#i don't have a clue who this listener character is supposed to be but they pissed me off so. BAD.

[soap-is-an-artist]

I cannot even begin to express how much I unequivocally support imperium Asher's decision to kill Alexis. Not only did I hate her before, knowing what a terrible person she is in the prime universe, but finding out the ACTUAL WAR CRIMES she's committed under the imperium only solidified my support. When I got to the part where Ash started describing how she had property surrounded by walls "higher than an unempowered human could climb" my stomach dropped. It's the "The Most Dangerous Game" all over again [idk if anyone else had to read that in middle school—great book, very interesting themes about savagery and civility]. And THEN the part about how she really likes hunting families... I do not even have a fucking response.

The part that I really can't get over is that, whoever the listener for that video is, they just... don't care? This is THE MOST justified killing in the HISTORY of killing. This is the PREVENTION of slaughter. This is a takedown of a villain who's been causing misery for decades. This is vengeance and justice for so many whose lives have been taken, including two members of the pack [Darlin noooo!!!], one of whom was ASHERS HUSBAND. DO YOU UNDERSTAND. DO YOU

DAVID DIED IN HIS ARMS.

WHAT part of that don't you understand, listener? I will not-so-gently grasp your shoulders as I say this: Alexis must die. There is no other way. The apocalypse is coming. The end of the world will wipe out every non-demon entity on your plane of existence; you are planning a revolution to stop this from happening, yet you are upset that a war criminal must be removed for this to happen? There will be far more bloodshed than this. Do you seriously expect The Imperial King to just... let you take over without a fight? Many more will die for your cause, many of them good people. Alexis is not a good person and she never will be. You must set your rigid morals aside in this moment. Her just execution will be swift, swifter than the death she gave her victims; take refuge in that. But for the love of god, do not try to stop it.

And do not call Asher a monster.

[primofate]

Confessions Series - Part 2: Description [Genshin Impact Male Characters]

In a nutshell: He asks if you have your eyes set on someone. You start describing HIS features and watch for his reaction. (Hint: He likes you too)

Other works in this series: (Part 1 - Overheard)

Warnings: The usual, haven't written in a while, please forgive mistakes, bit of angst in Diluc (couldn't help it), I am a sleep deprived mother, some profanity, for some reason did not feel like writing Zhongli though he's one of my faves.

Characters: Aether, Albedo, Alhaitham, Ayato, Baizhu, Bennett, Chongyun, Cyno, Dainsleif, Diluc, Gaming, Heizou, Itto, Kaeya, Lyney, Neuvillette, Scaramouche, Tartaglia, Wriothesley, Xiao, gn!reader

Personal Favourites: Diluc, Wriothesley

Aether

"Yeah, I do," you start. "He's very selfless...He's always running around helping other people,"

Aether nods, intense gaze in his eyes while listening.

"Hmm...He has...a partner. Like a companion he always travels with..."

Aether's brows start to furrow and his head tilts the slightest bit. Paimon flying next to him has no clue who it is whatsoever.

"He's not originally from Teyvat...He's on a journey, you see..." this is where you start getting nervous

You see it click in Aether's head slowly, and his eyes start to widen the slightest bit

"Hey, that sounds an awful lot like you, traveller! Why have we never met this person before, Y/N?" Paimon asks and you only smile.

"P-Paimon," Aether glances at her and then back to you. It's silent for a moment. Paimon is super confused.

But Aether being Aether didn't want to get the wrong idea and racks up the courage to ask you one last question. "He's on a journey...to look for his twin sister?"

You smile the brightest smile you've ever given him. "Correct!"

"Ah...Well..." Aether starts to feel the heat on his cheeks. "That's..." he doesn't say anything else for a few seconds. "Don't get me wrong, I'm just...I'm happy!"

Is basically flustered when he realizes you've technically just confessed to him.

Albedo

"Simply put, I think he's dedicated to his craft," You shrug and smile

"...An admirable trait," he responds.

"He's frequently in Dragonspine. He spends a bit of time in his lab there," you decide to just go straight for the obvious.

Albedo pauses. "I...see..." Turns to you with a small smile "I wasn't aware that you were that fond of me,"

"Now you know," you simply say and try to play it off with a wave of your hand.

He chuckles under his breath and strides over to you while saying. "Well then, I suppose it's my turn to talk about the person I've set my eyes on,"

Proceeds to describe you accurately, down to your likes and dislikes. In his eyes, you seem like something so precious and you can't help but feel a bit embarrassed.

Alhaitham

"Hmm... Sort of," you explain. "He's a little...hard to reach,"

Alhaitham "...and you still pursue him?"

You laugh a bit "I'm hardly pursuing him, I'm just...observing. I like watching him, even though he has the most unreadable face I've seen,"

Alhaitham goes quiet for a moment. He catches on fast, he already has an idea but is cautious about what he says. "...I see," he doesn't ask anything else, but you continue to offer information.

"He likes reading. Really smart guy...but kind of no nonsense type. Very straight to the point," You begin to feel a little nervous so you pretend to read your own book with a small shrug.

The silence is deafening.

"I suspect that type of person will be hard to put up with," he suddenly says aloud and you chuckle in response.

"Possibly, but he seems to be putting up with me too...I guess?"

He suddenly closes his book and leans forward to pry the one in your hands away. He locks his gaze with you. "...'Putting up' is hardly the word I would use." his lips twitch the slightest bit before continuing. "He has little to no patience for other people...so if he keeps you around...perhaps it signals something else,"

"Something else...As in, I'm special?"

Again he quiets for a moment, before he stands up, chair scraping the floor. "...Precisely," he turns to start walking out of the library, waving a hand behind him. "I'll pick you up in the morning tomorrow,"

Ayato

"I do, but he's a very busy sort of man,"

Ayato "Is that so?" he pours tea for you.

"Quite. He's also a very important person,"

He hums and watches the billowing steam from the tea. "It sounds as if I might know this person," but he genuinely doesn't know it's him, he just thinks its another noble.

"...You most definitely know him. He has a sister. Lovely girl." This is where you avert your gaze from him in fear of him instantly connecting the dots.

He talks in pauses "A...sister..." His mind is starting to make connections but he can't be quite sure yet. So he prods further. "...Does she happen to have a vision?"

"A cryo vision holder, yes," you're biting the inside of your lip at this point. There's a moment of silence before you hear Ayato laughing rather gleefully, like he was amused by a story.

"I see." he ends with a chuckle. "I apologize for being so busy, Y/N," he smiles at you "I promise I'll do my best to arrange my priorities in order to spend more time with you,"

Baizhu

"He takes his job too seriously and can be quite reckless...Sometimes he even puts himself in danger,"

Changsheng catches on immediately. The snake had already known for a while. Baizhu was just being dense. "Oh here we go," the snake half whines.

Baizhu gives it a weird look before turning his attention back to you. "That does sound reckless,"

"I've told him a couple of times to think about himself too...but I guess he's just really passionate about his job,"

Baizhu sort of shrugs, "What IS his job?"

"...Well for starters he owns a pharmacy around town,"

To Baizhu the realization hits all too slowly. It's not that he was slow or dense, but he was having a hard time believing that it was him you were talking about, specially when you hadn't said it outfront.

"...You do realize I'm the only one who owns a pharmacy around town?" he asks, eyes piercing through you and awaiting your answer.

Changsheng is the one who answers for you. "Yes you ridiculous doctor, Y/N's pertaining to you!"

It's the first time you've seen him blush and he turns his head away when he does so. "I-I see, well...that's rather, unexpected...but not unwelcome,"

Clears his throat "Just give me a moment"

Changsheng would roll its eyes if it could.

Bennett

"Has a lot of energy...Sometimes I wonder where he gets all of it. I really like him for that though."

Deflates as soon as you start talking about your "crush". What kind of answer was he expecting anyway? That you had eyes for him?

"He has a bit of a...problem when it comes to luck," you continue

Bennett stops, you look at him and you can practically see the gears in his head starting to turn a little faster.

"Y-Y/N? Are you talking about..." then the gears suddenly stop. "Oh what am I saying, it can't be. Ahahaha! Let's go!" starts walking again as if nothing happened

Your jaw drops and you're forced to just DIRECTLY tell him you're talking about him.

"...Oh...Oh! F-For real?! Oh...Sorry... I just thought... there's no way! B-But, I'm really glad! Really!"

Chongyun

"Hmm...He's a little shy...but he's very responsible,"

Chongyun stares at you intently and nods as if taking notes.

"He doesn't like spicy stuff,"

Chongyun nods twice, eagerly.

"He's very dedicated in learning about thaumaturgy,"

Chongyun blanks out, brows furrow but still nods. Slowly.

"He's really good with a claymore too!"

Chongyun stops and stares at you, you see a hint of red gracing his cheeks "Y/N...You can't possibly be...talking about... m-m-m-"

Can't seem to say it, so you outright say that it is, in fact, him.

Combusts into a tomato red

Cyno

"How do I say this...He's a pretty strict guy." The two of you are playing Invokation TCG during this convo.

"Mmhmm..." Cyno is focused on his cards, frankly he doesn't give a craps ass who you're into. He didn't even know why he asked, he just dug himself a hole.

"...but he really only takes his work seriously. It's his job to be serious, I guess. I think that's what Matras need to do," he finished his turn and its yours now, though he's still studying his cards intently. Until you get to the Matra part.

"He's a Matra?" You rarely see a surprised face on Cyno so you focus your gaze on him. "Which one?" He further asks. Honestly he looks about to murder someone.

You blank out a bit at how intense his stare was, "Well...You know. That one, the one who's really into Invokation TCG,"

He immediately follows up without missing a beat "I don't know anyone else who's into--" then it clicks.

It was so damn silent for a good 10 seconds. You clear your throat, tear your eyes off him "Um, it's your turn,"

STILL doesn't budge until he finally goes back to his cards with a whisper, you can't really tell but he looks slightly bashful and you can barely, BARELY hear him "...If I win then we go on a date,"

"Okay, and if you lose?"

Cyno "...I'm not gunna lose,"

"See, I told you he's a really serious guy,"

Dainsleif

"I think he's a very dedicated person," you get lost in thought a little, thinking about him. "Whenever I look at him...Sometimes I feel as if there's a certain sadness in him... Perhaps he blames himself for not being able to protect his nation,"

He IMMEDIATELY knows. And he knows that you hurt for him too. How could he not?

"He searches for answers... I don't know for how long, I suppose a long, long time," you close your eyes, imagining how long he must have been wandering Teyvat.

You only open your eyes when you feel a hand brush against yours. He's looking straight at you, neither happy nor sad. "...You don't have to feel that way, for my circumstances,"

The brush against your hand disappears and reappears next to your cheek, his fingers gently resting on it "...Knowing that you feel that way, has taken away some of the burden that I shoulder,"

His gaze suddenly hardens and his voice drops to a whisper, "But please, just don't end up in the same way as everyone else,"

Diluc (I don't know why I end up writing a whole novel for this guy. I guess he's my OG favourite)

You pause for a moment, wondering how to describe Diluc. "...Sometimes... I feel as if I know a lot about him and yet... he's still far off in the distance,"

Diluc, rifling through paperwork, doesn't even look at you. "...That tells me nothing about him," there's a bit of bite in his statement.

You sigh a little, "I mean, simply said he's a hardworking man. He always has Mondstadt's best interests in mind...but he prefers to work alone,"

He's silent, but you can still hear the paper shuffling.

"....but people love him. They care for him. I suppose I understand why he keeps a distance but..." at this point you don't even realize that you're just rambling and staring into space. Sort of in a daze of thinking out loud. "...isn't it lonely? ...I suppose I shouldn't assume how he feels. Maybe he's fine with it...I just wonder how long till he sees us..." there's silence, no ruffle of papers, you're still just staring at the bookshelf and you continue in a monotone voice. "...or sees me,"

You blink, and all of a sudden its as if a magic spell is cast on you and you wake up to the reality that you've been rambling about him. You sit up straight "Oh," then turn to him with a careful smile. You don't think he knows what or who you're talking about anyway. "I better get going," you stand, "Jean must be waiting for me."

You leave, and he doesn't stop you.

You don't really think anything of it, feeling as if your whole monologue was very vague...but to your surprise he knocks at your door in the evening, there's a bit of rain falling.

"Diluc? You're drenche--"

"I see you,"

The determination in his voice lulls you to keep quiet and only stare up at him, wondering if he had more to say, but instead of saying something, he leans in, wrapping his arms around you and resting his forehead on your shoulder, as if he had been defeated.

You only welcome his embrace, and, for the first time in a long time. Diluc finally feels like he's home.

Gaming

"Passion!" You nod your head as you say it. "He knows what he wants to do and is incredibly dedicated to it!"

Gaming looks surprised, has no idea you're talking about him. "Huh! That's really cool!" He thinks he's the total opposite. "Wish I could be as dedicated as him."

You kind of laugh out loud and he raises his eyebrows and tilts his head. "What?"

"Gosh you really sell yourself short," you shake your head "Anyway, this guy, right, he kinda works two jobs," you put out your hand to count one and two "One, for the Secure Transport Agency and two, he's in a Wushou Troupe,"

Gaming instantly straightens his back and looks at you wide-eyed. You figure you had to be direct when it came to him otherwise he'd never get it with how modest he was.

"...You're...talking about...me?" You smile at him sympathetically.

"You know, Gaming, I wish you saw yourself the way others saw you. You're a great person,"

Big smile, but legit looks like he's about to cry. "Between the two of us? I think you're greater Y/N,"

Heizou

"...Honestly he's kind of a flirt," you raise your eyebrows at the fact and kind of question yourself why you like this kind of person. "Makes me wonder if he does that to everyone, you know?"

Heizou hums and puts his hand under his chin in a "thinking position"

"That's not enough evidence to go by. Perhaps we can investigate this guy together to see if he's worthy,"

You look at him, pursing your lips while musing and giving him a suspicious look. You're not sure if he's figured it out.

He's got no idea. I mean, it was a pretty general description. "Any distinguishing features?" he asks.

You look at him in a deadpan manner. "Red hair, I guess. And moles under his eyes,"

He looks back at you with a matching blank face.

Then breaks into a wide, close eyed grin. "I see! From experience, that person is truly trustworthy,"

You sigh a little, "Is he though?"

He chuckles heartily. "I promise you he is," offers you his hand with a genuine smile. "Let me show you,"

Itto

"Ummm... big, tall, strong looking guy. Intimidating at first look but he's actually a dork," you explain.

Itto crosses his arms above his chest with an unamused face. "Tch! No way! Ain't no one taller than me in Inazuma!" Then he looks smug again. "Anyway, keep goin'. What else?" Only asked you because he wants to see what your "type" is.

"...Popular? Nah... Infamous is the word, I think. He kinda gets into a lot of trouble,"

Itto raises a brow "You serious? Whaddyou want with someone like that?" as if he wasn't a troublemaker himself.

"I mean... He also loves life and somehow always sees the good side of things."

Itto "Eh... guess that's a good thing..." folds his arms behind his head and huffs.

This guy is never gunna get it so you drop more obvious hints. "He's an oni who has his own gang."

For a split second he looked like he was going to get it, and then... "WHAT?! There's another oni who wants to challenge the Arataki Gang?"

"That's not what I--"

punches his fist onto his palm "Lead the way Y/N, let me at 'em!"

"I'm talking about you!"

"Huh?"

"Itto, there's no other oni around town!" leave it to him to make you exasperated.

He quiets for a few seconds. "...But Y/N..."

You expectantly stare at him, curious what he was going to say about your confession.

"...Did you just call me a dork?"

Of course that's what he picks up on.

When he finally processes it though, he's stoked and on an all time high.

Kaeya

"...good at talking to people, and he knows it... Exudes charisma like he breathes air," You're saying this with a glare.

He chuckles and rests his head on his fist. "Why, pray tell, do you look angry when saying that?"

"Not angry..." you mumble under your breath, eyes trailing away from him. "Just... probably a lot of people like him,"

"And you don't like that?" He smirks. He totally knows.

"...No...Well...I'm okay with it... It's just... I think he's so much more than what he shows to others,"

That, he wasn't expecting. He actually feels genuinely touched.

"Sure he jokes around a lot...Is good at making people feel comfortable...but he's also kind...and you can always count on him," there's a faraway gaze in your eyes now, a small smile on your face. "To me, he's...a safe space."

Kaeya's smile drops. It looks like he's unhappy and you think that maybe you've made a mistake. Still...there's no way he knows that it's him, right? It was kinda vague...

You're about to stand and excuse yourself but he catches your wrist easily. "...You know..." he starts, meeting you eye to eye. He looks at you as if he's looking into your soul, his eyes the gentlest you've seen them.

"You make it so hard, not to fall deeper in love with you,"

Lyney (I have no idea how this ended up so dramatic)

"He isn't exactly a trickster...but he has a lot of tricks up his sleeve,"

Lyney "Oh?" Raises an eyebrow. Something kind of clicks in him, but he shakes it off. "The good kind or the bad kind?"

You stall a little, thinking of the answer, knowing that he's Fatui. "The...good...kind,"

"You don't sound very sure," he gives you a lopsided smile.

"It's complicated," you admit. "Regardless of the circumstances though, I think he's a great magician,"

You watch his face turn into surprise quite quickly, but he still looks and feels unsure of himself. "Oh, perhaps...I can learn a thing or two from him?"

Your smile turns forced and hard. He can't be serious? He STILL doesn't know, or...what?

"I...Well..." You don't know what to say next, but he seems to get the idea.

"Sorry, have I put you in a hard place? Ahaha..." Scratches the back of his head. "My apologies, I was just curious,"

This, for some reason, really puts you off and you feel as if you've been rejected, even though you technically had not outright told him that you're talking about him.

It seems silly for you to get upset, but you are. So you stand, and make a request of him. "Can we... just pretend this conversation didn't happen?" and you give him some sort of excuse that you need to run an errand or something, and you're off, leaving him feeling...guilty. But he doesn't know why. Or does he?

Lyney would look like the type of person who would be confident about himself. But, really, as a magician, he had to be 1000% sure about something before he went ahead with it, and so...that's where his doubt stemmed from.

Lynnette is really the one who knocks some sense into him. "...and you...let Y/N leave?" after hearing the story from him.

"Oh, Lyney... Regardless of what Y/N feels... For you, next to Freminet and I, is there someone else that you love dearly?"

That's how he ends up at your doorstep. Though you've seen his disappearing rose trick hundreds of times, he was the most sincere at that moment, when he says sorry that he didn't get the hint and to give him a chance.

Neuvillette

"Serious person. He seems to put his work first, above all else," you say. "I respect him a lot for that,"

Neuvillette is interested in what you say, but doesn't know at all that it's him. "He does sound quite respectable," he says while looking through some files.

"A long time ago he said that he feels like he's an outsider...but really I feel like there isn't anyone who knows Fontaine the way that he does,"

Neuvillette, moves the file he was reading downwards, just to look at you questioningly. "He's from Fontaine?" this was surprising to him.

"Well...he currently resides in Fontaine, yes," you nod.

"Ah," he answered curtly. "And I have never met him?" he asks.

"...He's very busy." you bite your lip, about to say something and you know that the next sentence is the point of no return. "He's the Iudex...so it's hard to catch him,"

You swear you can hear your heart hammering in your chest.

You see him put his files down and just stare at you with a sort of...unsure look.

His shoulders relax, he wasn't even aware he had been tense that whole time. "That... must have taken a lot of consideration and courage to say," he clears his throat.

You only nod your head slowly, moving your gaze away from him with an awkward smile. Hand absentmindedly grabbing a book and flipping through the pages...you had no idea what you were doing out of nervousness.

"I apologize...I'm unfamiliar with what to do in these kinds of situations... However," he pauses and seems to think carefully about what he was going to say next. "Please don't take it as a rejection. I'd be honored to navigate this with you, if you would so graciously have me,"

Scaramouche

"He's an asshole," you bite back a laugh.

He instantly knows.

"Actually he acts all tough only to give in to his inner-kind-of-agreeable-personality,"

He snorts

"What? Am I wrong?" you challenge him. You KNOW that he knows. The two of you have been hovering around each other for a while, and there's a certain closeness between the two of you. Though that line was never crossed.

He doesn't answer you back but prods you more. "Is that all? You like that he's an asshole? Are you some type of masochist?"

You almost laugh. "No, you moron. I'm saying he has a weird way of showing he cares. He's always biting my head about not being careful enough. But if he really didn't care he wouldn't be screaming at me, you know what I mean?"

Scaramouche grumbles something under his breath and crosses his arms, turning away from you.

"Say that again?" You ask, not hearing what he said.

"...I said, you're not as stupid as I thought you were," shrugs his concealed embarrassment off and turns back to you all nonchalant again. "Anyway, stop yapping and get going, we got things to do,"

Snatches your hand and starts pulling you to walk with him.

Tartaglia (I feel like this is ridiculously short but I also feel like Tartaglia would have known a LONG time ago if the two of you had the feels for each other)

"Oh man...Probably the most reckless man I know,"

Also knows. Instantly. But shuts his mouth just so he can listen to you talk about him, but it gets deep real quick.

"In my opinion he's a handsome guy. Real charming," you smirk the tiniest bit. "but I don't know if I can keep up with him, honestly. It's a little hard not knowing when he's going to come back...or if he's even gunna come back at all,"

You weren't going to hide the fact that you were scared shitless he didn't return from Fontaine for ages. You legitimately thought he had died.

Tartaglia stops you there, by suddenly cradling your cheek. "Y/N," he's wearing a pained expression. "I'm sorry,"

"Don't be, it's your job, right?" You reassure him, and shrug.

He sighs "Yes, but I'll promise this to you as I've promised my family," he smiles, the most confident smile you've seen on him. Even more confident than when he wields his blades. "I'll come back to you, I always will,"

Wriothesley

"Er... How do I say this... He kind of has some... big boss energy?"

"Oh?" he sips at his tea, glancing at you while he looks at today's paper. "So he's a bigshot?" he asks curiously.

"Somewhat, yes. Intimidating at first look, but...he just has a great sense of responsibility," you pick at the selection of cakes and cookies he has.

"Huh," he lets out in a quick huff. In the deepest, DEEPEST parts of his mind there is a NANOSECOND that he thinks its him but it gets erased so quickly he's not even sure that he had thought about it.

"Sounds like a good person... Any interesting, weird quirks?" he grins as he says this, yet again glancing at your expression.

Your lips tremble a bit at what you're about to say, because you're SURE he was going to get it once you say it. You gulp and feel the hairs at the back of your neck stand before you say out loud "He likes tea. I kind of wonder if it's an addiction," you can't meet his eyes.

He's looking at the paper he's reading but nothing.registers.in.his.brain.its.like.it.stopped.working.

You shift in the uncomfortable silence but he calmly folds up the newspaper and places it on his table. "...I'm inclined to ask, because it would be embarrassing if I got the wrong idea,"

"Mmhmm," you pop a cookie in your mouth to distract yourself.

"By any chance, are you...talking about me?"

"Mm," you nod your head, still not looking at him and glue your eyes on the cookies instead, out of embarrassment.

Suddenly chuckles. You brave a peek at him, now covering his eyes with a single hand, head tipped back to rest on his chair.

You're not sure if that's a good or bad thing.

"Sorry, no, it's just... I didn't think it would happen this way." Visibly takes in a big breath and sighs it out slowly. Seems to have regained his composure and is back to his confident self, smiling at you. "Thanks Y/N, I... don't think it's much of a secret that I enjoy your company too. I'm just a little embarrassed that you beat me to it...some big boss energy huh?"

Xiao

"...He takes on everything by himself. I worry about him," You look at the stars as you say this. Xiao doesn't say anything.

"But I'm glad that he's opening up a lot more now. It's great to see him among friends,"

Xiao has a feeling at this point, that its him you're talking about, but he still doesn't say anything and keeps his gaze in front of him rather than on you.

"Yes, the road in front of him is long but...he's also already come a long way," you sigh a little "The time of Rex Lapis has long gone, but he still sticks to his principles. I think his dedication is part of what I like about him,"

This is when he turns to you, blank look on his face, contemplating on what to do. When you turn to meet his gaze, its then that he decides to bridge the gap between the two of you, shoulder to shoulder, leaning in sideways to catch your lips in a chaste and rather shy kiss.

"You should give a bit of credit to yourself, for putting up with me all these years, Y/N,"

End!

I’ve published The Ruthless Prince (Reader x Scaramouche) on paperback. Click here.

Consider supporting me to read some exclusive fics:

Ko-Fi

buymeacoffee

Here’s the Masterlist

[sanb3rry]

just finished blue lock and i can’t get that one episode of rin speaking in english out of my head…

may i request fluff of whipped!rin who so obviously pines for foreign!reader who he thinks doesn’t speak japanese (spoiler: they do!!) thank u ^.^

sorry it took me so long!! hope you like it <33

disclaimer !! : all times characters speak japanese will be written in bold italics.

hey, i think you're cute ! 𓏲 ๋࣭  ࣪ ˖

it started off with small and frequent glances at the new manager. rin was just curious that was all it was, at least what it was supposed to be. for some reason, you're just so intriguing to him but he didn't exactly know why.

he sat next to you during one of the breaks and nudged you with his leg to get your attention before opening a small box of strawberry shortcake.

he knew for a fact you'd like it as he was listening to overheard you telling zantetsu out of all people that you did.

you glanced up from your volume of kimi ni todoke, "is that for me?" you asked, kinda confused.

the imaginary angel on your shoulder skipping and squealing over the thought of it and how this was ripped out of a shoujo manga.

rin nods, he was unable to maintain eye contact with you, you were so cute! this cannot be happening to him. the itoshi rin has a crush!? how preposterous!

"thank you, rin. that's really sweet of you." you said giddily as you put your book aside and took the cake.

he was happy as is, i mean his crush really sweet and pretty friend took the cake he bought just for her.

but, you had to go one step further and give him the first spoon. no no, not just give, feed him the first spoon. were foreigners always this bold? rin thinks his heart won't be able to handle this and thanks you before leaving.

you would've thought you made him uncomfortable but the flustered look on his face said otherwise.

"see you around, rin!" you waved. rin didn't hear you, he was too busy thinking about the interaction and trying to walk straight.

a few days passed before you were able to have a proper conversation with him.

"good day of training, rin?" you asked as you handed him his water bottle. "yes-" his words failed him as his eyes widened. did you just speak japanese or was he becoming crazy?

ten seconds passed by,

then twenty,

.

.

.

it's probably been a minute now.

rin just stood there staring at you, you were getting nervous. "are..are you alright? was i too informal?" you asked frantically, getting ready to apologise.

"no, sorry, you're fine. i . . . didn't know you spoke japanese." he said sheepishly, looking away from you.

"oh! that's okay. i was so sure you knew though." you wondered out loud.

rin thought back to all the times he should've caught on. your japanese version of manga, the fact that managers have to know at least a little japanese or get it taught to them through daily language classes, when you said bye to him a few days earlier. he mentally slapped himself.

"i should've known." he mumbled to himself, he's disappointed that he got so distracted with his feelings that he forgot basic context clues.

"don't beat yourself up for it, rin. anyways, i think julian is calling for you guys." you said as you glanced at julian.

you laughed nervously, "i better get back to work." a nervous shudder following your words as you think back to the time anri got angry at the managers for slacking off.

you waved to rin before leaving, he might not show it but if this were a tv show he'd have flowers and sparkles around him to show how happy he was.

© sanb3rry2024

[ryuryuryuyurboat]

8 letters, 3 words!

synopsis: confessions are tricky.

genre: fluff

characters: lyney x gn! reader

warnings: modern (college) au, reader is referred to in 2nd person, navia + lynette cameo

a/n: hehe hi @ariicandy! i'm your secret admirer for @ecrin-de-litterature's kiss don't tell event :> hope you like this gift hehe happy valentine's!! likes, reblogs and comments highly appreciated!!

©2024 ryuryuryuyurboat. do not repost, translate, plagiarise, or modify in any way, shape or form.

masterlist

“oh my, y/n, you really do have expensive taste.” navia grins at you from across the table. “did you win the lottery, or something?”

you huff. “no, i found them on my table.” the second you open the lid of the (previously) beautifully decorated tin box, the sweet fragrance of macarons wafts into your nostrils— you almost miss the way your friend’s jaw drops as she openly gapes at the treats. 

“what?” 

“you… er, well, do you know what those are?” navia gleefully looks between you and the macarons.

there’s a soft clink as lynette sets down her teacup. “5 bucks they have no clue,” she bets, earning a soft “tsk” from you and a smug navia crossing her arms as she leans back in her chair. 

“of course i do! they’re macarons! hey–” you protest, as navia dissolves into giggles and lynette sighs, “hey– listen, listen, i may have flunked midterms but that doesn’t mean i—stop laughing!—that doesn’t mean i don’t know a sweet treat when i see one, okay!”

lynette leans forward, an odd glint in her eyes. “these aren’t your ordinary macarons, you know. there’s only one bakery that sells them like this, and people queue for hours just so they can get their hands on one of these– they only sell eleven boxes each day, mind you. it’s like you’re saying your louis vuitton is just some random bag you picked off the streets. a single box can quite literally cost you the skin of your a–”

you cut her off. “i think we know what you mean, just take some if you wanna try ‘em, okay?” 

“still, who’d gift you something so expensive?” navia muses, chewing on the lemon macaron she’d nicked while you weren’t looking. 

“probably the same mystery guy who gave me that plushie bouquet the other day, and then those chocolates from yesterday, and also probably that box of pâte de fruits…” you hum in thought, utterly oblivious to your friends’ astounded gazes.

“...y/n, i think you might have a secret admirer.” 

“wha– hey, wait! what was with that tone when you said ‘who’d give me something that pricey’? you tryna say i’m not worth those?!?”

laughter echoes across the empty cafeteria as you lunge at navia and screech something about wanting her to return the macaron. none of you notice the pair of periwinkle eyes fixed on your figure from afar.

—

“ooooh, does someone have a secret admirer~?” navia peeks over your shoulder at the white envelope lying innocently on your desk. “y’know,” she continues, unfazed by your side-eye, “if it’s the same guy that got you those macarons, maybe you should consider getting–”

“shut up,” you grumble, feeling your ears heat up, “i don’t even know who gave me all these.” 

“do people not normally sign their names somewhere?”

“just the initials.” you unfold the enclosed paper, pointing to the very bottom, where the letters LS were printed. “who’s that supposed to be? lonely spirit?”

you don’t see a certain someone’s eyes dim when you don’t bother reading the letter and shove the envelope into your bag.

—

13 february. 7 days since you started receiving letters. 7 days since you got your first plushie bouquet (how the sender knew your favourite blooms and even your favourite character was a mystery you had yet to solve). and 1 day before valentine’s. 

the letter you got today was way simpler than the flowery words that filled the pages from before:

3 boxes, 8 letters. think you’ll be able to figure it out, ma chérie? that’s the key to your last gift.

(hint: the way each letter starts is important. good luck♡)

“the way each letter starts?” lynette shrugs, “no idea. probably something like the first letter of the first word.”

“lynette,” you begin, “you’re a genius!”

one problem, though. you only received 5 letters. oh, well, didn’t hurt to try, right?

“let’s see…” you lay out the letters on the table, trying hard to ignore the contents that made you blush so furiously in the safety of your bedroom. “u, l, v, o, i, e…” you mutter, before navia gives you a light shove.

“no way it’s taking you so long, isn’t it already so obvious?”

“???”

“rearrange the letters—where’s my pen— and what do you get?”

you stare mutely at the letters. “...i love u.” you read, before you’re hit with a realisation.

“wait– boxes are containers, and then words are like containers for letters– and then, and then… and then i love you makes up eight letters in three letters! i’m a genius!”

“if you’re such a genius, you should’ve noticed a certain someone staring at you.” lynette nods at a point behind you, “go get your man, y/n. i don’t wanna hear complaints about being single for valentine’s.”

you turn– and there stood lyney snezhevich, in all his glory, a bouquet in his hand. he offers you an apprehensive smile as he extends his arms for you to accept the flowers—your final gift— and averts his eyes. 

“seems you’ve managed to crack the code, ma chérie. now, then, if you hadn’t known from the letters… will you be my valentine?”

taglist: @yinyinggie @lynyluvr @kazemiya @meidnightrain @thexianzhoujade @dailypenpen (send ask to be added to taglist!)

if you liked this, do consider dropping me a follow for more :>

[nualaofthefaerie]

Sandman s2, confirmed news!

I see a lot of speculation on the topic, so as someone who has closely followed and confirmed information, I am comprising this thread of confirmed Season 2 leaks that I will update regularly.

This is inspired by @orionsangel86 rant, and I have no real following here for people to listen to me, but I hope this will allow the fandom to discover me as a Sandman creator.

All information has been thoroughly confirmed, and some of it was found by me. I will try to keep the chronological order:

1. Ruairi O'Connor is our Orpheus

Well...I don't have to explain, the man's face is on there, plus Melissanthi Mahut follows him on Instagram

2. Esme Creed Miles is our Delirium

Back in August, we suspected Esme Creed Miles had joined the cast of the Sandman as our Delirium when Lourdes Faberes posted this picture with this caption:

Soon after the entire cast followed Esme and since then have interacted and been in the same place multiple times including last week when Donna and Mason were filming:

3. Barry Soloane is our Destruction

His wife spoiled it, and he has it on top of his acting credits. He is followed by all of the Endless and Neil on Instagram, and they interact regularly.

4. Midsummer Night's dream is filmed/being filmed

As you can see from this leaked call sheet from the same day, the scenes included elves and fairies + the caravan + the people who asked what was filmed on their walk basically confirms Midsummer Night's Dream

5. Wanda and Ruby's characters are being merged and are being played by Indya Moore

We have no further information on the changing of storylines.

+ a lot of minor roles have been confirmed as well but those are of no vitality.

6. Names of six of the supposed 12 episodes have leaked

(In no particular order)

"Season of Mists"

"Brief Lives"

"Family Blood"

"The Song of Orpheus"

"The Ruler of Hell"

"More Devils Than Vast Hell Can Hold"

Source is WhatsOnNetflix (reliable source)

!!The next ones are speculations since we cannot confirm them but it is quite likely as timelines fit:

1. Ferdinand Kingsley has filmed the Season of Mists dream sequence

The only clue we have of that, is that he maintained a hairstyle similar to Hob's with a longer beard for a while and has recently chopped it all off.

2. Filming of "Season of Mists" in Brighton Pavillion on the 20th of February

According to eyewitnesses, the production was humongous, the extras and actors were dressed in gothic/mythical/monster/horror attire, which excludes the location from being Destiny's garden or have anything to do with the Family dinner, leaving Season of Mists as the most plausible conclusion

3. On-site location filming on Castle Arce in the week of March 15th

The Castle Arce area has lots of mazey parts, dare I say Destiny's garden, but that is pure speculation. (I just found these so I have not had the time to decipher them properly).

3. Destiny will be POC

I sincerely hope that to be true. The only semi-clue we have that suggests this might be true is the picture from Lourdes (above with Esme) and the fact that Adrian Lester is in the picture, but he is not part of the cast or seen in leaks anywhere. We hope for news soon.

That's it, folks.

Those are all leaks compiled in a comprehensive list to avoid further speculation. I will be updating the list accordingly and if anyone has questions, feel free to send them my way, I feel confident in all the ones that we have confirmed to be true.

Love,

Li

[moonbeammist]

The Peasant's Secret (Part 1)

A plunge into absurdity

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Dune characters nor do I claim to own them. I do not own any of the images used nor do I claim to own them.

I don't give permission for any of my fanfiction to be posted, this is also cross posted on my account w/ Archive of our own :)

PAIRINGS: Feyd Rautha x Fem!Fighter!Reader

AUTHORS NOTE: I drew heavy inspiration from the Dune Part Two Soundtrack, truly sets the mood and tone for the story if you wanna have a listen. I appreciate this community of writers/readers! Any feedback and thoughts are most welcome! The 1st Part serves as Prologue, an introduction to your character and her world. Enjoy 💚

WARNINGS: (Mostly for 2nd Chapter): (Adults only 18+) DARK! profanity, extreme violence, torture, gore, sadism, masochism, dubious consent, erotic undertones, heavy petting, reader is a fighter who get's extremly hurt, bigotry against the poor, very immersive, intimacy, touching, feyd-rautha is his sick self, public humiliation, light smut

SUMMARY: As a rice-harvester hailing from Planet Caladan, you knew these things to be true. You and your people were "peasant scum". And as far as you can tell, peasant scum deserved a shot at the vast unknown as much as any noble folk did. Even if the only thing protecting you is a flawed battle-tactic and the falsehoods that you tell yourself. Even if it has you riding a wave into the wicked evils that lie.

WORD COUNT: 2.2k words

PART 1 PART 2

You were in a colourless oasis. It wasn't really an oasis in the scenery sense; it was an oasis in the sense that it felt like a bottomless void, a strange, deafening dream. It was an oasis because it didn't feel like reality. A desolate vision to where no judging eyes would befall you as you threw your whole self, your body, into its ultimate test. That’s how they all made their mark here, isn’t it?

You reflect on Giedi Prime's obscure, bone-dry alternate reality to your home planet of Caladan - you were of peasant descent in the lush, grassy, biodiverse settlements. You and your mother had strengths in labour as rice planters, trading their services to the wealthy nobles in exchange for military protection. A life of labour and sweat in the rice fields, the economy depended on their work, as such, they had little free time.

Stepping foot into the outdoors, the crunch of your cheaply-made, scraggly brown boots is heard as you line up with the rest of the prisoners. The earth smelled of crust, rot, and blood. You somewhat know where you're supposed to end up as Harkonnen soldiers round you up, but at the same time, you haven’t got a clue where you’ll be settling before battle. Wide, dark tunnels arch over the sand like a protective roof against the beating black sun.  You've been given the finest privilege to represent your low-status family members in a brutal and bloody ceremony where this pale, ghostly Harkonnen House cuts you down, down into the dirt. A death deemed worthy. 

A death is worthy when you die with passion because you’re trying - kicking and screaming. It's a beautiful way to go because you feel everything.

The height of your human complexities is shown at the forefront - pushing yourself, testing yourself.. You who initially thought fighting was for those who have a reason to fight, like for political gain and power, defending your home and planets among the stars. However, you have never felt so alive, representing the absolute bottom of the barrel. What joy it would be to see an enemy fall from not hand-to-hand combat, not brute force, but peasant trickery. 

This is worth something.

That’s what you tell yourself. What else can you cling to? You were living for the cultivation of rice before you came here.

Horns erupt in a deep, haunting bass. The ground is shaking. Shaking with such strength that your feet stumble forward, knees scraping the grainy, white sand. Your hands bite into the sand. A guttural song emits from the speakers suddenly, the force of it hitting your chest like a bang. Your body stutters.

Your fellow no-name fighters eyes snap at your movements. Hushed chuckles erupt over the heavy bass. You feel slightly embarrassed as you quickly stumble back up and rub the grainy sand away from your knees and palms. Your eyes narrow.

This is all of your first times, all of your fellow fighters' first essential phases into proving yourself worthy to Harkonnens. Granted, you were vermin first, something to gawk at, something like cattle. As far as you heard from your briefing on the way here, this whole spectacle was based on a test round. If you pass your initial testing round, then - maybe, just maybe, you can live in comfort. There was not much more elaboration than that. Either get cut down, sliced down, gutted down -  or prosper. So why do you feel like you're the only one on edge? You’re in your head too much.

Because I might fucking die.

You swallow that thought down, burying it deep in your stomach, where it should stay.

Underneath the arena, there is a place where the Harkonnen soldiers stop - a small, enclosed burrow tucked away from sight, away from the audience members that fill the seats of the large dome-like sphere of the arena. Through the dark, enclosed area you can make out the bleached atmosphere stretched and rounded out, seeing several egg-like craniums darting up and down in the stands. Their eyes were like inky, beady pools of onyx - almost insect-like. They were thrashing in excitement, the low murmur of chatter and whooping heard.

You look around to your peers. There is nothing really notable about any of you. Dressed in meek wool, burlap, or loin cloth. Prepped with various weapon satchels latched onto waists or knees. You have no advanced shields or armour, that is true. As suicidal as that may seem against these elite brutes, It’s what you represent that really matters. The peasant trickery you have up your sleeve.

You were an only child born to common people. In the small moments, you would take to the hills with your mother and run and play. Your mother's long, flowing hair would crack like a whip against the wind behind her, in a game of “cat and mouse," as she would call it. You would try to grasp at the ends of her hair - your mother's high, sing-songy laughter echoing in the distance as you chased her.

You did not know your father - just that he was a passing tradesman who fell in love with your mother’s quirks and tenacity for adventure; in the odd breaks she could have them between planting rice grain. They spent 6 months together, you heard, and it was passionate. But he could not stay on this planet.

Your mother did not know if he was alive. But despite him leaving, she spoke fondly of him.  “He defied appearances. They thought of him as a simple, dull man in the trades, a grunt. But his intellect was his greatest secret.”

You supposed that maybe you were that small reminder of him to her, as her description of your father shadowed your mother’s slow moulding of your personality over the years. A weak, feeble rice labourer by appearances, always dressed in brown, murky colours to disappear. She did not want anyone to notice you at first glance; let that be your first safety. If they must stumble on you or pester your forgettable existence, you must keep up the act at first glance. You were scared, you were begging for your life like a common peasant. If they continue to prod and seek to damage or harm you, they would pry open the bottle of secrets that came spilling out of you in this fight-or-flight scenario.

You had a lot to learn and a lot to process as Caladan civilians. The threat of Caladan’s as well as other planets' potential hostile nature was something you were keenly aware of, a foot on your back of sorts, as you couldn’t do anything formidle to stop an enemy. 

The peasants, not permitted to use weapons or obtain shields or anything of the sort, could only offer you certain wisdom that was passed among the peoples. One they passed to your mother’s watchful eye and then onto you. They call it the peasant’s secret.

The art of dodging.

“Remember the game of cat and mouse?” You remember your mother’s voice barely over a whisper as she lay beside you one night in woolly sleeping bags on the soft greenery beneath you. The weather was hot enough to enjoy a night outside.  The flow of the river’s stream is heard against her.

You haven’t used the peasant’s secret in awhile. You primarily used it against your mother and your fellow people, as they would take turns throwing you into mock battles. They didn’t have any weapons, but they did collide, push, and throw themselves into your body at full speed, so you had to react quickly. 

They did push you to the limit. Bless them. Until you were an exhausted heap of limbs on the ground and had the wind knocked out of you.

You knew that wasn’t as valuable as practicing it against someone who genuinely wanted to kill you. You didn’t know if the peasant’s secret had successfully saved someone’s life against a brutal attack or if it was just used as a quick get-away.

So yes, you could fall into the trap of thinking you knew what you were doing when, in reality, it was based on instinct. Of course, the arena was a circle. A never-ending loop. Eventually, even though your stamina was now crafted to be well above average, you would eventually get tired. The peasant community of Caladan had a careful, pinpoint focus on the art of dodging rather than hand-to-hand combat or brute force, which made for a very interesting opponent, if you could even call it that. Most of the time, if you could, you were told to outrun them first. So your speed heavily improved. If they were just as fast, then you could begin your dance.

Now, you could finally put it to the test. To see how you fare, to see if it could actually prevent you from getting sliced and diced by the Harkonnens in the arena—albeit for a while. The main thing to keep in mind, as your mother had warned, was to keep your opponent on their toes, snapping not only their mental state but their body. Then, when the time is right, you steal their weapon and use it against them. Today you were permitted a small dagger, strapped and holstered on the outside of your thigh. Although you weren’t concerned about it, you told yourself you would use it as a last resort when they weren’t suspecting you to. You didn’t know how to dance with a weapon; you only knew how to bob and weave without one.

Count Fenring, the Siridar-Absentia of your homeworld Caladan, while the Atreides occupy the planet Arrakis, had dealings with the Harkonnens prior to your descent here. You were never meant to come here. But Count Fenring had called upon the rice labourers one day for a strange proposal. Gathering in the high-esteemed buildings and feeling out of place, your people had looked upon Count Fenring’s narrow, proud face. You knew him to be conniving and manipulative in nature, a renowned assassin, and the Emperor Shaddam’s right-hand man. He was neutral toward the labourers; as long as they kept up on the plantation of their planet’s rice, he had no issues. He would often make dealings with the noblemen and women of Caladan; it was very rare that the rice labourers were added to any conversation.

“House Harkonnen of Giedi Prime is seeking entertainment, to those willing-"  Count Fenring’s voice boomed, sitting atop his makeshift throne. 

His voice is cut off by your thoughts at the Planet’s name. Baron Vladimir Harkonnen of Giedi Prime, called your Count “The ambassador to the smugglers” in spice production. 

He continues. “I know you do not get to leave your trusted duties among the fields very often, but consider this a gift of sorts - whoever is able, and willing to be “battle entertainment” to the Na-Baron of House Harkonnen, Feyd-Rautha, will be permitted to win your chance at freedom to travel to a new planet, a new experience.. You don’t ever have to return.”

An audible chorus of gasps are heard amongst your peoples. Hushed angry whispers fill the room. You gape at the vagrant display of lack of remorse for human life. You knew little, but House Harkonnen enjoyed pleasures in gore and sadism, is what you did know. What’s in it for your Count? This has to do with spice dealings.

“Freedom to die?”  a male voice questioned loudly. “You dangle freedom in the air as if House Harkonnen has any, and to dangle us in front of the Harkonnen brutes like meat!”

The crowd got louder and louder in frustration and opposition. The Count’s voice bellows as his army hits their swords to the ground in a clang to signify the rice labourers to quiet their naysayers. “Enough. To those who are not interested, you may leave. You are not forced to stay. To those that are, please remain.”

A number of your people shuffled out in a hurry, their bodies a large mass squeezing through the royal entryway. You blink. This is downright morbid.  You had never considered such a thing before, as you only knew your planet to be worthy of laying down your roots until the end of time.

You feel your mother reach for your hands. They are warm, and so is her eyes as she peers into the core of your being.

Your planet is beautiful -  access to bodies of lakes, rocky mountains, majestic trees and budding flowers, delicious rice... 

“You should go.” she mutters. “Live for us.”

Her words a grim truth. Brutal honesty. And that was enough for you.

A handful of the peasants stay alongside you. Your mother places her lips upon your cheek in a chaste kiss.  Your tear ducts well with water as her hand leaves your grasp. Somehow, you know it’s too late to turn back now. You don’t know what made you follow Count Fenring onto the ship and not look back. A chaotic chance for something other than field work? A plunge into absurdity?

You could try absurdity for a while, you decided.

PART 1 PART 2

[hunters-vigil]

The Archon's Baby - Chapter 9 - Rising Tensions - Enter Capitano

Previous Chapter Next Chapter

request from ao3: Make one where they have a child but the female character doesn't tell Mavuika that she is expecting a child and distances herself from Mavuika please 🙏🙏

warnings: pregnancy, pregnancy symptoms, traveller uses they/them pronouns, arguing, mentions of death, poor descriptions of fighting.

Fic under the cut, don't repost my stuff on other platforms, i have ao3. Reader is not the traveller. Reader's adoptive sisters are Chasca and Chuychu.

Eventually, the team who were sent out to fight in the Night Warden Wars returned. All but one. Kachina, who had fallen in battle, would need to revived by the Rite of Ressurection. Everyone else seemed calm, but you couldn't help but frown. Kachina was a child, who had gone to war and died. She would be resurrected and celebrated, which you were glad for, but still, you worried about how traumatic the situation may have been for her.

"Oh hey, it's been a while! How are you doing?" Paimon's voice caught Mualani's attention, along with the Traveller's and Kinich's, as the floating silver creature spotted you already seated waiting for the Rite of Ressurection, and celebration of the Night Warden Wars victory to begin.

"Trying my best. Heard you guys were at the People of the Springs when the attack happened, I'm glad everyone made it out okay, including Atea. I heard she was injured." You smiled softly, cradling the waterskin that Chuychu was insisting you keep drinking water from throughout the ceremony.

"Speaking of Atea, I have something I need to give you from her when everything is over." Mualani interjected, looking over you carefully for any clues, but she couldn't figure out what Atea knew. She also didn't spot how Mavuika was watching you all from her throne. A part of the pyro archon wishing you could be sat with her... but it would be safer for you down there, with Chuychu nearby, and the toilets too...

"Warriors of Natlan - heed the call of life. We are the inheritors of memory and legend. Those who grew alongside sun and wind. Those who forged our own destiny and future. That is Natlan's fire, the lifeblood of our nation." Ntotila declared, as Mavuika headed towards the sacred flame to retrieve Kachina. Her hair setting alight as she disappeared into the flames, making your stomach churn.

Closing your eyes, you held your hand over your heart as everyone began to sing the Ode of Ressurection.

The song eventually ended, but Mavuika returned alone?

"I could not find Kachina within the Night Kingdom, or locate her Ancient Name." Mavuika announced, much to everyone's confusion, including her own. People began to shout, accusations were made, while you rubbed at your temples, a headache brewing.

"I can't listen to these jealous idiots. And they're supposed to be adults." You grumbled, standing up to walk away.

"Are you okay?" The Traveller looked worried, spotting how Mavuika's eyes lingered on the group as Mualani argued with the two idiots trying to suggest Kachina was not a hero.

"Think about it everyone. Who do you think is really at fault here? A girl who never should've even gone to war... Or the great pyro archon? Why would the rules of our nation suddenly stop working?" Tepexpan's accusation had you freezing in place, anger washing over you. Blasphemy...

"Maybe you should all shut up and realise it's probably the abyss interfering? Accusing Kachina and Mavuika will get you nowhere. Jumping to those blasphemous conclusions will get no nowhere. Get your heads of of your asses and use your brains for once." Your voice was louder than you expected, storming away before anyone could retort to your sharp words. Or you calling Mavuika anything but 'archon'.

Mavuika watched you storm away, her eyes flickering to behind her as the Sacred Flame seemed to react to your anger, growing a little bit bigger and a little brighter until you were out of sight.

Luckily, Mualani continued to stand up for Kachina, your words to fall into the background, brushed over.

"That's enough. There is no doubt about today's victory, or Kachina's part in it. She is a hero worthy of our admiration and celebration. However, the failure of today's ceremony is undeniable. Kachina has not been rekindled, and I offer you all my deepest apologies as I continue to investigate this matter..."

Mavuika's voice tapered off as you returned to her chambers, curling up with the blankets over your head. Your head hurt, and now you had probably just embarrased your girlfriend and your sisters with your outburst.

You missed Mavuika putting Tepexpan and Tamuin in their place, but the sound of multiple pairs of footsteps entering the Speaker's Chambers caught your attention, causing you to hide further under the blankets.

You recognised all of the voices. Mavuika. Paimon. The Traveller. Mualani. Kinich. Iansan. Chasca...

Luckily, you couldn't make out exactly what they were saying. Meaning you couldn't hear Chasca agree to go in person to the Night Kingdom with the others to retrieve Kachina.

"Oh, I almost forgot. Atea was wounded in the fight against the abyss. She wanted us to give this to you... it 'embodies fond memories and my strength of will' that's what she asked us to tell you, she said you'd understand what that means," Mualani held out Atea's talisman, "and she has something for your sister, Chasca, but I don' t know where she went-"

Chasca huffed at that, looking directly at Mavuika, who was luckily distracted by the talisman.

"I didn't think this day would come so soon. The flames of her life force, I can feel them flowing through the talisman. If things were different, the two of us could have enjoyed the hot springs together while she gave this to me in person. We're supposed to be 'hot spring buddies' after all..." Mavuika held back her emotion, especially with the warning glare on Chasca's face, "but don't worry. This talisman means a great deal to me. I'll take good care of it, and once this is all over, I'll pay Atea a visit. I can also sort out Atea's other wish..." Mavuika's eyes briefly glanced over at the door that led to her personal chambers, knowing that was where you were.

"Of course. Because the only person who knows her better than her sisters is her archon." Chasca folded her arms, pretending to be happy about what had just been said. Luckily the conversation ended after that, with only Iansan and Kinich remaining by the archon's side.

///

Mavuika ushered Iansan and Kinich out, asking them to wait for her near the Sacred Flame, while she headed into her chambers, with Atea's gift for you in her hands.

"My love?" her hand gently rested on your shoulder, your entire body hidden under the blanket, but she knew you were awake.

"I'm sorry."

"There is nothing for you to apologise for. The general public cannot know the truth, but them questioning the integrity of our heroes... I understand your outburst. I wish I could remain here instead of my duty, but unfortunately I cannot. Mualani brought something for you, from Atea... her request was that you should open it in private." Mavuika explained, watching as you removed the blanket from your face to look at her.

Pressing a kiss to your forehead, Mavuika headed to leave, watching as you took the package into your lap with a confused look on your face.

"I love you." Mavuika called out as her hand lingered on the doorknob, observing how your eyes were glassy but the smile on your face reached them.

"I love you too."

///

You were reading the letter Atea addressed to you when you heard a large explosion coming from the stadium. Leaving the package on the bed, you forwent shoes, hurrying out and past civillians who looked at you in confusion in your beeline towards the arena.

Mavuika was fighting the First Fatui Harbinger. The Captain.

"You shouldn't be here." Kinich immediately kept you behind him and Iansan, the backlashing winds from the pyro and cryo attacks whipping around the stadium.

"What does he want? Besides the gnosis? Wait, is she using your claymore?" You looked at Kinich, grimacing as said claymore was destroyed in the battle. Yeah Mavuika was getting an earful from Xilonen for that...

"Watch out!" Kinich grumbled as the three of you were pushed backwards by the wind of another explosion. Luckily, before the three of you could get blown about any further, a fog suddenly appearing to steal the injured harbinger away. Mavuika stood alone in the areantil Kinich and Iansan arrived by her side, the two keeping you behind them.

"Send word. The Captain and his followers must be apprehended." Mavuika ordered to the Flower-Feather Clan member, Yagbeu. He looked from his archon, to you, then ran to fulfill his task. The patrols of your tribe may be a line of defense for the abyss, but now it would be patrolling against the Fatui too.

"Are you alright, archon?" Iansan asked hurriedly, as Mavuika chuckled.

"He was a formidable opponent - exactly what I would expect of the First of the Fatui Harbingers." Her face soon shifted to worry as she spotted the dust in your hair, "are you unharmed? Let me get you a medic-"

"I've got her." Chuychu interjected, stealing you away before Kinich and Iansan could ask questions about Mavuika fawning over you.

"What are you doing-"

"I should be asking you that! I need to go chase after our older sister, so I'm leaving you with Mayahuel. You're still in the danger zone of the first trimester!"

"Pregnancy itself is a danger zone." You hissed back at your elder sister, who left you in the hands of Mayahuel. The doctor from the Mastesr of the Night-Wind took you away with a comforting smile, and a nod to Chuychu.

"My dear... where are your shoes?" Mayahuel raised a nonjudgemental eyebrow as you flustered, realising they were under the archon's bed. You couldn't exactly tell the doctor that.

/// Meanwhile...

"Oh, you have a younger sister?" Paimon turned to Chasca with intrigue, "wait, Mualani, you said something about a sister-"

"I have two younger sisters. I'll introduce you to them sometime." Chasca thought back to you at the stadium, and Chuychu, who she had a sneaking suspicion was also at the Scions of the Canopy, "let's get back to business. Wayna, how do we use the stone?"

///

You were fine, but the declaration to rest made you want to scream internally. You'd spent so much time hiding (living) in Mavuika's chambers, and now you needed to do it even more. Chuychu could only keep your parents at bay for so long, and with how often Chasca avoided going home... you had definitely broken a record. How had they not come to the stadium and dragged you back by now? They didn't even know about your pregnancy... oh you felt like a horrible daughter...

Walking into the Speaker's Chambers, you froze as you realised Mavuika was there, with Iansan.

"Um... hello." Your voice waivered, looking between the two Ancient Name bearers nervously.

[demaparbat-hp]

⭐

For better or worse, I'm rather obsessive over wording. I love to include little details and clues that tend to go over everyone's heads. Most of them are only there for my own devilish enjoyment!

Now, I'd like to talk about three specific moments from my Zuko-centric fic For the Spirits (read here!). Two of them are from chapter V, while the last one is a bit more recent, from chapter VIII.

Both lines include ridiculously subtle and obscure subtext that I'm not sure I'll get the chance to explore fully in the fic. So I'm using this excuse to talk about them!

Spoilers ahead!

Chapter V: There Was Sun

Read here.

He was left in silence, the thousands of eyes that lived in his bedroom standing watch over him. He laid down right there, ear pressed to the floor, his back to the door, and clutched his mother's anklet to his chest until the morning came.

Zuko was awoken by the ghost of a caress on his left cheek and the echo of a voice that told stories of dragons and spirits and love.

No matter how things may seem to change, never forget who you are.

Ursa dies and becomes a ghost in this scene—it's not really ambiguous, is it? I always knew Ursa was going to die to protect Zuko in this AU. That scene of Zuko staying behind to spy on Azulon’s edict—instead of running away as he did in canon—was actually what got this whole AU started!

It's a matter of seemingly insignificant divergences that just pile up until the consequences are so massive they impact the rest of the story.

In For the Spirits, Zuko directly hears Azulon’s order to kill him, so he stays awake all night in fear. When Ursa comes to say goodbye, she's confronted with a fully awake child she tries to calm down. It slows her down. It gets her caught. It gets her killed. And Zuko listens as it happens.

The scene I quoted is Ursa's final goodbye, after her death... But there's something else. One tiny, absolutely inconsequential detail that doesn't impact the story itself but I can't help but obsess over anyway.

Did you notice?

Zuko was awoken by the ghost of a caress on his left cheek...

(Some spirits don't know.)

(Others know too much.)

.

Agni was a beautiful being forever in repentance of some forgotten sin. Forever submitted to the Fire.

Zuko insisted on being alone the first time his bandages were removed.

The mirror was old and cracked, but did its job well, much like everything else on the Wani. Zuko sighed, hands bracing the sink before him in something akin to despair. He breathed in once, twice, before opening his eyes and facing the monster in the mirror.

The first time Zuko saw his scar, he laughed.

It was fitting, he thought, to bear the mark of the flames burning the flesh of a God.

It's Lore Time!

It shouldn't come as a surprise that I'm a sucker for narrative foils. Having a character be Touched (blessed, cursed, all the same) by a godlike spirit is just about the best excuse possible to chuck in as many parallels as one can think of.

That being said, I'm curious. Did you catch it at first read?

The fact that, while Zuko bears a scar from fire, Agni's face is forever burning.

(The first pic isn't supposed to be Agni, but rather Nightmare Zuko from my Perfect Prince comic. You get the idea, though.)

There's something about the imagery of it all, as well as the metaphor expressed masterfully in Zuko himself. Fire is all about the dichotomy. It's about savagery and control. Energy and burn. Gentleness and all-consuming rage. Fire is life. Fire is destruction.

A beautiful face forever burning, forever scarred.

Two halves of the same whole. All things the same.

.

Chapter VIII: Make You Stay

Read here.

In chapter II, Ming confessed that she had been one of the Royal Guards assigned to the Agni Kai arena when Zuko was burned. She helped General Iroh get him out of that place and heal him, given that medical attention was prohibited by the Fire Lord. Ming has stayed by Zuko's side ever since, but the Agni Kai still haunts her.

“I was nineteen!” she yelled, slapping the table. “I was nineteen and all I could smell was burnt flesh! That fucking scent still comes back every time I see him. It broke me and it wasn't even me! I wasn't the one who—I wasn't—I was nineteen and I wasn't ready!

When Yoi tells her in chapter VIII that Zuko is planning to go on a suicide mission, she panics and the Agni Kai comes rushing back to her mind.

Something quite interesting happens, though. Not only here, but also later on, during her conversation with Zuko.

See if you can catch it.

Ming felt the cold like never before. It was pumping in her ears, freezing the sweat on her nape, masking the thunder of her chest, tearing at her flesh—at her soul.

Rise and fight, Prince Zuko.

She snapped back into focus and sprinted away from an oblivious Yoi.

(...)

She refused to cry in front of Zuko. Not for this. Not after…after…

You will learn respect, and suffering will be your teacher.

Then so be it.

Zuko stared through her. She looked away.

Then so be it.

Haven't you noticed something a little...odd, about this AU? I mean, besides the spirit shenanigans, obviously. I'm talking about something that's missing. Something pivotal about Zuko's journey that just isn't there. The only word not yet written.

Avatar.

A larger threat, Zuko couldn't be allowed any chance to return to the Fire Nation. Not even a disgraceful mockery of an impossible mission. There's no chasing after the Avatar here. There's no looking for the last airbender (Zuko's previous visits to the Air Temples had a different motivation).

Zuko's banishment was a one-way ticket. And Ming just told us the reason why.

You will learn respect, and suffering will be your teacher.

(With open eyes and the misdirection of Agni's burning touch over his shoulder, Zuko had no reason to cower. So he stood up. He faced his destiny with honor and resignation. This was a test, wasn't it? Agni's challenge for his child...)

Then so be it.

(That line wasn't Ozai's to deliver.)

[scekrex]

Imagine sinner!Adam walking inside the Hazbin hotel with Charlie and everyone is glaring at him except reader and was very confused he didn't even know who is Adam until one of the character told him and he just listens to them while eating a peach

Imagine them both just being awkward and silent because reader is like don't know what to tell him but when one time he was asked to watch over Adam and he sees one random sinner was messing with Adam reader goes protective mood and beat the leaving soul out the sinner while cussing at them...in Russian and just grabbed Adam's hand like nothing happened murmuring that if a sinner mess with Adam again they will face readers wrath

Okay so since it's x reader and not everyone speaks Russian, I changed that part to a more neutral wording, not naming a specific language. Hope that works for ya, enjoy!

All the violence makes a statement

pairing: Adam x male!reader

warnings: language & canon typical violence (kinda)

note: not beta read bc fuck you I don't have beta readers

When the main door to the hotel opened with a loud noise as it hit the wall, all of the residents’ attention shifted towards it. A man quite tall stepped through it, entering the hotel’s lobby, his walk was confident, the look on his face a mix between lazy and prideful and he stepped inside like he owned that place - and while you had no clue who the brown haired man was, you did know that he did not own that place. The hotel was Charlie’s after all.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” the princess of hell was the first to raise her voice towards the man that had just entered her building, given the way he had phrased it, she knew him quite well. Was he someone important? Were you supposed to know him? The stranger sure acted like it and even though he had not spoken a single word yet, you already knew you didn’t like his attitude. That assumption was proven right when the brown haired demon opened his mouth to respond, “This shithole is about redemption, so I’m gonna fucking crash here until Sera moves her fucking ass and gets me the fuck outta here.” Charlie crossed her arms over her chest, she was really not fond of the seemingly new guest and given the way he had just spoken to her you really didn’t blame her. Vaggie was the one to bite back at the stranger, “No. Absolutely not, get the fuck out.” You leaned over to Angel, who was sitting next to you at the bar, in his hand a freshly poured drink, “Who the fuck is that?” Angel looked at the brunette, then at you, “You don’t know him?” he asked, clearly confused about the fact that you really didn’t know the man that had just entered the hotel. “I wouldn’t be fucking asking if I did, dipshit.”

The brunette stranger had overheard your conversation and was answering you before Angel even had a chance to explain it to you, “I’m fucking Adam,” he said, as if it was the most obvious thing. You raised an eyebrow at him in confusion, that hadn’t really answered your question, “Am I supposed to fucking know every Adam in existance?” And the stranger - Adam - seemed to take your response quite personal, “Babes, I’m not some random fucking Adam, I’m the fucking Adam, the original dick.” Oh. So he was the asshole that had blown up the hotel. He was the bastard that had not only almost defeated Alastor, but was also responsible for Sir Pentious’ death. “I agree with Vaggie, let’s kick him out,” you directed your words to Charlie, who seemed to be considering something. “Actually,” the princess of hell started and you heard Vaggie sigh at her word, “Forget it Charlie, he’s not staying.” The devil’s daughter shook her head though, “No but Adam is right,” and while her voice gave away that she wasn’t very happy about that fact, she still admitted it. “Duh, obviously I’m right,” the brunette commented. “This hotel is about redemption after all.” Vaggie put her hand on Charlie’s shoulder as she disagreed with her girlfriend, “He doesn’t wanna get redeemed, hun, he only wants to get his ass back into heaven so that he can continue to fuck up your plans.”

-

Well, Charlie turned out to be quite convincing and that resulted in Adam staying at the hotel. And he was a fucking bitch about it, god forbid, you couldn’t believe that asshole was once an angel. There was simply no way with the way he acted towards you and your friends. And yet you had ended up as his personal bodyguard - or at least you felt like that. Because Charlie knew that if Adam were to roam hell on his own, the sinners living there would tear him into pieces. Your opinion on it? He deserved it. Charlie however saw things a little different and therefore she had asked you to keep an eye on Adam. That motherfucker obviously laid it out as something different entirely, in his eyes you were following him around, playing bodyguard, because he was so goddamn fucking important. Which he really wasn't, not in the slightest.

“Watch it,” a sinner Adam had just walked into hissed as he was about to continue to walk past the first man, he was definitely not having it though. “‘Watch it’?” the brunette repeated in sheer disbelief, grabbing the sinner by his upper arm to prevent him from leaving, “Do you fucking know who I am? I’m fucking- the first man was interrupted by a fist that met his face with more force than he had expected from the smaller soul.

And despite the fact that you disliked Adam's guts just like everyone else at the hotel did, something inside of you clicked into place when the first man got hit in the face. You rushed over to the two sinners, pushed yourself in-between them and shoved the sinner that dared to mess with the brunette you had promised to protect backwards, away from yourself and most importantly away from Adam. “The fuck you think you’re doing, bastard?” you hissed at the stranger who was quick to recover from your shove, yet he made himself appear smaller than he actually was as he bit back, “Teaching this fuckhead a lesson, you got any fucking problems with that?” His question was answered by your fist meeting his face, hitting him right in the eye, “Yeah, I fucking have a problem with that.”

Adam couldn't help himself, the first man simply stood there, watching you as you hit the stranger over and over again - if the brunette was honest the punch the sinner had landed hadn't even hurt him, it hadn't been hard enough to do so. Yet he was quite impressed by your fighting skills, he sure didn't expect you to be as strong as you were. The language you spoke as you seemed to insult the stranger Adam wasn't able to recognize, he had never heard it before and yet it sounded fucking hot coming from your lips. Has anyone ever put up a fight with a stranger for him - like a physical hand-to-hand combo? No. Not even Lute had done that in the past. So when you grabbed a firm hold of the sinner and rang him to the ground, Adam watched with fascinated eyes as you kept your promise and protected him - not that he couldn't have stood up for himself of course. But you doing the dirty work for him seemed quite nice, that way his hands would remain pure. As pure as the hands of a fallen angel could be, that was.

The sinner laid on the ground, blood covered his face and dripped onto the dusty ground he was laying on. You got up with ease, acting like nothing had happened, like that had been the most normal encounter you had ever had with a sinner - and knowing how things in hell worked, that might not be too far off. You grabbed onto Adam's wrist and pulled him away from the body that was twitching in pain and from the hungry eyes that had attached themselves onto the first man once people had started to recognize Adam for who he was. “I swear if one of ‘em bitches ever touches you again, I'll rip ‘em apart until all that's left are little pieces,” as you spoke you noticed the smug grin on Adam's face, in rage you asked, “The fuck you're so happy about?” “Oh nothing, that was just hot as fuck.” And even though you still disliked the guy, his words made you blush a little.

[thankskenpenders]

So I wrote a whole long thing about Amy's tarot cards, but what about, you know... the rest of the Sonic Frontiers DLC? The new alternate story route, the hours of new gameplay, all that?

Having now played it, I'm not sure Sonic has ever had this specific combination of good ideas that make the future of the series look bright, and execution that I fucking hate.

(Full spoilers ahead.)

The good

There's a lot to like here, conceptually.

First and foremost, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy are finally playable in a new mainline 3D Sonic game for the first time since 2006! Seventeen years! We've been begging for this for so very, very long. Nature is finally truly healing from the fallout of Sonic '06. Early on I hedged my bets and expected them to be locked to Cyber Space or something like that, assuming that there was no way they'd be fully playable in the Open Zone. But sure enough, while they're a bit limited compared to Sonic, they're still all full-blown characters with skill trees to unlock and lots of exploration to do.

We also got a more bombastic alternate final boss fight, after the first take on The End kind of underwhelmed. And it's obvious that Sonic Team has listened to our pleas to focus on the 3D platforming over the forced 2D sections, and to reduce the amount of automation in the level design. This update is chock full of Actual Platforming. Wow! I can only pray this means we never get an area as agonizing to explore as Chaos Island again.

Sure, there's still some jank - especially with Knuckles' movement, which is kinda rough. But if this is the stuff they're trying out so that they can refine it further for the next game, then I'm really excited.

On the other hand, good fucking lord is The Final Horizon tedious. And that tedium sapped most of the fun out of it for me.

The frustrating

The new scenario massively increases the difficulty over the base game, seemingly out of a desire to give the hardcore players who were posting speedrun videos and whatnot more of a challenge. It's the Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels of Sonic. This difficulty comes in many forms throughout your playtime, some worse than others, and continues to ramp up over time.

Rather than giving you a tutorial level, the new scenario dumps you directly into a remixed version of the final island and makes you do some fairly precise platforming with Amy, Knuckles, and Tails - new characters with new movesets that you won't have any experience with. You'll also need to find character-specific Koco that give you free levels, because Sonic's friends all start at level one and certain locked moves in their skill trees will be mandatory to progress. They don't even have Cyloop unlocked at the start. And because they're all low level, that means you'd better steer clear of the beefed-up bosses scattered around the map, which will absolutely annihilate Sonic's friends. (I honestly just avoided them and never bothered beating any of them, not even with my high-level Sonic. I have no idea if they're beatable with the others.)

None of this is explained to you particularly well. I spent my first few minutes with Amy wondering why the attack button did nothing, only to eventually think to check her skill tree and realize that I had to unlock her basic attack. If you don't bother to take the time to read through the skill trees, you'll very quickly find obstacles you have no way of getting past with no clues as to what exactly you're supposed to do.

Adding to this confusion is the fact that objective markers often tell you to go half a kilometer into the sky, and you'll have no idea how to get up there because all of the relevant platforms are out of your draw distance. Many objects seem to only pop in for me when I'm within about 60 meters of them, which isn't a long distance for a high-speed open world platformer like this. I was having this problem running the game with high graphics on PC, so I can only imagine how obnoxious it is on Switch. I'd frequently find myself poking around nearby clusters of platforming objects and praying that they'd lead me to a spring, rail, or cannon that would eventually point me in the direction of the floating objective marker.

There were always complaints about the art direction in Frontiers and the way it relies on floating rails and prefab platforms that are visually disconnected from the natural scenery of the islands, but it's even more dire here. The new platforming sections are dense and complex, but they seemingly didn't have the budget to change the topography of Ouranos Island at all, so it all takes the form of these prefabs. It very strongly gives the vibe of a Forge creation in Halo 3, back when there were no blank canvas maps and people just had to make "new maps" by jamming a bunch of shipping containers and barricades together in the sky above one of the default arenas.

I was still more or less having fun, though, despite the jank. It's a big creative swing, I told myself! They're trying stuff out! They're experimenting!

And then I hit the towers.

The towers are agonizing because they're SO close to being great. The logical part of my brain understands why some people love them, but god, I just fucking hate them. The platforming there IS cool! These layouts are cool! The individual challenges along the way are a bit tough, but totally doable. You know what's not cool? Making one mistake and slowly falling 800 meters all the way back down to the ground, forcing you to start over. Because none of these towers have checkpoints. For me, this one decision transforms what should have been a fun set of platforming challenges into a massive, unfun difficulty spike.

I enjoy some masocore platformers, but those are typically games with quick deaths and restarts like Celeste, Super Meat Boy, or VVVVVV. Hell, the Mario games tend to get way more difficult than the average Sonic game, and those are obviously all great. Quite frankly, unlike those games, Sonic Frontiers is nowhere near tight or polished enough to make this difficulty feel fair. Bits of jank that I could ignore in the base game due to its lower difficulty are now matters of life or death. Missing a jump because I boosted off an incline in a way the game didn't like for reasons I don't understand is not fun. Falling off a tower because the camera was pointing in the wrong direction while I was in midair and I couldn't see the next thing I was expected to homing attack is not fun.

And it's such a jarring spike when moving from the base game to the DLC that it feels like the game is suddenly quizzing me on skills it never bothered to instill in me. Maybe if you've spent the last year labbing out the movement tech in this game this is all a no brainer, but for the average returning player it's a kick in the dick.

I'm sure I could've beaten these towers normally if I gave them enough tries. They aren't the hardest thing in the world. But I very quickly decided I had better things to do with my life and turned on easy mode, which adds tons of extra springs and homing attack balloons to make all of the platforming piss easy. I wish there was a middle option between Only Up: Sonic Edition and this extreme hand holding, but when given the choice between the two I gladly picked baby mode. I just wanted to see the story.

(The new Cyber Space levels are also long, challenging, and devoid of checkpoints, not unlike the towers. But I only ever found the entrances to two of them. So I only did two. They're theoretically required, because they give you "Lookout Koco" that you need for... some reason? But in a rare act of mercy, Sonic Team put Cyloop treasure spots that give you free Lookout Koco all over the map.)

As I continued, so many little things started adding up to piss me off. Why do you only reveal like five tiny squares of the map at a time? I would've loved to find all the new 1-on-1 dialogue scenes, but not if I had to do dozens of hard mode versions of the stupid little puzzles and challenges to reveal the whole map. Why does every character need their own unique collectibles? What is this, Donkey Kong 64? Why can't I just grab this EXP for Amy when I find it as Tails? Why can I only manually swap characters by talking to an out-of-the-way NPC unlocked right before the final boss? Why is fast travel disabled? Why are the new vocal themes you hear when playing as Amy, Knuckles, and Tails so monotonous, with a single verse repeating over lo-fi beats ad nauseum? Why is the jukebox feature completely disabled throughout the DLC, even after rolling the credits? Why can't Tails homing attack? Why do I have to wrestle with the camera so much while also holding the jump button to fly as Knuckles and Tails? How many right thumbs do they think I have? Why is this animation for picking up animals in the Cyber Space levels so incredibly slow, and why can I still take damage while it's playing? Why does the stupid starfall event have to make it so hard to see what I'm doing when climbing these towers? Why does this shitty combat trial have a popup that makes it seem like I should be using the Cyloop when the actual strategy revolves around repeated parries? And on and on and on...

The story

What about the new story? Well, there sadly isn't much to chew on here. Most of the DLC has the cast running around and finding different macguffins for arbitrary reasons, as part of some sort of plan to divide up the work on the last island so that Sonic can go train with the spirits of the Ancients and harness the power of his cyber corruption. What the fuck is an Impact Form? I don't know, but Knuckles needs something to do, so go find one.

It's a thin excuse plot meant to make you do platforming challenges around Ouranos Island, with little room for Ian to add any real flavor of his own, even though he certainly tries. Having Sonic meet the spirits of the Ancients who controlled the Titans, who are revealed to directly parallel the personalities of him and his friends, is kinda neat, I guess? It's something. The optional conversations seem to have some fun bits, including both conversations between the supporting cast and additional lore. But again, I only found a few of those because of how tedious filling out the map was.

The writing is also let down by the voice acting - or I guess the voice direction, because I know this cast can do better. Roger's voice continues to be weirdly, distractingly deep as Sonic, which was clearly something that was requested of him just for this game. (For a recent example of him going back to his regular Sonic voice, see this LEGO trailer.) The performances of Sonic's friends are also WILDLY mismatched. This is most clear when they start feeling the effects of the cyber corruption. Knuckles seems to be barely affected at all, Tails sounds like he's moderately hurt and low on energy, and Amy starts completely overselling her pain out of nowhere. The extremely strained performance makes it sound like Cindy's literally being tortured in the fucking booth. I have no idea what's going on over there.

The final challenges

People have debated whether or not things like the towers and the new Cyber Space levels are fair challenges. What's not up for debate is the fact that Master King Koco's Trial is complete and utter bullshit, and I can't believe they shipped this.

Before you can fight the new final boss, the game forces you to do a boss rush of the first three Titans - INCLUDING the pre-Super Sonic climbing sections - with a hard limit of 400 rings. For all three lengthy, heavily scripted fights. Back to back. You can't even cheese it with the leveling system, because you're forced to do this at level 1. This all but forces you to look up speedrun strats for the Super Sonic fights so that you don't run out of rings and fail the trial.

And the real kicker? They changed the parry just for this trial! Originally, you could just hold down the bumpers endlessly and Sonic would ready himself to parry the next attack, whenever that may hit. Now it requires you to do a "Perfect Parry" with specific timing. And you HAVE to hit those parries if you wanna clear this trial and get to the new ending. Miss a few and you're probably fucked. You just have to reset. Time to go through all those fights, all those climbing sequences, all those QTEs, and all those unskippable mid-fight cutscenes all over again. This is by far the most egregious example of the DLC deciding to quiz you on new skills that the base game never required of you, and it's one of the most absurdly unfair things I have ever seen in a Sonic game.

Easy mode does make this trial easier by making the timing window for Perfect Parries much more generous, but that's all the help you get. It's still easy to lose time failing to parry Wyvern's hard-to-read animations, or to lose rings by getting hit on the climb sections, or for things to just fuck up because these fights were always kinda jank. I gave it a few shots. I looked up guide videos. I tried the Quick Cyloop and stomp combo strat that seems all but mandatory. But I quickly decided that, again, this wasn't a worthwhile use of my time. It just sucks. And I really, REALLY didn't want to overwrite all my fond memories of these Titan fights, some of my favorite setpiece moments in any Sonic game, with memories of this shit ass boss rush.

So I cheated! And if you're on PC, you should too.

With the worst hurdle out of the way, I turned cheats back off and moved on to the new final boss. It was pretty cool. It's much flashier than the original fight against The End, that's for sure. It's still kinda annoying, and it requires you to do very specific shit without properly telegraphing it, but it's nowhere near as bad as the preceding challenges. I was hoping for one last new metalcore song to go with the new fight, which we sadly didn't get, but at least the new version of I'm Here is good.

The ending is... mostly the same, with a couple altered scenes that don't really change anything in the long run. But overall the new finale was pretty good. I just wish it hadn't been such a slog to get there.

Closing thoughts

Sonic Frontiers: The Final Horizon wants to be three things:

A patch that adds a new alternate ending that was probably supposed to be in the base game in the first place.

An experimental take on making Tails, Knuckles, and Amy playable again, presumably testing things for the next game. And...

An official Kaizo Sonic Frontiers mod for the sickos.

The thing is, the people showing up for #1 and #2, the main things that Sega hyped up about the update, are not necessarily going to be down for #3. If they had announced some uber-hard new Cyber Space levels for the arcade mode or whatever, I'd be like, neat! And then not play them. I would never touch Master King Koco's Trial if it was an optional challenge. I would leave that for the sickos. But instead, they made the hardest content mandatory for anyone who wants to see the new Good Ending where the final boss gets an actual budget.

I'm mostly left in a state of shock that it shipped like this. I cannot believe they playtested this and decided this was the state The Final Horizon should be released in. That this should be the note Frontiers ends on. That this should be how we remember those Titan fights. That this should be the lingering taste in our mouths as we wait however many years for the next 3D game.

Armchair devs always love to say that things would be "easy to fix," but like... there really would be easy fixes for the insane difficulty and general tedium here! Add a few more tutorial popups explaining what the game expects of you with Sonic's friends. Give the Cyber Space stages and the towers a couple checkpoints. Give the combat trials more generous time limits, especially on the lower difficulties. Remove half of the map puzzles, and make the ones that remain uncover twice as many squares. Skip the startup animation for Knuckles' glide. Let me turn on the goddamn jukebox. Since so much of this update was designed around fan feedback, I can only pray that Sonic Team is still listening, and that they tweak at least a few of these things with a balance patch.

But still, after those many, many paragraphs of complaining... this still somehow makes the future of 3D Sonic seem pretty promising?

Sonic's friends are FINALLY playable again, and the focus is back to proper 3D platforming, rather than railroading players into awkward forced 2D sections in what's otherwise an open world. These are the things that they hopefully want to carry over to the next game. The difficulty? Well, that's just because it's the postgame DLC that's supposed to be the toughest challenge in the game. It's just an unreasonably cruel one of those - an example of how designing and balancing for a vocal minority of your fanbase can really hurt your game. But Sonic Team is onto something here, and I hope that they can learn the right lessons from this expansion and not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

[somehhuuuhh]

I finally got to redesign Ink and Nightmare for my Inkmare au!

I didn't like the old designs. I thought it was beautiful at the time, but now it looks lazy and needs more things to match the character. So I guess I'm happy with these designs. Ink more chubby and Nightmare looks like more of a nerd

Me talking more about What the Point of Feeling Blue?(ps my inkmare au)

Some qna that nobody ask for but I'm still going to ask myself questions to help me and you to understand the au

What's the plot of this au of your?

This version of dreamtale is where Nightmare did get beat up when he was nine , but when someone was sick in the village, he gave them the negative apple because, for some reason, the positive apples didn't work,and somehow the negative apple heal the sick villager. The villagers realized maybe he isn't a bad guy after all??? Of course some people think he is still bad, but now he doesn't get bullied so much like before. People well call him names or threaten him but don't touch him since he's the village favorite which his brother Dream too

Ink is still a protector and goes around helping aus. He found dreamtale while he was in the doodle sphere. He noticed something that wasn't supposed to be there, which was dreamtale. The page was glitching a lot. He decided to go and investigate it.

Is it going to be a comic or a fanfic?

Comic of course I can't write good lol

Are you going to make a blog for it, or is it going to be here?

Um, I'm not sure, but it will keep thing organized if I did make a blog for it, but I added so much content in this blog that I probably won't make a blog for them

What's the name of your Inkmare au?

What's the Point of Feeling Blue? And why I named that uhhhh you see first

Who's going to in "What's the point of feeling blue?"

In the beginning Ink and Nightmare ofc, Dream, Error and maybe Fresh

In the end I have no clue

What's the theme of the au?

It will be fluff and angsty. NO NSFW

What are your warning tags?

My warning tags for this au is Tw blood and that's it for now if there's going to be more ill add it

What was the old designs for them?

Boom yea I don't like it

Can you tell us more of their personality them in your au?

Ink

Inks personality is like a little kid that ate a bunch a sugar last night.

Ink in this more version is why less careful since he's a kid and he doesn't know much of the universe, but all he knows he needs protect them.

He still soulless and have to drink his Vials. He's pretty dangerous when he's souless.

ADHD ✨️

While he is listening to someone thats talking, he will listen while staring at your eyes, not even blinking for one second 👁👁

He likes to scare the living shit out of people for fun (especially to nightmare)

"What the sigma"

Nightmare

Not a little soft boy (sure he a big all softy, but he's pretty powerful)

He's very patient (especially to Ink)

He's very sweet and nice

Bro knits when he stress so he's knitting stresseser

Not use to compliments cuz of course he isn't

NERD

Very interested at ink cuz he can't read he's emotionals

Annnnnd that all for now. I don't really know what to do with error and Dream yet soooo yea. If you have any questions for me for this au please ask!!!

[kangshxrtie]

ch. 15 ⤍ you can't see me

"hii everybody!" you greeted the stream once you started.

user1 are u gonna address the tweets?

"what tweets? i haven't done anything recently" you asked confused.

user2 abt u & kazuha?

"i literally told y'all we were dating" you rolled your eyes playfully.

user3 wait y'all actually are???

"yes. i don't know why y'all thought i was lying"

"by the way chat, kazuha sent me behind the scenes of her photoshoot" you showed your phone screen to the camera before quickly moving it away.

"haha. y'all can't see, my eyes only."

user4 that's not fair you're supposed to be one of us

user5 SHARE THE PICS

"i have girlfriend privileges" you smirked, "therefore, since she only sent them to me, i'll keep them to myself"

user6 is this u confirming the dating rumors???

"okay maybe we're not actually dating" you admitted, "but we will be soon"

you were about to say more, but you were cut off by kazuha suddenly joining the discord call. "y/n, are you ready for horror games?"

"listen i know we had horror games planned today, but my pc will just not open the damn game" you tried to make an excuse.

"did you try clicking the start button?"

"yeah, that's my problem; it just won't click"

"are you trying to get out of this right now?"

"no, of course not" you said in a unconvincing tone.

"come on y/n it'll be fun"

"i don't know if i trust you enough to play a horror game with"

"what'd i do?" kazuha chuckled.

"you're a professional thrower; you'll probably lead me to my death" you replied.

"i would never"

"when we played that super bunny man game together you kept kicking me into oblivion"

"it wasn't on purpose" kazuha tried to defend herself.

"i swear you evilly laughed at one point" you said.

"i never did that"

you eventually got on the game after a lot of reassuring from kazuha that she would protect you.

you two went through the first floor with no problems and moved onto the second one quickly. but as soon as you stepped out of the elevator for the second floor, you already knew it wouldn't be as easy.

as you continued to wander around the place, you heard some noises and immediately found a spot to hide. kazuha was looking around for clues when she noticed you weren't beside her anymore.

"y/n where are you?" kazuha asked as she moved her character around the dark room.

"hiding" you replied.

kazuha busted out laughing when she saw your character crouched in a corner with your back facing her.

"get up, we have to find information about the ghost" she told you once she got done laughing.

"you can do that alone. i'll be fine in this corner." you moved your mouse from left to right, making your character shake its head.

"you'll be fine. i'll be right beside you" kazuha tried to coax you into coming out of your hiding place.

you turned around slowly, letting go of your crouch button before walking over to kazuha.

"i'm putting my trust in you"

you definitely shouldn't have because the first opportunity kazuha had she let you walk into a room first before closing the door behind you.

"literally locked me in a room and told me to figure it out myself" you sighed as you looked on the shelves for the item you were supposed to find.

"what's it looking like in there?" kazuha asked from outside of the room.

"just some books-" you stopped talking to let out a loud scream making kazuha bust out laughing.

you turned your character around and went to the door to try and open it, "kazuha get me the fuck out of here"

"did you find what we need?" she asked.

"no. but you better open this door right now before that motherfucker comes back"

"okay okay" kazuha said between laughs and opened the door before entering.

"you actually fucking set me up" you swung the item in your hand at kazuha's character.

"sorry sorry. it was worth"

"i bet it was" you rolled your eyes already thinking of ways for revenge in your head.

"should we go in that room?" you asked kazuha who agreed hesitantly.

"you go first" when you said that, kazuha's character looked back and forth between you and the door before shaking her head no. you laughed at the action.

"but you're closer; you might as well just go in right now" kazuha said.

"and risk you locking me in again, hell no"

"that was a one-time thing, i promise, and how do i know you won't do that to me"

"then you deserve it" you stated.

"i said sorry" kazuha pouted in response.

"i don't know why you wanted to play this game so bad; you're even worse than me"

"i like watching you get scared" kazuha admitted.

"of course you do" you decided to take one for the team and open the door before going inside, immediately looking behind you to make sure kazuha was following you and not locking you inside again.

kazuha followed you into the dark room looking down at the floor and closing her eyes to avoid any jumpscares. as she was doing that, the chat began spamming the chat that eunchae was in the room, but of course, she didn't see the warnings.

"hey zuha" eunchae walks into kazuha's scaring the absolute shit out of her as she screams and curls into her chair.

"eunchae!" kazuha moves her out of her face to give her a deadpanned look.

"y/n wanted me to check on you and make sure you're alright" eunchae replied through some laughter.

"well as you can see" kazuha gestured to herself and then the game on the screen, "i'm not"

once eunchae left the room still laughing, kazuha turned back around to face the screen again. "that was so messed up" kazuha told her chat.

"eunchae just came in my room and scared the shit out of me" kazuha told you once she calmed down.

"oh she did it; i need to see the clip!" you exclaimed.

"you set that up" kazuha looked at her camera in disbelief at your actions.

"you literally lead me to every single jumpscare. i think it was well deserved"

later on in the game, you and kazuha decided to focus on the actual purpose of the game, collecting items. you were following her mindlessly, trusting her completely since she seemed so confident about where the next item was.

"when you said you were taking me out on a date, i didn't think this is what you meant" you said as you nervously moved your character down the hallway.

"is this not romantic enough for you" kazuha joked.

user1 so we just gon' speed past that like y/n didn't just say what she just said

user2 they're going on actual dates. i was here!

once kazuha turned the corner, she let out a loud scream before turning back around and walking back toward you.

"kazuha is a literal dolphin when she screams" you mentioned to your chat.

"we gotta go" kazuha rushed out, sprinting away.

you said nothing following after her as she ran back to the start.

"what was it?" you asked once you returned to a safe place.

"the weird fucking stick thing" kazuha told you.

"oh okay" you nodded your head.

you two waited for the noises to stop before planning how you two would get the next item. after the plan was finalized, you waited a little before going back outside.

"i think we're good to go now" kazuha told you.

you opened the door first, taking a couple of steps out of the room before the creature jumped out of the vents right in front of you. the jumpscare made you jump away and off your chair, hitting a drink on your table on the way down, making a loud noise.

kazuha heard the whole thing happened, and once she sobered up from laughing, she immediately worried for you.

"y/n are you okay?" you groaned as you tried to recover from the jumpscare and your desk breaking.

"y/n...?" she repeated.

"i hate this game" you mumbled into your mic.

"are you okay?" she asked once you responded.

"i spilled my drink on my keyboard; i hate it here"

once you finally recovered, you grabbed some cleaning supplies to clean up your desk and keyboard. after you finished, you closed the game with the excuse that it closed while cleaning the keyboard.

"so that seems like enough for tonight" you tried to end as you sat back down.

"we go again tomorrow"

"you can go again tomorrow. i will be playing a peaceful game tomorrow" you said.

"i'll make you play a horror game again someday" kazuha said.

"yeah totally" you agreed while shaking your head at the camera.

"i'll call you later though" kazuha told you.

"today or...?"

"tonight"

"oh-okay, talk later" you shyly said before leaving the call.

user1 Y/N JUST GOT SO SHY KEKW

user2 I'VE NEVER SEEN U LIKE THIS 😭

"anyways..." you tried to change the topic before chat said more, "i will never in my life confide to peer pressure ever again, especially from chat"

user1 so horror game tmrw right?

"hell no i'm never playing anything remotely horror ever again"

"stardew valley sounds nice"

user HORROR HORROR HORROR

k_a_z_u_h_a__ HORROR HORROR HORROR

"aren't you streaming? get out of here"

k_a_z_u_h_a__ i ended already

"and i'm trying to do the same thing so stop encouraging my chat to be like you"

k_a_z_u_h_a__ give the ppl what they want!

"i don't even know why you wanna play more; you screamed louder and more than me" you said.

k_a_z_u_h_a__ i wanna watch u play

"you can watch me play any other game. why does it have to be horror?"

k_a_z_u_h_a__ more fun ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

"i'm not putting myself through more trauma for your entertainment"

k_a_z_u_h_a__ but the content...

"no. i'm getting off now so no more suggestions"

"anyways, i'm ending now! i'll be streaming tomorrow with some friends so I'll see yall then!" you waved bye to the stream before ending it.

ALL CHAPTERS !!! | NEXT CH !!!

long-awaited update. my only excuse is college events & just college period 😭. i'll try & update more often now though!

[dwobbitfromtheshire]

Eddie Munson's Defense Squad the complete one shot

A/N: Halfway through writing this, I realized that I was accidentally basing Poppy on a girl I went to school whom I admired. I realize now that I had a crush on her. Different name, same personality. Also, there is a Carol in here. Her name is Carol Watson, and she's completely different from Carol Perkins.

Poppy Blake smacked her gum obnoxiously as she listened to her parents rant about Eddie Munson, the three of them sitting around the dinner table as they did so. This was complete and utter bullshit.

"You guys have a lot of nerve for talking shit about Eddie when you have no clue what kind of man he is," Poppy said. "And it's hypocritical coming from a mixed race couple who have to deal with the stares and the comments in this assbackward conservative town who can't seem to tell what year it is."

Her mother's green eyes widened. The green eyes and the freckles Poppy got from her mother. Everything else, including the hair and the dark complexion she got from her daddy. Thanks to her mom, her skin was much lighter than his. Maybe she was a bit of a narcissist, but she loved the way she looked, how she was a perfect mixture of both her parents. She especially loved how her hair had its own personality, and she was grateful that she didn't have her mother's bright orange coloring. Not that she had anything against redheads. It's such an odd shade that whenever Poppy asks if she dyes it, Clara Blake just laughs. She never answers.

"He's a drug dealer," Clara said.

"And so is Daddy," Poppy said.

"Pharmaceutical salesman," Tony said.

"They sound like the same thing to me," she replied.

"Well, Poppy, one's illegal, and one is not," Clara said.

"Weed doesn't kill people, Mom! It's just bullshit propaganda. I mean, not unless it's laced with something, but Eddie would never do that. Some of those drugs that Dad sells should be illegal," Poppy said. "I mean, alcohol is more dangerous."

"You seem to know an awful lot about his weed," Tony said, suddenly amused.

"Dad, I regret to inform you that your precious little girl smokes," she said, and Clara gasped. "Do not act like this is brand new information. You and I both know that bag of oregano that you found was not, in fact, a bag of oregano. Now, tell me why someone would kill his own customers when he could keep them alive and earn a profit?"

"That's true," Clara frowned.

"Mom, I know how scared you are, but I know he would never kill Chrissy, Patrick, or Fred. I know, just like I know that you would never," Poppy said. "Mom, you know I'm a good judge of character."

"We both know that, baby," Tony sighed. "I suppose we both did sound ridiculous."

"Thank you," Poppy said, blinking back tears. "And you know, Hellfire, despite its name, isn't a cult. They're just playing a game like the boys play basketball."

"Well, even we know that. I suppose it's the fear of the unknown that's got us so scared," Clara said.

"I totally get that," Poppy said.

"By the way, why are you so sure?" Clara asked.

"I don't know. It was the look in his eye when he talked about his mom, and it was just like pure love in there when he talked about her. I mean, he can definitely be an asshole but in the way that cousin Mark is and we all still love him. He respects cheerleaders too much to kill them, even the ones that really hate him," Poppy said.

The sound of the front door opening loudly startled the three of them. Kayla Fielding, her best friend in the whole world, ran into the living room. Her blond hair was in disarray, and her bright blue eyes were blown wide with alarm.

"Kayla, we were just about to have dinner. You're welcome to fix yourself a plate and join us," Tony said.

"I, uh, actually needed some last-minute help on a project. I read the directions wrong, and it's due tomorrow," Kayla said. "I was hoping that Poppy would help me."

"Do you mind, Mom?" Poppy asked. "I had a late lunch, so I'm not very hungry."

"Go on," Clara said, her eyes twinkling at them in amusement. "Keep the door open, though."

"Um, okay," Poppy said, looking at her mother in confusion.

They quickly moved up the stairs and into Poppy's room.

"Uh, I think your mom knows, Poppy," Kayla said.

"My mom doesn't know shit," she said, rolling her eyes. "Anyway, what's this about? Clearly, there's no project."

"I just heard that Jason has started a town wide man hunt for Eddie and the rest of Hellfire. I heard that they were heading towards that creepy looking house on Morehead Street," Kayla scowled. "This is so fucked up! Eddie doesn't deserve this, and neither do these kids. I've always hated Jason, but I never thought that he would take it this far."

"We need to do something," Poppy said. "Stop them. We need to gather the others and get some weapons."

"Do you really think we can do this?" Kayla asked.

"My parents always taught me to do what's right, to stand up for people when they needed it. Although, I think they were talking about when a kid gets bullied or something," she replied. "It fits in this situation, too."

Poppy wasn't proud of it, but she ended up breaking into her dad's gun locker to grab a shotgun that her dad taught her to use. He always wanted to make sure she was prepared. Not that he actually needed to teach her. She figured it out pretty quick. Poppy tried to hand Kayla the Smith & Wesson, but she quickly shook her head.

"I don't do guns, remember?" Kayla asked.

"Right, well, I'll just grab it for the other girls," Poppy said. "There's a baseball bat in my room. You can use that."

She zipped up the shotgun and the other gun into a bag as well as some ammo to go with it. They stood up at the same time, reminding Poppy just how much taller she was than Kayla and how much Kayla liked that.

"This is sort of thrilling," Kayla admitted, licking her lips.

"We don't have time for that, Kay," Poppy smiled.

"Right."

They quickly snuck back into Poppy's room and stuffed the bat into the bag. Poppy opened her window as quietly as she could.

"Okay," Poppy whispered. "You're going to go down the trellis first, then I'll lower the guns down to you, okay?"

"Okay, see you on the other side," Kayla said as she straddled the window sill.

She grabbed Poppy's face and pulled her in for a deep kiss. Poppy sighed and leaned into it, kissing her harshly. They both broke the kiss, breathing heavily, their lips swollen. The giddiness never really goes away whenever Kayla kisses her. It always feels like the first time. Poppy smiled as she watched Kayla maneuver down the side of her house. Using her bedsheets, she lowered the bag down to Kayla. She climbed down the trellis herself and followed Kayla into her car, placing the bag in the backseat. When she sat back in her seat, Kayla was grinning at her.

"I guess I'm your partner in crime," Kayla said, grinning. "Get it? Because I'm also your romantic partner, and we're also committing a crime by hunting down a bunch of asshole jocks."

"I fucking love you. Never stop being a dork," Poppy laughed and kissed her. "Step on it, baby."

Kayla tied her hair up with a scrunchie, turned on the radio, and sped off toward the houses of the other cheerleaders. Most of the cheerleaders would be with her on this one, seeing as Poppy was the one to spread the story about Eddie's mother. She had been the one to go to him for drugs when the others were too chicken to do it. He had been nice and funny, a perfect gentleman. Looking into his eyes, Poppy could see how sweet he was. Unlike Jason, whose eyes screamed psychopath and she wouldn't be surprised if Jason had been the one to kill Chrissy. . . and couldn't stop at just one. Patrick was one of the nice ones, the one the girls got along with most as well as the new guy, Lucas Sinclair. Steve Harrington was much the same, but she hadn't talked to him in a while. They didn't hate all jocks but enough of them got underneath their skin. There were other cheerleaders who didn't see it their way. They absolutely loved Jason and hated Eddie. They couldn't see beyond their own attraction. And if Poppy had any interest in men, then she certainly would have gone for Eddie rather than Jason.

Hungry Like the Wolf was still playing in Poppy's head when they pulled up to the creepy looking house. It sent a shiver down her spine as she looked at it. Poppy quickly handed over the bat to Kayla and the other gun over to Taylor, who didn't bring a weapon. A gust of wind suddenly appeared, and Taylor's short brown hair hit her piercing hazel eyes. There was anger there. Taylor took the gun from her and thanked her as she loaded it. Everyone else had their own weapons: bats, crowbars, and someone even had a broom handle.

"Let's kick their ass - "

A scream interrupted Poppy, and they all ran in that direction. Andy was on top of what looked like an eleven year old girl, and he was getting ready to pummel her. Oh, fuck that.

"ANDY!" Poppy yelled and raised her shotgun.

"You've got three seconds to get the fuck off of her before I put a round in you," Taylor snarled as she raised the gun.

If anyone had more reason to do it, it would be Taylor, considering he once put his hands on her without her consent. Taylor didn't even bother counting when Andy raised his fist. She pulled the trigger, and the round went through Andy's shoulder. He fell to the ground with a yell. Taylor ran over to him and pressed the heal of her boot into his shoulder. He screamed.

"I'm sorry. Should I have asked first before stepping on you?" Taylor asked.

"YOU BITCH!" Andy screamed.

"Says the guy screaming like one!" Taylor exclaimed.

"You shot me!" He sobbed.

"Yeah. I did do that," Taylor grinned victoriously.

Poppy went over and helped pull the girl away.

"Are you okay?" She asked, and the girl nodded. "What's your name, sweetheart?"

"Erica Sinclair," she said.

"Are you Lucas's sister?" Poppy asked.

"Yeah, he's inside. I think I saw Jason go in there," Erica said, looking worried.

"We'll handle it. You stay here with Carol. We like to call her Mother Hen. You'll find out why," Poppy smirked. "I'm Poppy, by the way, and that's Kayla."

Poppy and Kayla left just as Carol Watson started to fuss over Erica. They went into the stairs and went all the way up to the attic where Jason was pointing a gun at Lucas. Some girl was sitting on the floor in a trance. Lucas was pleading with Jason.

"You're lying! Chrissy would never have gone to him if she was in trouble! She would have come to me!" Jason exclaimed.

"Well, that's not just fucking true," Poppy said causing Jason to whirl around and point the gun at her. "She came to me, Jason, and then I sent her right to Eddie. All I knew was that she was stressed. She was under pressure from something. It was either her mother or you. I thought that maybe Eddie could help her."

"You sent her to Eddie? You're the reason she's dead?" Jason glared.

"No, Jason. I don't know what happened, but Eddie's not a killer. He's a good man. Better than you are," Poppy said.

"Eddie is a killer, and I'm trying to protect this town from him!" Jason yelled.

"No! We're trying to protect this town!" Lucas yelled out.

Jason whirled around and pointed the gun back on Lucas. Poppy gripped her shotgun and took a step further. Kayla did the same, gripping her bat. Lucas was scared, and all it would take was Jason pulling the trigger once. Something in Lucas's face changed.

"You know, I wanted to be like you. . . popular, but all I see now is a full blown psychopath," Lucas said.

He bent down at the right time as Jason took the shot and dove into Jason's stomach. The gun was knocked out of Jason's hand, and pretty soon, they were both throwing punches. Poppy cursed. She couldn't shoot Jason now without risking shooting Lucas.

"The Walkman!" Lucas exclaimed.

Kayla was quick. She rolled and grabbed the Walkman before Jason could stomp on it.

"What are we supposed to do with this?" Kayla asked.

"Max! Put it on Max! Running up that Hill!" Lucas yelled.

It was difficult for Kayla when Max started lifting in the air. Holy shit! Poppy reacted quickly and put the headphones on her. They stared at Max and didn't notice that Jason grabbed the gun again until he was pointing it at Lucas. Poppy pointed her shotgun at him.

"Jason! Don't do this!" Poppy exclaimed.

"You're supposed to be on my side, Poppy!" Jason exclaimed. "Instead, you're siding with these. . . Satanists."

"There are no sides! There's only living and dying. Which one are you going to choose?" Poppy asked.

Jason paused for a moment, and it almost looked like he was lowering it. His face hardened, however, and he turned the gun on her. He had chosen.

"You're Tigers!" Jason said furiously.

"Oh, honey, no. We're fucking wolves," Poppy said as she thought about the rest of her 'pack' outside. "Who protect their own."

She pulled the trigger. Jason screamed as the gun fell to the ground. He clutched his bloody hand, crying. Max fell to the ground. Lucas rushed to her side and pulled her into his arms.

"I'm okay. I'm okay," Max said, and he helped her up. "Jesus, what the fuck happened?"

"Uh. Poppy Blake shot him," Lucas said, and Max looked at Poppy in surprise.

"Most of the cheerleaders hate Jason, Andy, and Connor, but we love Eddie," Kayla said. "There are a few who refuse to look past their looks. Gah!"

Poppy shared a look with Kayla and her eyes twinkled back at her.

"Well, it's a good thing that we don't like men, baby," Poppy said teasingly.

"Hey, if I were into men, it'd be Eddie or Chief Hopper," Kayla said, and Lucas looked at her when she mentioned Hopper. "Oh, I like tall people. Preferably tall women."

"Lesbian warrior cheerleaders?" Max asked in amusement.

"Yes! I want that on a shirt," Kayla said.

They left the room, and the house with Jason still bleeding out on the floor of the attic. When they walked out of the house, they found a few more jocks had arrived late to the party. Several of them had her cheerleaders on the ground, including Taylor and Carol. Erica was nowhere to be found. Poppy made sure it was clear before shooting her shotgun off to the side. The jocks stopped and dropped them. Every single one of them were bleeding but not too terribly.

"Hey! Your leader is upstairs bleeding to death. I suggest you get him some help and get the fuck out of here before I give you matching wounds!" Poppy exclaimed.

The jocks ran upstairs and came out carrying Jason. Poppy and the cheerleaders all glared at them with weapons drawn until they drove away.

"Are all of them cheerleaders?" Max asked.

"Yeah," Poppy replied.

"Holy shit," Max said. "Does Eddie know he has his own defense squad?"

"He will now," Kayla said.

"Where's Erica?" Poppy asked.

"Shoved her into my car when those assholes showed up," Carol replied.

Erica hopped out of the car, carrying a first aid kit.

"Found a first aid kit, and it looks like some of you are you going to need it," Erica said and looked at her brother. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah."

Carol took the box from Erica and started patching everyone up. Just as Poppy was about to open her mouth to ask Lucas what the hell was all that about, an RV drove past honking loudly.

"Shit! Eddie's in that RV. We have to follow!" Lucas exclaimed.

"Alright, wolves!" Poppy whistled. "You heard him! Move out!"

They all climbed into their respective vehicles, with Lucas and Erica crawling into the back of Kayla's car. They followed the RV to the hospital where the door burst open. Steve Harrington, Nancy Wheeler, Robin Buckley came out carrying a bleeding Eddie in their arms. A crying boy with curly hair was following them.

"Oh, shit," Lucas muttered.

The group followed them into the hospital, where they delivered Eddie to the doctors. They immediately wheeled him away onto a gurney. Nancy, Robin, and Steve stared down the hallway in shock. Lucas approached the curly hair boy who was now crying.

"Dustin, what the hell happened?" Lucas asked.

"Lucas! Max!" Dustin exclaimed before pulling them both in a hug. "The bats. . .they got to Eddie! . . . Who are they?"

"Dustin, Steve, Nancy, Robin. . .meet Eddie Munson's defense squad," Max said.

"What?" Steve asked and then he squinted. "Poppy?"

"Hey, Steve. You look like shit," she said. "Now, who's going to tell me what the fuck is going on in this town?"

Two days later. . .

It was hell getting questioned by the police but in the end, what they said helped Eddie. There was too much evidence against Jason Carver to keep looking at Eddie, especially when Chrissy's diary resurfaced that revealed the bruises that Jason left behind when he dragged her around like a trophy. Chrissy wrote down how he and the other jocks had it in for Hellfire, how she tried to stop them. She even told Principal Higgins, but he didn't believe her, and when she saw the bennies in his desk, he blackmailed Chrissy. Jason Carver was arrested as were the boys who were involved in the manhunt. Principal Higgins was also arrested. It looked like they were going to need a new principal as well as a new basketball team.

"Maybe we can fill it with more nerds," Poppy nudged Lucas. "Change it from the Tigers. We can be the Hawkins Dragons or some shit."

"No, honey, we're the fucking wolves," Lucas said and Poppy laughed.

They were surrounding Eddie's hospital bed as they waited for them to wake up. They were only just now allowed back in. Of course, they allowed Wayne to spend time with Eddie, but now they were guarding his bedside along with the party. To Poppy's dismay, they hadn't been allowed their weapons. Even though all had been dealt with, Poppy still felt unsettled. She knew the court of public opinion would be the hardest to sway. She was worried that they would go after him.

"So. . .you did all of this for Eddie?" Steve asked.

"I know what you're thinking, but I'm not into dicks," Poppy said.

"Eddie's not a dick!" Steve said defensively, his cheeks turning red. "He's a great guy!"

Poppy and Kayla shared an amused look before giggling. Kayla nodded at Poppy, who nodded back.

"Steve, we're lesbians," Kayla said. "I'm her girlfriend."

"Oh, shit, sorry," Steve said, his whole face heating up.

Robin shoved her knuckle to her mouth, laughing. Meanwhile, Poppy gave Steve a knowing look.

"Me too," Robin said. "Lesbian."

"Nice," Kayla said. "Tall lesbians are the best."

"So are short ones," Poppy said.

"I'm not short, I'm just vertically challenged," Kayla said. "Gravity hates me because I'm so cute. It just keeps pulling me down."

"Idiot," Poppy said affectionately, kissing her.

"Your idiot," Kayla said.

"Well, I guess since we're all being honest," Steve said. "Bicycle. Goddamn it, I mean bisexual!"

"I don't know. Bicycle works, too. If you're into that, there's definitely riding involved," Poppy said with a smirk.

"Children present!" Dustin exclaimed.

"Hm, on the way here, you were saying that you didn't need a babysitter anymore. So which is it? Child or grown-up?" Steve asked, and Dustin closed his mouth. "Yeah, that's what I thought."

Suddenly, Erica popped her head in.

"Jock out on bail incoming!" Erica shrieked.

The squad immediately jumped into action and formed a wall around Eddie's bed. Meanwhile, Steve and Robin stood in front of Lucas, Max, and Dustin at the door. Erica looked out the door while Robin kept a hand on her back.

"Coast is clear!" Erica exclaimed, closing the door.

"Am I dead or alive? What is this?" Eddie's called out, and everyone jumped. "Why are there cheerleaders surrounding my bed? Oh God, Jason sent you to finish me off."

"First of all, if we wanted you dead, you'd be dead before you woke up," Poppy said. "And second of all, Jason is rotting in jail for his crimes and Vecna's. No bail for that asshole."

"They're your defense squad, man. They heard that Jason and the others were going to come after us at the Creel House, so the cheerleaders came and kicked their ass for you. The cheerleaders like you, man," Lucas said.

"Seriously?" Eddie asked.

"Yeah, Poppy shot Jason, and Taylor shot Andy," Lucas replied.

"You did this for free drugs, didn't you?" Eddie joked.

"Ass, I did it because I like you. Platonically," Poppy said. "You're a great guy. Bit of an asshole but a great guy."

"Why?" Eddie asked.

"The speech about your mom told me all I needed to know about you," Poppy said. "Plus, after your little meeting in the woods, Chrissy wouldn't shut up about you."

"She wouldn't?" He asked.

"Look, she's been unhappy for a while, and we've done everything we could do to help her, but when she came out of those woods, she was the happiest that I had ever seen her. You did that for her. You made her happy in her most darkest and cursed moment of her life," Poppy said, tears in her eyes. "She was our friend, and you did that for her."

Eddie was crying now, his bottom lip trembling as his eyelashes grew wet.

"She made me happy too," Eddie said. "I played for her down there, I wanted. . . I wanted her to hear me play, and a little part of me hoped that it would somehow bring her back. Stupid, huh?"

"Not at all," Poppy said.

She took his hand and ran her fingers through his hair as he cried. She would do whatever it took to protect this man and judging by the looks on the others' faces, they would too.

"Thank you," Eddie whispered.

For the first time in his life, instead of fighting against him, people were now fighting for him.

[fertilize-my-eggs]

My online friend. Part 1

A03

A/n: this story will be up to 40 ch, I couldn't resist making this story, I'll get back into writing again, I've been dealing with my mental health so don't worry!! I'll get back into writing my fanfic very soon!!

I sigh heavily from my work, it is exhausting working as a business woman. My coworker has given me hell since day one except for one coworker… his name is Elliot. He is a sweet and helpful man but he is also a huge nerd. He recommended that I play league of legends.

At first, I didn't know how to play the game and I wasn't really into video games as much but he insisted that I would enjoy it.

I head into my room to get clean clothes to shower and then go to my desk to play the game.

I stretch a bit as I grab the clothes, I head to my pc to start it, I watch the screen turn bright as I click the download button for the game.

While it's downloading, it was time for me to get into the shower. I pull my phone out of my pocket to message Elliot.

(Me:) How do you play League of legends??

I click send to him as I walk into the bathroom, I put my favorite music to listen to as I begin to take my clothes off.

The shower will definitely help me from the stress, I hear a bing coming from my phone.

(Elliot:) It's pretty easy. All you gotta do is pick a character and it's a clicking type of game.

I narrowed my eyes as I huffed out, I began to type back.

(Me:) Easier for you .. I have no clue what to do.

(Elliot:) You'll be fine just watch some YouTube video of the game, I gotta get going. my wife will be upset at me for our date.

I sigh softly as I turn the water on, step inside the warm water hit my skin as I sigh in relief, ahh it feels so nice.

Watch a video of the game but it wouldn't be fun…. But then again, it's easier to know what you're doing.

I put my head on the wall as I sigh heavily, this is stupid… I shouldn't be overthinking this, it's a game, it's supposed to be fun.

I scrubbed my hair with soap, I hum quietly to the music, dancing as I shake my hips to the song.

Once I finish my hair, I begin to clean my body with soapy sponge. I scrubbed every inch until I finished with the shower.

I get out to dry myself and put a towel over my head, I dress in my comfy outfit, I put my dirty work clothes into the basket, I need to do laundry but that's another time when I have my day off.

I removed the towel as I threw it into the basket as well.

I head into my room as I sit down on my desk to see the game playing.

I smile, it looks cool.

It's telling me to start the username…. Create a username like.. I'm not great with names.

I pout as I think of names, maybe something simple and funny.

Maybe… I don't know. I typed a few names, none of them were available, I sighed heavily.

I type it pinkcloudkitty, it was available, my smile wide in joy. This is gonna be amazing, the characters show up on my screen as I feel clueless on who to pick, I pick random girl characters.

It was loading as I clapped my hands together, this is exciting.

I noticed it was online multiplayer, getting curious about who will play with me, I saw the chatroom typing away.

My character was in the middle, me being dumbfounded by this game, I started to click random things.

I saw the chat going crazy.

(Magiklord:) U suck at this game

(Mrstealurkill:) R u a girl?!?

(Kingslayer:) Shut up, play the game.

I narrowed my eyes as I continued to play, I tried my best to continue but I saw the text flying in.

(Magiklord:) Ofc it a girl, she's suck at this game lol.

I want to scream at this person, I begin to type feelings a bit hurt by this.

(Pinkcloudkitty:) Screw you magiklord, I'm new to the game jerk.

I got killed by a character as I sighed, this is ass.

Until I read the chat.

(Magiklord:) You're only good at being in the kitchen and being a wife.

Oh he is one of those…. I bite my lips, feeling angry boiling my skin, I begin to type but I pause to read the message.

(Kingslayer:) Dude, that is not cool of u. piss off with that.

(Magiklord:) Oh you're gonna be her white knight, you want her? Don't u king slayer?

Who is this king slayer, I feel flattered that this person is helping me.

(Kingslayer:) Why does it matter, u shouldn't treat others like that.

(Kingslayer:) If you keep this up, u will get blocked.

My character responds as I continue to play the game, I see king slayer’s character coming near me.

(Kingslayer:) I can help u if u want, pinkcloudkitty.

I smile at this, this is helpful then I see the asshole comment.

(Magiklord:) R u trying to get her as your gf lol.

(Kingslayer:) Shut up, you're getting a warning.

(Pinkcloudkitty:) You're annoying magiklord, had your mom taught you manners??

(Magiklord:) No, I'm not a sensitive woman like u lol u should quit the game.

(Magiklord:) Get back into the kitchen n make me sandwich lmao.

I slam my fist on the desk, feeling pretty irritated by this username, I started to type back only for them to disappear, huh what happened? The match already ended as I saw the menu as if it was just me and kingslayer.

He messaged me.

(Kingslayer:) Hey u alright over here? He's not gonna bother us anymore, he got banned lol.

I smile at this, this is great good riddance, I type back.

(Pinkcloudkitty:) Yeah I'm fine, thank u for the help, I appreciate it.

(Kingslayer:) Yeah no prob. u can ask me anything, I'll help u out :)

Is this a new friend? I'm getting excited but I check the time to see it is getting late, so I type back.

(Pinkcloudkitty:) Hey it's getting pretty late for me, do you want to play games together?

(Kingslayer:) Yeah sure.

I smile as I giggle with joy, I type back.

(Pinkcloudkitty:) Great!! I'm _____ !! It's nice meeting you friend! ^.^

I see him pausing for a moment as he types back.

(Kingslayer:) Oh.. you're not Japanese?? 

(Pinkcloudkitty:) Huh? No, I'm from the usa.

(Kingslayer:) Ohhh ok. That's pretty cool.. I'm Tomura, I'll teach you how to play the game.

Tomura… it's a nice name, I begin to blush as I type back.

(Pinkcloudkitty:) You have a pretty name, we'll continue this tomorrow goodnight tomura~!!!

I smile grow big as I lean back to see him typing…. Pausing, then typing again.

(Kingslayer:).... Thank you, sleep well _____ goodnight.

I quickly added him as a friend, and I turned off the laptop.

Make a new friend.

My online friend tomura.

[bluejay-the-geek]

DC characters/moments as Tortured Poets Department songs/lyrics bc i have a light concussion and am very bored (in the album's chronological order)

(disclaimer before someone is triggered- some of the lyrics are taken out of context or interpreted differently than what they actually mean. this is just for fun don't come for me. also this gets pretty angsty towards the end so proceed with caution)

"I was supposed to be sent away, But they forgot to come and get me"- tim drake very obviously bc neglecting parents/boarding school

"I love you, it's ruining my life"- early harleen quinzel about joker

"My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys"- the whole song is just harley quinn idc (pre-harlivy of course)

"Now I'm down bad, cryin' at the gym"- nightwing def cried at the gym at some point

"I stopped tryna make him laugh, stopped tryna drill the safe"- dick grayson about bruce after moving out of wayne manor

"You swore that you loved me, but where were the clues? I died on the altar waitin' for the proof, You sacrificed us to the gods of your bluest days"- remember the whole selena leaving bruce at the alter thing? yeah

"I'd rather burn my whole life down, Than listen to one more second of all this bitchin' and moanin', I'll tell you something 'bout my good name, It's mine alone to disgrace"- I'm just getting red hood vibes from this no specific reason

"Now, pretty baby, I'm runnin' back home to you, Fresh out the slammer, I know who my first call will be to"- almost every gotham rouge to batman right after escaping arkham/prison. especially joker, catwoman and riddler lol

"At the park where we used to sit on children's swings, Wearing imaginary rings"- this one specific panel of tim and steph

"And this city reeks of driving myself crazy"- everyone who's ever been to gotham

"All my girls got their lace and their crimes, And your cheating husband disappeared, well, No one asks any questions here"- it's giving gotham city sirens

"Am I allowed to cry?"- maybe it's just me but i thought about clark kent discovering he had different biological parents and grieving about them even though the parents that actually raised him are alive and well

"So I leap from the gallows and I levitate down your street, Crash the party like a record scratch as I scream, "Who's afraid of little old me?", You should be" red hood's debut

"The scandal was contained, The bullet had just grazed, At all costs, keep your good name, You don't get to tell me you feel bad"- jason todd about the whole making batman choose between him and joker at the end of under the red hood

"You wouldn't last an hour in the asylum where they raised me"- this is 100% Bane bc he was born and grew up in prison for a crime he didn't even do!! also cassandra cain and damian wayne

(^this is actually the lyric that inspired this entire post lol)

"You caged me and then you called me crazy, I am what I am 'cause you trained me, So who's afraid of me? Who's afraid of little old me?"- kind of a stretch but remember that time they put jason in arkham?

I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)- again the whole song is harley about joker

"Your arson's match, your somber eyes, And I'll still see it until I die, You're the loss of my life"- bruce about jason. out of all the robins that died, jason's death hit him the hardest. even now when bruce sees red hood, he still sees that happy little kid that he lost

"I can read your mind, "She's having the time of her life", There in her glittering prime, The lights refract sequin stars off her silhouette every night, I can show you lies"- bc we all know Nightwing is always dying on the inside, and it was very true in the discowing era bc it was right after he left the manor

"'Cause I'm a real tough kid, I can handle my shit"- jason pre-bruce

"I'm so obsessed with him, but he avoids me like the plague"- ok so we got joker about batman, cupid about green arrow, hush about bruce wayne... and a bunch of others but it's too many to write lol

"And you deserve prison, but you won't get time"- fucking tarantula that bitch

"The smallest man who ever lived"- the atom! not any of the messages in the song tho ofc he's just very small

"What if I told you I'm back? The hospital was a drag, Worst sleep that I ever had, I circled you on a map ,I haven't come around in so long, But I'm coming back so strong"- joker to batman after escaping arkham again

"I haven't come around in so long, But I'm making a comeback to where I belong"- jason coming back to protect crime alley after being away from gotham for years after his resurrection

"Even if it's handcuffed, I'm leavin' here with you"- batman and catwoman<3

I Hate It Here- imagine the whole song as homeless jason todd taking shelter in the library💔

"I built a legacy that you can't undo, But when I count the scars, there's a moment of truth, That there wouldn't be this if there hadn't been you"- bruce built a legacy as batman, and created a huge family he loves, and it hurts to think about but he wouldn't have any of it if joe chill hadn't murdered his parents

"Please, I've been on my knees, Change the prophecy, Don't want money, Just someone who wants my company"- kid bruce grew up all alone in a huge mansion, but he'd give all his billions away in a heartbeat if he could change his parent's fate

"So, they killed Cassandra first 'cause she feared the worst"- ok so you might think i chose cassandra cain for this only bc of the name, BUT- cass notices things others don't (like cassandra the prophet...), bc of her skills and abilities she is feared the most (Ik the song said "she feared" not "she is feared" but idc lol). like if someone knew so much about you just by looking you'd think she's some kind of a witch too

Peter- picture this: jason had a childhood friend back at crime alley. he left to live in wayne manor and become robin, and said goodbye to his old friend, promising they'd reunite again in the future. 3 years pass and his friend reads an article about jason's death. now listen to the song and try not to cry (if someone writes that fic send me the link IMMEDIATELY this has been haunting me) here's the link to the song with lyrics bc ik you're too lazy to look it up. also jason's middle name is peter:)

"Splendidly selfish, charmingly helpless, Excellent fun 'til you get to know her"- brucie wayne vs batman

"Started with a kiss, "Oh, we must stop meeting like this" But it always ends up with a town car speeding, Out the drive one evening"- catwoman and batman of course<3 the town car is the batmobile speeding out the batcave to catch catwoman (to arrest her or make out with her? probs both)

Robin- ofc we have to go robins for robin! imo that's bruce to dick and jason's robins, and dick to damian when he was his robin. dick and jason- despite the hard times they went through that led to them becoming robins, they were still mostly happy curious kids that run around covered in mud while bruce tried (unsuccessfully) to maintain the innocence they had left. as for damian- it's more of a stretch than the other 2 bc he had no childlike innocence before robin, but dick tried his hardest to extract the child that was hidden inside the ruthless assassin the league created, finally allowing him to experience normal kid things. idk

"He said, "I'm not a donor but, I'd give you my heart if you needed it", She rolled her eyes and said, "You're a professional""-to me this is clark kent completely in love and lois with her sass

"And at last, She knew what the agony had been for"- almost every hero. they suffer, they sacrifice, they fight, and sometimes they want to give up- but at the end of the day, they save lives, so it's all worth it

and that's it folks! feel free to add more/share your insights!!

sorry for any spelling/grammer mistakes, English isn't my first language plus like the title said i had a minor head injury a few days ago and I'm tired soI'm not proofreading this bc I'm going to sleep rn goodnight to all✌️

[nekropsii]

Ask Game Speed Round!!

[For the Unpopular Opinion Ask Game!!]

These are all a bunch of smaller ones I thought would be too cumbersome and spammy to post on their own... Enjoy!!

Content Warning: Long.

While I do really like Dave's character as it exists in the comic- no clue what version of Dave most of the fandom is talking about, but I don't know him- I kind of like the themes in Davesprite's character more than I do Dave's. It's another Hal situation.

Dave's character tackled a lot of things very personally relatable to me in ways I'd never seen illustrated before, but Davesprite is more interesting to think about, and seems a little more fun to write. Dave was great representation for me, as someone who grew up in a very bad home, but Davesprite just has that extra oomph with his talk of humanity and individuality. Really like that guy.

---

@lupinecalibrator

This may come across as crass, or stepping out of my own lane, but I don't think giving them either multiple sets of pronouns, neopronouns, or both actually rids them of the bigotry in their characters. Lipstick on a pig situation. It just seems like a lazy, incurious fix. Yes, trans headcanons are great, but more and more often I see people use it as a cure-all to the issues a character has, either in a Doylist or Watsonian way. Queer friendliness does not eliminate racism. If a character is a bigoted caricature of a specific group of people, then slapping on a leftist layer of paint by saying "actually they're a minority icon in this other way" doesn't actually... Get rid of the problem. It's just kind of... Tone deaf.

We see this often with Transmisogynistic Caricatures getting claimed as Gay Icons, and people just saying that because they've just claimed them as a campy gay queen, the transmisogyny has been nullified- you can't talk about it anymore, they're the real good leftist in the room, you're a killjoy, and they've defeated bigotry. Not how it works.

---

Kind of tired of how some act like her only character traits are Silly Ditzy Furry Girl. Jade is an incredibly, incredibly intelligent young girl, an excellent marksman, and so, so deeply lonely. We need to talk about Jade's chronic loneliness more.

Also, I think she's some kind of Psychotic. One of the flavors. It just feels right to me. It feels canon-adjacent. Or, at least, a textually valid way to read her character. I have a whole post about it somewhere. Mituna and Jade shaking hands on the Psychosis.

---

Taking this opportunity to defend Aranea. Some people really need to stop acting like she's worse than Vriska. We all know what Aranea did was justified. Maybe not correct, but justified. And fucking awesome to watch.

Like, look. She spent an unfathomable amount of years being shot down and ignored and belittled by people who were supposed to be her friends... Aranea had to literally pay Meenah, her own best friend, to listen to her infodump, and even then Meenah couldn't afford to give her own best friend enough respect to just listen to her talk about something she's passionate about for 5 minutes.

I need you to think to yourself, genuinely. If you spent thousands- and I mean thousands upon thousands- of years getting ignored and walked on by everyone around you, even your own friends... If you spent thousands upon thousands of years getting called boring and a doormat to your face by even your own friends... Wouldn't you go crazy, too? Wouldn't you snap? Wouldn't you want to do something drastic just to get people to look at you? Just to be seen as something other than weak and boring? Just to be seen as worth even an iota of interest, a shred of someone's time? Wouldn't you? Because I think any normal person wouldn't take thousands upon thousands of years. I don't think you would last a decade. I wouldn't either, and I'm a pretty patient person.

Y'all are just jealous you can't play billiards with planets using your mind when you're mad. That shit was so awesome.

---

@searedtroutpeacharugula

This is not an Unpopular Opinion, or even an Opinion, I'm just pointing this out. Do you ever think about the fact that we hardly got any conversations between Rose and Jade? I do. This haunts me. This fucks me up so bad. We get plenty between John and Dave, and Dave and Jade, and Dave and Rose, and Rose and John, and Jade and John... But hardly anything between Rose and Jade!! This is so fucked up. We were robbed. I need to watch them hang out.

---

Okay, this is less of an Unpopular Opinion, and more of an Unpopular Fact, but... Mituna doesn't just throw slurs at people. That's one of the things people jump to when they're talking about Defanging Mituna- they always say something about how he "calls people slurs every two seconds". He literally doesn't. That is legitimately not a thing he does. If you heard that before and believed it, you were literally lied to. That is straight up demonstrably not true.

Like, if you're trying to think of something Mituna does every two seconds unprompted, it's either sex jokes or apologizing. Slurs aren't a thing he just slings around casually. He said a grand total of one slur... To Meenah... And it's a fake troll slur. And then we get it defined to us... Aaaand it's the troll equivalent to "Cracker". That's it. That's the crime he's committed- calling someone a word that is immediately after defined to us as "Someone who is at the top of and benefits from the furthering of the oppressive Fuchsia-Down power structure, and the Lowbloods that help enforce it." That's the slur he used. That's what made people start declaring that "he would totally say the N Word" with full and complete confidence. Absolutely ridiculous. He's called no one else any kind of genuine slur. He just called Meenah a Wader once, and then she and Kankri got upset about it, because they are both, by definition, Waders.

---

Leijon Hot Take Party Pack: If you think Nepeta shipping her friends together is fine, or even adorable, but then sneer at or get grossed out by Meulin doing the same thing, you're a hypocrite. I don't care if you say "Meulin's writing Friend Fic, though, that's weird!!" the problem with Shipping Your Friends and Writing Romantic Fanfiction Of Your Friends is at the same root.

The problem with these things isn't the presence of writing, it's the presence of, you know, shipping your friends? If you're fine with Nepeta doing it, you've gotta be fine with Meulin doing it. Be fine with both or neither. It's the same damn thing. I'm pretty sure both friend groups are fine with it, too, so it's not like this is a boundaries issue or anything. Both or neither. Pick one.

---

Observation: I do think it's cool how Jane and Jake are related and have similarly opposing relationships with their gender. Jake's oft presented with Feminine themes and imagery, and Jane with Masculine themes and imagery. Very cool. Wish more people made that correlation.

---

Okay, that's all for now!! Thank you for reading, if you did. Have a nice rest of your day. :)