#it also greatly angers me my parents expect me to be doing everything for them 24/7

[flowersandbirdsflyingfree]

There’s something going on with me. I don’t know if it’s over-exhaustion or what but I feel so drained to the point I’m starting to close off and not be as attentive like I normally am. And I’m truly sorry if I ever come off that way. I want to consistently improve to do better than that and I have no intention to make someone feel ill or unimportant.

I’m going to do a better job of trying to communicate better

[autistic-ben-tennyson]

Anakin: Why I relate to him

I’m going to change gears a bit from my usual anime/Ben 10 posts to talk about Anakin. I had a period where I pretended to hate him and was super pro Jedi to try and fit in with that fandom. I have changed a lot of my opinions since then. While I’m still not a huge fan of him, my opinion has softened greatly. A lot of Jedi stans act like all people who sympathize with him are conservatives who think you need a 50s nuclear family to be happy and hate Buddhism or aroace people. So I am going to share why I relate to this man’s struggles as a progressive, transgender neurodivergent Asian American.

A lot of people view Anakin in AOTC as just whiny and ungrateful. While the Tusken massacre was wrong, I can emphasize with his anger towards Obi Wan. I have felt belittled, over patronized and gaslit by my father, as well as yelled at. While Anakin was being disrespectful in that scene from AOTC where he reunites with Padme, the way Obi Wan handled it was uncalled for. He should have pulled Anakin aside to let him know there’s a time and place for everything, not humiliate him in front of their hosts.

I’ve made small mistakes due to my autism and dad would make a big deal out of it and tell me “we need to work on your awareness” in front of everyone there. I can also relate to that “he’s jealous! He’s holding me back” scene as someone who wants more out of life and feel like my dad is getting in my way. That scene also reminds me of how a lot of parents treat their kids for having an “attitude” or “talking back” when they’re just trying to explain themselves, are having a bad day or have a different opinion. I’ve also been forced to apologize for lashing out at people who’ve bullied me like in that comic.

When Jedi apologists talk about how Anakin was just greedy for not wanting to share his feelings with Obi Wan or the council, I get the feeling that they’ve had a fairly privileged upbringing. I’ve had trouble opening up to my dad because of how dismissive or terrifying he could be in the past. As a trans person, I’ve had to prepare for the worst possible outcomes and while my coming out went better than I expected, he just invalidated all my fears and acted like I was wrong for not telling him when he did little to provide a safe space, never apologizing for insensitive things he said. Similarly, fans expect Anakin to tell Obi Wan about his marriage despite all the dismissive behavior from him as well as faking his death and doing little to help Ahsoka. People who’ve been gaslit or dismissed for their feelings often resort to keeping secrets as a safety measure.

A child shouldn’t be expected to tell adults anything until they prove they can be trusted. Whenever I talk about my issues with my childhood, people dismiss it as legitimate discipline or tough love, which is another reason why I feel uncomfortable when Jedi apologists act like Kenobi was a good parent. People only see abuse if it’s physical or sexual, but never care or notice if it’s more subtle or emotional. Anakin recognized that Kenobi’s training methods wouldn’t be good for Ahsoka which is why he acts more like Shmi when teaching Ahsoka. My dad is also very sarcastic and is aware of my autism, even praising it at times, but expects me to just understand his “jokes” or insensitive comments.

People say you can’t critique the Jedi because they’re based off eastern philosophy but are they really that different from conservative evangelicals? Obi Wan straight up tells Anakin he can have romantic feelings but can’t act on them. Fans claim Anakin chose to get married and it was on him for not just leaving. I remember being the “weird” kid in a community that was very conservative (family, faith and football) who felt like I couldn’t talk about my interests without being shamed, especially after coming out. I can also emphasize with wanting to leave but feeling an obligation to stay because the people who’ve hurt me do love me and it being complicated.

I think a lot of people who dismiss Obi Wan’s insensitive remarks or child rearing methods are looking at it from an adult’s perspective, since they aren’t bothered by it as much. Adults can yell at, gaslight, spank or humiliate their kids, then act like nothing happened, but when you’re a child, it sticks with you, and is irritating when they try to be “buddy-buddy” with you later. I am also someone who struggles a lot with sarcasm and struggle with letting go of negative emotions because it keeps happening.

This is that post I talked about where I asked a popular Jedi stan their views on adoption. I’m not anti adoption, mind you. I felt Matilda, Suzume and Kung Fu Panda tackled it well with sensitivity. I responded with decency and acted like I agreed with them. But something about their response gave me the ick. I don’t know why but I do have a desire to find my birth mother, eventually. Is it really wrong to worry about your mother if she could be suffering, and you can’t do anything to help? It kind of confirms that a lot of Jedi apologists come from privileged upbringings. I also felt like I had to ask permission to enjoy media that went against the Jedi fandom’s beliefs.

I think that wraps up why I relate to this character even if I don’t agree with his actions. People who say he was just lazy or selfish don’t seem like they understand much about human psychology and abuse and how even “small” things can build up and make a child distrust the adults in their life. I worry a bit about when they become parents and what how their kids will end up. A lot of kids are shamed for not wanting to share their emotions when they have good reasons to keep secrets. How would Jedi stans respond to that? They only care about abuse if it’s physical which is why they make a big deal out of that training scene from TOTJ or act like Anakin abused Rex when throwing him off that wall on Geonosis.

[cadybear420]

good evening! please tell me anything and everything you want about your It Lives MCs and their LIs. thank you <3

Hmm I'm still working out a lot of things for all of them, so for now I'll braindump some basic details/profiles. Apologies for this taking a long time, I kept thinking of things I wanted to discuss about my MCs and their LIs, but there's also a lot of things I'm still figuring out.

CW: Some NSFW-ish details included

Jo Hunter (ILITW)

Birthday: April 22, 1999 (I'm pretty sure I wrote down a different birthday for her but I lost it)

Her full name is Joanne. She doesn't mind it, but she prefers to be called Jo because it sounds cooler.

She's a GNC cis gal (She/Her), and very proud of her GNC identity. She's big into "cool guy", "bad boy", and "lumberjack" aesthetics/looks in particular. Of all my female(-aligned) MCs, she probably is also the loudest about her bottom euphoria from the idea of having a penis.

She's straight and possibly polyamorous. Her LI is Lucas, but she also feels attraction to Andy and Connor. Even though I have her and Lucas getting married as the endgame headcanon, I plan to include Andy in that relationship and, at some point, replay with her in an Andy route. I feel like they'd have really good chemistry, what with both of them having a sort of a "cool guy" side to them.

Personality-wise, she's very tough, no-nonsense, has confidence for days, and is so horny-on-main she makes Evie look like a prude (okay maybe not to that level but still); but also vulnerable and open to acknowledging her fears and emotions; and I try to play her as such in the actual story.

She places great value on being able to fend for herself and to be able to do things for herself. Since her parents were away often and she didn't hang out with her friend group as much anymore, she spend a lot of her childhood sort of training herself to be self-sufficient. Yet somehow still burned the mac-n-cheese whenever she tried to make it.

All of her friends survive the game, and she chooses for Noah to become the monster, mainly due to her anger at Noah, and her knowing that Noah wished he'd be the one to become the next monster. At first she felt she could, in good faith, make that decision, but soon she'd start to grow increasingly guilty about it.

She named the baby crow "Qrow", the kitten "Ava Jr", and the skeleton dog "Bonedog". The name for the dog is subject to change.

Of the main group, her closest friendship (besides Jane) had always been with Ava, as both of them tended to stray greatly from typical expectations of femininity. Even after the group split up after Jane's death, she would still have some closeness with Ava through the following years.

Jo and Lucas have this little habit during their interactions where she'll lightly punch his arm and call him "Nerd" and then he'll respond doing the same but calling her "Pervert".

Before Jane's death, Jo and her friends were huge into "Little Einsteins" and always sung the song together. There was this one time in eighth grade, however, when she found some of her old DVDs of the show and tried to watch them for memory's sake, only to break down sobbing during the theme song.

Jo sometimes likes to use that fire axe weapon from the canon story to record herself cutting chunks of wood, lumberjack style. Then she sends the videos to Andy, Lucas, and Connor. For reasons. ;)

In the future, she'll probably adopt one kid with Lucas, and have one kid with Andy via IVF. But I'm still figuring it out. At the very least, they (and Ava) keep Ava Jr. together.

Harper Addison Vance-Fisher (ILB)

Birthday: July 12, 1998

"Harper", "Addison" or "Harper Addison" will do.

She's a genderfluid demigirl, and figured this out somwhere during the ILB timeline. They prefer She/Hers and They/Them pronouns, but doesn't mind He/Him pronouns occasionally. She does consider herself GNC, and a lot of her clothing styles do tend to lean into more masc/androgynous territory. (Also, even though I like the red tank top outfit better, that pink sweater with the grey skirt is also perfect for her cause it's basically demigirl flag color scheme. I'll probably headcanon it as their post-ILB/non-summer casual outfit).

They're bi-curious, tending to prefer guys like Tom and Parker but does also start to have a bit of a thing for Imogen. Tom will likely be her only endgame romance.

Ignore what the canon says. She did not straddle Tom's lap in the photo booth smut scenes. She pulled him into her lap and toyed with his ass, making a mess of him in the process. And they used a strap-on on him in their shower smut scene in the book finale.

Personality-wise, they're a friendly, slightly goofy, slightly flirty sweetheart, who loves to lightly tease others (like playfully embarrassing their brother, or calling Richard Sutcliffe "Dick"), but isn't above beating the crap out of monsters and Dick Sutcliffe. And I try to play them as such in the actual story.

She's very into painting and playing guitar, and is going for an arts major at Terman U (I just now thought it would be kind of cool if she and her family originally lived around Cedar Cove before her parents' death). Often they like to play a soothing tune on their guitar to calm themselves down, and loves to play songs for Tom to soothe or serenade him as well.

They named the otter friend "Parker Jr", the coyote friend "Munch", the owl friend "Bowie", and their pet zombie jackalope "Dipshit" (that word makes me laugh and I love imagining them calling the rabbit "dipshit" in an affectionate manner). All of these names are subject to change.

They have a very touchy relationship with their grandpa after the events of ILB. They want to like their grandpa, especially since he does try to be nice and does regret what he did. But it's also hard to get past what he did to Josephine and the rest of their family.

She and Tom move in together one day, and may or may not get married. Their only child is that giant stuffed teddy Boo-Boo which she won for him at the Lake Day fair in canon, and they're very proud parents.

Cedric Zhao (ILW)

Birthday: October 4 (unsure about the year, I'll have to review the ILW timeline later)

His nickname is "Kitty". His parents used to call him "Ceddie" when he was a baby, and someway somehow it evolved into "Kitty".

He's a GNC Cis Guy (He/Him) and is very proud of his GNC identity. He's pretty much exclusively into GNC dress styles and (like pretty much all of my MCs) GNC sex acts like strap-on stuff.

He's Heteroflexible and Polyamorous. I had him romance Jocelyn through the FWB route, but in my headcanons his heart belongs to both her and Amalia. The endgame for which, I am still working out.

His in-game personality is mostly genuine, with a bit of sarcastic here and there. I also play him as being very seductive and flirtacious. Corrupted!Connor did indeed condemn him for being a slut. But he's a proud slut.

His motivation is Blood (wants to live his life and remain human). Though at first I played him as mostly Shadow, so that may or may not have affected his fate. Speaking of which...

In my playthrough, he got stabbed by Mattyass and failed to save Westchester. Probably cause his nerve score was at like, Rattled. I hope to get a better and happier outcome for him in any possible replays though.

Only Abel died in my playthrough, but I might change this in further headcanons/playthroughs.

[elyannadelrey]

Almost all “sacrifices” I received, was (most of the time) given out of my will.

Growing up in a household where “utang na loob” is taught, I learned how to value my parents’ hardships, even though it also meant to repress my own emotions. In my idle moments, like eating in a restaurant, I like to observe kids with complete families. It was as if my eyes had their own mind to automatically stare at children with a loving and affectionate father. Bitterness filled my system, but it wasn’t due to the food; it was the growing envy that I tried not to consume but failed to do so. This growing envy of mine was one of the first reasons why I was angry at the world and somehow at my father. I can’t even remember the last graduation, birthday, or any event of mine that he was able to attend. Before, I would try to reason out the external factors he couldn’t control to ease my anger. We have bills to pay. It wasn’t his fault that he couldn’t go home. Even though his congratulatory messages and calls were always present, somehow it wasn’t enough. Was it the fact that he wasn’t there physically? Or the lack of sincerity? Or maybe I’m reminded of the time I was first eminently insulted by how he called me bobo for not keeping up with his way of tutoring me? A crying elementary version of me always pops up as I silence myself from his high-pitched remarks and curses, with my lola stopping him from hitting me out of anger. Our house turns into a rage room whenever he goes home. I am always at war.

Can you really call yourself a parent if your child is not safe and secured with you?

My last straw was him cheating, honestly. I wasn’t that shocked when I found out, since I expected it already from someone as disgusting as him. Deep down, I always knew it was going to happen. Unfortunately, it took him more than a decade to cheat, which wasted years of my mom’s life. Actually, I’m not quite sure if it took him a decade to cheat or a decade to get caught. I have blurry memories of seeing sweet messages from another woman on his phone back when I was an only child. However, my fear for him was greater than my curiosity, so I decided not to read everything. This incident also triggered something in me to forget negative memories. The stress of having to go through what happened pains me so much that I try to trick my brain to downplay whatever happened. Which is also the reason why I sometimes can’t go on with full details about every single argument I had with him (or with anyone).

That’s just some behaviors I got from the situations I’ve been in with him. Sadly, the more that I hated my father, the more I mastered some of his traits. Maybe I’m far worse than him.

The hard truth is: you don’t hold the same power over someone who has greatly influenced your life. No matter how pure my intentions are, I can’t change the way my father thinks, like how he affected my thought process. His decisions are his. And I can’t do anything about it. I sometimes wish I could change him for the better, but then that wouldn’t be him.

With this, I’ve been asking myself lately. Is being unfair to someone you love a shortcoming or a choice?

Does my dad ever regret the things he did and said? Did I ever receive the apology I dreamed of in his silent reflections? Or was it all just a random day for him “disciplining” me since he knows “na para ‘to sa ikabubuti ko”?

I might know. I might never know. But one thing I really learned from him is to let people be. If someone wants to be somebody else, let them be. If they want to leave, let them be. Honestly, just let it be. I wish for better things, but I can’t control everything.

To my father, how can I ever thank you for your sacrifices? You're too far away now. I don't even know you anymore. Your voice didn't reach me in a long time, but the words still linger.

When will I able to greet you a father's day without it feeling like a task to accomplish? I don't know.

[an open letter to my father]

breakdown while writing the intro at 12am tapos 5:53 am na natapos lawl im js a thought daughter fr

[local-redhead-bookworm]

Thinking about Billy and everything I’ve learned in my developmental psychology course so far. Quick disclaimer, I am by no means an expert on this subject. I’m one college student with a basic (and possibly flawed) understanding of trauma. I try my best to make sure I’m being as accurate as I can, but I’m not perfect and don’t take my word as gospel. If I’m wrong on something, feel free to correct me.

So, as we already know, trauma affects people differently for several reasons. For one, every person’s experience of the world is subjective. Some people may have an easier time of recovering from abuse than others. Secondly, genetics and environment play a big role in development. This is where I wanna do some heavy lifting.

Firstly, let’s look at genetics. This is mostly speculation given that we know very little about the Hargrove-Mayfield family, but a predisposition to an angrier temperament can be genetic. Given Neil’s behavior, I wonder if anger issues might have been genetic. Stress responses can also become a part of a child’s genetics of that stress response helps the parent survive. So if Neil is a Vietnam vet, then the aggression that kept Neil alive wouldn’t do Billy any favors in high school. I would like to say that I acknowledge the importance of genetics, but no human is made up of just their genes. Our fates aren’t dictated by our chemical makeup.

Secondly, let’s glance at environment. I think this plays a far greater role in Billy’s behavior than genetics. Billy is shown to be a very kind boy before his mother left, but by the time we meet him he’s angry, bitter, and has developed a slew of unhealthy coping mechanisms. Billy is raised in an environment where many of his needs aren’t being met. Most of us are familiar with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs by this point, probably?

Of this list, I would argue that the only one being met is Billy’s physiological needs. The bare minimum to survive. The lack of these other needs being met can greatly impact a child’s development, in mental, physical, and social areas. Children like Billy, who grow up in underprivileged homes and whose needs aren’t met, are at a disadvantage compared to children whose needs are met and who grow up in stable, loving homes. They’re at far greater risk for delinquent behavior, self-destructive habits, substance abuse, and getting into unsafe romantic relationships (all of which are boxes Billy checks). Billy doesn’t have the right environment to grow healthily, he’s living in survival mode.

Now, I’m in no way saying that people like Billy are doomed to his fate or one very similar to it. On the contrary, I truly believe that Billy absolutely showed signs of growing beyond the expectations, given his disadvantages in upbringing. He had a job and was working hard, and he was apparently good with kids. He was working his way toward presumably getting out of Hawkins. His relationship with Max had improved. He fought the Mind Flayer to avoid hurting people, instead of giving up. He spent his entire life trying to protect the people he cared about, even if those motives didn’t always come out in the most healthy way. Billy wasn’t defined by his circumstances, he overcame them in spite of the odds stacked against him.

(I’ve just realized I completely neglected the impacts of Billy being abandoned by his mom but if anyone wants to take that part and run with it, be my guest!)

[thesunicarusfellfor]

The neither route was amazing! If you ever get ideas for it pls continue because i found it really interesting. You are a great writer.

Okay! This route actually made me very happy, but unfortunately, as much as I wanted to write it, I didn't know how exactly to do it? If that makes sense?

Context is HERE- The very end of the story is the Neither route.

TW: Anxiety, mentioned nightmares, mentioned Tubbo threatening Ranboo, guilt

I would also like to say that cuddling is platonic.

Left The Game (Plat!C!Ranboo x GN!Reader x Parental!C!Philza) Headcanon/Fic (Part 3???)

Ranboo Beloved joined the game.

(Y/n) (L/n) joined the game.

Michael Underscore-Beloved joined the game.

You and Ranboo tumbled out of the swirling portal and hit the ground with a hard thud, dirt and sand kicking up around you both upon impact.

Before you could comprehend what happened, a small squeal came from behind you and something slammed into your back, causing a groan to pull itself from your chest.

The monochrome male mumbled from beside you, his face practically buried in the grass which caused his words to be muffled.

His crown had rolled a few feet away, and his bags had opened as well, sending a few of his tools scattering, but everything seemed to be intact?

You slurred a mess of words before spitting out the sand that had gathered up in your mouth, attempting to tell the tall male that you were alive.

At least somewhat.

You both knew that you three had to drag yourselves into Phil's house, but the travel was so exhausting. Sleeping in the dirt sounded so tempting...

A quiet whine sounded from the weight on your back, reminding you that Michael had also come into the server with you.

When Ranboo got up, he picked the zombie piglin up from where he sat on your back, allowing you to get up.

You both, plus Michael who was resting on Ranboo's hip, began to pick up everything that had dropped out of the portal with you.

Once everything was gathered up, you three wandered through the iron doors of Philza's home and looked around curiously.

Two cats, one named Pog and one named Champ, came up to you both, chirping and meowing eagerly before pausing suddenly. They most likely expected Phil...

Michael gave a loud squealing noise at the sight of the cats and squirmed out of Ranboo's hold, running over to pet the cats.

Ranboo set off to find food in the chests, scribbling in his memory book the entire time.

You, on the other hand, dug through your bags to find materials you had brought to make three beds. One yellow, one grey and the other (f/c).

Once you placed each of them beside each other, Michael eagerly hopped into the middle one (the yellow one), while Ranboo walked over with plates of steamed carrots and baked potatoes.

"Stressed?" He mumbled softly, watching you stare down at your wrist where the tattoo of a heart with deep grooves in the center rested. The exact place the three hearts tattoos were, "I-I know, it's going to be a little different... But... Maybe it's a good different! ...Please, eat something and then get some sleep. Phil will check on us in the morning, and you know how he can get..."

With a smile, he handed you the plate and a fork before sitting on the floor at the foot of the beds with his own plate. Luckily he had given Michael a golden apple before he had gone to look for food, so the child was quietly drifting off to sleep, "Do... You really think that running was the best option?" You whispered, taking a bite of the vegetables.

"I... What else could we have done?" He frowned, setting his crown beside him before taking a bite of his own food, "We couldn't fight them... and they were definitely not going to let you go so easily. Hell... Tubbo... My own fiance was threatening to kill me because I was talking to you and caring for your burns!" He hissed, tilting his head back with his eyes pinched shut tightly, trying so hard not to cry.

You quickly walked over and moved his plate so it rested on his bed and you wrapped your arms around him tightly. The enderman hybrid eagerly returned the hug, crying into your shoulder so the fabric of your clothes soaked up his tears, "Should... I have just... Accepted their love, and maybe learn to love them back? For everyone's sake?" You whispered, your voice wavering as you tried to keep your composure.

"Absolutely not!" He yanked himself back from your shoulder to give you a glare, "That relationship would not have been healthy whether you loved either of them or not! They would've kept you locked away like a prized possession, and they would've severely hurt anyone who tried to interact with you!"

"I- I know... But..." You glanced down, but Ranboo tilted your head upwards so you were looking at him, but you still avoided eye contact so it didn't make him uncomfortable, "Your... Your relationship..."

Ranboo sighed, "I know. But, I'd rather that he showed me his true colours and I divorced him again for that, rather than him manipulating someone into loving him... and putting everyone else in danger in response. Now. We have a lot to do tomorrow. Finish eating and get some sleep."

The next morning, Philza practically slammed open the iron doors to his own house, looking a tad bit out of breath and a bit frazzled.

Once he saw you, Michael and Ranboo curled up in a small cuddle pile on the three different coloured beds, he gave a loud sigh of relief and adjusted his striped bucket hat.

Thankfully, the father of Minecraft let you three sleep for a little while before waking you and Ranboo up around noon.

First, he gave you both spare elytra's and so you could keep up with his massive black avian wings.

Ranboo's turned into massive black and purple dragon wings, while yours turned into (f/c) (f/a) wings.

Phil showed you both the end realm and his Endlantis, which he gave Ranboo special water protection potions so he could swim through the waters as well.

This man basically treated you three as if you were his own children!

Taught you how to fly.

Taught you how to cook properly.

Everything!

And basically survive with bare minimums.

Once you both got better at flying, a few months later, Philza rEAAALLY wanted to take you to the massive project he called Nether Void.

"Ready, mates?" Philza walked over and ruffled the hair on both your and Ranboo's heads with a soft smile, somehow unbothered by the blistering heat of the hellscape, "Double check your potions, armour durability and food supply."

Ranboo mostly stopped wearing his crown because it had problems staying on when he flew and because it had a lot of memories tied to it, so he didn't want it damaged. He had also stopped wearing his tux, instead, he wore plain black pants and a white ruffled poet shirt with a purple short cape that had a golden trim and gold chains, which was a gift from Philza.

You on the other hand wore something similar but with a(n) (f/c) poet shirt and a(n) (f/c) and gold cape. Your cape was also a gift from the fatherly figure as well, and so was the (f/c) infinity scarf type fabric wrapped around your shoulder over your chest that helped you carry and protect Michael as you flew, "Yep, we're ready to go, Mr. Dadza Minecraft!" You gave him a mock salute with a smile as he laughed.

Ranboo checked on Michael who was nibbling on a golden apple before he helped put the zombie piglin child into your scarf carrier, "Yeah, everyone seems safe!" He chirped softly as he adjusted his cape to spread his wings, shaking them out a bit in the heat of the lava.

"Let's go!" You cheered softly once you made sure Michael was 100% secure and wouldn't fall out somehow, "Food is stocked up and in my bag, as well as Regen and Health pots, and a first aid kit and two extra totems."

Philza gave you a proud father smile and took off first, hovering in the air for a few seconds as he waited for both of you to catch up. Thankfully, he knew very well that you both likely would never be able to catch up to his skill in flying as he had been born with massive feathered wings hundreds of years ago. You and Ranboo had never been into the air until a few months ago. Once you both caught up, he took off and soared through the burning hot nether.

Phil loved telling you both the stories of the lands. The Blaze Empress who lived in the Quartress, the foolish Ender King...

You and Ranboo always listened to his stories with such eagerness, often asking him to retell the stories when you were having a bad day or just wanted to relax.

The elder male actually greatly enjoyed having two children to raise again, even if he didn't have the best track record with sane children.

When he did leave to go to the DreamSMP, he would always promise you both that he would be safe and NEVER left without saying goodbye, even if he was angry or upset with either one of you.

He never wants his last words to someone to be filled with anger or hatred.

Somedays he would go to the SMP, you and Ranboo would not leave the house, just out of fear that he wouldn't come back, or that Tubbo and Tommy would come out instead of Phil.

Both you and Ranboo were plagued by nightmares very often for the first few weeks and woke up in tears in the middle of the night.

As old as Phil was, he had absolutely no problems comforting either of you in the middle of the night, same with Ranboo.

"Here mates..." He whispered softly as he handed you a hot beverage and gave Ranboo a grass block, "You're safe here... I promise. I would have to allow either of them into the server, and that would never happen... Especially now that I know what kind of people my sons are..."

You sighed and put your hand on Ranboo's back as he sobbed into your shoulder, using the fabric of his shirt to dry his tears before they burned his skin, "I know... I know... There's just the overwhelming fear that suddenly I'll wake up and I'll be back in the SMP and-and..." You decided not to finish your sentence, nuzzling into Ranboo's hair to try and keep yourself calm.

"Last I checked... Techno scared them off from the Tundra... But I haven't been in Snowchester or near the Embassy enough to know what Tubbo and Tommy are doing. But Ghostbur said that Tubbo has gone absolutely nuts... And Sam had to steal the nukes so Tubbo wouldn't destroy anything else... He also said Tommy on the other hand hasn't done anything except visit Dream in prison constantly."

Ranboo gave a shaky sigh and glanced over at Michael, most likely extremely happy that he brought his child along so he didn't have to deal with a psychotic Tubbo... Hell, he didn't know what would've happened to his kid if he did leave him. The thought caused him to give a small sob and hide his face again, holding onto you tighter and practically pulling your smaller form into his lap, trying to silently promise you safety and using you to remind him that he wasn't alone.

"We... we can't thank you enough, Phil... Really... You taught us so many life skills, kept us safe and promised us a safe haven... Allowed us to your private server..." You whispered, before feeling the warm cup being taken from your hand before a hand replaced it.

"Honestly... It's the least I can do to protect you both... You two have become two children to me, and, while I haven't been able to raise you from children like Techno, Wil and Tommy..." He didn't continue his sentence, struggling to form sentences, but both you and Ranboo understood and were quick to yank him into your little cuddle pile/hug, the two of you eagerly hugging him.

"Thank you... Dadza..."

[giaourtopita]

hi!! i would like to request a mc who has been personally hurt by the brothers' sin. what i mean by that is, for lucifer for example, the mc might have a parent who was too proud to acknowledge their mistakes and hurt mc or for asmo maybe mc had an ex that cheated on them, or for mammon maybe mc's sibling was too greedy so they fought with them over inheritance or something. how would they react knowing this?

it doesn't have to be really angsty or serious or anything but i thought it'd be interesting to see the brothers come to terms with that!

feel free to ignore this btw, but i hope you like writing this if you accept!!❤️❤️🙏🏼

when their sin has hurt them

thank you for requesting, this was a nice way to get my mind off of some things that have been bothering me lately. i used your examples for asmo, luci and mammon, i hope i did this justice! some of these take place early in the story btw. i also did the twins together (and i changed it a little!)

warnings: gn mc, angst, talks of self harm (satan's part) & disordered eating(?)/unhealthy habits (for the twins' part)

lucifer

- mc had been distant with him since the beginning, he didn't like it but he understood. he was a stranger after all, a dangerous one at that.

- however, after that whole thing with belphie got resolved and everyone got closer he expected that he would get closer with mc as well.

- but after a while he realized that he should probably do something about this situation...

- he went into their room, right before their alarm for rad would ring. once it did, he tried not to frighten them by towering over them so he sat in a corner and started talking to them about what was bothering him, this was something rare for the avatar of pride but he had to do it.

- once he told them everything that was on his mind, mc told him that it wasn't him, they wanted to stay away from but rather his sin.

- lucifer was glad that mc didn't reduce him and probably his brothers too as just the sins they represented, even though he knew that he was still greatly affected by his sin.

- but mc also told him that they had a parent they cut off a few years ago that was too prideful to admit it whenever they made a mistake so he reminded them of said parent.

- he thought about it and if he had to be around someone that was even in the slightest like his father he would try his best not to be near them or interact with them.

- in the end, he and mc decided to try just hanging out for small periods of time so they could get used to him.

mammon

- mc didn't like being around him, even though they didn't know him. he thought maybe he really is a worthless scumbag if not even a human can stand being around him.

- he could usually handle it when his brothers were being mean to him but he didn't like it when mc was distant. they had a pact so the fact that mc was acting like that was even more discouraging. it could've also been that he also wasn't the best towards them in the beginning but it still hurt.

- he seriously thought of apologizing many times because he didn't like being stuck in a pact with someone that avoids him.

- so he talked with them, he was glad it wasn't exactly him they didn't like but his sin. honestly, he could've started sobbing right in front of them but he tried to keep it together.

- in the end, they just started talking about how greed can affect people both directly and indirectly like what happened to mc, whose siblings got so greedy that started fighting them for their share of the inheritance to the point where they had to step away and cut them off.

- mammon felt bad. he started thinking how his behavior affects his brothers, without taking into account that his brothers aren't regular demons either. mc had to remind him that the rest of his brothers are also affected by their sins so it's okay. they just had to understand each other better.

- still, after talking to mc he started being more careful about what he's doing with his money. he tried to tone it down a little when it came to money related issues, mc didn't ask for it but it certainly was appreciated!

leviathan

- honestly, he barely even noticed that mc wasn't around him as much. he spends most of his day alone in his room so it wasn't very noticeable.

- once he did notice though, he blamed the fact that mc wasn't hanging out with him as much to fact that he's an otaku and a shut-in.

- compared to the rest of his brother, he can actually not go on a rampage as easily. really, the first time mc saw him like that was during the tsl quiz and it was scary, it reminded them of a friend that was so jealous of them that drove other people away from them.

- even though this was a bad reaction on levi's part and mc managed to still get a pact with him and although having a pact with him did give them some sort of reassurance, it wasn't enough.

- after getting a pact, mc and levi obviously weren't as close as them with mammon and that made the human feel a little bad for him. maybe they misjudged him?

- hearing from the rest of the brothers that levi was usually in control of his sin, made them think about it more seriously. they went into his room and talked about it with him.

- since what caused this was during the tsl quiz, levi actually apologized and the two started hanging more.

satan

- from the get-go mc would avoid him, he didn't know what he did wrong so he wanted to ask them why they were distant.

- it couldn't have been that he's a demon, they get along with the rest of his brothers just fine! maybe too fine, if we're being honest.

- still satan had to know why, if there was something wrong he would try to fix it.

- so when he finally got the chance to be around them, he asked them. and he certainly didn't expect the answer he got.

- turns out mc was avoiding him because when they get angry they can't control their reactions, much like him. only instead of destroying objects and hurting others emotionally, their reactions were basically the opposite when they got angry they would hurt themselves, they would cut, bite, scratch or hit themselves.

- he was the first person to know about this, he felt bad that it was his sin that was causing them to do all these things but he couldn't take away their anger.

- what he could help them at though was making their anger hurt less, whenever he would feel them getting angry he would take them to break things until that became a habit.

asmodeus

- being the touchy person that he is, he was very weirded out by the fact that mc wasn't being very touchy with him, but that's just what he thought it was mc just wasn't the touchy type.

- after one time asmo started full on big spooning them, mc used their pact to get him off of them and stormed off the room.

- asmo felt really bad, not knowing what to do and not wanting to upset mc he started asking his brothers, that's when he found out that mc saw their ex partner cheating on them, literally caught them on the act!

- mc heard about asmo asking his brothers and felt bad since what happened wasn't exactly his fault.

- asmo felt bad about what happened, he knew that it wasn't his fault but his sin is supposed to make people feel good, not this! especially not when it comes to mc!

beelzebub & belphegor

- mc felt uncomfortable when being around one of the twins but this discomfort tripled when the other twin was there too.

- the human had a relative who had very bad coping mechanisms. whenever said relative would feel even a little bit down they would eat excessive amounts of food and then sleep for two days straight.

- even though this was very upsetting, what made mc feel uncomfortable was the fact that their relative died due to their habits.

- so seeing them act the way their relative did, hurt them. even more because they liked the twins and they both noticed their awkwardness around them they set up a sleepover in the attic.

- during that time mc managed to explain how they feel about their sins and that they were worried about them.

- when it was the twins' turn to talk, they explained that their sins aren't exactly the same as the others'. - while some of their brothers have it better controlling the sin, the twins don't have the luxury of doing that because their sins are more physical. meaning if belphie doesn't sleep or beel doesn't eat it's going to hurt them (and make them go on a rampage) and since the twins have telepathy it's also going to hurt the other twin too.

- after hearing all that mc stopped worrying, because they're just doing what they have to do and compared to that relative they're doing a good job.

masterlist

[desiredmalfoy]

You Walked Away From Me (Fred x Reader)

House: Left it for the reader to choose

Relationship: Fred x Reader (Draco x Reader friendship??)

Genre: Angst

Word Count: 2.4 K

I’m back with another more Fred Angst! I listened to drivers license by Olivia Rodrigo when writing this. It’s not really based on it but the song helped me get in that mindset. It’s such an amazing song! This is is in the same universe as the Dear Malfoy one I wrote. You don’t have to read it to enjoy this but I highly recommend that you do! No Voldemort in this universe. Italics are the readers thoughts. Also no Angelina slander! I had to pick a female character. 

Masterlist

Enjoy! :)

Falling out of love is expected, especially if two souls aren’t meant to be.

He had told me not to worry about her. She’s only a friend....

It was natural for Fred to be around Angelina Johnson. They were in the same year and she was the Gryffindor quidditch captain. It was only natural for their worlds to intertwine.  But that didn’t mean you didn’t worry about her being around your boyfriend. Every insecurity you’ve ever felt multiplied every time you saw her. She was tall like the models you saw grace the covers of the muggle magazines, she was just as pretty as them. Plus she had a good amount of the boys at Hogwarts vying for her attention. You felt so young and immature compared to her. Which was one of the reasons you refused to tell Fred of your constant thoughts of the insecurities you felt. 

You had no reason to be insecure about the time he spent with her. 

Because he had honestly not given you a reason to doubt him. He had never given you a reason to be suspicious of him. Your relationship with him had honestly been a dream until right now. He had asked you to the Yule Ball in such a simple and intimate manner. The whirlwind that was your fourth year also brought you love. You didn’t think you would ever find someone who truly loved you for you. But Fred showed you that he did. Someone who made every day worth it. During the summer you wrote to each other every day until he finally invited you to come over to the burrow. Your parents were hesitant to let you go at first since this year was different. You would around your boyfriend but you had managed to convince them after informing them that your Ginny and Hermione would also be there and that you had previously visited them already. 

He had even told you he loved you for the first time while you were there. You thought everything in your relationship was going smoothly.

This year was Fred’s final year at Hogwarts so it was expected for him to be much busier than usual. You would never hold that against him. He had spoken to you about his plans to open a shop with George after leaving school. But that didn’t mean he didn’t have to finish this year, Molly would not permit that to happen. But he still made time for you no matter what. He would look for you at every chance he had. You treasured each fleeting moment with the ginger boy who had stolen your heart. 

But things started to change slowly and you couldn’t help but notice.

Maybe you should’ve paid more attention to the changes you saw in him. The newfound lack of time he now had for you. The way you noticed he no longer looked at you the same way. When he no longer held your hand for long. The way he toned you out when you spoke to him about the newest adventure you had read. He had always asked for the book after you so he could read it for himself too. Slowly over time, he stopped asking what you were reading and wanting to be a part of your world. 

I wish I could’ve erased all our time together.

You were going to sneak into the boy’s dormitories to return to give Fred back his potions book he had accidentally left in the library when the two of you were studying. This was the first time in a couple of days she had even spent more than five minutes with her boyfriend. He had suggested that they study together and you had jumped on the opportunity to spend more time with him. Even if it was in silence but you were with him.

Normally she would’ve kept the book and just gave it to him in the morning. But with his unusual behavior as of recently, you weren’t sure you would even see him in the morning before class. Snape already had it out for Fred and him showing up without his potions book would definitely be costly for him. 

She was used to sneaking into the dormitory as she sometimes hung out with Fred in his room. She walked to the familiar door she was used to seeing. You stopped suddenly when she heard Fred’s voice. He was talking to someone and she wanted to make sure she wasn’t intruding into the conversation. Must be George or another dorm mate. 

That’s when she heard a female voice. Angelina 

“Fred are you sure what you’re saying”, Angelina said softly, you could barely hear her. 

There was a pause for a couple of seconds. What do they mean? 

“Yes”, Fred finally spoke. “I like you…”

“But what about (y/n)”, Angelina questioned him. You can hear that her voice had started to become shaky. 

You felt your heart breaking as if it was physically being shattered. It felt as if someone had torn it straight from your chest and now was mercilessly breaking your glass heart it into nothing.

You had heard enough and you pushed the door open without much warning. You startled the both of them as they jumped far away from each other. 

“Oh hey (y/n)...wha-what’s wrong”, Fred stuttered as he made his way toward you.

“You left your potions book in the library”, you answered showing zero emotion in your voice as you threw the book on his bed. It bounced off his mattress and landed with a hard thud on the floor. 

“I need to talk to you alone”, you said as you emphasized the last word directly at Angelina. 

They gave each other a look and Angelina exited the room. As she was leaving her eyes kept looking between the two of you. But you kept your vision trained on Fred and didn’t spare a glance at the girl leaving.

“Since when Fred”, you spoke coldly to him as soon as you heard the door close.

“I-I-I….please let me explain”, Fred said as he attempted to grab your hands. You pulled them away as if his touch was burning you. Maybe it did in a way.

“Then explain and no excuses.” Tears were already forming in your eyes.

“Since the end of October”, he said while looking at you.

“The more time we spent together, the more I realized my feelings were changing”, he continued to speak to you. “Things changed (y/n) and I’m sorry.”

“You said you loved me”, you cried softly as tears were now pouring down your face. Your voice betrayed what you truly felt. You wanted to yell at him until your throat got raw and could no longer yell at him. “I guess you never truly meant it when you said you loved me.”

“I did! I-I...thought I di-...the love changed from romantic to simply as a friend. I meant it when I said it”, Fred exclaimed as he ran his fingers through his hands. Completely frustrated at the situation before him that he created. “Please (y/n), I still love you and care about you as my friend.”

“Stop! You don’t get to call me your friend Fred Weasley”, you yelled at him. This outburst surprised him as he had never seen you act this way. “You lost that privilege.”

“I didn’t want to hurt you”, Fred said while looking into your eyes pleadingly. 

All that pent up anger and insecurities were finally spilling over. She was over this.

“Just shut up….you’re such a git Fred Weasley”, you said while angrily wiping the tears on your face. “It’s obviously over but that’s exactly what you wanted.”

“(y/n), please…..”

“Some Gryffindor you are, you’re nothing but a coward Fred Weasley.”

Wanting to get the final word in she quickly left his room and slammed the door. She hurried down the hall of the boys’ dormitories looking to get out of here as soon as possible. It felt like she was suffocating. 

She accidentally bumped into someone as she was exiting the common room. She threw out a lame apology and kept walking without stopping. She didn’t really care at this moment. She hurried down the school looking for a place that they wouldn’t look for her. She just wanted to be alone today. 

I wish I could turn back time to the moments we were happier. 

(Y/N) sat at the top of the astronomy tower with tears spilling from her eyes. At some point, she could no longer cry and just let the tears silently slip from her eyes. Her body felt heavy from the minutes she had already spent sobbing. Her eyes were swollen and all she wanted to do was close them and sleep. But she was outside right now and she honestly didn’t feel like getting up right now. (Y/N) felt pathetic at the fact that she thought Fred had ever truly loved her. He claimed that at one point he did but she couldn’t even be sure of that. The presence of the moon and stars that glistened in the sky brought some peace to her at this moment. (Y/N) was so lost in her thoughts that she failed to hear the footsteps coming up the tower. 

“(Y/L/N)? What are you doing here”, questioned a voice that (y/n) immediately recognized. 

Draco Malfoy.

She quickly whipped her head to face the boy who was making his way towards her. 

“Look Malfoy”, (y/n) responded with a long sigh. “I’m not in the mood today. So if you’re going to throw some insults my way…. just do it. I don’t care anymore.”

“You seem like a mess (y/l/n)”, Draco said as he sat down on the floor next to (y/n). He still kept his distance though. 

“You sure have a way with words Malfoy”, (y/n) said with an eye roll. “So charming.”

“I’m stating the obvious. What’s wrong?”

“Why should I tell you”, she responded defensively. “So you can go tell the rest of your friends and tease me about it.”

“Fine. Then don’t say anything.”

There were a few seconds of silence before he spoke again

“I wouldn’t kick you when you are already down”, Draco said so quietly that (y/n) could barely hear him say it. 

“Why wouldn’t you? You clearly hate me”, she scoffed at him.

“I never hated you (y/n). I just greatly disliked those you decided to make yourself an acquaintance with”, he said nonchalantly. 

“Well...you’re in luck because I definitely won’t be around them now”, (y/n) said simply as she stared at Draco. 

Draco only starred at her with a confused expression on his face. He honestly didn’t know what to say next.

“He cheated on me”, (y/n) finally said to him. She saw his eyes soften at her confession.

“And you know what’s worse? My supposed friends probably knew. George definitely did”, (y/n) said as she ranted to Draco. Someone she never thought she would even speak to unless it was to trade snide remarks. 

“Well if they never told you they were never truly your friend.”

“Plus he’s their brother and much closer to him. It’s only expected that I’m going to be the one pushed to the side.”

“Well if you need someone to talk to, I’m here every night.”

“Why are you being so nice to me”, (y/n) questioned him. They had never been on best terms but it’s because she had learned to ignore him and pay no attention to his remarks.

“Everyone needs someone to talk to and like I said I never hated you.” 

(Y/N) thought about this for a while. She was conflicted on trusting Draco, especially after their shared history. She was emotionally vulnerable at the moment and wasn’t in the best mindset to make a decision.

“It’s getting late, we should go before one of the prefects comes up here”, (y/n) said to him.

“Your right”, he said simply as he stood up. “The offer still stands (y/l/n).”

With that Draco Malfoy walked away from her and left her baffled at what just had occurred. 

Darling how I wish last night was just a nightmare…

(Y/N) had been trying to avoid her friends the whole day. She decided to not show up to breakfast and avoid the awkward situation. Plus they were her only friends and she didn’t really have anywhere else to sit other than with maybe Luna. She was more of an acquaintance but she knew that she wouldn’t deny her a spot. She had skipped any class that she shared with them and hid from the rest of the day. But she couldn’t skip dinner. She was hungry and her candy stash was depleting quickly. Plus she couldn’t live off sweets. She had to go.

As she walked into the great hall, she felt nervous about what she was going to do. She didn’t want to face this right now. She was going to just keep on walking and make her way towards Luna. But once she entered she only made it a short distance before her entire mind went blank when she made eye contact with Fred. Hermione saw her next and started to stand up to make her way towards her. She has to get out of here.

Maybe she could live off her candy for a couple more days. She turned around quickly and started to make her way towards the door. But someone grabbed her hand. Not right here.

“Come sit here (y/l/n)”, Draco said as she looked down at him. He was sitting by himself and that was unusual considering that his friends were always around.

“Your friends won’t mind”, she questioned him. She noticed that her friends had all turned their attention to her and Draco. They were all looking at them.

“It doesn’t matter what they think.”

She looked at Draco and then at Hermione who was still standing and assessing the situation. She took her hand away from Draco’s grasp and sat down next to him. She turned to look at them one more time. They looked extremely confused at her actions. Fred looked at her with obvious annoyance on his face. She couldn’t believe he even thought he had the right to be annoyed.

She knew she couldn’t run from them, but she would deal with that another day.

I’m thinking of maybe continuing this?? 

Reminder: None of my work can be reposted anywhere. It doesn’t matter if you give credit, please do not repost!

[momsopposed2theoccult]

It’s come to my attention that a good majority of people on this website have a really poor understanding of the conflict between Toph and Katara in “The Chase.” As somebody who loves both characters and their friendship, this irritates me. Without further ado, let’s unpack that in what is in theory supposed to be a meta but turned out more like a rant. 

“Katara was hostile towards Toph because the fact that she’s a gender non-conforming girl made Katara uncomfortable because Katara is obsessed with gender roles.”

Alright, so right off the bat this is just... completely idiotic and clearly fuelled by an agenda (and likely also a lot of projection). First of all, how is Katara of “I don’t want to heal, I want to fight!” fame “obsessed with gender roles?” There’s an entire episode in Book One dedicated to Katara refusing to conform to societal norms for women in the Northern Water Tribe! Katara routinely calls Sokka out on his misogynistic bullshit! (Mind you I adore Sokka but he could be a little twerp at times and Katara was 100% right to challenge him on it) Katara is the feminist icon of ATLA! The fact that people act like Katara is some sort of conservative tradwife who loves gender roles instead of the outspoken feminist and political activist she is makes me incredibly angry.

Second of all, Katara was extremely kind and welcoming towards Toph at first. She gently encouraged her to join in with the group as they all set up camp together as opposed to setting up her own private camp. It’s only when Toph refuses to comply with her that Katara begins to get irritated. Mind you, Toph has her reasons for this, something I’ll get to in a minute, but from Katara’s perspective (key word here is perspective) she’s just being an annoying little stubborn, selfish, lazy, anti-social, entitled brat. Of course we the audience find out later that this isn’t the case at all (or at least in theory we should find out later but apparently some people on here skipped that part), but for all her many talents Katara is not a mind reader and has no way of knowing what’s going on inside Toph’s head, nor does she know her well enough yet to fully grasp the context behind why Toph acts the way she does. Katara is somebody who greatly values community and believes in teamwork, so Toph turning down her warm welcome in favour of “carrying her own weight” likely felt like a slap in the face. Not to mention that she’s already emotionally exhausted from having to constantly mother Aang and Sokka. If I were Katara, I likely would have reacted the same way. 

Oh and I agree that the “the stars look beautiful tonight, too bad you can’t see them, Toph” comment was out of line, but it doesn’t make her a horrible person. It makes her a 14 year old, and 14 year olds can be nasty, especially sleep deprived 14 year olds. Katara is otherwise a very kind and compassionate person. Other characters have said worse than that. Hell, Toph herself has said worse than that. That being said, it was a deeply hurtful comment and I do like to imagine that she apologized for it off-screen. 

“Toph is a lazy, entitled, and classist spoiled rich brat who just didn’t want to do chores and expected other people to wait on her.” 

This is another one that makes me roll my eyes and ask if they even watched the show. First of all, the presumption that Toph is a lazy or entitled person is just... laughable. I feel like people forget that Toph isn’t actually an earthbending prodigy in the way that Azula is a firebending prodigy (I could say more about Azula and how her belief that she was the unshakeable prodigal daughter ultimately caused her downfall and how by the end of the series Zuko is arguably a better firebender than her but this isn’t a meta about Azula and Zuko, now is it?). Nah. Toph was a sheltered kid who discovered she had the ability to earthbend, was told that she could never become great at it because she was blind, and in response said FUCK THAT and decided to work her ass off until she was not only great but the very greatest all thanks to her crazy, stupid, off-the-charts nerve, drive, grit, ambition, and desire to prove people wrong about her. Does that sound like a lazy person to you? Believe me when I say that you do not achieve that kind of skill level by sitting around on your ass and expecting to have things handed to you. And entitled? Don’t make me laugh. Toph hates having things handed to her, that’s one of her defining characteristics. 

As for the implication that she’s classist and enjoys basking in her family’s wealth and being waited on...... are you stupid? Did you even watch the show? Toph absolutely despises everything about her parents’ lifestyle. Growing up like that was traumatizing and restrictive for her. We’re talking about a girl who likes to play around in the mud for fuck’s sake. Toph does not care how much money you have. She never wanted any to begin with. She even says it herself; “I guess I shouldn’t be complaining. They gave me everything I could have wanted. But they never gave me what I actually needed - their love.” Not to mention that she easily could have continued to freeload off her parents wealth but instead chose to sneak out of the house and make her own money doing what she did best; disproving people’s assumptions about her earthbending. Oh and I’ve seen someone point this out before but WWE is generally considered a “low brow” activity that “proper” people frown upon and shouldn’t associate themselves with. Toph fucking loved it. I don’t know how seriously people take the comics, as they often miss the mark when it comes to characterization (Toph’s, however, was generally pretty accurate), but there’s a part in The Rift where Sokka asks her when she’s going to start charging people to learn metalbending and she gets all serious and flat out tells him that she will never do such a thing, because money doesn’t matter to her. Sharing her one true passion with the world is what matters to her. Oh and the part where she basically tells a bunch of rich and sleazy businessmen to fuck off and “stop thinking about money and start thinking about people’s lives” is just... *chef’s kiss* Sorry my thoughts here are so incoherent but this take is so piss poor and makes me so angry that I don’t even know where to start. As for “Toph enjoys being waited on” I just- *sigh* Toph has such a visceral and defensive reaction to any implication that she is unable to take care of herself. Like I said earlier, that’s one of her defining characteristics as well as the reason for her behaviour in “The Chase.” Where are people getting these takes?

You wanna know why Toph acted the way she did in The Chase? Well, first let’s recap her life up to this point. Toph was born the blind daughter of one of the wealthiest families in the Earth Kingdom. From day one her parents treated her like glass due to her disability. She was not allowed to leave her house unsupervised, and even then she was only permitted to walk around the gardens of her home. Every day of her life she was pitied, gaslit, babied, ignored, emotionally neglected, and made to feel ashamed of herself. She was not allowed to make any decisions for herself. She was not allowed to do anything for herself. She was not allowed to talk to other children. She had no friends. Other people didn’t even know she existed on account that her parents kept her locked up in her own home and didn’t tell anybody about her because they were so ashamed to have a blind daughter. Flash forward to “The Chase.” Toph begins to set up her own camp separate from the rest of the Gaang. Considering that she flat out was not socialized as a child and hadn’t even interacted with anybody her own age prior to a few days ago, this is understandable. So then Katara comes up to her and asks her why she isn’t setting up camp with the others as if she’s somehow incapable of taking care of herself (again, this is just what happened from her perspective) like she’s her mom or something and it just angers her because she thought she joined this group to get away from all that and she doesn’t understand how friends work because she’s never had one, all she knows is that apparently this girl thinks she isn’t capable of taking care of herself, and that infuriates her because it’s the exact same bullshit she thought she was running away from.

There’s a lot more I could say about this but I’m sick of typing so yeah in conclusion both of these takes are piss poor and I’m sick of having to read them. Stan Toph, Katara, and their friendship. 

[marvelsbetch]

Peter Parker’s parent teacher conference

Warnings: IronStrange, Supremefamily, bullied Peter, dick head teachers, anxious Peter and homophobia.

-Peter POV-

"Hey Bambi, why didn't you tell us about your parent-teacher conference tomorrow night?" Pops asked sitting next to me on the living room couch.

"I didn't think you would've wanted to go? Dads not the one for school or teachers and you're -well- you." I explained tentatively.

"I'll take that as a compliment. Just so you know, we'll be there for around 5 so just after your decathlon meeting. It'll just be me and your dad so no need to be embarrassed." Pops told me.

"Thanks. This'll be the first parent-teacher conference I would've ever been to." I told him.

"Same kid. It's a first time experience for us all." Pops smiled at me.

"Not many times that happens." I commented resting my head on his shoulder.

"No it's not Bambi, no it's not." He smiled putting his head on mine.

-Next day at 5 o'clock-

"Hey Penis, what're you still doing here? This is a thing for kids with parents." Flash taunted walked passed me in the gymnasium as I waited for my dads.

"Shut up Flash, you know nothing about my family." I told him.

"You better watch your tone Parker or you'll have another black eye." Flash threatened getting really close to me.

"If you would be so kind as to step away from my kid, it would he greatly appreciated." Pops' voice spoke from next to me. They must've just arrived.

"Oh my God! It's Stephen Strange! And Tony Stark!" Flash all but yelled making the whole room fall silent.

"It's Stephen Stark actually. I didn't spend thousands on a wedding for people to not recognise my changed last name." Pops corrected.

"I'm so sorry. I'm such a fan of both of your works." Flash blabbered composing himself.

"Eugene! We've been looking everywhere for you!" A man, who I presume is Flash's father, scolded walking up to us with a woman trailing behind.

"Sorry father but look who I found. The Starks." Flash excitedly announced.

At this point I slowly slipped away from him and walked up to my Dad who gladly greeted me with a hug. I could feel the warmth of the arc reactor on my chest and it gave a strange comfort. After a few moments we let go but I didn't move very far, being so close to Flash made me really anxious.

"Underoos you okay?" Dad asked me worriedly trying to look into my eyes.

"Yeah I'm fine, just tired. I was up late finishing a piece of homework last night." I lied hoping Pops wouldn't say anything as I fell asleep on him last night.

"Wow Mister Stark. I must say I'm a big fan of your work. If you haven't noticed I try to style myself off of you." Flash's father said showing off his black tailored suit and aviator sunglasses and reached out for a handshake.

"I'm flattered but I don't do handshakes. I'm not the biggest fan of touching." Dad told him trying to give a convincing smile.

"Then why've you got an arm around Pen-Peter?" Flash asked making both my Dads give him the 'Bitch WTF' look. I hate that look. Dad was about to say something but I decided to cut in.

"So, why don't we do what you came here to do and speak to my teachers? Sounds great, let's go." I spoke grabbing Pops' hand and dragging him and Dad to one of my teachers.

"Who was he?" Dad asked in a demanding tone.

"Nobody important. Look Mr. Harrington's free. Let's go and talk to him." I rushed and pulled my dads towards Mr. Harrington's table.

"Ah, Peter and Mr. and Mr. Stark. Lovely to meet you, I love all you've done for the world." Mr Harrington spoke as we took our seats.

"Thank you Mr. Harrington." Pops said.

"No problem. So, I teach Peter Physics and I've got no problems. The only thing I would say is that he is often on his phone during lesson and doesn't listen that much. However with that being said, he's never got below an A+ on his tests. You should be proud of him." Mr. Harrington smiled.

"We are. Is that all?" Dad said ruffling my hair slightly.

"That's all thanks." Mr. Harrington announced and shook Pops' hand before we walked away.

"That was a really good report but who're you texting during class? It better not be one of the others or your dad." Pops asked and gave Dad a pointed look.

"No it's this guy I met online. His names Harley Keener and he seems really nice." I explained as I lead them to my history teacher.

"Harley Keener?" Dad asked shocked.

"Yeah. Why? Do you know him?" I questioned.

"Sorta. I'll explain when we get home." Dad dismisses before turning around to face my history teacher Mrs. Keens.

"Wow, this is a shock. It's not everyday the Starks turn up to a parent-teacher conference. How are you both?" She rushed out slightly flustered.

"We're doing fine thank you. How is Peter in this subject?" Pops asked, straight to the point as always.

"Peter is amazing, always hands his homework in on time, always listens in lesson and has never received less than an A on a test. You should be proud of him." She informed smiling at me.

"Wow, our little goody-two-shoes." Dad teased ruffling my hair slightly.

"One thing that you may or may not be aware of is a boy called Eugene Thomson. He seems to be bullying Peter for whatever reason, I've caught him a few times throwing paper balls at Peter or sliding him malicious notes. I'm not sure if it's friendly or not but I felt you should know. Thank you." Mrs. Keens informed, may the ground swallow me up now.

"We will also discuss this later on." Pops told me sternly, oh no.

We left Mrs. Keens with a slight wave and headed back to the main area to find another teacher. My eyes landed on my English teacher who didn't seem very happy, this is not going to end well.

"Oh look, it's your English teacher." Dad commented and pointed to Mr. Malory. Fuuuuuuuuck.

"How do you know my English teacher?" I asked worriedly.

"Research department, making sure my son has the best education he can. Let's go to him now while he's free." Dad brushed off and started to walk towards him. God save me.

My English teacher hates me for no reason, always turns a blind eye to Flash, always nitpicks my assignments and finds any reason to not give me a good grade. He's also quite homophobic and has expressed on many occasions his hatred for my Dads and anything to do with them. He even leads a group called the 'Freedom from Starks'. This is so not ending well.

"Peter, didn't expect to see you here." Mr. Malory commented not looking up from his clip board.

"Well, this is a parent-teacher conference and I, as his parent, would like to speak to my sons teacher about his school work. If you'd be so kind." Dad said, his words oozing sarcasm and sass. He really did his research.

Mr. Malory picked his head up and stared Dad dead in the face. The distaste clearly shown on both faces as the three of us took our seats, Pops took Dad's hand, probably as a way to calm him down. This is worse than I thought.

"Well, if I'm being honest, Peter is the worse student I've ever taught. He's disruptive in lessons, throws paper at a wonderful student called Flash Thompson, slides Flash malicious notes and seems to find any excuse to blame Flash. His work is simply upgradable and I couldn't thing on a bigger lost cause than your son. Any questions?" Mr. Malory spoke and Dads face got redder and redder with anger.

"Really, then why did the last teacher we speak to say it was the other way around, that 'Flash' was the one throwing paper and passing notes?" Dad questioned leaning forward in his seat.

"Look, I don't know what happens in other lessons and quite frankly, I don't care. All I know is Peter is a major distraction and it's bordering bulling with Flash." Mr. Malory told us.

"What about his work is so upgradable? Is it his handwriting or the content of what he's writing?" Pops asked placing his other hand on top of Dads. This is getting serious.

"The content. The ludicrous stories of the Norse Gods and his 'adventures' with them are beyond reason. His stories are beyond the realm of possibility and are just ludicrous." Mr. Malory told them.

"His stories about the Norse Gods, does this involve Thor putting his hammer in inconvient places or Loki and black widow being kind and caring to others?" Das asked.

"Yes." Was Mr. Malory's short response.

"Well, it is within the realm of possibility as it happens. Every single day at the compound or sanctum." Pops spit out trying to keep calm.

"Oh well, maybe he should learn to be more creative with his stories." Mr. Malory spoke silently challenging Pops.

"Thanks sir." I hastily said before dragging both my dads out of their seats and walking off.

"No Pete, I would like to hear more about how much of a bad student you are." Dad argued challenging Mr Mallory.

"And I will be glad to provide. Mr Park-"

"Stark." Dad deadpans.

"Mr Stark is highly disruptive not only to Mr Thomson but is also always on his phone, sleeping in class or just straight up not listening. Honestly, his behaviour is a reflection as to why you people shouldn't be allowed to have kids, you simply don't know how to raise them." Mr Mallory continued to explain. Dad went red.

"What do you mean by you people?" Pops asked scarily calm as be placed a hand on Dad's knee to soothe him slightly.

"Gays. You shouldn't be allowed children because there's not a mother to properly raise them, I never had these issues when Peter lived with May. I honestly think it would be in his best interest to place him back in her care."

Oh my god. He knows May is dead. He knows that I can't be 'placed back in her care' and It was the same when I did live with her, nothing changed.

We were all stunned into silence, including some of the surrounding parents and teachers who were stunned. Well, we were silent until Dad blew up at him.

"How dare you," he began, "I take as good care of my son as any other parent here does, I give him as much as I can and do everything I can to be a good parent to him. If he's sleeping in your classes or being distracted then maybe you should make your lessons more interesting and not be blind sighted by your homophobic, bigoted and downright dickish beliefs. Your head may be crammed so far up your ass you can smell your lungs but maybe once join us in the real world and see that just because people are different doesn't mean they're not as capable. I will be putting in a formal complaint and if I were you, I'd start looking for new places of employment seeing as I am one of the biggest donators to this school. Come on Pete, we're going home."

Dad then grabbed Pops' hand and my arm before storming out of the building towards the car. You could see the steam coming out of his ears as Pops tried in a desperate attempt to calm him down.

I think I can safely say that this night was a disaster.

[sugarcubetikki]

Bitter Beginnings

Summary:  Despite reaching home, the only thing that Anne can seem to think of is Marcy Wu.

Notes: True Colors absolutely destroyed me and I had to write something to pour my emotions into. Besides, I wanted to explore Anne's reaction to this fully. She saw one of her best friends who she’s secretly in love with being STABBED right in front of her eyes. Like, how the hell is she meant to process that? Regardless of her being home or not, that has to have an IMPACT.

AO3

When Anne used to picture returning home, she’d always assume that the first thing she’d do was run straight into her parents’ arms, engulf them in a hug, whisper in between tears how much she missed them, how sorry she was for disappearing like that and with the gentle reassurance that everything was going to be fine.

But nothing was fine.

She was back home. Finally, back home. She’d been picturing this perfect moment for months now. She’d been expecting this wild rush of euphoric frantic emotions when she came back. She’d been expecting to scream out loud in joy and cherish everything around her.

But what she wasn’t expecting was this.

What she wasn’t expecting was this lone feeling of pain that throbbed within her.

What she wasn’t expecting was this disastrous entrance. She knew nothing was close to perfect. But this was even worse than she could’ve ever imagined.

What she wasn’t expecting was this feeling to crash back into Amphibia. And it was for all the wrong reasons. The things she dreaded the most.

What she didn’t expect was sobbing amidst the familiar signs of shops and streets. Things she couldn’t cherish. Things that just hit her with even more nostalgia. Even more grief.

The Plantars held her in their arms steadily, a gesture of comfort, she appreciated it. But it couldn’t heal her pain. And onlookers stared with their phones, snapping pictures at her pain, under the assumption it was all part of a façade, that it was all just an act. A silly little acting gig. With the frogs as people in costumes. And the tears of the girl in pain just being a raw talent for charades.

No. No. It wasn’t a façade. It was all real. God, she wished it were a façade. She wished that all she’d been through was just a terrible nightmare. But she couldn’t refuse to face reality. Refuse to face the truth. And invent her own silly adventure inside her head.

Unlike the girl who’s name she was screaming. Clear in her ears.

“Marcy!” She yelped one more time. She felt Hop Pop squeeze her tighter into the embrace each time she yelled the name. “Marcy!”

Her sobs grew louder and so did the commotion of the onlookers. More and more came to watch, dropping coins, she’d just about had it. And it appeared that Hop Pop could see that.

“Alright! Alright! Gig’s over!” He turned to the onlookers and gathered the money they had thrown into his hands, stuffing them into the pockets of his oversized trench coat. After being blasted onto the car of a nice family, they had given him that coat under the tangle of many excuses they believed.

After the applause and tossing of coins, the crowd began to subside, Hop Pop wrapped the coat around her, it was warm, nice, consoling in a way. It also shielded her agony from pedestrians on the street.

“Do you want to take this somewhere else?” Hop Pop gently whispered into Anne’s ears.

Anne contemplated for a moment, before staring blankly at the ground, the place vivid in her head: quiet, small, and full of nostalgia.

“Yes.”

---

“It’s still strange that you humans don’t eat bugs.” Hop Pop commented as he took bites into his strawberry ice cream with much discomfort.

“Their digestive system is too sensitive.” Polly muttered, pushing her own chocolate ice cream aside in protest.

“Meh.” She blandly replied, taking another long bite into her mint chocolate chip ice cream, lounging her head onto the surface of the table.

Any other time, she’d have complained at Polly’s comment, or cracked a joke about how the roles had been reversed. But she didn’t really feel like it. At all.  

“This was Marcy’s favourite flavour.” She simply stated.

The Plantars froze in dead silence.  

“She wouldn’t eat any other flavour. I mean, she would talk about trying something different each time. Act all indecisive, analysing which choice would be the best.” She chuckled half-heartedly and felt that painful pang in her heart. “But she would always pick this one. Always.”

She gazed fondly at the ice-cream, the overwhelming grief rose to the surface again, and her eyes building up with tears again.

With a slight stifle, she turned to glance at the walls of the ice-cream parlour. Butterfly-patterned walls. Oh no.

“Sh-she loved b-butterflies.” She said shakily, tears rolling down her face. “Th-that’s why I d-designed her a butterfly costume for the battle of the bands…b-because sh-she l-loved them.”

A loud sob escaped her mouth, and she buried her face in her arm.

Hop Pop’s comforting hand once again landed on her head, brushing her hair in an assuring manner.

“Anne.” His voice drooped as he merely said her name. Nothing following it. Neither a ‘it’s all going to be alright’ nor a ‘we can fix this’.

Because it wasn’t alright. They couldn’t fix it.

How the hell could they fix Marcy getting stabbed like that?

Right in front of their eyes. Right in front of her eyes.

“I c-could’ve s-saved her. I COULD’VE SAVED HER.” Anne’s voice went from a frail sense of longing to a shriek in pure anger. Her breaths and sobs grew heavy, she felt herself shivering as Polly and Sprig rushed over to hug her again.

“Anne, please. Don’t put this on yourself. You’ll regret it.” Hop Pop warned.

“No! Hop-Pop! It’s the truth. I couldn’t help her! I had to watch Andrias pierce that sword through her chest without being able to anything! The strength of the portal held me in place. I couldn’t move!” Anne’s voice grew louder. There weren’t any customers at the parlour on a Tuesday morning, and no staff was at the counter as they were having lunch. They were on their own. Alone with their agony. “She knew it! Okay! I saw it in her face! She knew she was a total goner! Yet…y-yet…the o-only words she managed to say in th-that m-moment w-were…I’m sorry for everything…before…b-before…dropping dead to the ground.”

A harsh silence hung thick in the air.

All of them froze at the reminder of the moment. She watched the devastation dawn over the Plantars’ faces, before pulling away from their grasp, straightening up. Her vision blurred with tears as she stared at the melting mint chocolate chip ice-cream.

“Sh-she didn’t deserve th-that.” Sprig meekly said as he blindly fell back into his own chair. “Sh-she was nice, smart, sweet and despite what she did…she was good to you, Anne.”

“I-I know.” Her voice cracked in response.

“She let me into super cool facts and information. That you guys would think I was too young to understand! I liked how she didn’t think like that. When I asked her why she’d tell me all this, she said young was the best age to gather knowledge.” Polly murmured as she squeezed against Hop Pop firmly.

“She w-was very open-minded. Liked a lot of stuff and had an incredible nature to persevere ahead.” Hop Pop added. “She absolutely didn’t deserve that…but…Anne…don’t put it on yourself.”

“I-I s-still c-could’ve s-saved her though.”

“I could’ve saved Sprig and Polly’s parents too!” Hop Pop burst out and the tense cloud in the room grew thicker at the mention of their parents.

“Hop Pop- “Anne began meekly.

“Don’t! Don’t! Anne, we keep tying the grief we face on ourselves, try to go back and see how we could’ve stopped it, but the truth is…w-we d-don’t know what else to do. We don’t know how to get through this. Or how we could’ve.”

Hop Pop’s words broke something out of her chest that she didn’t even know was there, leading her to wail once more.

“I-I d-don’t know what to do, Hop Pop. Things were never meant to be like this. Marcy and Sasha were meant to be with me here today. We were supposed to celebrate our homecoming together. Or at least that’s what I thought we all wanted! But none of us got what we wanted. I’m back without them. Sasha…she’s never going to get back the way things used to be. And Marcy, M-marcy…she won’t get anything back.” Anne acknowledged woefully. The dreadful thoughts in her brain pouring out. “All I know is that I can’t stay here forever. I have to find a way to get back to Amphibia and do something, Hop Pop. I can’t leave things like this. I don’t know what I’m going to tell my parents when we meet them. Or Sasha’s. Or Marcy’s. I don’t know. But I’m not leaving things like this. We need to get back to Amphibia…somehow…”

“I know.” Hop Pop replied. “We do need to get back to Amphibia. We won’t leave things like this.”

“We have your back, Anne. Always.” Sprig added. “The Plantars stick together.”

“We lost Frobo. We lost Marcy. We lost a lot. But we’re not losing anything again. This time, Andrias will be the one who loses.” Polly finished indignantly.

“Thank you, guys.” She wrapped them into a hug, which they greatly reciprocated.

She was going to find Sasha.

Regardless of all complications, she was going to find her.

She was going to find Marcy.

Regardless of whether she was dead or alive, she was going to find her.

And she was going to find King Andrias.

Regardless of how much power and force he had, she was going to find him and stop him.

[eveningstar1516]

Rise Of The Demon King ~ Chapter 1

Rise of the Demon King

Fic: Multi Chapter Paring: MC x Everyone (Mostly Lucifer) Type: Angst with a Happy Ending Total Word Count: 26,758 TW: Major Character Death, Reader gets stabbed with a sword through their chest so..., Abusive Parents, Past Child Abuse, Demon Hunters, Loss of Control Summary: You’ve done it. You’ve finally done it. You’ve managed to anger the demon king. Now you hold your head high as he hands down your sentence. AO3 Portal: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27065362

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ So I've been meaning to post this on here and I finally am. I'll be posting a chapter a day but the completed version is up on my Ao3

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

CHAPTER 1 - Awakening Day (1,526 words)

It’s been a few years since the exchange program ended. It was such a great success that Lord Diavolo had passed a law allowing inter-realm travel between the Devildom and the Human realm so long as you are approved with the proper paperwork of course. You were one of the few with a special pass to come and go as you pleased while skipping all the procedures. The day you visited was a special day. It had been the day the Demon King “Abandon” would awake from his slumber and return to the throne until he deemed Diavolo fit to rule as a permanent king instead of an heir. After much debate, you convinced your 7 demons to allow you to attend the ceremony. As they were high ranking Lords, they had to be present by Diavolo’s side while you stayed within the crowd with Solomon.

Awakening Day

“So what’s the Demon king like?” you asked the group on your way to the palace.

“Well, we’ve never actually met him. We came to the Devildom while he was still asleep” Satan answered.

“I heard that his aura is so powerful that even if you didn’t know him, which is impossible, that you would both fear and respect him on instinct. It’s rumoured that he is the only being in existence that could possibly challenge the Celestial realm and stand a better chance than we did!” Beel inquired.

“Well if Diavolo got any of his looks from him then he might be one of the most handsome beings in the three realms, after me of course!” Asmo added.

“Remember all of you, King Abandon is not like Lord Diavolo. Lord Diavolo might take enjoyment from your little escapades and shenanigans but His Highness will not tolerate any of that. You are all high ranking Lords, the “Rulers of Hell” I expect you all to behave yourselves and at least try to act the part. That means no inappropriate jokes, going off to steal something, sleeping at inopportune times, constantly snacking, or having your nose buried in a book or console. Our behaviour will reflect on Lord Diavolo and I will not have any of you tarnish it.”

“Oi! We can behave if we want to! Besides this is the King! We’d have to be absolute morons to try and do anything to him!”

“Well Mammon, we’ll just have to keep an eye on you, our moron of a brother,” Asmo said while ruffling Mammon's hair.

“HEY QUIT IT!”

“All of you enough! We will be arriving soon. Remember best behaviour-”

“Alright, Lucifer, you can relax. We’re not crazy enough to invoke the King’s wrath.” Satan said in an attempt to soothe over the eldest concerns.

“Y/N, are you absolutely sure you will be alright with Solomon?”

“Yes, Lucifer I’m sure. I’ll stay right next to him the entire time. I promise.”

With that, we arrived to see Solomon and a few other high-ranking Demons waiting outside the palace courtyard to be allowed in. Upon seeing us, Solomon walked over, extending greetings to each of the brothers before turning to me. Before he could do anything I gave him a big hug.

“How’s my favourite wizard?”

“Hehehe, nice to see you too Y/N. Are you ready to see the King?”

“Yes! I’m so excited. Reading about him just isn’t enough. Have you ever met him?”

“No of course not! I’m not that old!” Solomon replied between laughing breaths.

“We will be heading inside to meet with Lord Diavolo before the ceremony. I trust that you will keep Y/N safe right, Solomon?”

“Of course Lucifer. I love them as much as you guys do. Besides if I don’t you’d all just kill me and I for one enjoy my life.”

With that, the brothers bid me goodbye turning to head into the palace leaving me and Solomon waiting with the other demons for the ceremony to take place.

A little while later, the courtyard is packed with demons and sorcerers of all ranks, waiting to welcome their king back.

“Nervous?”

“A little but who wouldn’t be? I just hope that things won’t change so drastically now that the king is ruling instead of Diavolo.”

“I won’t be so sure, from what I’ve heard, he rules with an iron fist and is much harsher than Diavolo when it comes to his court. As Diavolo’s right hand, Lucifer will be very busy in the upcoming days. I imagine he will be even more stressed making sure his brothers stay in line.”

“Wow, you didn’t need to dump everything on me all at once…”

“It’ll be alright, you’ve handled worse, this’ll be easy in comparison. As long as you don’t anger him or anything like that.”

“Trust me, I don’t plan on doing any of that. Although things never go as planned for me huh?”

“No, they usually don’t do they?” he answered with a chuckle.

Before I could answer, we heard what sounded like fanfare and the crowd quickly quieted down. At the front of the courtyard stood Lord Diavolo in his demonic form with Lucifer at his right and Barbatos at his left also in demon form. The rest of the brothers and a few other high ranking elders and demons stood behind in their demonic glory in accordance with their rank. Diavolo then addressed the crowd.

“Denizens of Devildom! Thank you for coming out today to welcome my father His Highness King Abandon back to the Devildom. I will not keep you here so without further wait, HIS HIGHNESS KING ABANDON OF THE DEVILDOM!” As soon as Diavolo introduced his father, a tall dark man resembling Diavolo stepped up from the shadows in his full demonic glory. His demon form surprisingly simple and modest but still elegant enough to be fit for royalty. His horns unlike Diavolo’s curve upwards from the side of his head and onto the top forming a crown-like shape with gold swirling around it and admonishing the tip. His eyes like golden lava glowing in the lighting and you were convinced that he could set anyone ablaze with just his eyes and little thought. His upper body much like Diavolo’s is full of tattoos symbolizing his royal status. He brandished 4 large black leather wings with golden tips and blood-red accents. While he didn’t have a multitude of accessories like his son, the few he wore complimented his attire greatly making him look even bigger and more regal. He presented an aura that screamed for you to have the utmost respect when in his presence. As if on instinct, everyone present immediately bowed down taking a knee with their hands on their hearts along with those on stage. The kings’ eyes swept over the crowd taking in the different ranks all present for today when you felt a gaze settle on you, the only non magical born human here. I didn’t dare to raise my gaze or move, keeping my head down and as still as possible until I felt his gaze avert from my figure. Sensing my tension, Solomon risked a glance towards me without moving his head and I returned it with a slight smile to try and reassure him that I'm alright.

“RISE!”

At once, all that were present stood at once. Those on stage adopting a soldier-like pose with their hands behind their back, expressions betraying nothing. If this were any other situation, I would've sent them a smile and thumbs up. I wasn't used to seeing them like this and was impressed by their behaviour; though now was not the time for that.

The king then started addressing the crowd. Taking the opportunity, I studied him a little closer; never meeting his eyes and keeping my gaze as respectful as possible. During his speech, he raked his eyes across the crowd and would rest his gaze on mine more than once. Each time he did, I suppressed a shudder as his gaze looked like he was picking me apart and looking right through me. Solomon sensed my discomfort and squeezed my hand to assure me that he’s got my back should something happen. After he finished, everyone bowed their heads with their hands over their hearts as he left the stage along with everyone on it by ranking order. Soon after he left, everyone buzzed back to life talking among themselves about their king and leaving to get ready for the ball happening that night in honour of the king. As Solomon and I were leaving, Barbatos appeared by our side.

“Hello Y/N, Solomon”

“Hello Barb, is everything alright?”

“Yes, all is well. The king requests your presence is all. I’ve been sent to get you.”

“Oh,” I felt a pit form in my stomach. I’ve never interacted with royalty other than Diavolo and I didn’t know how to act when it came to the king.

“Alright. Sorry, Solomon, I’ll see you tonight right?”

“Of course. See you tonight.”

With that, he said his goodbyes to both Barbatos and I, then left. I took a deep breath and followed Barb into the palace.

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[fandomfixationstation]

Warning: mention of death of a loved one.

Todays concept is MC gets a call that like their parental figure has died one way or another and this upsets them greatly because one, they aren’t there to help with anything two, the only people there to do anything are their siblings three, they considered said parent a angel or a blessing by god (optional/bonus points if said parents name means angel-)  They don’t say anything at first though they seem rather angry and now one can figure out why. then they hide and have a mental breakdown to cry in hopefully but unlikely peace.  now I shall write the response headcanons / scenarios or whatever I will do Update: well I didn’t write a scenario / short story bit for all of them because i ran out of energy to do so and then i never went back to it, though if anyone begs or askes nicely I could in theory maybe work something out. this was something self indulgent and was something i wrote to really get me out of a bad headspace.  Lucifer

He is the first one to realize something is wrong, especially if they aren’t a very angry person. 

probably doesn’t get to ask about what is going on because he is forced to deal with something else and rather quickly

though when people start inquiring where they went after lunch, finding it unlikely that they would randomly choose to skip class or something he makes his goal to find them.

Probably doesn’t take him long to find them after he starts looking. gets it in the first three guesses of where they are hiding.

“why are you hiding here with Cerberus?” Lucifer said with a bit of amusement. he figured he would find them here with his dog. just not curled up and cuddling. 

“wouldn’t you like to know” was all they uttered out, having no real energy to argue, or fight. though it was clear they had been crying their eyes out. 

“well something is clearly upsetting you, why not talk about it. nobody else is here to listen in” Lucifer offers to lend an ear to listen to their problems. he was also hoping that by doing so he could get to the root of the problem and deal with it. expecting that he was going to have to knock one of his brothers into line again. 

“I just received some bad news. that’s all. also, I’ll be otherwise located Friday, so like, don’t worry if I’m not around on Friday, I will be back like Saturday, so there is that” They explain, clearly not wanting to get into the details of the so called bad news.  

“otherwise located?” Lucifer inquired as to what the hell they meant by that. 

“yeah, um, I will be visiting - visiting the human world for the day.” visiting might not be the word they were looking for but it was the word they went with nonetheless. 

“your visiting the human world?” Lucifer was surprised to say the least. especially considering he wasn’t hearing about this till now. 

“yeah, i was talking to Diavolo not long ago to make sure it was alright” with a sigh the were back to melting into the side of the dog. 

“normally you are excited to visit the human world, what happened” lucifer wanted to get to the root of the misery they were feeling and he wasn’t gonna sweep this under the rug.

“for fuck sakes, you really aren’t gonna leave me alone till I say it huh? my parent fucking died. are you fucking happy, lucifer? Jesus Christ.” doing everything in their power to hold back a second wave of tears as they add on “my blessing of a parent died. can we drop the topic now?” they said clearly not wanting to hear anything come out of lucifer's mouth as they hardly give him the chance to speak. 

“ah, I see, my condolences” Lucifer was trying to figure out what to say at the same time he was trying to figure out how to cheer them up or at least make them more comfortable. “do you want some Kleenex? how about some water?” lucifer inquired simply.

“water would be nice.” they let out a sigh. 

“im sure your parent was a lovely person. I think it is safe to assume that they’ll end up somewhere where they are safe and happy” Lucifer states simply as he holds a hand out to them to help them to their feet.

“I have no doubts about it. so you don’t need to tell me twice. it just. . . hurts” They says rather quietly. Accepting lucifer’s hand and pulling themself to their feet. 

”go take a seat in my office, no one will bother you in there. I’ll join you soon enough with your glass of water.”  Mammon

This man probably thinks he did something wrong, spends half the day trying to figure out what he did

if its not that he is trying to figure out who pissed them off and who he should be yelling at.

he hates to admit it but he doesn’t like seeing them angry or upset. 

is probably gonna be first to realize that they slipped of to somewhere and start trying to find them right away. 

after checking a few other areas, Mammon finally considers they might have just gone home to hide. knocking on their door and slowly opening it mammon calls out into the room “Oi, human are you in here?”. 

“Go away Mammon” they were heard but very muffled as they had encased themselves in several blankets, clearly sounding like they were crying. unless they choose to eat gravel or something. 

“what’s got you so bumbed out?” Mammon said fully entering the room now know that they were in the room and completely ignoring their request to go away. 

“I said go away, I don’t want to talk about it” They said pulling the pillow to their head in hopes to block out more of the world. so that they didn’t have to look up and face the fact they were a hot mess. so mammon didn’t have to see them like this.

“no! the great mammon isn’t leaving till you say what's bothering you! that way I can fix it for you!” Mammon declared boldly. goofy grin on his face hoping that his optimism would help cheer them up. 

“you can’t fix this. you cant bring back the dead. well unless you use necromancy, but. that's never worked out” They had let out a dry laugh for saying all of this. but now they were holding back tears trying to not cry their heart out for a second time.

“oh human...” Mammon was at a loss of words, though to be fair he didn’t get the time to form a full sentence. 

“I’ll never get them back. they were practically an angel” they sniffled, trying to not sob. “my parent died mammon. what the fuck am I going to do?” they didn’t really expect an answer from mammon. 

“Listen here, the great mammon will deal with all the technical talk, and will make sure you can go to the human world long enough for you to do what you need to. but till then and maybe after, I’ll be here for you.” mammon explained simply. 

after letting out a chocked sob they reached out a hand and grabbed onto mammon's arm. “thank you” they sobbed out. mammon just sat there and patted the blanket pile gently trying to give as much comfort as he could. 

“do you want a hug?”

“please-”

Leviathan

since he hides away and does online classes (Correct me if im wrong) he might not even realize something is going on

unless he messages them and doesn’t get a response. 

will ask if the others have seen them and like will try to figure out where they were last seen.

eventually puzzles together that something is wrong and he should look for them

Satan

He although wrathful himself, isn’t able to see through the anger and might be a little annoyed about them for being so.

though he does understand that there is probably a reason for them being upset. he’ll do his best to figure out what caused them to act this way.

he’s stubborn and straight forward, he’ll probably be direct and ask what is wrong and wont leave till he gets an answer.

or he might occasionally bring it up and keep getting updates with how their doing kind of thing.

doesn’t really have to seek for them when they hide away because he watched them slip away and got worried and followed them

Asmodeus 

he is very quick to realize something more is going on, something more than meets the eye. 

probably doesn’t directly do anything at first other than same some sugar coated words in hopes it cheers them up.

when that doesn’t work, he gets very worried and tries to convince them to do somethings to ‘take your mind off of things’ 

knows exactly where to look to find them. first try!

Beelzebub

one of two ways, he either doesn’t notice anything for the first little bit, or he has a strange feeling nagging him that something is wrong and he tries to figure out what.

once its clear that they’ve disappeared he is quick to start looking, might take a while to find them because he is gonna check everywhere to find them.

bear hugs no questions asked, will try to comfort to the best of his abilities. 

will ask them what they want to do after a while to see what he can do to make them feel better

Belphegor

tbh honest probably knows something is up right away. 

with either avoid it entirely or bluntly ask what is wrong

if he doesn’t get a direct answer or is shooed away he doesn’t have the energy to push for the truth, might be a bit annoyed.

once he hears that they have gone missing it probably wont take him long to find them. 

will sit down next to them and be like ‘now will you tell me what is wrong?’

Solomon

since he doesn’t have the same amount of time with them he may not notice at first. or he does notice ASAP because holy shit what happened why are they so mad.

might try to inquire what is wrong and like use his natural charm to try to cheer them up. 

when he hears they are lost or missing ect. he uses magic to find them as quickly as possible. 

will do a bunch of considerably silly and goofy things trying to get them to smile or laugh before trying to get them to talk about whats bothering them

Simeon 

doesn’t take him long to figure out something is wrong, just one look and he knows

but other wise, he’ll simply ask if you want to talk about it. when bluntly rejected he’ll leave them alone

they go missing during the day? maybe it was worse than he first realized, he’ll go looking for them.

will find them within the hour, maybe a half hour if he’s lucky. 

mans will try to comfort them any way he can.

_____________________________________________________________ sorry, for not doing Diavolo, luke and barbatos, i just didn’t really have the time to do them nor could i figure out how to do ones for them so like aihogdsifh sorry. but i do hope you enjoy this post nonetheless. 

[papers4me]

Fruits Basket,Se03, Ep 9 (part 1)

“ppl & feelings can’t be bound down”~

What an ep for my girl tohru! She completed her growth thanks to kyo’s rejection. really, It was so hard, cruel, understandable but above all so necessary for her to reach a logical realistic conclusion that “I can love/want things from the bottom of my heart, but at the end I can’t force or bound them to me, I won’t regret loving/wanting them, but I’ll move forward regardless, no more standing still”.

-The fear of being alone:

Aren’t we all? We’re scared to face the word after breaking bonds, changing, not getting what we want, having to start over. Such feelings run deeper into us all. Both tohru & akito were scared to face the word without the old comfortable bond that they got used to:

Tohru realized today, that she cant keep talking to a cold photo, can’t live according to her mom’s expectations, to fulfill her mom’s wishes, can’t narrate her daily life to her mom & fill her life with other ppl’s own issues to distract her self from facing her own loneliness & from looking deeper into what should she do with her life. As she fell in love with kyo, tohru started talking to him! forgetting to inform her mom abt her life’s details, thinking abt what will she do “after graduation?”. As kyo asked in se02, ep2. Graduating highschool is ur mom’s wish, What would u wanna do after?” Tohru didnt have a response of “an after”cuz her mom wasnt there to tell her! Tohru has to choose “the after” herself!!!! “The after” was being with kyo & starting life together! figuring what to do next together! She no longer alone! she found her most precious person!

Except: he cant be with her. Again tohru is scared. What to do now! she wanted a bond but is forced to leave it. Loving kyo was stage 1 to be free from her grief. Moving forward without kyo is stage 2 to learn not to repeat the painful journey again! She didnt let go of her mom & kyo easily. It was hard, scary but she must do it. You must respect their wishes & move on. As scared as she is, there will be sadness & happiness ahead.

Akito realized she cant keep an empty box, cant keep fulfilling her dad’s wishes to “be loved & special” cant bound the zodiacs to her for good. They may love her or not, it doesn't matter, if they wish to leave for whatever reason, she cant force them to stay.

Except now that the zodiacs are leaving, what does she have to live for? who will be with her? she isnt good with strangers? she never met anyone who wasnt forced to obey her & be grateful for her. Strangers cant be forced to love her! what will she do now? stretch you hand for a greeting. Tohru told her, make a friend, they might refuse you, but hey might accept u too, I’ll make it easy, Hi, I;m tohru, whats ur name?

The power of true love: ( reality vs fiction)

In fairy tales, the princess fix the prince. the prince save the princess. The prince kiss the princess, she wakes up & they be happy ever after. Except real life has no prince & princess, You cant always be saved, you cant always save others, pure intense true love cant always be the answer!

Yuki was first when tohru needed physical saving. he saved her twice! Yuki’s nickname in school ”the prince”. Yuki is always cool, thoughtful & kind. Yuki always knew what to say & do! he deserves tohru’s romantic love more than kyo, right? But “ppl & feelings can’t be bound down”~ . Yuki didn't feel this way towards tohru, granted no one (excepts kakeru) knows the reason why he loves her fondly (she’s his mom figure). The official” prince isnt the one for her. Real life isn’t a fairy tale. Yuki has someone who sees he isn’t cool, perfect or a prince “ granted no one knows abt machi, yet! ) XD

In tohru monologue: she didnt think abt saving, that's not why she loves kyo. She stated normal, silly, mundane things! a shy smile, awkward kindness & the likes. Stuff ppl love abt each other in real life. You dont say, I love my husband cuz he saved me from a burning building in the 7th floor! lol. But fiction is so full of this. Princes saving princesses.

Tohru didnt fix kyo, too! as much as her love helped him greatly to find hope, the best writing choice is that tohru’s love also brought despair to kyo! To him, she’s the symbol of hope, peace & comfort! she’s also, the symbol of despair, torment & unease! EPIC! The kyo who’s stuck in the past cant be with her, the kyo who will move beyond trauma, abuse & broken soul will be with her. The duality is all on kyo’s shoulder: what will he choose? Can he choose in his state now?

In fairy tales the princess wakes up after the kiss. In real life, we don't. Tohru didn’t. Regardless if she fainted during or after the kiss. The kiss fixed nothing. Kyo’s despair in seeing near-dead tohru in a not-so-subtle mimic to his nightmare, has manifested itself into the sweetest kiss upon seeing her conscious & talking. Kyo isnt good with words, his actions are his words. When he’s scared, sad, in trauma: running away. when he’s  fond of her, grateful for her existence: head knock, head pats, hand holding & a kiss. Still the kiss fixed nothing. Kyo is still traumatized more than ever now. Tohru still feels rejected “even if I’m not with you, plz live”.

Talking fixes everything. It didn’t here, kyo & tohru talked & showed their most vulnerable side to the other, but still didn’t meet half ways, regardless of all the love. That’s cuz they keep missing each other’s best timing. Kyo is stuck in the past while tohru has moved forward. even if in her mind she’s the one who stood & he moved. this shows they aren’t on the same wave yet. Before meeting each other again, kyo must learn from his mistake like tohru did. He must face his ultimate demon: his dad. The one who created the current broken kyo.

Rebelling against parents: ( sign of growth & freedom of choice):

Rebelling against parents  is a sign of a desire to choose one’s path, decide one’s own future. Away to express an oppressed desire.

Yuki rebelled against his mom in se02. he told her I’m not going to the college you chose. I’ll chose my path. I’m not staying away from Ayame. My bro is good in my book. I chose who I want to be with. He told her what he needed, turned his back & moved forward.

Tohru rebelled against her mom today. told her I’m not wasting myself doing only what you I think you’ll approve off. You might bot forhet kyo, thats ur choice, But I DO. I love him even if you might not approve of him, Even if he rejected me, my feelings wont change, but I’ll move forward from the grief & pain. mother. She told her what he needed, turned his back & moved forward.

Kyo WILL rebelled against his disgusting dad. He MUST. It is his turn now. He’ll tell him I’m not wasting myself being locked in a cage. I have a future! I’m not a monster. I am LOVED! I might not 100% sure why I’m loved, but the truth cant be hidden. I have ppl who love me! cheer for me! I want to live! enough of death! mom & kyoko died, tohru nearly did, but I’m not gonna die! I’m not killing ME! I’‘ll do what MOM didnt do! I’ll do what YOU couldn't do! I’ll live! He’ll tell him what he needed, turned his back & moved forward.  I cant wait! I’m in tears just thinking abt it! Kyo was punished enough! time for happiness!

Side Notes:

While I’m impressed with tohru’s growth, as they did her justice in this ep, this doesn’t erase that the buildup for tohru’s own journey & trauma was mediocre. There is a reason ppl commented ” omg tohru, you can love your mom AND kyo!. ” Grief is illogical, long process & it sucks that we weren’t allowed to experience tohru’s grief & her mom’s role in tohru’s abandonment issues. Huge lost opportunity that a good conclusion ep cant erase! but like tohru, I’m moving on ~

The path of growth for kyo will start by rejecting the demon: his dad. No. other. option. Hold abusers accountable for their crimes. Stop their madness. Tell them off.

We know kyo is baka! that’s his trade mark, the endearing baka! a lot of characters in the show think so! I love it, but I’m craving baka-yuki! XD! really, yuki is cool, level-headed & smart, but let him be baka too! this only shows up in tiny microscopic doses, but they’re my fave doses of yuki! it humanizes the “perfect prince”, the “gifted high status rat”! Thus him not seeing kyo running the other side, is my fave look on him! XD.

I appreciate that kyo & yuki put their differences aside when they’re with tohru. You cant tell yuki is hella pissed off with kyo, but he restrained himself. His gaze while full of anger is also full of sympathy as he heard/saw kyo’s panic upon the thought of loosing tohru. He understand they both only mean the best for each other, but also tried they both keep missing each other & not meeting half way! Also, yuki being the only one in the hospital is realistic & endearing. No need for them all to be there & yuki lives with her & is so close to her.

kyo not being the hospital is fantastic! thank you writer-San! why would kyo go to the hospital after thinking his nightmare came true? kyoko /his mom warned him, you’ll hurt another person.. he did.. he didn't cause her fall... but caused her sadness & hurt.

Momiji’s reprimanding gaze is my fave look on him! Also, the best response to what akito did. Akito isnt used to such judgemental gaze. Kureno grabbed her cheeks, gently told her you shouldn't do that, the old maid told her you are right, Dr. Hatori erased her mistakes from ppl heads & bodies, shigure being either cold or kissing her ass, coxing her to yet torment another zodiac in his grand scheme to break the curse as happened in the beach arc.

You bet hana & arisa will be there next ep! Arisa will meet kureno & akito for sure. To path the way for their romance as seen in the ED.

Shigure’s “remorse” is a whole can of worms. Playing with ppl’s hearts & feelings to gain someone’s affection is no laughing matter. Each time blood is shed, he contributed somehow. he didnt force anyone to hurt the other, but he played with matches & never got hurt.

Shigure must be glad akito stabbed kureno. Not cuz he’s sadistic or bad person. He isn’t, but cuz akito stabbing kureno is akito cutting her bond with him. Go shigure, your girl removed her lover with blood. Kureno is punished for sleeping with ur girl by blood! so, when is ur punishment for sleeping with ur lover’s mom? none? ok.

The animation is good. They didnt villinize akito by drawing extra manic features like se02. Kyo’s broken & tormented face once again epicly drawn. However, akito’s slaps on tohru’s face were comedic, unnecessary & such bad taste! Stop using violence for extra drama, furuba!

Also, tohru, I love you, I understand you are broken but charging at a person, who has a history of violence & physical abuse & holding a knife, is stupid. No other description. I’m glad she didnt accidentally kill you in her initial rage.

Everything akito’s redemption, kureno & shigure are part 2 in my review.

[merakimelareloaded]

Beauty is the Beast

The following fan fic is my @mlsecretsanta gift for @buggachat for the 2020 gift exchange.

I sincerely hope Buggachat enjoys this fic, as her content has brought me a lot of joy over this past year and this gift is a chance to pay some of that back. It’s a multi-chapter fic, and I’ll be working as hard as I can to update it frequently.

Summary:  When a talented young bard with something to prove walks into the life of an isolated young lord with a dark secret, not only do they find themselves drawn to each other, but also closer to the thruth about themselves.

Rating: I recommend Teen & up, as there will be some description of semi-graphic violence down the road.

Read on Ao3 instead

Chapter One: Enter the Bard

It was a quiet, average day for most in the bustling village of Miracule. Most, excluding one young bard named Nino Lahiffe, who was currently doing his best not to panic as he made his way to his new job at the Agreste estate. As an excessively wealthy noble family, they could afford to hire not only cleaning staff and knights, but also entertainers such as musicians and jesters. What Nino wasn’t expecting at the time of his hire, was that he was expected to move into one of the spare rooms of the property, so that if anyone in the family felt the urge to listen to music, he’d be there within five minutes. At the time he was too stunned to turn it down, but as he approached the gates, he wished he had. The idea of living with snobby rich people only for the sake of catering to their whims sounded awful, and that’s before thinking about how much they’d judge his appearance and his lack of etiquette. So far, he’d only met the head of staff, and even she looked down on him! He didn’t even understand why he got the job in the first place.

“If those people are smart, they’re going to care more about how talented you are than how expensive your clothes are.” His mother had said that morning. He almost laughed at that, remembering that with Princess Chloe as the only noble person he had met before, there was every chance they’d care more about his clothes than how well he can play the lute. He figured even if they were all as dreadful as the princess, it would still be worth it for the salary he’d expect on the job. With the money he’d be able to send back home, his parents would be able to upgrade their house to make it safer at night, lest the beast that terrorises the village and surrounding areas feels the urge to attack. It hadn’t ventured that far into the village too often, but it cheered him greatly to know he was helping keep his loved ones safe.

Reaching the gates, his thoughts immediately sobered. Guarding the entrance were two intimidatingly large men, who both glowered down at him as he came to a stop before them. Quickly, it dawned on him that he had not been given instructions for entering the estate. Watching their expressions grow impatient, he cleared his throat.

“G-Good morning.” He stammered out. The men didn’t react at all, faces locked as if waiting for him to say anything of value.

“I’m meant to be starting work here today as an in-house musician. My Name is Nino Lahiffe.” He continued. Still no reaction. Suddenly, Nino became anxious of the chance that he had misunderstood what he’d been told. Was he meant to arrive a different day? Was he not meant to come at all, and he hadn’t actually been hired?

“H-Has Madame Sancouer told you I was coming, or do you need to check with her before letting me in?” Nino asked, hoping name dropping the head of staff and a question would spring the imposing men into action. While the one on the left didn’t move, the one on the right let out an unpleasant laugh.

“You expect me to believe that Lord Agreste went and hired a scrawny street urchin instead of some upper-class musician?” The one on the right questioned in a cruel, mocking tone. Nino furrowed his brow, forcing his anger to quell as much as he could.

“No, but I do expect you to believe he’d pick me. I am no street urchin, sir.” Nino replied as firmly as he could. He may not have anywhere near as much wealth as the Agrestes, but he was far from destitute. Even if he was, it gave the man no right to look down on him. The laughing expression dropped back to a scowl, now far more irritated than before.

“You’ve got some nerve talking to me like that! I ought to beat you bloody and leave you for the beast, you little –”

“That’s quite enough, Sir Talan.” A sharp, familiar voice interrupted. Through the gaps in the metal gate, Nino could make out Madame Sancouer standing stoically behind it.

“You were instructed to intimidate away unwanted guests, not insult those who have been invited here. As a member of Lord Agreste’s staff it is unacceptable for you address your equals in such fashion, even more so for him to be seen talked to in such a way. You won’t be warned again.” She scolded coldly, not looking up from the scroll in her hand. Without any warning, the guard on his left silently turned to pull the lever behind him, which seemed to activate something metallic sounding and before he knew it the gate was lifting.

“Follow me, Lahiffe. Lord Agreste does not have all day.” Madame Sancouer said blankly, before pivoting sharply and walking further into the property. Nino ducked past the intimidating men, pretending not to see the one on the right scowling angrily at him, and paced quickly to catch up with the woman. His stomach flipped with anxiety as he followed her down the path leading through a large courtyard scattered with knights who were training very intensely. Between the imposing gate guards and Madame Sancouer, he wasn’t sure who he was more intimidated by. Sure, those men could probably snap his neck with one hand, but Madame Sancouer had complete control over them, not to mention she could read. He didn’t even know if noble women were allowed to read, let alone someone who was part of the working class. If she’s expected to read, what expectations did this Lord Agreste have of him?

Sooner than he’d have liked, they had wound through several hallways until they reached a set of large doors that Nino could only describe as “excessively glamourous”, as the carvings in the rich oak were far more elaborate than he’d ever think was necessary. Looking over at Madame Sancouer, Nino couldn’t help but feel as though she looked somewhat nervous. The feeling in his stomach worsened. If she was nervous, then he really didn’t stand a chance. Madame Sancouer schooled her expression back to neutral very quickly, before knocking clearly on the door.

“What is it Nathalie?” A man’s voice called, muffled but the door.

“I have brought the court musician I had hired. I thought it be best you appraise him before he settles.” Madame Sancouer replied with a clear, yet blank tone.

“Very well. Enter.” The voice said abruptly. Without hesitating, Madame Sancouer pulled the one of the double doors open and gave a subtle gesture for Nino to enter.

If he thought the doors were a lot, they were only a taste of what was to come with the room they lead to. Between the chandelier and the gilded tapestries, everything about the room screamed “I have more money than I know what to do with”. Towards the centre back of the room stood a massive, black table that was just as elaborately carved as the door. Standing on the other side of the table was an older man with fading blond hair that was slicked back out of his face, which wore an expression that somehow showed focus and boredom at the same time as he looked down at the map that was spread out in front of him. The fact that the man was yet to look up gave Nino the confidence to shift his focus to the painting on the wall behind him. The painting was enormous, stretching from the floor to the ceiling in height, and depicted the most beautiful woman he had ever seen in his life. He couldn’t believe a real person could hold such beauty, so he could only speculate that either she was the product of an artist’s imagination, or the woman’s feature’s have been heavily embellished. Before he could ponder if that were commonplace for nobles and royalty, the man standing at the table looked up at him, forcing Nino’s attention back down to meet his gaze. He immediately regretted making eye contact with the man, as the moment their eyes locked, Nino felt as though he had been shot with an arrow with how sharp his gaze was. Was he not meant to make eye contact with the lord? Should he look away? Or would looking away show weakness? Nino severely wished he knew the first thing about etiquette before coming to this nightmare place.

“Nathalie.” Was all the man said, not breaking eye contact with Nino.

“Yes, my lord?” Madame Sancouer voiced.

“That is a child.” The lord stated. Nino bit back a retort, knowing that talking back to this man would be the stupidest thing he could do in this moment. He wasn’t a child, he was seventeen and soon to be eighteen, so he was essentially an adult at this stage in his life. Hell, most in the village were considered adults by the time they were sixteen as they could efficiently work and bear children. Nino was even tall for his age, so he’d gone passed annoyed and into confused as to why this man thought he was a child.

“I believe a more fitting term would be young adult.” Madame Sancouer commented dryly, which surprised Nino. He wasn’t expecting her to be in a position to sass her boss.

“That may be, but in terms of what talent he could have possibly accumulated in his life for music, he is essentially a child. I know I made it clear that you were to find the best.” Lord Agreste elaborated in an irritated tone, his eyes scanning up and down Nino like an apex predator.

“I have followed your criteria. “Best” does not mean “most experienced”. Out of everyone I saw, he showed a range of becoming qualities that made him the best suited to our needs. He not only had just as much talent as men several years his senior, he also has an impressive repertoire and was far more up to date with modern styles than the other candidates. He composes his own music too, so you’d be far less likely to grow bored with his playing. As for his age… if I may be candid, I believe it would be good for Adrien to practise with someone his own age. After examining his training with the knights, his performance always improved when partnered with a knight that was closer to his age.” Madame Sancouer explained thoroughly. Nino hoped his dark skin hid the heat that was rising to his cheeks. He had no idea he had made that much of an impression on the stoic woman. But his joy at the appraisal halted at recalling the name she had mentioned. Adrien. Where had he heard that name before?

“I hope this isn’t some poor attempt at giving my son a friend, Nathalie. He is already friends with the princess, he doesn’t need some common boy for company.” Lord Agreste groaned, rolling his eyes and finally shifting his gaze away from Nino. That’s right. When he had met Princess Chloe, she had mentioned her friend Lord Adrien and prattled on about how the two of them were perfect for each other and when they got married no peasants would be allowed to attend because she didn’t want them to ruin her big day with how filthy they were. If he had known that a requirement of his job would involve spending time with someone who was a perfect match that nightmare girl, he’d have definitely turned it down.

“It was merely a choice I made based on observations of Adrien’s performance levels. Nothing more.” Nathalie replied, expression completely schooled to show no emotion. Lord Agreste sighed before returning his attention to the map.

“Very well. Take him to his room, then introduce him to my son.” He commanded with a lazy wave. With that cue, Nino hastily followed Madame Sancouer out of the room, eager to leave the intimidating man’s presence as swiftly as possible. She led him down more corridors and across a couple of different courtyards, eventually leading him into a section of the estate that while much plainer than where he’d met the lord, was still considerably more decadent than the home he grew up in back at the village.

“This is the staff quarters, where you’ll be staying while you are employed by Lord Agreste. When you are not summoned, you may stay in your room or relax in the courtyards where you can be easily found. If you for some reason need to be anywhere else on the property make sure the nearest guard is aware of where you are going so you can be found quickly if you are called upon.” Madame Sancouer explained to him as they made their way down a hallway, before they came to a stop in front of a simple, unmarked door.

“This is your room. Put down all your possessions except for your lute, then we’ll go to the young lord’s quarters.” She instructed, standing stiffly by the door as she waited for him to finish. He quickly entered the room, placing his worn-out bags on the decent looking bed. The room looked pretty good to him. On the opposite side to the bed, he had a dresser and a desk, and the far wall had a large window that opened out to a balconette that was just large enough for a person to perch on if they wished to sit and feel a nightly breeze. He couldn’t ask for more, really.

Deciding he could inspect his room further later, he darted back out of the room, shutting the door behind him. With a brief nod, Madame Sancouer was on her way again, leaving Nino to trail behind once more. As they walked, Nino silently prayed that he would not have to spend too much time with young Lord Adrien if he was anything like Chloe. After what felt like walking to the opposite side of the property, it finally clicked that Madame Sancouer had said the young lord had his own quarters. This section of the estate was twice the size of the staff quarters, and a thousand times more extravagant.

“How can one person need this much space?” He thought out loud, immediately blanching at his lack of control. Madame Sancouer quirked an eyebrow at him, before turning her eyes back to the direction they were walking.

“The young lord is prohibited from leaving the estate, so Lord Agreste decided it would be best if he was provided anything he could want or need within his quarters, so that he may never be tempted to leave.” She answered. He stopped himself from rolling his eyes. One the one hand, this guy sounded just as pampered as the princess. On the other hand, he felt a little sorry for him. A gilded prison is still a prison, after all. After a few minutes, they reached a beautifully decorated set of double doors that were lined with several locks, with a bored looking knight standing guard. When the knight noticed their approach, he jolted into a better posture and scrambled for the set of keys on his belt. Meanwhile, Madame Sancouer pulled out her own set of keys and made her way to the door. Nino watched as she unlocked half the locks, and the knight the other half in pure disbelief. What in the world did Lord Agreste think was going to happen to his son? Surely nobody would want to kidnap him that bad. Once the locks were done, the knight pulled the doors open for the pair of them, gesturing for them to enter.

As Nino walked in, his eyes blew wide open in shock at the size of the room. He’d guess it was as large as his entire house back home, and this was only the bedroom! Looking between the canopy bed, the bookshelves, the chaise lounge, and the clavichord, he wondered what all the other rooms were even for. He scanned the room looking for its inhabitant, only to realise nobody was in here.

“Adrien?” Madame Sancouer called out, only looking nervous for a second before managing to school her expression once more.

“I’m out here, Nathalie!” A bright voice chimed back from beyond the window, which he soon realised was more of a door, which lead to a large looking balcony, from what he could see. Madame Sancouer led him to the glass doors and out onto the sunny balcony.

On a stone bench pressed right against the rail of the balcony sat a poised looking young man whose golden hair caught and bounced the sunlight as though it were made from its beams. Like the senior Lord Agreste, he was also dressed exquisitely, his black jacket and pants fitting his lean form perfectly. The young man had his head turned away from them as he leaned on the rail to look at whatever view he had.

“Adrien, you have a visitor.” Madame Sancouer announced. The young man, now confirmed as Adrien, perked up as he turned to face them. Nino held back a gasp as he took in the young lord’s face. His vivid green eyes were a perfect match for the woman in the portrait, and the young man’s face was every bit as beautiful as he had previously speculated was impossible to be real, if not more. Adrien’s expression brightened with visible excitement as he looked at Nino. The bard wasn’t sure what confused him more; why this guy was so excited to see someone he’d never met before, or why his own heart was suddenly beating so fast.

Next Chapter

[wangxianficrecs]

Hi Mojo, I also wanted to share my thoughts on this concrit and commenting discussion, particularly the etiquette of asking permission before identifying racism part. I think there are two conversations here: the concrit and comment etiquette on fics, and POC being able to speak up without having to adhere to etiquette. Of course you can stop reading this message if you would like to as I’m mindful of your argument that you should ask permission first. But if you could read this (not even publish!) then that would be appreciated.

I am a Chinese diaspora. As a Chinese diaspora your comments affected me rather more than I expected them to. I’m being really careful about my own tone right now - because I’m worried that if I come across as angry or even remotely impolite, that my message might get dismissed by a reader thinking I’m just angry and reactive. I’m coming from a personal perspective on this, but I can’t not make it personal as this is something that affects me, and my friends and family, as people.

With your message to be kind in all interactions with authors, all that runs through my mind is the implication that as a POC person, is is MY job to be kind and understanding and polite, and it MY job to willingly teach another person of how their actions and words have impacted me. That if I am angry or offended and speak in a less than nice tone, that somehow this is a petty tit-for-tat move on my part? Of course in an ideal situation we should not react emotionally - but I can’t be expected to stay unemotional in the face of micro aggression and racism, even if it was not meant to be malicious. I’m sure your intention wasn’t this but then the idea that WE must then kindly educate the racist party (accidentally or otherwise) is a huge emotional and mental burden that we can’t be expected to partake in every time.

I know I cannot say ‘us’ in this situation, but this isn’t an issue that only affects an individual. I KNOW I am only one person. I know I may not be the ‘mouthpiece’, as you said, for everyone who is Chinese diaspora. But I can say for certain that I share the same lived experiences of at least some who will agree with me. I’m challenging the idea that an individual can’t be somewhat reflective of a population - otherwise it would be ridiculous to suggest that all people of a similar background must agree on everything and have a spokesperson.

I’m also sure you didn’t mean to or I could be wrong, but I get the sense that you are considering this issue predominately from the perspective of a non-POC (non-Chinese, in this case) author and how we should try not to upset them. It feels that we must consider that the author is coming from a place of no bad intentions or malice and must therefore speak to them in that way - but that is a very idealistic process that POCs and marginalised people can’t always rely on. Ignorance - especially wilful - can be just as harmful and hurtful as direct aggression.

Luckily my experiences in this fandom has demonstrated that authors who are non-Chinese or POC almost always start their fics with an apology and a reassurance that they are receptive to corrections of any cultural inaccuracies they may have. And I think that this is the crux of the etiquette issue that we shouldn’t offer unsolicited criticism without first asking permission. These authors have acknowledged their different background and own potential shortcomings and are open to criticism in this aspect. In these more common cases, there is of course no need to ask for permission - the author has already anticipated conversation around this.

The etiquette issue is when an author has not prefaced their work with this sort of disclaimer - and I am aware it may be unfair to expect this of all fic writers. That’s where this issue of etiquette comes up. The author hasn’t appeared to welcome comments on cultural insensitivity - so I have to think about if I now need to ask nicely for permission to speak. As a reader, specially as a Chinese diaspora, if cultural insensitivity or discrepancies appear without the disclaimer of ‘please let me know if there are any inaccuracies’ then the implication may be that the author simply didn’t care or bother about offending anyone. If they do, then I know it’s just a mistake and that they haven’t been dismissive or uncaring. Without it, the authors intentions become much more ambiguous.

Even worse is when an author blatantly says they’ve made mistakes or haven’t researched and don’t care for feedback. My culture and heritage isn’t a playground for you, and I don’t think fic writers should be exempt from being respectful for the sake of a quick fic.

Like I said earlier, this is not a hypothetical exercise for POC. We’re faced with microaggressions constantly in our real lives, so our patience for this sort of situation runs a bit thin and it is difficult not to react with emotion. I also dislike the idea that I need to ask permission to speak about something that impacts me so profoundly.

A message to prefaces a written piece of work saying that the author is not of that ethnicity or culture and that they welcome comments to fix it always helps. Then the lines of communication aren’t blurred and the onus doesn’t fall on the marginalised or POC to become a teacher.

Mojo, this is actually the second draft of a message to you. I have spent over an hour and a half of my time crafting this message - trying to get the tone right, trying not to come across angry or impolite, trying to say everything I want to say. Your replies to the blogger in the replies of one of the last anons was what really sparked this huge essay- I came away from reading them really effected, and not knowing why I was upset by it. I think you really missed the point that they were trying to say - that obviously, unsolicited criticism can be hurtful and unnecessary, but valid criticism of hurtful practices should not be shut down. Instead, you explained (and I know interpreting tone through text is difficult but I could not read it in a non-patronising way) that in short, if I am mean because they’ve been (allegedly accidentally) mean first then I shouldn’t expect them to listen to any of my concerns or understand why I was upset. Because I was mean back. For me, this felt like a dismissal of something that is profoundly more complex - that it wasn’t a conversation about etiquette anymore, but somehow became one about silencing marginalised people and coddling fragile white egos.

Mojo, I’ve followed you for ages and love all the content and hard work you put out and am infinitely and considerably grateful for your achievements. You are truly a wonderful person with such great ideas and intentions. The fandom would suffer greatly without your dedication. It’s just that on this occasion I think you may have missed the mark a little and had to say something. Others may not agree with me, I know, but I hope you have at least read this.

Lots of love, from a follower

Let me start by saying that I’m very sorry you felt you had to moderate your tone so much in order to be heard.  I really do strive to make my blog a welcoming environment for everybody, and I regret that you’ve felt excluded:  that was never my intention. I am always interested in everyone's point of view.

You've got some really great and specific points here that I think will be helpful to all authors in this fandom -- like ways to introduce your fic and/or be respectful as well as small things that come across as offensive.

The conversation this morning veered way off track from bookmarks to racism, and like I said then, I am not qualified to talk about that. I do not have your history or your experiences: all I can do is listen and empathize and learn. Which I try to do!

What I am qualified to discuss is how writers might respond to comments: I've had lots of experience with that! So my point is: if you approach an author with anger, they are very likely to close themselves off to you. I'm not attaching a value judgement to that, to say that they are right or wrong to do so... it's just a statement based on my observations over many years.

I can imagine how easily a lifetime of tiny (and large) insults and slights would build up and spill over in anger, frustration and resentment. That's very human. Please don't think that I am belittling or denying your experience or your right to feel this way, because I am not.

I respect you. I respect your experience. I respect your right to be angry and to talk about it. Period. I really, really do. I think it's important for your voice to be heard: this is how you feel valid as a person with your feelings, and it's how other people learn!

So let's go back to reading a fic where you find portions (or all) of it racist or insensitive or culturally tone deaf. What is your goal? I ask this just as a student of psychology (and also a parent). Do you want to educate them, or to shame them? Again, I'm not attaching a value judgement to either response. The way you introduce your topic will affect how the author will react. It's not about 'white fragility'... there's no way for you to know who penned that story, just as there is no way for the author to know anything about you when you comment. This is just about humans and how they interact with each other.

This is tough. This is thorny. THIS IS NOT A SIMPLE MATTER. There are always, always going to exceptions, gray areas and straw men: you (and any reader) should always use your judgement. Are you saying this to someone who is hateful and bigoted and cruel with it? Or are you saying it to a 12-year-old girl from corn fields in Nebraska? Are you unsure?

So this isn't about silencing your voice, not at all. It's about judging who you're speaking to and whether or not they'll hear you.

I absolutely do not think that unsolicited or angry fic comments (or bookmarks) are a productive forum for educating people... if that is your goal. And it may not be, which is fine. As you pointed out, the burden of educating people should not rest solely on you, it shouldn't be your responsibility.

I will say again that a place like this, right here - this very letter which I am answering and publishing - IS a great way to educate people. Use it freely, speak loudly, say your piece and share your experiences. Arrgh, I really hope that doesn't come across as condescending. I'm being utterly sincere. I am nearly 50. I've seen a lot of change happening. This is how it happens.

I do not want to silence your voice - or anyone's voice! I want to hear everyone's opinions and thoughts because that ultimately makes me a more well-rounded and considerate person and the world a better place.

I do however, passionately believe that positive change can be affected best through positive interaction. It's not a rule everyone is required to follow, not at all. But is the one that I speak of, and the one that I try to adhere to.

I could never speak for any minority, to say what you should or shouldn't do - as individuals or as a group. But I can speak from the experiences and feelings of a fic author. That's it, that's the limit of my ability. And you may do with that whatever you feel is right.

Let me wrap this up by saying that I really appreciated this letter and Nonny - you were very brave to throw this out into the forum, thank you! You had some extremely useful and important points that I am very happy to share. I am sorry my comments hurt you, and I hope that you feel a little better now.

Having said all this, I would really not like to start a huge discussion on racism in the fandom. I am the wrong person to conduct that conversation: I don't know enough about it, nor do i have the proper experiences or point of view.

With that, I must go, and I'll see you all tomorrow!