#i just usually lurk cause a lot of the fandom was always in fandom wars with the mellodramatic fans

[willpowers]

god i just realized that since ive been consistently in the meronia fandom since the chapter first released (scanlated ofc) with them in it that i dont think anyone could beat me in length of time shipping them, people could only match me. ive also read 90% of fanfics on every site since like, pre ff.net that theyve ever been on. i aim messanger rpd them. im literally one of the longest fans of this ship and im still deranged about them 20 years later.

[jjheejz]

About Internet Water Army in the case

This is an ongoing update about the case from start to development. List of all related posts can be found on this blog's pinned post (link provided at bottom of each post as well).

19 August 2021 update: Added the scale of his success for reference, before bonus below

18 August 2021 update: Added timeline of events, orange title in post, found out the official English term for Immoral Media = Internet Water Army)

Major updates since first draft: Added bonus, added disclaimer, certain info details

Originally posted on 16 August 2021

[The purpose of this post is to provide a perspective as to why the Media is raised/blamed regarding the issue. Especially for international fans, as all the encounters happened on Weibo. Also, those who were on weibo, do read through if you will. So although it's lengthy, do try to read all, at least if not the last two parts].

The Media referred by most, is not the common perception of the Entertainment Industry (celebrities, directors, shows, channels, staff etc), but the dark side of the Entertainment industry: Antis, toxic fans, toxic marketing accounts. They are called Internet Water Army💧.

Toxic Marketing Accounts is one of the things they do, these accounts on Weibo has millions of followers, each of their post likes are in the hundred thousands (buyable) to give credibility to passer-bys. Some use similar names to Official accounts, some use similar logos. Their posts are usually subjective or aims to steer view points of a certain celebrity/movie/show. Before the latest update of this post (18.08.21), I just group them all together and term them as Immoral Media*.

*Below is my original post using my original term because at point of first draft, I did not know the official term (so have changed/added the term from Immoral Media to Internet Water Army in content below but retain the content based off first draft).

If you have chased before celebrities, or just simply passed by an article about certain celebrities, recall how some title that caught your attentions were like. Clickbaits is one of the many things they do. If GZ is your first and you do not have Weibo, then this read(link) is good enough.

Just as the term Immoral Media (Internet Water Army), it’s immoral and unethical, but they exists because they are paid to do so. Who pays them? Entertainment Companies, and maybe other Organisations

Normal Media/Marketing vs Immoral Media/Toxic Marketing/Internet Water Army

When a show or movie comes out, the normal Marketing department will generate outreach and buzz so that people know a show is airing soon/know the show exists etc. Official announcements are not enough, because there isn’t much context (limited content to put up as well) so having some other Marketing accounts do the buzz in a planned period to gain awareness through posts, some articles about the casts, the plot summary, the production details etc is normal. This is Marketing, bigger companies will probably have stronger Marketing departments (aka influence) and can hire more Marketing accounts to generate buzz. Celebrities (aka casts) themselves, are also Marketing point.

Then we have the Internet Water Army/Immoral Media, these are what they mainly do:

Create Fanfiction-rumors: Creating rumors about celebrities to shift audience perception of them. [eg. XX was seen with XX leaving a hotel, XX was drunk on Event Y and did ZZZ to AA, XX is dating BB and has been in a relationship for N years etc]

Honing their brain degrading skills: Come up with titled clickbait headings/ trending topics with negative written contents. For articles, exceptionally out of heading content related to the celebrity. [Refer to Baidu, it’s a winner of these, feel free to Google Translate]

Regressing their common sense and understanding skills: Take everything a celebrity does completely out of context in a negative way and create a topic out of it [eg. XX said AA is a ---, “XX raised his finger, a sign of ---?”, XX pushed BB aggressively on Variety Show Y - A competition variety show, XX is in beef with CC because XX was caught giving CC the eye]

Using their fingers to stir shit and bathe each other in it: Escalate all smallest form of possible tension created by fans/themselves into a huge thing by acting as the fandom's fans/lurk in fandom chat groups, and voicing their disguised opinion to spread tension/exaggerate severity of the issue [eg. XX fans mocked AA - in groupchats: tbh I've never liked AA before, AA just gives off a vibe that I dont like and now this? It just disgusts me even more > Yea, i feel this way too. AA has problems / XX Lurkers expressing views on XX about NN, slowly to NNMHFXW - XX did NNMHGT - I cannot accept NNmHfHw, I'm leaving = multiply by 1000++]

Epitome of a self-deteriorate: Creating something out of nothing and react to that something negatively to gain massive attention/reaction [eg. “XX raised his hand on show Y” - dk what XX fans are thinking, are they literally blind? XX fans are tasteless just like XX hahaha / “XX did community service” - they are acting / “XX breathed” - From the start, i thought XX was NN, but I am so ZZZ that XX breathed. Goodbye fandom, i’m leaving. Those who still want to stay I urge you to rethink your life choices] - if I may add, Xiao Zhan’s fanfiction case as well. 

Metaphor - Ability to use bare hands to collect paychecks from the urinal/toilet bowl where their boss/client peed in: Doing all of the above.

Apologies for any term offense, but not apologetic of the term context. This is what they do for a living. Any normal human being who do not like anything, will generally not be interested at anything about it in the first place, so to have some antis/toxic fans knowing certain things and inside jokes/references in their posts questions their goal.

On involved in Internet Water Army/Immoral Media 💧

Fans on weibo during these few months witnessed many of the above on GZ. From rumored girlfriend (spammed with articles) to mean and nasty comments on trending topics, to bouts of insults and fake emotional cryouts by certain fan accounts that GZ's office has to release a number of Lawyer’s letter to them. 

Aside from WOH there were also a few other BL adaptation films that were actually released this year but they did not reach exponential success like WOH. BL adaptations are so highly followed by because this is the key to wealth. Literally. Successful BLs like The Untamed and  Dao Mu Bi Ji saw the amount of wealth fans are willing to spend on the celebrity as compared to say BG or idols (younger fan groups). This is why when WOH shot up exponentially, Immoral Media start to sweat.

Major anticipated adaptations were supposed to air this year eg. Hao Yi Xing(HYX), Sha Po Lang(SPL) etc but was severely held back due to the stricter change in BL adaptations submitting their scripts for approval regulations (WOH manage to submit earlier before the change). Because of this, most final films were rejected and they have to keep re-editing, by then WOH was already months into reaping tonnes of major brand endorsements, shows/movie casting, variety show appearances etc, something that is seen as too successful in the Immoral Media’s eyes, because they have to create buzz for other celebrities, some are specific celebrity oriented and thus circulate rumors about having endorsement opportunities shifted from celebrity X to GZ (think fanfiction-rumors and shit stirrer) causes tension in celebrity fandoms. - A real event just in July:

The Untamed’s cp fandom is called BJYX which had always been in the Top 1 of Cps for 2 years dropped for awhile to Top 2, over taken by LLD. Both of them had a war and hated each fandom, one fandom is somehow not allowed to like the other fandom even casually after everything broke out because it started out with some BJYX toxics photoshopped GZ on of portraits .

Also another case of which he wore the same costume as WYB did in a previous photoshoot and it became a useless comparison of who wore better, who looks better, degrading the other. (Finger stirring shit).

Now apply all of the above things the Internet Water Army do and we have them earning money, while both fandom reacts and hate each other.

In LLD, our own fans started suspecting each other on who is a spy from BJYX and what not.

The first few months of Internet Water Army saw LLDs mostly mocking them because the average age is 30-40s, they know and see through all of their intentions so nothing was big. They were trumpeting and LLDs didn’t even care, what with all the doing tedious stats was not even important to them.

Over time, as the issues they create became more and more serious LLDs did start to care, reporting Toxic Marketing accounts/toxic fans became a daily task, go vote for GZ at certain polls etc, solo fans, and LLD fans also split apart. Solo fans think cp fans use GZ to furnish their fantasies, and cp fans thinks they are the ones furnishing their dreaming-girls fantasy with (aka my boyfriend).

There was also a period where LLD had a habit of continuously mentioning “we are in the 30-40s so we can see through everything about the media, we are all fans for the first time, we are good at spending money (because of purchase power compared to other fandoms)” it was prevalent for so long it felt odd, ‘chasing celebrities the first time’ in particular sounds more vulnerable as a weakness than a strength / sth to be proud of.

Gradually, more secretive/insider confirmed ‘sweets’ were flying around. Fans advised each other to not circulate, and the mindset of “if you know, you know, dont tell.” (This is a problematic mentality, of which fans will still be curious to know and search for it themselves, but this secretive hook is unhealthy. Over the long term, it becomes hard for existing fans to know a lot of things properly to judge for themselves, especially those who knew and publicly reacted, but blasting those who ask and telling those who know to keep quiet, this did not help some to understand why on certain things, even so for international fans, dont know and dont understand, causing misunderstandings. Yes, certain information should not be shared, so why should you react about it publicly in the first place? - Internet Water Army effect)

The last few months (for example the July fan war) created a tonne of seriousness and anger. A period even broke out with a tonne of ‘insider confirmed sweets’ (which is LLD’s daily dose of happiness), it was hard to tell what was real and what was fake. Trending topics became negative and everyone warned each other not to enter because it will give the trends ‘views’ and trend statistics, in reality entering there is to enter an exhibition by the self-deteriorates, collecting the fandom's traffic data (it's a sure lose for fans each time they enter the topic). Everyone even starts thinking that the trend’s popularity was caused by each other (it's true but it can be bought daily and not caused by fans). There was a raise in the number of fans who were getting emotional because they want to protect but Internet Water Army kept coming and got worse, because fans, tbh, not just GZ fans, every other celebrity’s fans are always fighting with an Army, getting played and plotted in that Army's calendar.

Even so, despite all of these, LLD is actually a fandom Internet Water Army may find the hardest to break because they understand GZ so much, they could tell what are fake news regarding GZ, because among everything above, there are still plenty of logical fans to stop many fans from drifting too far and debunking them. Why? 30-40s are grown up adults.

Why 13.8.21 and the Japan issue is plotted?

First of all, in the political climate of China, there are many political dates in a month that is NO-Entertainment news. Because it’s the honoring of certain important political events. It’s like Remembrance Day, thus the sensitivity is higher. On these days, there are usually no news and even the Internet Water Army zip their pants. This year also marks the 100th year of the Chinese Communist Party(link)

Secondly, he had no work schedule on 13 August 2021. A great full day to focus on any other news (because if he had schedules, everyone will turn their attention to his events, what trumpeting outside is just bird chirps). 

Thirdly, when the news broke out, especially about the shrine, the reception was actually quite serious within the fandom so the scale of this might be big but to what extent in reality?

Lastly, 15.8.21 marks the 76th anniversary of the announcement of surrender of Japanese in World War 2(link). Also a day of NO-Entertainment news. 

Timeline of events:

13.8.21 - [His rest day, Eve of Chinese Valentine's Day, Japan News broke out] His rest day, no schedules = increased attention about him online. Lowered guard among fans because they are getting ready for tomorrow's Chinese Valentine's sweets = Caught off guard = Huge break out of fans' reactions

14.8.21 - [Chinese Valentine's Day, Eve of the 75th Anniversary of the announcement of Japanese surrender] Keep a wishful and happy demenaor to not destroy the mood, suppressed thoughts about ZZH's Japan news

15.8.21 - [75th Anniversary of the announcement of Japanese surrender, Official announcement of ZZH's boycott and all China social media account ban] NO-Entertainment news day, Solemn day, not allowed to voice anything so the fandom can only wait for tomorrow to start voicing out/debunking but before they can wait out, the boycott and social media ban happened, every official accounts about him was gone overnight, fans had no time to react

17.8.21 - [All official fandom accounts related to ZZH and JunZhe were locked/removed]

Forced to be silent since the day his matter broke out, over the course of official news release with everything taken down in a day because of the Japan correspondence, his accounts banned overnight across the Chinese media and the overnight cancellation, fans could not speak anything about it. Overnight cancellation like this scale happened for the first time in China, leaving no time to react by the fandom, by the time they can, they are silenced.

When the period of events occured within a set of special dates, it’s not coincidence.

Conclusion

Because he was too successful and had many actually honorable past things, and a hard to influence fandom, Internet Water Army view him as a huge threat enough to want to destroy him, because it’s hard to defeat. With a chance they have, they will hold it till the end, bringing up this issue to the Government during this period also shows a sign of how scared they were of him and perhaps his fandom to plot something like this.

Updated on 19 August: Here's a screenshot of assumed calculation on the scale of GZ success for reference while chatting with a fellow fan, assuming GJ also has 27 brands, and there are 1000 brands. Rationale of numbers used: Only big brands can hire big celebrities.

Bonus

Mentioned in the first post, will mention again in case. After the news broke out within 2 days, there was a drop on his weibo followers from 18.9mil to 18.7mil. 200k+ drops, if the politics was such a big national issue, there should at least be a huge drop, even at least a million right? Because weibo is a China-Chinese majority right? Nope, we get a puny 200k drop.

What's funny? The self-deteroriates:

Translation: "Are his fans bought? Why didnt he drop fans? Those people got brainwashed to this point?" / "I've never entered his weibo and today i feel like having a look yet it showed I've followed him. All his fans were bought right? It disgusts me, i immediately unfollowed. This kind of process is worse than WYF..." / "i dropped fans because of him...no...I just reposted 2 posts and I've dropped 4 fans?"

Isn't the tone and regressing brain cells, all too familiar and same?

//

Added above, will remind again to read this link. It has an even more in-depth knowledge on who are paying them.

So what should we do? Link here

Related posts 🛏️:

[the-redeemed-anon]

Villains vs Antagonists, what each word means because this fandom uses them as synonyms when they are not

Oh boi, who would’ve thought that this was my debut analysis post on Tumblr for this fandom? Hi, it is I, Redemption Anon from @kateis-cakeis’ blog. This isn’t the post I promised to post first, but this topic has bugged me, especially in the current events. It is time to talk about villains and antagonists, DSMPblr.

Disclaimer before I get into it: I am what would be considered an old dog in this fandom, I’ve watched in a weird way Season 1 while it was still going down, and I officially started lurking on Tumblr through anons on a couple of blogs right at the start of Season 2. It’s just that now I felt the need to make a blog where I analyse stuff. So, I feel like I have some knowledge, albeit imperfect, of characters and events, across the story. Also, I am talking about the characters here, not the CCs. If I mention a CC, their name will be labeled accordingly.

With that out of the way, let’s jump into it.

Now, you may see the words “villain” and “antagonist” being used a lot when discussing the DSMP and other media in general, but the thing is, they are not synonyms, and I feel like a lot of people fail to grasp that, because oftentimes, we have characters that are both at the same time, making the line blurry. Well, let me try to explain my take on these terms.

An antagonist is a person who opposes the protagonist, it’s the rival of the main character, the anchor of the POV that is followed in the story. This usually means that an antagonist can be paired up with the villain role, and the protagonist with the hero role, but it’s not always the case. There are stories where the protagonist is the villain, and the antagonist is the hero (for example, the Genocide Run of Undertale). And even then, there are antagonists that aren’t the villain in the grand scheme of things (for example, you wouldn’t call Gary from Pokemon a villain, would you?) Basically, antagonists are very much POV-centric. In the DSMP, the best example I can give is the BA versus Techno. From Techno’s POV, the BA was his antagonists, while from the BA POV, Techno was the antagonist. Bear in mind, neither party was a villain, or a hero.

A villain is very much a person that serves an evil purpose, the opposing force to the hero of the story, whose actions point to a good purpose. While the hero is the person you are supposed to root for, the villain is the one who is supposed to lose, to not cause a bad ending to your story. The villain and the hero depend a lot on morality. Villains can have downright evil goals, like say, destroying the planet or something repulsive enough to make most people root against them, or morally-grey goals, where they intend to do evil for what they think is the greater good. The last one works well with sympathetic villains or protagonist villains, because you get to see them from another angle. In the DSMP I think it’s safe to say we have two true villains, that being Dream and the Egg, because almost everyone agrees that if these two got their way, it would be bad. I am going to talk just about one of them, however.

Okay, now that we made those two terms clear, let me repeat: antagonists depend on the POV that is observed, while villains depend on morality. On the DSMP these two factors make saying the categories characters belong to tricky, especially when some self-assign or are assigned by other characters or even the fandom into archetypes. In this analysis I want to analyse Wilbur, Puffy (the characters that self-assigned themselves as villains at one point in their arcs) Tommy (who I saw people assigning him as a villain recently) and Dream (one of the true villains of this story, and not only that, he fits the classic combo of antagonist and villain).

The Self-Appointed

Welp, time to talk about my favorite character, Wilbur, and sympathise with Puffy fans, because they’re going right through what we, Wilbur fans, went through since “Then let’s be the bad guys” was uttered.

So, Wilbur and Puffy self-appointed themselves as villains. That makes them villains, right? Not quite. See, the thing with villains is that they are dependant on morals. The audience isn’t the only one that has a moral code, characters have one too. And, in my opinion, in this case we have to talk about the moral codes of these two.

Both Wilbur and Puffy have, or, had, moral codes that revolved around peace, not killing, and the like. Moral codes that you would generally label under “morally good”. What happened to these two, then, for them to go and call themselves villains? Well, it’s quite simple actually.

They broke their own moral codes. I’ll start with Wilbur because I am more familiar with him, and I can use the quotes provided by kateis-cakeis here (thank you my dude for your hard work collecting these!).

So, we all know that at the beginning, Wilbur had a very peace-oriented mindset, wanting to use words over weapons in conflict [“We don’t win wars with battles and with armour. We win wars with our words, Tommy. We’re starting a revolution, not a war.” - (Wilbur’s The Wall: 4:54, 29th July)], and, as such, he saw himself as a good guy [“It was Dream, he’s kinda the bad guy. Yeah, we’re the good guys, we’re the good guys here.” - (Wilbur’s Niki joins L'Manberg: 22:28, 6th Aug)]. What changed? Well, for starters, Wilbur underwent a spiral from paranoia that started from the Independence war. We can see his opinions change thanks to the flashback to the Election era [“And power isn’t gaining from diplomacy, and bureaucracy, and giant courthouses suspended in the sky, blah blah blah. It’s gained from swords, Quackity. It’s gained from blades, it’s gained from steel, iron.” - (Quackity’s Killing My Enemies: 1:06:19, 12th Apr)]. Of course, his spiral worsened after the Election, but we can assume he still thought of himself as a good guy.

That is, until the infamous scene. You know the one: [“Tommy, I’ve got a question for you, right. Because this festival, this is a good idea, this doesn’t seem like a bad like, this doesn’t seem evil. You know? This seems like a nice friendly thing Schlatt’s doing. Tommy, are we the bad guys?” - (Wilbur’s who are you go away: 1:08:14, 8th Oct)]. Oh yes, here, after about two weeks of being in a high stress situation, high paranoia and Schlatt seemingly doing a good thing for his nation, Wilbur starts to question himself. He starts to question if this is the moral thing to do, the right thing to do. And, logically, if you’re not in the right, you’re in the wrong, so the conclusion he reaches, is this: [“Tommy, am I, am I a bad, am I a villain of this story. Am I the villain in your history?” - (Wilbur’s who are you go away: 1:08:59, 8th Oct)]. He self-appoints himself as a villain, and then embraces the role, as well know. As Season 1 progresses, Wilbur doubles down more and more on this idea that he is the villain, and his story ends tragically. Even his ghost thinks of him as a villain, and compares Phil to Saint George, a hero, for killing him (I will get back to this).

So, was Wilbur an antagonist? Yes, definitely, especially from his POV, I would argue, because if he thought he was in the right, he would have never uttered the infamous “Then let’s be the bad guys.” Hell, other Wilbur analysts have pointed out that Wilbur may have wanted to be stopped from pressing the button. Even from his POV, you could argue he’s against the protagonists of the arc. The fact he had some potent self-hatred just helps cement that he was an antagonist, someone who must be stopped.

Was he a villain? I would say no. Look, I don’t see Wilbur as a villain, even if he tried to place himself into this archetype. In Season 1, I think the villain was Schlatt, followed by Dream, starting at the end of the Season. Wilbur strikes me more as a fallen hero, as a man who was okay, who would be cherished and loved and looked up to by others, but at one point took a wrong turn, didn’t find his way back, and continued down the path that doomed him, while his loved ones turned away from him, because they didn’t know how to help and he distanced himself from them by lashing out. It’s a tragic story arc. 

“But Redemption Anon!” I hear you say, “CC!Wilbur’s DnD Alignment Chart classifies him as Neutral Evil, bordering on Chaotic Evil!” The DnD Alignment Chart is a chart that while it helps to get the vibe of a character, it can be often arbitrary or can be blurred because characters fit in with characteristics of more than one alignment (see the debate from around that time surrounding Techno’s assigned alignment). Plus, if we look at Wilbur from the POV of most, if not all, characters, without reading into his reasonings, yeah, he looked evil. Even to himself, we see it from quotes like these: [“Here’s the thing, I genuinely think, if it weren’t for me and you dying right, the server would be in shambles. I know for a fact that if I come back, or if I’m brought back to life in some way it’s definitely gonna just go [shit again]” - (Tommy’s am i dead?: 10:10, 4th March)], [“I know what I’m like, that’s the issue.” - (Tommy’s am i dead?: 10:29, 4th March)]. Was he evil, though? I would say not, more misguided than anything. That doesn’t mean he was a saint, nor was he the devil. Of course, he did some wrongs, and me denying that would be weird, because that’s why I say he should get a redemption arc, if he had a clean record, he wouldn’t be in need of one. He’s hurt people, intentionally or not, and he has to make up for those actions, if he is to be redeemed, but that doesn’t make him evil or a villain.

“But Redemption Anon!” I hear you say again, “Ghostbur considers him a villain and the quote from Ghostbur says he was a villain that wasn’t convinced to be a hero!” Yes, true, but we’re forgetting here two things:

1. Ghostbur is biased against Alivebur because he remembers his death as a good thing, and people don’t like him, therefore he rationalises it as Alivebur being the villain of the story and Phil being the hero, pulling out a Christian story that blatantly, hard-line shows us who is the villain and who is the hero: [“I- I- I’ve read the history books, Phil. I’ve read the history books. You- You- You slayed the dragon, you slayed Alivebur. You were the- You- You are the St George of the Dream SMP. We understand, everyone understands that, Phil.” - Wilbur’s First Time Ghostbur Live: 17:58, 6th Jan)]. Honestly, if I was in his shoes and I was everyone hating my past self and I didn’t remember my actions, I would assume I was evil too, because that is easier to comprehend than the fact that they are hating a mentally ill person that didn’t get the help, support and guidance they needed while they had a paranoia-fueled spiral.

2. Ghostbur, when he said: [“But a villain is just a- Sometimes the line’s a little blurry, you could say, a little blurry. It’s a tiny bit. It’s like, a villain, a villain is just a hero you haven’t convinced yet.” - (Tommy’s The Plan To Kill Dream: 1:01:31, 14th Mar)] he was talking to people who considered Wilbur a villain, and he tried to make them consider another side. This context matters, if he dismissed that Wilbur was a villain, there was a risk of his point being dismissed completely. Tommy and Tubbo, while they knew Alivebur from the beginning, his later actions tainted their view of him, and he has caused them hurt, and Ranboo has never met him, only knows of him from word of mouth. It’s hard to make these three consider him from the angle that he was not a villain. The line is still very good, but, again, context matters.

“But Redemption Anon!” I hear you yet again, “Wilbur is even worse in the Void and Dream will be killed to prevent him from being ressurected!” Okay so I don’t think we can speak about the Void here, in this context. You see, all we got out of the Void was a 5 minute conversation that sounded more like snippets out of a longer conversation, or even multiple conversations, that took place over what Tommy perceived as 2 months. From that conversation, all we got is that Wilbur’s self-loathing worsened, he thinks he, and by projection, Tommy, are better off dead for the good of the server, he knows when the Universe will end and he plays solitaire. The rest of the information we got about him was from Tommy, who is, sadly, an unreliable source, because he is not disclosing what Wilbur told him he’d do, beside a general “it will be bad and we have to stop it”. Tommy was also dealing with the trauma of being brought back, and let’s not forget that the Void didn’t give him peace, he was essentially tortured constantly for what he felt were 2 months. To me, it feels like it’s an intentional lack of detail and information, with a lot of discrepancies (like, if Wilbur scared Tommy so much, it’s interesting he refused to talk to MD when offered the chance, and Schlatt mentioned both Wilbur and Tommy being together at the gym) to throw us off. For all we know, Wilbur could be planning the end of the world if he is resurrected, or, he could’ve been making empty threats, or, he was rambling with no thought of it being taken seriously, or, he intentionally scared Tommy into not bringing him back, because he wants to stay dead. All of those could be what happened, and we may not know until he gets resurrected. Until then, I can’t call him a villain, or evil, even if he thinks of himself as a hazard to others, or Tommy’s motive to kill Dream.

Also, don’t be surprised Wilbur’s mental health seemingly went downhill ever since he’s been there. It’s possible the feeling of being constantly pulled apart isn’t just a Tommy thing, Wilbur may feel it too, and he’s been in there for what he may feel as being 10 to 15 years. Add the fact he’s been in Schlatt’s presence for that time, don’t act surprised he’s gotten worse. He didn’t have the conditions to plateau, let’s not even talk about getting better.

I think I defended Wilbur’s honor long enough lol, now onto Puffy.

I am not as familiar with Puffy as I am with Wilbur, but I will try to present her side as best as I can. We all know that post-Doomsday, Puffy took on the knightly goal of protecting people, especially the minors of the server. Puffy had the misfortune, however, that her closest friends and allies turned to be at least antagonists and at most villains, their actions leaving her feeling hurt and betrayed.

If she tried her best to try to help Bad and Ant, her friends, with the Egg problem, the Banquet shattered the remaining trust she had in them because they killed Foolish, and whether her belief that they killed him first to hurt her is true or not, they did hurt her. She felt betrayed, and accusing her of being the reason her son was dead didn’t help.

The moment she got the axe from Quackity Ant’s fate was sealed, because in that moment of grief and anger, Puffy sought out a retribution, a revenge that went against her moral code. We can see this clearly affect her, because once she leaves the Banquet’s hall, she mourns the death of Foolish and the fact that she killed her best friend, when she swore to protect lives. The Banquet, overall, is a highly traumatic event for her.

No wonder that the next day, her outlook on things changed. She branded herself a villain. She started making vague references to what she can do as a villain, because no one would expect it from her, even name-dropping Doomsday, one of the worst events she witnessed, and the one that turned her to her knightly arc. For me it’s clear that what she said was out of trauma, out of shock and out of desperation.

If you think about it, the world of the DSMP is very bleak, canonical minors have heavy trauma and continue to pay for wrongs they did long ago or suffer because people think they need to learn something or because they are used by others. Puffy noted it herself, Doomsday came and went and the perpetrators were never punished for it. While Techno and Phil aren’t villains per se, they are antagonists in this situation, aiding the villain, Dream, neither of them has suffered any consequence for destroying L’Manberg. No, getting locked into Pandora does not count, because Dream was imprisoned just because he had the Revive Book and he was too dangerous to let loose. It would seem that you can perform evil acts without care or consequence half the time, so why not turn to what you perceive as villainy to exact your justice on those who wronged you?

As of me writing this, all Puffy has done so far is say that she will be a villain, yet I have seen some takes that treat her as if she has been pulling the strings all along. I have seen people claim she has the Nuke, that she, for some reason, controls Ranboo’s enderwalk and even that she will break out Dream. I think this is ridiculous, not only because some of those things happened before she even considered calling herself a villain, but also because she has yet to take action. This is another “Then let’s be the bad guys” situation, because we have a character, that, after getting their moral code flipped on them, in a moment of vulnerability, they see themselves as a villain, and being the villain is the way to resolve their problems.

With that said, is Puffy an antagonist? Surprisingly, I say she was one already. If you look at the story from the Eggpire’s perspective, she is an antagonist, because she wants to stop the Egg. From other POVs, she’s not, and she hasn’t done anything to cement her as an antagonist with bad intentions so far.

Is she a villain? No, and I think that call is too soon to make, regardless of what she says. Remember, she feels herself as a villain, she is an unreliable narrator for herself in this situation. All she did was make a promise, with no action or plan. She also doesn’t seem to want to cause mass harm on the server, rather concentrating on the Eggpire. Another thing to note, she sees her killing Ant still something bad she did, even if she doesn’t regret it, because she is open to receiving consequences for the kill.

Truly it’s a matter of time to see where Puffy will go with this promise, and I hope she doesn’t go down the same path Wilbur went, not only because of story purposes, but also meta purposes.

The Fandom-Appointed

Ah, Tommy, one of the most misunderstood characters on the DSMP. So, why am I discussing Tommy here? Because I saw an influx of people calling him a villain after the last lore stream, and I want to set the record straight, because, just like how the reaction to Puffy’s “I’m a villain now” moment are ridiculous, so are the reaction to Tommy’s… especially because Tommy didn’t have an “I’m a villain now” moment.

I have to say, since Season 2 started the parallels between Tommy and Wilbur and Tubbo and Schlatt, people, at the beginning of Exile, were rooting for “VillainInnit”. People seemingly wanted him to follow Wilbur’s path, but he didn’t. He saved himself and went to Techno’s. While at Techno’s, while he was attempting to heal from Exile, due to wanting to feel accepted and gain Techno’s friendship, he started making actions of violence, that painted him in an antagonistic light. He even quoted Wilbur, which, as I remember, sent the fandom in a panic, because people found this as confirmation for Tommy turning to villainy, history repeating itself.

… But it never happened, because Tommy realised at the Green Festival that what he’s doing is wrong, and set off to make up for his actions. Yet since then people have been dogpilling him and calling him a villain, for following his moral compass, finding his way back and trying to make things better. Every mistake he makes or flaw he has is highly scrutinized to a ridiculous level. At this point blaming Tommy for all the wars is a meme.

It’s funny, actually, that Tommy gets pushed into the hero archetype by the people on the server, and the moment he makes a wrong step, by accident or because he was messing around, he’s at best an antagonist and at worse a villain, proving a point I always make when talking about the archetype of the hero, in any media: the title of hero puts the character on a tiny pedestal, and if they make the smallest misstep, they will fall into the pit of being branded evil and a villain. And that pit, story-wise, is hard to climb, because characters forget easy the good someone does, and often remember the bad they did, because it’s easier to see someone in a black-and-white perspective. They did bad? Then, they must have always been bad. Tommy doesn’t even want to be a hero or a villain, he just wants to vibe, but external forces do not let him have peace, forcing him to act, for his and the server’s sake.

Now, I have seen people condemn Tommy and already trying to push the narrative that he’s bad for wanting to kill Dream. Let’s look at Tommy’s morals: he, before he visited Dream for a second time, told Sam that he believes no one deserves to die, not even Dream. We can say that this is a core part of his moral code, not killing people.

This belief, as far as I remember, has been contradicted twice, once when he was killing Dream in the Season 2 Finale, and now, as he plans to kill Dream. Tommy himself recognises that this isn’t the right thing to do, but it’s the only thing to do. Why isn’t he a villain or an antagonist then? Because the context of why he did and does this is important.

Dream was planning to kill his best friend right in front of him, lock him up in Pandora and use the attachments of everyone on the server to control them. Tommy, and everyone on the server, realised Dream was a serious threat then, someone too dangerous to wonder around. Tommy took to killing Dream as a necessity to protect himself and everyone else. The only reason Dream was put in Pandora is because he revealed he knows how to revive the dead, thus they can’t kill him without dooming everyone to being dead, forever. Pandora was the only solution they found to keep Dream alive while keeping him powerless.

Second, Dream killed him, and brought him back, telling him he can send him back and declaring himself a God. Whatever Tommy and Wilbur spoke about in the Void clearly marked him, because he was willing to forgive Dream, if he is to not bring Wilbur back. Dream refused, and Tommy realised Dream is too dangerous for everyone on the server to be kept alive, especially to the people that came to the Vault, thus, for everyone’s safety, he must kill him.

This is not an evil, villainous or antagonistic goal, it is quite stereotypically good, protagonistic and heroic (ironically it’s what Aang was advised to do in ATLA, kill Ozai for the good of the world, even if he betrays his pacifist beliefs). Tommy has been pushed in the role of a reluctant hero, and even if he fails his goal and Dream escapes, that will not make him a villain or evil.

At the same time, as I said, antagonists are POV-centric, so, of course, Tommy is an antagonist in certain POVs. The Egg dislikes him, Jack wants him dead, Dream and Tommy at the point are sworn enemies and Techno doesn’t like him. He is an antagonist with good intentions, and that is the final nail in the coffin that I do not see him as a villain. He never saw himself as in the right doing bad things, never tried to justify them as being the right thing, and has apologised for his actions. He’s not a saint, but he’s not the devil either, and neither is he evil or a villain.

The True One (Story-Appointed)

Okay, now we are talking business. Dream, flat out, is a both an antagonist and a villain. The classic combo people think of when they think of a bad guy in a story. I’ll be honest I like him as a villain. You know you wrote and acted a good villain when you cheer as they hit rock bottom, and you love to hate them. That’s exactly what Dream is.

What in my mind separates Dream from the rest of the characters I have discussed in this analysis so far is intent and moral code. Make no mistake, all the characters I mentioned up until now know they’ve done something bad, whether they doubled down, plan to, or made up for their actions. And all of them, Dream included, started out from the same slate: characters with intentions and goals that are neutral to good on the general morality scale. Yeah, that’s right, I don’t consider Dream to have been evil from the start. At the beginning and middle of Season 1, I would have put him in the trickster category because he seemed to vibe with whoever he wanted, as long as he came on top, but without too much malice. He fanned the flames (like lavacasting Sapnap’s Eiffel Tower and giving Tommy Mars) but nothing big enough to make him a definite villain.

It was at the end of Season 1 that I could see him slowly shaping up as the definite villain we will witness from Season 2 to possibly the end of the DSMP. Allying with Schlatt over the Revive Book, telling Eret he plans to bring every faction under him, the traitor deal and him cheering for L’Manberg’s death all pointed to him becoming the next big threat. Then Season 2 happened, Exile happened, and this cemented him as the villain of the DSMP.

Doomsday came and we finally got a window to see why Dream did what he did: “You’re too fun”. People may wonder why I don’t consider Techno and Phil as villains for participating in Doomsday. This is why. While Techno and Phil had reasons that, while controversial, could be understood as valid motives to do what they did, Phil saying they were sending a message when talking to Ghostbur, Dream did all of that, all of that destruction, because he found it fun. He found it fun to torment and tear down a nation, because it was standing in his way, and it was something Tommy cared about.

The Vault scene also shows that Dream was planning to backstab everyone, by stealing their pets or their valuable items, or, in Bad’s case, cage an entire sentient being, Skeppy, in a cell smaller than an animal’s pen. Not even Techno, a guy that owes him a favor, was going to be spared. Let’s not even talk about him wanting to kill Tubbo just so he can make Tommy a hero by giving him a tragic backstory. All of these, plus killing Tommy and threatening to send him back to the Void for more info and declaring himself a God, point to Dream being a villain.

And then we have the morality side. In the last visit, Dream told Tommy that everyone thinks they are in the right from their perspective, which Tommy immediately denied. Both Dream’s line and the reply he got are very important. Dream’s line establishes that, as far as we know, Dream sees himself as in the right. Everything he did, Exile, abusing Tommy to the point of the latter considering ending his life, Doomsday, the Vault, almost killing Tubbo? All of that seems to have been not bad or evil actions in his mind. He sees himself as in the right, and that makes him a great villain. Tommy’s reply, well, him denying it, I always saw it with double meaning. On a surface level, Tommy’s obviously talking about himself, he has said time and time again that he’s done wrong and he needs to right it. On a deeper level, however, I saw him referring to Wilbur with this line, too. Because, as established before, Wilbur chose to do bad, even if he knew it was bad. He wouldn’t have said “Then let’s be the bad guys” if he thought they were in the right, and that is the fundamental difference between Wilbur, Puffy, Tommy and Dream. The former three, as shown in the previous sections, know that they did bad things, even from their moral perspectives, while Dream thinks he is in the right.

This is why Dream is the villain, while the others are antagonists at best and conflicted, broken and forced to walk a certain path, at worst.

[aetherschreiber]

The Cycle of Fandom

I am an early Millennial.  As a 1982 baby, I literally came of age in the year 2000.  A lot of hay has been made about how my generation does things differently from our parents.  And by now, plenty of it has been made about why, as well.  I won’t rehash the talking points, but it comes down to how much things changed in our formative years.  Our parents went from vinyl to 8-tracks.  We went from cassette tapes to CDs to MP3 players to streaming over our phones.  That’s a lot to have to adapt to and as a result adapting is just what we do.

But when it comes to fandom, the human condition really hasn’t changed that much.  People like things and when they like things they obsess, collect, analyze, and sadly they eventually eventually gate-keep.

Now, let me preface all of this by saying that I don’t really have any citations for any of this.  But, as someone who was thoroughly raised in fandom, I also have a tendency to get hooked on things a lot of my generation would scoff at for being old.  I love the original Lost in Space and Man from UNCLE, the very first Mobile Suit Gundam is my favorite, I’m fascinated by the puppetry in Thunderbirds, and I’m a complete sucker for just about anything with Cary Grant.  I will binge-watch classic Doctor Who as much as I will the new stuff and love every moment of each for what it is.

For most Millennials, this isn’t the case, for whatever reason.  It’s neither a good thing nor a bad thing.  It just is.  Most folks in my generation have heavy nostalgia for the 80s at the oldest and just don’t really concern themselves with very much from before that.  It’s not that they don’t have an appreciation, but they don’t have the resulting fangirl crush I have on David McCallum that I will commiserate with my mother about (Illya Kuryakin is an adorable badass and I will die on that hill).

I like to think that this has given me a bit of a unique view on fandom, in general.  I participate in some older fandoms, where things move a bit more slowly and where the average age is usually at least one generation removed from me and therefore a bit wiser in a lot of ways.  They’ve just sort of... already covered this ground, so to speak.

The difference is the pace at which they did it.  But the cycle is the same.

It’s never anything that starts maliciously.  No fan I know of has ever set out to point-blank keep someone else from liking the thing.  Rather it starts with a sense of seniority.  “You like this thing, now, too?  Great!  I was there for the beginning and let me tell you, back then...”  It’s always like a fandom big sibling who wants to show their younger counterpart the ropes; get them proper caught-up and versed in the lore so that they can better participate.

I love fandom when it’s at this stage and it’s the type of fan I strive to be at all times.  I don’t like setting conditions for fandom.  I think it’s partly because I am such a late-comer to so many.  The idea of being a fan of something that was made 30 years or more before you were born is a hell of a thing, but I’ve never let that stop me.  And for the most part, these fandoms that are much older than I am have reached the point where they are welcoming and just sort of stuck in the big sibling stage.  Sure, you have the occasional troll, the guy that scoffs that I can’t understand because I wasn’t there at the very beginning.  But they’re usually slapped to the ground pretty quickly by everyone else.

There is the occasional exception, of course.  But one of the things those such fandoms have in common is that there is still new content being made for it.  Doctor Who is a prime example, as is Star Trek, Star Wars, and Lord of the Rings (yes, I do count the upcoming Amazon series and other non-book content as new content, deal with it).  There’s something about new content being made for a fandom that causes an odd anxiety that thing that the fandom loves is going to be somehow ruined.

I’m going to use Doctor Who as an example for a lot of this.  The show turned 56 years old this last November.  56 years!  And the fact that it had a couple of decade-long breaks in there, which were themselves only separated by a single two-hour movie, only serve to highlight the changes it went through.

My second-oldest memory is of Doctor Who.  I remember the regeneration from Tom Baker to Peter Davison.  Now, Whovian historians, before you freak out because that change-over happened in 1981, before I was even born, remember that back then the US got episodes around two and three years later than the BBC, in syndication on public television channels.  So for me, that change happened when I was two.  I remember there being some Big Thing (tm) that my dad was anticipating.  I remember the burgundy and red outfit that Tom Baker was wearing while laying stricken on the ground, surrounded by his companions.  And I remember him suddenly turning into a blond and sitting up, wide-eyed and mystified.  I didn’t understand any of it at the time, of course.  And so I also remember turning to my dad, who was watching with excitement, while the credits were rolling and asking why the man turned into another man.  Oddly, that’s where the memory ends.  I don’t remember the response.  In fact, it’s only having since seen that episode as an adult that I have been able to identify it for what it was.

After that, I don’t have much in the way of Doctor Who related memories until the Paul McGann movie in 1996.  I was 14 and not well-steeped in Whovian lore at the time and I thought it was great.  My dad was more luke-warm to it because it just wasn’t the same as what he grew up with.  It was a sentiment shared by many, unfortunately, which meant that Paul McGann’s wonderful take on the Doctor was relegated purely to audio adventures until the 50th anniversary in 2013.  Sadly, in the early days of the internet, those of us who liked it weren’t quite able to find each other yet.  In the days of Usenet and mailing lists, it was still only the most hardcore fans of a thing who got together to geek out.  Meaning that most of the conversation was “oh, that’s all wrong.”  Lurking in those conversations, I saw pretty much every tremulous young person who dared to say that they liked it get slapped to the ground and told they weren’t a fan of “the real thing.”

Gate-keeping.  It’s nothing new.  And in 1996 Doctor Who fandom ran smack into its pad-locked closed barrier.  Around that same time other old but still active fandoms were starting to manifest the same thing on the internet.  It was when Trekkies suddenly separated into Trekkies (who had seen the original as it aired) and Trekkers (who came long later), for reasons I have never understood.

No, that’s not true.  I understand it.  Us humans tend to get possessive about our stories.  We have a sort of emotional ownership to them, even if not a legal one.  And when you feel an ownership of something, there is an instinct to protect it, keep it pure.  And to do that, it’s natural to try to set oneself up as an authority on the subject.

It took another decade for Doctor Who to come off the shelf again, in 2005.  I was 24 by then, the age that marketers tend to target.  A friend got his hands on a digi-copy of Christopher Eccleston’s first episode, “Rose,” that had been leaked to the internet in its entirety about a week before it actually aired.  We watched it before our D&D group met and I was instantly hooked.  And the friend that was responsible for the new addiction was only too happy to have new fandom friends.

The pendulum had swung.  Gate-keeping was out and welcoming people to the fandom was the MO.  Of course, there were and still are to this day old school Whovians who deny that anything past Sylvester McCoy exists, calling the 1996 movie and the current series a different show entirely.  There will always be those people.  But for the most part, Whovians welcomed new fans with open arms throughout all of Eccleston’s and David Tennant’s runs.

Now, that one cycle, from welcoming to gate-keeping, and back to welcoming, took 42 years.  Most things don’t last anywhere close to that long.  A show might be on for five years or a movie and its sequels be around for ten and after that, for the most part, it’s done.  And in the pre-internet age of fandom, the pendulum swung slowly enough never to hit a repeat in the cycle.

The internet has sped up everything about fandom.  The airing of just about any show in any country might as well be a world-wide premiere these days because it all just travels that quickly.  It has to if it wants to maintain any sort of surprise in its story lines, otherwise internet chatter will spoil it.  These days, things move so fast that even the few hours between an episode of Doctor Who airing in the UK and in the US is enough that one can be subjected to spoilers.  And the swing of the fandom pendulum has sped up accordingly.

For Doctor Who, it started swinging back again when David Tennant left the show and Matt Smith took over.  Tennant’s Doctor had a lot of fans who desperately didn’t want “their Doctor” to leave, many of whom took to the internet, swearing off the show.  They said it would never be as good because David Tennant was just the best Doctor ever.  By then, there were a number of us Millennial Whovians who had dug into the lore and were comfortable with the concept of regeneration as a part of it.  After all, it had already happened nine times.  And there was a bit of a tendency to call those people who swore off Matt Smith’s episodes as being fans not of Doctor Who but of David Tennant.  Meanwhile, of course, old school Whovians were patting us all on the head going “aren’t you cute.  Now you understand why Tom Baker leaving was such a thing.”

And so, the pendulum started to swing back.  You started having people call other people “not really fans of Doctor Who.”  That only got worse when Peter Capaldi took over and there was a significant portion of the fandom upset that the Doctor was now an older guy instead of the 30-something Doctors we had grown accustomed to.

Gate-keeping reared its ugly head for most of Capaldi’s run and, sadly, I think that kept a lot of people from the fandom and from really appreciating the 12th Doctor.  That cycle has started to swing back with Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor, but the gate-keeping is in a stage where it is desperate to hold on to what Doctor Who was when they became fans and therefore is very toxic right now.  It’s not pretty.  But those asshats are starting to be slapped to the ground on social media thanks to a new influx of fans who are now once again more comfortable with the idea of regeneration and its possibilities.

Similar swings are happening with many other fandoms.  The Star Wars fandom is a really ugly place right now, quite frankly.  Star Trek seems to be on the welcoming end.  There are always the exceptions to every generalization, of course.  There will always be “that guy” in fandom.

This swing has always existed.  Millennials are just the first generation for whom it has swung multiple times in the life of the show.  The internet is probably the biggest contributing factor to that.  What that means is that we’re the first generation to really have the chance to see the pattern for what it is.  A few of us have even been able to extrapolate back and understand that, no, this is how it always has been, just slower.

The hopeful part of that is this; by virtue of being the first to recognize the pattern, we are the first ones with the opportunity to learn from that history.  And now we’re starting to see fandoms that actively abhor gate-keeping and just want more people to come in and play.  But those tend to be very young fandoms.

The one that comes to mind for me is Critical Role.  This is a fandom that was wholly born on the internet, as the series is streamed live on Twitch.  It’s really unlike anything that has ever had a fandom this size before.  It’s only been around for four years or so.  But the cast is on its second D&D campaign which means it’s already had the opportunity to have the elitism gate that could be closed.  But something different seems to have happened.  The very moment that people started saying “I’m a real fan because I watched the Vox Machina campaign, not just the Mighty Nein,” they were told to shut the hell up and let people like things.  A foot was stuck into the gate and wrenched it back open before it could close.  And you know what?  The fandom has absolutely exploded in the last two years.  And I have yet to run into a single instance of someone gate-keeping for it that didn’t get an overwhelming and harsh rebuttal from the folks who welcome people to the fandom.

Sadly, the Critical Role fandom is distinct from the Dungeons & Dragons fandom on this point.  But therein lies the difference.  D&D is over 45 years old, ten times and more the age of Critical Role.  And the “satanic panic” over it in the 80s made a lot of D&D players very protective of the hobby, only amplifying that.  The age of your average Critter is only mid-to-late 20s or so.  At 37, I’m a little bit of an outlier, I have found.  The Critter fandom is big on TikTok which I... don’t grock, frankly, because I’m turning into an old fart.  But I’ve never, ever, been made to feel unwelcome because of that difference.  It’s been a refreshing experience, frankly.

In contrast, I really feel like I’m only now starting to be considered a “true Whovian” by the old school Whovians.  It took me 15 years and required me getting hooked on the classic stuff (which I was all too happy to do).  People who have never seen any of the classic stuff and don’t care to are often still looked down upon.  That needs to change.

The Critical Role fandom is still young and all of this may prove to be overly-optimistic in the end.  But I think it has the opportunity to be the first big fandom not to go through the gate-keeping cycle.  I sincerely hope we can hold on to that.  The cast and crew are a big part of that, with how they always hammer on the idea of inclusivity and engage so directly with the fandom.  “Don’t forget to love each other” is Matt Mercer’s sign-off at the end of every episode and serves as a constant reminder.  And if more casts and crews of more fandoms do that sort of engaging in the future, it will help break the cycle of fandom gate-keeping all the more thoroughly.  This is a fact that production companies are starting to awaken to as Millennials, comfortable with social media, age into positions of authority.

So, welcome people in, gate-keep, almost cause the whole thing to collapse, repeat.  That’s the cycle that fandom has engaged in for three generations and more.  But I think we’re on the cusp of breaking that cycle, for the most part.  The idea that you can be a fan of something without knowing absolutely everything about it has been gaining very visible traction in the last five years or so and it is wonderful to see.

Now, please, people.  Don’t prove me wrong.

[symphonicdemise]

THE POSITIVE & NEGATIVE: MUN & MUSE

fill out & repost ♥ this meme definitely favors canons more, but i hope oc’s still can make it somehow work with their own lore, and lil’ fandom of friends & mutuals. multimuses pick the muse you are the most invested in atm.

tagged by: stolen from the Dash 

tagging: I stole it, so you can steal it too.

MY MUSE IS.   canon / oc / au / canon-divergent / fandomless

is your character popular in the fandom?  YES / NO/ Uhhhhhhhh

is your character considered hot™ in the fandom?  WELL… / NO / IDK. 

is your character considered strong in the fandom?  YES / NO / IDK.

are they underrated?  YES (imo) / NO.

were they relevant to the main story?  YES / NO. 

were they relevant to the main character?  YES / NO / THEY’RE THE ‘PROTAG’

are they widely known in their world?  YES / NO.

how’s their reputation?  GOOD / BAD (VERY BAD) / NEUTRAL.

HOW STRICTLY DO YOU FOLLOW CANON?

I make it a point to try and follow his canon attitude and reactions as closely as possible. That being said, most of the interactions that take place happen after MTMTE 55# and are therefor divergent from canon. I still try to stay true to his characterization (organiphobe, still a loyal decepticon, yadda yadda) but for the sake of roleplay and interactions, I do tone him down quite a bit.

SELL YOUR MUSE! (aka try to list everything, which makes your muse interesting in your opinion to make them spicy for your mutual.)

Tarn is... god How the hell do I sell this man. He’s not exactly a kind mech, but civility is one of the things he misses about his old life... Getting to sit back at a bar, relaxing and chatting up strangers that you probably will never see again. 

Being backstage at the opera house, getting ready to go on stage... I’m getting off on a tangent so I’ll just cut to the chase: If he doesn’t know you, and any interactions take place after MTMTE 55# he probably won’t try to cause bodily harm at first sight (with a few exceptions of course (Lookin at you Megs and OL)).

NOW THE OPPOSITE! (list everything why your muse could not be so interesting (even if you may not agree, what does the fandom perhaps think?)

HAHAHAHAH Where do I even begin with Tarn?

He’s probably clinically mad, absolutely loony... but it’s no fault of his own (partly). He’s flawlessly loyal to The Cause... and that’s one of his many flaws.

He cares more about enforcing some twisted sense of justice than he does about literally anything else.

WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO RP YOUR MUSE?

Hoo boy... that’s a hard one. There are probably a few things, one being that I’ve always been drawn to the antagonists since I was like... 5 years old. I think it’s mostly that I really like how he was written in, his personality, his overall design... I mean... just look at him!

That shouldn’t be allowed...

WHAT KEEPS YOUR INSPIRATION GOING?  

I have a single playlist on youtube that’s filled with music I think Tarn might listen to.

SOME MORE PERSONAL QUESTIONS FOR THE MUN.

do you think you give your character justice?  YES / NO.

do you frequently write headcanons?  YES (mostly in my head) / NO.

do you sometimes write drabbles? YES / NO.  

do you think a lot about your muse during the day? YES / NO.

are you confident in your portrayal?   YES / NO.

are you confident in your writing?  YES / NO.

are you a sensitive person?  YES / NO.

DO YOU ACCEPT CRITICISM WELL ABOUT YOUR PORTRAYAL?

As long as it’s constructive, and not just someone who’s like “ur bad k y s” cause that shit doesn’t fly with me.

If you think of something that I could do to make the portrayal more accurate, my god please tell me so I don’t fucking embarrass myself anymore!

DO YOU LIKE QUESTIONS, WHICH HELP YOU EXPLORE YOUR CHARACTER?  

ABSOLUTELY!!! It’s always fun to write up little drabbles from time to time (especially when I get to write about Pre-war Tarn/Damus

IF SOMEONE DISAGREES TO A HEADCANON OF YOURS, DO YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY?  

Yes, It’s always nice to see things from another perspective and hey! Maybe I’ll adopt a new headcanon!

IF SOMEONE DISAGREES WITH YOUR PORTRAYAL, HOW WOULD YOU TAKE IT?

I’d be upset for maybe a day, probably think about deleting my blog at least 50 times then go have a smoke and a beer and be good. *~*~*Poor Coping Kids*~*~*

IF SOMEONE REALLY HATES YOUR CHARACTER, HOW DO YOU TAKE IT?

You know, I wouldn’t blame them, at all. He really is an awful asshole. 

That being said, if they continued to harass me about it, I’d probably just be like “lol ok bye fam. If you don’t like him, fucking bounce kiddo”

ARE YOU OKAY WITH PEOPLE POINTING OUT YOUR GRAMMATICAL ERRORS?  

AAAA Please! I like to pride myself on catching my mistakes as I write them but I’m only human, I’m also blind in one eye so I’m seeing at half capacity compared to other people lol.

DO YOU THINK YOU ARE EASY GOING AS A MUN?  

Heck yeah! I’m just super nervous about talking to people. I’ll usually be lurking on my dash.

Don’t ever be afraid to hit me up, I’m like a freakin puff ball who’s riddled with anxiety about initiating conversation.

I don’t say it often but I do have other muses who are much easier to interact with. If you’re ever curious about them, just slide into my DM’s.

anyway this is a long ass post so I’ll just leave it here, Steal this if you want to!

[ibelieveinahappilyeverafter]

Writing Commission - A Gift of Sunshine - Chapter 2

Just to give you guys a heads up this story will have a lot of time skips worked in where I was working under a certain word count limit and didn't want to drag out the story for over 100k words like I'm known to do. I hope you still enjoy it, however, and have fun with Chapter 2!

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Summary: It is the worst day of fifteen-year-old Aizawa Shouta’s life when he trudges home after a failed entrance test to U.A. – the school made for heroes. His worst day abruptly turns strange, however, when he gets home to find a beautiful sword on his bed with a scroll attached that is addressed from his grandfather.

It turns out that his entire family was descended from a samurai (unsurprising considering he lived in Japan) and the sword was meant to help him become a hero. Shouta hadn’t been expecting the sword to talk, however, and he especially hadn’t expected the sword to have a voice as warm as sunshine itself.

It’s a long journey to become a hero like he wants, but Shouta has a feeling that he and Hizashi are going to do just fine.

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Fandom: Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia    

Relationship: Yamada Hizashi | Present Mic/Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead

Characters: Yamada Hizashi | Present Mic, Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead

Rating: Teen Audiences

Word Count (Total): 35,935  

Transaction Amount: $250 (USD)

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                Check out my writing commission information here!                       Pledge to my Patreon to get exclusive content!

                          Read and follow the story on AO3!

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                                               Chapter Two

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Hizashi had been asleep for a very long time; or perhaps it would have been more accurate to say that Hizashi had been unaware for a very long time, never fully knowing of how the world grew and changed around him. He was awake now, though, and he finally had a wielder for the first time in, if he were to guess, decades or even centuries. Of course, his wielder had immediately thrown him across the room and into a wall as soon as he had woken up, but Hizashi supposed nobody could be perfect - well, except for him. 

‘Hey! That hurts, yo!’ Hizashi paused in his yelling, reflecting on his choice of words and accent for a moment. He really had managed to come a long way through time if the magic that bound him to the sword had already altered the language that had been his native tongue. It was a worry to think on later, if nothing else. ‘Didn’t your mother teach you to treat guests with some respect?’ 

Hizashi, ready to work his way up into a proper fit, stopped when he ‘felt’ hands wrap around the sheath of the sword - or maybe it was more accurate that he felt the warmth of his new wielder’s hands pick him up, muttering and mumbling under his breath rapidly before Hizashi was able to make out a quiet, “-didn’t hurt you, did I?”

The question, so clearly directed at him, had Hizashi wanting to laugh at the fact he had such a sweet wielder. A wielder who had obviously heard his voice and been taken by surprise, hence his being thrown into a wall- Ah. An Aizawa. Hizashi supposed some things never changed even if everything else did, especially if an Aizawa could pick him up and hear him without any trouble.

‘It’s gonna take a lot more than that to damage me, I’ll have you know!’ Tension drained out of the air and Hizashi did his best to get a look at his new wielder. He wasn’t yet connected with him enough to see through the new Aizawa’s eyes, but he could grasp a few basics, the biggest being that his wielder was young. 

No… young wasn’t quite the right word. His wielder felt old enough to be wielding him - to be using a sword - but there was something soft about him, as if he were a child who hadn’t yet seen the world properly. Hizashi could feel it in the tentative connection that now bound them together, and in the way his own self begun to feel younger and softer around the edges, memories of bloodier battles and days slipping away as if they were never anything except nightmares. 

“Right. Because you’re a sword.” His wielder's voice displaced the air, sounding as young as he felt. There was fear in his tone, but there was also… excitement. “A sword who’s talking to me in my head, apparently. Is this the work of a quirk?”

‘A quirk?’ Hizashi rolled the new word through his mind, finding no significant meaning to it. ‘No idea, but I can promise that you’re not just imagining all of this! Uh, just to be sure, though, what’s a quirk?’

The surprise cut through the air as sharply as Hizashi’s own blade, ringing out and filling the silence of the room with a heavy disbelief that was thick enough to be felt on the tongue, if he were human. It was no less than an eternity before his wielder spoke, grip on the sheath loosening. “You… don’t know what a quirk is?”

‘Hey, hey, I think we should be impressed we can even understand each other! It feels like it’s been ages since I’ve had someone to talk to - be real with me, yo, how long has it been? I take it I was sealed, yeah?’ 

It was the only thing that made sense, after all. After the wars and battles had settled, there had been littler and littler use for a sword like Hizashi. He may have vowed to never harm his wielder and the man’s descendants, but there was always risk, and sealing was the easiest way to ensure that no harm would come to the Aizawa family. 

It had also made it seem as if he had last been used yesterday, his awareness gone until his new wielder, the latest Aizawa, had touched the sheath of his sword and called his name.

“Um… There was a… ‘seal’ on you, yeah.” The voice was hesitant and uncertain, not that Hizashi could fault him. Poor thing had never spoken to a sword like him before, it seemed. “As for the date, it’s, uh, pretty far from where you were, I think.” 

‘Come on, then! Just give me the year, even, and that’d be a big help!’ When his new wielder mumbled the year, as if speaking it softly enough would soften the blow itself, Hizashi felt his entire being withdraw and quiet immediately. It was the same feeling as a human’s heart sinking and, well… hundreds of years was a very long time to travel through.

“You- My grandfather wrote about you in a letter he gave me and said that it had been a couple centuries for you, or something. Is that… right?” Oh, the sweet thing. Hizashi’s new wielder sounded concerned for him.

‘Pretty spot on, actually!’ Hizashi pitched his voice to be as chipper as possible, deciding to think on his trip through time later. He had plenty of time to spare now that he was ‘awake,’ after all. ‘Ah, man, it sounds like I’ve really missed out on a lot, though, haven’t I? Ah, but not everything’s changed, huh… You want to fight as a hero? Man, it’s been so long since I’ve had someone to talk to; and even longer since I’ve fought!’

A burst of laughter in the form of snorts shook through the air, Hizashi knowing he would be huffing and puffing if he could because that sounded like very insulting laughter. “You can fight? You’re a sword. Last I was aware, a sword couldn’t fight.” 

‘You think so, huh?’ Hizashi lashed his energy together and threw it at the spider silk thread that connected him to his wielder, latching on and sinking under soft skin that had never seen true battle. Having no desire to cause any amount of true harm, he made sure to keep his control light, allowing his wielder to still see and comprehend what was happening as Hizashi slipped into his body, a soft hand grasping the hilt of his sword before pulling it out of the sheath whip quick. “Surely your grandfather told you just what sort of sword I am, didn’t he?”

Hizashi took a single moment to take in the details of the new world around him, filing away every change and difference to go over when he wasn’t attempting to prove a point as to just how well he could fight. 

A deep breath in, a single shift, and Hizashi was moving his borrowed body through the typical warmups for a sword such as himself, keeping a part of his attention on the way his wielder's body naturally wanted to move and bend. He was certainly still young, the Aizawa he was now bound to, and his movements reflected that, untrained and uncertain with a bend that showed a spry body that would still mold once trained properly.

It was interesting, though, the sense of power Hizashi felt lurking within the body, somewhere up near the eyes. A reference to the ‘quirks’ that had been mentioned, maybe, but it was another thing Hizashi filed away to examine later, continuing the warmups and feeling something in him relax as he watched the sword cut through the air, the blade polished and sharp and ready for anything. 

“I’m more than just a sword that can talk, you know,” Hizashi chuckled, the voice low and soft and making Hizashi think that one day his wielder would have a pleasant, if not deep voice. “I don’t fight for my wielder just as my wielder doesn’t fight for me. We work together, and with that comes, hm, we’ll call ‘em benefits, yeah?” 

Twirling the sword in his hands, Hizashi slid it back into the sheath smoothly and cleanly, delighted to look up and see a mirror that captured his wielder perfectly. He was young, with tumbling black hair that reminded Hizashi so much of Adachi and soft grey eyes that reminded him of storm clouds on the horizon. The face was young and smooth and, Hizashi had a feeling, usually expressionless. 

He was adorable, Hizashi decided, loosening his control as he talked with his wielder’s voice, words soft, yet sharp as his blade. “I can give you increased strength, when you fight… I can increase your senses, give you all the knowledge you need on how to fight with me in your hand, and I can make sure you have all the power you could want. But I can’t give you the will to fight or the desire to fight for others. That has to come from you.” 

Letting the control slip away completely, Hizashi kept close to that thread that bound them together, speechless in delight and awe for an eternity hidden in a moment as he noticed it was already stronger than it had been. ‘What’s your name, little Aizawa?’

“S… Shouta. My name is Aizawa Shouta.” Aizawa Shouta, hm? It was a good name, Hizashi supposed, but it was an excellent name for a hero. 

‘Well then, Shou-chan! Let’s get to work - we have a lot to do if you want to be a hero, right?’ Hizashi could feel the burst of countless emotions before he heard a quiet laugh. 

“Right- Did you just call me Shou-chan?”

In the end, after many conversations that devolved into senseless debate over topics Hizashi couldn’t remember after they ended, Shouta agreed to officially become his wielder, learning to both fight with him and fight as a hero, which had become the modern version of samurai, as far as Hizashi could tell. 

The names and technology and appearances had changed, of course, but the politics and ideals were the same as they had been in Hizashi’s time, and there were always kids who wanted to grow up and become a hero. Apparently, in this time and age, it was a lot simpler than it used to be; although that hadn’t meant a lack of work to get done. 

It had taken over a month for Hizashi to learn everything he needed to about the modern era, but it had taken far less time for Shouta to latch onto training and push himself more than any of Hizashi’s other wielders. He didn’t just latch onto sword fighting, although it was wonderful that he did, he latched onto all of it. 

Learning how to train and use his body, fighting with different schools until they found the one he was best in, learning how to clean a sword properly and not whatever way Shouta had picked up from those who obviously knew very little about cleaning swords, and even learning how to duel and fight with those who both fought with swords and fought without; although that last one had even Hizashi on a learning curve. Quirks, apparently, were very similar to the humans with supernatural abilities in the past, only now everyone had one. 

It wasn’t only Shouta growing stronger, either, but Hizashi could feel their bond growing stronger the more time they spent talking and training as the days went on. It eventually allowed Hizashi to not only see through Shouta’s eyes - finally - but use some of his more creative abilities, which was how Hizashi found himself in the back corner of a classroom on his own abilities after Shouta had, yet again, left him behind in his bedroom because carrying a sword around in public, these days, was ‘just not done.’

With the sight he was now granted, largely in part focused on where Shouta was looking, but with some leeway into peering around the room in general, it was easy to see when Shouta’s attention drifted away from talkative, cute classmates to Hizashi himself. The look on his face, some mix between impressed and irritated, was a delightful sight that Hizashi promised himself he wouldn’t soon forget. 

As soon as Shouta’s hand was wrapped around his sheath, Hizashi taking a moment to feel the now growing calluses that showed his training was truly paying off, Hizashi chirped out a cheerful, ‘Hello!’ 

“You have two seconds to explain how you got here, why you’re here, and why I shouldn’t throw you out a window,” Shouta grumbled under his breath, quiet enough for no student to hear, but his thoughts echoing loud enough for Hizashi to hear him clearly. 

‘Aw, c’mon, Shou-chan! Just because you “forget” me doesn’t mean I can’t show up when I need to!’ Hizashi could feel the hundreds of questions that popped into Shouta’s mind, broken up by the adult, a teacher no doubt, walking into the classroom and calling for silence. The frustration and mental feeling of this isn’t over yet was too beautiful for words, truly. ‘Pay attention and impress me, Shou-chan, and I’ll tell you how I do it at lunch.’ 

“Hard to pay attention when the teacher is going to notice a sword at my desk, you scrap of metal,” Shouta hissed, trying to tuck Hizashi out of sight under his desk. Hizashi didn’t mind, too concerned with observing the classroom. He hadn’t had much of an opportunity to get out and explore this new world at Shouta’s side, yet, after all. 

‘Hm… Oh! Don’t worry, she won’t notice me unless I want her to. Hey, is school really required of kids these days? Maaan, so much has changed! Back in my time you only went to group schools like this if you had fame or wealth to your name or were a pity case, you know?’

Shouta was quiet for a moment, Hizashi relaxing at the soothing buzz of his thoughts, which was much better than being alone or sealed away again for hundreds of years, before he heard the whispered, “What do you mean she won’t notice you?”

‘I told you, yo, I’m more than just a normal sword! One of my, hm, tricks we’ll call it is that I can only be noticed by my wielder when out in public, you know, for stealth stuff. Your teacher or classmates or whoever else won’t even notice I’m here, whether you’re holding me or not.’ Pausing, Hizashi gave a loud hum that had the bonus of forcing Shouta to make an annoyed face. ‘It only works as long as I’m sheathed, though. The moment my blade is out, that means I can be seen by anyone.’ 

“Huh.” Shouta went quiet again, but his thoughts grew even louder, Hizashi listening to half-thought words and twisted ideas as Shouta thought over the new information quietly and stored it away wherever he kept such things. He really was too cute. “Can you only talk to me or is it with anyone touching you?”

Ooh, that was a good question! ‘Good question, Shou-chan!’ Taking a moment to delight in the irritated huff, Hizashi continued, ‘It’s actually pretty complicated, but I’ll try to keep it simple, okay? While I can talk to anyone touching me, it depends on a few factors!’

“Factors?” Shouta was no doubt frowning, Hizashi experiencing something close to shivering as he felt fingers tap against the sheath. “What do you mean?”

‘Well… Let’s start with you. I can hear you because you’re an Aizawa, and I’m bound to your family line. The Aizawas are the only ones who can pick me up and hear me without any other factors.’ Hizashi waited patiently as Shouta thought over the information, only continuing when he was sure the other wasn’t about to ask any questions – he was no doubt saving them for later.

‘If a person isn’t an Aizawa, then it gets pretty tricky and has to deal a lot with having a clear mind and meditation and all that junk. The short of it? If people touch my sheath, then they can only hear me if we have some sort of bond and they have a clear mind, which means they have to meditate pretty often. I can talk to them directly without all that, but it takes a lot of energy and I can only say short, simple things. Nothing like my wonderful explanations I can give when I’m with you! Why do you ask, anyways?’

“Because, I assume you’re here to annoy me into an early grave, so you can talk to my teachers and let them know why I’ll have a sword around me at all times from now on. The last thing I need is a teacher with a quirk who’ll make it so they can see you even though you say you can’t be seen.” 

Shouta had a good point, loathe as Hizashi was to admit it. There had been a few supernaturally powered beings back in his time that could see him even when he was hidden, so it was foolish to assume in this age of quirks and powers that he would remain perfectly hidden. They would have to be careful what they told to who, but it wasn’t an unreasonable request. 

Of course, Hizashi might not visit Shouta at school every day if it was going to be so boring. The classes about the history of quirks and how they came to be and the modern day, now those were great as they helped Hizashi fill in the gaps in his knowledge that Shouta couldn’t, but everything else? Half of the other classes were boring, Shouta never talked to him, and Shouta never talked to anyone, too busy ‘training.’ 

Ah, but Hizashi couldn’t hate him for that part, at least. Shouta had told him of the upcoming ‘Sports Festival’ that his school put on every year. According to Shouta, it was a chance for students who hadn’t been accepted into the ‘Hero’ Department to work their way up and advance into it. 

Hizashi had seen a few similar things in his own time, mostly in relation to sword dojos and certain classes, but he had never heard about something on such a massive scale. Shouta would do great, Hizashi was certain, and he was dedicated to his training, but that didn’t mean anything if he didn’t take the time to meditate and reflect on it; which is where they were finally stuck. 

‘For the last time, yo, you just close your eyes and think about nothing!’ Hizashi desperately wished he had the ability to use himself to hit Shouta in the head, but, as of yet, there was no luck.

“And I’m telling you that it’s not so easy as to just close my eyes and think of nothing! Everyone thinks of something and the only time you’re not actively thinking is when you’re asleep - and even then you’re dreaming!” 

‘Aah, Shou-chan, why are you so logical?! Where am I even losing you? You close your eyes, you stop thinking, and you just sit there! This isn’t that hard!’ 

“Oh, and I suppose you just love to sit around in silence. Do you even have the ability to shut up for more than two seconds?” That had Hizashi falling silent because, well… Shouta wasn’t wrong in his sarcastic remarks, for once. 

Hizashi had always hated the silence that came from not having a wielder, and there were many times over his ‘life’ that he hadn’t even been properly sealed and instead had been shut away into a dark room to wait for the next time he would be passed down to someone. 

None of this to say the Aizawa family was bad, of course, they had always been decent people and while the family was often quiet and serious and far too logical, traits that persisted even today, they had always seen him as nothing more than a sword after he left Adachi’s side. At least, that had been until Aizawa Shouta. 

“Hizashi?” The touch on Hizashi’s sheath was light and careful, Shouta’s voice just as much so. “I… Sorry. I know you’re just trying to help me.” He had always been seen as a sword first until Shouta, who treated him so human. 

‘No, no, I guess I am kind of a hypocrite this time. Meditation is supposed to be about silence, but, uh, I never really liked that part of it myself. The silence is… That’s probably the worst part of it.’ Hizashi had spent so many years in silence, and now after coming into this world that was so bright and full of life and energy, well… the thought of the day he would have to go back to that silence was heartbreaking.  

“The worst part, huh?” The words were more of an afterthought than an actual question, Hizashi confused as he felt Shouta shift him until he was nestled in the crook of the teen’s arm, tapping around on what he had told Hizashi was a cellphone. The technology, especially, Hizashi was still trying to catch up on, but it seemed cool enough. 

A few minutes passed and Hizashi was about to complain about being ignored before he heard music. It had been so long since he heard anything resembling music in a quiet place like Shouta’s tucked away bedroom, and this song had instruments Hizashi knew, ones that he had been almost certain he would never hear again. 

“I don’t know if it’s really accurate, but I figured it was as close to sounding like home as I could get you, right now.” Oh… Oh, Shouta. “If we’re going to be partners then it’s only logical that we should make concessions for each other depending on what the situation calls for, right? It doesn’t hurt to have music like this playing in the background as long as I can do what I need to.”

‘You, Aizawa Shouta, are going to be the most incredible hero either of our worlds has ever seen.’ Hizashi didn’t need to see to know Shouta was already flustered, the sweet thing, but he felt Shouta’s grip return to his sheath, fingers stroking down the side so softly. The feeling was one that he knew he would only ever be able to describe as taking a breath of clean air after years of drowning. 

‘Meditation isn’t just an excuse to fall asleep, which is something they thought even back in my day. It’s not a way to just shut off your thoughts, either, I suppose. It’s about quieting them.’ Hizashi explained softly, almost feeling Shouta’s own tension drain out of him. ‘Close your eyes and just focus on my voice for now, okay? Don’t think about what’s next after this or what you have left to do or any of your worries or anxieties. That’s not the point of this. 

‘Meditation is about the centering of yourself. You’re logical, right? All you Aizawas were always so logical, really, but think of it like this. Every day you go through you end up getting a piece of yourself wound up, tangled from all your running about. If you don’t take the time to unwind those pieces, then eventually you’ll be so tangled you won’t be able to do anything.’

Hizashi paused to make sure Shouta was both following along and not getting sick of his voice, pleasantly surprised when it seemed the teen’s thoughts had already quieted but were still crystal clear to show he was wide awake. Maybe Shouta was the type to need guided meditation rather than doing it on his own. Odd, considering he was never the most social person, but Hizashi wasn’t about to turn away a gift. 

‘You’ve been pushing yourself more and more each day and that’s not a bad thing, Shou-chan. That’s actually really good! You’re serious about your goals and your dreams and your hopes, and that’s so good, Shouta, but you’re wound up too tightly. You need to relax and unwind the tangles you’ve given yourself.’

Hizashi imitated the feeling of closing his own eyes, his world dark, but not empty. He could hear the music still playing and filling up the room, Shouta’s soft and gentle breathing layering over it in a way that made their small world so perfect for once. It was the easiest meditation he had ever done. 

‘I heard of some people who meditated while standing up and walking in circles, physically unwinding from all their twists and turns. Others would sometimes sing, even if they weren’t good at it. All that mattered was finding a way to lose all of their tangles and tension. Some people, though, see all those tangles in their mind’s eye and start to pick them apart.’

Hizashi could see it clearly in his own mind, not a neat ball of twine, but a mess of knots and tangles that had to be carefully and slowly picked apart, each one carrying a worry or anxiety. He had a feeling that Shouta saw the same. 

‘Each tangle or knot is a worry that’s been bothering you. Right now, though, you’re safe, and it’s quiet.’ Not silent, but quiet, which made all the difference. ‘For each knot you pick apart, you hear the worry, but… now isn’t the time to worry.’

A picked apart knot that screamed at him that one day he would be sealed away again and left in the dark. It was a worry, but not one that applied for today. ‘Think about the worry, truly think about it, and then decide whether there’s anything you can do about it. If it’s not something that has any way of being solved, let it go. Carrying extra weight has never helped anyone.’

Hizashi knew knots and tangles. He had knots about being too annoying and too loud and too dangerous and tangles about what he could never tell anyone and what he didn’t want to tell anyone and so much more, but that was okay. It was as he told Shouta, carrying extra weight never helped anybody, and to have so many tangles only meant one would trip over them. 

Feeling something deep within him click into place and center itself, Hizashi breathed out a soft sigh and opened his eyes in his mental eye, just as he would do if he were human. Hizashi looked up and… he looked up and met Shouta’s wide, startled gaze. 

“You…” Shouta’s voice was splintered with shock, but there was an undercurrent of delight. “You didn’t tell me meditation meant I would be able to see you.”

Startled by seeing so much emotion in Shouta’s face, it took Hizashi a very long time to realize the words and then look down at himself to see that he was, well, himself. His sword was still laying in Shouta’s lap and touching his skin, points of contact that he could still feel, but he was seeing out of a body that looked completely human. 

He was sitting cross legged on the ground and in front of Shouta as if he had truly been meditating, and from what he could see he was wearing the uniform of Shouta’s school. He didn’t need to look into a mirror to know his hair would be a bright golden color, eyes as green as the handle of his sword. 

“Wait, you’re supposed to be hundreds of years old, why do you look like my age?” The gentle current of Shouta’s thoughts had turned into a loud buzz, Hizashi simply staring his fill of Shouta because while he could ‘see,’ it had been so hard to truly see Shouta and his intense, curious gaze. “Hizashi.”

“Sorry,” Hizashi managed to blurt, looking around the room with wide eyes and amazed to see that everything was anchored to his own sight, his spirit, or at least a piece of him, able to leave the sword. It was something he hadn’t been expecting when he and Shouta had only known each other for a few months. “Sorry, this just…” 

“Your voice is clear.” Shouta’s quiet words brought all his attention right back to him, Shouta smiling. “It’s not just a sound in my head anymore, it… sounds like I can hear you as if you were really in front of me.” 

“Okay, yo, that definitely isn’t supposed to happen what the hell?” Hizashi poked at Shouta, equally relieved and disappointed when neither of them seemed to feel a thing. “Meditation lets me be closer to my wielder, yeah, but, Shouta, you shouldn’t be able to see me like this - I shouldn’t be like this - until, like, years from now!”

“It could have something to do with you being sealed for so long,” Shouta suggested, Hizashi immediately ruling the option out. Shouta shouldn’t even be able to hear him clearly for so much longer; Adachi, who had been his closest wielder, hadn’t been able to see or hear him like this until they had been together for six years. “Is it a bad thing?”

“No,” Hizashi blurted out, quickly waving his hands about and surprised he could even do that. “No, it’s just…” Hizashi shook his head, letting the thought go. “Right, uh, so I look like this, young and in your school uniform, because I kind of change depending on the time, and my wielder’s age, and a bunch of boring stuff like that. I mean, you didn’t think I talked like this when I was back in feudal Japan, did you?” 

“Where you’re concerned, I wouldn’t have been surprised,” Shouta said dryly, Hizashi too delighted to be able to see that flat, unamused look on Shouta’s face to bother being offended. “Will other people be able to see and hear you now?”

“No, it’ll still just be you. The only time they can hear me is when touching the sword and having a clear mind, and if you let go you’ll probably stop seeing me like this, too. This is just…” Hizashi trailed off, tilting his head back and forth in thought for a moment. “It’s like an extension of myself, I guess you could call it. Think of it like a little piece of me that can see and talk and junk.”

Shouta nodded, going silent to think over all the information he had been given, Hizashi cupping his hands in his lap like one would when truly meditating and noticing that while he didn’t feel the sensation, it carried with it the remembrance of sensation. No matter what Shouta said about this being the result of Hizashi’s sealment, this was just… them. It was him and Shouta forging a bond that was already so strong. 

“Hizashi.” Shouta’s voice was soft but resolute, Hizashi startling as Shouta looked directly into his eyes before giving a fierce and wild grin. “We’ll make a good team.” 

And they did. 

It was a few weeks of practicing and training and meditating and putting it all together, but it all paid off when they won the Sports Festival, Hizashi feeling Shouta’s grip tight around the sword as Hizashi watched from where he was standing beside him on the first place podium, the crowd around them screaming and cheering. 

Apparently, first place was not meant for a student of Shouta’s background, and Hizashi was more than viciously pleased to see the smug victory in Shouta’s eyes along with the humble gratitude as he accepted his medal, although outwardly he had such a bored expression of distaste at all the fanfare. 

“Looks like that dream of ours isn’t so far off anymore, huh?” Hizashi joked, beaming as Shouta glanced to him and met his gaze before giving a small, honest smile. 

“Our dream, huh?” Shouta looked back out across the crowds, smile growing. “I like the sound of that.” And oh, yes. Their future together was going to be incredible. 

[adateur]

Beginnings

What role does this character play?(Storybased): dimitri plays a very anti-hero role for the most part, when he’s not struggling against the virus that keeps him wanting to devour flesh on a daily basis. depending on the types of interactions between others, his role is bound to change up.

What inspired you to create this character?: i first made a blog for dimitri back in 2015 because i loved the concept of the hunter still retaining some of his humanity and dealing with his much more primal urges such as what the virus was making him become. since it’s always changing, so is dimitri and with that comes a ton of new opportunities to explore a viral infected person who’s finding himself in a war with who he is and what he’s becoming.

Faceclaim?: leon kennedy from the resident evil franchise, preferably his vendetta appearance for dimitri since it was that look that inspired a revamp and use of his face.

What goals do you have for this character?: i hope to see him flourish in the community and other fandoms, along with the character development between him and other muses that he interacts with. and since he’s a very special muse of mine, i’m hoping to write him for a very long time.

Full Name: dimitrious moreau.

Nickname(s): dimitri.

Do they enjoy these/this nickname(s)?: he extremely enjoys having his name cut short, due to it being a mouthful according to a lot of people he met growing up.

History behind nickname(s): his parents started it first, then it really started to stick once his younger brother was born and wore his name out. even now, when he’s introducing himself to someone new, he uses dimitri over his full first name.

Alias(es): hoodie freak, infected, hunter. Hoodie, Jumper, Crazy Legs, Leaper, Punk-ass, Pouncing one, Hoodie dude, Sweatshirt-wearing wuss, Scrawny little bitch.

Physical

Sex: male.

Race/species: human / special infected. ( hunter. )

Ethnicity: caucasian.

Age: forty-two.

How old they appear: early thirties.

Mental age: a grandpa.

Orientation/Sexual preference: demisexual / undisclosed.

Any history behind their sexual orientation?: dimitri isn’t very into sleeping around, even much so now with what has happened to him infection route.

Birth date: december 19th.

Birth place: french quarter, new orleans.

Height: 5'11.

Weight: 165.

Are they overweight/underweight?: healthy and lean with muscle.

Blood type: a.

Can they bleed?: yes.

What color is their blood?: extremely dark red, almost looks black.

Defining physical characteristics/general appearance: the animalistic growling and roars, walking on all fours with ease, very acrobatic. gives the illusion that he’s a normal human and not an infected.

Eye color(s): blue. ( human side. ) silver. ( infection takes over and dark areas. )

Is this eye color uncommon?: his eye color is only uncommon in dark areas or when he loses himself to the virus.

Are their eyes good?: his eyes are extremely sensitive to bright light, usually making him claw them out and seek the nearest dark spot until his eyes heal again.

If something about their face is different than the norm of their realm, do they get grief/disapproval for it?: it can be a very scary sight to behold when dimitri changes over and while his appearance doesn’t alter drastically, those around him will not wish to see him look that way or fear him.

Body build(slim, muscular, etc.): athletic / slim.

Posture(slouched, correct, etc.): correct.

Describe how they walk(Fast, slow, weak step, etc.): predatory-like sauntering and calculated.

Why do they walk this way?: because the virus made dimitri an apex predator ( among other special infected ) there’s a lot more than just random moving. and since he was a parkour specialist, everything heightened and thus, made him a hunter who not only chased down his prey, but stalked and challenged. it also aids in his survival.

Do they limp?: no.

Complexion: fair / slightly grey.

Big hands/small hands/something else?: medium size hands.

Long fingered/short fingered hands?: long fingered with sharp claw-like nails.

What kind of teeth do they have?(Vampiric, all fangy, etc.): his teeth look normal aside from the very large and noticeable canines. he’s gotten the vampire jokes before, until the all familiar growling starts.

Do they take care of their teeth?: of course.

Why/why not?: just because he’s an infected, doesn’t mean he should let his personal hygiene go.

Describe their voice(What range is it for one thing? Alto, tenor, bass, etc.?): for dimitri, Matthew Mercer is his chosen voice because of obvious reasons.

Speech mannerisms(Do they pause a lot, a stutter?: dimitri has difficulty speaking when the virus mutates and changes, causing him to lose that part of him that can form words. instead of speaking, he either responds with growls, snarls, purring ( only when he’s feeling docile ) or if a person is nearby, through texting until the phase passes. often times, he’s not really into speaking upon first meeting a person since they can often tell he’s a hunter if they catch glimpses of his skin.

Describe an outfit they would wear: anything casual and sometimes classy like dress shirt, pants and dress shoes.

Why do they have this clothing preference?: when the outbreak first occurred, dimitri “died” wearing his hoodie and pants, an outfit he stayed in during the first few weeks of infection. his attire isn’t something he worries about, but leather jackets are at the top of every list.

Personality

Best traits of their personality: honest, often loyal to those who he can trust, can be caring, protective, trustworthy.

Worst traits of their personality: aggression, stubbornness, lack of empathy at times and detached.

Jung personality test: INFP.

Enneagram: type 5.

First impression usually given: too serious and broody.

Zodiac: sagittarius.

Alignment(Good/evil/bystander/etc.): he’s neither good nor evil but neutral to both.

Emotional trauma(if any, and why): killed his younger brother when he turned.

How do they respond when the trauma issue is talked about/touched on?: it’s a topic dimitri would try to avoid at all costs and if he does decide to talk about it, he’s probably only willing to share it with someone he knows well.

Does this trauma effect their day to day life?: it’s an every second of the day regret for him.

Would you say that they effect the environment around them, or that their environment around them effects them more?: it’s a little bit of both since he’s known for killing more survivors than helping them get out alive. but with CEDA and other survivors getting smarter with their tactics, the environment around him affects him too.

Location|History

Where they’re from: french quarter, new orleans.

Current residence: french quarter, new orleans.

Do they live at their current residence by will?: not exactly. when the bombing happened and the bridge was destroyed, dimitri had no other way to get out ( unknown to him ) and any other methods were too dangerous for him to attempt. so he remains in the quarter with all the other infected and whatever humans that may lurk.

Backstory: there’s not much to say about his early life and childhood experiences. it’s the part where the green flu hit and CEDA infected the population with false shots that were supposed to keep them from contracting the virus in the first place. among these believers were dimitri and his brother, elijah, whom were caught in the middle of the zombies initial outbreak. unable to do anything to distance his brother from him, the virus caused dimitri to turn and slaughter elijah, devouring him until not much was left of him when he returned to his senses.

the next few weeks were spent with the virus changing and mutating constantly, washing his humanity away and placing it with something primal and animalistic. it took nearly three months for the virus to partially bond with him and return his humanity and control back, but still left him with physical evidence of the change. with his pieces of humanity back, dimitri was able to remember who and brought the sickness to them, leading him on the hunt to uncover why and if the attacks were global. despite his flick of a switch side effects, he’s always craving human flesh and that makes him highly unpredictable and dangerous.

Abilities(As in powers): The Hunter is the least visibly mutated Special Infected and superficially resembles a Common Infected. It has yet to be explained how the Hunter’s mutations onset, whether it be genetic, biochemical, or a Hunter-specific strain of the virus, but the mutations seem to be sex-linked as only male Hunters have been observed. The Hunter’s reaction to the Infection has granted him an increase in lower-body strength.

While not creating massive muscle growth like the Tank, this added strength has given the Hunter the ability to repeatedly jump and pounce from long distances and rapidly scale the sides of buildings with ease, as well as toughened his legs in order to withstand the great distances and heights he can achieve. Decreased pain response visible in all sufferers of the Infection also results in the Hunter not suffering from perpetual lactic acid build up from muscle overexertion or impact damage after experiencing a large fall.

At the same time, there seems to be some sort of muscle delay after an initial attack where the Hunter is not able to move as swiftly.

The extent of damage to the Hunter’s sight suggests his other senses are far more developed than those of typical Infected, allowing him to hunt with far greater efficiency. It is possible that the screeching noises he makes and the growling are his own echolocation method. Hunters also appear to be the only Infected with a self-defense reflex: when shot at a distance and knowing they cannot pounce, the Hunter will sometimes jump away into safety.

They serve as the “strong-arm” of the Infected, being very adept at finishing off Survivors. By coordinating with other Infected, the Hunter becomes a valuable ally, and a deadly foe.

Rate their power on a scale of 1 - 10, 10 being most powerful in all the universe they’re in: 8.

[queencamellia]

FMA!AU BNHA

Note: This fandom has taken over my life. This is a longfic. Lots of plot. Lots of ship. Todomomo centric, but LOTS OF GODDAMN SHIPS.

Oh, and traitor theories. That too. Mystery. Huzzah.

"look like the innocent flower” Summary

...but be the serpent under't.

In a world of alchemy, revolt plots, and civil unrest, Colonel Shouto Todoroki and Lieutenant Momo Yaoyorozu must find a way to preserve the peaceful regime of All Might.

Unfortunately, the Homunculi are lurking. And they’ve already taken action.

“I wonder...who is the traitor?”

[Fullmetal Alchemist AU]

[TRAITOR THEORIES WOOO]

[Plot] [Almost Gen tbh] [Lots of pairing hints tho]

LINKS

Ao3 LINK HERE

FFN LINK HERE

Alternatively, you may read it under the cut!

In his childhood, when Shouto dreamt of becoming an alchemist, he imagined defeating evildoers and saving civilians like the tales his mother used to tell him. He never dreamt of bringing honor to the family, of proving himself worthy of the Todoroki name, of his name reverently spoken over drinks, and of a brilliant future filled with glorious victory.

Shouto never needed that. He never cared for that. He never wanted that.

He just wanted to help.

He dreamt of children who would thank him for saving their parents life; he dreamt of the poor who could lead better lives in peacetime. He dreamt of a world where love, compassion, and kindness didn’t have to be snuffed out because they were considered “weak” or “useless.”

Shouto did not dream of tears, loss, anger, and despair. He did not dream of the futile battles in which he fought to live, not protect. He did not dream...no, he never quite realized that there would be blood on his hands.

Before him was nothing but an obscure cloud of smoke. Black specks of ash fell upon his navy blue uniform like gentle snow, but he paid no mind to them. Shouto stumbled past a pile of rubble, his soot-covered hands reaching out and searching. The thin layer of frost covering his fingertips suddenly burst into action, travelling down the devastated city block and covering the grimy street with ice.

Revitalized, Shouto continued to make his way down the street with renewed vigor, pushing past rubble and coughing. “Bakugou,” he called, carefully stepping over a piece of demolished concrete. “Bakugou, I know you’re there.”

To his relief, he heard a cough resound from underneath the remains of the ruined building. “Fucking snipers,” his fellow alchemist cursed, looking rather unfazed as he threw a rock off himself towards the side. The blonde grumbled under his breath, attempting to pick out the pieces of plaster in his hair. “I hate fucking snipers. They always have to pick the tall buildings. Shitty bastards just want to make themselves harder to catch.”

“That’s what snipers typically do,” Shouto deadpanned, unimpressed by the Explosions Alchemist’s stellar vocabulary. He glanced around the building, unable to detect any signs of life; even so, Shouto remained vigilant, his right glove off and prepared to freeze anything at the slightest notice. His left glove, as always, remained on but firmly useless.

Bakugou’s cold eyes, which so severely contradicted his fiery personality, were a jarring reminder of their situation. They were State Alchemists at war.

“This fucking sucks,” Bakugou complained, kicking at a rock. His voice lowered. “I didn’t sign up to be an alchemist so that those government bastards would ship me off to do their dirty work.”

“What did you expect?” Shouto couldn’t help but ask.

Bakugou sent him a disbelieving look, shoving his hands into the pockets of his long, dark blue trench coat. If Shouto looked closer, he could make out the faint glint of silver. They had all been issued their special State Alchemist uniforms only a few days prior: it was easier to identify the amount of significant casualties, then. “I don’t know,” Bakugou growled. “But not this. I didn’t sign up to fuck over some weak bastards who can’t even fight. I thought I was gonna actually fight someone halfway decent at fighting.”

Shouto, too accustomed to the crude alchemist's speech, automatically translated the words in his head. It was Bakugou’s way of expressing his distaste for murdering civilians; despite his abrasive nature, Bakugou never wanted to be a villain (a war hero). He just wanted to be a hero.

Shouto let out a noncommittal hum, glancing upwards at the sky in hopes that it was dark enough for them to return to camp. Although he tolerated and (dare he say it?) enjoyed Bakugou’s company (on rare occasions), Shouto felt unease well in his chest. Something about today had been far too easy: they had only encountered one Ishvalan alchemist in the early morning. The alchemist had been weak; Bakugou was more than enough to defeat him while Shouto evacuated the civilians.

“Oh, sure. Bite me with your fucking holier-than-thou attitude, Pacifist Alchemist.”

Shouto’s lips curled downwards. Although “Pacifist Alchemist” was hardly his official epithet, the moniker had stuck after soldiers witnessed him evacuating several civilians: people quickly realized that Shouto actively avoided causing direct harm to civilians and the landscape if possible, which was how the title was born. Although he didn’t particularly mind it, he knew that his father would be less than pleased. Endeavor had always favored the logical, quickest, and most efficient solution. It was a trait to be both admired and feared.

But Shouto...Shouto wanted to use his Ice Alchemy for good, if possible. He didn’t want the alchemy that his mother had so lovingly taught him to be used for murder.

“I’m called the Freezing Alchemist.”

“Yeah, yeah. Pacifist,” Bakugou snorted, the fight in him essentially sapping away as he squinted at the sun. “How much longer? Two hours? Three hours? You think the old geezer would care if we came back early?”

Shouto considered the notion logically, then replied, “Brigadier-General Aizawa won’t care, but the troops will.”

Bakugou looked like he was about to launch into a tirade about how he didn’t give a shit about the morale of the troops, but surprisingly closed his mouth and decided against it. Even the often-irate Explosions Alchemist knew the importance of maintaining the all-powerful image of Amestris’ State Alchemists: they were the elite of the elite. Every country had their set of state alchemists; if their alchemists were weak, then it reflected badly on the country’s strength.

Instead of blowing up, Bakugou narrowed his eyes and searched the perimeter. Shouto took that as a signal that they were going back to work; immediately, the Freezing Alchemist exhaled, shutting his eyes. A flurry of cool air sent the dust flying once more, ice forming in the cracks of the broken buildings; as instructed, it was a way for Amestris to quickly mark its newly acquired territory until the troops could advance and secure the area.

While Shouto had been securing the premises, his fellow alchemist had climbed onto one of the piles of concrete blocks in order to survey more of the area. They quickly fell into their usual after-battle routine: Shouto was to search for survivors, while Bakugou was to check for enemies. Although they had their differences, the two alchemists moved as a single movement flawlessly with an ease acquired only through weeks and weeks of practice.

Silence presided over the clearing for several minutes until Bakugou let out an annoyed grunt. “Fuck,” he cursed, drawing Shouto’s attention immediately. The ice user quickly strode over to the rubble, climbing up the pile with relative ease. His eyes surveyed the area, searching for what Bakugou might have seen, when they landed upon a group of badly-concealed soldiers approaching the west.

“They're heading for the camp,” Shouto concluded, already halfway down the pile of rubble as he rushed through the street. They rounded the corner, intent on stopping the squadron of soldiers when—

“Half-and-half!”

Shouto had barely a second’s warning before Bakugou literally launched over to him and knocked him to the ground, a bullet whizzing over his head. “Fuck, it's an ambush!” Bakugou cursed, scrambling off of him and ducking behind a piece of rubble. “Fuck, fuck, fuck…”

Shouto found his voice. “We're sitting ducks out here; we need to find cover,” he murmured under his breath, examining the fallen bullet. “But where?”

“Less thinking, more fighting. Get on your feet!” Bakugou barked, clapping his hands and slamming them into the ground. Shouto knew what that meant; immediately, he scrambled away, Bakugou at his heels as the ground exploded behind them. The dust kicked up by the explosion was enough cover to give them a few seconds of respite.

Suddenly, the air felt warmer, the frost nipping at Shouto’s fingertips melting away. A ferocious gale of wind blew away the smoke, exposing their location.

“There’s an alchemist,” Shouto realized. “Two alchemists, perhaps.”

And if the previous move had been any indication, it wasn’t a coincidence that the enemy alchemists had the type of alchemy to directly counter theirs. Bakugou and Shouto had grown rather notorious amongst the alchemy world. They were in an open area, surrounded by snipers and enemy alchemists who they couldn’t even spot.

All in all, Bakugou summarized their shitty situation rather pleasantly. “We're fucked.”

An onslaught of bullets flew over their heads; immediately, Shouto formed a protective wall of ice, only for it to melt away again. Bakugou cursed, dragging him behind a stone pillar before he could get shot. The rocks in the explosion-user’s hands morphed into his ever-trustworthy grenades; it wouldn’t be enough.

Shouto’s mind raced at lightning-quick speeds. Was this how he would die? Covered in soot, in the middle of a foreign country beside his loudmouth companion? He couldn’t die: Shouto wouldn’t die until he ensured that everyone (his siblings, his mother) could live peaceful, prosperous lives. What could he do?

It was almost comical how Endeavor’s voice popped up in his mind; despite everything, he had learned many important things from his father. Think logically. Survey the area first, Shouto. Think from the enemy’s point of view. How would they strike you?

Maybe...maybe I should…

He glanced at his left hand.

Suddenly, a loud series of screams resounded. As quickly as they had started, they abruptly stopped. Bakugou and Shouto exchanged wary glances, but when the temperature suddenly died down, the Explosions Alchemist must have realized something. “Well, I’ll be damned,” Bakugou snorted, a smirk curving on his lips. There was an almost fond note to his voice. “The Hawk’s Eye strikes again. Prissy bitch. She always had the best timing.”

Shouto had heard of the epithet before. After all, soldiers talked. “The sniper, correct?” he question, tilting his head. “I heard that she’s quite accurate.”

“Accurate is an understatement,” Bakugou countered grudgingly. “She never fucking misses, no matter the target nor the distance. She’s probably at least a thousand meters from here.”

Shouto sighed, nodding at him. “We should probably head back to camp and report about this to Brigadier-General Aizawa: that’s two more alchemists down. If they’re aiming for us, we probably shouldn’t wander around here for too long.”

“Fucking finally,” Bakugou muttered under his breath, stalking off. “Come on, Half-and-Half. I’m sick of these fucking ruins.”

----

To Bakugou’s growing annoyance, they never made it back to the camp. Instead, they ran straight into the squadron of enemy soldiers they had spotted before; apparently, the fuckers weren’t planted there simply for the ambush. The Ishvalan soldiers were busy engaging with a squadron of Amestrian soldiers: from the looks of it, the Amestrians were heavily injured and losing. Bakugou cursed, glancing to his left to where Half-and-Half stood.

He never understood why the alchemist was so fucking calm. It irritated Bakugou to no ends; no matter the situation, Colonel Shouto Todoroki always maintained his same annoying deadpan face. They were even on the brink of fucking death minutes ago, and all the ice-user could do was stare apathetically at his hands!

“Shitty ice bastard,” Bakugou grumbled. Then, louder, he declared, “HEY, YOU BASTARDS! GIVE ME A CHALLENGE, WILL YOU?” Immediately, heads turned to face him.

Unhesitatingly, Bakugou jumped into the fray, baring his teeth at the Ishvalan soldier in front of him. “Well? Come on,” he invited, his fingertips itching to make things explode. “Let’s do this.”

---

“Thank you so much!”

Shouto blinked, unable to mask his surprise as he pivoted on his heel to face the bowing Amestrian soldier. He silently gestured for her to stop bowing, examining the soldier analytically. She was a petite girl, chestnut brown locks framing her cherubic face quite nicely. Her eyes sparkled with sincerity as a grateful smile graced her lips. “You and Lieutenant-Colonel Bakugou saved our lives, sir,” she added.

“It’s no problem…” Shouto said hesitantly. He wasn’t used to interacting with anybody outside of their small group of State Alchemists. “Your name?”

The girl gasped, mortified. “My apologies, sir! I forgot to state my name and rank. First Lieutenant Ochako Uraraka! It’s an honor to meet you, colonel.”

“Just Shouto is fine,” Shouto allowed. “Are...your squadmates alright, Lieutenant?”

“Then, just Ochako is fine. Or Uraraka, if you prefer that. Most of them are alright, although we should be heading back to camp as quickly as possible,” she replied dutifully. Uraraka gestured to two soldiers to her right, who had been lingering awkwardly. “I think two of my friends would like to join the conversation. Meet Captain Tenya Iida and Second Lieutenant Izuku Midoriya.”

“It’s an honor,” Iida, said, nodding his head. “Thank you for helping us. We were caught unprepared, and I hate to think of what might have happened without your assistance.”

“Nice to meet you,” Shouto offered. Then, he turned to the second lieutenant. “And you as well.”

As if he couldn’t hold back any longer, Midoriya blurted out, “You’re the Freezing Alchemist, right? How exactly does your alchemy work? Does it work in all climates? How do you form the ice in the desert like this? I assume you use the water particles in the air, but it still doesn’t explain how you—”

“Midoriya!” Iida hissed under his breath, jabbing the soldier with his elbow.

Midoriya blinked, then blushed when he realized the torrent of words that just escaped his mouth. “O-oh, I’m so sorry!” he stammered immediately. “Alchemy just fascinates me a lot, and I’ve heard so many stories about you—”

“Instead of focusing on Half-and-Half’s alchemy, why don’t you spend more time developing your hand-to-hand skills, Deku?”

As always, Bakugou’s arrival was dramatic, his voice marked with annoyance as he literally landed beside Shouto, having jumped off a stray boulder to intervene in the conversation. Shouto liked to think that the explosions-user could have done well in drama, but he couldn’t imagine Bakugou spouting off Shakespeare with a straight face.

“Kacchan!” Midoriya exclaimed, a hesitant smile blooming on his face. “You were really cool out there.”

Bakugou snorted. “I’m more than fucking cool,” he declared arrogantly, crossing his arms over his chest and effectively cutting off whatever conversation they had going on. Shouto let out a long, suffering sigh.

“Bakugou…read the mood…”

“Well isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black?” Bakugou shot back. “You can’t socialize for your fucking life, Half-and-Half. It’s a miracle the guys back in the military academy didn’t tell you to fuck off.”

Shouto blinked, then tilted his head. He chose not to address the socializing jab as it was somewhat true. Instead, he revealed, “I didn’t attend military school.”

“Eh?” came the surprised voices of not only Bakugou, but also the other three soldiers.

“My father sent me to a private academy,” Shouto explained. “The people there were very amiable.”

Bakugou looked unconvinced. “You had friends?”

“I suppose,” Shouto said slowly, “I had one friend.”

Before any of them could respond, however, Shouto’s eyes caught upon a shock of black hair approaching the group of soldiers. Plenty of people had black hair, but he could never forget that ponytail—

“Fucking finally, Hawk’s Eyes!” Bakugou exclaimed, drawing her attention. “Taking your damn sweet time, weren’t you? Where the hell were you during the scuffle?”

“I believe that was hardly a scuffle, Lieutenant-Colonel Bakugou,” came her voice, lined with amusement. “And I see that you all handled yourselves just fine.”

Bakugou scoffed. “Yeah, whatever. Half-and-Half, meet—”

“Yaoyorozu?” Shouto asked, cutting off the explosions-user as his eyes drunk in her appearance. Yes, even though she was wearing the navy blue coat of the Amestris army and had cut her hair shorter, the woman standing before him was undeniably Yaoyorozu. His chest felt tight; it felt as if he could hardly breathe as his eyes remained steadily trained on hers.

Silence had fallen over the group. The female sniper pursed her lips together tightly, stepping forward.

“Todoroki,” she acknowledged, her cool eyes softening the slightest fraction as they met his. Slowly, a smirk curved over her lips as she pushed a stray strand of ebony hair behind her ear. “Or...should I call you colonel, now?”

[formerprincess]

Our little paradise

Fandom: Teen Wolf Pairing: Liam Dunbar/Theo Raeken Words:  3118 Theo and Liam just enjoy a quiet afternoon after work. Just the two of them, no interruptions, and Theo could not be happier.

Also read on Ao3

Theo walked into the workshop and his nostrils flared when the familiar scent of gasoline, grease, sweat, and metal hit them. It was a scent he grew to like since he lived right above the workshop. He associated it with home, something Theo had not known for a long time. But things had changed since then, since he had come back to Beacon Hills to find a way into Scott McCall’s pack and destroy it from the inside, since the Dread Doctors, the Wild Hunt, the war. He had friends now, a pack even, and together they had graduated high school and even attended the same college. Yes, he, Theo Raeken, was part of something that wasn’t evil, wasn’t created to destroy something else. He was part of something good.

Good. Life was truly good, maybe even perfect, at the moment. Sure, there were still supernatural shenanigans happening, there were still hunters, and sometimes Scott had to call his gang together to defeat whatever came lurking, but they mostly had a regular life.

“I wasn’t aware you’re working as a pizza delivery guy now but I won’t complain either and gladly accept this. Just put the pizza here,” a deep voice shook Theo from his thoughts and he turned his head. The guy, Mojo, bigger than Theo himself (yes Theo was aware he wasn’t the tallest but this guy probably was taller than Derek Hale and twice as broad) with a buzz cut and a lightning bold shaved to the side of his head smirked at him. Theo had no idea how old Mojo really was, his guess would be 31/32 but really, it was just a guess. But Mojo was like a human teddy bear and incredibly funny. A woman with her brunette hair tied in a messy bun smirked and the corner of her eyes crinkled. “I’m sure this is just a bribe to let his other half leave earlier.” “Neither. This is our dinner and I will fight you both for this pizza,” Theo declared and grinned. “Yet, if you would let him leave earlier, Kiki…” The woman pointed a finger at him in a playful threat. “You’re getting way too sneaky, mister!” She laughed. “But who am I to get between guys and their dinner? He’s over there, showering his one true love with attention.” “I’m his one true love,” Theo reminded her with a chuckle but turned around again and ventured into the direction Kiki had pointed him. It wasn’t long until he reached the end of the bike shop and smiled at the picture in front of him.

Over the years Theo had not only found friendship and a place to belong, he had also found love. And that from a side he never expected it from in the beginning. Because if someone had told eighteen-year-old him he would be in love with Liam Dunbar, Scott’s angry Baby Beta, and they would be in a committed relationship, he would have laughed. Yes, Liam and he had become friends, but love? Even if Theo might have nursed a little crush on the younger man, Liam would have never returned his feelings. And yet, one of their many discussions had ended with Liam huffing out a breath and crossing his arms in front of his chest. “I want to strangle you almost as much as I want to kiss you, asshole,” he had said and Theo was not proud of it but he had gaped at him. Liam had given him a funny look but then obviously registered what he had said because he started to gesticulate wildly and tried to explain himself. “Oh fuck! I didn’t want to tell you like that! This is not how I pictured it!” “You want to kiss me?” Theo had asked weakly and Liam groaned and his hand movements contained Theo’s whole appearance. “Can you blame me? You have this going on.” It had hurt to know Liam was attracted to him just based on his looks while Theo really fell in love with Liam’s everything, his looks as well as his good heart, but he had nodded and put on a brave face. “So you want sex.” Liam had shrugged. “Sex, dates, a relationship, the usual stuff, you know?” And again, Theo had gaped which caused Liam to roll his eyes. “Seriously? I’m aware I’m bad with words but I thought I made myself very clear right now. I am not only attracted to you because you’re hotter than the sun, but I also feel very attracted to your character and would very much like to date you. Stop staring at me like a freaking goldfish. Turn me down so we can go on with our normal lives and I can crawl into a hole and die of mortification.”

Theo’s brain had not functioned properly because he would have loved to tell Liam how amazing he was, how happy this made Theo, and waxed poetically about the other’s whole self, but he just had managed a weak “Yes.” “Yes, what?” Liam had asked. “Yes to the date. To all of it, really.” They had stared at each other, Liam with narrowed eyes while he tried to figure out if Theo was joking or not, Theo still trying to figure out what the hell happened. Long story short, both overcame the initial shock of the sudden reveal and had decided to try this relationship thing with each other.

Fast forward two, almost three, years and you had them today. Still absolutely in love, living together in the apartment right above the motorcycle workshop Liam worked in. Life could not be better for Theo at the moment: An amazing boyfriend, a cool apartment, and a job where he could be creative and express himself through his art. They had to thank Liam’s grandpa for finding this little piece of home. After his death, Liam had come in contact with his grandfather’s best friend Rod who owned the workshop. They had met to reminisce the man they both had held so dear and Rod had inducted Liam to the world of motorcycle and workshops, repair, and tunings, and also the joy of riding one of those steel horses. Ilona Geyer had not been overly excited to see her son on such a thing but after she realized how happy Liam was to ride a motorcycle she had caved in and smiled. The people working in the shop had taken a great liking to Liam- he was an adorable puppy when he wanted to be - and had soon become part of his family. Kiki and her husband Jay had taken over the shop when Rod had retired and offered Liam a job in their shop. Liam could do what he liked, work with the motorcycles and also work on his own motorcycle, a blue Harley Davidson Fat Boy, on the side, what else could be better. And Theo found a job at the tattoo parlor right next to the workshop. His boss Bean (“My name is Gregory but nobody calls me that! It’s Bean.”) was also a friend of Rod, Kiki, and the others and he and Theo talked often. He saw some of Theo’s drawings one day and offered to take him in as an apprentice. Theo had not really thought about doing a creative job but he took the chance because he was curious. And now he was a quite popular artist in the shop, had his regulars, and loved what he was doing. Tattoos were a way for people to express themselves and he loved to help them with it a little bit.

Several tattoos adorned his own body as well, the newest piece being a Dias de Los Muertos woman on his right shoulder blade. Liam had suggested that one special tattoo after Theo had awoken from yet another nightmare. He had said he liked the Mexican holiday and the thought that the dead were never that far away and instead watched over their families. His boyfriend had suggested it would help Theo cope with the lingering guilt about Tara’s death and see a slightly more positive outlook on death, maybe even the hope to once get the chance to make up with his sister. Theo had battled the thought for weeks, going over the pros and cons, and finally decided to do it. He now loved the ink on his skin.

He wasn’t the only one with tattoos on his skin. Liam, for example, had also taken quite a liking to the ink art. The head of a howling wolf on his leg, and several other motifs on his arms and back. The first two tattoos had been done by Bean but the rest, every single one after that, had been done by Theo. There was something about Liam not only wearing something he drew but something he inked on Liam’s skin. It gave him a strange sense of possessiveness and belonging.

Liam’s style had changed in general since the first time Theo met him. He wasn’t looking like America’s sweetheart anymore, not like the typical jock, but his style had become a bit rougher around the edges. Ripped jeans, leather jackets, punk shirts, and due to his work in the bike shop, more tanks, and flannels. It wasn’t unusual to find him with dirt and grease on his hands and on his face and the smell of gasoline and grease always merged with his natural scent. Theo was here for that, he loved his boyfriend looking like that. Liam’s hair was shorter these days, shorter than it had been in high school, but the manual work had given him a new body feeling and since he often worked outside and mostly in a tank, he had a nice tan going on. He looked ridiculously hot if you asked Theo but maybe he was a little biased (He, after all, knew what Liam could do with this body...)

When he found Liam now, the younger male knelt in front of his motorcycle and oiled it. He wore a white loose fitting tank top and dark jeans, littered with oil stains. It had been a bit colder in the morning so Liam had worn a white-red flannel shirt which was now wrapped around his waist. He had not spotted Theo yet, too focused on his task, and Theo smirked. He was like that when it came to tattoos. “I’m aware you love this thing a lot but I brought pizza.”

Liam looked up and smiled when he saw Theo. “Hey, you.” His blue eyes sparkled with happiness and he grabbed the cloth next to him to clean his fingers. “How could I say No to pizza?” “Just to pizza? Not spending time with me? I am hurt, Liam.” “I know I will never say No to spending time with you.” Liam stepped closer to Theo and kissed the corner of his mouth. “Stop being a drama king.” Theo pouted playfully. “Only if I get a real kiss.” “I am greasy and sweaty.” Liam laughed and it coaxed a happy smile from Theo. “Liam, we literally kissed when we were bloodied and full of Gargoyle slime. This will be half as bad.” “Okay.” Liam grinned and then captured Theo’s lips with his in a sweet kiss. Even after three years, it made Theo happy and he eagerly returned the kiss. “Come on, Kiki said you could leave,” he then told his boyfriend and motioned towards the back door of the shop. It was the fastest way to get to their apartment instead of walking around the whole garage. “Yeah, leave before you start making out on Liam’s bike like the last time!” Kiki called from somewhere and the two young men snickered. Liam threw his rag in a container. “See you tomorrow, guys!” He yelled and then left the workshop with Theo.

They reached their apartment over some stairs and Liam unlocked the door. The space above the shop had originally not even been an apartment, more like some unused space. Theo and Liam had taken a lot of time and effort to turn it into a loft-like apartment where they could actually live. It was big enough for the two of them and their two Tamaskan dogs Aka and Koda who now came to greet them happily and then returned to chewing their favorite toys. The apartment even held space enough in case they ever wanted to add another member to their family and adopt a child, but that was something they had not discussed yet and didn’t feel the need to at the moment. They were not even married yet and enjoyed their time together.

“I’m taking a quick shower, you can already start eating,” Liam muttered and pressed a quick kiss against Theo’s cheek when he walked towards the bathroom. The door closed behind him and Theo carried the pizza box into the kitchen to grabbed two glasses and two beers from the fridge and then carry everything out to their little balcony. It wasn’t big, but they had two comfortable benches with soft pillows and a little table gathered there to sit and enjoy summer nights. Even a little barbecue had found its place in a corner. The whole balcony was surrounded by plants. It had started with Liam’s mom giving them one plant when they finally moved into their apartment, and then Liam had claimed one looked like shit. Over time they had gathered various things to make the banister a little friendlier. It looked like a little green oasis in the middle of a meek and otherwise empty backyard.

Theo set everything down on the table and then just ventured into the apartment and the bedroom to change into comfortable sweatpants. When he walked back to the balcony, he plopped down on one bench and sighed. He opened the pizza box and both beers and took a slice of the greasy food. It smelled delicious and was just as tasty as you would think after you smelled it. It made his mouth water and he eagerly took a bite from his slice. Liam wouldn’t mind, he knew Theo hated cold pizza. Chewing he leaned back and enjoyed the rays of the evening sun on his face. The perfect way to end the day.

Liam joined him some minutes later, hair still wet and disheveled from the towel, clad in sweatpants and a hoodie. He sat down on the other bench and leaned back with a groan, stretched out. Theo chuckled. “Long day?” “Uh uh. We had a very demanding customer and you know I love challenges but that guy was really a bit too much and constantly changed things.” He scrubbed his hands down his face and then made grabby hands at the pizza. Theo nudged the box closer to him and watched his boyfriend devour a slice fastly. “That should be unattractive. Strangely, it’s not.” Liam gave him a pearly grin. “You find everything I do attractive,” he stated simply and raised one of the beer bottles. “Cheers.” “Not everything but a lot. Cheers.” Theo raised the other bottle and clinked them together. They both took a gulp from their bottles almost perfectly in sync and grinned. Over the course of their relationship they had grown so close, got to know each other on a whole new level, and those quiet moments felt really nice. They didn’t need to talk, just sitting there an enjoying the sun, finishing the pizza up between the two of them, and sipping their beer was enough to make them both happy and relax them both. 

Theo liked the silence with Liam. He also liked the talks he had with him, don’t get him wrong. He liked Liam’s voice, could spend hours hearing him talk about the things that excited him, but he liked how easy this was as well. He didn’t feel the need to fill the silence with words and he felt himself relax. Theo had always used words as a tool, something to use to get what he wanted in every regard, and he had strongly related to them at the beginning of their, well, everything. He had used his words against Liam, used them to rile him up and manipulate him, but then they had grown closer and words became not necessary anymore. They learned to rely on each other without words, learned to fight together without talking about a tactic before, learned how to be a team without saying much. Again, talking with Liam was great, but Theo had been afraid of the silence for years and Liam helped him overcome it, so now he could also enjoy the silence with his boyfriend.

Liam moved after a while and squeezed the empty pizza box until it got smaller. He got up and carried the trash into the kitchen to throw the box away. Theo smirked. They both weren’t the tidiest people on the earth but Theo hated empty pizza boxes lying around so Liam has picked up the habit of throwing them away as fast as possible. It was a nice gestured and another one of the many little things Liam did to show Theo how much he loved him. 

He walked back but instead of walking back to the bench he had sat before, he walked towards Theo’s bench. Theo moved so Liam could slip behind him and Theo could lean against his chest. Liam’s arms loosely wrapped around him and played with his fingers.  Theo tilted his head back and looked at Liam and the younger smiled but understood. He moved closer and gave Theo a gentle upside down kiss. Both chuckled in the end and then Theo curled up against Liam again and held his face into the sun.  “I love you,” Liam muttered and gently tugged at Theo’s hair with one hand. Theo moaned softly and let his head fell back against Liam’s shoulder.  “I love you too,” Theo replied softly. A huff next to him and Aka trotted into the sun and laid down there again. Koda chewed a bit more on his toy then he grabbed it and carried it outside as well to lay down next to Aka and continue playing. 

Liam kissed his temple, then he leaned back and watched the sun shining down on them and creating various forms on the wooden floor of the balcony and on the plants. “Our little paradise,” he said happily. Theo chuckled. “Our little paradise,” he agreed. It wasn’t a mansion, it wasn’t that much, but it was perfect for them and Theo was once again reminded life was pretty much perfect right now. 

Just something cute to enjoy the evening. I am really curious how you liked that little story. I just love the idea of mechanic Liam and tattoo artist Theo and the rest just happened. What do you say? Any comments/hopes/wishes/dreams? I'm thinking about making this a series and always adding random ficlets to it.

[ladywreck]

My NON Spoiler Review of Requiem of the Wreckers...

... it’s out tomorrow May 30th! Get your copy and a box of tissues! ;D

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I’ve finished the last. The end of the Wreckers. The Requiem.

It was for me; Intense! Emotional!

Over the years I’ve been incredibly vocal about my support for IDW’s Wreckers saga. James Roberts and Nick Roche put 200% of themselves into Last Stand. And Nick carried on the story giving us Sins and now finally Requiem. As a reviewer, its been a real treat to follow and lurk and beam at the success of both James and Nick. Not that I thought for an instant in any serious way that they were writing the stories just for me, but that the Wreckers belonged to the whole fandom, a love note to the original concept! (Although, yeah, secretly, I have to admit I kinda considered them as MY stories still… but that is beside the point.)

Wreckers has been for me a gateway drug to a bigger more elaborate picture of a bunch of sentient robots, misfits, articulate, human-like in many ways, with complex relationships and rich problems set to a thousand millennial war backdrop. Sorta like humanity in many ways. But ultimately not only are they connected to my past, but they’ve been there for me in my present as I’ve become a parent to the next generation of fan. (Because they will be fans if I have any say in the deal.) In the few years I’ve had a chance to interview creatives and creators one thing has stood out. They, like me, got into this Transformers world, when they were kids and its stuck with them. In many ways, its molded them. So its completely fitting that Wreckers has an element of that parentage reflected in the pages of the Wreckers stories. If you thought you could read Requiem and get past that, you clearly don’t know Nick.

I’ll be honest to admit I’ve reached out a few times over the years to share short and sweet messages of my enormous joy at reading Wreckers and encouragement to keep being amazing whether in person or via email to both Nick and James. I know I’ve joked on countless podcasts that I have some significant influence on stories being written because of my contact, it’s all just talk. I never felt it my place to be involved in any way past the gushing of a very enthusiastic fan. My respect for the creators of any IDW’s published works has always been high. That being said, life happens and I’ve stepped back from that lime light to help raise my ever growing family. But my love for what they have built and continue to build has never wavered.

I never thought we’d have the honor to read a 3rd installment of Wreckers. So you can imagine I was emotionally and mentally over the moon when it was announced a few months ago. Along with being just as equally sad that the IDW continuity as we know it will be ending this year as well, but that is something to address at a later date.

Since the time I started Wreckers, its been a great source of inspiration for me. Here is a story of a bunch of best-as-there-ever-was taking on the worst-of-there-ever-were and prevailing in some form to fight another day. Kinda reminds me of life in general. Over the years the series was published, I’ve came from some gloomy times, to great times to some dark times to some uncertain ones, to some really fun ones, to some times when I wasn’t sure how I’d get through. And that’s the Wreckers Saga in a nutshell. Wreck and Rule has been a phrase and a mantra to get me through. While Nick and James didn’t pen the original, that was Simon Furman, I’ve connected with it on a personal level. A lot of people outside the Transformers fandom don’t understand it, I get strange looks from my family and neighbors who aren’t on my level of weirdness, but it’s mine. Wreck and Rule! Thank you Simon for starting this ball! And Nick for keeping it going for the run its gone. Also, for everyone who’s bought a tee shirt with “Wreck and Rule” on it! You ROCK!

It’s difficult to come to the end of an era. The end of Wreckers. I’d like to believe that Wreckers isn’t really going to end, because nothing ever does, or should when we really love it. Something else will be built in the new continuity. (Maybe even James may attempt those 332 datalogs I’m still waiting for?) But the realist in me says; future story just won’t be what I have in my hands today. It’s made me emotional. BUT what can be held onto is what we have isn’t going away any time soon. I still have the story here in my hands. All of it. And everything else I love. It will still be with me for years to come. I will be opening every one of the installments of Wreckers many times, the pages might even fall out of the binding at some point. Every time I have a problem, looking back at these stories will be a light in my overcast day. And maybe even more on those really really dark days. Life usually has a way of persisting…

If we are lucky, we will have more someday. I honestly believe that. I have hope in that, as sure as we’ve all been changed by reading the Wreckers Saga, its impact will continue to be felt. Lessons learned and messages received aren’t forgotten easily. Requiem ended with hope, it also gave us a message about moving forward. And on that note I leave you with a final message…

WRECK the things that keep you down and take away your peace and joy, that cause fear and doubt, those things that keep you a prisoner and far from what you want most out of life. Then all that remains are your RULES for your life and a future where you can be better.

And don’t forget…

Wreck…

[leonawriter]

hello!! do you have any ffvii fic recs? the sheer amount of fics there are is daunting to say the least haha...

Sure! And I agree, the fandom’s been around for a long, long time, so it can be hard to find things. 

My personal preferences will show up here - I prefer non-pairing fics, but a few will show up, either because I do ship it, it’s canon (Zack/Aerith, for both of those), or I think it’s well written enough, and I can see where they’re coming from. Also, copious amounts of Cloud, Genesis, and Sephiroth... specifically, usually the kind where things work out okay.

- 

The Fifth Act - Cloud has an accident with a Time materia, and finds himself in the middle of the Wastes at the start of the Wutai War. There are people to save... and for that, there are three people who need to die.

This was one of the first FF7 fics I read. It’s a time travel fic, and a really good one. It’s also where I had my first look at who Genesis might be if he hadn’t been in such a bad situation.

Mysterious - "General Sephiroth was last seen in the basement, reading. Beyond this, not much is known." - The Midgar Times.

This one’s a really nice short thing, canon divergence with a sort of open-ended hopeful tone.

Haunted - 'I will never be a memory' Sephiroth had been right. There would always be a piece of him lurking inside Cloud's mind, but it was amazing how even the most horrific existential terror could become mundane, and given long enough, even irritating. Small snippets of Cloud's everyday life, dealing with what was left of Sephiroth.

Okay this one is just plain silly, but it made me laugh.

Great Minds - Genesis does not want a student and Kunsel does not want a mentor. If they occasionally stand next to each other when voicing general pieces of advice that is entirely coincidental. A short story of an unlikely friendship that takes off despite everyone's best efforts.

Same author as the above, and somewhat more serious, but also has some damn good funny bits in it too.

Jukebox - Cloud had certain buttons that would always be easily pushed, and Barret would always jab them. Scene from sometime after Advent Children.

One of those rare Cloud and Barret friendship stories, and wow I loved how the author got them both down so well here. And the way that Tifa is characterised even in her absence.

Time Out of Mind - AU. Events at Nibelheim take a trip into the surreal, and old myths become more than legend.

I’ve seen a few fics that give Nibelheim some kind of importance or mythology, and this one really worked, with a sense of the additions mixing well and it feeling like this could have been a thing. 

After the Storm - After all the crises, Tifa is slowly healing even if she has to do it alone. The red headed man in her bar is trying to doing the same. Together they may find more then just shared pain to escape but shared happiness to strive for. TifaXGenesis, set after Dirge of Cerberus.

There’s some nice buildup here, and we get a really nice sense of who they are and how much they’ve been through. I felt like there could have been more to add onto the ending, but aside from that, nice fic.

Gonna Need More Than Nine Lives - A year ago Reeve would have been thrilled—he'd created life! He'd torn down the supposed laws of artificial intelligence!—but now he was only deeply afraid.

Reeve's state-of-the-art surveillance robot has apparently developed a consciousness. In not-completely-unrelated news, the thing has decided it's fond of the terrorists Reeve's supposed to be fighting.

I love Reeve-and-Cait fic, and this is a great one. 

The Wooing of the Moon - Starring Genesis as someone terrible at romance, Sephiroth as someone almost as bad and far more clueless, and Angeal as the stoically sassy ace friend. Featuring Zack as agent of chaos.

Okay this one is one I really enjoyed mostly because of the way that both Genesis and Sephiroth are clueless about how these things go in their own ways, and it’s essentially two chapters’ worth of them learning How To Communicate Feelings. Which is always fun!

Rust - Same author as above. Nanaki and Cloud friendship shortly after Advent Children, and has a great bit at the end regarding the Buster Sword.

On Broken Wings - Five years after Meteorfall, Sephiroth returns - the true Sephiroth, the man behind the monster. Traumatized and ill-prepared for life outside of the control of either Shinra or Jenova, Sephiroth nevertheless seeks redemption for the suffering and death he caused: starting with the man who was forced to kill him.

This is a great fic for a Sephiroth redemption storyline, is still a work in progress, although I’m reccing it mainly because it was the one that prompted me to watch Crisis Core for the first time. My main warnings are: Sephiroth is often given the ‘it wasn’t your fault’ talk/implications, and feels more than a little like his PTSD is more like Vincent’s than how I’d actually now write his, and... Zack takes the place of Genesis and Angeal. It’s still worth a read, though.

To Be Human - The world seems black and white at a glance, but the truth is never so easy. Where one draws the line between human and monster is a lot less clear when motive and deed don’t match, and a change in form is only proof of something that has been there all along. (Angel's Wings rewrite, Crisis Core fix-it.)

This is a massive fic, and although there were a few small things I wasn’t sure of, is overall still very strong. Canon divergence and AU where communication is the most important theme!

Counter Crisis - At first it was about preventing tragedy. For Cloud it soon becomes a fight to protect new bonds, tread untrod paths and find happy endings. Second chances aren't always easy in a time where ghosts live and heroes are human. 

Time travel fic that’s still a work in progress and apparently it’s going to span three books, with later instalments introducing Sephiroth/Cloud, though the first one’s still mainly gen other than the Zack/Aerith, and the relationships are being built up really slowly, and really well, too - and not just between eventual romantic partners, either.

Building Bridges - Denzel has never fogiven Reno for destroying Sector Seven, but he’s never known the full story either. You could call this a plate drop fic with a twist, but that would be overdramatizing it.

I recced this fic the other day, and it is so damn good. Reno is characterised so well, and the ‘twist’ makes so much sense I’m tempted to take it on as my personal canon now. Denzel is also really well handled here.

I think that’s most of the main ones that I really loved that I could easily remember and/or nab the links for! If I find more, I’ll try and add them either in a new post, or onto this one. :)