#interesting situation

[colourstreakgryffin]

This may be a rather weird ask/request to attempt but I love how you write and figured I'd tried!

If you can, may I request an Alastor x reader (your choice on romantic or platonic) based around the whole concept of "an unstoppable force meets an immovable object". Basically always smiling Alastor meets a sinner who self proclaims that they can't smile and Alastor does everything in his power to make them smile once.

If you can't do it, I completely understand!

Oooh! Okay. Okaaay! I can try this out. It may be a bit odd and I can see whatcha mean. Reader/Leitora doesn’t smile, Alastor tries to make them smile but it just doesn’t work. If that’s what you mean, I get it! And it’ll be platonic since you know, easy for this situation! Sorry but I can’t write a lot here so it’s kinda short…

Alastor- Smile, my Dear

Alastor has never felt so stunted yet so interested in the same time… you don’t smile, he has never seen a single bit of a grin on you. A brand new Hotel client that has even admitted openly you don’t smile. He has only ever seen such a neutral deadpan or a straight-up scowl

And he doesn’t like that at all… he doesn’t like it

“Come now, darling. Why always the frown? You’d look so much better with a smile”

You just ignore his ‘request’ and continue frowning… how wonderful. Not only does he have one annoying non-smiler, he now has two and that drives him up the wall…

Alastor does subtle but obvious tricks to make you smile, making you say specific phrases that’d always illicit a smile upon saying, giving out bad dad jokes when least suspected. Many things and all fail, which frustrates him but he is too much of a stubborn prideful man to quit

Alastor wonders why you even decline smiling. What’s wrong with smiling? Did somebody suck all the happiness out of you or something. There has be a reason behind it and he’ll dig it out of you one day

Alastor always does things for you. He gives you food, he gets you unimportant items, he does all of this to see he can draw out, even the smallest grin and whilst, he is confident he’ll succeed everytime… he doesn’t and it drives him mad

Alastor is enamoured just by your lack of grins. He doesn’t love you but he is in love with the challenge and the work of making you smile. Even threatening does nothing, you don’t respond to even him threatening to harm you if you don’t smile

How is even it possible?

Nevertheless, Alastor won’t give up and he will keep trying until he wins but he is unaware that you’re not budging against his attempts

“Look, my dear. Isn’t that funny? Hmm… you’re laughing but you’re not smiling… that’s so odd”

[rdps01]

close enough

[fumifooms]

Omg guys he just genuinely likes bugs and mollusks and critters 😭💘💔 Forced to noble when he just wanna crouch and watch things skitter in the dirt…

[loriache]

"I've been waiting for ages for somebody to unmask them."

This moment tends to elicit negative reactions in a first read through, and I've got some opinions about why where Kabru is coming from here actually makes a lot of logical sense. So I thought I'd elaborate on that.

I think people hear this and go, "He thinks they must be hiding something because they gave money to someone? What a cynic." Or "he dislikes them because they did charity?? What's wrong with this guy!". And obviously, a lot, a lot is wrong with him. But I think this makes more sense than it seems at first glance! What people evaluating this judgement miss is why Kabru is paying attention to Laios and co to begin with.

Kabru knows of the Touden siblings because (he's a little bit of a stalker-) he is keeping an eye on all the relevant parties in events developing on the island, in order to be able to guide them to his preferred outcome. This includes adventurers because they are the ones actually exploring the dungeon! He's well aware that something as minor as internal tensions between party members could be key to the historical events that are developing. (He would love the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.)

His desired outcome is that whatever the rewards are of breaking the dungeon's curse, whether that's kingship or the ancient elven secrets of dungeons, are claimed by:

A) a short lived person

B) Someone who will be a good, effective leader and/or use those secrets and the power they carry wisely, with foresight, and to establish a political bloc for short lived people.

The person he can best trust to do this is, of course, himself. But due to his PTSD regarding dungeons and monsters, he's not able to develop the necessary skills to conquer the dungeon. Once he realises this, he starts looking for someone else who he can support to that end.

But most of the adventurers don't have any intentions of conquering the dungeon, don't have the skills, or are unsuitable in other ways. In fact, it seems like some potentially suitable people are the Toudens. There are a lot of good rumours about them going around - they actually seem to have a very positive reputation! That's what Kabru means when he says "unmask".

So when Kabru is observing something like them giving money to an old comrade from their gold-peeling days, he doesn't consider it a problem because "they're giving money to this person who doesn't actually need it" or because they must have some dark secret if they act superficially nice. I think he actually understands this situation and what it implies about Laios (in particular) perfectly well.

Laios and Falin gave money to an old comrade who got injured and couldn't work. That person then healed up but kept taking their money. Then he used the money to start smuggling illicit goods to the island.

The key is that for Kabru, the problem here is the same as with the corpse retrievers - people using the dungeon's resources to fuel dangerous, selfish, or violent pursuits cause problems for the island, attract more criminals and people with motives other than breaking the curse, and increase the chances of the whole situation ending in tragedy.

Kabru is willing to work with the Shadow Lord of the island if it gets him to his goal - he isn't scrupulous - but the criminal element of the island increasing is something he sees as a major issue.

Also, when you're evaluating someone as a candidate for power, riches, secrets, potentially kingship - then being curious about how the money you give to people is going to be used is kind of a relevant trait!

Interpersonally, Kabru's actually very easygoing - I mean, Mickbell isn't exactly an upstanding guy, is he! But Kabru likes him and they get along well. These traits wouldn't be a problem at all in a friend, or a comrade, or someone Kabru was confident he could use. But he can't get a handle on Laios, and Laios is someone who has the potential to be a major player!

On Laios' end, this is the same as with the marriage seeker who joined their party. She kept asking for things and he gave them to her, because he tries to be nice to others. He even gives her money! It's the exact same thing.

That's fine, but it became a problem because he basically wasn't interested in her motives, didn't notice she was trying to manipulate him, and it also didn't occur to him that the other party members would notice or be affected. We can assume the situation with the gold peeler is the same. When Kabru says that "It's not that they're bad people, they just aren't interested in humans," he isn't wrong.

The extent to which this is true of Laios is linked to his autism imo, (because it isn't just disinterest - he genuinely isn't able to notice nonverbal cues that people are lying to him or have ulterior motives) but to a greater or lesser extent I think it's a very common trait. Most people aren't actually that interested in other people who aren't close to them. Kabru is the weird one here. It isn't an issue except as a leader - which is why we see an immediate comparison to the Island's Lord, because that's how Kabru is evaluating them.

And disinterest in/lack of ability with people to the extent Laios exhibits it, it does, actually, make him a worse leader... it's just that as we see in the story, people can help him out. The rest of the party tell him the marriage seeker is taking advantage of him so he tells her he can't give her special treatment anymore. They're pissed and it's a crisis point - he couldn't have recovered their trust without Marcille and Falin - but that's exactly the point. With Marcille and Falin, he was able to recover their trust.

And he has other good traits that make up for it, such as his intelligence, strategic knowledge, open-mindedness and sense of fairplay.

Kabru doesn't disqualify Laios as a candidate based on what he sees about him from afar, though - he still tries very hard to get close to him, obviously hoping that if he manages he can steer Laios to defeat the dungeon and make up for his lack of people-skills in the aftermath. (Which... he does eventually achieve that goal!) He completely fails until the events of the story, so... definitely I think "They just aren't interested in humans" could also partially be a stung reaction to Laios' complete disinterest in him.

Anyway, that's my read on what exactly Kabru's "issue" with Laios is. Obviously, once he does find out what Laios' true nature is like - about his love for monsters - he develops an entirely new set of fears about Laios' priorities. But since Laios kept that a secret until the start of the story, he has no idea of that yet.

Given all that, I think it's interesting that he says that he doesn't think that the Toudens are suitable to defeat the dungeon, and that he's hoping they'll turn out to be the thieves. As some of his few potential candidates, people who he thinks may play a big role in the island's future, you'd think he'd hope they would be good people!

I suppose it's better, in his eyes, because it means that he's involved in something "interesting". They haven't just had their stuff stolen by regular criminals (boring, puts them further away from his goal) - they've been caught up in the beginning stages of "a historic event". The desperate and dwindling group forgetting morals in their quest to retrieve their lost comrade probably appeals to his sense of melodrama. Because he also just... loves drama.

Despite it being "uglier than anything he was expecting", he still pursues Laios as the person he wants to conquer the dungeon pretty much as soon as it becomes clear that he won't be able to do it himself and they are out of time. That's because... well, to be fair, there aren't any other options. And he fits standard A: he's short-lived!

and Kabru still hopes he can fit standard B, too, and be persuaded to use the power he wins for good. No matter how many nightmares he has about Laios, or whether he thinks about killing him. He doubts him, but ultimately he puts his faith in him and seems happy after the manga's ending that he made the right decision.

[paradox-n-bedrock]

me in big fandoms: oh cool, it's so active and there's so many people to vibe with, this is amaz-

*finds my niche angle that appeals to approximately six people*

me: okay, folks, it's you and me now

[demigods-posts]

that moment in tlh when annabeth has an exact timestamp down to the second for just how long she'd been looking for percy makes me wonder if she always has an internal clock for everything. and like. this is further reinforced when she's timed percy's morning routine with a minute to spare in cotg. or in tlt!book when she used physics to calculate the best time to jump off the boat in the thrill ride of love. call it "scheduling" and "time management" if you wanna. all i'm saying is owls have an internal biological clock and it isn't improbable to assume annabeth inherited that trait from her mother, the patron of owls herself.

[thimblings]

because, if nothing else, i am predictable lmao i'm pretty sure i'm not even in Act 2 of DATV yet lmao...i love them all, they're all my favorite

[triona-tribblescore]

TW// Abuse implication

Thinking about possible Vox and Angel's interactions and how they'd go down. Theres such a unique mix of hatred to each other and common ground with their different experiences with Valentino, has me thinking.

Also just want to clarify I love Vox's character a LOT but ofc obv don't sympathise with him or think he is any way shape or form a decent individual, cant with stupid toxic dumbass x

AND IF YOU SEE ANY MISTAKES OR TYPOS NO YOU DONT- (i was so tired when drawing it forgive me TwT)

[lotus-pear]

free will is drawing ur two favorite characters together and making them gay

[medicalunprofessional]

sorry guys they finally showed me peak fiction . Its called “phantom of the paradise”

[spamtonsometimes]

a specil little bonus... he's such a cartoon character of a man.

[theywontletmebeprincipal]

illustrated guide to simons. i Think

[voltaical-art]

im in agony. a little self indulgent but I think wyll deserves to be told he's loved and have a small breakdown about it

[kirkwallguy]

cullen's crush on f amell/surana drives me insane. is he the first templar to have taken interest in you? have you been dealing with this your entire life? how long has this been going on? how long did it take you to notice the extra pair of eyes on you in the hallway? does he know you or does he just think you're pretty? did he mean it when he said he'd kill you? do you believe him? do you find yourself alone in corridors with him often? is it a coincidence? is he one of the good ones? is he stronger than you? whose side will the knight commander take if you have to defend yourself? is it worth it? how many of your friends have survived a situation like this? how many haven't? what are your odds? are you feeling lucky? are you sure?

[sorrelpaws]

They make such a nice couple. The king and queen are pretty nice too. Heheheh.

[stillgotscars]

maybe it’s just me, but expecting taylor to have come out with a statement already is a bit insensitive. this entire situation — knowing her concerts were the target of a thwarted terrorist attack, knowing thousands of people came close to being physically harmed or losing their lives — is terrifying, and would be difficult for anyone to grapple with. for all we know, intelligence agencies may have advised her to not say anything right now in order to keep herself, her team, and all of us safe. first and foremost, please keep in mind that she’s taylor, an actual human being before she’s taylor swift, the brand. give her some much-needed space to process this and sort through her emotions. if you think she doesn’t care, you don’t know her well at all.