#it’s hard to find content of other characters

[traincat]

Hi! I was rereading your fics and noticed that in Sticks and Stones you mentioned referencing Claremont's F4 run. Now it's haunting me because I can't find where their origin is brought up 🥲 So sorry if this has already been asked/answered, but perchance do you remember which issue it was 😅 (if not or even so, do you have any other good F4 origin moments?)

No worries, I've got you. It's a little hard to find if you don't know where to look.

This is a flashback from Fantastic Four v3 (1998) #11-12, which recontextualizes the crash and turns it into a horror story for more than just Ben. Claremont is really interesting as a Fantastic Four writer, and he loves thinking through the implications of Johnny's powers. Here, Johnny absorbed the heat from the shuttle crash, but he can't hold onto it and he goes Nova. The only reason he doesn't kill Reed and Sue accidentally is because Ben shields them with his rocky body. It's a really interesting interpretation because it sets up this dynamic between Ben and Johnny where they can fight with each other because they can't really physically hurt each other unless they're really trying. Ben has a degree of protection against Johnny's flames, and Johnny is fast and fiery. Claremont loves Johnny's powers, though, and he puts a ton of thought into what Johnny can and can't do with them. He also writes a very introspective Johnny. He's one of my top writers of all time for Johnny characterization.

(Just don't go into his run expecting the plot to make sense. It won't. But the characters are fun and the interactions are all really charming. He introduces three new female characters who are all great, too.)

In terms of Johnny's relationship to his powers -- specifically a negative relationship, not just the joy we usually see from him -- I also really recommend the Burn! storyline, which encompasses the first six issues of the Human Torch (2003) miniseries. It's kind of an origin story? It starts before Johnny goes to space with the others and then picks up after the crash, when he returns to high school suddenly not the loser weird kid. Fast forward a few years and his old high school enemy looks him up to ask for his help solving a series of mysterious murders involving the victims being burned alive. Fun stuff, really great ruminations on Johnny, his understanding of fire, and the amount of control he has to exert every day.

(Human Torch #3) You're going to have to put up with a lot of very early 2000s art. It's worth it.

Also not really an origin story but useful in understanding Johnny's origins is the Sue and Johnny power swap arc.

(FF #520) To save Sue's life, Reed swaps her powers with Johnny's, but the timing is pretty bad. Galactus takes Johnny as his herald, while Sue struggles with keeping Johnny's powers under control.

But okay, Fantastic Four origin stories, a crash course. This isn't totally comprehensive, just kind of a collection of my favorites and ones I find interesting.

Fantastic Four (1961) #1: The mother of all origin stories. Pretty one and done. We have to beat the commies to the moon! Cosmic rays! Shuttle crash! We've changed in horrible and fantastic ways! The world will never be the same! It's worth reading if you haven't read it before, but it's no Amazing Fantasy #15.

Byrne's retcon: Byrne doesn't particularly do anything interesting regarding the crash, but it's useful to know the changes he did make to the origin, because they were a point of contention for a long time. In Lee and Kirby's run, Sue and Reed are established as next door neighbors and childhood sweethearts. It's all very sweet. Byrne, though, LOVES an age gap with an older man and a younger woman. This is a theme you'll see repeatedly if you follow his work. Byrne retconned things so Reed first met Sue when he was renting a room at her aunt's house when he was in college and Sue was twelve. It's not great, but it does introduce the concept of Sue and Johnny living with their aunt after their father's incarceration. No run previously had ever mentioned such a thing. While the age gap was both immediately retconned out (Simonson did it as soon as he took the reins, establishing Reed and Sue as college friends, but it didn't stick) and eventually retconned out (Fraction retconned it so that Reed did stay at Aunt Marygay's boarding house but that Sue was over eighteen), the boarding house origin stuck. Not much to do with the actual "getting powers" aspect but interesting in terms of where Sue and Johnny were living when they met Reed and Ben.

Fantastic Four Mythos: Now we're cooking. Mythos is a beautifully illustrated oneshot retelling of how the Fantastic Four gained their powers. It's gorgeous, fun, and emotional. It's probably my second favorite origin story after Claremont's take.

Mythos posits that the emotional state the four were in at the time they were cosmically irradiated is responsible for their powers. Sue was trying to hide, Reed was trying to reach her, Ben was shielding Johnny, and all Johnny could think was that it was hot. It's an interesting interpretation. Sidenote, I'm pretty sure the new Fantastic Four movie is drawing inspiration from Mythos, just based on the visuals.

I love him so much. Idiot baby.

Fantastic Four: First Family: Oh boy where to go with this one. I don't dislike it, and I think it explores the origin in a much more realistic way, but I wouldn't say it's my favorite. First Family is a miniseries that takes a more grounded approach to the origin story. After the crash, the four are imprisoned on a military base as they adjust to their powers.

I think there's a lot of interesting ideas in this version, but I wouldn't really recommend it to any new readers as an origin story. I think it's more of an interesting way to examine things after you're already basically familiar with the FF's early days if you want to see a more grounded take on the origin.

Fantastic Four: Season One: Another miniseries retelling the origins. Is it good? Not particularly. Is it shiny? Yes. Does aged up Johnny work as a pinup model before the accident? Also yes.

It's giving the Chris Pine leather pants desert photoshoot. Again, not my first pick for an origin story by far, but if you want to read some mildly campy nonsense, you could do worse. If you don't want to read it, which is like, probably the smarter idea, please note that Johnny registered the domain name hottieonfire.com and that he's obsessed with the whale from the American Museum of Natural History. Samesies.

Ultimate Fantastic Four #1-5: This feels like the equivalent of going "want to make some bad decisions." Ultimate FF is NOT good. I know I've said that a hundred times. I've also read it a hundred times so who's the idiot now. I do think the origin is an interesting take on things, though, and like First Family it's more grounded in the exploitation of the Fantastic Four by the military. So not good, wouldn't recommend it as baby's first Fantastic Four origin, but not completely not worth reading.

Origin stories I don't recommend:

Fantastic Four v2 (1996): This is when the FF got bubble universed. It's basically a retelling of the early days that doesn't add anything new or interesting.

Fantastic Four: Life Story: Life Story was an interesting experiment. The idea was to have a six issue miniseries where each issue took place during a specific decade -- issue #1 would be the 60s, #2 would be the 70s, etc -- moving the characters through those decades aging in real time and dealing with both the major storylines of those decades as well as the real world events that were happening. Like I said, interesting experiment. The actual comics, though, and I'm counting the Spider-Man one here too, were bad. Like so bad. I'm going to give you the only thing of note in it here and then you don't have to read it. (Don't let this fool you into thinking the rest of the comic is progressive in any way; the writer decided Jewish Ben should say pork was "the food of the Gods" and also that Romani Dr. Doom should put people in concentration camps. Whole yikes.)

(FF Life Story #2) That figure sitting in bed with Johnny sure looks like a guy. Interestingly, for your value of interesting, "perpetual bachelor" Johnny dies in 1986 in issue #4, and issue #5 immediately opens with T'Challa creating a cure for AIDS. Take that one as you will.

One final kind of a rec. This isn't really an origin story for the Fantastic Four as characters, but rather a retrospective meta take on the creation of the Fantastic Four as a series. Fantastic Four: Unstable Molecules is an Eisner winning miniseries dedicated to the fictionalized "real people" who inspired the Fantastic Four, positing that one night at a dinner party on Long Island, two comic book creators encountered a family fight so epic it inspired them to create a comic book. Deeply introspective, it's take on Johnny and the Mole Man (yes really) really shines.

(Unstable Molecules #3) Sorry to turn this into a "Johnny is flaming" discussion once again. It just kind of comes up naturally when you look at his origin stories.

[siggiedraws]

I'd love to hear more about your view on Sonic too! What do you like (and dislike, if you want) most about him?🍀

There are so many things I love about him it's hard to choose! But a few things do come to mind:

1) Sonic's willingness to help others no matter what, like when Sonic decides to help rescue a girl's village from a dragon in Black Knight despite the fact that this would cause him to run out of time to do Nimue's tasks (luckily, that was actually a test that Sonic passed!) The fact that Sonic just wants to save people who need saving, no matter if that's an inconvenience to him, shows how compassionate and selfless he is. Not to mention his line to Chip where he says "Do I need a reason to want to help out a friend?" makes me emotional every time. He helps people simply because he wants to!

2) Sonic's thrill-seeking nature. He'll do crazy shit just because it's fun and dangerous and you can tell he just lives for it. He sounds so happy and excited whenever it happens that it's really cute. This is very much highlighted in the Storybook games, where Sonic's companion characters often express their chagrin at how reckless Sonic is. This moment in Pirate Storm and this moment in Molten Mine are my favourite examples.

I would say Sonic's thrill-seeking is emboldened by the fact that he faces death head-on and isn't afraid. When he's about to die in Sonic Adventure 2, he keeps his cool and he calmly holds the fake Chaos Emerald, wondering if he can make it through. In Secret Rings, at the realization that the Flame of Judgment's time limit is almost up, he chuckles to himself and apologizes to Shahra for worrying her. This is extremely telling of his selfless character and his lack of self-preservation. Even in death he's not thinking about himself. He's focused on cheering up his friend.

It's something I find very fascinating, for someone who enjoys living so much to lack a fear of death. Though, I would argue that it does bother him on the inside, if even a little bit, going by the lyrics of Unawakening Float: Must I float away? / Will I ever wake?

3) Sonic's love for life and the world around him. Sonic's always fighting to preserve and protect nature from Dr. Eggman's industrialization, and environmental awareness is a prominent theme in the Sonic franchise, so it makes sense that's what Sonic's all about! He remarks in Heroes that he loves Grand Metropolis, for instance, which is a huge eco-friendly city with no pollution. Also, in a 2022 Q&A, Sonic says that restoring all the levels in Generations reminded him of how great the world is, which is genuinely so sweet! 💙

As for Sonic's love for life, the thing with Sonic is that he doesn't have any ultimate goals in life or any dream to achieve. When it comes to living life to the fullest, he exists in the moment and enjoys the present day. He does what makes him happy right here and right now. In other words, he's content without a destination, and he enjoys the never-ending journey. There is a lot I can learn from him!

4) His mystery! What is Christmas Island like? How did he and Eggman first meet? Just who the hell is this guy? No one knows, but Sonic will tell you he's just a normal hedgehog, which may very well be true. There are little hints here and there that point towards the symbolism of his origins, like his folded boots being inspired by Santa Claus, which is why they're red and white with a buckle! I find that such a cool detail. I love the vagueness of his past and I hope it stays that way.

Speaking of Sonic and mystery, did you know that there's a character called Uhu the Wind Genie in Sonic and the Secret Rings, who is known for his speed, and we never see his true form? I wonder who that could be an analogue to...

As for what I dislike about Sonic, that's much harder to answer because I love him so much. Every aspect about him is perfect to me! I suppose if I had to choose one thing… he can just leave without notice for an extended period of time, as seen in the end of Sonic Advance, and that can be very worrying. He's an independent guy and he likes alone time, but I can imagine how his behaviour could frustrate the people around him. Tails flying in the Tornado trying to look for him in the sky breaks my heart.

anyways... I love Sonic so much as you could tell. Thanks so much for your ask! 💙

[valentine-cafe]

:grin: guess who's here

can I please get a headcanon or drabble with pasquale where he is coming back from work or a race or something and walks in to the reader touching herself? He gets all smug and asks "were you just touching yourself?" fem!reader preferably but gender neutral is fine too!! thanks pookies <33

˖⁺. “ desperate darling ! ” : 

﹙ inhuman racer boyfriend x fem reader ﹚.𖹭 ݁

. . . verse 781 pasquale x fem reader !! 🍒 : ﹙ racer ˖ inhuman ˖ punk ﹚

your boyfriend comes home after a long day and finds you trying to tend to yourself. what kind of boyfriend would he be if he doesn't give you a hand? and tease you for it too. 

﹙ cws ﹚: explicit content ˖ masturbation ˖ cunnilingus ˖ praise ˖ some degradation ˖ multiple orgasms | wc : 1.4k 

﹙ receipts ﹚: anything for you pookie <3

꒰  other treats : guidelines ˖ m.list ˖ characters ˖ our lore  ꒱

Sprawled out on the bed, hair covering the sheets of your boyfriend’s bed. Pussy full of your own fingers desperately set to chase a high you’re sure will be difficult to get to when he’s not around.

It didn’t matter how many times you called out his name, not did it matter no matter the effort you put in to imagine him above you. His large dick filling you up to the brim and keeping your lady down there satisfied.

So you were in your own world. So much so, you failed to hear the unlocking of a door downstairs and the familiar voice of your boyfriend greeting people, before trudging his way upstairs to his room.

You came for the first time in the past 15 minutes you’ve tried to do so. . .

Just at the same time your boyfriend happened to open up the door and watch you throw your head back and whimper out his name.

A chuckle deep enough to shake your core took a lap around the room. And had it been been between your legs. Praising and kissing away at the puffy, desperate wet folds. You would have surely been knocked into a state of fucked out already knowing the skill of his tongue.

“Principessa.” He hums in greeting, slowly ridding his hands of the pair of dark gloves, closing the door with the weight of his body and locking it with ease by the simple flick of his head to the side.

Like a slow dance, his feet carry him towards the nearest drawer to put haphazardly throw his coat onto. “You touching yourself?”

Adrenaline rushes through you, giving you the hard whack of reality when you realize who just arrived in the bedrom.

You sit up quick, fingers still buried in your throbbing pussy, while you take your time to process.

“Pasqu—”

“Oh but you look so pretty too.” With a tut, he interrupts you. His hand finds itself by the long mirror next to him. Flipping it over so that you are met by the reflection of yourself and his silhouette taking over the reflection.

The cold weather outside lingers still on his touch and face. With red tinting soft, light olive face, that stretches when he gives you a smug grin.

“You weren’t around to help me. So I decided to help myself.”

“How’d that go?” You wanna punch him, and kiss him all at the same time. The shit-eating grin was what you fell for along with his chaotic and poetic personality after all.

The bastard has the right to steal a gasp from you. When hands settle down on your waist and creep below your shirt. Lips silence the protest you were about to throw at him. Covering yours like a blanket and soothing your eyes shut.

Nimble fingers wrap around the hand that had three fingers buried deep inside of your velvety walls. Urging a small pop to follow as you now feel so empty.

“Pasquale—” You murmur out in slight frustration, eyebrows knitted, while you hitch your breath. “If you’re gonna come intervene at least fuck me properly.”

What an invitation you’re giving him. How could he ever deny that?

Shivers rush up and down your spin when the feel of his index and middle run up your slit, before flicking against your clit. And when they’ve teased you enough and pulled enough whines out of you, they bury themselves inside of your folds.

“You want me to give you something good huh?” Wetting his lips, ruby hues flicker down towards your parted legs, observing the way your arousal squelches against his fingers quietly. Before they slowly enter you.

“Good, pretty whores beg for it baby.”

The familiar words have you gushing fountains, and your lungs inhaling sharply. Instinctively, the soft pair of hips below his left hand chases the feel of the fingers that pump and hook away at the nerves inside of you.

“Pasquale— please, I’ve been waiting for hours.” Despite your words, all that leaves him is a small hum. Not good enough for him, huh? The doe eyes usually do the trick, though it seems this time not.

“You’ve been at work and racing all d-ay.” You sigh out, velvet walls clamping down against his lukewarm fingers. With hooded eyes and your head tilted upwards and slightly to the side. You give him a look of sincerity.

“Why can’t you just let yourself lose on me tesoro?”

It’s like a cord inside of him snapped, his brows furrowing and his lungs taking in the same, sharp inhale you did just a moment ago. Before his lips are attacking the expanse of your neck, and his hand is gripping and squeezing away at any plush skin it can grip onto.

“I know. . . Lay back.” The groan is followed suit by your happy and eager response of almost throwing yourself back. He takes no time to pry your legs open the second you’re down.

Every part of your abdomen and pelvic area flutters, at the feel of his mouth connecting with the folds between your thighs. You taste so good you could make him pussydrunk in the matter of seconds if it wasn’t because he at least wanted to give some precision before getting sloppy.

Shaky hands run up and down your sides, below your shirt and then up to cup at your breasts. Thumbs swirling around your pebbled nipples to bring your back to arch. Your hips jerking upwards.

His tongue laps away at your soaking cunt. As devilish as the man can be, if heaven was something he sought. You’d truly be the definition of it.

The pink muscle does unspeakable things to you whenever he’s got your walls clamping down on it before they flutter and he draws yet another orgasm out of you. Calloused thumb rubbing slow and sensual circles against your clit.

Sometimes stroking upwards to press down on your clitoral hood and rub it up and down just like that.

“M- mgnh— fuck- fuckfuckfuck— ! Pasquale!!” Each pretty gasp that he manages to pull from you pulls another slew of cum out of his throbbing dick. Staining his pants, while he busies himself with smearing all of your juices out on his lips. Panting hard for another one of your pretty orgasms.

“Fuck. . . taste so good— Dammene un'altra, tesoro” ( give me another one, darling )

﹙ taglist. ﹚: | get tagged for specific posts

﹙ tip jar. ﹚: like our work? consider suporting us 𖹭 

[nilfgaardianleviosa]

PAIRING: Dark!Levi Ackerman/f!Reader

TAGS: magic AU, angst, betrayal, pining, enemies to lovers, sexual content, character death, choose your own ending

SUMMARY: The Archmage has sent you to infiltrate a dangerous necromancy cult, an opportunity to prove your dedication to the Mages Guild. But in the depths of the Order’s lair, you encounter someone you never expected: the mage who has haunted your thoughts and dreams for years.

He’s not the man you once knew, and he forces you to make a choice—forsake your morals for a beloved mentor turned enemy, or find the strength to fight him to the death.

A/N: Reposting this story bc my first attempt at formatting it on tumblr was shite. I'm learning new things, hooray!

[AO3 Link]

Full story below the cut!

Fithragaer, the only surviving Battlemage, was dead.

The sound of stone grinding against stone assaulted your ears as the floor descended from the dungeon’s ceiling. The elf’s body lay there, head smashed in and fancy armor demolished in a crumpled pile. Your encounter with him had been incredibly brief. One moment he was introducing himself and explaining your dire straights, the next he was leading the charge right into a deadly trap.

A few mindless skeletons carrying rusted swords ran towards you from across the room, but as soon as they stepped foot on the trap floor, it rocketed upwards again, and with a satisfying crunch it felled the enemies on your behalf.

Guess you should probably go around.

The lair was filled with necromancers, all on high alert. You entered room after room, avoiding more traps and using magic to fight off the guild-less mages and their undead creatures and dark, ghostly summons. Fithragaer was right, someone had warned them you were coming, although it was unclear who.

The elven Battlemage had been sent by the Council of Mages to kill Mucianus Allias, a spy within the necromancy cult. You, on the other hand, an Evoker of the Mages Guild, had been sent by special request of Archmage Traven to make sure Mucianus was alive; Traven hadn’t been so quick to assume that a lack of correspondence meant Mucianus had turned traitor.

This was the first time the Archmage had sent you on a personal quest, and you were determined not to let him down. You had worked incredibly hard over the years, completing quests for every city’s guild hall in order to earn enough recommendations to be granted access to the Arcane University. Now you were making your way up the ladder, and perhaps you would be given a higher rank upon your success here today. Magician, they would call you. A bit silly of a title, but its stature certainly held more meaning than Evoker.

The search for Mucianus proved fruitless up until you reached a set of carved stone doors at the end of the dungeon. Doors like these typically indicated a stronger being was lying in wait behind them, so you conjured a superior set of Bound Armor—a red and black Daedric set, as all the bound weapons appeared—and summoned a skeletal guardian to fight by your side.

You took a moment to smile at its boney face, reminded of how ironically similar the magic of conjuration was to necromancy. The two schools of magic were clearly very related, and the lines between them often blurred. Yes, you could summon creatures from the dead and command followers of the Daedric Prince of Darkness and Destruction, but at least you weren’t binding the souls of people to dead bodies for your own selfish gain.

Feeling well-prepared for the final encounter, you pushed the heavy stone door open to reveal the main hall. It was a huge room with a high ceiling, and there was a single lit chandelier in the center, lit by magical green flames. At the far end, bracketed by magical torches, stood an altar stained in blood.

Stilling your nerves, you walked inside. It was eerily quiet, nothing like with the chatty necromancers in all the other chambers. But once you had made it to the center of the hall, a voice rang out.

“Well, well, well. Look who it is.”

The sound of boot heels against the floor echoed through the darkness, and your eyes darted around, searching for their origin. The voice sounded so eerily familiar that the back of your neck began to prickle with unease.

A hooded figure stepped out from the darkness, wearing a dark purple cloak with swirling golden accents that glimmered in the flickering torchlight. He was carrying a golden staff that was nearly a head taller than him. The top of it split into a double-headed snake, each with long, sinister fangs and glowing red eyes.

Another necromancer, but one of much higher caliber than those you had defeated on your quest to find Mucianus.

You mentally ordered your skeleton to hold its attack and called out to the figure. “Who are you?”

He didn’t answer your question. “Out of all the mages to become one of Traven’s lapdogs, I never expected you to volunteer for the position.”

That voice. It was nagging at your subconscious, and now he was claiming to know you, but you couldn’t let your guard down. Necromancers were conniving.

You took a step back and lit your hands with magical flames. “Answer me now. Or I won’t hesitate to attack.”

He chuckled lowly. “Would you really hurt an old friend?”

Old friend?

The stranger reached up to pull his hood back, and the shadow over his face retreated to reveal black hair, pale skin, and a face you had long ago given up hope of ever seeing again.

It was Levi. The former Warlock of your guild hall in Chorrol. An incredibly powerful mage who had spent countless hours beating the art of conjuring into your head. Despite him never officially taking you on as an apprentice, you had once thought of him as a master. That is, until he broke away from the guild without any explanation, leaving you behind and forcing you to overcome torrential feelings of loss and betrayal.

After all these years you had never forgiven him for not offering a reason for his departure, for not even giving you a way of knowing he was alive. And now here he was, standing in front of you.

“Levi…”

He tilted his head and smiled, a fond smile that filled you with melancholy. “Hello, little apprentice.”

“What—what are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same thing. Traven sent you here to retrieve the spy, right?”

He knew about Mucianus. But how?

In your deepest hopes you wanted it to mean that Levi was on your side, that perhaps he had been informed of the mission by Archmage Traven because he was also a double agent.

But you could not risk pinning everything on such naive fantasies. Not when Levi had yet to come running to you, apologizing for all the grief he had caused. Not when he was this comfortably deep in a hideout of the Order of the Black Worm.

“What are you talking about?” you asked warily.

He smirked, eyes darkening. Then he raised a hand to the side and beckoned into the darkness. A low moaning came from the archway nearby, and soon your worst fears were realized as a zombie shambled into the dim light.

“Here he is,” said Levi, amused. “He’s been reborn, as a worm thrall.”

You couldn’t believe your eyes. Mucianus, a high-level mage, turned into nothing but some sort of walking dead. It was an abomination. How could this have happened to him? Who could have—

No.

You snapped your head towards Levi, fire blazing hotter in your widened palms. “Did you do this?”

He was calm in the face of your accusation. “Is the picture becoming clear, now?”

“No, tell me you haven’t joined them.”

“That I have, mageling.”

Mageling. A patronizing nickname given to you by Levi back at the guild hall. You would have never put up with it from anyone but him. But now it was clear he had joined the necromancers, betrayed you in every way possible, which meant he no longer had any right to be so familiar. This man wasn’t the one you had known so intimately before.

“How could you?”

Magical flames blazed as hot as your inner fury, and you conjured a fireball between both hands, firing it at him. Levi erected a magical barrier just in time to block it, and a burst of fire exploded against the invisible shield before dissipating.

He raised his staff, snake heads high above his head, as a glowing red orb grew from their center. Then a bolt of crackling energy sliced through the air, heading straight towards you. You rolled away quickly enough to avoid being struck, only for it to totally annihilate your skeleton, sending bones flying in all directions.

You gaped at the space where it had stood. That wasn’t a low-level skeleton, it was a guardian. And Levi had just destroyed it in one hit.

A near crippling fear filled your stomach, but the hum of Levi’s staff snapped you out of it. You stayed on the move, skirting around the room as his spells crackled and spat beams of red lightning at your heels.

Instead of just letting him fire at you, you conjured smaller, one-handed fireballs and hucked them in his direction, forcing him on the defense. His icy blue gaze calmly followed you, but then you broke his sightline by hiding behind a pillar, using what you knew would only be a brief moment to collect yourself.

Levi, a necromancer! How could this have happened? He hadn’t even given you time to think, much less process this grave news. Right now, all you could focus on was the fight.

You had put a lot of power behind those attacks, but he’d hardly looked affected by them, which didn’t bode well at all. Levi had already been a much more powerful mage than you at the guild hall—an expert conjurer who had likely now mastered the art. You had grown many times over since then and were quite capable of outsmarting more powerful mages, but you had no idea what he was capable of now as a necromancer.

“Why are you hiding?” called Levi. “Are you scared of me?”

You didn’t answer, trying to focus on devising a plan despite your thoughts raging like whirlwinds, but then Levi’s taunting voice interrupted again.

“You really should keep moving.”

An eerie cacophony of creaking resounded around the previously quiet hall, and then a horde of skeletons emerged from the darkness in front of you, like they had been waiting there for his order to attack. As you stood in horror, one of them threw a giant axe at your head, catching in the stone pillar right next to your cheek.

Holy fuck. A centimeter closer and you would have been dead.

Still no time to think. The rest were now running at you with swords and maces, and you were forced to follow Levi’s advice and stay on the move. Anticipating his plan to deprive you of cover, you ducked out from behind the pillar and pivoted to throw up a shield.

But Levi was too fast. A bolt of lightning struck your shoulder, piercing through your bound armor enough to sear flesh. You cried out in pain, but you forced your eyes to stay open and alert.

The armored skeletons were now hot on your heels, bones creaking and teeth chattering, and you redirected your focus from the pain in order to start running again. The skeletons looked weak, but there were too many of them to stand against outright, and you knew Levi would never conjure something that couldn’t swiftly bring your death.

You swapped spells as you ran, casting your highest-level Turn Undead spell on as many skeletons as you could. Thank the Gods it was successful. All of them ran off but four, and without enough magicka to turn them you swapped to a low-effort cold spell, blasting ice over your shoulder to freeze their feet to the floor.

“Very good,” said Levi, still standing comfortably at the center of the room.

You ducked behind another pillar and took the opportunity to down a blue magicka potion, throwing the bottle to the ground and immediately summoning a flame atronach. The portal swirled in the air, and a fiery creature covered in armor stepped out.

No time to admire your summon, you mentally gave it the order to attack, and it set off for Levi, winding its arms back to lob endless amounts of fireballs at him. You heard him chuckle as he easily blocked the attacks; this was certainly small fry for him, but you had only intended to distract him enough to sink an arrow into his chest.

Staying on alert in case of more undead minions, you conjured a bound bow and waited until Levi began to cast spells back at the atronach. Hoping he was thoroughly occupied, you stepped out from behind the pillar, drawing a magical arrow and aiming it at him. His focus immediately moved to you, but he was in the middle of blocking an incoming fireball with his staff, so you let the arrow fly, knocking another one to follow right after it.

The first one pierced his shoulder, making him stumble back in pain, but he maintained enough concentration to conjure a shield just in time to block the second one. In return, he raised his staff and summoned a gloom wraith, a ghastly floating creature, which began casting nasty spells at your atronach, drawing its attention away to defending itself. It gave Levi the perfect opportunity to turn to you.

As soon as his furious eyes met yours again, you were filled with life-preserving fear, and you ducked back, realizing that you were going to have to think of another plan very quickly. You could at least try to distract him with conversation while you thought.

The two minions were making quite a ruckus with their fighting, so you shouted over them. “Why are you doing this, Levi?”

He was silent for a moment. “I selected the path that fit me best. Just as you chose the Guild, I chose the Order.”

“The Order is nothing but scum. They manipulate souls for their own gain!”

“You sound very hypocritical. How many necromancers did you kill to make it here? Did the guild ever tell you to stay your hand against them?”

“That’s different. Self defense. You’re binding souls against their will.”

“Is that the worst of it, mageling?”

You gritted your teeth in silence. Clearly you weren’t getting to him. You could feel your drained magicka return just barely enough for another summon spell. The atronach was starting to lose the fight against the wraith. There wasn’t any time left to think. You would have to work with your current resources.

You lifted your hands to cast another spell, but then a set of fingers suddenly wrapped around your wrist, jerking your arm back. The spell fizzled in the air, and you turned in surprise to see Levi standing next to you. He hadn’t been anywhere near you a moment ago, how the hell did he get there so fast? He couldn’t have—

A crackle of red sparked in his palm, and not a second later your whole body was swathed in electricity. Levi watched with half-lidded eyes as you went rigid in his grasp, your face contorting in pain.

Then, quite mercifully, he stopped.

As soon as the magic holding your body upright was gone, your head swam and your legs gave out. Levi caught you around the waist, and you came to only a few moments later, finding yourself looking up into the eyes of your former teacher.

You were aghast to notice that he didn’t look a day older than the last time you had seen him. Those stark blue eyes, wisened through years of studying the magical arts, were still there, too. He was holding you, gazing at you. Like you were a lost puppy he had found on the road.

For a moment it felt like you were back at the guild’s training grounds, just another day of being bested by Levi in mock combat. Except now you were experiencing a certain type of closeness that you had ached for but never received.

But then something sparked in his eyes, different from before—sinister and hungry—and you realized that the window into Levi’s seemingly boundless knowledge had been darkened by the evil magic to which he had fallen. The good mage you once knew was no longer staring back.

There was nothing left to long for, and you couldn’t stand to be in his arms.

“Get off.” You cast Burning Touch and shoved your hands against his chest, fire lighting from your fingertips.

Despite his likely very magic-resistant mage robes, he let out a hiss and dropped you onto the unforgiving stone floor. You winced and scrambled backwards, keeping an eye on him as you got to your feet. He swiped the remaining flames from his robe with a look of disgust. That was one thing about Levi, he was always a perfectionist when it came to being clean.

He raised a hand at you, and you cast a powerful block spell in response, but it wasn’t anywhere near strong enough. Levi’s power immediately overwhelmed yours, severe and all-encompassing, and then your whole body was rendered immobile by paralysis.

That spell was unfathomably strong. Never had you experienced such power. You imagined this was what fighting an archmage might have felt like, but Levi couldn’t have possibly been at that level yet… Except, he had teleported to you earlier.

Had he been holding back on you this entire fight?

“That one won’t last long.” He snapped his fingers, conjuring something behind you, and a pair of armored demonic hands grabbed your wrists and pulled them behind your back. A dremora? Summoned so quickly with just the snap of his fingers? That settled it. Levi’s power had truly grown beyond your comprehension.

“That was fun,” said Levi, pulling your magic arrow out of his shoulder and tossing it away as he walked toward you. “You’re more powerful than I remember, but you’re still weak.”

“Let me go,” you shouted, wishing you could at least put up a struggle.

Levi stopped in front of you reached a hand toward your face. The paralysis spell held you still as his cold fingers brushed across your cheek, a gentle caress that made your heart race. He gazed at you silently, curiously, as if he were a lover taking in your beauty. But then he gripped your face tightly, fingers digging into your cheek as he casted a Drain Life spell. You gritted your teeth in pain, and Levi breathed deeply as your health transferred to him, healing the arrow wound in his shoulder.

“Bastard..!”

He pulled his hand away, examining you as you panted from exertion. Fighting had tired you out, and having your life force drained left you feeling incredibly weak.

“I never expected to see you again,” he mused. “Could this be fate, you think?”

“Fate? What are you talking about? Good fortune doesn’t come to traitors.”

He frowned. “I’m no traitor. The guild betrayed me when the council refused to listen to reason, so I made the choice to leave.”

“What reason? You joined a cult, Levi.”

“Cult?” he repeated. “Do you think so low of me? So little of the Order?”

“Of course I do. Your ‘Order’ has done nothing but threaten the guild for years. You and I fought against them, remember? Back when you were sane? You called them stupid necromancers, said they had lost their minds, that mastering conjuration should be enough for anyone seeking to become powerful.”

His eyes betrayed his remembrance, but it didn’t seem to matter. “I was wrong, because I did master it, and I still wasn’t strong enough. Just look at you: you’ve risen through the ranks enough for Traven to send you searching for his dirty little spy. And yet you’re so weak that I could kill you without a second thought.”

In that moment, the paralysis spell ended, but the daedra’s grip on your wrists didn’t relax. You struggled against it anyway. “Who cares if you can kill me? You told me before that you wanted to help people. That the Order was a blight on Cyrodiil. What happened, Levi? You were good… I—I looked up to you.”

He clicked his tongue, expression turned pitying. “I know you did, mageling.”

The nickname made your heart hurt, like a spell meant to flood you with nostalgia. And flood you it did.

You couldn’t help but think back to the memories you shared. The time he demanded to join you on your most dangerous quest at the behest of your guild’s leadership. When he met you in the training yard and taught you new spells without you even asking. How often you broke bread and drank wine with him in the mess hall after many a perilous mission. The way his enigmatic eyes would stick to you in mere passing moments that seemed to last eons.

These memories were too fond to dig up again. You had buried them for a reason. It had been years of wondering where he had gone, of having no way to contact him, and it had left you with no choice but to try to forget.

You gritted your teeth. “Never call me that again.”

Levi smirked. “What? Bring up too many memories?”

“Don’t taunt me.”

“Are you thinking about what we had back then? Wondering why I left you behind?”

You stared at him, throat tightening enough to deprive you of words. His guesses were far too accurate, and you wondered if he could still see through you after all these years.

At that moment, your Bound Armor spell ended, Daedric metal dissipating. Levi stepped forward, smoothing out the wrinkles on your mage cloak that had been hidden underneath.

“Would you believe me if I told you that you weren’t ready? That I couldn’t bring myself to rip an apprentice away from their training? You were just a fledgling, too naive to possibly understand my reason for leaving.” He met your eyes, keeping a hand at your chest. “But now you’re seasoned. You’ve seen the true heart of the Mages Guild, and they see potential in you. As do I.”

Pride mixed with confusion at his praise—something that never came easily with Levi. He was a stern Warlock, unforgiving, always expecting nothing but greatness, and yet despite his cold nature you never lost the sense that he cared for you, that he yearned for your success as much as you did.

“It doesn’t matter anymore,” you said, tears stinging your eyes. “You’ve made us enemies.”

He stepped closer. “We don’t have to be enemies. You could join me. Together we could become the most powerful necromancers under Mannimarco. I could teach you more—become your master. Isn’t that what you always wanted?”

It was. It truly was. But that desire couldn’t negate the sickness you felt at the thought of becoming an underling for a thousand-year-old evil lich. You opened your mouth to refuse, but then Levi leaned in and whispered in your ear.

“And, we could make up for all our years of separation.” His breath made goosebumps rise on your skin. “Did you not pine for me, in my absence?”

You shuddered at the sensations, at the heat of his body close to yours, and you lied, “At times, yes, but eventually I forgot about you.”

He hummed and reached up to caress your cheek, his voice entrancing. “I thought about you every day, my little apprentice. I thought about those big, curious eyes of yours, always looking to me for answers, and I remembered how much I loved to deprive you of them. Make you seek them out for yourself. It was always worth it to see the pride glowing on your face upon your own success.”

He pulled back, gaze flicking between your lips and your eyes, fingers curling around your chin. “I always wanted you to make your own decisions, and now is no different. You have a choice, mageling. You can choose to see that necromancy is just an extension of our power, and that I am no different than the man you knew in Chorrol. Or you and I can continue our battle. You can fight for your arbitrary sides of good and evil, and I will fight for my freedom to seek knowledge that others have deemed forbidden.”

A painful ultimatum. For someone who claimed to enjoy giving you free will, this wasn’t much of a choice. How could you choose between leaving everything you knew behind or fighting your beloved teacher to the death?

“You really won’t come back? The only way I can have you again is to follow you down this path?”

“That’s right,” he whispered, dark blue irises capturing yours. “Leave it all behind. Come with me. I’ll take care of you.”

This promise. An offer to join hands with him in life, go back to how things were before, and finally move beyond unspoken love. Could he be lying to persuade you? It was possible. But every instinct, every nerve buzzing at his closeness, told you this was real.

You could no longer justify resisting temptation.

“Kiss me. Please.”

All restraint eliminated by a few words, he closed the last few millimeters of space between you, pressing his lips against yours in a deep, intense kiss. The dremora behind you disappeared, freeing your hands to grasp Levi’s robes and pull yourself into him. His aura satiated something within you that had been forever starved, and you let yourself become consumed by it, lavishing in it, your heart swelling with a hope that nearly drowned out your rationality.

This moment was all you had ever wanted. Your love for him encompassed your whole being, and yet there was a brooding darkness surrounding you, the twisted reality of the world bearing upon your fates.

Was this the end? Your final embrace with the man who had occupied your thoughts for years?

There’s nothing left for us. I must put aside my feelings and do what must be done, for the Mages Guild. — Ending 1

He still means the world to me. Even if he has gone where I can never follow, I can’t bring myself to hurt him. — Ending 2

This must be a sign. If I don’t choose him now, I may never get the choice again. — Ending 3

[zolo-san]

Damn it tumblr's tags are not accepting my rant in full so here:

okay I was really torn between Sanji and Zoro tbh both of them are regularly TERRIBLY mischaracterized Like I'm here for a good meme or self indulgent fic/fanart but so many people are out here just warping them into something that is unrecognizable compared to their canon counter parts it's actually a very big pet peeve of mine I try so hard when writing to keep as close to canon as I can so it drives me crazy that so many people can't even seem to get anywhere near the fucking ball park with those two like ??????????? what's the point if you're going to mischaracterize them beyond recognition

I'm a Zosan shipper but I don't want it "at all costs" I ship them because I find their canon characters and relationship interesting and worth shipping romantically (I'm also someone who has never shipped characters because I think they're hot and the idea of them fucking is hot, so take that how you will) but it's not just shippers (don't get me wrong I love 90% of the Zosan community) that are guilty of mischaracterizing tf out of these two It's the stanch anti-shippers too (and sometimes just the normal ass people in the fandom)

worst characterizations I've ever seen are probably something along the lines of: Zoro being nothing but a cold unfeeling beefcake who is like a Zombie for Luffy can't think for himself, is the embodiment of toxic masculinity, and an alcoholic who has no regard for the rest of the crew (like bitch who the fuck is that????????) - also you can't make Zoro too cool lol he's a little dork tbh and then Sanji being represented as a hyper feminine (yet somehow still misogynistic and toxic af?????) subservient sex obsessed weakling

don't even get me started on the hyper feminization of Sanji and the way people LOVE to make Zoro hyper masculine don't get me wrong love me a good twink Sanji/buff Zoro dynamic it's fun (also if Sanji not twink why Oda draw him like that with such gradable waist???) but there's some real toxic shit with some of that (also can we pls talk about fem shippers projecting HEAVILY onto Sanji to the point that he's not longer Sanji???) like ya'll you do you but there are some habits of mischaracterization in this fandom that seriously give me the ick I like the characters because I like them from the source material head canons and playing with them like dolls is all fun and games but pls I need you guys to return to the source material every once in a while

Sanji and Zoro are the most egregious mischaracterization imo but there are plenty of other really bad one's I see on a regular basis off the top of my head the first I think of are Ace, Law, and Luffy tbh (tho Luffy's character is only specifically assassinated in a lot of shipping content - I have opinions on that too but I'm not going to get into it now)

For the record I'm someone who's been in fandoms a long time none of this is new I'm also pretty pro-shipping (even though I hate that word and the stupid negative connotation if comes with 🙄)

weekly one piece poll #6

previous poll result: animal most associated with sanji is: bighorn sheep (37.1%), fox (27.4%), duck/black swan (tied at 12%).

shoutout to other suggestions: dragon, secretary bird, golden retriever, goat, mouse, floppy-eared bunny!

swinging a bat at a hornet's nest :) bonus points if you reblog with examples :)

[utdrmv-confession-box]

Transcript: Maybe this blog is an outlier because of the anonymity, but I genuinely didn’t realize so many people just…. Disliked Sans and works mostly involving him? I could be misreading, but I hadn’t even noticed the resentment within the fandom (likely because I was in my own niche)

[yakuza-emulation]

Shinichi Kudo- I mean.. Conan Edogawa, Detective.

I’ve been enjoying Detective Conan a lot recently, watching it with my father has been incredibly fun. (Including when we both yell at the screen at the utter idiocy of most of the characters)

We’re not that far in yet, still at the 250’s, but we’re getting there slowly but surely :D

[women--are--amazing]

The hatred I have for Tim drake (mostly his fans) should be studied because I don't even really fuck with the Batman that much.

For some reason he is everywhere and not that interesting to read about. Even his fanon version is boring asf.

[zukkaoru]

could you tell me more about why you dislike femskk?

okay disclaimer before i begin: this is not meant to be a dig on every person who enjoys femskk. the biggest reason i don't like it is honestly because it's just not my cup of tea and honestly it really makes no difference to me if other people like it. but beyond that my biggest issues with it are

1. the phenomenon of fans "yuri-ifying" the most popular m/m ship and then using that to prove they like female characters and f/f ships. this is not a bsd-exclusive thing; it happens with stsg too and i don't like femstsg for the same reason. but there's a big difference between actually liking female characters and just genderbending (or even making transfem) the big m/m ship. i literally went to the f/f category in bsd on ao3 the other day looking for fics and about half of them are skk fics instead of fics about like. the actual female characters in bsd. who i was looking for fics of. similarly, there have been some redraw trends going around twitter - specifically the i prefer girls cover redraw - and i have seen. i don't even know how many femskk redraws of that (along with a couple femfyolais and a femrimlaine) but only one redraw with actual female characters from bsd. same with the scene 14 redraw that was going around, and while that one wasn't originally two female characters, i have still seen significantly more femskk (and femsigzai, femsigchuu, femfyolai, etc) than i have ships with even one character who is female in the source material.

and imo this phenomenon is made even worse in the bsd fandom bc so many fans just see bsd as the skk show. so of course they're writing off the actual female characters; they literally don't care about anything besides skk. and obviously i can't do anything to force anyone to care about other characters but like.... bsd has so many other wonderful characters and dynamics (both romantic and platonic) that a good half of the fanbase won't even glance at because they're not skk. i do like skk, but bsd is about so much more than just them. they are, objectively, only one small part of it. like if you only care about skk, then just be outright about it and don't pretend you're "proving" you like female characters and sapphic ships bc you like femskk too

2. of the fans who only like skk and nothing else about bsd, most of them. don't even characterize dazai and chuuya correctly? i think the some of the best skk characterizations i've seen have been from people who actually like other characters and ships too, and some of the worst skk characterization i've seen has come from people who literally don't care about any other ships or characters. this isn't a hard and fast rule obviously but even with 30k skk fics on ao3, i have struggled to find ones that actually feel true to their characters. and the characterization seems to only get worse when it's femskk. if you're just going to turn femdazai and femchuuya into two completely different people, what's the point in it even being skk? why not write k.ousano or h.igugin or even a ship with one canonically female character? if you have to change the core characteristics of both dazai and chuuya... do you even really like them?

3. about femdazai: i actually don't mind the transfem dazai headcanon in general but most fans get her wrong. i made a post about it here but basically so many times i see femdazais that are just. completely unrecognizable as dazai. you can't strip away core aspects of dazai like idk the fact that dazai doesn't show any skin from neck to toe just because you made her a girl. i have seen some femdazai that's good! but i have seen so much that is just fundamentally wrong for dazai's character as a whole. mostly on twitter.

4. about femchuuya: i really truly just don't get femchuuya. i THINK the hype here is probably bc lesbians seem to get attached to chuuya (which. valid. i am also a lesbian chuuya fan.) and so they want to draw a chuuya they can be attracted to (i.e. femchuuya) which like. cool whatever i'm not here to judge. but looking at it from a "would this character actually identify as female" perspective, i don't actually think i can picture that for chuuya. maybe it's just because i so strongly hc them as nonbinary? idk. this one is honestly just a neutral "i don't see that but you do you"

tl;dr: from what i've seen, femskk is often mischaracterized, and genderbending the big m/m ships in a fandom is often a way fans "prove" they like the female characters and f/f ships while not actually caring about anything other than their main m/m ship

[tiredgeekgirl]

fellas it has been three months since the beach episode and thinking about neil and eva in any capacity still makes me ILL

[harmoniouseclipse]

Me and my freaking ship charts for my freaky mind

[fizz-pop-thwip]

Me when I get forced out of consuming spider-man fan content because its ALL tainted TO THIS DAY by all the ppl who thinks he acts like "m-m-m-mister stark im scared 🥺🥺" and even for Peter outside of the MCU fandom, the fanon MCU peter effect bleeds onto them too

[hermitagereheadcanons]

this isn't an ask or a request, but I hope you could still post it, because since I found this account the wave of love for this fandom crushed me yet again

not to disclose who I am too much, but here's a fact: I was dealing with pre schoolers as a part of my education(or, well, practice). around the same time I discovered the wonderful world of hermitcraft age regress fics. I myself don't regress, but I find those works insanely comforting. anyways I mentioned my education because, while in fics the looking after might be Way to soft and all-allowing (that YES can be very bad even short term), most of the works show it really well. and not just comforting, but as if the authors know Very Well they are portraying not a parent figure per say, but a "cool uncle that looks after you" type character and I LOVE IT. maybe this says smth about my childhood, maybe it's the overwhelming feeling of love coming from a friendship, but still. kudos to everyone who writes age re in this fandom, I love you.

I still haven't explored the topic of age regression as a study (meaning: I haven't really looked up the real world instances), but I have a feeling that learning about this phenomena in psychology feelings-first from a fictional work was a good idea.

Your ask has actually reminded me why I love this blog. I've been a bit out of touch with the fandom lately, but the sense of community that comes from gathering around something so niche is really nice and I love hearing about it.

I'm glad this type of content can be comforting and enjoyable even if you don't regress!

Also, when I originally had the idea to start this blog, there was very little agere-related content in this fandom that didn't emphasize a parental, set-in-stone caregiver as a key feature. I'm happy to see so much more variety in how people portray it in relation to friends and partners.

[sasukeless]

nothing more harder than trying to find karin content that doesn’t involve shipping

[silverselfshippingchaos]

it's so funny to me how he's just 🧍‍♂️

[constehlla]

Missing eternalduo, mourning what could have been

They were so cool and for what