#it'd be a problem if you currently had one guy who was just on a different planet to everyone else. but you don't

[batsplat]

the reaction to pecco/casey comparison post made by motogp acc on insta is kinda funny bc so many ppl are like “how dare you compare pecco to casey when pecco has the best bike on the grid and casey rode that garbage ducati” . but what about casey’s 2007 title run guys and how in some ppl’s eyes it wasn’t that legit or something bc of the bike advantage. like obviously comparisons between eras are often pretty pointless and devolve into pointless arguments and circle jerking for your fave guy but…..

lol oh man. here is the post for context

world's most boring discourse generator. the most predictable replies imaginable. did you know that. casey stoner. was very good... and had a bike that was tough to ride? did you know that. did you know the aliens were all very talented? did you know that casey's stats are very impressive? wow. you're telling me now for the first time

when I first saw the tweet, I did immediately go. *sigh* why are you setting pecco up like this. it's obviously interaction bait and, well, it does work every time. the phrasing "has equalled or outscored most of" casey's achievements at ducati is a bit unnecessary but like... god. who cares!! the only place stats like this belong is in spreadsheets proper hardworking fans made themselves to compare random shit for their personal amusement. bring back real fandom

and yeah, listen, I don't even really have the energy to engage with the merits of comparing the two sets of stats... it was a different time. you can say that casey had on average a less dominant bike than pecco did, which would be true - and he only had the clear outright fastest bike in one of his ducati seasons. you can say the level of competition was higher or lower back then, depending on whatever agenda you're pursuing. you can make arguments about when it was easier to rack up wins, given only around six bikes back then were even capable of winning races - something which is only kinda becoming true again now with the superiority of the gp24. you can point to the ducati back then being a considerably harder bike to ride. you can point to pecco's more impressive internal competition, you can point to casey's era having some undeniably pretty decent riders in the mix. you can do all of that. and it's a complete and utter waste of time. the main point of it is to have another bout of wanking about how much worse today's riders are, which, I cannot stress this enough, who cares!! literally. why does it matter. quality of viewing experience isn't directly linked to some imaginary talent-o'-metre, that's just not how sport works. everyone knows casey is one of the biggest talents this sport has ever seen! it is perhaps the single least controversial take in the whole sport. nobody's erasing casey's achievements. thank you to the random instagram user for securing casey stoner's legacy by bashing pecco. we've solved the crisis, guys, wrap it up

anyway, look. pecco's a two time premier class champion. nobody will die if he's mentioned in the same name as casey. people used to try and discredit casey's achievements... eventually the consensus morphed to acknowledge that he was obviously extremely good. once pecco's retired, the same thing will presumably happen to him. nostalgia comes for us all

[oh-no-its-bird]

hi listen i just had a divine intervention or smth lmk if you don't like it but

what if your team Ro time travel au + my time travel Tobirama

Team Ro would have memories of the canon and they got to this different timeline and there's Tobirama actively trying to seduce Uchiha fucking Madara. They didn't teach THAT in the Academy

They got in the time when Tobirama still orchestrated meetings, but Butsuma is already dead so if everything goes well, Tobirama would get Madara and peace soon.

And then there suddenly spawn a Hatake with a sharingan with 2 Uchiha kids and a Mokuton user. Political nightmare.

Later Tobirama recognises Kakashi and was like "The fuck? It's that Hatake from the war. What is he doing there, he should not have been born yet!!"

OHHH THATS SO GOOD THO???

I'm gonna be real I love the concept of "team ro time travel au but they time travel into someone else's time travel au," that's so good

If we go with your au, there's a really interesting immediate aspect of like: hey ! Tobirama might recognize Kakashi or maybe even Tenzo from the war, but these guys are way fucking younger than when they met !!!

Idk what exactly can be done with that but it's interesting to consider. Also Tobirama talked ab Itachi and his crimes before I'm p sure? So like he knows what happens to the Uchiha and that it was Itachi who did it for the village. I wanna see him faced w the kid who he once praised for slaughtering his own clan to prove his loyalty.

I wanna see him feel the consequences of the stress Itachi is under when he (and possibly Shisui) attempt to kill Madara.

Stop interfering with his fix it fic you brats!! He's already got it covered!! You're just causing a mess!!!!

They get zapped in, like, in the middle of Tobirama's happy ending epilogue too. Tobirama is peacefully eating dinner in his house w his new husband Madara thinking "well. Alls well that ends well." Then BOOM Kakashi Shisui Itachi and Tenzo crash out of fucking nowhere directly onto their table, getting covered in food and breaking the table in half

Immediatley arrested !! I feel like Tobirama would instantly understand what happened by recognizing their uniforms + potentially Kakashi + he's already a time traveler himself so it's really no stretch for him to go "oh fuck I didn't think we'd get a double jepordy in this bitch but I guess not"

But like it's not like he can just SAY that ? Or he could but it would bring a lot of questions he probably does not want to answer.

Now another problem arises in like. I don't think Tobirama is especially attached to any of these guys. I can see him maybe having a lingering "pay it forward ig" feeling just bc they're "loyal konoha soldiers" and it'd be a waste to let that resource just burn. But also like. Under no circumstances can Tobirama have these guys share certain aspects of future knowledge.

Tobirama worked so hard to get here !!!! Literal years of planning !!!! He got his happy ending and it very much rests on Madara staying safe and sane and NO ONE IMPLYING HE WILL BETRAY KONOHA EVER !!!!! Tobirama does not even wanna RISK that becoming a rumor, he will take no chances.

Anyways I think his best course of action would be to reveal himself as a time traveler specifically to team ro, then position himself as their hokage who they should remain loyal to, say that it is for Konoha's best interests that they do not reveal certain things, and play it by ear from there.

Tobirama deciding he can't risk team ro going forward in time again and potentially fucking up the time stream or smthn. They need to stay here. He can not risk losing this shit. Sorry guys it looks like your trapped here <3

Anyways team ro being scary loyal to him bc he is the closest approximation to their (current?) Hokage and only person w the knowledge to enforce that power over them (at this time)

In my original post, like, all of team ro are already established to be kind of at their worst and most loyal to the village at that point to. They are at THE age(s) to be manipulated like that tbh, rip

It's not too bad tho. I think Itachi would feel relieved but also very guilty. Shisui too. Tenzo is violently neutral bc hes still in his "learning to be a real boy" phase from root, but it's all positive for him tbh. Kakashi is tricky bc his mental state is the equivalent of someone rapidly bouncing a ball on a thin pane of glass trying to prove it's bullet proof (it's not) and has like MOUNTAINS of complexes around the words "konoha authority figure" and what he's leaving behind. He's probably the most determined to go back

Anyways uhh. Izuna gets Itachi to help him be skeptical of Tobirama and spy on him. Itachi only agrees bc he violently reminds him of Sasuke (this will develop into a complex if not stopped. Shisui is working on it.)

[euniexenoblade]

Favorite Movies 2024

I do one of these every year, even though I see less and less of the current releases every year. But, I've been doing it on tumblr since 2012, so it's a tradition and everyone else does it so, why not?

There's a lot of movies I haven't gotten to see yet. Like, as far as I can tell Queer isn't available anywhere even though it's one of those movies I'm sure I'd love. Everyone seems to like The Brutalist, but I don't want to watch a bad cam recording. I don't usually see most non-American movies until the next year. Really excited to see that movie Viet and Nam.

That said, some honorable mentions:

Past Lives was a really beautiful film about a family immigrating to the USA from South Korea and how that affects their daughter and her friend's relationship, not to mention her identity. It's 5/5 for me but it's technically 2023 and it feels more fun to highlight the films I chose.

Perfect Days is a Japanese movie about a guy that works for a toilet cleaning company and it's really a beautiful movie. Like the previous mention the only problem is it's from 2023 and I think it'd be fun to highlight the films I chose.

Conclave is fun! Who would have thought picking the pope was exactly like high school cafeteria drama!

I'm sure no one cares for Speak No Evil, considering this one is an American remake. But, personally I had a lot of fun, James McAvoy is hot and honestly the family deserved it for diving a Tesla.

Drive Away Dolls is a really funny gay comedy. It's not good enough to make a "best of" list, but that doesn't mean it's not worth a watch. In that same respect, Bottoms was really funny. But again, not best of the year worthy, and it's from 2023.

Anyways! The list!

10 - Heretic

Heretic is one of those edgy pseudo intellectual movies that thinks it's so much smarter than it actually is. And I love it. Do not go into this expecting a horror movie, expect it to be some dude trolling some Mormon girls. Don't take it seriously and just enjoy the ride. It's funnier than it is scary. When the guy compares the Book of Mormon to Monopoly, or compares Jesus Christ to Jar Jar Binks? Hysterical.

9 - Alien: Romulus

I don't really have anything to add on to the letterboxd review. As a Alien lover, a Xenomorph fucker, and a die hard fan of the series, I really loved the atmosphere in this one. The world building was great. I'm happy we finally got a decent installment, finally.

8 - Challengers

Again, said most of what I need to up there. Challengers is not the movie you expect it to be. Funny as hell, interesting as hell, melodramatic as fuck.

7 - Will & Harper

Will & Harper is a breath of fresh air in today's transphobic climate. I didn't expect Will fucking Ferrel to be the trans ally of the year, but damn, he tried his hardest to keep Harper happy even in the darker moments. Will Ferrell's best movie (lol).

6 - Love Lies Bleeding

This fucking movie is insane. If you want to see a real lesbian crime thriller, this is it y'all. Music is excellent, acting is astounding, and they throw in some fucking curveballs to fuck with you. Underrated cinema.

5 - Monkey Man

Do you need another reason?

An amazing action flick in a similar vein to John Wick. Brutal, violent, but has so much heart. And we get amazing trans representation. This film looked beautiful, I'd argue only one other film had a visual aesthetic nearly as cool as this in 2024 (it'll come up later). Dev Patel wrote, directed, and starred in this, that's insane. He clearly had so much love for this project and it shows through.

4 - Look Back

I don't usually put anime movies on this list, but I don't know if I'll do an anime list this year so it has to be included.

From the creator of Chainsaw Man, we get a beautiful movie about friendship and loss. It's genuinely a beautiful piece of art.

3 - Femme

I'm not adding my letterboxd, it has spoilers in it and I don't want to ruin the ride. Technically a 2023 movie, but it's on John Waters favorite movie list of the year so it fucking counts.

A brutal look at internalized homophobia and the ways we hurt each other in our own communities. I can't recommend it enough, but trigger warnings for homophobia, assault, and abuse. It's really hard to get into the meat and potatoes of this movie without spoiling it. But, it's fucked up and well made.

I loved this movie. It looks so beautiful, the actors inhabit their characters so well it feels like it's all real, a gay horror movie if I've ever seen one.

2 - The People's Joker

Also technically not 2024, but this is the year everyone got to see it. But, The People's Joker is such a triumph of trans DIY bullshit. Making a movie about a trans woman Joker without the permission of DC sounds so stupid, but it comes together as one of the most interesting pieces of art to come out in the 2020s.

My first experience with this movie was unforgettable. I had no idea it existed, but my girlfriend who worked at a movie theater was like "this movie exists let's go see it!" And I was like, ok that's chill. I was hitting the weed vape so hard before going into this and killed me.

Live action, CGI, animation, this movie is a bizarre amalgamation of styles, built as this weird, indie love letter to Batman. Inside this shell of mixed artforms you find a very basic story about a trans woman finding herself and fighting for the respect of the people around her. And beyond that you can find comedy revolving around Batman lore or comedy revolving around inter community bullshit.

Outstanding movie. Would happily watch it 800 more times.

1 - I Saw The TV Glow

It couldn't be anything else.

Similar to previous, my movie theater girlfriend got a huge group of people together to go see this. I had seen trailers but I figured it was going to be a normal horror movie in the style of Candle Cove type shenanigans. I was very, very, very, very high when I saw this. Of the 15 or so people (all trans) that saw this, the majority were crying, a few were shell shocked and just left, and I'm there laughing about Phoebe Bridgers in the middle.

I don't think there's anything I can say about this movie that isn't already super well known. A transgender horror story with the message "it's never too late." As frightening, as sad as it is, it's also just the beginning of the story that'll have a happy end.

It's beautiful. Looks beautiful. Great soundtrack that fits the vibe. One of the best movies ever made, honestly.

[evilfrogcereal29]

ANOTHER NIKTO X READER I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE I WAS GOING WITH THESE SPECIFIC SCENARIOS JUST COME TO MIND DJDHSKS

this is made with a fem!reader in mind, I try to write everything kind of GN, so sorry, but gender is kind of important for this specific piece cause reader's mistaken for a man and doesn't correct anyone to hide their identity

Tw: drinking, swearing, google translated russian, probably a bit ooc Nikto, I make him a lil softer than he probably is.

Nikto x Disguised(?)!fem!reader

- "You're pretty small for a guy"

- you were more than used to that sentence by now, and you never once saught to correct or challenge anyone on it. Who cared? There where more important things than whats in your pants, and it was better that everyone thought you you a man anways.

- You were very private about your identity, you had friends and family back home you didn't want getting wrapped up in this shit. You've seen how petty people can be for just a little bit of revenge.

- you wore a full suit of gear that masked your feminine form, including a helmet with a built in voice changer. (You sounded similar to that of a metro-cop from half-life 2, but with way more clarity)

- You didn't even push the man narrative, everyone just naturally started using he & him for you, unaware of your past or who you really were.

- You were, for the most part, one of the guys. Your file even stated you as male. A serious oversight by the higher-ups.

- So then why was Nikto currently pointing a gun amd looking at a woman in *your* armor?

- *Funny timeskip that i added here because I thought it'd be a bit confusing jumping between these two bullet points*

- You often frequented the showers late at night, it was the only time you could wash yourself uninterrupted by others prying eyes.

- You never realized how often you and Nikto barely evaded seeing eachother. You’d finish, disappear from the showers back to your room, and Nikto would come in, with the same idea of a late shower as you within a few minutes to as soon as 30 seconds after you departed.

- Tonight though, maybe by fate, you both got the idea at the same time, unfortunately for Nikto, you walked just a little faster.

- Nikto almost immediately turned around when he heard the water running, there was no point. Yet there was also frustration, and an overwhelming urge to confront whoever it was. Who the hell was showering at this hour?! He’s never had this problem before, who was deciding to give him problems tonight?

- He cracked the door open, head peeping inside, his eyes widen big at you- whoever you were- in his fellow solider's suit.

- Now it should've occured to someone as intelligent as Nikto that this *was* his fellow solider, but he had known you for a while, and had never suspected anything before, he would've known if you weren't anyone you said you are...right? Had you truely bested Nikto?

- He pulled out his gun right as you seemed to notice him, letting out a yelp. You were a confident 'man' on the battlefield, but now, you were red in the face, caught in a web of lies you didn't even mean to string.

- *Timeskip from earlier ends here :3 there will be more timeskips tho because my ADHD ass LOVES giving context*

- "ублюдок, ты кто? Where is our teammate? What did you do to him?" He growled, cocking his gun and aiming it right at the girl's head.

- Your eyes are wide, as big as half-dollars, and threw your hands up into the air.

- "Nikto its me! Its me!" You plead. Only receiving a sneer and angry grunt

- "You think I'm a stupid man, маленькая девочка?!" He yelled, stepping closer, finger twitching on the trigger, his bloodlust rising.

- The running water is the only thing breaking the terrifying tension in the room, you're mind is racing, how do you get this killer off your back. You needed to prove who you were. Think! Think!

- "Please don't shoot- let me prove it, I can prove it's me Nikto. I-..." You feel your cheeks heating up, god this was fucking embarrassing, and Mr. Emotionless here is the last person you wanted to slip up with. Even if you did prove yourself, he might kill you just because he felt a little angry that you didn't tell him personally. You gulp at that thought.

- Nikto grins under his mask, amused, truely, his gun lowers a bit.

- "Go on." He muses, "tell me something only HE would know." He smirks, thinking about how he's going to lay your body in the shower and watch the blood seep down the drain.

- *Time skip backwards again here, cause I love me some backstory :3*

- Your mind races. You and Nikto weren't 'friends' per se, but you had a past, you had met him right around when he had come out of rehabilitation after his sickening torture. He was worse back then, he would snap on teammates. He snapped on you, pinning you to the wall once, eyes dilated and filled with a primal kind of rage, he pressed down on your neck.

- "Мы сломаем твои кости, как стекло, маленький муравей."

- You had picked up some Russian from being around him and other fluent operators, knowing a decent amount, and in that moment you knew just enough to fear for your life.

- Thankfully Minotaur was in the area, and while he enjoyed watching a good scuffle bewteen two soldiers, he knew very well that this one would end with you dead, breaking up you two with very careful wording and while staying a very far away distance from the still ravenous, blood-thirsty Nikto.

- Surprisingly, you didn't completely avoid him after that, not like you could, the allegiance seemed to love put you two on the same team. Something about the variety of both your skillsets.

- It was true, you had to admit. You and Nikto worked very professionally on the field, quick and easy kills, communicating everything with head & hand gestures instead of talking. It was preferable for the both of you. And always ended with success. So maybe thats why you always ended up near eachother. Still, you always tried to give the Psychotic man the benefit of the doubt. Knowing the story of his past, as told to you by Rodion, you couldn't help but feel a twinge of empathy for the broken man.

- It eventually built up to you having a very personal moment with Nikto.

- You were on a long-term mission, you'd been deployed in Yakutsk, Russia. Yes, one of the coldest fucking places in the entire country. Reaching nearly unalivable conditions- In your opinion- but of course Nikto never complained, he liked the cold after all.

- You had shacked up in an abandoned home on the outskirts of the city for the night. You laid on the one of the dirty mattresses left there by the old tenants, whoever they were.

- You shivered and shook like a rabid animal. Unable to sleep from how cold you were. Even in your full body of armor, it wasn't doing enough. You had those crap emergency blankets but even they, and the addition of the thin poo-stained mattress beneath you, didn't help with the very persistent cold that seemed to seep in through every crack of the home possible.

- You can only assume Nikto is fast asleep, at least, until you hear a soft humming, one that turns into soft singing, its gruff, and deep, but as you continue to listen, you find it rather soothing.

- "Здравствуйте, девочки Здравствуйте, мальчики Смотрите на меня в окно...." He sang, tapping his foot to a beat in his head. It seemed there *were* moments where nikto wasn't being mentally tortured by his own mind. Instead, filled with a melody from childhood.

- You rolled over and saw Nikto sitting criss-cross on the other mattress, his mask was slightly lifted up, but it was too dark to make out anything but the outline of his chin, and there was something in his hand, a bottle of Vodka.

- Now that you found weird, Nikto usually wasn't one to live up to the stereotype, in fact, he barely drank at all. Sure, he did drink lots in his youth, and still did a few lines of coke or toked off the occasional blunt when the offer somehow came up, but he was sworn off alcohol for the most part, especially vodka or anything strong, it gave him extremely awful headaches, he was hangovers bitch.

- You finally sat up after a few minutes, alerting him to your presence, his singing ceased and he pulled his mask back down over his mouth quickly, shooting you a dangerous glare.

- you frowned through your helmet that you kept on, blinking tired, dissapointed eyes at him.

- "Don't stop, I didn't know you could sing like that Nikto... Or that you drank-"

- "Господи, заткнись, сука. ты ничего обо мне не знаешь" he said defensively, you couldn't recognize every word but you recognized every swear, flinching at his vile language, but recognizing the slight slur in his words. A sign of inebriation.

- "Nikto...? You're drunk?" You try to ask, but he follows it up with a quick and defiant 'no' and more swearing. You let him, knowing better than you argue with the bullish man. Let him stop seeing red, than you could keep talking.

- "So.. what about tonight made you finally want to drink, I thought you liked the cold?" You ask, tilting your head.

- "I'm not drinking cause I'm sad." He corrected you coldly, setting the bottle down beside him, "The opposite actually."

- Nikto was...happy drinking? You didn't think normal people did that, but than again Nikto wasn't normal so- you supposed it made sense.

- "Whats the occasion?" You ask after a moment of consideration, and now that you thought about it, it was a bit rude, let the man be happy. occasion or not.

- "Everything is... Quiet tonight. I think we're just happy to be somewhere that feels like home." he says, tapping the side of his head.

- You're happy for him. He deserves moments like these. You find yourself scooting closer, settling down beside him when he doesn't shoo you away.

- "Tell me about your home, Nikto." You ask politely, taking him by surpise, catching him in a moment of vulnerability in his nostalgia and drunk-ness. The usual softness in your real voice, even with the voice changer, was present.

- He goes on to describe his early life to you, albiet, in bit and pieces, it's obvious he's holding back, relinquishing some details while stating others blantly. He also just doesn't remember much. Everything from birth to 5 years old is a blur for him. He just remembers his older brother and mom, and a vague outline of a father figure, but he left before Nikto's 6th birthday, Nikto can't remember his face or the sound of his voice anymore.

- He pointed out the song he was singing earlier, he listened to it often when he was a younger man. It reminded him of his mother and brother, of sitting at the dinnertable eating warm meals as a family whenever they scrounged up enough money to have the luxury of doing so. The laughter and love they shared, even if things around them were lackluster.

- He details early life in the military, his becoming of a spy and his... Eventual Downfall and capture.

- "One job, I got messy... I wasn't looking where I was going I..." He trailed off. He stopped telling his story and you reached a hand out, resting a hand on his shoulder.

- "Its okay. I get it. You don't need to tell me anymore if it hurts." You reassure, seeing the way he tenses under your pitiful touches.

- "I deserved it." He tried to continue, but you interupted him

- "None of that now. Just shut up and think about the now." You scold, noticing the wide eyes stare Nikto gives you.

- No one has ever told him to shut up before. He felt the heat rise in his cheeks underneath his mask, thank god he was wearing one.

- "Sorry." He muttered, and now you both sat there a bit stunned and quiet. The moment you were experiencing together left the both of your heart's racing, wondering a million things about the other.

- You because you had never seen such a soft, apologetic side of Nikto before, a man with no regrets, no empathy. He seemed so... Human?

- And Nikto because he couldn't believed he was being so soft and apologetic with someone. He always had his walls up. His mental fortress guarded with maximum security at all times. But you caught him when the Vodka- 3/4th a bottle of it that he found stashed in a drawer somewhere in the shack- had him weak, and you didn't take advantage of him. Didn't judge or even really cast much pity towards him. He didn't like being pitied. Fucking hated it actually. But here you were, rubbing his shoulder, which wasn't exactly an *unwelcomed* gesture, and sitting in silence with him. The voices were at bay tonight. Right now. It was just him, or whatever was left of Andre.

- "I used to walk 4 miles to school every morning in the freezing cold, and almost got hit by a pickup truck and stolen by a pack of wolves doing it." He suddenly blurted out, the previously warm vibes of the room returning as Nikto casted the past out of his mind. You were right. He was being too emotional, he should focus on the now.

- And right now, the booze brought him back to fonder memories, ones of childhood mischief and near death experiences.

- You looked at him with wide eyes and couldn't help the burst of laughter that followed, something that Nikto didn't find insulting, in fact, he was smiling too, underneath that mask.

- "You think that's funny, just wait til I tell you where I got my first tattoo..." He chuckled with his thick, russian accent.

- You and Nikto shared stories all night. And never once did Nikto question it, like when you told him you took ballet, or when you ripped your prom dress, or even when you told him about your first boyfriend. He shrugged it off. He wasnt exactly as straight as a board either. And the military exposed him to people from all walks of life.

- Of course, Nikto still thought you were a *man* at this point. A very effeminate acting man, but a man none the less.

- *Time skip ends here SORRY IF U HATED THAT SJSHSK*

- But now Nikto's world was flipped on it's head, as you combed through your mind, you find yourself going back to that silly song he sang. Trying to recall the words.

- "Здравствуйте.... дев-вочки.." you started, cringing at your poor pronouncations of the words and shrilly little singing voice.

- Nikto's eyes widen in recognition, all former sneers and snickers long gone. He wasn't joking anymore, and it seemed you weren't either.

- "Здравствуйте, мальчики..." You continued, your cheeks growing impossibly red, "С-Cмотрите на меня в окно.."

- "That's enough. Stop. Stop it." Nikto demanded, aiming his gun right at you again, "how do you know that? That night?"

- "Cause it's me Nikto! I'm a girl!" You exclaimed, getting annoyed yourself. You practically just performed for the bastard, and now he was still trying to shoot you, just like you figured.

- There was a moment of silence. And Nikto stood there, as if needing to process everything that just happened.

- "Put on the helmet." He demands. And you don't defy him, placing your helmet on, the change in your voice is like night and day,

- "I didn't think it mattered this much, I'm sorry." You said genuinely. Your voice deepened to it usual state, confirming your indentity.

- There a few more moments of silence before Nikto coughs, grabbing your attention. He straightens himself. Lowering his gun and putting the safety back on. There's a sense of embarrassment in his movements, he's tense, and avoiding your eye contact.

- "It...it doesn't matter. We'll just shower tomorrow morning." He says and hurries off. Another vulnerable moment with you, what was wrong with him?! He hated himself right now. For having never realized, and for having threatened you.

- Nikto did hold you in high regards, not that he would ever tell you or another soul. He respected your dedication to the work, and after that night in the cabin, a mutual but unspoken trust was formed bewteen the two of you. You never had a moment like it afterwards. Well. Until now.

- You don't dare go after Nikto in that moment, but you want to. It's late, and if you woke everyone else up and made them aware of the situation, only god knows what would happen. So you shower and head off to bed, replaying senarios in your mind, planning what you'd say to Nikto first thing in the morning.

- Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you see it, he beat you to it.

- You were still sleeping when a heavy-handed Knock came to your door, sending you scurrying out of bed for your gear. You reach for your helmet until you hear the voice on the other side.

- "Hey... Its Nikto...let us in, please." He says, his voice gruff and demanding as usual but theres something else there....Pleading? Hoping?

- You freeze, fiddling with your helmet before deciding its not worth it. You quickly move to open the door, making sure noone else is around before ushering Nikto in.

- He takes a moment to look you up and down. You're not wearing any gear now. Just some plaid pajama pants and a white tanktop.

- He sighs, shaking any stray thoughts from his head. "We should talk. About last night." He finally states, and you agree with a simple nod, motioning for him to sit next to you on your bed.

- It feels like last time, except the cards have been flipped, this time, it was your secrets that were being spilled, and Nikto had the questions.

- "Why?" He asked flatly, "why hide your gender?"

- "Why hide your face?" You fire back, rolling your eyes at him like it was obvious, "for privacy, same reason as you, as Krueger. We don't want anyone knowing what we look like, our identities" you said, using another member of the allegiance, Sebastian Krueger, as an example.

- Nikto's eyes dart down in thought, and he nods, "I see."

- Theres more silence, it seems that was a recurring theme between you two, long bouts of silence. Never once did either of you try to force conversation. It came naturally.

- Nikto really appreciated that about you in this moment. It allowed him to get his thoughts straight, arguing with the voices for a bit before he opens his mouth again.

- "No one has to know." He says, like its that simple, and stands up. He starts for the door and you move to follow, a hand on his bicep.

- "Nikto wait- that's it?" You ask, confused, but what did you really expect? Nikto wasn't the type to gossip. If information needed to be gathered and brought back his superiors, he would. But that wasn't what he was asked to do.

- "да, that's it." He said standing the in the doorway with finality.

- He shut the door behind him with a click and you stood there dumbfounded. Did any of that really just happen, or was all of this one big dream you were about to wake from?

- You pinched yourself with a winced and cursed under your breathe. This was reality. Could you really trust Nikto with this secret? Without blackmail? Without shame?

- Apparently, yes. As you would come to find out. In fact, you soon realize that this whole incident only made you and Nikto somehow closer.

- In battles, during tight situations, he was always there. Freeing you from the enemies grasp, carrying you with a bullet wound in your back. He was your personal guard.

- He wasn't being more protective just cause he knew you're a girl, he knew you were deadly. He's seen what you're capable off. No. You come to learn Nikto does this as a display of affection. Subtlety showing his appreciation for keeping his secrets, and in return, he keeps your's, and keeps you alive as well.

- After one particularly long mission, you're walking alongside each other, covered in dirt and grime, heading to the showers as the sun set and everyone heads for bed.

- You two showered together now, of course, broken up by thin curtains. It was a bit intimate, but it was an easier agreement than an already insomnia ridden-Nikto getting up at ungodly hours of the morning to shower.

- As you're walking together you nudge him gently, "good work today. You still fight well for a guy your age." You tease. Nikto knew full well you were hiding a shit eating grin under than helmet of yours, grimacing at you.

- "Yeah, good work to you too... For a girl." He says back venomously, earning him a playful punch.

- "Bastard! Don't be so loud about that!" You scold while whisper-yelling, but Nikto can still hear the smile in your voice. And knows its in jest.

- "It would be a shame if the others knew what a pretty little woman you really were."

- "It would be a shame if the others knew about the smiley face tattoed on your buttcheek."

- Both of your faces are red and concealing mischievous grins. This was you and Nikto's relationship now. Learnings eachothers secrets, and using them to pick on eachother. Playful banter.

- Everyone around base notices what you two are doing...just FUCK already you two... Damn. The tension is killing everyone.

- You and Nikto will probably end up together after a while more of this, its inevitable. You're just unjudgemental enough to deal with his freak, while also being one of the only solider's on base willing to put up with his terrifying, intimidating aura for long periods of time!

- Nikto always kind of liked you, as a man, and even now as a woman. And sharing your secrets only solidified that attraction in his mind. You were his милый, and he would keep you and your secrets safe for as long as he lived.

AHHHH HOLY FUCKING SHIT SORRY IF THE END FEELS RUSHED I TRIED TO CONCLUDE THIS LONG ASS STORY, I DIDN'T REALIZE HOW MUCH YAP I HAD IN ME😳

The song Nikto was humming is Кино - Алюминиевые огурцы, and was inspired by a comment on my post about Russian and Austrian musc left by @weepingmagazinesandwich and once I heard that song I knew I had to use it in a writing piece its just so sweet. The two playlists were made btw I just never publicly posted them (also cause Nikto's list is chronically short, and Krueger's playlist is already almost hours long) so- idk if y'all want those posted but lmk👍 I hope you enjoyed this- whatever you'd call it. Idk what to call the reader in this. Disguised!reader sounds so silly.

I have a sfw agere krueger drabble comin out soon, and I just started writing big chunks of the hubby!gromsko x reader hcs.

[that-student-that-has-homework]

Hey! I thought it'd be really cool if you wrote for Koby from One Piece. :3

oh gosh it would probably turn into a Luffy simp fest 😂

Imagine: it's just the two of them gushing over Luffy and how great he is, and how he kinda seems to resemble his gramps a bit, and his grandpa is kinda hot, so Luffy who's already cute is probably going to age beautifully

and now Koby has one more person he can lowkey fanboy with, and it's going soo well until...like some marine, maybe it's Helmeppo, maybe it's Garp, maybe it's Hina, maybe it's someone else: but someone just mentions how cute they are and nudges Koby about it.

now all of a sudden everything makes sense to Koby and he's like: oh no! I do have a crush! buuuutttt

he's awkward the next time he meets up, but after a while of giggling over Luffy, and swapping tales about training, and maybe even getting a little pouty over how Koby's observation haki seems to be just a little bit better than her's...and Koby who had fully relaxed into the swing of things is back to panicking that maybe she can tell his heart was racing

(lol bro has nothing to worry about, he's nervous 90% of the time, so she doesn't even flag it)

imagine them discussing marineford because they were both there, and it's just like: "I picked the right profession being a marine."

and Koby's waxing poetic about justice and stuff and she's just like: "wow that's really noble, I meant just like: I get paid to chase after hot men," and girl pulls out a bunch of wanted posters.

(and because I'm such an Ace fan) one of them is Ace's and she's just like: "I would've thought that Straw Hat and Fire Fist were biological brothers, they really do resemble each other."

"So you think Fire Fist is hot?"

"Of course, I do!" She looks all serious and Koby's confidence is taking another hit. "He's Fire Fist! Fire is hot!"

And they're just laughing at the lame joke and she grins at him that being a marine really suits Koby because he is an honest guy and she makes an offhand comment about how he really outgrew his old, wimpy kinda lame appearance he had when he first arrived.

and now the boy has heart palpitations.

if they were to ever run into Luffy, she wouldn't ever take him in/try to arrest him, and the Straw Hats would be so weirded out like...whut? She just explains it: "you guys do more objective good than objective bad , so leaving you to continue fixing the problems the current corrupt system in place (cough world government coughcough) creates makes more sense."

Nami would try to ring them out for money at that point probably, but wouldn't really get a single berry/belli/berri/belly outta her. Girl's salary isn't much. I think Nami would drop it if she found out girl was sending money back home to her family...or would she? It's Nami...

Anywho...

I can see it turning into a mess of:

Helmeppo nudging Koby and Koby not listening initially

Helmeppo forcefully arranging things and them flopping miserably, but never so bad that it sours Koby's relationship with you

Helmeppo enlisting Garp, and Garp laughing loudly and saying men have to pave their own paths to romance

despite that Garp does try to help increase opportunities by increasing how often the two work together

If Garp finds out that they gush over Luffy together, will guffaw loudly, obnoxiously, and then with all the pride of a doting grandpa pat Koby on the shoulder and be like: best of luck my grandson is tough competition to have

a cycle of flops where you never get the hint because Koby's such a sweetheart already

it becomes a running joke in the marines and they're kinda waiting to see how it plays out like they're watching a soap opera

good luck Koby!

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

The Problem With The Southern Raiders

Brynn_Sasha191 asked: And what do you have to say about TSR episode as a whole? And how ZK shippers constantly refer and think of it as 'the Zutara episode'.

***

The episode itself is alright. Katara and Zuko looked cool as hell in their ninja outfits, sneaking around and being menaces. The scene of Katara choosing to bloodbend (and her horror after) were shocking. The moral of the episode ("Unnecessary violence is never the answer, BUT that doesn't mean people who wronged you are entitled to your forgiveness") is pretty good. Zuko looked like he gained some genuine understanding for Katara's situation, as well as respect for her mom, when he was told about how Kya's death happened. Plus the Sukka bit, and Zuko's reaction to it, was one of the funniest moments in the show.

The only thing that REALLY bothers me about it how it is the ONE time the show tried to sweep Zuko's mistakes under the rug. Katara was not mad at him because she was wrongfully "projecting" her grief over her mom, and her anger at the killer, on poor, innocent Zuzu.

She was mad because this entitled prince that had threatened the people of her village, tried to use her mom's necklace to blackmail her and then threatened to burn it, had been chasing her group all around the world, endangering them several times, to kidnap her best friend managed to convince her for five minutes that maybe there was some humanity to him - and then immediately helped his sister essentially win the war for the Fire Nation, and killing Aang. Then after Katara saved him, the same goddamn prince sent an assassin after them.

It doesn't matter that he was never fully evil, that he had understandable reasons to do what he did, that truly changed sides, and that he doesn't intend to ever do something like that again. Katara does NOT have to forgive him, and she sure as hell does not owe him her friendship, and it's not cool how the episode keeps allowing Zuko to act all entitled, without ever calling him out for it - and worse, activelly saying KATARA is the one in the wrong.

Plus, it's kinda fucked up that it's never acknowledged how Zuko, the guy who was disfigured and banished for wanting the soldiers of the Fire Nation to be treated fairly and with any humanity, and saw harming them for daring to OBEY ORDERS as an absolute betrayal, was willing to kill one of these guys for the crime of... following the Fire Lord's orders - which Zuko had also been doing mere WEEKS before.

Don't get me wrong, I can understand Katara being out for blood and not giving a shit about "well, if he didn't obey, he'd be traitor" when what he did traumatized her for life and made her grow up without her mom, but Zuko just seemed a bit hypocritical, and like he was betraying his beliefs there. It just doesn't make sense in my head that he wouldn't be thinking "What that guy did was fucked up, but I nearly got all of my current allies killed just a month ago because they were still enemies and it'd make sure my dad would not disfigure/banish me again or even kill me, it'd not be right of me to act like I can judge this guy"

But this one doesn't bother me as much since the whole point of that episode was for Zuko to unlearn all the awful "lessons" his father taught him by fully normalizing violence to him - and considering the finale showed us he was feeling sorry for Azula (hell, he was already giving off Concerned Big Brother vibes on the opening scene of TSR)  and was willing to spare even Ozai, I think it's safe to say he will never make that kind of mistake again (the comics are not canon, I don't care what anyone says).

So yeah, it's a deeply flawed, but entertaining episode that MOSTLY works - but it's NOT the "zutara" episode, not just because there's no romance there, but also because, if anything, 99% of it just shows how these two have the potential to bring out the absolute worst in each other, and that, at least until he genuinely started bonding with her during their mission) Zuko had no problem with playing the victim whenever Katara dared to be mad at him for doing horrible things that hurt her, the people she cared about, and innocents in general.

Thank God they grew as people AND have other friends that can pull them out of destructive spirals.

[lunar-wandering]

i'm so obsessed with my "reaper that's scared of ghosts" oc that it's not even funny like it's starting to become an actual problem

“Hey, kid.”

The voice made Annette look up. Before her was a man, who was bending over slightly to be at her eye level.

“My name is Rocky.” He said, glancing off to the side as he did so, “And I'm going to be your reaper for the day.”

Now, Annette had already known she was dead. This did not come to a shock to her. She had been dead for about a week after all. That was totally enough time to become accustomed to her new state of being. Totally.

The reaper was a surprise though. After seven whole days of nothing she had begun to think that this was going to be how the rest of her 'life' was going to play out.A lifetime spent living alone, all by herself, with nobody able to see her, and no one to talk to.

“You're late.” She decided to say, as the reaper tilted the pole end of his scythe towards her, indicating for her to grab it, waiting until after she'd done so before turning around and starting to walk, with her trailing behind him.

“I know, I know.” Rocky said, looking forwards, “But there was a lot of evil spirits on the way between your location and the nearest entrance to the Otherworld, and I figured it'd be better to get rid of them first before leading you there. Easier to wait a little bit instead of having to fight while protecting someone, right?”

Annette supposed she could see the logic behind that.

“I still would've liked to have known that there was going to be a reaper though.” She said, “Couldn't you have come and talked to me first?”

Rocky didn't respond. Annette kept her eyes firmly on the reaper's back as they turned a corner.

“...And why are you having me hold the scythe anyways?” She asked, “Most of the times when people talk about a reaper leading someone to the afterlife, the reaper holds the person's hand.”

Still no answer. Hm. Maybe she only got to get one question answered after death, and she'd wasted it.

Well.

No.

Actually.

Her first statement hadn't been a question, had it? So that couldn't be it. Maybe this reaper in particular was just rude. That would be just her luck, getting stuck with a rude reaper.

Either way it was clear this guy wasn't going to answer any more of her questions, so she decided to shut up, focusing on the area around her as she walked. This was a path that she herself had taken many times on her way to school when she was alive- was there really a path to the afterlife this way?

Suddenly, Rocky stopped, Annette only having seconds to stop herself from running into him. And then, he turned, down a side street- one that Annette knew for a fact looped back around to the street they were already on. Still, she remained quiet. Maybe the entrance was somewhere down this way?

Except it wasn't. Except, a few minutes later, they were back on the same street they had started on, just a little bit further down.

Annette blinked for a moment, glancing behind her, and then glancing back at Rocky.

To hell with staying quiet.

“Why'd we do that?” She asked, “It would've been faster if we just stayed on this street.”

“...Evil spirit.” Rocky muttered. Ah, so he could answer her, he just was choosing not to.

“I don't see anything.” Annette glanced back at the street behind her again. “Also, didn't you say earlier that you'd already gotten rid of all the evil spirits? What, was there just something about that street in particular that you didn't like?”

From the way Rocky's back tensed, she must've been right on the money. Once again she looked back, trying to spot anything on that part of the street in particular that could make a reaper want to avoid it. As far as she could tell, it was just the same as the part she was currently on.

Or well, it was the same... if you ignored the Halloween shop that had opened up there a few days prior to her death. A little funny of her, she supposed, to die in October, but-

“Not a fan of Halloween?” Annette smirked a little as Rocky did a whole body twitch, like he had winced. “What, is it offensive to reapers or something?”

“No... m-most of the others actually like that sort of thing.” Oh, his voice had trembled for a moment there. He suddenly started to walk faster, and Annette had to swap to a light jog in order to keep up.

“So? Why don't you like it?” No response. Well, Annette wasn't one to let a mystery just go unsolved. She wracked her brain for a moment... “What, do you not like the horror movie type stuff? Are you scared of it?”

Rocky froze midstep, and this time Annette did run into him. Rocky awkwardly jerked when she did so, like his body had tried to jump away from her and he had done everything in his power to keep it from doing so.

And, thinking about it, now that she had brought it up…

“You're scared of me too, aren't you?” She asked, “I mean, you haven't looked at me once this whole time.”

“No I'm n-not.” Ah, his voice had trembled again.

“You so are.”

“Not.”

“Turn around and look at me then.” She let go of the scythe to put her hands on her hips, tapping her foot as she waited. Slowly, Rocky turned around, and after a few seconds of simply staring at some space above her head, looked down at her for the first time.

A cat chose that exact moment to walk straight through her. It was an odd sensation, to have things walk through you, but she was starting to grow used to it.

However, it seemed to have some kind of effect on Rocky, who suddenly listed a bit to the side, stumbled, and then crumbled to the ground.

“Ah.” Annette said, rather calmly, turning to the cat that was now sitting innocently beside her. “He died.”

He'd actually just passed out, but sudden death was much more dramatic.

Rocky shifted, before slowly starting to push himself off the pavement. Annette crouched down beside him as though she were watching a rather interesting ant.

“Hey, Mr. Reaper?” She said, “Y'know what? Being scared of ghosts cannot be all that good for your health. I think you need a paid vacation.”

“I w-wish.” Rocky muttered, “I don't even get paid.”

[the-final-sif]

One of the things I think people as a whole don't understand about the internet today is that so much of what's wrong/dangerous/flawed about the internet exists because so much of the internet started as one person's hobby they built in their spare time or as a specific task for a specific function that was just useful/functional enough that literally everyone started using it. There's tons of biases built into the modern internet and some of that is carelessness but a lot of it is... just like. This was invented by a group of grad students fucking around for a few weeks. How the fuck were they supposed to know it'd be become the global standard and that nobody would bother to address or change these things?

Like, the whole reason that the US government gets the ".gov" domain name is because this entire system was invented in the US primarily for use in universities. Under the original system, you had to phone in to talk to the center who owned the list, tell them what name you wanted and then a person would type your name/ip onto the list attached to a nickname much like a phonebook. Then people slowly figured out domains and maintaining domain registries. And then the system became useful enough that more of the US started using it, and then people realized "oh shit, other countries want to use this too, guess we need to figure that out".

The "world wide web" or the thing we all know as the internet (and the reason that every website you visit has www in front), was invented originally by one dude trying to make his own job easier (Tim Berners-Lee). He thought it was pretty cool and shared it, and he was one guy who only spoke English and was just doing what he thought was going to work.

Like, this is a very lighthearted article talking about him, but I think it illustrates the point really well,

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the World Wide Web, has confessed that the // in a web address were actually "unnecessary". He told the Times newspaper that he could easily have designed URLs not to have the forward slashes. "There you go, it seemed like a good idea at the time," he said. He admitted that when he devised the web, almost 20 years ago, he had no idea that the forward slashes in every web address would cause "so much hassle". His light-hearted apology even had a green angle as he accepted that having to add // to every address had wasted time, printing and paper.

via "sorry for the slashs"

We have an entire internet and infrastructure built rather haphazardly but also in such a way that going back and trying to change or fix things either requires an insane amount of work or could render vast swaths of the prior internet inaccessible.

Like, I think everyone here remembers Flash getting shut down and how much of childhood games got wiped off the generally accessible internet and relegated to projects like Flashpoint. It was really hard to see, but Flash was also a project started in 1996 (or 1993 if you count the OG version that turned into flash) that was supposed to be for a limited set of use cases, and not the medium on which major parts of the internet would run. By the time Adobe shut it down, Flash was incredibly dangerous with the constant risks of malware, it was buggy, slow, and there were a million better programs. It had to be killed to make way for better things, but because of how the internet was built, that death came at a pretty high cost.

So if you're ever wondering why it feels like the web is a bunch of dominoes ready to fall down at any time, it's because it is. And it does. And so many people spend so much of their time combating all the problems created by using systems that were never intended to handle everything they are currently handling because the alternative is a task of monstrous undertaking that would almost certainly turn decades of history to dust.

[suzukiblu]

brother

"Okay," Cassie says, and the two of them head into the kitchen together. She should definitely, definitely call somebody, but she still doesn't. "So the name thing . . . do you want one that actually means something, or just one that sounds cool, or . . . ?"

"I just want one," Not-Kon/Not-Match says with a shrug, opening the fridge and peering inside. "Not gonna be picky about the details, this is more about performing emergency emotional triage and asserting an individual identity and sense of self as quickly as possible than anything else." 

"Uh," Cassie says, just staring at him for a moment. "What?" 

"I might have some superhero-grade therapy technique uploads in my head," Not-Kon/Not-Match admits, pointing at his temple for a moment. "Which is probably a point for somebody not Tim making me, because I cannot imagine that dude's ever spoken to a single fucking therapist who wasn't either from Arkham or the victim of a crime. There's soba noodles and shrimp in here, how's that sound? Oh, and edamame." 

"I'm down with that," Cassie says. "Do you want any help?" 

"Do you know how to cook soba noodles?" he asks. "Or edamame?" 

"Honestly I didn't know you had to cook edamame at all," Cassie says. 

"Raw soy protein is poisonous," he says. 

". . . so yeah I'll just do the dishes when you're done, how's that," Cassie offers sheepishly. 

"Solid plan," he says, then points at the kitchen island. Cassie sits down on one of the barstools in front of it and pulls out her phone to start browsing, like, baby names sites or something. 

"All the really good names I know are Greek," she says. "Don't know any available Kryptonian ones, like I said. I thiiiiink Lex Luthor might be German but don't quote me on that and really, fuck that guy anyway."

"Yeah, I don't want anything to do with him," Not-Kon/Not-Match agrees, pulling a package of noodles and some weirdly random-seeming vegetables out of the fridge. "He already messed with and mind-controlled Kon, fuck if I wanna find out what he'd try and do to me." 

"'Conner' is an Irish name, apparently?" Cassie suggests as she skims search results, frowning consideringly at her phone. "As far as I know Kon only went by it because it sounds kinda like 'Kon-El' but I guess it's still an option." 

"Hm," Not-Kon/Not-Match says, frowning too. "Well, that's as good a place to start as any. Although you really don't have to think about it this hard, I really did mean it when I said I wasn't gonna be picky about this." 

"You're four hours old and your entire existence is a massive ethics violation," Cassie says, glancing up at him again. He's busy reading the back of the soba noodles' packaging, but still clearly listening to her. Hopefully that's a good sign, that he's been listening to her. "I am definitely gonna think about it this hard. Or do you want, like . . . a Tim-adjacent name, maybe? If he made you?"

"I don't know," Not-Kon/Not-Match says. "Him making me is still just my best guess and it might not be great for his secret ID either. Also I don't know if I hate him for making me yet or not, so I don't know if I want anything to do with him either." 

"Point," Cassie says, frowning again and trying another site. That . . . might be a problem, yeah. If Tim actually is currently messed up enough to deliberately make a whole entire person and also try to make that person Kon . . . 

Well, he's probably not gonna react well to said person not being Kon, for starters. Especially if said person also wants nothing to do with him. 

Gods, yeah, there's a horrible thought. 

Please just don't let this lead to Gun Batman, Cassie prays to herself. Please don't let that be where this situation is heading. 

"Hmmm," she says. "Well, either way Kon's still like, your brother, right? So it'd make sense to give you a name related to one of his."

"I don't really know," Not-Kon/Not-Match says thoughtfully as he sets up a pot of water on the stove and starts sorting through the vegetables on the counter to line them up next to the cutting board. "Although I guess he might've thought so? Apparently he called Match his brother when they first met. And, you know, I have a functioning concept of free will and I don't have any particular desire to murder him or his friends, so he probably would've liked me better than he liked Match. Then again, Kon's also already dead, so maybe I'd feel differently about the murder thing if he weren't? But if he weren't dead I wouldn't exist anyway, so . . . catch-22, maybe?" 

Cassie, again, is reminded that Not-Kon/Not-Match is still running the numbers on the supervillain thing. So . . . yeah. That is very much a thing, still. 

"Please tell me that your mental uploads told you that murder is bad," she says, eyeing him warily again. If they didn't, she and Tim are going to be having an even longer long talk than the one she's already planning. 

"They did," Not-Kon/Not-Match confirms. "They also told me that I was Kon, though, so I'm currently taking all their provided information with a grain of salt." 

Fuck everything, Cassie thinks with far too much feeling.

[capricorn-writer-kawaii]

Hi, there! 🥰

I'm really, really, really excited to announce you that I'm currently working with my beloved and talented friend @merrymonkey on an illustrated fanfic of Aizawa, starting from his U.A. days and moving into the present when he's the homeroom teacher of class 1A.

This is gonna be kind of long, we hope you enjoy the ride. 💖

Our Hero Academy

Chapter 1

Pairing: Shota Aizawa x female OC

Genre: Shota Aizawa X female OC fluff, angst, high school romance, friends to lovers

Words: 2k

Summary: 15 years ago, Eraser Head was starting his hero studies with his best friends Hizashi and Oboro. Contrary to what people think, his teenage years in the U.A. were bright and lovely, filled with the laughter of his best friends and his girlfriend's unconditional love. What happened over the years? What changed him into a gloomy sensei?

Extra note: You can totally picture Y/N in the OC female name, it's just that it'd be cute to read Aizawa calling her pet names. 🤍

Chapter 1 - Welcome to the U.A.

On the first day of school, the UA’s enormous doors opened earlier than usual. Some teachers, the kindest ones, had come out to welcome the new students. Some of them already knew each other, having grown up in the same neighborhood and lucky enough to be in the same high school class. Such was the case with Hizashi Yamada, Oboro Shirakumo, and Shouta Aizawa.

While the first two talked quite loudly, drawing the attention of anyone who passed by, the last one was not only almost asleep but also remarkably quiet, he looked like a calm boy, someone who didn't look for trouble.

Starting with Hizashi, he was a tall and slim boy with blond hair, which he wore spiked upwards. His eyes were covered with some pretty cool sunglasses, and it was very common to see him with a large smile on his face. Hizashi had an eccentric personality, almost like a radio host. He even often posed when he talked and maintained a certain level of excitement or volume, regardless of the situation. Though he tended to be a jovial individual, Hizashi was capable of great rage, but that wasn't really common to occur, for he was the typical extroverted and popular guy.

Meanwhile, Oboro's light blue wavy hair was his charm, as well as his adorable and bright personality. He usually wore an expression of excitement. Very prone to making jokes and witty comments with innuendos, his energetic and goofy personality was similar to that of Hizashi, although Oboro never quite reached his friend's excitement. Due to his extravagant behavior, he was not the type of person who followed protocol and had little sense of shame, hence just as he was walking with his friends, he closed his uniform shirt as if he were in his room.

Finally, behind came the third of them, Shouta Aizawa. He was a slender and tall, tanned-skinned boy with messy, shoulder-length black hair, that partially hung in front of his face and half-opened black eyes. His worn-out appearance made him often look fatigued, especially because of his tired eyes. He was a very stern and reserved person; actually, he often came off as cold and apathetic, someone who preferred to take naps in every possible place over any other activity. Although quiet, the young hero student was very vocal and bold when expressing his ideas, which lead him to only had two friends. Despite his apathetic traits, he genuinely cared about his friends and was willing to do anything for them. In fact, he had already done it, he had already gotten into more than one problem because of Hizashi and Oboro. Shouta often grinned and even made jokes about his friends' eccentric personalities. Although it was more common to see him serious or rather shy.

While Hizashi spoke, or rather, he shouted expressing his immense emotion, Oboro adjusted his uniform. To tell the truth, it seemed that he was getting dressed, because now he was buttoning up his shirt.

“Do you really have to do that while we walk among so many people?” Aizawa asked.

“I didn't have time to get dressed. If you hadn't held us up for wanting to rescue that cat, I'd have been able to do it, so now you suck it up." He said with a mischievous smile as he tried to find his belt inside his backpack.

“Do you think they assign us the same section? I want us to be classmates again." Hizashi commented when they were already walking through the main gates.

Aizawa listened to Oboro's answer until something else completely stole his attention. Sitting on a bench next to a window, a girl was waiting for the doors of the academy's auditorium to open so that the professors could give them the welcome speech.

He was not the type of individual who paid special attention to admiring another person's beauty, he had had beautiful classmates at high school, and he had even seen some very pretty girls entering the academy, however, none of them had got to awake something on him, as it had happened to Oboro and Hizashi and their numerous dates. 

Yet, that girl just a few steps away had taken his breath away. Aizawa cut the conversation with his friends because, for a few seconds, he couldn't do anything else but admire that short girl with long, wavy pastel pink hair tied in a braid. She had been nervously playing with a pink hair tie while waiting to enter the auditorium. Suddenly, a gust of wind made her look at the branches of a tree through the window, allowing Aizawa to see a bit more of her face.

Possibly due to Aizawa's piercing stare, she realized someone was looking at her, and turning around, she discovered him. Her lovely and expressive green eyes were now fixed on the young man's black eyes. His usual tired gaze switched to a wide-eye one by noticing an undeniable sparkle in the girl's look. Such interaction struck Aizawa to the core; it was so overwhelming, that he was about to break that eye contact. Luckily, he did not do it and did not miss the kind but shy and fleeting smile that the girl gave him. Shota couldn't smile back not because he didn't want to, but because he simply couldn't, he just froze. Naturally, when the girl saw that the guy didn't even react back, she looked away from him and had to force herself to think of something else; otherwise, the auto cringe would have made her leave the place.

"You okay, bro? Are you that nervous? Your face's red." Oboro said looking at his friend, but Aizawa just shook his head.

"Let's go in, the doors are already open." Aizawa replied without forgetting the girl's smile. 

He wasn't the typical guy who got a lot of smiles or kind looks, perhaps because his eyes were usually on the ground, or because his gaze was a tired one, not precisely a cordial one. Whatever the reason, it was not common for him to receive such a kind facial expression like that. All his life he was used to Hizashi and Oboro turning out to be the ones who stole peeks and received compliments. To tell the truth, Aizawa had never minded that since social interactions were not his thing at all.

Yet, he did not have time to think more about it, the professor who welcomed them had already started with his talk. He explained to the students how the academy worked and how they would be assigned to a class. That was how that day, once again fate wanted Aizawa, Oboro, and Hizashi to be together in the same class. Though that was not the only surprise. When they entered the room, Aizawa saw the girl again; apparently, the four of them would study together from now on.

That was how they spent the first days at the UA. The professional heroes didn't give them a break, it was training after training, in addition to master classes, of course. Knowing and trusting each one's quick was a must to survive the UA classes; therefore, Aizawa was definitely not having a good time. Meanwhile, Hizashi and Oboro not only controlled theirs better, but they also felt comfortable with their powers and were confident that they would become excellent heroes. However, the shy young man constantly doubted his ability, and when possible, he trained alone so as not to slow anyone down. But that changed the second week when one of the teachers asked them to pair up for the next lesson in one of the many training camps.

"Okay, this is it! I'll ask Hoshino to work with me!" Oboro said, adjusting his uniform and referring to the pink-haired girl, who turned out to be very quiet and introverted. Even though she had all her classmates drooling over her from the first day, she was always alone and studying in her spare time in the library.

"Don't even dream about it, Oboro, I'll ask her," Hizashi replied. "You are very noisy, she won't want to be your partner." 

“What the fuck, Hizashi!? You scream instead of talking! Besides, you'll scare her, you're too aggressive."

"I'm not aggressive!"

"And you're not very bright either, why would the best of the class want to work with you?"

Aizawa, for his part, chuckled upon hearing his friends and continued tying his shoelaces. In the meantime, Hizashi and Oboro were so focused on arguing among themselves that they didn't realize when the girl approached where they were.

Thus, she touched the least expected person's shoulder and spoke.  “Hi... Hum, excuse me, would you mind if we worked together? I've seen your quirk and I think we could make a good team.” As determined as she was to train with him, there was a hint of shyness in her voice.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" Oboro and Hizashi asked looking at how she had chosen Aizawa as her partner.

Although the two outgoing boys had come to her since day one to introduce themselves, Aizawa hadn't said a word, preferring to stay behind. So, her proposal was quite unexpected for everyone, especially for Aizawa, who looked at her as if hoping that she would realize that she was speaking to HIM and not to his friends.

"I see... you already have a partner, I'm sorry." Wishing that the earth would swallow her, the girl was about to disappear, she didn't do it only because Oboro was faster and prevented her.

"No, he doesn't have one! It's just that Aizawa's very shy." Oboro replied as Hizashi practically pushed his friend to his feet.

“Did you hear that, Shota? You'll be able to work with the best of the class!” The blonde said.

"Are you sure you want to work with me?"

"Come on, Shota, don't be so humble, your quirk's awesome!" Hizashi said pushing him to such an extent that the young black-haired man almost lost his balance.

That was how Aizawa and the girl ended up teaming up together. The mission they had been given to train was to enter the forest that surrounded the UA and find a hidden bomb as quickly as possible. For that, they would have the whole class, for the terrain was huge.

All the way Aizawa was wondering the same thing. "Why does she want to work with me?" The girl had passed the entrance exam with the highest score, and despite only taking two weeks of classes, all her teachers had already recognized her as the best of her generation.

“So, you erase quirks with your gaze…" The girl said, interrupting Aizawa's analysis. "That's so cool! You have one of the best powers I've ever seen.”

“The effect lasts until I blink. It's not very useful." 

"Have you tried using eye drops? That way your eyes will be moisturized, and you can train them for a longer use of your quirk. Maybe they'll be a little dry, but at least they won't hurt afterward."

Aizawa remained silent, contemplating the option that the girl gave him; truth be told, she made a lot of sense. After some minutes of walking in silence, the boy talked. “What about your quirk? Can you manipulate any kind of energy? If so, you have unlimited potential."

"It's not that easy." She responded by shaking her head. “When I transform energy, I use my own. The more energy I manipulate, the less I have left to fight. Also, it's not unlimited, quite the opposite. If I intend to control some type of energy, I first must know it thoroughly, know how it works, and what risks can come."

"That's why she studies so much..." Aizawa thought.

“If I don't know the type of energy, or if I convert more than what my body resists, things don't end well. It's happened a couple of times and it hasn't been nice." She confessed somewhat embarrassed. "That's why I think we could make a good team, you could give me a hand if things get messy." 

"You barely know me, are you going to trust me that much?"

"I saw how you helped your friend when we floated higher than expected."

The girl giggled remembering how during one of the first practices, Oboro used one of his clouds to float. He was just bragging; yet, thanks to the wind, the cloud flew higher and quicker. It was Aizawa who controlled the situation by erasing his quirk and helping him get back to earth. 

"Oh, you saw that..." He whispered just about to laugh. Not even Shota could deny how funny it was to see Oboro fall over Hizashi. 

"How not to? Your other friend, the blond one, kept yelling at the cloud guy to get off of him."

"Yeah, that's kind of common when it comes to Hizashi and Oboro."

"Well, we'd better hurry if we want to find that bomb first."

The dynamic between the two students turned out to be quite good, not only did they complete the mission successfully, but they also had time to get to know each other a little better, because by finishing before all the other groups, they had almost an hour free. Thus, sitting on some rocks on the banks of a river, Shota discovered that her family lived in the countryside and that to pursue her dream of becoming a hero, she had moved to the city alone. The academy had dormitories for students with similar situations, so she had no problem finding a place to live. That short interaction was enough for Aizawa to judge her as a nice and extremely sweet girl. 

Without knowing how or why, she quickly felt comfortable with Aizawa, so much so that she made a couple of jokes and even imitated him. Apparently, in that week the young heroine had analyzed him enough to discover several of his habits.

“You have a lot of free time in class.” The boy commented unable to avoid laughing just a little when he saw her imitating the way he yawned.

“The first week has been calmer than I imagined.”

“That's because you're talented. I barely approved the physical performance exams.”

Once again, the girl started to play with her hair tie, anyone could tell she was struggling to decide if saying what she was thinking or remaining silent. In the end, she mustered some courage and dared to say it.  “We could train together in the afternoons.” 

Aizawa raised his gaze and looked at her as if looking for any sign that he had listened wrong. “YOU are going to train with me? You, the number one in the class?”

“I also need to train, and I think we could complement ourselves. I mean... our quirks." She corrected herself while blushing. 

Aizawa was the first classmate she actively approached and, to tell the truth, it had been hard for her to summon up the courage to speak to him. Judging by his actions during those two weeks of classes, it was highly possible that he would say no. After all, Shota hardly talked with his two friends, why would he say yes to training with her?

"I mean, it's just an idea. But if you already train with someone else, that's fine." She said feeling how her face was turning even more red.

Noticing that he was making her feel uncomfortable, Aizawa reacted. “It's not what you're thinking. Honestly, I didn't expect you to want to team up with me. You caught me off guard."

Understanding that it wasn't that he was rejecting her, but that this was all very unexpected for him, she felt less embarrassed. “I'm not very good at making friends and many of our classmates already knew each other. Besides…. You seem like a very trustworthy person and your quirk is wonderful. I'm sorry, I think I already told you this a dozen times.” She said between a shy giggling.

The black-haired hero looked at her for a few moments. "She's really cute. No wonder why Hizashi and Oboro say it all the time." 

"Well, I don't want to put you on the spot. If one day you have some free time, we could train together, Aizawa.” She said getting up, it was time to meet up with the rest of the class.

"Shota, call me Shota."

“My name's Kaori. Thanks for working with me today, Shota.” She responded with a sweet smile.

Next chapter

[sketchfanda]

Kirishima's Mystique:Jade Gammazon Woman in the Mood

Folks of Mustafu city streets were turning their heads and dropping their jaws, man and woman alike at the sight that walked among them and really why wouldn’t or shouldn’t they? Even in this day and age of Quirks where you'd likely have a distinct, unique appearance ranging from alien to full on furry, this woman was an absolute unit in how she stood out. 6 foot 7 of bombshell curves and powerful, sensually exquisite muscles with skin a rich emerald/jade green, this was none other than famed pro hero and attorney at law, Jennifer Walters, codenamed She-Hulk, cousin to one Bruce Banner, famed scientist in the field of Gamma Radiation and the equally famous Incredible Hulk. Currently in Japan on a trip for business related matters and well...pretty damn bored out of her mind.

Jennifer Walters, Hero Name: She-Hulk!! Quirk: Gamm-azon!! Like her walking rage factory cousin, Jen posses a super strength trasformation based quirk that'd been artificially kickstarted into activation by a transfusion of his blood. Making her capable of turning into a 7 foot plus statuesque stunner capable of bench pressing tanks and leaping tall buildings in a single bound especially when fuelled by adrenaline and or rage!

Now it wasn't to do with her lawyer work of course, never a dull moment with that, nor was it related to the heroics field. No Jen you see hadn't quite found anything during her stay that could get her adrenaline pumping and that, for this Gamma-zon, was a problem. Given the nature of her quirk, she often needed to relax by venting excess energy, often through intense physical activity such as combat, training....or sex. And thus far she hadn't seen action on any of those fronts that could really get her going.

That is until she paused as she beheld the immense and impressive architecture of Silverman's Pinnacle of Physique, a highly rated and recommended gym especially for those with physical type quirks. Jen couldn't help but smile, a twinkle in her jade eyes as she thought maybe the day might not be a total loss after all. A quick run to and back from her hotel and she was gracing the PoP with her presence, dressed and ready to pump some iron while dropping jaws. Wasting no time as she decided to start off with the weight training section, picking up the heaviest set of dumbbells she could get her hands.

It was no small surprise she was making heads turn and jaws drop, and why wouldn't she? Men and women alike just had a natural reaction, nevermind that she was THE She-Hulk of all people, as she sat on a bench and picked up a pair of the heaviest dumbbells she spotted and started on her reps. Her glorious jade biceps pumping and swelling with every curl as she focused on working herself up a sweat. Her attention briefly diverted as she found she wasn't alone on the bench, seeing a redhead dude with shark teeth a few feet from her also pumping iron.

She had certainly found him easy on the eyes and his workout gear ensured she got a more than decent glimpse at his own muscular form which rather suited his face, a nice blend between handsomely macho and angelface pretty. Wondering why he seemed familiar but unable to place a face or name as well as unaware this was local pro Eijiro Kirishima, aka the Chivalrous Hero Red Riot, who had somehow managed to go through his daily routine at Silverman's thus far at least without running into someone among the oh so fine female patrons and staff that might've wanted a little "private workout". Thankful that he wasn't making a clown out of himself fanboying over the fact that THE She-Hulk herself was here at the gym, right next to him, after all being a red blooded hot blooded guy, it'd be easier to ask him when had he NOT crushed on and fantasized about her? Knowing his bubblegum girlfriend duo, they'd be relentless with the teasing but to say nothing of the ideas they'd be planting in his head.

So instead the hard-headed redhead set about on his bicep curls as he picked up where left off on counting his reps, Jen doing much the same as her pace had a little more speed, subconsciously looking to catch up to and match up with him. At first it was all just looking quiet enough between the green and red duo as they found themselves seemingly in sync, performing the same workout routine but if one were to look closer then they would find it was a different story under the surface as time went on. Nobody was sure when and how exactly it happened but Kirishima and Jen began to turn their workout into a competition, each trying to outdo the other whether it was having higher numbers in push-ups to pull ups or press lifting the heaviest weights their bodies were capable of committing. Even some combination as the Herculean shark teethed himbo and the jade green Gamma-zon were caught up the momentum by their own sense of pride and determination.

Onlookers, eavesdroppers and passers-by among staff and members alike were in awe at this battle for physical fitness supremacy as the red and green powerhouses seemed to show no signs of stopping. As the old saying goes, who dares wins and right now who dared to not step down and admit defeat was the aim and name of the game as their bodies were sweating, adrenaline rushing as they did any and every exercise they could with any and every machine or set available on hand. One would think it was akin to witnessing a scene from a nature documentary involving an alpha male and female battling to assert dominance and mark their territory with the chivalrous hero stepping up against this invasive bombshell nut then things got well, how shall we say? A little more primal than anyone had thought or expected of course.

At one point, the brawny duo unintentionally seemed to reach an impasse, calling a temporary break as exhaustion from all their effort and exertion had finally caught up to them. Deciding to take a break and catch their breaths, replenish their energy with maybe a quick snack and some way to unwind as they briefly went their separate ways. Only for the She-Hulk to pause midstride n her way to the juice bar as she saw Kirishima was looking to use the steam room, her brain flicking the switch to a lightbulb for an idea. A wonderful, awful idea so awfully wonderful and awfully wonderful that it was could only have come from her libido as she subconsciously licked her lips sensually, thighs pressed and rubbing together as her muscles clenched and flex.

Call it spur of the moment brought about by the spirit of competition or just the fact that it'd been WAY TOO LONG since she lost got any but Jen had what she thought was just the trick to get herself the win over that, she had say, hunky sturdy piece of manmeat. Kirishima of course unaware of the pending trouble coming his way as he sat in the steam room, towel around his waist as his wild spikey man of red hair was in its relaxed natural state. Calm breaths escaping him as he sighed with contentment from the warmth and moisture soothing his aching joints and muscles and certainly thankful he hadn't popped a boner in his shorts which was a feat given who'd he been in physical proximity to. But hot damn what a woman, that was for sure, he had to wonder if there was something about ladies with exotic skin colours and thicc muscular bodies that just did something for him.

He wasn't lost in thought for long of course as he heard the door open and shut, signalling that he now had company with him but he felt suspicious as he heard the clicking of the lock being set. His vision waiting for the steam to clear only for his eyes to bug out comically and his jaw to drop as he found Jen now standing right in front of him, revealing herself as the perpetrator as she grinned a cheeky grin while holding the towel wrapped around her torso. The only layer of modesty keeping Kirishima from seeing a sight most men but especially Mineta would give an arm and leg but of course the towel's size ensured that he was still getting a fine view of the valley of her emerald green cleavage and a good chunk of her hips and thighs which could give Mirko a run for her money. And of course she fully well knew this as her green eyes snuck a glance at the towel around his waist showing signs of a rising tent about to be pitched.

Kirishima:*Trying in vain to keep his groin from getting a raging hard-on, no easy task when you had a six foot plus green skinned Amazon near naked in a steam room with you, mind.*"What the hell lady?! This isn't a co-ed room ya know!!"*Sure that was stating the obvious but can you blame him? Frankly it was pretty clear from the look on her face she damn well knew that, why else would she lock the door?! This woman clearly had ulterior motives and she was playing on them at this very moment!!*

Jen:*Cheeky bitch that she was, couldn't help but shoot a trolling sensual smile the hardheaded redhead's way as she casually flexed her arm. Taking delight in how his eyes were glued to her pumped, swelling bicep, he was definitely a man with taste, licking her lips at sensing the hard-on he struggled in vain to keep down.*"Hmm I'd say it's obvious handsome but sure I can spell it out for you. I'm here to settle our little competition and what better way than a little game of stamina chicken as I like to call it. You, me, right here and now are gonna fuck. Long, wild and hard as we can until one of us calls it quits and backs down first or exhaustion gets them. What do you say beefcake? you man enough?"*With that smart-ass quip of course, the jade green Giantess removed her towel, casting it aside along with her modesty as she fully exposed herself before Kirishima. Striking sultry combinations of pin-up and bodybuilder poses as she relished having his obvious erotic attention.*

Kirishima of course was naturally left stunned speechless at the sight of a nude She-hulk right before his very eyes, inches of emerald Amazonian muscle and skin from head to toe laid bare. It was pretty much tit for his self-control as it went bye-bye while his libido took the wheel, flipping a few switches that sent him into that primal state of mind Mina and Maya loved oh so very much. Simply standing up and letting his towel drop to the floor as it was now Jen's turn to be shocked and surprised, silently gasping as she felt her pussy begin to dribble down her thighs at the sight of his raging hard cock. Inches of pulsing length and girth primed and ready to go as the two powerhouses simply stared at one another's naked forms.....and then commenced with making THE FUCK!!!

What followed was a marathon of primal, passionate, animalistic and passionate mating, curious and confused staff and patrons alike puzzled and confused at the heavy thuds and other assorted noises coming from the locked steam room. Unaware that inside was none other than the Red riot and She-hulk going at it with enough lust and abandon to put porn stars to shame as their naked muscular forms glistened with sweat. The steam room's walls and ceilings filled with the echoes of their lewd skin slapping, ass clapping, pelvis pumping primal rhythm along with their moans and grunts of passion as they engaged in their latest position. Jen howling with delight as she found herself hoisted up in a full nelson position, Kirishima's guns hooked around her powerful legs as her own hands grasped his shoulders.

How she fucking loved it, who knew Japan had been housing a pornographic champion like this within their country as days to weeks of pent up desire were being satisfied, her green tits bouncing and her emerald booty jiggling with every thunderous impact of their loins. Her washboard abs swollen from the depth and fullness of his shaft as it hammered away at her womb, his balls slapping her clit as her pussy juices rained down to join their sweat puddle on the floor. Just when she thought this guy was ready to call it quits, he was still at it, not to mention he hadn't gone soft yet or pulled out once. The number of times he had cum so far counted on one hand with fingers left over while hers were too many to count and of course he hadn't pulled out once so far.

Hell they were still going at the same pace and intensity they had started off with, having commenced with a sloppy 69 before Jen found herself laying on the bench upside down, head hanging off the edge as she had gotten a full force facefucking. To say nothing of how delicious his man juice was, nevermind the thrilling sensation when he fucked her doggy style and in a mating press like some goddamn caveman. Of course his hands showed their appreciation for when she rode him cowgirl style as they gave one another as good as they got, their competition forgotten in the heat of sexual passion. Showing no signs of stopping as seconds continued to pass into minutes which would become hours.

Now as to how and why any of the staff had yet to intervene and stop this lewd misuse of their gym property, you could thank Silverman gym's horny nympho owner Mo Hani of course. The kinky Japanese-Brazilian stunned observing this spontaneous rut along with Mina and Maya who had come along not too long ago looking for their precious himbo. Delighted to find he had found and made a new sex friend as they enjoyed the show, making plans to meet Jen personally and ensure this wouldn't be a one time sort of thing. Hani meanwhile was wondering when to make a move herself, already getting wet from a potential future Sexercise session with the sturdy chivalrous stud.

For both Jen and Kirishima of course, they continued going at it for as long as possible. Unaware their heat of the moment would see to a very wild, lewd future for the both of them. And oh how sweet it is, you might even say? It's Plus Ultra....

[demigod-of-the-agni]

NOTE: this is an old draft that does not reflect my current ideas but I liked the thoughts behind it so I'm posting it anyway. You can find my new updated thoughts here.

If Pavitr had to have a job/role from the FFXIV universe, he'd be a dark knight.

Like yes he's going to be a part of the emo edgelord gang and wield a big, grim-looking sword. He's going to be dressed in black, pointy armour and everything, be all moody and foreboding and lonely and covered in blood and absolutely livid and drenched in gore and viscera and the miasma of suffering. He's dressed in the skin of a killer.

Agni, that doesn't sound like it'd fit Pavitr. He's a kind guy so he'd probably be a healer!! He's cracking jokes!! He's so friendly!! He's lovely and he gets along with everyone!! Why would he be a dark knight?

In the context of what ATSV has built up regarding the Spider Society/mentors, as well as drawing upon how Indian culture approaches mental health, I genuinely think the dark knight job matches Pavitr to a tee. Lemme break it down for you [break dances].

SPOILERS for the DARK KNIGHT QUESTS.

The dark knight job is... if "with great power, there must also come great responsibility" delighted to get its hands bloody. It's a tank job, meaning at its very core its about protecting the party no matter the costs, and "no matter the costs" is pretty big for the dark knight specifically, because it means you have to dig deep for the darkness that lies within every heart and soul.

And like all Spider-Men, Pavitr is riddled with darkness — drowning in guilt, his regrets (losing Bhim Uncle, a father figure, a mentor), and after what went down in ATSV, with the collider and Mumbattan falling apart? Suddenly there's a lot of fear thrown into the mix, if whether he'll be able to do his job of protecting. If he's even good at it; after all, he was too busy having fun and being carefree to handle the Spot. He was called in as backup, he was called in to provide support, he was called in to help others but he failed.

He is the blade of virtue and righteousness. He is to sever the threads of evil, to cut wrongdoers down before they even have a chance to strike.

And one night, there's a little blood on his hands. Just a little, not enough to soak his entire fist, but it's enough to stain the ground an ugly red.

And at first Pavitr is horrified — Spider-Man was never supposed to go this far. He was not supposed to kill. Spider-Man never kills. (But he's the blade of virtue and righteousness. Blades are very good at killing.)

Conflicting emotions keep him from really finding help — Spider Society, and its twisted perception of mentors? Miguel's strict code and Peter B.'s nonchalance don't make good foundations for seeking help. And while Jessica is by far the most suitable adult there to actually provide support, Pavitr never gives her the chance, because Indian boys don't have problems. Their issues are theirs to handle on their own, because they're men, they're independent, and any showcase of vulnerability is a sign of weakness. It means you are crippled and you are worthless and you are undeserving of others.

And so Pavitr is left to stew in his own madness. He doesn't divulge any of his miseries, his sorrows, his fears, he doesn't say anything to the bruises on his fists or the metallic pang of steel that follows him everywhere. He hides it with a smile, of course, because Indian boys look nicer when they smile, are pleasant and approachable and are a sign that they have been raised right. Pavitr's a nice boy, the aunties say amongst themselves. He'll grow up a right young man and help the world in many ways.

But with every outing as a hero, Pavitr comes back feeling like a fraud. He's a murderer, an unanchored soul who can't keep up with his body, a dulled blade who gifts suffering instead of a quick demise. It's also then, when he's balancing on the knife's edge of darkness, that he finds the dead knight in the shadows of Mumbattan's abandoned foundational infrastructure.

Pavitr has been finding many dead folk recently — which is no surprise, death follows him wherever he goes — but he's surprised to see the knight come back to life, 'claiming his mortal wounds were nothing but a scratch. And the knight, oh, he knows Pavitr is hurting, is aching, is drenched in so much blood that he doesn't even know what to do with himself. And he offers his aid — one bloodied soul to another. I'll help you tame that darkness, the knight promises, I'll offer my blade so that you may become my pupil, a true blade of virtue and righteousness.

Pavitr can't say no to that.

[duchess-kyuupid]

Hi! Your fic about Idia melted my heart.

Could I request a female reader singing Zero from Vanitas no Carte (it's in English) to Jamil at VDC because she admires and adores him?

Of course! I loved Vanitas no Carte, especially the ed song- like it's so pretty! Once again, for anyone who wants to listen along or has never heard the song, here it is! And sorry it took some time, dearie! I should be working on my college paper rn, but I've kept you waiting for long enough! Hope you enjoy <3

[Fem! Reader (no pronouns used, so it can be read as gn too), Fluff, Set in Book 5] {Uh,, this is a long one guys... About 4,600 words, for reference...Whoops, sorry not sorry I love this man to bits lol}

~Dedicating a Song to Jamil at SDC/VDC~

Okay, well, admittedly, you may have been more relieved than you should have been that you were not accepted into Vil's little group to represent the school. You always thought that your voice wasn't that great, but Grim wanted to tryout with you, and Crowley was offering to improve your living conditions at the Ramshackle dorm, so reluctantly you had agreed. You felt quite fortunate that Grim's off-tune (and frankly horrid) singing drowned out your own at the audition. However, Grim did not share those same sentiments.

"Hmph, they're missing out by not picking me, my singing is clearly superior to those two," Grim pouts as you carry him in your arms back home. He said that it'd make him feel better after basically being forced into a manager role in their group.

"Shouldn't you be proud for Ace and Deuce for making the cut? Besides, we're still helping out by letting them stay at our dorm. You'll get to watch them work themselves to the bone while you'll be getting tuna for doing basically nothing on the sidelines, isn't that a win for you?" You reason in an attempt to cheer him up a little.

"Hmm, I guess you're right! I'll be living in the lap of luxury while those two idiots do all the work!" he chuckles evilly with a mischievous smile. You supposed cheering him up wasn't such a difficult thing to do when you knew what to say.

"But don't you want to participate too?" he asks out of the blue.

"What? Me, participate? Nonono, that sort of thing isn't for me- I'm not that great, honestly. I think I'd just rather just settle with being their manager than going up there with them," you chuckle nervously.

"But you know," he chuckles, a gleam in his eyes that tells you that he's up to no good again, "I think I remember hearing a certain someone's voice singing in the middle of the night sometimes. 'Was so pretty I couldn't go back to sleep."

"I-I, well, are you sure that it wasn't just the ghosts pulling a prank on you?" your face starting to erupt in that tell-tale sign of embarrassment that revealed to Grim that he was exactly on the right track. With a haughty laugh and an evil smile, he replies,

"Nope. Asked them already, and they even said they saw you singing in the courtyard." Busted. You groan loudly and try to look away from Grim's teasing looks, but alas, as you were currently carrying him in your arms, facing yourself away from him would require you to rotate your head around like an owl- that or you'd just have to stop looking where you were walking and risk tripping over something.

"Please don't tell me how many times you heard me..." you say as your ears become redder than Riddle's hair.

"Fufufu, I don't understand why you're so embarrassed about it! You've clearly got some talent in singing- not as much as me of course, but it's still impressive for a human! So why didn't you sing like that at the audition? We could've been part of the team and had all the spotlight together!"

"Well, that's the problem," you half-heartedly laugh, scratching your cheek nervously, "I'm not a big fan of the spotlight. I've actually always wanted to be a singer, but I always got stage fright so I never went through with it."

"OHOHOHO, is my dearest Prefect of Ramshackle in need of my everlasting kindness?" you hear a sudden voice proclaim from above you and you shriek in surprise as Headmaster Crowley, quite literally, drops right in front of you out of nowhere.

"Hey! Stop showing up out of the blue like that! Ya nearly gave me a heart attack!" Grim exclaims (who may or may not have accidentally scratched your arms in his own shock). Crowley ignores Grim's complaints as he stares into your eyes with a wide, knowing smile.

"I couldn't help but overhear that you enjoy singing, and!" he emphasizes, "I just so happened to be nearby the area when you were doing your audition. I believe that should be sufficient to grant you a spot for a solo at the SDC."

"Huh?"

"You need not thank me for my generosity! I know that I am just ever so kind to my wonderful students- it is simply a part of my job as the Headmage of this amazing academy! Oh, but, there is the tiny fact that you will not be representing our school in your performance, but I'm sure that you will be more than happy with the arrangements nonetheless!" Crowley proclaims excitedly. Your mind was still reeling in confusion, as is most encounters with this man, so Grim asks in your place,

"Right, so what's the catch?"

To which Crowley gasps dramatically as if he's been hurt by Grim's question, "To think of such a thing! Why, I'm merely extending my gratitude towards one of my favorite students who I only wish to see succeed!"

"Yeah, yeah, sure you do," Grim states with a pensive look on his face.

"Buuuut, if said favorite student of mine did want to sing at the SDC competition- the solo competition is considered separate from the group acts, and thus the first place winner of the solo's will also receive a fair compensation of around 25 thousand Thaumarks! Isn't that just enticing?" At the sound of that, Grim immediately hops on board; he looks to you with excited eyes, almost begging you to accept the offer.

"Uhm, why are you asking me for this specifically, headmage?" you ask quietly.

"Why, it's as I've stated earlier, I merely wish to see you succeed! Aren't I so generous?"

"Well, I mean, you probably heard what I was saying earlier. I'm not good with crowds, so I-"

"Hush, hush with that nonsense!" Crowley interrupts you by bringing up a finger to your mouth to stop you from speaking, "I know I already promised you better living arrangements for lending the Ramshackle dorm to Vil's group, however, if you decide to agree to this solo act, then I will also arrange for free personal catering for you at Ramshackle....But only for lunch!" And he steps back from you with his hands on his hips, standing proud at his joke of an offer.

"Isn't that just like lunch at the school cafeteria? And besides, I'm not even at the dorm at lunchtime during the school week."

"Sounds like a great deal, sign me up!" Grim exclaims, despite your words.

"Wonderful, wonderful! I'm so glad that you've agreed! I look forward to your spectacular performance!" And without another word, Crowley flies away to who knows where, almost as if to avoid having to answer to whatever you had to say next.

"Grim, you're grounded from eating any tuna until after the SDC is over."

"What?!"

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

By now it was far, far too late to be changing your mind about this- if you've even had a choice in it to begin with. You wish right now that you could have just turned Crowley down when you had the chance, but now you were stuck with this. Stuck with having to come up with something for this show. Stuck here sitting in the middle of the night with only two weeks before the event, with nothing but a blank page to showcase for your 'routine.'

Half of it's because of your work as the new 'manager' for Vil's group, half of it's because you're also trying to keep up with your normal school work too, but the biggest reason why you've hardly touched it is because you just...don't know what to do.

Most of the time, the songs you'd sing out in the courtyard would be songs your parents wrote and sang to you as a child, so they became your way of connecting back to home. Sure, you've written one or two songs of your own because you really did want to become a singer, but you always felt that those songs could never compare to the ones other people would write. And now, having to watch over Vil's group like this, you can't help yourself from comparing yourself to them.

But you technically made a promise, and you were going to go through with it. So, you decided that you would not go to sleep until you've written at least one (1) verse. Unfortunately, this has resulted in you staring at a blank piece of paper for the past 5 hours, with nothing coming up in your head to write about for your song and the time was nearing almost 5 a.m. Vil was definitely going to reprimand you tomorrow for getting no sleep, but it is technically also your fault for deciding not to tell any of them about your entry.

There's no hard feelings against them, of course, it's just that, you thought that if you did decide to tell them that you were also participating in the event, maybe it wouldn't work out too well for you. Sometimes, they can be a little bit...overbearing, to put it kindly, so you didn't want them to influence the song you're writing with their strong personalities. Vil would probably make you go through his own special skincare routine, both Rook and Kalim would give you so many compliments that you wouldn't be able to find any constructive criticism, and Ace and Deuce would probably give you too much criticism, under the guise of teasing you. And Epel? You honestly don't know how he'd react. He might just be in agreement with you as you both mutually didn't want to do this, but in the end you don't see him being very helpful seeing as how well he's been doing recently.

Jamil was probably the only one you could bring yourself to trust with this. He'd give you his solid, honest opinion without being too harsh or too jokey about it. He knows a lot about a lot of different things, so he could offer some advice on your song- what to change, what might sound better, and the like. Which would be helpful, if you had anything written down to begin with.

And in your tired, sleep-deprived state, you thought it'd be a great idea to go to him and ask for advice at this hour. So you leave your room quietly, knocking upon his door to get his attention. It didn't really take very long to wake him up in this way, and he answers the door in his pajamas with his face looking like he was fully awake and ready for anything.

"What's wrong? Did something happen?" he asks gravely as he sees the look on your face (to be fair, you almost looked like a dead person with your tired eyes and your hunched over posture).

"Not an emergency. Need advice," you mumble.

"Advice for what? Can it wait until the morning? What are you even doing up this early?" he sighs.

You take a second to respond to his questions in your sleepy, delirious state, but when your mind finally processes it, you just give him a tiny shrug and a measly, 'I dunno.'

So with yet another sigh coming from him, he gently escorts you back to your room, assuming that you're just one of those types of people who lucidly sleepwalk sometimes. But when he tries to set you back in your bed, you stubbornly stand in place, crying out, "No! I'm not going to sleep until I write something down."

"You're trying to write something?"

You nod, "Mhm, but I don't know what. My parents would write about each other. They would write about the things they love. I wanna be like them, but..." your words drift away as your mind tries to succumb to sleep.

"So you want advice on what to write?" he asks with yet another sigh, and you manage to nod your head again, stubborn as you are to not sleep until you've gotten something done. "Then my advice for you is to go to sleep. Forcing yourself like this isn't going to get you anywhere. Having a clear mind is essential to writing. And when you've got plenty of rest, go outside and try out some new things. Sometimes all it takes is a change of scenery to get your inspiration going. I'll tell the others not to bother you today, so just rest for as long as you need to," he says quietly. If you were actually lucid enough to pay attention to his body language, you'd have noticed the soft looks he was giving you, or the way that he was being as gentle as possible with you as he led you back to your bed successfully.

In any case, you accepted his advice, falling dead asleep as soon as your head hit the pillow, and Jamil is left shaking his head at your (adorable) antics as he walks back to his own room.

When you woke up, it was nearly 2 in the afternoon, and as promised, no one had bothered you at all. In fact, the whole dorm was quiet, with not a single soul to be seen. Which was completely reasonable, seeing as how technically school was still in session right now and the others would have practice for a few more hours in the ballroom of the Pomefiore building after that. In other words, you had the whole place exclusively for yourself for the rest of the day.

And yet, you found something quite peculiar sitting on your bedside table. It was a tea set, with a piping hot cup of tea sitting in the middle and a small note leaning against it. Holding up the note closer to your face, you can see that it reads,

'I've used magic to make sure that the tea stays warm no matter how many hours pass, but it starts to wear off when you touch it. The tea is an herbal remedy, supposed to help you clear your mind and stay focused. I wish you luck with your writing. Signed, Jamil'

Jamil made this? For you? Your face grows red in embarrassment as you recall asking for vague advice last night (or this morning, technically). You take a sip of the tea anyway, and you could feel inspiration coming to you as your thoughts continued to wander to Jamil.

'His smile. His kindness. His determination and his thoughtfulness. There's a million different things I could write about him and yet never reach the end of all the amazing things about him.'

And for the rest of the day, it was as if your pen had a mind of its own as it flew across the paper to retell your experience of you finding something that has always been there, yet you're only just realizing it now.

~~~~~~~~~

And so finally, the day of the event had arrived. It was organized so that the groups would perform first, then the solo performers would come after, and then the results of the competition would follow that, which admittedly made you nervous because it meant that the person you've dedicated this song to will be watching you perform said song. You dreaded the idea of being so vulnerable in front of this many people, however, if it meant that you could release all of these pent-up emotions within you, then perhaps it might do you some good to let it all out...

You dressed as nicely as you could, given the limited amount of clothing you had available to you since you've come to this world, but you thought you did a pretty good job at making yourself look presentable out there.

But now, it was finally go-time. All of that preparation, the secret trips to the woods at night to practice your singing and your dancing, the little glances over to Jamil as he's practicing his own routine- all of it is going to be put to the test here and now. The only barrier between you and first place now is your conviction to sing about your love for a certain Scarabian dorm member.

Your name gets called on the speakers, and you sheepishly walk up on stage with your microphone. Your eyes instinctively begin to search the crowd for your friends, but you stop yourself before you could find them because seeing their faces might make you even more nervous than you already are. You stand in the middle of the stage for a moment as the crowd quietens and the instrumentals of your song begins.

'Jamil, I dedicate this song to you- you who gave me the inspiration to compose, you who has given me the courage to follow my dreams. To you, who I've loved for all this time without realizing it. Please, accept my feelings as I sing just for you,' you think, taking a deep breath, and you start to sing.

'Ahead in the empty distance, Fading away unanswered, I turn off the lights to see all the colors in the shadow, Travels across an instant, Far beyond tomorrow, I'm watching a faint breath send a ripple through the water'

Your voice rings out softly, with a gentleness most wouldn't expect for a song appearing at SDC as it echoes through the stadium. And you smile as you get lost in your thoughts again about Jamil. He has always been the type of person to stay in the shadows, always trying his best to avoid any unnecessary attention being drawn to him, but alas, it was exactly because of this that his presence made such faint ripples in your heart to begin with. As the music kicks up a notch, you begin to start your carefully choreographed dance that accompanied this song.

'When I lose myself, I become you, Ichi kara juu leads me back to, Here inside your veil, Finer than a grand view, We'll take a dive, Not even tides can come between us,'

And you recall clear as day how when you were basically delirious from sleep deprivation, your mind's first thoughts were to go to him. Because you knew that you could trust Jamil with anything (despite his many warnings that you shouldn't trust him as much as you do). Your dance suddenly changes its slow momentum as the song progresses to be a bit faster.

'Was it you who I've been searching for, Spent my life alone and waited for, So tenderly and endlessly, You made me whole, you made me whole'

Coming to Twisted Wonderland has been in equal parts exciting and fun, yet so terribly lonely for you. You were lonely even in your own world, never having many friends who would support your interests, but Jamil always made you feel like you could be yourself around him. He was always just,,, safe.

'And the walls I built they melt away, With every touch in your embrace, Every day, every night, every note I play, You made me whole, you made me whole.'

You've become truly entranced into your thoughts, the lyrics and the dance movements coming to you naturally as your mind focuses on other things. From the crowd (that you've long since forgotten about), the people listening in were stunned to silence, enchanted by your voice and your song. Even your group of friends were staring at you with wide eyes as you continued to sing. Especially Jamil.

'How could I have been so blinded, Running away in circles, I hear my doubts drop, When I see you in the mirror,

Right beneath the surface, Washed away my sorrows, I feel your heartbeat, As it echoes through the hour'

Jamil can only stare at you with his eyes as wide as saucers, just like everyone else. Has he ever heard you sing before? No, he doesn't think he has, but he knows that you auditioned with Grim, Ace, and Deuce in front of Rook and Vil, so with a voice as beautiful as yours, why weren't you picked to represent the school? There must have been some sort of mistake in the auditioning process. You clearly had more talent than Ace and Deuce combined...

'When I lose myself, I become you, You are the moment I belong to, Here without our names,'

'Yes, a rose by any other name would smell as sweet... Jamil is so much more than just a servant to the Al-Asims. Oh, to be rid of the Viper name so that he no longer needs to suffer like he has.'

'We're back to being brand new, There's no need to hide, Just you and I until forever'

And as you repeat the chorus, Jamil can't help but to feel like certain parts of this song are quite familiar to him. Like the lyrics are grabbing hold of his heart and caressing it with the tenderness of a lover.

'Was it you who I heard through the door, When I cried and had no place to go? Every day, every night, every note I play, You made me whole, you made me whole.

Tracing and tracing the sunset, Appearing a zero and finally, Now I remember, Oh I have never lived a day without you

Untie the layer of memories, Louder we spin with the melody You are the only, only one for me'

No no no, this couldn't possibly be what he's thinking. This song is clearly a romantic ballad for someone that you must've fallen in love with at some point in time (either here or in your world). This 'familiarity' is just something his mind is making up. And just as he begins to dismiss his initial thoughts, you happen to finally make eye contact with him. You repeat the chorus again with a look in your eyes that convey everything that you're singing and more as you lose yourself to the music.

'I'll never believe I'm alone, In the end, we begin, 'till we meet again, You made me whole, you made me whole

I know I'm never alone.'

And with that, the song comes to an end, and the instrumentals fade out until the auditorium just sits still in complete silence. About a solid minute passes of silence, and you stare up at the crowd with an awkward look on your face. Thinking that this was something that the crowd has disliked, you were just about to apologize for your performance, but then the entire place erupts in an excited cheer.

"WHAT AN AN AWE-INSPIRING PERFORMANCE FROM A STUDENT AT NRC! WHY I DO BELIEVE THAT THIS MUST'VE BEEN ONE OF THE BEST WE'VE SEEN SO FAR!" you hear the announcer exclaim loudly on the speakers. You stare in shock at the loud crowd, looking at all of the happy faces (some were legitimately crying, namely Rook) cheering for you. In your embarrassment, your face reddens and you try to hide it behind your hands as you let out a meek 'thank you' to the microphone. You bow quickly and move to go backstage, but then you hear someone starting to chant 'Encore!' with many others following suit.

You leave it to the announcers to try to calm the crowd- there was absolutely no way you were going to sing another song up there again. You walk through the halls of the backstage area to get back to... Well, you didn't know where you wanted to go right now. Your face was so red right now and you were so embarrassed that you didn't know if you'd be able to handle the reactions of your friends congratulating you. Even worse, you don't know how you'd handle having Jamil congratulating you, with his stupidly cute smile and his devilishly charming eyes. You'd probably faint.

But speak of the devil and he shall appear, you see Jamil and the rest of your friends in Vil's group walking up to you with various different reactions on their faces. Predictably, Ace was teasing you for hiding away your good singing voice, Deuce and Epel both congratulated you like a normal person would, and Rook and Kalim were both brought to tears at your performance- to the point where Vil and Jamil basically had to rip them away from you (with the condition that you'd give Rook your autograph). Vil stared at you with his normal stern look at first before smiling and patting your head, saying something along the lines of you becoming yet another rival of his.

Jamil, though, he waited until everyone else was done with you before approaching you. Your heart had calmed down tremendously by then, but when you saw him walking up to you, you could feel your heart pounding inside your chest nervously. He gives you his most charming smile with a proud look on his face, and he says gently,

"You were amazing up there. I had no idea you could sing like that."

"Hehe, thanks," you chuckle nervously, looking anywhere but his handsome face, "I-uh... Remember that time I went to your room asking for advice on what to write?" he nods. "Yeah, well, that was for this, so uhm... Thank you, for, you know- giving me inspiration to write that song..."

"I gave you inspiration?" he hums, "I only told you to rest. I don't recall doing anything particularly inspiring." You let out a tiny squeak as you try to explain,

"Well! You know how it goes, one day you've got nothing and then another, you've got everything! You don't need to do anything specific to be inspired, it can just come out of nowhere!" you chuckle awkwardly, and in your nervousness you continued to talk, "And besides, you're plenty inspiration for me without even having to do anything! I wrote it for you, after all!" After the words left your mouth, you gasp and cover your mouth with your hands as your face burns bright red in embarrassment.

Jamil stares at you in shock for a moment after hearing your words. You wrote that...for him? Really? Him?

Well, he did have his suspicions of that at first, with the lyrics sounding as familiar as they did, but he brushed it off earlier, thinking that there would be no way that you would've written something so...so... romantic, for him. Did you really feel that way about him? Did you really reciprocate his feelings for you-- the ones that he's decided long ago to bury beneath the ground because there was absolutely no way you were going to like him that way?

Only one way to find out, he supposes.

Jamil slowly brings his hand to lift your face to look at him. The look in your eyes betrayed many of your emotions- embarrassment, anxiety...and hidden in it's depths, he thought he could see hints of adoration within them. In the past, he has considered using his unique spell to make you fall in love with him, however he has always decided against it, for one reason or another. So he knows that the emotions behind your eyes are real- that the lyrics for your song, which was made for him, was real.

So he takes a small leap of faith, choosing to kiss the side of your cheek, "Thank you, Prefect. It was a very lovely song."

"No," you say breathlessly (you were also in shock because you thought he was going to kiss your lips), "Thank you for being my muse."

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

OKAY, admittedly, this took me forever, but that's mostly on me for writing so much exposition before getting to the *actual* request part of the story lol Anon I hope that I didn't keep you waiting for too long for this request, and I hope that it was to your liking!

[ut-versotale]

A Trip Down Nostalgia Lane

This AU's been in existence for so long, and the most current iteration is so wildly different from the rest. As such, I felt it'd be kinda cool to show you guys how the AU's progressed over the years. I don't think it's too big of a problem to reveal what the initial plans were for each iteration, what I liked and didn't like, and my thought process behind forgoing the old ones

If you don't particularly care for all that, here's the iterations' major characters lined up. (Iteration 4 I only have revealed Asriel and Undyne, so the rest I've designed so far are silhouetted)

Iteration 0.5

Oh boy, where to begin with this one...?

I number it "0.5" and not "1" because there were only two parts that never even officially released on this Tumblr blog. I did upload Part 1 for an April Fool's joke a while ago. But really, it was only ever present on the TS!Underswap Discord server over half a decade ago.

To put it bluntly, Versotale at this point was just a reskinned Undertale roleswap AU. The personalities, while I tried to keep them intact, were not the main driving force. As such:

Asriel is a silent protagonist (And not in a cool clever way like Kris; I mean just straight-up silent)

The only difference with Undyne as a narrator was noting that Frisk was a human at the first save point

Flowey had a more formal speech pattern but was otherwise barely affected despite carrying Chara's consciousness. They weren't even named Asthana yet.

Frisk... well, I can give my past self this, he certainly made an effort to differentiate Frisk from Toriel. I can't say he did a GOOD job at that, but they certainly were different. Awkward dialogue, though, and not much sense behind why they were the mayor of the Ruins at 13 years old

Overall, you can 100% tell I made this as a young teen. Awkward dialogue, barely any effort put into the concept, unoriginal...

It's pretty easy to see why I forewent this version of the AU. Only two parts were ever made. I must thank @beethovenus who gave me a lot of very helpful critiques, such as giving Asriel a voice and making original sprites rather than using sprite edits, as well as encouraging me to make this Tumblr blog for it. Thus, brings us to what I'd like to consider the first PROPER attempt at this AU...

Iteration 1

Ah, this one... this ALSO lasted only two parts. Can't remember why. But I made a lot more headway on this one. Quality aside, I am happy that I had the guts to try and make original sprites of my own back then, even if they aren't particularly good compared to now.

This was where I really attempted to make the characters act noticeably different. Though there were still quite a lot of problems, some that would even persist all the way up until Iteration 4.

I wanted to give Asriel a combination of his regular and Flowey personalities. A cool idea on paper, but the lore doesn't support him acting like that well enough. Thus, I refer to this version of him as Sassriel. This was one of those problems that persisted up until Iteration 3.

Undyne having this snarky back-and-forth with Sassriel. Again, cool idea on paper, but it is not supported by her personality in Undertale, nor the altered circumstances in VT Iteration 1. Also, with Undyne being a disembodied consciousness, it means she's merely an observer of the story and not an active participant, meaning her dialogue got very boring very fast. Undyne in canon was always an active character, so putting her in a role that basically FORCED her to be a passive character was maybe one of the worst decisions I could've made that lasted way too long, all the way until Iteration 4.

You'll notice a whole bunch of characters that never actually saw the light of day in the comic. In the bottom row, starting from left to right, there would have been Pepper (Who DID have a design but I've lost it), Donavan, Dr. Aakil, Lily, and Queen Alice. There's not much to say about them story-wise since I mainly just got the designs down, and you can probably guess what the plot was gonna be like given this was the early days of the AU where it was still very much following the Undertale formula. I think the only UNIQUE things I should mention are that Aakil's version of the amalgamates would've been cyborgs.

Iteration 2

This is the one that's lasted the longest (so far), managing to push its way into the Cold West. I tried to break out of the Undertale formula a tiny bit with this one, to varying degrees of success. There's not much history I can recall or find with this iteration, but I suppose I can give a character rundown of the ones you never saw, ironically enough all positioned on the bottom row again.

Donavan... not very unique compared to Undyne. The main gimmick that separated him from her, I think, was that he had gloves designed by Aakil that were soul-powered.

Valencia... a new character who was meant to be an expanded version of Napstablook's role. Fun fact: Valencia's hooded trenchcoat design there was originally Pepper's Iteration 1 design.

Everyone else was... about what you'd expect.

Looking back on this version, I am... honestly very embarrassed by how badly I butchered the Cold West. I wanted to do so many cool things, like a bounty on Asriel's head and all. But my God... Spade and Pepper sucked so much. Especially Pepper. For characters who at this point were meant to be this AU's replacement of Sans and Papyrus... what poor substitutes.

And honestly, I think that's why I scrapped this one; because I hated the Cold West and how I did it. It felt rushed, awkwardly-written, bad characterization, horrifically-bad puzzles, etc. Thus, Iteration 3 was made.

Iteration 3: Hybrid

I nicknamed this short-lived one "Hybrid" for multiple reasons.

It's where Deltarune became an extremely prevalent influence in Versotale's universe. So no longer is Versotale just an Undertale AU, it can also be considered a Deltarune AU as well.

Many characters could be considered hybrids at this point. Asriel and Undyne shared determination and a body. And, more interestingly, the Mettaton role also shared a body with Mettaton. More about that in a bit

When I was making Part 10-B of Iteration 2, Iteration 3 was meant to flow naturally into it, effectively replacing all of what had came beforehand. That never worked out.

Ultimately, I abandoned this version because it just simply wasn't doing it for me. By this point, the project was beginning to feel stale and boring. Despite my attempts to make a new unique storyline, it just kinda... felt like it was still following in Undertale's footsteps far too much. I mean, you've got the protagonist kid, an old fallen member of their species, the double-crossing flower, a mentor who's lived in a secluded area all their life, a chef who wants to join the guard, a tough grizzled guard captain, a morally-dubious scientist, a celebrity, a monarch... you see how I became dislliusioned with the quality of what was supposed to be my "Unique Undertale storyline." The most unique thing at this point WAS probably Spade. But still, many elements of this version of the story were very fleshed-out. I tried to turn Pepper into a character who wasn't just a bargain-bin Papyrus clone, I had come up with a more unique Hotland area, and it probably could've turned out really nice.

I think the thing I genuinely really liked from this old version was that Shella (This iteration's celebrity character) actually was also possessed by Mettaton. There was this huge backstory thing where the scientist character had monster dust and was injecting humans with it, and since Mettaton was a ghost, his consciousness became attached to Shella's and served as her sort of "assistant." He gave her all the tips and confidence to become famous and gave Mettaton the opportunity to indirectly entertain humans like he always wanted. While a cool idea on paper, having... well, essentially Mettaton technically in the same place as canon Undertale again just felt cheap and lazy. Not to mention it only continued my disillusionment with my "unique story" being far too similar to Undertale for comfort.

But the Surface shenanigans this iteration... man, for as weird as Gaster being king was, I had such a cool thing planned for all the Ebottobia characters. It's something I wanna carry over into Iteration 4 to a certain extent.

Iteration 4: "King Asriel"

This one's really freaking cool. Going back to the drawing board completely, the story resembles almost nothing like Undertale's, with the sole exception of the main premise: People underground, free them from imprisonment through peace or violence.

I'm so proud of these ideas so far, you have no idea. The new Ruins area I'm excited for, the new Cold West feels like an actual proper flowing storyline now, the other areas have way more uniqueness, the characters feel like their own characters with their own stories now (Even the ones that appear in canon), the plot feels completely different... I think you all are really going to like it

That's all. Just felt like taking a trip down memory lane and share some ideas and designs the public never got to see.

[projecto2-game]

DevLog 2 - The Devining

well. it only took 3 months. but here is our new devlog! or however you call it... We did write a whole devlog for early march, but with school and work taking up most of our schedule, we did not post it, and most of our progress fell to the sands of time.

Snail (@snailmusic) -

Yeah I didn't do nearly as much as freep, so most of those changes will be down there. part of the reason though is that ive been doing a lot of work on my music (haha yes self promo) so if you want to check that out it'd be great! (most of yall are just from my acc so you probably alr know) (my current style of music is probably not representative of O2's audio style or vibe, still working towards that)

The main thing I did was improve trenchbroom (level editor)/qodot/godot interop, which can bring us closer to building some levels (and who knows, a little alpha test in the future ;)). It was actually realllyyyy annoying due to a lack of documentation for qodot 4 (and also ill admit it, a bit of my stupidity) so there was a bug that I couldn't fix for a long time but eventually it was fixed and now it works great!

I also started looking more into the art style of the game, and I'm even learning a bit of how to draw (thanks to my friends! I wouldn't be able to learn like at all without them lol).

^ guy on a cube

oh yeah speaking of outside help im getting this is (very slightly) now bigger than us two! the others aren't doing too much we can note right now (one doesnt have a tumblr acc either) but when their contributions come more into play we'll include them here.

See ya next time!

Freep (@freepdryer) -

Back in march, i spent a lot of time working on the AI, getting it to move… and run away, sort of. But more of that will come later. 

Lots of these last week or so has been on the character controller, and reinventing the wheel to introduce a state machine and get a lot cleaner code so its easier to revisit if we ever had to.

Im proud of the work that we've done so far, as we come close to a prototype with *Gameplay* 

New Things

Changed the look of the enemy slightly to remove the “amongus factor”

Rewrote the entire script for nav pathing

New enemy prototype can now feel pain / has a health pool that can be depleted using bullets from the player

Added a new line of sight for the enemy to check whether or not the player is in the area to follow

Added the ability for the enemy to hide - WIP - enemy can hide but isnt very good at it. Kinda like a child who turns away while hiding in the corner. 

Enemy can also detect when youre in a certain range, I will be adding more flags later on for detection (when the player shoots, sneezes, or explodes on accident)

New testing map!

New areas for target practice, line of sight testing, following and hiding

New player character controller!

Rewrote the entire script for the inclusion of State machines

This was painful.

Added 6(?) new states for several movement states

Added animations for 

Walking

Running

Jumping

Crouching

Fixed the stair problem

Whats next?

Continue work on enemy AI - finish hiding, add roaming, add attacking

Dunno? 

Fix the stair problem again, but more?

Weapons!

The end?

Thanks for coming to our devlog! We will be back hopefully very soon!

[kissorkill16]

Just A Man: A Hello Neighbor Fanfic

By JJ

Summary: Jay trying to convince himself and probably everyone else that Theodore Peterson is a good guy.

Jay sighed as he hung up the second to last missing poster.

His son, Nicholas Michael Roth, was on the page. He had recently went missing a few weeks ago, and the police are doing their best to find him, but it's been futile.

His wife, Luanne, was slowly going insane. Not bad psychopath insane, but worried mama bear insane. She hadn't slept for days, neither her or Jay. How could you sleep at night knowing your son is missing and you have no idea how to find him?

How could you sleep at night knowing that it's partially your fault he's missing in the first place?

Before any of this, they had recently found a bunch of junk under Nicky's bed. A llama farm poster, a bunch of pieces of scrap, torn up VHS tapes, and worst of all, Aaron and Mya's missing posters.

Everyone thought he was the reason behind their disappearance, even though he'd been claiming Mr. Peterson had been framing him, but no one believed him, not even his own parents. They had hoped to go to the police station so Nicky could answer more questions, but the next day, Nicky was just gone.

Jay had been thinking about what Nicky had said before he went missing, about Mr. Peterson. He didn't believe it. He thought Mr. Peterson was a good guy, despite being a little antisocial and quiet, he couldn't have made his children disappear, especially not after the death of his wife.

But on the other hand, Jay just wanted to find Nicky. Despite not wanting to accuse an old man of kidnapping, he just wanted to find Nicky.

"Hello, neighbor."

Jay's head snapped up, he looked to where the voice came from, and his eyes landed on his neighbor, Mr. Peterson with a coffee mug in his hand.

"Mr. Peterson?", said Jay.

"Oh please, James. Call me Ted. All of my close friends call me that. We're friends, aren't we?", said the man.

Jay didn't know what to say. He barely knew this man, but it'd be rude to deny being called a friend. "It's just Jay, Ted."

"Of course, Jay."

The old man's eyes traveled to the missing poster, then the one in his hand. Jay followed to where his eyes went.

"Oh, sorry. I know this is a shaky topic for you, but have you...um...", Jay handed Mr. Peterson the missing poster. Mr. Peterson studied the poster, when he was done, his eyes went back to Jay.

"Oh no. You too?", he asked.

"Yeah. Nicky has been missing for a while now, nobody in the neighborhood has seen him. The police said he ran away, but I think that's bullshit. Because I don't think he has anywhere else to go.", said Jay.

"Are you sure he doesn't have any friends he's hiding with?", asked Mr. Peterson.

"We've already asked the kids, and they're just as torn up about the whole thing as we are. In fact, they're all volunteering to help put up the rest of the missing posters."

"Hmm...", Mr. Peterson took a sip of his coffee. "How's your wife taking this?"

"She is currently cursing out the police for not doing their jobs."

Mr. Peterson didn't say anything else, he just snaked a hand around Jay's shoulder, then they started walking.

"I'm terribly sorry this happened to you, Jay. I know the feeling.", said Mr. Peterson.

Jay smiled at the man. "Ted, I don't care what anyone says about you, you're a really nice guy. The only problem is that no matter how many times I try to tell people that, they all think you're kind of a psycho."

Mr. Peterson's grip tightened around Jay's shoulder, Jay got scared for a moment, especially when Ted didn't say anything.

"Did I say something wrong?", he asked.

"No.", said Mr. Peterson. "I'm not even a little bit mad. I know I've built quite a reputation for building death trap rides, and I don't mind the people who say things about me."

"You don't?"

"No.", said Mr. Peterson. "I may be a lot of things, but I didn't make either of my children disappear. Neither did I make Nicholas disappear.

Jay stiffened at that, how could he know he was thinking about that?

"Ha...", Mr. Peterson let out a dry laugh. "At least you're the only one who doesn't think I'm completely off my rocker.", he said. "You're the only one who actually tried to make an effort to get my side of the story, and that's why I consider you a friend."

Jay smiled at Mr. Peterson. "That's really nice of you, Ted."

Ted let go of Jay's shoulder and took the last missing poster from him, "But all of that aside, if I ever see Nicholas, I'll give you a call."

"Thanks, Ted."

With that, Mr. Peterson walked away, smiling wickedly as he held the missing poster. As soon as he got back to his house, he tore up the poster and threw it in the trash.

"People in Raven Brooks are so easy to manipulate.", thought Mr. Peterson as he walked into his house and slowly closed the door.