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thebigqueer · 11 months ago

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omg new year new fun tag game. ty for the tag!! this looks fun

1. how many works do you have on AO3?

49 currently but i have deleted or orphaned some so it could be more than that

2. what’s your total AO3 word count?

187454

3. what fandoms do you write for?

only riordanverse. i’ve considered writing for adventure time but i just don’t have enough passion for it

4. what are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Soft Touches in the Darkness (valgrace one shot)

moonlight (valgrace one shot)

Promise? (solangelo one shot)

Lost Voices (solangelo tartarus fic)

Secrets Uncovered in the Firelight (solangelo one shot)

5. do you respond to comments?

no cuz i’m shy 😭 but i do sometimes if someone’s comment is particularly exciting or i like a take. i do always always appreciate the comments though they make me happy <333

6. fic with angstiest ending?

hmm… i would say Bottle the World (arcane au valgrace snippet) or Flaming Eyes (leo & jason)

7. fic with happiest ending?

probably New Year, Old Beginnings (valgrace secret santa au).

8. do you get hate on fics?

no not really. & i’m thankful for that!!

9. do you write smut? if so, what kind?

not publicly i don’t 🤭 but if you were to look through my docs there’s probably like one sexy piece with my ocs. idk if it counts as smut cuz they don’t actually do anything... it’s just toxic lesbian horny rage nothing really happens lol

10. do you write crossovers? what’s the craziest one you’ve ever written?

i don’t really but i do have an arcane au. it’s not really a crossover i just kind of made up a plot for pjo characters based on the end of arcane lol. (arcane au snippets) WAIT I JUST REMEMBERED someone once asked me to do a (crackfic) she-ra & pjo crossover but i can't find the link unfortunately...

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

i don’t think so

12. have you ever had a fic translated?

nah

13. have you ever co-written a fic before?

yes but weve only posted 2 before. all the other co-written fics never got finished unfortunately

14. what’s your all time favorite ship?

honestly i don't have one i think it really depends on my mood and what im reading at the moment.

15. what’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

ARCANE AU 😭 MY POOR ARCANE AU IM SORRY 😭 it's not that i wont write it its just that its never going to be coming out in full its all gonna be in one shots because i have 0 energy. also i had this one "immortal" au i tried writing a while ago and i still like the concept just not the characters i used at the time but i dont think ill write it again

16. what are your writing strengths?

i write a lot (as in my word counts are high per fic) but i dont really consider it a strength because i don't think length equates to the quality of a fic. a fic is good even if its short or long, and i like short fics more beacuse i feel like im feeling just as much in a shorter amount of time but other people might prefer long fics. its about what you write about and how you do it, not about length. ive also been told im pretty good at integrating introspection with dialogue but idk.

17. what are your writing weaknesses?

also plot. it's like the fics that have a really dense and thought-out plot are the ones i never get to finish cuz i get too intimmidated after i finish planning them. i'll always plan them out in bullet points and then even when im almost done planning them out i just give up at the last minute and then never get them done lol. maybe one day i'll finally write something. i think if the plot isn't too dense then it's better off

18. thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

i think it's cool. i don't think i've done it yet but maybe i will one day.

19. first fandom you wrote for?

percy jackson. it was a solangelo fic in first person on wattpad 💀 WAITT SCRATCH THAT. when i was in 2nd grade me & bff at the time LOVED the rainbow magic books so i think we wrote something that was similar in plot to that. that was a banger series

20. favorite fic you’ve written?

i really liked "Stay. For Once." (lost trio fic) because it was my first time writing something for the lost trio and even though looking back i might change some things i think i really loved writing about them & thinking about their dynamic. i also really liked "Stars Bursting Across His Lips" (valgrace one-shot) not because i actually like the fic itself that much but it was really fun to write cuz i think driving on a highway at night is the sexiest most erotic most romantic thing anyone can do. i dont think i have a true favorite though.

tagging: @crushing-on-nico-di-angelo @perachel-heretic and anyone else who wants to do it. no pressure though

20 questions for fic writers

tagged by @mrv3000

1. how many works do you have on Ao3? 195

2. what's your total Ao3 word count? 403 068

3. what fandoms do you write for? percy jackson and the olympians, heroes of olympus, trials of apollo, kane chronicles, magnus chase and the gods of asgard, nevermoor, her royal highness, roots of chaos, x-men (films mostly but some comic bleedover), avatar the last airbender, the legend of korra, the kyoshi novels, marvel cinematic universe, bbc ghosts, a song of ice and fire, doctor who, the locked tomb, star wars (prequels mostly), spiderman comics, rosewood chronicles, derry girls, dc (vaguely, comics)

4. what are your top five fics by kudos?

rot with all the burnouts in the cell (dc marvel crossover)

oh my brother, my brother, my brother (who have you become in the wake of all that's happened?) (star wars timetravel)

breezeblocks bricking up my heart (my take on a dadneto reveal)

water into wine (five times percy was the son of dionysus and one time he was the son of poseidon)

5. do you respond to comments? i do my best

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

that's relative and i have so many fics that this probably isn't accurate but by my own measure it's probably don't want to fight the tide (nevermoor fic, being immortal sucks)

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

again that's relative but i'd say there's a million roads to rediscover (pjo/hoo five times jason missed his sister, and one time he saw her again)

8. Do you get hate on fics?

occasionally i get like smarmy comments like one on a certain fic that the timeline didn't line up (it did + i had page references + it was tagged canon divergence anyway) but not really

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

i have one so ig lesbian threesomes??

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

i write so many crossovers i love putting characters in situations. probably rot with all the burnouts in the cell since it involved a ton of drama

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

not that i'm aware of

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

i think one of them but i can't remember which one. (technically this is studying) i'm trying to translate a few of my drabbles into scots gaelic

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

in part like it got started and then i got ghosted before anything else happened

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

the couple i've written the most about is a tie between morridence, fierrochase, and jadie, but i'd say i get the most feelings about ruegard

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Great the Roman is coming up to its third year anniversary this month and i only hit the halfway point a few months ago so we'll see

16. What are your writing strengths?

lesbians. probably emotional stuff if i'm being serious

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

plot. its part of the reason i only do oneshots about 1k-3k but i'd like to work on more big fics. part of the reason was i started a bunch back in 2021 and i'm still working on two of them

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

one of my fics has some dialogue in scots gaelic but i cannot remember for the life of me if its supposed to be 'S ann or 'S e form and its haunting me

19. First fandom you wrote for?

fun fact: i originally wrote on wattpad and published a fierrochase fic on the release day of the hammer of thor. it's called fierrochase and it Sucks but it might actually be the first one ever which is fun if not slightly haunting

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

well you don't know me. but i know you it's a asoiaf time travel fic from the pov of people who don't know. i feel like i really pushed myself with characterisation on it

tagging people who i think write fic @tragedykery @lesmiserablol @oh-hush-its-perfect @thebigqueer @aphrodititi @ethannku @speedytherandom

#tag game #sunny rambles

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themagnuswriters · 4 years ago

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Writing a Muslim Character

The Mods of the Magnus Writers discord server and community are putting together a variety of resources for Magnus Archives fan creators; these have been collated from articles on the topics, our own experiences, and the experiences of the members of the Magnus Writers discord. These are definitely not comprehensive or the only viewpoints out there, and are by no means meant as a way to police fanworks, but as a way to support and inspire fan creators in creating thoughtful and diverse works. Please note that external links will be added in a reblog to outsmart tumblr’s terrible tagging system, so make sure to check those out as well!

This resource in particular was put together by Mod Jasmine: hi, all!

While there are no canonically Muslim characters in TMA, Muslim headcanons are common in fanworks—particularly for Basira, and sometimes Jon (which I love to see!). I have cobbled together this post from my own experiences to help support and inform fans in these areas, and as part of my diabolical plan to get more Muslim!Basira and Muslim!Jon fics to shove into my brain.

First, two gigantic caveats:

I was raised Sunni Muslim in Egypt, which is a majority Sunni Muslim country, and still live there. This means my experience will be very different from someone raised in a majority Christian country like the UK, and different again if they are not Sunni and not Arab.

I am currently ex-Muslim. This does not mean I bear any ill will towards Islam or Muslims, just that it wasn’t for me, and I felt it was important to be upfront about that. I’ll be linking to resources by practicing Muslims in the reblog to this post, whether to add to my opinions and experiences or provide you with a different opinion. I am not here to put my voice over that of Muslims, just to do some of the work so they don’t have to. Obviously, if any Muslims have any additions or suggestions for this post, I’m happy to accommodate them.

Alright. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get started with the basics of writing a Muslim character.

(Warning: this is absurdly, absurdly long)

Basics:

Muslims follow two main sources of religious instruction: Quran and Hadith.

The Quran is the holy book, considered to be dictated by the angel Gabriel to the Prophet Mohammed, who then relayed what he was told to his followers. It is composed of surahs, or chapters, which have individual ayat, or verses. There are no varying versions of the Quran, later additions, or anything considered lost in translation. Any Arabic Quran is considered to be the same text that the Prophet Mohammed relayed, unchanged. As a result, while Muslims can debate interpretations of the Quran (although that’s often still left to the scholars), none debate the actual words of the text.

Hadith, meanwhile, are the sayings or teachings of the Prophet Mohammed. Their validity can be disputed, as they were written by his followers after his death, and mainly depend on having several witnesses for a specific saying or situation. The more witnesses there were, the more valid the hadith is considered to be.

When in doubt or should there be any contradiction between the Quran and Hadith, Muslims will always refer to the Quran first and foremost.

Denominations:

The bigggest (but not only!) divisions of Islam are Sunni and Shia, and both of those have separate madhabs, which are the separate thoughts and stances of specific Imams. When writing a Muslim character, a good first step would be to decide where your character’s family might have come from, as that could help inform which denomination your character might belong to. This will in turn inform things like the beliefs they grew up with, how they pray, their holy holidays, and so on. Obviously, all denominations fall under the bigger umbrella of Muslim, but can vary in practice.

Background:

The intersection of culture and religion affects a character beyond which denomination they likely belong to, such as whether they call prayer salah or namaz, the foods they might associate with Ramadan or Eid, and their community’s stance on things like hijab and alcohol.

One thing to keep in mind is that being Muslim is not synonymous with being Arab and vice versa. Not all Arabs are Muslim, not all Muslims are Arab or even Middle Eastern. In fact, the largest Muslim country in the world is Indonesia. That said, depending on your character’s race and backround, there is the potential they may have faced Arab elitism or other strands of racism within Muslim circles. Please see the reblog of this post for an article about one Black British Muslim woman’s experience with racism.

And, of course, your character and their family do not need to have been immigrants at all. They or their family may have been converts instead. According to most Muslim schools of thought, all that’s required for a person to be Muslim is stating the shahada in Arabic, honestly and with intent. It goes, “Ashhadu an la ilah illa Allah, wa an Mohammadan rasul Allah,” which translates as “I bear witness that there is no god but God, and that Mohammed is His prophet.” Shia Muslims, I believe, have an additional section, but otherwise that’s it. Recite that in front of witnesses with sincere belief and that’s all you need to be Muslim.

Pillars of Islam:

These are the duties or cornerstones of a Muslim’s faith and considered to be acts every Muslim should strive for. What the pillars are can, I think, differ between denominations, with Shia Muslims having additional ancillaries as well (any Shia readers, please feel free to correct me!) but both denominations agree that the following are important:

Salah—prayer

Sawm—fasting during Ramadan

Zakat—giving a certain percentage of income to charity or the community

Hajj—pilgrimage to Mecca

In all cases, these are considered mandatory only for those who are able. A person who cannot perform hajj, whether due to not being physically able to or lacking the funds to travel, is under no obligation.

Prayer:

Prayer is performed five times a day while facing the Qibla, which is the direction of Mecca. Prayer is formed of units, called rak’at, which consists of a set of actions done in a specific order. The “How to Pray Salah, Step by Step” article linked in the reblog of this post provides fairly good prayer instructions for beginners, so check it out for details! These include bowing, prostrating, and reciting some surahs.

Each of the five daily prayers has a different number of rak’at, as well as its own name and allotted time of day, as follows:

Fajr, which means Dawn and can be performed at any point until the sun rises (two rak’at).

Dhuhr, which means Noon (four rak’at)

Asr, performed in the afternoon (four rak’at)

Maghreb, which means sunset and can be performed at any point until it’s dark (three rak’at)

Isha, performed at night and can be done at any point until dawn (four rak’at)

The specific time of prayer will differ day to day and place to place, according to the sun, but those are the rough timeframes for each. It’s generally preferred that a Muslim does their prayer on time, but in practice some Muslims find it difficult to wake up for Fajr, for instance, and just try to make sure they get a morning prayer in before noon.

On Friday, there is a congregational Friday prayer at Dhuhr in a mosque called the Jumu’a prayer (which, fun fact, literally means gathering and is also the Arabic name for Friday!). Only men are required to take part in the congregation, however.

In Muslim majority countries, the time for prayer is announced by the adhaan, the call to prayer, from mosques and in media. This won’t be the case in the UK, and the character will likely have to rely on an adhaan app or looking up what time prayer should be.

There are various requirements for a prayer to be correct, chief of which is facing the Qibla and purity. Before performing prayer, a Muslim must purify themself by performing wudu, or ablutions, which basically involves washing the hands, arms, nostrils, face, head, and feet a specific number of times using clean water. The way I was taught these must be performed in a certain order, and the person shouldn’t speak during or after until their prayer is finished. This may be different for others.

Wudu is considered valid until nullified by bodily functions such as urinating, defecating, vomiting, flatulence, or any sexual activity. For Sunni Muslims, it’s also invalidated by going to sleep. If none of these have happened, a Muslim can perform more than one prayer using the same wudu.

Notably, a Muslim cannot pray if they’re on their period, as they’re considered in a state of impurity.

Another important requirement is that a Muslim be dressed modestly for prayer. The general guideline is that Muslim men should cover the area between their navel and knees with loose, non-revealing clothing, and that during prayer it’s preferred that they cover their chests as well Muslim women should cover everything except their face, hands, and feet. This means that a woman who isn’t hijabi would still wrap a hijab for prayer. For nonbinary Muslims, I don’t think there are specific guidelines yet, although please feel free to correct me.

If praying at home, a family may choose to pray together. In this case, the male head of the household usually stands at the front and acts as Imam, leading the prayer. Other men will tend to be in front of or beside women, as generally women should not pray in front of a man. This is the case even, especially, if he is not praying.

Children aren’t required to pray, as they’re considered innocent and have no obligations, but may want to take part early on or may be encouraged to practice.

Praying is one area you’ll find denominational differences. For example, while Sunnis fold their arms in prayer, Shia keep their arms to their side, and while Shia Muslims make sure their foreheads touch a piece of clay or earth when they prostrate, Sunnis do not. If you write your character praying, keep these details in mind.

Fasting:

During the holy month of Ramadan, Muslims fast from Fajr (dawn) until Maghreb (sunset) every day. This means they abstain from consuming anything—yes, even water, cigarettes, and medicine. They should also abstain from sexual activities and cursing. Most importantly, they must have the intention to be fasting. This means that not eating and drinking because they were asleep for that entire period of time or just lost track and forgot does not count as fasting.

Generally, the idea is more to try to be more pious and avoid sin throughout the month. It’s thought that the shaytan (or devil) is chained up during Ramadan, so any temptation or sinning is a person’s own doing. The way I was raised, I was taught that sawm/fasting is invalidated by sexual thoughts and raising your voice as well. Many people also try to dress more modestly during Ramadan, with some women opting for looser clothing or a headscarf. Many Muslims will try to read the whole Quran during Ramadan.

After Maghreb, Muslims break their fast with Iftar (which means breakfast, hah) and have a late night meal called Suhour. Since the Muslim calendar is a lunar calendar, Ramadan is 11 days earlier every year. Depending on when Ramadan falls in the year, there can be barely any time between iftar and suhour in certain parts of the world, as the sun is up for so much of the day.

Given the length of time and difficulty involved, there are exceptions and allowances for fasting. A person is not required to fast if they are:

A child (up to puberty)

Ill or has a medical condition such as diabetes

Pregnant

Travelling

On their period

In fact, if they are on their period it will not be counted, even if they do fast. That said, sometimes people choose to fast while travelling anyway, as travel is less strenuous now than it used to be. If they’re crossing time zones they will have to consider which time zone they’re breaking their fast to. As far as I remember, it’s based on the time zone of the place they just left or started their fast in.

If an obstacle to fasting is temporary, such as their period, they’re expected to make those days up with additional fasting before next Ramadan. Otherwise, they are allowed to make up for the lost fast in another way, such as by donating money or feeding fasting people. Whether due to societal pressure (which is formidable in Muslim-majority countries) or out of consideration for others who are fasting, those who are not fasting for whatever reason may often choose to hide this and only eat in secret.

If a person forgets they were fasting or accidentally consumes something, it does not invalidate the fast , and as soon as they remember or realise the mistake they can have the intention to fast again and continue with their day.

While children are exempt, many families will start them off by fasting for half a day so they can build up to a full day when they hit puberty.

Ramadan traditions vary wildly from country to country and culture to culture, but generally it’s a time for family gathering and celebration. Often there are special Ramadan-specific food, drink, and decorations, and it ends with Eid ul-Fitr which has its own specific foods and celebrations. Basically, imagine if Christmas lasted a month. That’s how big a deal Ramadan is.

In my experience, the first few days are usually the hardest. Water is what I tended to miss the most, even if I managed to stay up long enough or set an alarm to wake up to drink just before fajr, followed closely by swearing. Anyone who drinks caffeine or smokes cigarettes will likely find abstaining from those more difficult than water. By the end of the month, though, it gets much easier and I often got to the point where I barely noticed. I will say, however, that the longest I’ve had to fast has been maybe 16 hours. A summer Ramadan in the UK would be more difficult due to the much later sunsets.

Halal and Haram:

Halal means “permissible,” while haram means “forbidden.” You might have heard these words in passing before, such as halal food, but they are used for many areas of life.

Things that are considered haram include:

Consuming, serving, or trading in intoxicants, such as alcohol

Consuming improperly slaughtered meat or meat from forbidden animals, such as pork

Extramarital sex

Tattoos

Gambling

Men wearing silk or gold

A Muslim woman marrying a non-Muslim man (although it’s fine for a Muslim man to marry a non-Muslim woman)

Being immodest

Modesty is expected of all genders, including men. If you’ll recall from the section on prayer, the general guideline for male modesty is that they should cover the area between their navel and knees with loose, non-revealing clothing. Note that for women, modesty does not necessarily involve wearing a hijab. There is actually a ton of controversy as to whether the hijab is a fard (requirement) or not, as described in the following section.

The Hijab:

To be hijabi takes more than just throwing on a headscarf. As a word, hijab means “barrier” or “veil,” and a hijabi person would be expected to cover everything except their face and the palms of their hands, and to ensure that their clothes are loose and non-revealing. It all comes from an interpretation of two verses in the Quran that many scholars nowadays agree to mean the hijab is required, and that some say actually call for a face covering as well, which is called a niqab.

This wasn’t always the case, however, and these days there is still the occasional controversial scholar (I remember a few kerfuffles coming out of Egypt’s Al-Azhar mosque recently) saying it isn’t and has never been required at all. At least in the Arab world, this is largely due to the wave of Wahhabism (which is a specifically fundamentalist interpretation of Islam) that’s taken over the region in the past half a century. Before that, the idea of a hijab being a religious requirement was less widespread.

I’m not here to argue who’s right or wrong, just to make you aware that the hijab as we know it today hasn’t always been considered a requirement for a Muslim woman. Most of the women of my family never wore any form of head covering, but more and more they are an exception rather than the norm.

The choice of whether to wear a hijab can mean very different things, depending on the surrounding culture. For instance, my grandmother, the strictest woman I have ever known, got married in a very cute sleeveless dress that went just under the knees, and when she grew older she wore a head-covering more as a cultural indication of age rather than any religious reason. In my generation, in a country with a Muslim majority, lack of visible signs of devoutness have become almost a class marker, with some upper-class women using their lack of head-covering as a sign that they are “more Westernized” or “modern.” And again, I want to emphasize that this is the case for my country only.

This will be completely different for Muslim minorities, where the hijab can become a symbol of pride and unity.

I will say that it’s very rare for women to be forced into getting veiled, whether in Muslim minority or majority countries. I’m not saying it never happens, just that it’s not the “oppressive tool of the patriarchy” outsiders sometimes think it is. Women may face some societal pressure, but by and large it is considered a choice and often an empowering one. In fact, I have friends whose families discouraged them from wearing a hijab too young and emphasized only taking the decision when they were sure they wanted to. If writing a Muslim character when you’re non-Muslim, I strongly suggest not trying to tackle the story of someone forced into a hijab, as there’s a lot of nuance there and it’s very easy to fall into harmful stereotypes. The hijabi woman who gets “liberated” and takes off her hijab is also overdone and harmful. Please don’t.

Everyday Life:

Muslims are not a monolithic entity, and some will be more devout or religious than others. There are those who will pray their five a day and others who only pray during Ramadan or Eid, some who don’t drink and some who do, hijabis who dress only in loose clothing and those who wear tight trousers or show some of their hair, some who have tattoos, and some who may date or even have sex before marriage. However, this isn’t a carte-blanche not to do research when writing a Muslim character, because even if they break a rule of Islam, they will be conscious of it, may be concerned about their community’s response to it, and in any case will be affected by it.

For instance, I know many Muslims who drink alcohol. Some interpret the text differently, saying that since the sin is getting drunk then they won’t drink enough to get drunk, just buzzed. Some only do it on special occasions or on vacation, saying they know it’s a sin but it’s fine on occasion and they’ll repent later. All of them would probably dive under a table if they thought their family was nearby.

For more opinions on Muslims and dealing with alcohol, take a look at the “Islam and Alcohol” article linked in the reblog of this post.

Here are things that a character who is a practicing Muslim might do or be concerned about in their day to day life:

Checking ingredients to make sure they’re all halal. This goes for things like food, drink, medicine, anything consumable. Things like gelatine capsules are only halal if the source of the gelatine is itself halal, for instance.

Keeping up with their prayers. With five prayers a day, some will inevitably happen while they’re out of the house. Some Muslims prefer to just group their prayers when they get home, but since it’s preferable to do prayers on time, others may try to pray while out and about This means considering the following:

Finding a bathroom for wudu. Part of wudu involves washing feet and the head, which isn’t feasible in a public location or if the person is hijabi and doesn’t want to unwrap and rewrap their hijab. In that case, they can generally wipe a wet hand over their socks and top of their head covering.

They may carry a prayer carpet or have one stashed in a convenient location, but it’s not a must.

Finding a clean and secluded place to pray. Generally, it’s not done to pray in a place where someone will pass in front of you, and a woman must also take care to pray away from men’s eyes.

Figuring out where the Qibla is. Luckily, there are apps for that.

If a woman is not hijabi, she would have to carry a veil and, depending on her clothes, something to cover up so she can pray.

If they’re hijabi, they’ll probably have to adjust or re-wrap their hijab throughout the day, depending on the material and their activities. This would typically happen in bathrooms or any other space that doesn’t include men, as they can’t reveal themselves to any men who aren’t of their immediate family. For more on the hijab, and the day to day realities of wearing and wrapping one, take a look at the links provided in the reblog of this post.

A Muslim woman may choose not to accept handshakes from men who aren’t family. She has probably considered how to deal with that potential awkwardness.

If they’re fasting, they might carry some dates or biscuits or something in case they need to break their fast while on the go.

If making plans, they might say, “Insha’allah” which means “God willing.” I was always admonished to do so to acknowledge the future is entirely within God’s hands.

If asked how they are, they might reply with “Alhamdullilah” which means “Thanks be to God.”

When starting to eat, they may say, “Bismillah,” which means “In the name of God” and when done eating may say “Alhamdullilah.” These can also be invoked silently.

As you might have noticed, Allah’s name is invoked pretty often. While it’s not preferable to swear using God’s name just to make a point (“Wallahi”), there’s nothing against it, really.

Fundamentally, an important thing to remember is that Islam is a religion of ease and not hardship. This is an actual Quranic quote. What this means is, it may seem like there are a lot of rules to keep in mind, but there are also a ton of allowances for when those rules aren’t feasible, just like the case for fasting above. Other allowances include how an elderly or disabled person who may not be able to perform the motions of prayer can pray while sitting in a chair or even lying in bed. If there isn’t any clean water to purify before prayer or if using the water would mean lack of drinking water, a Muslim can use dust or sand to purify, and if no dust or sand is available then they don’t need to purify at all and can simply pray.

This means that, say, if your Muslim Jon wants to pray while kidnapped by the circus, he can, even without being able to perform wudu, even without knowing where the Qibla is, even without being able to move or say anything at all.

For more day-to-day tidbits, check out the “More on writing Muslim characters” link in the reblog of this post.

LGBTQ Muslims:

Needless to say, Queer Muslims absolutely do exist, and their being Muslim doesn’t cancel out their queerness or vice versa. While there are Quranic verses that have been interpreted as condemning homosexuality, there are also other interpretations, and queerness has existed in Muslim societies for ages. There was a ton of homoerotic imagery among Abbasid poets during the Golden Age of Islam, for example.

However, modern-day attitudes can be difficult to get around, and queer Muslims may have difficulty finding their place in both Muslim spaces and queer spaces, the latter which often expect them to reject religiosity.

Although I am queer myself, I don’t feel it’s my place to speak for queer Muslims and their relationships with their communities beyond this, so I’ll let some queer practicing Muslims speak for themselves. Please see the reblog of this post for valuable contributions from queer Muslims about their experiences.

Miscellaneous:

This is mostly for all the random tidbits I thought up while writing this that didn’t fit anywhere else and also because I don’t know when to quit apparently, SO!

Allah is just Arabic for God. Muslims can and do use these terms interchangeably, such as saying “God willing,” instead of “Inshallah,” even in an Arabic-speaking country.

Also, God has 99 names! Just a fun fact for you there.

The Devil in Islam is pretty different from his Christian counterpart. Referred to as Iblis or Shaytan, among other names, he is not a fallen angel and there is no great revolt story, nor is he considered a root of all evil. Instead, he is a djinn made of smokeless flame who refused to bow down to Adam, as he felt he was made of superior stuff and not about to bow to a creature made of mud. His disdain for humanity is what has caused him and other shayateen/demons to try and tempt humans.

A person’s right hand is considered purer than their left, so it’s encouraged to always eat with your right hand. Unfortunately, this does mean left-handed people face something of a stigma—or at least that’s the case here in Egypt. My cousins, both lefties, both eat with their right hand, though they do everything else with their left.

Similarly, it is considered better to enter spaces with your right foot, though only the most devout are likely to think of this all the time. This is especially considered for entering a mosque or new home.

A Muslim might say or write “Peace be Upon Him” whenever the Prophet Mohammed is mentioned, written as (PBUH), and “Subhanuh wa Taala” when mentioning Allah, written as (SWT).

The Evil Eye is mentioned in the Quran as “hasad,” and considered to be a very real thing. This jealous or envious energy is considered able to ruin good things in your life, even if the jealous person didn’t intend to. There are some surahs that are considered good to ward against it, as well as incense, the colour blue, the number five, and the symbols of the nazar (which is a round, blue-ringed eye) and the khamsa (an open five-fingered palm, also known as the Hand of Fatima). The nazar, khamsa, and belief in the evil eye aren’t unique to Islam at all. What is unique to Islam is that a Muslim might preface a compliment with “Masha’allah” which means “As God wills it,” to ward off their own evil eye.

Much of the Quran in Arabic rhymes and is very poetic, which can make surahs easy to memorise by rhythm. It can also make recitations by a skilled reader very lovely.

#the magnus archives #tma #writing resources #muslim characters

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confused-as-all-hell · 3 years ago

Note

hey, i was attempting to reblog your recent darkling post, but i couldn't do it (i assume your reblogs are off) so i wanted to finish my thoughts here. note: i am not attempting to send you hate, you are fully entitled to your own opinions.

it sucks that you and your friends have been receiving so much hate lately, and i hope all of you are doing okay. as one of "the fucking antis" who you've run into, i can confirm that i do not, in fact, think you are horrible, disgusting, or sickening, so mark that one up on your chalkboard.

as for the advertising thing, i don't really have many thoughts on that situation (don't know, don't care). i can understand how you would be upset over not getting enemies to lovers, and i can freely admit that the tagline looked rather bait-ish. however, i don't...think that really has to do with anything that we're talking about. i too, assumed it was an enemies to lovers, but upon finding out that the darkling was an evil piece of shit, i jumped ship (and landed in nikolais arms, thankfully).

honestly though, i think that we can all agree that the darkling was a piece of shit. i don't think that anyone is looking at what he did to genya and is saying "nah nah guys, it's cool, he didn't mean it". i'm sure those people exist, but i prefer not to think about that, as it makes me want to cry. i suppose the difference between us is what we do with that information. for me, i don't usually like characters who allow young girls to be r*ped and disguise themselves as other men in order to get closer sexually to girls (ie. the darkling disguising himself as mal to kiss alina).

again, i'm not trying to send hate, and this conversation can't really expand much further. there's not much point in two brick walls arguing with each other. i hope you and your friends are doing well after all the discourse.

i didn't turn reblogs off, it might have been the owner of the post

nobody i've run into has ever stated the darkling is a good man, and nor will they. he is not. he's a bad person. and i can recognize this and love him anyways, i hope this is cleared up.

mal represents a boy i knew, who believed he was entitled to me because i was his friend. we were children. he was always telling me he wanted me around, even if it made me miserable, and as a little girl, i didn't know better than to tell him no. he had ignored me until i had expressed a childish crush on someone else, and then he got angry. so mal hits home, and i dislike him but i respect your opinion.

you're right. there's no point in arguing. i refuse to give way, and i doubt you're all that willing. so cheers, have a good one, and all i can ask from you is that you be kind to darkling/darklina stans.

i, in return, harbour no ill will towards anyone who ships malina. it makes no difference to me.

#damn this is the second time ive argued with someone and its ended like this #today #anways ill follow because i like the enemies to allies arc

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jornthur · 4 years ago

Text

“Unshaken” Chapter 8

Originally posted: April 11, 2020

Arthur Morgan x Reader, Slow-Burn Romance

Summary: You save a mysterious man who is dying on a mountain. Finding out he has Tuberculosis, you use your knowledge and skills with herbs and natural remedies to save him from death and help nurse him back to health. As he slowly starts to recover, you can’t help but wonder: Who is this man? Why had you found him the way that you did, beaten and ill? Only time, patience … and perhaps love … will tell.

•••••

The food was absolutely delicious.

Fried Muskie, with diced potatoes that you had grown in your garden and thick creamy butter that you’d made from the goats’ milk. You cut another piece out of the fish and placed the meat on your tongue, nearly moaning at the taste. “This is so tasty, Austin!” You said cheerfully as you looked across the table at him.

He smiled at your compliment. “Y’all are the ones that caught the fish, I only cooked them. Not to mention you’re the one who spiced them with those herbs of yours,” he said with a teasing grin, lifting one of his brows in amusement.

It was true, you thought with a smile. Some of the herbs you grew in your garden were not just for medicinal means, but also for adding different tastes. Sage was definitely one of your favorites.

The air was silent as the three of you sat at the kitchen table, the sound of utensils on plates creating the only noise in the cabin for several minutes. You couldn’t help but occasionally look over at Arthur to observe him, studying how he ate. For such an intimidating and large man, he seemed to have delicate manners when it came to eating, wiping his mouth with the napkin whenever he made the smallest of messes. You weren’t sure, but you thought you could see him giving your brother a hairy look from time to time. There was no doubt in your mind what it was for.

Arthur’s passive aggressive glaring at your brother for his earlier interruption was kind of adorable, you thought honestly. You knew he’d been about to kiss you again back in the stables, but Austin had called out to you from the cabin just before his lips had touched yours.

You blushed as you thought about the fact that you actually would have let him kiss you again … that you’d really wanted him to kiss you again. This man you were just getting to know, a man with a mysterious nature and past. A man who was … in all honesty … truly beautiful.

As he was distracted with dinner, you decided to allow yourself to study his features, to take every detail in that you possibly could. His skin was weathered, tanned, scarred in some of the areas that you could see, especially two thick scars that were plainly visible on his chin, preventing any stubble from growing there.

That chestnut-brown hair that swept over his temples looked so soft, as if the strands would feel as silky as flower petals if you ran your fingers through them. His brows were thick, slightly darker than his hair. His short brown beard on his square jaw was scruffy, and you remembered how rough it had felt for that brief moment against your skin. And dammit, those eyes of his … they truly looked like two unique gems, as if emeralds and sapphires had decided to merge and become two multicolored green-and-blue diamonds.

How could any man possess so many gorgeous features at once?

Then finally … those lips, looking so pink and lush like the pink carnation flower. Truly, they looked as soft as one, too. But they had been rough, the feeling of their texture and warmth coming back into your mind. You found yourself suddenly wondering what they would feel like in other places as well …

You shook your head mentally — hard. Why on Earth were you thinking this way about a man you were trying to help recover from a disease that had nearly claimed his life not more than a month ago? You felt ashamed, embarrassed that you would dare have any sort of intimate thoughts about your own patient. Well, not a patient, really, but he might as well be one since you were treating his health. Of course, he’d been the one to kiss you, and … and you had wanted it, but — it wasn’t right. Arthur’s health needed to come first, not your desires.

“So, Arthur,” Austin’s voice interrupted your thoughts, bringing you back into reality. You looked over to see that both Arthur and Austin had actually finished their meals, while you were still only halfway done. How long had you been daydreaming?

Arthur turned his gaze to look at Austin, his deep drawl a soft rumble, “Yeah, feller?”

Austin set his utensils down on the table, reaching out for the napkin to wipe it across his own mouth and chin. He set it down and took a deep breath, as if he were bracing himself for what he was about to say next. After a few moments he finally met Arthur’s gaze, “I know I mentioned this earlier, but I was wonderin’ … if you could take me hunting tomorrow mornin’? Show me how to track and kill game properly? I thought the sooner we could start, the better.” He looked back down at his empty plate, as if he were nervous about Arthur’s answer. He was scratching his cheek again, that gesture he made every single time he was nervous.

You knew what was going through Austin’s mind. For the past month your brother had been nothing but a dumbass, in all honesty. Showing no manners or respect for the man in any form whatsoever. You knew he had his own reasons, but to you they were more like excuses. Arthur hadn’t deserved to be treated by Austin the way he had. Not in the least bit. Even though Arthur had offered the favor earlier, Austin still seemed hesitant to be asking him about it.

Then abruptly you absorbed his words and their meaning. “Absolutely not, Austin!” You said firmly before Arthur could say anything, placing your utensils down hard. You couldn’t help it, but you felt a little bit of anger sweep through you. Arthur was still sick, his body still fighting off the remaining bacteria that was left in his body. There was absolutely no way you were going to let him go out there in the wilderness where there were unknown dangers. Out there, he was at so much risk of getting hurt. What if he got attacked by a wild creature? What if he slipped and fell off a cliff? What if he drowned? What if he got himself cut on a branch? What if —

You paused, realizing that some of your worries were actually getting rather ridiculous. But … still … you found yourself deeply concerned for his safety. Since his body was still medicated, it wouldn’t be able to handle much adrenaline. God forbid, what if they ran into something like a grizzly bear on their hunting trip? Any wounds a wild creature could inflict on Arthur could possibly hurt his chances of recovering fully. He needed every ounce of strength, every drop of blood he possessed if he was going to heal fully.

Austin looked over at you, a stunned expression on his face from your sharp reaction. Even Arthur turned his head to meet your furious eyes.

“Arthur needs rest, alright? That’s all I want him to worry about, you’re just goin’ to have to make do with what you know for the next few months, alright?” You shook your head, lowering your eyes to your half-finished plate. “I mean, you’ve been huntin’ on your own for three years, what’s a few more months?” You took several more bites to keep from saying something you might regret.

“Y/N, it’s nearing the end of September now … it’ll be winter before he’s even fully recovered. I thought that maybe the sooner I can get better at huntin’, the sooner and quicker I can be with catchin’ what we need to stock up for the winter season.”

Shaking your head again, you lifted your gaze to look him straight in the eyes, letting him know exactly how upset you were. “Austin, if he goes out there and gets hurt, it’s going to effect how his body will heal.”

“Y/N,” Your brother’s voice lowered in tone, as if he were trying to push some sort of reason onto you, “I just want him to teach me how to track. I swear we won’t do anything more than that.”

Arthur intervened before you could answer. “Guess I’m up for that,” he said as he lifted his shoulders in a single shrug, scratching at his jaw with the back of his thumb, “would be a welcome change to get out of this cabin for awhile, get a lay of the land.”

Your eyes widened at his response and you jerked your head in his direction, shooting him a glare. “Arthur! I need you to stay here and rest!” You weren’t yelling at him yet, but dammit, you were about to if they both kept acting like idiots with this stupid idea. Didn’t they realize how risky this was?

“Dammit, woman, I’ll be fine,” Arthur groaned with a sigh of exasperation, his face already looking exhausted as if he didn’t want to argue, “I’ve been cooped up here for too damn long, anyway. It’s ’bout time I head out there and see some of the world again.” He reached an arm up and ran his fingers through his hair, pushing some of it back from his face. “I’ll tell you what, darlin’, if we promise to keep to just trackin’, will you let me leave then?” His blue eyes lifted to yours at his question, waiting for your answer.

After he shot a glare at Arthur for calling you that endearment again, Austin turned to look at you with hope in his eyes, no doubt waiting for a yes as well.

You lowered your head, using your fork to play with the food left on your plate. Arguing with your brother was one thing, but even Arthur wanted to get out of here, you thought worriedly. But truly, could you actually blame him? He’d been stuck here for weeks, barely seeing what was outside the walls of this cabin. It would probably be good for him to get out there for a while.

‘Get a lay of the land,’ as he put it.

The only problem that kept you from wanting to accept his wish, however, was the fact that you knew his body wouldn’t be able to handle any danger they might come across. Adrenaline was a terrible thing on a weak body, and stress could negatively effect any sort of healing process an animal body was going through, so why would a human body be any different? If anything terrible happened, if he ended up having to defend himself from a wild attack, his body and muscles could actually have major problems. What medicine and herbs were running through his system would get his heart and blood pumping too fast, risking any number of things.

But even with all your concerns, you knew that no matter what you said, Arthur would still probably not listen, so why not just give him the freedom he wanted? It was better than denying it from him, especially if he was going to take it anyway. You knew that he was just that kind of man, that no one could truly keep him from doing what he wanted to do, no matter who they were.

You were extremely worried though, so you were going to try and strike a deal with them. You let out a deep breath, raising your gaze back up to meet both men. “I’ll make a deal with you.”

They both looked at you expectantly.

“As long as you don’t travel too far. No more than two miles, you hear me? And keep close to the trails. If I somehow find out that you travelled off of them, I will poison you with my herbs myself, Austin. Do you hear me?” Your tone was completely stoic, demanding absolutely no nonsense. Of course you would never actually kill you older brother, but Arthur’s safety was your top priority. And if anything ended up happening to him under your brother’s watch? You would definitely make sure that Austin would live to regret it. “And there will be absolutely no hunting. I’ll let you take your gun with you for defense, but don’t you dare think about huntin’ any large game, you hear me? Tracking only.”

Austin’s face positively glowed, completely unfazed by your threatening tone. “Thank you so much, sis. I swear to you we will do everything you ask.”

“Which is … ?” You wanted to clarify that your brother memorized and knew everything you’d asked of him to do.

“No more than two miles, stick to the trails, no huntin’ allowed, trackin’ only.” He listed them off with his fingers, lifting them up one by one with each demand. Arthur smiled in amusement, as if he were entertained by the minor quarrel the two of you were having.

You nodded then stood up, clearing the dishes off of the table and sticking everything in the sink. “Arthur,” you said as you turned the faucet on to begin washing the plates. “After I’m done here, I need you ready for another check-up, alright?”

Arthur sighed roughly as he leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, “You sure I need another so soon?” He asked, looking over at you with a playful but annoyed look in his eyes as he lifted a single dark brow, his voice carrying slight indignation in his tone. “I feel fine, woman. Also I’m gettin’ pretty sick of those things.”

“Yes, and you will get sick — even more so — if you don’t let me do them.” You kept your response firm, authoritative. He needed to know that you weren’t going to take any more crap from either of them, especially tonight. You had just agreed to let Austin take Arthur out of the cabin and far out into the wilderness, where possible dangers lurked. No amount of words or promises was ever going to comfort you for the rest of the night, not until they returned home safe and sound from their trip tomorrow. “So, if you’d be so kind,” you said sweetly, rather with some venom to go with that sugar, “I would greatly appreciate it if you would go into the sitting room and get yourself comfortable.” You pointed toward the door to the sitting room with the large knife you were holding, shooting sharp darts at him with your gaze.

He grinned at your response, obviously entertained by the big-boss-lady you had turned into. He held his hands up in surrender. “Alright, alright. Dammit, darlin’,” he said, standing up from his chair.

Austin glared up at him, “I thought I told you to stop callin’ my sister that, cowpoke.”

Arthur looked down at him, his large stature giving off nothing but threatening intimidation. “Now you need to shut that damn mouth of yours unless you want to lose them teeth, son.” He growled, and Austin’s eyes widened, a hint of fear showing in them. But Arthur just grinned and patted Austin’s shoulder hard with an open palm. “I’m just needlin’ ya, boah. I know you’re just protectin’ your sister.” He tucked a hand on his belt as he made his way into the sitting room, mindfully closing the door behind him.

Austin looked back at you, giving you a weird smile. “You know, Y/N, in all honesty, that man looks more and more dangerous with each passin’ day.”

“And yet you’re goin’ on a huntin’ trip with him tomorrow,” you teased, unable to let out a small laugh as you finished up washing the last utensil and placed it on the drying rack. “A little one-on-one time with the big, dangerous man. Lucky you.” You turned to face him, propping your hip against the counter of the sink as you crossed you arms, narrowing your eyes at your brother. “Now don’t you dare think that I’m in the least bit happy about this.”

His smile lowered, turning into a frown, “I know you’re not, Y/N. But we need to start thinking about this. Autumn is nearly here, and then it’s going to be winter. It will be much harder to hunt during that time. We both know it, we’ve been through it before, and now that there’s three of us, well �� ” He reached around his head and rubbed at the back of his neck. “I need to start stocking up what I can find. Plus, if Arthur starts showin’ me how to track early on, it might give me a better chance of huntin’ in the winter time.” He lowered his eyes for a second, then raised them back up at you after a few moments, “Arthur’s probably not going to stay with us forever, you know.”

Those last words slammed into your heart like a bag of bricks, slashing through your chest like a hundred daggers. Even though you knew your brother was right, you didn’t like to think about that inevitable fact.

You didn’t want to think about Arthur leaving, and truly that thought surprised you … this man you barely knew, who’d been living with you for less than a month … and you already couldn’t bear the thought of him being gone.

But eventually, once Arthur was fully recovered, you were certain he was going to leave. As far as you knew, he had never mentioned anything about permanently staying after he was better. The thought of him no longer being here actually scared you, and you shook your head hard. “I know what you’re saying, Austin, I just want him to be safe.”

Your brother nodded, and he stood up slowly, making his way around the table to walk over to you and pull you into a hug. “I understand what you’re feeling, Y/N. I promise you, we’ll stick to the trails, and we won’t do anything stupid, alright?”

You nodded against his chest, accepting his warm embrace as you wrapped your arms around him to return the hug. “Thank you, Austin. I’m sorry, I’m just very worried for him.”

“I know.”

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Arthur sat on the large couch, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, watching the flames in the fireplace as they licked greedily at the firewood, all the while waiting for Y/N to come in and start another check-up on him. He looked down at his inner arm, noting all the tiny holes that had healed where she kept sticking those damn needles in. Dammit, his Tuberculosis was going to leave scars on him in more ways than one. There was no doubt about that, he thought with a sigh.

But of course, he’d rather have scars than be dead, he thought. Though, if he were completely sincere with himself, he would somewhat actually prefer death over some of them … such as his memories. He couldn’t bear to think about all he’d lost, the pain of emptiness like an aching black hole in his heart.

Arthur knew that he eventually had to decide what he was going to do with his life once he was fully recovered, now that there was no longer anything or anyone to go back to.

He’d thought several times about staying here with Y/N and Austin, at least for a little while. He knew he needed to repay them for all they’d done for him in what ever way he could, but there was no way he would allow himself to stay permanently. He refused to become a burden on them. He wasn’t going to let himself take advantage of their hospitality after his body was completely healed. Hell, he felt like a useless idiot even now.

Arthur closed his eyes in a sigh, thinking back to that mountain again, doing his best to remember every single thing that had happened. He recalled sending John away before facing off with Micah and Dutch. He remembered Dutch turning his back on him despite the years of service and loyalty that Arthur had given him. After that, all he could remember was trying to crawl, dragging his body across the hard and cold ground until it had completely given out, his muscles shutting down as he’d felt his heart start to slow, his breath becoming more and more shallow as he’d collapsed … turning his face to watch the sun just as it had begun to peak over the horizon.

All he could remember after that was a peculiar taste on his tongue, and the feeling of being lifted into the air. The next time he’d opened his eyes, he could barely make out the face of a woman sitting by his side, and they’d engaged in some kind of conversation before he had passed out again.

This was all so strange, he thought. He was supposed to be dead, and he damn well knew it.

Yet it was absolutely undeniable; this woman had saved his life, and he was still here. Arthur ran a hand across his face, rubbing at his forehead. What the hell was he ever going to do now, he still wondered.

Suddenly he thought of John again, and about the dreams he’d been having of late. Was there some sort of meaning to them that he wasn’t able to pick up on? Why were the dreams always of a deer? What the hell was going on in his mind that he somehow wasn’t aware of?

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted when the kitchen door opened, Austin and Y/N walking through. The man nodded at him as he walked by, heading down the hallway to his bedroom and shutting the door behind him. Arthur looked over at Y/N, reading her somber expression as she walked over to gather supplies from her desk. What the hell had gone down between them, he asked himself. She looked sad for some reason, and he wanted to find out why.

She came over to him and placed the tray of supplies on the nightstand, sitting on the couch next to him. “Alright, Arthur, it’s time,” she said, her voice sounding soft and patient, not matching her sad expression in the least bit.

Arthur turned his upper body to face her as she put on the stethoscope and started running the disk over his chest. “You okay?” He asked, curious as to what might’ve transpired to put her in the mood she was in now. Of course he’d left the room when she’d been slightly upset. But this seemed different, as if she’d been told some sort of terrible news. What, though? He turned to gaze down the hall. Had her brother done or said something to hurt her? Just the possibility alone started to boil his blood. “Austin didn’t do somethin’ to hurt you, did he?”

She snapped her head up to meet his gaze, surprise in her eyes and in her voice, “Of course not, Arthur. Why would you think that?”

He lowered his eyes to watch her move the disk around his chest. “I don’t know, you just seem — ” He shrugged, “Ah, never mind.”

She lifted her lips in a small smile, “Well, thank you for your concern, but I’m fine. Austin didn’t do anything, so don’t you worry, alright? Now take some deep breaths for me, you know how it goes.”

Arthur felt his lips stretch into an amused grin as he did as she asked, taking in as much air as he could into his lungs before letting it back out. He wasn’t sure he entirely believed her, but he would leave it alone for now, unless she decided to speak about it any further at some point.

“So,” she said as she pulled the disk away, taking off the stethoscope and placing it back on the tray. “Arthur, your heart and lungs are sounding really good. I’m very proud of how well your body has responded to the treatments.” She looked back at him as she held up an empty hypodermic needle for him to see. “Now we’re going to try something a little different tonight — I need to take some of your blood.”

Arthur’s heart skipped at those words. This was definitely new. What the hell did she need to draw his blood for?

As if Y/N had read his mind, she added, “Once I get some of your blood, I can analyze it with my microscope to see how much Tuberculosis bacteria is still left in your body. This procedure is what I use in order to tell how an animal is doing during its healing process … it should be about the same for a human.” She looked away when she said that last part.

Was that a hint of nervousness he’d detected in her tone?

“Well … ,” Arthur studied her features for a bit before he finally decided to give in, resting his arm on his thigh palm-up. “Have at it, then, honey.”

He trusted her. She’d never given him any reason not to.

She smiled at him gratefully, before she leaned over and disinfected the area on his skin with pure alcohol, wiping it clean with a fresh cloth.

Bringing the tip of the needle over his skin, she prodded around with her finger until she found his thick vein, and then pushed the point in. Arthur flinched, grimacing and releasing a deep grunt as she pulled back the plunger, slowly drawing his blood into the tiny glass barrel.

After several seconds passed, she finally pulled the needle out and pushed the cloth against the small fresh wound she’d left behind to keep any more blood from escaping. “Could you hold that in place for me, please?” She asked him.

Arthur obliged her, pushing the thing down hard with his other hand. She gave a nod of appreciation and stood up, bringing the vial that was now filled with his blood over to the large metal microscope on her desk. She dispensed the blood into some kind of glass tray before placing it underneath the lens, looking through the scope. He watched as she played around with his blood using a small metal tool, stirring it around.

He found himself extremely curious with her actions. “Just what are you doin’ there?” Arthur asked.

She didn’t answer, appearing to be lost in some kind of deep thought. Her expressions changed as moments passed by, as if she were thinking really hard about whatever she was seeing. Once she was finished, she stepped back and took everything over to the sink to to clean and disinfect them. Completing that task, she washed her hands and walked back over to him. “Well, Arthur,” she said as she sat back down next to him, she turned her gaze to his as she spoke the next words. “I do still see a little bit of bacteria left in your blood, but I expected that, so it’s no surprise. What’s still there appears to be dying off, they looked very weak, but it’ll be at least another couple of months before everything is all cleared up … I would really rather you stay here tomorrow, but I’ll leave that up to you.” She raised a hand to rub at her shoulder, as if she were trying to hold herself back from adding anymore onto that last statement.

Arthur looked at her, baffled. “You could see it in my blood?” He couldn’t help the gravel in his voice from the surprise he felt.

Y/N nodded, “Of course, microscopes are incredibly helpful when it comes to seeing what our naked eyes can’t.”

Arthur found himself unable to say anything so he just nodded, feeling like a complete dumbass sitting next to a woman that kept managing to surprise him. Truly, she was too damn smart for her own good, he thought, unable to even begin to understand her way of thinking and how she saw the world.

After a long silent moment passed between them, Y/N reached back over to the tray and held that familiar pot out to him again, but this time she didn’t meet his gaze as he took it from her hand.

“More honey, huh?” Arthur couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle, lifting the lid and grabbing the spoon from the jar. She didn’t say anything as he began taking the sweet substance into his mouth. Apparently honey was truly one of nature’s strongest natural remedies for treating Tuberculosis, who the hell knew?

As he focused on the taste, he found himself thinking about something else that was just as sweet, something else he would like to taste. Someone else. A certain kind of other honey. Arthur lowered his eyes to stare down at Y/N’s lips as he swallowed, studying how luscious they looked, thinking again about how soft they’d felt against his own.

Dammit, what the hell was wrong with him? He squeezed his eyes shut, his brows tightening. He barely knew this woman, so why did he find himself so drawn to her? Because she’d saved his life? Because she was helping to cure him of a deadly disease? Because she was possibly the smartest person he’d ever met? … Because she was absolutely beautiful … ? … Because she’d shown him more tenderness and care than anyone else ever had in a long time … ? He lifted his lids to look at her again, and she blushed. She must’ve read his expression, and he wondered what his face looked like to bring out that reaction in her.

Suddenly she cleared her throat, standing up from the couch. “Um — I have something for you.” She left the sitting room and disappeared down the hallway, leaving him alone to feel like a complete idiot. Of course he’d scared her off, he thought, completely unsurprised and wanting to punch himself in the face for doing so.

A minute later she came back with some kind of large dark red cloth in her hands. “I meant to give this to you sooner, but I wasn’t sure you wanted them since you already had the other pair.” She came over and held it out to him. Arthur took it and spread out the soft cloth to see that it was a dark red union suit. He lifted his gaze up to hers, giving her a questioning look, “You’re givin’ this to me?”

She lifted a finger to her hair to twirl around in her strands, as if she were nervous, “Well, I placed an order in the catalog for my brother before we moved up here, but when it came in it was too big for him. He didn’t mind though, said he really appreciated the thought but he wasn’t really of fan of red, anyways. Of course I ordered him another one after that, that one ended up suiting him perfectly and it was his favorite color: dark blue.” She let out a small giggle and gestured at the union suit. “This should fit you just fine. Neither of us have any use for it, so I want you to have it.”

She looked nervous, like she was waiting for him to turn it down. But he wasn’t going to do that. “Well, thanks for the gift, Y/N,” he said as he gave her a grateful smile, folding the cloth up and placing it on his lap. “I think red’s a great color,” He patted the cloth, “looks good on just about anythin’, if you ask me.”

She let out a small laugh, which lifted his spirits. Her laugh was truly one of a kind, a sweet little jingle that heated his blood. “I’ll go ahead and take your clothes for you after you’ve put it on, I’m planning on doin’ laundry tonight anyways.”

Arthur squinted at her, “Need any help with that, honey?”

She blushed slightly, turning her eyes away. Arthur knew he was never going to get tired of calling her that, if only to see that same adorable reaction every time. “No, thank you. It’s not a hassle, really. It allows me some time to think. Just leave your clothes sitting outside and I’ll see to them.” She fiddled with the collar of her blouse, then said sweetly, “Well, anyway, you have a good night, Arthur.” She looked at him then, and her eyes glowed as those lips lifted into another beautiful smile.

Damn, he wanted so badly to kiss her again, he thought, he wanted to taste those lips of hers once more. But before he could think to make any sort of move, she turned away and made her way back towards the kitchen.

Arthur watched as she shut the door softly behind her, leaving him alone on the large couch.

He looked down at the soft red fabric she’d just gifted him with. Running his hand across it, he noted how silky and smooth the texture felt underneath his fingers. There was no doubt in his mind that this cloth had definitely cost a pretty penny. So she had ordered this before she’d moved up here?

Arthur remembered her talking about having grown up on a plantation, and he found himself wondering where exactly she was truly from. Who was she really, he thought. Did she actually come from a family of wealth? If so, what exactly happened that made her want to leave? He recalled her saying something about ‘not wanting to stay cooped up’ there. But that couldn’t be all there was to it, so what was the true reason? He couldn’t fathom why anyone would want to give up a life of luxury to live out in the damn woods …

If anything, Arthur thought, she was just as mysterious to him as he no doubt was to her.

Later that night

Arthur found himself standing in the middle of a heavy fog, unable to see anything past the thick haze surrounding him. He looked around, but there was absolutely nothing. No sound, no voices, just complete silence. Where the hell was he now?

Suddenly the sound of a stick snapping resonated in the distance, and Arthur jerked his head in the direction he’d heard it from. But nothing seemed to give itself away, and he started to feel his agitation grow. “Who’s out there?” He shouted, swiping violently at the thick mist with his arms, trying to take a few steps forward as he did so.

A wet drop landed on his cheek, and Arthur looked up. It was starting to snow, the frozen drops beginning to fall slowly from the sky around him, and the ground beneath him quickly began to get covered in a thick blanket. What in the damn hell was going on? He squinted, trying his best to see anything, anything at all, but he could see nothing but the color white. White fog, white ground, white snow, white sky. Why was there so much damn white?

Feeling nearly helpless, though he hated to think of himself in that term, Arthur began to walk forward, taking one slow step at a time. He wasn’t sure what he would walk into, or hell, there was probably a large cliff up ahead for all he knew, but he couldn’t stay here. He continued swiping at the fog in an effort to clear up a small path in front of him, but the effort did nothing to help clear his vision what so damn ever.

Time seemed to pause, and Arthur kept moving, feeling the snow land on his shoulders and hair as he continued through the fog.

Arthur stopped, spotting a dark shadow in the distance. From what he could barely make out, it looked like a creature of some kind … the deer again? He moved closer, crouching low to the ground in hopes of not spooking it as he slowly began to approach. As the distance grew shorter, the fog began clearing up, and Arthur suddenly found himself mesmerized.

Not a deer.

It was a wolf.

The dark creature had long, greasy black fur, and Arthur couldn’t see its face as it wandered over the peak of a tall hill off in the distance, sniffing at the cold ground as if it were searching for something. The wolf didn’t seem to notice him, but Arthur could sense some sort of strange feeling coming from the creature, as if it was lost or afraid, or maybe both. It even looked like it was ready to attack anyone that came near it to defend itself.

He took another step towards it, somehow feeling drawn to its presence. Despite not making a sound, the wolf’s head jerked up and looked in his direction, and Arthur stilled, his heart feeling like it had suddenly stopped beating in his chest.

Two large scars ran across the right side of the wolf’s face … its eyes — they were completely white, as if it was blind?

Could it see anything?

The wolf growled, baring its sharp teeth in his direction. Arthur raised his hands up, an attempt to try and tell the creature that he meant no harm — even though he had no clue why doing so was his first thought.

The dark creature crept backwards, withdrawing slowly as if it were afraid of him, but shouldn’t it be the other way around?

Arthur somehow felt compelled to approach, and he tried to move forward in an effort to get closer.

The wolf sprinted, turning its tail away as it fled from him.

“Wait!” Arthur called out, and suddenly he was able to run, drifting quickly through the heavy snow and fog so he didn’t lose sight of the black wolf. He had no idea why he was chasing after it, but hell, there was nothing else here! And those scars …

As he ran through the fog, tall trees began to appear. One to his left, two to his right, until he was running through a dense snow-covered forest.

Arthur stopped in his tracks, trying to catch his breath. There was a sudden sharp pain in his lungs, and he felt like he could barely breathe. He looked around as he panted, and he saw the wolf standing not too far off.

It had stopped. Its ears were perked up, and it appeared as though it had spotted something.

Arthur squinted in the direction it was looking … and there he saw the deer.

The large animal was grazing at a small patch of green grass, the only color in this world of black and white, as if it was the only source of life here. Arthur looked back over at the wolf, and he noticed that it suddenly looked hungry.

His eyes widened and he tried to move forward, somehow compelled to stop the impending attack.

But that’s not what happened.

No.

The deer lifted its head from the grass and looked over at the wolf, as if it had known all along that the feral beast was nearby.

Arthur noticed it instantly — the deer had his own eyes again. That familiar reflection of blue adding color to the land devoid of any other next to the green grass. It was almost as if it represented something, but for what? The deer? The wolf?

The wolf and deer seemed to take each other in.

Long moments passed, and Arthur couldn’t move, his body caught in some kind of invisible hold.

The black wolf began to creep forward, and the deer actually took a step in the predator’s direction. Both of the animals seemed to hesitate at first, but as they drew closer to each other, some kind of bond began to form.

The deer leaned forward as the wolf reached out, each of their noses nearly touching as they stared at one another, cloudy eyes meeting blue.

Silence.

Both of the creatures seemed at peace, as if they understood each other in some kind of mysterious way. The deer lifted its head away and began walking in no particular direction, merely meandering as the wolf decided to follow.

Arthur felt his body suddenly start to become air, as if he were being lifted into some kind of haze as he watched the unlikely pair saunter side by side through the trees.

What happened next, Arthur couldn’t explain.

A sharp gunshot sounded out, followed by a loud thunderous noise that echoed through the sky like a storm. Both of the animals jerked their heads, as if they had no clue where the ominous sounds had come from. The deer nudged the wolf’s neck and began to run, the wolf following close behind. Arthur felt himself being carried with them, an invisible aura able to do nothing but spectate what played out before him.

The two ran for days, it felt like. Weeks, months, years … What was only just a short time felt as though it stretched on forever, and they just kept on running, continuing to dodge whichever direction the repeating gunshots were coming from. Faster and faster they ran together, until the land around them was nothing but a white and gray blur.

That gray blur suddenly became green, and the sky turned from white to blue. Soon after the deer and the wolf suddenly ran into a clearing of open grassy fields, the land beyond completely covered in lush greenery and flora. They ran until both of them reached a cliff.

The wolf stopped right on the edge, but the deer leapt over it and into the air, suddenly fading away, disappearing abruptly from the wolf’s side into a glimmering gold mist.

The black wolf was left alone to stand over the tall cliff, looking down on what lied before him. Arthur looked over the landscape, taking in what the wolf saw.

It was some kind of ranch, a place that somehow felt welcoming and safe … he looked over at the wolf and saw them then and there.

John’s clear brown eyes.

•••••

— To Be Continued

#unshaken #chapter 8 #part 8 #arthur morgan x reader #arthur morgan x female reader #slow burn #romance #arthur morgan #fanfic #red dead fanfic #rdr2 fanfic #red dead #rdr2 #red dead redemption #red dead redemption 2 #red dead redemption imagine

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spectralreplica · 5 years ago

Note

So I loved your response on who would be most likely to witch out in the PMMM/DR v3 au, but id love to ask, what did they all wish for? (Bonus: Also did those wishes backfire?)

So, these are my thoughts for right now, but if I actually planned more of the “story” for this AU, some of them might change. For some of them I kind of cheated and came up with the power first, but in my defense it’s hard to come up with wishes without having planned more of the plot, since Kyubey tries so hard to get people to make spur of the moment wishes during times of stress.

Kokichi: I see him as totally paranoid (rightfully so) over how Kyubey’s trying to trick him but still obsessing for weeks over the perfect phrasing for a wish just in case, and then suddenly a witch traps him and DICE in a Labyrinth and he ends up contracting with a totally spontaneous wish. Something like “saving my friends” or “being strong enough to protect my family.” For maximum irony, he’d end up with powers that get stronger when fighting with/to protect others but keep trying to fight alone anyway due to not trusting other magicals and not wanting to put DICE in danger. He’d also tell people he wished for other things like, “to rule the world from the shadows,” or “an infinite supply of scarfs.” As for backfiring, he does save everyone that one time, but they’re in more danger since other magicals end up targeting them when Kokichi poaches from their territories, plus they’re in the line of fire if/when he witches out.

Kaito: Like in the game, Kaito is terminally ill and wishes for something along the lines of “being healthy enough to achieve his dreams,” but he totally lies and says he wished for something like “being strong enough to help others.” He gets the power to temporarily boost other people’s powers and/or make their bodies regenerate from wounds. He kind of avoids using the healing part at first because it’s a little suspicious with his alleged wish and then pretends it’s a thing he’s been practicing. It doesn’t really go bad for him, and I don’t think he’d regret making the wish, even when he finds out about the Soul Gems controlling your body thing. Maybe when he realizes there are no witches in space? But even then I think he’d be in denial…

Shuichi: Shuichi ends up involved in a really serious case and just can’t find the piece that ties it all together even though everyone is counting on him. At the height of his anxiety, Kyubey approaches him, and he wishes to find the truth. He basically gets super intuition/lie detection with a (mental) visual interface sort of like the DR trials (truth bullets plus the mini games). This creates drama with certain other magicals who are hiding something (cough, Kokichi and Kaito) and makes him doubt his skills since he’s relying on magic to cheat.

Maki: Still an orphan, still approached by a cult, but then approached by Kyubey. She wishes that the cult would never bother anyone at the orphanage again, and they all end up arrested, dead, or mysteriously vanished. She basically gets the power to make things/people “go away” to a pocket dimension only she can access, and this makes other people sort of forget those things/people exist while they’re inside. She sees her wish as a necessary sacrifice, like her becoming an assassin in canon, so she is Not Happy when Kyubey approaches some of the other orphans.

Kaede: Honestly not sure???? She doesn’t really have anything in her backstory that would be a catalyst for Kyubey to approach her, so I see it as more of a random chance, situation-based thing, like Madoka healing the cat. Maybe she was trapped in a Labyrinth and wished for the power to fight survive, or to save a friend? Just know it’s not related to her piano playing. That’s all practice, and she likes it that way.

(Joke answer: Kaede gets super mad at someone from a distance and wishes she could slap them across the face for being an idiot. She gets the power to telekinetically smack anything around from across the room.)

Himiko: Intrigued by the idea of real magic but not intrigued by the idea of having to fight witches. Ends up wishing for her mentor to be more popular. Not as mind-controlly as Kyoko’s wish; basically, people just find him really cool and talented and can’t look away from his shows, but they don’t like, form a cult? Sort of derails her own career as a magician (both because the audience likes her mentor more and because she has to sneak off and fight witches) and doesn’t really fix the problems in their relationship, but he doesn’t leave and never return. Anyway, she gets the power to make herself and anyone she touches more or less noticeable/popular. Really good for stealth or drawing aggro. Also for convincing people to do her favors.

Tenko: She recently moved to the city after living in a temple since she was a child, and is finding it hard to adjust. One night, when she’s out acting as a “hero of justice” like her Master taught her and preventing a suicide, she ends up trapped in a Labyrinth and saved by Himiko. She ends up really, really attached and sort of accompanies her on hunts for a while until something goes wrong, and she ends up wishing to protect Himiko. She ends up with sort of a sense when Himiko needs help and is really good at putting up shields/barriers.

Miu: Still in a bad car crash leading to a coma, butthe surgery doesn’t go as well. Kyubey approaches her in the hospital right after she’s been told she’s facing permanent brain damage. She almost wishes to put her brain back to normal but then decides, why stop there? She wishes to be a genius with a super-brain that can solve any problem, and ends up with super inspiration, mostly aimed at turning any materials around her into an invention that will help her. She can use magic to substitute for missing materials and speed up the development time, but this uses a lot of magic at once, and the finished product won’t work for anyone else. Freaks out when she learns her body is now essentially hardware, but then she realizes the possibilities for improving things… Then everyone else freaks out.

Gonta: Still a feral child who got lost in the woodsand was sort of raised by wolves (not reptites, sorry), but this affects his ability to learn language and social skills much, much more severely than in canon. Wishes for the ability to understand others, which makes him fluent in all languages and sort of an empath. Also, because he sees animals as sort of on the same level as humans, this extends to animal languages in addition to human ones. Being able to speak and mimic “good manners” improves others’ opinions of him and his intelligence, but being able to feel how his birth family really feels about him is so upsetting that he eventually ends up running away and staying with Miu and Kiibo.

Kiibo: Lives with Miu. Does not remember his wish, but he has powers, so he has to have made one? Probably human. I’m still sort of torn over his backstory, but I’m kind of leaning towards a Hijiri kind of situation, where he was created by someone else’s wish. Or magic (cough, Miu.)

Ryoma: Wishes to get revenge on the mafia that killed his family and girlfriend. Basically gets enhanced strength and a sort of sense of where all of the members are. I sort of went over how his wish ends up in the other post…

Korekiyo: Wished to cure his sister’s illness and got healing powers. Currently traveling the world to observe other magicals. Like the other cult members, offers to use his powers for a price (usually Grief Seeds or information).

Angie: Starts out living on an isolated island andacting as a priestess/oracle, but begins to doubt her own abilities/connection to her god because natural disasters are getting worse and more people are leaving. She sort of interprets Kyubey as a messenger from her god and wishes to know what’s really going on/get a better sense of her destiny. She gets the power to predict the future as long as she is personally involved. She has to actively focus on a question (What happens if I do this?) or a goal (I want to achieve this) and she’ll see the most probable path. This really elevates her sense of self-importance, and makes it much easier to make others see things her way. It doesn’t prevent a tsunami from destroying her home and making everyone leave, at which point she meets Tsumugi and Kirumi.

Tsumugi: Her life isn’t bad, but she doesn’t like herself that much and feels empty and unfulfilled until she comes across the existence of actual magical girls (well, one in particular). Like an anime come to life! Tsumugi wishes for the ability to become someone else (yes, I know this was Rena’s wish too…) and gets the power to transform into other people. If they’re a magical, she can also copy a limited, weaker version of their powers.

Rantaro: Wishes to find all of his sisters and gets the ability to track people. He has an inherent sense where each of his sisters is and their general emotional state, but he can also apply this power to other people if he focuses. It works from anywhere in the world and can be based on a photograph, but it works best when the person is close by (from a country away he knows they’re alive and northwest from him, from a building away he knows they’re sitting in a chair in the back corner of the back bedroom and feeling excited but a little nervous) and he’s met them in person. He quickly discovers that tracking a sister down once doesn’t mean she’ll stay “found” and go home. Some of them also want to travel, others have bad senses of direction and always get lost again, some find his new knowledge of where they are and how they feel super creepy and avoid him, and at least one became a magical girl already… He probably finds out about the witch thing first…….

Kirumi: Part of a family that’s been serving animportant, rich family (maybe Rantaro’s? for maximum irony?) for generations. She’s been trained to dedicate her whole life to serving others and has no real prospects outside of eventually becoming head maid and training her own children to replace her. Meets Angie and Tsumugi and is immediately drawn in by Angie’s message. Wishes for the ability to instantly transport herself and others and gets the ability to teleport to any location she’s seen (photos count). It gets harder the more people she takes along, the longer the distance, and the less detail she knows about her destination. She tells everyone—and herself—that she lives to serve and wished for a convenient power to better serve the group’s needs, but she secretly wanted to escape really badly for her own sake too.

#Ask #Anon #Long Post #DRV3/PMMM AU #Anonymous

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klynn-stormz · 4 years ago

Text

Legally Swan Chapter 7

Hey all! It's been way to long since I posted, medical and family issues got in the way for a bit.

So it's a few days till my birthday and I promised my self that for my birthday I would write another chapter of this, and when I started writing I actually wrote three more chapters! So now I might actually post a few weeks in a row! I hope you all enjoy the chapter!, let me know what you think :)

AO3: 1 I 2 I 3 I 4 I 5 I 6 I 7

Chapter 7

The next few months seemed to fly by, Emma was studying every moment of every day, Henry was right by her side, though she had him watching soap operas rather than studying law. She knew that she could prove Neal, and everyone that doubted her, wrong; It would take a lot of work and focus, but she could do it. Killian was a lifesaver, they met at least three times a week to study, and somehow that turned into Saturday movie nights and Sunday morning breakfasts as well. Honestly, next to Mary Margaret, whom she saw for regular manicure sessions and weekly lunches, he was her best friend. They had a lot in common from tragic backstories they had yet to share, to same music and movie tastes. She was sure she couldn’t have made it through all of this without him, it would be weird not seeing him when she went home for winter break.

Her favorite day so far had been when she was in Professor Humbert’s class discussing procedures for preparing a case.

“A claim has been filed and you are preparing your case. What is the first thing you need in order to continue the process?” Professor Humbert looked around the class, eyes landing on Emma. “Miss Swan, care to answer?”

Emma’s heart pounded, she could feel her hand begin to sweat and a bead of panic grew in her belly. She knew the answer, the question was whether she could say it without her voice shaking.

“You need evidence.” She answered as confidently as she could muster, there was a tinge of a question in her tone, but she thought she did better than she had thought she would.

The Professor nodded and then encouraged her. “Meaning?”

Oh shoot, she didn’t answer it fully. What was she supposed to say? It was something about support right? Or was it a whole other thing. She got the first part right, she could do this. She just needed to breath through the panic and answer. Oh hell, what if she got it wrong. Everyone here already thought she was a joke, they didn’t need to have confirmation. That’s why she hadn’t been speaking up much. Okay she really needed to talk now. It was talking to long for her to answer. She opened her mouth.

“Meaning you need a reasonable belief that the evidence would support your claim?” This time she couldn’t keep the questioning tone from making a full appearance. Her anxiety was at a full time high. Henry, who came to class with her and sat in her bag at her feet, leaned against her legs for support. There was a pause as the class and the Professor took in her answer. Then he smiled and nodded.

“Well done Miss Swan! Now class…” He continued talking but she had tuned it out. She did it! She had answered the question right, she had gotten both parts right. The rest of class seemed to rush by, she was out of class and in the next one quickly, still reeling from the fact that she had done it. After classes for the day she dropped Henry off at her apartment and texted Killian to meet her at the Rabbit Hole, she got there a little early and was practically bouncing in her seat.

“Swan!” Killian called as he entered the bar. He made his way over to her with a smile. “Your text sounded quite excited, love.”

“You could not tell that from the text.” Emma scoffed.

“Maybe not,” He admitted, his smile not dimming in the slightest. “but I could see you grinning from the entrance Swan, so I think I’ll stick with you inviting me here for good news.”

Emma grinned. “I was called on in class and gave the right answer.”

“Fantastic!” Killian cheered. He sat down, ordered, and insisted she tell him the whole story. Asking for arbitrary details and teasing her the whole way. “I believe we’ll need to toast your victory!”

---

They talked and drank for the next couple hours, keeping the talk away from school after Emma had finished her story, wanting a bit of a break from Law. Emma felt a pleasant buzz after a few drinks, deciding that switching to water might be best. Killian had the same thought, ordering a couple glasses for both of them.

“Time to switch to something much less inhibiting.” He announced, a tipsy leaning toward drunk grin on his face. “Now I believe this is the part of the night for tragic backstories love.”

Emma felt a knot in her gut begin to form, she didn’t know if she was ready for this, but at the same time she felt she could trust him. Maybe she would let him go first and keep her side as vague as possible.

“Alright Captain!” She found out that he had had that nickname in high school being the Captain of the school’s soccer (It’s football Swan!) team. “You first then!”

He smiled softly and sat back, he was probably going to regret this in the morning, but what was a few secrets given to Emma? Maybe he would just stay away from talking about how much he liked her, how he was fairly sure that he could easily fall in love with her, if he was half way there already. How strong he thought she was, and how much she had grown since coming here. If he was being honest with himself, he definitely couldn’t mention how he had never thought he would get over his first love, be able to move on, until he met her. No, best to stay away from all of that, he couldn’t bear to scare her off.

“My life most certainly isn’t that interesting Swan. But I’ll give you the run down anyway.” He threw back the rest of his water as if it were the rum he were so found of, wishing briefly for the burn of alcohol to help. He spoke of the small town in Ireland he was born in, of his older brother Liam and his mum. He told her about his mum’s illness and how she passed away just after he had turned 8. His no-good bastard of a father, leaving Liam and him in the middle of the night, just a few months after, never coming back.

Emma could here in his voice how much he loved Liam as he talked about how his 17-year-old brother took care of him, raised him, fought for custody of him and moved them to America as soon as he was 18 and had full custody of Killian. He talked of his brother joining the American Navy, of moving often but never worrying about that, as he had his brother with him. He spoke of his desire to join the Navy, enlisting on his 18th birthday, wanting to make his brother proud. He grew somber when he talked about Milah, an older woman he had begun a relationship with when he was 20. He talked of her with love and a longing in his eyes that gave Emma an unwanted twinge of jealousy. He spoke of how he had found out Milah was married, but separated from her husband, a prominent lawyer a few states up, telling of how lonely she was. Their relationship had grown and Killian admitted just how in love he was with her, then it all fell apart. There was a training accident, a bomb that should have been disabled, Killian was too close, Liam was closer. 4 men lost their lives, Liam included, and Killian lost his hand, most of the movement in his arm, and the last of his family. The pain in his voice was nearly unbearable for Emma to hear, but she listened, she sat and listened to all of the pain. To Milah rejecting him in favor of exploring the world as soon as her divorce was finalized, to him finding comfort only in his drink.

Then she could hear hope, the hope as one of his friends dragged him out of the bottle and cleaned him up. They helped him find a purpose again. One of the friends being Professor Graham Humbert, who helped him find his passion in Law. Now at nearly 30 years old he was in his last year of his graduate program with offers from a few different firms and finally in a good place. Finally he could see the light at the end of the tunnel, he had said as he had stared intently into her eyes.They sat in silence for a moment, Emma had never heard someone with as sad of a backstory as his, and yet he seemed so happy and optimistic all the time, it was hard to reconcile the two pieces of him she had now seen.

“Well you certainly underplayed the interest in your life Killian,” She said a last, figuring teasing him would help the melancholy she saw in his eyes.

“Well, maybe it’s because I’ve lived it, but it’s not the worst life there is Swan.” He responded, smiling slightly. “I believe you now owe me a story.”

She began her story, she had meant to pass over the details she preferred not to talk about, being left on the side of the road, while not her fault, was still something that shamed her. Her adoptive family giving her back when she was 3 because they got a real child was also painful. But she began to open up to him, she told him everything, talking about Ingrid changing her life, and even Neal’s assholishness. Then she told him her biggest secret, how much she loved law school and felt like she fit here, that maybe, as scared as she was to admit it, she could see a future here. When she had said that last line she had stared at him hard in turn. They laughed and talked for what seemed like hours, about nothing and everything at the same time. Bonding in a way she had never done with anyone before. When the bar had last call, they made their way into the chill of and autumn night. Killian walked her to her dorm opening the door with a flourish.

“Your home milady, safe and sound as promised.” His exaggerated bow making her roll her eyes and laugh.

“Thank you, Captain.” She grinned as she preforming a small curtsy.

Maybe it was the way her hair was shining like the sun as she laughed, or her eyes sparkling like emeralds when she rolled her eyes, but it made Killian want in a way he hadn’t in a long time. So, he took a chance.

“Ah, but is that all your safe return home is worth to you Swan?” He raised his eyebrow and tapped his lips softly. Her eyes narrowed a slight smile graced her face.

“Please,” Emma scoffed. “you couldn’t handle it.”

He moved closer to her, they were inches apart and he couldn’t take his eyes off of her. “Maybe you’re the one who couldn’t handle it.”

She lost her breath for a moment, staring into his ocean eyes, then moving to his lips. She moved quickly, grabbing his jacket and yanking him into herself. Their lips met in a clash of want and need. She let herself go for a moment, throwing everything into the moment with him. It was everything she had hoped it would be, and more. Then reality set in, she couldn’t do this now! She couldn’t get involved in something when she was still finding herself, not when she had come so far. She tore her lips away from his, letting her forehead rest on his for mere seconds, listening to their mingled pants.

“That was…” Killian began, his voice now rough with want.

“A one-time thing.” Emma claimed, stepping back and facing the door. “We never mention this again. We can’t.”

As she moved inside her dorm, she heard his soft reply. “As you wish.” And felt her heart beat quicken more, but she kept going.

---

Emma was terrified it would be awkward, that Killian would avoid her or they wouldn’t be the same as they were before. To her everlasting relief, when she saw him two days later, it was almost like it had never happened. Almost. She felt more aware of him now, noticing the way he moved to be closer to her, the way he leaned forward when he talked. She noticed the blue in his eyes brighten when he was happy, they darkened when he was talking about something he was passionate about. He scratched behind his ear when he was nervous, and she found it utterly adorable. Occasionally he would run his had through his dark hair, messing it up and making it fall over his forehead, this happened when he was tired or frustrated. She noticed to much, she knew it, but the kiss had changed everything, and she couldn’t help but file every little quirk away in her mind, and she hated how much she loved all of them. NO, not loved, she couldn’t love. Like. Like was better, she would go with that.

Time moved on, she completed her first semester and went home to spend time with Ingrid for winter. Grateful to be back in the warmth, she spent most of the time outside by the pool updating Ingrid on everything, Henry curled in a ball next to her, also enjoying the sun. Christmas had just passed two days before, she had two weeks before the next semester started up, and she was outside relaxing with Ingrid. The sky was a brilliant blue, reminding her of a certain blue-eyed law student back east. She wasn’t sure what he was doing for winter break, they hadn’t texted since the end of the semester, that was mostly her fault as she had told him how busy she would be (an obvious lie he had let pass). Realizing how much she missed him had been unsettling to say the least, and now, with her thoughts filled with him, she couldn’t resist.

E: Hey, hope your winter break is going good.

K: Swan! I was hoping you would call, I guess text in this case, at some point over the break!

E: Yeah, I was just thinking about school starting soon and wanted to see how you were.

K: No need to be modest Swan, it’s okay to admit that you were thinking about me ;)

E: …Did you really just wink at me through text?

K: Indeed! I can’t very well do it in person right now can I? My break has been going good, I was at a good friends home for Christmas, now it’s just catching up on studies for my final semester. How about yours love, is California treating you and Henry well?

E: I guess winking through text might be better, seeing as you can’t do it in real life any way.

K: Swan! I am hurt!

E: Uh-huh, I totally believe you… My break has been good, mostly just relaxing with my mom, it’s nice to be somewhere warm for Christmas.

They texted through the rest of the day, just talking, and it was nice. Every time he texted it brought a smile to her face, she really enjoyed having him to talk to. He asked about her day, he asked about Henry. And the dog in question had taken a liking to Killian as well, a good sign.

“So, who’s the boy?” Ingrid asked out of the blue, sipping her tea and keeping her eyes on her book.

“There’s no boy!” Emma said, thinking to herself that Killian wasn’t just a boy, he was most definitely a man… Nope couldn’t go down that road. Ingrid simply raised her eye brows and waited. Henry let out a bark at Emma, she looked at him and was sure if he had eyebrows they would be raised as well. Emma was never good at keeping secrets from her mother, so the whole story spilled out rather quickly. Ingrid listened then gave her advice.

“Darling, the man sounds smitten, what are you waiting for?” Causing Emma to sigh.

“I just don’t want to rush into anything mom, look at what happened with Neal! I don’t want that to happen again.”

“Neal was a completely different story, he was immature, didn’t listen to you, only talked about himself and was definitely not the one for you. This Killian sounds like he cares about you, listens to you, and helps you. You have to take a chance on love sweetheart.” Henry barked in agreement.

#cs fic #captain swan #captain swan fanfic #Legally Swan #cs ff

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writersrealmbts · 5 years ago

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Painted Crown: Part 3

Description: You have faithfully served the royal family for years. But as reality sets in, Jungkook, a prince from a neighboring kingdom, offers you something you had never dreamed of having.

Warnings: N/A

Posted: 08/26/2019

Tags: Jungkook x reader, Prince!Jungkook, Prince!Taehyung, Prince!Hoseok

?: 1,963 words

A/N: Third part! I have a total of 71 words for the next part, so I’m going to be buckling down here. I just got distracted watching Hwarang again, plus we got a puppy on Saturday and then had to give it back because our dog reacted to it in a really unusual way. So. Yeah. It’s been a rough weekend.

You quickly guided him another way, seeing Taehyung with the visiting princess. “Apologies, sir, I did not wish to run into—” “Taehyung,” He finished the thought. “I saw. I was about to suggest diverging, myself.” You fixed your gaze on the flowers in bloom. “There is already talk of them getting engaged. A long engagement, as it must be to allow for their parents to work out the details of their wedding, but still.” “They are very much in love, even if he does look to you still.” “I have ways of avoiding his majesty’s presence.” “I can take you away from him so you would never have to be in pain again, and he will no longer be distracted by you. He will do as his country needs,” He said, softly. You looked at him in the corner of your eye. “I would give you time to think about it, but we leave for my country on the morrow.” “Then I should wonder at you courting me at all,” You answered, looking away momentarily. You had enjoyed every moment spent with him, truly, but you weren’t certain you could go with him. “I am, for all intents and purposes, asking you to marry me. You would leave with us tomorrow, and we would wed in my kingdom.” He was almost pleading, but not quite. “I can make you comfortable for the rest of your life.” “There is no assurance you can give me that we would ever wed, nor insurance that our union would be welcomed. There would be no point.” You turned away slightly, surveying the ballroom. “My dowry would be inconsequential to a prince. Should you not marry in a way that benefits your kingdom?” “In marrying you, I would do the kingdom more good than if I were to marry some foreign princess who has never so much as lifted a finger for herself, let alone others. I know we haven’t had suffiecient time to court one another, I know that you do not feel for me as I do you. But I know that as my wife, you and I could help my kingdom in so many ways. I know that comfort is of little meaning to you, so I also offer adventure. I would only ask you to leave my side if the danger to you was greater than what I thought I could defend you from. I often travel throughout my country to help deal with problems, and you could travel by my side.” Your breath was caught in your chest, and you could see the gravity of his demeanor from the corner of your eye. Taehyung was all smiles with her, and you could see that he was in love with her. It was the same look he had when he was with his dogs, or a good tall tale. The same look he had when talking about art, or painting. His only hesitance was you. The kingdom needed a royal wedding. He needed to marry the princess. And you… Prince Jungkook took your hand, placing his ring in your palm. Your eyes widened as you looked up at him, facade completely destroyed by this gesture. “There, now you hold my power in the palm of your hand. My authority.” He was grinning, of all things. Like it was a challenge. Only, you were the prize he was aiming for. Very flattering. You looked down at his signet ring. Your father wouldn’t dare to disapprove, your mother would be overjoyed, were she alive. You’d have to take leave of the royal family, those you had served faithfully for so many years, however you knew that only Taehyung and his sister would truly care. “Well?” You closed your hand around it, and dropped a curtsy. “I would be honored, my prince.” “Truly?” He sounded surprised and excited. You peeked up at him and couldn’t help but smile as well. “I will make sure you never doubt your decision,” He told you eagerly, taking your unoccupied hand into his own and holding it as if it was delicate and precious. You felt your heart melt a little at the expression on his face, the way he looked at you, everything. “I will aim to please, sir.” “Jungkook,” He corrected gently. You bit your lip, then nodded slowly. “Jungkook.” “Y/n,” He said as he gently touched your cheek. “There will be much to prepare. You should pack. May I see you home, that I might ask your father’s permission?” You dipped your head. “We live in the castle, Pr—” His lips met yours ever so briefly, but so sweetly. You looked up at him, slightly dazed and surprised. “I told you, call me Jungkook,” He admonished sweetly. “Yes, Jungkook,” You whispered. He grinned at you. “You live in the castle?” “My father fell ill some years back, ever since we’ve lived in the castle so that the physician can watch his health. Since I’m one of the Princess’s ladies in waiting, it benefits us both if I am located in the castle,” You explained, taking the arm he offered you. “Our lands are far enough away that it was inconvenient for the physician.” He nodded slowly. “I see. Would he be willing to have company?” “I am certain he will.” “Your father, would he wish to…” “My father has little tolerance for travel, and is loyal adviser to the king. He will likely only attend the wedding and visit every now and then when he feels up to it. It will pain him having me so great a distance away, but he will be happy for both of us.” Jungkook nodded, resting his free hand over the hand you had on his arm. “Do you think he would be willing to part with you?” “If he believes I will be content.” “Do you believe you will be content?” You thought for a moment, looking up at him as you walked. “I think…I hope I will be.” Honestly, the prospects for marriage weren’t good for you. It was unlikely that you marry for love, but if your impression of him was a good indication, you could see how you could quickly fall for him. Indeed, you had already begun. His kindness, and his enthusiasm, the way he handled you so delicately as if you were a precious thing to be cherished; all were alluring in their own way. But most of all, you trusted him. He was so sincere and open, that it was hard not to. And every story and piece of gossip painted him as a bright, caring prince, who worked hard to ensure that his father’s country thrived. He toured the many cities to ensure they were all stable and safe, review the garrisons, check the buildings to ensure they were warm for winter, and he and his brother had personally seen to one of the old manor’s conversion into a home for children. “Jungkook! There you are. And my lady y/n, a pleasure.” Hoseok grinned as he dipped his head to you. “How are the gardens today?” “Rather romantic, it would appear, Prince Hoseok,” You replied. “You’d best not enter with a lady, lest you be trapped with her forever.” “If I should be so fortunate as to be trapped with a lady such as yourself, I would consider myself exceedingly fortunate, but it appears my brother has earned that privilege.” “Hyung, we’re on our way to meet her father.” Hoseok’s grin, if possible, got even broader. “Father will be pleased. You will travel back with us, y/n?” You nodded. “Unless my father does the unthinkable and refuses. Even then, I cannot stay here.” “You will make a fine princess, y/n,” He said with a bow. “I will let you both be on your way. I’ll make sure Yoongi prepares for you to join us on our return journey.” “Thank you, my lord.” He bowed again as you curtsied and walked off with a bounce in his step. “It is somewhat unorthodox for the younger to be married before the elder,” You pointed out to Jungkook. He shrugged. “My father wishes him to marry the princess of another kingdom we are in good relations with. Hoseok is not quite ready for that, so it has been put off for now.” “But he has no qualms regarding you and marrying a mere lady of the court?” “Our country is strong, as you already know. One strategic marriage is enough for our country. In a test of will, I outlast my father every time, but he already said having a happy marriage will be better for our country than a second strategic marriage which could cause conflict with our current allies. Our people have worried that we are unhappy. They fear it could lead to instability, which ultimately affects their lives.” He guided you indoors, facing you and tilting your chin up to meet his gaze. “My brother was correct. You will make an excellent princess.” You studied his face. “Will I travel with you?” “If you wish to. I will never ask you to part from me, but I would wish that you stay away from the most dangerous of situations.” “I think that sounds like a fair compromise,” You said, looking down with a smile. “But maybe I shouldn’t be a princess.” “You will be my wife, which makes you a princess. You know how a princess behaves. You’ll do well. I know you will. And we can collect ingredients for paints while we travel,” He suggested, brightening up visibly. You grinned. “That could be very fun.” “And maybe I could paint you?” He asked, looking at you with such innocence that it was nigh on irresistible. “Perhaps you may. We would be seeing quite a lot of each other. Nothing quite so modern, though, imagine if someone were to see it.” He chuckled softly. “That would be quite the scandal.” “Don’t laugh, I’m perfectly serious,” You scolded lightly, smiling and laughing a little with him. “Y/n!” You flinched and then dropped a curtsy at the severe tone of the young princess. “Princess, my apologies, I did not see you there.” She gave you a pouty look. “It is Monday, we ride on Monday but you were not there! I had to go with my brother and his…whatever she is.” “The princess your brother is courting may very well be your future sister, try to have patience. I apologize for not riding out with you this morning, something else came up that prevented my enjoying your company. Perhaps we could go riding in the morn?” She grinned, her smile similar to her brothers, yet cute in it’s one way. “Really?” “I would not have said if I could not follow through, my lady. If you could pardon us for now, though, we must go speak to my father.” She nodded, taking on a regal air. “Yes, you are dismissed. Give Lord Henley my regards.” You gave a sharp nod of approval, making her eyes sparkle with delight as she flounced off happily. “I see. They made you her lady in waiting to teach her how to properly conduct herself.” “I’ll have to tell her I’m leaving,” You murmured, looking after her sadly. “And make arrangements for another companion for her.” “Sorry,” He said softly. “No, it would happen eventually,” You replied, taking his arm once more, and looking up at him. “This lighting is very good for you.” He smiled. You stopped him in front of a door. “Ready?” “To make you my wife? Yes.” His shoulders seemed to get broader, and his whole posture screamed ‘Royalty’. You impulsively kissed his cheek, then entered the sitting room. “Father?”

—--

Part 2 ~ Part 4

Masterlist ~ Jungkook Masterpost

#painted crown fic #jungkook x reader #jeon jungkook #prince!jungkook #royalty au #bts #bts fic

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talpup · 5 years ago

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Chaos: 42

So I got what I consider good news from my Doctor today. He wants to make a case study of me. Yes, I might being a boring introvert that might one day be a bionic woman with all my joints replaced; but at least doctors find me interesting. LOL. The study might not mean much for me directly; but it might help other doctors better understand and treat patients with both hEDS and RA, and other illnesses caused by what I call the two big bads. Considering I’ve seen doctors who literally had to look up what hEDS is, this is something I see as a BIG win. So here I am wanting to celebrate with you all but updating my three main fics. Apologies to Erase the Shadow readers, I don’t have a lot for you; I promise I’m not drawing out the AizawaxReaderxMic smut scene to tease. Anyway, here you all go. I hope these updates can share a portion of my happiness with you.

Summary: The day Aizawa Shouta betrayed his Love was the day the Daimon lost everything that mattered in his life. Now, with her awake from her slumber and memory wiped, he has another chance at having her and being happy. There’s only the small problem of heaven wanting his Love dead, and hell wanting control of her. And her promise to protect and help another. Oh! And her remembering what he did.

But Shouta has waited so long to have her back. Has planned and taken measures to see his Love protected. He won’t loose her this time. He’ll do anything to keep her safe, and stop her from remembering his betrayal. Cost and consequences be damned.

Though it really is a shame that the cost just might bring about Chaos.

Please remember, this fic is rated explicit and has warnings of violence, sex, questionable con, and non-con (though we’re thankfully done with that), and other possible triggers.

***If you prefer reading off AO3 here’s the link for that: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20155333/chapters/55634299

I write for my own enjoyment, but edit and post for yours. If you enjoyed reading this at all please comment and let me know. It’s the only thing that encourages me to keep editing and posting.

Thank you to those who have left hearts. And a great big THANK YOU to those who have left comments or re-blogged. They really mean a lot.

As always, an extra special thank you to @inorganicone2230 for their encouragement and friendship, and help brainstorming. Your thoughts and our chats mean a lot.

42.1

“Sister. I’ve been expecting you.” The Nenu spoke.

“Sister?” Enji looked at Reyanna, flames igniting around him.

The Bitch had betrayed his son and tricked them all. Reyanna wasn’t helping the Child of Hope. She was working with the children of Chaos to wreck any hope they had of closing the gates to hell.

Enji bared his teeth. “Todoroki, get behind me. I’m going to fry that Abomination.”

Hitoshi tensed thinking for a moment that the Archangel was referring to him. After all that’s what Thirds were often called, whether they were born or made.

“I should've known.” Enji growled, stepping closer to Reyanna. “Toshinori called you an abomination once. I should've known then that you were more disgusting and twisted than simply being a Nephilim Whore.”

Shouta growled, pulling Reyanna behind him.

He had known that this was a fools errand that would end no other way then badly; but seeing as he hadn’t had a say… Hell, the only reason he was here was because Todoroki had insisted they needed him.

Shouta had no doubt that Reyanna would've tried slipping through to Oblvi without him. As if he hadn’t been tracking her through the Tie she had yet to break, and wouldn't have followed.

The Tie. If she had yet to sever his tie to her that surely meant she still wanted him. Dabi’s Tie was still in place as well. Would a Tie be able to compel a demon with a soul?

Hizashi stepped in front of heavens Second Chief. “Think about what you’re saying, Enji. We all know who and what Reyanna is. Do you really think Lucifer would claim a child that wasn’t his? She’s a nephilim. The first true nephilim. That thing is either mistaken or lying to divide us.”

“We’re already divided.” Shigaraki muttered.

The Demon’s red eyes caught Kai inching closer to Todoroki and stomped a foot. The ground decayed in a jagged line toward the Daimon General.

Kai glared at Shigaraki, steps halted.

“My son doesn’t have a blade. Why does she have such a weapon and not Todoroki? He’s a true born nephilim same as she. And the way that she aged... Todoroki didn’t age like that.” Enji scowled at her. “What she did wasn’t natural. And we all know where unnatural things stem from.”

“How could she be a child of Chaos if she’s the daughter of Lucifer and a human woman?” Shouta questioned irritably.

He wanted to call forth his blade but knew such an act would only escalate things. They should be focused on the real threat. That Beast likely called Reyanna his sister knowing the trouble it would cause, and Enji was stupid enough to fall for it.

“And who’s to say that her mother wasn’t some kind of Third?” Enji shot back.

Shouta’s eyes narrowed.

He knew Reyanna better than anyone. Yes, she was special. Different. But that was because she was a full, true born nephilim. There were no others like her to gauge her by. Expect now there was, Shouta thought.

Todoroki. If he really was Enji’s son, then the boy was just like Reyanna. Only he was nothing like Reyanna. Logic should dictate that Todoroki, being the Llaes, would have greater power than Reyanna, not less. But, like Enji said, Reyanna had a blade and had aged extraordinarily fast. Just two of the many notable differences between her and Todoroki.

“I am.” Kai said, in answer to the Archangels question.

They all turned to the Daimon General.

“I watched over Reyanna’s mother during her pregnancy. I was there for Anna’s birth. The woman who bore her was no Third. Not even a made one. She was fully human.”

Kai honestly didn’t care if they all turned on and killed each other; but there was a literal Beast to deal with. The thing was more powerful than any Leviathan. He could sense it. They all could.

That was probably why Enji was focused on Reyanna, Kai thought with huffing distaste. Better to face a beatable problem rather than the impossible one. But if he couldn’t get near enough to kill Todoroki, and was to have any hope of making this place his kingdom, then that Beastly Third needed to be put down. And he couldn’t do it alone.

“Can we focus on the more pressing issue here.” Dabi spoke up. “Like, what do we do?”

“We fight.” Hawks stated.

At Hawks’ ill spoken words, Shouta, Enji, Kai, and Reyanna’s blades dropped into their hands; only instead of looking toward the Beastly Third, they were eyeing each other.

“I mean.” Dabi stressed loudly. “What do we do about finishing the task and getting outta here.” He looked at Todoroki. “It’d be nice to know what we’re doing here, Kid. You know. Before we all kill each other or die horribly at the fangs and claws of that thing.”

Todoroki gulped when all eyes turned to him. Nephilim and Llaes he may have been, but he was still just a boy of seventeen.

“It’s okay.” Reyanna soothed. “No pressure.”

“No pressure?” Dabi echoed. “Did you already forget about the huge moster wanting to tear us apart.”

“Maybe she is working with it.” Shigaraki commented, watching Reyanna critically.

Shouta sneered at the red-eyed Demon. “Shut it.”

“Why hasn’t it attacked?” Hawks wondered.

Todoroki’s bi-colored hues looked about, overwhelmed.

“Hey.” Reyanna put a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t listen to them. Don’t look at the threat. I’ll take care of it.”

Shouta opened his mouth to contest. She wouldn’t be taking care of that monstrous thing. He would be taking care of her, and getting her out of here.

“You just do what you need to.” Reyanna went on. “Though it would be nice to know what that is. Sooner, rather than later.”

“I need to get to the room where the sealed Leviathan's are kept.” Todoroki said.

“Any idea where that is?” Hizashi asked. green eyes taking in the literal mountain of a castle behind the Beastly Third.

Shouta looked back at Hizashi. The Angel sounded distracted. He knew Hizashi well enough to know that a distracted Hizashi was a thinking Hizashi. The Angel had picked up on something and was trying to piece it together in his head.

Todoroki nodded. “I know exactly where the room is Though it’ll take a while to get there. It’s in the center of the castle.”

“Of course it is.” Dabi muttered.

His turquoise eyes narrowed at the Beast at the top of the stairs. The Creature had so much as moved. If he hadn’t been able to feel the raw chaotic power radiating off the thing, he might’ve thought it was an illusion.

“Then let’s go.” Reyanna said, gaze finally turning back to the Winged Man-Beast.

It hurt her eyes to look at him. The fact that his hulking beastly frame and more human one were somehow one and the same made it impossible to focus on either.

Todoroki shook his head. “No. You have to stay here.”

Reyanna looked back at him, eyes wide and concerned. Had Enji’s words gotten to him? Did Todoroki no longer trust her?

“I swore to protect you.”

“Your promise to help me finish this is more important.”

“But--” Reyanna fell silent.

How could she keep that promise if she didn’t protect him? Was she doomed to lose Todoroki like she had all the others? And when they had come so far. Would she ever make good on her promise to Abril, and be able to just live in peace with Shouta? But she and Shouta were no more. Their Bond was broken, and he had betrayed her. If, when she helped Todoroki finish this there would be nothing left for her. Not without Shouta to live with and rest in. Without the promise of peaceful living with her Love, what was the point of all this?

“Hitoshi will go with me. He’ll see me safe.” Todoroki said.

The Were stepped to his boyfriend’s side. “Always.”

Todoroki’s blank expression softened. He looked back at Reyanna. “You have to stay here. I won’t be able to enter the chamber unless you do.”

Reyanna’s eyebrows knitted together. Would the room remain locked if she were around? Why? She would bust the damned door open. She would obliterate it and anything else that got in her way of helping Todoroki finish this.

Todoroki took a cue from her and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Stay here. Fight. Listen. Open your senses and understand. I won’t be able to enter the room until you fully do.”

“So what are you gonna do? Walk right passed that beast and enter?” Dabi asked, unnerved that the Creature still hadn’t moved.

“Yes.” Todoroki took Hitoshi’s hand and tugged him along.

“Wha—wait! Todo!” Hitoshi stumbled after him.

“It’ll be fine.” Todoroki soothed, taking and exhaling a measure breathe. “He’s not interested in us.”

“Alright…” Hitoshi tensed as walked on.

Why wouldn’t the damned thing move? Not that Hitoshi wanted it to move. He wanted to think that the thing was a huge statue. But thanks to it talking, he knew that it was most definitely real and alive.

“You’re a Third. He wouldn’t harm you.” Todoroki said.

“A made Third! And one that’s helping and working with you and them.” Hitoshi jerk his head behind him.

“You’re still one of his people.”

“So what if he thinks I’m some sort of Brutus, or orders me to turn on you all and kills me when I don’t?”

“He won’t do either of those things. You’re too insignificant to him.”

“Thanks for that.” Hitoshi grumbled, frowning pout tugging at his lips.

Todoroki’s thumb rubbed against the back of Hitoshi’s hand. “I said too insignificant to him. Now I can’t talk anymore. Not till we get passed him and inside.”

“Why?”

“He can’t see me but he’ll still be able to hear me.”

“What? Why--”

“Quite.” Todoroki hushed.

Right, Hitoshi thought. Better not to pass the huge, scary Beast while talking to someone the thing couldn’t see.

As the two boys neared, Hitoshi unwilling changed into his cat form. He scowled, trying to shift back to human but couldn’t. It was as if some other power had forced him to change and was keeping him that way.

His heart began to race. What if it was this place? Oblvi was the home of the Thirds. What if being here somehow made him more Third than human? What if the longer he stayed here the more Were he became? What if he lost his mind and became like other mindless made Were’s? What if he stayed like this, unable to change back to human? What if--

Todoroki’s fingers pet through the large, purple Cat’s fur.

Hitoshi’s mind stilled. He focused on the calming touch and forced himself to relax.

Reyanna watched the boy she swore to protect walk up and passed the man-beast. This wasn’t right. Nothing felt right. Yet, for the first time in her long life a piece of her that had always felt wrong was beginning to feel at ease. It was like a final puzzle piece that you had to fiddle with to get in place; only she wasn’t sure she wanted to adjust and let everything fall into place, afraid of the image it would make.

Shouta tenderly gripped her arm. “Anna.”

“Reyanna.” The Nenu frowned, eyes refocusing.

He had tried to speak to his Father; but like every other time since the beginning of his absence, Chaos had remained silent. What made this youngest child of Chaos so special? His Father had gone to the place of order called earth to create her. Chaos had even spoken to the woman a couple of times. The Nenu had heard his Father’s ancient and distant voice echoing through the cosmos as Chaos had done so.

His Father had told her to take her rightful place and make them bow. To make all of them bow.

The Nenu snarled wanting to call upon his people to expunge the blight that was his youngest sibling. But he had told his people to stay away. He hadn’t liked the interest many had shown in her. It was bad enough that half of each of the Janus’ had said that Reyanna would unseat him from his throne. Then again two-faced as they were, half of their psyche would say that.

But that didn’t explain why over four centuries ago the Great Rock had moved his colony from Oblvi to a place called Purgatory Chasm on earth. Why had the gargoyle ruler been so interested in seeing their weakling sister for himself?

In the end the Great Rock had been slain by Reyanna. And why had Reyanna ended the Great Rock’s life and humiliated him by cutting off his chin? Because some within the Great Rock’s colony had attacked her Daimon lover.

The Nenu’s eyes bore into Reyanna’s so called Love. Aizawa Shouta. A Seraphim Chief that had personally ended countless of the Nenu’s kin and oversaw the deaths of countless more. Aizawa had been one of the ones that had rained fire from heaven down on his kind, him and the other three Archangel’s standing with him.

But Aizawa was no long an Archangel. The Seraphim had turned against his own kind. He had lost his grace and fallen. And this was who his sister chose to bind herself to? Some shifting creation of God that went against his Lord and kin for his own aims and purposes. Did Reyanna really think that a man like that could be loyal and true no matter what?

The only reason Aizawa had stayed with her this long was because he had yet to learn what Reyanna fully and truly was, and what she had unknowingly done. Once the Daimon found that out, his love would end and he would leave her. And in the wreckage he left her in, the Nenu would strike. For the memory of his Leviathan siblings and the last Great Rock, and the sake of his people the Nenu would strike this weak, sorry excuse for a sister down and end her.

The Nenu shrunk, turning into a winged human as three creatures broke off from him.

“Shit!” Shouta cursed.

“It can do that!” Hizashi exclaimed.

“I am the first son of Chaos and you are in my land. There is nothing I cannot do.” The Nenu said.

“Not fair!” Hizashi shot back.

“Are those his pets?” Shigaraki wondered, head tilting.

“Who gives a fuck! Where the hell did he come from?” Dabi demanded.

“They’re him.” Reyanna said.

Hawks chanced a glance at her. “What?”

She squeezed her eyes shut. The world around her spun. Great. Now there were four things that were both massive creature and winged man.

“They’re all him!” She shouted.

“Does she mean that they share the same mind?” Hizashi wondered, both interested and afraid.

“Maybe he has some sort of psychic control over the things.” Hawks ventured.

“What the hell does that matter? Kill them!” Enji bellowed.

“Good luck with that, all three beasts are the size of a large Leviathan. A team of our size would barely be able to take down one.” Kai remarked, eyes beginning to glow with his power.

“Not helping!” Dabi yelled. “By the way, I call the winged man. You guys can deal with the beasts.”

“Wait!” Hizashi’s head whipped back to Reyanna. “How do you know that they’re all him?”

Reyanna squinted at the original Nenu still at the top of the stairs. “How do you not! Just looking at him makes my head want to split open.”

Shouta's eyes narrowed. “Why? What do you see?”

“Both of him, as one.”

“Both of him?” Shouta echoed.

He looked back at the Nenu. What was the winged fiend doing to his Love? What did she mean by both of him?

“Shou…” Hizashi glanced at Reyanna. “I got a really bad feeling about this.”

Shouta grunted thinking that he had a bad feeling about this since the very first time he heard Reyanna call Abril the Llaes. “Look at that man and tell me what you see, Yamada.”

“A well dressed, all be it scary winged man.” Hizashi answered.

Shouta sighed. So it wasn’t something he was missing, it was something only Reyanna was seeing. Shit.

He should’ve taken her and locked her away the moment he had tied himself to her. He should've kept her tied to the bed and flinted them to a sealed room the moment Lucifer had released the bit of her life force. Instead, his desire to see his Love happy had won over his need to protect her and now they were here. He had failed his Love yet again, and this time they would both pay the price with their lives.

“I’m not dead yet.” Shouta growled lowly, fingers rapping against the hilt of his blade. “Dabi! Stay with Anna. Protect her.”

Dabi nodded. Before he could make a move he felt the compel of the Tie begin to burn within him.

“Really! We’re back to that! I was gonna do it! You don’t have to compel me.”

“Dabi. Stay near Shouta. Watch his back.” Reyanna commanded.

“You too!” Dabi complained.

Well as long as they stay together there shouldn’t be a problem, Dabi thought. I doubt Aizawa's gonna be leaving Anna’s side if he can help it.

“Have we picked our teams?” The Nenu at the top of the stairs asked. He was in front of Reyanna quicker than any archangel or daimon could flint. “Cause I’m ready to begin.”

#bnha #aizawa shouta #todoroki enji #todoroki shouto #shinsou hitoshi #hizashi yamada #bnha hawks #dabi my hero academia #shigaraki tomura #kai chisaki #yandere aizawa #yandere #my hero academia #chaos

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makeste · 6 years ago

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BnHA Chapter 202: Rival Break and the 3rd Set

Previously on BnHA: Momo made a giant cannon and used it to fire a bag of emergency supplies over the onomatopoeia wall back to her pals. The bag contained some fungicide which Tokoyami and Hagakure doused themselves with to ward off Toadette’s horrific quirk. It also contained a pair of night vision goggles which Toko used to track down Toadette and Kuroiro. For a moment it looked like he had them both contained, but then Toadette sprouted some mushrooms in Toko’s fucking windpipe, cutting off his air supply and causing him to release them. Meanwhile Kendou showed up to rescue Manga from Hagakure’s flurry of invisible attacks. She’d managed to knock Momo out, but not before Momo sprouted a bunch of steel cables from her left side to tie Kendou up and attach herself to her while she herself was still attached to the giant cannon. So basically she slowed her way down, and tbh they would have had this if Hagakure and Tokoyami (and Aoyama, who got captured before any of them) hadn’t dropped the ball. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. But anyway, so the round went to B Team, and now the classes are tied and we’re about to move into the third round.

Today on BnHA: Since Momo and Kendou’s teams absolutely trashed the battlefield, Aizawa and Vlad announce a short break before the start of round 3. All Might takes Deku aside and asks him if things are all right with his quirk. Deku says he’s fine, only to be interrupted by Kacchan who’s all THE FUCK ARE Y’ALL DOING HAVING THIS WEIRD CONVERSATION SO CONSPICUOUSLY and he makes them fill him in. Kacchan’s response to the whole OFA situation is to basically egg Deku on to become stronger already, and it fucking works is the thing, so y’all know this one-page conversation is easily the most “!!!!” I’ve been about this series in fucking ages omg. But anyways, so then round 3 starts up with Team TetsuPonyHoneSen VS Team TodoIidaShoujiRo. Shouto briefly thinks back to when he was like six fucking years old and Endeavor was trying to teach him a new fire technique by being an abusive dick. Shockingly this method didn’t pan out, but Shouto’s been thinking about it again recently since watching his dad battle the Noumu at Fukuoka. Meanwhile Iida is hyped to win since he’s representing his brother as the successor to the Ingenium name. And Tetsu is also hyped because he’s always fucking hyped! So basically everyone is getting ready to do their best and this should be good!

(As always, all comments not marked with an ETA are my mostly-unspoiled reactions from my first readthrough of this chapter. I’m caught up with the manga now at chapter 223, so any ETAs will reflect that.)

oh wow Toadette is actually offering Tokoyami a throat lozenge like I was joking about earlier. haha. only the reason it was a joke on my part is because I thought it was fairly obvious that a fucking lozenge wasn’t exactly going to do much to help after you sprouted fucking mushrooms all along the inside of his goddamn windpipe! these kids are fucking savages I swear to god. they’re out for blood

anyways he’s still coughing and hacking and she’s telling him to go see Recovery Girl before this turns into one of those hanahaki fics

meanwhile Momo also appears to be ill after using her quirk as much as she did, and she’s shaking and doesn’t seem to be able to stand, so two sarcastic asshole robots are wheeling her off to RG as well

yeah I’m gonna need you two to shut up. were they specifically programmed to be douches? this is someone’s idea of a joke isn’t it

anyways I hope my girl Momo is gonna be okay. Kendou go with her please!

Shinsou’s all “wow everyone got really fucked up” and Aizawa’s just like “yeah that’s just how it goes with hero training” as though this is in any way acceptable lol. well I guess it’s been a little while since U.A. did anything outrageously irresponsible though, so maybe we can cut them some slack this time around. plus ultra?

(ETA: nope I take it back. within three chapters all four teachers will be idly standing by shrugging their shoulders and hoping none of the kids fucking burn to death by accident. lesson learned, never ever cut the U.A. faculty any slack whatsoever.)

btw I almost forgot to mention it but it’s super cute that Shinsou is hanging out next to Aizawa. they have clearly built up some kind of bond by this point, and as usual I’m delighted by any and all instances of Aizawa being a dad

looool

did I mention that Manga’s quirk is seriously unbelievably strong though?? is there an onomatopoeia for “All for One-destroying weapon” that I don’t know about that he could speak into existence perhaps? hmm?

also smh at these teachers being more concerned with the property damage than with the attempted murder. Tokoyami’s fine by the way. but sure let’s scold them for doing some mild damage to your industrial training site which you specifically created for this very purpose

so apparently they’re going to change the stage? or “move the stage” at any rate? does this mean they’re cleaning up the training ground, or are they moving to one of the other areas? I’m not quite clear here

but at any rate, Vlad says they’re going to take a short break which I’m all for because it means more chances for the kids to interact!

look at them interacting!!

so I’m just going to assume the two speech bubbles on the right are Kirishima and Tetsutetsu, yes?

also, Manga, I’m gonna need you to stop whining about how your ultra-powerful and crazy broken quirk gives you a sore throat. fuck outta here with that nonsense son. I assume the only reason no one gave OFA to you is because the series would already be over

Deku is happily taking notes on everyone’s growth while Ochako watches, and it’s super fucking cute. I am shipping this more these days now that she’s not losing her damn mind any time she thinks about him and he’s not on the verge of passing out whenever she gets within two feet of him

and now All Might’s coming to say hi to his apprentice!

are y’all gonna talk some more about the Avatar State. because if you are then I’m the one who’s gonna start taking notes omg

so he’s beckoning Deku over so they can have a quick private chat in the corner

Mina’s all “well aren’t they close~” and I know she’s just making a mild observation, but once again I’m reminded of how these two are just the absolute worst at hiding their secret. like for real though

so All Might’s asking Deku if anything has felt off since their last conversation

and Deku says “nothing in particular”, which is a bit of a curious answer since he could have just gone with a straight “no”

All Might says he’s planning to ask Gran whether or not Shimura ever mentioned anything. I doubt it though, otherwise you’d think he’d have brought it up before now. not everyone is as cagey as you when it comes to passing on vital information

anyways, he says for the time being Deku should take care since he’ll be facing off with Shinsou

and interestingly, he says Shinsou is a piece of the puzzle as far as the Vestiges/Traces are concerned

really? I mean it’s true that Deku first saw them during his initial fight with Shinsou, and now he just so happens to be fighting Shinsou again on the same day that he had that crazy dream. but is that not just a coincidence? how could Shinsou actually be involved with this?

OH MY GOD

(ETA: speaking of onomatopoeia, Kacchan has his very own complete with exclamation point lol. what happens if Manga uses this. do the letters explode)

KEEP KACCHAN IN THE LOOP 2K19!!!! OH MY GOD YES PLEASE THANK YOU MANGA GODS

holy shit I was wondering if he was gonna get annoyed since he could hardly fail to notice them sneaking off to chat while he was right fucking there

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

OH MY GOD YOU GUYSSSSSS

IT DID!!!! AND NOW THEY’RE FINALLY GONNA TELL HIM WHEEEEE

oh my god. Kacchan/Deku rivalry. it has been so fucking long you guys. it’s been 80 fucking chapters!!

things I love:

DON’T KEEP ANY MORE SECRETS FROM KACCHAN ABOUT ONE FOR ALL, HE OFFICIALLY GETS ANNOYED ABOUT IT. HE WANTS TO KNOW SO MAKE SURE YOU KEEP HIM POSTED

for reals though, he’s making sure they remember that he’s part of the OFA squad now. that wasn’t just a one-time thing, he wants to actively be involved. I don’t know if they actually realized this before, but now they’re aware so I hope Deku tells him the next time without having to be asked

also him yelling at them to be more fucking secretive for christ’s sake lol. RIGHT?

and him immediately getting competitive and reminding Deku of what his goals are. they always do this with each other, and it’s honestly so important. the shounen rival relationship is, at its core, one of constant growth. if done right, the two rivals will each be the one person who can always unfailingly push the other when they think they can’t go any further, and nudge the other back on track whenever they start to go astray. and that is so, so important, and it’s especially important for them to keep establishing this relationship now, when for once things are actually calm and there aren’t any villain plots or other angsty things going down for the time being. because this quiet period is not going to last. and there will come a time when Izuku will need this type of push again, when the fate of the world might even depend on it. they help each other to focus and they keep each other grounded, and this shit right here is why it’s my favorite relationship, and I can’t say enough good things about it

lastly, this is fairly subtle, but you can see that this is Katsuki’s way of reassuring him. like, he realized Izuku was... not unsettled, exactly, but certainly confused and still trying to figure out what the hell is going on. so he immediately sets onto distracting him. and I’ve gotten completely distracted by my own excited ramblings and I haven’t even finished the damn conversation yet, but I bet you anything that it worked, too. because that’s the power of rivals, dammit

yeppppp

I fucking love it you guys. every damn time. this is what keeps sucking me back in. this is why I’m reading. give me some good old fashioned shounen rivals showing their concern for one another in the most indirect way possible and it fucking works

PREACH IT ALL MIGHT!

NO, HE DEFINITELY IS. THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I’M SAYING. SEE, ALL MIGHT GETS IT

like, I don’t really have much more to add other than what I already said, lol. although I will say I’m fairly sure that not only is he not actually pissed off, but he’s actually relieved that Deku did smile, and it was the exact effect he was going for, which is why he called attention to it before immediately trying to play it off like h was mad

anyway, so that was everything to me you guys, but the show must go on, and we are now all set to begin round 3! and it looks like we will be staying in Ground Gamma and that they’ve just relocated to a different part of the stage, or something. idk

so Sen is the only guy in this round who we haven’t already met, although I don’t think we actually know Pony’s quirk. Honenuki’s quirk is of course the quicksand quirk of cavalry battle fame, and I’m looking forward to seeing that in action again

meanwhile they’re up against these legends!

once again I can’t for the life of me figure out how they can possibly screw this up. but we know they will somehow! guess they’ll just have to get creative

and now a quick flashback of Tokoyami, who you can tell is feeling better because he’s coming up to Todoroki and just rambling on and on for no real reason

no you don’t you boob. calm the fuck down man. go eat some ice cream and lie down

well what have we here

friendly reminder that I ship these two. by this point I think I ship Todoroki with almost as many people as Bakugou and I’m not quite sure how that happened. this boy is more social than I give him credit for

so now Shouto’s thinking back to his dad’s battle against High N’ Tight Noumu

and what’s this?

the prominence burn thing? or the flying thing? I personally think he ought to learn the flying thing first

and now some flashbacks to Endeavor being abusive

jesus christ. please tell me Shouto is smoking from his own quirk. please tell me you didn’t actually set your child on fire you utter trashpile of a man

and what the hell is with the shinai? because the fire wasn’t fucking enough??

props to Horikoshi though for showing this. it’s not pleasant to see, but the fact that he doesn’t shy away from it even after starting Endeavor’s redemption arc is really important. none of his past deeds have been erased. he’s not pretending it didn’t happen or that it’s okay now because things are finally starting to get better. it’s such a fucking mess, and I really, really appreciate that we’re being confronted with it even now and nothing is being swept under any proverbial rugs

correct me if I’m wrong, but I feel like this is pretty rare for redemption arcs, both in Eastern and Western media. usually once the former bad guy starts down the right path, the story stops addressing those past sins, presumably in the hope that audiences will eventually forget about them. but not only is Horikoshi not doing that, he’s actively showing us the bad shit again in vivid detail, the resulting effect being something like “hey, just in case you forgot...”

anyway, so here’s more confirmation that Todoroki Touya is in fact Dabi

just fucking confirm it already you cowards. it’s not like you’re trying to hide it; you purposely alluded to it so overtly at the end of the Endeavorhawks arc that no one could possibly fail to miss it. so I really don’t know why you’re playing games with it at this juncture. he must have some sort of plan here but idk

anyway, he says that Shouto is the one, and that he can pass this technique on to him and only him

I wonder if Touya accidentally immolated himself with a failed prominence burn. god I want to know what happened so bad uggghhhh

ahhhhhhh

they’re so cute omg

Ojiro says he had no idea anything was wrong because Todoroki’s expression “never really changes that much”, and he’s impressed Iida could tell

it’s because they’re lovers, Ojiro! but not really, but do you agree with me that they should be? because if not then I really don’t know why you’re wasting my time here tail boy

Iida’s all “but of course!” and says he’s the class president and is always there to lend a hand to a classmate in need. and sure. but also, lovers

AHHHHHH

SUDDEN TENSEI MENTION MY HEART WASN’T READYYYY

(ETA: his face is so cute here too oh my god. fucking adorable.)

so now he’s putting on his helmet, and he says he’s also representing Ingenium’s good name

is this in reference to what Tokoyami said earlier about him and Todo representing the #1 and #2 heroes? did your feelings get hurt bud lol

and he’s reminding everyone that he placed third in the sports festival, “so allow me to show you all!”

damn, somebody sure is fired up

you better watch it son, this enthused 40-year-old nerd is stealing your boyfriend before our very eyes

now we’re cutting to class B!

and Tetsutetsu is also all fired up!

no one thinks you’re dumb, Tetsu! just passionate!

lol but he is acknowledging that this is one of the less strategically balanced class B teams

but he has a plan to address that!

kick some ass!!

yessssssss

and stfu Sen. he has exactly one specialty so of course he’s gonna lean into it. nothing wrong with that

now I’m honestly starting to wonder how he would fare against Todoroki. he might be the only one who could actually stand up to the Prominence Burn attack if it turns out Shouto does have it

...or he might melt. but surely Shouto wouldn’t actually fire a potentially lethal blow during a training exercise... right?

(ETA: ...)

so now Vlad is grumbling about how THEY JUST SAID not to destroy the whole fucking stage, and here Tetsu is, destroying the stage

nice hero name! but it definitely is a misspelling! I’m sure it’ll be corrected at some point later on though

lol this group is something else

this is definitely my favorite class B team to date lol. and Honenuki’s personality is in such stark contrast to his somewhat terrifying appearance, who knew

also props to my boy Sen for having the appropriate reaction to being pitted against Todoroki freaking Shouto. though you could have had it worse, bud! it could have been Bakugou or Deku. at least you guys are somehow going to win which I still can’t get over

lol because it’s literally their only choice given the makeup of their team

well, bring it on!

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birdsy-purplefishes · 5 years ago

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I have MANY thoughts and feelings about Midsommar.

Okay I saw Midsommar last night and it was an experience. So this post is probably going to be long and rambling and it is definitely 100% for-sure going to contain some spoilers. I’m gonna put a whole lot of it behind a Read More.

First, though, I want to say that while I thought this film was great it is definitely one of the most disturbing things I have ever seen. I went into it knowing almost nothing--and honestly I wouldn’t have been prepared even if I had read spoilers--and that was the ideal way to see it for me but there are many triggering things and some very problematic things in this film. I’m gonna try to be vague as possible but you might not not to watch this one if anything from the following list is something you can’t handle. That said: I am very easily disturbed by a lot of things and I found that this film was so bizarre that I never really felt like I couldn’t finish it. It’s... kind of weirdly selective about which gruesome stuff it shows and what it doesn’t. The most terrifying things to me were implied things and I didn’t realize them until after it had ended. Somehow... miraculously... this film didn’t come across as gore/torture-p*rn to me. So Trigger Warning / Content Warnings for this movie: Violence, blood, gore, horrible suffering. Sex, nudity. Mental illness and stigmatization/perpetuation of harmful myths about mentally ill people. Suicide. Ableism. Racism. A rape scene that I think most people didn’t even realize was a rape scene because it’s bizarre and left somewhat ambiguous. Emetophobia triggers. Body horror. A whole lot of drugs. Squicky grossout stuff. Emotional, psychological, and religious abuse.

There’s probably other stuff I forgot. Basically everything horrible is in this movie. It was definitely worth it but it’s a hard watch.

Okay, now for spoilery stuff.

The backstory shown in the first few minutes is incredibly disturbing. Dani’s bipolar sister murders their parents and kills herself. It’s graphic. It’s disturbing. It definitely portrays suicide in a negative light, which is pretty much good, but: can horror movies stop perpetuating myths about mentally ill people?! This stuff is damaging! It makes mentally ill people out to be monsters and then ignorant people treat them worse. It makes mentally ill people feel like there isn’t any hope for them! This part sucked a lot. The only interpretation of this that isn’t awful is the fan theory that there are clues in the background that suggest that the cult may have actually framed Dani’s sister but that’s kind of a stretch. None of the other foreshadowing in the film is as subtle as the supposed hints that the cult fabricated the whole thing so I doubt it.

The foreshadowing is actually super obvious. It’s the typical horror film where the characters have no idea what’s going on & you’re like “DUDE GET OUT OF THERE!” the whole time. People on the subreddit are pointing out all kinds of foreshadowing and even the tapestry at the beginning shows you who all of the characters are and like 90% of the story.

Dani’s boyfriend, Christian, sucks. His friends suck. There’s a lot of macho bullshit and they’re just cold and dismissive. And the boyfriend’s a manipulative little leech. You hate him so much! I found myself hoping that she’d kill them all except maybe the cute friendly Swede. Basically the entire movie he’s gaslighting and dismissing her and his friends talk shit about her constantly. It’s the typical “oh, women are irrational and over sensitive” macho bullshit. Like to the extent that all of them know about the murder-suicide of her entire family but none of them try to fucking shield her from seeing the suicide ritual. Not even the guys who know damn well what it is going into it!

The fact that they’re all anthropology majors and they go into it with a sense of cold detachment and an insistence on cultural relativism (or utter obliviousness) and it makes them total assholes wasn’t lost on me and I’m glad that someone went into detail: https://slate.com/culture/2019/07/midsommar-graduate-students-villains-ari-aster.html

The bros say something about him dumping her and finding somebody who “actually likes sex” and there’s a lot of interpretations to that, none of which are less than horrible. Like does he try to pressure her into doing stuff she doesn’t want to? Probably! Like whether she has emotional or physical sexual dysfunction isn’t discussed and that’s kind of brilliant because even if she does have issues it’s not her fault at all and the dudes are g a r b a g e for even suggesting it.

The cute friendly Swedish dude (Pelle) who was the only one to be kind to Dani at all was actually the worst manipulator of all! He’s totally luring her in! He’s love-bombing and manipulating her! He literally “draws” her in. He does some forced-teaming shared-trauma bullshit. I gotta say though: I fell for it! I wanted her to dump the guy for him! I’m almost surprised that she didn’t fall for it. I think it’s more due to the fact that she’s traumatized and grieving than anything.

The most disturbing thing about the guy, though, is that I can’t decide if he does all of this because he’s evil or because he’s genuinely a true believer and believes with all his heart that he’s doing good things. That will haunt me forever tbh. Just... always watch out for guys who want to “save” you. They are the scariest fucking abusers.

The whole cult is love-bombing her, actually. The whole film is like Cult Tactics 101. They find a vulnerable young woman who’s lost everything. She doesn’t feel a sense of love and belonging anywhere. She has no support system unless you count her garbage basically-sociopathic-but-aloof boyfriend who really doesn’t count. Pelle hand-selected her because she’s the ideal cult brainwashing candidate. He’s seen firsthand just how much shit she takes from Christian and how she’s constantly falling for his gaslighting and tolerating him mistreating her. I was actually kind of disturbed at how many women I saw online reacting to the cult saying it was empowering or matriarchal. It’s not at all! The first elder we see leading things is female but the ones handling the book and enforcing the rules are men. I can only recall two women elders who do much of anything and they’re both just prominent parts of ceremonies. They’re announcers/performers. They’re definitely complicit but the men are behind the scenes controlling it. And look at the sex ritual! There’s no real emphasis on female pleasure and it’s all being a good little brood mare. It’s a performance. And small babies are kept away from their mothers to be raised communally. They send the mothers away from their babies! Even the May Queen role sucks if you think about it for even a second. The whole “we’re a family” thing is just creepy as hell. There’s even a lot of foreshadowing to it that I missed, like the guy who greets her shaking the mens’ hands but saying “welcome home” to her. Said guy also calls his traditional garb “girly” when Dani compliments it, btw! And of course the division of labor is patriarchal. The clothing is patriarchal too.

The mental health ableism stuff is bad but there’s ableism based on physical disability as well. Arguably it’s supposed to condemn the cult for fetishizing disabled people and promoting incest to deliberately create disabled people but... it still comes across as “look at this deformed kid” and it’s fucked up.

I can’t tell if the movie is trying to show us that the cult is racist or if the movie itself is racist. They kill off the three non-white outsiders pretty quick. Was that classic horror movie “the black guy dies first” bullshit or was that supposed to be like “look, these seemingly peaceful and loving people are xenophobic and racist and there’s a reason why all of them are super duper white despite bringing in outsiders”. Like I came out of the film definitely convinced that it’s no coincidence that the blue-eyed blonde chick gets singled out as special by these people.

It made me really uncomfortable to realize that the sex ritual is technically a rape scene. We get clues that Christian goes into it voluntarily to some extent, sure. When he knows that girl (and she does look like a young girl!) is trying to seduce him we don’t really see his reaction but he doesn’t seem to refuse outright. He seems ambivalent until he's offered the drugs but then he hears that they’ll make him lose his inhibitions, looks at the girl, and gulps the liquid. He saw it as an excuse to get away with cheating and he took it. But that doesn’t change the fact that he’s drugged when he actually agrees to the sex. He’s tripping the whole time. He’s being pressured and prodded and even literally physically manipulated. He’s out of it. The girl seems kind of out of it too. It’s really fucked up. But like it’s so weird and you’re so mad at him for everything shitty he’s done to Dani that you’re just like what?! But when you think about the fact that he’s drugged and you see the way he’s horrified after he realizes what he’s done... it’s horrific. He was violated.

I like that we see just how viscerally traumatic it is to be cheated on. Dani vomits, collapses and wails. And our sympathies are with her.

The cultists imitation of their members’ suffering is actually deeply disturbing and a huge aspect of the love-bombing thing, especially for Dani. She goes from being barely held by her expressionless piece-of-shit boyfriend while she wails to having a whole bunch of women replicate and act out her suffering. They do this too at the botched suicide and the final scene. They even kind of do it when she fails to eat the fish. It kind of looks communal and empathetic but it’s a feigned empathy. It’s another way that people in the cult lose their own personal identities. Nothing is yours there! Not even your suffering is yours.

To be honest... I went to see this film ‘cause a lot of the reactions to it were women gleefully enjoying seeing a shitty boyfriend suffer a horrible fate. I’m always down for misandry and cinematography! BUT... this was just excessive. The boyfriend is a total bastard. He did kinda need to die tbh. But he basically gets tortured to death. It’s made pretty explicitly clear that it’s horrific. They make no effort to mercy kill him like they did to the elderly guy whose jump failed to kill him. And like... the actor even gets it. The guy’s a scumbag and he doesn’t give a shit about anyone but himself. He even backstabs Chidi From The Good Place! But what happened to him is just awful.

The director and the lead actor actually disagree about the ending! Ari Aster says that Dani knows what she’s doing when she condemns Christian to die. Florence Pugh says she’s out of it.

I say it doesn’t actually matter whether Dani chose to kill Christian or not or what her motive was. Honestly it might have been a mercy killing given the state that he was in! Like maybe it was revenge for her and maybe the cult did it to make her feel empowered but it sucks being forced to choose who lives and dies. It sucks that some creepy cultist basically stole her man. It’s the whole “a pedestal is the same as a cage” thing for sure.

Last thing I can think of for now: I’m very surprised and more than a little distressed at all the people--especially women--who see this as a happy ending for Dani. Sure, it’s kind of a dark fairy tale revenge fantasy. But she’s objectively worse off than she is at the beginning of the film! She’s brainwashed and trapped! Like... I forgot where I read this now but basically Aster says that she goes from with one gaslighter to being with an entire cult of gaslighters! What do you think is gonna happen to her in the future?! She’s gonna have to live with her dead boyfriend’s baby that he had with some rando chick if that fertility ritual worked! She’s gonna have to live in a shitty commune. She’s gonna have PTSD 5ever from everything that happened. It’s honestly a tragic and horrible ending.

I’m... still processing this. I know I’m gonna end up adding to this. Feel free to chime in and discuss it with me! This movie was just Intense. BONUS LINKSPAM: Good Takes And Shit!

https://www.cinemablend.com/news/2474518/jordan-peele-says-midsommar-has-the-most-atrociously-disturbing-imagery-hes-ever-seen

https://themuse.jezebel.com/boy-problems-whos-got-em-midsommar-does-1835878652

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/alisonwillmore/midsommar-ari-aster-florence-pugh

https://www.vulture.com/2019/07/the-end-of-midsommar-ari-asters-last-minutes-explained.html

https://www.npr.org/2019/07/03/738422258/midsommar-shines-a-solstice-nightmare-unfolds-in-broad-daylight

EDIT: Also!!! This film?! Somehow is a comedy! It’s funny as fuck and I’m definitely going to hell for laughing!

#midsommar #horror movies #horror

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itsclydebitches · 6 years ago

Text

RWBY Recaps: Volume 6 “So That’s How It Is”

This is a re-posting from Nov. 17th, 2018 in an effort to get all my recaps fully on tumblr. Thanks!

Real talk: that episode was 100% not what I wanted to see and honestly not what I thought we’d be getting after the tone of “The Lost Fable.” Yet here we are.

We start off with the gang having just finished Jinn’s vision, which surprised me a little bit. RT tends to delay gratification—Want to know how people will react to this plot point? If that person survived? Gotta wait a while longer!—so I was expecting to begin with the villains, if not push this confrontation an entire episode. Yet we kick things off with a voice over from Yang, highlighting the exact part of the story we knew she’d hyper-focus on:

Yang: “Salem can’t be killed. You all heard her too right?”

And we’re immediately back to where we were emotionally in episode two—which frankly drives me a little nuts. The entire purpose of getting glimpses of the team throughout the vision was to see their reactions to the events: Qrow lifting a hand towards Ozma, Ruby looking ill at Salem trying to kill herself, Blake and Weiss heartbroken over Salem’s grief, Yang horrified at what the gods were doing to them. On the one hand I agree that it’s incredibly realistic to have them lashing out like this. Put a bunch of teenagers through that much trauma, chuck a now fallible mentor at their feet, and they’ve got themselves a scapegoat they can’t resist. On the other hand, Team RWBY + co. has been portrayed as staggeringly better than this in the past, so it rings as at least a little false to me that they’d go this far. Not that they wouldn’t be angry, but that out of the six of them—including Oscar now—there’s not a glimmer of empathy alongside the anger. I understand entirely that we ended on the worst note possible (more manipulation by Jinn), but that doesn’t erase the fact that this is a) a large group of b) incredibly compassionate people who c) just spent 99% of that vision witnessing traumatizing events that weren’t Ozpin’s fault and feeling for him then. Bypassing one moment of sympathy for him or even hesitation at cutting him further feels less like realistic teenage fury and more like the writers deciding to ignore a large chunk of their characterization for the sake of drama.

Because what they witnessed aside, this is still Ozpin. He’s still the headmaster/friend they adored, still the man who taught them in Haven, still the huntsmen they fought beside in one of their worst battles to date. And here he is now after having his entire past ripped from him, back on his knees and crying. That’s an image that the protectors in them shouldn’t be able to brush aside so easily, especially when each of them has been through a piece of Ozpin's existence. Weiss knows what it’s like to have people more powerful than you pulling the strings. Yang understands anger that drives you to choices you’ll later regret. Blake has already fought against unimaginable odds (see: Oobleck’s lecture about how she wants to change the world but has no idea how to do it yet. That’s Ozpin). Ruby is familiar with being the eternal outsider—“I don’t want to be the bee’s knees! I just want to be a normal girl, with normal knees”—and Qrow, as he’ll mention in a moment, knows what it’s like to have nothing and no one. Ozpin was there for him then, but he won’t do the same for Ozpin now.

Let them have their anger, but let them act like themselves too.

Yang: “There was so much you hadn’t told us! How could you think that was okay?”

Yang in particular has a lot of displaced rage. She has since she was a kid and now Ozpin has become a very easy target to direct all that towards. Still, it doesn’t change how mind-numbingly frustrating it is to see these kids twisting every piece of information that comes their way. How could he think that was okay? Ozpin already gave you his answer. He said straight out that he doesn’t want to reveal all his secrets because the last two times he did that (Raven and Lionheart) he was betrayed and, presumably, that’s happened numerous times before. Yang insists that he can tell them his secrets. They’ll stand by him! But oh look, they wrenched the secrets from Ozpin forcibly and now they're not standing by him.

The girls are liars and hypocrites in this moment. Like I get it, they're also traumatized teenagers, but that doesn't change the fact that they're pulling the same shit Ozpin is currently getting all the flack for.

I’ve mentioned before that there are a hundred reasons why Jinn’s answer to that question is complete BS. Even ignoring our audience-knowledge of how jinns tend to operate, we have the in-canon fact that she can’t answer anything about the future. Her answer regarding Salem's defeat is null and void in light of not knowing how the situation might change—how can she possibly say that Ozpin or another will never win? But even ignoring that too we have the additional fact that defeating Salem never was and never will be the true goal. Uniting humanity is. Keeping people safe from the grimm is. These are things everyone agreed to long before they even knew who Salem was. What? Did Team RWBY think they were going to wipe out the grimm in their lifetime? That they’d drive creatures to extinction that, as far as they know, have existed since the dawn of time? No. They were just planning to make the world a better place for as long as they could. They’d already agreed to a fight against an “impossible” to beat enemy. Fundamentally nothing has changed.

Yet Ozpin understands that suddenly learning that a Big Bad is immortal knocks a huge dent in everyone’s hope. He knows—largely from experience—that laying out the situation with no context or nuance (as Jinn did) will make people give up. And we already see it happening, not just in their reaction towards Ozpin, but in casual lines like Blake’s, “I just want to get this stupid relic to Atlas.” No doubt one of Ozpin’s greatest fears is that learning the truth will alienate people from fighting at all. It did for Raven. It did for Lionheart. And now it’s doing the same for the girls, with them acting like they just want to get the powerful relic out of their hands and then leave Ozpin to fight this war by himself. Though I don’t actually think the girls will give up (that would be a very different kind of story), that line is not reassuring right now and just re-emphasizes that Ozpin was right to be wary.

We also see it in Qrow’s exchange with Ozpin:

Qrow: “No one wanted me. I was cursed. I gave my life to you because you gave me a place in this world. I thought I was finally doing some good.”

Ozpin: “But you are—”

Qrow: “Meeting you was the worst luck of my life.”

No one is letting Ozpin finish. Yang demands to know why he kept his secrets and then cuts him off before he gets out more than an “I—”. They let him admit that he doesn’t have a plan, but no space to explain any context surrounding that statement. Here Ozpin tries to tell Qrow that he is doing good, he does have a place in this world, the existence of Salem does not suddenly negate everything else they’ve accomplished… but Qrow doesn’t let him get that far. At this point they’re not interested in listening to anything Ozpin has to say. This isn’t a conversation anymore, it’s an emotional witch hunt.

So is it any surprise that Ozpin eventually nopes out of there? Qrow has just punched him and, far more damaging, delivered that gut-wrenching line about how he’s the worst thing that ever happened to him. Again, context always matters. Two friends fighting and saying cruel things to one another? Not great, but survivable. Ozpin and Qrow aren’t just two friends though. Qrow is currently Ozpin’s only friend.

Let’s recap: His children are dead, his first host is dead, the original version of humanity that he knew? All dead. Who Ozma once was is gone, the gods he knew abandoned him, and the one remaining tie he has to his past is his genocidal ex-wife who’s hell-bent on killing him. Every host Ozpin has had since then has passed away or merged with him in some horrific amalgamation. His friends at Beacon are either out of reach or don’t know about his reincarnation trick and think he’s dead too. Raven sided with Salem over him. Lionheart, a friend for decades, sided with Salem over him. The children he’s traveling with are out for his blood, including the child he’s forced to share a body with. The one person he had left was Qrow… and Qrow just gave the biggest “fuck you” possible. Keep in mind the abuse coding from last episode and fill in the blanks of a couple thousand years. Then Ozpin told Salem the truth and was murdered along with his children. Now the truth comes out and he’s chucked into a tree and screamed at. Ozpin has been conditioned to expect nothing but violence when he bares himself emotionally… and people keep proving him right. He’s currently the lowest he's been in decades and there’s no one here to help pick him back up.

“Maybe you’re right," he says. Maybe I am the worst thing that’s ever happened to you all… so I’ll leave. As much as I’m able to, anyway.

The real kicker though? That’s just met with more anger. “That bastard!” Yang yells. “Tell him we’re not done yet!” Ozpin quite literally can’t do anything right in their eyes. Keep secrets to protect people? You’re evil. Spill secrets? You’re evil. Stick around to defend yourself? How dare you. Leave because you’re obviously not wanted? How dare you.

And you know what I just realized? At least one of the reasons why this arc feels so extreme to me? Because our characters are currently acting exactly like a large portion of the fanbase. For years RWBY viewers have demonized Ozpin and complained every time he came on screen, waiting for the day when the show would finally prove that he’s irredeemable trash. Except when that day came we actually learned that he’s a flawed, mortal man who was manipulated by a bunch of dick gods. Instead of acknowledging that hey, maybe we were wrong about his character, a huge portion of the fanbase has spent the last week grasping at straws in order to continue hating him. Ozpin has been sacrificing child soldiers to his war for millennia. (False). Ozpin has done nothing but lie to the cast since day one. (False). Ozpin raped Salem during his first reincarnation and was super abusive towards her. (False??)

Now we have this kind of mangled “justification” made canonical. Fans and characters alike are currently determined to make Ozpin their antagonist—no matter what.

So Ozpin basically has a panic attack while still trying to give them what they supposedly want: a world where he’s not around to mess things up. Yet the girls’ hypocrisy is revealed once more. They despise every decision Ozpin makes… but still want him calling all the shots.

Weiss: “He just left us?”

Blake: “What are we going to do now?”

Newsflash, you can’t have it both ways. Lucky for them (since no one is willing to take on the responsibility that Ozpin has been shouldering) Maria steps up and announces that they need to put off this conversation until they’ve found someplace safe. Because grimm. Which is what they should have done in the first place and would have if Yang hadn’t thrown a temper tantrum. She starts yelling at Maria too—“Lady, I don’t know who you think you are”—which just further demonstrates how Yang is willing to take her anger out on anyone and anything that crosses her path. It’s not healthy. It’s certainly not fair to those around her and I really hope someone addresses this soon.

Maria: “I’m still coming to terms with the fact that this is Humanity’s second time around!”

You tell ‘em! Poor Maria was thrown into the deep end of the pool with no life preserver and she’s the only one managing to keep a level head. God bless this woman.

(Please don’t be evil, oh please don’t be evil.)

Maria: “If we don’t move we die and I’ll be damned if I’ve lived this long just to die out in the cold!”

And how long is that exactly? Long enough to have lived through the Great War? Inquiring minds want to know…

Ruby agrees though—beginning to segue back into her role as compassionate leader—and at her word everyone packs up the rest of their stuff and heads on out of that awful spot. Salt and burn the earth, girls. Leave it behind.

Except just when I think the emotional punches are through we get this horrible moment between Oscar and Qrow. Oscar tells Ruby, in an intimate moment of confidence, that he’s afraid he’s just going to be another life of Ozpin’s. Ruby immediately showed compassion again once Oscar switched back (reaching for him when he winced from the punch) and here she’s her old self again, reassuring him that no, he’ll always be his own person. That's the Ruby we love.

Then Qrow breezes by and denies it. “Don’t lie to him,” he says. “We’re better than that.”

Wow.

That was not okay. By any stretch of the imagination. Goddammit, Qrow, you’re the adult here and honestly I don’t give a damn how much you’re hurting right now, that doesn’t give you the right to take your anger out on an innocent kid. Oscar didn’t ask for this and the idea that he exists only to be Ozpin’s host is just blatantly untrue. You’re being cruel to him for cruelty’s sake which, I’d like to point out, we’ve yet to see Ozpin do. Despite all the trauma he’s suffered, he’s never taken his grief out on the children around him like that. He’s also never claimed to be above lying as Qrow just did. With the point being only that this group is making a LOT of mistakes right now while refusing to allow Ozpin his own.

With that lovely piece of advice we turn to the villains… which frankly felt like some much needed breathing room after “The Lost Fable” and these last five minutes. The fact that the villains’ plot-line is taking place in the past means that nothing revealed to them is news to the audience. Cinder’s alive? We knew that. Ozpin reincarnated? Obviously knew that too. The focus is instead on how they react to this information… and it turns out the answer is “Pretty damn violently.”

Before that though we see Hazel, Emerald, and Mercury arriving back at Salem’s palace (the same one that she and Oz once lived in together). I’ve already come across jokes about how Hazel is now the dad of the group, and while obviously this is just meant as a silly acknowledgement of some really flimsy compassion we see from him, Emerald does look to Hazel when she gets off the ship, clearly seeking reassurance after Cinder’s (presumed) death.

Tyrian is waiting to greet them and he’s his usual, creepy self—minus half a tail. Really though, he seems to have recovered quickly from Salem’s wrath last volume. He taunts Emerald about Cinder and when she threatens him he just cuts himself on her blade. Not gonna lie, I love Tyrian more and more as the series goes on. He’s the wild card of the group and as such remains endlessly entertaining.

Mercury is supportive of Emerald, helping her calm down a bit in the face of Tyrian’s taunts, and really all of this is a nice contrast to what we’re getting with Team RWBY: the villains are supporting one another while our heroes tear each other down. Remember all those references to how Salem’s victory will be in dividing humanity? Yeeeaah.

She’s obviously displeased with the report. Hazel tries to take responsibility for the defeat and, uh, this happens:

Look familiar? I’m getting very worried about what that intro shot of Qrow and the grimm arms is going to mean.

So Hazel is tortured for a while until Emerald admits that it was Cinder’s fault they lost. It’s all some really horrible mind games on Salem’s part: ask for an answer and torture the guy who provides you with one, get Emerald to call out the one person she cares for, casually drop that this person still lives, intimidate Watts for questioning her. Tyrian is the wild card, yes, but we know now that his ramblings about his “Queen” aren’t so random after all. Salem is still playing the part of the God we saw in Jinn’s flashback and her followers treat her accordingly. They do as she says out of fear. It’s what Salem lays out in the trailer: they can have their own desires, but only if they don’t interfere with her own.

Hazel drops the bomb that, oh yeah, your ex also reincarnated already, which puts an interesting twist on Salem’s anger. Meaning, I wonder if she’ll be more forgiving of their failure now that she knows they were unexpectedly facing Ozpin in Haven. Regardless, she’s not happy about the news.

At all.

We leave her letting one hell of a draft in and return to the gang. Yang bitches about how the path hasn’t led anywhere and Maria asks if she really doesn’t have anything “better to do than harass a defenseless old lady?”

More real talk: does Yang have experiences that explain her current attitude? Hell yes. Does all this make for compelling characterization? Absolutely. But right now I don’t like her. Having a reason to be angry doesn’t excuse the harm you do when you direct that anger towards those who don’t deserve it. From her pointing her weapon at Qrow to harassing Maria, I don’t think Yang is acting like a very good person right now and I haven't enjoyed her time on screen. An understandable development? Again, yes, but that doesn’t change the fact that she’s acting like a brat and encouraging everyone else to do the same.

Of course, as soon as she challenges Maria the path leads them to a farmhouse. Not that Yang is ready to apologize for her attitude (another big difference between Ozpin’s mistakes and others’: he’s constantly apologizing for his). Weiss notes that the place looks deserted, but at least it’s better than staying out in the cold.

…Is it though? That farmhouse looks creepy as hell and I don’t trust it. To say nothing of the fact that we’ve got that sewer place from the intro right next door.

And that’s where we end up, the gang walking into this abandoned, potentially grimm-infested farm while they’re all pissed at each other and the gate squeaks ominously closed behind them. Oh yeah. I’m feeling real good about the next episode.

(Not.)

Other Details of Note

I’m intrigued by the fact that Jinn seems to have dissipated immediately after finishing her story, both because personality-wise she seems like the kind to stick around and gloat, and also because they’ve still got one question left. We saw Awful Facial Hair Oz ask his questions back-to-back, so unless Jinn streamlined things for convenience’s sake there doesn’t seem to be a wait period between each question… I don’t know. Narratively it makes sense (wanna clear Jinn out so there’s no distraction from the Ozpin bashing), but in-world the rules governing these relics seem a little murky.

So Salem knows Cinder is alive. I wonder if that’s connected to the grimm arm she gave her. If Salem has ties to Cinder that she hasn’t bothered to explain yet. Hmm. Wonder if she can control Cinder’s arm like she does the other grimm…

Salem also mentions the Sword of Destruction and intended to go after it before she heard that Ozpin had already reincarnated. Will that be the next relic on the list then?

With the exception of Ruby fighting the sewer grimm and everyone facing off against someone off screen, we’ve hit on most of the imagery from the trailer and intro already. I’ll be interested to see what the rest of the volume holds since it looks like that vast majority of that material is being kept carefully under-wraps.

Still looking forward to reconciliation. Still putting a lot of stock in that one image from the intro lol

#rwby #rwby spoilers #mymetas #RWBY recaps

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panticwritten · 6 years ago

Note

Writing request! Carl and Sawyer (some version of you, I’m not sure where Carl usually fits in) have stumbled into the same dungeons and dragons forum and become closer through battling together (not 100% sure of Carl’s personality, be him not the type for this or totally the type). This can be a silly throw away or warmup up one since it is me.

Okay, so Cherry sent me this like forever ago. I wrote it, they read it because they live with me, but I forgot to actually post it! The name change to Kane is going smoothly, and I’m ready to never think about that asshole as Karl again lmaooooo

So, yeah, Kane and I play some DnD and he’s not subtle about anything ever at all.

I’ll have to wait until after I post this to change the colors of the different people in the text chats because lord knows I look at those strings of chat-text and have a time sifting through it. Homestuck has spoiled me.

Word count: 2270

@asinwolves @avi-burton-writing @infinitelyblankpage @no-url-ideas-tho @jade-island-lives @ravenpuffwriter @spirit-wizard-nerd @steakfryday @alextriestowritestuff @cataclystr0phe @perringwrites @davidvalencia323 @fluffpiggy @dont-trust-the-clogs @authorkimberlygrey @aclassilighthouse @cherrytying

I don’t think Kane knows I know.

If the smattering of ‘kid’ in our correspondences hadn’t tipped me off, it would definitely have been the way he made his character. I doubt anyone else would get the joke or see what he’s doing, but seriously? His character isn’t anything like him, of course.

If he were to be himself, he’d be a tiefling fighter. Either scout (ha) or cavalier archetype. He’d be a faction agent. Making a call between the chaotic alignments might be a shaky one sometimes. His attributes terribly skewed toward charisma and dexterity.

But he’s chosen a true neutral urchin. A mastermind rogue. An eladrin. The attributes are fairly balanced, save for dexterity always hovering above the others and strength a little lacking. Nothing like Kane. Not at all.

No, that’s the point.

He made a character that is exactly what I end up presenting myself as in the damn Cube. How I always play in console RPGs. Behavior just not erratic enough to be chaotic. Snarky and angry, never overtly because of the need to cover every goddamn emotion up. Inconsistent.

I’m not sure when I realized it was him. I thought it might be a member of the Collective when I first got the invitation from an unknown player. With Haz, j355, Hal, and Jax as mods of the server and tag-teaming as DMs, I slowly caught on to Kane’s game.

He’s making fun of me. He must have been playing with this character for some time, with their high level, and I wonder how long he’s been planning this.

It took me a little bit to even realize most of the similarities between myself and the character. My own character, a homebrew ice genesai, a brawler, bonded fairly quickly with them because they’re both urchins and saved each others’ asses when their time in the city overlapped.

He uses my lines, though. The whole ‘I’ll be fine’ shtick and his character has mentioned being a poet several times. After that, it took a few more days of play to start realizing it was him. That it was Kane playing such a long game.

The first time it occured to me, it was a bad call on what the endolin would do. We were looking for the deed to a seemingly abandoned manor. We hadn’t run into anything but low-level scavenging animals. In short, any good player would be a little on-edge and I was waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Halexander (MOD): Alright. The second you both clear the door, it slams shut behind you.Match (SeeSaw): Crap.Videre (ANON): whats in the room?Halexander (MOD): It’s a pretty nondescript room. Pretty small, almost looks like a study with three desks lining one wall and a bookshelf on another. There’s a couch shoved into a corner, looks like it was slept in recently.Match (SeeSaw): Can we roll investigation real quick?Halexander (MOD): Go for it, dude.Match (SeeSaw): 5Halexander (MOD): You notice that, unlike the rest of the place, there’s no dust. The whole room is swept clean of it. That’s it. The epitome of observation.Match (SeeSaw): Okay. Videre?Videre (ANON): nah im goodHalexander (MOD): You sure? Just gonna barge in there?Videre (ANON): the doors locked right what else can we do?Match (SeeSaw): Whatever. I’ll get a closer look at the couch.Videre (ANON): imma look at the closest desk while the kid does thatMatch (SeeSaw): Fuck youHalexander (MOD): I’ll put some form of that exchange as being in character.Match (SeeSaw): GoodMatch (SeeSaw): Now, the couchHalexander (MOD): To clarify, you’re both investigating different areas of the room?Match (SeeSaw): YesVidere (ANON): yeahHalexander (MOD): Excellent.

I was so used to the DMs at least pretending to need time to formulate responses that Hal’s immediate block of text took me by surprise.

Halexander (MOD): The two of you cross the room in different directions, as if by silent agreement. Match is slower, being more hesitant, so Videre gets to the desks first. Before you can do more than peer at the desk, however, there is a cry behind you. The bedding on the couch lashed out and has taken Match captive. Match, a blanket has one wrist and a facemask has bound itself over your eyes due to your proximity when the animation first occurred. Roll Initiative.Match (SeeSaw): Whaaaaat. Not cool. Okay, 16.Halexander (MOD): Enchanted Bedding got 12.Halexander (MOD): Videre?Videre (ANON): am i far enough away that i can stay out of order and keep looking through the drawers?

Uh.

Match (SeeSaw): What the fuck. I’m being attacked here, your rapier would take care of this in like two seconds.Videre (ANON): you dont know that. i have a feeling the deeds in here just give me a minuteHalexander (MOD): You can stay out of the fight if you want, but you still need to roll so we can keep this orderly.Videre (ANON): fineVidere (ANON): 8Halexander (MOD): Thanks for cooperating.Match (SeeSaw): Okay, first off, Match is never going to trust you again.Videre (ANON): he doesnt even know im helping yet. he cant see rememberMatch (SeeSaw): WHATEVERMatch (SeeSaw): Is the blanket pulling on me or just holding me there?Halexander (MOD): It’s tugging something fierce. The rest of the pile of blankets and pillows are writhing as if alive.Match (SeeSaw): I guess I’ll attack the blanket with that dinky little knife.Match (SeeSaw): “you should empty your bag in case you find good loot” THANKS VIDERE NOW I DONT HAVE MY GOOD WEAPONSVidere (ANON): hey you should know better than to listen to me by now kidMatch (SeeSaw): When we finish this, I will find you and kill you.Halexander (MOD): Also canon, in-character dialogue.Match (SeeSaw): YEET, crit. 5 damageMatch (SeeSaw): Don’t think you’re off the hook here, HalHalexander (MOD): I resent that.Halexander (MOD): And that’s including your proficiency?Match (SeeSaw): 6 damage.Halexander (MOD): That’s what I thought.Halexander (MOD): You slash blindly at the blanket. You manage to cut the corner holding you clean off. You’re still blinded, but you’re free to move.Match (SeeSaw): OKAY YEAH I BACK THE FUCK UP AND ASK VIDERE WHAT THE FUCK THEYRE DOINGHalexander (MOD): You stumble back into the door.Match (SeeSaw): Hold up just a fucking second

I scrolled up to reread the chat.

Match (SeeSaw): Can I try opening the door?Halexander (MOD): Unfortunately, you’ve exhausted your turn. The mass of blankets shoots out another piece but cannot quite reach you in its haste. Obviously, you don’t actually see this because: The blindfold begins to tighten around your eyes. That’s it for that, what’s next on the agenda?Videre (ANON): how many of these drawers could i search in one turn?Halexander (MOD): Two.Videre (ANON): how many drawers in each desk?Halexander (MOD):Three.Videre (ANON): ill search two drawers in the first deskHalexander (MOD): Alrighty then. The first drawer is full of vials and tubes. Most of them stand empty, but there is a vial each of blue, red, and orange liquid. The second contains a weathered journal.Videre (ANON): ill snag those three vials and pocket the journalHalexander (MOD):Of course you will.Match (SeeSaw): Can I open the door now.Halexander (MOD): Since Sherlock Holmes over here can’t do much else, I’ll bite. The door, amazingly, shockingly, opens once you manage to find it with the blindfold currently limiting your sight and putting increasing pressure on your skull.Match (SeeSaw): Okay, we’re dumb.Match (SeeSaw): Videre, the door’s open, let’s get the hell out of here!Videre (ANON): im not doneMatch (SeeSaw): Are you serious right now.Halexander (MOD): Better make the rest of your turn good.Match (SeeSaw): K. I cut the string on the blindfold and join that IDIOT at the desksHalexander (MOD): I’m honestly just gonna take that as a free action.Match (SeeSaw): Sweet. Can I search a drawer?Halexander (MOD): You definitely can.Match (SeeSaw): I’ll start on the middle desk, I guess.Match (SeeSaw): I’ll deal with YOU later, VidereVidere (ANON): looking forward to itHalexander (MOD): The drawer holds a dusty lab coat. That’s it.Match (SeeSaw):Why the fuck not, I’ll take it.Halexander (MOD): You done?Halexander (MOD): Just kidding, I know you are. The blanket wraps around your ankle to pull your feet out from under you. Roll for acrobatics to see if you eat shit.Match (SeeSaw): Jesus fuck.Match (SeeSaw): 10Halexander (MOD): You slam your face into the desk on the way down. Take 1d4 damage for that, and your nose is bleeding.Match (SeeSaw): Why are you doing this to me.Halexander (MOD): You chose to let me design this campaign. What did you think would happen?Match (SeeSaw):2Halexander (MOD): While you’re down, another blanket catches you by the wrist. Again. Go, Videre.Videre (ANON): two more drawersHalexander (MOD): The first is full of pieces of metal. Mostly junk, nuts and bolts. The second is empty, so I’ll knock the action down and let you open another one.Match (SeeSaw): IF YOU WANT TO KEEP YOUR HANDS AFTER THIS YOU WILL HELP ME RIGHT NOWVidere (ANON): yeah ill open another drawer. that leaves three left right

They searched every single drawer before helping me, by which time I was almost dead and being smothered by a pillow. They found the deed and I chewed them out on the way back to town. They said they knew I would be fine, they needed to find the deed, and there was no harm done.

Having already seen the parallels this anonymous player was making between their character and myself, I bristled at my computer.

Match (SeeSaw): Don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing. You won’t stay anonymous forever.Videre (ANON): oh im so scaredVidere (ANON): are you gonna come kick the shit out of me over a dumb game? give it up and find something else to obsess over if youre gonna be like that kidVidere (ANON): im just staying in character

And I had a good idea who was on the other side of the computer after that. Especially after I found out he’d done a covert investigation check with Hal instead of sharing with me. He knew there was an enemy in the room before we even entered. Was likely planning on using me as a distraction from the beginning.

The next time he surprised me, we were working for the owner of an orphanage to find ways to exploit parents interested in adoption. Match goes along with it because why not. Also because fuck adults.

But Videre surprised both me and Jax.

Jaxabandit (MOD): u want to what?Videre (ANON): buy the orphanageMatch (SeeSaw): We won’t get paid if you do that.Videre (ANON): im gonna assume that was in character and not in this whole ‘ooc’ space or whateverMatch (SeeSaw): Duh. The guy’s slimy and gross. But just because you have money doesn’t mean Match does. He needs the paycheck.Videre (ANON): think of it this wayVidere (ANON): if dicks like this werent in power match wouldnt have grown up on the streetsMatch (SeeSaw): That’s not how he thinks about shit and you know it.Videre (ANON): and hes not the one holding a huge sack of gold right now

I didn’t know what to think. By this point, I knew it was Kane. The fact that I asked Haz helps, but I know the way he talks to me. He’s the only one that would do this and keep up with it for so long.

So now, I’m not exactly sure what to do.

Match just died, like D-E-D, dead, and Videre is flipping the fuck out. The two of them had become fairly close friends. They were snarky and prickly toward each other, but they were partners in crime and would likely kill for each other.

Videre gets really scary in the final stretch of that fight.

I didn’t realize Kane thought so highly of my intimidation skills. I didn’t think he thought highly of me at all, not outside of work. I was just a tool and a weapon and something to either give orders to or take orders from.

But Videre is a force of nature toward the end. Being a mastermind rogue, they confuse the ice devil as well as fighting it. They show a lot of skill they didn’t before, turning a few unlucky rolls into happy mistakes. Even they seem surprised when they win.

Videre (ANON): wellVidere (ANON): i guess i know what its like to be you nowThe Old Hazzle Dazzle (MOD): Are you done now, Kane?Videre (ANON): wow cats out of the bagMatch (SeeSaw): You’re awful at hiding who you are, though.Match (SeeSaw): Also, you’re an assholeThe Old Hazzle Dazzle (MOD): Did you want to make a new character and keep going? Or call it quits for now?Match (SeeSaw): I think I’m done. I gotta go challenge Kane to a fist fight.Videre (ANON):gotta find me first

- Videre (ANON): has left the chat -

He’ll have to try a hell of a lot harder than that to get out of actually hanging out with me like a person.

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