#it's my fanfic and if i want swords there will be swords

[a-bit-too-much-of-a-zelda-fan]

Look, I get wanting disability representation in media. I'm disabled myself and I love seeing it. It's why I wrote an OC with autism and adhd (though not identified as such in the text) into the latter chapters of my Linked Universe fanfic Oops! All Links. So I understand why it's tempting to parade Link around as mute rep. Thing is, he's not mute.

There are two games where Link has canonically experienced muteness. In Breath of the Wild, he decided that his struggles were not as important as his responsibilities, and that developed into traumatic muteness. Sharing meals with Zelda eased it and got him talking again, but developing amnesia completely restored his speech. From the moment the player takes control of Link, he has the power of speech and exercises it often. He is also mute throughout Echoes of Wisdom, but regains his power of speech by the end. It is temporary for both BotW and EoW Link.

These two games are not what I'm talking about. I mean every other game where he shows every indication of being able to speak, which is the lionshare of them. I actually can't think of a single Link across the series that doesn't speak at all. He has always either had dialogue options or the other characters' dialogue is written around him having said something. He has a bit of an attitude in Link's Awakening, he's goofy and immature in Wind Waker, he's snarky but heartfelt in Skyward Sword, and he's chaotic in Tears of the Kingdom. The odd exception is Zelda 2, where he actually outright speaks to himself after finding the mirror.

Link may be a silent protagonist by definition, on account of his relatively sparse visible dialogue, but other than BotW and EoW, he is not mute. Again, I get wanting to see mute rep. There are video game protagonists who don't say a single word, but Link isn't one of them. I'm not trying to flame anyone who wants to imagine it, but I feel like it's celebrating a false victory. Does that make sense? I'm open to criticism here, and I'd love to hear from someone who experiences/has experienced muteness before.

[addledmongoose]

Good Omens Fanfic Friday (22 Nov 2024)

The main reason my list is all short fics this week is because I was re-reading the Faeted series (250K; Rated G/T) by @ineffably-good, one of my favorites. Crowley is the lord of the Unseelie court. Aziraphale (Ezra here) is a English teacher who accidentally stumbles into the Fae realms. Full of adventure and romance and gorgeous worldbuilding, and my favorite Hastur & Ligur of any books.

Now on to the new recs.

***

A Modest Proposal (3K; Rated G) by @a-causidicus

Crowley proposes marriage. Badly. But he gets there eventually.

***

Late Night Visitors (4K; Rated T) by @waitingtobebroken

Look, just go read everything @waitingtobebroken writes, okay? I'm pretty sure this is the 5th or 6th rec of their work I've done.

Human AU. Crowley goes to Aziraphale's bookshop, very drunk and intending to seduce the gorgeous blond he finds there. He's shocked to find out the man is already married. He's really shocked to find out the man is married…to Crowley. Obviously a bit of adorable silliness here.

***

how you've haunted me (11K; Rated E) by @sunriseinthesuburbs

After averting the apocalypse (again), Aziraphale and Crowley move into a cottage together. Aziraphale is going to be happy with the lovely—but platonic—relationship he's established with the love of his existence, even if he wants more. (Check the rating to see if he gets his wish).

***

The Prince And The Naga (17K; Rated E) by @thescholarlystrumpet

Human AU (sorta). Prince Aziraphale tries to prove himself to his family by going off to slay a great beast, only to discover the beast wasn't what he expected. Includes NSFW art.

***

But a Passing Fire (10K; Rated M) by @edosianorchids901

Set during the 14th century, Crowley is stabbed by a holy sword, and Aziraphale nurses him back to health. Aziraphale is such a sweetheart in this one.

[non-cannon]

Me giving Nina a sword in a fic despite the fact it really doesn't impact the plot at all really. I mean, there's like one scene during the climax of the story where it comes into play, but that scene could easily be rewritten to not include a sword.

But I'm doing it anyway! For two reasons, one swords are cool. And two, it ties into some lore that I came up with for the story that is almost certainly not going to come up in the fic itself. I actually came up with a lot of lore and world building for this fic that's probably never going to come up...

Unless I write a sequel, but just writing the original is hard enough. And I have zero plot ideas for said sequel...

But sword!

[chaoticallyfluffy]

Ok consider:

A new hero emerges and the Justice League watches him for a while who make sure he’s not a threat. They see this giant clumsy man who moves like he’s not used to his body, smiles goofily every time he saves someone, and is clearly inexperienced with his powers and they’re all just like. Ah. This is a child.

Except they don’t think he’s a ten year old or however old Billy is at the time, no no. Clearly this hero came into existence shortly before his first appearance, just a few months ago. They don’t know how or why but It’s not the weirdest thing they’ve seen so it’s pretty easy to believe.

But they can’t just leave this toddler with the powers of a god to stumble around and potentially hurt someone by accident, nor go down the wrong path and become a villain. So of course they decide to ‘subtly’ guide him without alerting him to the fact they’re onto him.

They introduce themselves but instead of inviting him to the league they pop by every once in a while to ‘subtly’ teach him about responsibility and power, but also about love and humanity. They try to teach him to enjoy life and that he doesn’t have to act like an adult around them, instead encouraging him to enjoy his childhood even if it’s not an ordinary one.

(Too bad the Justice League suck at subtlety.)

Billy is certain they somehow found out he’s a kid before they even met him, probably because of Batman’s freaky know-it-all powers, but he isn’t very worried as they seem nice and don’t treat him like he’s dumb or fragile. They respect him as a hero despite his age so he lets himself act like a kid around them after a while.

When he gets comfortable enough to detransform Billy thinks that’s his identity reveal. The league thinks that he magicked himself a body that’s more of a representation of his true self and fits his developmental age better, possibly as a way to blend in with humans and experience what it’s like to be a normal child. Good for him!

Basically Billy gets a bunch of super powered parents and the Justice League get a newborn man that they think they’re raising from scratch lol

[mimjandoodlesstuff]

Finally, the last part of my drawings of @indieyuugure's humanized turtles, and this one's a double serving!

Here're Raph and Mikey :)

I managed to carve out some time this evening/night (Finnish time) for more fanart of a fanfic I'm obsessed with.

Part 1, Donnie Part 2, Leo

[indigos-stardust]

their autism clashes so hard (so do their traumas <3)

[monpalace]

Link from Skyloft— or Sky, as he had been designated in the group— was many things.

He was the second wielder of the Master Sword, the first Skyloftian to explore the surface, and someone many looked up to.

He was not, however, in any capacity, confident when it came to romance.

The only thing that he seemed to be able to articulate was “I’m sorry,” with the way he rambled it on and on. The plush material of his pants became dirtier and dirtier as he scrambled to pick up the rupees.

“You’re fine, it's fine,” you repeatedly respond. Lowering yourself to your knees rather than the violent way he dropped, you assist him in collecting everything in your wallet. “I needed to do a recount either way.”

Sky knows his face would be flushed if he were any paler; thankful that generations’ worth of almost unfiltered sun exposure. He takes what he gathered and unceremoniously dumps them back in your wallet, some of which manage to slip back onto the floor to his displeasure. “No!” He didn’t mean to hiss. “No, no! It’s my fault!”

You lean away, allowing Sky to take over the collection of your rupees. A brief look up reveals to him that you were biting back an affectionate smile. “I’ll tell you what,” you start, hands closing around his when he dumps his next handful of rupees into your wallet.

Averting his eyes while making a noncommittal hum, Sky returns to his task.

“The next time the old man has us go to the market, you treat me somewhere— or to something, yeah?”

Sky tosses the idea around in his mind. “‘kay,” he hums with a grin he was less inclined to hide. His hands had finally gathered the last handful of rupees that had escaped your pouch. “It's a date then.”

You laugh as you stand, offering a hand to him once you're steady on your feet. “A date it is,” you respond in an equally amused voice, eyes scrunching with delight before you press a kiss to his cheek, rejoining the group of Links who had gradually slowed their pace.

Sky, in no way, was confident in his skills when it came to romance; but he had to admit he did have his moments.

[agalychnisspranneusroseus]

No you don't understand, Anne and Marcy third-wheeling Sasha during the dinner episode (and Sasha third-wheeling herself during battle of the bands) is so important to me. Anne and Marcy have come so far having left Sasha behind. They're happy and confident and strong and closer than ever, all because they were finally free. Because Sasha wasn't there to stunt their growth. Despite how much they love Sasha and how much they don't want to admit the distance helped them, it's true: Anne and Marcy were both victims of a toxic friend and they're learning to move on together. Ik it sounds like I hate Sasha because whenever I write about her I make her out to be a massive piece of shit but that's because... she kinda was! And I love her for that! I love these three, I love their story and their drama and toxicity (I was soooo happy when it was revealed Marcy wasn't as great as she initially seemed like - yes! The CONFLICT is CONFLICTING). Like yes marcanne is my obsession, I have marcanne brain worms, but I think one of the reasons marcanne works so well is because of Sasha. Their past, present and future with her have such a huge impact in Anne and Marcy's relationship with each other and with themselves. You can't separate these three and I love it, how easy it is to ship two of them without making it weird by leaving the third one behind (ironically, Sasha the Character is included by leaving Sasha the Person behind).

Marcanne to me is about two childhood friends living in a toxic situation healing together after leaving, only able to fall in love now that they are free and more comfortable with themselves and each other. They couldn't fully connect with each other before - not really. Anne didn't see the importance of listening to what Marcy had to say nor did she take it too seriously, and Marcy was simply not in contact with real people in the real world at all. None of this was Sasha's fault entirely, but she did third-wheel Marcy and she was possesive with Anne and was just a generally terrible influence on her, while reminding Marcy that, well, she didn't really matter all that much to anyone. Removing Sasha from the equation is not enough but it's a necessary step towards knowing each other better and the fact that they so easily became closer than ever just shows their eagerness to be together for real this time. Marcy's increased confidence and Anne's newfound empathy and admiration for her friend wouldn't have been possible with Sasha's domineering influence present. If they were to fall in love, it'd be because Sasha wasn't there to stop it.

I imagine that, once she finds out, she'd be furious, but mostly just devastated. Her friends only found love once she was gone. As if they think they'll be better off without her.

[baileyboo2016]

Something for you :)

Lanayru yawned. He was getting more tired these days, but work still needed to be done out in the mines. Though it seemed he could procrastinate a bit longer, as he heard very familiar voices echo in the distance. “Ah, we’ve made it!” Link’s voice sounded ever closer and Lanayru saw both Link and the little one, Hyrule standing near.

“ZINGA-DINGDING! You’re back!” Lanayru called, chuckling deeply. “Come closer, we have much to talk about.”

Hyrule’s face visibly lit up and he rushed over, before he stopped. The size difference between the two was almost laughable but it didn’t matter to either of them. “Lanayru! It’s been awhile!” 

“Indeed it has, tiny one. Time passes by me, but not much has changed other than the tiny Hylians’ progress here on the Surface.” 

“How have you been though?” 

“Hmm…” Lanayru thought for a moment, trying to come up with a supple answer. “Well, I suppose. Ever since Link here—or Sky I think you call him—rescued me from a mighty bout of illness, I’ve never felt better.” 

Link beamed with the heart that could only belong to a kind, selfless hero. Hyrule sent a grateful and happy look to his friend before turning back to the old dragon. “And the mining and robots?” 

“All is well and good, tiny hero. You mustn’t worry about us. Now, tell me how you are faring. Is your quest being fulfilled?” 

“We’re still trying to chase down the Shadow. It  keeps fleeing from us when we get close to defeating it…but all of us are alive so, that has to count for something,”

“This Shadow you keep mentioning…” Lanayru brushed his large white beard. “How much do you know about it?” 

“It can take more than one form, it can be rather cowardly and its blade has some sort of effect that causes potions and fairies to have no effect on the victim.”

“Hmm…If I hear anything that could be of use to you I will tell you. Ah, but I have something rather unrelated.” 

“And that is?” 

“A gift, tiny one,” Lanayru laughed, the sound boisterous enough to shake the ground. “After all you’ve done I figured it would only be necessary. I cannot let your great deeds go unrewarded, hm?” 

Hyrule’s eyes widened and he shook his head vigorously. “No, I can’t accept anything…My great deeds aren’t as great as you make them out to be.”

“Nonsense. Can’t you let a dragon have his fun? You should at least be rewarded for your kindness. You have given me company that I could never have hoped for, and I want to properly thank you. So please, do not refuse my gift,” Lanayru hummed softly.

“…Alright.” 

Lanayru smiled and hurried off, scouring the desert for his gift and he found it. The device glowed as it touched his scaly hand and he hummed to himself, satisfied. Flying back in a rush he stooped down to the tiny hero and held out the device. “What is it?” Hyrule asked timidly.

“It’s a device I created for you, with the help of my robots of course. The device is imbued with a Time-shift Stone, and if you hold it up to something, it sends the area back in time to whatever state it was in originally. I figured since, you liked exploring, this was a way for you to find more entertainment out of such a task. 

But that is not its only purpose!! It can also act as a weapon if you’re in a pinch. If you press a certain button, it can act as a laser! Truly one of my best works I must say. Now, take it please.”

Hyrule took the device gingerly, an awed look in his brown eyes and he seemed quite grateful as he examined the small device. “I-thank you, Lanayru. Truly.”

“It is my pleasure. Now, I do believe that I should not be keeping you from your current mission. Though…if you have any spare time…”

Link smirked knowingly and Hyrule shook his head. “I have plenty of time! We’re taking a break before we start looking for black-blooded monsters to defeat and if there’s no time left to spare, Sky would tell us.”

“Well, then I will not encourage you to leave, tiny hero. In fact, I have something to show both of you.”

The two heroes climbed onto the palm of his hand and he flew slowly to a specific spot in the desert. There, a foundation had been built for a building. A project the dragon had commandeered. “What? What’s this?” Link asked.

“This is something I’ve been working on well you’ve been gone, with the guidance of the tiny girl one—Zelda I think she was named, though LD-568-09 would’ve suited her greatly.  She had the brilliant idea to make shelter for those who are brave enough to venture through the desert. The Hylian creatures have been ever so curious, wanting to explore the vast land and if they’re anything like you guys, I am happy to provide them any assistance they seek.”

“…Lanayru that’s amazing,” Link beamed as Hyrule gasped with awe and wonder lighting up his eyes.

“Ah, this wouldn’t have been possible without the tiny girl. She had the idea.”

“If we can help let us know!” Hyrule hummed. 

It amazed the old dragon how selfless these Hylian creatures are. It made the project feel all the more special. He grinned at the creatures on his palm and flew back to the entrance of the Lanayru Mining Facility. “Now, please, I have shared enough of myself and my doings. Inform me of yours, ZINGA-DINGDING!” 

He listened to the little Hylians chatter, describing their chase through dungeons and time to find the shapeshifting Shadow, and a close-encounter with death. He was content, even though the other dragons would probably tease him for it. 

I-

……

EEEEEEEEE OMG OMG OMG ITS LANAYRU AND RULIE OMG IM SCREAMING CRYING KICKIMG MY FEET RN THANK YOU SO MUCH SISJSJSJSJSJSSS 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺 I THINK….*MALFUNCTION*…I THINK YOU BROKE BAILEY UM-

[amplexadversary]

Completely self indulgent post but here's one of the post-canon scenarios I have in my head for G Gundam.

Maybe skip this post if you don't like dark themes. Not all of what I've outlined is dark (most of it isn't), but I do cross the line past what appears in the show in regards to DG cells and abduction.

The shuffles all get roped into restoration projects on Earth between the 13th and 14th gundam fights, partially to have something to do alongside their training, partially out of inspiration by the common points of the Kasshus' and Master Asia's goals, and partially because netting their countries some decent publicity is likely to earn them favors during the Gundam Fight's off-years.

Sai is contacted by Kyral about an effort to clear out the infamous buildup of trash and cadavers on Everest; he wants Sai to leverage Neo China's help as something of a reparation kind of deal and Sai goes sure why not.

Sai recruits Argo because Bolt Gundam is built to withstand the cold, and he thinks Argo and Nastasha could help reverse engineer that quality to enable the use of their Gundams as both heavy work equipment and protection from the harsh environmental conditions that normally prevent this kind of operation.

George gets involved because someone he knows has a distant relative who died on the mountain a century ago, and they wanted him to check in with the forensics team on the project. This detail is important because eventually it becomes clear that there is a mystery to solve (that I myself haven't figured out all the details of yet but broadly know the setup and conclusion); DG-infected people are disappearing and not being investigated due to stigma. Our heroes are naturally going to be pissed about this, and will need an "in" with the field if they want to do anything about it.

First massively self-indulgent element: The forensics/body identification team inexplicably includes the real-world author Kathy Reichs, who somehow exists in this universe, and there's a little side bit about her having written a Bones book right before the 12th fight that featured a cooked cadaver found inside a gundam after entry into the Earth's atmosphere. There are a lot of weird coincidences in the book that parallel the DG incident, which creeps everyone out, but the similarities are merely born of the writer threading the needle of being believable and interesting in a way that became very true to life.

What does become relevant is when the Shuffles eventually meet up, she's able to explain the implications of a bunch of weird shit the fighters discovered (also Marie Louise read her book, and one of the in-universe liberties Reichs took writing about the gundams' black boxes that she explains in the afterword leads to ML realizing something important; that Neo Germany does not have its gundam's remains.)

While the Everest project is happening, Domon, Chibodee, and Allenby all want to continue their training somewhere on Earth, and receive a proposal from (an OC of mine who is) a historic preservationist (and an acquaintance of Allenby's): she has acquired the grounds of an abandoned castle in Europe* after submitting a plan to restore it, and needs to hire people to help with the labor.

*the castle is probably somewhere in Germany because I also want this pitch to have drama over Schwarz (pre-13th fight), Schwarz (Kyoji), and Schwarz (the next guy who was supposed to inherit the mask when the older ninja retired). Also Germany is fucking pretty.

In exchange for the help of the three gundam fighters, they and Rain get paid, plus room and board anywhere on the grounds, plus full access to the grounds and miles of sparsely-inhabited countryside for training purposes, and the privacy and ability to practice with their gundams that comes with being in the middle of fucking nowhere. Rain sets herself up to work a clinic in the next town over as well as practicing pro re nata wilderness medicine (I'm convinced every medic supporting the gundam fight would need to be able to do this.)

The group involved in the Castle project sticks around for a time, makes some good progress, and engage in occasional Shenanigans that come up when you put a bunch of weirdos in a Situation.

They aren't in town a lot save for Rain, but when they are they eventually start to pick up on gossip and news about the Mysterious Disappearances correlated with DG cell infection (as well as details that turn out to be important later). Eventually Rain brings this to Domon and Chibodees' attention and they decide that, yeah, this is tied to the DG, this is their problem, they should convene with the rest of the Shuffle Alliance about it.

Also of course Schwarz is involved because I'm the one writing this; the culprits' DG-tissue harvesting operation relies on having him captured and helpless, using cells from his body to "update" other victims' DG infections to a less aggressive strain. One thing I haven't decided is whether I want a reinstantiated Wong to head this shit, or make up my own morally bankrupt opportunistic asshole looking to twist the DG to their own benefits. I also need to decide where on the planet the center of all this insanity is, and it needs to be a place that isn't going to have any unfortunate implications (because that's a genuine risk with dark story elements)

... That's about as much as I have that is thought-out enough for me to explain. I return to thinking about this scenario a lot because it puts most of the characters way out of their element (and has a bunch of details that appeal to me specifically), and it kind of evolved into an incomplete plot outline that I don't currently have any plans to flesh out.

I think it's an interesting enough direction to go, because it follows through with a lot of the themes present in G, but takes advantage of the genre shift to avoid DBZ-crazy power scaling and adjusts the conflict more to a matter of where the main characters' prowess is most effective (Both in and out of the gundams. I'm assuming there are a ton of guys similar to Michelo's gang that just need fighting interspersed with everything else I described. In fact, kicking Some Group of Douchebags out of their protection racket is probably how team Castle even gets ahold of evidence related to missing persons.)

[velolceraptor]

Guys..

This WIP...

It's been kicking my ass

[recurring-polynya]

Hi! First, I just wanted to say that I've been reading your work for a long time. I love your point of view on these characters and am so excited to keep reading Damage History!

I'm curious what you think it would have been like if Kaien lived. More specifically, how would he have reacted to Rukia and Renji's relationship? Would he make Renji fight him after he finished with Byakuya? Would he be scheming with the other lieutenants to push them together? What do you think?

Thank you so much!

This is a Good Question! I think there are two different ways to look at it, which we will look at under the cut, because I can tell you right away this is gonna Get Long.

Scenario 1. Everything goes exactly as in canon, except that now, Kaien is there.

This is going to sound a little goofy, but I think it is so interesting that there are so many small changes that you can make to Bleach canon that just suck all of the air out of the story, and this is one of them. The Soul Society Arc isn't quite a tragedy, but it has a lot of the bones of a tragedy, in the sense that things had to line up in exactly the right way for it to go so terribly wrong. Some of it is obviously Aizen's machinations, but some of it is simple bad luck, or human nature (for a generous interpretation of "human"), or some combination of the above.

A very notable aspect of Rukia and Renji's part of this story is how alone both of them are, how let down they are by the people who ought to be there for them. Byakuya is the most obvious example, but Rukia's captain wants to advocate for her, but he's sick and behind the eight-ball on everything that follows. Her Third Seats are too busy with Ukitake, and don't have the political capital anyway. Kaien is dead. Like, that is a very important thing that happened. He ought to be the one fighting for her, and he isn't and she blames herself for that. Is Renji there for her? He has no reason to be, in Rukia's mind, and he seems to be sticking to his duty for now, but we, the readers, can tell that's not such a certainty.

Renji is really alone, too. He's just started out with a new captain who hasn't turned out to be the man Renji thought he was. He can't go backward, though--Kenpachi and Ikkaku and Yumichika are already the first ones in line to go fight the ryouka. Hinamori and Kira make it clear early on that their loyalty to their own captains takes priority over Renji's old friend, and Hisagi ends up following suit. I will never stop being impressed by the richness of the scene where Aizen tries to buddy up to Renji, because he's really pinpointed Renji's vulnerability here.

This really sets the stage perfectly for Ichigo to blow onto the scene and be the one person who inspires Renji to throw everything to the wind and choose to save Rukia.

Now, if you back up and put Kaien back into the mix, it ratchets the dramatic tension down about twenty notches. For starters, it would probably be Kaien who would get sent to the Living World to retrieve Rukia. I can't imagine it could have gone worse than ending with Byakuya cutting Ichigo down in the street. In all likelihood, Rukia would have been more willing to go back in the first place, knowing that there is someone who is going to be willing to hear her out fairly, even if she ends up in trouble for it.

Renji's been waiting for her to get back, and I think he would try to go see her, even if she were under house arrest or similar. On one hand, I think he might still give her some shit for getting herself in trouble, but it wouldn't be the utter disaster their canon reunion was, and I think he could pretty firmly offer her his support from the get-go, maybe not officially (but that's okay, because she's got her vice-captain for that) but at least emotionally, something that was a lot harder to tease apart when he was her actual jailkeeper.

Even if Byakuya and Renji are still the ones who arrest her and that all goes the same, at the point where Byakuya announces that he's not going to do anything to help Rukia, I think Kaien would step up and make a huge, public fuss. I'm not saying it would be easy for Renji to go against his captain on the downlow, but it would certainly be easier than straight-up treasoning. I can def see him approaching Kaien, like "I do not want her to get executed and I will help you in any way I can to prevent that from happening" and Kaien would be like "I do not know who you are, but thanks, I will keep that in mind."

In either case, I think Kaien would now end up the main shinigami character of the Soul Society Arc. There would be no real reason for Renji to confront Ichigo, so either Kaien would take that role, or it would just be skipped. Kaien would be the one to fight Byakuya--they've obviously had beef for a long time, and unlike Renji, I think Kaien might actually stand a chance. He'd probably send Renji off to go try to interrupt the execution, or maybe he'd just have Miyako do it, who knows!

Assuming that everything sort of falls out as it does in canon, I think at the end of the day, Kaien would be like "yeah, that Renji guy is a nice kid, he helped me out some, seems devoted to Rukia." At this point, though, Renji has been stripped of all of his big character moments. He probably didn't even make bankai. I assume Byakuya fired him. Much like Renji and Hisana, it's very hard for Renji and Kaien to occupy the same space in a story! I know this feels kinda lame, but it's because the story has to be the way it is! That's what makes it so good the way it is!

Scenario 2. This is more of a character-based scenario, where the entire Rukia execution debacle never happened. Maybe Aizen decided that Kaien would solve everything and made different plans. Maybe Renji got promoted a year earlier. Regardless, we've got a peacetime scenario, business-as-usual, Kuchiki-the-Senior makes the most insane hiring decision Kaien has ever heard of, and then the punk shows up at Kaien's division and makes overtures at Kaien's beloved protege??

Kaien would be in tears. He would think this was the funniest thing he had ever seen. He would assume that the whole thing was entirely unserious and would tease Rukia mercilessly about it (and also offer to beat up Renji if he was bothering her). Rukia would be mortified. Miyako would have to grab Kaien by the ear and drag him off and yell at him extensively. He would apologize to Rukia about it, but also continue to insist that Renji is ridiculous. Renji would challenge him to a fight and lose and then let Rukia put Chappy bandages all of over his face. Then Rukia would challenge Kaien to a fight, in order to avenge Renji's honor, and Kaien would realize the error of his ways, especially after Miyako refuses to put any Chappy bandages on his face. They would be friends after that, but Kaien would still call Renji "kid" and "punk" all the time, even at lieutenants' meetings.

[encrucijada]

might be silly and write bullet points for a possible tears of the kingdom fic 🫶

[alwaysoc]

[vagueandominousvibes]

Apparently I forgot to post this last year for FSWD23 (outside of the zine), so I've taken the liberty of editing it a bit and adding context for the title! Brace yourselves for cultural tidbits about Norway you couldn't even imagine

[luuney]

i’m home alone right now so why don’t you come over and we’ll invite who we want and then can our naked weapons be out and we duel but you stab me specifically and i watch your back as you run away because that’s what your friend tells you to do and i’m wondering if at any point you’ll turn back to look at me but i realise you’re long out of sight and i curse a plague on your house but what if we were honest and mayhaps what if you stay and hold me in your arms irrespective of what your friends say until the warmth of my blood pouring out onto your palms starts becoming cold

but no you only come back when i’m gone to try to get my friend to join me on my journey because you can’t admit that you don’t want me going alone yet even when i’m lifeless you’re too scared to hold me but you die instead or maybe that’s what you want because in the end we lie on that cold hard stage together as two performers cast in the wrong roles but maybe next time it doesn’t have to be so tragic

everyone in this play seems to run a little too late so i’ll be waiting for you to come over in each of the next eight of your nine lives and we’ll repeat this until we get it right