#i have monsters for everyone else too. if you even care 😔

[mangokabuto]

does anyone else see the Selkie/Half-Selkie!Sanji vision. why is no one else talking abt the monster au i made up entirely in my own head 😔

[scaredycatqlt]

Ben drown x reader platonic?

Omg YES!!! This lonely guy needs some friends dudeeed 💀

Ben Drowned X Reader [PLATONIC]

So, for starters, you guys either met online during a game, or you got the cursed Majora’s Mask Game, OR you’re another pasta.

Regardless, Ben probably befriended you relatively quickly. If you can put up with him…

He is widely considered a nuisance by everyone else in the mansion, and for good reason too. Imagine trying to sleep and all you can hear is him blasting some shitty video game music.

Anyway, gaming together is an obvious must.

trolling kids on roblox? You betcha.

hes gonna kick your fucking ASS in Mario kart.

Tired of the HC that he’ll go easy on you. He’s a total asshole, ain’t no way he’s gonna let you win.

OMG I just love the thought of you two getting up to stupid pranks and mischieffff <3

Pranking Jeff, and then having your life threatened afterwards is one of your guys’s favorite activities.

Ben totally randomly comes out of your devices whenever he feels like it.

I personally think he wouldn’t go through your stuff. Atleast not very often at all. Not bc he respects your privacy, just because it’s boring to him.

He may be a total asshole but he does care for you. He’s not good at emotional support…at all…

But he’s quick to offer up distractions if you’re ever feeling down.

He never will admit this but he’s genuinely happy that you’re his friend. He thinks you’re too good for him, even though he acts like he’s the coolest.

PLAYFUL BANTER AND INSULTS‼️‼️

You guys are kinda like siblings lol. Play fighting and insulting eachother all the time

HDHDBFNCNDJD CHAOTIC DUO!!)..)

I just imagine him popping out of ur laptop one day like “heyyyyy ;)” and then you just push him back in 😭

Drinking monster and playing games until 3 in the morning is something that happens often.

Idc if you’re super mature, being around Ben is bound to rub off on you. You are going to start laughing at ‘your mama’ jokes whether you like it or not.

He gives you guys cheats on video games lol.

If you’re human he loves showing off all the cool shit he can do, especially if you thought it wasn’t real before.

If you’re another type of entity, he still shows off to you but he tries harder.

He’s pretty unhygienic, mainly cus he’s a ghost but also cus he’s just lazy. Make sure he cleans his room up a little bit at least every once in a while.

And there you have it, the Creepypasta Mansion’s CHAOS DUO!!

I really loved this idea :D sorry btw cus my version of Ben is a stinky loser gamer 😔/aff

[mathoinyanarts]

Houseki no Kuni Sunday 2

Previous HNK Sunday |

MAJOR spoilers for episode 5-8 of Houseki no Kuni

So this time around I went ahead and made notes for each episode that I watched.

I am loving this season so much tbh, though a mutual keeps telling me that that its gonna get divisive way later. Honestly can't wait then

Episode 5

-Phos be needing a lot of help, like oof These people out here needing to fucking scrape them out of a shell, and now they gotta search a whole continent and ocean for them

-youz really a bitch for all of this Ventricosus And right as I was typing this she got her arm blown off, breh

-What did those Lunarians think they were going to do with their little pointy fire sticks on a giant ass snail monster??? I like the tendency of goons to just be stupid in most media lol

-Come on Cinnabar, they just came to you literally missing half off their body:(

(Story in 3 parts) -At least Kongo cares enough that even though Phos is practically useless, they still send out a team to find them. -Ok, I spoke too soon. He ready to kill a bitch -NOOOOOOO KONGO, DON’T TAKE THEM ENCYCLOPEDIA

-They is Ship of Theseusing this Gem, WTH -Poor Jade:( All of Phos's memories of them used to be stored neatly in their left ankle😔

-Them got zebra legs now lol

-FAST AS FUCC BOOOIIII

Other notes: So I was thinking more about Phos getting Ship of Theseus'd. This could be such a good message for, like, how much of yourself are you willing to get rid of just to fit in? To where you're nothing like who you originally were

Episode 6

-They still Nyoomin

-Yellow Diamond having their “What am I fighting for” crisis

-Lol, can’t believe they did Phos like that lol. Phos: “I like you, Sensei:)” Everyone else: D: Yellow Diamond:

-Oh no, they said Kongo’s trigger word: Humans

-Amethyst be like: Come play with us(:

-OMG, I love the Amethysts so much!

-.... (( <- reaction of somebody who always speaks too soon))

Other notes: Fr, Bort had every right to be mad en mi opinión

Episode 7

-Ok, phew, I’m so glad the Amethysts are ok

-They is hibernate

-They is dressed for the occasion

((Side note that I like this manga panel of the scene better))

((Bort does NOT have the patience for this shit))

-Ok, this is just so cozy of an episode

-Antarcticite getting a hug from sensei. My heart🥺

-OMG, Phos trudging through the snow is just me I relate to them more than I like to admit

-I feel there’s something more ominous about the Ice Screech

-Phos: “Have we tried reasoning with the Ice?”

-”The Ice speaks to me and tells me to do terrible things”

-Phos try to keep your limbs challenge, literally impossible

Other notes: Building off of what I mentioned earlier

Episode 8

-The Ice their greatest opp in this episode.

-I don’t think Kongo’s poor gem heart can take much more of this. Bro, just showed up with two entire arms missing. Imagine every time you let your kid out of your sight, they just show up with their skull bashed in

-Kongo comforting Antarcticite is what I needed today

-Giiirl, you are glittering No, like girl, the gold is taking over your body

-Phos: “Well I’m glad you’re alrigh-” Antarcticite: 🫠

-OH SHIT ANTARCTICITE IS STILL LOCKED IN🤫🧏‍♂️

-😭

((Side note, this would go so hard as a tattoo))

-Goddamn, didn't know this story was written by Gege. Fucking getting me attached to a character just to yank them away from me so soon😡

Ong tho, even though I'm so pissed at the anime for doing me like this, I'm still having such a fun time watching. Can't wait for the next HNK Sunday, and get ready for me to be obnoxious about a few Gem OCs I'm cooking

[ioannemos]

bits and pieces i remember from the very long dream i had last night. it was less exhausting than the one i had the other night but still like. how long was i out 😵‍💫

there were like three levels of society:

• top level was labyrinthine megabuildings reaching into the clouds with not a door to be seen and hardly any hallways, just rooms leading to each other with the occasional foyer or stair landing. the people were friendly but everybody knew everybody else's schedule. there was definitely a feel that Someone was Watching but there wasn't so much surveillance that i couldn't "borrow" a roll of duct tape without anyone the wiser. very brave new world in that everyone seemed genuinely nice and cared for (pallets of food in storage areas, everything well-lit and clean) but you did not want to be Noticed

• • i did not like it here, partially bc of the feeling of being watched, but mostly bc several people i ran into knew that i was not where i was supposed to be. i, however, knew neither how they knew that nor how to get where i was supposed to be and it was very frustrating. i found so many empty places while lost. constant kenopsia. also my dad was here and took care of little kids in some kind of daycare setting i think

• second level was people who had run away from the labyrinthine megabuildings and were now hiding from that level. they lived in abandoned buildings like warehouses and car repair shops and basically scraped by from stealing from above. tended to be suspicious and skittish; didn't seem to realize that as long as you acted like everything was normal you probably could've taken a whole pallet of food from the people above without being Noticed. among the people here i remember a guy whose name was literally just a five-digit number bc i think his mom had been a prisoner when she had him 😬 (no it was not 24601. it started with 27 but i forget the rest of the digits)

• • i hid out here for a while before someone from up above brought roxy down. she was so happy to see me i couldn't even be mad at her for snitching on me 😔

• third level was people who went even deeper, into a vastly different kind of labyrinth where (amongst other dangers) there was a mystery-flesh-pit-esque monster that had sections of intestine-like tunnels where people occasionally lost limbs when the tunnel closed around them. being partially eaten wasn't a death sentence, as you could regenerate from the damage, but it did make you less able to cope with life in general, like it took some iq points along with that arm. almost everyone looked like hollywood burn victims (i have no idea if real burn scars look that way and ain't no way i'm looking it up). the result was everyone was sort of... calm, kind, and harmlessly spacey, like nice old people who consistently call their nurses by the name of a friend they had when they were young and simultaneously want to introduce them to their children who are definitely not in college anymore. i have no idea how these people were even alive bc they were too far down for sunlight and i know at least some of them were trapped bc even if they'd wanted to try their luck up a level they couldn't remember how to get there anymore

• • i went here to find someone i think? pretty sure i got partially ate more than once bc i was absolutely helpless at one point and the people at the highest level had to... basically reboot me to get me back

• • • was i a robot? i might've been some kind of android. i know there was a bit where an android was being tortured by thinking they were being eaten but they actually weren't, they were just in Extreme Virtual Reality

the megabuilding was very minimalistic, ironically; lots of neutral colors and wide curves. i'm not sure how to describe the style but it was surprisingly nice for an architectural nightmare

at one point i got up on a roof of this particular megabuilding... via one of those old-school rebar ladders on the outside. pretty sure it was quite the view but i didn't really enjoy it bc i was too annoyed and confused as to how i'd gotten so very very very very lost. also being on a roof was definitely Noticable Behavior

you could def set a story in here. what story, idk, but these were for sure some Locations

[tartrazeen]

So! The magic. :3

I had an interesting think about this, and it covered a few steps at once.

First, I started imagining one of the 'earlier' episodes where the others find out Angus is a changeling at all (and I remembered how to spell 'changeling' 🥲). It was super angsty and turned into one of those "Angus and Rohan endlessly trying to sacrifice themselves for each other" fests. Dramatic and spectacular, really enjoyed it and I'll explain later, but ultimately not what I wanted to go for. It got 'too serious.' And with everything else I've written, me saying, "It's too serious" should sound like the ominous teaser I meant it as.

Next, I came up with a much less angsty version. I started thinking, "Hey, if everything's going immediately to hell, shouldn't there be - like... help from everyone?" Because in the first version, I was picturing even Cathbad being on the 'wrong' side. That seemed out-of-character, because surely for Rohan's sake, Cathbad would've been faster at intervening. Then I thought that was out-of-character too, because even with the mildly antagonistic relationship Cathbad and Angus sometimes have, Cathbad does care about him and has known him for years. So for Angus' sake, Cathbad should've intervened sooner. Then I took it to its logical conclusion and went, "Oh right, Cathbad has visions lmao, he could've had some way to predict this shit before any of it hit the fan." Duh-doy. Sorry, Cathbad. Anyway, that one's closer to the 'official' headcanon-canon I'm going with.

I had a third thought about the others coming across a completely separate changeling (before they found out about Angus) who'd been caught by the family she was trying to sneak into. I liked it, and it formed a wonderful parallel with how Angus and Rohan would stay friends post-reveal - and on the angsty side, a demonstration of how the general public reacts to changelings: drown them in a well.

That, plus the second scenario, morphed into my fourth idea about the magic a changeling would have in this setting. I did some basic googling about changelings, because I didn't want to butcher this, but the way I'm steering it is going to be the meat of this post. I'll talk about the first three ideas in the next one. :)

The magic comes down to two core facts: one from the show, and one from my headcanon. :3

In the show, like I've said before, Angus doesn't do much magic. Not no magic, 'cause that's what glued me onto this idea. But he's not going around summoning monsters or flying or casting fireballs. In other ideas where I give Angus magic, I either make the impact so small that it's easily explained as something that's been happening and folks simply haven't noticed, or so BIG that there's a reason he can't/won't use it. So being a changeling was frustrating 'cause it's right in the middle of those two points.

And a third point: I want Angus to have magic of his own, because the easy answer to explain why we haven't see it - one that some versions of changelings go with - is once they fully establish themselves as a human, their magic evaporates. Which is lame as hell. So I'm not doing that. And the part of the folklore I'm cherrypicking (sorry 😔) to bolster that is how sometimes the changelings will swap back.

Humans are told to care for their changeling child and treat it well, because whatever's done to it will be done to their real child in the fairy realm. But sometimes it also gets the fairies to think, "Oh yay! You did a good job making that fairy grow up okay! We kinda thought it was a goner rofl. We'll be taking it back now plz uwu" or "Wow, it's been a great time being raised by this family. But I've had my fill or I'd just like to be a fairy again, so byeeeee here's your original kid back byeeeee."

I'm tackling it here as a mix of reduced magic and changeling culture that I'm inventing in the show. As always (not that anyone would be), please don't take this as an accurate explanation of what changelings do. Go read up about them! :)

What I mean by reduced magic ties into how the fairies we get in this show tie their power to their size. We only see it once, but it gets a whole episode: The King of Temra, where Mider becomes big. (Also I saw someone spell Mider with an 'e,' not an 'a,' so just until I look into that, I'm gonna use an 'e' for a bit.) Mider's the only fairy who gets to that size while staying magical. Aideen deliberately trades her magic away as payment, becoming human and de-powered, and Fin Varra gives his to Conchobar when they rule each other's kingdoms for a day. But the immediate understanding in Mider's case is, "Holy shit! He's big! And his powers directly scaled up with that!"

To sorta marry that to the version of changelings who lose their magic entirely, I'm gonna flip it around: as changelings get bigger, it takes more magic to do the same amount shapeshifting, so their powers scale down in size.

In my mind with the first post, these changelings looked like feral children with sharp teeth (I'll get back to that), claws, and pointy ears. They act like feral children too. I guess I'm picturing Spider from Avatar 2: Electric Bluegaloo, who was the white human kid running around with white-person-dreadlocks? That. Changelings seem to be anywhere from five to maybe eight years old, and they don't usually get bigger than being waist-high compared to an average human adult.

Shapeshifting for them is different from the elves and pixies we see, too. Those guys can change into objects (like rocks) or animals (like mice). The changelings only shift into other humanoids. They don't need to change their whole body if they only want to alter a limb or two, but when a changeling is big, that's a lot more of a body or a limb to manipulate. It isn't impossible, but it's like running down the block to go to a store versus a half-marathon. I don't think they're stuck with only duplicating things their own size, though. There are a few rare stories of changelings taking the places of adults, so let's call it a "I'm not as young as I used to be" situation.

For their culture, I like the idea that changelings are wild with shapeshifting. It's fun for them to move things around or scramble someone's face up as a prank, like kids who were playing with mud. But when a changeling is dedicated to taking the place of a human, they suddenly get meticulous about their appearance. They can't go with any look. It has to be the right look. They're suddenly sculptors working with clay that's meant to harden into a statue - which makes them a laughing stock to the others for taking it so seriously, since they can reshape that clay, but they're being pretentious about nobody else touching their mastercraft Play-Doh. But it makes sense to the changeling that'll be swapping. When they make their trade, it's a patient acceptance that this is their form forever. They'll age and evolve like a human does, but they won't be smashing things up on a whim just to have to sculpt it back to what they made the first time. They're 'growing up,' thank you very much.

So that should make it 'normal' for Angus to never openly use his magic. For one thing, he can't casually shapeshift into somebody else. It's a lot of work, and not like a flipping a switch. He has to physically craft his face and form into a different person, and then mould it back to how he normally looks when he's done. The magical nature of it means the part that is like flipping a switch is when he 'unlocks his edit mode.' That has to be a conscious choice or he'd have a different face after every fight. And as long as he's seen the person he's going to copy, he can always turns his face into that, so no worries about 'losing' his normal one. But again, being bigger means working with a larger canvas, and the details are so much more visible, and the 'clay' needs to be softened up every time 'cause it was purposely left out to be air-dried...

And then culturally, he - just... doesn't want to. He's looks good, and he's supposed to dump that to look like something else? He picked this face, he mastered it, how would you like to get plastic surgery every time someone said, "Wear a disguise" on a whim?

Another level to that cultural part is how the face he picked is the face of the human kid he stole to swap places with. Before he swapped, he needed to perfect every detail he could, or else he wouldn't blend in with his new family. So as a shape-artist, it's outright shameful to still look like a changeling. It's more reason why the ones who aren't swapping go out of their way to ridicule the swappers - especially the ones who return: "I thought you were too good to be a changeling. Not good enough to pass as a human though, huh? 😏"

This is why failures like Angus don't return if they can't trick their family. It's mortifying to have so thoroughly rejected the very nature of what a changeling is, but to meekly return and admit to the others that you couldn't? And the very few who tried probably set the standard for how openly they got picked apart. That would've led to everyone who swapped staying away forever, even if they failed, so then it would seem like no one ever failed anymore, 'cause no one ever returned to say so. Now when it happens, that changeling has to admit they were wrong and be the first to admit it in probably hundreds of years? Never.

So they don't come back.

And as they live out the rest of their life, they don't ever, ever do anything that looks like they aren't human. Maybe they weren't a perfect copy, but they'll still pass as a human to strangers. It's the only hope they have left to cling to.

This all leads into my second core fact - the one that's from my headcanon. And it's important, 'cause it shapes how the other Mystic Knights find out and how much magic Angus might start to use in front of them.

And that fact is...

... Rohan knows.

'Knows'.

Air quotes included.

The headcanon across all my takes on Angus having magic is that Rohan's always - at the very least - suspected as much. Specifically, he's hoped it's true. He doesn't ever bring it up or ask, 'cause how ridiculous would "Are you a fairy?" sound, but - like...

... idk he thinks it'd be pretty cool...

and rohan's always liked fairies so...

But since he can't ask, and since (if he was right - not that he was) Angus obviously had a reason for hiding it from him, Rohan's simply been making mental notes for his fan theory about his friend.

He's grown up passing it off as a silly kid thing. Obviously Angus isn't a fairy, and Rohan's taking that daydream to his grave. He does think it's funny how much lines up to have given a kid that misunderstanding, but again, only a kid would think that. Not a man. Which Rohan is. He's very manly. Cathbad said so.

Like (after googling it), there's the fact that Angus is always after food. Growing up, starving together, Angus did work hard to keep them fed. I have a story about how far it went without Rohan even realizing, but within what he does remember, he'd often have to fight Angus over the last scraps they had. Angus would try to give it to Rohan, Rohan would want to split it, Angus would say there wasn't enough to split, Rohan would say that Angus should have it then, and Angus would try to trick or force Rohan into just eating the damn food. It was desperate, but kind. And it mattered so much more when he knows how often Angus would talk about their next meal. And it was normal, because they were starving. Angus didn't have to be a fairy for that.

... But to imagine Angus was a fairy? Secretly, it made the sacrifice even more amazing. If Rohan ever had to tell the truth, then yes, there'd been a few times he refused to eat because he didn't want a fairy to starve. He didn't think he'd be cursed for it, but it didn't seem right. He wasn't going to say that though, since it's embarrassing he let himself be so convinced.

Then there's how Angus has always liked gold and jewels and such. Of course he did! They were poor. They needed that gold to get food and everything else, so obviously Angus would obsess over it. And... sure, gold was a pretty colour. Rohan wasn't so attached to the look that he'd snap his head around after catching a glimpse of it, or mourn for a day or two because he 'missed' the gems he'd... 'found,' and traded for bread. So Angus didn't need to be a fairy for that either.

... But being a fairy would make the obsession inescapable. Angus did dumb things all the time, and some of that was from trying to risk himself to get extra gold they didn't strictly need, but that Angus didn't want to leave behind. Rohan wouldn't go so far as saying that being a fairy would make it all better, as if he hadn't been terrified when Angus got hauled away or beaten when he got caught. But it made the quirk feel more... endearing, he supposed. Troublesome, but out of an innocent love for it, not a malicious greed. Those led to the same destination, but Rohan liked the fairy's journey more.

And then there was Rohan himself. He never like to question why Angus liked him; in the end, Rohan was grateful no matter what the reason was. But they would have their fights the same as any friends, and Angus would sometimes leave. Rohan would just have to sit and hope it wasn't forever. Over winter, with Rohan in the castle and Angus somewhere else, he'd also have to hope that when spring came, Angus hadn't forgotten him. There, Rohan's fantastical belief worked against him. Fairies moved on a lot, didn't they? And they took any insult as a grievous offence? Whenever those moments happened, Rohan would be left in a wake of terror that he'd finally gone too far, and Angus was never coming back.

He did. Sooner or later, Angus always returned, and would have practically forgotten there'd been a fight. And he always showed up in the spring, bored and hungry and ready for Rohan to be a fix for both. None of it relied on being a fairy. Humans got offended too, and Kells had hard winters. Rohan wouldn't have blamed him for leaving.

... But it was how Angus would come back. That he would. Over and over. Without any reason for it outside of a shrug and a lazy, "Why wouldn't I?"

Fine. They'd been friends for long enough. Why wouldn't he?

But it glossed over how they'd made it that far to start with.

When they met, Rohan was unconscious and pinned under a tree in a forest. It wasn't normal for boys to be running through those woods alone. Rohan... well, he wasn't the most 'normal' of boys anyway. It wasn't too odd that it happened to him.

But why was Angus there?

Surely a hunter or some sort of adult should've been the one to find him. Someone with a purpose for passing through. But it was Angus, who had no reason to be wandering a forest at all.

Rohan had an answer. The official explanation was that Angus had been running away. It made sense.

But it was so convenient, wasn't it?

Then for Angus to have noticed Rohan under the leaves that the storm had blown around...

Normally anything that meant walking more would put Angus right off of it. But just this once, he'd gone out of his way to see what was in the leaves? What had even caught his attention? Rohan had been motionless on the ground, and he'd been six. Angus once handwaved it as luck, before joking that Rohan's hair looked a little bit like gold. And that was enough for human eyes to spot him in there? His hair?

He didn't have much reason to argue it. But on the other hand, gold-coloured hair seemed like exactly the thing that would draw a fairy over.

But then - after all of this - to choose to keep Rohan around? There'd been dozens of times where Rohan asked what Angus liked about him, and Angus would say that Rohan was always up to something fun. But in the dirt, in the forest, unconscious and under a tree - was that fun enough to explain why Angus let Rohan join him? Was it such an interesting set of circumstances that Angus had to take care of them both, purely to see what Rohan would do next if he managed to live for that long?

They all had reasonable, non-magical explanations. As Rohan got older, Angus' answers never changed. On their own, they didn't seem suspicious. Maybe Angus could wonder the same about him: why would Rohan be in a forest alone if he wasn't a fairy himself?

But.

Taken together.

Angus liked gold and jewels.

Angus adored food.

Angus would always sing to himself - and to Rohan, when Rohan was sick.

Angus was always playing tricks. Angus would sneak into places he shouldn't. Angus would charm everyone for favours. Angus could never resist a joke. Angus was endlessly, endlessly drawn to magic.

It didn't 'prove' anything. And Rohan was - definitively - too old to think it would. Some people simply acted a bit more like fairies than others. None of it's impossible for humans.

The feeling in Rohan about this certainly tamped down when they entered Tir Na Nog. Here they were, among the Little People, and none of them were claiming Angus as their own. It was at the bottom of his revelations from that day, but it was there. If Rohan wanted proof, he had it: Angus had to be human. Of course.

It wouldn't change their friendship, and Rohan would have never fooled himself so badly to feel disappointed. If anything, he could double down on his gratitude for Angus being the only human in the world to understand him. That made it more impressive, didn't it? No fairy magic. No fairy rules. No fairy debt or reward. Just two friends who met in the strangest of places, then stuck together through everything the world threw their way.

Perhaps, for fun, he remembers his childish theory now and then. Angus might do something or laugh in a certain way, and Rohan understands why the thought had once consumed him. Angus always has had a way of filling others with life, and how else could Rohan explain it? Knowing real and honest fairies made it even plainer to see that if Angus had been one of them, he would've still stood out. Everyone in Tir Na Nog loved food and gold and dancing, but that didn't make them like Angus.

In the end, Rohan's proud to say it doesn't matter.

But he doesn't see the harm in listening to Angus hum while they make dinner, and still pretending it's a spell to make the water boil faster.

Or when he ropes Angus into gathering herbs with him for Cathbad, pretending the trick he played to bring Angus along - one that made Angus grin but swear to get Rohan back for it - was a perfectly normal way to invite a fairy out for chores.

Or when the hazelnuts are ready and he gives Angus a bowl, pretending it was only fairy teeth that could crack the shells by biting them.

(That last one had its own story. Angus asked him once why Rohan didn't use his teeth. He didn't want to say he'd tried and hurt himself, so Rohan mumbled something about doing it like they did at the castle. Angus laughed and called him fancy. But he stopped biting them open, too. Rohan always felt bad about that, though he wasn't sure he knew why. He even asked Angus why he stopped. Angus said he didn't remember biting them open in the first place, and the embarassment of Rohan not guessing they'd probably all been partially cracked already was a healthy reminder for why Rohan would never dare to ask, "Are you a fairy?" He couldn't handle the blaze of common sense it would set off.)

:3

>:3

So.

For the changelings, I want them to have claws because I think it helps them look more unique. The Tir Na Nog fairies and elves don't really have them. Mider does, and he's supposed to be evil, and I like the claws as that same visual shortcut to saying someone isn't inherently friendly (at a minimum, the changelings' idea of friendliness is like Tir Na Nog's idea of beauty. Poor Deirdre). It also seems like it'd be practical for them as feral hellions climbing everywhere, and even for their face-sculpting and shapeshifting. Like chisels, maybe.

Their ears, I think should be pointy 'cause all the fae in this show have it like that. It's literally only humans who have round ones. So it's for the sake of tradition, I guess.

I don't really wanna do anything to their eyes. It seems like overkill, and maybe a little try-hard.

:3

The teeth.

The teeth are their signature.

I'm probably patting myself on my back too hard about how 'subtle' I was, since it wasn't subtle at all (😔). That's partly because it's the one I elaborated on and partly because have you ever tried to bite a fuckin' hazelnut

I hope it came through, but what that little aside was supposed to be about was what do you mean Angus can bite open a hazelnut

Like with his teeth?

A hazelnut?

(and I was gonna go, ":3c tee-hee" but this post isn't done yet so if you wanna go back and see if you can figure out what happened in that, this would be the time. Spoilers in 3, 2, 1)

I want these teeth:

Not cute little fangs. I want teeth where if you put your finger in there, it's gonna come off like you stuck it in a bear trap.

I want zero chance of saying, "Wow, that human has oddly sharp canines!"

I want 100%, "What the fuck is that"

You see a little kid in a forest and you miss the claws and the ears? You aren't missing these teeth.

Now lemme ask: how closely are you looking at the back molars in your friends' mouths?

You can see the nice, flat, square teeth at the front when they talk, right? Super noticeable!

You'll see the ones on either side of the canines when you're smiling at each other.

But even if you see their back teeth when their mouths are open, are you specifically seeing square molars, or are you just registering that there are teeth and then not being weird about it past that?

Because my thinking is changelings, in the midst of copying their target, don't quite realize they need to change all their teeth. They only see the ones in the front. The successful swappers will either do their homework once they've lured the kid closer to take a look, or get away with it until they realize their mistake and make an adjustment before their family notices.

Angus is not a successful changeling, remember?

And I apologize for my ignorance, but I'm not sure "crackin' hazelnuts with besties" is a regular past-time for people. Which means two things:

Angus didn't know humans can't chew through hazelnut shells like carrots. Maybe he knew they couldn't use their dumb front teeth, but he assumed everybody had the same back molars as changelings.

Rohan didn't know humans can't chew through hazelnut shells like carrots. This poor kid just thought he had dumb, weak teeth, but didn't want to admit it to the obvious human in front of him who wasn't struggling at all.

Once that point was made, Angus uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh stopped using his teeth for that. I'm pretty sure he fixed his teeth right after, and I'm sure he was pissed at having these basic-ass baby chompers, but he fixed them and then denied ever doing what he was CLEARLY doing, and Rohan finished the job by rationalizing it in his head as, "Oh, those hazelnuts must have been pre-cracked." 'Cause "sure, let's go with that! :D"

I love it. Here's Rohan systematically going through all the circumstantial evidence for why Angus might've been a fairy - based mostly on vibes - and throwing away the one objective piece he ever got.

The last thing I'll say about these changelings' magic is what specific gifts they have. It's - as I said - lame as hell for Angus not to have his own magic, but he's not going to suddenly start face-swapping or being an ultra master of disguise. I don't want to lose his personality by being too powerful.

But if he can't shapeshift, what other stuff can changelings do? I looked around - the list is short. Claws and teeth? That's fairly common among fae creatures. And I already took Angus' claws away from him, because we see him in the episode with the dragon egg: he uses a knife to cut through the grass and dig a hole. Same thing when he's captured in the wish episode: he uses a sharp rock to cut himself loose. He's not a biter either, so I've also taken away his teeth. It's why I put in the part about having a cultural reason to not use those: he doesn't want to look like a changeling. And he's never been in a position without a tool to replace his claws, because he's resourceful enough to gather those tools or he's somewhere that claws wouldn't even make a difference (like when Maeve captures him in the early episodes). It all works.

Tracking? Pickpocketing? Lockpicking? He can do those things on his own.

So...?

:/

Look - this was the other reason I wasn't on board when Schimmelspore first said Angus could be a changeling. My imagination doesn't have a ton of practise with shapeshifting, and that's on me. My bad. Listening and learning.

So since I've decided to be weirdly specific about what he won't do, I have to come up with what he will do... eventually. I don't think he'd start to do it overnight, but maybe, if the others prove they're okay with him being a changeling (and they have DECADES of internalized convictions to overcome in that regard), he might do something in an emergency situation that doesn't leave him feeling too non-human for long. And with enough positive reinforcement, he might start doing it more often (setting up for an episode where he's doing it so much that it finally makes him panic and freak out).

Here's my idea: magical muscle memory.

(i know but give me a minute)

Angus isn't going to change his whole body. But in the episode where Mider got big, Cathbad threw a powder at Angus right after to see if he was human. To me, idk, that seems like quite a specific powder to have on hand. How often are non-humans appearing as humans that Cathbad has it in a bowl right beside him?

What makes better sense is that it's a powder to break an enchantment or an illusion. It's not testing if something's human, but if it's presenting itself as what it really is. This might be the same stuff he sprinkled on the fairy-dog in the episode where Fin Varra went missing, and maybe even on Deirdre to reverse the petrification (which didn't work, because she had been genuinely turned to stone).

So Angus passes the test, because he doesn't have an illusion up; this is what he is. It's the difference between wearing stilts to be tall versus growing until you're actually tall, and then having a powder thrown on you called "Delete Stilts": one of those scenarios is not going to produce results, even if you used magic to make both of them happen. It might even be why no other fairy clocks him as fae. For all intents and purposes, he's a human. But he could change back to not being one if he wanted to.

The general limitation of shapeshifters is that they can't copy someone they haven't seen. It's not a universal rule, but it's good one to keep them from being overpowered. Taking that, and the bit where I said changelings can change parts of their body, let's imagine a scenario to see how the muscle memory plays out:

Angus breaks into Cathbad's chamber. He knows what Cathbad's like, and he's trying to find a particular powder to abscond with. He doesn't shapeshift into Cathbad, but he is able to change enough inside of himself to copy Cathbad's general instincts. Ten he thinks to himself, "If I were Cathbad, where would I turn in this room to put a powder that makes you brave?" And when he lets his new muscle memory turn him around, he's facing a specific cabinet full of powders. Good enough for him! He goes over and finishes searching it himself, and sure enough, that's where the powder was (or at least where it would've been if Cathbad hadn't purposely filled it with a note to taunt him for needing it 🙃 if he wanted that, angus could've just gone back to the other changelings).

See? Magical muscle memory: phase 1. And it's the sort of magical effect that a show in the 90s could film by having the actor go, "🤔 okay i'm thinkiiiing... i'm using my power but you just can't see it... okay here's the answer 🙂 i'm facing the direction or walking towards the thing hidden in this room."

And because it's only for people Angus has actually met before, he can't use it in every single scenario. If we bump it up to only people he's studied, you get to use it in all the recurring villains' lairs (and poor Cathbad's room) but never on their first appearance. Probably not if they've hidden their identity, either. It's mostly for hijinks, and it's likely the only magic Angus has been using.

Magical Muscle Memory Phase 2 gets into those sweet, sweet 90s special effects. This is the stuff the others would have to gently build him up to. There'd need to be so much trust involved, because - again - he's not even using his claws when he's by himself. He wouldn't do this in front of other people if it wasn't desperately needed, and he'd go down with the ship if he didn't think he could trust those people anyway.

Here, he actually changes his hands into someone else's hands. Or arms - whatever, he wears long sleeves most of the time. But by doing that, it's not a 'vibe' anymore. It's the actual muscle memory of that person.

How does it help?

Oh I dunno, maybe you want to recreate a potion somebody once made, or find the exact bottle on the shelf that has the antidote.

Maybe you need to unlock something with a combination rather than a key. Maybe your best friend's an idiot who keeps accepting random duels, and there's no better practice than sparring someone who can use a sword exactly like their opponent can (but not any weapon their opponent hasn't used in front of them yet, so you better hope the duel is with a sword 👀).

Maybe you need to forge a king's royal handwriting :3

I'd like to think these are applications that Angus has never tried, or straight-up forgot were possibilities because it's been so long - or because he so completely cut himself off from his powers to commit himself to his human appearance. Either way, it'd let the others come up with ideas for Angus, and that in and of itself might show enough support for who he is to convince him to try it.

And how would a show from the 90s film this? :D

By getting the other character's actor to wear the sleeves and then only focusing on their hands. Or getting the other character's actor to just put their arm beside him, so Angus' torso still looks like him, but the arm and hand is the other person's. Or superimposing the other actor's arm onto Vincent Walsh's arm - depends on the budget! Go crazy! But it'll be the adorable, slightly hokey effect we all love from the shows in that era.

Magical Muscle Memory Phase 3 would be actual shapeshifting. He's not doing that.

But Angus and Rohan are gonna have a long conversation about where he stands on gills 🤔

Ooh, I'm havin' a thought.

Back to Fae!Angus, right?

Schimmelspore said something like this ages ago, that Angus as a fae could've been a changeling. Now at the time, I was thinking, "I'm not sure how that would work, especially when Rohan seems to be the better fit for it" - y'know, because Rohan has a brother (who could've been the changeling) with actual demon blood.

But like

I'm thinking now

Maybe I was being too simple about it. Or overcomplicating it or something. 🤔

Because now it seems totally obvious: Angus as the changeling that took the place of whatever human child it was.

I guess it's because I've been rereading all these threads? And one core piece of my headcanon I've always kept is how Angus first encounters Rohan by finding the kid knocked out in the middle of a forest. I don't know why it's such a vivid image in my mind - Angus hovering over Rohan as Rohan wakes up, being the first thing he sees as the world comes back into focus - but it is. The part that must've been throwing me off is how they would get there.

Rohan doesn't mention where he was before they met, which stands out, because he talks about never knowing his real family all the time. But again, I'm overthinking it: wherever he was, he wasn't with his 'real' family. And because he's obviously willing to settle down after Cathbad gives him a bed, wherever he'd been before must've been shitty enough that Rohan needed to get away from them.

So, Occam's Razor of clichés: probably a horrible orphanage. Assuming orphanages existed back then - it could've been a shitty farm that took kids in as free labour, and had the older kids raising the younger ones as future free labour. That gives me a reason for why anyone would be taking care of a baby, why Rohan knew it wasn't his real home, and why he eventually left: it sucked.

It doesn't explain that "You were stolen from me" line from Maeve very well, though. The reason I thought the changeling idea applied to him better was the 'bad deal' angle I could work in with that: Maeve traded Rohan for a monster she could use for a weapon, thought she'd been tricked into only getting a half-demon, and couldn't get a refund. 'Stolen.' Or just outright targeted by changelings and stolen that way, but 'stolen' in that sense implies a sort of "You took my baby :(" grief. Maeve isn't grieving Rohan. It's more "Hey, you ripped me off >:( I overpaid" energy.

But I'll figure out what that means later. 🤔 Whatever kind of deal Maeve made must've ended with Rohan getting taken away and dumped somewhere loveless (for him to want to leave) but loving enough for him to be fed and cared for as a useless baby. Exploitative child labour farm works for that.

The other option is, "A very nice family took me in but they all died :(" or "They were nice but I felt my destiny calling me." I could see the show picking one of those (because why would it pick Child Labour Farm), but they sound like cop-outs. Why wouldn't Rohan ever mention that family, then? To me, he doesn't bring up where he used to live either because he doesn't remember (which is what my old Fae!Angus idea was going for), or he hates them and doesn't think they're worth talking about (Child Labour Farm).

Anyway, it's important for me to sort that out in my head 'cause it clears the way to talk about Angus. Why was Rohan in the forest that day? Deliberately leaving or escaping where he was.

So why was Angus there?

I've talked about how Angus never mentions wanting to know who his family is, and how I take it as proof that he already knows. As in, Angus isn't an orphan. He's a runaway. I'm picturing a similar kind of thing as what I just described for Rohan, except this was Angus' actual family: awful, shitty, abusive, so eventually, he left. And as he wanders around, he finds Rohan.

Putting a Fae lens on it it still ends up working. Maybe even a little better? Maybe it's more grimly ironic? Because Angus doesn't mention wanting to know his family, but Rohan does, and Angus never seems bothered by that. He doesn't call it wishful thinking or a waste of thinking. Like, I'd imagine someone who ran from an abusive home saying, "Be careful what you wish for, Rohan. You might find your family and hate them. Trust me, it happens." But the closest he gets is getting mad at Rohan for placing Lugad, his blood half-brother, above the family he's been raised by. Like he's saying - well, he does say it: "You'd trust that monster out there more than the family that raised you?" It's focused on behaviour. If Lugad had been super chill from the beginning, Angus probably wouldn't've been so hostile about it.

I'm getting ahead of myself lmao

Back it up: what am I picturing here?

Fae!Angus. The fairy version, before he goes into the human world. I dunno how old he is, but from what I read in other books, he's still gonna be able to think like a child even if he's lived for longer than that. Sort of a Peter Pan situation, where he and the others never grow up.

He sees others doing their swaps. He sees the human kids come in and eventually become fairies as well when the magic passes into them: they're eating the food, they're in the realm, it all completes the transformation.

Eventually, he gets curious and goes to see what humans are like, and he finds a family he slowly gets attached to from afar. They seem nice. And nice in a way where he's beginning to understand why other fairies were making their own trades; he wants to be a part of this.

The longer he spends among his kind - loud, tricky, squabbling, childish imps - the more he wants to move on to that soft, warm home and be loved. He mulls it over for what could be ages, but eventually decides to do it.

Angus makes the trade.

It's easy. The human kid doesn't take much to lure away, and he's helped capture enough kids as part of other fairies' lures that he knows how excited everyone is to join and help. In the meantime, Angus uses his magic to become that human's perfect twin.

Except...

Well, it's still Angus. The job gets done but there are a few details missing. Maybe Angus (being so pretty in the show 👀💖) thought he'd be - like, a better-looking version of the kid as an upgrade for his new parents. Or maybe he just missed making a change or two because he didn't think it would matter. Either way, there's something ever, ever so slightly 'off.'

The family can tell. They're stupid humans, so it isn't right away. But they notice something's strange and make little comments to each other about it. Angus can hear and realizes he's gotta fix those mistakes: ears, nose, eyebrows, whatever they're guessing might be 'it,' he adjusts during the night.

But he's still 'off.'

The family starts getting tense. Then angry. First at each other, for being so lost in crazed paranoia. Then at him, for having something wrong with him. Then at each other again, for suggesting they do something about it. No matter what he changes now, he can't kill their suspicion. What he has killed is any hope of the home he made this trade for.

... So he leaves.

Just like that.

I mean, Rohan says it too: "When there's trouble, Angus is gone." Why wouldn't it already be a habit? There's trouble at this home, so he leaves it.

And maybe he's wandering back to his own kind again, or maybe he's wandering aimlessly. That second one would be interesting, as if he's not allowed to go back after he makes the trade. Like it's sink or swim out there, and even if the family you joined tries to kill you, it's no reason to go back to the other fairies. They don't live as a 'family' that way. There's no unconditional love or acceptance, which was what drew Angus into this swap in the first place.

But while he's on the move, he cuts through a forest and gets distracted from his thoughts (and rage and grief and embarrassment)... by some ginger kid knocked on his ass in the middle of this place. He goes to check it out, hovering over that kid's head, which is when Rohan starts to open his eyes.

What I like is how it fits in with the show, recontextualizing some of it. When Rohan says in the wish episode that he'd use it to know who his family is, Angus gives a wistful, uncommitted sound. Then he says it'd be a good wish, which Rohan seems to appreciate. But unlike with Ivar and Deirdre, Angus doesn't try to pivot it back to what he wants to wish for instead (gold). We know he can't relate to Ivar and Deirdre's things at all. But he can relate to Rohan's wish. He knows what sort of fantasy Rohan is picturing, because it's the same one Angus traded his life among the fae for. And deep down, part of him would still like to have that. But he's sticking with the wish for gold, because he's had his chance at that fantasy. He screwed it up. Getting it again would only be a second chance to ruin it.

Gold can't hurt him. He can't disappoint gold.

Then when it comes to Lugad, with Rohan putting so much emphasis on them being brothers - Angus can get that too. Brothers! Amazing! But the way his 'brother' is treating him, trying to kill him, Rohan shouldn't want that. He should walk away, like Angus did. And the fact that Rohan isn't walking off is driving Angus a little crazy.

When Rohan finally admits to the others that they're his family, that's when Angus gives a muted reaction. You'd think he'd be celebrating Rohan seeing the light, but no. It makes me wonder if he thinks Rohan is settling. Not that it isn't nice that Rohan agreed to it at last, but that it's kind of sad they all have to pretend this is "as good" as having a true, blood-related (by magic or otherwise) family to call his own. Angus will play into it, obviously. That's what friends do. But deep down, they all know this isn't... 'real,' right?

Maybe that's the fae in him talking.

But maybe it's the same fae that's never called Rohan anything other than his best friend. 'Almost brothers' isn't brothers, and one thing Angus might've always liked about Rohan is that they both understood this. So maybe it's sad seeing Rohan seek refuge in the delusion. But it's all Rohan has now, right? He tried to make the swap, and his family tried to kill him. Angus won't abandon the guy, but it's such a farce to call this a replacement - even though Angus tried calling them a family first, back when he was yelling at Rohan for not wanting to fight Lugad - that he's going to prove how not-a-real-family they are and ask Deirdre for a widdle kiss uwu

He can't help himself. Angus knows it's not the same thing. He's okay with tricking others, especially if it helps bring Rohan some tiny comfort, but he can't trick himself here.

It's not the same.

I'd want to follow this into an arc where Angus has to eventually go back to his people. The 'failure' - or worse, the adult, because Angus actually grew up - returning to seek help with some part of Rohan's quest or Fin Varra's riddle. Maybe for help against Nemaine. Something. And they laugh hysterically at him for screwing up his swap, but laugh even harder when they learn how far he's willing to go to help his human friends.

And they say it like the word is soaked in poison. Friends. Angus gave up everything he had to get a family, and all he has is friends?

Friends are conditional.

Friends are fickle.

Friends aren't bound to you.

Friends are a bad trade.

Angus is forced to listen to their evil, little chattering and suck it up. He can't really argue - not just because he needs their help for whatever, but because he's gotta admit they're totally right. And that embarrassment of failing so miserably with the family he tried to join comes back, eating at his mind, and ohhhhhh the other fae can feel it radiating off of him, even though he tries to hide it. So he doesn't defend himself against what they're saying. And yet what takes it from bad to worse is if he brought the others along (I'm thinking at least Deirdre here because she loves jumping in with a spirited defence of what's right) and they pipe up about the power of friendship and what close friends they've been.

The other fae, all grimy and child-sized, HOWL with laughter at this. It gets to a point where it starts to hurt (not Angus, who's only quiet because he's fuming), until they stop and switch to ask how good of friends they are when they didn't even know Angus was fae.

The others don't have an answer. I figure Rohan would, but either he's not here with them now or he seems to know to hold his tongue. One look at Angus and the storm in his eyes would be the sharpest clue there is to give it away.

I imagine Angus interrupting to 'humour' the other fairies. He's using his 'on' voice - the one where he's making a big performance of it, and the fairies are eating up what he's saying: friends are just friends, they all know that, but let's move this along and get to the help Angus came here for. The fairies might hem and haw but at least they decide to give the Mystic Knights a clue, which is more than what they had before. Angus takes it and leaves, and the others follow after him (Deirdre, assumedly, annoyed that it's letting those awful, pint-sized gremlins 'win'). I even imagine her complaining how mean it was to have Angus forced to pretend he agreed.

... Angus doesn't challenge her. He doesn't confirm what she's saying either, though. And Rohan would probably be the only one who can notice.

A real twenty-two minute episode would be too short for everything I'm seeing. We'd need a couple where he's revealed as a fae and the others adjust to it. A few where they see if he has any magic left to help in quests (eh, I'll come back to this). But then, finally, one where they go back to the other changelings, now that they've been building it up for a while. Angus' reluctance to go back would be the focus, and it'd explain why he's so quick to want to leave, too. Leaving forever isn't because the other fae won't accept him back. It's not like, "We'll kill you if we ever see you here." But it is like, "We will never let you forget this for as long as you live." And fairies? They live for a fucking long time.

So Angus finally getting hit with that insulting barrage - the most excruciating thing he's experienced, even if he's being stonily silent about it now - brings on an entirely new dynamic among the others. That word felt soaked in poison because it was poison. Angus is suddenly pulling back, more aloof and cavalier with them. Getting him to be a part of the team is now a 'favour,' and it's like he's more and more annoyed by how many of these 'favours' he's handing out. Eventually, with the others trying to corner him and find out what's wrong, guessing and suspecting and whispering about the something that it might be, he snaps. The words sound mild, maybe, but they show how hollow Angus feels after having had this rot away in his mind.

"I get it," he says, while being smothered by these people who don't have a reason to be this close and in his face all the time. "We're friends. But we're only friends. I don't need to do everything you ask just because of it. It's friendship, not a contract. It's not as if we're married."

This is sort of what I'm saving Rohan for. Because I think this is where he gives his wistful, uncommitted sound. This is what he went through when he was trying to accept the others as 'good enough,' because forcing himself to give up his dream of a perfect, blood-related family wasn't easy. It's what he himself wanted his whole life. And Angus gave up his life among the fairies to get it, and he failed. Trying to be satisfied with friends, in the way Rohan knows Angus is imagining?

It's another bit of a recontextualization of the wish episode again: Rohan was the one to sit the others down and talk about the value of friendship. He understands what it's like getting so caught up in a dream that you lose sight of what's in front of you. But he's not the same as Angus, who made excuses and said Rohan needed time alone when the 'Maeve is my mother' secret came out. Instead, Rohan'll tell the others to be gentle, and to be patient, but to keep their hand of friendship outstretched.

The changelings had all chittered that friends were fickle and conditional, right? That was what Angus had to be thinking, Rohan will explain. Now, more than ever, they have to prove they're not going to leave him - or let Angus leave first in some twisted point about being abandoned. He's a flight risk, remember? They know what he's like.

This is the plot that an episode could follow. The one before it could be the set-up to go and see the other fairies, which lets this one follow Angus reuniting with them, hearing what they say, falling back into those conscious beliefs, and withdrawing in an angry, confused, and humiliated panic. It's to get the other Mystic Knights slowly luring him back to them, refusing to give up, and believing in him enough (thanks to Rohan) to finally drop the "What's wrong what's wrong what's wrong something's wrong something's wrong with you what's wrong" interrogation. They force themselves to let the tension fizzle away. Angus tests it, suspects it, but they either don't react or they tell him to cut it out because he's treating them poorly. It's almost like... kinda psychological warfare, in a way? Where they're purposely refusing to engage and making him confront the fact that he keeps expecting the worst from them.

This would be playing out as they follow the clue they were given. Maybe it was a fetch quest, because I want the episode to end with Angus coming back to other fae. The clue could've been to a McGuffin, and only with that McGuffin will the changelings give the Mystic Knights what they were here for. It's far off - really far off - to let it take a few nights around a campfire. That's perfect for Angus to storm off when he's hit his limit. He can go get firewood or something, returning the first few times to hear them talking about him. Then Rohan does his intervention. Then the talking stops. Or at least it moves to regular chitchat of close friends making the most of a miserable fetch quest together.

The audience would know about Angus luring the human kid he swapped with out into a forest. That's because I want Angus to be in a forest when he finally has his epiphany.

The human kid? The one who's now transformed? That kid follows after Angus purely to ask him questions.

It's awkward, obviously, for Angus to come face-to-face with... well, essentially his own face. Just child-sized. And the original. It's a little off from his own still, but the human-fairy skips right by all that.

"What's it like being an adult?"

"How did his human life turn out?"

"He lives near a castle now?"

"He's a magical knight?"

"What are the fairies in Tir Na Nog like?"

"What does he do all day?"

And Angus, maybe a little surprised and speechless, stammers through a couple of answers before he launches into the great adventures that he's had. The human-fairy's captivated - it all sounds fun! Angus doesn't realize for a moment but... yeah. He agrees. It's been fun. And he means that as the fae do: his kind absolutely worship having fun. They barely stopped screeching and playing long enough to send the Mystic Knights out here - in fact, they didn't stop playing. The only break they took from tumbling around was to laugh hysterically at Angus' failure, which was fun for them in another way. So for him to say it's been fun, and to mean it...?

He's surprised by how happy it makes him.

It feels nostalgic.

But - look, he's not going to be face-to-face with the face he stole and not ask questions of his own. Angus wants to know if the human-fairy's angry at being kidnapped.

The human-fairy - who can't be more than six, which lines up with how young I imagine Rohan was when Angus found him (adding a bit more nostalgia to that too) - shrugs and says he isn't sure. Being with the fae is a lot of fun, and it's been so long since he's seen his family that he doesn't quite remember them. He doesn't feel compelled to find them, though, and that's because it's almost like he never left.

And Angus stops the boy to ask what that means. 'Never left'?

The boy says even though he can't picture his family's faces, he remembers how it felt to be with them. And as the only other person who's lived in the same families as Angus, he can say pretty confidently that the fae make him feel the same.

They're not the same. The fae are loud and sharp and exciting. His family felt... softer. Cozy. Peaceful. But he feels the same about them. They're both home to him. He used to only have one home, but then he became a fairy and now he has another.

So... the boy doesn't want to go back?

The human-fairy shrugs again. Maybe one day. When he's ready to settle down and be a boring oaf of an adult. "But you don't sound boring," the boy says, through a sharp, shark-like set of changeling teeth. "Maybe I'll go and be a magical knight too."

"I think there's only six," Angus says.

"There will be," the boy answers.

Their teeth are sharp. On many levels, that vicious little grin is pointed.

... Nostalgic. The spark of this threat - the game in it - breathes life back into a part of him that Angus thought had died. Grinning back in a way that would've been just as sharp if he had those teeth, he tells the boy, "Try it. Fair's fair."

"Don't make it easy," the boy says.

On that faintly deliriously hum of fun, the boy takes his leave. The challenge was made, the game's been set, and maybe someday Angus will have a changeling trying to swap back.

... Not into a family, though, as they usually would.

The epiphany comes. Gentle and soft and cozy.

It would be into a family, Angus understands. That's what the others are to him.

They're not the same as the fae, but he knows what that human-fairy meant by it: they feel like home. The people he'd tried to swap into never did. Understandable. He can admit that now. But the way the others have taken him in, and how they haven't changed even knowing what he is...

They're fun.

He might be practically human now, but it's still the most important thing to him. Fun can mean loving and loyal and - unbelievably - even quiet. But it's all fun, isn't it? To him anyway.

The other fae would howl again if they heard that. But deep down inside of him...

... He's okay with it.

He cares. He still cares. But he doesn't feel the anger and grief at the thought of them laughing at his failure anymore. When he thinks about it, yes, he botched the swap he was trying to make. But he didn't botch the swap that he got.

It's interesting.

Being consumed by such a calm realization...

He doesn't even jump when he hears the leaves crunching behind him. Somehow it makes perfect sense for Rohan to arrive, and to find each other in another forest.

Rohan asks him if he's ready to leave, putting a hand on Angus' shoulder. It isn't a tug. It's just an offer to join them at the campfire.

And it's night.

Angus lured that human kid into the forest at night back then.

The flicker that thought stirred awake fizzled out before he even named its emotion.

It'd been daylight when he and Rohan first met. But when Rohan woke up, Angus didn't need to lure him into going anywhere. Rohan was already leaving his own home, so the two leaving the forest together made sense. In fact, Rohan practically followed Angus out on his own. For no reason.

Just for fun.

And that thought, almost overwhelming him, was friendship. Angus couldn't speak around it, but it must've been clear on his face, because the hand on his shoulder gave a short squeeze. Time to go home, he figured. Back out together again.

He'll be quiet at the campfire, but it's restful now. He'll see the not-so-secret looks to Rohan, asking if something's wrong. And he'll feel Rohan's even-less-subtle, relentlessly confident answer:

No.

Because Angus is fine.

Going back to the changelings after their stupid game of fetch has a different sense of frustration now. It's more like annoyance at having to have walked so far and jump through their hoops, all to predictably lose for their enjoyment.

Angus knows what he's heading into. He's known from the start that it was all a silly waste of time meant to 'shock' them with that reveal. But whatever help they were after was locked behind this stupid charade, so he was sucking it up and playing his part, hating that he had to play pretend.

But he didn't hate himself for going back.

It suddenly felt like running into his old pickpocket friends. They were fun, sure, and familiar, but the kind he'd moved on from by now. Outgrown.

So he still wanted to get this over with.

Improvements were improvements though, and Deirdre's complaints from behind him as he lead others through winding the passages - which still felt so burned into his very being, not even needing memory to navigate - was something he appreciated. He wasn't looking forward to this. They were going to be mean. They always were. That's what made them, them. He used to join in, too.

And of course the conversation went exactly as he thought it would.

... Right up to the split second before he handed the McGuffin over.

That deep, long-forgotten, nearly buried fairy blood suddenly hummed in his veins with glee.

It was the same hum as the other changelings were making: anticipation and delight over what was supposed to happen. And he stopped, because he knew exactly what to do.

"Ivar," he said, abruptly handing the McGuffin over. "You're polite. You should give the speech."

Ivar, obviously, wasn't expecting there to be a speech, but trusted Angus to know his own people. And Angus knew Ivar.

He knew all of them.

With how long Ivar took to get through a formality, Angus had plenty of time to feel both of his families in one place. And he could feel Rohan staring, proud of Angus but a little smug about being right. That was perfect too, though. Smug was icing on the cake for this.

Ivar gave his speech. Lovely. And he bowed. Lovelier. And the prince gave the McGuffin to whoever seemed to be in charge for the hour.

That kid, in the same fluid motion it used to pick the McGuffin up, fuckin' threw that shit at a wall and made it shatter into forty pieces.

Then they all cheered.

Angus had to admit the look of horror on the others' faces - even wiping that smug part off of Rohan's - was phenomenal. He couldn't outright laugh (technically this was a joke on him too, since he'd had to get the McGuffin), but he earned getting to smile wide enough for the family resemblance to come shining through. Hundreds of tiny, shark-sharp chattering teeth were flashing through this cave - and so were Angus' 💖

"You said we needed that," he hears Deirdre shrieking in outrage over the sound. "We came to you for help-"

It's a special, extra thrill for Angus - and Angus only - to watch the princess get to work. The fear she put in the changelings? Equally as phenomenal. And in the horrified silence at the end of her outraged tirade, and at their shocked, shark-toothed mouths hanging open and beady eyes going wide, Angus felt it sink in.

And he howled in laughter.

Which was great, 'cause even though the changelings didn't seem to get the joke (too sophisticated for them, he supposed), knowing there was a joke at all - because Angus would know; he was one of them - broke the tension again. The fairies finished up their prank, handed them the real help, and Angus waved goodbye before leading the others outside. Deirdre didn't need his help this time, since she practically seethed her own way out through the rock. That was fine, 'cause the changelings didn't even notice he'd said goodbye. They were already back to scratching and biting and laughing.

Hilarious. All of them. And fun.

"I can't believe you used to be one of those," Deirdre spits when they're back in the open air.

"He's still one of them," Ivar says, defending Angus' honour.

"Well..." Angus thinks about that. "I am and I'm not." That used to be his home, after all. He used to be just like they were. The difference was simple but undeniable. So he shrugs. "I grew up."

Cue Deirdre ranting about how she wished they would all grow up. Those mini-monsters wasted days of their royal lives just to smash that trinket right when they had it? It was disrespectful - did they even know who she was?

They did. That's why it was funny.

Rohan's been at his side. Not asking, but close enough that he might as well have asked.

Is Angus all right?

Angus doesn't the answer the not-question.

He only suggests, "Back home, then?"

Rohan understands.

It figures. Who'd know Angus better than his best friend?

(it takes less than an hour for angus to whine about how far everything always is)

[capisback]

@kai-teaa​ Your post about a LuSan kid having curled eyebrows made me think about what their kid would be like more and my mind went into overdrive, so now I have a bunch of thoughts about it

They’d have a daughter, because for some reason I can only imagine Sanji having a baby girl to raise. Luffy wanted to call her Stew, which was one step up from his first suggestion of ‘Meat’, while Sanji wanted to give her a name befitting of an elegant little lady, which Luffy promptly declared “really stupid”. In the end they compromised and named her Madeleine, after the french cake. 

Madeleine (who is only called that by Sanji, everyone else calls her Maddie or some other nickname) takes after Sanji appearance-wise: blond hair, lithe, and when she’s grown she’ll be tall and long-legged. She has curled eyebrows, both curls facing outward. But she’s largely got Luffy’s wild personality. Cue crew suffering. 

Sanji likes to treat her like a little princess and wants to raise her to be a lady (though deadly still, they are pirates after all), but Maddie is her Dad’s daughter through and through and the only time she wants to be treated like a princess or a lady is when it’s dinner-time and she’s presented with mountains of good food.  

With Luffy as his partner and Maddie as his daughter, Sanji’s going to suffer a heart-attack before even reaching 50 😔 Luffy likes to toss her around and makes excellent use of his Devil Fruit powers to do so, like making himself into a make-shift trampoline using his Gum Gum Balloon, or wrapping his arm around her torso and then spinning her around overhead really, really fast. Maddie loves it. Everyone else is pretty terrified. And so is Luffy when Sanji comes to put a stop to his reckless endangerment of their child (“She’s fine, Sanji! It’s just a trip through the jungle! I beat up huge animals all the time when I was her age.” “That’s because you’re a monster!” Sanji, in his worries, forgets his kid is also a monster’s daughter.)

Zoro stops making fun of Sanji’s eyebrows the first time after it makes Maddie cry, asking her Uncle if he thinks her eyebrows are ugly, too. He spent the next month making up for it. Maddie and Zoro spend a lot of time together, and Sanji’s gained a more favorable look upon the marimo, even if he would never say it out loud. 

A few very small drabbles I came up with while thinking: 

“Mademoiselle Madeleine,” Sanji said in a tone he’d never considered using for his patrons, and more loving than he’d do for a lady, hand skillfully sliding a plate in front of his six year old, who lit up at the sight of the grand assortment of delicious foods presented to her. 

∞

“Maddie~” Luffy cooed, grin wide. A giggle came from under the cupboard and Luffy bit back one of his own. 

“Ah~” he sighed loudly instead. “I wonder where she is? She’s so good at hiding. Hmm, maybe over here?” He opened the box they stored the dishes in, then made a loud thinking noise. “Not here, either? Weird.”

The giggles were incessant now, muffled by wood and what Luffy suspected to be Maddie’s hands. One more wrong cupboard, and then Luffy stopped in front of Maddie’s hiding place. He grasped the handles, carefully enunciating “Maybe she’s hiding here?” as he slowly opened the cupboard doors, before throwing them open, making Maddie shriek in delighted surprise.

“Found you!”  He pulled her tightly into his arms, Maddie’s loud laughter echoing through the kitchen and down the corridors, quickly joined by Luffy’s own. 

∞

“Why don’t you go ask your daddy, sweetheart?” Nami suggested.

“But Daddy’s gonna say no,” Maddie whined. Nami’s eyebrow twitched and she took a breath, smile still present on her face.

“You should still go ask him.”

Another long, protesting whine, but Maddie turned around and dragged herself towards the kitchen. Nami watched her disappear across the deck, then groaned, long-suffering. “Taking care of one Luffy was already hard enough, how did we get settled with two?”

Robin laughed lightly. “It’s certainly more interesting this way.”

“I could do without a more interesting day or two.”

∞

“Why are you always so excited to see that Marimo, mon coeur?”

“Because Uncle Zoro’s my favorite!” Maddie proudly and loudly announced from her place on Zoro’s arm. Sanji nearly bit his cigarette in half when the damned marimo-child stealer smugly smirked at him.

∞

“Alright, ready?”

Luffy got a cheerful affirmation from his daughter and his grin stretched wide.

“Gum Gum… Propellor – !”

“What the hell do you think you’re doing, you shitty captain?!”

Before Luffy could release his move and spin his daughter around like a screwdriver on a carousel, a leg slammed him into the ground, making him lose his hold on Maddie, arms going slack. 

“Owwww!” he whined, muffled by the grass deck. He held his head and pouted up at Sanji. “What’d you that for, Sanji?”

"What do you think you're doing with our daughter, idiot?!"

"We were just having fun, Daddy!" Maddie called from the other side of the deck. Sanji's expression smoothed out into a loving smile when he turned to his daughter.

"It's good you're having fun, darling. Why don't you go have some fun with Uncle Usopp now, Daddy needs to have a talk with Dad, alright?"

Maddie's face turned pensive for a moment, then she nodded firmly and scampered off, loudly calling for her Uncle Usopp.

[scoups4lyfe]

Hi Karen anon here, long time no see (cause 8 just check tumblr like once a week and that just to read your liveblog. Usually i come to check it on Wed cause uhh I keep remembering the 30 hours anon lol chile anyway).

See, thanks to the newly added tags it did make my reading easier. But, I was scrolling for fun when I encountered the (excuse me if this sound rude) that mf 'interesting' anon. So pls excuse me while I put my Karen wig on

I know this is just Tumblr but people should really be professional. Your blog isnt a ship blog or whatever (though I noticed you just merely implying it sometime) so I found it really annoying that the anon attack you for something taht didnt have anything to do at all. Cause well, I will be honest. Im just interested in your blog bc of the fun af liveblog and the amazing analysis (i read the Ikki analysis so much its my bed time story/hj). And Im quite sure almost everyone who came to your blog is also come for the same reason. So what our personal ship is irrelevant to this blog (well at least thats how far I observed it)

*Taking my wig off* now that was done.

As always, I enjoy reading the live blog. Though I find it weird that in the ep 22 preview, it felt like everything go back to normal? Like Hiromi didn't just unalived down the cliff 😂. But well I will be anxiously waiting for that ep 🙏🙏

Also funny story, so I am someone who likes spoiler. So I will search spoiler on twitter first. Apparently, they all said that Daiji was useless in ep 21 and Im like "Naurr dont be mean to Daiji guysss" (bc they say that /every episode/ it basically a joke). Unfortunately, after watching ep 21 myself Daiji did feel even more....useless (this is strictly my opinion I swear lmao). Like, nah Daiji I cant defend you anymore like this 😂

Well sorry for the long af ask. Thank you for your hardwork and I will wait for the Oltecca(?) analysis. See you next week 🥰🥰 (take care of your health. The covid cases in country really spike up so hard this week 😔)

KAREN ANON????

Ayyyyy howdy buddy.

I'm glad the new tags help LOL

JDSKFJASDFJSDFDSF

THE KAREN WIG

'm glad for your wig'ed defense 🤣🤣🤣🤣 and yessssssssss

yessssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

I'm glad you like my analysis posts LOL!! And awh <333 it's always nice to hear y'all are having fun with the nonsense I've thrown into the abyss aasjdfjsdfjdf

AND YEAH G, I felt the SAME seeing the next episode preview. Really lol'ed cause it felt like we went back to the 'monster of the week' episodes aksdjflkjsdfj.

Tho I know the writers like to troll with us so idk I wouldn't be surprised if every other moment in that episode is just 'sibs mourning' hours. Sooooo funny too cause if it isn't,,,, and everyone's actin like nothing happened lmaooo that's STILL in character

#repress repress repress LOL

AHHHH USELESS DAIJI !!! BROOOO

soooo funny that's Daiji's pet peeve about himself too lasjdfksdf ;;;that he can't ever seem to do anything (esp when it really matters LOL!)

See, Daiji hates being the "damsel in distress" but that's all he was ever taught to be (cause Ikki and Sakura literally did everything else) and that was another big reason why he went out into the world and got some crazy asf job -- because he wanted to prove to himself too that he's able to do things on his own

but likeeeeeee, idk old habits die hard hahahaha

(Also doesn't help that in times of great stress Daiji clams up instead of being able to properly react to the situation. Aka he just shuts down.)

My homie is still learning just *how* to do things on his own, and then the Kagerou fratricide-stint really had him back-sliding in any positive development he had previously LOL!!!

My homie is the picture boy for Learned Helplessness

"People that experience repeated abuse and other aversive situations eventually learn to become helpless if nothing they do changes it. It’s as if they internalize that since nothing worked in that situation, nothing will work in similar situations, either. The trauma begins to erode two other critical aspects of mental well-being — self-efficacy and internal locus of control."

haha yoinks. Man I wish we got more flashbacks of the Igarashi sibs past cause DAMN. Pls man give me some bread in this desert.

"Self-efficacy is your level of confidence that you can tackle challenges and learn new skills. Internal locus of control is the degree to which you believe your circumstances are under your control. When these two traits are high, you feel confident and empowered, even when things get tough. Stressors seem controllable, and you know that you can trust yourself to do your best.

When learned helplessness takes over, though, you don’t feel so sure of your ability to handle challenges. You don’t believe that what you do makes a difference, and that makes it hard to see a way out — let alone a silver lining."

(These quotes are taken from: 'What is Learned Helplessness and how do you 'unlearn' It?' blog post/article)

Anyways It's obvious that Ikki's over-parenting has lead to this situation. And I think what makes it worse is that Sakura is more useful/helpful than he is.

(She wants to be seen as capable so she steps up to do as much as she can / to manage what Ikki isn't able to)

So now he's placed in the position of being especially useless LOL.

Anyways, Daiji has a lotttt of problems :')). He's literally the perfect target for cult recruitment.

(Which might be one of the reasons why he's still so quick to defend shady ass Fenix. Fenix is one of the few things he positively attributes to himself, so if Fenix is bad then that just means Daiji's failed *again* at doing the right, correct, moral, 'good', thing.

It's the *only* thing he has giving him any lick of worth. The only thing making him useful. Everything he's accomplished will go to ZILCH the moment Fenix isn't part of the 'good guys.' So,,,for him its just easier to ignore all the red flags. Cause he doesn't want to hate himself more than he already does, rip.)

[cafe-de-lune]

Hello! I’d like to request a Genshin matchup if it’s cool with you! It seems interesting, but take your time and don’t feel rushed at all. I really respect you putting a limit on these things from the start, make sure to take care of yourself through the incoming flood of asks lol- I am an adult, just not a good one lol. I’d also prefer a male match if it’s alright with you, but honestly just do whatever you want, I won’t mind. :) My zodiac is Libra, and I think my MBTI is INFP, but I don’t know what everything else means so uh sorry about that- I’m mostly just extremely tall and pale with glasses, beyond that I guess I look mostly average idk lol. I have pretty long hair, but it’s not as long as I’d like it to be because someone I will not name cut it in my sleep >:( (YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE-) I’m not sure what my aesthetic is, but I once had a friend tell me “you’re either dark academia or galactic chaos” but I have absolutely no clue what that meant. I’ve been told that I’m funny, smart, and helpful. I dislike talking to people I don’t already know (haha trust issues go brrr) but if someone comes up to me first I’m not about to ignore them because that’s rude >:( I don’t like being serious so I’m almost always joking, which some people seem to not appreciate all that much sadly 😔 probably because my humor can be fairly death/crime-centric or complete nonsense to anyone who isn’t me, and apparently “if you switch the lever back and forth fast enough it will fall over and drift so it kills everyone. High score.” Is not an acceptable solution to the trolly problem. I thought it was funny and that’s what matters. I can’t stand people doubting what I know/what I’m capable of, people who can’t understand what I’m trying to tell them when I think it’s really simple, or people touching me. I can tolerate the last one if I really like the person though, but I will hit them out of reflex before I realize what’s going on if they don’t warn me first. I like staying inside, as I overheat easily and can’t see when it’s too bright :( I love playing video games or just any games, especially friendly competitive games and strategy games. I also love listening to music, drawing, and collecting shiny things or things I think are funny because apparently I am a crow (shoutouts to my rock collection and random box of cereal I bought even though I don’t like cereal because I thought the panda on the box looked funny) I hate bugs that are like, pointy if that makes sense? Like bees/wasps with stingers or spiders with their sharp legs and teeth and they are clearly monsters- also boats and dirt, don’t want to explain but I almost died so yeah not fun times (I sound weak so I’m just going to throw it out there that I literally murdered my sleep paralysis demon when I was like 4 I am a strong >:) ) I like people who are confident, because we probably won’t talk unless they’re confident enough to talk to me first and apparently I’m really threatening?? (Also confident people can ask people for things for me but evil master plan aside it’s mostly the other thing lol) People who can joke with me are also amazing because not a lot of people can but it makes me really happy. Other than that just above average intelligence so I don’t have to explain every other word or have them just stare at me blankly, and just be respectful and I’m a happy person lol. Yeah that’s all I got, hope you have a good day and requests didn’t close while I was writing this! (It was 0/7 when I started but I got distracted a lot lol okay bye for real stay hydrated)

꒰ ☕️ ꒱ؘ Order: Cappuccino ࿐ ࿔*:･ﾟ

I match you up with . . . . ♡

———๑•̀ᴗ•̀) ̫ ❏ tartaglia “childe” .ೃ࿐

I just wanna have a little chat with whoever cut your hair 🥰

. . ⇢ [ falling in love . ] ˎˊ˗ ꒰ ☕️ ꒱

Hear me out. Annoying pest to lovers

Childe probably heard you say some of your dark humour and started to laugh because it was on the same wavelength as his humour. And you would be like “??? Wtf is he laughing out loud like that.”

Long story short he began talking to you and you guys somehow hit it off well. It’s gonna be the start of an annoyance-friend type of relationship where he kinda annoys you

And he’s like a cockroach. Annoying pest that always comes back no matter how many times you try to smack the life out of it

but even during friendship, he’s the type that can handle your jokes. Heck, he even bounces off of your joke and you two somehow start a rather ominous joke chain that leads to you two laughing

It’s wholesome in some ways. And he is glad to have found someone who is kinda on the same wavelength as him. Because ominous jokes aren’t fit for everyone

At first this friendship was purely entertainment on his part, but the more he spends time with you, the more he found himself changing that opinion as he started to genuinely like you. Whether that be platonically or romantically, he probably doesn’t know yet

And he would find himself writing to teucer and back to his family about “a funny friend” and detailing the fun stuff you guys do. And while in the midst of writing the letter, he found himself stupidly smiling at the fond memories and chuckling at the jokes you told

I don’t think he had much fond memories if you exclude his hunger of battle and violence. I do think he gets pretty lonely, being constantly away from his loved ones and all. But after meeting you, he has made a lot of genuinely fun memories and as he look back on those memories, he just found himself genuinely smiling

It’s not the fake smile that he has gotten so used to showing when collecting debt for the fatui. It’s the same type of smile he shows to his siblings

And that’s when he stops his writing as he covers his lower face with his hand. This is when he is suspicious of his own feelings

The moment he realized he liked you was shortly after his epiphany. When he started to laugh at a joke you told, he just looked at you in the most endearing way ever

‘Ah. I never though I would fall for someone but here I am…’

. . ⇢ [ confessing . ] ˎˊ˗ ꒰ ☕️ ꒱

I see him confessing in two ways and they are both pretty contradictory

The first way, he would confess to you right after he found out he likes you and that would be straight after the above scenario in falling in love.

After you are done telling the joke and the laughters died down, he would look at you all serious and stuff making you go “???” And as he sees your puzzled expression, a grin appears on his face

“I like you.” And he would just straight up say it. The rationale for this is that he doesn’t have much time as it is. So he wants to live in every moment with you whether that be spontaneous or not. He doesn’t want to waste time

The second way is that he would wait. He would set up a day for you two hang out. And by the end of the day he would whip out a bouquet of flowers and ask you out.

This one involves more of Childe spending his bank account. (Not that he minds. He likes you so you only deserve the best. And he isn’t short of any funds either.)

When you say yes, in both scenarios, he would be elated. It’s a real genuine happiness that he’s showing. And although he seems calm on the outside, his heart is flipping on the inside. He just wishes you can’t hear the rapid thumping of his heart.

It’s up to you to see how he confesses :))

. . ⇢ [ dating . ] ˎˊ˗ ꒰ ☕️ ꒱

The first thing that comes to mind is;

Childe: *smiling ominously*

Childe: they asked for no pickles

You know that meme? Yeah. That’s your relationship. He’s not afraid to ask people for something or correct them so you can ask him to do stuff while you be master planner. (Tbh he’s probably down for anything. And by anything I mean well you know just the basics… killing… fighting… violence… yeah.)

When he is away (which can be frequent), he always returns with a shit ton of things. And a lot of them are shiny things seeing as you have a tendency to collect shiny things. It can just be a shiny rock he found while collecting debt, or a shiny thing he saw from an antique store. In short, he too turns into a crow

Except, he gives the shiny things to you and your shiny collection will probably double over the course of dating him seeing as he spends money like he’s drinking water

Oh and if you like funny looking things? He’s gonna start to look for funny looking things. And some of them are the weirdest yet funniest shit ever. He honestly develops an odd eye for funny looking things just to show you

I view childe as someone with above regular people intelligence. He commands his own fatui soldiers after all. So he is going to be able to keep up with you.

So when you guys play strategic games, istg sometimes you guys are like playing 4d chess, being able to strategize the best positions and think steps ahead. When you guys play strategy games, it usually spans for a long period of time B/c you guys go toe to toe.

And when other people are playing with you? You guys dominate the game and absolutely crush the other players. At that point, it’s You vs. Childe Ft. Your friends

And your crime-centric joke sessions don’t end there. It still very much exists and he still enjoys it very much. That’s something that never changes

Ok. A thing about childe is that he can be fairly touchey in a relationship. So he might accidentally overstep his boundaries by hugging you all of the sudden or something

But when you slap him away, he is initially shocked at first. But when you explain that you don’t like people touching you, he’s gonna back off. And he’s gonna ask for permission before he touches you

“Can I hold your hand?” “Can I hug you” “can I kiss you?” “Can we link pinkies?” Stuff like that

Ever since that day he’s gonna wait until you initiate physical contact. He doesn’t want to cross his boundaries again and startle you

And he will definitely be the type to not doubt what you are made of! He knows you are an intelligent person and will let you handle stuff. However, if a person is hitting on you, visibly making you uncomfortable, or god forbid about to fight you, he’s gonna step in. He’d rather he get hurt than you and it’s just in his nature to be protective

You like video games? Say hi to your new pc. You two are gonna game a lot together. And like in strategy games, you two are gonna get REALLY competitive. But it’s still friendly competition though. So nothing too extreme

So he is gonna be away a lot because of his job. But he will write letters to you and send pictures with a Kamera. And sometimes, there are little shiny rocks enclosed in the letter. There wouldn’t be a moment where he doesn’t miss you while you two are apart

But he will true to come visit and stay with you for as long as possible. You are a person he wants to keep around so he is rather desperate to do that

And if you ask to go with him, he’s gonna say no. He knows how dangerous and tiring it is and he doesn’t want you to lose your life because you are following him. Another part is that he doesn’t want you to see the bad-villian side of him

However, early on, even before you two started dating, he will vaguely tell you the nature of his job. It’s only fair. And if you ask more about it after dating, he’s gonna tell you more, but not all. He doesn’t want you entangled with the darker side of snezhnaya

Back to fluff, he would want to introduce to his family someday! He is a family man after all. He can’t wait to show you around his hometown and for you to meet his family! His family would be so welcoming considering they have probably heard a lot of you

He would be your bug killer. He might tease you for being afraid of a thing smaller than you though. But he gets the job done swiftly and in a blink of an eye

Omg when you tell him about your hair??? 💀 you see his eyes get darker and he’s like “who…?” But he will be like “you look good in your current hairstyle.” And praise your looks

There’s a shit ton of teasing on his end. But they are good natured ones and he will see your reactions and go based on that. Like if you are visibly uncomfortable? He will immediately stop and apologize. But this is also free estate to tease that guy. You might as well knock some of his pegs down cuz his ego is getting too high lately

he’s gonna suggest couple rings, bracelets, or earrings. And you bet they would be shiny. Like when you two are apart, he would unconsciously find himself touching your matching accessory or just looking at them fondly

Overall, he respects you, learns your boundaries, and knows what you are capable of. In the end, he will be a really good boyfriend 10/10 recommend

. . ⇢ [ couple pics . ] ˎˊ˗ ꒰ ☕️ ꒱

. . ⇢ [ other compatibles . ] ˎˊ˗ ꒰ ☕️ ꒱

.˚🌙 ༘┊͙ kaeya alberich ;

Like childe, kaeya is also a smart guy. He didn’t get the position of cavalry captain for no reason. He needs to be able to have the ability to strategically position knights around or make a plan to catch someone. So he is far from being dumb. This fits in perfectly with you who want someone intelligent. He’s able to get what you’re talking about without giving you a blank stare

He is your natural cooler. So won’t matter if you overheat because you can just call 1-800-kaeya-cooler and it’s free too! He can also adjust his temperature! (But again it comes with a free side of teasing. Just tease him back.) it’s honestly perfect for you who have a tendency to overheat.

He is very amused with your jokes. He enjoys them though. I feel like underneath that eyepatch of his is a fairly dark side than what he portrays. So he might say a couple of dark jokes and chuckle. His chuckle is kinda lowkey ominous but you can just ignore that

. . . . . ꒰ ♡ ꒱ ,, tysm for understanding I have a limit! 🥺 I hope it wasn’t too long of a wait! I hope you enjoyed it!!! ⌲˘͈ᵕ˘͈

[fated-normal-767]

okay I am back with some stupid information because these two are hilarious.

primary context: zephyrus is a cunt who reminds ares far too much of both kronos and Oulixes. zephyrus thinks ares is a complete moron who only exists to torture him.

Secondary context: the first time they properly interact without actually killing each other is when ares shows up, gets zephyrus to follow him to an abandoned train station, then shows him wrath’s brutally murdered corpse. You know. Wrath the only guy in the world zephyrus really cares about. and they sit there for a bit and drink alcohol in complete silence.

Now I’m going to list interactions in chronological order here, this won’t be every time they’ve met but more my personal favourites:

- Ares is in a horrible mood, sees zephyrus being a cunt to some random guy, and decides ‘you know what who would care if I just beat that guy up. No one likes him.’ Ares manages to tear off a large amount of the flesh from zephyrus’ arm with his teeth, and then for a bit it looks like zephyrus could win the fight but ares grabs a Chunk Of Brick and hits him over the head with it till he passes out. Ares immediately realises they’re genderfluid.

- ares gets possessed by a french demon (technically) who tries to kill zephyrus by just fucking leaping at him with a knife. Zephyrus knocks them unconscious in self defence and then ares later wakes up like “what the fuck am I doing in your office what the fuck is going on?” (They have a huge argument over who tried to kill who first).

- At this point Dalilah shows up, wants to kill ares (for lying to her about various things and then shooting her) and zephyrus is like. Yeah I don’t like this guy either let’s kill him. At which point ares rips both her hands off. and them and Zephyrus have a huge argument about Who’s Problem This Is which is only resolved when Someone Else fixes the problem.

- wrath dies and ares has to explain the entire hallucinations and illusions thing to zephyrus 😔

- zephyrus acts like he doesn’t care them Immediately goes home and has a nervous breakdown

- from this point onwards, ares realises ‘right, I can’t tell anyone who cares about me I’m hallucinating because that’d cause issues. I know I’ll just act like zephyrus is my therapist and convince everyone he’s making things up to damage my reputation so that no one will ever believe him’.

- And Ares seems to think this is Genius.

- zephyrus has no idea why this weird little faggot keeps showing up, mixing monster energy and vodka, saying things like ‘crazy how I am literally Loosing It.” and then leaving. And he hates it.

- Note: zephyrus is never directly mentioned to suffer from any mental health issues but playing as him does reveal that he normally has antipsychotic medication with him. Also when a ghost tries to convince him to kill himself by pretending to be his own mind, he doesn’t even acknowledge it. Normal guy behaviour 👍

- so these two guys who are honestly both twats and have severe mental health problems interact with each other against their wills and have the most insane conversations you could even imagine. Cause zephyrus was raised with “there’s only 2 genders, being gay is a sin, anyone not rich can be hunted for sport” and Ares is in a gay transgender polycule and loves setting government buildings on fire.

- it gets to the point where zephyrus realises the only way to get ares usotsuki to leave him alone is either to kill him or to help him recover and find other people to talk to. And instead of choosing one of those, zephyrus hires someone to kill him and Also tries to find people to help him at the same time???

But yeah basically they argue so fucking much about everything. They’d try to kill each other for fun. They hate each other because they see themselves in the other person. Ares once ended an argument with ‘yeah well if you look up my name I actually show up. Because I’m famous.’ (he shows up because everyone on the internet went insane about how many criminal charges he managed to get out of.)

They’re like if shimmer and letalis did nothing positive and made each other worse every single day. 👍

I need to get better at drawing comics or writing dialogue purely so I can put ares usotsuki in more Situations. you guy don’t even know about how he interacts with zephyrus because I’ve not effectively conveyed it yet, and I promise you it’s the funniest shit ever.