#i can't stop thinking about these stupid dead dragons

[limon-rat]

Help, I'm obessing over these stupid dead dragons

[anonymous-dentist]

Or: Soulmates share their dreams every night and can communicate in them, but it's Spiderbit

For day three of @smallchaoscryptid's Spiderbit Week - Soulmates

-

Dream One: How to Train Your Dragon

He blinks awake and finds himself far from the battlefield. His clothes are dry and not muddy, his skin is clean, his teeth feel dull in his mouth.

He's in a strange room: fireplace, stiff bed beneath him(but, really, any kind of bed is better than what he's had since the War started.) The smell of cooked fish.

He grimaces. He likes cooked flesh better, thanks.

This is a dream. He knows it's a dream, so he doesn't hesitate in hopping out of bed and stretching. There isn't a burn in his muscles, and the dull ache of his growing bones is finally gone. Heck yeah.

It's peaceful, in a way. Weird, but peaceful. Really disconcerting, but peaceful.

And then a monster screeches outside loud enough to shake the windowpanes.

He instinctively reaches for his sword, realizes that, right, dream. Of course he wouldn't have his sword in his dreams, that would be stupid.

He runs outside, anyway, because duh. If there's a monster, he wants to see it!

He sees the dragon first: large and yellow and missing one of its legs. It growls at him with a weird dragony smile, and he smiles back.

He sees the child second: short with messy hair and freckles. He gasps when he sees him and runs at him with a gap-toothed smile.

"Hi!" he chirps. He's speaking Portuguese, but that isn't what his mouth is saying. Dream stuff, huh, must be translating everything.

Neat.

"You're my soulmate, right?" the boy asks. He looks him over appraisingly. "You aren't that much older than me."

He scoffs, crosses his arms. "I'm literally so much older than you."

"Yeah? Well, how old are you, then?"

He blinks, throat dry. "I'm-" (He can't remember. But Bad always says that he looks to be about 13, so...) "-13. So I'm way older than you."

The boy puffs his chest out annoyedly. "Only by a few years. Screw you!"

The dragon flies off, bored. He would care more if there wasn't an annoying little kid in front of him pissing him off.

He takes an angry step forward, arms falling to his sides and hands balling into fists. He might not have his sword, but he can still beat up a kid easy.

"Screw you!" he shouts. "Get out of my dream! I wanna go hang out with the dragons."

"It's our dream, idiot," the kid huffs. "We're soulmates, duh. My grandpa says that everyone shares dreams with their soulmates, so we're obviously soulmates."

"What the fuck is a soulmate?"

The kid gasps, all anger pouring out of his tiny little body. "You don't know what a soulmate is?"

He doesn't know what his own name is, but he isn't exactly gonna tell some kid that.

He turns to leave and go find the dragon, but he's stopped by both of the kid's tiny hands grabbing his sleeve and pulling at him until he stays.

He turns to look at the kid, and the kid smiles and explains.

-

"Soulmates are, well, soulmates, okay? They're like super best friends, that's what my grandpa says. His soulmate is dead, but they still hang out in his dreams because that's where your soulmate lives until you find them. And after you find them, too, I think, but I dunno. He says he never met his soulmate before they died, but I think he's lying 'cause he's really silly sometimes."

"Okay, but. Us? You and me? You're a kid."

"You're a kid, too, you know."

"Nuh-uh. I'm a soldier."

"A kid soldier. But, anyway, we're soulmates! When we meet in the real world, we're gonna be best friends, I can tell!"

"Yeah? Well, don't be too sure. I don't do friends."

"Wow, you're emo."

"What the fuck did you just say to me?!"

-

Dream Thirty-Two: Cyberpunk

He laughs as he chases the kid through the slimy, neon-ridden back alleys of the city. He's on a motorcycle, because of course he is, but the kid is on foot.

"Just give up already!" he shouts.

The kid flips him off over his shoulder, grinning widely. He keeps tripping over his own shoelaces, because he's running like an idiot, but he's somehow still faster than the motorcycle.

He doesn't know the kid's name because the kid decided it wouldn't be fair to have a name when he doesn't know his own. Sweet kid. Shame he's annoying.

"Fuck you!" the kid replies. He then proceeds to trip over the cuff of his pants and fall right onto his face in a muddy puddle.

He cackles triumphantly and slows the bike to a stop. He hops off it and goes to poke at the kid until he gives up, but... but he's crying. Quietly, he's crying quietly, but his shoulders are shaking, and, oh, right, he's a child. He's the younger one.

His face falls. He kneels next to the kid and helps him sit up with a frown.

"Are you okay?" he asks.

The kid's lip wobbles, and his eyes shine, but he nods. "It's just a dream. It doesn't really hurt."

He isn't convinced, but, well. It is a dream. Nothing matters in a dream, right?

"Okay," he hesitantly says. "Come on, let's go play laser tag or something."

The kid's eyes light up. "Cool! I'm gonna kick your ass!"

"Oh, really?" he challenges. "You're on!"

And they run off, motorcycle forgotten.

-

"How did you beat me!?"

"I'm just a God Gamer, dude. Get on my level."

"You are so annoying."

-

Dream Seven Hundred and Fifty-Two: High School

"I think I'm going to give myself a name," he announces.

The kid's eyes widen. "Really? Took you long enough."

He rolls his eyes, but the kid isn't wrong. They've been meeting in their dreams for, what, two years? And they still don't have anything to call each other but "idiot" and "you" and "asshole".

But, well, it's about time, he thinks. The War is ending soon, he thinks. Bad says so, at least, and he's pretty good with knowing when things end.

With the War ending, he's going to have to go out into the "real world"... if he doesn't manage to follow Bad where he goes next. But where's the fun in that?

He shrugs. "I need a name. If I don't have one, I can't join the army."

"Why do you wanna join the army?"

"So I can keep killing people, duh. How else am I supposed to get food?"

"Uh, the store?"

"What's that?"

The kid rolls his eyes and pushes his shoulder. "You're literally stupid, what the heck?"

They're in some kind of food line, he thinks. They shuffle forward as the faceless teenagers in front of them get their trays and continue through the line.

He picks up his own tray and wrinkles his nose at the food he sincerely hopes isn't about to be placed on it. Where's the meat?

"What kind of name do you want?" the kid asks.

He's hit some kind of growth spurt, because he's finally up to his shoulder. Still short, though. Loser.

"Dunno," he responds. "I'll think of something later, probably."

-

"What about... Peter?"

"No."

"Miles."

"No."

"Miguel."

"No."

"Ben."

"No."

"You suck!"

-

Dream One Thousand and Ninety-Five: Mermaids

"Call me Cell," he says.

The kid- not quite a kid anymore, much closer to Cell's age when the soulmate dreams started- cocks his head curiously.

"Like, as in a cell phone?" he asks.

Cell grins as shark-like as the tail he's currently sporting.

"Exactly," he says.

The kid's eyes narrow. "Or, like in a prison cell. Did you kill someone again?"

"...Maybe, but-"

"Oh my God, how are we supposed to meet each other if you're in jail!"

The kid swims around in a frustrated circle around Cell, who just watches him, placid. Calm. Totally cool, definitely not at all sheepish over pissing his soulmate off.

That would be ridiculous.

Cell doesn't get sheepish, and he definitely doesn't feel regret. Not over some kid.

...Some kid who's his soulmate. They're best friends already, though, so he should be fine with Cell being stuck in prison for a bit.

Cell rolls his eyes and reaches out and grabs the kid and stops him from swimming. He looks him in the eyes, and he smiles, softer than intended. (He's Cell! He isn't soft. He's a killer!)

"Calm down," he drawls. "I'll be out of here before you know it."

"Really?" the kid asks. "Is your sentence that short?"

"Nah, I'm gonna break out."

He lets the kid go and starts swimming off in a random direction, not waiting for the kid to follow. (He does.)

"Must be a shitty prison, then," the kid comments.

"Trust me, I'll be out soon, and then I can try getting up to Mexico again to see you."

"Then I can teach you how to drive."

Cell flicks his tail at him annoyedly. "Shut up, I can already drive."

"No way."

"Yes way!"

They continue bickering and chasing each other through the coral until Cell feels consciousness tickling at him.

"Hey," he asks, "I told you my name. You tell me yours."

The kid smiles, and he does.

-

"My name is Roier."

"And my name is Cell."

"You already told me that, idiot."

"Oh, yeah."

-

Dream One Thousand, Eight Hundred, and Twenty-Seven: 1920s Mafia

Even in his dreams, he's dying. He's in a pool of his own blood with a couple dozen bullets plugged into his chest, but it doesn't hurt quite as much as the goddamn betrayal burning his skin from the inside out.

If he dies in the dream, he wakes up. Cell knows this, so he's more than a little annoyed about the whole dying thing. At least in his dreams, dying doesn't hurt.

The cops that killed him have already long gone. They may not have had faces, but Cell knows precisely who they looked like. All four of them were traitors, all four of them!

"Bastards," he spits. He groans as the movement of his tongue alone sets off flares of imaginary pain (because he can't feel pain in dreams, but he sure can imagine what it feels like) all throughout his body.

In the real world, he's starving to death in a cave. In the dream world, he's choking on his own blood.

Great.

His eyes slip closed, and he waits to wake up.

He doesn't react as a pair of heels click towards him.

"Cell?" Roier asks, but his voice is just the slightest bit off. But, then again, he is a teenager now. His voice is going to be doing all sorts of weird shit. "Oh my God, Cell! What the- hold on!"

Cell gasps as he's rolled onto his back. His eyes flutter open, and he sees... a girl? A girl in a really bad wig. With even worse makeup.

"Roier?" he mumbles. "What are you wearing?"

Roier looks down at himself- red sparkly dress and all- and blushes slightly. "I'm... trying something out. But what happened? You showed up in the dream and you ran off and I heard gunshots and you're so stupid, what the fuck?!"

He grits his teeth and smacks Cell lightly on the shoulder. But that's still enough to wrack Cell's body with pain.

"I'm sorry," he wheezes, eyes squinting closed once more. "I'm dying."

"It's a dream, Cell. I'm just pissed you're leaving this early. You just got here!"

"No, Roier. I'm dying. In the real world."

Roier goes quiet.

Cell swallows the blood in his throat and continues, "Pac and Mike and... and Guaxinim. They betrayed me. Left me on an island. I'm dying."

"You can't be," Roier faintly says. "We haven't met yet."

"Didn't your grandfather say he sees his soulmate in his dreams? We'll be fine."

"My grandpa is also senile. Cell, I- you're so stupid."

Something wet falls onto Cell's cheek, but it isn't rain. It never rains in dreams. It's always sunny.

Fuck. He made Roier cry. Maybe is a monster after all, and not in the good way.

The dream world starts dissolving, starting with Cell's fingertips. It... tingles.

Why can't real death be as soft?

-

"You better live, or... or I'll never talk to you again!"

"I... I'll try. Roier, I'll try."

-

Dream Two Thousand, Five Hundred, and Fifty-Five: My Little Pony

Tonight, he's a horse.

Why not.

It's his first dream in, what, two weeks? He hasn't slept long enough to dream. It's hard to sleep when all he sees until the dreams kick in is his own mistakes.

But, well. Cell turned 20 today (he thinks, he's still not sure about his actual age), and Felps got him drunk to celebrate. Drunk means sleepy, and sleepy means dreams, and dreams mean-

"Roier!" he calls, running through the streets of the pony town desperately. "I made it!"

Roier knows that he's been having trouble sleeping since his whole moral dilemma thing started after Alcatraz. He doesn't quite get it, but he's trying, and that's all that matters, right?

None of the faceless ponies pay Cell any attention as he goes, but that's fine. Fuck them. He promised his best friend that they'd see each other, and they're going to see each other.

He doesn't have to look too far, thankfully, because, a few moments in, a blazing red blur bolts out of the sky and tackles Cell to the ground.

"Happy birthday!" Roier exclaims.

He grins, wings flaring behind him. What's this called, a pegasus?

Roier's eyes widen, and his jaw drops in shock. "What the fuck, you're a unicorn? Lucky!"

Cell tries looking at his own horn, going so far as to go cross-eyed, but all he manages to do is make himself look goofy.

It makes Roier laugh, at least. That's good. He's been having... a rough time, Cell thinks. He's been quieter when they have been able to meet up. Something about his brother leaving to go to college: a child prodigy gone to an exclusive university and leaving his twin behind.

Cell can't imagine what it would be like to have a twin. Weird, right? Someone that looks just like him but is different? Yeah, no thanks.

(He gave up on any ideas of family a long time ago. Thinking about whoever he had before the War just makes him sad.)

"You're red," Cell intelligently says.

"And you're green. You look like shit."

Cell bites Roier's ear and smiles as Roier lets out an exaggerated scream.

"Missed you," Cell says, and he means it.

"Yeah, well, I didn't miss you at all," Roier sniffs.

But Cell doesn't believe him at all.

-

"I still can't believe your brother's name is Doied."

"Our parents weren't very original."

"Maybe you should do what I did and just pick a name."

"Fuck you, man, I like my name!"

"Lucky. I wish I could change mine. It's too... heavy."

"I mean, you already did it once. Just do it again."

"...You're right."

"I usually am."

-

Dream Four Thousand, Seven Hundred, and Forty-Eight: Medieval

Cellbit hasn't seen Roier for days, and he's maybe starting to freak out. Maybe. Just a little.

Just before he'd disappeared, Roier had mentioned winning some kind of lottery. He was excited, and Cellbit was excited for him. He'd been looking for his asshole twin brother for years, he deserved a break.

But then the break happened.

And Roier hasn't slept since, apparently.

But Cellbit sleeps every night, anyway, even if he'd much rather be spending his nights trying to figure out where the fuck his soulmate went. Because Roier's... Roier is his soulmate. They've been sharing dreams for thirteen years now, they're best friends, and Cellbit is dying without him.

Tonight's dream has Cellbit in a knight's costume drinking flavorless alcohol in a bar. Nothing has tasted right since Roier has disappeared.

He isn't dead, at least. If he was dead, then he would be in the dreams. So he's just... not sleeping. Somewhere. Somewhere not sleeping.

Cellbit's hand shakes with rage and fear as he raises his cup to his lips.

He isn't a killer anymore. Well, he is, but he only kills animals now. He's a butcher, but not in the serial killer way. In the... in the butcher way.

(His hands itch for more blood, but he's been trying to do better.

He can't meet Roier if he's in prison, after all.)

It's as he's drinking that the bar's door slams open and stumbling in comes Roier in fancy robes with a gold crown perched on top of his head.

Cellbit drops his cup and immediately gets off of his stool to rush to Roier's side.

"Roier, what the fuck?" he demands. "Where have you been?"

He pulls Roier into a tight hug, mindful of his armor.

God, is he crying? How embarrassing, but Roier's seen worse from him.

But:

"I'm sorry, who are you?" Roier asks.

And Cellbit's heart drops.

Roier wriggles free and looks Cellbit over. This... this can't be Roier, can it? Because there's no recognition in his eyes as he looks at Cellbit, and no slight blush as Cellbit looks at him.

Roier gasps. "Oh, wow. Are you my soulmate?"

Cellbit's eyes sting. "I- yes, Roier, are you alright?"

"I'm fine. Kinda annoyed that you took so long, though."

Roier smacks Cellbit's shoulder.

Cellbit can't breathe.

"I'm 21, motherfucker!" Roier shouts. "What took you so long!"

"I've been here," Cellbit faintly says. "Roier, I've been here. What happened to you? You said you- you got invited to some island? And then you disappeared? What happened?"

Something sparks behind Roier's eyes, but it's gone as fast as it appears.

"I've been alone for years!" Roier exclaims. He groans and runs his hands through his hair, almost knocking the crown off his head. "God, what is Spreen going to think?"

"Spreen? Who's Spreen?"

And then Roier blushes, and he grins, and Cellbit feels sick to his goddamn stomach.

"Spreen is my best friend," Roier tells him, and Cellbit wants to kill.

-

"Where are you? In the real world?"

"On the island. Where are you? Maybe Osito Bimbo can bring you or something. We have train stations, there's gotta be special tickets for soulmates."

"I'm in Brazil. What island?"

"Quesadilla Island, of course."

-

Reality: Day One

Cellbit's head is killing him. Fucking... what happened? He can't... he can't remember...

"Cellbit, you doing okay?" Felps asks.

He seems fine, sitting on the ground and not at all caring about the literal shipwreck they're stuck in.

"Oh, sure, as Cellbit if he's doing okay," Mike scoffs. He's still not over the whole prison thing, but he'd been angry enough when hearing about Cellbit's soulmate being kidnapped to help kickstart the whole rescue mission.

What a good friend.

Pac rolls his eyes. "He's literally bleeding, Mike. Look at him!"

Oh, shit, is Cellbit bleeding?

He raises a hand to his head; it comes away bloody, oh.

At least it's stopped raining outside. Cellbit can't see much, trapped with the others in what might be some kind of office space just below-deck. But he can't hear the rain anymore, and he can't hear any thunder.

"I'm fine," he sighs. "I've had worse. We should-"

He's cut off by a shout from outside.

Pac's eyes widen comically. "This island is occupied?"

Apparently so, because in comes a whole stream of people through a single door inlaid in the far wall. Tall man in what has to be anime cosplay, slightly shorter man covered in... green goo? Woman in purple. Man in bucket hat. And...

Cellbit's eyes meet Roier's, and the world slots into place around them.

Cellbit stumbles up to the glass wall and presses his hands against it. So close...

Roier is much more hesitant to approach (he still hasn't found that Spreen guy yet, of course he's hesitant...), but he offers Cellbit a small, genuine smile.

(He's so much more handsome in person, what the fuck? When did this happen? He was shorter than Cellbit just a moment ago, he swears.)

"Finally," Cellbit breathes.

The crowd around them is drowned out by the sound of Roier's voice as he says, awed-sounding, "You actually came for me."

"Of course I did," Cellbit replies. He smiles. "We're soulmates, aren't we?"

Tears well up in Roier's eyes- happy tears, Cellbit knows him well enough to be able to tell the different by now.

And then the door opens.

[kerubimcrepin]

LIVEBLOG: Wakfu Season 4, Episode 12

I will be honest: if Joris started seriously using this thing he would simply get scared like "WHAT IF I AM GOING TO DIE ON ACCIDENT AND NOT NOTICE DOING TOO MUCH". Also, his pride wouldn't allow him to overindulge.

What I'm getting at, is that his usage of this thing is literally the most in-character, funniest thing that he could have possibly done.

Yes. It's the demons again. I don't actually have anything to add. He looked pretty.

>touch eldritch artifact that feeds on life energy to make people powerful >use it to enhance your nonexistent magical huppermage abilities that were killed both by lack of education and the fact you have a weird fucking dragonized body to summon a tresstump magic wand from a different country >stop using eldritch artifact in any way Literally nobody does it like him. I can just hear him praying that nobody notices or thinks he's weird. But I do. I do.

...If he didn't have The Stump on his mind, he probably wouldn't have stepped anywhere close to this thing.

I thought about how many times Joris has probably had to read out war speeches, to be able to pull something this good sounding out with no preparation, and got a bit sick in the head.

There is nobody better to read out a speech like this, I think. I don't have any thoughts because I am now clinically insane.

At this point, they have discussed the plan for infiltrating the Necro world.

And I keep thinking about the fact that, Just like everyone in this place, Joris has a family to return to and protect (<- taking poison damage actively) and that Joris, like everyone else, is distinctly aware that if they die — not only will their loved ones be sad, they'll also be dead as well.

I really like this little moment of "I really hope you know what you're doing (I don't know what we're doing, and I'm scared)" and the way his voice sounds worried...

I can read complex emotional motivations into ANY Joris dialogue. Just watch me. The worms inside my brain guide me.

The little nod as their plan commences...

If Joris + Sword = Atchan behaviour, then Joris + his stupid log = Kerubim behaviour... From his full-front and full-back pirouettes, to the way he holds positions himself.

As I've said, while it might not be Ankama's intention even now, Joris's fighting style has always resembled Kerubim and Atcham a lot. Which would fit, considering they were probably the ones to actually teach him to fight. (However, by now, I'd be sad if it wasn't their intention...)

Though in the original movie scripts, I'm pretty sure it was Kerubim was the one who actually gave him the log and taught him to use it... So, maybe my jokes about Joris's style in the first seasons are actually pretty-on point and Joris's fighting style has always been based off his?

Whatever the fuck is going on with Joris and Kerubim's bond is at this point, like, written in the fabric of the universe. It's a big comfort to know that the one and only reason I began liking Joris as a character (that reason being his relationship with Kerubim) has always existed in some way

...Ankama please make Kerubim teaching Joris to use the log as a weapon canon already! For years, even before researching movie history, my headcanon has been "Kerubim asked Joris what weapon he'd like to learn to use first — expecting the answer to be something like "a staff" or "a wand" due to Joris's lineage... and Joris responded with "yours :) blunt damage to the bones yippie" which was unexpected but pleasant."

I'm fucking crazy you know. Yugo took Joris's hit... The way Joris softly says "Yugo! :(". The way he immediately rushes at Toross... Friendship is so real and poignant.

Joris "I can't show people they're getting under my skin or that I'm uncomfortable bc that's a sign of weakness" Jurgen saying this is just. you know that he's just fucked. that he's stressed out. and maybe scared of dying. if he was feeling normal, he would not fucking say this.

He probably means this in a "you're not even the 1238423th person that I outlived and defeated to try and get at me like this" but it comes across as "I'm so tired of it".

He's always been disrespected. No matter how hard he tries or how hard he works, everyone just treats him like a child, calls him a little guy at best, a midget at worst — even if he is a politican, even if he is 600 years old. Every person that doesn't know him tutoyers him. Even his family sometimes treats him like a child — albeit for different reasons.

He has 20 mental illnesses, and half of them would be solved by indiscriminately shooting anyone who calls him "petit" or "nabot" or "garçon" with a gun.

[walks into the sea]

On the first watch-through, I genuinely cheered and clapped. Ya!!

Kill him Joris. Kill him and be reborn as a lotus flower.

:(

[bookishpower]

Helaena's Choice

I'm seeing some confusion and anger about Helaena's behavior during the Blood and Cheese scene, and to be fair, I understand it. The thing you've got to understand is that first, it goes down a lot differently in the books - they cut one of Helaena and Aegon's children from the show entirely, who is also murdered in the Blood and Cheese scene.

But for the love of baby dragons, have some sympathy for our girl Helaena.

It is definitely a kind of Sophie's Choice in the book and here, but because of the dialogue leading up to this scene, I think there's a lot of logic behind Helaena's decision, if logic can ever be applied to such a choice.

Aegon swans into his wife/sister's rooms looking for their son. Helaena rightly asks why he would want to bring Jaehaerys into a Small Council meeting, and that he's at his lessons. Aegon says that he needs to begin training the boy to become a king, to which Helaena asks if Jaehaerys gets a choice in the matter. Aegon brushes her off, even when she confides that she's very afraid of rats.

Helaena's gift/curse of premonition is right next to her knowledge of how terribly things go in this world, and how few choices are available. She's also aware that her daughter, Jaehaera, isn't even a consideration due to her sex. Helaena herself doesn't have many choices - she had to marry her brother and couldn't even choose which one.

In horrible irony, Helaena really hasn't been able to make any choices that mattered in her entire life - right up until she's offered the worst choice by Blood and Cheese.

Therefore, when a knife is at her neck that night and she's told to tell them which is the boy, she has to make a decision. It's also a decision that, if she chooses to try to deceive them, could be quickly found out - Blood and Cheese don't want to wake the children to check their assigned gender, but nothing's stopping them from checking after the first one is dead, and moving on to the second. She's not stupid, either - if Blood and Cheese made it this far into her quarters, there can't be any guards within screaming distance. And indeed, when she's carrying Jaehaera out, we see that that's the case. If she started screaming, Blood and Cheese would likely kill both children and then quickly flee.

Additionally, this is the Game of Thrones world - if Helaena managed to save Jaehaerys by sacrificing Jaehaera, he'd be no safer than before. He'd still be a target for assassination. He’s the heir - there’s always going to be a target on his back. But the Greens seem to have a particular disdain for the leadership of women. If Helaena has the opportunity to save one of her children, why not the one that actually has a chance at making it out alive? (I think the line that she has is very telling - "They killed the boy" - she's saying that they killed the one who will matter to the Greens in terms of dynastic importance)

I'm just saying - Helaena is in a horrible position even before Blood and Cheese show up. She's offered the Sophie's choice dilemma, and does the best she can with the information she has.

It's a choice no mother should have to make - both "Sophie's Choice" and "Fire and Blood" were pretty clear on. Ease up off our poor girl, eh?

[bingeeaterblog]

RE TOUKEN REWRITE

Starting this by saying, this is gonna be messy and not super in depth. Just a timeline of things I think should've or could've been done differently. You're still allowed to enjoy original re touken this is just how I would've liked to see it.

Dragon kaneki also doesn't happen because I think that was a stupid arc didn't make sense

So I'm just gonna be vague about that kaneki will be injured and missing that whole shabang

And all those people died because of war the ccg vs ghouls lead by aoigiri(all started by kaneki so he gets that good sexy guilt for the death of thousands of people without the butchering of ghoul biology) this is actually an idea I've had for awhile but that's for another time

I will make a post on what I think would've worked better

Touka thinks kanekis dead, that during the owl extermination he was put down. she creates re in hopes of helping ghouls just like yoshimura did.

We start off with Haise and Toukas first meeting, him and quinx are coming in to re. Touka sees them, Haise sees touka. The whole crying thing happens but not how it actually happened. Toukas too overwhelmed... he's not dead? Yomos the one who has to serve them. Haise can tell he's tense, curious but he doesn't ask. Why was that girl so .. familiar?

Haise begins frequenting re, out of pure curiosity and well the coffees great. Toukas collected enough to actually see him this time, she smiles and puts up that sweet catering waitress front. She's.. confused.. it's obvious he doesn't remember her but .. why? What happened during the time he completely disappeared? Why is he a dove? Her anger is overtaken by this wonder. For the time being.

Haises sweet and is very subtly flirting. He is DISGUSTINGLY bad at it and all touka can think is "yeah .. that's kaneki alright."

She speaks to nishio about this and he tells her his encounter with him. Talks about the freak out he had, the moment of clarity. Touka hopes there's still a way to bring him back ..

Touka doesn't actively seek out haise, him coming to re is enough. It's like seeing the corpse of a man you once loved being dragged along by a parasite. While she does enjoy his visits it leaves her tense, aching for the kaneki she once knew. The green haired boy with the eypatch reminds her of him... The soft nervous smile just his behavior felt like kaneki just... Different... Tooru was his name? She can't recall

Something in haise makes him /ache/ for touka, that familiar pouty face just makes something inside him stir. They yearn for each other

"Meeting" haise has given her a new insight on the doves, she doesn't know how to feel about this.

Part of her wants to hate him, he's the sole reason he's like this now because he wanted to be a "hero" wanted to save everyone. But she also knows haise isn't to blame for that, she also knows haise isn't supposed to even exist. It's conflicting, so many emotions with no way to express them.

She thinks of Ayato, someone who also left her alone... Was he also trying to protect her? What about hinami? Why can't anyone just stay with her?

Eventually... Haise stops showing up at re. It brings touka to a state of deep sorrow, anger, and calm. Shes worried for him, but not having him around anymore is sort of peaceful... She doesn't need to think about him, but she does anyways, that's all Touka does . Think and long for a past where anteiku stood, where yoshimura was in the backroom, where kaneki was still kaneki and hinami was still small. Where she wasn't so alone

She doesn't want him to come back, it'll only make things harder.(She definitely does want him)

Touka... Begins to move on? Sure she's always thinking of him and tsukiyamas intrusion didn't help but... She's learning to live again. She's sad but.. content she helps the ghouls that come in with their wounds or their hunger. She's even looking into going to college, something she always wanted to do and almost actually got to do before.. everything. Her love for biology never faded just got put on pause. Maybe she could look back into it! Or.. wait for kaneki a little longer.. just a little longer.

Ever since he "came back" she's realized how dearly she missed him. She was fine (?) when she thought he was dead why couldn't he have just...no no she could never wish that.

We are now at the tsukiyama family raid, while I have my problems with this, overall I think it was one of res peaks, only saying this so you are up to date on what point in the story we're at.

When kaneki finally wakes up, he thinks of his goal, the one goal that stayed even during his dormancy. To protect the people he loves. With haise asleep he can do that. To protect hinami... Shuu... Touka . He won't fail them like he did Hide.

And apparently shirazu? I guess😭

Black reaper is here, and boy is he overcompensating, the tough guy act is back . He's cold. He's mean. He "nearly" kills eto, someone he was actually supposed to save. And.. part of him... does? I don't know what that whole deal was don't ask me it's still confusing this is all canon here I am so confused about the black reaper vs eto fight yk what? Bad time back to touken rewrite back to non canon that should be canon

He throws shuu off a fucking roof yeah that happens I guess maybe it was a last ditch effort to save him. do I really have cover all this I don't think so actually but whatever his resolve his back the savior complex is back full force you get it

When touka sees kaneki again, after he's got hinami, she's angry. She knows kanekis back, nows her chance to finally get out that frustration. It's a bad time, not now... She pushed down her rage. "I'll see you." Not knowing kaneki intends to die by the hands of his father, Arima. Touka intends to see him later, to finally give him a piece of her mind. Oh tragic doomed lovers

During him and Arimas fight, all he thinks of is his friends, the people he needs to protects. Especially Touka, her words run through his head "I'll see you". I'll see you.

After his internal talk with "Hide" he realizes, he wants to live. "You just haven't found a reason to live, you'll find one in no time" and he had.. he just hadn't realized before.. he wants to live for everybody,, for touka.

If you noticed, not much has changed for black reaper and Touka

That's because I really love them for the most part, touka has been watered down but not nearly as much as she is in later parts of the story. This is where we fall out of canon touken almost entirely, because this is where my real problems with it start. Not just my problems with Touka.

After arimas death, Kaneki his heir, becomes the new one eyed king. Yomo and ayato had gotten hinami safely back to re. Touka stays behind to look for Kaneki. He wants to apologize but he's met with a clean punch to the face, just like the first time he left. Touka screams at him, unleashing all sorts of anger that she had kept bottled up

Using her kagune she slices at him, eventually they end up on the ground. Her hands are wrapped firmly around his neck not quite choking. She begins to cry, her grip softening as she crumbles before him. He sweetly holds her face with a hand and gives a pathetic "I'm sorry."

They stumble back to the coffee shop leaving cochlea, on the way kaneki tells touka about the quinx, his time at the ccg. He's filling the empty silence as touka just ignores him. She's still angry.

"Why did... You leave." It's asked in a sad voice, she's gritting her teeth with clenched fists.

"I thought it'd be best, I wanted to protect you, hide,, everyone at anteiku. It's what I had to do to get stronger"

"So you push me away? You take Tsukiyama with you?? But not me?"

"You had your studies"

"You know damn well that's not the reason! You thought I was weak!" She slams a fist against the door. Her tears are starting back up again.

"I didn't think you could.. I didn't want.. I was trying to protect you" he tries to reason, he really doesn't wanna do this now.

"You're selfish. You're still that fucking book nerd from before! Now you're trying to be someone you're not!'

She'd grab him by the collar of his shirt, kaneki doesn't fight it. He places a relaxed hand over her tense ones. They walk back into re.

A month has passed, just trying to recollect. He and many others are staying at the most notable being hinami and ayato. Nishio frequently visits. The air between touka and kaneki is thick but, there's an understanding. She knows why he left, she doesn't like it but she understands

Kaneki gets why she's upset, he hates to see her sad.

She makes him coffee for the first time since he was Sasaki, now he can truly appreciate how good it is, now he can truly appreciate her. Re is lovely, it feels like anteiku, like home. Touka outdid herself.

Touka talks about random things, trying to fill the air. It's weird having him again, she's trying to make it a new normal.

"Are you.. really back, kaneki?" An affirming nod is all Touka needs. It honestly makes her mad, makes her wanna hit him again, but she doesn't. She wants to learn to forgive.

(In canon touka DOES hit him here but like, then she's over it??? Like huh??? I thought that was stupid I want her to hold some real resentment not just hit him once and be over everything)

Kaneki starts "GOAT" which is STEWPID it's a stupid name that's not relevant I just wanna say it's stupid. Also to clarify the timeline again

Kanekis is sweet on her, and Toukas sweet on him. Situations are dire but they still make time to flirt... poorly. Kaneki smiling like an idiot and touka staring at her feet with a nervous blushed look. It's weird, they're both new to relationships, sure toukas been in a couple flings that last 4 months at most but never a real relationship. They're not dating but,, it's more than just old friends.

When touka asks to talk to him later kaneki assumes it's something about the mission, or something about the ccg

"So have you uh.. done it yet" She asks. Did he forget something?

"Done what?"

Her face is red

"Like,, y'know..."

"I knowww what?"

Touka looks frustrated after that, oh dear what as he done this time.

"Sex."

"Ah." Kaneki nearly spills his coffee

"Why do you uh.. ask."

Touka hides her face in her hand "whatever just.- forget it you wouldn't wanna be up for it anyways too much shit going on ha" she nervous laughs, avoiding eye contact.

Ohh.. kaneki gets it. Wait.

"No no now you have to tell me" he eggs on

Touka shakes her head, mouth firmly shut.

"Cmonn!!"

"I wanted to know if you'd like wanna do it with me which I mean you obviously dontcauselikeyeah no thatssoweird I'm so weird for asking" she begins to ramble clearly embarrassed

Her gibberish speech is stopped by a hand gently holding hers

"I really like you Touka."

She freezes.

Touka doesn't even have time to say it back before there's a short peck on her lips

Her eyes focus on kaneki, his face most likely redder than hers

"Was that.. bad?" Toukas both dying internally and cheering a mix of LETS FUCKING GOOOO and OH MY GOD NOOO Is the best way I can describe it.

"Remember when,, you said you'd be sad if I died" it's a distant memory but he nods

"I think that's when... I started to. Like you." Her sentence has pauses, she finally looks him in the eyes again.

Their moment is disrupted by a CCG raid led by tooru. Touka rushes into help, she's lost him once there's no way she'll let it happen again.

Res raid happens in a flash

After all that is said and done

He talks about hide, says all he wanted was to see him, touka can empathize. She misses Yoriko more than anything.

Toukas the one who initiates the kiss, they fall into the room together with messy kisses and promises to never leave each other again are prominent. Fingers digging into soft skin is welcomed it's all toukas wanted since she can remember

"Stay with me,, stay with me.." and "I love yous" are all that can be heard. They're close but not close enough all either of them want is to melt together as one. Then.. there's a bite.

Touka sinks her teeth into the nape of his neck, solidifying them together. He won't leave again, he promised. They'll keep each other safe.

They watch Yorikos wedding from afar, she longs to be there with her. She would've made such a good maid of honor. All kaneki can think about is when he's finally gonna get to marry touka.

Touka begins to wear her father's ring around her neck more frequently, starting to imagine a future with kaneki. Maybe he'll wear it someday, if he'll have her.

Days or weeks pass, touka feels sick to her stomach? She's worried she's... Late. Now would be a shitty time to be pregnant huh? It may just be stress. Looking back probably should've used protection.

Huddled in a bathroom holding a now used pregnancy test waiting for results.

Negative.

She's both relieved, and disappointed. Mostly relieved. There's time for that later. This scare only fuels her want to have a family with kaneki, one day. Just not yet.

She doesn't tell kaneki about it, another time.

Their time planning isn't left without kisses and reassurances that everything will be okay. Sometimes kaneki will get too stressed out and touka, oh touka you've never been good at comforting will /demand/ him to calm down. It ends with kaneki laughing and "that's not how that works!" and touka playfully pushing him away.

At some point they're sitting together, touka lazily resting against his shoulder.

"Thought I was pregnant.."

Kanekis heart sinks

"Are you?"

"No.. but I'd like to be, some point maybe.." it's grumbled and she's pulling away. Kaneki gently squeezes her hand

"We'll get there at some point" it's said with a sweet smile

"Dyknow how ghouls get married?"

Kaneki shakes his head. Toukas finger trails along that bite mark on his neck.

"A bite. Sorry, should've asked you.. heat of the moment"

Suddenly they're moving, kanekis, hands on her shoulders as he leans down

"Will you have me?"

"Always" she somehow stammers out and he reciprocates the mark on her, teeth sinking in almost feels like a prayer.

There's no wedding ceremony, that won't be for awhile. But it's good to know they have each other. Just in case they don't get the chance to.

Here's where we really get off canon

There's a war, it's started by kaneki and furuta slipping up and saying something wrong to mutsuki I won't get into the details but it's all their mother fucking fault furutas the main cause he's instigating BLAH BLAH BLAH

People die he's missing it's essentially ccg vs aoigiri and ghouls in general I hate the dragon arc I told you this would happen you were warned Im not going into details because this is about touken not the general story of re and what I would do to fix it

There's a search for kaneki, the ccg needs to find him for execution and the ghouls need to find him cuz duh he's their leader the one eyed king

Touka talks with hide on the roof (he's back now whatever I just didn't mention it assume things I don't mention are just stuff that happen in re you fill in the blanks)

They both talk about their love for him, there's an understanding, fighting to save someone who you're not sure you actually can save. Two sides of the same coin. Toukas almost mad he stole kanekis first kiss.

He's found half death buried beneath a sea of bodies, touka pulls him out. She can barely hear a heart beat, what did you do kaneki... He's dying, touka drags his almost lifeless body out. His body oh God his BODY has been slowly being consumed by his kakuja, it covers his face his chest. It's trying to eat to heal not knowing the damage it's causing.

There is no life in this city aside from touka and the dying light in her arms. She won't give up she can't now, they still have to have a family

Kanekis brought to a room, in a dazed rc cell deficient coma

The ccg is on hold with their plans of execution, they'll wait for him to wake up. Not sure if he ever will

Touka is at his bed side when he finally wakes, instinctively enveloping him in a hug she makes demands of "don't you ever scare me like that again" with eyes full of tears, probably got a lil snot on him too ugly crying, she offers him her father's ring, which he accepts.

There's kakuja scars lining down his body now, but it's good to be alive.

With the war still raging and furuta as it's lead there has to be something done but . There's good news for once

Kaneki learns that hides alive, he wants to see him. Kaneki meets with hide and that whole scene doesn't change cuz I love it

Kaneki, now fully healed needs to finish what he started.

Whole furuta vs the ccg fight yada yada yada it ends with a peace treaty between ghouls and humans you don't care you came for touken and I don't care I came to talk about touken

With furuta dead, the world at peace, they can finally do what they always wanted.

In the epilogue, there's a gathering at the kaneki house, the wedding was years before and isn't shown. Everyone they knew is there, and there's a small figure being held by Touka, a smiling baby girl named Ichika after kanekis mother. She's beautiful with dark purple roots like touka with white filling the rest like kanekis. Touka went back to school and became a biologist, working on ghouls and figuring out how they all work. Kaneki became a middle ground ghouls and humans, the ambassador of both sides. Finally having the family they've always wanted. It's a beautiful day.

This should not be as long as it is, I'm so sorry it's still a rough draft of what I actually would've wanted😭

And to clarify some of the war stuff I will cover how I think that arc should've went in a different post so I'm sorry if things are confusing fill in the blanks with stuff already from re

I reread re in a DAY to write this and looking back re touken is not as bad as I remembered. It's just ... Bland.. a nothing sandwich with a side of water. But that's me being mean sorry they do have some cute moments

Thank you for sitting through this incomprehensible ramble with many many plot holes but those aren't relevant it's a touken centric post not the general story!!! Thank you I'm Cody!!

[bitter-panacea]

Untitled post wakfu Alternate Universe

In this au, Arty doesn't get resuscitated by the gods after his sacrifice. Instead his soul is allowed to return to his dofus and he is reborn as Ignmikhal much later, losing his humanity and his memory in the process.

Since then, Goultard has repressed A LOT of memories and feelings to be able to handle life and to keep on living as normally as possible after the events of the dofus manga. He could simply have not functioned otherwise. His mind had to in order to protect itself.

The wide majority of his memories regarding the Symbiote and Arty (both are intrinsically linked since Arty freed Goultard) being repressed created a new personality/alter in Goultard's system, Vanya, that holds onto these erased memories and embodies the trauma that resulted from being with the Symbiote for around 1400 years, as well as the trauma of losing Arty.

By now, Arty is just a very vague memory, more of a feeling to him than a person Goultard actually remembers... Arty is the fire that burns in his chest and makes him keep going, not give up. The light of a dead star thousands of light years away still reaching him to guide him through the darkest nights. A sort of incorporeal guardian angel. But remembering him truly and acknowledging the loss would break Goultard.

The premise of this au is that a catalyst event (I have two possible ideas but can't decide which one I like more) abruptly forces Goultard to face painful forgotten memories and emotions, awakening Vanya (who he had no idea existed).

Here's an older post about Vanya. (Not pictured in the post is the Symbiote introject who inhabits him.)

He manages to stop him from completely taking over, but barely. (Possibly ends up seriously endangering his friends because of it). He's going through intense flashbacks and is flooded with unbearable emotions. He's hopeless but his sick mind tells him the only thing that can cure him is the crimson dofus. He goes alone to find Ignemikhal.

Having to face him, seeing that the dragon doesn't recognize him, clearly doesn't know who he is, that there isn't any Arty left in him, makes him go berserk and they fight. Just like during their very first fight, Ignemikhal/Arty has the upper hand. Vanya, losing, too exhausted and hopeless to keep fighting, gives up and let's the dragon start eating him, slowly killing him. While this happens, the crimson dofus (or rather Arty's soul and essence subsisting inside it), through Goultard's inner world/headspace, tries to communicate with its former guardian and forever loyal friend. Goultard, drowning in his own mind, grabs onto Arty's spirit and refuses to let him go.

A mix of Goultard's divine powers, his utter despair, and Arty's desire to help Goultard, creates an energy surge that essentially short-circuits and rewrites the crimson dofus' programming, forcing back his past incarnation by force. Bringing arty back.

They both get rescued and brought back home by the tofu brotherhood.

Arty is back but some things seem different about him. He has more control over his powers, he has an easier time using them than before. But has a much harder time controlling his draconic nature, behaving in very "animalistic" ways by moment. Struggling to understand and/or suppress new confusing urges. He has more draconic features physically as well. He's kept a few memories from other incarnations (before and after him) and also remembers sensations from when he was "inside the crimson dofus". He remembers feeling Goultard's presence, his heartbeat, his emotions, his warmth, when he was inside him.

Goultard is seriously injured after his fight with the dragon. He keeps the crimson dofus in him. According to him it helps him "stay stable and stop Vanya from taking over". Is this real or is it just what he thinks? Who knows.

All of this means some of the people who know about this are very much against it, and think whatever Goultard did to make that happen was an unbelievably stupid mistake.

Goultard still seems very unstable (he is, Vanya does come back when Gou is going through intense emotions, sometimes co-fronting with him.) And letting him have the crimson dofus could turn out to be extremely dangerous. But it belongs to Arty and it's his decision to let Goultard have it.

Some of them also really don't trust Arty and think he could be dangerous as well.

Most importantly, Goultard and Arty are now both tethered to the crimson dofus. Nobody knows exactly what it entails since this has never happened before. And it's gonna take them a while to understand and learn to control this new power. The crimson dofus being "reprogramed" by force could be terrible and risk affecting the balance of the universe that the dofus are supposed to keep.

Arty doesn't feel comfortable with most people calling him Arty. Calling him his "human name" is reserved to only a few people he fully trusts, it's sort of a privilege (Gou obviously, and later Kerubim because he was a friend of Crail, maybe some other people as they get to know one another.) Others call him Ignemikhal or just Mikha for short.

Arty, as well as his new dragon related issues, has to deal with the fact he was basically dead for around 650 years. The world has drastically changed. Which makes him realize how little he knew it. (They go looking for Crail's farm where arty grew up but the land it used to be on has long been covered by the sea after the flood). Almost nobody remembers or even knows that he destroyed Bonta and the same thing is true for how Goultard's reputation has changed over the centuries. Their fight against the Cornu and Arty's sacrifice have almost been lost to history (it isn't common knowledge at all) and the statue built in their honor has long been replaced by something else. Goultard tries to sound optimistic about it (although he himself despises immortality) and calls it a second chance. But Arty sees it in a much more nihilistic way. He's now acutely aware of his immortality, and that oblivion is inevitable.

Everyone he knew and cared about except for Gou is now dead. Which makes him realize how few people he knew and cared about. He hoped Goultard would have known at least a little about what happened to the other guardians. But he disappeared and never saw or heard from them again after Arty's sacrifice. All he knows is they all went their own way (except for Dodge and Ejipe who stayed together). Thinking about Lily being all on her own after his death breaks Arty's heart. Goultard starts acting weird every time Lily is mentioned.

Goultard is extremely upset about the distance that slowly grew between him and Arty after they formed the guardians, when Arty started showing more attention and affection to Lily, and less to him.

The last moments they spent together before Arty's death left a very bittersweet taste to Goultard. He can't help but think Arty was ultimately going to abandon him for Lily but died before he could. His feelings of dependency on arty and his attachment and abandonnent issues are back and he struggles to keep them in check.

This eventually leads to conflict as Arty gets increasingly more annoyed and confused at Goultard's behavior. Who refuses to explain until confronted.

Kerubim and Arty form a very cute bond. Kerubim is overjoyed to finally meet Crail's grandson and loooves telling Arty old stories about him and Crail, their old master Nabur, and the other guardians. With Kerubim's help, they find out more about Lily. Who after taking the ivory dofus back to Bonta, decided to become an huppermage and dedicated her life to protecting Bonta and the ivory dofus. Her and Jahash knew each other well and she was a kind of mentor to him.

Goultard can't move on and heal from what he went through in the past until he accepts and confesses his true feelings for Arty. After it finally happens, Gou and Vanya "absorb" each other, integrating.

Arty and Gou have gained new abilities thanks to their connection with their dofus. They can sometimes communicate telepathically, and feel each others emotions. They also have the ability to fuse (steven universe style lmao).

[vaxyl]

Thinking about a world where Vax'ildan accidentally made a deal with Orthax instead of The Matron of Ravens, leading to his steady corruption.

Vax is better at hiding his possession initially than Percy was on the account that Vax's whole job is pretending to not exist so he can do things people don't usually approve of without being caught doing it.

Maybe he doesn't even realise what he's done at first, he dons the armour fully believing that it's the Matron he's sworn himself to and life goes on otherwise unchanged by this moment, ignoring the extra white in Vex'ahlia's hair and the anger Vax now harbours towards Percy, which is honestly a relief giving how they still have dragons to kill.

Then, one night, he's assaulted with a horrifying nightmare where he relives every awful thing that's happened to him.

He can feel the pain, the fear, the anger, and the grief all over again as if it was real...

Then it changes, and he's surrounded by the corpses of everyone has ever loved;

His mother, both of his sisters, Devanna, Thorn, Vox Machina, Cassandra, Gilmore, Allura, Kima, Jarett... Everyone.

Twisted, bloodied, bruised...

Glaring at him in their death...

Torn apart... Viscera covering everything including Vax.

And he's terrified, screaming for an out - he doesn't want this, why is this happening, somebody make it stop!

Then there's smoke and sulfur.

His feathered mantle is set alight and it burns, ash falling all around Vax as he crumbles.

Then there's a voice, a voice that's familiar but not.

"What would you give?"

He doesn't know what to say, what would he even recieve?

"In exchange for their safety, what would you sacrifice?"

And now he is at a loss.

Vax'ildan knows better than to make deals with a demon, or with anyone in a position of authority or power over you.

But he's scared, his sister died and they're all going to die and none of it is worth it but everything is worth them-

He's so tired. He's so, so tired.

He asks what it would have?

He sees the jagged orange glass grin in a flash of light, the chuckle dark and ominous.

Really, it's a foolish question.

Vax'ildan knows better.

You can't outsmart a demon, especially one so scorned.

(He'll relearn that lesson again some other night, atop a tower with a different demon who wears the face of a man Vax loves ever so dearly.)

But he's desperate, Vox Machina need all the help they can get and, really...

How is this any different to him selling himself to The Clasp to protect Vex in his youth?

(It's so different.)

"Keep everyone safe, never let any of them die, and when the dragons are dead, I will serve you so long as you leave them alone and free from harm."

Well, how could Orthax refuse?

A skilled murderer offering his services to a demon whose bloodlust is stronger than any man's will to remain himself?

And for something so easy?

Orthax seals the deal with a cackle, another flash of teeth that look rotten and broken, and a final message for Vax.

"A soul like yours, mine for such a small price... Like taking candy from a babe, or a babe from an unsuspecting mother."

Waking up, Vax would feel different - something has changed in his heart, and he feels much heavier and warmer than he usually does.

He smells sulfur in his more violent episodes of anger, which occur all the more frequently now, and he tastes iron in his mouth at random.

"It's the trauma, give him time."

"You'd be pissed too after holding your dead twin sister in your arms, even if briefly!"

"It's the dragons. We're all scared and angry. He's fine."

"He's not had a break in over a month, let him get it out."

Vax almost starts buying it himself, the endless excuses others give for his behaviour.

What he wouldn't give to have never made that stupid deal.

But, to Orthax's credit, Vox Machina and friends do come by an extraordinary bought of luck ever since that day.

Yet, Vax suffers for it.

He grows more distant than ever before, both thanks to his unstable emotions making people anxious around him and his guilt making him stay away.

He kills with more violence than Vox Machina have ever seen the rogue use before.

He even snaps at and bickers with those he'd normally never dare raise his voice to...

And he starts drinking more.

But somehow, it's only after Grog accidentally cuts Vax with Cravenedge and the sword shrieks in response that Vox Machina finally realises that something is seriously wrong with Vax'ildan right now.

(That and that they really must do better to look after each other if they've missed two of their members being taken over by insidious forces.)

Vax tries to run away, scared that this will void his deal, but how can he abandon Vex when she stops him in tears?...

They have a long talk, Vax and Grog both restrained with magic should anything happen, and Pike does an aura check on both men out of concern.

Grog isn't too far gone, but the effects of Sylas's sword are still clear. With Vax, however...

His once bright soul is almost entirely smothered by the black smoke that had eagerly tried to consume Percy's soul not so long ago back in Whitestone.

It's terrifying to see, especially when prior to this Vax's soul had been the brightest out of anyone else's in Vox Machina.

Vax, angry and scared, begs for them to let him go - he loves them, he wants no harm to befall them, he'll be fine.

They can't, though.

It's torture seeing Vax like this, but they're at a loss.

Orthax, pissed at them for intervening again, tries to take over control of Vax's body.

On the outside, it looks like Vax is having a seizure - his eyes roll back as he gasps in pain, his body starting to spasm.

The smoke pours out of his mouth and nose angrily, Vax choking on it and crying.

They force his body into the recovery position, watching in utter horror and fear for Vax.

When Vax coughs up blood, they all jump forth in alarm.

Then Pike casts something, so hot and bright and golden, and it punches Vax in the chest.

With a wail of agony, he falls still and quiet at last as the smoke hisses and trickles away.

They all surround Vax, trying to see if he's okay... But when he wakes up, Vax is confused.

He doesn't know where he is or what is going on. He's scared.

Vex hugs him close, kissing his forehead and telling him it's okay now - they're safe.

But when he responds with "Who are these people, Momma?", it leaves everyone in shock - Vax doesn't recognise them and thinks Vex is his deceased mother rather than his twin sister, seemingly thinking he is a child again.

Pike, having exhausted her magic, can't do anything about it at the moment and everyone is so fucking tired now.

They go to bed anxious, Grog nolonger bound by magic but forcibly removed from his sword, and they all surround poor Vax to shield him in his current, very vulnerable state.

By morning, the rogue has managed to slip away.

They all panic - had Orthax come back for him already!?

But no, he had innocently walked off looking for "Vexxy" because he can't find her.

It's heartbreaking, Vex torn up about Vax mistaking her for their mother and being worried about 'being unable to find her'.

Pike checks his aura first, happy to note the smoke is gone but worried seeing how much dimmer Vax's soul is now, before she casts Greater Restoration on the man.

Vax jerks in surprise as his mind is brought back up to the present, the half-elf starting to remember all that's happened.

Vox Machina comfort him at first as he finds himself again, but once he's relaxed they immediately barrage him with questions and "what were you thinking!?"s and "you idiot!"s

It's honestly really nice to Vax, his mind finally clear again, but once everyone gets it out of their system he answers them;

"He broke me. He came to me in a nightmare and he broke me with visions of awful things... I was scared, I just wanted it all to stop... I just wanted to protect all of you..."

Percy is immediately very empathetic hearing this, he's the only one who can truly understand what happened

the others are horrified

"I was so tired and scared... I essentially told him that he could do whatever with me if he protects all of you until we kill the last of the dragons..."

and, oh, how it makes Keyleth cry to see Vax curl in on himself and as speaks in such a soft, defeated voice...

She hugs him, tells him that any of them would have done the same in his situation.

But Pike remains firm - "Did you know? Back in the tomb?"

Vax explains that, no, he didn't know it was Orthax for a bit.

He had genuinely thought that the Matron had heard his pleas and had been kind enough to return Vex without taking immediate payment - had wondered if The Matron had been merely biding her time.

And when the nightmare happened, Vax had been in no state to identify the demon - it was only as he made the deal that he truly recognised them.

By that point, it was too late.

He admits that he had stopped caring about himself entirely...

What was another claim on him if his loved ones were safe?

Vex is understandably upset hearing her brother say this, he means the world to her.

If she lost him...

It's Scanlan who asks what it was Orthax had shown Vax exactly - "All of you, dead."

Dead by his own hand? He doesn't know. But they had been brutalised and he was sat there in the gore of it all.

None of them can blame him for making the deal he made after hearing that description.

In fact, when Vax is unable to look at any of them and hugs himself, all they want to do is hurt everyone who has ever hurt him to the point of this.

They also cast Greater Restoration on Grog and destroy Cravenedge, but Vax isn't left alone for a second.

Keyleth hangs off one of his arms as Vex holds his free hand, Scanlan and Percy flanking his back and front.

They're not letting the rogue out of their sight for a while.

He doesn't blame them, but it's pretty overwhelming for Vax.

Though he understands their concerns and feels guilty, he really doesn't enjoy being confined like this...

But when an angry and vessel-less Orthax attacks them not long later, he is thankful for all of them.

He almost lost himself entirely to this monstrosity from the Hells... A truly scary thought.

That his loved ones love him no less for it is a miracle.

And if anything, he thinks he understands Percy now.

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

What about the Aang antis who say his trauma is not important because he lost the air nomads a 100 years ago or when they lost Appa?

I swear to God, this fandom is so fucking stupid when it comes to understanding how trauma works, that if Zuko didn't literally have a physical reminder of it on his damn face, fans would claim Ozai did not abuse him (they already to it to Azula after all).

IMAGINE thinking that "You lost everyone you ever knew and loved at once" is something that stops hurting EVER. And while yeah, they died 100 years ago, Aang was frozen during all that time, and only found out about what happened when Katara and Sokka accidentally freed him. He did NOT have 100 years to process what happened, he literally had this massive trauma to deal with while having the new burden of "If you don't master all the elements, something that took every other Avatar years to accomplish, in just a few months, everyone is gonna fucking die."

Seriously, people are constantly giving Aang shit for being immature or acting too much like a kid (spoilers: HE IS ONE, YOU DIPSHITS!), but considering the trauma of, again, LOSING LITERALLY EVERYONE HE KNEW AND LOVED IN A BLINK OF AN EYE, that kid is super well-adjusted. I would have spent a whole week crying, then walk into the ocean because what's the point of anything anymore?

As for the Appa thing, I've said it all once, and I'll say it again.

1 - Appa is literally meant to have a spiritual bond with Aang that cannot be broken even in death (see Roku and his dragon, who not only chose to die with him but also is still helping him out in the spirit world).

2 - Appa is one of the few things Aang did NOT lose. Literally the only other living reminder of his "old life" is Bumi - who was being held prisoner by the Fire Nation at the time.

3 - Appa is one of the few surviving things from the air-nomads. Losing him is a tragedy not just to Aang, but to the whole world.

4 - APPA WAS LITERALLY CAPTURED! Who the hell would be okay with hearing "By the way, someone you love was kidnapped and you might never see them again. In fact, they could be dead right now"

Trying to act like Aang was overreacting when he lost Appa or when he found out about the genocide of his people is pure bad-faith reading. It's like being mad at Zuko for falling for Ozai's trap on the day of the eclipse, like he would not be extremelly vulnerable in such a position - Ozai has been his abuser for years AND Zuko, naturally, was desperate to find out what the hell to his mother.

It's assuming that the characters daring to show EMOTION is a bad thing because "it affects the plot", as if "trauma informs a character's decisions" is not the point in the first place. Nope, the story would totally be much better if Avatar was pure exposition all the time instead of having anyone CARE about anything ever, and we especially can't have the protagonist be emotionally attached to anything and thus be sympathetic to us - just look at how well that worked in the Shyamalam movie!

[intairnwetrust]

Round two in defence of Violet Sorrengail because apperently she is the bad guy in Xaden's and her relationship problems.

I can't believe there are people hating on Violet. Are people serious right now? You all better fucking stop calling my girl Violet whiny.

I would like to see your reaction when you find out that your whole life, everything you believed in, was a lie. Then on top of that, you didn't even have time to process the whole thing properly.

After the revelation, Violet went straight into battle, in which she almost died! Then she finds out that her brother is still alive and then overall her being involved in the whole revolution. Violet didn't even got a break to process the whole thing properly and on top on that, in the first half of the time she didn't even have anyone to turn to. Her two dragons betrayed her and so did the man she loved and who wants to discuss relationship problem with a brother who played dead for 6 years?

Violet only really talked once about her relationship problems and that was with Imogen. She didn't even talk to her friends about it later. There were just a few sentences. She didn't cry about her problems to anyone accessible. Whenever we learned about her relationship problems it was in her inner monologue. It is completly normal, it is realistic, for someone in Violet's situation to thing about her whole relationship. If she wouldn't think about her communication issues with Xaden then it would means she wouldn't care.

Besides, it doesn't hinder the plot at all. We are shown their problems at the beginning and when she is with Xaden. I know shocking that we have come across problems that this couple is having when that couple comes into the picture.

I absolutly don't understand how people can blame Violet more than Xaden for their whole communication issue. I absolutly love Xaden but what he did here was bullshit.

I completly agree that all this running in circles between the two of them was annoying as hell and you really only saw improvements almost at the end but Xaden is much more to blame for the two of them not making progress than Violet. This whole 'ask me a question' thing is so stupid.

Xaden is the one who broke Violet trust but for him waiting for a question from Violet basically means he expects from Violet to make the first step when he actually should do it! He broke her trust not the other way around. He makes it so easy for himself when he himself said he don't mind hard work to get what he wants. Yes, then act like that.

Sorry but no this boy had the audacity to look disappointed when Violet didn't ask her question. Sirrrr you could habe simply start the conversation!

In the end, their whole problem was reflected on again by Violet and yes Violet even blamed herself partially, she was scared to ask because she feared the truth to some of her question but Xaden should have been much more accommodating all the way there. Violet's world was turned upside down, not his. Xaden shouldn't have waited for Violet to ask a question, but simply should have started the conversation.

I mean look at character 58, after the two of them running in circles the whole time, this chapter was a total satisfaction.

"I understand that there will be times you can’t tell me everything—that’s the nature of what we do as riders—but I need you to stop setting me up for failure by insisting I figure out what there is to ask."

And then Xaden's reply "Done." It could have been so simple. Because this is exactly what Xaden did with his whole question game. He, even when it was unknowingly, set Violet up for failure by insisting she figures out what there is to ask.

When you really want to be annoyed with someone because of these constant, repetitive and therefore annoying problems that the two of them had in their communication then please look at Xaden first.

[hustlemeanokay]

Ok. So. Historically, I have not been able to stomach some of Bioware's categorically obnoxious characters. Sera & Jack being the main culprits. Literally, it's nothing about their backstories or their in game missions... and everything about them personally.

And the rest is about Taash and because I go into some specifics, it's below the cut for spoilery spoiler stuff.

But - I actually like a lot of the things about Taash. Even though they're painfully young™. It's not even that, not really. It's two main issues though that stop me from being like 'omg this is one of the best characters ever!' 1. Their "mansplaining" and 2. How they lean heavily into being a hypocrite, quite often if I'm being honest.

I get that the game is using Taash as a mouthpiece a lot of the time for explaining stuff but like... it goes on a little too much. Taash explains everything to Rook in a way that is... well, like Rook couldn't know that and Taash must explain it. Even though the topic at hand can sometimes be obvious. Or, if Rook themselves is a Lord. And to hear that Taash has only been with the Lords for like 4 months? And Taash will stand there and explain core Lord stuff to a Lord Rook? Erhm. Yeah. It's just stuff like that. And then there's the eyerolling double standard that they seem to spit out.

One that I heard earlier: They tell Spite that he can't smell people/talk about smelling people without their permission and then in the same exact banter, will tell Lucanis that the very woman that they had just yelled at Spite about not smelling - smelled a certain way (and Spite then rightfully calls no fair). Taash will go on and on about how the Dragon King's name is stupid (which, to be fair - agree but also, not their call - and this was before we find out he's the one blighting the dragons/before he hurt Shathann).

Beside that, they're rude and disrespectful to Emmrich. It's one thing to be uncomfortable with necromancy and another to say someone's entire career/life's work is "wrong" when he's been nothing but considerate towards you. (Also finding out that they've straight up been calling him names and he's not retaliated at all? wtf) That's just fucking rude. They could have easily been like "whoa, cool it on the corpse talk". Especially if Rook is also a Necromancer/Watcher. Because like, if Rook asks Taash if their necromancy makes them uncomfortable - Taash straight up says "na, you deal more with spirits so it's okay" and it's like "when or where was that ever mentioned?" Because, no. Rook doesn't. At no point was that said or even implied. If Rook is a necromancer - in the game, they are a necromancer. The only thing they don't do is make the dead talk (or move because I'm guessing game mechanics/lack there of) etc. But at no point was it said oh hey, Rook deals with spirits. So, Rook's necromancy is okay but Emmrich's is not? That's messed up.

And okay, so if Taash is like this - that's fine and all but at no point can Rook call them out on this. At no point can Rook stand up for Emmrich. Or Spite. I mean, if we're going to go the Rook necromancer deals more with spirits thing then Rook should be able to go "uh, yeah, so Taash, how about you don't talk to Spite like he's a fucking dog? That'd be great." Especially if Taash pulls the "I'm from Rivain and we have a lot of spirits" card. Because, Rivainy people don't treat spirits like they are lesser.

And it's really shitty because there's so much potential there. Because I do like Taash. I like that they're not overly obnoxious. I like how their voice actor gave them that kinda don't give a fuck attitude in their voice. But it goes too far with the writing. Because there's a line between not caring what other people think and being a shithead. And soft Taash? Forget it - they can be sweet as hell. But there are just these parts that are like... damn.

[wirewitchviolet]

When Complete BS Becomes "Common Knowledge."

Someone told me they stopped paying attention to someone who reviews movies after one too many mean-spirited jokes about trans people, and it was one of those cases where the reviewer in question definitely had the vibe of someone who'd go around doing that, but I couldn't think of any real flagrant examples. Cut to me watching a movie the other day, remembering that oh yeah, I skipped that one guy's review of it because I wanted to go in blind, and sure enough, that review has this big long crappy 5 minute aside of an out of left field "DID YOU JUST ASSUME MY GENDER!?" routine. So that's a shame.

Now this particular guy rather famously Does Not Get Out Much. Pretty sure he hasn't really have any exposure to a single trans person, or to any real die hard transphobes, and most likely what happened here is he saw I dunno, an episode of South Park or a facebook post from some bigoted aunt, or some Tiktok video, something like that, and just blithely assimilated it into his world view.

But you know, the reality is... to the best of my knowledge no trans person has ever actually said this, or anything similar to this, and we sure as hell don't live in a world where anyone would have the back of someone who did? But you know, here we are.

Now I want to be clear, this isn't some kinda thing where trans people can't take a joke or anything. Literally while I was typing this, some cis guy just tossed this out, and this is a real tired old hokey one, but I cracked a smile, because oh yeah, the whole "programmer socks" bit really is a weirdly accurate stereotype.

And there's plenty of other trans jokes I'll laugh at. Ones directly at my expense. Some real dark ones even. You wanna go off on trans women all having the same like 10 names and them all sounding like we were born in the 1800s, go for it. Other stuff about how we all dress? Coping mechanisms? Low standards? Being too into pickles and sriracha? There's plenty.

But "DID YOU JUST ASSUME MY GENDER!?" and while we're at it, "I identify as..." don't even have the vague shape of something you're ever going to encounter in reality. Like if I didn't know the context of where these came from and hadn't had them posted a thousand times or so by people with swastikas for avatars and such, these probably would get a laugh from me the first time I heard them, because they sound like weird surrealist humor. Like, "don't you hate how every time you go to the laundromat, you have to play chess with the dragon before they let you in?"

But, again, I know the context. And the context is a bunch of fascists want people like me dead, and they're both too scared to pick up a gun to do it themselves and too incompetent to know who to point it at or where to find them. So they sit around with each other and go "hey, what sort of person does everyone hate? Let's all say trans people talk like them!" And because they haven't spoken to a single human being besides each other and the rich parents they're sponging off since getting banned from the Something Awful forums in the 90s/punk bar in the 80s/whatever, they settled on "rich white person calling the cops on somebody for walking down the street" and "didn't I first get into being a hatemonger because I was stupid enough to think that time I saw someone roleplaying he really thought he was a big scary dragon?" Which has honestly worked out weirdly well for them when you stop for half a second to appreciate just how absolutely ridiculous it is to ever imagine cops coming to the aid of trans people.

Like... here's a situation that actually plays out in reality. I have a bad tooth. Dentist says I need a root canal, and she doesn't do them. Refers me to another dentist like an hour and a half away. I walk in, write my Victorian sounding name on some paperwork, fill in all my various medications, wait a bit, hop into the big dentist's chair, so far so good. This dentist busts out the pick and the mirror about to have a look, and goes "hey, so I noticed on your medications you're taking a ton of something called divigel? What is that?" I say "oh, yeah, I'm trans, so I'm on supplemental estradiol." She almost drops the mirror, stares at me like she just realized I'm Venom and if she bent down to look at my teeth I was about to swallow her whole head. She stands bolt upright, says, "your teeth are fine, get out." I'm a bit confused, but I can read a room, so I say "well that's weird, but OK..." and start to leave. I get a "have a nice day SIR!" shouted at me. And then I go out, call the cab company to say my appointment ended early, and get told too bad, it's coming when it's scheduled, and someone snickers. See, at some point in having to take cabs to all my appointments, a driver worked out that this woman he'd been picking up from this address for the past year has a similar voice to and maybe vague family resemblance to who he'd been picking up from that same address the year prior, and after getting the courage to ask me, guess who's constantly having cabs show up late, or not at all, or on time with a driver staring angrily into the rear view mirror while blaring AM radio with someone shouting about all "the gays" needing to be rounded up so they can burn in hell. And I just need to suck it up and live with it. I'm sure as hell not going to pick a fight over it. I'm just gonna stand out in the cold (fortunately with nice warm knee-high socks) waiting for this cab for an hour because I sure as hell can't stay in this lobby.

But again, the whole weird myth here posits a world where trans people are all-powerful and control the government and stuff. And the basis for that is like... sometimes people refuse to pass ridiculous laws to stop trans people from doing things we only do in bigots' imaginations at great taxpayer expense, and SOMETIMES someone is responsible enough to double check what's up before they allocate the funds. Like... hell, you know what's exactly as completely divorced from reality and honestly the same people doing to same crap? That wild BS about "schools keeping litter boxes in classrooms because all this acceptance of trans people means we also have to accept kids who think they're cats!" Like... how the hell can anyone actually be stupid enough to believe that anyone else could be stupid enough to believe that they're actually stupid enough to believe such an OBVIOUSLY made-up narrative? Like... lawmakers bring that one up and try to get bills passed on it. Everyone else in the room is socially obligated not to laugh and ask whether they also want to pass legislation against Bat Boy and UFO abductions. This is Ralph Wiggum tier absurdity.

But like... what do you do about this sort of thing, really? As the person ultimately has to deal with the dentists who think I'll bite their heads off, ask to speak to their manager, and drop trou over a sandbox the state mandates they keep in the middle of the room, I'm... not in the room when this BS gets concocted, or discussed, or shared in Minions meme some film critic sees and imitates to try and be relatable and relevant. Can someone else start grabbing all these people by the lapels and shake them and shout questions about how they can be this stupid, maybe invite them back to reality for me?

[mushroomstimboards]

As someone who is autistic/ADHD I have some things I would like to share with people who think that autism or ADHD is just like in movies or tv shows because it's not always the same.

For example yes I do stim and when I do it's mostly because I get excited. I have habit of clapping my hands when I stim and it's usually my excited clapping because that's the way I know that something made me happy and I love it.

Second is when I'm overstimulated I shut myself down. I stop talking for few hours and I don't see anything wrong with this because I don't want to talk to anyone at the moment because everything is too much and I hate everything. I want to hide under my blanket and never come out until I feel better.

Another thing is my special interest. I have lots of them:

Dinosaurs

Dungeons and dragons

Sea life

Moths

Halloween

Horror movies

Aliens

Crime/conspiracy theories

Vampires

Fantasy

Collecting stuff

Fashion

Music

Animals

Learning about psychology

Exploring world

Gravity Falls

Tim Burton movies

Autumn

Doctor who

Star Trek

Dr house

So yeah a lot of things and I often hear that I don't have any interests but it's not true because I often have trouble choosing just one. I often get bored with one and I find something new and then I go back to the old one.

I also enjoy squishy toys. I love them for no reason just find them nice.

Having comfort characters is very important because I need to know that I can relate to someone even if this person is fictional. For example Jack skellington. I got attached to him when I was 10 years old and it's just stayed with me. I also love Ash from evil dead. He's a cool guy.

For many people saying that horror movies bring me comfort is weird but I don't watch them for gore or violence but because only when I watch my favorite horror movie I feel like I'm in my comfort zone. For example I love evil dead because there's cool plot and my favorite characters. It feels nice.

I don't really have comfort food but if I could choose something I would say sushi and grilled cheese sandwich. It's not often that I eat something from my comfort food zone because I can't choose. I just know that I love sweets. I could eat marshmallows all day long until I threw up.

I have comfort clothes I love. My red turtleneck and my bell bottoms. That's why I love autumn.

If I hear someone saying that I don't look autistic I think I look stupid because how exactly I'm supposed to look to fit into autistic look. I look like normal person but sometimes I feel like I'm alien. Just because someone doesn't look autistic doesn't mean they are not autistic.

When it comes to loud noises I'm not fan of them. I have to wear my headphones so my head doesn't explode from amount of loud and annoying sounds I hear every day.

Sensory issues are also very important to me because I absolutely hate tags on my clothes or rubber things. I do enjoy nice soft blanket or warm sweater.

I think that's all for now but you can ask questions if you want. Bye ☺

[necromancy-enthusiast]

My first playthrough of Dragon Age Origins was hilarious for many reasons up to and including I managed to totally miss Leliana and not realize I missed out on a party member until after it was too late to recruit her, but I think my favorite is how Alistair spent most of the game kinda hating my warden despite them mostly agreeing on how to handle things and her being polite to him, he just didn't like the company she kept more than anything.

Morrigan was the cool bad girl apostate to her sheltered nerd circle mage and she very badly wanted to impress her (and also she had a crush on her but Bioware wants to convince us Morrigan is straight so whatever). That was the first straw. She wanted to save Jowan because yeah sure he kinda betrayed her in the mage origin but you see, it's hard to just drop your best friend of over a decade who was the one and only person who stood between you and getting bullied when you were first brought to the circle as a little kid, and also I have a strange weakness for the fuck up best friend who everyone sees as inferior to the protagonist and betrays them but comes to regret their actions trope (a very specific trope but more common than you might think, I can think of five examples off the top of my head), and then Sten aka the guy that went into a blind fury and murdered eight people joined the party and she was weirdly tolerant of his many, many, many idiosyncrasies, and then. Of course. Dear Zevran. The most bewildering of them all.

Honestly I can't exactly blame Alistair because if that was me as a real person with real world logic looking on I'd also be more than a bit leery. But that's the nice thing about fantasy, if you don't want to then you don't have to deal with the cognitive dissonance of your character who's mostly neutral good and generally dislikes killing people unless they really have to romancing a non-repentant assassin who talks about continuing to be an assassin after he's freed from the Crows like he's talking about opening his own business after being stuck working at a shitty exploitative company in an industry he's otherwise passionate about. In the years since I've played that run I have spent quite a lot of time internally addressing it and trying to have it make more sense from a narrative standpoint anyway, though.

... Also clearly none of this stopped Alistair's romance from kicking in when he finally started liking me again around Denerim not long before the Landsmeet, because just barely after I finished the whole string of events with the earring Zevran tries to give the warden and the warden is like 'I'm not gonna accept this unless it actually means Something and you admit it' concluded in my favor like. Alistair buddy boy you're a bit late. Also why do you still have that rose from Ostagar, it's been months since then, have you been carrying a dead rose in your pack for months Just Because? Like this was clearly supposed to kick in a lot earlier in the game but alas, the devs didn't take people like me into account. I bet you feel really stupid now, don't you Alistair? Now we both feel stupid and uncomfortable. Amazing to think that this kingdom wasn't overrun by the darkspawn already between the two of us being its only hope. Truly amazing.

[magixfairyix]

Iorda's Angst Season

Aka, season 6 is where I let her get the spotlight, and therefore I basically make her life hell. At this point, do the Trix care about her magic yada yada?

No. They want this annoying scum dead. Not even dead. They just want to get revenge for Iorda interrupting their plans and being annoying for the past few years.

NOT a part of the FF&FW (winx rewrite) timeline. This is just what I wrote down in my notebook four years ago when writing season 6, and what I'm adding mentally to what happened.

TW: Violence, blood, death

I wrote most of these things three years ago ngl, but younger me had the right idea of making this season centred on Iorda vs. Trix and all the trauma gurl gets from the consequences of her life.

BUT NOW I get to make things worse ^^

°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

Iorda goes to Cloud Tower to maybe learn dark magic again after being stuck in an identity crisis for the past four years. She has her friends (Pyris aka her gf, Nith, Lucina, Mirta) and she might have a good year? WRONG.

When the Trix take over Cloud Tower Iorda is about to attack, but Pyris grabs her wrist like, 'no they gonna kill you. Don't be an idiot for once.' Everyone goes back to their dorms, etc etc.

Iorda can't contact the Winx, so um... shit. Pyris goes wandering around Cloud Tower, and Iorda is in their dorm. Forty minutes later she gets a call from an unknown number. Spoiler alert, tis Icy.

Blackmail yada yada. Pyris' screams through the phone, Iorda in a panic like, 'Omfg just please stop hurting my gf I wuv her,' and then she is forced to help the Trix.

Iorda gives them information about the Winx and yada yada she probably snaps at them/tries to attack them. She is (rightfully) livid. They probs attack her painfully or smth ngl. She gets ratioed and sent back to Ohio (aka pain).

When Bloom splits up her Dragon Flame (eventually when I rewrite this there will be actual repercussions for her) Iorda somehow gets a piece of it at Cloud Tower. She has a tiny bit of hope.

Iorda (she's been secretly helping the Winx very subtly) might get found out. The Trix may kill Nith or something in front of her though this didn't happen when I wrote it.

Eh why not. Yeah Nith dies.

Iorda escapes by kind of throwing herself through the window of her dorm (magic can't be used to escape due to a spell) and she gets Bloomix because of that. Pyris also escapes with her.

Later on, she ends up getting her wings cut off.

It happens when she's following the Winx's magic signature around, trying to find them. Iorda finally reaches them in China she sees the Trix about to kill the Winx, and she begins to fight them.

Bliss, Iorda's Pixie, also helps. But Iorda is outnumbered. She tells Bliss to go find the other Pixies. Iorda fights the Trix alone, though this leads to her getting her Bloomix wings kind of frozen off and she's barely conscious by the end of it. The Pixies arrive in time and Piff wakes up the Winx and whatnot.

And yes, Iorda will steal Stella's spotlight and fight Darcy in the Labyrinth. So help me.

The two of them make a 'deal.' Darcy basically says that she'll revenge the spell on Stella etc if Iorda goes to the center of the Labyrinth and fights whatever is inside, and if not, Stella dies.

ALSO (to make things worse) if Iorda fails, guess who gets her Mythix wings cut off? IORDA. Yeah and Darcy also pointedly says 'she can make it a lot worse than last time' and Iorda, of course, is scared as hell for her well-being and mental state.

But Iorda (who definitely was a Percy Jackson kid) see's Greek Myth carvings on the walls, and makes Darcy (because Iorda doesn't trust the witch to keep her word, and she doesn't have a choice anyway unless she wants Stella to die) swear on River Styx.

Darcy does, because she thinks it's just a stupid little Earth saying like yes she swears on river Styx now go die already Iorda.

Iorda is praying that it works. Iorda defeats the Minotaur, and when Darcy tries to attack her, she can't. Her magic isn't working. Iorda is a bit smug, like 'lol you got tricked and swore on a sacred oath get nerfed.'

(And of course, Darcy is livid but that isn't clear until the season is over).

Bloom defeats Acheron in the Legendarium world, Selena is redeemed (and stays and witch), though the enforcements and specialists are out looking for the Trix who escaped.

Everything is okay~?

Iorda is healing from everything. Seeing one of her closest friends killed in front of her, having to help the witches who she'd been forced to fight for years (and that fight took away her teenage hood), having her Bloomix wings cut off, and also Darcy's threats in the Labyrinth has made her slightly paranoid.

She doesn't trust things will ever go well for her. She feels for a long time that she's in danger and that it's a matter of time before something bad happens. Most of all, she hates being alone.

Iorda is going out on a picnic with Musa, Stella, and Aisha. Stella is getting ready at Alfea and is running late while the rest of them are at the gates. Aisha goes to get Stella.

Iorda tells Musa with a smile that she'll find a good picnic spot. Musa asks Iorda is she's sure, but Iorda is telling herself that she's safe and she'll never heal if she doesn't force herself to be alone sometimes.

Iorda is wandering through the forest...

Yeah she ends up getting ambushed by the Trix who of course want vengeance. Iorda is scared out of her mind and tries to call for help. Icy stabs her and cuts her across the face, and Iorda is in pain and is slumped on the ground.

Iorda knows she will die today.

Stormy says that the Winx might be here soon. Icy and Stormy go through a portal, and Icy tells Darcy to finish the job.

Iorda's just causally sobbing in pain (cause she just got stabbed) and Darcy honestly is smug as hell. Iorda doesn't want to die, so she asks for mercy yada yada pls don't kill me I have so much to live for.

Darcy stands up, and then proceeds to use her shadow magic to finish the job via kind of snapping most of the bones in Iorda's body. Then she leaves through a portal.

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Yeah and this is tame for me...

[panzershrike-pretz]

THIS! This tag game seems so fun! Made by the amazing @ronald-speirs!

Favorite place in the world you’ve visited?

That would be either the alps in Germany or the Salinas beach, here in Brazil! I adored both the snow and thes amount of stuff i find at the beach there

Something you’re proud of yourself for?

The amount of progress I made since being diagnosed with autism, depression and anxiety. Even if I stopped going to therapy, I feel like the diagnosis (esspecially the autism one) shed so much light on my life, and I was able to makes the world around me (even if just at home) more confortable for myself by understanding myself more and adjusting the way I do things so it's easier on me.

Favorite books?

Hmmmmm let's see- the Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children series, obviously, but I also LOVE The Book Thief, American Gods and definetely Warrior Cats (I only read the first arc, so Idk how good's the rest xD)

Something that makes your heart happy when thinking about it?

My dog and my characters! Love them :]

Favorite thing about your culture?

Hmmmmmm probably food? But I'm extremely picky so I don't even eat most of our stuff 💀 i do love feijoada, brigadeiro, pastel and coxinha tho- Idk about the rest KAKAKAKA other than that, the slangs. So cool. Love it

When did you join the HBO War fandom? What was the first show you watched?

Back at the end of 2022 or early 2023 was when I first heard about it, but as for officially joining...? Probably like. 5 or 6 months ago? I have no idea what time even is-

The first show was Band of Brothers :D

Have you read any of Easy Company’s books? If so, which ones were your favorite?

Nope. And won't.

Favorite HBO War character and your favorite moment with them?

Webster. Him shoving himself on the ground was the best. Just like me fr💕

Do you make content for any fandoms, if so; what sort of content?

Uhhhhh I make memes and occasionally fanart? I wouldn't classify this as content but when I'm really into something I take some aspects of it for my own world, so I can always keep it close to me, even if the hyperfixation faded a bit with time

Favorite actor/actress and your favorite film of theirs?

I know no one- but I do like Bud Spencer and Terence Hill's movies. They are the only actors I know the name of 💀 I like the funny coeboy movies, many good memories watching them with dad when I was a kid (and still doing so, every now and then)

Favorite quote/s that you wish to share with others?

"I'll beat you with a dead cat 'till it starts mewing" - a popular brazilian saying (the best ever)

Random fact your mutuals/followers don’t know about you?

HmmmmmmmmI share so much about myself that I don't even know 💀 probably that I once fell facefirst on a river when I was 4, while I was fishing? That was A Day

If you’re a writer, do you need a beta reader (say yes so I can be your beta reader 🤭)?

I don't write much but!! I did write something yesterday about my characters and idk if I should post, but if you're interested, I can show you :D

Three things that make you smile?

My dog, my characters, birds

Any nicknames you like?

Based off my real name I like "Rah", but only when used irl. As for the internet, I love Pretz! And I have a special one my best friend @isazmoon gave me, which is Pretzu, but this ones I feel like it's only hers :3

List some people you love to see around on tumblr!

@1waveshortofashipwreck @xxluckystrike @ronald-speirs @ronsparky @minha-xuh @whollyjoly @sweetxvanixlla!! I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!! AMAZING PEOPLE!!

What would you do during a zombie apocalypse?

What would I live for, my stupid ass can't even run 😭 i'd die fast as fuck. And I know all my friendswould die too so we all just perish together 💕💕💕 friendship goals

Favorite movie?

How To Train Your Dragon? Wolfwalkers? Saving Private Ryan? Pirates of the Caribbean? Can't probably choose only one, it's torture

Do you like horror movies?

Ehh, not much? I prefer animations

Tags (no pressure): @xxluckystrike @whollyjoly @ronsparky @sweetxvanixlla @grumpy-liebgott @1waveshortofashipwreck @blueberry-ovaries @minha-xuh (hey Gih, if you want you can take off the HBOwar bits and/or replace them with MPHFPC, since you're from another fandom, feel free!)

[willowser-but-nsfw]

Willow, I need you to know that your Dragon King Bakugo has been living rent free in my head since you posted about him. I hope you don’t mind me sending this, but I just. I can't stop thinking of how he’d act the first time you finally let him have free reign of your body. To just explore with his hands and his face as he pleases while you stand there trying to bear it. And of course it's driving you insane!! The way he kneads at your flesh, and how he buries his face in the crook of your neck to inhale your scent.

And he’s so lost in you – the sounds you're making, the way you smell, how you feel – that he isn't even paying attention to how it's affecting him. He can feel it, obviously. It's impossible not to, but his focus is all on you.

But you!! you are very aware. It's right in front of you. Flushed red, impossibly hard, and dripping, and so so so tempting.

So you decide to take matters in your own hands (he he), and idk, maybe it’s a misstep, or a bit of hesitance on your part, but you don’t quite grab him? Instead you end up barely brushing him. And he makes such a pretty noise!!

A needy whine that sets your whole body on fire, and encourages you to properly wrap your hand around him, fascinated by his reaction and eager to hear more.

But it’s your time to bite back a whine, when he thrusts into your hand with a grunt and starts up at a steady pace.

You can feel his stupid smirk against the skin of your neck.

(ok, I'm done. I think it's out of my system for now. WHEW. thank you, will for feeding us so good I can't stop thinking about this asshole 💕)

TIPH EXCUSE ME ?? I AMFHSJFJANFHS this is so 🥴🥴 makes me crazy !! it's so clearly affecting him and his body and he's !! so wrapped up in you that he's not even really paying it any mind !! meanwhile, you're like 👀 !! WOAH !! tiph...you are so big brained...i'm unhinged thanks !!!!!

and when you touch him, it takes him by complete surprise !! because he's not expecting to feel any better than he already does, all tangled with you: smelling the clean-soap scent of your hair, feeling how soft you are against him, how much smaller you are !! a cute little thing that is squirmy and warm, that sounds so sweet when you say his name !! he really thinks this is peak. could die right there, suffocating you into the sheets.

but omg, when you really touch him !!! ajgbdusjaksj i'm losing it tiph akfjak omg. and he's so shameless i can't 💀 lil beast brain chasing after the smooth, tight pressure of your hand !! DEAD AND DYING AKGBAOFVAKKA you have put this into my head how am i supposed to think of anything else !!