#like my kingdom for a person who got turned into the literal definition of what they do/who they are

[gxldencity]

I'm not discounting that lucanis is just a wierdo and that's why he has spectral wings, a demonic aura and deals necrotic damage

[celestialdragoncookie]

i said yandere three brothers X y/n

Dark dragon

Demonos cacao

Dark cacao

Yandere Three Brothers x Female Reader:

Hello everyone my name is Y/N cookie or once was Y/N L/N, I was born Korea and twenty-five years old. I am full time employee of the Devisastars Company one of the major leading companies of Korea and founder of cookie run kingdom, I will tell the tale of three psychos chasing after my precious dough life.

Flashback ( Several months ago):

I am a human was once, got hit in an accident trying to save a young childs life in return for the humble deed, it was repaid in the form of reincarnation yup rebirth second life baby. I was spawned literally spawned like a zombie in apocalypse games, anyway I was reborn as a maid in Dark cacao kingdom also known as the kingdom of emos and edgy cookies where the king of emos himself rule this place but he is not alone in functioning the place, he literally have two freaking brothers I mean brothers. The company programmed and created dark cacao cookie as a lone cookie with no parents nor any siblings here in twist of fate brought two brothers, oh well. The eldest is a freaking giant dragon cookie I mean literally a dragon oh man he is the tallest among cookies, he is very scary looking emmm very handsome too.

He goes by Dark Dragon Cacao cookie, is quite reserved type of individual always keep it to himself rarely talks use mostly handsigns. He is an Archduke just like his younger brother Demonos cacao cookie whom is also Archduke, his personality well what do I say is like cold blooded, hates guys tolerates females and execute femboys. He is literally the definition of a devil in sheep's clothing, I mean he is half blooded demon of hell like his father Yorichi. The most shocking truth I found that Dark dragon feasts on cookies at night when he is in hunger state also shocking revelation is Demonos Cacao Cookie and Dark dragon Cacao Cookie are hob cookies meaning they are part human and part cookies except their brother Dark cacao cookie who is a simple cookie.

During those hellfull days of being a maid, I have to several jobs that requires lot of force horse power and patience, it feels like doing several part time to meet your end needs. Escaping hours were very slow and steady, it took a lot stress and muscular cramps my dough felt it will crack any moment now , during those days I also tried to encourage them and gave them some of my time but they were just brushed me like I wasn't even existed in the first place especially that jerk of a Duke Demonos Cacao Cookie often teased and bully me but that didn't slowed me down as I was a stubborn mule. I tried tried never giving up, finally after whole ass months I managed to let them opened their icey cold hearts little did she know that opened the steel wall results in awakening the monsters and beast inside them.

One particular day, my position of the royal familys private maid shifted to warriors maid due to a certain snake. The snake with a sly smirk said that his majesties ordered me to shift your position to tend the needs of the warriors, as he eyed your charming body. You snorted in disgust, of course you were a rare female hob cookie yourself many tend to court out of sprite but politely turned them down. Affogato cookie cupped your cheeks forcefully kissed you, as you growled in disgust tried to shove him away but the make cookie was stronger then you tightened his grip before his hands could go further suddenly a large claw grasped on his shoulder tightened on it. With a painful groan look behind and paled from seeing the preceptor it was Dark cacao cookies younger brother Archduke Demonos Cacao Cookie. With his arms crossed his magenta eyes glared him, with behidding sign Affogato cookie paled and ran away with tail between his legs. You signed in relief and thanked him as Demonos Cacao Cookie brushed off with a slight smile before disappearing into the shadows.

As you tending the needs of the injured warriors, suddenly your presence was requested by the king himself this revaluation puzzled you because Dark cacao cookie only summons you in fire situation. As your presence appears in dungeons, looked around for his majestys presence but couldn't feel a single ounce of his aura suddenly you were grabbed through the waists from behind and shove to a nearby wall and wince in pain and shocked to reveal it was the king himself Dark cacao cookie as his purple tulip eyes looked at you with different light no it was not light more like void of darkness as it was inking to drown you into its depths. Dark cacao cookie licked his lips before kissing your neck and biting it to form a hickey, you tried to reason with him but in vain his reply shocked you to core.

" Now that we are alone, I will intended to make you mine once and for all. Your figure your touch and smile hunted me in my dreams, so much like a drug that addicted me to see and to claim you as mine. I will make you submit to me both body and soul".

Before he could do anything you kneed him in the family jewels as he groans in pain letting you go, this ticket allowed you to escape from the dungeons. During sprinting, you bumped into someone and saw it was Demonos Cacao Cookie.

His magenta eyes bore at your very own soule questioned your sprinting to which you answered him truthfully. Hearing this his eyes darkeened, took you off guard kissed you with intense passion and possession, you tried to fight it off but he was too strong. After long session of kissing, he let go for air his look gave you shivers he said with the same tone that Dark cacao cookie said earlier.

" You are mine and mine alone, my sweet princess can't believe got you before remember dear demons are selfish creatures, they wouldn't share what's thiers".

You punched him in face, by passing him in the process ran out of the castle towards to run away from the three brothers but your question where the hell is third brother, before your hopes in freedom could be tasted, felt a contract of hard flesh on your nape falling unconscious on the snowy ground, before your eyelids could closed heard something as the abyss covered you with it's blanket of sleep.

" I am sorry my mate, but you aren't going anywhere".

Current situation:

Now you woke up, chained to the bed like some sort of exotic animal but shocked you that in night goon suit. The suit reveals your body in beautiful way, blushing to yourself tried to struggle but the chains tightened even more. Suddenly a click of doornobe could be heard and came them your personal kidnappers the three psychos. Demonos cacao cookie sat besides your right as dark cacao cookie sat to your left as dark dragon sat behind you, forcefully let sat on his lap as he buried his face into your hair.

Demonos cacao cookie cupped your cheeks and cooed with affection " Wow my dear you are even more beautiful upon closer, all mine to take and play".

As he licked your cheek playfully which made you cringe, as dark cacao cookie rubbed his thumb on your bottom lip shivering to himself began to mumbles like a delusional madman. Dark dragon cacao cookie inhales your scent and growls in satisfaction as his eastern dragon waggs in delight.

" My dear beautiful mate, you smell like field of flowers, honey and tranquility. Your scent is so addictive like a drug, your mine to claim protect and play. Remember dragons are greedy creatures".

As the three came closer to your shivering fearful body, as tears roll down your cheeks crying to yourself because you didn't want to do anything to these monsters of a cookies. Heck you didn't want to carry Thier children, as throughout the night roar of dragon and demon could be heard mixing with the shrill scream of innocent making a horrible melody.

Shhhh, hush my dearest love you wouldn't get away from us.

[lightandfellowship]

Do you have any headcanons for Xehanort and Strelitzia? I enjoyed your comic about them.

Aw, thank you, glad you liked it. As for headcanons...let's see...

While I don't know exactly how Xehanort in Quadratum would work, I do think that, if it does happen, it'll have something to do with the "nature taboo" stuff from KH3 Re:Mind and Xehanort's "joke" in KHDR about wanting a 14th lifetime. I imagine the Xehanort in Quadratum is some sort of backup plan or maybe the Xehanort that was meant to continue on in the new world that Xehanort would create with Kingdom Hearts.

That being said, I think it would be fun/interesting if this Xehanort wasn't really a villain at all. Either has memory loss or is simply a Xehanort from post-KHDR but before the villain turn thanks to MoM. So he's just been living a relatively normal life in Quadratum and would be on the side of the good guys (Sora + Strel) this time.

But anyway. I think at first Xehanort and Strel would have no idea that they're connected to each other through a common "friend": Player. Like maybe initially they're drawn to each other subconsciously because they can recognize that they're connected somehow (though I don't think Xehanort would recognize her by appearance because afaik Player never saw Strel in KHUX), but their friendship definitely lasts for a good while before they realize that they've been talking to each other about the same person this entire time.

Like Strel will talk about this person she really liked and desperately wanted to meet who she never got the chance to really know, Xehanort will eventually open up about his mentor/guardian who raised him on Destiny Islands, and one day it just clicks for them that...wait...why does this person they're talking about sound so familiar....

At which point Strel is like "Oh my god. No way. You have to tell me more about them. What were their favorite foods? Hobbies? Tell me everything!" And it's through Xehanort that Strel finally gets to "know" Player better, because, well, Xehanort knew them for like 15 whole years or whatever. In fact they were the only person Xehanort ever knew for those years; it's possible that Xehanort knows Player better than anybody else in the world. (I can imagine Strel feeling a little bitter/jealous about this...)

As for their friendship outside of Player...if Eraqus isn't in Quadratum with Xehanort, I imagine Strel almost being like a replacement Eraqus, as horrible/mean as that sounds lol. Like not literally replacing him as Xehanort's friend, but much like Eraqus she's the sun to Xehanort's moon. The gold to Xehanort's silver. The white clothes to Xehanort's black clothes. She fills a similiar niche. Maybe Xehanort even thinks to himself that she reminds him of Eraqus...and maybe that makes their friendship a little bittersweet because now Xehanort misses Eraqus even more.

I imagine people like Sora being kinda confused at first by Xehanort and Strel's friendship. Strel can be sunny and sweet and a little bit of a scaredy cat, Xehanort can be a little gloomy and blunt and quite confident in himself (though they both have the "socially and/or emotionally reserved" thing going for them.) After a while though Sora realizes that Strel and Xehanort's friendship reminds him of his own friendship with Riku, and then it starts to make more sense to him. And in any case, if this means that Xehanort is making friends and not causing trouble, then Sora's fine with it.

Now, I wonder if a recompleted Lauriam looking for his sister would be okay with their friendship, though, given that Marluxia has worked with a Xehanort twice at this point and even tried to betray one of them once. Lauriam would realize that Xehanort is dangerous and can't be trusted and would probably try to screw things up for Strel and Xehanort despite their friendship actually being genuine with no ulterior motives (can't really blame Lauriam, though.) But maybe Strel would put her foot down and try to convince Lauriam that Xehanort is perfectly harmless.

Strel: And anyway, he's my friend—what, you don't want me to finally have friends?? Huh??

Lauriam: Ugh. Fine! But the second he does anything fishy I'm slicing his head off with my scythe.

Strel: Okay. <3

Xehanort: WHAT DO YOU MEAN "OKAY. <3"???

[rapha-reads]

1/3 of the way through TGCF volume 5, we're exploring Mount Tonglu, a few remarks.

There's something about Xie Lan's cooking. I don't know what, but it's definitely not that he's a bad cook. There's intent behind his dishes potions. In any case, he always knows more than he lets on, even being the narrative voice, he doesn't narrate exactly what he thinks or knows. So his cooking definitely serves a purpose.

E'ming. That scimitar. That's not just a sentient weapon, isn't it? Either it's an actual person. Or, my favourite theory, it's a part of Hua Cheng, some part of himself that he cut out and that's why he's so harsh with it, and that's why it likes Xie Lian so much.

... So odds on Hua Cheng being the lost Eminent Crown Prince of that very ancient Kingdom of Wuyong whose story was the inspiration for young Xie Lian, who in turn saved that same lost prince who in turn got inspired by his savior to become the best of the best...?

Listen, Hua Cheng knows a lot. He knows everything. He's an encyclopedia. That's weird. And these two are just so entangled in each other, who knows if it didn't start before it even started. I understand myself.

No, wait! The Eminent Crown Prince of Wuyong is White-something Calamity, the entity that destroyed Xianle, and that appeared to Xie Lian wearing his own face! That would make so much more narrative sense, given the second mural discovered depicting the Crown Prince dreaming of his kingdom engulfed in flames, the same way Xie Lian saw his own kingdom destroyed (metaphorically, and then literally when they burned his temples). Would explain why White-fella, after turning into a ghost, was so full of resentment and especially hated Xie Lian.

Don't tell if I'm wrong or right, I'll end up discovering what's up as I keep reading.

And I haven't figured out exactly what's up with Jun Wu, but he's weird too. Something fishy there.

Oh, and now there's those two ghosts in black and white who killed thousands of ghosts. This mountain is crowded as hell.

[starrynightmuse]

A Character Study: Aemond from House of the Dragon

Almost 4k words. My thoughts on Aemond Targaryen. This is me trying to make sense of his character and guessing his motivations. I'm focusing mainly on the show so I did not mention Daeron.

To the greens, Aemond was the spare. To the blacks, he was even less than that.

In the show, he was born after The Green Dress stunt at Rhaenyra's wedding, when Alicent got rid of her Targaryen red and black dresses in favor of Hightower green, signaling her true allegiance. Sides are declared. The die is cast. In the book, Alicent's stunt wouldn't be pulled until a year after Aemond was born, but I like the show's timing better.

I like the idea of Alicent being in full-on war mode while she was pregnant with him. It would be fitting, knowing she would give birth to a baby boy with a choleric temperament. The boy who would one day grow up to be the young man whose actions started the Dance of the Dragons.

Aemond as might as well pull an Athena and come out of the womb fully dressed in armor and ready for war.

From the time Aemond was old enough to understand, the tension between his mother and half-sister had been so thick that you could cut it with a knife.

In the show, Aemond and Jace are roughly the same age, so Jace was probably born not long after Aemond (I'm guessing their age difference is a year max). Then Rhaenyra churns out two more bastard kids throughout the duration of Aemond's youth. Growing up, this boy would’ve been mighty familiar with hearing questions about his nephews' legitimacy as more and more rumors of Rhaenyra's trysts with Harwin Strong spread throughout King's Landing. 

To properly understand Aemond's childhood, we need to talk about Aemond's momma, Alicent Hightower. Mommy dearest.

Alicent was literally a teen mom who had been forced to grow up too quickly. After Viserys fired Otto and her friendship with Rhaenyra disintegrated, she had almost zero allies in court. She was scared, paranoid, and bitter. Alicent was nowhere near prepared for the motherhood and queenship that was thrust upon her. I'm pretty sure that she often found herself needing someone to vent to, and I think Aemond would've been that someone for her (My Son is My Therapist).

Alicent was, by definition, an emotionally immature parent. In this scenario, it’s common for parents to turn to their children for emotional support. She couldn’t turn to Viserys, Aegon was rowdy and does his own shit, and she and Helaena never quite connected. That left Aemond, who strikes me as a naturally attentive and observant child.

This is just a theory, but I don’t see why it couldn’t have happened given the circumstances. It would certainly explain why Aemond and his mom are so close. (And why Aemond gives "older sibling who acts like a parent" vibes.)

I mean, have you seen this scene? The softness they have for each other? How in tune they are with each other’s emotions? They act more like equals than Mother and Son.

With Viserys being a shitty father who'd rather play with his legos than pay attention to his son, Alicent would also be the only person Aemond would look to for guidance, to make sense of the world.

I'm imagining Alicent ranting about Rhaenyra's irresponsibility while a young Aemond listens, absorbing every word.

Here I am, upholding the kingdom, the family, the law, while she flouts it all to do as she pleases.

The audacity of her to name her common-faced bastards as heirs while you and Aegon are pushed further down the line of succession.

Where is duty? Where is honor? Where is sacrifice?  

It’s a wonder to me that her sons’ eggs ever hatched. We all know what they really are.

Aemond takes Alicent's words to heart and he treats them with a level of seriousness that is rare for most children his age. He strikes me as a very precocious kid. I see him as an overthinker, which would mean he has a tendency to mull over things for long periods of time and find deeper meanings where most would fail to. (A trait that would serve him but ultimately destroy him in the end.)

Like the good student he is, Aemond takes in everything that Alicent has to say. And if my My Son is My Therapist theory is correct, then out of all of Alicent’s children, Aemond would be the one most privy to her thoughts. It would explain why he's so similar to her in beliefs and personality. Everything he knew, he learned from Alicent.

Helaemond shippers like to point at this scene and say Aemond had a crush on Helaena and idk about you but it sounds like he's just echoing his mother. This is a 10-year-old boy.

Thanks to Alicent, Aemond would see the world as being split into two groups: the “worthy” and the “unworthy”. The worthy are the ones who uphold honor and duty. The unworthy are the ones who do not. 

His sense of worth would be directly tied to this metric. Aemond has a strong desire to prove himself worthy by being the perfect prince, the perfect son. He cares deeply about how others views him, and he becomes a perfectionist.

Aegon being a useless drunkard and Rhaenyra being a lawbreaker would only motivate him further. (Yes, Rhaenyra naming her bastards as heirs is literally illegal. It's high treason. It's an offense that would result in being disinherited and even executed, I can't stress this enough.) I can do better, Aemond thinks.

So, being the only boy in the family without a dragon would do monumental damage to his self-esteem.

I'm imagining him listening to Alicent rant about how Jacaerys and Lucerys are unworthy of having their dragon eggs hatch. Being the over-analytical little shit he is, Aemond would've come to the conclusion that the eggs only hatch for true Targaryens. And suddenly he's worried because what if I'm not worthy of my name?

Even my idiot older brother and my bastard nephews have dragons. What does that make me? He thinks. Aemond would've felt so small.

As if it wasn't bad enough to know that he was only the spare to Aegon's heir, to watch his father neglect him while pouring affection to his half-sister and her kids, to know that he was the least important member of the family. (Knowing you're not the favorite child hurts even for normal people; imagine growing up in a family system where every child is ranked from most important to least.)

It sure didn't help that Aegon, Jace, and Lucerys took advantage of his biggest insecurity to bully him.

Now, we don't know exactly when this bullying started or how long it had been going on, but the Pink Dread incident was nowhere near the first time. To find a pig and to attach wigs on it takes a bit more effort than your average taunts. There's a lot that has to build up for that to happen. I'm guessing the bullying had been going for a few years.

But the pig was definitely the crescendo. With each taunt and sneer the boys had thrown at him, Aemond's self-esteem had gotten worse and worse. When the Pink Dread happens, something in Aemond snaps.

It was more than just a pig with wings. It was utter humiliation. It was telling him no matter how perfect you try to be, you will always be lesser.

Knowing this and all the pent-up anger that Aemond would have towards his brother and the Velaryon/Strong boys, it probably took him a lot of self-control to not explode right there and then.

In Fire and Blood, Aemond is described as being a feisty kid.

"Aemond was said to be half the size of his elder brother but twice as fierce."

In the show, he's more chill, but I don't think the book is wrong. F&B is written like a history book, and history only remembers what was notable. Aemond has this sort of vibe that says "I'm chill on the outside but I'm screaming on the inside." Like his mother, he holds in all his feelings for the sake of appearances but you can bet that during the times when he does let it out, this boy would have an anger that burns hotter than the seven hells. And it would be enough to give him a reputation.

Aemond tries to be on his best behavior and bottles up his emotions... until he can't anymore. Being a perfectionist, he has a do-or-die mentality. This aspect of him was ever so apparent when he sees Vhagar at Laena's funeral.

The oldest, largest, and most dangerous dragon in the world... out in the open, without a rider. And one desperate boy who has had enough of feeling weak and inferior.

Hell, it was like dangling a carrot in front of a rabbit.

This is my one and only chance, Aemond thinks. My brother and my nephews want to laugh at me? Fine, I'm going to claim a dragon that'll make theirs look like a pig.

At this point, Aemond could care less about the dangers. Give me the biggest dragon in the world or give me death.

Vhagar sees Aemond and goes, "This little shit has balls... I like it. But let's see how he does in the air." She tests him by flying like an absolute maniac but when she realizes that Aemond has persevered regardless, she deems him worthy of being her rider. Vhagar likes her riders strong-willed and courageous. Aemond didn't claim Vhagar, Vhagar claimed Aemond.

And that validation from Grandma Dragon was all Aemond needed to go on a freaking power trip. This lonely boy — who had been bullied for years, whose only "friend" was his mother — was suddenly given the highest level of approval from an ancient war dragon who people write songs about. Becoming Vhagar's rider gives him newfound confidence and Aemond feels on top of the world. He's still riding that high when the Strong boys and Daemon's daughters attack him.

It's this same rush of power that makes him utter the forbidden word.

Bastards.

I don't think Aemond actually hates Rhaenyra's boys for being bastards. I mean, look at this scene where he goes up to Jace during Laena's funeral. The look of sympathy. He wants to say something to offer condolences about Ser Harwin's death, but he knows he shouldn't. And the future love of his life is literally a bastard of House Strong.

During the fight, Aemond calls Jace and Luke bastards as a way to get back at them for making him feel weak. He's saying, look who's the inferior one now.

Then Lucerys stabs him in the eye and all the euphoria he felt a few minutes ago goes down the drain.

It only got worse from there.

Instead of giving him sympathy, his half-sister politicizes his trauma, makes the entire thing about her and her sons, and accuses him of treason. His father is angrier over the fact that he called his nephews bastards than the fact that he was maimed. The little shit who took out his eye doesn't even apologize.

And where had his useless older brother been all this time? Drunk beyond repair.

The only one who seems to care is his mother, and Aemond watches as she gets excessively gaslit for wanting justice on his behalf.

He's sitting there in the armchair while all this goes down, one of his eyes is literally gone, and his injury is probably so painful that his head feels like it's going to burst.

I let my feelings get ahead of me one time and this is what happens, Aemond thinks.

Any other kid in his position would've felt entitled to act out, but Aemond swallows down his emotions and puts on a brave face. He protects his mother from his father's wrath and even steps in to defuse the situation by placating her. Mommy's little therapist.

This ten-year-old boy was forced to take on the role of an adult while his eye had been freshly slashed from his skull. The trauma of that night would stay with him for years afterward.

Three things were certain in Aemond's mind:

He can't count on his father to defend him.

He can't count on his older brother to defend him.

His half-sister cares more about the throne than his safety and most likely his life.

When the family returns to Kings Landing the next day, Aemond leaves his childhood behind at Driftmark.

He develops hyper-independence and spends the next several years trying to compensate for his disability while preparing for the Targaryen Hunger Games that will come one day. Aemond would be the first one up at dawn, already in the training yard, and he'd be the last one to retreat to his chambers at night, reading page after page in the library and sometimes even falling asleep there.

Well, okay, maybe he's not exactly the last one to bed.

I'm imagining pre-teen Aemond coming out of the library at the hour of the owl, only to bump into a staggering teenage Aegon who was just sneaking back into the Red Keep after a late-night rendezvous, high as a kite.

This is the idiot who is to be king, Aemond thinks. (Rhaenyra's gang can delude themselves as much as they'd like but Aemond knows the precedent set by the Great Council of 101 AC, the primogeniture, was bigger than the wishes of a dying king and an entitled princess.)

No matter how hard he tries, his clown of a brother would always get what Aemond had always been more qualified for.

Because Aemond was only the second son.

Worse, a second son with just one eye.

Aemond's quite insecure about his looks; I'm sure he thinks his scar looks ugly and horrifying. It's canon that he wears the eyepatch to not frighten the ladies. The sapphire is there so he looks cool when he does want to frighten them.

I don't think he would've had a lot of crushes. Not because he doesn't care about romance or sex, I think it would be because he's scared of getting rejected. He hears the court calling him Aemond One-Eye and people whispering about his fiery temper behind his back. As a side effect of that traumatic day in Driftmark, I think Aemond would now anger quite easily, as trauma survivors often do. And when he isn't angry, he's putting on a stone mask of confidence to seem indestructible. It would definitely come off quite cold to others, but after all the helplessness he had felt, Aemond adopts the "I'd rather be feared than loved" mentality.

He knows he's not crush-worthy material (don't fight me on this, it's different for fandom girlies because we know his story, but imagine if you didn't and you met him in real life, only knowing him based on the rumors? and, while I think ewan mitchell is handsome af, he's not conventionally pretty.).

I have other things to do than think about girls, he tells himself.

Then Aegon takes him to a brothel on the Streets of Silk on his thirteenth birthday. His older brother basically rapes him by proxy via a woman who is twice Aemond's age. (We don't know if this trauma did anything to affect Aemond's sexual preferences but we do know that teenage Aemond would never look at girls his own age. He falls in love with Alys Rivers... who's like 40. Aemond also has mommy issues so there's that.)

When Aegon marries Helaena, Aemond does his best to protect his sister from his brother's abuse because he knows what it's like. Both being victims of Aegon, he forms a special bond with Helaena and takes on the role of being her protector. This protectiveness he feels is extended down to Helaena's children.

A few years go by and Aemond settles into a routine that consists of him picking up after his brother, taking care of his sister and her children, being a confidant to his mother, and essentially taking the position of the family patriarch. On top of this, he has a rigorous training regimen and he's studying everything he can about history and political philosophy so that at least someone will know shit about ruling when Aegon becomes king.

This boy had so much on his plate.

Eventually, the matter of Driftmark's succession brings Rhaenyra's clan back to court. Bro definitely had flashbacks when he heard the news that they were coming. During the petitions scene, he's tense and on guard. He's trying to act like seeing Rhaenyra and her kids doesn't bother him, but his hands are clasped high behind his back as if he's trying to keep it all in.

At this point, it was about more than the loss of his eye. It was about more than just that night. More than the pain of the injury, and more than the phantom pain that he probably still feels occasionally in the place where his eye had been.

(Edited: I found this amazing post explaining that Aemond most likely had chronic pain resulting from nerve damage. So he probably had more than phantom pain. Which makes his trauma ten times worse.)

No, this boy has been hurt mind, body, and soul. He looks at the blacks and he sees all the years of helplessness, loneliness, resentment, anger, and insecurity that he had been through as a result of their actions. (I've said before that Aemond is a ruminator, and ruminators are often the best grudge-holders.)

Daemon beheads Vaemond for saying the same thing he did when he lost his eye, showing absolutely no mercy. Then, during dinner, the little shit who took out his eye had the audacity to laugh at him when he saw a pig.

Aemond's like, y'know what, I've been acting cordial all day for the sake of being respectful but these people don't deserve it. Fuck it.

After Vizzy T dies and Aegon runs off, Aemond volunteers to find the fool. He prides himself in being dutiful and loyal, it's literally his entire sense of identity, and if it means tracking down his idiot of a brother just so the fool could be crowned — so be it.

That doesn't mean he has to be happy about it though. Aemond finds himself alone in the streets of Flea Bottom with Ser Crispy — the man who taught him how to fight, the man who has been there for his family ever since he was born �� and decides to take the opportunity to vent and grant himself some much-needed catharsis, if only for a few seconds.

I think all the resentment that he had felt during the last few days finally boiled over when he saw Luke at Storm's End.

There he was, selling himself up for marriage, trying to do what's expected of him even though he probably feels like a puppet on a string — just so Eggy gets to keep his crown. And this boy, this boy who took his eye out, who bullied him, who laughed and never apologized, waltzes in. The same boy who, a few days ago, was named heir to Driftmark, even though he was a bastard and a second son.

Aemond is triggered. He's a trauma victim; his mind immediately reverts back to the state it was in that fateful night in Driftmark. Mentally, he's no longer the dutiful young adult. The helpless little boy in him comes out and he sees red.

"I want you to put out your eye."

My theory is that Aemond had been dreaming about taking Luke's eye as retribution for years. It's pretty common for victims of violence to fantasize about attacking their abusers — it's a defense mechanism to prepare them for violence to come, and in Aemond's case, violence was guaranteed to come. My dude has probably been suffering from intrusive homicidal ideations for while.

The show told the tale from Luke's POV so we see the boy running out the hall after Borros ends the conversation, only for a mean nasty Aemond to chase him on Vhagar. In the book, however, another secondborn decides to stir shit up after Luke leaves the room.

And there it might have ended, but for the girl Maris. The secondborn daughter of Lord Borros, less comely than her sisters, she was angry with Aemond for preferring them to her. "Was it one of your eyes he took, or one of your balls?" Maris asked the prince, in tones sweet as honey. "I am so glad you chose my sister, I want a husband with all his parts."

So what I'm thinking is that Aemond did try to drop his anger when Luke took his leave. But then the girl picks at his insecurity (bro doesn't know shit about girls and he takes everything so seriously, there's no way he could've seen that she was just jealous).

And that was the final straw. The boy who has tried so hard to be perfect loses control. Honestly, this moment has been a long time coming.

Aemond chases Luke on Vhagar to scare him. He wants to make Luke feel as helpless as he did when they were younger. It makes him feel powerful, and after feeling stepped on for so long, he's letting himself enjoy it while giggling like a maniac in the pouring rain.

Vhagar, however, had other plans. I think she sensed his anger and madness, just like Arrax sensed Luke's fear and anxiety. Aemond might've been playing around, but Vhagar had a mind of her own.

Aemond's only friend (who doesn't also double as a mom or a training teacher) is his geriatric dragon, so of course he would be a tad overconfident in their bond. He definitely wasn't planning for Vhagar to dive in for a little snack.

And that's the story of how the lonely boy who tried and tried and tried to be the perfect son went down in history as a kinslayer.

I can't wait to see him in season 2, absolutely wrecked with guilt. And who's going to believe that mean ole Aemond One-Eye never meant to kill Lucerys? Kinslaying is a serious offense in Westeros. Aemond fucks up one time and now he's going to be ostracized for the rest of his life (which isn't too long 💀).

I can't wait to see how his dynamic with Alicent is going to change since he's no longer this golden boy.

I can't wait to see him become absolutely deranged when Blood and Cheese happens. Aemond thinks he knows what guilt feels like? Think again. The guilt of killing Lucerys was only the prologue. With Blood and Cheese, Aemond wouldn't just be losing a nephew, he'd lose his sister too. Helaena becomes a ghost of a person, and Aegon... I think Egg would be so mad at Aemond. The roles between the brothers would suddenly reverse.

Also, I can't wait to see how they'll portray his relationship with Alys Rivers. (I will sue if they make Alys a skinny, young cottage-core girl. Give me an actual middle-aged woman and make her a witchy girlboss with a fire that matches Aemond's. Give me Katie McGrath.) I want to see him meet Alys and be like "Fuck the Baratheon girl, I'm going to hell anyway so I as might as well enjoy life while I can." I want to see the dutiful side of him unravel as his desires get the best of him. I want to see him drunk with power when he becomes Aegon's regent.

[mentallyinvernation]

Dreamling Bingo WIP - Library

This one is a snippet but it’s going to eventually turn into something like ‘5 Times Someone Finds Out Hob Gadling Is Engaged, and the 1 Time Hob Gadling Finds Out He’s Engaged’. 

The fill will be used for my @dreamlingbingo square - C1 Library

｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. 

“So, run by me again why Hob is allowed to distract you from running a kingdom, but when I say let’s go on a boy's night out, suddenly it’s a problem?” Matthew complains, really just for the sake of complaining because he’s bored.

“That would be because you are my raven and Hob is my fiance.” Dream murmurs distractedly, still pouring over the book he’s been engrossed in ever since he got back from the shores of creation and sequestered himself away in the library.

“Yeah, but I’m your best -” Matthew’s entire world comes to a screeching halt, the last part of that sentence hitting him with all the force of a brick wall. “Come again?”

Corinthian - who up until this point has been loitering nearby like a child put in time out - immediately perks up at the direction the conversation seems to be heading in.

Dream glances up, a tiny furrow creasing between his brows. “You are my raven.”

“Yes, I know that part! I meant the fiance part! What - you mean you’re - you’re getting married?”

“That is what fiance would imply, yes.”

There’s a stunned beat where Matthew just gawks at him, desperately trying to shape his mind around this information because it’s certainly news to him - probably to the entire realm.

And then he explodes.

“Since when? Oh, my god, there’s going to be a wedding. I love weddings. Why didn’t you say anything sooner? More importantly, why didn’t Hob say anything? I swear, I’m going to kill him. That fucker didn’t even have the decency to ask for your hand.”

A tiny smile tugs at Dream’s lips. “And my hand is yours to give away, is it?”

“Obviously. I’m your best friend. That’s what I was trying to say before, and why we should definitely have a boy's night out in the near future but we’ll stick a pin in that for now because what the shit, boss? You got hitched? You’re like tying the mother-fucking knot? Dude! I’m going to be a best man. Oh my god. Bachelor party in the Dreaming. Give me free rein for one night - just one - and this place will be party central.”

“Abso-fucking-lutely not.” Corinthian cuts in smoothly. “I already called dibs on best man.”

“What? No. Fuck off. You can’t just dibs best man. That’s not how it works.”

“Pretty sure it is.” Corinthian shrugs, scratching his neck. “There’s always best raven, though, right?”

“I’m sorry but weren’t you re-made like literally an hour ago? You’re a baby. You’re literally the baby. You can’t be the best man if you’re already the baby.”

“Says who, exactly?” Corinthian challenges, looking very much like he might stab whoever says so, which, you know, considering he wanted Dream dead not too long ago, this is a very new and strange change of pace for them, but Matthew’s not going to question it, because that’s above his pay grade. And his pay grade is nothing. “I’m still me. I was just gone for a while. Think of it like waking up from a nap.”

“Yeah, and you know who takes naps? Babies take naps. Toddlers.” Matthew snaps back, knowing full well he used to nap on the job all the time back when he was human, but that’s not important or useful for his argument. He ruffles his feathers and faces Dream again, who honestly looks a little discombobulated by their argument, and somewhat surprised to have two people fighting for the honour of being his best man - which is endearing and sad at the same time. “Anyway. I’m best man. End of. Moving on to what matters -”

“You’re not.” Corinthian mutters in the background.

And you know what, Matthew’s going to be the bigger person here because he is the best man, that’s basically already established without saying, Dream doesn’t even need to ask, and as the best man, he’s going to focus on what’s important.

“So? When did Hob ask? I want details.” Matthew says.

Dream arches a brow at him, tilting his head faintly. “Why do you presume it was Hob who asked?”

“Because - “ Matthew cuts himself off, beak opening and closing a few times. “Because it’s…Hob?” He finishes a little lamely. “Hasn’t he been planning to go down on one knee for you since the stone age or something? Wait - you’re saying that you proposed?”

“Is that so difficult to believe?” Dream replies, voice clipped as he juts his chin in that snooty little way of his. Matthew can see the underlying anxiety creeping into the stiffness of his shoulders, though.

“No,” He quite wisely says, “No, it’s just… I mean fuck, good on you, boss. You got your caveman. It’s just… I expected - hm. How to put this. Well, usually, you’re a little more…dramatic? When you do things. It becomes an event, you know?”

Dream frowns. “I do not know.”

Which is honestly impressive given that Hob gave Dream a flower once and the castle was overgrown with it for days.

The first time they fucked there was fireworks.

The Dreaming didn’t give off nearly enough theatrics recently to suggest there was a proposal. 

“I bet Hob cried. Did he cry? He definitely cried.” Matthew snickers. “Wait, so, why didn’t you tell me you were going to propose?”

Dream blinks, which is a little comical and definitely a human mannerism he’s unconsciously picked up from Hob. “Was I supposed to inform you?”

“Yes!” Matthew exclaims, throwing his wings out wide. “Well, no. Not if you didn’t want to. That’s fine, obviously. But you told Corinthian before me? Corinthian?”

“Watch it, bird brain.”

“Watch your face.”

Corinthian rolls his - well he rolls his head to mimic the motion of rolling his eyes. “Stop getting your feathers in a twist. It’s not personal. I only just got re-made, if you recall. We had a bonding session on the beach. Real tear-jerker moment, you know? He didn’t even mean to tell me. It just slipped out with all the other gross feeling stuff we were talking about.”

“Why don’t we do gross feeling stuff?” Matthew whines at Dream.

“I will endeavour to make room for it in my schedule.” Dream responds flatly. “If you must know, I did not intentionally keep this from you. It happened only last night and I had no such plans of proposing until I was doing so.”

“Oh, nice. Spontaneity is a good look on you boss. You should try it more often.” Matthew chirps, giving Dream’s arm a little headbutt and earning another of his tiny smiles. “Congrats, by the way.”

“Thank you.” Dream says, and he sounds so fucking proud that Matthew’s chest wants to burst with warmth.

So, for all of two seconds, everything is perfect, and there’s going to be a wedding, and Dream is clearly over the fucking moon about the whole thing because this is genuinely the happiest Matthew has seen him.

And then Matthew remembers this is Dream.

“Wait,” Matthew starts, and instantly the Corinthian fixes him with a sharp grin that only widens as the cogs start to turn in his mind. “Wait, wait. You did ask him, right? Like you properly asked him?”

“Yes.”

“Okay. Yeah. Good. Um. But what did you like - what did you say to him? What words exactly?” He presses as carefully as possible, suspicion a wire coiling up his spine that only tightens the more Corinthian looks at him like he’s waiting for the pin to drop.

Dream doesn’t huff because he’s a king and a personification but it’s damn well close. “Must I apprise you of every detail, Matthew? It is quite simple. I said: would you marry me? And Hob said: yes. He woke before we could make any further plans.”

Would not will. 

Oh, sweet Jesus.

There’s a lot to unpack in that. Matthew doesn’t want to unpack that. For one fleeting moment, he has so much sympathy for Jessamy, his darling predecessor, who somehow put up with the drama that is Hob Gadling and Dream of the Endless for nearly six hundred years. Matthew has been dealing with them for a couple of months and he’s already exhausted.

Corinthian looks fucking elated.

“So, um,” he clears his throat. “You asked him in the Dreaming, huh?”

Dream nods, looking pleased, as though they’re now all on the same page. He shuts his book and rises. “If your curiosity is satisfied, perhaps you could now escort Corinthian back to the nightmare realms.”

“I don’t need a babysitter.” The Corinthian gripes.

“Babies don’t get to decide that.” Matthew retorts automatically, and then, “Wait why do I have to be the babysitter?”

Dream gives him a withering look. “I have a matter to attend to elsewhere. Queen Titania has been demanding an audience with me for some time. In the spirit of maintaining relations between realms, I must…indulge her.”

And with that, Dream sweeps out the room, robe flaring behind him as he leaves Matthew and Corinthian. Only once Dream is gone does Matthew sigh.

“Hob has no idea he’s engaged, does he?”

“Not a clue.” Corinthian confirms.

“And Dream doesn’t realise?”

“Not at all.”

“Does Lucienne know?”

“Nope.”

Matthew groans because now he’s going to have to go and track down Lucienne in this maze of a library that stretches on to fucking eternity, just to tell her that there’s a high chance there’s going to be a royal wedding in the nearby future, but one of the people getting married doesn’t know. And he has to tell Lucienne because Lucienne is the only one brave enough to tell Dream that he’s potentially not quite as engaged as he thought.

“Fuck my life.”

[canonmisogynyvictimstournament]

PRELIMINARY ROUND - THE LEGEND OF ZELDA - ZELDA

PROPAGANDA

Tetra (The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker)

1.) Wind Waker actually has a point with its misogyny and kinda condemns the misogyny. We first see Tetra as a helpless girl in the clutches of a giant bird monster. A pirate ship catapults a boulder at the bird, which drops Tetra on the hero's home island. We find out that young Tetra is the rough-and-tumble captain of an entire pirate crew, and the brains of the outfit. We later learn that bird monster has been kidnapping a bunch of girls to find the reincarnation of the legendary Princess Zelda. It is revealed that Tetra is the next Princess Zelda. Because she is Zelda, she transforms from a tanned pirate captain into a pale princess in a dress, and her role requires her to wait in a castle for the hero to finish his quest. Which is what she does. And the point of the story is that this is wrong! The villain is wrong, and the hero's mentor is wrong—they're both hurting children and forcing them to reenact old roles in an old story, in their selfish quest to resurrect their long-dead kingdoms. Then breaking tradition, (I believe) Wind Waker Zelda is the first Zelda to wield the sacred Light Arrows and to take up an active combat role in the final battle. The happy ending is that Zelda turns back into Tetra, and she and Link set out to forge their own future. BUT THEN. The cheap sequel Phantom Hourglass (the equivalent of a direct-to-DVD Disney movie sequel tbh) pretty much opens with Tetra being turned into a stone statue. And she's a stone statue for the ENTIRE GAME until the hero rescures her. Clear-cut sidelining of a compelling female character, smells like misogyny to me. At least Tetra's identical granddaughter was a playable co-protagonist in the next sequel, but arguably Tetra founding a new monarchal country named the same as the ancient one and then actively continuing the tradition of making Princesses Zelda undermines the conclusion of Wind Waker. Tetra possibly has the most personality and most meaningful role out of all the Zeldas, and she's far from the biggest victim of misogyny here—but still, let's remember that even Tetra deserved better than she got.

2.) Was built up as a super-cool pirate leader antihero who helped out Link. Then, as soon as it's revealed that she's that era's incarnation of Zelda, she gets magically put in the standard Princess Zelda dress (which also makes her skin lighter for Some Reason), and she ends up being sequestered in a basement for her safety until the finale, where she actually gets to do something again.

3.) Idk if anyones talked about windwakers sequel game, phantom hourglass yet so i will. Dont go into ph expecting a lot of cool pirate zelda action because shes a statue for like most of it. Shes a statue and you have to go save her.

Zelda (The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of

1.) Oh my god. Oh my goooooooood. She was like. Ok in botw (I don't know). But then in totk, they COULD have had her take a more active role, especially with her whole sage of time thing and the era she was in not having a "hero", but NO. She barely did anything, and then in the end she ended up sacrificing herself (at least turning into a dragon is new. Like I don't really have a problem with the dragon thing but man they dropped the fucking ball with everything else). Like one of the creators literally stated that Zelda HAD to be the damsel in distress (rescue her from a crystal, a castle, whatever) and yeah, they definitely continued that in totk. Please just give a mainline Zelda a sword or an active (fighting) role in the game I am BEGGING YOU. Damsels in distress aren't cool, especially when you hype them up to be super powerful!!! She fucking deleted the Calamity from existence in botw you could have done SOMETHING

2.) WHY CANT I EVER HAVE A MAINLINE ZELDA GAME AAAA

I hope someone else gives good propogands but this is specifically about Tears of the Kingdom. So before it came out, I tried to avoid anything and everything about the game so I could go in 100% blind but I did see a few images of course because internet people don’t tag or algorithms lol but the point it looked like Zelda was the protagonist or at least a swap where they’re both playable choices and you can swap between them because she and link looked so alike and I was so happy to play her and was like as much as I like link free my girl from never ending Princess saving needing and it was happening!!

It did not happen and she was again lost and felt like a repeat of the last game where I need to save her (not exactly the same but COMEON)

3.) forced to be a magic sealing princess when she wants to do science and build robots

[hauntedwizardmoment]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

PLEASE I LOVE ALL YOUR WORK SO MUCH ANYTHING YOU WANNA TALK ABOUT

HI i'm sorry this took forever but i needed to figure out what i wanted to talk about and i think im gonna expand on peregrine and jace's + porter and ghorza's whole deal in it's a three-way call and he knows nothing

my initial concept for this fic was just straight-up the one day where we did a ton of posting about starbreaker cheating on their partners with each other, and then the image of jace having an absent husband who he cheats on sprung forth fully-formed like athena from zeus' forehead.

i needed to pick somebody to be his absent husband and figure out why they were absent. i landed on an OC from blood and turpentine for his husband (peregrine is kind of my go-to Guy To Get Mad At because i made him up specifically to suck and be jace's shitty ex, so in this timeline he is jace's shitty husband). and the concept of "jace gave up an adventuring career for his relationship" because thats the kind of thing that happens a lot irl (happened to my friend who got married right out of high school actually!!) and it's smth that would definitely build a lot of resentment for my version of pre-shatterstar jace who really values his autonomy and self-determination

i also wanted to get across the feeling of "there was once a LOT of love here, but it's gone now" so i tried to figure out what were some qualities that would make jace fall in love with someone, then find ways that those qualities would evolve into something repulsive. i landed on protective and doting (he likes feeling desired! he likes feeling like someone has his back!) and turned those into patronizing and cloying (now his freedom is being restricted and he's being treated like some little purse dog).

i think something that jace really struggles with in his relationship is feeling excluded from peregrine's life; he's an adventurer, he's out on the road all the time, he's not allowed to share details of his missions with jace due to [handwavey council of chosen rules], he can't even text jace from his work phone because that's for Business Only. jace's main motivation for his affair is feeling seen and held by someone, and being part of something bigger than himself. it's why he wanted to adventure full-time after graduating, and it's why in this timeline you see him still getting set up to be part of porter's plan.

peregrine is a good fighter, he's very protective of his whole party, but he's fundamentally a very scared and insecure person. the idea of losing jace terrifies him so much that he begs him to quit his job and retire to elmville/play housewife forever. he's scared that his relationship will fall apart if he doesn't provide, so he takes any mission the council sends his way. he worries that jace will get hurt while working at aguefort so he gets him magic items (a ring and cloak of protection) and doesnt want to see him working at aguefort (he graduated from there, he knows the school's reputation). he views all of these as his noble sacrifices. and when jace doesn't show him enough appreciation for making said sacrifices, or god forbid implies that he's unsatisfied, he gets upset and throws them in his face (his job pays for the house), minimizes jace's own work (says jace 'plays around' with spell components, as if they arent part of his Literal Job as a sorcery teacher), and is generally a HUGE dick about it.

re. ghorza, she's actually a PC from a campaign i was in, played by one of my irl friends lia who has let me talk her ear off about toxic yaoi as of late. the way lia played her was as a very buff viking barbarian who is also into philosophy and poetry and has a Sensitive Side, and eventually she abandons her initial goal of conquest to help liberate the kingdom our PCs were saving. i didn't get into her and porter's relationship a ton because this fic was very jace-centric BUT i do picture her and porter as having an open relationship. she knows about jace and has been angling for a threesome, but porter correctly identified that jace would freak out at the whole "i have a wife" thing so he lies to jace about that. what she truly doesn't know about is the groundwork for porter's plan, because porter doesn't want someone equally matched with him in strength as a minion, he wants someone easier to push around, and jace fits the bill.

[skaruresonic]

Even ignoring that, Oshima doesn't write the games, nor has been in the franchise for decades. His opinions have also definitely changed as well (from being annoyed by the Harmony Calendar art by other artists overly mascotting/cutifying Sonic, to blanket "they good" now cuz fondness of all 90s)

He's a good resource for dev of stuff in the initial games and inspiration for char designs, but is generally unaware of char writing besides basic traits

Though his view on Eggman being not evil evil might be cuz Sonic 1 dev Eggman being the main villain was an afterthought. And people pressure him to prioritize remembering Sonic 1/CD dev over others

But hey, took him 30 years to forget things. I can't say the same for certain writers...

And people pressure him to prioritize remembering Sonic 1/CD dev over others

Bruh I can barely remember my mindset when making OaS and it got published only a year ago. Demanding a dev recall their initial impressions of a character they helped create 30 years ago is insane.

...Anyway, I had to go find the original quote because unfortunately, people tend to misrepresent Ohshima's statements. Can't really take anyone else's word for it.

And, uh, yeah. Like the SonAmy tweet, there's quite a bit here that I have to disagree with.

First, we have the problem of thinking that villains who aim to destroy the world are automatically worse than Eggman, who "only" wants to conquer it.

Conquest under Eggman's rule would be absolutely horrible. In some instances, I wouldn't be sure if total annihilation wouldn't be a more preferable fate.

You could argue that Eggman conquering the world would end up destroying it anyway, thus rendering the comparison moot. But since that gives ground to the idea that instant destruction is worse than subjugation which results in destruction over time, I'm not going to lean too hard into it. Destruction is destruction.

The underlying assumption weakens even more when you consider the fact that not every non-Eggman villain wants to destroy the world in the first place.

Fueled by pain and rage, Chaos massacred the Knuckles clan. Regardless, it didn't destroy the entire clan, never mind the world.

Neo Metal wanted to build a robot kingdom. Not a far cry from his creator's aims.

Black Doom wanted to turn humanity into fuel and a food source. To which I must say, how is that qualitatively any different than Eggman turning animals into robot batteries?

---

Second, "Eggman protects the world" as part of his own self-interests when necessity demands. Yeah, obviously there's going to be nothing to rule if he allows the world to be destroyed and he doesn't want that. But he's not going out of his way to "protect" the world unless he has a personal stake in it and there's no other alternative. At which point, he can only be said to be pragmatic at best.

He's not doing it because he thinks he can outperform Mother Nature. I feel like Ohshima is taking Eggman's god complex too literally and thinking Eggman feels he can replace nature. Science is the means, not the objective:

He doesn't really want to replace anything; he wants to conquer and have all bend to his will, and he doesn't care if things fall into disrepair.

If he was interested in supplanting nature with his own version, why is everything falling apart in CD's Bad Futures? Where are the forests full of mechanized trees? Why are the waters polluted and not replaced with Mega Mack? This argument would imply that Eggman is also responsible for the beneficial technology seen in CD's Good Futures, and that's just backwards.

Just because he wants to slap his face on every available surface doesn't mean he has some pseudo-philosophical reason for doing so.

---

"Humans are enemies for animals."

Mr. Ohshima, I respect you, but no. Not every culture believes this. Mine doesn't. Humans have the potential to be harmful or helpful, but we are not inherently one or the other.

I think maybe what he meant to say here is that humanity's greed is the driving force behind environmental destruction, which would be a valid take in keeping with the series' overall message. Eggman does represent industry, humanity's potential for great scientific achievement and for great harm.

"Eggman wants to make the world beautiful with science and technology."

Source? No seriously, source?

This might be hair-splitting to the Nth degree, but the sense I get from this particular bit is that Eggman finds science inherently beautiful and seeks to enhance the world with it, rather than finding his own creations beautiful out of a sense of ego.

---

"He is not evil in Sonic Adventure" does not mean Ohshima is necessarily saying Eggman isn't evil in other games. And even then, it's a bit of a stretch to say he isn't evil in Adventure.

Not sure why Ohshima is bringing up SA1 as if it's particularly relevant... Although I'm vaguely reminded of a manual entry that describes Eggman as possessing no real sense of right or wrong, so he may be remembering that.

The problem with Mr. Ohshima's statements is that they are not corroborated by what the games show us. Every time Eggman has displayed remorse, it was part of a ruse - which would imply that he needs to know what contrition looks like in order to imitate it. He wouldn't brutally mock Emerl's mercy as a sign of weakness if he didn't understand it. He's not lacking in comprehension; he's actively rejecting the concept. There's a difference.

Also, this interpretation inadvertently paints Sonic in a darker light than intended given his callous disregard of Eggman, and I don't think Ohshima realizes it.

It's significant that Sonic has never looked at the camera and lamented: "Alas, poor Eggman, he knows not the error of his ways." In fact, it'd be pretty fucked-up if he thought Eggman was simply walking down a bad path, and still chose to leave him behind in explosions and ignored the guy's pleas for rescue/mercy.

The games make it clear that Eggman knows what he's doing and he just doesn't care. He calls himself "evil" in Sonic Battle. He absolutely is capable of distinguishing right from wrong, and it borders on discrediting his intelligence to imply otherwise.

Eggman has a 300 IQ and is capable of self-reflection, if we're buying the whole "muh humanizing moments" bullshit SA2 and Frontiers are selling us. It therefore strips him of his agency and infantilizes him to insist that he knows no better, even in this roundabout "oh, he's only misguided" kind of way.

Shadow was misguided in SA2. We can argue about whether he heel-face turned too quickly, but the point remains that he eventually came around.

Eggman's actions, on the other hand, have proven that even if he is misguided, he's too entrenched in his goals to consider turning the car around. So there's no real point in emphasizing the "misguided" part.

You can't have your cake and eat it too. You can't say "Eggman's finally becoming A Real Human Being(tm) through self-reflection" in one breath and "he just doesn't know right from wrong" in the next. Those two ideas are incompatible. Either Eggman knows that what he does is wrong or he doesn't. And considering how he was able to recognize his grandfather's greatness as a child, my bets are on the former.

[theroundbartable]

If you don't mind me asking, can I ask your top favorite fics that you've written (feel free how much that you want to list)? Why they're special to you? Is there a specific inspiration when you wrote them?

Ooooooh, that is a very good question.

On my ao3 count, I currently have 125 published works. 3 of them are works in progress, one of them is discontinued. (I have a rather good publish - actually finishing ratio.)

I'm gonna list a few but in no particular order. It's just my personal highlights. For a full fic list, you can find my stories on ao3, aka, HERE.

No... just no (Merthur)

For some reason, out of all of my fics, this one is the most popular (so far). The idea was that Merlin is caught doing magic and just thinks: Lol, I'm Emrys, whatcha gonna do? kill me? I'm immortal, lmao. The inspiration was that I just wanted Merlin to carry on with his life when Uther tries to kill him and fails every time.

Connecting the dots (Merthur)

While this one doesn't have the best world building, it was definitely the most fun to write. The brainstorming had me laughing at work like an insane mad man. I loved working on this one, it made me very happy. The premise is that the knights make up stories to explain the strange things that happen in Camelot. It's a game, like D&D and they accidentally end up being right. Somehow I turned Gwaine into a god and the whole D&D game into a religion were people get babtized when you put them in the stocks. It makes no sense but it's so absurd that it's funny again XD

Chosen (Merthur)

This one is depressing but it marks a certain change in my writing style. When I wrote this, or rather, AFTER I wrote this, I swore to myself to only ever write happy endings again. This one really hurts, so I wouldn't advise to read it ;)

I realised how my writing influences my own mood and what I needed to do to keep myself happy. And that making myself happy is a good thing!

Clockroom (Merthur)

This is my oldest ongoing project that requires an enormous amount of work. Because of historical research, working with literal transcripts of the episodes, and because it's timetravel and time travel is IMPOSSIBLE to write... at least well... at this length.

Reversed (Merthur)

The premise is that everyone knows Merlin has magic - except Merlin. Before I wrote this, I actually had writers block, so I told myself: You always think backwards. How can you make BBC Merlin backwards? This was the result.

And I really think that this is one of the best fics I've ever written. Merlin's stubbornness and the way magic works in this fic have really influenced later one shots, but this one is very special to me because it wasn't meant to turn out as deep as it has.

The magic realm (Merthur)

Likely my best world buidling concept, challenged only by Dragon island. Well except for Incarnation but that's a novel I'm working on, not a fic. The idea is that the day Merlin loses his magic, Arthur is ready to turn to magic for help. Gaius sends them into the magic realm to learn magic there. Only that Merlin IS magic and so everything in there is connected to him in some way. I loved how the characters turned out and how magic is seen, depending on who is looking at them.

Mirror of truth (Merthur)

This one was an accident, really. Originally, Merlin was meant to be Camelot's champion, but then I thought about borders and how would the mirror know how to show Merlin and I got so deep into it that I eventually realised that Merlin couldn't be Camelot's champion at all. It was mind blowing. As I believe it is to you when you read the summary:

Every ten years or so a tournament is held between all the five kingdoms. In which one (strongest of the kingdom) sorcerer is chosen as a representative of their king/queen/crown bearer. The monarchs, however, do not choose the sorcerer for themselves, which Arthur is thankful for, since magic is still banned in Camelot. Instead, they are chosen by the mirror of truth. It shows the face of the strongest sorcerer in said lands, so Arthur can reach out to them. When the mirror finally chooses the participants, Camelot's champion is......... well i mean, who is the strongest magic user in Camelot? Exactly! It's Morgana. After all, Merlin was born in Cendred's kingdom.

8. The eternal suffering (Leon & George)

This one is special because it's not about Merthur. This is a fic that marks me as one of the two first people within this fandom who wrote Leon & (servant) George fanfics. And I am very proud to have coinvented this ship (although I'm more inclined towards them being entirely platonic). The idea was that I saw many parallels between Leon's and George's character and started imagining them complaining about their jobs to each other.

9. Everything I do, I do for you. (Merthur)

This one isn't even good. The reason this one is dear to me, is because of how much honesty and truth I put into these words. It was inspired by real life and I should warn you before you read it. It's a bit heavy. This one and Regent have the same/ similar orgigins and themes and may be the most painful for me personally to revisit.

10. Haunted (Merthur)

The ghost!Arthur Au no one asked for. It switches between funny moments and heartbreaking pasts and I think it's one of my better paced and thought through fics.

I just often keep wondering what Arthur does in Avalon and then I sometimes wonder, what if he didn't go there at all?

11. Free Delivery (Merthur)

This one is definitely one of my better thought through fics. I made notes and everything! Haha XD This one was inspired by DIrty Laundry, THE Klance fanfiction. I was rereading it and it somehow - I dunno - developed into this fic.

12. The Joker (Klance)

I can't believe how old this one is. Personally, I liked Alternative realities better, but people keep commenting on this one more. And well... comments inspire. That's why I've started a new fic in the godforsaken year of 2024. The Joker was just me mary sueing Lance. Because why not?

13. Second Chances (Drarry)

So far, this is my only Drarry fic and it is the LONGEST fic I've ever written. Including the clockroom. This one has been 2 years in the making and over 300 pages and I am TIRED. Anyways, I hope I'll be able to finish this one eventually. Otherwise my gf will kill me, I'm afraid XD

The idea is that Draco is a therapist, because I love psychoanalysing him and I wondered what he would do with himself after the war. I also tend to write time travel on accident, so that happened too. This was once supposed to be a one shot. Can you believe it?

I think 13 is a good hill to die on. Thank you for the ask, anon ^^

[slime-sandwhich-nom]

Back in this fandom for the fourth time, will be giving headcanons.

> The snatcher wasn't always evil, he was once a very sweet guy. And i don't mean the prince, even as a ghost, he was once a very sweet guy! It's after eating souls and actually participating in the "monster" role that he found out he had a particular liking to bring suffering to others.

> Deep down, he still loves vanessa. The sweet, caring and beautiful Vanessa that somehow got replaced by that possessive monster roams around the manor now. He just can't look at the current one and say "yeah, that's my girlfriend" no, it's not. It's vanessa. Not his princess. That's the queen.

He's hurt by her, very hurt. But he wants to be his prince again, well, he wants to be his princess's prince again.

> the snatcher is chaotic neutral. He's that type of guy who never actually goes a certain direction, he only does whatever HE wants and whatever will grant him the advantage. He's here for the DRAMA. but he doesn't wanna be involved in it. He wants to watch it.

He can be both good and bad, as long as he gets entertainment in return.

> the snatcher is aware that he's in a game, hat kid isn't. Whenever he talks about "icons" or regular stuff that appears in games (example: "all of the minions who are awaiting mail, will have an icon above them, once you're done, come back here, and "clock out", get it?") hat kid is always left confused, but always knows what to do for some reason.

the snatcher also knows about memes. He knows about Twitter and everything, and will joke about it, despite hat kid not getting it.

> The snatcher always joins whatever hat kid is doing, why? It's fun. He always goes around as another hat kid because it's easier to move, since he's not a big noodle.

> Since he was a kid, the snatcher was always a bit mischievous, a little silly, if you will.

> Vanessa wasn't always an obsessive and possessive person, which made her turn into the monster she was now, it somehow..was her mother passing that struck a nerve. She was a good person once.

> snatcher dosen't really hate his minions. He acts like a goofy villain who has these little guys helping him and always tells them his secrets and plans, and they enjoy it!

> Snatcher eats the souls, the minions take the goods and throw the bodies in the swamp.

> Snatcher is literally those sassy Disney villains

> both Vanessa and the prince had powers. Ice and fire. Both had to keep their cool to keep it under control, which wasn't too hard, but even a snap could lead to at least one room frozen. Or worse.

Vanessa usually had her feet frozen and ice spreading slowly the more she got angry, but the prince? (aside from hardly ever showing anger, he was the literal definition of joy.) He would get on fire like hades does in the Disney movie.

It never hurt the two royalties, the ice never gave Vanessa any sides effects or the fire ever hurt the prince, but if it got out of hand, it could corrupt them.

> Somehow only royalty (by blood) could reach power such as magic (ice, fire and all), so they had several lessons to keep it under control. It's a little special thing that only these specific people had, no one else did.

> The prince had the habit, and still does, to brush aggressively his hair with his hands until he would accidentally rip his own hair whenever he was stressed or upset. Bad habit.

> Vanessa instead always touched her hands a lot and fidgeted, or paced whenever she was alone.

> the snatcher always had that booming laugh of his.

> The snatcher can sing. (Reference to his VA)

> the snatcher is Italian, Vanessa is German. Subcon is somewhere in Europe, specifically in Germany (the prince comes from a kingdom in Italy, but he started living in Germany with Vanessa in subcon)

The conductor is Scottish.

Mustache girl is British (meaning the land mafia town, is in England, but the mafia is not British.yet. I gotta decide.)

[Need to figure out the others]

P.S. technically speaking, all the characters are from different places, so they don't really speak the same language or English (aka: the prince and Vanessa technically would speak German (and Italian, for the prince)) aside from who is from England, Canada, the united states ect. But for the sake of everyone (to understand what they are saying) the game is in English and everything will be said in English.

plus everyone at least KNOWS some English, to communicate with everyone around the world, so everyone (when they figured out that hat kid didn't understood them) kinda spoke English to hat kid. Helped a little because everyone spoke the same thing, but as an alien she had to force herself to understand.

> the snatcher has always greeted people with a "why hello there!", Rather loud too, but in a cheerful manner, rather than the current one.

> the snatcher didn't have a big scary change or transformation, he just can shapeshift, and thought the form he uses in the game is scary (it's not. It's rather cute in my opinion.)

> The prince has the little habit of always standing and stare at Vanessa from behind whenever she would brush her teeth or hair before bed, and always gave her a little scare by just letting her realize that there's someone behind her by looking at the mirror. He enjoyed doing this a lot and always gave a few small chuckles without waking up the entire subcon with his loud laughter.

And as much of a scare Vanessa would get, she would laugh along.

> since the prince didn't spoke German, and only communicated in English, he was a silent character for quite a while. Once he actually started speaking some German thanks to Vanessa, he started speaking more. He was always the talkative type, he just couldn't be understood.

> the snatcher has a bush cat as a pet. Y'know, those little cats with a bush as their bodies? Yeah that.

He treats it like this

But he loves the little feline.

[nkirukaj]

I Want You, Simon- Chapter 6

Yo, I love Simon so much. He's literally my hyperfixation right now lol. I really hope I'm doing him justice! To the small number of people who read this story, thank you! :)

Pairing: Simon Petrikov x Fem! OC

Warnings: implied sexual feelings

Genre: Angst and Fluff and Sexuality

Word Count: 1.7K

Link to Chapter 5

The brightening lights and the screaming crowd meant nothing to him at this moment. All he could do was stare at the woman on stage and wonder how he could have been so blind. 

“Sami,” he spoke again, this time in a more assured tone. Samira was Sami. He couldn’t exactly wrap his head around it, maybe that was why it had taken him so long to be able to figure it out. Had he even figured it out? If this was true, she basically had to tell him through song. But how could Samira be Sami? They were so different. Or were they? Well Samira was into music while Sami was into books. Samira was cool singer and Sami was a cute nerd. Sami wore her hair up but Samira wore it down. It couldn't be, it was impossible. Simon continued to stand in place as Samira exited the stage. She walks over to a corner where there are some people waiting to speak with her. She is in deep conversation as he takes some unconscious steps toward her, and while she spoke, she took a glance over toward him. Simon turned to hide his face, suddenly a bit embarrassed to be there, but obviously he didn’t turn fast enough, because within a few seconds he felt a tap on his arm.

“Hey!”

He turns back around to face her “Hey. You were amazing up there. These are for you,” he hands her the flowers, she takes them.

“Thank you! No one has ever brought me flowers before,” She looks a little confused but appreciative.

“No problem…Sami,” he leans forward a bit, expectantly

She looks up without moving her face; smirking 

“When did you figure it out?” she picks at the flowers

“Tonight,” he blushes “Your song. It was beautiful. It was something Sami- well, you said to me a bit back.”

“Oh, well now I know that you listen to me when I speak.”

He looks a bit shocked “Of course. I always listen to you. I love to hear you.” He may have spoken a bit too much, but Samira’s eyes brightened as she looked up at him. But just as quick as it came, it turned into a disgusted look.

“What is that smell? Is that you?” She leans forward and sniffs him “Oh my glob, it IS you! Why do you smell like that?”

“Uh, new cologne. It’s um Grape Honey Dandelion,”

“Oh my glob, where did you get that from, the clothing kingdom?”

“Um, yes actually”

“Dear glob, don’t ever do that again” she laughs and covers her nose “Did you wear that for me?”

“Um no….? Yes.”

“Well thank you, that’s flattering, but stick to your usual scent. That one smells amazing”

“Really?”

She nods “That’s how I know when you enter a room,”

He turns red at her attention to detail “But thank you for coming. It really means a lot to me.”

“Of course, I’d come every week to see you.”

“Well, you don’t have to wait until Thursdays to see me,” she winks at him, holding the flowers up to her face.

“You’re right. Maybe we could spend some time together outside of here and the library?”

Samira widens her eyes with surprise “Are you asking me out?”

“Yeah...to hang out. As friends” He felt like slapping his own forehead the moment the words passed his lips.

Samira’s face dropped a bit, but was instantly back up to normal

“Um, okay! We can definitely do that! Just tell me when. You can text me!”

She pats herself down, then turns to address a Candy Person, they give her a marker. She turns back to SImon “Roll up your sleeve,”

“I can’t roll up my sleeve in this suit,” he chuckles, knowing that he sounds ridiculous.

“Yeah you can. See?” She grabbed his arm and meticulously folding the sleeve back to reveal his forearm. 

Simon is immediately made aware of the scar from the wound he got on his “adventure” with Finn, who was trying-in a very wrong way- to make him feel better. He’s filled with self-consciousness and certainty that Samira would say something about it, but all she did was regard it by rubbing her thumb over the it, then write her phone number on top of it, as well as her name, as if she was signing her name on the dotted line of a document.

“Call it an autograph. Take a picture of it.” she gives him a coy look “But yeah, use that to text me. Or call me or whatever”

He traces his finger over the scar “Yes, absolutely.”

“Okay. Well..bye” Samira twirled the marker between her fingers before giving him a small wave before departing, taking the flowers-and the marker-with her.

Simon kept unconsciously rubbing his scar and staring off at nothing. He was unaware of what he was thinking about, but he did know that he wanted to get rid of this awful smell.

After getting home, Simon copied down Samira’s phone number on a piece of paper. While preparing to shower off the cologne, he thought about what Samira had said about th writing on his arm being like an autograph. Once he removed his shirt, he took out his phone and decided to follow her advice and take a picture. He decided that this was something he wanted to remember. 

After his shower, he sat down on his bed, glad to be free of the smell. Staring off into the distance had recently become a new hobby of his. When he snapped back into reality, he found himself once again rubbing the scar that he had not noticed once until tonight. He didn’t know why, but he couldn’t stop doing it. While grazing it, he thought back to Samira’s touch on his scar. The care she took rolling up his sleeve, how she didn’t make any comment upon seeing the scar, and how she didn’t pretend like it wasn’t there, but instead made him feel like it was some interesting part of him to be recognized. Her soft hands and fingers trailing over it.

No, this was him making a big deal over nothing, he was sure of it. Time to do something actually productive. He should start by getting dressed. Then proceed to do some late night reading to take his mind off of his complicated feelings. Laying in his bed, cracking open the first book that came to his mind, he bagan reading and very quickly realized that this was one of the books he had borrowed from the library almost a week prior. In fact, this was a book that he had sat and read with Sami,-well Samira. He wondered if he was still allowed to call her that.

Enough about that. He was reading. That is what he was doing, not daydreaming or thinking about other things. Reading. 

But turning the pages, he was hit with a smell of strawberries, but not pure strawberries, more like processed ones. Kind of like something strawberry flavored. This was how Sami smelled to him. He laughed to himself thinking how silly it was that his brain had taken the time to identify the scent so specifically, and how quickly he was able to relate it back to her, but waved it off because he was certain that the scent would fade within a page or two.

But it did not.

In fact, her scent seemed to be all over this book, and before long he found himself turning the pages only to get another hit of the smell. And now he was outright sniffing the book. The smell filled his head with memories. Such as the first time he watched her perform, the way she was able to yield complete control over her body, hearing her sing, and hearing her speak, like the day they were both at Marceline’s house, tonight when she smelled the flowers he gave her, and mostly all the days and afternoons they had spent reading to each other. In particular this one specific moment when he was reading and she sat next to him on the floor and leaned over so she would be able to read the texts as well. That was the moment he had caught on to her scent. It was also the moment he had first seen her face up close. She was beautiful from afar of course, but up close, it was like you could see her personality, right there on her face. It was as though she put it all out in the open, and she wasn’t scared of anything. The more he thought of her smell, her body, and her face, the redder his face became, and the tighter his pants became. He couldn’t stop himself from sniffing the one thing he had that she had touched. He wondered for a moment and then put his arm up for him to smell as well. He’d had a shower, but his arm smelled like her as well. Sooner or later he felt ridiculous. What was he doing? Smelling himself and his books like a crazy person! 

“I am reading,” he thought speaking to himself aloud would help ground his thoughts

But when he opened the book once more, the smell of candy strawberries hit him again and turned his face beet red and his pants ultra tight.

“Alright that’s enough reading for tonight,” Simon slams the book closed, removes his glasses and lies down under his cover, staring up at the ceiling, having nothing to distract him, he quickly felt a heavy underlying guilt. 

He had asked Samira to ‘hang out’, not knowing where it might lead, or if he’s even ready for what he’s about to jump into. He couldn’t do that to her, it wouldn’t be right. It’s not fair to her.

That’s what he told himself lying in bed that night because he did not want to admit to himself that his guilt was more about the fact that he hadn’t felt like this for anyone, since Betty. And by having these thoughts about another woman, he knew for certain, he was betraying her.

[bahbahhh]

Sorry I know I just sent an ask but I'm sending another one. Because that's how crazy you've got me about the depths now.

Like so many things in totk, I feel like the depths were, narratively speaking, underutilized and underdeveloped. Botw initially did a great job imo of setting up and giving a LOT of story and background without having to say very much. Whereas I feel like totk just totally missed that mark in a lot of ways. Because of that, I was a bit disappointed by them when I played the game.

But your story now has me so excited about what they could have represented, what could have been explored within them. I'm very very VERY excited to see the direction you take this, and I can't wait to learn more about the shadow temple, etc. 👀 and what that might mean for what/who link encounters in this story.

A big part of this definitely has to be attributed to your story telling ability. I am HOOKED on this concept in a way that the game itself fell depressingly short of. The intrigue you've created alone is already incredible, and it leaves me very interested in whatever direction you take it.

Please don’t apologize!! Ever! Haha this is one of my favorite things about writing fanfiction!

Hit the nail on the head with my main issue with the depths in TotK and why I am so fixated on it—there was so much potential. Personally, I wish the game was split with Link exploring the sky and Zelda in the depths and they were kind of helping each other solve the main problem(s) on the surface like one giant kingdom of hyrule dungeon/puzzle…

OR, they could have really played into the horror elements. There is a killer comic on tumblr of Link’s lost limb turning into shadow link in the depths. I feel like that would have been insane— just stalking you whenever you go down there. Or even puppet Zelda. She could have literally TOYED with Link in the darkness.

I’m holding few other thoughts/ideas close to my chest because I used them in the depths story but yes, it had so much potential and just fell flat.

[fashion-foxy]

Ok, Descendants fans, genuine question: Arent a majority of cast useless and could just be Ben and Harry with little to no change in the story? (I'm using them because that scene with Ben kidnapped on the boat and Harry fucking with him was peak dynamic. ) Like :

Mal : Leader of original VK group, sarcastic, and insecure,and acts as Isle figurehead; being the 'bad' and more negative to Ben's more positive and 'good'. Ben is ~16, and his parents are very closed-minded and see in blank and white. Ben being that young and having no one around him who shares his view of the world would (in my opinion make him relatively insecure). I don't think I really have to explain Harry fitting sarcastic. Harry could just as easily fit into being a figurehead to the Isle. I think he embodies the Isle a bit more because he has a much more free spirited personality and demonstrates a lot more how being on the Isle is "every man for himself"

Evie : Optimistic, friendly, smart business minded. Ben is, tying back in with the last statement, a very positive person. He will always see the good the good in everyone and everything and because of this he's a very friendly guy. The 'smart business mind' can totally also factor into running a kingdom. Considering every possibility and factoring what that would mean for you and your people.

Jay : Charming, Kleptomanic tendencies (it's a personality trait in the sims 4, I genuinely couldn't think of anything that wasn't already covered by 'charming') Harry has a scene where he flirts with 4 women in ~1 minute. He also has 'was in a situationship that ended horribly, and neither of them want to admit it ended or even happened' energy with everyone. He is like the definition of charming. I don't have to really explain Kleptomanic tendencies, but I think it also builds the 'knows what it takes to survive on the Isle' that I think would bring a lot more to the table than when Mal said that they should close the barrier for good and BEN (someone who has no reason to care about the Isle and only does because he genuinely wants to do the best thing for the people) was the one who advocates for the Isle. Harry would never turn his back on the Isle like that.

Carlos : quick-witted, and awkward has this played for laughs a couple times(I may be misinterpreting the situation because Dude being comic relief is not funny at all to me but I assume most things he says are supposed to be humorous) (Sidenote : Rest in peace Cameron Boyce.) This one isn't even really specific to Harry because basically all of the VK's and quick-witted and very good at thinking on their feet. (Growing up on the Isle will do that to a motherfucker) but I think Harry is probably the best at it. I mean, just take the exchange where he says that there's 20 minutes left to noon, and Ben corrects him. He doesn't get hostile he takes the situation and makes it into a joke and like it's part of him messing with Ben. Obviously the awkwardness is something that Ben possesses. The man is the human embodiment of a hurt puppy. If he's trying to be nice and friendly with someone and they are rude or ignore him, he just freezes. He's got nowhere to take the conversation, so he awkwardly laughs and walks away.

Uma : Pirate gang leader. I think that she and Mal have very similar personalities, and a lot of these points are going to be building on my talking points with Mal but I will bring up that Uma is a lot more stubborn and vengeful than Mal is/was. Harry and Ben aren't exactly that stubborn. What I would say is that if anything, Harry is more self-assured, and Ben just has very strong views of the world that he won't compromise on.

Gil : The most friendly dude, caring, little dumb sometimes, but he means well. Gil literally is just the Isle equivalent to Ben, in my opinion. Like they just share most of their traits.

So, how grossly did I oversimplify them? Are there more strong character moments in the book? What am I missing here?

[keldjinfae]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers! Spread the self-love 💞

Okay, so first off, thanks to @dear-massacre for this one. I got to filter through a lot of things I wrote for other fandoms besides Teen Wolf, and while I won't be sharing them (purely because most of them fell victim to the Great Strikethrough Purge, and the "clean" versions I have up on the Pit that is fanfiction.net are... frankly, things I would delete if I could remember what the hell my log-in is), I did remember one I co-wrote with a friend of mine over a decade ago. And neither of us remembers how to log into that old account we created solely for the purpose of writing something together (let me just say, AO3 allowing for co-creators is a fucking godsend), so the link for that one will have to direct you there instead of AO3. I may be able to update this with an AO3 link, provided @caseyvalhalla (said cowriter) is able to find a full version of the fic in their backup drive (which would be outstanding, seeing as how my copy of the fic was lost at some point about three or four PCs/laptops ago).

I also left WIPs out of this list because I feel like that might be too cruel of a tease, seeing as how I haven't updated them since about 2011.

Freaks and Fools is a Halloween-themed fic that Casey and I brainstormed together in about two hours after the initial joke of mashing up Kingdom Hearts and Peanuts. One of us said "Axel is Snoopy, sleeping out on the lawn," and it suddenly turned into him also being Johnny from The Outsiders; what followed was a feverish brainstorming session of determining the perfect way to balance drama and humor. Then we wrote and edited the whole damn thing over the course of three coffee-laden weekends.

I'm Not Asking Questions, I'm Taking My Chances is the first fic I wrote for the Sterek Reverse Bang. I'd previously written a fic for the Sterek Reverse Quickie, and it was my very first Teen Wolf fic, period, while I fucked around and found out if I'd be able to write for the fandom. Turns out, I could. The minimum word count for the RB was 5k, so naturally I wrote something up in the 80k range because I have zero chill.

It's a fantasy AU that very loosely (seriously, so loose that you definitely don't want to be relying on this fic to catch you in a trustfall exercise) incorporates themes from the Merlin series. Writing it helped teach me how to better plan out scenes, in terms of "do I really need to write out this whole scene independently or could I just incorporate it briefly into this already-existing one?" It also gave me better practice at determining when I was going to have to let scenes go altogether, maybe with the notion that I might write them someday and add them on later.

You Gotta Promise Not to Stop When I Say When is a fic I wrote for the Sterek Reverse Quickie, during which I was paired up with the same artist who I'd written for during my very first RQ. She wanted comfort, made a moodboard about it (sadly, Discord stopped image hosting so the links to all of her previous artwork are all broken), and I decided I wanted to write comfort as well. I gave her two choices (Derek takes Stiles's pain, or Stiles is a vampire sharing a house with Derek, and both of them accuse the other of being a squatter--it's a long, stupid story that has gone off the rails in a meme prompt thread on Discord), and went with the one that both of us could sink into.

This one is probably my absolute favorite because I literally just wrote what I know. Stiles is disabled, Derek helps him cope with it. I can't really sell it any better than that, other than to say that I wrote my own personal experiences, but Sterekified.

We're Floating in the Moonlit Sky is a Sterek fic I wrote for a little something called the 1000 Cakes Challenge, which provided the writer and artist participants with a word, an action, and a setting, and had us all spin our own take on them. The word was "kumquat," the action was "pursuit" or "sleepwalk" (I incorporated both--again, zero chill), and the setting was a gorgeous painting of a snowy forest that one of the moderators made herself just for the challenge. Initially, I wasn't even going to participate because I'd literally just finished writing my latest Sterek RB fic and thought I was burned out. Then an idea smacked me in the face right as I was falling asleep.

I love this one because it's more or less just me allowing myself some pure self-indulgence. There's some angst, there's some drama, but most of it is just seeing how many Christmas carol references I can squeeze in as puns. Stiles is half-elf and half-frost sprite, Derek is still a werewolf, Peter is Krampus (thanks to @ice-mage, because "of course Peter is Krampus"), and Noah is Santa Claus.

My Echo, My Shadow, and Me is the Sterek Reverse Bang fic I wrote before I got started on Floating. I somehow managed to write 100k+ words in a bit under four months, and satisfied my desire to write a season 3a "fix-it" (of sorts--more like a revision) in the process. I don't know if the experience would be the same for @nerdherderette, who wound up beta-reading "the Beast in Blue" in the course of about 20 hours, but it was damn satisfying to write.

Essentially, all of season 3a still happens, but Jackson never leaves and Cora never arrives. I wanted to explore everyone's strengths and flaws, and I wanted to write an alternate take on the nogitsune without having to rewrite 3b as well.

[kazscrows]

Crooked Kingdom Reread

Chapter 6: Nina

Nina couldn’t stop staring at Colm Fahey…

Nina describes Colm as having “salt-white skin”

Just how pale is this man??

Also I forgot he’s covered in freckles, but duh?? He’s a pale red head of course he has freckles

Side note: You know who else probably gets freckles? A certain pasty bastard of the Barrel—

…though his eyes were the same clear gray as Jesper’s, they had a seriousness to them, a kind of sure warmth that differed from Jesper’s crackling energy.

It wasn’t only the pleasure of trying to find Jesper in his father’s features that kept Nina’s attention focused on the farmer. There was just something so strange about seeing a person that wholesome standing in the stone hull of an empty mausoleum surrounded by Ketterdam’s worst—herself among them.

Colm Fahey too pure for this world Ketterdam

Also Nina is using a horse blanket to stay warm?? Kinda odd

Come on Kaz steal better blankets- I know you can

Reading about Nina’s battle with jurda parem withdrawals is just really heart wrenching

It messes with her mind. She has thoughts she’d never have. Does things she wouldn’t normally do

She knows Matthias either has the parem or got rid of it and the thought literally makes her violently ill and then she “wept in jags of unsteady tears”

“You’re all a bunch of useless skivs,” she’d said to the silent graves. They didn’t seem to care. And yet somehow the stillness of Black Veil comforted her, quieted her. She couldn’t explain why. The places of the dead had never held solace for her before.

Ohh?? Foreshadowing to her powers changing!!

This is what’s fun about rereads

You notice those details you didn’t the first time

It was the first time she’d tried to use her power since her recovery. She’d broken into a sweat from the effort, and as soon as the bruised color faded, the hunger for parem hit, a swift, hard kick to her chest. She’d bent double, clutching the sink, her mind filled with breakneck thoughts of how she could get away, who might have a supply, what she could trade. She’d forced herself to think of the shame on the boat, the future she might be able to make with Matthias, but the thought that had brought her back to sanity was Inej. She owed Inej her life, and there was no way she was leaving her stranded with Van Eck.

There’s something so beautiful about how every single crow cares for Inej so deeply

They’d all do anything for her

Inej is definitely the glue of their crew and I know she cares for them all equally in return

After the Smeet job Nina searches Matthias for the parem…

I remember my heart squeezing when I read this my first time

Fatigue came on suddenly, a yoke at her neck, the exhaustion at least tempering her frantic need. She rested her forehead against Matthias chest. “I hate this,” she said. “I hate you a little, drüskelle.”

“I’m used to it. Come here.” He’d wrapped his arms around her and gotten her talking about Ravka, about Inej. He’d distracted her with stories, named the winds that blew across Fjerda, told her of his first meal in the drüskelle hall…

I love how Matthias is there for her though

He’s not abandoning her in this struggle even when she gets ugly with him

He knows it’s not really her and he’s going to fight this with her

Back to the present though and that means Colm Fahey

Kaz simply leaned on his cane and said, “Were you followed?”

“No,” Jesper replied with a decisive shake of his head.

“Wylan?”

Colm bristled. “You doubt my son’s word?”

Colm is still standing up for Jesper even after everything that’s happened 🥹

Like he’s still mad at Jesper and rightly so

But the theme of this chapter seems to be not abandoning those you love and I love that

He turned to his son. “I wrote to you, Jes.” His voice was confused, not accusing.

“I … I haven’t been able to collect mail.” After Jesper had stopped attending university, had he still managed to receive letters there?

Nina wondered how he’d maintained this ruse for so long. It would have been made easier by the fact that Colm was an ocean away—and by his desire to believe in his son. An easy mark, Nina thought sadly. No matter his reasons, Jesper had been conning his own father.

I’m right there with Nina on this one

It is sad…

Colm threw down the lump of felt that had been his hat. “I don’t understand any of this. Why would you bring me to this horrible place? Why were we shot at? What has become of your studies? What has become of you?”

Jesper opened his mouth, closed it. “Da, I … I—”

“It was my fault,” Wylan blurted. Every eye turned to him. “He uh … he was concerned about the bank loan, so he put his studies on hold to work with a…”

“Local gunsmith,” Nina offered.

“Nina,” Matthias rumbled warningly.

“He needs our help,” she whispered.

“To lie to his father?”

“It’s a fib. Totally different.”

Wylan and Nina are so quick to jump in and try to help Jesper

Boy are they struggling though

But this is what gets me every time:

“They were swindled,” Kaz said. His voice was as cold and steady as ever, but he held himself stiffly, as if walking over uncertain ground. “They were offered a business opportunity that seemed too good to be true.”

Colm slumped into a chair. “If it seems that way, then—”

“It probably is,” said Kaz. Nina had the strangest sense that for once he was being sincere.

He’s talking about Jordie right here

Him and Jordie

He is being completely sincere

This is his genuine story and he’s laying it out for all to see for Jesper

He doesn’t actually say a lot and no one knows that he’s speaking from real experience but…

From Kaz this feels so... raw-

This shows me his love for Jesper, his closest friend… his brother—

“You barely look old enough to graduate.”

“Ketterdam was my education. And I can tell you this: Jesper never would have turned to me for help if he’d had anywhere else to go.”

“You can’t be so bad, boy,” said Colm gruffly. “You haven’t been alive long enough to rack up your share of sin.”

“I’m a quick study.”

Oh poor Mr. Fahey he has no idea

“Can I trust you?”

“No.”

Colm took up his crumpled hat again. “Can I trust you to help Jesper through this?”

“Yes.”

Kaz cares Kaz cares Kaz cares Kaz ca—

Colm sighed. He looked around at all of them. Nina found herself standing up straighter. “You lot make me feel very old.”

“Spend a little more time in Ketterdam,” said Kaz. “You’ll feel ancient.” Then he tilted his head to one side and Nina saw that distant, considering look cross his features. “You have an honest face, Mister Fahey.”

Colm shot Jesper a puzzled glance. “Well. I should hope so, and thank you for marking it.”

“It’s not a compliment,” said Jesper. “And I know that look, Kaz. Don’t you dare start those wheels spinning.”

Kaz’s only response was a slow blink. Whatever scheme had been set in motion in his diabolical brain, it was too late to stop it now.

Scheming Face™️

A dangerous thing to be on the wrong end of 🤣

The urge to comment on every single line—

But then these posts would be a mile long!

“Mister Fahey,” Kaz said quietly. “You know what they say about walking in a cow pasture?”

Jesper’s brows shot up, and Nina had to stifle a nervous laugh. What did the bastard of the Barrel know about cow pastures?

Oh a whole lot more than you would think

Nina felt a sudden lump in her throat. Matthias had lost his family to war. Nina had been taken from her family to train when she was just a little girl. Wylan had been as good as evicted from his father’s house. Kuwei had lost his father and his country. And Kaz? She didn’t want to know what dark alley Kaz had crawled out of. But Jesper had somewhere to go, someone to take care of him, somebody to say, It’s going to be all right…

…She wished Jesper’s father could take them all with him. She’d never been to Novyi Zem, but the longing for those golden fields felt just like homesickness. Silly, she told herself, childish. Kaz was right—if they wanted justice, they would have to take it for themselves.

These poor kids…

He reached inside one of the niches in the wall.

“My revolvers!” Jesper exclaimed, clutching them to his chest. “Oh, hello, you gorgeous things.” His grin was dazzling. “You got them back!”

“The safe at the Cumulus is an easy crack.”

“Thank you, Kaz. Thank you.”

Any hint of the warmth Kaz had shown Jesper’s father was gone, as fleeting as the dream of those golden fields. “What good is a shooter without his guns?” Kaz asked, seemingly oblivious to the way Jesper’s smile collapsed. “You’ve been in the red too long. We all have. This is the night we start paying our debts.”

Ouch ouch ouch

…

She couldn’t make a mistake, not when Inej’s life depended on it. Nina knew that if she’d been on Vellgeluk, the battle would have gone differently. Inej never would have been taken if Nina had been strong enough to face Van Eck’s henchmen.

And if she’d had parem? No one could have stood against her.

Nina that was not your fault-

You saved everyone in the first book!

Okay okay she does acknowledge that if she’d taken more parem she’d be practically dead

That other sense inside her, the gift that had been there for as long as she could remember, the heart of the power that had been her constant companion since she was a child, had simply ceased to beat.

I imagine this would feel like suddenly losing a limb

Nina felt a strange crawling sensation all over her body, but the need for parem wasn’t screaming through her any longer. I didn’t mean to kill him. It didn’t matter. It couldn’t right now. The guards were down and the plan was in motion.

“Come on,” she said. “Let’s go get our girl.”

Our first glimpse at Nina using her new abilities!

I’m trying to remember my original thoughts on this… but I can’t

Maybe my theory was just that parem made you a different order of grisha?

But now I know that’s not what’s going on here

Also- Nina calles Inej “our girl” 🥹

She loves her so much!

All the crows love her so much 💕

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