#i think my issue when it comes to like. AUs where they're “opposites” on a more extreme scale

[shikisei]

what if..

narumitsu..

but priest and devil

(idk which is which you pick)

i got lost . so you get 2 demons and no priest instead sorry

[m-jelly]

Modern AU senario with cheerleader reader and sport Levi (I don't know what kind of sports he would be into besides martial arts haha) where someone on levi's team or the other side makes fun of reader saying like 'cheerleading is not a real sport.' and so on. So levi defends reader because he has a crush on her. You may make the confession any way you like! Thank you for reading this!!!

So the only sport I know really well and because of the country I live in, I'm picking rugby. I've written a fic with him playing it before.

@ladycheesington <3

Cheer

Levi x fem!reader

Modern AU, university AU, fluff, romance, confessions, rugby Levi, cheerleader reader, short one-shot.

While a player on the opposite team starts bad-mouthing you for being a cheerleader, Levi comes to your aid and, in his speech to defend you, confesses.

@ladycheesington @levisbrat25 @nyxiieluna @li-anne @galactict3a @youre-ackermine @thebobaprincess @2moth-anon2 @cypidity @nbinairyn @bts-spnlvr12 @darkstarlight82 @emilyyyy-08 @notgoodforlife @demonic-bird

You posed with your group and cheered for the team, Paradis Scouts. A blush heated your cheeks when you saw Levi jog by. Since cheering for him about a month ago, you have developed a little crush on him. He was just sweet and handsome.

"Fucking, cheerleaders."

You looked over at a member of the rival team, Marley Titans. "Can we help you?"

He sneered at you. "Cheerleaders, you're all a waste of space. You clog up the pitch throwing your bodies around. It's not a real sport."

You folded your arms. "That's your opinion. I don't care what you think. We like doing this, it's fun we practice often and it looks good."

"You're a waste of time."

You rolled your eyes. "Are we supposed to get upset and emotional over that? Why should we care what one guy thinks? I won't change my life because you don't like this."

He got up in your face making the other girls gasp. "You're a stupid bitch. You all should be banned from the pitch. You're a distraction."

"That's a you problem, arsehole."

"You little!"

Levi slammed his hand on the man's chest and shoved him back. "Tch, oi back the fuck off!"

The man glared at Levi. "Don't you touch me, you Paradis scout scum."

"Then don't get up in my girl's face."

The man laughed as you felt your heart race. He shook his head. "Should have known you would be fucking a waste of space cheerleader. It's not even a real sport."

Levi grabbed your hand. "Do you even know what these ladies go through? They work hard often. They train for hours. They get injuries. Fuck, they could even break bones easily. This is a dangerous sport for them; they wear no pads to protect parts of their body. You had shin guards, they don't have shit."

The man huffed. "But they're a distraction."

"I love this woman and I manage to play the match fine. As she said, that is a you problem. Everyone else seems to be playing the match fine. I think the issue is, you are just shit at rugby."

"You!" He growled. "Fuck you both."

You watched as he stormed off. "Levi, thank you."

He turned to you. "I'm sorry he talked to you like that." He played with your hand. "You deserve better."

You nibbled your lip. "So, you love me."

He blushed hard. "I ah...yes..."

You leaned closer and kissed him. "Well, it's a good job I feel the same."

Levi smiled and pulled you closer before kissing you passionately. "Please be mine."

"I'm all yours, handsome." You kissed his cheek. "Beat their fucking ass."

Levi pinched your cheek. "Oh, I will."

[ageravena]

You know what, the Fairly OddParents fandom has been quite tame. Let's spice things up a little bit.

Doesn't anybody else get that silly feeling when you see fanart of Peri being like a father to Dev, like... where's the rest of you 😍? Don't be shy, show us where Dale is. Or are you too scared? (I wouldn't blame you, I was too at first)

Small warning: this post includes slight swearing and many brain-numbing headcanons. I'm not responsible for any mental anguish you may experience

I would like to quickly apologize to the 6 people shipping Peri with Dale. I thought I was the only one but it seems like I've finally found my people. Anyways, back to the topic.

Now that you're here, I may as well show some more art of these two goobers +some silly headcanons. These are my AUed* versions of the two in my odd semi-realistic style that I completely ditch whenever I don't have the patience to draw faces (I often suck at drawing them. No wonder all my OCs are furries)

Note: him being slightly chubby and him having mobility issues are both headcanons I have shamelessly borrowed from others in the fandom. Also am I the only one who thinks Peri WOULDN'T be 6 ft tall? In the series he's like 5 apples tall, so wouldn't it make sense for him to be a bit short?

Note: there's like a bunch of lore explaining the reason why Dale looks so fucked up in my version. I scarred him for life, oopsie! But at least he has Peri now who "forces" him to go to therapy 😍. I may need to make a seperate post where I only talk about him and his past if I have the motivation.

I know a lot of you don't even know the pain of trying to convert a stylized character into a realistic style and still making them look good and kinda recognizable. I envy you who have less realistic art styles.

*And yes, I did say AU. More specifically I'm talking about the "Missionaries of Eden AU" (by me). I'm not gonna go into detail now, but basically it's a semi-biblical and more serious take on FOP, where the fairies are angels, anti-fairies are demons and pixies... I think they can stay as pixies, or maybe they're ghosts, bees? (There's a lot of things I still need to figure out) Their tasks are to work as missionaries on the planets of Eden (planets where life exists). There's a bunch of other lore (some of which I've explained on my casual/personal account on Instagram), but it's best I leave it for another time.

Btw: if you've seen me talk about a "Below the Stars AU", "Bible AU", "Ager DLC" or something else, it's all just the same thing. I just had a hard time coming up with a good name for it lol.

Also speaking of which, I have another post coming up (hopefully) where I explain my reasons for shipping Peri and Dale. It can honestly, out of context, seem like a toxic yaoi crack ship, but believe it or not but I managed to make it the opposite; plausible AND healthy. I want to enlighten you all plus I really want to yap about them.

It feels super funny to ship such a underrated ship. I'm used to shipping semi-popular ships, so to now be all alone feels kinda fun! They have so much potential and so few are seeing the vision?? Though to be fair I'm also glad it's not that famous lmao.

Ps. Ignore the fact I haven't posted anything here for at least half-a-year. All my mutuals are on Instagram, so I don't have a need to post here, though now I've decided to dedicate this account to hyperfixation slop so maybe you'll be hearing from me much sooner.

Ps. Ps. I currently have a 22-page-long google doc filled with lore and info about almost everything I've thought of for the AU, but it's 80% in Finnish so sharing it is useless.

Man, I love writing unnecessary long posts knowing I'm the only one reading them❤️😍 though if you HAVE gotten this far, here's a little treat:

My body refuses to draw Dale in his original outfit. I like to pretend Peri helped him change a bit (most notably taking off his goddamn shoes, though they do have some lore that I've created. GGHHRRAAA EVERYTHING HAS LORE ATTACHED TO IT GRRRR). Also Dev isn't actually grumpy, he just likes to act tough.

My art style looks probably so inconsistent❤️

[jonathan-samuel-smith]

TW bipolar discussion and nonconsensual kissing, mental health discussion

So about Saturn Girl kissing Jon without his ability to consent to it: I get that she isn't actively deciding to mind control the people around her, but she does have a choice in the matter. Her family wanted her to stay home until she could control her mind control powers, but she didn't want to and left. To me that's like if I noticed I was manic (not hypomanic) and didn't go to the mental hospital... Like I can't control my bipolar but I have the choice to stay away from others when it would harm them. That's not even a good comparison though because my judgement isn't clear enough to consistently do that when I'm manic, whereas she is at baseline and is able to think rationally. I wouldn't blame someone with bipolar because they have no choice, but I'm just saying the obvious choice would be to keep yourself away from others even if it's not fun for you. I feel like I can blame her, because she has a choice.

I do sympathize with her, but I really think she's hurting others disproportionately to the distress she feels stuck at home, and that's not okay.

If you look back on the events with the knowledge that she can't turn off her mind control, you see how manipulative she is, especially to Jon, and she does high-control group tactics: love bombing, isolation, guilt tripping, not letting him have rest alone where he would have time to realize he didn't want this.

I don't like the JonDami narrative that Jon was an asshole for leaving Damian in the past or was running away from his problems, because in my view he was dragged into a cult and I can't blame him for that, especially because he was extremely vulnerable at the time. I also don't believe Jon would have left in the first place if he knew up front that he couldn't bring Damian to at least visit him.

Jon had been in a state of fight or flight for around 6 years (not just talking about the volcano because there was also his verbally abusive grandpa and their deadly adventures and being trapped in space, and then him struggling to survive on the streets and trying to find a way home after he escaped) and the first time he really got a chance to cool down was when he was talking with Damian. He really needs a long break, therapy, and medication because what he went through can't be treated with therapy alone as the stress has chemical effects in the brain that need to be adjusted.

The writers don't care about how Jon should be extremely hypervigilant and defensive and anxious. I guess that's just not brave enough for a superhero, nevermind that leaving the house and getting treatment for these things, learning to trust again, and letting people help you is so much braver than punching guys when you have superpowers. It's natural to fight when your fight or flight is activated in a protective manner, but doing the logical thing when every signal in your body is telling you not to is really damn hard. The only coward is DC for giving Jon trauma and not actually writing a traumatized character.

That all being said, Damian clearly doesn't see how Jon is being manipulated, probably because his head is full of self hatred & doubting & repressed desires to ask Jon to stay, and thinks he needs to go against his abandonment trauma by swinging the pendulum too far in the opposite direction in his speech. With his c-ptsd and abandonment issues I can see him becoming bitter towards Jon for going to the future.

That could make for a really complex fanfiction, don't you think? The conflict coming from their unique life experiences and traumas, and them learning to understand each other like they're always doing. This misunderstanding of intentions born not out of something dumb like hearing the wrong thing or being unclear in language, but from their different points of view.

My jondami au where Jon leaves the legion early is calling me lmao "Isaac we have more problems for you to fix~"

That being said I have no exclusivity to these ideas for writing.

[random-thought-depository]

Brett Devereaux made an observation about Dune that I really like: that Paul Atreides and Feyd Rautha Harkonnen were probably raised with very similar values.

This isn't exactly a ship in the usual fandom sense of the word, but I think it'd be interesting to see this explored in an AU fanfic where Paul and Feyd Rautha somehow team up at the end of Dune.

I think what'd work really well for this is a scenario where Feyd Rautha somehow gets control over House Harkonnen and swears loyalty/vassalage to Paul, adding effective control over House Harkonnen to Paul's portfolio at the end of Dune.

I think that'd have really crunchy social and emotional dynamics that'd fit really well with the theme here. Paul has spent years hating the Harkonnens and seeking revenge on them for the death of his father and a lot of the surviving remnant of Paul's own house have pretty similar feelings, and now here's Feyd Rautha saying to Paul "The armies of my house await your orders, my lord," and Feyd and his Harkonnen buddies are now hanging out at Paul's court and hobnobbing with Paul and the rest of his court. If Gurney Halleck and Duncan Idaho are alive in this scenario I bet they'd hate this and there'd be some pretty tense moments when they have to collaborate with their Harkonnen opposite numbers.

Atreides and Harkonnen generals collaborating to plan the Jihad with kinda shitlib vs. MAGA chud vibe tension where the Atreides have thinking of themselves as the side of good as an important part of their self-image while the Harkonnens tend to be more casually bloodthirsty and sadistic but this is arguably more a difference in aesthetics than anything substantive, when crunch time comes they can put these cultural differences aside and collaborate surprisingly easily on shared goals because they're actually fundamentally similar people with fundamentally similar worldviews and values, molded by fundamentally similar institutions.

Feyd Rautha becoming one of Paul's closest subordinates and kind of his friend in a weird way cause they're actually fundamentally similar people and useful to each other.

I think Feyd is supposed to still be pretty young at the end of Dune, so this might work better if Paul is a bit less lucky in his campaign against the Harkonnens, delaying the events of the end of Dune by a few years but ultimately not preventing them, or something like that, IDK.

I think if I were writing this the closest I'd take this to shipping in the common fandom sense is Paul and Feyd end up kind of in a wife-loaning polycule with Irulan, though one that's asexual on Paul's side. Basically at some point Irulan and Paul have a conversation that's basically a more refined version of this:

IRULAN: "Hey, I'm tired of living a life of involuntary celibacy cause you need a political marriage to me but won't have sex with me because of your issues. Can you just wife-loan me to one of your right-hand men if you're gonna be so complicated?"

PAUL: "Fine, sure. The usual rules will apply: keep it on the down-low and don't get pregnant."

IRULAN: "Fine."

PAUL: "Did you have any candidates in mind? If not, might I suggest Utrecht or Hakim?"

IRULAN: "I AM NOT SLEEPING WITH AN UNBATHED DESERT BARBARIAN! ... Feyd is kind of hot, I guess... I'll take him!"

PAUL: "That arrangement would be perfectly acceptable to me. Pending Feyd's agreement, we have a deal. I'll discuss this matter with him tonight, after I've discussed with him the deposition of his house troops in the conquest expedition I'll be launching against the Megara worlds. I think he'll agree."

IRULAN: "Great!"

I have had one or two or three little ideas for a Dune fanfic but have never figured out what the plot would be. I suppose now if I ever actually write a Dune fanfic, it'll probably be about this premise.

I guess in a way it might be fridge brilliance that this didn't happen in the actual books, cause this is a lot like the relationship between Leto II and Farad'n at the end of Children of Dune and Farad'n reads to me as a mirror to Paul in the same way Feyd is, and the arc of the Dune novels up to God-Emperor of Dune is Leto II could do what Paul couldn't bring himself to do, so Leto II being able to co-opt Farad'n while Paul couldn't co-opt Feyd would fit with that.

[dairy-farmer]

There's an old AU written here on Tumblr about Luthor being Tim's biological Father. Imagine Luthor encouraging Kon's incest kink. Of course the most perfect husband for his precious baby would be someone he made! It's not like Luthor can't help out in removing any faulty mutations that can arise in an embryo between two siblings. Their family would be unstoppable! Luthor was softer in that AU because of Tim's influence so he's not a major villain in this. He just likes to contradict Superman sometimes.

The JL gets a message from the watchtower that Luthor is there. They are met with Luthor and Kon. Luthor tells Superman to claim Kon as his kid so that Kon can marry his baby without people judging them. Superman is more mad that Luthor made a being from his DNA without his consent. Batman put a stop to that growing fight by asking why does Clark Kent/Superman need to be involved with his kid's marriage. Luthor braggingly replied that it's because Kon also has Luthor's own DNA. People would keep on digging on who got his approval to marry his tightly guarded treasure but no one would if they find out that Kon is the son of one of the people who likes to clash with him and then they could spin it as something like a Romeo/Juliet story with Superman/Clark Kent as the villain of course and he, the best father in the world being supportive. Everyone is horrified except Luthor and Kon, who had zoned out and had been listening to his little brother tease him. Kon can't wait for the wedding they've planned to happen in a few days.

-🦆

i think i've read that series!! where tim is raised by luthor and kon comes into the picture later on!!! the part of the trope that grabs my attention though is something more like this other fic where lex may have been tim's bio father. it's basically a mama mia situation but i'm imagining a scenario where accidental incest happens with tim and kon 👀👀👀👀👀.

neither of them know that they're biological half brothers and are together and fully in love and luthor, of course, being luthor figures it out! of course he could be an ass about it, throw a wrench in and ruin it for them but...he's also finding out he has a son and maybe he's feeling a little sentimental. he's old now, not as young as he used to be and maybe it gets to him a little. for the longest time his feelings on kon el have been changing because at first he was just an experiment, a product, an investment. but like he said, age has made him strangely nostalgic. realizing that both his children have chosen one another doesn't horrify him or gross him out the way it would for most other people. then again most other people are idiots.

finding out they're planning on getting married, that the two of them have made plans to tie the knot if what gets him up. his children are getting married, he's allowed to be a little emotional. lex is a planner and he's not about to let wayne be heralded as the generous patron to fund the largest wedding gotham's ever seen. so...lex might pull out some old tricks. old "supes" isn't as sharp as he used to be and he despises luthor on principle enough to do the opposite of what he wants. so if luthor slips some...subliminal messaging to push him into fully claiming kon as his son well than that was alright.

it sure is a heck of a shock when every newspaper in metropolis aside runs the story of luthor finding out he had a son and was planning on reconnecting with the child. the look on wayne's face when luthor showed up on his front steps was almost enough to make luthor want to snap a picture of it.

of course there are tears shed, mainly because his children seem to think they can't be together anymore and luthor's support of their relationship doesn't seem to help. the real objector is tim.

kon seems to have little issue with it and is just comforting his brother. while it may be invasive for a parent, luthor does keep tabs on kon's activity and is very well aware about his mild obsession with incest porn. if anything this was a dream come true for him.

however that doesn't halt the fact that there is the tiniest bit of chaos surrounding the wedding and how half of wayne's runts think the wedding won't happen. which is perfect because it allows luthor to swoop in (having booked all possible venues out for months so wayne can't even get a decent place in time) as the the father of the bride here to perform a miracle when his children realize they love one another enough to overcome this hiccup.

luthor has never been prouder

[yellowcry]

Is it cheating if I put all the fruit emojis in one ask?

Okay, fine, I’ll just put two:

🍌🍈

Me, seeing a notification: Isa, wtf??? But considering what I'm doing to you it's pretty fair

What the funniest joke/pun/reference you put in the fic?

It's hard to tell off the top of my head. I definitely didn't put any intentional reference. I usually just run with the flow, without thinking much about the jokes. It just happens when it happens.

Tho Luisa calling Isabela 'hermanita' is iconic. Also the fact that in the first fic in TTO au Luisa makes a lot of Greek mythology references which later would be referred in the fic.

Who's your blorbo? Mischaracterization, headcanons

Luisa my beloved. Give my girl damn fan content 😭😭. So so so! In the-movie works it's much of her being a nervous wreck. She definitely has anxiety issues as we can see in the TOTS book (and I mean just look at her song. Her breathing between the lines in the first chorus is just so AHH), very emotional! And the subtle hints on her having the good relationship with Mirabel. Like hugging her in the family photo in Mirabel's room. Or the look of understanding when Mira walks Antonío to his door. They're just so sweet!

She's protector of the family! Comes in every au. Maybe except for TTO as there's not much of a family to protect, so Agustín and Luisa look out for eachother in the moment. She's definitely the one to fight whenever there's a danger. I had pointed out on how Luisa's killing Cerberus is one of the two deaths in the movie (even if it was imagination)

Mischaracterization? About her being hyper-femmine on the outside before the movie I think. What makes the pink clouds part in Surface pressure so emotional is that its a complete opposite of the facade she puts in the previous parts. It baffles me when Luisa is known as femmine before her character development. It something she hides as she supposed to be strong for the others. She would become more open with it post-movie.

Same goes with her being openly emotional/sensitive. As Jessica says, Luisa is rock of the family. Which comes to be as someone who holds things together/supports everyone. I think it's part of the reason why Luisa loses her gift first. Luisa, who supposed to be strong breaks down crying? It shows how deep the issues within the family.

Well, her love for coffee is iconic, isn't it? And I can imagine her being a fast walker, it came from a wrecked translation in TOTS book, where she said about her being fast in the moment as if she's just fast by herself. But, you can do more work if you walk faster, right? And then also comes thing about her being protective of the others.

I would probably make it longer, but I can't think of anything else

[lapetitechatonne]

Slept on Ships P1: Space Princess

Slept on Ships: Space Princess; Silent Jasmines hello!! so after taking a look at the very long Batpham shipping chart and seeing so many slept on ship dynamics, i decided to start a series all about highlighting romantic and platonic dynamics that---in my professional opinion---deserve more love. i'll be starting with the first dp/dc ship i created: Space Princess.

Space Princess: Dani Phantom/Mar'i Grayson

Relevant Background

so, in general, if you're not knee deep in the DC Fandom, you might now know who Mar'i Grayson, aka Nightstar, is. Mar'i Grayson is the daughter of Dick Grayson, aka Nightwing, and Koriand'r, aka Starfire, from Earth-22. she appears in the Kingdom Come series, where she has her own issue and everything! she's shown as protective of her family, like her father, and just as strong-willed as her mother.

if you'd like more info on Mar'i here's a like to the wiki article: Mar'i Grayson (Earth-22)

fun fact: in Kingdom Come, Dick and Kori are actually divorced, while in most fanfic, people portray them as together. Mar'i is also part of the Teen Titans on her earth, along with Lian Harper and Irey West.

in this post i'll be reference a few head canons such as; Dani being considered a Princess in a Ghost King Danny au and Dani possibly having an ice core (we don't know what core she has in canon.)

Why is the dynamic interesting?

they are prime Sun and Moon couple energy

Mar'i who lives her life in the sun as a public figure, her powers fuled by the sun and just as bright as her, while Dani hides in the shadows of society, lurking. giving Dani and ice core adds an extra layer of opposites.

they are equal parts soft sapphic girls, and battle hardened heroes. they're both incredibly capable political figures (in a Ghost King Danny Au) who always have to put up a front, they have to be the perfect leaders their kingdoms need them to be. they would understand each other in ways that other people couldn't

i also imagine them bonding over being the child of very famous/rich parents.

they also have colorful girlfriend and grunge girlfriend vibes.

Dani deserves to run Tameran like a fortune five hundred company while Mar'i is off being a superhero. the dynamic works strangely well for them.

Dick and Kori would love Dani, and if Mar'i doesn't marry her they're adopting her

Mar'i can be scary when she wants to, just like her mom. Dani thinks it's very hot.

Mar'i inherits her mother's height, which makes her both taller and stronger than Dani, and Dani would love it.

i like to imagine Dani having purple eyes or powers later down the road (since Vlad's are pink and Danny's are green/blue) which would make them almost opposites. it could be a fun story device to use.

A lot of people compare Mar'i to her mother, but realistically, i think she would be a lot like her dad's family, specifically Tim. it would be fun to explore the dynamics between Mar'i and Tim as niece and uncle, and they dynamic between Mar'i and Damian as sort of siblings (yes, i am a 'Dick Grayson is Damian Wayne's dad' fan). it could be prime real estate for a little bit of Danny/Damian or Dan/Tim or Jazz/Cass on the side.

Mar'i inherited her mom/dad's anger, and he Uncle Tim's ability to compartmentalize her feelings until she breaks. enough said.

through Mar'i, and by extension the batfam, Dani learns what real love looks like. she finally understands how abusive Vlad was to her. this could be in the context of a Vlad trying to redem himself, or a Vlad trying to manipulate Dani back into his life, but now she knows better.

with how much Mar'i hung around Raven as a kid, it would be interesting if Mar'i knew that Dani was not normal before everyone else. maybe Mar'i even knows a little bit of magic.

Some Prompt Ideas

a photographer and model au

Dani joins the Teen Titans and meets Nightstar

Vlad and Bruce are business rivals, but neither Dani or Mar'i particularly care and get together anyways.

Mar'i sees a clip of Dani in her ghost form with her green powers and thinks she's Tameranian. Mar'i channels her inner Uncle Tim and goes all detective to find Dani.

Dani is a mechanic and Mar'i is a student who refuses to get her very old car replaced.

Mar'i gets lost in the Zone after the destruction of her universe. She had no idea what to do or where to go. Dani finds her, and together they traverse worlds they were never meant to see.

Fic Recs

(i will admit the second one is self-promotion but i'm working with a small pool of fics lol)

Our Love Will Last Us by foldingfacets (READ THE TAGS)

Dani fell in love with the hot girl who watched her smash her skateboard into a dude without care. Little did she know the girl saw her first and fell in love faster. Maybe, just maybe, Dani doesn't have to be alone anymore. Maybe Mar'i would stay.

Can I have this Dance? by petitechatonne

When Dani goes to a gala with Sam, originally intent on keeping her friend company, she meets someone who sweeps her off her feet. Literally.

Playlists

Pintrest Boards

this paring has the ability to be cute and horrifyingly angsty at the same time, with a good helping of family chaos on the side!!! i will admit i'm quite bias about this one as the first ship i really made, but i also think they have the potential to have interesting and complex stories. there aren't enough sapphic pairings in the dp/dc fandom and yes, i am trying to single-handedly change that. join the revolution today!!!

-- find the wonder in creating. love, Kate💗

[stevmarie]

Our boys finally get to learn a little more about each other...

Saint of Steel AU: Part 6

Gajeel retired to the tent not so exhausted but extremely agitated. Of course, he had no right to be. Because he should be thankful for the hospitality, and above all, for the warm place to sleep. But still... did it have to be in the captain's tent?

He scrubbed his face with his hands.

Earlier that day, Laxus had left him before the empty tent, allowing him to choose where it was he wanted to sleep. This allowed Gajeel to pick a place close to the entrance of the tent, and later, once Laxus had helped to set up the rest of the camp, had placed his own on the opposite side. If the captain took notice of the positioning, or if he even cared, he had shown no sign. Which would be very much like him, come to think of it.

The word chivalrous came to Gajeel's mind, unfurling rather like an origami bird losing its shape to poor craftsmanship.

He let out a sigh and pulled his robes tighter around himself before stoking the small stove to help warm the small space. He was sitting on the ground contemplating a cup of tea when the captain came in. He gave Gajeel a cursory glance before removing his cloak to hang near the stove.

Gajeel feigned disinterest, but still watched the man out of the corner of his eye.

"Father, do you truly think I am merely a mercenary captain?"

Laxus removed his gloves and his gauntlets and set them to the side. He dug through his bag and procured a whetstone, settling down on his own bedroll with his long legs flat against the ground. He drew his sword from its scabbard, and the ring of metal made Gajeel's molars taste like copper. On another man, all of this would appear very relaxed. But there was nothing in the way Laxus carried himself that said at ease. It occurred to Gajeel that this man could go from this calm state to ready to fight in the seconds it would take Gajeel to even register danger. There was a quality about him that spoke of a well-fed predator. For the moment, it was sated and content to bide its time. But turn your back at the wrong moment...

"Do you often work with the Pegasus Temple?" Gajeel asked.

Laxus blinked down at his sword, processing his words. If he was surprised, he showed no sign other than a slight twitch of his brow. He slid the whetstone against the blade, sharpening the edge.

"More often now than we used to," Laxus replied.

"What sort of things does the Pegasus Temple contract with mercenaries for?" Gajeel said, and then gestured vaguely towards the opening of the tent, "Aside from escorting merchants and their precious wares."

"Oh, usually we're escorting healers, or lawyers, or The Bishop," he paused at that last one before continuing, "They're a practical lot, the priests of the Pegasus Temple. So practical they often don't understand that they could be in danger."

"I see..." Gajeel said slowly.

"You know, a friend of mine, Gildarts, once told me he was told to escort a healer through the red lamp district. The man was against it. He was afraid a man with a sword might scare some of his clients."

"I can understand why he'd be worried about that," Gajeel replied, "I can't imagine any red lamp district would take men with swords walking around."

"Yes, well, there was an issue of headless bodies being found around that area," he replied, his tone dry.

"Ah..."

Headless bodies? Now didn't that sound familiar...

"When this fact was pointed out to him, do you want to know what the healer said?" Laxus shot him a tired look, "Who would ever murder a healer?"

Gajeel chuckled, "I think if someone is to the point of chopping off heads, they might not care who it is."

"You understand my friend's dismay, then."

"And... you think the murderer has moved north, do you?" Gajeel asked, again looking at Laxus only out of the corner of his eye.

Laxus hesitated.

"Surely, you don't think I'm the murderer?" Gajeel asked, unable to stop a lopsided grin, "Why the secrecy?"

"No, of course not," Laxus rushed to say, his eyes widening slightly, "It's just... ah... the Bishop is concerned about mass panic."

Gajeel raised his eyebrows, "The Bishop doesn't want to warn people about someone going around chopping people's heads off?"

Laxus studied his blade for a moment, his eyes going hard as he thought. Then, he seemed to make up his mind.

"We know who, er, we know what is doing it,” he said at length.

Gajeel blinked at him, “What?”

“Yes. That same friend of mine, Gildarts, stumbled on one in an alley. It was a man, or, it looked like a man. Or, ehh… it was a man’s head made out of clay. Somehow, and I don’t know how, it removes the head of the victim and replaces it with its own. And then it uses that new body until it decays enough that it needs a new one.”

The story in the tavern suddenly made a lot of sense. A body found missing a head, and a different head found nearby.

“A… clay head?” Gajeel asked, not understanding.

“Yes. We’ve been calling them smooth men because, well, they look like men unless you look at them closely. But they’re made out of clay.”

“They? As in…?”

Laxus nodded gravely, “More than one.”

“And you think they… what? Fled north?”

“No.” Laxus said, “We think they came from here.”

“That story, from the man at the tavern…”

“Five years ago, yes. We think that someone is making them, a wonder worker of some kind, and that they may be heading back to them now that they’ve been found out.”

“How many are there?” Gajeel asked.

Laxus shrugged, “We don’t know. We destroyed two of them, and a warehouse where it appeared new heads were being made, although those weren’t alive.”

"And the Bishop doesn't want to warn people because...?" Gajeel asked, mildly horrified.

Laxus's smile was wan and wry, "Could you imagine what people would do if they were told there were pale creatures who looked like men on the loose beheading people? And that we didn't know how many there were or where they were hiding?"

"Oh." Gajeel said eloquently, "That... wouldn't be good."

"Mass panic." Laxus iterated, "We'd be doing more harm than good."

"So that's the real reason you're heading across the mountains?"

"It wasn't out of distrust that I didn't mention it," Laxus said quickly, "But imagine I had and we dropped you off at the next small village we came across? And imagine you told them a band of armed men were searching for strange clay human look-alikes that were out beheading people?"

"Yes... I can imagine."

Gajeel could imagine. He could image very, very well, actually. He himself had to hide parts of himself for fear of what people would do if they found out. And he was at least human.

"People would tear apart anyone they saw as an outsider... or burn them at the stake."

"Yes," Laxus hummed contemplatively.

They lapsed back into silence as Laxus continued to work. Once he was done sharpening his blade, he stripped himself of his tabard, revealing the chainmail beneath. The tiny ringlets glittered in the dim light of the stove as he pulled the heavy armor from his shoulders.

Gajeel tried very, very hard not to stare.

The man was fair with skin almost as light as cream. Skin that was pulled tight against each curve of every muscle on his chest and his back. Gods, the man had such with shoulders, and surprisingly, a tattoo of black ink. Gajeel didn't know much about tattoos, except only that many religious orders didn't like them. He did know enough about them to know these were decorative and not a symbol of slavery or imprisonment.

Gajeel was just letting his eyes trail down the curve of the man's hips when the captain did the unthinkable. He paced back over to his bag and began rummaging around, bending over. For a very long, very foolish moment, he appreciated what leggings could do to the man's ass when he was bent over like that, and the muscles of his thighs. And then he promptly laid down and rolled away from him, telling his heart to stop beating so loudly or else he'd rip it out and throw it into the cold.

Gajeel was shuffling through the narrow corridor of the monastery. Smoke made his lungs burn and he heard his brothers yelling about fire in the distance. He ran for the altar room, his eyes burning from the smoke as heat closed in on him. The altar was on fire. The red and orange flames danced in dreadful, jittery motion across the old wood. He gazed at the tapestry of Saint Metalicana, gazing down with red eyes and a genteel expression. He needed to save it, he needed to get the tapestry down. When he reached for the altar, it was burning.

"Father..."

Gajeel kept reaching towards the flames, trying to reach the tapestry without his robes catching on fire. The smoke made him choke. It burned his throat and his nose and he couldn't see through the tears in his eyes.

"Father..." someone was calling him , "Gajeel."

"No..." Gajeel gasped, "I have to save it..."

"Gajeel, you don't have to save anything."

But I have to. I'm so close, I can almost reach-

"Father, you're dreaming."

I'm... dreaming.

Gajeel's eyes snapped open. He gasped for breath, swinging his gaze about wildly.

"Father..." Laxus's voice was calm and it was deep. It was the voice of a dear friend, the voice of a brother, a voice that could be trusted above all else, "You are safe."

I am... safe...

Gajeel's eyes focused on Laxus. The captain was on his knees close to him, but not close enough to touch. At he come to his side when Gajeel had begun having his nightmare? He would have believed the captain had been on his knees the entire night standing guard.

"Father, when you have these dreams, can you be touched?" he asked in that calm voice.

"I..." Gajeel swallowed, "I don't know."

"I can touch you, if you wish. If it will make it better. If it will offer you comfort," Laxus said, and Gajeel believed if he only said yes that Laxus would scoop him up into his arms and hold him in a way that might ease the terror still clawing in the back of his mind.

"No... I'm... I'm fine." Gajeel said, pushing himself up, "Thank you."

Laxus didn't move, just watched him patiently, "Would you like to talk about it?"

"You don't want to hear about my problems," Gajeel said, trying to sound light and failing. He rubbed his eyes and searched for something, anything to use as a distraction, "Would you care if I made some tea?"

"No," Laxus said grimly.

Gajeel rose and filled the kettle with water. He picked up some tinder and through it into the mouth of the stove, slowly stoking it back to life. He could feel Laxus watching him and something in him said he owed the captain an explanation. Maybe it was because he was tired, or possibly because of that voice that had awoken him, but he felt he could trust him... at least with some truths anyway.

"They came at night... the raiders," Gajeel said quietly, setting the kettle on the stove, "They found a way to fortify the windows and set the back entrance on fire, forcing us to have to leave from the front.."

The thing about the beast was that it was a beast, and beasts don't enjoy fire no matter what they are. So they had all awoken, groggy and confused and alarmed, and stumbled into halls already choked with smoke.

"You like to think you'll know what you'll do in a moment of panic like that," Gajeel continued, gazing into the coals, "I didn't do anything useful."

"You were frightened," Laxus said, his voice warm and concerned. He could lean into a voice like that. He could let a voice like that strip him of all of his worries and sorrows and just bask in the gentle calm of it. He wanted to.

"I kept thinking I needed to save the tapestry to the saint..." Gajeel's voice wobbled despite how he tried to keep it even, "Father Reizen found me and dragged me away..."

He remembered how it felt for his chest and throat to burn from the smoke. The fire had been so hot by that point that he thought he'd collapse from that alone. If it hadn't been for Father Reizen, he probably would have died in that room clutching the tapestry, coughing until his lungs had bled.

"When we came out, there were men there ushering us away. They told us we just had to walk a little way and we'd be safe. We thought they were there to help us..."

"Of course you did," Laxus said soothingly. His voice wrapped around Gajeel's chest and squeezed delicately. The voice of someone who actually would help if only given the chance.

"They led us into the barred wagon. By the time we realized they were our captors, it was too late. We were trapped."

And shortly after, Gajeel had fallen ill. The smoke had done some wicked damage to his lungs, a then the fever had settled in. He remembered being confused and begging them to just kill him. Kill him so he wouldn't accidentally transform and kill the others. Their captors hadn't believed him at first, thinking he was trying to use his illness as a means of escape. The thing that had convinced them was when he'd been too weak to even stand and walk from the barred wagon. They'd dragged him to the ditch, still delirious and begging them to just kill him until he'd fallen silent. Perhaps they thought he was already dead. Or perhaps they thought he was more trouble than what it was worth. He would be dead soon anyway.

His brothers were still captured, still at the mercy of those men. What had happened to them while he'd been nursed back to health? How many of them were still alive?

Gajeel felt a lump forming in his throat and pressure causing pain behind his eyes. He took a deep breath and rubbed his eyes with his thumb and middle fingers.

Don't you dare, he scolded himself, don't you dare break down now. You have it easy.

"You must think I'm terribly emotional," Gajeel chuckled, a sour thing like broken glass being swept to the side.

"No. Never." Laxus said, still using that same voice, "I think you've been through something terrible. I think you haven't had a chance to grieve."

"I don't have time to grieve," Gajeel said, glaring at his hands, "I need to save them."

"And when you do save them?" Laxus asked, "Will you grieve then?"

Gajeel turned to look at the captain. Half of his face was shrouded in dark shadow. His depthless golden eyes appeared dark, nearly black. Gajeel recognized the darkness there and wondered what horrors could have caused such a thing. Gajeel didn't answer his question, and after a time, Laxus let out a held breath in a sigh.

"Bickslow has nightmares as well," he said. Although his voice was calm, it was no longer the voice that had woken him. This was Laxus's usual voice, no more or less compelling than what Gajeel had grown accustomed to, "He doesn't talk about what he sees, but whatever it is, it makes him violent."

Gajeel suddenly understood, "And Bickslow... sleeps alone."

"Yes," Laxus said gravely, "Never, and I mean never wake Bickslow when he is having a nightmare. You can talk to him until it passes, though."

"Oh." Gajeel said, wringing his robes in his hands until he realized what he was doing and stopping.

"And you?" Laxus asked, looking him in the eyes in a way that was dreadfully perceptive, "Can I touch you? Or would you prefer I talk to you?"

He's asking to touch you again. He wants to touch you.

Don't be ridiculous. He is being nothing but kind.

"Speak to me, if you wish," Gajeel said, and removed the kettle from the stove.

Part 5, Part 6, Part 7

[noodleshark]

HCs for my found family au

under cut because this is LONG

Six is aroace and genderqueer, mono is aspec and trans, RK's pan and nonbinary, Pretty is Bi and cis, and Raine is a trans lesbian

RK, Mono, Six and Raine all have cptsd, Pretty has pstd and also npd

Six and Rk are autistic and Mono and Raine have adhd

okay now some more specific stuff

Six's special interest is music

it keeps a record player, records and a new music box in its room

Mono has amazing puppy dog eyes

Whenever he asks Prett for something, she stares at the wall because of the previous one

Pretty is awful at cooking, she can burn water dont let her in the kitchen

She's an extrovert actually

When she meets someone new she's either mean or very awkward

She does like the others(Six is excluded until they're like 11), she just refuses to admit it

She and Raine were mean to each other when they first met

"Wait, why did you name me "pretty"?" "uh, because thats the opposite of what you are!"

"Pretender" isn't actually Pretty's birth name, but the others don't know that

Her love langue is gift giving and acts of service

Mono's is physical affection and acts of service, RK's is words of affirmation and acts of service, Six's is physical affection, Raine's is quality time and physical affection

Six loves plushies

she also would love weighted blankets

Despite liking physical affection, she's more adverse to it than she used to be

Six is nonverbal, she can hum or scream if she's REALLY scared but she cannot talk

They like to draw

Some of her scars hurt A LOT occasionally, on those days she just stays in bed

The big one on its face will hurt a lot if someone touches it

This isn't THIS au specific but her meltdown in the tower was an autistic one

they'd cut their hair to their chin and keep it that way because they think having long hair makes her look to much like hinata(the lady)

They'd like sharks and dinosaurs

Them, RK and Raine are the trio of bottling everything up

RK is really impatient

He bursts with any emotion he's feeling at random

They can be snarky

He likes hugs but other than that he isnt as physically affectionate as the other protags

Understands the nomes

After like a year of only really being able to eat fish and bread at the maw he likes seafood

Is very petty about being shorter than 2 people who are 2 years younger than him

He likes bugs

Mono would love sanrio if it existed in the nowhere

Mono bites affectionately

He's also not human! He was made by the tower

Unlike Six and RK, he hates bugs

He teases Pretty and Six a lot

Whenever he holds hands with someone, he does that 3 squeeze"i love you" thing

Has dissociation issues

He has a speech inpediment because of the burn scar on his face pulls on his skin too much

When like Raine and Pretty are like 18, they move into like a house boat or something because they can't find any more food around where they use to live

they get a cat when like six and mono are 16

they have a lot of inside jokes

There's more but this is already long as hell so I will come back with more later

[obstinaterixatrix]

Oh I didn't know you wrote m*shang! (I'm censoring because considering the premise of the original webnovel it makes if you don't wanna show up in the tags lol) what do you like about it?

thank you for protecting my privacy

[HEAD IN HANDS] [SCREAMS] I LOVE M*SHANG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE M*SHANG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'M DERANGED AND COMPLETELY INCOHERENT I LOVE M*SHANG SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! okay okay okay so first of all.

1) I love one-sided relationships and airplane's one-sided relationship with mbj is nigh unfathomable. his absolute most favorite guy that he made for himself and almost killed to save his own skin. WHAT a dynamic. how do you even begin to unpack that. plus the fact that mbj's his most favorite guy of all time, a guy he made up, and airplane is only ever half right about what's going on in mbj's mind and THAT'S BEING GENEROUS!!!!!!!! the thing is, aus RARELY captured how convoluted the one-sided familiarity is, it's a hard thing to translate, but I've thought about it and I think a keystone of this dynamic that needs to be kept in is that either airplane has to have some responsibility for mbj's success, or has to have a weird degree of familiarity with him that mbj has no context for. if mbj's a random hot guy airplane's obsessed with, that loses a lot of their dynamic!!!!! there's been good aus that I've enjoyed without that keystone element but I still think that connection is like. load-bearing. It's M*shang. and on the other side of things I love how mbj's relationship with airplane is like, it's pretty ambiguous when and how things exactly develop but what's abundantly clear is that mbj has never been right about what he thought was going on with airplane like ever at all.

2) the characters themselves fit an overall dynamic I'm really biased towards, I love self-sabotage disaster dumbass + guy with 0 EQ. they're both extremely emotional in completely opposite ways except when they're the same kind of emotional. very easy for them to be balancing each other out or making each other worse. plus, with all the baggage of their relationship and with the canon timeline it's 20 years MINIMUM before they even BEGIN to get to the place where they can even ENTERTAIN a romantic relationship, and even then they haven't really started by the end of sv. (well, mbj is but airplane isn't). it's such an uphill battle for them and i love that. I think some people tend to... well I can't say it delicately. I think some people put mbj in the standard box of trashy BL top, but it can be so much more interesting than that--mbj (abandonment issues) is terrified of losing airplane (again), which means he won't make a move unless there's something drastic going on. airplane (coward) is a Coward, which means he won't make a move unless there's something drastic going on. and even if (miraculously) one of them does decide to make a move, there's still so many ways both of them can misinterpret each other, or the situation. it's just so easy for things to get messy amd tumultuous between them which I think is really fun. guys who were built to work against themselves and each other <3

3) I tend to be very picky when 'this happens because a character is horny' is an explanation because it can come across as more of an excuse for smut rather than something that's grounded in character/relationship development, but for airplane in particular it works because it's internally consistent and when people characterize him well it gets REALLY funny. because his self-preservation has to trump his horniness like... idk, 99% of the time so it usually takes a backseat to whatever's going on OR it's mixed with a fun combo of resentment/envy/fear/idolization/etc.

[moetxt]

zhongven and zhongscara for the ship bingo (guess who this is 😏

i see you 👁️

ah, zhongscara...

for me, it started with mine and a friend's determination to have our faves kiss zhongli, but i only got further enabled when someone else pointed out parallels i didn't even see initially. i'm proud to be one of the 13 people who ships it 😁

though, to be honest, i really prefer them in a non-romantic context. in my eyes, they're friends with a compatible worldview and REALLY REALLY compatible kinks. scara would never admit this to his face but he sees zhongli as one of the precious few people in the world competent enough to dom him. meanwhile, on zhongli's side, he enjoys very much how scara lets him do what he does best, to the fullest; most people wouldn't be able to handle it, after all.

i think romance is the one major thing they disagree on. scara with his trust issues cannot COMPREHEND how zhongli is still willing to put his whole heart into loving someone even after getting hurt multiple times in the past.

now... you knew this was coming.

zhongven my BELOVED!!! they've been happily married for 2,000 years. they have an angsty on-again/off-again open relationship thing but neither of them thinks it's enough and also they get jealous. they've been mutually pining for millennia to the point that there is plentiful evidence of how down bad they are for each other in both their countries' mythology/folklore/traditions/ancient artifacts/archaeological sites but they've never once actually admitted they're in love with one another. as gods, they can't love as humans do and as divine manifestations of their elements and ideals, they're natural opposites locked in an eternal stalemate of courtship; can't tie down the wind, can't whisk away the earth. they've divorced at least 300 times. they're bitter exes and ei is the only one left alive who can tell you all about it (she will not).

unlike other ships i've been obsessed with in the past, it's hard for me to remove zhongven from their canon context, or at the very least a context where they are still divine/immortals. the divine opposites thing is just so key to me—they way they shouldn't get along, they shouldn't understand each other, but nonetheless they do. also, exploring edge cases of locality-specific or occupation-specific dual worship that occurs when morax's and barbatos' domains meet. like, how ancient northern liyuens knew to scatter dandelion seeds along with their prayers to make earthquakes during the spring and summer go away because it was probably the geo lord sulking and missing his beloved. or how sailors whisper a prayer or two to the god of wind for safe travels as where rex lapis' domain does not extend, they instead hope for the protection of his "bride" :)

actually, i am writing a whole fic about this! it's an epistolary-styled story filled with outsider accounts of how morax and barbatos just keep popping up, directly or indirectly, in each other's mythology. it's also about zhongli intentionally messing with the historical record in attempt to bring more of this to light because he's sulky about venti not visiting him for 500 years lol.

but yeah, the gods aspect is quite important to me and my view of them is so specific that i tend to be picky when it comes to fics, especially if they are AUs.

finally, as you know, i have more than a couple of crack theories/shipper delusion when it comes to zhongven and wider genshin lore. (descender zhongli and shade of istaroth venti my beloved!!!) namely, that venti warned zhongli about the cataclysm beforehand due to his god of time/celestia connections, but didn't warn the others, and that's why there was a near pantheon wipeout and the tsaritsa hates him now while zhongli carries so much guilt. also, that zhongli retired godhood at least partly due to venti, leaving his country to the humans (just like venti had done all along), and because he regretted how he always prioritized work and didn't treasure what he had until venti disappeared for his 500y coma.

"the end of godhood" is a really fascinating concept to me, as is what their relationship could turn out like in the future. they aren't gods anymore, but they're not exactly humans either, and no one else can really understand them like they understand each other. a lot of the obstacles in the way of them being together are now gone, but they now also carry new scars. i have a fic vaguely drafted centering around this too.

hehe, thanks for giving me the excuse to talk at length about them! 💞

[stitchthesewords]

Hey hi hey hey hi I am having an Emotional day so uh. Have an Apocalypse AU idea I had. Full disclosure - I uh. Actually hate stories set within and just beyond apocalypses, which is why my stuff is always set pretty far Past an apocalypse. But. I'm feeling things and I dislike apocalypse stories because of that whole Lone Wolf/Everyone Turns On Each Other mindset so many writers seem to have and this is Not That so - below the cut.

Okay so I'm less interested in how the apocalypse happens here but I'm picturing it being some kind of monster apocalypse. This is definitely gonna be a minecrafty like. low fantasy world like all my ideas so maybe the apocalypse is caused by mobs coming in the night for the first time. The struggle of stuff spawning when it gets dark - and maybe with the added difficulty of the sun not killing things. My own difficulty is figuring out like, doc and Cleo bc i still want them to be a creeper and zombie hybrid but I imagine everyone being human??????? maybe I change that. But I still don't know how to justify like doc existing like Cleo mightve gotten bitten but not become a full zombie for some reason but doc? IDK. then again im now thinking about like maybe mild hybridization okay. So maybe like. avians. Sheep hybrids. Simpler hybrids than what i usually do and everyone else [sans the hybrids] are just Dudes. Okay so

Monsters start appearing one day and it causes, understandably, mass panic in a world where monsters didn't exist beforehand. Before its all said and done, people are fleeing left right and center and no one is really keeping track of anything and a lot of things kind of fall apart. You know, standard monster apocalypse stuff. BUT. here's the thing. I don't think this is a 'government steps in a takes over' and I dont think this is a 'everyone turns on each other and refuses to share supplies' - just the opposite.

And the hermits end up being one such group of people who end up collecting together. They pool their resources and support each other and build a safe place to live - lit up, with walls to keep the new and dangerous mobs out, and houses to keep everyone safe and warm. Support. No man left behind. And it - admittedly - takes them a bit to really get their feet underneath them. Feeding a group their size is difficult and gardening and farming is a brand new idea to a lot of them who had other jobs before the apocalypse [Architects, tailors, scientists, engineers, etc etc]. And they're jobs are important and useful too, but they're got to learn to do stuff like Milk Cows, grow their own food, process that food, process animals - all of it.

And what I'm thinking is like this is both a soft and hard au. Soft in that there's a lot of focus on learning to trust their new family, learning these new skills they need, falling in love amongst themselves, and learning how to accomodate different issues everyone has. And its also a hard AU in that it's learning to fight to defend each other from the mobs and learning to explore safely and learning to protect each other and all that stuff.

But its also like - welcoming strangers who need help who may or may not stay with open arms because they're people and they need help. And yeah, sometimes people have bad intentions and it might bite them in the ass occasionally but this is a group of people who came together to protect each other they aren't just going to leave someone else out to starve or die.

Is this even coherent. Anyway just kind of a lot of thoughts about learning to care for other people and trust and build community both literally and figuratively. Learning to build houses with your hands and repair what you have and learning to farm and process and cook. Rebuilding from the ground up a community in your own image. lkhsfkdlk

@atherix @braxiatel @greatbridge @ellalily @lesbianwilby @em-mermaid @loombarrow @sparksnevadas @aceofthefandoms

[egcdeath]

You and succession anon have beautiful minds! I am excited to see where this series goes.

I saw someone bring up the open marriage thing, and I have to agree with you when I say I can't see it happening. Mostly because I always viewed Shiv asking for an open marriage as a power play. This is just my interpterion, but a large part of Shiv's character arc is the fact that she is often overlooked because she is a woman. She doesn't want that treatment from Tom (part of the reason why their relationship worked in the first place is because he is submissive), so her asking and them him agreeing to an open marriage is a way for her to maintain holding the upper hand between them. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this, it has been sometime since I've seen the show, so my interpretation may be little off. Regardless, Patrick is still a man he does not have to deal with this. If he asked for an open marriage he wouldn't be re-establishing a power dynamic he'd just be asking for an open marriage.

Moreover, I think he wouldn't want one either like you said, so it doesn't make sense for him to ask. He loves reader in the AU and is also attracted to her, and again without the power play the only thing he'd gain from asking for an open marriage is having an open marriage, but he has no need for that.

So yeah he does care. I don't think he'd want her to leave him, and asking for an open marriage after your partner found you cheated is definetly rocking the boat (and quite frankly, something a lot of people would feel comfortable leaving a partner for. I'm not saying reader would leave him if he did, idk how reader would react tbh, but it's enough of a possibility that I don't think he would even bring it up....if that makes sense?). And again, i just don't think he'd want one in the first place. I think he would want a monogamous relationship. He cheated because of his own issues, with commitment not because he wanted to have a non-monogamous relationship.

Plus like you said, Patrick would hate seeing reader with someone else. I like how pretty much anyone who writes patrick x reader fics, have a tendency to make him somewhat jealous. It's basically canon at this point haha, but yeah like I said. He wouldn't be happy, and if he was the reason why reader was doing do, he would just feel worse. Although the comment another anon about reader cheating on Patrick in response made me giggle just because I support women in male dominated fields (infidelity).

Anyway, I think that's all my yapping for now :)

i completely agree!! succession anon is extremely big brained.

it's interesting that you saw the open marriage thing as a power play!! i can really see it being interpreted that way. i always viewed it more as shiv panicking over this commitment, but i think it makes a lot of sense that she would fear that their dynamic would shift with marriage and become more like the relationship she has with the rest of the men in her life where they're the ones whose voices have more of a say. in some ways it's almost like she's reasserting her power/dominance over tom and reassuring herself that things won't change, which makes how the show ends somehow even more depressing for her.

i think it's interesting applying this to the au because obviously, patrick is the only son in a family of sisters, so he isn't coming into the relationship with misogyny hanging over his relationship with reader and his family. i think the only way it would make sense to ask for an open relationship in this au would be if he were asking it to almost lessen the blow of telling you that he (spoiler alert) cheated. but i think that would have the opposite impact. also, with the way that it's written/planned out, i can't really see him asking for it in the moment. yours and his wedding night goes down slightly differently than tom and shivs but it's still similar enough.

i also love how you mentioned patrick's jealousy and it basically is canon at this point HAHA. patrick definitely has many jealous moments later on in this fic. you and him go through quite a bit of psychological torture. sometimes at the hands of the other person. sometimes at the hands of family members. sometimes at the hands of the public!! i'm excited to see what you think of how things play out!!

[salthien]

11, 12, and 15

these are going a cut because spoilers! (also they got a little long oops)

answers for the ISAT ask game!

11- any character headcanons?

give Isabeau a few years, and I think he'd settle into being a Vaugardian version of being genderfluid. I remember reading Word of God somewhere that his Change wasn't really focused on any sort of gender or body dysphoria, and more focused on "well, what do I picture when I think of the kind of person I want to be?" and that just happened to be a big, boisterous man - the opposite of everything he was currently, everything he disliked about himself. (also - "No. Not right now." on the 'which of the cast is a woman' image.) like, don't get me wrong! he's still very obviously trans, dysphoria is not necessary for transness!! I just think that once he's more comfortable with all aspects of himself, that he'd settle on something a little less rigid. I think it would be good for him! isabeau Ultimate Transgender.

i also have a (bad) habit of just tossing little idiosyncrasies of mine onto sif whenever i think of them since there's already a ridiculous amount of overlap, down to the stupid fucking breathing thing (/aff). he doesn't like windy weather because it gives him headaches, especially postgame without his hat. he's a cat person. he'll save his favorite food on a plate for last as a treat. just silly little things

12- what got you interested in the game?

this AU made me go "hmm. that looks cute." -> look at the steam page -> "haha main character looks like me bait. they're cute. yknow, fuck it. i don't have anything going on right now. i'm going to play this." -> SMASH CUT to me, one week later, sitting at my desk at 3am, having just reached credits and feeling like I just got hit by a train. whatever i was expecting it was Not That.

15 - anything you’d change about the game? be it game mechanics, a new feature, a change in plot, etc

Honestly… not really? like I sat and thought about this for A While because while there were things that frustrated me (Loop's hints sometimes being extremely vague, forgetting where a particular book/plot point advance was and having to scour the whole House for it, etc.) like. the frustration is Part Of It. the frustration is ludonarrative harmony. you are at your Most Sifbrained when you're going "I HAVE TO GO BACK TO DORMONT AGAIN?" or "wait what am I even trying to do right now." or "shit, was the latest issue of Chateau Castle 56 or did I actually find 84? or did I just hallucinate that?" so. I wouldn't change any of the stuff that frustrated me. it's necessary. everyone comparing it to Pathologic or Funger has very obviously never played either of those fucking games lol.

And then all of the unanswered questions - about the Forgotten Country, about the King, about the world in general or postcanon - I wouldn't add anything for either! think that id5 hit the perfect level of "giving us just enough to make fanfiction/theories/fanart go WILD without stifling creativity" - I love and support adrienne's stance when it comes to fan content tbh.

I WOULD love to see the dancing event that id5 keeps hinting that they wanted to add but couldn't, so. I'll say that. I wish they'd been able to add that :(

[caparrucia]

17 and/or 18 for writer ask meme, please?

17. Talk to me about the minutiae of your current WIP. Tell me about the lore, the history, the detail, the things that won’t make it in the text.

So glitter and gold started as a prompt response to @garbria, and in the replies to that post we started bouncing ideas and then I realized the idea of a fake dating AU would be hilarious. But I wanted to do a fake dating AU where the issue is not miscommunication, but kind of the opposite. Over communication. And also for the fake dating to have stakes but not the usual fare that comes with a bit of betrayal or hurt.

And I wanted to write a comedy, just something lighthearted and fun, and so the final prompt was: fake dating AU, where Nyx volunteers to be Cor's lover to get Cor out of hot water, but where no one actually believes them, while they go extra hard into it. So now Nyx and Cor have this very complicated story they've sold themselves on, but the people they're trying to con (Regis and Sylvia) have seen through them since day one, and are instead popcorn-gif-ing at the shenanigans.

The fun is the fact they're so well matched and they're very in love with each other but privately doing the song and dance about how much the other likes them and if the other is interested in like... long term relationship, as opposed to the fun back and forth of their con. And like, everyone around them can see the obvious resolution, but they've got hangups and their own stuff to work through.

And then I just keep throwing shit at them because it's fun.

Like, I didn't need to do the worldbuilding for it, but like. Why not? Why not a new world with new rules and new shenanigans? Why not a Cor that's actually a LC and then what that would mean for the world? Why not add an entire massive subplot about magic and the gods and what's going on in the world? It's a brand new romantic comedy about Cor and Nyx and their idiot life choices, written by me, why the hell not.

So there we are, bits and pieces have been shared but I don't want to spoil what's coming. I'm having a lot of fun for it! :D

18. Choose a passage from your writing. Tell me about the backstory of this moment. How you came up with it, how it changed from start to end. Spicy addition: Questioner provides the passage.

So this is an awful passage to choose but I think it's something a lot of people missed? And it's one of my favorite bits of characterization in the sun is out, and how it anchors Cor and shows his connection to Aulea:

Specifically, Cor declaring that he's "decided" on the answer, regardless of what the actual answer is. It's the kind of nonsensical thing you don't really expect from him. He's so solid and composed and generally agreeable. Cor is very chill throughout the sun is out, he makes a point to not get ruffled or angry. And when he is, he's very clear on why he's upset.

So this blindsides Nyx, because the whole fight over Nyx's stasis is very... it's not fun. It hurts and it's awkward and it's a solid mess. But I wanted to highlight that bit, because I wanted to show what Cor is like, when he's pushed into a corner and he's lashing out: and what he is, is basically Aulea. He treats Nyx the same way Aulea treated him, because Aulea is still the measuring stick he uses to figure out the world, and when he encounters something he can't deal with, he legitimately regresses into that dynamic, toxic as it was.

Here's Aulea's version of it:

"I've decided" is the code phrase: it means taking agency from the other and setting the rules and refusing to negotiate. It's deeply, profoundly fucked up. Cor knows, viscerally, how upsetting it is to be on the receiving end of that.

But Nyx has accidentally triggered him and basically set his PTSD on fire without meaning to - Nyx asked him to kill him, or at least try, and Cor thought he was over Aulea, he really did, and then he remembers she asked him to kill her to, in a way, only she didn't have the decency to tell him doing what he did was going to kill her, until he was done, and welp.

Welp.

It's a very vulnerable moment, for Cor, it's the closest to shattering Cor has been in the entire series. And I love that Nyx snarls and hisses and doesn't bend to it, not the way Cor did to Aulea, when she did it to him. If Prompto hadn't been hurt, they'd have been in a very precarious situation, but Prompto being hurt reminded them both, viscerally, that they're in it together, and therefore allowed them to put their feelings on hold until they were sure their son was fine. That reminded them of their priorities and the larger picture and allowed the feelings to soften somewhat.

Without that buffer, though? Oh, they would have fought horribly and possibly split up for a while before they cooled down and figured out how to reconcile, but it would have been fairly painful, because they're in the space where they'd be saying things they probably don't really mean, but they're hurt and triggered and frothing about it.

It's such a big thing for them to survive, together, that everything that comes after is just "I mean, we survived that, anything else is child's play." I had a tremendous amount of fun mapping out that fight. :D