#it's also really fun describing all the outfits and masks

[madin-writes]

It feels like the entire Camp is out here tonight. Nico lets himself go with the flow, moving with the other bodies deeper to where all the excitement is. There’s lively music blasting from speakers somewhere, clusters of children all dressed up and running around and finding different ways to let loose. Chiron, on standby off to the side, looks slightly overwhelmed. Everyone else is having the time of their lives.

Not for the first time, someone collides into Nico. He, in turn, stumbles and bumps into the person on his other side, wincing as they make contact.

“Sorry, sor—” The boy pauses, blue-green eyes blinking behind the mask. His outfit is thin and free-flowing, the sleeves rippling in the breeze like waves. “Oh, Nico, hey. Almost didn’t recognize you there. You look good.”

Warmth bursts in Nico’s chest, an echo of past feelings rekindled. It’s nothing new; he’s come to accept that Percy Jackson is always going to have some kind of effect on him. But a year ago, the compliment would’ve meant everything to Nico. A year ago, it would’ve been devastating. Now, though—

He catches a glimpse of someone off to the side. A flash of curious eyes hidden behind a mask embellished with flaming red feathers. And Nico smiles, feeling himself immediately gravitate.

Turning back to Percy, he waves a hand, already starting to pivot away. “Thanks. You look pretty good yourself, Jackson.”

Then he leaves, pushing his way through the crowd. Nico chases after the image he saw, trying to catch up to the boy from earlier. He makes it all the way to the far end of the cabin grounds, nearing the Big House, before a tap on his shoulder has him swiveling around.

“Looking for me?”

[sparrows4bats]

Another Damian as Selinas Sidekick AU

I love the idea that Damian becomes a doctor so much, but I am also aware that he is a little adrenaline junkie and would be bored and miss vigilantism.

So, instead of going to his father and asking for the occasional patrol or spar. Damian decides to go to Selina with his boredom.

Selina and he have bonded over the years. Their shared love of cats, their rough past, and their very different yet complicated relationship to the batman. So Damian meets her for coffee every couple of weeks to vent.

It's therapeutic, and Damian quite likes having someone who listens to his side of things without rushing to defend everyone else. Selina has been around a long time and is well aware of the flaws of his father and siblings. She understands his frustration and the fact that it doesn't change how much he loves his family.

Selina has a soft spot for the boy who was so hurt and angry when she first met him but decided his own path to helping people. So when Damian tells her how he misses the adrenaline, the adventure, but can't hurt people anymore. (He took an oath, and he doesn't want to anymore, never again if he can help it.) Selina has a wonderful idea.

If he won't be a vigilante anymore, why not a thief?

Damian protests when she suggests it. At first.

Then Selina mentions how an awful lot of the money she takes ends up in the hands of the community and that she is not active nearly as much as Batman. A good heist takes quite a bit of planning after all.

The thing that really sold him is when Selina said she needed back up anyway to steal this artifact from a private collector and return it to its country of origin.

Doctor Damian Wayne sits across from her, a cat in his lap, and smiles as she outlines the plan and agrees easier than she thought he would.

Now Damian is highly trained, turned into a weapon from birth, but Selina insists on showing him some of her own moves. Damian excels in flexibility and the more arobatic elements. He picks pockets and exploits alarm systems like he's done it for years. He grins as he tells her exactly how he used to get around his father. No one wise ever lets anyone know all of their skills, even allies.

Selina delights in teaching him social exploitation, how to use his looks and charm to convince marks to just let him in. She laughs at the disgisted face he makes as she describes how to flirt and distract. Selina is actually a little impressed with how well he does at it after a bit of practice on regular people.

They melt at his accent and pretty green eyes, tripping over themselves to give Damian anything he wants if only to have his attention a moment longer.

She giggles at the thought of Bruce's and the other bats' reaction to their baby becoming the object of admirers. She reminds herself to get him to use his new skills at the next Wayne Gala so she can watch the chaos.

Finally, Selina declares him ready and hands him his new costume. Which happens to be a skintight black catsuit made from what he guesses is reinforced material, complete with a mask to cover his mouth and a hood with cat ears sewn on top.

"No."

"But you'll look so cute kitten!"

"I'll look like an idiot!"

"You need a suit, I altered one of mine, so unless you're going to rob this guy wearing the Robin outfit, it'll have to do."

"Fine!"

"Do you have a name? Or am I calling you kitten all night?"

Damian sighs and thinks, "You can call me Stray."

The job goes extremely well. Catwoman and Stray get in, grab the artifacts and a few extras that catch their eye, and get out without anyone noticing. It's the most fun Damian has had in ages, flitting across rooftops once again.

After that, Stray makes regular appearances, never when it'll interfere with his work.

He and Catwoman rob the corrupt and return culturally significant objects and wealth to where they belong. Afterwards, he goes to work and saves lives.

Damian and Selina don't tell the others about their escapades. Damian doesn't want the hassle of explaining his choices to them, and ever since he hung up the cape, his father and brothers have been overprotective to the extreme. Silena is waiting for the world's greatest detective to figure out his civilian son is now her sidekick.

Batman notices Strays existence months after Damian starts his new hobby. He meets his father in the house of a mob boss Catwoman had been targeting for years.

"Catwoman, whose your friend?" Batman grunts

"Oh, Batsy, meet my kitten, Stray."

Damian pitches his voice a little lower and carefully imitates a Gotham accent.

"Great to finally meet you Batman, my mentor has told me so much about you." Damian offers a clawed hand. His father doesn't take it.

"Get out of here. This guy is involved in a human trafficking ring I'm tracking down."

"All the more reason to liberate his ill gotten gains, don't you think?" Damian asks with a smirk.

Batman glares at him but let's them leave with a few nice paintings and doesn't bother giving chase. Damian ignores Selina winking at the Bat and whispering in his ear for his own sanity.

It goes on like this for weeks. When he sees his father outside the mask, the man is doting and worried if he's eating enough. When he he meets Batman, the man is cold and standoffish.

The other bats enjoy his humour but are thoroughly confused at his ability to evade them.

Bruce is losing it because the last time a masked figure showed in Gotham with vaguely familiar moves, it was Jason on a revenge mission. At least, Stray isn't beheading people, but Bruce needs to know who he is, like yesterday.

Silena says nothing but enjoys their frustration. Her kitten is having fun for the first time in years, and not even the bats are going to ruin that.

It works well, Damian helps Silena while he keeps his new life as a doctor without his family knowing his secret. He enjoys the adrenaline and sleeps better with some sort of outlet.

Then, all of the Batfamily are kidnapped.

Damian doesn't know how it happened or why he is the only one left to deal with it, but Silena called, and now he has to go rescue his idiots. Silena is with the sirens out of town, so Stray goes in solo. (he doesn't have time to find a robin suit.)

He finds his family tied up and mildly drugged in a large basement.

"Why are you here?!" Nightwing asks as he is untied.

"Because apparently you all are incapable of keeping yourselves out of trouble without my help!"

"We've never needed your help before?" Red Robin interjects, looking at him like a puzzle.

"Yes, take that tone! Agent A is waiting at the cave for you all, and God help me if any of you patrol again without me clearing you!"

"Wait-" Batman starts. "Damian!"

Every other bat looks at him in shock.

"No names in the suit, Father!"

All of the vigilantes start to talk over each other as Damian sighs. He has a shift in 5 hours and probably won't be able to sleep before it now.

Just as Damian has untied the last of his siblings, the door to the basement busts open to reveal a very serious looking Jon Kent. Tim had apparently activated the distress beacon.

Stray holds his face in his hand. "Bit late there, Superman." As he turns to a hovering Jon Kent.

"Damian?!" The Super gapes at him.

"No names in the suit, Hayseed!" Damian crosses his arms, his glare visible even if his scowl is hidden. Jon immediately turns bright red. Damians family look on in dread.

"I didn't know you even had a suit anymore!"

"It wasn't important!"

"Looks pretty important to me! What? Trade in the bird theme for... Are those cat ears??"

Damian glares harder. "They weren't my choice."

"Yeah, I got that. This is very different from your old Robin get-up." Jon looks him up and down. "Suits you, though."

Damian hopes his heartbeat doesn't give away how that comment affects him, but going by the smirk on Jons face, he already knows.

"NO!" Damians brothers shout from beside him.

"Stray, you are coming back to the cave." Batman orders

"But Father-"

"Now."

Damian really just wants to sleep, but his father isn't giving him a choice in the matter. He looks towards Jon and has a wonderful idea.

"Superman, I could use an evac." Jon takes a moment, smiles, and grabs the cat themed thief and flies them both away. They ignore the other heroes yelling behind them.

After a few minutes of flying, Jon sets him down in the middle of a field.

"So you're Stray now?"

"I needed an outlet that didn't hurt people, Silena suggested it." Damian says while taking down his mask and hood. "Thank you for the escape."

Jon chuckles. "Anytime." He steps closer. "If you want to repay the favour, you could take me to dinner?" He flirts.

Damian raises a brow. "Really?"

"I'll even pay."

"How is that repayment?"

"Was thinking more of a date, actually?" Jon looks at his lips as he says this.

"The Cat Costume really does it for you, huh?" Damian teases.

"No, you do it for me. I've been trying to ask you out for ages, but seeing you in skintight leather is definitely a hell of a motivation."

Damian hums. "Tommorrow then, you can pick me up after my shift. If you let me sleep before I have to work in the morning"

"Deal."

His family eventually interrogate him about being Stray, but not before they find Jonathan Kent waiting for him with flowers and a kiss.

Needless to say, Selina is highly entertained when she returns.

[crepes-suzette-373]

Mirror, Mirror

Niji and Sanji are designed to be very similar in a lot of ways, but also direct opposites. It's like mirrored images, which are almost identical except reversed.

There's the obvious opposite ones like how Sanji really cares about not wasting food and Niji didn't even eat anything at all. You can see his plate is completely untouched.

Also, if this is meant to show that Niji is a picky eater, you can kind of say that it's the opposite of a chef (while the Reiju novel did describe Ichiji/Niji/Yonji as all picky eaters, the description there are not necessarily true as the novels are not always supervised by Oda-sensei).

And of course how they treat women:

But there's also background stuff like this:

Certainly there's possible lore reasons for why Niji wears goggles even as a child, but since Ichiji wasn't wearing his sunglasses when they were kids, it just makes Niji's goggles stick out like a sore thumb.

Sanji's helmet also has possible lore/thematic reasons for it, like Man in the Iron Mask reference, but then why not make the helmet just straight up covered his whole face? The fact that it was specifically designed to have this large hole for the eyes makes me wonder.

They both kick as their primary choice of attack. And if the Wanze battle is any indication, Sanji clearly could be very good with blades if he wants to be. He just chose not to.

There's also the superficial like the black-blue-yellow colour scheme in Sanji's initial outfit and Niji's raid suit.

In the finalised drafts we saw that Oda-sensei noticed and thought over the fact that if Niji is "blue" it would clash with Sanji who is also already "blue". We don't know what the little note saying "yellow" means, but whatever his thought process was, we ended up with "double blue".

The raid suits cover art is just for fun, sure but because Niji and Sanji have identical colour themes, blue, well... aside from the gloves and scarf having a different colour and the belt buckle, Sanji just looks like he store Niji's suit.

This has to be intentional, right? If this is just coincidence, that's sure a lot of coincidence and it's such a waste.

[championari]

True Love: Why FifteenxRogue Works

WOW. Man, that Rogue episode, huh? Watching that live was probably the greatest experience I’ve had recently regarding Doctor Who. Not just as a queer viewer, but as a queer media analyst. Fifteen and Rogue truly feel like a relationship written for me to analyze, because there is simply so frickin’ much to talk about. So, allow me, gentle reader, to be your Lady Whistledown of queer alien fuckery, and guide you through analyzing the latest dalliance of our Time Lord extraordinaire with the most honest bounty hunter in the galaxy. 

We’ll be covering a LOT of ground in this: the theme of facades/masks, an interrogation of The Doctor’s perception of romantic relationships, and a deep dive into The Fifteenth Doctor’s character overall. So, needless to say, this is going be a LONG LONG piece. Grab a snack, some water, whatever you need, cause we’re going deep on this one. 

You’re still here? Fantastic! Then let us begin! Specifically, with the Fifteenth Doctor himself. Because above all else, this episode works as a dissection of his character overall. 

I’ve already done two metas regarding The Giggle’s ending and The Doctor’s perception of romance pre-Season 1/14, so if you want more elaboration, go read those here: 1, 2. But in case you don’t, I’ll sum up and expand based on what we’ve learned since. 

The Doctor, as a character, has always struggled with commitment and attachment. They never stayed in one place for long and when they did, they had an unhealthy relationship with it (Trenzalore, Darillium, Bill’s University). Romantic connection is a permutation of this larger issue, as every romantic relationship we have seen The Doctor take part in since 2005 either was unbalanced (holding back problems/outright lying) or ended in a really bad way.  However, thanks to the 60th specials and a bi-generation, The Doctor went through a massive change, and with it, came a new perception of openness and love. Fifteen is more expressive, and willing to verbally identify beauty. He openly points out how beautiful people are, and talks about previous exploits with pride. But this supposed openness betrays a deeper dishonesty still inside the Doctor. As much as Fifteen talks the talk of openness, he doesn’t often walk the walk when things get tough.

Fifteen’s character struggle is trying to break out of the Doctor’s previous patterns of unstable attachment and commitment while continuing those patterns. He values emotional honesty and encourages it in others yet simultaneously runs from it when the spotlight is on himself, even when he knows it’s beneficial and necessary for him to do so. So, with all of that in mind, let’s deep dive into Rogue (the episode, not the character, but also the character).

The best word to describe this episode is ‘deception’. Setting the episode in Bridgerton-esque Regency-era England was an appropriate choice, likening to a show that is all about facades and posturing to gain wealth and social standing (yes I am oversimplifying, don’t hurt me). Throughout the episode, we see characters who aren’t who they present themselves to be and use all manner of tools or tactics to disguise themselves to meet their ends. 

We have the Chuldur, creatures who gain pleasure from cosplaying. They thrive on creating fake entertainment for their amusement, honesty is useless if it can’t satisfy them. While this is meant as an obvious commentary on fan culture and how dangerous it can get when taken to the extreme, it also functions as a darker reflection on The Doctor’s habits. Because think about it: what are Fifteen and Ruby doing in this episode? They are having fun, dancing alongside the other partygoers. They’re wearing the outfits but only to blend in. Ruby doesn’t know how to dance, she has to wear psychic earrings to keep up. She watches the fake fight between ‘Emily’ and ‘Lord Stilton’ like she would watch an episode of Bridgerton. Her fight with Emily later in the episode is set to Lady Gaga’s ‘Poker Face’ playing in the background.

What we’re seeing in the villains is The Doctor’s pastimes becoming toxic, taking a companion and bringing them to a culture far removed from their own. But it’s not only a commentary on The Doctor overall, it’s also Fifteen’s philosophy in a darker context. Posing as sincerity and maybe containing it to some extent, but ultimately not completely honest. Through the setting and the villains, the episode is already priming us on a subconscious level to be thinking about disguises and dishonesty, a topic that both The Doctor and the Fifteenth incarnation specifically have a complicated relationship with. And then comes Rogue.

Rogue himself is such a fascinating part of the episode because he is such a deliberate disruption to this cultivated environment of deception. Rogue is the complete antithesis of everyone in the plot. He’s terrible at improvising, he’s socially awkward, he dances without needing psychic earrings, and he never cleans the inside of his ship. Rogue intentionally disrupts the narrative of lies by not being able to play the game. Even when he tries to wear a mask, the mask of an uncaring bounty hunter, He doesn’t wear it well and gets rid of it after the ship scene with The Doctor. Rogue is a character who cannot help but be who he is, he’s a character who not only can’t wear a mask but doesn’t want to. To put it simply, honesty is Rogue’s kink. That’s why the episode is named after him; it’s not just because he’s a central character, but because he provides the counter-argument to the themes of lies and deception. Rogue, the disruptor to The Chuldur’s acts of fake entertainment, and the disruptor to The Doctor’s act of cosplaying with Ruby, and on a deeper level, disrupts Fifteen’s oscillation between sincerity and repression. But we’ll get to that, we have Mount Everest's amount of context to analyze first, starting with their first meeting.

The Doctor and Rogue’s beginning scene sets the stage for the main obstacle in their relationship: their masks. ‘Cause right now we’re operating with two versions of the characters: the facade/mask versions, and the real versions. We get our first look at Rogue when Fifteen looks around for interference on the psychic earrings. He finds him being the most conspicuous while wearing the ‘bounty hunter’ mask: on a balcony (separated from the party physically), not speaking at all. 

He is standing out here but only in the way someone who knows disguises would recognize. The Doctor, remember no. 1 liar, of course he’s gonna recognize that. So much so, that he gives Rogue pointers on how to put on a better “brooding” face, literally teaching him how to wear the mask better. Rogue is an amateur mask wearer, going up against the master of mask-wearing. And that’s why Fifteen smiles when he sees him, he’s intrigued by that contradiction and wants to know more. 

Rogue meanwhile, is being rude and dismissive to scare him off, trying to keep to the mask he’s built. At this point, he knows that Fifteen also stands out from the rest but right now is assuming that he’s still a random partygoer. Notice what he says to him: 

He’s still using language and ideas someone from that era would understand. Where this deviates is this little exchange that felt familiar to me, but I couldn’t figure out from where. Until I remembered this:

(credit to @ngatwa for this set, you're amazing)

This is the first instance in the episode where Fifteen and Rogue’s relationship calls back to previous romantically-coded relationships The Doctor has had between companions. But it’s not just romantic subtext, it’s subtext that explains where the two are in the relationship. Victorian Clara was far more than what she appeared to be (a governess masquerading as a barmaid/echo of a companion scattered in the Doctor’s timeline), and the Doctor was more than he appeared to be (an alien who lived in a blue box). In asking those questions, it’s both recognition of the masks and inquiry for the real person underneath. Same thing here: Rogue and Fifteen at this point are trying to figure each other out, trying to see beyond the masks of the uncaring bounty hunter, and the flirtatious partygoer. Where things start to go wrong is that neither party fesses up to who they are. Rogue instantly assumes Fifteen is The Chuldur he’s looking for, while Fifteen assumes Rogue is a regular partygoer looking to…*ahem* create a scandal in the gardens if you get what I mean. This explains why a violin rendition of Billie Eilish’s ‘Bad Guy’ plays in the background. It’s not just a Bridgerton reference, it’s contributing to both characters’ perception of each other in this scene: both characters think the other is the “bad guy”. The lead into the scene is deception, we leave it the same way. No breakthrough yet. 

Now we’re moving on to the scene in the garden, where both masks of Fifteen and Rogue begin clashing with their real personalities. Fifteen is still being semi-sincere, still complimenting Rogue. And like water, all of it is rolling off of him because he’s still under the assumption he’s talking to a shapeshifting alien. He rudely asks about The Doctor’s info dumping and doesn’t respond to The Doctor’s compliments.

(credit to @klausbens for the gif, you're awesome)

He’s not engaging because he thinks the Doctor is not who he appears to be, and for a character that values honesty, everything Fifteen says is gonna wash over him. The moment this changes is when the two are accusing the other of the murder. Quite literally finishing each other’s sandwiches (C’mon, you know I had to throw a Frozen reference in this somewhere). 

This is a very interesting scene given our current context. Trope-wise, this is meant to communicate to the audience the bond between the two characters, they’re thinking the same thing. But the trope is flipped on its head because both characters take it in opposite directions. Both Fifteen and Rogue are in perfect sync, they are being honest about how much they understand about the situation, but that information is leading them to completely different conclusions (i.e. the other person is the Chuldur). They’re slapping more masks onto each other, this time with information they know is true, which leads to them locking in their heels and simply not being honest altogether until later. This scene is a repeat of the previous one, except this time it’s them showing their hands a bit more, making the backslide all the more difficult. Getting close to sealing the deal, then heel turn at the last minute, a classic Bridgerton move. 

So, what needs to happen to break this backslide? Well, plain and simple honesty. The scene on Rogue’s ship is when both masks start coming off. What Fifteen is doing on the ship during the scene is essentially trying to figure out Rogue. He finds out the ship is meant to be piloted by two, and he discovers the origin of Rogue’s name, the Kylie Minogue music. Which is a moment I want to zoom in on. Right before this happens when Rogue gives a cheeky response to Fifteen finding out about the name, Fifteen makes a joke and starts emphasizing his Scottish accent. This is Fifteen putting on another mask to make a joke, and Rogue doesn’t appreciate that, given his dirty look. 

Then Fifteen finds the music, which he then again uses as an opportunity to joke around and make fun of him (and flirt a little bit with him).  Fifteen is removing Rogue’s mask, while he is staying enigmatic and mysterious, which is why Rogue is still stonewalling him. HOWEVER, two can play that game, and Fifteen makes a big mistake in showing Rogue the psychic paper. This is the first time Fifteen is completely honest about his feelings towards Rogue. No mask, no posturing, complete honesty. And we see Rogue responds positively to this: 

This is the first time the two are both on the same level, communicating honestly. And that’s where we start to see genuine romantic feelings and attraction. 

But it’s not enough, so what does Fifteen do? He pulls out the big guns. He shows Rogue the truth: he’s a Time Lord from Gallifrey and has lived many different lives over hundreds of years. He not only rips off his mask, he quite literally reveals all of the other masks the Doctor has worn throughout the ages. And what is Rogue’s reaction to this? 

Complete besotted awe. If honesty is Rogue’s kink, then The Doctor revealing their faces just supercharged it. This is the moment that Rogue falls in love because he’s finally seeing who this mysterious flirty person really is. 

Now, I’m gonna pull out another previous Doctor romance for two reasons: One, I’ve been seeing this comparison floating around for a while, and if you know me and my old analyses, it’s that I cannot leave an inaccurate take alone, and two, because I think it applies here. I’ve been seeing comparisons online of this episode to Girl in the Fireplace, in which a new character falls in love with The Doctor and gets the rare opportunity to see their true self. But what makes Reinette different from Rogue is that honesty kink. Reinette was attracted to the mystery of the Doctor, her childhood hero who somehow doesn’t age. Note when he comes back the first time, she focuses on how strange he is:

She learns more about them later, but she was already in love with them before that. Rogue doesn’t want the mystery. In reality, The Doctor wearing masks is a turnoff for him. He only wants the real thing, so when Fifteen reveals the truth, that’s when the genuine romance begins. 

(We could also extend this comparison to the discussion of consent: Reinette found out everything without The Doctor's permission, while Fifteen revealed all the info by himself, but whether we can consider this consensual depends on your definition of consent under duress/threat. So I’m not entirely sure what to make of this conversation, feel free to expand in the tags/replies cause I want to hear more about this)

So now we’re moving along to the TARDIS scene. We continue with the theme of disguises with the whole “bigger on the inside” routine, Fifteen riffing as Willy Wonka for a hot moment singing Pure Imagination, and we have Rogue’s momentary slip-up:

(credit to klausbens for the gifs, you're awesome)

This is a great sign of character growth because while he’s maybe not wholly honest about his feelings towards The Doctor, he still is open about his love for the TARDIS, an important part of The Doctor’s life, so big step right there. 

I want to pay attention to the heart-to-heart here because watching what Fifteen says and how he reacts is extremely important to getting his view on the situation. Because right now, I wouldn’t say The Doctor is in love with Rogue back. While there is a lot of attraction and hints at a deeper bond, Fifteen is still operating with most of his mask on. Notice that when he asks Rogue about the person he lost, Ncuti Gatwa’s blocking has him leaning on the railing at an angle to the side of Rogue. He’s purposely staying at a distance, yet is leaning on the railings to appear casual. 

And when Rogue starts opening up, he moves closer and they’re at equal distance from each other.

We get a really sweet (and allegorical to the queer community) moment about The Doctor’s motivation of living out of respect for the dead, to keep living each day that they lost. And then we get Fifteen inviting Rogue onto the TARDIS. I want to focus on this because he doesn’t seem upset or disappointed by Rogue countering this offer by inviting The Doctor to travel with him, meaning he doesn’t see this as a “take it or leave it” offer. In fact, the compromise Fifteen comes up with, “let’s argue across the stars” and Rogue accepting it, is what leads to the almost kiss. So that prompts the question, what is Fifteen trying to say here? 

Well, what Fifteen is asking for is to continue seeing Rogue. It doesn’t matter to him if he’s on the TARDIS or not, all that matters is that he still has him in his life. The choice to see him more. Why does that sound familiar? Because that’s exactly what I wrote about in my dissertation on The Giggle’s Ending: 

“In giving Fourteen their own TARDIS, Fifteen is allowing his younger self to have what they always removed from the equation: free will. The Doctor can still go anywhere they want, which makes them even more motivated to stay and fix themself. Fourteen can feel safe staying with Donna, Wilf, Mel, Rose, Shaun, and Sylvia because the option to travel is still there.”

Fifteen’s love language is giving the people he cares about the freedom to express the love they already have within them. He values freedom above all else, and when Rogue accepts that freedom, that’s when we get the almost-kiss. This is the moment where The Doctor falls in love with Rogue back because it’s Rogue being willing to meet The Doctor where they’re at. He’s allowing Fifteen to set the pace and not force himself on him. 

Additionally, this willingness to be as slow or fast as The Doctor needs means far more to The Doctor overall than to just Fifteen. Many people have already pointed out the similarities between the line “let’s argue across the stars' and previous lines the Doctor has said to villainous characters like The Master and The Toymaker:

"We can take your games back to the stars."

"We can fight across the constellations if that's what you want".

Now, why is that? It’s because again, The Doctor’s perception of Rogue is evolving in this scene. Remember, up to this point, The Doctor doesn’t entirely know Rogue’s morality. All they know is that Rogue is a bounty hunter, and is not afraid to use his gun when he deems appropriate. There’s even a little line in this scene before the heart-to-heart where Fifteen specifically imposes his own brand of morality on the situation: “Whatever the Chuldur has done, I can’t let you kill it.” Now, we know that The Doctor’s morality and romantic life can conflict: River being a known murderer/psychopath, their longtime situationship, and later attempted rehabilitation of The Master/Missy. This is another feature of The Doctor’s character: while they do act like they have the final say on what is right, they also compromise that morality for people they care about. 

Like how The Doctor surprised Rogue by showing all of his faces, Rogue surprised the Doctor right back by not only being honest about his past but by being willing to accept The Doctor’s compromise. This moment is when The Doctor finds out that Rogue is a good person, and that The Doctor doesn’t need to compromise their morality when entering this relationship.

This heart-to-heart is about Rogue not only winning over the Fifteenth Doctor by agreeing with his values of freedom but also winning over The Doctor overall by just genuinely being a good person. But of course, the moral duty of taking care of the Chuldur rears its head in the form of the TARDIS alerting that the trap is ready. The bubble has popped and we still have a long way to go. 

(Plus, Fifteen’s facial expression in this shot perfectly captures that trademark “Oh.” moment, realizing you’re in love with someone but then taping it down to focus back on the immediate problem. Love you Ncuti Gatwa, you do great work)

Alright, now we’re at the dance/fake proposal scene. Oh lord, so much happens here with both dialogue and production regarding character, so let’s take this one at a time. Fifteen, Rogue and now Ruby have figured out the big plot regarding the Chuldur, their obsession with cosplay and dressing up to create drama. In response, Fifteen comes up with the idea to essentially beat them at their own game: create a fake scandal to draw them out. 

Now on paper and in terms of beating the bad guys, this is a plan that could and does work, but in terms of his relationship with Rogue: THIS. WAS. A. BAD. IDEA. Why? The very idea of masks and faking not only was the leading cause of them not connecting in the beginning but specifically doesn’t work with Rogue. You can see it in how Rogue nervously looks at Ruby and Emily when Fifteen asks him to dance, and even questions the validity of the plan: 

(credit goes to @carricfisher for texted gif, you're awesome)

It’s not just that he doesn’t know about homophobia, he just doesn’t like the idea of pretending at all. But the reason why it doesn’t collapse right away is because it’s not entirely pretending. The dance may function on the surface to create a scene, but for Rogue (and Fifteen albeit to a smaller extent) it doubles as an intimate moment between them. This connects to the choice of dimming the lights in an unrealistic way (which btw, as a film student, had me going insane watching it live). We’re seeing a deliberate break in reality, a dishonest showcase of the story being told, that serves the purpose of highlighting an ultimately honest and sincere act of love. Both The Doctor and Rogue are warping the aesthetic of deception in terms of the narrative by fabricating a scandal, and in terms of the production by changing the lighting. 

But of course, things start going to hell right there. Fifteen tries to up the drama and Rogue can’t keep up. Rogue overcorrects and proposes to Fifteen, who freaks out and leaves the room. Now, I don’t want to get into the question of whether or not Rogue was playing along by proposing or being genuine (Personally speaking, I think it was both. 70% true, and 30% fake). Instead, I want to clear up why Fifteen freaked out here. I’m sure a lot of the long-time audience could already guess that it was parallel to River Song, The Doctor’s wife, but I think it’s more layered than that. Why would a reference to River scare the Doctor so much, aside from reminding them of a close person they lost? Because the last time the Doctor got married to someone they truly loved, it involved a 24-year stay on Darillium, which he knew would end in tragedy. Note the word choice here:

“Sorry I…I can’t.”

Not ‘I don’t want this’, it’s a void of agency (which connects to my piece on The Giggle’s ending and freedom). The Doctor can’t have that with Rogue, he was fine with them being casual to avoid the possibility of losing him. 

But on my first watch, I couldn’t help getting a little bit cross with Fifteen here, because the amount of ball fumbling on display is outright ridiculous; The Time Lord brings himself onto the dancefloor, with a guy he nearly made out with two minutes ago, gets all up in his face and starts shouting at him to “tell me what you heart wants!” and then completely freezes when said guy starts proposing to him. What in the fuck did you expect was going to happen, bud?! What made you think this would go off without a hitch?

I want to preface this by saying I had a completely different reading of this scene for a long time. My original thought was that Fifteen was trying to do multiple things simultaneously. He potentially was trying to lure out the Chuldur by creating scandal and at the same time, was trying to have a serious talk with Rogue about where he’s at emotionally. These lines in particular have fascinated me since my first watch: “You would ask me to give up my title, my fortune. But what future can you promise me?”. It did feel like these lines hinted at Fifteen’s thought process at this moment, he chose those specific lines to use for this moment. Was Fifteen trying to have an honest conversation with Rogue about their relationship while being fake to everyone else? But that doesn’t make sense considering the previous conversation in the TARDIS showed Fifteen comfortable with the idea of them being casual and Rogue respecting that, so it doesn’t make sense with where Fifteen is progression-wise. 

But it wasn’t until writing out this piece that I realized I had it all wrong and the truth was far simpler: this is a repeat of their meeting on the balcony, albeit with higher personal stakes. Let’s take a step back here: What is happening in this scene? Fifteen and Rogue are completely missing what the other is trying to say. Fifteen ignored Rogue being visibly uncomfortable over being back to playing with masks, and Rogue is not getting if Fifteen wants him to be genuine or not. Just like on the balcony and the garden, where both sides think they’re saying one thing when it’s the opposite. Before, both parties were wrong about who they were, now both parties are wrong about what they want. 

Fifteen is saying complete bullshit here, not true stuff to their situation but stuff that their audience would react to. He’s being over the top on purpose to elicit reactions. Meanwhile Rogue is thinking he’s being genuine. He thinks Fifteen is, through code speak, trying to genuinely ask him these questions. Which leads him to get down on one knee. And that’s a big problem because Rogue doesn’t know that proposing is wading into a gargantuan trauma pool for The Doctor. This scene is a magnified example of the duo’s problem with masks and not being completely honest with each other. 

However, while this scene may have been a cause for regression from The Doctor on the relationship part, Rogue on the other hand has an epiphany. In the scene following this one, we get the truly iconic callback of “Run.” and Rogue taking the Doctor’s hand. Why is this important? Well, there are three specific examples that this moment is calling back to: 

Nine meeting Rose ("Run!")

Victorian Clara and Eleven fleeing from the Ice Governess ("I do the handgrabbing! That's my job! That's always me!")

Twelve running with River ("Stop holding my hand! People don't do that to me!")

Nine meeting Rose establishes this idea of protection: The Doctor taking care of someone by leading them away from danger. The other two examples are subversions of that idea: Clara and River are now leading The Doctor out of danger. Same principle here, except here it has a bit more context behind it. Clara and River subverting that act of protection made sense given who they were: Clara as an echo across The Doctor’s time stream knew who The Doctor was and what they needed, even if she didn’t know it consciously when the moment happened. River as The Doctor’s wife also knew who they were and what they needed at the time. 

By connecting Rogue’s action of taking Fifteen’s hand and running to Clara and River, it not only again connects Fifteen and Rogue to previous romantic relationships, but it also shows Rogue learning from his mistake. Rogue’s mistake in the proposal scene was him not figuring out what Fifteen needed at that moment, it was a major miscommunication. Now, at this moment, Rogue is starting to figure out what he needs to do. He is, to use relationship lingo, "shelving his agenda" to help the Doctor. 

And that progression continues through the last leg of the episode, including the moment when Fifteen thinks Ruby is dead. I’ve always found this moment in particular so fascinating because of how loud it is metaphorically for both characters. Fifteen is taking off the mask of coolness and revealing that Doctor™ anger. This is a complete switch-up from what he’s been like throughout most of the episode. Yet when he lets out that chilling line, “Good. That’s a long time to suffer.” Rogue doesn’t look all that scared or mad at him. 

The face Rogue makes here looks far closer to a resigned sadness, almost like he knew that he would have that reaction. Keep in mind that Rogue knows nothing about The Doctor at their worst, all that he knows right now is that they lost “everyone”. Compare that with Donna, who was outright terrified of The Doctor when at their worst (for good reason though). 

Rogue isn’t surprised by this at all. He’s not asking “What happened to this person in front of me?”, he’s realizing “This is how much he cares about his best friend.” He’s seeing the depth of this person’s love that is inexorably linked to the depth of his grief, and is realizing he can’t allow that grief to corrupt this person he’s grown to love, even if it means endangering himself. Which is exactly what ends up happening.

This is where the theme of masks finally pays off. At the beginning of the episode, both Rogue and Fifteen are wearing their masks (cold, uncaring bounty hunter, and flirtatious partygoer). Those masks started to come down, but that got messed up thanks to miscommunication. Rogue didn’t understand what The Doctor needed from him, causing their trauma to resurface and The Doctor ran away from having to deal with that grief. This final scene is them being completely honest with each other. Rogue asks him “Can you lose your friend to save the world?”, and Fifteen tells him the truth. He can’t, he can’t let that happen again. And Rogue understands that, he finally knows what needs to be done. And so he kisses him. Why did Rogue kiss him? Again, it’s a repeat of a previous scene, this time the dance. Rogue is comfortable putting on a mask/doing something dishonest when there’s an aspect of truth to it. Even if they danced together to serve a lie, it still was a moment powered by romantic feelings. Same with the kiss. Rogue had wanted to kiss him, so he felt comfortable doing something with an ulterior motive (taking the button from him) because it was also something he would’ve wanted to do regardless of the situation. 

But why did Rogue do it? The one line that I kept thinking of in summing up the intent behind Rogue's sacrifice was, ironically, from Frozen: "Love is...putting someone else's needs before yours”. Essentially, shelving your agenda, like we’ve been saying. Back in the proposal scene, Rogue’s mess up was not figuring out what Fifteen needed out of him at that moment. Fifteen needed him to play along in faking and instead, Rogue heel turned into a lot of trauma for The Doctor. So now, after seeing how important Ruby was to Fifteen, so important that he was willing to torture The Chuldur out of grief, Rogue is putting The Doctor’s needs before his own and stopping him from having to choose between her and the world. It's also why Rogue wiping away his tears before the kiss was so crazy because that's normally the Doctor's job. The Doctor is normally the one who turns sadness into hope. This time, someone else is doing that for him.

(credit to ngatwa again)

The greatest act of love in the episode was not the proposal, it was the sacrifice.

To close our tale, let us circle back to talking about Fifteen’s character arc. I opened this essay by talking about Fifteen’s main character flaw being a contradiction: both valuing emotional intimacy and running from it. That doesn’t seem to change by the end of this episode, so much so that Ruby forces Fifteen to take a moment and mourn Rogue’s loss when he wants to steamroll forward. But there’s one little detail left: Fifteen kept the ring. Not only kept it but is wearing it in the season finale to the point of even playing with it like a nervous tick. 

That bond, that relationship was so important to him that he doesn’t allow himself to ignore it. It’s only after he has that hug with Ruby that he pulls out the ring and chooses to wear it. Rogue is the one thing Fifteen won’t run away from because what they had wasn’t fake. It was real. 

Rogue, the supposed bounty hunter who only cared about wealth, loved The Doctor so much that he was willing to give up his life for his friend. The Doctor, the supposed Time Lord who flees from attachment, loves Rogue enough to remember him every day.  

I ask you, gentle readers, how could one resist a love story like that?

NOTE: some extra bits I wanted to include that I couldn’t fit anywhere else: I’m such a sucker for color symbolism, and having Rogue wear blue in contrast to Fifteen’s normally warm color palette, as well as blue being the color of The TARDIS…it just makes me feel things, ya’ know? 

Also, by not gendering Rogue’s previous partner, only ever using they/them pronouns, it helps add to the relationship in a social commentary way. It subtly shows that Rogue already has experience/is attracted to people who on some level defy gender norms, which helps prime the audience to buy Rogue accepting/liking The Doctor being able to change gender when regenerating.

Essentially, I'm insane over these two, and I need them back on screen as soon as possible.

[daandyli0n]

(warnings: blood/mild gore, implied child death (and murder in Cassidy's case), eye contact. maybe also bright colors/eyestrain)

Some Updated Refs For The Afton Family In The Rewrite

(you know the drill, click the images to see details better and whatnot)

hooo boy. give me a minute to ramble about the designs and stuff below -

William:

so. tried to give him both "Eccentric, Goofy Restaurant Owner" and "REALLY Off-Putting" Vibes. hope i succeeded

yes he's hiding a knife behind his back.

bunny features. i Love William with bunny features. if you draw William with Bunny Features ily (platonically)

this man has not gotten a good night's sleep in Years.

now...you may be wondering: Why Do His Kids Get Refs For When They're Older, But Not Him? well...that's because, physically, he doesn't change much besides getting some more gray hairs and worse eye bags in the over a decade between his original murders and his death. and i've already done a ref for what O'Hare/Springtrap looks like in my design

yes, the Unhinged look in his eyes is intentional.

Alex:

gave his younger self a pose that was meant to give off "rebellious teenager" vibes, and his older self a pose that gives off "bitter and anxious" vibes.

gave him long hair. because Yes.

tallest of his siblings.

Michael:

looks like his father, but with a few minor changes: skin is mildly more tanned than his father, hair is a lighter shade of brown, etc.

William based the 1987 uniforms for the guards/employees off of his own usual outfit (Purple. which Backfired).

Mike tried to change his hair a bit to distinguish himself from his father, mostly by dying it a bright red and trying to cut the Bunny Ear-Shaped parts on the top of his hair to be more jagged and less Bunny-Like.

scars on his arm are from where Springtrap grabbed onto him.

Evan:

not much to say. bookworm, sad guy, probably needs to go to therapy for what happened in his childhood.

Elizabeth:

Bunny Features :]

she's basically somewhere between blonde and ginger hair color wise. i'd describe her as a strawberry blonde.

constantly has a wide-eyed look. like a hare.

mismatched socks, just because she could.

ghosts are typically either desaturated or transparent, with the only bright colors on them are usually their eyes or the bloody wounds from their death.

so while it's not shown here, "fun" fact! Liz died from where Harriet (Circus Baby) hugged her hard enough to break not just her spine, but her neck as well. (the hug was so strong due to Harriet malfunctioning that day)

all ghosts who have their souls tied to an animatronic have a mask of that animatronic that they can wear if they wish. Liz's mask is of Harriet.

Cassidy:

my baby boy. my beloved <3

those pants are pajama pants. he wore them everywhere.

while not visible, Cassidy also wears mismatched socks like Liz.

the Fredbear plush was a gift from Henry, given to Cassidy by Charlie.

was blind in one eye after The Bite.

The Bite wasn't as horrible as people think it was. what basically happened was that the teeth bit slightly into his head, which caused the bleeding, as well as some cracking in the skull and brain damage in his frontal lobe. due to the mechanisms in Fredbear being Very hot as well, it caused some burns. nothing that couldn't heal, but...it Was still pretty serious.

while The Bite itself didn't kill Cassidy, he still, as a ghost, appears to have a bleeding section of his head.

the strangulation marks on his neck are more visible as a ghost.

Cassidy, as a spirit, can occasionally leak a mysterious black fluid from his eyes and mouth, which is reflected on his Mask.

Cassidy is transparent as a ghost.

anyway!! here's the guys!!

@that-darn-clown @hello-there-world

[vitzi9]

TW/CW: horror, stalking, weirdo Ethan, ghostface, mention of puking

Happy Halloween !

(31/10/2023) (2 228 words)

It's a miracle you agreed to go to that stupid party to begin with.

But Ethan insisted so much that you gave up. He told you he needed to tell you something really important. And, well, you've been flirting with him since forever. The hope he was finally going to ask you out was really present.

You terribly want him to ask you out.

It was a Halloween party, so you had to be disguised. Honestly, you are not too fond of these parties. You rather be in your living room partying with your friends, instead of strangers. But Ethan could ask you to jump out of your window that you'd do it.

So you bought a firefighter outfit from the nearest store and went with it. It's enough. Not good or bad, but enough. you had no idea what to wear anyway. It's not sexy, because you're cold, but it's not ugly. You don't think you'll be staying long anyway. As soon as Ethan's here, you kiss him and you leave.

But your plan turned out to fail miserably as you have no damn idea where your man is at.

You've been searching for him for age and the little fun you had completely faded out into the wind.

You've been wandering in the living room and the kitchen for too long. Did Ethan stand you up ? No, he would never do that. You know him. And, not to be mean, but he does not have a lot of people running after him. He's too shy to do the first move. So he won't miss this chance. Well, you hope anyway.

Deciding that you know the living room by heart, you head to a new area of the house, discovering the garage. The car that were previously here, deducing by the tire mark on the ground, was moved. Logical for someone hosting a party like that.

You sit on the workplan. It seems like tools were here before, but removed just like the car. You lay your back on the wall and close your eyes for a minute. When you think about it, you could've also come with your normal clothes. Because there is some disguises here that look just like everyday outfit.

You could have spare some money and not ridiculise yourself with this outrageousely lame firefighter disguise.

When someone push the door open, you're forced to come back to reality. Your hope of finding Ethan standing before you disappear as a Ghostface arrive.

You thought he would head back after seeing you, or at least go sit a little further from you. But he does all he opposite.

He walks up to you without a word and stand still in front of you, right in the middle of the garage. Okay, what is this now.

You feel naive for thinking whoever that was would speak up because he stays dead silent. You're getting uncomfortable. Not because it's Ghostface, but because you're thinking of the person under the mask staring at you so creepily.

Ghostface doesn't scare you, men does.

"Uh hello ?

Ghostface doesn't budge. Maybe he can help you find Ethan ? If you describe him to him, you can try to extract information.

"Well, while you're here. Have you seen my boyfriend ? He's... You know what ? Just forget it." You gave up when he didn't even move. It's like he doesn't hear you.

Plus, you don't even know what Ethan's costume looks like, no need to ask people. It won't work.

How are you going to find him ? It's useless to call for him out loud, he won't hear with the stupidly loud music blasting through the whole house.

"Are you gonna, like, stay here and stare at me ? It's getting awkward."

Ghostface doesn't answer. A sigh leaves your lips. Tired, you take out your phone in order to call Ethan. Of course, because your life always has to be ten times harder for no reason, he never pick up. And the stranger before you seriously start to piss you off.

"Can't you go annoy someone else ? Your costume isn't even fun, or scary, you guys are like twenty to be dressed like that tonight !

What's going on with being Ghostface ? Is it the new mode ? Did you miss something ?

-Do you like scary movies ? His modified robotic voice asks. Damn, some people are really giving their best in their disguise this year. He has to be rich or something to able to buy himself a voice changer.

-You're cringe." Escapes you like a bad reflex.

Who does he thinks he is ? Ain't no way you're feeding his stupid scenario. Ghostface uses his two pointer to draw you a heart in the air. You frown your brows and questions him with your eyes but he doesn't say anything. Did he just flirt with you ? Doesn't your firefighter outfit shows your lack of enjoyment of this night ?

What a shitty night.

You don't want to be the center of attention tonight. The only attention you want is from someone who's not even there.

You jump from the workplan to the ground and leave the place, closely followed by your new pain. Hands in your pocket, you wander without goal nor direction in the hallways of the big house, stumbling upon rooms, closet and just anything and everything.

Your Ghostface was still here, of course. Why would he leave you alone after all ? This asshole doesn't have anything better to do.

You tried to call Ethan several times again but to no avail. You weren't even annoyed anymore, just plainly confused and worried. Did you do something to upset him ? He always answer your calls at the mere second you press the button.

And with the man following you around, your sanity was starting to go low. Stopping suddenly your track, Ghostface hits your back because of him walking so close to you. You turn around, a scowl on your face.

"Will you leave me alone ?"

He draws another heart in the air then point himself and you.

Sighing, you leave the room and almost run to the kitchen in order to grab a new drink. After pushing and squeezing through people all over the living room, you end up at your destination. A group is here, a few Ghostface as well. You roll your eyes and take a can of anything but alcohol, not wanting to get drunk tonight.

All you wanted was Ethan and he was nowhere to be seen.

Seriously, you're here for him and he's not ? He begged you to come, it was his idea ! You try to think of different costumes he could wear. Last year, he wore a cardboard costume of a knight. Maybe this time he's Spiderman ? Something like that. You can definitely see him in a Spiderman costume. Or Ghost from Call of Duty. Fuck, there is like a thousand of different outfit he could wear tonight.

But you know for sure he's not a Ghostface.

Everyone is already dressed as it. Ethan is more nerdy, Ghostface is too bland. There's no personality to it. Of course it can be sexy in a different context. But damn, when there's so much of them, it's just boring. And you doubt Ethan would wear something sexy. You'd love him to, but you can't have everything.

Speaking of it, another of them arrive. He's alone and he lays his weight on the wall at your opposite. Is it him again ? Then, he just completely stop moving, not grabbing a drink. You can't tell if he's looking your way or not, as his mask hide completely his face.

It's possible you're getting paranoid but with this stupid Ghostface following you everywhere, you have some reasons to. Though, maybe it's not him. There is high chance it's not him. There are so many different Ghostface tonight.

But when he raises his hand to wave at you, you just sigh and roll your eyes. That's it, you give up. Throwing your can in the nearest bin, you push yet again everyone to hide in a room. Quickly looking behind you, you can't tell if someone's following you or not. You have to stop in your track to let people get down from the staircase's step to finally go up yourself.

First thing, you rush to the bathroom and lock the door. The music is muffled but still here. A bad headache is already coming your way. You turn on the faucet and throw water at your face after taking a big breath. It's better but you're still alone and bored. Plus, you're hot. So you slide down the zipper and sit your back against the bathtub.

When you think about it, maybe Ethan won't even ask you out. Maybe he just wanted to party with you and told you he had this 'something really important to tell you' just to make you come. Either way, he's not here. You don't know what to think.

You have the umpleasent feeling you wasted your night. Spending it in your bed would have been much better. With or without Ethan.

Maybe he was going to come but changed his mind ? No, Ethan's the nicest guy you've met here. He's not like that. And even if he changed his mind, he would've told you. He's not an asshole.

But then where is he ? Is he already down there ? But how come you don't see him ?

You decide to give up, closing your eyes and trying to ease your mind. Whether he comes or not, it's too late now. You're already here in your stupid disguise.

Your short moment of peace is interrupted by someone knocking and hitting dangerously hard the wooden door, followed by a loud 'Open!'. All you can do is afflict yourself pain by knocking your head on the edge of the bathtub. Why are you here ? You don't deserve that.

Slowly standing up, you unlock the door and immediately get pushed against the wall by an impatient man. You curse, he doesn't even hear, so you leave. In the corridor, your eyes sweep the living room from the interior balcony where there is still no signs of Ethan.

Multiple Ghostface are coming and leaving everywhere but only one catches your attention. He's laying on the wall just in front of the bathroom, as if waiting. You hope it's not him again. He has a hand behind his back, hiding whatever he's holding while the other rises up to wave at you.

Putting your hands in your pocket, you tilt your head to the side when you see him draw another heart with his index, with more difficulty this time as he's only using one hand. Now, you're convinced it's the same Ghostface that you saw earlier. Has he been following you ? Fuck, he has.

Where is Ethan when you need him the most ? You don't have the strength to deal with this guy right now. Smiling fakely, you flip him off and head to the opposite direction. Which is a dead end as Ghostface was placed right before the stair, preventing you from going back to the living room. So you have no other choice but to hide in another room until he leaves you alone.

And that's what you do, you chose a random room and knock on it, hoping there is no one fucking inside. Anxiously waiting for someone to answer, it's when silence fills your ear that you push the door open.

Taking the room in, your blood runs cold. Eyes widening and hands getting sweaty. So shocked that you let the door wide open behind you. They're not real, right ? Before you, a woman is laying on the bed, blood splashed on the sheets and the wall, she is wearing a Coraline outfit. On the ground, two other people in the same state. A man and a woman this time. A devil and a vampire.

They're scarily well done. They look so real. Too real.

You move forward, desperately wanting to be sure. With your pointer, you touch the leg of the woman spread on the bed and feel goosebumps rising on your whole body when it's supple. And warm.

Just like real skin.

A nervous laugh is the only answer you can muster. The music is still going in the living room, so it's fake. They're fake, right ? Yes, yeah of course they are. There is no way something like this could happen right now. In a place where so much people are reunited. It's just a regular decoration of Halloween, of bad taste, but still.

You hope nobody enters while you're here for what you are going to do, as depending on the outline of it, you'll either be fucking creepy or stupidly awkward. Heading to the head of the bed, you touch the hair of the woman on it. It's a blue wig, of course, she's disguised. Wait. She's disguised ? Nobody dress up a mannequin, no ? You remove the hair and realize with horror that real hair are under it.

It can't be, right ? Lastly, you poke her cheek and force open her eye. If it's fake, it's not supposed to have realistic eye. But it's a fucking real and brown eye that stare at your soul when you lift the lid.

Okay, now what the fuck ? It's not funny anymore. Where the fuck is Ethan ? Your breath get stuck in your throat. You are going to throw up if you stay here a minute too long. You need to get the fuck out of here.

You back up slowly but end up stumbling into someone's chest. A scream leave you, you jump in terror and search the head of the guilty who stopped you to flee. But the only thing you're able to see is this fucking Ghostface mask. It's him. You just know it. He's been following you everywhere. You just know it's him.

"What the fuck is wrong with you ?" you yell, feeling your sanity disappear the more you were staying here.

Ghostface tilts his head to the side and the hand he had until now almost hidden behind his back comes up at the front, displaying you the bloody knife he had in hand.

You could have thought it was fake. Only, the blood was dark and drooling on the floor leaving wet red drop on it.

Just like real blood.

He's swinging the weapon from left to right on loop. All the bad words and mean behaviour you could have gave him start to whiplash in your face. If you knew he was a fucking psychopath, you would have drew him a heart too.

"Do you have a boyfriend ?" He asks.

"He's... He's not here yet." You answer partially honest. Now that he was potentially dangerous, you had no problem answering his stupid questions.

"Really ?" Ghostface says, toying with his knife. He was playing with you.

From the corner of your eyes, you're still able to see the corpse of the woman on the bed and you want to puke at the thought of her.

"Are you the one who did this ? You ask in a shaky voice.

-Yeah. Of course. He stays nonchalantly, shrugging.

-Why ?

-Three people, just like us.

For a second, you wonder who's he talking about when saying 'three'. Because you are sure there is only two people here. Does he have allies ? Maybe someone hiding in the room without you knowing ? Fuck, you hope not.

-Three, for you and your two boyfriends.

-I don't have two boyfriends. Hell, you don't even have one to begin with.

-I wouldn't be so sure if I was you.

What does he know about you ? Who is he ? Why is he so sure about it ? What is going on ? There's dead corpses behind you, you need to get the fuck out of here.

You can see people in the corridor but it's like they can't see you. Hell, they probably think he's another Ghostface like there already is.

If you move or scream, you have the feeling he won't hesitate to use his knife against you.

-W-What ? What do you mean ?

The man rises his knife forcing you to shut your eyes in fear. He's tracing forms on your face with it, gliding it to your chin to your lips and then to your cheek.

You don't dare to move even a single muscle, you stopped breathing. You know he probably left bloody marks on your face. The weight on your lips tells you everything. There's blood on it, and it's not yours.

-If I remember correctly, I had something really important to tell you, am I right ?"

What the fuck ?

[just-a-carrot]

i don't have words to describe what happened during my play session of dd2 last night. as i mentioned yesterday, i thought i would try to sneak genzou in to one of the masquerade balls so i could try to get some fun cute shots of them dancing. what i did not expect was a bunch of random things happening that never happened before in my 360 hours of playing, ending in utter chaos and extreme violence LOL i have tears in my eyes just going through the video 🤣

anyway since i recorded the whole thing given i was planning to make gifs i thought i would chronicle the insanity because it's very funny and ridiculous to me. like who knew just wanting genzy to go to a dance would result in all of this...

adding a little context as i assume most ppl won't know anything about any of this, but in the game, there's a masquerade party held in the ball room inside the castle grounds every other night. this is included as part of a storyline in the first half of the game, but after you do that, the parties keep happening and you can still go hang out

anyway, i dressed iggy and genzou up to get ready for the party. for iggy, i had to make him wear the standard courtly wear (and later on the masquerade mask) or else he'd get kicked out LOL but i put on a fancy shawl thing to give him more pomp. for genzou, i cobbled together something i felt looked very regal from some of the different outfit pieces i had

for additional context, part of the plot is that pawns are not allowed within the castle grounds, so whenever iggy has to go inside, genzou will sit outside and wait. well, that wouldn't do for this! so i had iggy carry genzou all the way in to the masquerade hall. unfortunately, this meant that whenever iggy put genzou down, genzou immediately ran away because he's not supposed to be there LOL so i had to do some tricky work with the mod helping me to pause genzou's movements, which also made it hard to position sometimes

and also created a few hilarious moments where i wouldn't catch him fast enough and iggy would have to go bolting after him like he's chasing a dog or something:

i went early to practice a bit since time in the masquerade itself would be limited

anyway... finally!! the hour of the masquerade arrived. so iggy carried genzou inside...

...only to suddenly get stopped by this random guy???

he gave iggy a "paragon staff" and said something about it being an "eve of gift-giving" and that it was a special gift. when this happened, i thought it was a bit odd, as i'd never had anything like this happen before, but mostly i was like "oh that's nice!" this is also doubly hilarious imagining this guy talking to iggy while literally carrying genzou in his arms please...

after he was done talking i took a look at the staff in my inventory, but again, didn't really think much of it besides "oh dang, i wonder if this item will do anything cool"

but none of that was important anyway! tonight was all about dancing! so i promptly went to the center of the dance floor so i could start getting some shots. the music started playing and the others started dancing, and it was all very fancy

everything was going great and i was getting filled up with feels and inspiration (especially since the ballroom was giving me beauty and the beast vibes LOL)...

...WHEN SUDDENLY I WAS INTERRUPTED??? a random soldier suddenly proclaimed that they'd gotten word of a thief in the ballroom hello what

i was really confused and also annoyed because the stupid soldier had interrupted my shot lol like do you not understand this is Very Important priorities clearly

after this, i noticed that the music stopped and the other people stopped dancing... which also annoyed me, but i was determined to continue

...until the soldier interrupted YET AGAIN

...this time saying that the item that was stolen was the paragon staff

...wait

PARAGON STAFF

UMMMMM

i start to get a little bit nervous

but not that nervous as to stop dancing. i had a mission here after all. so iggy and genzou continued to dance all by themselves in the middle of the completely quiet hall save their footsteps as everyone around just watched in tense silence. it was actually really surreal and hilarious

after a bit though i finally thought maybe it would be a good idea to get rid of that staff...

...which triggered a soldier to immediately order me to come to the main hall HELP

after this, i decided to stop dancing as i wasn't sure what was going to happen. but in order to do that, i'd need to grab genzou as soon as i canceled the dancing animation so he wouldn't run away. so i did my normal trick to freeze genzou and grab him the moment he was unfrozen...

...EXCEPT INSTEAD OF PICKING HIM UP IGGY TACKLED HIM TO THE GROUND??????

WHICH THE SOLDIER THEN TOOK AS IGGY ACCUSING GENZOU OF BEING THE THIEF??????? AND SAYING HE NEEDED TO NOW SEARCH BOTH OF THEIR BELONGINGS????????????

at this point i've got a constant mantra of "what in the world what in the world what in the world" going on as i attempt to make sense of what's happening

ofc the soldier found the staff and accused iggy of being the thief. and immediately things descended into chaos, with genzou bolting, iggy trying to catch him, quickly losing him as the crowd started going wild, the soldiers starting to attack iggy

they don't have any weapons equipped so iggy just goes in fists flying

genzou is literally flying through the air. iggy is punching wildly as blood goes splattering. he's getting bludgeoned repeatedly and can barely stay on his feet, no doubt concussed five times over

i somehow manage to get their weapons equipped amongst the fracas but by this point there's about a thousand soldiers and a few mage soldiers too who have started casting spells in the hall

it's a bloodbath

eventually i notice genzou's body collapsed against a far pillar dead. now iggy is on his own. the soldiers descend. nothing but blood and swords filling his vision as he's surrounded by the onslaught of bloodthirsty guards

it doesn't last long after that...

...iggy blacks out

...

....

...only to wake up in jail

i'd never been arrested in the game before so this was doubly hilarious for me that it would only happen because i was trying to film genzou and iggy at the masquerade...

iggy contemplating the chaotic series of events that led him here...

fortunately, i always keep a few makeshift gaol keys on hand so i was able to escape without much issue (and without having to bribe the guard with half my money)

iggy breathing in the fresh air of freedom...

ofc first up on the order of business was summoning genzou back from the rift...

...who was looking pretty morose if i have to say. didn't even say one of his usual lines after coming back from the rift. i think both of them were just a bit overwhelmed by everything that had happened lol

then it was straight home and to bed, where genzou took care of him after his very overwhelming night in jail

the end

...LOL

if you made it this far i hope you've enjoyed my retelling. it was truly one of the wackiest things that's happened to me in the game and i'm still laughing about the absurdity of it all. i swear just when i thought this game couldn't surprise me anymore...

i still want to go back and get some shots of them dancing more, hopefully WITHOUT ending up in jail 🤣 i think it would make a very fun gifset. i'll try again later!!!

[sinukiyo]

Girl you gotta show us a Pinterest inspired aesthetic board of what the characters were wearing at the party. (If you have it)

Okay, this took a while to answer because I did not in fact have a Pinterest inspired aesthetic board of what the characters were wearing at the masquerade.

But when I saw this, I thought, “I should make aesthetic boards of what the characters were wearing at the party.”

And so here we are!

1. Mikasa

When describing her dress in this week’s chapter, I didn’t describe it as clinging to her body which means it was a flowing dress. It did have a slit too. Mikasa also had matching gloves and a mask. Sasha did her makeup!

2. Eren

Eren didn’t attend the masquerade to have fun or anything. He wanted to sneak into Rod’s home. He didn’t have time to think of what color would look nice and what wouldn’t.

So he settled for all black like the emo kid he is.

This board features that annoying glass of non-alcoholic wine Armin gave him.

3. Armin

Armin was going for a more classy, casual look so he went for a white shirt and black pants. He also brought along a jacket incase he (or anyone else) got cold and accessorized with rings so he wouldn’t look too plain.

At the masquerade, he ate a concerning amount of chocolate-hazelnut cookies

4. Sasha

Sasha attended the masquerade to eat good food but that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to slay while doing it.

5. Connie

For some reason, green just seems like Connie’s color to me. He didn’t want to go for a regular mask so his only covered one side of his face. He also added some really cool rings to Sasha and Mikasa’s cart when they ordered their gloves.

6. Jean

Jean, I imagine already had his outfit lying around. He just slipped it on and managed to look cool in it. The highlight of the masquerade was definitely his dance with Mikasa so that was included in this board.

7. Historia

You may see Historia’s dress and ask me, “how the hell did she fight Eren in that?!”

And the answer to your question is, “she’s simply a badass princess.”

8. Erwin

Erwin had the audacity to attend the masquerade looking as hot as an angel on earth and ask Hange why everyone was staring at him.

The last two characters weren’t present in this week’s chapters but there was no way I was going to make mood boards for others and not them✋🏽

9. Hange

Hange wore a regular face mask unlike everyone else and still managed to look like the coolest person in the room. They also spent a lot of time at the open bar in an area separated from the ballroom chatting with Levi.

10. Levi

There was no tea at the masquerade but somehow, Levi found a cup. He didn’t really want to be there but Erwin managed to convince him to go and Hange bought a mask for him.

And that’s it for now! This was fun to do actually so thank you @mslizsteele-stories for this ask. If there are any other characters you would like to see, let me know using the ask button!

For those who may need context, Read “A Thousand and One Lifetimes” today✨

Thank you!❤️

[darkmatilda]

on the topic of that 'what's diva's backstory' ask, i personally (and this is just me, she's your character so if im off then thats on me and my silly brain) had the assumption that, while she has always been this confident woman, there might have been a man she really truly loved to the point of dialling herself down for his sake. she probably wouldn't have recognized it at first - like you said, its likely he was a spencer-type himself, so maybe he made very subtle comments about her, her appearance and her behaviours, in ways that she didnt notice were red flags. perhaps that caused her to start dialling herself back, thinking it was HER choice to do so when really it was in service of him and his image. and perhaps one day she looked at herself and realized just how much of herself that this man had chiselled away, to the point where she didnt even recognize herself anymore. granted i am sprinkling some elements of my criminal minds oc here (she and diva are quite different, but their mentalities around their self-worth and protecting that worth bear some similarities) so obviously if this doesnt fit your character for diva, throw it all out. i just think its fun to think about - vegas anon

(sorry for sending so many asks, this series makes my neurons fire so quickly they enter different dimensions)

hiii, nice to see you again, vegas anon! i literally had to sit down and think for a moment about what you wrote because ngl i started this series pretty spontaneously, and diva!reader doesn’t really have some secret complex backstory her personality is kind of being shaped as we go

but i love the direction ure going i and i appreciate the fact that youre continuing my spencertype of guy in her past idea!! i can totally see this whole thread being tied to themes of male insecurity and toxic masculinity. like—imagine a cute, smart guy paired with a diva who’s constantly battling with his own self-worth and possibly intense maybe even unhealthy jealousy (what if all the times diva!reader made spencer jealous werent just for fun but were also a way to test his reactions? to observe how he acts when that emotion kicks in? a way to feel out the territory?)

he definitely wouldn’t like how confident and smart she is. of course, at first he’d be infatuated with her like everyone else—he’d say he loves those things about her, until he starts to feel like maybe she’s actually smarter, or more successful than him. and deep down hed start believing she could have someone way better—and he’d never get someone like her again if she left. that’s what would push him to do what you described i mean bringing her down, masking insults as compliments, passive-aggressive comments about her looks or behavior, subtle digs. tryiing to change her instead of working on himself. maybe he even planted the idea in her head that no one would truly want her for who she is—that no one could “handle” her in a real relationship, and that every other guy (except him ofc in his narrative) just wants her for her face or her body

and yes at a certain point she would start believing it—shes lose a bit of that spark we all love her for. but when she finally opened her eyes and kicked that asshole in the ass it would took a lot of work to get that spark back. but now? now she makes damn sure to show any man from the very start that they hold no power over he that they cant touch her self-esteem or shake her sense of worth

oh and this is exactly where spencer comes in — who, despite some surface level similarities to her ex is completely different. he’s generally secure in his masculinity, and when he does struggle (because everyone does sometimes) he turns that energy inward instead of punishing her for his own issues. he values her intelligence above all else and even when they’re constantly challenging and arguing each other, he never tries to assert himself as “better.”when they go out together he doesn’t make faces at her outfit or suggest he “prefers her in something else” or 'she should cover herself' instead he just goes full awooga goofy heart eyes mode LMAOOmg i love him so much

i dont know if ive ever rambled this much before fucking sorry if it doesnt make sense at some point ❣️ sending love. not to pressure you or anything but that oc story you mentioned sounds really interesting...

[the-dragon-girl-27]

In my previous post i talked about how I have a lotta scrapped MV ideas, well may as well dump some designs i've made based on songs over the years because like I probably wouldn't post these otherwize

also heres a few nice picture of miku from one of em to make you click on this post because its gunna be a long one and all these are hidden below a read more

for the record don't expect me to do anything with any of these, also these are from old to new some of these date back to early 2022 and it shows

This one i posted a storyboard for actually its An Aliens I Love You by Utsu-P.

I gave young Rin a sakura motif with her dress because of miku and rin meeting under a sakura tree, teen miku has a pink ribbion and hairclip to continue this. both rins bow and mikus outfit get darker outfits overtime to sybolize the song getting darker. I also gave adult rin the future rin hair. Miku's "alien" form is more or less how its described in the song tho i was lazy and didn't draw the 4 arms in the refs.

also Lily is Rins mom in this yup there she is indeed.

I actually have a lot of assets finished including the ones above i may show em off one day who knows.

This one is Stained Nocturne by Toa i actually did finish this one

the grey one is when they talk about being colorless

i gave them both very cute and elegent outfits i think it matches the vibe of the song. The starry outfits are the real highlight. if you wonder how I drew em over and over i just copy pasted the stars on their dresses.

they also are very blue because yknow nocturne. I forgot if i dumped the assets for this MV or not maybe next rant post.

This one is Corona by Utsu-P no idea why i did it its probably not even in my top 20 Utsu-P songs i just had some brainworms that wore off. I finished like a minute of it I guess.

I really like rin's outfit. "goth metal astronaut" is such a weirdly specific concept but she absolutley nailed it. 10/10 desin

This one is Garando by Picon. I gave her a like idk what to call it paperboy outfit like the one you see in the MV a few times. her eyes are yellow like bullets because I had this one S teir visual idea. I have some assets for this one i may show off one day.

i also considered doin the sekai ver i really like garando if u cant tell lol

This one is Happy Haloween by Junky another one i finished

Rins is just from the OG mv the rest are themed around the characters

Minori is a dark angel because tenshi no clover is themed around... a normal angel

haruka has candy and a penguin mask because thats her thing

airi is a vampire cuz she has fangs

shizuku is a witch because of her cast a spell on you outfit

This one is NEXT NEST by Satsuki Ga Tenkomori. The cubes are from the original MV image thing. I gave her a super cybernetic look to match the song vibe. I also gave her a plaid skirt to match miku's concept desin because this song is like sorta miku becoming sentient or smth idk been a while since i read the lyrics.

another S teir design. also zamn this ref goes hard lol.

This one is Bluff Liar by EZFG. VY1 doesn't really have a desin so I went with this based on the semi official one (we dont speak of her new official one also i drew this long before that regardless lol) I have a shitty animatic thats 80% stick figures for this. never posted it tho.

tbh i put the file to this ref on an external hard drive cuz this whole video killed my storage because i actually finished it so i yeeted all th assets off my computer as soon as i was finished so i just dowloaded the little thing of assets from this post

not much goin on its kinda just normal ol luka lol

This is Black Hole Artist by utsu-P. its not in project sekai and never will be but it reminded me of Ena so I had this idea. not much to say, I have a few assets for this but nothing really finished.

Another VY1 EZFG song, IDK what my plan was for drawing this over and over. also pretty asthetic ref lol. not much to say i don't draw very cyberish designs so its fun

this is just concept art. this is Roless Weapon by Neru and Inubakumori. yeah those two colabed you wouldnt know cuz this song has no MV. IDK what my plan for this was tbh but like when else would i show this off.

From here on its just concepts lol. this is Atari Front Program by Utsu-P... god how many Utsu songs is this lol

S teir desin i love miniskirt plus pants combo idk its just a vibe.

this drawing sucks lol. this is Live by Mizuno Atsu. Long haired kafu is cute I have better drawings of this in my sketchbook somewhere I think. I might revisit this it would be very simple and cute.

also weirdly my fav part of this aside from her hair is her shoes.

anyway Kafu needs more outfits for songs tbh theres like 3 kafu songs where she has a unique outfit

actually i lied about only having doodles, this is Where Shall We Go by Mellowclle

already made a post bout this

this is my most recent. I sketched this after finishing this art of this song. It is Memento Mori by Buriru

I love this song the creator said its supposed to sound like a mecha anime opening so i went with that vibe. teto looks great, miku doesn't. Teto doesn't really have a counterpart so I assigned miku as her girlfriend lol.

sadly I cannot draw robots so idk what my plan was tho i have a cool visual for the end in my head.

anyway thats everything I could find. does anyone give a crap? probably not but hey character design is fun and i love messing around.

anyway fun trivia more songs i have video ideas for i won't make: Poster Girls Prank - Utsu-P (but with MMJ project sekai)

Stella - Jin

Paranoia - Mezame-P

and probably more i'm forgetting lmfao

[p5x-theories]

Since it's been a hot minute and with more new characters, how would rate the new thieves’ designs and their personas?

Oh boy! Uh, when was the last time you asked this...? Looks like January of last year, if I didn't forget to tag a later ask that you sent in...? That was before the open beta, even! Actually, that was so long ago that some of my thoughts on the characters back then have changed, too, heh (like, Yuki's outfit has really grown on me)!

Let's see, that means I need to cover Marian, Vino, Phoebe, Chord, Wind, Messa, Cherish, Howler, Matoi, Turbo, Ange, and Luce, setting aside all the alternate versions of characters for the moment... well, I'll give it a shot!

Same disclaimers as last time; For thieves, I’m just commenting on what the design looks like it’s doing/trying to do, and whether I think it works and I like it. For Personas, I’m not really taking into account how well they do (or don’t) represent the figure they’re supposed to be, just how well I think the design gets its concept across, and does (or doesn’t) match its thief. And of course, these are all just my personal opinions!

First up- Marian and Thalia!

As far as conveying an idea, it's pretty undeniable that Marian gets the "nurse" concept across, haha. There's not really much else to say about that- she looks like a combat nurse! It's very successful as far as that goes. I like the color pairing of the light off-white/cream color with the dark, warm purple, it's visually pleasing. The pop of hot pink for the icon on her hat is a little out of place, but it's not particularly distracting, though it does draw attention. Her mask is also a little thematically weird, looking more like stylized bird wings, but again, it's not distracting for it. Overall, Marian's design is fine. I wouldn't say I love it, but just because it's not really my personal aesthetic; it's very successful for what it's trying to do. It doesn't feel the most like a thief, but it accomplishes "combat nurse" so well that I can't really dock her points for that.

It also works very well with Thalia, whose design I actually like a lot more. Thalia brings a plant element into her design that Marian lacks (other than the flower icon on her hat), but the shared colors and syringe-like lower body really tie her to Marian all the same. Her dress feels just a little disorganized- I'm not quite sure what's going on with the diagonal white strip of fabric over her dress, or what exactly her dress is doing underneath that?- but it's a minor detail that you only notice if you're really looking at her, anyway. Overall, a fun Persona design!

Next, Vino and Ampelos!

Vino's great, it has to be said. Her blue and cyan jacket is easily my favorite part of her design- it's so cool, I could totally see myself wearing a jacket like that! I love her flowing white hair and eyepatch mask, too. I'll admit I don't really get how Vino's sort of... vaguely sci-fi (cyberpunk?), casually-combat-armored look is supposed to tie into her desires as a jazz musician...? But it does give an overall cohesive look and feeling, even if it's one that I'm not exactly sure what words to use to describe. There are a few details that are a bit odd- why does the thing she's wearing on her torso wrap around her crotch, over her pants?- but it all still looks good, even if I don't quite understand the logic. She also feels like a bit of a criminal, and it's always a plus to me when the outfit feels like a thief, though that's a difficult quality to define.

As for Ampelos... well, I love that she's a glider, that's really fun. Her kind of manta ray shape, and the almost organic purple stuff wrapped around her, is really fun. Actually, her whole back design is really solid, though the blue gemstones throw off the sci-fi feeling a little.

But... I'll be honest, while the humanlike head on her stomach (?) is fine, I guess, the weird torso with a mesh top almost ruins her design for me. It's so... weird and clunky in a way I don't like? I don't understand why she needed to have a full feminine upper torso on her stomach, instead of just incorporating part of a feminine human face or something. It feels a bit incongruous with the rest of the design, and maybe that's the intention behind it, but I just don't like it. I want her to be the manta ray, not feel like something encased inside it.

In terms of going with Vino, they're fine as a pair. I wouldn't quite say they match, or otherwise really go together, but you can look at Ampelos and believe that's Vino's Persona; she looks more like Vino's Persona than anyone else's, heh.

Phoebe and Urania!

To start off, I'm not familiar enough with the culture that Phoebe's outfit could be potentially be considered appropriative of to really comment on how her outfit does or doesn't appropriate it, so I won't try to speak on something I'm uninformed about here. I just wanted to acknowledge that, because it'd feel like ignoring things to not even mention it.

I do really like her color scheme. The very-slightly-teal green, gold, and black look very nice together, and the color balance between the black base, pops of green, and gold details really ties together nicely, too. Her mask disrupts this a bit, with the weird silver/white and the blue, almost peacock feather-like attachment. But it blends into her face and skintone enough that, despite feeling kind of out-of-place if you really look at it, it's not so noticeable unless you're really looking at it. In terms of pure aesthetic quality, it's a solid outfit, and conveys both a dancer and a thief, so it's successful in that respect.

Urania is super pretty! She brings the gold to the forefront, and adds quite a bit more blue, which I think serves her really well. The green wing-like appendages, the big golden crescent moon, the blue horns, and the multi-color hat/visor things that the wings attach to on her head are probably my favorite parts. It's a bit of a shame to me that Phoebe doesn't ride on her in any way, like the other navigators do, but it's also really funny to imagine Phoebe just standing off to the side a bit uselessly while the other Thieves are fighting, until her skills charge up. Phoebe and Urania certainly aren't mismatched, and I think they make a good duo, but when I see them together I can't help but wish Phoebe looked a bit more like Urania, haha.

Chord and Calliope!

I really like Chord's outfit, actually. It feels very rockstar, with a hint of punk/metal, which makes sense given Babymetal was an inspiration for her design. It just makes me wish Ayaka's musical style actually even remotely matched this vibe! In that sense, I'd say Chord's outfit is very successful in conveying what they wanted to convey with it, but extremely strange as an outfit that's supposed to convey Ayaka's desires. But I wish it did! Her sort of soft, generically-pleasing pop music isn't my personal musical taste at all, but I really enjoy rock/punk/metal music.

Heh, that aside, my favorite parts of Chord's outfit are probably the thin yellow stripes accompanying the bigger yellow details, the long yellow gloves with black details that make them look shorter on the back of her arm, and her asymmetrical, partially-buckled skirt over black shorts. I do think her mask (and to a lesser extent, spiky cat-ear-like hat) are a bit out of place with the rest of her design, because they're so much more spiky/pointy than the rest of her outfit, which feels more sleek? I don't hate them, but I do wish they'd been styled a bit differently.

I'm also a big fan of Calliope's design. I love that she feels like a microphone or speaker come to life, with almost skeletal arms, and her top hat head is a little silly, but also a fun design choice. She's a lot more colorful than Chord, so I wouldn't quite say they match, but she also works well as a backdrop behind Chord, and reinforces the musical theme, so I'd still say they go together well.

Wind and Chiyome!

Wind's design is fun! It feels like a kimono modified for thiefy activities, though one would expect the big bell on her back to get in the way of that. I love the long sleeves with the bit of pattern on them, the ropes that trail behind her, and the heeled, slightly armored boots. I don't understand why her gloves are teal, though, or why her kimono top comes out under her belt as just that sort of triangular-shaped flap of fabric? In the gloves' case, I do at least like teal and red together, so while I don't understand it, I also don't mind it. But making the fabric flap triangular just seems strange- I would've made a bit of fabric sticking out from under her belt the same length all the way around, or just not included it at all, instead. But overall, I like Wind's thief outfit, and I think it works well as a traditional Japanese-inspired thief outfit, though I'm not sure exactly what kind of thief I'd say she is. It doesn't quite come across as a ninja, despite Chiyome.

Speaking of Chiyome, her design is fun as well. I love her like, permanently-intense facial expression? It's a little silly. Her hairstyle, and the cape thing she wears over her top/sleeves, are probably my other favorite parts of her design. It's also really fun that she has a swing for Wind! Her ninja star/kunai feet are really silly, too. I don't have any major complaints about her design, but I don't really get why her face is pink (I guess it's meant to look like face paint, but why pink?), and honestly I think it was a little boring to give her such a cinched waist when that's not really the silhouette a kimono obi creates, but that's more of a nitpick. She goes quite well with Wind, although I'd say they almost look a little too similar sometimes, heh!

Messa and Harpy!

Messa's design is fun, I love a plague doctor. My favorite details are probably the really feathery collar on his jacket- though honestly, the whole jacket's pretty fun- his gloves, and the silly pointed tips of his boots. His outfit does feel a little messy/disorganized, but that actually fits pretty well with Kira as a person, given he repeatedly says he doesn't care much about fashion and doesn't like to think about it. I'll admit, I'm not sure a plague doctor is quite the right representation for his desires relating to being a good doctor, haha, but I think it works anyway because of his tendency for morbid jokes. I don't know if he feels quite thiefy enough for my tastes, but he's certainly not too far off.

Harpy is... fine. I don't dislike him, but he doesn't quite have much visual appeal to me, personally. The feathers/knives going down his back are kind of fun, though. Since his design feels a bit like a haphazard mess (which, again, I think suits Messa's personality, even if it's not to my tastes), he gives me a vaguely medical malpractice/Frankenstein's monster-type vibe? Not quite all the way there, but a little bit of that impression. He could stand to match with Messa's design a little more than he currently does, but they at least have feathers as a sort of unifying feature. Harpy looks a little like a terrible Swiss army knife that Messa wields, heh!

Cherish and Amalthea!

Cherish's design is fun! Right off the bat, you get the impression of a knight/paladin, which certainly matches with his desire to help/protect. My favorite parts are the ice flower on his pauldron, his cape, and his gold tie. His overall look is really interesting, because between the knight theme and the tie/suitlike details, he could have looked very straight-laced. But the asymmetry of his hair/mask, pauldron, gauntlet, and belt, and the torn edges of his cape, help disrupt that in a good way, and overall he feels serious but not uptight. The little gap in his chest armor/vest/thing that shows off an extra bit of his tie does feel a little silly and unnecessary, but I don't hate it. He doesn't quite feel like a thief, but you can kind of imagine him as a knight that's been fighting for what's right, even if people are against him, which isn't too far off from that.

And he goes great with Amalthea! They have very similar color schemes, but different balances of those colors, which makes them look extremely cohesive, but not identical. And the spiky ice on his back mirrors the spiky ice flower on Cherish! I really like the way Amalthea feels like several pieces of armor floating together as a single person, as well as the ice crystals on his back, and the designs of his shields/arms(?). Overall, I'm not sure Amalthea is quite a favorite of mine, but I do really like his design, and he pairs super well with Cherish.

Howler and Aura!

Howler is so silly, I love that her outfit is like a combat fursuit. It ties in very well with her desires as the #1 Shichi-kun fangirl, while still feeling reasonably thiefy. I've said it before, but I love her oversized hood (that covers her eyes in her portraits), and the straps on her arms, and the oversized paws are really fun, too. If I'm being honest, I don't love that it's a skintight bodysuit- with how introverted Runa can be, it doesn't quite feel like something she'd wear, especially when the actual Shichi-kun costume is so bulky- but it does make her feel more mobile/agile, and thiefy, so I guess it can get a pass. I think the only other sort-of complaint I have is that I'm also not super big on the pink pawprints on her waist? The rest of the design seems very dedicated to making her look like a dog, but those sort of break the immersion (in a sense) because that's not a place that a dog would have paws/pawprints. I guess they wanted to keep it visually interesting, but I feel like there's a better way to have done that?

I LOVE Aura. Probably my favorite Persona design in the game right now. She's so distinct from the other Personas, so nonhuman while still having a recognizable face! I love basically everything about her head. The stars on the back of her paws are fun, too, though I don't quite understand why they're there, or what the silver/white, rectangular things looping around her are. I really like them, even if I don't quite know what they're supposed to be! I like her lack of legs, too. She feels like a weird dog/fire spirit that popped out of the ground. She goes well with Howler on merit of looking doglike alone, though, and as a sort of dark, slightly ominous doglike figure behind the cute dog girl.

Matoi and Minthe!

Matoi's outfit is alright, though I wish the parts that I really like were more prominent. My favorite parts are the mask, the long-sleeved, almost kimono-like half of her top, and the white, bow-like thing affixed to her back. The rest feels sort of like combat gear, but besides the little white bow on her hip, it feels kind of... generic? A bit boring? It really doesn't feel like a firefighter at all, for one, but it also just feels like anyone could have worn that part of the outfit. The asymmetry with only part of her outfit looking a little more traditionally-Japanese is fun, but I feel like the rest of the outfit really doesn't live up to what was set up here. It's not bad, it just doesn't feel meaningful, because it doesn't really convey a firefighter but also doesn't feel connected to Mio in any other way.

Minthe's also sort of a... fine but not really captivating design, to me. I love her inky tail as the lower half of her body, and there's at least a clear samurai-like theme going on with her clothing. Something about the faces on her shoulders and the hat she's wearing vaguely remind me of a clove of garlic, though, and however sensible or nonsensical that may sound, that's all I can think of when I see her now, haha. I hate the weird cut in her armor that reveals the underside of her chest, it feels totally unnecessary and doesn't add anything to her theme. Overall, while not a bad design, she feels a bit disorganized, like they wanted to make a samurai but then kept adding other little things on top of that, and got away from the core idea a bit. Her largely white palette is a nice contrast to Matoi's black palette, and there's a bit of connection between her samurai theme and Matoi's bits of traditional Japanese theme, though I think an added unifying element between the two of them would've helped a lot.

Turbo and Pitys!

Turbo's design is... meh, in my opinion. I like her real world outfit way more, though that's a bit of a tangent. For one, it doesn't really call to mind racing, let alone a race queen, although I'll grant that race queen outfits tend to be a bit skimpier than what I'd really want for a thief outfit, so maybe that's for the best. Still, I think it would've felt more successful if they'd gone in a different direction with it. I do like the fingerless gloves with bright gold palms, the blue and gold lines, and her necklace/choker thing?

But it feels a bit boring to me, and again, a lot of the details don't seem to really connect to her desires or her as a person. The way it's like a one-piece swimsuit, with some kind of pants/leggings, super low-cut, under it, also isn't really to my tastes, but that's more personal preference.

As for Pitys, she's also... fine, I guess? She sort of vaguely feels like she could be some kind of Transformer or car-racing mascot, but she also feels a bit detached from any meaning or significance to Turbo overall. I like the circles- almost vaguely like steering wheels?- between her torso and her legs, and the oval cut-outs with blue thorns in her lower legs. The way her arms seem to kind of be a corkscrew of metal, rather than a solid arm wrapped with something, is neat, too! But she doesn't really feel like the right Persona design for Turbo, even if their color schemes go together well enough. There's just this feeling of disconnect between their themes, and the idea of racing in general.

Ange and Euterpe!

Ange is cute, I have to give her that! She feels a bit more idol/magical girl than angel, to me, but given she wants to be a singer, I suppose that actually fits her desires better, and since she's usually sitting on Euterpe, that brings the angel vibe in, anyway. It's not quite my personal taste, but I don't dislike it, either. The color scheme of light, nearly-white blues, mixed with some darker blues and a pop of magenta, is very nice. My favorite parts are probably the ruffles/tails of fabric on her waist (though I kind of wish it was at least a bit of a skirt, too), the bow + ribbons in her hair, and the detailed sleeve/cuffs on her lower arms. Overall, it's visually-pleasing, conveys more or less her desires, and feels reasonably in-character for her to wear! Ange's mask does seem to match Euterpe's shape language a bit more than Ange's own, but given she takes off the mask to summon Euterpe, it at least feels like there's a logical connection there.

Euterpe is also super fun! I love that she feels like an angel, but, as others have also pointed out, more like one of the nonhuman-looking angels, rather than a generic depiction of an angel. Making the chair the center of her design, which she revolves around, works great for a Persona that also functions as a mobility aid (which I do want to believe Euterpe is meant to be, at least a bit). She has a really nice balance of similar colors to Ange, which makes her great as an accessory/backdrop to Ange. I do think it's a little silly that she has a nose and mouth on the back of the chair:

But I wouldn't say I mind that, exactly, either, because it's silly in a fun way, and doesn't detract from the rest of the design (I am so glad they didn't try to fit boobs onto the chair somehow). Overall, a really nice, intricate but not overly so, design that's pleasing to the eye, conveys the idea, and works well with Ange! Not my personal favorite Persona design, but I think she's a very successful one that I do like a lot.

And last but not least, Luce and Ghino!

Luce's design is quite fun. Unfortunately, he's so new that I don't know him very well, and can't speak about whether it really conveys his desires, but I do like it! It feels very princely, but in a sort of fairytale, not-quite-realistic way. It's more like a prince costume I'd expect to see on stage, or in a movie, which does seem like it would fit with Shouki as an actor? At the very least, I would assume from his outfit that his awakening isn't about deciding he doesn't want to be an actor, haha! I think my favorite parts of it are the cape over one shoulder, the striped, puffy sleeves, and the boots as a whole. I think my only real complaint is that he doesn't look like much of a thief, heh, but then, Crow doesn't either, and it seems like Luce has at least some aspects of his role.

As for Ghino, he's another design that I like, though he's not quite a favorite. I like the kind of... plasma-like thing coming off of his hat, sort of like feather(s) might? I also like the big gear thing floating behind his head, his whole shoulder/cape thing, and the starry ribbon (?) thing on his hip. The exposed heart in his chest is super cool, too. He works really well as a backdrop to Luce, in sort of a literal stage sense- he feels like the entire stage (the curtains, the mechanical aspects, the decor) behind/around Luce during his performance! His color scheme also complements Luce's nicely, looking like a darker version of him that blends into the background a bit more while Luce himself takes the spotlight. Overall, a really good pair!

-

I hope that's what you wanted! I can go through the variants in a separate ask if you wanted those as well, but given Tumblr's limit of 30 images per post, I couldn't have possibly fit them in with these guys, haha. Plus, breaking them into two separate posts gives me a bit of a break! But feel free to ask if you wanted my thoughts on those, too.

[thegetou]

John/JD’s Physical Description - The Outsiders OC

My mooks pooks @milkzfall said he might draw him sometime so I figured put it out there for myself lol

(Picrew cred: Crowesn)

Basics:

- 6’3 and a little over a half but he says 6’4.

He has a habit of slouching down in public though. His height draws a lot more attention than you ever want as a black man atp.

- His skin tone is as in the Picrew. You can make him darker if you have trouble matching it. Do not make him significantly lighter istg.

- Lean muscle build. Darry is a lot more hulking/bulky in comparison. John you often can’t reallyyyyy tell just how built he is fully dressed.

- Very angular/chiseled face. Face is a bit “long” with high “sunken” cheek bones.

- Plump, darker brown than his skin, lips. Darry describes his lips as having a pout to them when he’s not smiling/resting face.

- Do not give him a little ass nose. Do not give him a comically large nose. Don’t piss me off.

- He can or cannot have facial hair. He’s usually either clean shaven or some various beard/mustache style. Or a slight mustache—sometimes in combination with a goatee or just the goatee. Or something like an extended goatee. It’s always pretty short though. He just sometimes shaves parts off when he’s bored or all of it for a clean slate.

- Darry says he has soft eyes…whatever that means. Kinda doe-y but not that they are big. His eyes are a really dark brown. Stylistically I would draw them black but ofc you want some highlights/contrast in them to soften them.

- His eyebrows are kinda thick. Def thicker than Darry’s.

- His facial expression is usually just nuetral. He tends to present more shy/subservient just as a mask to again avoid confrontation at work & just in public. He tends to just look down blank face. Maybe a slight smile when he’s talking. He’s very bright eyes, laid back, & smiles/laughs come to him easy when he’s not so worried about people around him.

- Wears a gold wedding band and a thin gold chain that falls just past his collar bones with no pendant.

Also wears a watch— an all gold one or gold face with a black leather band.

- Used to have lobe piercings but took them out.

- He used to perm his hair a while before meeting Darry but he’s natural atp.

It’s shaved in the back a smidge. It’s hard to really describe his haircut lmfao? Best I can do is think a cropped afro that kinda has the texture of being sponged with a mid taper fade. That description is def not helping the white people in the room uh!

Also some people call this style “the duke” over an afro fade which might help!

Outfits:

1st meeting

At the Y: green tank top, blue athletic shorts with white stripes down side, tube socks, white sneakers

2nd Meeting:

Work outfit: Like typical upper scale waiter wear. Brown-ish black dress shoes, black dress pants. White button up shirt under a black waist coat. Black bow tie. Sometimes wears white gloves

After work: Orange button up shirt with some sort of yellow-ish pattern. Unbuttoned till near the middle button. Dark jeans. Same brown-ish black dress shoes

—

Also figured I’d do a quick thing of future John who looks about the same but some differences:

- he’s always been a fashionable guy so have so much fun with the fashion in the 70’s. He’s def a fun but well matched patterned shirt or flared pants, with a sleek pair of shoes, he likes to wear orange and green a lot tho.

- His hair is a lot longer. He wears it in an Afro. It had some texture and not a perfect sphere tho, rather than just picked out into a sphere.

- He wears glasses, usually, that I can only describe as Malcom X glasses. You’ll know what I mean 😭

[cityandking]

im Back. face, stature, footwear, wardrobe for kol, minah and eniko!

wahoo!! // oc asks: character design edition

face: Describe your OC's face. What's their smile like? Are their orbs cerulean? What would someone notice first when looking at them?

KOL — she's kinda pointy? sharp chin, sharp jaw, sharp nose, androgynous/masculine leaning. she’s not much of a smiler; when she does smile it tends to be thin and fairly humorless. her eyes are a kind of washed out (like everything else about her) blue. besides the eye color, the first thing someone might notice is the scar on her cheek, slashed towards the top of her ear. it’s not particularly deep but it is obvious (she’s probably lucky she didn’t lose an eye)

MINAH — minah’s got a round, full face with a bit of a ruddy complexion. she’s very expressive; she does a lot of talking (and distracting) with her face. her eyes are hazel and sometimes her bangs get in them when they need a trim. her smile is big and warm and comes easily and is the first thing someone might notice about her. most of the time she’s not even faking it!

ENIKO — he’s classically handsome with high cheekbones and a sharp jawline and an eyebrow piercing. his smile is typically wry and small; on the rare occasion he gives a proper smile it's surprisingly warm—eye creases, teeth, etc. his eyes are grey. the piercing is probably the most noticeable thing

stature: What's your OC's body type? How tall are they? Do they wear clothing to accentuate their look or do they try to mask it?

KOL — she’s 6’ and muscled, but extremely lean. takes after her dad. she hasn’t had much say in what she wears—first it was whatever her mother bought and then it was all uniforms—so she really doesn’t have any practice in dressing to look a specific way. that said, these days she prefers things that run just a bit large—easier to move in, and she hopes it’ll help her stand out a little less

MINAH — she’s 5’3, compact and on the curvy side with strong shoulders from the archery and the aerial acrobatics. insanely flexible. her belt situation probably emphasize her waist, but that’s mostly for practicality. usually how much her clothing accentuates her figure entirely depends on what she’s doing—when she’s thieving, she dresses to mask her shape; when she’s performing she wears much flashier (and form fitting) outfits

ENIKO — 5’11, incredibly lean and dresses to accentuate that. slim slacks, vests to emphasize the line of his torso, shirts with high collars, slight heels on his boots. he’s very aware of how fashion can help craft an impression and uses that to his advantage.

footwear: What does your OC wear on their feet?

KOL — her hardiest and nicest article of clothing: a set of high-quality, well-worn military boots. perhaps the most useful thing she brought with her when she left the empire

MINAH — she has a set of lace-up boots with a dagger sheath and spring heels for help climbing. she’s also got some soft-soled slippers for dance/performances and a set of foot wraps for her aerial work. she'd also have some slightly more casual ankle boots for the day to day stuff when she's not hiking or fighting or both, though I think those might be at weisshaupt with the rest of her more entertainer-y things

ENIKO — shiny polished boots. I think he’d have hidden retractable points in the soles too, because he’s that kind of paranoid over-prepared bastard and it would be fun to kick and stab a guy at the same time. also maybe steel toed?

wardrobe: How big is your character's wardrobe? Do they wear things threadbare, or can they afford new clothes often? Are they any good at mending and repairing their own clothing?

KOL & MINAH — answered!

ENIKO — not that big but extremely well kept. most of it is second or third hand, but he takes great care to patch and hem things to keep them looking neat. appearances matter a lot to him!

[esotericute]

My second dream of the night (first dream was peaceful and just me chilling with a friend) was that teodora threw a party like bday party at our house and a bunch of people that i knew from elem/highschool and some people my brain made up and two tumblr mutuals were there. i tried talking to the two tumblr mutuals but uncharacteristically they were both mean to me ?? or like blew me off and then this guy my brain made up i can describe him he was like a twink with black super fluffy short hair covering his eyes but with nice features like a long face and hook nose he was gay and he assumed i was a man because i was wearing a mask and an outfit that hid my curves so he carried me bridal style and tried to shoot his shot and i recognized he thought i was a man so i was like im a girl and he was embarassed and his group of friends who were all people that bullied me in elementary school that were also all in my highschool started laughing and then told him i was not just a girl under the mask but also really chopped and i was like haha yeah you wouldnt wanna be with me im ugly and they were like now do a maskless reveal so he can see and i was secretly insecure and was like wait at least let me go put on some makeup and then this girl yelled out that my makeup was even uglier so i should just reveal so i revealed and then the guy looked shocked and they all huddled in and made fun of me when i couldnt hear then they all ran up to the other parts of the house where my room is and started fucking up the house and made fun of my anger at them telling them to stop and then i saw the gay guy masturbating in my dads bathroom because he was frustrated he couldnt fuck me and i yelled at him cuz he left a disgusting mess of it on the floor then one of my elementary school bullies dragged me to my room and sexually assaulted me as random girls started stealing shit from my nightstand #mynightmare

[forestwhisper3]

heads up, seven up!

rules: post the last seven lines you wrote, then tag seven people. reposting, as the reblog chains get long!

. . . . . . . Yup, I'm alive (just very, very busy lately) Anyway, I was tagged by my good friend and amazing artist @joyfuladorable and thought this sounded fun. ...It may also be a sort of apology from me for being gone/silent for so long. So! Rather than the last seven lines, here are seven little teasers from fics I've been chipping away at during the bit of downtime I have- when I'm not just playing some Animal Crossing to destress, that is. It's not necessarily the most recent for some of them, but parts that I think you'll enjoy without giving away too much. Enjoy! (Also, please keep in mind that as these are still being refined, there might be parts you see here that may not be present in the final product) ============== Title Pending (Rottmnt) ==============

Not for the first time tonight, Raph had to wonder how he'd gotten to this point.

"There," his companion hissed quietly- a word he never would have used to describe her before this moment.

He leaned over her shoulder and squinted at the figures walking below. "You sure that's them?"

"OF C-!" she choked back her yell and settled for a heated glare. "Yes I'm sure! I'd recognize those ugly outfits anywhere!"

"How can you even see them from so far away?"

"That's how ugly they are."

Despite himself, he snickered a bit. Once he settled down, he crossed his arms.

"You do know this whole thing is crazy, don't you?"

She grinned ferally. "Yep."

"And it's very likely that if we're caught, we'll either get arrested or- if you're right about all this -even die, right?"

"Yep."

"You're insane."

"So are you coming or not?" she asked impatiently.

He looked over the ledge again, watching as the people below continued loading trucks.

"Well, Raph's made it this far," he shrugged, allowing an easy smile to slip onto his face. "And I think I'm overdue for a bit of crazy myself. Let's do it."

"Hell yeah!" Cassandra- Casey, he corrected himself -cheered, pumping a fist. "Let's go, Red!"

The two of them jumped.

============== Dragon of the Sun (TMNT 2003) ============== "Hey, I'm fine! Really! It'd take a lot more than some crazy lizard and spoiled son to take me out!" "You have cracks in your shell. And while I'm sure Donatello has provided excellent care, you are going to the med bay." "...Yes, M'am." Raph snorted softly as he watched Ananda start dragging Mikey away, his little bro not having put up nearly as much of a fight with her as he had against him and Don back home. Then again, he wasn't really surprised either. Maybe it was because Mikey played such a big part in reconnecting her with her dad, which led to her joining the Justice Force, but it was clear that she had a huge soft spot for him.

"And you're positive that there was no lasting damage?" And it seemed like she wasn't the only one. He turned to face Silver Sentry, the usually calm man also watching them go with furrowed brows and a frown. "Not that we could see," Raph sighed. "From what I've gotten him to tell me, he needs to take it easy for a couple more weeks, but he should be fine after that. Let's just hope nothing happens until then." And he really would hope this time. Usually he was itching for a fight within a few days, but if it meant Mike going out to fight before he was fully recovered? No way. Silver Sentry gave a sigh of his own. "And here I thought we could avoid this very thing by only making him an honorary member." ============== Turning Back Time (Linked Universe) ==============

"Hey, Time, do you have any other masks?"

Wind's question immediately caught the group's attention as they settled down to eat. Warriors looked up, admittedly curious as to how he would respond, especially since he knew Time would probably want to keep those cards close to his chest in order to mess with them.

But perhaps he was still remembering Hyrule's misunderstanding from the other night, since he was surprisingly straightforward in his answer.

"Quite a few, actually."

"And are they all magic like the- bunny hat?!"

There was something else Wind was going to say there, he realized, and judging by the way the others' gazes seemed to sharpen at the slight pause, they'd noticed it too.

Come to think of it, the two of them had been together this morning, hadn't they?

He thought about that for another second, then felt a chill of dread.

Could they be working together now? Sweet Hylia, he hoped not. Just remembering the sorts of things they'd accomplished together between battles during the war made him want to run far, far away. He was ninety percent certain that half the reason Impa disliked him so much was because of these two. He wondered if it would be possible to switch sides. ============== Recollections (Linked Universe) ==============

-of Darkness who sought to plunge the world into fear and darkness under his rule. Fearing his wicked rule, Zelda, the princess of this kingdom, split up the Triforce of Wisdom into-

"-eight fragments," Hyrule weakly read that part aloud, face pale and eyes wide in dawning realization and growing horror. "T-This-…this is-…"

He whirled around to look at Time and Legend, the sickly look on his face growing even worse when they nodded grimly.

"Oh no," he murmured, turning back around and curling a bit into himself.

"Okay, that's enough," Warriors scowled, although the worry in his eyes betrayed him. "Would one of you please just tell us what's going on already?! Why's Hyrule upset now that he's figured out whatever it is you two know?!"

"It's about me," Hyrule explained, looking up at them with haunted eyes. "That story we're reading? It's what happened in my Hyrule. Zelda- my Zelda -broke up the Triforce to keep Ganon from getting it. Shortly after, I found myself on my first adventure."

Silence. Then, the implications finally sunk in.

"Oh, fuck," Wind swore.

"Can't we-?!" Twilight began.

"I doubt it," Time sighed, already knowing what he was going to suggest. "Seeing as we were all brought here, then subsequently locked in, it looks like we're going to have to finish watching before we can leave. And I know it's not going to end with just Hyrule's adventures."

The air between them felt heavy now that everyone knew what they'd be seeing, and there was a pause, as if they all wanted to say something but couldn't find the right words. Finally, Legend let out an angry burst of air.

"Let's just get it over with," he said. "I know this is the last thing any of us wants, but it looks like we don't get a choice. The sooner we watch it all, the sooner we can leave this hellhole."

An apt description for this place, Time couldn't help but agree. Absolutely no danger to be seen, but somehow just as nerve-wracking as if there was. If not more so.

Another pause, but despite their reluctance, they all knew inaction was an even worse feeling. So Wild eventually started it up again. Fearing his wicked rule, Zelda, the princess of this kingdom, split up the Triforce of Wisdom into eight fragments and hid them throughout the realm to save the last remaining Triforce from the clutches of the evil Ganon. At the same time, she commanded her most trustworthy nursemaid, Impa, to secretly escape into the land and go find a man with enough courage to destroy the evil Ganon. Upon hearing this, Ganon grew angry, imprisoned the princess, and sent out a party in search of Impa.

The black screen started fading into color, although the words remained, and harsh panting could be heard as a landscape came into focus. ============== Title Pending (Trolls) ==============

Floyd was gone.

"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!!"

That simple, heartwrenching fact kept spinning and spinning and spinning in his mind until it was all he could think through the numbness that had taken hold of him.

At least, until Clay's scream managed to break through.

John flinched, finally tearing his gaze from his second youngest brother's crystalized form only to meet the furious, teary eyes of the third's. It was all he had the time to do before Clay shoved him away from where they'd gathered around, the tiny ember of rage that had been ever present in those last few days as a band finally blazing into a wildfire, fueled by the same grief that seemed to have frozen him in place instead.

"IT'S YOUR FAULT WE SPLIT UP! IT'S YOUR FAULT WE WASTED TIME! IT'S YOUR FAULT FLOYD'S-!!"

Clay choked, unable to voice that final, damning word. Instead, his face twisted as it finally seemed to catch up with him. Yet the tears that began to stream down did nothing to soften the anger that continued to burn.

Staring as intently as he was, there was no missing when that anger slipped into hate.

"I'll never forgive you," Clay hissed, his entire body trembling and tense. "We'll never forgive you."

He swallowed thickly and chanced a glance at Bruce and Branch.

They stared back in stony silence.

"I'm sorry," he managed to push through the knot in his throat and a familiar gnawing emptiness that began to settle in his heart.

Sorry he'd failed them…

Sorry he couldn't protect them…

Sorry he'd hurt them…

Sorry he couldn't be what they'd wanted him to be.

His apology only seemed to anger Clay further.

"You're sorry?! Is that all you can-?!" He cut himself off, and took a deep breath. When he spoke next, it was with piercing finality. "All you've ever managed to do is ruin things. Ruin us. So, if you're really as sorry as you say you are, you'll keep yourself from ruining what's left."

"Clay-" Viva protested, concern thick in her voice as she stepped forward.

Clay cut her off with a look and a shake of his head, but the bit of John that didn't feel numb appreciated the attempt.

She was good for him, he thought. He hoped they could be happy together.

Without him.

Because that was what they wanted, he realized. It was what they'd always wanted. Hadn't they always told him to mind his own business? To go away? To leave them alone? It was him who had been too stubborn to listen. Who had ignored what they'd practically been screaming in his face for years.

Not anymore, he promised. He'd already messed things up enough. For once, he was going to do something right by them.

Clay was distracted by Viva, and the others had gone back to looking at Floyd. It was like the universe was agreeing with him, telling him that he needed to take himself out of their lives for good.

He took a step back.

Two…

Three…

He took in the sight of his brothers one last time, knowing that it really would be the last time, and climbed into Rhonda.

"Let's go, girl."

She fought him for a moment, and he felt yet another pang of guilt- she'd gotten attached to them, it seemed -but eventually allowed herself to be steered away with a melancholy warble.

"It's for the best," he told her softly, eyes closing in resignation at the hollowness he could hear in his words.

A hollowness he'd experienced just one other time in his life and struggled to escape. Even now, he could see it overtaking him again in the way the color slowly leeched from his fingers and trailed up his arms.

That was fine. Last time, he'd pushed forward for Rhonda. For his brothers. For his-

He closed his eyes and slumped in the driver's seat as a fresh wave of loss swept over him.

This time, when the emptiness threatened to swallow him whole, John Dory looked into the abyss and hung his head.

It was time to stop fighting. ============== Journey (Pokemon SI/OC) ==============

"Satoshiii, you've got to be kidding me!" I groaned as I pulled his curtains open. "Seriously?! You promised you wouldn't sleep in!"

Ash waking up late was a running gag in the anime. I knew this. Really. I did.

I just hadn't realized how bad that habit actually was.

"EHHH!?!? Amy, what time is it?!"

Mrs. Ketchum must have had the patience of a saint dealing with this every single day.

"Late enough that you're only gonna have time to get dressed! Now, move it!"

"But, breakfast-"

"MOVE IT!"

He yelped and scrambled off the bed, and I hurried out of the room to give him privacy. Walking back to the kitchen, I huffed as I took a seat, rolling my eyes when I heard a loud thump echo from upstairs.

"Never a dull moment with that kid," Papa chuckled quietly into his tea, still a bit bleary-eyed himself.

"Good thing he spent the night. With Hanako gone, he wouldn't have had anyone to wake him up," Mama shook her head with a fond smile.

"Next time I'm leaving him," I grumbled, though it was halfhearted at best.

Mama handed me two lunches and I secured them in my bag before grabbing some extra riceballs for Ash and placing them on top.

"Is Shigeru going to be taking part in the field trip?"

"He said he hears enough about it at home, so no. Good thing too, I don't wanna babysit him and Satoshi. I wanna see some pokemon, too!"

It was a good way to test how things could be once I began my journey. At first, Mama and Papa had been a bit hesitant to agree when Ash brought it up yet again (he did so every year, but this was the first time we were old enough to actually go), but Uncle managed to convince them. I was going to be with a group, and Professor Oak was sure to have at least Arcanine with him, so I would be more than safe.

To his credit, Ash only took a few minutes to get dressed, but our house was a bit of a walk from Professor Oak's lab, and we found ourselves having to sprint for the last stretch of it.

"-guess we're setting off," I heard Professor Oak say and immediately pushed myself just that little bit more.

"Wait!" I called while waving my arms, never more grateful for all the running I'd done during training than at this moment. "We're here!"

I slid into the meeting place like a baseball player, taking care not to squish the contents of our lunches as I allowed myself to drop onto the grass to catch my breath. Ash was still a bit behind me, but they should be willing to wait now that I'd made it.

"Way to look like a total loser," a familiar, though currently unwelcome, voice cut in through the harsh pants.

I groaned. "I thought you weren't coming."

"I'm not," Gary scoffed. "I just got curious because Gramps hadn't left yet. Shoulda known it would be you two behind it."

"And I should have known you'd be too nosey to not butt in."

============== Horizons (FF7 SI/OC) ==============

Ryuu stretched as he wandered into the entrance area of the inn, not bothering to hold back a wide yawn as he tried to shake off the last vestiges of drowsiness. Overall, he felt much better than yesterday, his various pains now muted to a dull ache instead of the sharp throbs and spikes of before. Thank fuck for accelerated healing. Probably one of the highlights of being SOLDIER, in his opinion. Cassie's potions had only helped in that- he'd probably be back to normal by the end of the day or early tomorrow at this rate.

It was early- enough that the sun was just barely starting to rise -but to his surprise he wasn't the only one awake. The innkeeper was already up, phone pressed up against his ear and having what seemed to be a pretty serious conversation if his expression was any indication.

"-keep an eye out for him, don't you worry…It's the least I could do after everything your daughter's done for us. Besides, I know I'd want someone to do the same if it were one of my girls missing…" He sighed, tone turning apologetic. "I don't. Wasn't expecting her to leave so suddenly, or else I would've asked…I'm sure she'll be fine. She's a tough girl, and clever. She practically saved this town."

Wait. He couldn't mean-

Now completely awake, he rushed back upstairs, only just catching the innkeeper's now confused expression as he continued his conversation with who he was becoming more and more certain was Cassie's family, though unfortunately missing the question itself in his haste to check on her.

"Son of a bitch," he hissed upon opening all the guest rooms and finding them empty. "You little shit."

Is this what it felt like to have a younger sibling? He was pretty sure this was what it felt like to have a younger sibling. This sheer frustration and annoyance- suddenly, all of his friends' complaints made so much more sense. Not to mention the worry. What if she ran into something else she couldn't fight? She said that bodyguard of hers could keep her safe but how could he be sure of that? She hadn't even let him meet the guy!

Cassie'd left early on purpose. He was sure of it. The question now was why.

He wanted nothing more than to chase her down and find out, but as it stood, he couldn't. He'd updated ShinRa on his status the moment looking at his PHS didn't make his head feel like it was going to explode, but while they'd allowed him some recovery time, they were also being very pushy in their reminders that he report as soon as possible. He could understand the insistence- absolutely no one had expected what sounded like a run-of-the-mill monster extermination to put a SOLDIER out of commission, even if only for a day or so -but he wished he could just-

His PHS buzzed in his pocket, and he sighed, heading for the stairs again.

============== ============== ============== And there you have it! Hope you enjoyed the little clips! Like I said, I am working on them. It's just a lot slower than it used to be since I have a longer commute to and from work now, and by the time I get home, I'm usually too tired to write. I'll be going on a short vacation in about two weeks or so to visit my bro, and I hope to get a good chunk of writing done during that time. You may see a few chapters pop up then. Fingers crossed, at any rate. For now, I think it's back to chipping at them a little bit more. Take care!

[author-chan06]

hello!! i dont know if you'd like to write more poetic/interpretation-heavy reros, such as the heat focused fic that i really loved, but if you do would you consider writing a fic about the split? post-split, or mid-split, or maybe even about a metaphorical split, but basically a fic about remus and roman and the fact they were torn apart like that. i think it could be really fun!!!

maybe there could be an arts-and-crafts symbolism, e.g. about how their insides were so easily molded they resembled clay and such. maybe their desire to fuse back together is described as 'glue', or the way that their fate was written by outside forces (that made them into two separate beings) is metaphorically a pen pressing so hard against a sheet of paper that it tears right through it. anyway yes, if you want, it could be descriptions of their bodies being ripped apart in a cutesy sort of style, but that's just an idea!!! basically my request is: remrom split!

Ok so! Heyyy, :D! This is totally inspirational for me honesty and the work you sent also gave me a couple ideas! And since I’ve been meaning to write about the Split, I’m definitely going to be writing a longer story about it soon! But for now, I’ve written a smaller piece— the idea hit me like hammer and I wrote it all in one go, so it might not be amazing, but I had to write it— and it is inspired by a line in one of the parts you sent me! (You’ll probably be able to find the line easily) So I hope you like this smaller verse!

Skin and Muscles

By Author_Chan06

When we were torn apart you took the skin and I took the muscle. It left me an aching and burning thing in the sun, nothing to cover and hide me from anyone to see. Any poke hurt and any prod made me bleed. But I muscled through. I crafted finely made masks and adorned myself in cushioningly crafted outfits; I hide myself away, while you do the opposite. With skin nothing skin deep hurt you, though you were hollow. Bones and skin and organs do not make a whole. Anything you try to make falls apart, with nothing to hold it together, your disjointed body strung together by spite and vitriol and a love that burns to talk about and burns to expression. Neither of us are whole anymore and pushing us together should hurt.

But it doesn’t. Skin and muscle pushed together soothes, and lips on lips feels like a fusion of a full self. Of a full us. With no hurt to intrude on our hope and wonder and creative ideas. Together nothing can hurt us. It is such a shame, isn’t it, my other half, we are not whole. It is such a shame we are not together.