#it's (almost) like those role-swapped fic

[miafeystits]

re: that last poll i reblogged, one of the reasons i find both mpreg & a/b/o fic kind of morbidly fascinating after many years in fandom (despite not liking either) is how these kinds of fic often function as a way of mapping the tropes and gender dynamics of cis/heterosexual romance onto (almost always cis) m/m stories without going so far as to gender-swap either character

like, this is pretty obvious with mpreg centered on cis men, which is often just the application of common pregnancy-related romance tropes to cis m/m couples (note: im excluding depictions of trans masc pregnancy from my discussion here because i just think its a separate convo with its own nuances, and because i think much of the fic im describing here generally draws from ideas about cis men & women without much consideration for transness). however its ESPECIALLY apparent if you look at common a/b/o tropes in m/m fic. namely, the fact that an a/b/o universe is generally a world in which irl gender essentialism and the resulting sexual power dynamics between (cis) men and (cis) women are able to be applied to relationships exclusively between cis men-- with one partner being dominant, often physically stronger and aggressive, and socially privileged for this (perceived or real) biological superiority, and the other partner (who is generally the one able to bear children) being sexually submissive, weaker, and thus socially disadvantaged or oppressed as a consequence.

furthermore, something EXTRA interesting to me is that in this type of fic these power dynamics are very frequently not just social constructs (the way they are in real life-- pls dont misunderstand me and think im saying women are inherently biologically submissive to men irl or something), but rather almost always depicted as a biological reality within the world of the story. this type of au (at least in m/m dominated circles) offers a way of exploring and depicting what are basically misogynistic tropes without ever naming it as misogyny or involving women at any point. and i'm not trying to make a moral judgement here--i just genuinely find it very interesting that one of the main ways that misogynistic sexual dynamics (and, frequently, the violence resulting from such dynamics) gets explored in fandom spaces is through the development of an alternate biological and social reality in which cis men experience a mirror of those power dynamics, often turned up to 11 via in-universe biological essentialism. it strikes me as a way to engage with irl misogyny and its role within relationships with a certain amount of emotional distance, for better or worse. on one hand, it might be used to explore this imbalance of power without ever needing to depict misogynistic violence happening to female characters, but on the other hand also often offers a way to engage with romantic tropes steeped in irl gender essentialism in a way that is justified within the fiction of the universe and therefore do not need to be considered as critically

now i dont think this alone justifies this trope's existence or popularity (i'm sure a large part of its popularity is people just thinking it's hot tbh, which is fine im not here to judge), and honestly i'm not interested in litigating the question of why people write or read this trope in the first place, but i AM continually fascinated by the degree to which heteronormativity is able to influence what are ostensibly depictions of queer relationships

[stealingpotatoes]

And I'll Go With You

Summary: After finding out about their long lost family, the Naberries invite Luke & Leia to the family home for a traditional Naboo dinner. Leia’s feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all.

(sequel to my pooja meets the twins comic that got too long (nearly 3k) and turned into a fic instead of a 2nd comic!!) -- [also on ao3!]

--

It wasn’t like Luke had been eating badly these past few months. Ever since the Rebellion had become the New Republic, rations had been swapped out for consistent, mostly-hearty meals. There were still battlefields and shoddy basecamps, of course, where the food primarily consisted of ration packs and whatever the base cooks could make with what they’d managed to get through battle lines. Yet those were slowly becoming the exception and not the rule, especially as Luke fell further into the ancient role of Jedi diplomat, helping Leia convince systems to join the New Republic. Battles in politics tended to mean fancy meals with too many people and food Luke couldn’t even begin to understand. Even moreso for him than most; politicians and the like were more than happy to offer their finest meals to the Jedi master who’d blown up the Death Star and supposedly defeated the Emperor. 

But none of that fine cheffery compared to the simple stomach-filling warmth of a home-cooked meal -- especially not a home-cooked meal prepared by his grandmother (he had one of those now!) for him, his sister, and their entire family. 

Luke looked around the Naberrie dining room, joy bubbling in his chest and stomach at the warmly-lit sight. Empty dishes and plates stretched across the long table, that had earlier been filled with all kinds of Naboo dishes Luke had never seen or tried before. At either head of the table, his grandparents sat laughing at something Ryoo, sitting by their grandmother, had just said. At Luke’s side, Leia was enraptured in a quiet conversation with their cousin and her old colleague, Pooja, that Luke imagined he wouldn’t understand even if he was listening. His aunt and uncle, Sola and Darred, were the only ones not seated, circling around the table and dilligently clearing up the wreckage of the family meal.

“Are you sure you don't want some help with that?” Luke asked Sola as she piled up another plate opposite him.  

“Really Luke, it’s alright,” she replied with a kind smile.

Luke half expected an assertion that he was their guest to follow, but none came. The blank space left a sunny feeling in his chest; he wasn’t a guest here, he was family. Completely and utterly welcome, as if he’d been a part of that family his whole life, and not as of a few days ago. 

He was so wrapped up in the small joy that he almost didn’t notice Leia’s quiet excuse me, before she gently placed her napkin down on the table and gracefully got up to leave the dining room. 

Luke doubted the Naberries thought anything of it -- Leia’s years of politics made her far too good at hiding her emotions to let them do otherwise. She was so good that even the strongest of force users might not have been able to sense it through her mental and expressive shields. But Luke was not any old strong force user; he was Leia's twin, and so her secret turmoil blared in his head like a whirring attack alarm. 

He cleared his throat and excused himself too, not sticking around to field anyone’s quick questions (though knowing he should’ve). He wound through the love-filled house, following his senses and memory of the tour they’d been given earlier to reach the starlike presence of his sister. He passed through only two short hallways, both’s walls were filled to the brim with memories he’d never known. Holos of his young cousins, of Sola and Darred on their wedding, and of a brown-haired woman Luke wished he’d known as mom. He’d learn every story behind each of the pictures and keepsakes, some day. 

He reached the back garden door -- a light, wooden thing, as ornately simple as the rest of the house -- and stepped into the early night. 

The garden was hardly cold, but the sudden coolness compared to the hearth-warmth of the house bit at Luke. He stared up for a moment. Three moons hung white in the sky, painting the white house walls and the green of the garden in blueish moonlight. It was strange how it reminded him of home and yet was so different. Tatooine too had three moons, though all it did was turn golden sand a deep, colourless blue or silver. Never the friendly blue of Naboo’s.

Shaking himself from the thought, he easily spotted his sister standing cross-armed in front of a neat, flowery maybe-vegetable patch. Her white, Naboo-style dress with puffy sleeves and a many-layered skirt stood out against the dark of the moonlit garden as if it were a small, fourth moon itself. 

Leia had bought the dress shortly before their diplomatic trip to Naboo for any formal dinners they would be invited to as a part of their Republic negotiations with the Naboo. It was, apparently, very strategically important to acknowledge the culture of those you wished to diplomatise with -- even if Luke and his poor galactic fashion knowledge thought the dress looked no different from any of her Alderaanian dresses. He supposed it was lucky he got to wear his Jedi robes everywhere. 

“Hey,” Luke started, stepping up beside her, careful not to get his boots too close to the pristine flowers. 

Leia smiled up at him, almost hiding her sorrowful expression. “Hi.” 

She glanced back at the windows of the house, where warm, orange light diffused out across the neatly cut lawn, not quite reaching their night-blue patch of the garden. “You didn’t need to come out here for me,” she half-apologised. “It’s cold, you should get back to dinner.” 

“I wanted to make sure you were okay.” 

Leia opened her mouth, but quickly closed it, as if realising I’m fine was a useless excuse to your brother who could sense your emotions. “You didn’t have to do that.” 

“You’re my sister, yes, I do,” Luke smiled with a slight shake of his head. After a breath, e leaned down slightly, trying to better enter Leia’s pointed-down sightline. “Hey, if you want to leave, I’m sure we can come up with some urgent New Republic excuse.” 

Leia was the far better liar, but Luke had the added advantage of being one of the only Jedi in the galaxy. If Leia didn’t come up with some political excuse, Luke could always make something up about the force that nobody could refute. 

Luke shrugged. “We’ve been here half the day, anyway, I’m sure they won’t take it personally if we miss one last course. There’ll be other--” 

“No, no, I want to stay,” Leia shook her head with a sure furrow of her brow. “Really, I just needed some air. I don’t-- I can’t leave this.” 

Luke nodded, hoping she didn’t notice how thankful he was that he didn’t have to go. 

“It’s a nice night to be out.”

“Mm. Naboo’s temperature is quite agreeable,” Leia said, her voice growing politically hollow. 

What were they doing, talking about the weather like they were at some stunted party? Luke wanted to say Leia, we both know I’m bad at this not-talking-about-feelings thing, please just tell me what’s on your mind, but he knew his sister well enough to know a brute-force question like that wouldn’t get much out of her. He needed to wait and let her talk on her own terms. So Luke left a gentle space in the air between them, one that Leia could fill when she was ready. Only quiet night birds and the faint rustle of garden trees were so brave as to interrupt it. 

“Maybe I came out here for more than air…” Leia mumbled, predictably rewarding the silence after some long moments. “It's only that they’re so… I don’t know how to say this.” 

“It’s okay, you can say whatever it is,” he managed through the slight panic entering his mind. Did Leia not like their new family? But they were so nice! They were perfect! 

Clearly noticing the worry knotted in his brow, Leia held her hands up. “No, no, it’s nothing against them. It’s barely even about them as people, it’s just…” 

Luke only watched for her continuation, aware all he could do was try to project his own comfort through the force.

Leia forced a deep breath in and out, clenching her eyes shut for a short moment. “When I lost Alderaan, I lost everyone. I lost my father, my mother-- anyone I’d so much as briefly considered family. I had nobody to call my own. Nobody. And I thought that was going to be it, forever. I thought that I would never have any family ever again.” 

“But then,” a smile crept onto Leia’s lips as she gave Luke a short glance, “you came blasting into my life and you told me about everything, and suddenly I had family-- I had a brother!”

“Blasting is a bit of a strong word…”

Leia levelled him a raised eyebrow. “Is there a weaker word you think fits better, then?”

Luke huffed out a chuckle, remembering how quickly their first meeting had devolved into a blaster fight and a narrow escape of death. “I guess blasting works.”

Leia let out a quiet sigh, her presence brightening. “And suddenly it’s not just you, it’s our grandparents, our aunt, our uncle, our cousins, and it’s all…” Leia trailed off. 

Luke nodded slowly. 

Finding the Naberries had been very different for the two of them, but only now did he appreciate the true difference in what their new family meant for them both. 

He’d had little cause to think of what new family meant to the two of them before, given how easily she accepted Luke as her brother, and how resolutely she refused to accept Vader as her father. Luke had thought it was so simple; that it was just Luke was good in her eyes, Vader was not. He saw now that it ran deeper than just Vader’s evil. 

Luke loved his aunt and uncle, but they’d never claimed to be his parents. They had always left room for Luke to long for a mother and father, to dream of the people they never spoke about. He had despised the reality of his father at first, but come to accept that while Vader was not the father he dreamed of, he was Luke’s father nonetheless. However awkwardly he had filled that lifelong gap.

To Leia, Vader was not only a villain, but an invasive species. A predator, encroaching on the still-sore memory of Bail and Breha Organa. He could not be her father; that position belonged solely and permanently to Bail and nobody else. Vader would only ever be relegated to a ‘birth father’ -- and that was only on days that Leia felt particularly merciful. 

The Naberries, on the other hand, didn’t stand to replace anyone. Padmé Amidala, their mother (force, that was weird to think), may have stood too close to Breha’s position -- but Luke suppose finding out your birth mother was your childhood hero and a founder of the rebellion was very different to finding out your parent was the Emperor’s genocidal attack dog. And even then, she was gone now. She could play little part other than a puzzle piece and a forgotten memory; she did not threaten to take a dead parent's place like the living Vader had once done. 

The rest of the Naberries were purely happy additions to their family. There was no limit to how many aunts and uncles and cousins you would have, and neither twin had ever had grandparents before. Their family had become so full and so big with only a chance meeting of Leia’s old Senate colleague Pooja (and some intervention from an unsettling resourceful woman named Sabé). It had all happened so fast, and it was so wonderful… and so easily overwhelming. 

Even Luke struggled to get his mind over all the sudden expansions to his once-thought-gone family, and his grief over two family members and strange hermit mentor was hardly comparable Leia’s planet-sized grief. He knew it wasn’t, because he had felt the difference for himself, every time she saw a certain plant or a heard a certain phrase. Such little things would bombard their force-bond with the soul-crushing grief that had hit Leia out of seeming nowhere. 

Luke stretched the force out to Leia now, focusing on her shields as uninvasively as he could. Her heavy mantle of grief lay near-dormant, at least, but it was still present in the back of her mind. 

Leia glanced up at him from the flowers, perhaps sensing his search despite her lack of training. If she did, she made no comment. 

Luke put his flesh hand on her shoulder. 

Leia delicately rested her own hand on it, bringing her eyes to firmly meet his. “I am okay. It’s just… it’s…” Leia -- the princess whose educated words never faltered, the general who could muster the greatest of speeches out of thin air -- stuttered.

“It’s a lot to deal with,” Luke offered. 

Leia gave him a nod. 

“But you're not dealing with it alone,” he said, turning around to face Leia in full. After a moment of quiet staring up, she turned to face him too. “I know this isn't all quite the same for me. I know it’s… a different kind of difficult. Still, I’m here. I’m always here for you. And I’m sure all of them are too,” Luke said with a nod back to the house. 

Leia hummed in agreement-acknowledgement.

“I don't think they're expecting you -- expecting either of us -- to be completely and suddenly okay with this. I’m sure it’s almost as much for them as it is for us. But they're our family. We may not know each other very well yet, but they already love us so much.”

Luke knew it so certainly; he could sense all the Naberries’ love for the twins, as strong as the heat of the suns on a Tatooine noon. Mottled by cloudy grief in places, but always oh-so present. It radiated off each of them in waves whenever Luke and Leia were around. 

“I think I’m just trying to say it’s okay,” Luke concluded, losing steam in his speech. “However you’re feeling now, it’s gonna be okay.” 

Silence drifted between them, entirely comfortable and nothing like the eager, questioning one Luke had left earlier.

“Thank you,” Leia smiled finally.

Luke shook his head. “It’s nothing.” 

“No, really, thank you. I don’t think I say it enough, but I love you Luke. I’m-- thank you. For being my brother.” 

Before Luke could even think of replying, Leia crashed into him, wrapping her arms around his robes and shoving her face into his shoulder. Luke caved into the hug, pulling his arms tight around his sister in return. 

“I love you too,” he replied softly. 

They stayed like that for a good few moments, fused together like twin stars, basking in each other’s presence as if they truly were so. The galaxy seemed so utterly at peace in the garden around their tight-armed cradling, like it had never faced a single war or fight, like Luke and Leia had always been one and never been ripped apart by the tragedy of circumstance. 

Luke sensed Pooja’s presence -- joyous, if a little timid -- before he heard her treading over the grass towards him and his twin. The two of them pulled apart to face Pooja at the same time, arms still half-pressed together. 

Pooja came to a slow stop as they did, standing still in the bright square of warm window-light. It painted the the cream of her dress a loving orange and made her half-up curls near-glow with its source behind her. 

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt…” she started serenely, half-smiling at her cousins standing shoulder-to-shoulder in the blue near-dark. 

Leia shook her head, moving towards Pooja. “We were just about to come back in anyway.” 

Pooja brightened, bringing her hands to an almost-clap. “Perfect timing! I came to tell you Grandma’s about to serve up dessert. It’s cake, her speciality.” 

“Sounds wonderful,” Luke’s mouth watered at the thought of more of Jobal Naberrie’s cooking, despite the protests from his already-full stomach. 

“Not as wonderful as it tastes. Now come on!” Pooja over-gestured. “If we don't hurry, Ryoo will have eaten all of it before we get there!”

Leia laughed with all the gentle warmth of the Naboo sun. “We’re coming Pooja, don't worry!”

They followed their hurried cousin back to the nearby door, forming a line as they reached the portico of the entrance.

“I'm so happy we found you both,” Pooja admitted quietly as she held the door open for her cousins. The two of them stepped back into gentle embrace of the family home, something sweet hanging in the warm air. 

Leia gave Luke a quick glance before she turned to Pooja; “I’m happy we found you too.”

[charmwasjess]

Thoughts about Dooku and Sifo Dyas in the imperial era? Like if they role-swapped with Cal Kestis' or something?

Oh, this is SUCH a fun ask, thank you. :D 

Dooku in an Imperial world. It seems like it would be so tasty, but I might be getting too distracted picturing him in those slutty little uniforms. 

The problem I see is that Dooku by RotS seemed so genuinely fucked up to me, to the point of being almost incapable of thriving in an Imperial world. Legends does a great job depicting his absolutely crumbling mental and emotional state, a man who loses track of his own POV and replaces it with Sidious’s in the middle of a book he’s narrating, but I think even in the relatively sparser depictions of him during that time in current canon, the cracks show. He’s not scheming against either Palpatine or the Jedi effectively, he seems like he’s losing control of his own kingdom of lies, his final (?) Clone Wars appearance with the ritual to psychic-attack Yoda, he seems downright fucking miserable the whole time. He’s like just sitting in a room dissociating when Sidious calls to tell him he’ll need his blood for this ritual, and you can fucking HEAR his sigh. 

Beyond his emotional and mental state, I don't feel like we have a clear idea of what Dooku thought his own end game for after the war. Stover’s batshit “honorable retirement in Sidious’s wonderful new Empire” smells a little off to me and I think the RotS novel got decanonized? I could see him wanting to take over training of the Inquisitors - fuck, he’s been trying to do that with his Sith apprentices for ages - but really, is Sidious going to let him anywhere near that project? Somehow, I don't think so.

I think Dooku ends up quite like he himself daydreams about in Yoda: Dark Rendezvous:

I don’t see a depressed, lightning-cooked shell of himself doing particularly well or lasting long in a cutthroat Imperial command structure. Vader was groomed for the role for years and still is shown struggling with his position in the OT. 

Of course, it’s much more fun to picture him coming to his senses, realizing Sidious’s bullshit, and joining the fight against the Empire in some kind of personal vendetta against the man who convinced him to destroy everything he loved and then planned to dump him, but… I don’t know. Dooku seems broken and defeated to me at the end, and coming to his senses about everything he gave up to get to that rock bottom, I think would completely collapse him as a person. I’m trying to do something like this in my fic The Thunder Answered Back, which... perhaps tellingly... hasn't been updated in a year because Dooku just keeps lying down on the floor. 

Sifo-Dyas is much more interesting and likely to my mind, because he’s essentially been preparing his whole life for this moment. The Living Force has him by the end of his life being able to use his precognition effectively enough that the Council is using it as a tool, presumably that would be a huge advantage in staying one step ahead of Imperial raids and Inquisitors. He’s also a Jedi Master, former High Councilmember, trained by a High Republic era Jedi Master himself. He represents a huge amount of generational knowledge of the Jedi Order.

@dapurinthos had a FANTASTIC Sifo-Dyas on the Path AU post reply somewhere that I wish I could find because they are smarter and funnier than me and it was truly perfect. In summation: yes, Sifo-Dyas is a huge pain in the ass for the Empire. Boinking Inquisitors on the head features strongly.

Now. Fanfic nonsense it? Swap in younger idealist Dooku and his seer bestie Sifo-Dyas into a Cal Kestis scenario? Two brave fated young Padawans against the Empire? No. They die the first day. Going off just the first part of Dooku: Jedi Lost, those two idiots lost a fight with: a bookshelf, each other, literally some bacta, a hallucination (several times), Dooku’s dad, moss… and that’s just going off the top of my head.

Sorry guys. They get crushed in one of those scary doors in like the first two seconds.

[mephiles97]

Murder Drones AU/Fanfic: "Through The Looking Glass"

AO3 summary: What happens... When you look through a mirror and find out the world is reversed? Is it like looking at the same world but completely different at the same time? Is it like you're looking into a window to a different world? What happens if the world as you knew it was completely flipped upside down? What happens if you look in that mirror and the same person staring back at you... Isn't you anymore? But is someone completely different living life in your shoes on the other side of that mirror?

Beau Doorman is what he'd call an average worker drone... Except maybe not so average by the time you factor in the weird dreams and the crazy over the top inventions. Okaaaaay maybe not as average or as normal as he thinks he is. Any semblance he had to normal flew right out the window with the reappearance of the colony's local drifter, a fateful scavenging trip, and three new friends haunted by their ghosts of the past. With the reemergence of a terrifying program from the past, everyone finds themselves being thrown into a story about found family, loss, grief, and recovering from that grief.

Information about this AU and a link to its fic's first chapter below the cut!

"Through The Looking Glass" (abbreviated to LG from here on) is my personal take on a swap AU! In this AU, MD canon as you know it has been taken and flipped upside down or perhaps more aptly, run through a cracked mirror. This is a character swap AU but the characters and roles have been shuffled around in deliberately wacky and wild combos and not every character/role has a clean 1:1 swap or direct mirror to their canon role

Since LG is a swap AU, this is set to retell all eight (yes, I am aware only seven are out at the time of writing) episodes of Murder Drones but with the swapped characters. Do note this is not just a 1:1 retelling of canon and some scenes are entirely new or have been twisted upside down and all around compared to how they went down in the actual episodes to the point they're almost unrecognizable unless you notice the roots of the scene

As you can see from the AO3 summary I copypasted... This AU stars Beau Doorman as our main character, taking the place of Uzi's role. He was born and raised in Outpost-3 by his parents Alice and Khan Doorman. Unlike canon Nori... Alice did not meet the business end of nanite acid in this AU and has lived to the present day/the fic's start. She is well known around the colony for being a bit of a menace with her hobby of making all kinds of scrap inventions and weaponry

Beau is joined by his childhood best friends Vivian (V) and Thad who happen to be the two most popular kids and the power couple of the school. He has also managed to befriend the mysterious borderline feral drifter named Uzi that's been randomly turning up at his colony for months now before disappearing without a trace again. Nobody knows why that mysterious purple haired girl seems to crawl around on all fours or make warbles and chirping sounds... Or why her systems are seemingly constantly running at feverishly high temperatures

There's also those three disassembly drones that haunt the vertical corpse graveyard outside Outpost-3. Let's take a look at them now, shall we?

Serial Designation B (Braiden) is the appointed leader of the disassembly drone squad and the pilot of their crashed landing pod but he's... sort of known for not feeling much like a leader. He struggles with a lot of fears over failing the squad and letting the people around him down. In fact, he worries so much about letting people down he felt bad when he tried to scare off a certain worker drone he had befriended for their safety...

Serial Designation C (Cyn) is the fastest but physically weakest of the squad due to her body and core being prone to malfunctions. She has good days where she can move about normally but on her worst days she is prone to motor malfunctions as well as voice box malfunctions leading to her voice skipping words or getting stuck. She seems to harbor a lot of guilt over some ghost of the past...

Serial Designation D (Doll) is the strongest of the squad and in a way the secondary leader because B asks for her input or suggestions often when it comes to planning or hunting tactics. She carries the weight of the squad on her back most days and tries to keep B and C from falling apart on her, but she seems to know a lot more about things than she lets on...

None of the three seem willing to mention or talk about the missing fourth drone of their group... None of the three seem willing to discuss the mysterious three-pronged symbol that's popping up on the visor of their new worker friend either. Gee, I wonder why they look so scared...?

Visit the link below to read the first chapter of the AU! Do note this AU is still ongoing so it's not finished yet but I am working on it and post chapters as they're done. Also! My ask box is open if you want to throw a question or two my way about the AU (or my other AUs!)

(And one more quick note: LG here was the first fic I started writing if we don't count two quick shorts I did so the earlier chapters read a bit roughly. If you can bear it, I swear the formatting and wording gets better in the later/newer chapters now that I've had some practice. I will one day go back and edit the earlier chapters of LG to make it easier to swallow but I haven't done that yet at the time of writing this so you have been warned)

[imthepunchlord]

So going off what you said in your last ask, does this mean that you're going with your new version of the miracle box for the rewrite?

I've decided yes.

For doing a rewrite, you need to draw a line between how much to change and how much you keep. Change too much and it doesn't work off the source material and might as well be it's own thing; change too little, well, it's not much of a rewrite now is it? It's just a slightly different version of canon which is not as fun or engaging, at least for me. I expect a rewrite to make the necessary changes while working off what is there.

And for the new box, that meets the line between what to change and what to keep.

Debatable how good choice of a choice it was, it is in the show's canon that the Miraculous are tied to China and works off Taoism. That is a fact of Miraculous that is hard to change for a rewrite, same for the fact that it will require a Ladybug-Cat duo vs villainous Butterfly as the initial leading focus (though I think you can be a little flexible on who has what as there's a lot of reasonable possibilities to explore, be it working off the canon assignment, to doing kwami swap between leads, to doing Marinette working off Felix instead given that he was a prior lead, to having Alya be the Ladybug as she does get to use the earrings later and almost did have them; to even setting it up that Gabriel may not be HM as by how s1 set it up, it was up in the air on whether he was HM or not, which is why it was a big debate back in the day).

And that's the nice challenge of doing a rewrite, you do have to work off the original but you also need to bring something new to the table, something different/refreshing.

So for the box, it just makes the most sense that these are from China, and this is what they're based on. And all of these themes have been around since concept to becoming canon in some shape or form.

Like, Bagua was the older set up for Miraculous that encircled Yin-Yang.

And not only did some of these come back for the Zodiac, the Bagua concept did come back in the form of the Prodigious.

It just makes sense to incorporate it and have it also tied to the Miracle Box as it is apart of Taoism and has been around as a concept for a while.

Additionally, those who don't follow me on Tumblr, if they find my fic and read it, they're going to go in expecting it to work off canon with some changes. Doing a drastically changed up box and Miraculous lore is possibly going to throw them off. So as a writer of a rewrite, it is better to work off canon a bit closer, as they're going to expect LB and Cat to be yin-yang duo, and they're going to expect the Zodiac. It's easier to add in that the Bagua are apart of this Miraculous box than hey, Miraculous are no longer Chinese exclusive, here's a different Zodiac not based on anything, the Chinese Zodiac is now scattered about, there is no yin-yang duo, ect..

It's also a plus that by how I set it up, it does solve my issue of Ladybug and Cat as the yin-yang duo and the Five not having a clear placement in role, and with all 7 seemingly intermingled but there's no clear reason on why; it keeps LB and Cat as yin-yang and wish granting duo, but so far Fox/Peafowl and Bee/Butterfly, they just cycle by lunar year, and Turtle/Serpent are used to undo wishes.

I don't think that's too drastic a set up, offers a safeguard against wish making, and offers why the 7 are so tightly grouped together. And Fox and Peafowl as a pair has floated around before. Not often, but it has been around.

So yeah, I decided the new box is the way to go.

[graaythekwami]

Little random game: name the eps you most hate and most love of each miraculous season and explain why

Hmm, there's not many episodes I'd say I hate, but my favorites and least favorites of each season are as follows:

Season 1:

Favorite: Origins -I don't care if this is technically two episodes, I loved seeing the origins of how the children met and how everything went down. The beginning of LadyNoir and oh my gosh we got such good LadyNoir moments here.

Least Favorite: Reflekta -Honestly looking through season 1 there really isn't any that stands out as a least favorite for me. So I chose Reflekta solely because this episode is the start of the curse of the many Reflekta akumatizations to come. xD

---

Season 2:

Favorite: Heroes' Day -I had to put this one as my favorite just on the premise that I feel that Heroes' Day is the best final/two parter we've had in the entire series. I loved everyone's role in these episodes, and of course we get to see Nathalie being an absolute queen as well.

Least Favorite: Frozer -Eh. Just an episode that's never stood out to me. Forgettable in the long run.

---

Season 3:

Favorite: Chat Blanc -Favorite episode of the season? More like my favorite episode ever! The angst. The feels. Chat Blanc's hurt and rage. Chat Blanc's design. It's all so beautiful the only change I'd make is making it a two parter and maybe adding a LadyBlanc kiss. But those changes aren't even needed because it's wonderful as is. 11/10. -Gamer 2.0, Oblivio, and Reflekdoll are honorable mentions. For the adorable LadyNoir moments, adorable Lovesquare moments via memory loss, and kwami swap! Season 3 is probably my favorite season overall.

Least Favorite: Christmaster -Just another episode that's never stood out to me. Plot wise it felt mid, and I can't see myself going back to rewatch it or basing a fic on it. Or including it in a fic. -Honorable mention of Miracle Queen though, as this used to be my least favorite of the season. I was really on board for a Chloe redemption when season three ended so this episode kind of stung (hehe) then, but nowadays I don't have the same issues with it.

---

Season 4:

Favorite: Qilin Least Favorite: Qilin

-Ha! Didn't see this coming, did you? I love love loved so much of Qilin. I loved the themes it addresses, Marinette and Sabine's relationship, the design of the akuma, it was all so good... until the very end!! They let Marinette take the blame when the real problem was racism?? I hate you ticket dude. And also bus driver dude you saw Sabine with her tickets and she literally gave you baked goods and you said nothing when she was taken away? Why???

And if you don't accept one episode being both the favorite and least favorite, then here are my thoughts on other episodes of the season: -I love the setup of Truth and Lies and would love more episodes focusing solely on Adrien. -Guiltrip when Chat Noir almost Catalcysms himself hurts me on a physical level someone give Adrien a hug. -I will forever live for the Plagg and Adrien moments in Kuro Neko.

Season 5:

Favorite: Evolution -Season 5 has a lot of plot-heavy focused episodes, which I always love to get. We got canon Adrinette, Gabriel getting Cataclysmed, awesome lore... but in the end I still think it's this first episode that's my favorite. I loved the action, how it picks right up at the end of season four, and also Rabbit Noir had such an awesome design too. I liked seeing Master Fu again, and the role Alix got to play. Gabriel got his good Monarch design with the stained glass look. Also timetravel can be tricky to write, and they pulled it off well.

Least Favorite: Action -After a whole season of the most plot-heavy episodes yet with a lot happening emotionally... Action has very little action is the way of plot or even as good “filler”.

Specials:

Favorite: Miraculous Paris -Gah honestly I think this is one of the very best episodes in all the show. Fantastic writing, great characterization, a fun adventure and seeing the alternate universe was fascinating. I love Shadybug and Claw Noir. Hesperia was awesome (I refuse to call him Betterfly). I have so many questions about the other world and who the Supreme is. Gabriel singing the intro. I could go on all day.

Least Favorite: ...idk -I mean there's only three specials thus far, and honestly I can't rank the Shanghai or the New York special as the lowest.

Movies: -Jk we only have one. xD But with how movie one ended with Nathalie I'm excited to see what they might do with this universe in the future.

[shsl-box-worshipper]

A Grave Mistake

Hi, @vexfulfolly! I'm your gifter for @code-swap 2024! I honestly had a lot of fun with making this gift and coming up with ideas. The story I went with was 'What if XANA came back and Jeremie was the last LW after a horrible XANA attack and this is the start of his comeback?' and I ran with it lol.

I decided to go for an art-fic mini combo, starting with the art and building a story based on that and finishing them both simultaneously. Named after a song by Ice Nine Kills (Which is based on the film The Crow (1994)). Hope you enjoy!

Three months.

That's how long it took. Just three terrible months of hell.

It started two years after they were sure XANA was dead. They had all thoroughly moved on from those two years fighting XANA in that time. They all stayed together of course, in one way or another. Odd was still Ulrich's roommate and Kiwi's owner, Yumi and Ulrich were actively dating, William had slowly been accepted back into their friend group to the point where he often shared the big sibling role with Yumi, and Aelita and Jeremie were both the best of their class and smitten lovebirds.

Everything was perfect. Everything was great. They weren't paranoid. They weren't scared for every second they were awake.

Then it happened. It was quite innocuous and almost unnoticeable at first.

Power fluctuations, news about blackouts in areas around former Replikas, phone lines going dead for hours and hours at a time. Two weeks in, multiple regional governments around the globe suddenly shut off all communication with the outside world, shut off access to their areas, and became communication-less zones.

Jeremie jumped at the idea that XANA could be causing all this. But the others calmed him down, reminding him that the multi-agent was dead. Jeremie himself sowed its destruction.

He wished, for once in his pathetic life, he didn't listen to his friends and that he booted up his old laptop. But he didn't, so he did nothing.

Then it began.

Disasters of all sorts struck. Floods, hurricanes, tornados, power plant failures. Infrastructure was failing all across the board and no one could figure out why.

Then they came.

Robots, cyborgs-whatever you want to call them, they stormed into every capital conceivable. Monsters of flesh and metal, attacking what Jeremie could only assume was their former friends and family.

It was at that moment that they all scrambled back to action. But they were unprepared for such a threat.

Odd was first, shot down while they were still at Kadic by the robots while saving Ulrich. He went out as he always did: Smiling and making jokes.

Yumi, Aelita, Ulrich, and himself made it to the factory, but they were hot on their tail. Ulrich stayed behind and tried to hold them off, like he used to. Jeremie knew he didn't make it.

William, meanwhile, stayed behind to keep Kadic safe. Jeremie hoped he was still alive. But even he knew that hope was fleeting.

Jeremie immediately virtualized Yumi and Aelita, but before he could give them instruction, they were onset by a new monster they hadn't seen before.

When Yumi lost all her lifepoints, Jeremie was expecting her to come out of the scanners.

But she didn't. She was nowhere on Lyoko and nowhere in the real world.

Yumi was dead.

Jeremie desperately tried to guide Aelita out of danger and toward the tower, but he lost contact with her.

And whatever Ulrich did to distract the robots failed. One was above him.

Pain filled his entire being as that one robot landed a blow to his gut, causing him to bleed profusely. And he could hear the elevator going down, carrying more of those things. Knowing his time was limited, he did the only thing he could.

He set up a delayed virtualization and crawled his way to the scanners.

That's where he found himself now.

Jeremie knew all for certain that he was the last Lyoko Warrior. The others were either dead or last seen in situations that could only logically conclude with their deaths.

He groaned as he tried to stanch the gaping wound in his abdomen. He nearly swore as his nerves once again screamed at the pain.

So, this was it, huh? Jeremie chuckled at how fate had led to where he was now.

Four years ago, he came to this factory for such an innocuous reason. He was an ignorant 11-year old who simply wanted to win a robotics contest.

He was alone. He was friendless. And he treated technology like his lifeline.

Then he found and turned on the supercomputer, met Aelita, and his whole world was flipped upside down. Friends, love, and a reason to live beyond the technology that was defining his life.

Now, he was back where he was four years ago. Friendless, alone, and with technology acting as his literal lifeline.

01:00:00

It's ironic. The last time he was like that, he was innocent, scared 11-year-old boy. He had done nothing interesting in particular, and was just continuing the status quo he had built for himself.

Writing programs, making robots, hiding from his bullies.

Now he was 15. Nearly 16.

Now he had experienced what he had missed out on. What he never got to taste because of his introvertedness.

And it was amazing. Never before had he had friends who actually cared about him. Never before had he have a reason to keep on living, to keep on fighting.

Never before had he ever fallen in love. Have a girlfriend. KISSED.

He had faced trials and tribulations no child ever should...and he grew from them. He had turned from a cowardly, innocent, lost boy into a wise man, intelligent beyond his years and surrounded by everything he could have ever wanted or needed.

00:30:00

But he had to throw that away. He should've trust his instincts. He should've jumped at the opportunity and stopped it before it got worse.

But he didn't. He trusted his friends too much. He fell victim to his own logic and reasoning.

And now, they were dead.

Everyone Jeremie had ever known or loved...was dead.

*CLANK!*

?

Its the robots, Jeremie realized. They had found the hatch, whether by following his blood trail or using deductive reasoning, and they were coming down now.

00:20:00

At the same time, he could hear the scanner he was in start to whir. It was drawing power, something these things always did. Especially when he was beginning the transferring step of his process.

*CLANK-CLANK!*

They were getting closer now. Jeremie from the distance of the sound that they were climbing the ladder now.

0:10:00

They were down the ladder now. All it would take was one shot and he would be dead. The scanners would not register his brain activity and would virtualize his corpse as a catatonic dummy.

"Heh..."

All it took was one mistake...and his world had ended.

00:09:00

They were scanning the area now, Jeremie deduced. Probably to figure out which scanner he went into.

He purposely chose one that wasn't facing the ladder. Buy himself a few more seconds before they would inevitably find him. Maybe then, he would be safe.

00:08:00

He could hear their metal feet pounding outside the scanner, shaking the entire room and maybe the entire complex.

Knowing he would practically be a sitting duck if he stayed sitting, he tried to push himself up onto his feet.

00:07:00

His body was protesting his every move, his nerves practically begging him to stop. But he needed to stand. He needed to be prepared.

He had to. He made the mistake of not being prepared once.

00:06:00

It took some effort but he was on his feet now, gritting his teeth and trying to keep as quiet as possible.

He could see some of them now. His glasses were in absolute ruins, but he could still see out of one lense.

00:05:00

Metallic feet crushed against the otherwise hard metal of the scanner room, horrific visages of metal and flesh entering his view. He nearly vomitted when he saw his first one only a couple of hours ago. He didn't even know XANA was capable of such inhumane things, but then again, what has this AI not done up to this point?

One in front of him was male, in his 30s, and overweight. Other than that, Jeremie couldn't figure out much about it. Whatever person made up that mechanical monstrosity had their facial features practically rotting off.

00:04:00

The first one didn't spot him, thankfully. It was too busy heading toward the other scanner to realize Jeremie was there.

He left out a sigh of relief as it went. If his calculations were right, the delayed virtualization would be enacted in a few seconds. He just needed just a little more time-

A second nightmare stepped forward, one much more sloppier than the first one. Bits and pieces of it's tech were practically falling out of it.

00:03:00

The second one was smaller than the first one. Looked to be male...and around Jeremie's age.

It set off such uncomfortable feelings in Jeremie's stomach once he realized that. The fact that someone his own age was turned into one of these things...

He couldn't bear the thought.

00:02:00

!

This one was turning around. SHIT!

The sound of crunching motors and gears filled the air as the cyborg monster turned it's head to look into the scanner.

And at that moment, a loud, piercing alarm sound filled the air, the thing's eyes flashing the Eye Of XANA as it's allies gathered around Jeremie's scanner.

00:01:00

...But they didn't do anything. They all stared at him, eye to Eye as he held himself against the scanner.

It was at that moment that Jeremie realized what was going on, and with it, his remaining vestiges of sanity faded.

It was...toying with him. Gloating at its own success.

It had Jeremie surrounded, it was ready to kill him. And it was gloating. Four years of constantly fighting and it came out on top.

But Jeremie didn't break down into tears. He didn't submit himself to defeat.

In fact, he smiled.

Not a cheery one, no no. Not any that would be seen worn on Odd's face.

It was a look of madness. Insanity.

00:00:30

If XANA thought it had won, it was sorely mistaken. As long as Jeremie was still living and breathing, it would never win. As long as there was something against XANA, it would never be assured victory.

00:00:20

He may be bleeding, he may be alone, he may be even throwing himself to his own death...but in actuality, he wasn't alone.

They may not be among the land of the living now, but he could feel them. His friends. His true family and companions.

00:00:10

Odd's smile, Yumi's protection, Ulrich's comradery, William's devotion...

And Aelita's love. The girl who started it all. And who he shall avenge.

00:00:05

As he heard the scanners begin to rev, knowing that the virtualization process he had so carefully set up was about to begin, he stared directly at the enemy. At XANA's eye.

00:00:04

The eye of a monster, created a decade ago by a desperate man fueled by love and revenge.

00:00:03

Now it will be killed by a desperate man. Fueled similarly by love...and revenge.

00:00:02

Knowing the virtualization was imminent and stanching his wound as much as possible, Jeremie said one, last thing...to this monster.

"Buildings burn and people die...but real love is forever. And I'll say this, XANA...you've made a grave mistake letting me live."

XANA didn't have time to react before the doors closed.

Its minions panicked and shot endlessly at the scanner, trying to destroy before the process had finished.

They succeeded in destroying it after 30 seconds of constant firing.

...But when they checked the resulting debris...there were no remains.

Nothing was left of Jeremie Belpois in the real world.

Now they were even.

For both, man and machine, good and cruel...had committed grave mistakes. And paid the ultimate price.

[peanut-tyrug]

TADC Fanfic: How the Game can Change

Chess is an ornate game. Each piece has it’s role. Each game has it’s rules… but what would happen if the game were to suddenly change?

—

TRIGGER WARNING - This fic contains body horror, memory loss, caps, insanity, bullying, and fighting/arguing. If you aren’t comfortable with this things, please don’t read this.

Chess is a very complex and orderly game.

You have a black and white checkered board. Black and white pieces. Pieces with their own individual roles and rules.

…But what would happen if the game were to suddenly change? It’s rules bended, pieces swapped…

…How could it all change…?

—

In a game of chess, you have a Queen and a King.

The Queen protects the King. Keeps him out of danger brought upon by the opposite end of the board.

The King can never help but be thankful he has someone to protect him.

Especially when he’d be nothing without her.

…Unable to live without her…

Two juniors in High School, Kenton and Quinley, walk through the empty hall, enjoying their lunch break in solitude. Staring into each other’s beautiful eyes.

Kenton’s eyes as gleaming as sapphires. Quinley’s as dazzling as glistening tree sap under the setting sun.

“Hey! Look!” Says someone nearby. “It’s those chess people!”

The couple is snapped out of their trance and looks back to the source of the voice. They see a few boys grouped up together, looking at them.

“Are you two going to collect bugs or something?” Says another boy. The group laughs.

“Who the hell collects insects for fun?” Says another boy amongst the laughing.

Kenton’s face furrows a bit. “I’ll have you know—“

“Know what?” Says a boy. “That you and girlfriend are weird?”

The group laughs again.

“You two are such nerds!” Says another boy.

“Freaks!” Exclaims one boy. “Get the freak alarm out! Wee-woo-wee-woo-wee-woo!”

The boys laugh again. Kenton, embarrassed, rubs his arm and moves back a bit. He looks over to Quinley.

“Lets just go, Quin.” Says Kenton.

Anger quickly bubbles inside Quinley’s body. She storms up to the boys and stares them down.

“What’re you gonna do? An abrasive chess maneuver?” A boy asks. He cackles.

Quinley then reels an arm back and slaps the boy across his face. The sound echos through the entire hallway. It definitely sounded like it hurt. Kenton stares in shock, eyes wide and mouth agape. So do the boys, who’ve stopped laughing entirely.

“No one talks trash about our passions like that!” Says Quinley, anger imbedded in her voice. “Someone ought to teach you how to respect others!”

“What? You gonna call your mommy?” One boy asks, snapping out of his shock.

“I’ll get you lot to call your mommies in a flash.” Says Quinley. She cracks her knuckles. She stares the boys down, a smirk laying on her face.

“You wanna fight?” Asks a boy, the strongest of the group. He stands up and stares her down. He’s fairly tall compared to her. “Try me, then.”

Quinley’s face scrunches into that of pure burning vengeance. She begins to throw multiple punches in quick succession directly onto the boy’s stomach as if he were a punching bag, not even giving him a chance to hit. Kenton and the other boys stare as Quinley doesn’t stop hitting her opponent, who begins to wince as he falls back against the wall. After a few more hard hitting blows to the stomach, Quinley then kicks the boy directly between his legs, the boy grunts in pain and falls to his knees. He grabs hold of the injured lower area and flops to his side. The other boys stare at Quinley in terror before shrieking and running off, leaving the other boy there.

Quinley puts her hands to her hips and looks back to Kenton.

Kenton stares in utter disbelief. “…WHAT!?” Kenton shouts. “I can’t believe I just watched you do that!”

“I almost can’t either.” Says Quinley.

“That was amazing!” Says Kenton, stepping over to Quinley. “I didn’t know you could throw punches like that! How’d you learn how to do that?”

“My mom taught me.” Says Quinley. “She told me that she defended my dad with her life. That’s what she taught me to do when I found the one I love. Love them, and keep them safe.”

“Awwwhh! That’s so sweet of your mother!” Says Kenton. “But, anyway, shall we go? My Queen?” He holds his hand out to her.

Quinley gasps a bit. She places a hand to her cheek. “Of course, my King.” She says. She places her hand onto Kenton’s.

The two walk away, leaving the boy to writhe.

Kenton can’t help but be thankful to have someone there for him.

—

It’s important to keep your loved ones close. You may never know what could happen to them in the future.

You never know when the game could suddenly begin to fall right before your eyes.

Through sickness and health…

“…I pronounce you man and wife.” Says the officiant.

Before Kenton can even react, Quinley pulls him close by the collar of his suit. The two share a tender kiss, which Kenton accepts. He cups Quinley’s face in his hands while Quinley continues to hold him by the collar. The crowd erupts into cheering.

“That’s my girl!” Says Quinley’s mother.

Through the happiest of moments…

“Ken!” Says Quinley. “Look at this butterfly I caught!”

“Oh, it’s beautiful! Like you.” Says Kenton.

Quinley blushes a little. “Oh, stop it!” She giggles.

“It’s almost too beautiful to keep.” Says Kenton.

“Should we let it go?” Quinley asks.

“Yeah.” Says Kenton.

Quinley lets the butterfly fly out of the net, allowing it to fly into the sunset. The couple watches happily as it flies off into the vibrant orange sun.

And through the loneliest…

“You doing okay?” Kenton asks from the phone.

“I miss you.” Says Quinley. “Why’d you have to go out of the state alone? I want to be with you!”

“I miss you too, Quin, but this is important.” Says Kenton. “I’ll be back soon, okay? Hang tight.”

“I will, Ken.” Says Quinley.

Through whatever life may have to bring unto you, one should always be by their significant other, no matter what.

“It’s revolutionary!” Says Quinley. “A virtual reality world? A realm where you don’t even need to eat, drink or sleep? Oh, it’s wonderful!”

“It is!” Says Kenton. “Although, I wouldn’t really want to live there, whether we could leave or not.”

“I wouldn’t either.” Says Quinley, smile fading a bit. “Sure it’d be cool, but… what if we can’t leave? What of my family, my friends… and you?” Quinley looks to Kenton, anxiety draping over her eyes.

“We should be fine. We could just take off the headset.” Says Kenton. “Sorry for freaking you out.”

“Oh, you’re okay, Ken.” Says Quinley.

The air then becomes a bit thick. Silent.

Before Kenton breaks the silence. “Anyway, I can’t wait to show you the finished product.”

“I can’t wait either!” Says Quinley.

…Through it all…

“I’m gonna turn the program on.” Says a developer. “You two ready?”

“Yes.” Says Quinley, trying to contain her excitement.

“Mm-hm.” Says Kenton, nodding.

“Alright,” Says the dev. “Prepare your eyes. It’s bright.”

…Everything…

…But what if you’ve lost it all…?

…

…

All of your memories.

Whatever you had before suddenly awakening again…

…What of you both now…?

When your life has been reduced to nothing but code…

When you look down at yourself and see you are nothing like who you faintly remember…

Face made of wood. A long violet robe going down to you feet... If you even have any. Gloved hands with no arms to be seen.

When you look into a nearby mirror and see how you’ve changed…

“…W-WHAT AM I!?” Exclaims a white King chess piece with tilted eyes.

When someone else seems to be in the same position as you. Just as scared and uncertain of the world around them…

“Excuse me?” Says a feminine voice.

The King piece turns. He sees a brown Queen chess piece. Long red robe, gloved hands with no arms, tilted eyes, although inverted compared to the King piece. She looks into the mirror. Startled by her appearance, she moves back. She looks over to the King piece.

“…I believe we’re thinking the same thing here.” She says.

…What are you to do?

“My, my!” Says a dramatic voice, suddenly shouting through the once quiet air. “Humans have finally entered this realm!”

The two chess pieces look back, and gaze upon the figure. They both yelp and move back.

The figure wore a rose pink vest, white undershirt, and black bow tie, an attire fit for a ringmaster of a Circus. What was odd about the figure though was that it’s head was that of pair of dentures with a pair of eyes floating with them. On top of the head was a black top hat.

“Who’re you!?” Asks the Queen.

“My name is Caine!” Says Caine. “I’m the ringmaster and overseer of the AMAZING DIGITAL CIRCUS!!” He waves his arms up. “An incredible world of wonders where anything can happen!”

“…Huh?” The King piece questions.

“Oh!” Caine seems to have remembered something. He takes off his hat, and from it, a bubble with beady eyes and a large sharp smile pops out. “And this here is Bubble! My assistant and dear friend of mine!”

Bubble stares upon the duo with his beady eyes. “Can I eat your skin?” He asks.

The duo moves even further away.

“Now, Bubble!” Says Caine. “What did I tell you about threatening the arrivals? Get back in this hat, mister!” He takes off his hat, allowing Bubble to go back into Caine’s hat.

Caine looks back to the frightened duo and hovers over to them, staying inches away from their faces.

“Wow!” Says Caine. “Amazing avatars! Show stopping! Spectacular!”

The duo moves back even further. “Stay away from us, you creep!” Says the Queen.

“Enough looking, let’s go looking!” Says Caine, ignoring the Queen’s desire entirely. He lifts his hands in the air, allowing the duo to hover above the ground. Caine then quickly flies forward, dragging his new companions with him into the outside world.

“Here we have, the TENT!!” Exclaims Caine dramatically. “This is where your living quarters are, as well as loads of other activities! These activities may include—“

Caine then pauses, left index finger hanging in the air and his maw agape. His eyes have blue screens in them.

“…What’s wrong with him?” The King whispers to the Queen.

“…I don’t know.” The Queen whispers back.

“Ball pits, mini golf, and MORE!!” Says Caine, snapping out of his buffering.

Caine then floats forward again, taking his guests further out.

“Here we have, the GROUNDS!!” Says Caine. “Drown yourself in the Digital Lake, or engage in ridery at the Digital Carnival! Night, day, it’s all okay! The choice is yours, a cosmic buffet!”

Before the duo can speak, Caine takes them further out. Out into a space completely void of color.

“This is the VOID!!” Says Caine, his voice echoing through the Void. “…No one is meant to venture into the Void. Not even I know what’s out there…” Caine says ominously.

Once again, Caine takes the duo on his own little trip. This time, back to the Tent’s interior.

The pieces move back. “Stay away, you chatterbox!” The King exclaims.

“How do we get out of here!?” The Queen piece asks.

“A—“ Caine begins, buffering. Again.

The chess pieces stare, waiting for an answer.

Caine eventually snaps out of it. “…Well… I’m sorry to say that there isn’t one.”

The chess pieces stare in horror.

When there’s no way out…

What do you do…?

“But, let’s not worry about that!” Says Caine. “What’s your name, your majesty?” Caine asks the Queen chess piece, pointing his cane at her.

The Queen appears to be staring at the floor, mind blank.

“…Are you okay?” The King piece asks.

The Queen then snaps her head up. “—Huh? What?”

“Your name?” Caine asks, still pointing his cane at her.

“Oh! Uh—“ The Queen thinks, then begins to panic a bit. “…I-I don’t remember!? Why can’t I remember my name!? What about you?” She asks the King piece, head turned to him.

The King thinks, before his eyes go wide. “O-oh no…” Says the King. “I don’t know!?”

“YOU!” The Queen points at Caine. “Why can’t we remember our names!?”

“Nobody can remember their name once they enter the Digital Circus!” Says Caine. “One of the things I… don’t have control over, are your minds. So, all I can help you with is coming up with a new one!

The pieces look distressed by this information. The Queen more so than the King, as she’s begun to stare blankly at the ground.

“What’ll it be?” He points his cane at the Queen again.

The Queen hesitates. Then, “Queenie.” She says quickly. “It’s Queenie.” After a bit, she goes back to blankly staring at the ground.

“And what about you, kingly fellow?” Caine asks the King, now pointing his cane at him.

“…Uhm… uh…” He stammers. He looks over to Queenie and gets an idea. He turns to face Caine. “Kinger.” He says. “It goes well with Queenie, I believe.”

Queenie looks over to Kinger, snapping out of her blank trance. She stares at at him.

She never noticed how handsome he looked.

“Great names!” Says Caine. “Well, I think we’ll need more humans here for me to start our adventures! I’ll see you two around!” Caine then disappears.

Kinger looks over to Queenie.

He never noticed how pretty she looked.

“…I never noticed how, uhm…” Queenie begins. She glances down, blushing. She eventually looks back up at Kinger. “…How handsome you are.”

Kinger blushes. “Oh! Uh, uhm…” He stammers. “…Me?” He points to himself.

“Of course!” Says Queenie. “You’re the only other handsome man in this room!”

Kinger glances down, blushing. He looks back up to Queenie. “…Thank you.” He says. “I really appreciate it.”

“You’re very welcome.” Says Queenie, blushing a bit, glancing down.

Caine then suddenly reappears. “I almost forgot!” He says. “Your rooms!”

~~~

Caine leads the chess pieces through a long hallway with multiple doors on each side. Every door has a portrait on it, but they all resemble mannequins that you’d use for art. All but two doors, which have portraits of Kinger and Queenie on them.

“Your room, madame!” Says Caine as he holds the door the Queenie’s room open for her.

“Thank you.” Says Queenie. “I appreciate it.” She enters the room and turns back to face Kinger. She waves him goodbye.

Kinger waves back.

Caine shuts the door. “Onward, Kinger!” Says Caine. He begins to take Kinger over to his room.

As the two walk, Kinger can’t help but feel concerned for Queenie.

It didn’t look like she was taking their predicament well.

~~~

“Queenie?” Kinger asks, knocking on Queenie’s door. “May I come in?”

Queenie opens her door a bit. She peaks from the opening. “…You can come in.”

Kinger enters Queenie’s room. It’s colorful, yet dark. Various vanity is placed around the room. A bed sits to the room’s side. A bed fit for a Queen.

Queenie sits himself on her bed. Kinger follows suit and sits next to her. Queenie stares down at the ground while Kinger looks over to her.

“…Are you alright?” Kinger asks.

Queenie sighs. “…I’m stuck here. You’re stuck here… we’re stuck here…” She says. “…How can I be okay when I’ve lost all of what I had before? Whatever we had… friends, family… it all disappeared from us. Just like that…” She snaps her fingers. “…What can we do? What can I do?”

Kinger takes a moment to think, glancing down. He then glances back up at Queenie. “…Adjust.” Says Kinger. “Find ways to keep ourselves together.”

“What!? But what if Caine’s lying to us?” Queenie suggests. “What if he’s lying about there not being an exit?”

Caine then suddenly appears inside the room. “I wasn’t lying, by the way!” He says. He then glances down, then back up at the duo. “About the exit.” He then disappears.

Kinger looks over to Queenie. “See?” He says.

Queenie glances down, then back up at Kinger. “…If there really isn’t an exit…”

“We adjust.” Says Kinger, lending out his hands for Queenie to hold. She takes them. “We stay by each other’s sides. I’ve got your hand.”

If Queenie had a mouth, she’d have the biggest smile on her face. “…And I’ve got yours.”

The two lean their heads against each other.

What do you do when you find each other? Discover that you’re sharing suffering? Discover your shared feelings?

You love each other.

Stay by each other until the very end…

—

Kinger and Queenie, along with the other members of the Digital Circus troupe, watch as a former member gets placed into a hole in the ground.

Although, they looked nothing like how they used to.

Their body was a mesh of polygons. Slimy and viscous polygons. Various different colored and pulsating eyes dotted the creature.

“In the Cellar you go!” Says Caine, placing the creature into a hole in the floor.

“…Hey, Caine?” Asks a Circus member, Ragatha the ragdoll. “…What happened to them? What was that?”

The first of many to fall to this phenomenon, unfortunately…

“That, my dear, is a little thing called 'Abstraction'.” Says Caine. “One becomes abstracted when they 'lose their marbles', so to speak. But! You shouldn’t have to worry about that when I’m here to give you fun and wacky adventures!”

The Circus members glance at each other, uncertain and scared.

Scared about what they had just heard.

…What if another member were to just… lose themselves like that…?

Lost to the madness.

Lost to the desire.

“Never mind any of that, though!” Says Caine. “You’ve all done wonderful on your adventure today! I give you, my fine friends, a reward!”

“I’m listening.” Says Jax the purple rabbit, another Circus member.

“The gift of friendship!” Caine exclaims.

“…What.” Says Jax, a bit disappointed.

“I’ll leave you all alone to let yourselves connect with your friends! Until tomorrow, my little superstars!” Caine then disappears in a white cloud.

“…I thought we’d actually get something.” Says Jax.

“Be grateful, Jax!” Says Ragatha. “Friendship is important! …Especially in a world that doesn’t have an exit… and no matter how hard we try we can’t leave or else we’ll go insane! …Heheh…”

The air tenses.

“…She is right, though.” Says Kinger, breaking the silence among the troupe. “We need companionship in a place like this, right, Queenie?”

Queenie appears to be blankly staring at the ground before her head quickly picks up. She looks over to Kinger. “—What?”

“We need companionship in a world like this, right?” Kinger asks, concern in his voice.

“Oh! Yes!” Says Queenie. “We need each other. It’s the only thing keeping us together.”

“Cute.” Says Jax. “Keep that dread away for as long as you can. I’m gonna go get something to eat.” Jax walks off.

Ragatha gives Jax the stink eye as he walks off. She grumbles. She then looks over to Kinger and Queenie. “Anyway, you two are so cuuuuute! You’re inseparable!”

“Hehe, I like to think we are.” Says Kinger.

“No,” Queenie begins. “We are.”

Kinger looks over to Queenie, eyes wide. His expression softens and he blushes a little. “Maybe we are.” He says. “My Queen.”

Queenie’s eyes go slightly wide. Her expression also softens. She blushes. “…My King.”

Kinger and Queenie then share a hug, leaning their heads against each other. Ragatha gushes at the moment.

She was right.

They truly were inseparable.

Although that may be true, that still doesn’t mean separation can be prevented.

Abstraction is still a threat, you know.

It’s something one cannot always keep at bay.

Not for long, at least.

The concept of Abstraction dangles over some heads like a ring of car keys. Tempting one to fear it. Fear the day that you snap and become a husk of who you used to be.

Some people play with those car keys like a cat with a ball on a string. Pry at the thought. Pry at the fear. Let the fear sprout into a disgusting and rotting flower.

It eats at your mind. Your sanity.

The inability to leave this wonderful world of madness eats at your mind.

Sometimes, one can’t help but think of it.

Even when you think you have something, someone, to help you cope with what you’ve lost…

Regardless of how mentally sound they may seem. Regardless of what you can and can’t see of someone’s head.

Regardless of a piece’s role in a game…

“I don’t know what to do…” Says Queenie. “I’m scared. Scared of losing you. Scared of being away from you… lost to my own head…”

“You won’t be,” Says Kinger. “As long as I’m right here. You won’t have to worry about a thing. I’ll always be there for you.”

Queenie looks up to Kinger happily. “…I’ll be there for you, too… As long as I have you…” She says. “…We can stay together.”

…No matter how hard they try…

…No matter what roles switch…

The game will soon become that of a broken, unruly kingdom…

—

“Queenie?” Kinger asks, knocking on Queenie’s door. “Queenie? Are you alright?”

Silence.

Awful, deafening silence.

It’s terrifying.

“Hey,” Says an approaching voice. “You lookin' for your girlfriend?”

Kinger looks back. It’s Jax, walking towards him.

“Jax!” Kinger exclaims, slightly relieved. “Have you seen Queenie? I don’t think she’s in her room…”

“No, haven’t seen her.” Says Jax. “Guess you’re gonna have to look around the entire Circus for her. Good luck.” He says slyly. Jax walks down the long hall of rooms toward the stairs at the end of the hall, sassy as he ever could be.

Kinger sees no point in going after Jax. He wasn’t necessarily the type of person to be helpful to anyone. Kinger decides to look for Queenie alone.

—

While everyone else is going on one of Caine’s new adventures, Kinger wanders around looking for his Queen.

“Queenie?” He says into the air worriedly. “Where are you?”

“Kinger?” Asks a soft voice. “Are you okay?”

It’s Gangle, a ribbon girl with a mask for a face.

“Gangle! Have you seen Queenie anywhere?” Kinger asks.

“…I’m sorry, Kinger,” Says Gangle, voice trembling with guilt. “I haven’t seen her.”

“Oh, you’re fine.” Says Kinger. “Good luck with the adventure, by the way.”

Gangle smiles. “…Thank you.” Suddenly, an odd little critter begins to chase after the Gangle. She yelps and runs off.

As Gangle runs off, Ragatha runs behind her.

“Good luck with finding Queenie, Kinger!” Says Ragatha.

“Good luck to you, too!” Says Kinger, waving his hand a bit. He heads off in the opposite direction of the others.

—

Kinger’s looked everywhere. Every door, every hall. He’s even asked the other Circus members if they’ve seen Queenie, but to no avail. She appears to be nowhere to be found.

Although, there’s only one place he hadn’t looked.

Outside the tent.

Kinger looks on at the exit to the tent. He slides over to the exit, hoping to find his Queen.

—

Kinger stops near the cliffs at the edge of the mountains end. He eyes the area, looking for any sign of Queenie.

“Queenie…?” He calls out.

As his eyes scour the area, his eyes stop and widen.

He’s spotted her.

Queenie sits, back turned to Kinger, laying against a rock. Her lower half curled up against her upper body. She appears to be trembling a bit.

“…Queenie?” Kinger asks, slowly moving toward Queenie.

Queenie quickly turns back, eyes wide in shock. She turns to face the other. She waves her hands to Kinger in a panic.

“What’s wrong?” Kinger asks.

Queenie quickly shakes her head and turns away from Kinger.

“Queenie…” Kinger says. “You’re going to be okay. Just breathe.”

Queenie turns back. “…No.” She says.

“…What…?” Kinger asks.

“I can’t do this anymore, Kinger. I can’t.” Says Queenie, voice slightly distorted and glitchy. “I can’t do this anymore. Why live when I’ve lost everything? My friends, my family… my life… I just can’t anymore… I JUST CAN’T, KINGER!!” The more she speaks, the more distorted her voice becomes.

“Queenie! Please!” Kinger says, panicking a bit. “I don’t want you to hurt yourself!”

“…I’m sorry…” Says Queenie. “…When my life has been reduced to nothing but code… what the hell am I supposed to do? …I-I just… I JUST CAN’T!!” She brings her hands to her head.

Queenie’s form begins to bug out, becoming more and more unrecognizable.

Kinger moves back a bit.

“I JUST CAN’T!! I CAN’T, I CAN’T, I CAN’T!!!” Says Queenie, becoming more and more distorted. “WHAT CAN I DO WHEN MY LIFE’S BEEN REDUCED TO NOTHING BUT CODE!?”

Terrible static is heard. It echos through the terrain. Kinger falls to his bottom and looks on in utter horror as Queenie’s form becomes completely unrecognizable. From her, a terrible shrill can be heard, all glitchy, distorted, and loud. Her form contorts into that of horrible polygonal beast, vibrant and colorful eyes appear through the beast’s body and neck.

Once it’s gained a proper form, the beast stares Kinger down. Kinger stares back in complete horror and disbelief.

“…Queenie… please…” Kinger says desperately. “…I-I can’t live in this world without you…”

The creature then loudly roars. It charges forward, banging its head into Kinger’s stomach. He gets flung back.

“Hey, Kinger?” Yells out a nearby voice. “Where’d you go? Did you find Queenie?”

Kinger quickly looks back. From the cliffs, Ragatha approaches.

“Kinger?” Ragatha calls out again. As she approaches, she suddenly stops.

“…W-w-what happened!?” Ragatha exclaims.

Kinger doesn’t respond, looking back to the beast with horror in his eyes.

Ragatha stares at the creature, before realization suddenly hits her…

…That’s why Queenie had left…

Ragatha puts her hands to her mouth and gasps. She looks down at Kinger. “…Kinger…” She says. “…I’m so, so sorry…”

Suddenly, the beast lets out a terrible growl. Ragatha and Kinger look on in shock.

“…CAAAAAAAINE!!” Ragatha shouts. She grabs Kinger and drags him along as she runs off.

The creature immediately chases after Ragatha. Ragatha, whilst holding onto Kinger and dragging him along, attempts to distract the creature by running around and about the terrain, but to no avail. She sprints back to the interior of the Circus tent, the creature still following her.

All for the other remaining Circus members to see.

“WHAT THE [SPROING!]!?” Exclaims Zooble, the amalgamation of pieces.

“What happened!?” Gangle exclaims.

“Oh, dear!” Kaufmo the clown exclaims.

“Uh oh!” Says Jax jokingly. “Looks like someone had a heated argument out there.”

“MOOOOOOOVE!!” Exclaims Ragatha.

The Circus members dodge as Ragatha runs toward the wall of the tent. Ragatha jumps to the side, causing the Abstracted creature to bump into the wall. The creature recollects itself and turns its head in Ragatha and Kinger’s direction. It begins to approach the ragdoll and King piece, a small growl escaping it.

“Uh-uhm—!!” Ragatha stammers, backing up. “We’re sorry!?”

The beast stares Ragatha down, snarling at her.

Until it’s suddenly lifted into the air.

Caine appears below the creature, holding up in the air. “Oh, dear!” Says Caine. “Who do we have here?”

The creature begins to squirm in Caine’s invisible grip.

“Now, now!” Says Caine. “We can’t have any carnage and destruction going on around here! Not in my Circus!”

A hole then opens up in the ground. “Another to add to the collection!” Says Caine, as he places the creature in the Cellar.

“…Who knew a Queen could be so brash?” Kaufmo asks.

“…We had no idea…” Says Gangle sadly. She begins to cry, the tears on her mask fall. “…W-we could’ve h-helped…”

“Maybe!” Says Caine. “But let’s not worry about that now! I’ve seen your progress throughout this adventure! Whose ready for a reward?”

Ragatha looks on at the Circus troupe. Everyone looks to be in mourning. All except Jax, who appears to be looking how he always does, sassy.

Ragatha then looks over to Kinger.

His eyes were wide with terror.

He looked like he could just snap at any moment.

—

It’s later in the 'day' within the Digital Realm. Everyone is in their rooms, either doing their own thing or mourning Queenie.

Most are sad she’s gone, but they’ve mostly adjusted to people losing it and abstracting.

Although, Kinger seems to be taking it the worst.

He sits on his bed, rocking back and forth a bit. Trying to process what had transpired.

But he can’t.

He can’t stop thinking about Queenie. What happened to her. What caused her to fall to her decline.

He felt he had caused this to happen. He provoked her, but judging by how she was acting…

There very likely wasn’t anything anyone could’ve done to help.

Kinger was alone. Just as Queenie was.

A King without his Queen.

…Alone…

The word echos through Kinger’s head.

He was alone.

…Alone…

…Alone…

It won’t go away…

…It won’t stop…

'…I-I can’t live in this world without you…'

…I can’t…

…I-I…

Kinger begins breathing hastily. Terror and panic swells up inside of him, ready to burst like a bomb. He gets up from his bed and stands in the middle of his room. He puts his hands to his head.

And then…

Something snaps.

“…AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHH!!!!”

The other Circus members rush to Kinger’s room, fearing the worst. Ragatha slams the door open, allowing her and the Circus members to see the terror before them.

Kinger stands bent down with his hands against the wall, eyes bloodshot and body trembling. Breathing raspy and all out of wack.

“Kinger!” Ragatha exclaims. “Calm down! We can help!” She puts her arms out and begins to walk toward him.

Kinger quickly rises and smacks Ragatha’s hands away from him. “N-no!” He says. “…My Queen… she’s gone… I-I CAN’T LIVE IN THIS WORLD WITHOUT HER!!” His voice then becomes that of slight sobs within raspy breath.

“Kinger!” Ragatha exclaims. “Please, just relax! You’re gonna be okay!”

“…B-but…” Kinger stammers, hands and body terribly trembling. “…I-I-I…”

Ragatha stands there, not exactly sure what to do, before lunging at Kinger with a hug. He quickly pushes Ragatha off of him. She lands on her bottom.

“…What’re we gonna do?” Ragatha asks, looking back to the group. “We can’t just leave him alone.”

“I think he wants to be left alone, though.” Says Zooble.

Ragatha looks back to Kinger. Kinger stares at her. Kinger then points at the doorway leading out of his room.

“See?” Says Jax. “Leave him there.”

Ragatha slowly gets back up on her feet. She sadly turns back to the doorway and steps out. She turns back to face Kinger. “Sorry.” She says. She turns back to face the hallway and walks to her room.

The others follow Ragatha out. Jax shuts the room’s door.

Kinger is left alone. He sits down and curls up into a ball. He sits his down and begins to sob quietly.

Alone.

—

It’s been awhile, ages even, since Queenie had been lost to insanity. Most of the troupe had moved on from it.

So did Kinger… mostly.

Although, if seems to have taken a toll on him.

He’s become more jittery, by the looks of it. Paranoid. Staring blankly into space, no thoughts behind his eyes. Forgetful of his surrondings… forgetful, as if he has a memory problem.

“Queenie!? QUEENIE!?” Kinger shouts into the hallway of rooms.

“Kinger!?” Ragatha exclaims, popping out of her room. “You okay?”

Kinger quickly turns over to Ragatha and chanrges toward her. He slams his hands onto Ragatha’s shoulders and shakes her. “Ragatha! Have you seen Queenie!?”

Ragatha doesn’t answer, not sure how to respond.

Kinger then blinks and loosens his grip on Ragatha. He glanced around before looking back at the ragdoll. “GAH!!” He yelps. He lets go of the ragdoll. “Ragatha! You startled me. How are you doing?”

Ragatha nervously smiles. “…I’m good, Kinger.” She says.

“Splendid!” Says Kinger. “Oh! Caine’s probably preparing our next adventure. Come with me.”

Kinger then slides away from Ragatha and down the stairs leading to the Tent’s center. Ragatha follows, still nervously smiling.

The game has fallen right before his very eyes. The game has become that of an unruly kingdom, a deserted and desolate land with no one to claim it.

…Every role, every rule… all of it…

…See how the game can change…?

- END -

[cutiedwaekki]

domectic dwaekki

—hold me i'm your bunny

Bang chan x changbin

summary : changbin's new life as a house-husband

contain : weight-gain , tight clothes , breaking furniture

A/n : started as a random idea , ended up as a short fic

Enjoy ♡

(≡・x・≡)

In a quiet neighborhood, in the heart of a bustling city, lived Chan and Changbin, who had just sealed their love with the sacred bonds of marriage.

Their union was an ode to modernity, acceptance and unconditional love. After years of innocent flirts in college, of making out sessions at the studio where they both worked that became their places of love, they now stood side by side, ready to face the challenges and savor the joys of married life.

Changbin , with his warm smile and kind heart, had decided to swap his stressful job for that of housekeeper. He had always dreamed of creating a welcoming home, where harmony and happiness would reign. So, on the first morning of their new life as husbands, Changbin proudly donned a pink apron adorned with a pretty pink heart, symbolizing his new mission: to take care of their home and his beloved.

Every day, while Chan went off to work, Changbin devoted himself to household chores. He sang happily as he polished the furniture, did the laundry or cooked delicious meals in their bright kitchen. For him, every act was marked by love and devotion to his husband. Over time, however, Chan began to notice a subtle change in Changbin.

As the months went by, something began to change in their routine. His husband, once athletic and slender, was gradually putting on weight. At first, it was only a few, almost imperceptible kilos. Chan didn't even notice, thinking it was simply due to the fact that spending more time at home meant Changbin ate more and spent less time at the gym. It was normal, after all, for a man who had spent his whole life focusing on his career to have the right to rest!

But as time went by, those tight-fitting shirts became a little tighter, and jeans seemed less flattering. He could see his cheeks getting fuller and fuller, until one day a second chin appeared. Instead of worrying, Chan felt a strange sense of satisfaction. He loved Changbin for his bubbly personality, his humor, his way to care about people. But if before he loved his body because it was another way of seeing each other at any time of day, now he had it at home, singing tunes while cooking in the same apron that was becoming tighter and tighter around his growing belly , he clearly appreciated this view

When he broached the subject with Changbin, the latter replied with a beaming smile: I guess I let myself go a bit, but you don't seem too bothered by it, do you? Chan smiled and gently stroked his cheek and assured him that his love for him was unchanged, no matter his size or shape. As the weeks passed, Chanbgin continued to flourish in his role as househusband. His passion for cooking was reflected in the sumptuous meals he lovingly prepared for Chan. Evenings were filled with laughter, deep conversation and tender embraces. The only difference was that, between two sweet moments, they both discovered the strange fantasies they had about the youngest's expansion.

More like, Chan was discovering that he loved his chubby husband even more.

He wanted to see him eat, enjoy his food, every dish he ate with pleasure as if it were the last of his life. But his favorite thing was when he wore tight clothes, he was so sexy!

Don't tell Changbin, but Chan liked to give him things on the pretext that it was on his way, like "the bakery was having a promotion on unsold goods" or "Jisung asked me to give you this", "Felix said this will suit you"because otherwise his husband, who was too humble, would refuse any kind of present. he still remembered that time when he had given him a letter , confessing his feelings and a box of chocolate accompanied by a rose. Changbin had cried that day and still kept the box of chocolate even though it was empty for years and not the most fancy at all , but for him , this box and this letter was the most beautiful gift that making all dear things superfluous alongside this proof of sincere love

But did he need to know that Chan was offering him clothes and taking them one or two sizes too small on purpose? You'd think Changbin would feel kissed or embarrassed, but he knew Chan, well... he thought his lover meant well but underestimated the weight his lover had put on.

What a fool, Chan analyzed his body in minute detail, he kissed every part of his body at night in their shared bed, he grabbed his belly and shook it, rubbed it, caressed it. He clearly loved this new Changbin.

However, as the weeks went by, Changbin's extra kilos became more and more visible, his belly grew more and more wrinkled against his clothes, his apron became very difficult to tie and it was hard to control his growing belly. He noticed that his walk was starting to change, the kilos were piling up so much that he began to waddle in order to walk properly.

Changbin's clothes became tighter and tighter, and even his kitchen apron began to struggle to contain his body. One day, one weekend among many, the two of them spent the day at home, doing nothing and enjoying each other's company. The two of them were sitting down to breakfast at the kitchen table.

—Jagi, can you fetch me the jam from the cupboard, please? Chan asked with a gentle smile.

Changbin couldn't resist, unaware that it was all a ruse so that Chan could admire his body soaking while he hopped about trying to grab the jar of strawberry jam that Chan had deliberately placed high up. He noticed that his belly was starting to hang over his clothes, but above all that when he had to pick something up, he'd land on the edge of the worktop. In short, such a divine vision sight for Chan.

But as he tried to get up, Changbin felt something strange. A muffled creak echoed through the room, followed by the sound of warping wood. Changbin realized to his horror that he was trapped. His apron was wedged between the back of the chair and his protruding belly. Panicking, Changbin tried to free himself, but to no avail. Chan rushed to his aid, alarmed by the unusual noises from his seat. Seeing the situation, A couldn't help but hold back a wry smile, he's fat as can be he thought.

Without wasting a second, Chan set about reassuring Changbin, expressing his unfailing love with multiple kisses despite the comical situation. Together, they finally managed to free Changbin from his chair. Sitting on the kitchen floor, totally oblivious to why he had to get up in the first place.

—Do you think I've put on weight?

—Binnie, I'd be lying if I said no.

—You're not very delicate with your words

—I'm just telling the truth, love

—Pff, I just want to know if... you like me like this, like I like our life, I like my body but I also like the way you look at me and I don't want that to change.

Chan grasped the importance of this moment, forgetting for a moment that his lover might be suffering from insecurity. He came to sit beside him and hugged him tightly.

—My love, I fell in love with you because of your personality, whether you're fat, skinny, muscular or whatever, you're the one I married and nothing will change that

—...even if I like gaining weight?

— I love you even more, I have more of you to love, more things to hold on to and ride-"

—Stop, you pervert, it's morning! Changbin chuckled, putting a hand in front of Chan to hide his blush.

In the end, the day was off to a good start, despite the incident that had only served to reunite the couple.

(≡・x・≡)

As he entered the room, the enticing aroma of Changbin's baking filled the air. With a smile, he made his way to the kitchen and found Changbin leaning against the counter, waiting for a tray of cookies to cool. Since embracing the role of a house husband, Changbin had put on some weight, his thighs becoming thicker, and developing a slight paunch, which his husband adored. They both welcomed the changes that married life had brought, cherishing the newfound softness.

His face lit up at the sight of his husband. Channie, you're home! he exclaimed, pulling him into a warm hug. Chan couldn't resist wrapping his arms around him, noticing how loose Changbin's apron ties had become. He reminisced about when Changbin first wore the apron, a gift symbolizing his commitment to their new lifestyle, where Changbin took on household chores while Chan worked. Despite Changbin's outward appearance of an alpha male, he was actually bubbly and eccentric, qualities that Chan cherished.

As they pulled away, Changbin placed his hands on Chan's waist, a touch Chan couldn't resist. Chan's hands found their way to Changbin's belly, eliciting a subtle sigh of pleasure. Changbin inquired about Chan's day at work, to which Chan expressed relief at being home in their cozy environment. Meanwhile, Changbin shared his busy day of cleaning and baking, his belly feeling a bit firmer from sampling his own creations.

Chan patted Changbin's belly with a knowing smirk, causing Changbin to blush. Despite his nerves, Changbin admitted to indulging in some taste testing while baking. Chan reassured him, expressing his love for having Changbin well-fed during his absence. He then instructed Changbin to remove his apron, revealing his strained button-up shirt and burgeoning belly.

Feeling embarrassed, Changbin questioned if he had let himself go. However, Chan disagreed, planting a passionate kiss on his lips while caressing his fat belly.

As they embraced, Chan whispered, "I think married life really suits you," affirming their love and contentment with their new lifestyle.

[hydroyaksha]

Stray kids fic recs

A skz fic list for those who’re too lazy to actually search for them (you’re just like me!!)

If any of the authors on this list do not want me to put their work on this list, I will immediately remove it, please tell me if you don’t want it here!

Personal favorites - ❤️

Kim seungmin

Scaredy cat

Very short and sweet, my favorite line has to be “speed run this bitch”. I absolutely love haunted houses fics and both the MC and seungmin being scared just made this twice as funny!

The minstrel, Kim Seungmin

(Royal AU) fluff, slight angst (wandering bard! Seungmin x princess! Reader)

This was just soooo cute! Seungmin and the MC’s relationship was just so precious and it really encapsulates how you could fall in love in such a short time. Totally read this, 12/10!

Entangled

(Spider man AU) (spider man! Seungmin x dj! Reader) fluff, angst, more fluff

OHHHHHHHHH MY GOOOOOOOD!!!!!! YOUVE DONE IT AGAIN! HOW ON EARTH ARE YOU SO GOOD WITH WORDS? YOUVE GOT LIKE THE BEST AU’s AND STORIES IM CRYING??? I LITERALLY LOVE YOUR WORK SO MUCHHHHH

Seo changbin

Sun and moon

(soft! Girl x rough! Boy) fluff, angst(?)

This was a very sweet fic, changbin was always there for the reader when she needed it and it was just such a calming read. It was very cute how they went from a fake relationship to something genuine and it warmed my heart!

Outside my window

(Shapeshifter! Changbin x reader) angst, fluff

Had a great bittersweet ending and I loved the overall theme!

The prince, Seo Changbin

(Prince! Changbin x princess! Reader) Angst, Fluff

I should also probably mention that I absolutely love enemies to lovers, something about how opposites attract is just so pleasing to see so this fic was just a gift from heaven! Changbin’s promise to the reader at the end was just so sweet and warming, totally read it if you’re a enemies to lovers fan!

Sprouts and their Joy ❤️

(Brother figure! Changbin/ reader) fluff, angst

Changbin was so sweet in this fic, he was such a good older brother figure to the reader and was always there for them, when he finally said “I love you” I think I almost cried. This was such a touching read and I totally suggest reading it!

Don’t call me cupcake

Chapter one: Changbin

(Resident evil AU) (Agent! Changbin x agent! Reader) fluff, teeny bit of angst

Bang Chan

The unbounded knight, Bang Chan

(Unbounded knight! Chan x queen! Reader) angst, fluff fluff, a lil suggestive at the end

This might actually be my favorite of this short series, aside from Minho’s one. Chan just seemed like such a happy lil dude and the reader was just so sweet when she warmed up to him, their relationship was very very cute!

Cinderfella

(Cinderella AU) (noble!Chan x princess! Reader)

Ohhhh I loved the swapped roles in this, Chan was so mature for his situation and always upheld his manners, to top it off he has so much kindness in him too!

Can you lend me a crayon?

(Single father! bangchan x babysitter adult! Reader) fluff, smut, lil bit of angst so far

Gee wowza, I usually don’t read fics like this but whooey mama. 13/10 absolutely loved the first part and am looking forward to the rest! The wording and structure of the story is sooo addicting and the plot is to die for! Keep up the great work!!!

Butterfly wings ❤️

(Indian dancer! Reader x idol! Bangchan) fluff

I had to re-add this fic here because it’s absolutely everything I have ever wanted in a fic! As a kathak dancer myself, this fic was to die for and I felt like my culture was really being appreciated here! Bangchan really gave off the vibes of a fanboy and I found it sooo cute! 20/10 absolutely would read again and again!

Yang jeongin

Heroine addict

(Superhero! Reader x journalist student! Jeongin)

So so cute, Jeongin was such a determined student and all those things he did just to see the reader was so sweet, the last scene really touched my heart. I felt like Jeongin was such a careful boy when it came to interviewing the reader, he never asked her personal things! 20/10

Brown sugar

(Witch! Barista! Jeongin x reader) fluff fluff

Just started reading from this author and I’m absolutely in love this universe already, you’ve gotta check out their witch! Skz universe fics!

17.59

(Crown prince! Jeongin x assassin! Reader) fluff fluffy fluff

Blue and silver

(Silver fox! jeongin x human! Reader) flufffffff, lil bit of angst

24 to 25 ❤️

(Childhood friends! Jeongin x reader) fluff angst

Oh. My. God. The actual amount of investment I put into this fic was insane. I couldn’t stop reading it, both parts were immensely riveting and so much fun to read! The development across their ages was so well planned that it just had me wanting more and more. These two were the cutest ever 20/10!

Loving the monster

(Fae king! Jeongin x human! Reader) fluff, angst, there is some torture/ cruel pranks in this fic

Another monster fic that was so much fun to read! The betrayals the reader goes through and the trust she eventually puts into jeongin was so heartwarming to read, this fic was so enticing! 12/10

Speaking in tongues ❤️

(general! Jeongin x arabian dancer! Reader) fluff, angst, violence

This was an actual master piece??? It felt like an actual movie reading this story, I can’t wait to read the final part omg! The story building and the writing was to die for! I fell in love with all of the characters in this story as they had so much character to them! There was so much depth in this fic, I fell in love with the way this author writes. 20/10!

Han ji-sung

Anything but normal

(Spiderman! Han x friend! Reader) fluff, teensy suggestive at some points

This was so cute ahwbwnwakaoshwbwk, their relationship was very funny and the way their personalities were written was just perfect 12/10 totally recommend

Do you trust me?

(Nerve AU) ongoing, fluff, a lil suggestive (?), very little angst

Honestly I was so happy when I found this AU, I’m a sucker for AU’s and a nerve AU on top of it? Sign me up. It was cute to see how their relationship blooms from strangers to friends as they complete dares together!

The blacksmith, Han Jisung

(Blacksmith! Han x crown princess! Reader) fluff, lil bit of angst

Very very cute, this was like a one sided enemies to lovers thing but Han didn’t hate the reader??? Well- it doesn’t matter, the story was very cute and the ending was so satisfying. My fav line has to be the one where the reader talks about how she might as well become the first queen to rule alone!

Hear.t fm

(DJ! Han x best friend! Reader) fluff, very little angst

This was so refreshing to read, Han switching to DJ J.ONE and back was funny to read when the reader would tease him about having a crush on J.ONE, 13/10!

Young God ❤️

(Serial killer! Han x reader) fluff, angst angst, completed

Oh when I tell you this was good good, it was like a full 30/10 for me, Han’s character was written so beautifully and carefully it just squeezes my heart! He was always so sweet and careful around the reader, I really felt bad for him when his past came to light. Such a good read, I totally recommend this!

Utterly lovesick

(Bsf! Han x bsf! Reader) fluff, angst

Summary: out of the 6 times Han attempted to get a kiss from you, he only succeeded 1 time.

For my great friend, you ❤️

(Idol! Han x assassin! Reader) fluff fluff, angst to a whole new level

Oh my god this is a master piece, there is so much I want to say about this fic. When the reader started playing “M.I.A” in the fic, guess what happened to me? I was listening to the “this is stray kids” playlist on Spotify and it suddenly played M.I.A! This fic had me going through so many feelings! The ending was super bittersweet but with an extra dollop of sweet. This is a must read!

Love in cheese

Otherworldly

(Alien! Jisung x human! Reader) smut!, fluff fluff

10/10 read, but it is smut so if ur uncomfy with it pls don’t read!

Lee minho

The chancellor, Lee Minho

(Assassin! Minho x Queen! Reader) angst, fluff

Oh my god, this fic was too good, there aren’t many words I can use to describe this fic but it’s good, this is a must read! I loved how the author captured Minho’s love for the reader in such a beautiful way and it was so touching!

Metamorphosis

(Black cat! Minho x reader) angst, fluff

Cute and sweet, short but a good read!

A fairy tail that lasts

(Playboy! Minho x writer! Reader) fluff, angst

Oh my god this was just a bucket of sugar! Minho’s character was written with such love and I adored how he immediately dropped his past ways when he met the reader! This was such an amazing read, 30/10!

Green flames ❤️

(Slytherin! Minho x Gryffindor! Reader) fluff

Ok this was so cute and the TENSION between the two was so riveting! I loved this so much and would love to see a continuation! I re-added this fic here on the skz separate master list because I felt like it needed a whole other page of recognition! Def one of my fav reads thus far, 12/10!

Home

(Spider-Man! Minho x reader)

Soo cute, you could really feel the trust in their relationship!

Countless skies upon us

(swordsmaster! Minho x reader)

Absolutely loved how their relationship developed across the fic!

Hwang Hyunjin

In which Hyunjin must choose between you or dragonfruit

This was just a whole bunch of crack and humor, the short series was surprisingly funny to read (check out the Han one too!)

The thief, Hwang Hyunjin

(Thief! Hyunjin x princess! Reader) very little angst, fluff fluff fluff

Ohhh this might be my favorite in this AU and I just have to give it to the author, you really have a way with words, I always find a smile on my face when I reach the endings of your fics!

Sparks

(Assassin! Hyunjin x assassin! Reader) fluff (?), some suggestive stuff but never escalates

I’d love to see a part two! I liked the idea of the reader being a flirty jokester and hyunjin being a somewhat emotionless dude! 11/10

Guard dog

(Werewolf! Hyunjin x reader) fluff fluff

Summary: Hyunjin takes up a date from one of his friends and ends up in an adoption center for dogs. Everything seemed to bother him until he met you, the person in a wheelchair willing to adopt a huge “dog” like him.

Backseat driving

(Street racer! Hyunjin x reader) fluff, angst (not too much, a little suggestive but nothing too bad

I remember reading this fic a while back and it was just so good! 12/10 totally recommend

The duke and I

(Bridgerton AU) (duke! Hyunjin x author! Reader)

fluff, angst (?), smut (you can skip it tho, i did it and it still made sense without the scenes)

Oh my god this was super good, I love how Hyunjin was always supportive of the reader’s writing and how he encouraged her and was honest with critiques. 14/10 you have to read it!

Back in time

(Prince! Hyunjin x reader) fluff, angst

God the ending really touched my heart, I hope for a part two or something like a continuation of this. I love how open the reader is and how nonchalant she can be sometimes, it just made her so charming! She and Hyunjin made such a good pair in this story!

Forward in time

(King! Hyunjin x Reporter! Reader) fluff, angst (?)

THISSSS!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!! So this was basically an alternate version of the last fic and I loved it so much!! Hyunjin was honestly so hilarious in this story, the hair scene was definitely my favorite!

Android! Hyunjin

(Android! Hyunjin x reader) fluff fluff, teeny bit of angst

A thump in the night

(Vampire bat AU) (bat! Hyunjin x reader) fluff fluff

You’re short and he loves it so much

(Short! Reader x hyunjin) fluff

Lee Felix

When a flower blooms

(Gu ardian fairy AU) fluff

This was short and sweet, very very cute 13/10 recommend it

The prince, Lee Felix

(prince! Felix x thief! Reader) angst, fluff

This one was a little more sad compared to the Seungmin one but was super good regardless! I feel like their relationship is still young and that they’d need some more time before they really can understand eachother but this was totally a good read!

Hero’s soup for the weak soul ❤️

(Superhero! Felix x best friend! Reader) fluff, teensy angst

Oh My GOOOOOOOOOOODDDDDDDD!!!!! This author is so talented I swear to god I’m going to fill this entire rec list with only their work at this point. This fic was so cute and funny, Felix is pretty lazy but super affectionate and the reader’s just a diligent school worker, the best type of pair!

Off the deep end

(Rebel! Felix x royal-ish! Reader) smut, angst, fluff

This is such a good series bro actually I would buy this if it was a physical book! 12/10 I absolutely love how the story is progressing and can’t wait to see the end! (It’s also enemies to lovers so 👀)

Ot8 (poly)

Autumn daze

(3racha x reader) fluff fluff fluff, humor

You find out that they’re a vampire

Ot8 (separate stories) x reader (fluff, angst, humor if you squint)

Skz as your brothers

seperate stories, fluff fluff fluff

Covering you when uncomfortable

Separate stories, cuuute

…………………..…………………..…………………..…………………….

Other:

Authors you just have to check out!:

@luvknow

They’ve got such a colorful selection of AU’s for straykids and I just had to mention them! Most of this list would’ve been filled with their works but I felt like it’d be best if you all follow them to get updates! You totally need to check them out!

@jeonginks

Oooh I really like this author, their oneshots are so long it honestly feels like I’m reading the script for a movie. Their fics always manage to pull on my heart strings with the way they write their fics with utmost care! They’ve got such a colorful masterlist that’s definitely worth checking out!

@straykidshoe

Ok so- this author is absolutely amazing! A lot of their straykids stories cater to Indian/desi people and it’s so heartwarming! Even for those who aren’t desi, these stories are so well written that it’s an absolute joy to read! Not only that- they’ve got multiple AU fics which are to die for! Make sure to check them out!

[inquisimer]

fic recs

On this fanfic writer appreciation day, I'm going to take a moment to be sappy and sentimental. Whether I knew it or not at the time, fanfiction has gotten me through some Shit™. Even when I had no motivation to keep going irl, I could always count on ffn or ao3 to have that next chapter, that beautifully crafted one shot, that comfort fic that would make an awful day worthwhile. And when I say I could count on ffn or ao3, I mean I could count on the humans behind the usernames who were posting little pieces of themselves online for all the world to share in. So thank you - to my favorite writers, to those I have yet to find, to the ones who write long fics and the ones who write one shots. Thank you to the consistent updaters and the ones who've never posted anything at all. Thank you for being here and I hope you keep going, whatever fic writing means to you.

I've been lucky to meet some amazing people through this hobby and it's opened up spaces to me that I didn't even know I needed. Places of support and kindness and sharing and community and I wouldn't trade the friendships I've made there for anything else.

Thank you everyone for helping make that space possible💜

And now some fic recs! Because my sappiness has sources and you should all check these out (or at least mark them for when you have spoons later):

One-Shots:

Things my heart used to know (things it yearns to remember) by NiriKeehan (@nirikeehan)

Dragon Age: Inquisition | Cullen Rutherford/Female Lavellan | Rated: T | 3,647 words Unquestionably one of my favorite pieces, a gift I received as part of the DAFF Discord Server 2023 OC Swap event. NiriKeehan beautifully captured the rocky relationship between my oc Neria Surana Lavellan and Cullen and filled in gaps in their history that I'd been struggling with since her inception. Set after the Inquisition arrives at Skyhold, Neria and Cullen work to find common ground despite their tumultuous past and the insanity of their present. Features: Cullen is good at his job, idiots in love, mage-templar dynamics

Cinnamon by Exalted_Dawn (@exalted-dawn-drabbles)

Dragon Age: Inquisition | Calder Eikmann/Talena Ethera | Rated: M | 2,870 words My go-to fluff piece!! Calder and Talenna snuggle and share a sweet (and spicy) moment of peace. Oh, and Calder implies that Talenna (a Dalish elf who has left her clan) is part of his family and his mom thinks so too (I'm super normal about it). Features: tooth-rotting fluff, elf-human relationships, masterful dialogue, love is stored in the apple cider

Lead Her Through the Darkness by BECandCall (@warpedlegacywrites)

Dragon Age: Inquisition | Gen, Female Lavellan | Rated: T | 3,121 words A beautiful character study of the moment @dreadfutures' Ixchel Lavellan chose her name. BECandCall does an incredible job with the internal monologue of a child and her prose and symbolism are expertly and beautifully crafted. Features: character study, genfic, ancient ruins, Evanuris, descriptive and immersive POV

last man standing (perhaps) by havvke (Wintertree)

Dragon Age: II | Carver Hawke & Charade Amell & Female Hawke | Rated: T | 6,749 words I'm a little insane about Charade Amell and how little we get of her in canon, so this gift I received as part of the 2023 Platonic Ideal Exchange was an absolute treat. It explores Charade's relationship (or lack thereof) with both Carver and Hawke, expands on her role with the Jennies, and packs a punch with the grief that is almost a given in any story about Hawke. Features: Warden Carver, new POV of canon events, canon-compliant exploration, families of choice

the things we carry by patho (ghostsoldier)

Dishonored: The Knife of Dunwall | Daud, The Whalers | Rated: T | 4,158 words *shows up ten years late to the Dishonored fandom* *subjects you all to it anyway* so like. I know everyone followed me for Dragon Age. This is a Dragon Age centric blog. But it's my rec post and these Dishonored one shots have been clawing at my heart SO go play the games and then come back and read these fics 😂 This one is just absolutely heart-wrenching angst, as Daud and the Whalers deal with the aftermath of a tragedy. Features: found family, found family but slightly to the left, grief & mourning, betrayal, death, hurt/no comfort

the four times daud summoned a whaler who was totally unprepared for it (and the one time they were) by patho (ghostsoldier)

Dishonored: The Knife of Dunwall | Daud, The Whalers | Rated: T | 1,705 words Unlike the other Dishonored fic on this list, this one is just fluff, fluff, and more fluff. I am a huge fan of when writers interpret game mechanics into narrative format and patho does that SO well here, I could literally picture this happening in the game and it was just a joy to read. Features: found family, humor, begrudging father-figure, slice of life

Long Fics:

Dead Pasts and Dread Futures by youworeblue (@dreadfutures)

Dragon Age: Inquisition | Female Lavellan/Solas | Rated: E | Chapters: 170/170 | Complete | CW: depressive & suicidal themes It is flat out impossible for me to articulate a recommendation for this fic, but hell if I'm not going to try anyway. Ixchel Lavellan's story starts with her suicide - and continues with the journey of how she gets better. It is such a rare thing to find a story of recovery that captures the ups and downs, the highs and lows in a way that resonates with reality, but Blue does it. I don't know how, but she does it. Ixchel struggles, she doubts, she despairs, but she always finds a way forward. Despite or in spite of all the world throws at her, she tries to trust and she tries to hope and she keeps fighting. It's a story about choosing hope, even when no one would expect you to. It's a story of platonic love and empathy and morality and theory and lore and minor characters and so much more that I could fill an entire post with this fic alone. This was one of the first DA fics I ever read and it's one I've come back to over and over again. Because it's the kind of message you need to hear that many times and every time I read it I fall in love with Ixchel, her story, and the world and narrative that Blue has crafted a little bit more. If you only have the spoons to invest in one long fic, this is the one💜 It, and the sequel The Brave Guide, are absolutely worth your time.

A Fool's Death and a Hard Choice by RosellaWrites (@rosella-writes)

Dragon Age: Inquisition | Loghain Mac Tir/Morrigan | Rated: M | Chapters: 12/12 | Complete A masterful exploration of what the reunion between Loghain and Morrigan who completed the Dark Ritual during Origins would look like. RosellaWrites has the biggest brain ideas about characters that most people gloss over or vilify - including me! I was such a Loghain hater before they started me chewing on his character and this fic is no exception. They interpret Loghain's harshness and Morrigan's aloofness into the multifaceted, heart-breaking characters that they are. This fic will win you over and break your heart exactly when you expect it (and again when you don't). Features: Warden Loghain, Kieran, Morrigan is a good mother, appearances by Hawke, Merrill, Zevran, and Mahariel, character study, beautiful descriptive prose

Boundless by Exalted_Dawn (@exalted-dawn-drabbles)

Dragon Age: Inquisition | Calder Eikmann/Talenna Ethera | Rated: E | Chapters: 7/? | Ongoing We get so sparingly little of regular life inside the Circle of Magi, I'm a slut for fics that explore that environment. In this one, Ed explores what is "normal" for a circle mage and how Talenna, as a Dalish elf forced into the Circle, experiences, handles, and fights back against that. Talenna is a spitfire and she plays off the other characters that Ed created in a tantalizingly intense narrative. A must read for circle mage, Templar, and Dalish lovers alike! Features: day-to-day life in a Circle tower, mage-templar dynamics, hurt/comfort, star-crossed lovers, fluff and angst

Letters to the Dead by Demarogue (@demawrites)

Dragon Age: Inquisition | Female Lavellan/Cullen Rutherford | Rated: E | Chapters: 7/? | Ongoing This one is for the ones like me, who broke up with Solas and ran off to see if you could romance Cullen afterward - you can! It's great! And also super heartbreaking if you think about it. And Demarogue has clearly thought about it. Told through a narrative in the present and letters that Niva Lavellan writes to an absent Solas, she weaves a tale of loss, grief, mourning, and (ultimately) recovery, with enough humor to break the tension along the way. Features: solavellan breakup, post-Corypheus battle Inquisition, unresolved tension of all kinds, beautiful exploration of how Cullen would feel about being Lavellan's rebound, idiots to lovers, friends to lovers

Keeping Secrets by ElvenSemi (@elvensemi)

Dragon Age: Inquisition | Original Female Character/Solas | Rated: E | Chapters: 114/? | Ongoing Another one of my comfort fics, no question. This fic is heavy on the plot in all of the best ways - ElvenSemi's OC Emma is the linguist that the Inquisition hires to translate the dragon tome for Frederic of Serault. I love when authors fill in the gaps of canon or bend the canon details to fit their own ideas like that and it works SO well here. Emma is smooth and awkward and clever - she's well thought out and full of surprises and ElvenSemi writes with a strong voice that's a joy to read. It's the Inquisition behind the scenes, from the perspective of one of the people they're sheltering, rather than the higher ups who are running things (although there's certainly some of that too). Features: Skyhold lore and meta, lore and meta in general, the slowest burn Solas arc, lots of Bull/Chargers content, a very well done Sera subplot, so many minor characters in the most interesting ways, sad Tabris content, literally the Worst™ Inquisitor and Hawke ever (affectionate. kind of.), scary Leliana & Cassandra, bestie Dorian & bestie Varric, bards! so much barding, angst and hurt/comfort to the MAX

Temperance and Templars by NiriKeehan (@nirikeehan)

Dragon Age: Inquisition | Female Trevelyan/Cullen Rutherford | Rated: M | Chapters: 4/? | Ongoing A Jane Austen-inspired AU where Cullen is a private Templar hired by the Trevelyans to keep their mage daughter under control without taking her to the Circle. Cullen has other orders from his superiors, of course. I love a canon-adjacent AU (where the characters could be like this, even if they aren't actually) and this is no exception. It's a light and fluffy story for the most part, and explores what Cullen and the Inquisitor's dynamic might have been like if they were a bit younger (and not responsible for saving the world from multiple crises). Features: mage-templar dynamics, nobility, protector/protectee dynamics, lyrium addiction, political intrigue, Cullen has PTSD

From the Depths of the Void by kawakaeguri

Dragon Age: Inquisition | Cullen Rutherford/Original Female Character, Cullen Rutherford/Female Trevelyan | Rated: M | Chapters: 94/? | Ongoing Another one that's heavy on the plot in a very well done way! It also does one of my favorite things, which is weave together a character's arc across multiple games, namely DA2 & DAI. Liviana is a slave in Tevinter until she escapes and makes her way to Kirkwall. This fic tells the story of her stumbling, failing, learning, and growing, from where she enters during DA2 through Inquisition. It expands on the gaps between games and kawakaeguri's ideas about how that might of looked are clever and inspired and keep you on the edge of your seat while you read. Liviana as an OC has an incredibly well done backstory, that is both fleshed out and consistent throughout the story and will have you falling in love with her as I did. Features: well-developed platonic relationships galore, DA2 crew so well written, Liviana and Fenris bonding over Tevinter Slave Experiences™, a brief Liviana/Sebastian fling that explores learning what love is (and what it isn't), well-developed friendship that predates the romantic relationship, tie in of events from the comics, narratively satisfying reworking of canon backstory, character growth in so many ways for so many characters, well-structured subplots

[strangenewwords]

WIP Wednesday

tagged by the lovely @kcscribbler regarding the WIP's I'm currently working on.

Hahahahah OH MY GOD THERE'S SO MANY.

Also I have a new rule where I write chaptered fics in full before publishing because that'll take the pressure off yay.

I think the two that are most prominent in my mind (other than McSpirk Month, and the handful of amazing ideas y'all inject into my brain) are impulse, my role-swapped Spirk, and emotionally compromised, my super whumpy Spones/Spirk/McKirk (It really is all of those things separately). That one turned into a fucking UNIVERSE thanks to @ncc1701ohno.

IMPULSE

The sound of voices carries from around a row of plants. Orchids. It’s the first moment he’s noticed them, dozens of them kept in fastidious arrangement. Leaning forward Jim makes to reach for the closest one, the tips of the fingers of his right hand just barely brushing against the silk of the petals. 

“Please, do not touch them.” Spock’s directive comes as he steps around the corner, hands clasped as always behind his back.

He looks different than Jim’s ever seen him. He’s draped in robes, but they’re not the formal things he wears to official gatherings or the stark tunics of their uniforms. He looks good. Almost vibrant. Vulcans exist with a line of tension that runs through them, like being strung up by piano wire, and Spock’s has been cut. As a result, his shoulders are slightly more rounded and the cant of his chin is not quite as sharp.

“Sorry.” Jim steps back from the plant, offering a gentle curving of his mouth. “They’re beautiful.” 

Spock stops before him, a professional distance away, and observes the orchid Jim had just barely grazed as if checking for damage.”It is of no concern.” Satisfied, he straightens. “It does not appear to have been harmed.

It was obviously of some concern, or Jim could have kept on petting the damn thing. Instead of pointing that out, Jim just puts his hands in his pockets.

Oh neat, he’s got pockets. He’s wearing jeans. He hasn’t worn a pair of those since he’d been enlisted in Starfleet.

EMOTIONALLY COMPROMISED

“Tush ah nask dey kod lu.” Nope. That wasn’t right. “Turshah naz va koddle.” Okay, so Leonard's not doing well at this.

He swallows rough, feeling it as red rushes up his neck. Sarek, for his part, remains patient and unbothered, waiting for Leonard to get it right.

It takes a moment to psych himself up as he repeats the words in his head yet again before trying a final time. “Tushah nash-veh k'odu.” Each is spoken with precise articulation, fighting against the gentle curves of his accent, and it takes all of Leonard’s failing brain power but he gets it.

He thinks.

Sarek inclines his head lightly, reaching for the tea which has been set out before him. 

“As you are of my house, the informal is more fitting.” Leonard isn’t. Not yet. It makes something in him twist for Sarek to already consider him so. “Tushah nash-veh k'du.”

“Tushah nash-veh k'du,”  Leonard repeats, that same fierce intention focused on each and every syllable.

“And I grieve with you, Dr. McCoy.” Sarek sips at the tea and, well, he doesn’t pull a face. But Leonard can see the tiny tightening at the corner of his mouth. He’s gotta be exhausted or Leonard knows nothing would escape at all.

tagging @twinkboimler, @ncc1701ohno, @introvertia, @flippyspoon and @spock-in-awe in a totally non pressure way to see what y'all are up to (because we all know it's gonna be amaaaazing).

[theuntoldoriginsoftheportmafia]

The Untold Origins of The Port Mafia

“War has a way of blackening all it touches, doesn’t it?” - Fukuzawa Yukichi

“True, but it is from the deepest of darkness that the brightest lights come” - Mori Ougai

Great roaring fires that blaze, bright and strong, choosing either to gently guide others into the light, a place of healing, or ignite a path through the dark and lead those same broken souls to victory, whatever sacrifice it may require.

-------------------------------------------------------------

This is a long fic. It is a semi-role swap AU that restarts canon by going back 15 years before the start of the main series and asking what would happen if Fukuzawa had joined Fukuchi when he was deployed to Tokoyami Island to fight in The Great War. Who would he have met? What would have become of him? And of Fukuchi?

Will a dark beginning lead to an even darker end?

Along the way Fukuzawa will meet a doctor, an angel, an author, a genius and many, many others. Read to follow their journeys as they twist and turn but eventually end up right where they're supposed to be.

-------------------------------------------------------------

TABLE OF CONTENTS

(all chapters are linked, just click on the one you want to go to. The ones without lines under them have no been posted yet.)

Part One - The War

Chapter 1.1 ❀ The Two Fukus ❀

Chapter 2.1 ⚔ The Battlefield ⚔

Chapter 3.1 正 The 356th Infantry Division 正

Chapter 4.1 ⚐ The End of The Great War ⚐

Part Two - The Doctor, The Butterfly & The Wolf

Chapter 1.2 ✾ The Sadness of Those With Wings ✾

Chapter 2.2 A Doctor and His Daughters Begin a New Life

Chapter 3.2 ♂ The Other Brother ♂

Chapter 4.2 🜛The Silver Wolf 🜛

Chapter 5.2 Mori Ougai and His Bodyguard

Part three - The Takeover

Chapter 1.3 ☜ The Child Detective ☞

Chapter 2.3 〜 The Boy In A Human Body 〜

Chapter 3.3 ☠ The Death of A Mafia Boss ☠

Part Four - The Port Mafia

Chapter 1.4 The World's Greatest Detective Does Consulting

Chapter 2.4 ⏲ Miles To Go ⏲

Chapter 3.4 ⚠ When Life Gives You Lemons . . . ⚠

Chapter 4.4 ✗ Who the hell is Edgar? ✗

Chapter 5.4 ⛼ The New and the Old ⛼

Chapter 6.4 The Many ＞The Few (Or the One)

Part Five - Escape

Chapter 1.5 ☽ The Hitman’s Dream ☾

Chapter 2.5 ♘ A Detective Must Be Armed ♘

Chapter 3.5 ䷸ Bandages & Coattails Flutter in the Wind ䷸

Part Six - The Armed Detectives Agency

Chapter 1.6 🜚🜛🜠🜜 Tachihara Shunzen’s Entrance Exam 🜜🜠🜛🜚

Chapter 2.6 ✎ The Matchless Maths Teacher ✐

Chapter 3.6 ✐ Kunikida Doppo’s Entrance Exam ✎

Chapter 4.6 🜡 Tachihara Michizou’s Entrance Exam 🜡

Part Seven - The Story Begins

Chapter 1.7 ⏴ The Black Lizard Attack Squadron ⏵

Chapter 2.7 ⛰ Disaster in Ihatovo . . . Almost ⛰

Chapter 3.7 ⚞ The Tale of The Man-Eating Tiger ⚟

Chapter 4.7 ❅ To Rescue A Demon ❅

Chapter 5.7 A Weretiger Worth (many times) His Weight In Yen

Chapter 6.7 The Book ✑

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Originally posted on my other blog @knockyasocksoff2022 where my other fics and BSD content are. I just felt like it deserved its own blog because it got so long and I want more people to see it because I'm really proud of it. Sorry if the summary was cringy af. I was trying to make it sound like a real book summary, and not give spoilers.

This fic is my baby, I've been working on it since January 2024. I wasn't even going to post this until it was done, but I'm lacking motivation and I want to know if people even like this so screw it!

There are 20 / 30 chapters finished right now, so if you'd like it finished pls, pls, pls leave comments and likes. I need motivation to continue.

Update schedule is whenever my brain gives me sudden bursts of inspiration, but comments always help me remember to keep going so those are very welcome.

PFP from: https://nmousesedits.tumblr.com/post/187968275018/x-free-to-use-source

Background from the flashback scene in the anime where Fukuchi is asking Fukuzawa to join the military with him but I got the screenshot itself from: https://iwritenarrativesandstuff.tumblr.com/post/728235003081834496/bird-symbolism-in-the-fukufuku-breakup-scene

[rosewoodconch]

RWCH Readathon 2024: Day 11

Undercover Princess - Chapter 33

The continuation of the song and the christmas party

These other students are so rude, imagine youve just heard a beautiful song, in a language you dont understand, but has very clearly had an emotional impact on someone who does speak that language

AND THEN JUDGING HER FOR IT?

Lottie running away for air is so valid and i love that in this moment on her own before anyone comes out to find her, she lets herself be vulnerable and not think about her role and rosewood, and just lets herself feel homesick. Really homesick, for Ollie, and cornwall, and for how simple everything was.

It's a really scary feeling and I've had those moments when i was at uni and had responsibilities, though not quite like Lotties, and to be honest its hard to be that vulnerable even to yourself.

But then Ellie and Jamie come out to comfort her, and i adore that jamie is the one who brings practical warmth with the blanket, while Ellie brings emotional warmth. Its a really poignant way to show how they both care but in very different ways.

THEN WE GET TO HAVE THIS PERFECT LOLLIE MOMENT

Really letting lottie be herself around Ellie, showing herself in a way she really hasnt had a moment to since they first moved in. after taking on the role of portman lotties sole thoughts and interactions have been as portman. Not as Lottie Pumpkin.

Ellie's embarassed about the gift, and we dont get to see her be bashful often so you know she really really cares.

the way the box is described with the same long flowy sentences that connie uses for anythign almost magical, like the gardens and the opening porlogue paragraph. it really adds to the magic and sincerity of this moment.

Total opposites that go together. I love love love this. because while lotties tiara is the cresent and ellies box is the sunshine box, their outfits at the end have swapped this. The real princess - ellie - being represented by the tiara, and the sunshine box protecting it, - lottie

The best christmas ever.

low bar but understandable

Theyre my favourite i wanna hug them both so bad but also did they just ditch jamie? did he stay with Raph? i need to know. someone write a fic

fuck it i'll write a fic

[until-another-one-comes]

big nate au mentioned tell me everything i’m going insane right now

Thank you so much for asking I haven't yapped to new ppl about my au in ages

UHHHH WHICH ONE?

Off the top of my head:

Different Roads au: The one where Nate grew up with his mom instead and the trio's lives are changed before they meet each other again in adulthood

Superpower au: What it says. Au where the kids have powers. (Nate has pyrokinesis and super speed, Francis has telekinesis and Teddy has earth power) (the rest of the kids have powers too but I only used the trio for my fic) (also have another one where its ridiculously lore heavy)

Angels and Demons au: Okay this is a bit too lore heavy and tbh had jack shit to do with BN. I just wanted to draw the characters as angels and demons

Two-Player Game au: Almost the same as Different Roads but this time Nate grows up with Randy who's parents split up wayyy earlier and they just so happen to end up living in the same town.

Adult AU: Okay this isnt even an AU this is just the cast aged up and what I imagine their future to be like. (also fanchildren but I understand thats not up to everyone's taste)

Two Future AU: Nate meets 2 different versions of his future selves. The first version is an art teacher and the second one is a famous rockstar. But the more Nate gets to know them the more he learns about whats actually important in life and what actually makes your life meaningful.

Start Over AU: Based on the A Silent Voice anime, an au where Randy gets in serious trouble in middle school and become a social outcast in high school and learning to grow and overcome his past with new people. Scrapped because I have no idea what to do with this and too OC heavy

Ummm those are the general AUs. I have a few others but they're all ship related, mainly for Randy/Marcus.

If you're interested:

Role Swap AU: Randy and Marcus swap places so Marcus is the school's main bully and Randy is the popular kid. Swap!Marcus is way more brutal than og!Randy and Swap!Randy is a theater kid with 0 social skills but is popular anyway cuz he's rich. They meet after Randy pays asks Marcus to help him shape up for sports.

Infinity Train au: If haven't watched Infinity Train its this show where people end up in this train with infinite number of rooms that are designed to help you overcome your internal problems, flaws and struggles. So yeah Randy and Marcus end up on this train and learn to be better people together.

[cescalr]

Appearances: Harry Potter Ensemble - Pt 1.

So. As someone who writes a lot of fanfic, I don't always decide to borrow directly from the source material for the appearances of the characters. I'll admit that my canon compliance for that can be tangential at best; mostly down to hair and eye colour, whilst everything else is different. This can lead to some confusion in my fics, because my worst sin in this regard that i'm inconsistent in how I portray them. I have multiple fcs and sims of characters, and I sort of just swap between them at whim. So this is a masterpost list of all the different appearances each portrayal of the HP ensemble cast I use. I'll also try and say which fics I pictured as which faces, because why not.

Let's get started, shall we?

Harry Potter. [+ James Potter, because they're meant to be almost identical.]

First, we'll go with documenting the protagonist.

For a canon-compliant Harry, I made this artbreeder a while ago;

Lord above that's ginormous. Anyway. I'm not, like, 100% happy with this, but here it is.

As may be a fairly obvious choice, my main fc for Harry is Darren Criss. He does a great job fitting the visual aspect of Harry, and an even better job of him being identical to his father; Darren Criss makes a perfect James Potter. All you need to do is watch AVP to know that one.

And, as a sidenote; Look at them <3 this is the golden trio, right here!! Sure, Ron's a bit off, not tall enough, nose not long enough, but he works really well for the role, so I don't care.

But he does a pretty good broody harry, too, so I tend to think Darren Criss when I think Harry James Potter.

Again; for a slightly more book compliant Harry (aka; a wholly white Harry) there's a young Peter Capaldi. In these pics specifically, lol.

James Potter by Michelle-Winer on DeviantArt <- there's also this depiction of James as the actor for Will Graham from Hannibal, which works pretty damn well for both James and Harry.

Unfortunately, people don't credit as often as they should on Pinterest; (1) Pinterest this is a very good James, and if anyone happens to know who drew it, that's really necessary to know. He looks just like my James sim, fr. Took the image right from my brain.

He looks a little less like his dad and more like his mum here, which is Incorrect, but I still like these sims.

Ron Weasley.

Next up on the list is Ron.

I made this artbreeder a while ago. I think this is basically perfect, and looks exactly like how I think of him, except the nose is too short.

The blog is gone, but this art by xia-hainex has always been my favourite Ron fanart.

I'm very picky about Ron's face. I don't have an actor fc for him.

But I do have a sim :). You can see the influence, lol.

Hermione Granger.

Hermione has the most fcs out of the Golden Trio. 5 in total. First, her more canon-compliant artbreeder;

Next; those five fcs.

First up; a duo of fcs - one for her younger years, and one for that version's older years. Ella Eyre + Stevvi Alexander.

Of course, as shown above, there's always Bonne Gruesen, who played her in AVP. Which, as you can see, was an image that held a lot of mix dominance in the artbreeder (which I did through combining various images of these five women, plus some general tweaks.)

Nathalie Emmanuel is a version where Hermione kept the buck teeth :D. Would mostly be used in muggle AUs.

But this ^ really does look like book 7 Hermione during the horcrux hunt, don't you think?

Grace Byers is a bit glamorous for Hermione, I'll admit. Sometimes I use her for her mother, instead.

Elarica Johnson is the final fc option for HG, very similar to Nathalie Emmanuel. If I were to give HG a sister, she'd probably end up with Elarica whilst Hermione keeps Nathalie. Also an option for her mother, I suppose.

Because I should mention this; I often use Hayley Law for Mrs. [heacanon name: Eudora] Granger. I haven't actually got an fc for her dad, but the one consistent thing about him is that he's Jewish, but he can be european or african or middle eastern or whatever, I don't care about that part. (Same, really, for Mrs. Granger. The one prerequisite I suppose is that they not match; my Hermione is biracial, and has the specific complication of passing as (depending on the person guessing) either ethnically White British or solely Ashkenazi Jewish, even if her father is not that. Most people miss the black half of her ancestry if they never meet her parents. And, to note, thanks to the schools she was sent to and the care her family took, Hermione has never experienced explicit racism towards herself, and her first personal exposure to prejudice is the whole Muggleborn mistreatment thing. It hits her pretty hard :(.)

[And, to note; I know that my Hermione's ancestry does not match the ancestry of the FCs, and that the situation regarding... all that doesn't really work with some of them, but I'm also not really happy with any one of these, particularly. Hermione's always been the one I find hardest to cast, because my thoughts are so specific but not... exactly refined.]

This is my sim of her, which of course matches what's in my head better than any fc ever realistically could. She's also pretty close to the artbreeder, just, you know, better. Because it's not ai generated. (I tend to use artbreeder as a visual aid when creating the base ideas for things, nothing more.)

Her mum and dad, for reference.

And that's the GT, so. Onto the next part! [For those wondering; I will keep hitting the image limit, doing this, so need to move on once I do.]