#i hope the fandom hasn't completely died out

[hottiehiei]

- Slow burn romance with Hiei

For a very long time, Hiei desperately tries to convince himself that he isn’t falling.

gender neutral. sfw. fluff. headcanons.

PART 2

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𓆩⟡𓆪 Upon first meeting, Hiei barely pays you any attention. He's not the kind of guy who's charmed by looks, and the fact that you're human doesn't make him any fonder. Similar to when he met Yusuke and the others, it takes him time to warm up. He's moved by personality and character.

𓆩⟡𓆪 Once you pique his interest, he studies every detail about you. Your scent, your energy, the sound of your voice—everything. With just a glance, he can spot a small change in your appearance, such as a new accessory or a shift in your mood. He doesn't comment on these things; he simply keeps them tucked away in his mind. It's like he's building a little portfolio in his head. All while denying the fact that he’s interested in you.

𓆩⟡𓆪 Hiei tries to build up a mental wall every time you appear in his thoughts, but it’s useless. The mere mention of your name makes his ears perk up like a dog! One minute, he wants nothing to do with you, and the next, he’s waiting for the moment he can see you again.

𓆩⟡𓆪 Internally, Hiei is conflicted. He thinks romantic feelings are a silly human experience. But as time goes on, he can’t stay in denial for much longer. The dilemma is bothersome, yet he thinks about you frequently.

𓆩⟡𓆪 As he struggles to control his emotions, you’ll never know how he truly feels. It’s almost impossible to catch him looking in your direction. He’s a master at observation. As soon as you try to catch his gaze, he’s staring off in the distance, as if you aren’t even there.

𓆩⟡𓆪 Despite his silent yearning, Hiei will avoid you. If you try to start a conversation with him, he keeps it short and simple. It’s difficult to create a bond, especially when he won't even look at you. However, you don’t get the impression that he wants to push you away. He’s a man of few words but his body language reveals enough. Sometimes he may stand beside you, a little closer than usual, and your arms brush. As subtle as it may be, it’s electrifying.

𓆩⟡𓆪 Even though Hiei is unsure of his relationship with you, he takes pride in the possibility that you like him too. Facing his feelings would be a lot easier if you shared them. Whenever he noticed your eyes admiring him from afar, the tiniest smirk would curl on his lips. Feeding his ego is the best way to break his shell. One time you laughed at his witty insult towards Kuwabara and he was so freaking smug about it.

𓆩⟡𓆪 Eventually, he’ll start to initiate small talk, usually when there are fewer people around. He takes the time to reassure you about upcoming fights or advise you to stay cautious.

𓆩⟡𓆪 If you have the capability to defend yourself, he worries less, but if you’re an ordinary human, Hiei instinctively keeps you safe. For instance, if there’s a huge explosion that sends rocks flying everywhere, he quickly lifts you out of harm's way. Thanks to his speed, no one notices, but the two of you are left flustered afterward.

𓆩⟡𓆪 As feelings continue to build, it's hard for Hiei to maintain his indifference. When someone else openly flirts with you, he can only stand quietly while they make their move. It’s not his place to intervene. If he were to do something brash, he risks exposing himself. Hiei is practically boiling on the inside. If you were taken away from him, he’d lose his shit.

𓆩⟡𓆪 For the most part, things stay the same (like for months). Hiei stubbornly refuses to confess. He may have accepted his human-like desires, but that doesn't mean he's ready to take the next step. Dating is too foreign and unfamiliar. Plus, you'd be put at risk if word got out that he cared for you.

𓆩⟡𓆪 But maybe you find yourself in danger, or Hiei is putting his life on the line during a fight. Emotions will be high, and the idea of losing each other is enough to bring out the truth. Possibly?

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extra:

Kurama knew Hiei liked you before Hiei even knew he liked you!

[caligvlasaqvarivm]

Has anyone asked you about erisol?

If no, then what's your opinion on them! :-)

I feel like people will be upset at me for this, but a completely platonic and completely lukewarm mutual dislike... they don't really like each other, but take no great issue with each other either. The boys are not fightingggg

So like. A common thing in fandoms is taking things at face value and not really reading any deeper into them. You see this a shitton with Eridan in general - lots of people take it 100% at face value that he's a casteist genocide liker, when it's pretty clear upon further examination that he's pretty much lying about being casteist and doesn't actually want to murder his friends. So, at face value, Eridan hates Sollux, and either wants to do spadesies with him, or go ashen with him. And so this has become a really popular ship, but the thing is... at basically every turn, the story kind of goes out of its way to point out that there's actually nothing between them. At least romantically.

See, Eridan does not actually hate Sollux, at least not to the level of pitch/ashen. TWICE before Sollux and Feferi start hanging out all the time, we see Eridan commenting on Sollux in a fairly neutral-negative way - the first time calling him "a drama machine" and noting that "it is fuckin pathetic," and the second time as "the dead guy who saved [Feferi]". And let's be clear about the former, Eridan is just kind of Like That, he's rude as fuck even about people he LIKES (calling his BFF Karkat an "assblood" and sarcastically referring to Feferi by her royal titles), so that's actually one of the less nasty things he's said about someone.

Meanwhile, on Sollux's end, he LITERALLY says "not interested" to what he perceives as pitch/ashen advances from Eridan. Like, actually just says those words out loud. Not even in a pesterlog, he actually just says those words with his mouth.

So it seems to me that there's a pretty clear case to be made here that Eridan and Sollux kind of just... don't really give a shit about each other, and probably wouldn't have interacted in any substantial way if not for Feferi's involvement. Especially because Eridan's chosen method of hitting on Sollux is with casteism, something he's already faking in the first place.

If we really want to dig into this, though, it's kind of - in my eyes - a lukewarm case of the hedgehog dilemma. They're a bit too similar, and it winds up causing them both mild pain to get too close.

They're both nihilists that kind of hate themselves. Sollux's mutated brain causes him a not-insignificant amount of discomfort, his visions of the future and of the "imminently doomed" have made him lose a lot of hope, and he blames himself for killing Aradia, something so painful that he didn't tell anyone else she died, to the point where most of the team - including Terezi and Tavros - had to find out after entering the game. Meanwhile, Eridan struggles with the perceived inevitability of a lifestyle that causes him nothing but distress, and his constant, overwhelming anxiety about it leads to constant stressing over whether or not he's "good enough"; whenever he's in severe emotional distress, he starts beating up on himself.

They also both front at being more okay with their problems than they actually are. Sollux has his 1337 hacker, two cool for you persona that he puts on, and Eridan is always trying to be the big bad sea dweller. For example, Sollux goes "I'm not trolling the humans, it's beneath me," but he's in Jade's trollslum, so the implication there is that he totally did try trolling, it went badly for him, and now he's pretending that he was always better than that. And I don't think I need to tell you how hard Eridan works to try and present himself as badass and scary and totally not deep in the throes of emotional anguish at all times.

And these are the similarities that ultimately make Erisolsprite so stable. Erisolsprite speculates that maybe the reason he hasn't exploded yet is that deep down, he loves to suffer. The truth is, there's nothing between the two that's really so objectionable that they would ACTUALLY hate each other; Eridan isn't actually casteist, and Eridan never really hated Sollux in the first place.

Neither would they bring each other any comfort or joy - Eridan doesn't have any sympathy for Sollux's baggage, since, like, what, he only killed ONE person, and was even under mind control, so it's not like it was really his fault. He's a drama machine. And Sollux wouldn't have sympathy for Eridan's problems, partially because they manifest in such cringeworthy, embarrassing ways (and Sollux is highly sensitive to not being cringe, seeing as he's always commenting on other people being embarrassing or overly earnest), and partially because - I mean, fuck it, he's a rich-ass sea dweller who doesn't need to worry about being harvested to be a battery for a living ship. And also he's an idiot.

That's kind of what their relationship is to me, you know? A tepid and lukewarm dislike. They're just similar enough to each other to understand the other, and just different enough to be like "ugh, but that guy suuuuuuuucks". It's very funny, but not really a ship, hahaha.

So what you really get from that is two guys that just kind of dislike each other. Not vehemently or diametrically enough for pitch or ashen, and not a trace of the requisite pity for flushed or pale. When you throw the two together into one sprite, it won't shut up about how much it hates itself, how each part of itself is flabberghasted by the other, and how much practically the only reason it doesn't explode is a resounding "meh."

Eridan likes to validate his despair; ironically, since it's all he's ever known, it's where he feels comfortable - and nobody would provide better doomscrolling material than the doom player. Similarly, Sollux likes to torment himself, suffering his guilt in silence, and Eridan has SO MUCH to feel guilty over. Combine them into one entity, and you have a guy who can reach SUCH levels of revelling in his own misery, you don't even KNOW.

Not that it's healthy or positive for either of them... just that it would be incredibly stable. It's their worst tendencies being satisfied by each other. Maybe that's a form of leprechaun romance, but it's certainly not a quadrant.

[gartenofbanny]

After I watched HezuNeutral's video and the more I think about it, yeah Hezu was right about Vivziepop lying in this tweet right here.

Notice how Vivziepop says that Hazbin "always" had a heavier emphasis on women-led stories saying as if it was always the case, but it hasn't. She's completely forgetting that she made two comics centered around the male main characters, Alastor and Angel Dust

An entire music video centered around Angel Dust

And she never attempted to expand on any other female characters with the only ones we know so much about being Charlie and Vaggie. Despite Niffty being part of the main cast, she doesn't have much going for her. Hell Cherri Bomb has more depth than Niffty does, but I believe that's only because she's around Angel Dust most of the time she's on-screen in both Addict and the Pilot.

Vivziepop is also forgetting the fact that Velvette exists. Velvette is part of the Three Vs who are the main antagonists of the show and is female. Despite this though she is barely even shown with her last animated appearance being from the pilot. There wasn't a teaser that shows her alongside Vox and Valentino, but there was just a teaser of Vox and Valentino both of those characters being male.

Who has made the most appearances out of the Three Vs? Valentino, who is a male character. Who has made the least appearances out of the Three Vs? Velvette, who is a female character.

Valentino even has his own fanmade music video that Vivziepop liked and who's included in said music video? Vox. Unfortunately, I've rewatched the music video a couple of times, and Velvette only made two appearances in the song. Her second appearance can be easily missed if you don't look closely.

Also, Velvette has the least amount of standalone merch out of the Three Vs. What I mean by "standalone" is that there isn't any merch consisting of that singular character. In Velvette's case, she only has three pieces of standalone merch.

A Tumblr user who goes by Demonic Dear brought up great questions about the recent merch sale mainly regarding Chaz. Why does he get all this merch and other characters like Moxxie's Mom who was introduced and died in the same episode don't? Why does Chaz have as much merch as one of the main female characters of HH already? Who I am referring to in the second question is Niffty.

Chaz has one suggestive mug, two playmats with one of them being suggestive, and a pin. Keep in mind all of this merch is for a dead character that's male. Niffty doesn't have that much merch despite her being part of the main cast of HH, but the new Spring Sale did show a new keychain of her....before her redesign. Come to think of it literally all of her merch consisted of her old design, what's going on with that? But, why is Vivziepop giving a dead character just as much merch as she is one of her main female characters for HH? Well Chaz is a horn-dog male character so that's most likely the reason why and you know this fandom really loves their sexy demons with no depth. All and all the more you think about Vivziepop's numerous tweets regarding criticism, it's noticeable that she just types this shit without thinking about what she's typing or contradicts herself either by her actions or words. But anyway, that's all I got for today. Thank you all for reading and I hope you all have a nice day!

[jgnico]

maybe this is just my very hot take but I think people who want gojo to be relevant in jjk beyond what he has already done so far don't get the story. anyone who criticises yuuji as the mc doesn't understand jjk. it's confusing to me how gojo's entire goal is to prepare a new generation of sorcerers to be able to overthrow the system, seeing the young generation consolidate after his death even in such a disastrous situation and having such a big focus on the difference between gojo's generation and the kids and then having readers say stuff like "I want gojo to come back to defeat kenjaku". I swear it doesn't make sense to me how you read a story for over 200 chapters and still miss the point. yeah it's understandable to not get all the references or symbolism but the core of the story, really? the main message? I agree that there's criticism to be made about jjk and I'm one of the first to jump on the wagon when it comes to certain things but I really think gege receives an undeserved ammount of negative criticism for jjk. I also think gojo's death was obvious for a very long time but anyways. hope you have a good day, nico :)

Piping hot take, scalding even, but also one that I completely agree with.

I'd also like to point out that despite Gojo's position as the strongest of the modern era, and therefore someone that you would expect to have a large impact on the story by winning the fights that he's in, has never actually won a significant fight in the antagonists' favor.

The Jogo fight? Jogo and Hanami get away. The Goodwill Event? Hanami gets away and Mahito steals 3 death paintings + the school's supply of fingers. The first Toji fight? He loses and Riko dies. The second Toji fight? He wins, but it doesn't matter because killing Toji at this point wasn't necessary. The Shibuya fight? He gets sealed with the only major loss for the antagonists being Hanami and the transfigured humans in b5f. The Sukuna fight? He dies without dealing any lasting damage to Sukuna.

But it isn't just Gojo that isn't getting anything done for the older generation. Nanami dies to Mahito without killing a single antagonist in Shibuya. Mei Mei flees after almost dying to Kenjaku. Naobito flat out dies to Jogo after the Dagon fight.

As a matter of fact, the antagonists dealt more damage to themselves in Shibuya that anyone from the older generation of Sorcerers did. Choso quite literally takes himself out. Toji kills Dagon after Megumi makes it possible for him to get to him before taking himself out. Sukuna kills Jogo. Kenjaku exorcizes Mahito after Yuuji and Todo + Nobara nearly kill him.

Even more recently, you have Yuki dying to Kenjaku and Kashimo also dying to Sukuna.

All of this only reinforces the point that the story isn't about Gojo or any previous generation accomplishing anything. They're there to be an example; to show us, the audience, how jujutsu society operates and fails it's sorcerers, and to reinforce the themes of the story, but more importantly, to be an example for the students of what they need to surpass in order to achieve what no other generation could.

There are things that I absolutely will ctiticize Gege over - namely, his extremely limited use of his female characters that aren't Maki - but I agree that there's a lot of stuff that the fandom gives Gege shit over that they wouldn't if they understood/cared about the story more. Gege isn't a bad writer and JJK hasn't gone downhill as much as people like to say it has. Likewise, he isn't a bad writer for killing Gojo when everything in the story leading up to that point told us that Gojo would not and could not win that fight. And he won't be a bad writer if he never brings Gojo back when there isn't a single good reason for him to do so.

Which leads us inevitably back to the same question that I asked a while ago: For the people that fully believe that Gojo is going to come back; Why do you want that to happen and how would it benefit the story?

[writingjourney]

I’m in need of some advice and kind words. As a fellow writer I’m really struggling to believe people will and want to read my stuff. There’s no real engagement anymore and I’m worried that if I post my long-form fic that no one will give it a chance. It’s really bringing me down because I love it so much but it feels like no matter what I try to do my stuff just doesn’t get seen or liked? I’ve even thought about changing my entire way of how I do things since I don’t think the way I write is working for the masses. How do you keep up the motivation as a popular writer and do you have an advice?

Hello anon!! I feel like this is something many of us currently deal with. And first of all I seriously hope that you do share your story!! ♡

To be completely honest with you the lack of engagement in the fandom has for sure impacted my own motivation which is why I haven't been putting as much time into longer fics (nor the Friday Nights series or IKNBS, I do write but I refuse to force myself). I don't feel any urgency because uploading fics hasn't made me as happy as it used to. It feels like only other active writers are reading fic atm and it creates a lot of pressure on creatives to stay super active.

I'm aware that I'm insanely privileged to have the engagement that I do have, that the type of stories I want to write are also the type of stories that generally seem to appeal. However, engagement tells you NOTHING about the quality of your work, only how many people are active in a fandom or like a specific pairing/character/trope. Your own unique voice matters more than numbers.

I also notice that a lot of people who used to read my works have disappeared which I completely understand. The fixation can ebb away during times of inactivity or when a certain hype dies down. People just don't get that dopamine hit anymore and move on. It's also entirely possible they get tired of a certain style of writing and prefer other writers at times, what do I know. I definitely don't blame anyone for that. First and foremost people should read for their own enjoyment and engage with fandom in a way that makes them happy. It makes no sense to pressure people into engaging. A huge issue right now is people overthinking these things which makes support transactional instead of genuine.

I don't care much about notes but I REALLY miss the feeling of sharing a fic with people who are excited for it, that sense of an active community. BUT the activity will come back – the movie will come out, new music and videos, heck even a whole new Papa!!! That's the natural flow of things. We can't be excited and super active all the time, we need phases of calmness as well (which is an act of rebellion in the capitalist hellscape of overproduction and churned out content. I am honestly glad Ghost is taking it easy).

Now, I recommend you write your story exactly how you want to!!! do NOT change it for the sake of popularity because it will lose its very soul and you will struggle to be happy with it by the end. You know how you want to tell your story and nothing else matters. It will find its readers or you can wait and share it at a later point. I recommend that you approach other writers and readers and intensify that contact, make friends and talk to them about your stories, hype each other up, share snippets. It's even more meaningful to know people you like enjoy what you do. I am currently working on super niche fics for non-Ghost characters and I'm honestly having a great time chasing that dopamine by just writing what I'm really into and sharing it with friends. Fandom is community, fandom is fun and we can work to make it better for everyone.

A few general tips when it comes to making stories accessible: Format them to be readable (paragraphs!!), add a "read more" break, add proper content information and a nice summary to draw people in, add some visual appeal like a banners or stock image edits (like i do for IKNBS) and then tag the fics with relevant tags (and only those). Also make sure to tag the OG post, tags on reblogs do nothing for reach. Engage with the community when you feel like it and it's likely that the community will engage back. Being supportive is worth it, being kind is always worth it even if it amounts to nothing.

[godisasimp]

Terrible news were brought to me (Seele's gacha outfit is rerunning) and now I wanna talk about the neglect Herrscher of the Void suffered, still is, by MiHoYo. She is my most favorite character in all of Hi3rd, and I am just so very tired of it all.

New Divine Key.

MiHoYo has been giving old herrschers battlesuits (ie +2yo) new Divine Keys, they started with HoReason then HoThunder ; logically speaking HoVoid should have been next, she is the last member of the original Herrscher trio.

However, HoSentience got it. It's not even because giving HoVoid would be a "lore issue", just look at HoSentience.

I can understand why MiHoYo gave one to HoSentience, they tried to replace her with HoRebirth and the fandom might have not liked that, so they had to keep HoSentience meta. It's not the first time MiHoYo does things because of the fandom (especially CN).

HoSentience was still good mind you, so HoRebirth impact on HoSentience meta placement wouldn't have been much, especially considering that HoRebirth can be a dps who needs HoSentience.

HoSentience wasn't in a place where a new Divine Key was needed, and yet she got one instead of HoVoid, and I'm afraid that mihoyo might use that as a way to skip HoVoid all-together, they'll have to "follow the Herrscher order" and give one to the Herrscher that came after HoSentience (i sincerely hope that this fear of mine doesn't become reality).

Her treatment in story and Story Recaps

This is pretty well known by that point that HoVoid is completely ignored and skipped over when MiHoYo does story recaps.

In an event recounting Kiana's journey (a puzzle picture event) MiHoYo opted to skip HoVoid and instead put the Moonbeam battlesuit.

In a set of Stigmatas recounting Kiana's life and growth, HoVoid was not included ; instead less important (to Kiana) characters made it in, Li Sushang and Rita for example ; which is odd considering that the PROMOTIONAL Stigmata for chapter 25 was excellent as it included all Kiana's steps.

All of this is an issue because HoVoid is one of the most important part of Kiana's story, without her Himeko wouldn't have died, and therefore the whole story might have not have happened at all, she is the reason we have the story we have, and yet she is ignored ; after chapter 9 we do not see her and she only reappears to be killed off in chapter 25, only to be ignored again and reappear for a small cameo in Da Capo.

Which is a shame because she is such a well written character, that could have offered so much to the story. But she was ignored.

In-game

First of all I wanna talk about outfits ; she has 3 of them (not bad some battlesuits don't have any) one of them is her gacha outfit : Frigid Empress.

It hasn't had a single rerun in more than 3 years. While MiHoYo reruns outfits that are less than 6 months old.

The most outrageous example is the most recent : in December of 2023, during Kiana's birthday MiHoYo reran her newest summer outfit that came out the same year.

They prioritized a very new summer outfit over Frigid Empress in DECEMBER.

Next is Elysian Realm : HoVoid was the last Herrscher (at the time) to join, alongside HoHuman who was literally coming out. And ever since, there hasn't been a single instance of a weather benefiting her appearing, she was good once and never again since.

And while HoVoid (the battlesuit) has appeared in recent Captainverse events, it hasn't brought anything new to her, other than some minor exposure, i won't just take exposure as a gift, this is the bare minimum.

[dsaf-confessions]

I have two of them

1: Steven x Peter isn't that bad honestly. Imo at least. It doesn't deserve the amount of hating it gets. 'But Steven ruined Peter's life by sending him to become a phone guy' the games go out of their way to show and even directly tell you that phone guys are slaved people who are brought back from the dead and forced to do as their programming says. Steven isn't an expert or anything he's just as slaved as the others were. And while he does say 'I hope u can forgive me for this' which kinda means that he knew it was bad? But honestly I still don't blame it on him fully. From my understanding phone guys are only capable of going 'against' (for lack of better word) their programming only if they have some humanity or memories when they were alive, which I dont think Steven does, in both dsaf1 & 3 hes fully convinced that he's Scott Cawthon and only remembers that he isnt after literally being forced to. 'they hate eachother' I've replayed all the dsaf games and I can't find anything confirming that. Steven obviously regrets what he did and wants to make it right to not just Peter, but everyone else as well. Peter and Steven don't interact much, but Peter hasn't said anything mean about Steven once. The only thing that implies this is Peter's line of Jack saving even those who don't deserve it. But honestly he never said it was about Steven. For all we know he could had been referring to Dave or hell even himself. 'Its boss x employee which would be toxic by realistic standards' ok I see your point but why compere realistic standards to fucking dsaf? You know what else would be incredible toxic by realistic standards too? Davesport. But the fandoms not ready for that talk.

Speaking of davesport

2: Davesport is hellaaaaaaa overrated. I get why people ship it. It has much potential. But honestly it's the only thing the fandom talks about and Im getting tired of it. Where's my Steven contact? Where's my Peter or Dee contact? Where's the phone guys, Henry, Jacktrap or hell even Davetrap contact? Where's the angst connect on the Kennedy siblings? The only endings this fandom talks about are like the Gnarly Endings even tho I think the good ending and pure evil endings in dsaf2 are much better better than the gnarly end. Contact of the legacy routes are almost non existent ESPECIALLY on the legacy route of 2 and when there's is. It's davesport angst. How about we make angst about how Jack literally kills his motherfucking sister that he literally died for in an even more curler dsaf3 legacy route. I also hate how much the fandom mischaracterizes it. No they aren't uwu gay boys, no they don't have a perfect relationship. Their relationship is fucking unhealthy, flawed and bittersweet. (No Im not saying davesport is a pr*ship don't accuse me of that, although it's an unhealthy relationship it's not an ab**ive one). Dave literally stalks Jack, he has cameras on his house for the real Fredbear's sake. Yes I know they're treated like jokes, yes I know that Jack doesn't seem to mind, yes I know that Dave & Jack ARE capable of being in a somewhat normal relationship, with Flipside Dave at least. But still that's not healthy. They are literally willing to kill eachother if they're opposite! Those are two dead courses that have been stripped almost completely out of all their humanity thanks to that pink fuck Henry. Obviously they won't be sweet and caring to eachother or anyone really. If you like Davesport at the very least actually protey it correctly.

This is coming from someone who doesn't even ship Steveter (that's what I'll call the ship) and loves Davesport btw

.

[prodigal-explorer]

loyal - an omori au summary

this is the breakdown of an omori au that i've decided to call the loyalty au, and it's based off of a mixture of ideas that me and my homies (@legendling and @electriczaire) came up with!!

(cw -> murder, omori spoilers, extreme manipulation, mcd)

this is a sort of swap au in which kel accidentally kills hero instead of sunny accidentally killing mari, but there is a twist in the course of events that completely alters the fate of kel and the friend group.

a few days after sunny and mari's recital, kel and hero get into an argument over something silly. but the argument escalates when their parents step in and, as always, take hero's side.

the constant favoritism towards hero finally gets to kel in that moment, and he storms off. hero rushes after him in an attempt to make amends, but kel misinterprets his intentions, and pushes him down the stairs in a fit of anger. hero dies on impact.

just like in the original story, basil is the only one who witnesses the murder. he was at the house for a sleepover. basil comes up with the idea to frame hero's death as a suicide, and he convinces kel to go along with it by telling him that the alternative is kel going to jail and losing all his friends. kel agrees.

but two weeks later, at hero's funeral, kel can't handle lying about something so huge, seeing mari blame herself, seeing the group start to fall apart. so he comes clean. he admits that he killed hero and staged the suicide. but he doesn't say basil's involvement in the situation because he's too held up with his own guilt and his own involvement.

kel expects everything basil said to come true, but mari, sunny, and aubrey forgive kel. it's clear that it was an accident, and it's obvious how much pain kel is in.

but forgiveness doesn't mean forgetting. everyone is uncomfortable around kel, and there is an inevitable, understandable resentment towards kel. the group is awkward, and they tend to exclude kel from things for the sake of their own comfort.

and to make matters worse, the people who take kel's confession the worst are his parents. they despise kel for what he did to their favorite child, and they essentially abandon him emotionally, leaving him to endure this extremely difficult point of his life all by himself. they no longer include him during mealtimes, and when he's around them, they ignore him. they don't even yell at him anymore. it's cold, dead silence.

the only person who still treats kel the same is basil, or so we think. everyone assumes that it's because basil is so sweet and kind, but really, it's because basil is the only one who knows the full truth.

basil is desperate. upon seeing how kel is treated in the friend group and by his family, he realizes that he doesn't want the same thing to happen to him. he begs kel to keep his secret, and ends up manipulating him out of fear. he tells kell that if he tells the group about basil's involvement, then nobody would believe him, and everyone would abandon him.

so kel keeps the secret. but as we all know, kel hates secrets and lies. but he also hates betraying his friends. so now he's in a huge inner conflict between his two biggest values: honesty and loyalty. does he honor his honesty and tell the group the whole truth? or does he honor his loyalty and keep basil's reputation safe?

on top of this, kel realizes that he heavily disagrees with basil's extreme actions of deception, and he hates the position that basil has put him in, making him entirely responsible for basil's fate. but what is he able to do about it? basil is basically the only reason why kel hasn't been completely phased out of the friend group, and basil has so much control over how the group views kel. so he's trapped with basil, forced to endure him with no complaints.

after all, sweet, innocent, kind basil is much more likable and pitiful than loud, annoying, murderer kel.

i hope you guys enjoy this au!! i'm very new to the fandom so if something like this has been made before please don't flame me, i didn't know! feel free to comment with any questions you have about the au, and i'd love to answer them!!! i really want to do something with this, maybe a fanfic or something!

[2ctheocean]

Hot take: EO is not ready to be together, no matter how much the fandom is ready for them to be. Elliot has barely acknowledged any of what had happened to Liv in the last 10 years. He hasn't asked. The one time he did, he fixated on her dating life. Not her kid, not her cases, not her trauma or how she made captain. Her dating life.

Doing all of that would mean admitting to her face that he was wrong to ghost her for a decade and that he regrets how much he missed (more than the half-assed version we got). Which will be hard for Stabler, who has a tough time being honest about his emotions anyway (the therapy is a FANTASTIC first step). Until he gets ALL of that information and tells her that, she's not going to be convinced he won't ever leave her again.

There's so much that's a part of her now that Stabler just doesn't know about.

And the one thing the fandom keeps forgetting is that Liv was traumatized by him leaving. One could argue Lewis was the peak of that truama on top of being his own hellbeast.

They were joined at the hip for 12 years. And then he just ghosted her. And for those four days when Lewis had her, she was forced to rely only on herself.

She's kept everyone else at a distance since he left. There have been dozens of moments in the last decade where she's been reminded of him-"did you really think he was going to look over one day and realize you were the woman he couldn't live without?"- But the last part of her that believed she wouldn't always need to save herself took a fatal blow when she saved herself from Lewis. Up until that moment, a small part of her geniunely hoped Elliot'd smash through the door and save her. She was thinking about him the entire time he was there.

But Stabler stayed gone, and she stayed alone, and she had to learn to be okay with it. His silence indicated to her that she wasn't in his thoughts, that everything she thought she knew about their bond wasn't real.

And then it was affirmed by Kathy's letter.

And then thrown off all over again by Elliot saying "In a parellel universe, it will always be you and I."

So. Many. Mixed. Signals.

Now he's back, and she's unwilling to take that wall down again because it's such a big risk. Ed was the only one after Elliot who even partially got through, and she did eventually shut him out when he got too close. Elliot has not earned his way back into her heart. He might have taken his first steps, but it's going to be a long road.

Or Benson is going to get abducted or something and Stabler's going to burst in and save her like he should have done a decade ago and it's going to make her understand that she can trust him again (this feels cheap to me as a social worker, but as a writer, it will make for great television)

This is all compounded by the fact that People. Keep. Walking. Out. On. Her.

The moment she forms what feels unbreakable, they're gone. The moment she feels safe and comfortable with them, they're gone. Munch, Craegon, Nick. Chief Dodds and his son. Barba. Stone. Kat. Garland.

And then Amanda almost died. And then Benson had to give her up too. Amanda, the closest thing she's ever had to a sister. Who's kids she's godmother too. The woman her son calls "Aunt" and has known since day one. Who has similiar problems and truamas, who was there for the worst moments of her life and went through her own with Liv right there.

I suspect the only reason Liv didn't take it even harder is because of Carisi. As long as she has him, Amanda's close by and she hasn't lost her completely. Amanda and Carisi are a packaged duo now (yet another set of partners Liv has watched get the happy ending she should have gotten with Elliot but that's another post).

She's still in a freefall though. It's why she's suddenly scrambling for reassurance from Fin that he's not leaving too. He's all she has left, the only one who's stayed. Ironically, he's the longest relationship she's ever had with a man now. Her brother in every way that matters.

Notice that while Fin struggles with Amanda leaving, he doesn't take it nearly as hard, at least that we've seen. He has Phoebe, after all. His partner- the one that mattered most, the one that came back. (All of this is being said before the Fin centeric episode in a week or two)

I've digressed here. Fin grounds her enough that she can keep working. He gets her to fill Amanda's desk. But she's still reeling. She's in no place to trust anyone new right now, or love anyone new.

And anything with Elliot she started right now would be new. Uncertain. And while she may know in her heart of hearts that he'll never leave her again, you cannot blame her for being tired of being hurt. That's what was happening when she stepped back from him to lean on the fridge. She wants to lean on him, fall into him, but she's so emotionally exhausted that she just can't risk it. She's Not Ready because she won't survive loving him again and then losing him again (too).

TLDR: I will defend Liv's reluctance to trust again to my dying breath and it's justified no matter how impatient I or the rest of the fandom get.

[mrslittletall]

Choosing violence maybe for 13 and 25? For whichever fandom you have something to say about

I chose violence

13. worst blorboficiation Oh, how fun! I think we could do this for almost every listed fandom ^^ In Dark Souls it is probably Gwyndolin and I have to admit, I am not completely free of guilt of this, but I still fully lean into them having daddy issues and wanting the cycle to continue, I just portray them a bit more sympatethic in the matter, as feeling as if this is the only choice, what they were raised for etc etc. But I also see people write Gwyndolin as this innocent baby angel and not as the last child of Gwyn who is kinda behind the plot of the first Dark Souls. There is some pride in Gwyndolin and we should portray them accurately. Or not. Do what you guys want ^^ I just wanted to point stuff out. Hmmm, in Bloodborne... probably Micolash. I see a lot of people kinda... not leaning into Micolash being batshit insane. If you now point at me and say "Little, your Micolash is a quirky shameless innocent boy", that is Byrgenwerth era Micolash who is like 15 years old and hasn't even thought about the atrocities he will commit! I swear, if I would write canon Micolash, he would be a LOT different. I actually should write him. I never tried and he is so interesting! For Hollow Knight it is Grimm imo. He gets flanderized a lot. He is either the gay uncle or ship material but rarely, very rarely is he the Higher Being he is in canon. I admit I write Grimm as a major troll in my own fic, Off Balance, but he still is a god in this, following his own plan from the start. He never agreed to help PK from the good of his heart and while his plan is ultimately for the sake of another one, I still think I did him justice. I hope ^^ Elden Ring. I don't even have to think about it. Mohg and Morgott! Mohg oftentimes feels like his canon gets completely ignored and shoved under the rug (and if you do this, fine, I get the character makes people uncomfy). But I think Morgott is even worse. Yes, I like Morgott as well and I lean fully into his whole self hating and learning to love himself fanon, but... guys, sometimes I feel you forgot that he canonically killed dozens and dozens of Tarnished, had an order under his command that hunted Tarnished and pretty much is NOT a friend to your Tarnished in canon at ALL. Please, lean more into Morgott that is so into the grip of the Golden Order if you try to write him in canon. Okay and now I probably upset a lot of people. These are just my own opinions. You can blorbofy your blorbos as much as you want. I won't and can't stop you. I might just not read your fic or your comic, that is all. Alright, nobody is offended here, right? I am sure guilty of my own blorbofications ^^

25. common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing Hmmmm... good question. I rarely look at complaints and when it comes to Dark Souls, it isn't a fandom complaint I am sick of hearing, but the "easy mode" crowd. I am not even AGAINST easy modes, but Dark Souls difficulty is so much ingrained into the lore that taking it away would be a really big detriment to the game. For Bloodborne it is easy. Gehrman haters. Please, leave the old man in peace. He chose a fucked up way to grieve someone that he either loved romantically or as a daughter. Canon never does say that he did anything to the doll! If all, the lore implies that he mostly ignores her. Hollow Knight. That PK and Radi are colonizers. Where does that idea even come from?! If you follow the lore, Radi was there first and then PK came and then they had a battle about followers. It wasn't even a bloody battle, nowhere in the lore does it say that countless bugs died or such, it was more so that PK managed to gain more followers and that led to the whole disaster. What they are both guilty of is supressing the void culture, I suppose, but there was also no mention of killing. The whole killing only happened once the infection came into place. Elden Ring. That is also a no-brainer. The whole people who are denying that Mohg is romantically involved with Miquella. If you see it as consentual or non-consentual, Mohg is completely infatuated with Miquella. Nobody who would want to have power would cradle a hand like that and speak that softly. Okay, I think I talked enough ^^ Again, these opinions are my own. If you don't agree with them, that is fine. I am not mad at you. You have a right to have your own opinions and headcanons, even though I don't agree with them.

[dxncingwithastrxnger]

1. capturing the sun

A/N: Hello everyone!! I bring to you my very first demon slayer fic!! I've been in the kny fandom for awhile with many fic ideas coming to mind, but this is the first time I've actually written it out. This is also the first story for Inotan Week!! I hosted my own list of prompts for this year, you can find the post here!! I really hope you enjoy this story, I have a lot of plans for this AU, tbh, so I can't wait to write it all out. This is actually a bit shorter than my usual chapters, but it felt right to end it where I did and the other chapters will definitely be longer!! Happy reading!!

Inspiration Post

Pairings: N/A (The romance hasn't started yet, lmao)

Prompt: Day 1 - Fantasy

Summary: The King of Kirauai receives an unexpected visit.

Tag(s): Angst, death threats, death, kingdom customs(?)

Word Count: 886

Song Inspiration: N/A (Me? :0 Not using a song lyric for a title? :0)

Not beta'd, all mistakes are my own.

~*~

[Author Masterlist]

[Series Masterlist]

[Read on AO3]

~*~

[Chapter 1] [Chapter 2] [Chapter 3] [Chapter 4] [Chapter 5] [Chapter 6] [Chapter 7]

~*~

King Inosuke, ruler of Kirauai. Also known as “King of the Mountains” or “the Boar King”. A fearsome, ruthless man who took his place upon the throne by force. He’s cruel, cold, he laughs at the pain of others and he’s never apologized a day in his life. That is the reputation he must uphold. Because without such a reputation, no one takes him seriously.

And so, when the Sun Warrior, Kamado Tanjiro, throws open the doors to his throne room and rushes across the royal blue carpet leading right to him, he keeps his face neutral and unsurprised. In truth, he really wasn’t surprised. He was well aware that Tanjiro had been making his way to him. The trail of destruction and bodies he left in his wake was difficult to miss. So many of the King’s Boar Knights lost due to this red-haired man who wields the power of the sun. All of the death left the King sick to his stomach, but so did the thought of destroying the man storming towards him.

Not surprised to see him here, no, but extremely saddened instead. He had been hoping that he’d never have to actually look Kamado Tanjiro directly in the face, but it appears his wishes did not come true. Sighing internally, he narrows his eyes as he looks down at the man intruding in his place. He gives his guards a wave of his hand, telling them to hold off. He’d like to hear what the Warrior has to say.

“Kamado Tanjiro.” King Inosuke calls out, his deep voice echoing throughout the large room. “I was wondering when we’d officially meet.” He says calmly.

“Inosuke Hashibira!!” The Warrior shouts, a fierce, determined expression on his face. “I have come here to kill you!!”

The King can’t help the laughter that bursts from his lips, his amusement surprising himself. “You? Kill me?” He questions, his words filled with a level of arrogance that people never believe he was actually born with. “What makes you so sure you could do such a thing?”

Anger starts to bleed through into the Warrior’s expression. “I refuse to accept anything less. I’ll kill you if it’s the last thing I do.” The redhead grits out, his arm extending out in front of him in order to point his sword at the King sitting upon his throne.

King Inosuke’s face falls into a cold mask, his voice completely monotone. “Do you truly think that killing me is going to do good for this country? That you’re going to help the people by getting rid of me?”

"Don’t you realize what you’ve done!?” The Warrior exclaims, expression filled with rage, the flame mark on his forehead flaring. “How far you’ve gone!?” His grip on his sword visibly tightens, but it’s also clear that he’s shaking. “How many people have died to achieve this world domination of yours!?" Tears prick at the man’s eyes and the King tries to shake off the quivering of his limbs at such a question. At the reminder.

"769.” He states simply, without hesitation.

"...What?" The man before him falters slightly, though he tries to hide it.

"769 people died to achieve my plans. I counted them, and had each of their names etched on my throne so I never forget what my victory cost the world.” The black-haired man explains. “Now tell me, how many have you killed to see me dead?" He demands.

Tanjiro falters at his words. "I didn't..." He shakes his head, the fierce look in his eyes returning. "The only ones I killed were your men!! Those who were already killing others!!"

King Inosuke, leans forward atop his hand-carved throne, expression unreadable. "Yes, and I'm asking you. How many have you killed, Monjiro?"

For a few minutes, there's nothing but silence. Neither of them move from their positions and it's only the King who can see all the emotions flickering across the Warrior's face. Only the King knows how spooked the man before him is.

"I-I-" With a stuttered gasp, the sword slips from his hands, clattering to the marble floor.

"How many have you killed?" The question whispers through his mind on repeat.

Another gasp and he falls to his knees, chest heaving. "I-I don't-" He clutches his chest, to rip his heart out or attempt to calm it down, no one is certain. "How many have I- What have I- What-I-"

Nothing coherent falls from his lips, as if the man is unable to truly process the question he's been asked. The King watches him with a frown and hard eyes, though if anyone looked closely enough, they would see the shine of tears. But no one realizes their King is on the verge of weeping. He's too far away from them, and none of them dare to get closer.

King Inosuke nods to his guards hovering behind Tanjiro and they immediately grab him under his arms and start dragging him away. The Warrior never even registers what's happening to him, too far into his own head to realize that his body has been captured. The King didn’t realize how easy it would be to break him. He finds himself questioning if doing it was actually a good thing or not long into the rest of the day.

~*~

A/N: What do you all think?? This AU is quite interesting and I LOVE fantasy settings like this, so I'm super excited. One thing, Kirauai, the name of their country/continent, is meant to be pronounced as "Keer-uh-way". But anyways, please, tell me what you think!! Feedback from my readers is always so important to me!!

~*~

Lemme know if you'd like to be added to the taglist!!

[adelfie]

20 questions for writers

Thanks for tagging me, @babblingbookends!!! <3

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

31

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

396,891

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Mostly DC right now, but I dabbled in Voltron and TMNT in the past, and I'll write in any fandom that's interesting to me 💖

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

wrong number On a hot July evening while home alone, eight-year-old Tim gets a fever. He means to ask Mrs. Mac for help — but ends up accidentally calling Alfred Pennyworth. Somehow, even in sickness, he wins all the hearts of the Wayne family in one fell swoop.

of crime lords and literature With his grades slipping, Tim worries Bruce will take Robin away. So when the Red Hood breaks into his room with the intent to kill him, Tim decides it's a good idea to ask him for help on his English homework. It works. And then it doesn't. And then Tim solves a mystery and almost dies anyway.

bloodthirsty Tim, a starving vampire pup, tries to hunt while his parents are away. Gotham's terrifying urban legend hunts him down first.

lost treasure When a cozy night out with his parents turns into a night of captivity and torture, Tim is forced to seek protection from his worst nightmare - the Red Hood.

stolen children 15-year-old Babs has never needed validation from anyone, but… Batman's latest words to her have left her spiraling. It would be a good time for a mental health break, if not for the men trying to kidnap 5-year-old Timothy Drake while she's babysitting him.

5. Do you respond to comments?

Yes! In batches 💖

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I wrote a TMNT fic a few years back, called What Is Holding Is Also Being Held that I personally thought had a very hopeful ending, but actually gave cliffhanger vibes. I didn't mean for that to happen! 😂 But I was also in the last semester of my senior year in college and running on fumes so that's probably why it's angstier than my usual fics.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

A lot of my fics end happily so it's hard to pick! For something short and sweet, maybe wrong number or stuck on you like a sea star or kosmo's mission 😊💖 but of crime lords and literature is a longer fic with a well-deserved happy ending!! ✨

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I don't think so, no.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

It's not completely off the table, but really really far away... like I can't reach it... nor do I feel like reaching at this moment 🙈

10. Do you write crossovers?

No, hasn't compelled me yet!

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! They asked for permission first and linked back to my fic 💖

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No, but sounds fun!

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

Platonic ships (friendships, family relationships) take up most of my heart, but some romantic faves: huntress and question (dc), flora and helia (winx club), buck and eddie (9-1-1), jaren and kiva (the prison healer trilogy)

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you will?

My writing folder in Scrivener is DENSE AHHHH with so many ideas and prompts, but as for fics that I post to AO3, I always finish them.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I think it changes every time I write something new! ✨🙈✨ But maybe it's editing, because I read aloud my story like an audiobook to hear any mistakes or awkward parts... it's embarrassing to be caught doing this, tho😳

17: What are your writing weaknesses?

TOO MUCH EXPOSITION 😭 I love exposition and niche details! But sometimes I take too long to get to the point. "enter late, leave early" has been some of my favorite writing advice lately.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

It's always fun, and it's cool when it's done in a really seamless way!

19. First fandom you wrote for? 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles🐢🐢🐢🐢💖

20. Favourite fic you've written?

wrong number 💖 this was a hard choice, but Tim Joins The Batfamily Early is my favorite thing ever 😂

<3

no pressure tags 😎 @eggmacguffin @wesslan @banditywrites @writerlovestropes and anyone else who wants to do this! 💖

[shineforthee]

Seeing that I have accumulated a variety of fandoms, it feels like a convenient time to make a pinned masterlist of my fics for easy reference. Currently, I am actively writing fics for Interview With the Vampire & Supernatural.

Here is a direct link to my ao3 profile.

Interview With the Vampire

in the deafening polar province called You (WIP)

Pairing: Armand/Daniel Molloy

Length: 105k+

Rating: E

Summary:Daniel is sprawled out across the bed, loose-limbed and lazy, somehow filling all the open space it has to offer and leaving Armand to nestle into the gaps. His cheeks are flushed, blood pooling like it knows what comes next. Maybe it does. Armand was reading about classical conditioning the other day. About dogs who become accustomed to getting food when their handler rings a bell.

Perhaps Daniel is the dog, Armand’s teeth sharp bells reverberating in his veins. Or perhaps Armand is the dog, Daniel’s blood a song rattling in his ears. He has been a dog before. He runs his tongue along the bow of Daniel’s collarbone, gathers the salt-sweat there and imagines what it tastes like because Daniel does.

Armand remembers he loved Daniel, once, and that Daniel loved him. Or a version of them did, at least. It isn't his intention to go back to that, but it's not not his intention, either. Such is the prerogative of an immortal: to hold two contradicting desires simultaneously. If nothing else, it passes the time while he waits for this miserable interview to end.

You might like this fic if: You're looking for a vague mixture of book canon and show speculation, You like Armand POV, You enjoy flashbacks and memory fuckery, You're looking for a longfic and willing to follow along while I write it.

Supernatural (Destiel)

how we're stuck in entropy

Length: 211,563 (complete)

Rating: E (Major Character Death, not Dean or Cas)

Summary:

Sam makes one last deal.

Cas comes back. And Dean gets him back. And together they get something.

Something about humanity, about living even when it hurts, especially because it hurts. About building a home for loss inside your chest, and making your heart a place where the dead live when they die. About being selfish, about belonging, about deserving both. About choice, and a life lived, and learning to lay down arms so that your hands might hold something softer.

You might like this fic if: You want a post-canon fic that doesn't quite fix it but does give them their love story, you want a story that's about grief and joy and all the ways they coexist, you like a character driven story

virga(e)

Length: 71,924 (complete)

Rating: E

Summary:First, before anything, there was want.

In one version of this story, Dean Winchester hasn't stopped moving since the day his father died. He hunts across the country but always comes back to California with the half-hearted hope of visiting Sam at Stanford, and an endless, restless, ceaseless pull to the desert.

In one version of this story, Dean Winchester finds himself in the scorched heat of a Death Valley summer, on a hunt for a ghost. Or a purpose. Or an answer to the question that’s been tugging at his tendons for as long as he’s lived.

In one version of this story, all Dean Winchester has ever done is want, and all Castiel has ever done is wait.

You might like this fic if: You love AU's and/or Stanford Era!Dean, fics about the desert, nature as a metaphor for choice, mystery-adjacent plots, or bite-sized longfics.

whatever dust is left (WIP)

Length: 26k+

Rating: E

Summary:It’s natural to think in terms of checks and balances. He’s been taught – created even – to think in terms of the greater good. The problem, of course, is that Castiel can no longer think of any good greater than Dean Winchester.

He goads Zachariah into sending him to the future, and it’s worth the cost.

He lets that future burn and drags Dean home, and it’s worth the cost.

If all he ever does is stay at Dean’s side, then he thinks that will be worth the cost, too.

Dean and Cas both wind up five years in the future, and the conversations they have there have ramifications that no version of them is prepared to comprehend. Dean doesn’t agree with Sam’s approach to stopping the apocalypse and can’t trust him, Cas has nowhere else to be, and all Dean and Cas know is that at the end, they had each other.

You might like this fic if: You also have endverse brainrot and have thought "what if Cas met his future self, too?", you like explorations of Dean's trauma, Cas' early experiences with humanity, and Sam struggling with darkness, toxic and codependent destiel

Oneshots

scared of the crack where the light comes through | E | 6k | AU |

I'll linger at your body like a silent beggar | E | 10k | Episode: s09e06 Heaven Can't Wait |

Daisy Jones & The Six (inactive)

she is benediction & I fell so ceaselessly

Pairing: Daisy Jones/Billy Dunne

Length: 11,453 & 96,006 (Complete)

Rating: M

Summary:

Part 1: Canon-compliant, Billy pov gap-filler of the show.

Part 2: Canon-Divergent post Chicago, Daisy and Billy pov. A journey of recovery, healing, and trust.

You might like this fic if: You want something to heal the open wound that is the finale, you like fics with tiny mountain cabins, you like fics with road trips in vans, you like characters who are allowed to mess up and learn from their mistakes.

call it fate, call it karma

Pairing: Daisy Jones/Billy Dunne

Length: 145,886 (complete)

Rating: E

Summary:

Billy meets Daisy at the diner the day they rename the band.

Or: these messy humans are even messier before they get a chance to grow up some.

Or: Daisy and Billy are in love in every universe, but in this one it's a bumpy ride.

You might like this fic if: You want to ask "what if the whole story were different?", you like found-family dynamics, you like invisible strings, you like characters that take forever to do what's best for themselves, you like your happy ending with a heaping side of angst and mess.

all of me an offering

Pairing: Daisy Jones/Billy Dunne

Length: 108,906 (complete)

Rating: E

Summary:

Teddy dies in '83. Daisy and Billy are brought back together because it was never an option not to be. Billy and Camila's marriage has spent six years collapsing. Angst and mess ensue.

You might like this fic if: a fic colloquially referred to as the "affair fic" during the writing process, characters who really really suck but also are learning, a narrative that doesn't make anyone the good guy, angst, grief

Oneshots

the night explodes the sun is gone | E | 3k | smut | daisy/billy |

life ain't ever what it seems (these dreams are more than paper things) | T | 1.5k | Tiny canon "what-if?" | daisy/billy |

first light | E | 4k | from the Hozier song| daisy/billy |

I'll come too | T | 2k | simone/bernie |

and it feels good to be known so well | T | 2.5k | daisy/karen | platonic kissing|

[haljathefangirlcat]

And now, for something completely different... a few Inkheart headcanons, specifically about Smol Feral Trash Cat-Dog With A Knife. Così, de botto, senza senso, as we say here. Some I've picked up through the years by reading other people's headcanons or fic and then developed (if you can call any of this stuff "developed", lol) by building up on ideas I liked, others date back all the way to when I read the books in middle school.

I think it's safe to say that most of the fandom knows "basta!" means "enough!" or "stop!" in Italian. Which... yeah, pretty great name for the kind of violent criminal whose victims would be screaming that kind of thing, at least in a book series for kids. But, like other people who've spent probably too much time thinking about it at some point or another, I do like to imagine a more Watsonian explanation for it being a real, if surprisingly well-fitting, name rather than a nickname he earned during his time as a fire raiser. Mine actually hinges on the fact that, back in the day, before reliable contraceptives or safe abortifacients or even just the idea that there was nothing weird or bad about being married while not having children or sex or not being married at all, couples who ended up with more kids than they could feed would sometimes name the hopefully last one of them Ultimo or Ultima, meaning "last", as a sort of... auspicious name, if for a given definition of "auspicious." I've even heard a story (which, admittedly, might be a urban legend, as I've seen it mentioned in a few places but with no source) about a couple who called their last children Ultimo, Definitivo ("definitive, conclusive, final"), and Finiamola ("let's get it over with!", or "let's stop this!"), each time hoping the new kid would also be the very last... so, yeah. Long story short, I imagine Basta as the youngest child of poor parents living in a small, crowded house, who by the time of his birth were just about ready to say, "Enough with this! If we get another after this one, we'll just carry it into the woods and leave it there, and then it'll be up to whatever animal/fairy/kindly passerby to kill it or raise it!" I also like to think he actually has an older sister named Ultima, running around somewhere in the Inkworld... even if, for both obvious reasons and more headcanon-y ones, he hasn't kept in contact with anyone from his family ever since he officially joined Capricorn.

About the "more headcanon-y" reasons: I once read a fic (I thiiink it was on Fanfiction.net? Probably not AO3) where, as a boy, Basta killed his own father, an abusive drunkard, to prove his loyalty and ruthlessness to Capricorn. Needless to say, I loved it! And went on to incorporate part of it in my vision of Basta as a character. In my own headcanons, I'm not sure if I really see Basta's father or even both of his parents as that actively hateful or violent towards him (if only because I'm not quite sure if singling out just one boy among so many children in that way would quite work, realistically speaking about an in-universe Medieval-ish fantasy world... unless some of those many children died young due to hunger, illness, or simple lack of supervision. Again, in-universe Medieval-ish fantasy world) but as I love that bit in Inkheart where Fenoglio talks about Basta's unhappy childhood, how worthless he thought he was, and how easily he clung to Capricorn, I do picture him being severely neglected and receiving very little in the way of kindness or affection both inside and outside of his family. Perhaps being either dismissed or unfairly blamed for being the runt of the litter and not big and strong enough to help more around the house, or in the fields, or in whatever failing business his father might have owned, given how he's not exactly tall and physically imposing even as an adult? Anyway, I do find the idea of him being miserable in his early life and initially clinging to Capricorn as both a magnetic, irresistible symbol of what neither him nor anyone in his family ever had and his one real hope for money, power, and generally something better, then coming to see him as this godlike figure, as well as a new, better father he'd be willing to exchange his perhaps equally distant but much less impressive (and much less interested in finding some actual use for him) old one for (even at the cost of a very cold take on "out with the old, in with the new"), incredibly fascinating.

For something less dark, more crack unless you consider the implications: building up on the fact that yes I realize we're never given anyone's exact height in the books, no I won't get over the idea of him being essentially a pint-sized menace and Capricorn's very angry, very menacing chihuahua, it amuses me (way more than it should) to think that at some point, probably when he was still one of the youngest among Capricorn's men in the Inkworld or when he and Capricorn were on their own in our world, someone definitely tried dismissing him as a threat (maybe even by making fun of him) due to his height and build... only to immediately, sorely regret it.

Still on the possibly disturbing crack side of things: he makes a big show of hitting on women, particularly the maids in Capricorn's village, and there might actually be some desire under him just liking to pose as this Big Intimidating Man showing off his power by making women in an already inferior or subservient position to him squirm in discomfort... but if any of them should ever respond positively, even just in an attempt to get protection or some sort of special treatment out of him, he wouldn't know how to handle it. Like, it would temporarily short-circuit his brain. The closest he ever got to getting a woman to acknowledge his flirting in any significant way besides pulling back from him and reaching the nearest exit as fast as possible is probably that time a girl rejected him by telling him he had bad breath and then he killed her with snakes and resolved to chew mint leaves for the rest of his life because he's such a confident person. Even Roxane probably never exchanged more than five words (mostly to the effect of "get lost!" and "fuck you!" on her side) with him.

For the last one, a bittersweet one: Basta actually liked Fulvio, the black jacket who got read into One Thousand and One Nights in exchange for Farid. A lot of Capricorn's men did, really, but I like to picture Fulvio as a boy from our world, probably coming from a poor, dysfunctional home, that Basta in particular kind of took under his wing (as much as Basta could do that for anyone...) because he saw something of himself in him. This is, ofc, based on nothing but my hazy memories of reading the Italian translation of Inkheart, where I'm 90% sure a bunch of black jackets are ready to beat Mo to a pulp as soon as they notice Fulvio has disappeared and Basta himself gets all in Mo's face and tells him he will personally make him "pay dearly for Fulvio."

[curiositythecryptid]

Hello, back again another fic promo post!

It just took breaking a Dancy Pants machine, elemental merging and stopping the apocalypse for the nth time. Are all engagements this eventful? or, Diversity win! Nya gets a serving of the trauma salad. Cole is surprisingly experienced in the particular field.

This one is vaguely a sequel to four truths of the disembodied, if you've ever read that one! It took me a while to get around to posting this one on Tumblr bc I have some things I wanted to say about it.

Author's notes below the cut!

One very common Nya take I've seen in my year of fandom experience is that Nya still has the facial markings from her time as the Endless Sea, usually blue or glowing blue at some point, or that her hair is still water or turns into water when she uses her powers.

Those headcanons and fanart are really cool, I have to admit they lend themselves to excellent visuals, but the mechanics of them (as well as the mechanics of [shudders] Crystallized in general) always bugged me just enough to keep me thinking.

Let's start with Crystallized. To defeat Wojira, Nya merged with the ocean, opened herself up completely to her powers. In order to bring her back, they had to take her powers away, but they did so in a way that we already know (from Kai's experience) is not permanent. So, she does, and awfully quickly, get her powers back.

But wait. Isn't that separation from her powers is what brought her back to life to begin with? I like to give the show the benefit of the doubt, but still... Crystallized writing, amiright?

So anyway. I'm all for, after such a sudden burst of power being essentially fixed with some duct-tape and hardy faith, Nya having some kind of permanent mark and consequence from it all. It's just that, I think the situation was too dire and too powerfully magical for the consequence to only be a change in design. I need the functionality of her powers to be affected too, or, as I present in this fic, for her power to affect and represent her mental state in an actually risky way.

This isn't a jab at anyone who does otherwise, neither is this supposed to say no one has ever done this, I just really liked my concept and needed to ramble a little about it.

The other thing is: We have a lot of fics about Ninjago characters dealing with trauma from past seasons, and especially, a lot of fics about Jay dealing with Skybound trauma. Sometimes supported by Nya, or Cole, to deal with it. And I do love me some angst.

But while there seems to be a general, vague acknowledgement of how Nya died in a wedding gown, so I see Jaya art that banks on her not wearing a wedding gown if she gets married, but still... I feel like Nya's Skybound trauma is under-explored sometimes, especially compared to Jay's. And she went through a lot that season.

She was ignored, dehumanized, reduced to a face, forced into an outfit she didn't want, had to play into that role to appease to her kidnapper, forced to marry someone creepy, got possessed, used as a human shield and then died.

So yea. I don't think she's like. Fully Okay and Healthy about all that.

Sure, having a cool, strong woman character is fun, but a woman feeling hurt and needing a support network and showing any of the traits women have been associated with and shamed for throughout history shouldn't reduce how seriously she deserves to be taken.

I think we mostly get the idea! We're on a pretty smart website full of pretty smart writers and artists. But there might be someone in the fandom who hasn't yet, so I'm putting this out there anyway.

Thank you if you stuck around this far on this blatant ramble post, and I hope you liked the fic!

[sokkathebluewolf]

Hi after reading the story multiple times I would like to ask does Ozai really love Azula, I personally think he does in his own way. I wonder whats your perspective.

That's a can of worms that is slightly difficult to address conclusively...

For starters, let's revisit the fact that Ozai comes from a very toxic environment, which I've explored and will continue to explore through flashbacks. While the common take in the fandom is that Ilah died and Azulon hates Ozai for it (a la Tywin and Tyrion Lannister), I personally preferred the idea of Ilah living a few more years and actually having a small part in Ozai's upbringing before dying over health issues when he was still a child. In our case, Azulon's particular distaste for Ozai comes fron Azulon being an authentic megalomaniac narcissist for whom everyone else is a tool to further his personal glory, including his favored son, Iroh. Ozai was unnecessary, likely an accident, as far as his conception is concerned, an addition to the family that Azulon didn't need when Iroh was fulfilling all his personal expectations for an heir and his son. Ozai was in the way, an annoyance, one that appeared to even threaten Iroh in some regards due to how ambitious he could be.

This means Ozai's early experience when it comes to love is minimal: the best he knows of love within his family is what few memories he may have left of Ilah.

Then, things get more complicated once Ursa shows up in his life. I've said it before: if Ozai came close to fully loving someone the RIGHT way, Gladiator-wise, it was her. There were moments, situations, where he could set aside his worst impulses because she inspired him to do so. There are developments in their marriage that could have helped steer Ozai away from the darkness he eventually gives himself to completely. But since other things start to happen, the worms of greed and ambition begin to rear their ugly heads inside Ozai once again: his first real conflict with Ursa winds up being a way worse problem than either of them realizes or even understands, all of which snowballs into Ozai becoming the power-obsessed bastard we've come to know him as. As usual: this doesn't mean Ursa had ANY responsibility to heal/fix/change Ozai. While she made her own set of mistakes, he made plenty of his own and refused to open his eyes and heart to things that mattered so much more than his ego and pride. It's not on Ursa that Ozai turns out to be the terrible mess of a human being that he is.

All of this to lead into what is Ozai's true defining relationship and his last chance at retaining any degree of humanity: his relationship with Azula.

I've talked extensively about this in the past, such as about how he wasn't a great father all along, treating Azula as a tool, a weapon, the means through which he could triumph in anything he set out to do. The first strike against this mentality, his belief that he has raised Azula to be the invulnerable prodigious firebender he thinks she is, is in the Attack of the White Lotus arc, where he's confronted by the reality that even his perfect daughter is not infallible and not above the mundanity of catching a cold. It's kind of silly when you see it that way, but it seriously takes a toll on Ozai. Later on, we have Azula's bouts of rebellion, each stronger than the last, and the more she stands up to him, the more Ozai inevitably grows to admire and respect his daughter, most of all because she starts to remind him, subconsciously or not so much, of his strongwilled wife.

Of course, all this build-up that even led him to saying heartwrenching and frustrating phrases like "What sort of father could ever be disappointed in a daughter like you?" (spoiler: HIM!!) gets doused in oil and set on fire once he learns about her relationship with Sokka. By then, the relationship between Azula and Ozai is fractured and damaged with no hope of true repair. Even if he tried to make amends (which he hasn't so far), there's simply no way for these two to ever reclaim the kind of tense but still ultimately positive relationship they used to have.

But as we can see right now in the story, Ozai wants to reclaim that normalcy. He isn't particularly bright when it comes to accepting the consequences of his actions, he believes being Fire Lord means nothing he does should have consequences to begin with (a behavior he unfortunately learned from Azulon, like so many other things), and his behavior right now, where he kind of wants to erase the conflicts (whether those with Zhao or with Azula) now that he "resolved" everything by "killing Sokka" and just go back to the status quo, tells you that he hasn't really understood something obvious.

That HE is the problem.

And while he's objectively despicable for this, that makes him a frustrating and yet dynamic character to write...

So, what shall I say about where this particular mindset is going to take Ozai?

Well, maybe I can give you a bit more information than I should and say that this bastard of a Fire Lord is going to face some serious consequences of the DISASTROUS choices he has made across the past months. And when they arrive (around chapter 320)? The rude awakening will hit him HARD. The reality of his mistakes will finally become undeniable: his personal responsibility in the events taking place will be undeniable too. And once all of this hits, slower realizations will come through, too. Among them? That Azula is basically the one person he has left in life. The only one who has every single reason in the world to turn her back on him... and yet she's still there. And if she turned her back on him? He wouldn't be surprised. Hell, he wouldn't even be disappointed anymore: he would know it's his fault, at goddamn last, and he wouldn't even pretend otherwise. Would he be upset about it? Sure, but ultimately, he'd understand. He'd know he has pushed her too far, and he realizes that, if he had been in her shoes, with a father like himself? He would've likely gone out of his way to commit fratricide already :') the fact that Azula hasn't gone there, partly because his control over her is STILL strong enough to prevent that, since, for better or for worse, Azula still cares about him... all of this is nothing short of a miracle for Ozai. He'd better be grateful for it :')

And I'd dare say that, in the end, he will be. In the end, he'll come to terms with the fact that the one chance he had at making better choices, at being a better man than the absolute trainwreck he ever has been, was Azula.

Whether we decide this means he loves her or not, I guess time will tell. But for now, I can say that she's the most important bond in his life, even if he finds much more comfort in memories of his wife. Once we reach this point of his development, if a situation eventually leads him to choosing between retaining power at the cost of his daughter, or giving up power while keeping her safe and alive, he might, MIGHT, finally make the right choice... but considering how long it takes him to reach that point, and how many things he breaks and ruins before getting there, it's hard to tell if said decision would suffice to say that he truly loves Azula.

Ultimately, Ozai's idea of love is so much more vague and abstract than that of anyone else. To him, the love other people feel for each other tends to be garbage, weakness: the feelings certain people (particularly, Azula and Ursa) elicit inside him are confusing, hard to apprehend, but valuable enough that they can spur him to contradict his instincts at times. The question winds up being, ultimately, if he'd ever choose either of them over himself... and I don't really dare answer that question just yet :'D I guess we'll all see when the time comes!