words have no meaning to you. Deciding you’d rather be anywhere but here you attempt so silently back away.

However, in your retreat you happen to knock a few stray pebbles abound. The sound attracts the man’s attention, and with a quickness you weren’t expecting he’s turned to look behind him.

Your eyes meet instantly as he says, “Who the hell’re you?”

And so you fall into darkness with a scream.

You wake up crying soon after; your cries alerting you mother and father and even little Neteyam; though he was more upset about the noise rather than you crying.

“[Y/N], my little atokirina, what’s wrong? Did you have a bad dream?” your mother whispers to you and she holds you tightly to her chest rubbing your back in a soothing motion.

You explain to your parents through sobs your encounter with the scary looking man from the Sky People. You don’t see the concerned look they share with each other. After a beat of silence your mother tells you not to worry, it was only a dream, and that she and your father will always be there to protect you. The Bad Sky People left a long time ago.

You fall asleep to the quiet lull of your mother’s voice as she sings you a prayer to Eywa for pleasant dreams.

---

You don’t see the man, ‘Human’ as your father explained was the word in the Sky People’s language, again for a long while.

The next dream visits you when you are 7.

You recognise the colourless expanse of Hells Gate. Maybe you’ll see Spider! You giggle as you run through the familiar surroundings. Maybe uncle Norm is around too! As you run through what you think is the right direction to where they may be, you realise that, there is in fact no one around. The entire base is empty. No Humans. No Dreamwalkers. Huh.

The world around you bends and warps around you as you move through area to area. You’re under cover now. The area is large and looks like it goes on forever in all directions. All around you see the weird metal Ikrans of the Humans. There are the big bodies some Humans like to climb in, makes them taller than Dad. The thought makes you giggle. You’re tempted to climb all over one when you remember your father had scolded you once for the very same thing. You huff in annoyance and continue walking in a random direction.

Your sensitive ears suddenly pick up on a sound. The clink of metal. The grunts of a person. Curious as ever you let the sound lead you. You come upon a Human, laying on his back on a very thin bed. He’s holding a thick stick with weird shaped black rocks on either end. You quietly watch the strange spectacle as he lifts the stick up and down, making the grunting sound you heard before.

And as children often do, you don’t think before speaking.

“What are you doing?”

Your sudden voice startles the Human. And with a quick huff he puts the stick on the poles behind him. Quickly he sits up and your eyes met.

Oh.

It’s that Human.

The one from the dream a long time ago.

But this time you aren’t afraid. You’re a strong Warrior of the Omatikaya Clan! Or at least, you will be; when you’re as tall as Dad that is. But for now, you can at least be brave! That’s what Mum and Dad say all the Warriors of your clan are.

“What the--? How did some savage’s kid get here? Get lost kid.”

Strange. He’s definitely not speaking Na’vi. But you most certainly understood him.

“You’re mean!” You huff at him and cross your arms. He stares at you, brows furrowed, anger evident upon his face. He sighs and decides to simply ignore you completely. Swivelling his legs over the side of the strange thin bed, you watch him grab one of the smaller sticks off to the side.

You watch curiously as he slowly moves it up and down in one hand. Was this a Human game? You’ll ask Spider and uncle Norm when you next see them.

“Is this a game? Can I play too?”

“No.”

“No it’s not a game? Oooooor no I can’t play?” “Both.”

“What is it then?”

“Training.”

Ah. You understand that. Training. The Warriors train. The Hunters train. You train, and you become strong. And when you are strong, you help the Clan. Keep people safe. You like the sounds of that. So this Human must be a warrior? Training to keep other Humans safe? The forest IS dangerous you muse to yourself. You conclude he must be good then. He just looks a little scary with that strange face you don’t recognise. And those scary scars on the side of his face. Warrior scars you decide. Just like some of the grown-ups from the clan!

“What are you training for?” You are curious if he trains to protect or to hunt. Maybe something else? Humans are very fascinating.

He stops his movements suddenly and turns his head to you. A pit forms in your stomach. You don’t like the way he’s looking at you. It is angry. It is not nice. It feels like he is saying you do not belong. It is a look you have seen before, from some of the other children in the clan. You don’t like that look.

He stands up, dropping the stick as he does, it makes a loud BANG as it hits the floor, making you jump with a sudden fright though you don’t make a sound as you do. You do clasp your hands in front of you, your tail wrapping around your leg protectively.

He’s staring down at you with that same, evil look. And when he opens his mouth…

“So I can get rid of annoying brats like you.” He spits out at you and suddenly, he’s lunged straight for you.

And once again, you awaken with a start and a cry.

---

Author's Note: Sorry it's a little short! I'm just testing the waters so to speak :P

---

#quaritch x reader #miles quaritch x reader #colonel quaritch x reader #na'vi quaritch x reader #avatar way of water #recom quaritch x reader #miles quaritch x you #reader insert #x reader #recom quaritch #na'vi quaritch #recom miles quaritch #afab reader #female reader #na'vi reader

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silverpen-and-paper · 1 year ago

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my thoughts on lokius

[loki season 1 spoilers!]

season 2 is coming out in a few days (!!) and so i decided i’d write out my thoughts on lokius before it’s released. as a disclaimer, this is critical of the series, but not completely series-negative.

if lokius becomes canon in s2, i genuinely want to be happy about it. it would be amazing steps in queer rep for marvel to have a canonical lgbtq couple as the focus of the show (and i say this as a queer person myself).

but the way mobius and loki’s relationship was written seems to be only thought-out on the surface level (which is the case for a lot of the things in the show), and a lot of aspects of their relationship aren’t so great when you look deeper into it. i understand why people don’t notice and/or don’t want to acknowledge it — i was extremely enthusiastic about the ship, and i didn’t notice the problems either. to those looking at lokius with the most positive light, they have an amazing dynamic and are adorable and wholesome and all great things. so i get the hype, i really do (tbh, i shipped it so hard that several months ago when the problems were pointed out to me it ruined my week).

but even with how much i loved it, i didn’t want to just ignore any potential problems. so i distanced myself from the ship for a few weeks until i was in a better headspace to gather my thoughts.

first i’ll start with what was intended:

mobius is obviously intended to be a very kind and understanding character. whether or not the writers wanted it to come across as platonic or romantic, they wanted him to care deeply about loki. like loki said though: “no one good is ever truly good, and no one bad is ever truly bad.” the writers did give mobius at least one major flaw and a character arc, in that he believed in the goodness of the tva too much, but by the end of s1, he was all for taking it down .

you can see his flaw in the way he treats loki early on. sylvie’s been killing minutemen and stealing reset charges from the tva for a long time, and he wants loki’s help in finding her, so mobius does what the tva expects: he uses what he knows about loki to get them (somewhat) on the tva’s side. unfortunately, that happens to be psychologically breaking loki. compared to outright pruning from existence, which most of the tva seems to prefer, it’s no wonder he thinks this is the better option. (the fact that the show portrays this as a “therapy session” is a whole problem in itself, but i won’t get into that.)

things like this that mobius does early in the series can be explained by his faith in the tva’s mission. he didn’t agree with most of their methods, and he didn’t realize that even his actions (viewed by the tva as too merciful) were still significantly harmful, but he believed the tva ultimately worked for the good and safety of the entire universe. it’s not an excuse, but it could be forgiven in his later character arc when he realizes that he was wrong, regrets his actions, apologizes, and learns.

but then there’s the part when he puts loki in the memory cell.

i really, really hate that marvel did that. they easily could have had a very similar memory cell situation without having mobius be the one to put loki in there. (mobius could have left the room in anger, and then the guards or ravonna throw loki in there without mobius’ knowledge, for one example.) but instead, whoever wrote that plot point apparently didn’t understand how bad that was, and so it is, unfortunately, canon.

you might be inclined to say that it wasn’t that bad. because actions in fantastical situations can make things harder to distinguish, i’ll put a real-world comparison: one partner puts the second partner somewhere they KNOW that the second will get repeatedly both physically and verbally attacked. they do this simply because they think that they’ve been cheated on. even if they had been cheated on, that in no way excuses beating up the second partner, directly or indirectly.

hopefully you can recognize that as obvious abuse. even if the abuser later deeply regrets it and rescues their partner, the fact that they did it in the first place NEEDS to be addressed. i don’t know what exactly could repair a relationship after that, but brushing it under the rug and ignoring it won’t help. (and this is still abuse with a platonic reading of the relationship.)

if marvel hadn’t done that (and had handled mobius’ arc better in general) then there would be far less problems with the lokius ship. but since they did, us as fans have to figure out where to go from here, whether that’s writing or reading fix-it-fics or simply acknowledging that the problems exist.

hopefully the people running s2 are more competent and have figured something out to fix this. i really hope that’s the case. but it is marvel.

(sidenote: from things that tom hiddleston and owen wilson have said in interviews i’ve seen, i don’t think they noticed the problems either. maybe they have background context of things that aren’t in the official show but they accepted them as canon. or they just didn’t notice, like is the case with many fans.)

#not sure if i should tag this as anti-lokius or not #my opinions aren't exactly anti but some could see it that way so idk #lokius #loki #mobius #loki series #loki series criticism #loki series critical #loki x mobius #mcu #marvel #tw abuse #discussion of abuse #loki spinterest tag

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dailycass-cain · 1 year ago

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Birds of Prey #2 continues off the highs of #1 as it continues the story. But what of Cass within it? Well, here are my thoughts on the issue pertaining to Cass.

So the opening pages feature a flashback with Sin and Dinah which makes me feel really old honestly. Given the last time we saw Sin was quite some time ago (Gail Simone's last run on BoP before the dark times. Before the New 52).

But this flashback feels more akin to near when Gail's first run on BoP was wrapping up. We get a "Pokemon" mention (Sin did love those and even got Barda ironically on them. Those who know well tie into why Barda is fully into helping Dinah with this).

So it's clear writer Kelly Thompson knows her history and even acknowledges that the League of Assassins wants Sin (who were in the first issue).

However, not acknowledged is well on the "why".

With all the weaving she's doing, in this issue (and last). I just feel it makes more sense as to "why" Cass and Barda's reasons for helping Dinah are more clear than say Zealot's (I still want to see this story with her and Dinah) and Harley.

Though if we take this as "years" ago, boy howdy does this open a can of worms with Cass's age again. Like, prior to the New 52 and Cass's reintroduction, she was like possibly in her early 20s (same age as Jason Todd).

Then the New 52 came around, and she was 18. More closer to the age group Duke/Tim/Steph/Harper were in this era for sure. So that bit is confusing in this current DC landscape where she could be in her early 20s again or not.

Eh, this is just me overthinking the history angles anyway. So it isn't too worrisome. 😅 But I do like these nuggets that with characterization Thompson is laying the seeds for long-time readers to enjoy. While letting new readers just enjoy this ride.

This issue is another enjoyment. There's just so much good going on in this issue. Besides the stuff with Dinah, we get a better reason for what Harley brings to the team, interaction with her and Zealot.

Speaking of that, Harley lets slip this issue she "sorta" fought with Cass compared to what we got the last issue. So maybe Cass was just a "bad storyteller".

So who said Cass jobbed "hard" to Harley, well maybe it was more Cass's impression on the scuffle that led her to respect Harley's chaotic nature.

Unlike ANOTHER story in another DC comic last month that had Cass jobbing...

But the stuff with Cass this issue is sprinkled lightly. Unlike the hearty amount last issue, we get pieces and I'm okay with that.

This is a team comic, not a duo ongoing that-- I sorely miss.

ahem*

But the stuff we got here is gold with the slight amount we get. Just more Cass/Barda goodness (which is obvious Thompson knows is gold). More glorious art and fight sequences drawn by Leonardo Romero.

Like the teleportation between Dinah and a surprise guest star (so close to a Spirit World reunion), Barda/Cass, and Zealot/Harley all converging was sweet.

The other most interesting thing I have to say pertaining to Cass is how she still hasn't unmasked in the series. It feels different to see Cass unmasked in Batgirls 😭and Spirit World.

Here?

She's all business. Kinda very Bruce-like even. It's a little refreshing.

I also dig her web suit in the issue basically being her Batgirl suit with an oxygen mask and backpack. With zero capes on her back to cause harm.

So even though she didn't do much, this still was a fun appearance. Not awing like the last issue, but again this is a team book.

Zealot and Harley needed this issue. Along with Dinah being the singular focus in this arc. I can dig it.

Birds of Prey #2 continues the plot and gives us a tiny bit of Cass to wet our appetites for the next issue: her vs. Amazons.

No off-screen being beat. We gonna get her facing Amazons ON PANEL with WAAAAAY better characterization in the next few issues.

SWEET.

Again, I'm really enjoying this series and really curious about the twists and turns this goes down as it continues. I have curious questions not pertaining to Cass (like Future Maps and her story), and again Zealot/Dinah.

But this is some good stuff.

#cassandra cain #dc comics #my thoughts

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ace-touya · 8 months ago

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So these are the anime in your pinned post : BNHA, JJK, Blue Exorcist, Hell Girl, Your Name, Weathering with You, and A Silent Voice...

Can I ask your top 5 favorite moments from each of the series/movies above (please pick at least 3 titles)? Thanks 🌷

Oo okay! This is gonna be long because I did all of them.

My Hero Academia - I adore Dabi’s Dance first and foremost, then all the flashbacks to his childhood in Season 6, Episode 17. Third, I loved Aizawa and Mic’s conversation with Kurogiri in the Villain Academia arc, and one of the scenes that’s stuck with me the most in MHA is when Aizawa says ‘don’t apologise for being alive’ to All Might, I think around the Christmas Episode? That would be fourth. Finally, the scene where Toga uses Ochaco’s quirk in the villain academia. Those aren’t in order at all but they’re the things that come to mind

Jujutsu Kaisen - the scene in the end of season 1 where Megumi uses Domain Expansion for the first time after remembering advice Gojo and Sukuna gave him was really cool. And the scene where middle school Megumi is sitting on a pile of bullies he just beat up as second. Third, the end of the hidden inventory arc where Gojo’s asleep having dream flashbacks of meeting little Megumi, then he wakes up and grown up Megumi is the first thing he sees. In the same episode, the scene where Geto is giving a speech to his cult and kills a dude on stage is so uncomfortable and kinda disorienting, but so cool, so that’s fourth. The scene at the end of the JJK 0 movie with Gojo talking to deathbed Geto is my fifth.

Blue Exorcist - the scene were Rin is reading the letter in the Impure King arc and he’s just like ‘…interesting…’ and they’re like ‘what does it say’ and he just goes, ‘I can’t read it’. Second, the scene way at the beginning of it when Rin is yelling about how Shiro isn’t even his real father and then Shiro slaps him. Third, the moment where Amaimon was opening and closing Rin’s sword and his flames were just going on and off was funny. Fourth, when Rin talks to Kuro about Shiro’s death and gets him as a familiar. Fifth, Kamiki being the only reasonable one after they found out Rin was the son of Satan and saying she doesn’t really care. I don’t know when any of these things happened but it’s all in season one and two

Hell Girl - Ai Enma singing the song her cousin used to sing with her while she’s making the pebble tower is probably my favourite moment in the show, it’s near the end of season one. That’s my first. Second is in the Bride Doll episode when Ren is watching Inori get tortured by her mother-in-law and says ‘women are scary..’ to which Honne Onna responds ‘have you only just figured that out?’. Third, the scene where Ai talks to Nina in episode 17 and gets her to remember she isn’t actually Nina. Fourth, any scene where Tsugumi says she doesn’t think Hell Girl is completely in the wrong, much to Hajime’s dismay. And fifth, the flashbacks to Ai and Sentarou.

Your Name - the scene where Mitsuha reads that Taki wrote ‘I love you’ on her hand and starts crying because she can’t use that to remember his name. The scene with Taki in Mistuha’s body where her grandmother asks him if he’s dreaming and he starts crying. The bit when Taki goes in person to see Mitsuha and finds out that the comet killed everyone three years ago. I don’t know when it happened but I swear there’s a scene where Taki refers to Yostuha as his sister and I found it incredibly cute. Finally, the scene where Mistuha yells ‘please make me a cute Tokyo boy in my next life!’

Weathering With You - Hodaka saying the McDonald’s burger is the best meal he’s ever had. Second, Hina telling Hodaka she’s disappearing, then cuddling, and him waking up with her gone and Nagi having had the same dream as him. The entire part of the movie where Hodaka is running from police and doing crazy shit to get away from them. Of course fourth is ‘Who cares if we never see the sun again?! I want you more than any blue sky!’ And fifth would have to be Nagi, Hina and Hodaka in the hotel just having the times of their lives as a found family

A Silent Voice - the scene where Shoya’s mum stops Shoko’s mum from fighting with Ueno. Yuzuru’s conversation with her grandma right before the grandma dies. The scene with everyone at the bridge where Shoya calls everyone else out on their bs. Shoya saving Shoko when she tried to kill herself. Shoko when she tried to confess her love to Shoya.

This was really fun to answer

#my hero academia #jujutsu kaisen #blue exorsict #hell girl #your name #weathering with you #a silent voice #boku no hero acedamia #bnha #mha #jjk #ao no exorcist #jigoku shoujo #kimi no na wa #tenki no ko #eiga ko no katachi #asks!

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yamatossideboob · 20 days ago

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ONE PIECE 1134 Spoilers!

This week's doppelgangers:

So this is a terrific colour spread as usual, but the fact it's likely a tribute to Kazuki Yao is very touching... enjoy your retirement ya old coot, you earned it 100 times over

Apparently this is Luffy doing a very old school yakuza greeting and manner of speech. Regardless its so funny to see him being so formal lmao

WE'LL PROTECT YOU FOR LIFE YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Soooooooooo we have Stella back now too 😒 not thrilled at yet another death being backed out of, but... this is a Stella from 20 years ago? maybe something interesting can be done here. I fuckin hope so.

Also this handily explains just how VP could get around while under surveillance. nice one Oda

Even more worrisome is the now-possibility of Oda backing out of Kuma's 'death'. Admittedly his is a little more ambiguous, but in the sense of whether he truly was alive when his will appeared to be shut down. I was hoping with many others to see him laid to rest in a dignified manner, but it seems Oda has other ideas.

"why are you a woman?" "who cares, I can explain later" yeah when you've transitioned publicly for long enough you really can just get like this, its so funny when no mortal danger is involved haaaaa

Maybe Kuma can be resurrected a lá Saul, but the track record is not brilliant wrt reneged deaths in this series!

MS. ANGE I LOVE YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

I really do hate how Oda designs like 90% of OP women characters bc 1) its so fucking blatant, the man is beating zero allegations 2) he CAN create fun and interesting female character designs!! Look at her!!!! She's so blocky and stout I adore her!!!!!

this is such a cute building design, i love walrus school

HEY! ZORO! LEAVE THEM KIDS ALONE!!!

hi Ripleyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy you're so huge and beautiful

So this is an interesting development: we have a longstanding warrior culture now being made to embrace trade, education and peace. Could this be something that factors into the arc conflict?

AND this king was the one killed by his son Loki... the intrigue heightens

in a One Piece first, a library displays inherited will.. Ohara would be proud, if it were sapient

The look on Robin's face is incredible... it must be such an amazing feeling to see your childhood literally rescued in such a way

Literally who could be on the other end of the snail.... This is going to drive us mental. Is the nickname Shaggy an indicator of who they are? And besides, their remarks on Loki's kindness... Those positing that Loki ISN'T the villain of Elbaph might really be onto something after all. This is bananas, we need answers pronto!

Speaking of onto something... the yahoos claiming that Shanks has a twin might have been right all along it turns out lmfao. Like... its just not likely that THIS is Shanks, since he was just here his usual way. and obvs the panel recalls that infamous page from hundreds of chapters ago, with ol' Redhair visiting the Elders. The teleportation sigil indicates this is the same individual, AND he has company, but who could they be.... This is such an ominous note to finish out the year on, what a fucking cliffhanger lads.

And on that note, thats all the One Piece that will be published in 2024. It's been a wild year between finishing Egghead and starting Elbaph! Many astonishing moments and reveals and twists and turns! Some questions answered, mostly questions asked! Oda continues his big story stew, bubbling away, and before we know it, the pot will be empty, scraped clean by our spoons. We must enjoy it while it lasts, and hope and luck, we can do just that in 2025. Maybe Oda can stick to his next Jump Fest promise lol.

Til next year nakama! 💪✖️

#op spoilers #live from ohara

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hnnny · 1 year ago

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I see so many of your animations on YT and I have to ask. What is your favourite Star Wars game? And I mean the older ones like SWOTOR, KOTOR/II or republic commando ( my favourite )

First, thank you! That means a lot to me that you enjoy my animations so much! I should get back into making those. I do have a silly one in my drafts...

Second, oh for SURE Kotor 2. I love that game, the characters are so much fun and I love how they all interact and the exile is my baby.

If you guys don't know the story at this point, I actually played Kotor 2 for the first time and immediately played the game again because Atton died at the end since I didn't make him a Jedi. I loved the characters so much already, that when I figured out that not just Mical could become a Jedi, I was like "welp, time to dedicate a lot of time to this game!"

At the end, I started to become more attached to these characters and their story arcs. I also felt that Bao-Dur had a missed opportunity of being able to wear Jedi robes since the designers didn't want to worry about the robe clipping through his prosthetic arm, or perhaps having to worry about model discrepancies. And that's when the character sheets happened...

I made a unique character sheet for everyone, from their days in the Mandalorian Wars, to post Kotor 2 when they establish the new Jedi Order. This was back in 2021 when I completed everyone from Kotor 2, and I also had thoughts on what a few characters from Kotor 1 would be doing during this time (namely Juhani, Mission, Carth, and Bastila).

But I had no one to share this obsession of mine with.

You may have guessed it by now, but the whole reason I have a Tumblr is because of Kotor 2. And to this day, I still haven't shared all of my thoughts, story beats, headcanons, and even the full character sheets that I drew a long time ago.

This game has given me so much in terms of getting better at my art and design work, writing stories, and meeting friends I adore and want to know and hang out with for the rest of my life.

And I think it's finally time I share the rest of those character sheets with you all, so here's my Revan and Exile at least. I'll share the other ones in more reblogs on this post.

Torellia Vell - Darth Revan

Zena Paloh - The Jedi Exile

These are super old now, so there are things I would now change (like a LOT of changes), but some of these outfits I still draw since I don't have other references made yet.

#art #kotor #my art #kotor 2 #kotor 1 #revan #exile #zena paloh #torellia vell #hnnn answers

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starryknight-dragonarts · 2 years ago

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A while ago I made 5 Mutant Goblin monsters who had augmented their bodies with parts from the 5 colors of Chromatic Dragons in D&D (Red, Blue, Green, Black, and White). It all started when 1 poor Goblin lost an arm and found a severed Green Dragon claw to replace it, little did he know this dragon claw was still very magical and possibly also cursed so as it was grafted to his body it started transforming him, making him stronger, smarter, and took on the cunning manipulative personality of a Green Dragon! That Goblin went on to become the boss of his Goblin horde by eating his old Goblin Boss and it inspired other goblins to try to do the same and started worshiping Tiamat the evil goddess of Chromatic Dragons believing she could grant some of them the same kind of amazing transformation and powers if they also attached Dragon parts to their bodies. I imagine Tiamat looked at this bunch of lowley goblins worshiping her and found it amusing, maybe even want to see just how far and destructive this new cult could go before they eventually destroy themselves so she granted their prayers and helped create 4 more Dragoblins Lords. Green is the original and the Mastermind of the five Dragoblins. He believes he doesn't need Tiamat's intervention and doesn't like that she decide to allow other gobins to be blessed with draconic powers copying him when he worked for it himself. Still he is adaptable and cunning using his cleverness and cruelty to his advantage so that he stays on top and finds a way to use the other Dragoblin lords. Red believes that he is meant to be the true leader of the Dragoblins, Red Dragons are supposed to be the mightiest of the Chromatics and he was the first of the Goblins that was truly chosen by Tiamat herself so he has divine right backing him. He is about as self absorbed as they come and constantly pushing to try to prove his superiority through strength and displays of power and beating down on anybody below him. Blue is the most negotiable, he's not kind or lacking in cruelty by any means but he prefers to show his enemies just how powerless they are to him by forcing them into a deal that screws them over and benefits himself. It is rare that he kills his enemies when he finds it so much more satisfying to subjugate them and make them lose all hope. Black is the most violent and destructive of the Dragoblins, he doesn't care who he kills or why, he just enjoys the thrill of causing Death and Suffering. He will even kill his own Goblin subjects and followers when he's bored and has nobody else to kill but time making him the most despised of the 5 Dragoblin lords and the most controllable so long as you can supply him with sacrifices White is a loner, as soon as his full Dragoblin transformation took hold he wanted nothing more than to be left alone, and killed anybody who came too close or got in his way. He has no subjects or followers unlike the other Dragoblins lord, instead he isolated himself in a frozen mountain cavern where he only leaves to hunt for prey and make avalanches to keep other people away from his territory. If I were to run a D&D campaign I would want to use these as the primary villains of an arc where the party has to find a way to bring down each of the Dragoblin lords one by one saving the Green Dragoblin mastermind for last cause he has a special plan to use the reclaimed bodies of his fallen lords to mock Tiamat by merging himself with the other 4 handily slain by the party for his convenience and make himself a monstrosity in her image. The Ultimate Dragoblin and soon to be God of a new Draconic Goblin Super Race! I love the idea of Tiamat watching from the 9 hells and get offended seeing this monstrosity copying her look and claiming they are going to be a new god.

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meltingpenguins · 1 year ago

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One of the things that makes me extremely distrustful of the show omens storyline (which has already completely betrayed me) is that it's been said many times that season 2 is a "bridge" to season 3 aka. the things that were talked about to be a sequel long ago, but almost nothing in season 2 makes sense for an idea based off the book. I know this has been said many times by you and others in the critical tag, but I cannot understand the choices made. And it's worse because Neil has been on tumblr, answering questions since season 1 came out. We know some of his thoughts on things, we know some of his ideas. For example, we know he never thought of Gabriel and Beelzebub as a couple and thought it odd that people shipped them, but wouldn't tell people what to do. And then suddenly season 2 comes about and they're a hastily thrown together couple. Very strange. I don't know who is making these decisions, if it's in Neil's hands or not, but whatever is happening in the show, it's very based off of fan interactions on tumblr and fanservice and it doesn't make a good plot or good characters. It beats the characters into the ground until they're nothing and no one can remember what they were supposed to be like, how they were supposed to act, or what they were supposed to represent in the first place. It's as if someone read the book once twenty years ago, spent their time reading fanfiction, and came back to write a sequel without revisiting the source material.

I would have much preferred a plot focusing on an actual mystery, on Gabriel's circumstance and the finding out about and fixing of that circumstance, rather than at least half of the runtime amounting to Aziraphale/Crowley fanservice and "fun" plots that someone thought would be nice to throw in without any impact on the actual story. Maybe then the ending to season 2 would have been at least somewhat comprehensive to me, both for the Aziraphale/Crowley and the Gabriel/Beelzebub plots. As it is, the second season felt like a bunch of ideas were thrown up on a whiteboard and added into the script without thinking any of it over or trying to construct a story. Instead of a good show with a few bad moments, it was a bad show with a few good moments. Basically, I'm disappointed and lacking any faith that season 3 will be at all good.

Thank you for the ask. :)

Now, said it before, saying it again: S2 reeks of a weird mix of 'milking the cashcow' (via fanservice that runs a steamroller over the character's personality and arcs and continuity) and a 'make the conservative christians happy' which is even worse.

The latter is already an issue in s1, what with just how everything is very allocisheteronormative. All the pairs have a distinct 'nuclear family' vibe to it (except the dowlings, where it feels Mrs dowling, being a bit bolder and not submissive to her husband is painted as if warlock being a POS is thus her fault), including Crowley and Aziraphale. In the book these two are equals and on eye-height (as it honestly should be in a good relationship), but on the show? What purpose does it fulfil to make aziraphale so dimwitted as he is? Make him out to be nothing but crowley's cheerleader? Why make crowley this obnoxious incarnation of the bad box chosen one?

It doesn't do anything for the plot, I'd even say it hinders it, because this crowley doesn't care for earth. This crowley only seems out to stop armageddon because if not he'd have nothing anymore to stand in the spotlight (should Hell win). He'd be one amongst many, with no one to do the work for him.

Show!Crowley is the kind of person Book!Crowley hates with a passion, judging by the book.

Now back to s2:

I am 98% convinced s2 only exists to have the 6-6-8 pattern, and nothing else.

Now, to be fair, there have been time constraints, general crunch, only 2 writers, cut budget, etc, basically everything the WGA striked against.

It's nevertheless baffling. It might be the lack of experience Neil still has with screenwriting, mixed with bad input from others, maybe, but this isn't a bridge. And if, it's this bridge:

(did I make this joke before? yes, it's a good joke)

It doesn't connect anything from any incarnation to what we know about the sequel (Neighbour of the Beast).

It could ave been amazing. Imagine, for example this:

Heaven and Hell, both on their own, send someone to spy on crowley and az to figure out how they got their immunity to holy water/hellfire. crowley and az catch on, and that in the course of this someone might find a way to just test it (which would def kill them) so they have to swap bodies and live each other's lives till the coast is clear. Thus learning more about the other, growing a deeper understanding (which really wasn't there in s1). Meanwhile, Heaven and Hell also realize they are trying the same thing, and we get more interactions between gabe and Beelzebub, maybe, just maybe laying a foundation for -something- (prolly also involving Dagon, because what we're not going to do is ignore that potential ship that had much more foundation in s1 than anything else (beelzebub and dagon that is, not the polycule))

On the side we -could- have maggie and nina, though actually back as ex-sister mary and ex-sister theresa (back from the dead by adam's fixing). It could have been that sister therese, knowing she's been dead decided to fulfil her lifelong dream of owning a recordstore or something, and by chance opening one just next to/across from aziraphale. Cue sister mary visiting on the regular (maybe being co-owner) and both of them slowly catching on to crowley being around, and hadn't there been rumors from below that he's been fraternizing with an angel long since before the antichrist thing? Then (after the bodyswap) Not-Crowley wanders into the store (thinking/knowing crowley would do that) only to run into the two humans in London who know exactly who and what crowley is. Mary and Tess catch on to what's going on, and offer to help, when not-crowley notices an air of love around the two women, and figures there's something but both of them are not willing to say it out loud. So not-crowley (far less clumsily than in s2) tries to pay them back for their help by helping them come to terms with their feelings. Not-aziraphale, meanwhile, has to deal with whoever heaven and hell send (Muriel was a good idea, I give the show that :3 ) and, worse, potential customers and generally running a bookshop, thus gaining a lot of insight into actual-aziraphale's (private-) life, leading to more respect for the angel, and general growth, because actual-crowley realizes how much the angel neglects actually living on earth for nothing but crowley's sake.

It all could end with a dramatic climax where both want to confess their feelings, but are interrupted by heaven and hell trying to kill them, managing only last second to swap bodies back, so the attack hits the one who's immune to it, before the metatron steps in, stops everyone and announces the second coming.

This COULD have easily been done with what they (cast and crew) had to our knowledge, and the Buddy Holly song would have genuinely been a countdown to something.

But as things are now there's not really any hope for s3 cause it just has no solid foundation for an actual story.

It's sobering. And as said in another post, if Neil would make it clear that all incarnations are legit, that would help take the sting out of it

#good omens #good omens critical

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