#only 2 blue dragons is CRIMINAL

[francy-sketches]

made a pie chart of asoiaf dragon colors bc I was curious about it ^_^ my verdict is asoiaf is severely lacking in cool dragon designs why's there so much grey/brown/green I need more prettygirls. (I based this off of the books/grrm's descriptions, so vhagar is counted as bronze and vermax is undescribed even tho they're green in hotd. also quicksilver is technically undescribed but I counted her as silver bc of the name)

also heres a version not counting the undescribed ones

[simmeradventures]

Boba Legacy Challenge (TS3)

I have taken a break from sims 3 and while I am still working on my lepacy, I sometimes need a break and so look for more challenges. @tomatosoupcat posted a Boba challenge and didn't see a TS3 version so decided to covert it. THIS IS NOT MY IDEA AND I MIGHT NOT BE THE ONLY ONE. I kept within the theme and didn't write a massive story to them but did try add a creative spin.

GOOGLE DOC!!!

Gen 1: Brown Sugar

Leaving home is tough, but you will always have mum's cooking to keep you safe.

Traits: Couch Potato, Natural Chef, Green Thumb (Randomise The Rest)

LTW: Bottomless Wine Cellar OR Master Chef

Career: Nectar Maker OR Culinary

Skills: Cooking, Gardening and Nectar making

Colours: Brown, White

Master LTW

Marry a sim with 2 matching traits.

Max out skills

Gen 2: Blueberry

The farm life was nice, but there's a great big world waiting for you.

Traits: Non-Committal, Loves The Outdoors (Randomise The Rest)

LTW: Seasoned traveller OR Grand Explorer

Career: Part-Time Jobs Or Skill Based Profession (after quitting business job)

Skills: Fitness or Martial Arts (or both if your fancy), Scuba diving

Colours: Blue. Purple

Reach level 3 of the business career before quitting to travel

have a one night stand on your travels

never marry

Travel until child is a young adult

Max skills

Gen 3: Matcha

You've seen the world, but now all you want is a career and a forever home...or mansion.

Traits: Ambitious, Snob, workaholic (Randomise The Rest)

Careers: Any (based on degree)

Skills: logic (plus whatever is related to the degree.)

Colours: Light green

Go to university and graduate

Befriend and date co-worker (either break up once you reach level 10 of career or get married.)

Go to the spa every weekend

Complete LTW

Max Career

Max Skills

Gen 4: Passionfruit Mango

All work and no play so pick up a guitar and play anything you want.

Traits: Socially Awkward, Family Oriented, virtuoso (Randomise The Rest)

LTW: One sim band OR Rockstar

Career: Music

Skills: Guitar, Bass, Drum, Piano

Colours: Yellow, Orange

Play instruments throughout childhood

Date and marry someone with the Avant Garde or artistic trait

Go on art dates (museums or a cute art café)

Complete Career

Max Skills

Gen 5: Sakura

You are a party girl, but also a lover girl.

Traits: Flirty, Family Oriented, Hopeless Romantic (Randomise The Rest)

LTW: Master Romancer OR Master Mixology OR Surrounded By Family

Career: FREE PASS

Skills: Mixology, Charisma

Colour: Pink

Have a high school BFF

Sign up for online dating and date 5 sims (and fail)

Marry BFF

Complete LTW

Gen 6: Dragon fruit

Who needs love when you could rule the world?!

Traits: Evil, Childish, Irresistible (Randomise The Rest.)

LTW: Heartbreaker OR Gold Digger OR Emperor of Evil

Career: Criminal

Skills: Charisma, Athletic

Colours: Dark Red, Purple

Marry a wealthy sim and have them get into a "tragic accident."

Have a negative relationship with children

Max career

Max Skills

Gen 7: Taro

Never give up on your dreams even if life throws a baby at you.

Traits: Genius, Cat person (Randomise The Rest.)

LTW: Scientific Specialist OR Become A Creature Robot Cross Breeder

Career: Based on LTW

Skills: Science, Handiness, Logic

Colours: Light Purple

Join after school club (idk if its a mod but there's a chess club, can add other ones through Nraas)

Go to university and drop out when pregnant (if not using mods or using mod that allows you to go to university in hometown then drop out and then get pregnant 

Work part-time till the baby is a toddler

Go back to university and graduate

Adopt a cat. 

Gen 8 Lychee

“You're always on that damn phone!” and “I hate normal people.” made a baby 

Traits: Unflirty, Loner (Randomise The Rest.)

LTW:  Blog Artist OR Forensic Specialist

Career: Based on LTW/ Free pass

Skills: Social Networking, Science

Colours: Pink, White

Have a plant sim

Max Skills

Max Career

Gen 9: Thai Tea

Sometimes it's good to look back. Spread the founder’s love of food! 

Traits: Adventurous, Perceptive (Randomise The Rest)

LTW: Star News Anchor OR Professional Author 

Career: Journalism OR Writer Profession

Skills: Writing, Photography, Cooking

Colours: Orange

Visit France, China and Egypt to collect recipes 

Throw dinner parties (once a season.)

Max Career

Max Skills

Gen 10: Sunset

Humans have been fun, but everyone knows the supernatural have the most fun.

Traits: Hopeless Romantic, Good  (Randomise The Rest)

LTW: Master Mysticism OR Resort Empire

Career: Based on LTW

Skills: Scuba Diving, Alchemy, Painting

Colours: Purple, Red, Orange

Fall in love and marry a supernatural (if you choose resort empire LTW then you have to marry a mermaid.)

Decorate home with your art.

[animalstamp]

Skywings Ref

Horns:

Skywings’ horns are light and decorative. Because of this they will not often drill or carve into it like the other tribes.

They will be trimmed down if they are considered to be too heavy but back in the day large and cumbersome horns were a quality of the upper class. So much so that some would graft metal covers that would exaggerate their profile.

Wings:

Skywings have petaled wings that act like flight feathers. They are flexible and sharp along the edge. NO TOUCHING.

Instead of digits or talons along the wing they have a line of spurs that protect the bend of their wings.

Feathers:

Feathers are modified scales; they are strong and flexible like a sheet of thin metal.

Skywings often grow trains that can grow from three locations. It can grow from one or all three locations.

The length and quality of the trains is a sign of status and competence in combat if they are a warrior. Much like a lion’s mane or peacock’s tail, individual health plays a great part in the train’s appearance.

Criminals, lowlifes, orphans, and dragons in subservient positions often have their trains removed via clipping or yanking out. (ouch!)

If a dragon is in a higher social circle and does not grow trains in all locations might find it in them to add feathers. (These can be fabricated, from beloved family members, or trophies from rivals.)

Patterns:

Skywings vary less than the other tribes when it comes to colors, but they do have a number of interesting patterns.

Saturated colors are the sign of a more dominant individual. The brighter they are the better health, mood, and confidence. Or at least that is the general perception.

Each dragon has their own personal range of saturation. What might be considered a “bright” day to them might still look drab to another.

Red is considered the most desirable, especially at full saturation. Yellow and orange often tie in attractiveness. Brown isn’t very exciting but gives off the impression of being a stable if boring person. White is the wild card.

*Blue is exceedingly rare which only one documented individual that was truly blue. All other cases have be dye jobs.

Body Configuration:

Unlike the other tribes Skywings are exclusively bipedal. They never walk on their front talons thus keeping them extremely sharp.

While their hands are perfectly capable of holding things it’s not unusual for a Skywing to pick things up with their feet.

Skywings have unusual vents that resemble Seawings’ gills that they use to take in air without breathing thru their mouth or nostrils. These vents allow Skywings to breathe a continuous stream of fire hotter, farther, and longer than any other. No one is really sure how long a dragon can maintain the stream the longest record is 2 hours straight and only stopped out of boredom.

The vents can also expel fire, if rarely, to help flying and lift off. There is a skill to this, and it needs to be practiced with caution.

 

Extra:

Storm pattern appear to have correlations to a specific location.

Sky pattern is only uncommon, but the color blue is practically unheard of.

Skywings have shown an ability to change color within seconds, this is associated to levels of emotions. Anger and righteousness make the dragons more saturated, and fear and submissiveness make them duller.

Because of this correlation with brightness higher-class dragons are more saturated overall which causes a false assumption that brighter dragons are more qualified to rule and lead. (They just eat better, are more confident, and are more likely to anger.)

There's a myth that if two Hot Spots have eggs together, they will get a firescales dragonet.

There is a theory that Skywings were the first dragons that the other tribes descended from as they share traits with each tribe that are specific enough not to not shown in any other tribes. Example: Vents= Seawing gills, color change= Rainwing mimicry, etc.

[wyked-ao3]

Wyked's intro

Hey, I'm wyked (wicked) been on Tumblr a while now and finally got around to my intro

About me:↪ Wyked, she/her/psycho

↪ writer questionnaire here and here and another one here

↪ I'm 23 and would prefer not to interact with minors.

About my blog:↪ This is the blog for interactions and reblogging and tag games.

↪ Reader, writer, nerd,

↪Alpha/Beta reader, idea bouncer. (Send a pm if your looking for an extra set of eyes, just tell me what your looking for. I can be brutally honest if that's what you're looking for but I'm still listing my favorite parts regardless.)

↪Taurus born

↪I write mostly fanfiction multi fandom and have a blog for it here @wyked-fanfiction

↪ I'm currently writing my first original work the TPCG series and all lore and a majority of writing shares and ask will be shared on this blog @wyked-original-writing

All fandom related stuff will be contained to @wyked-fandom

↪My current game fandom's

Zelda (it's more link than Zelda but whatever lol) I have played (wind waker , orca of time, twilight princess, and a little of skyward sword)

Elder scrolls (Skyrim is my favorite)

Devil may cry 2-3

Red steel

Assassin's creed (can't wait for the new one…although I'm still not sure about upgrading from the PS3 lol)

↪My movie/series fandoms

Merlin, Twilight, Supernatural, Lucifer, Grimm,Once upon a time, Stargate (all), Primeval, Criminal minds, NCIS, Star trek, Harry Potter, Hannibal, Marvel, Harley Quinn, Shadow hunters, Arrow, How to train your dragons (all), Troll hunters (they ripped my heart out) Avatar the last Airbender, Avatar (blue), Jurassic world, Jurassic park, Dragon prince, The last of us?(Not the biggest fan of it but I do read the fic's and wrote for ot occasionally, Lost, Charmed (original), Originals (didn't finish it….I'm a softie okay), and to be honest I'm forgetting some… may edit as I remember or hit a phase where they are my favorite show again….

↪Anime fandom's…..some I'm only in due to my sister but it still counts…..

Black Butler

Heavens official blessing

Skum villain D

emon king academy

Welcome to demon school iruma (I love this)

Fairytail

↪My Never seen but I could probably convince you otherwise do to my sister's rambling list that will update as I remember names

Inuyasha

↪My interest and writing memes will be posted on @wyked-rebellion

Herbs,plants,trees, mushrooms, nature (I can keep going) animals,fish,corals and aquatic plants, invertebrates, mythology, pirates, knights, druids,shamans, hanfu, feudal era, history involving any of the above.. writing, gardening, wood carving and burning, sketching although I think you get more detail with wood burning……I can keep listing but most of that will not be covered here so I will stop now but feel free to drop in my inbox to chat

I will add more eventually here

↪My mutuals original story recommendation list

My favorite western, time loop horror romance by @tragedycoded I can not recommend this enough it got me hooked on a western.

If you like gay pirates, kidnapping, drama and found family that will keep you on your toes then check out @the-golden-comet 's story (read the warning)

↪My mutuals fanfiction recommendation list (it will change as I think of some I added the recommendations last minute so oops)

If you are into sarcastic lovable OC's and mandalorians from star wars check out @lillybaaaka 's work

she also has a fem Harry Potter/startrek crossover that I'm in love with lol highly recommend it, it's more startrek then Harry Potter

if you are into the bat family you should check out @gods-graveyard 's work

if you like bananafish fanfiction then check out @gioiaalbanoart she has several amazing ones but my favorite so far is this one

if you are a Zelda fan who ships Ganon and Link then I highly recommend you check out @the-golden-comet just make sure to read the warnings

[sadly-never-after]

Music in the EAH Universe and who listens to them Part 4.

This is just an excuse to try to make music puns and share music I think the characters would listen to. (Some of these are even canon by the books!) I don't even like a majority of these musicians but I am fully convinced of my choices here. I marked in colours the one that are canonically part of the EAH Universe.

Since Tumblr only allows 100 inline links for a post I have to make different parts.

Part 1 (Alistair, Apple, Ashlynn, Blondie, Briar, Bunny)

Part 2 (Cupid, Cedar, Cerise, Chase, Courtly, Daring)

Part 3 (Darling, Dexter, Duchess, Farrah, Faybelle, Ginger)

Part 4 (Holly, Hopper, Humphrey, Hunter, Jillian, Justine)

Part 5 (Kitty, Lizzie, Maddie, Meeshell, Melody, Nina)

Part 6 (Poppy, Ramona, Raven, Rosabella, Sparrow, Tucker)

☽𖤓 🏰 𖤓☾ Holly O'Hair ☽𖤓 🏰 𖤓☾

Taylor Quick (It's nice to have a friend, King of my heart, Love Story)

Justin Timberwolf (Can't Stop The Feeling, Perfect, True Colours)

Katy Fairy (Teenage Dream, Legendary Lovers, Love Me)

Little Red Sheeran (Perfect, Shape of You, Happier)

One Reflection (Perfect, Gotta Be You, You & I)

𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊 🐸 👑 𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊 Hopper Croakington II 𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊 🐸 👑 𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊

Wizard (Pink Triangle, I Just Threw Out The Love Of My Dreams, Say It Ain't So)

Ricky Montgnomery (Line Without A Hook, Mr. Loverman, Dont Know How)

Truelove (Tonguetied, Ways to go, Love Will Save Your Soul)

Katy Fairy (Last Friday Night, Thinking of You, The One That Got Away)

Beach Beast (Cloud 9, Prom Queen, Nice Guys)

🥚 🜲 🥚 🜲 🥚 Humphrey Dumpty 🥚 🜲 🥚 🜲 🥚

Eminymph (Lose Yourself, Without Me, The real slim shady)

Lil Swain (Sucker for Pain, Love Me, Mirror)

N-Chant (Rich Money, IDL, Homeboy on a shirt)

Twenty one kings men (Holding on to you, Choker, Johnny Boy)

Wizard (Beverly Hills, Buddy Holly, Thank God For Girls)

🐾🏹🐺🐻 Hunter Huntsman 🐾🏹🐺🐻

Encounter Dragons (It's Time, Enemy, On Top of the World)

Fall Out Book (Centuries, I don't care, Dance, Dance)

OneKingdom (Feel Again, I Don't Wanna Wait, Counting Stars)

Trollplay (The Scientist, Green Eyes, Miracles)

Ever After Authors (Do My Own Thing, Something Amazing, Blind for Love)

𖠗 🌱 ❀ᮬᰰུㅤ Jillian Beanstalk 𖠗 🌱 ❀ᮬᰰུㅤ

Goldie (Call Me, Maria, Picture This)

Corset Suffocation (Rebel Girl, Double Dare Ya, Carnival)

Joan Jett & the Redhearts (Bad Reputation, Crimson & Clover, Bad Karma)

Notting Ham (Champion, White Flag, River)

Encounter Dragons (Believer, Radioactive, Enemy)

🩰♡₊˚・₊ ♪ ✧♫₊˚.✧💃🏾 Justine Dancer 🩰♡₊˚・₊ ♪ ✧♫₊˚.✧💃🏾

D'aulnoy Cat (Kiss Me More, Boss Bitch, Woman)

Lana d'Aulnoy (Blue Jeans, West Coast, Old Money)

FKA Witch (I'm Your Doll, Lights On, Talk To Me)

Fayoncé (Run the world, Me, Myself & I, Dance For You)

Michael Jack-and-the-Beanstalk (Thriller, Smooth Criminal, Blood on the dance floor)

You are trapped on an eight-hour long road trip with these guys and you have to give one of them the aux chord.

[cuttyclowngirl]

Daima EP.5 Spoiler Review/theories

• While Panzy's eye color means nothing in regards to her lineage, she does come from an important lineage as some of us suspected. Panzy, princess of machine otakus. Glorio not immediately recognizing her by name or appearance likely implies either 3rd world demons aren't interested in the royal family in general or Panzy's very existence is somewhat restricted to those who live/work at her castle. Could it be that she never actually received a collar as a result of that? Is that why she wears the scarf?

• Glorio very clearly doesn't want anyone outside of Goku's circle to join in regardless of any help they can offer. (Not part of Dr Arinsu's plan?) No choice now. Panzy's a helpful mechanic.

• Glorio did in fact speak to King Kadan, who did not in fact request that Glorio seek out those who defeated Majin Buu; implying that Glorio "snuck" into King Gohma's castle & gathered intel on Goku & crew in episode 1 before being "sent out" by King Kadan. Even a 3rd world demon who does "work" in the 1st world shouldn't be able to get anywhere near the castle of THE SUPREME KING of the DEMON REALM. He was let in. Dr Arinsu popped up unannounced in episode 1 & Glorio just happened to be spying behind a pillar? Nah.

• The 3rd demon world being the biggest, (yet worst off) world in the entire realm might just maybe imply worlds 1&2 have slightly lower gravity, but probably not.

• King Kadan is a man of seemingly righteous anger (Glorio describes him as an uncivilized Mafia boss) who wants to get rid of King Gohma & somehow assume the throne of Supreme King. For "peace". Is that actually possible? Was he perhaps promised that position by a manipulator in the shadows? (Dr Arinsu?) Panzy said her father "only steals from criminals & only kills bad people", which is usually a set up for a heartbreaking reveal that'll leave Panzy in tears. Or it could be nothing.

• Apparently those awful collars even function as tracking devices.

• They even have onigiri in the Demon Realm. Cute. Implies demon rice fields & unique demon ocean seaweed.

• Panzy has a knife she hasn't used yet. Judging from all that courtyard soldier training going on at her castle, she probably picked up a few moves from watching & learning.

• It was nice hearing Goku introduce himself with both his names. His interactions with Panzy are cute so far, as I'd hoped. Panzy herself is charmingly stubborn, insisting on getting her way without throwing tantrums/ throwing a fit.

• In the 3rd world at least, the inhabitants live up to a thousand years. This likely doesn't apply to the Glinds who live for a VERY long time.

• Every Majin (demon) can use at least one magic spell. So could magical enhancement explain Glorio's strength?

• Goku can canonically touch his nose with his tongue.

• Panzy implied that there are next to no Glinds in the Demon Realm due to the vast majority leaving ages ago, as many of us suspected. Though based on the passive aggressive conversation Shin had with Glorio episode 3, there might be a handful of Glinds somewhere in 2nd world.

• So the stick with blue cloth tied to it from the OP isn't a grave marker, but a path marker. Based on the sound of the wind (in the scene in this episode) & the direction the cloth was blowing, you're supposed to take the path the cloth points to. (In the OP the cloth is blowing to the right, then the camera pans to the right, where Goku & crew are seen traveling)

• Panzy confirms that Dabura was still a bad guy prior to the events of the Buu saga, so thankfully he hasn't been retconed as a good guy King. (Wouldn't make sense)

• Dende's caretaker (nanny?) is cute. Hope she gets a name. Much smarter of King Gohma planing on raising Dende so he can have his own personal set of dragon balls & probably get rid of Neva. (So it was probably Degesu's idea)

• I want to know what those demon onions have seen...

• The Tamagamis have never been defeated. Their poor win streak's about to be demolished.

• Smart of Shin (Supreme Kai) to bring up the pin number issue with King Kadan, who introduced us to a demon (of currently unspecified gender) named "Hybis" (Hibiscus flower?) who loves ballet & will head out to pick up/help Vegeta & crew. Hybis also shows off a device that's visually similar to the dragon radar, but also Babidi's energy reading device we saw Spopovich using when Gohan went SSJ2 at the tournament in the Buu saga. Just cooler. (Panzy is also seen holding a similar device in the ED) I swear, if the eyeball on Hybis' belt turns out to be the Tertian Oculus...

• Shin straight up drops "universe 7" in front of Goku, who doesn't register it & that's hilarious. Shin also finally shared his suspicions of Glorio with Goku, bringing up things we've been bringing up & such. Goku was Goku about it.

• I wasn't ready for the children's book art style bit when King Kadan ordered 3 men to steal a plane for Hybis from the "Nemophy Gang".

• Man, someone must've put a plane curse on Glorio, cuz bro has ZERO luck in that department. A 4 day trip & it breaks down in 2 minutes. (Guess Kai-Kai isn't an option)

• Hope we return to Kadan castle from time to time to introduce us to a few of those background characters like cool, pretty, buff red head with the silly ah chest plate.

• Wonder if Glorio actually has any of that liquor King Kadan offered to provide.

• Cute detail of Goku carrying luggage with his nyoibo.

• I super hope that axolotl tailed stuffed animal Panzy brought along will actually be sold IRL. I want.

[lazysenberg]

{ENGLISH} - Arlong x Human!Reader Pt1

This One Shot is longer than I thought it would be, so I think I’m going to make a part 2! This one looks more like Fishmen x Reader than Arlong x Reader, so yeah, I think we need a part 2 ahah.

~~~

Since we don’t really know what happened to Arlong’s Pirates, let’s say that when they got arrested by the Marines, they got sent to Celestial Dragons as slaves.

What will happen to them and their Captain?

ONE PIECE - ENGLISH

Arlong x Human!Reader (Revolutionary) Pt1

WARNING : Potential sensitive subjects/Blood/Injuries

__________________

You’re Y/N Y/L/N, a young Revolutionary aged around 20 years old. You grew up with a girl named Koala and a boy named Sabo. You three are still together today, working with Monkey.D Dragon and other great people.

This morning is the beginning of your “rest day”. Which means that you can do whatever you want. But you still have to be careful.

However, you’re Y/N Y/L/N. You often put yourself in danger but for good reasons. Your day is actually starting with you, early ready and actually hidden somewhere in the Celestial Dragons’s place ; precisely close where the slaves are.

Your goal : save as many slaves as possible.

You heard that a lot of people were still condemned to serve these monsters, and not only criminals, but innocents too.

You’re sneaking around, looking for the door that can bring you to the underground prisons.

Faster than you could have thought, you find it. But when you try to open the door, you find it closed. With a sigh, you look around you.

A guard is walking around, carefully watching if anyone tries to escape. Discreetly, you crouch and pull a small marble out of your pocket.

When the guard’s back is completely facing you, you throw the marble down his feet and the little ball let a greenish smoke come out. The soldier looks down with a raised eyebrow, but when the smoke goes to his nose, the guy sniffs the strange smell. His eyes lift to the sky and quickly, the man falls to the ground, completely asleep.

Still crouching, you quickly crawl towards him and start looking for something. It was easierit than you thought because very quickly, you find the keys for the underground prisons’s door.

To not lose time, you run to the door and look for the right key.

When you manage to open it, you face stairs made of bluestone and a dark corridor. Humidity is invading the place, but it doesn’t frighten you.

You slowly go down the stairs and grab a torch that is placed on the wall. With it, you try to light your way a little better.

Finally, you start crossing a few cells. When you light these, you find weak Fishmen. Some are asleep, probably very tired because of what they’re going through, and some others are turning to you.

All these scared faces. You just can’t let them here alone.

You hang your torch on the wall, right next to their cell so it can still light it, and then you approach even more the cell, looking at every prisonners inside.

You’re watching one of them, a pale blue guy with blond hair. He’s sitting on an hard and uncomfortable bed, looking down. You quickly notice a tattoo on his right shoulder.

You already saw this drawing...

“- Are you... Are you from the Arlong’s Pirates?”

The blue Fishman looks at you with no emotions in his eyes. He doesn’t look scared, but not happy either or else.

He doesn’t answer, he’s just staring at you. But after a few seconds that could have seemed like hours, he raise an eyebrow and turns completely his face to your direction.

“- Why do you ask?

- I know this drawing on your shoulder. It’s his symbol, isn’t it?”

The fishman looks down his shoulder, looking at the red tattoo on it. His eyes then go back to you :

“- Who are you exactly? You don’t look like these disgusting Celestial Dragons... Or their guards, chu.”

You try to reassure him with a smile and put a hand on your chest, introducing yourself :

“- My name is Y/N Y/L/N, I’m here to help you. I only want your freedom.”

The guy laughs at you and looks away.

“- And how can we trust you? The ones who locked us here are humans like you. You’re all the same.”

You frown and your gaze fills with confusion. You then look down.

These Fishmen are locked up not only because they’re Pirates, but because of their kind...

You wrap your fingers around the bars, still staring at the ground.

“- L-look... I know that these people from my kind have been bad with you... But we’re not all like them! If you could just let me help you and see-

- You don’t understand, chu. Not only these stupid rich guys dared hurting us!”

The blue fishman gets up from the bed and faces you, pointing his finger in your direction.

“Humans harrassed us, they killed many of us! Because of what? Because we’re not like them! Like you... Because we’re different! We lost so many brothers and sisters, friends too, because of this! So tell me, how can we trust you!?”

You look at him, in shocked, and you don’t really know what to say.

After some minutes of silence, the guy turns his back to you and you sigh.

Without any other hesitation, you take the keys in your hands and look for the right key like earlier. After a little wait, you find the good one and open the door.

All the Fishmen inside are looking at you. You step aside the way and point the exit with your finger.

The prisoners inside are still staring at you, some in shocked and the others with mistrust.

A guy with the fins of a ray that was sitting on the floor stands up and looks at you with curiosity.

“- Wait- why would you do that?

- Because I don’t think you deserve it. Nobody does.

- You don’t know what we did, chu.”

The blue guy walks in front of his ray fishman friend.

“- I maybe don’t, but you’re Pirates, so of course you’re outlaw. But I am too. And you’re not the greatest criminals. For me, you’re maybe Pirates, but you’re above all living beings wishing to have their rights and their freedom.”

A fishman approaches you, a finger timidly pointing towards the exit.

“- S-so, we can go now, right?

- You can, but you still must be vigilant. The guards are still patrolling around and a Celestial Dragon could come at any time.

- T-thank you...”

The fishman goes out of the cell, and when his friends are seeing you not doing anything to stop him, they’re slowly and carefully following him outside.

“- Umh- hey... Bluefish...

- Bluefish?”

The blond fishman looks at you, with a strange look on his face.

“- S-sorry, I didn’t get your name and- When I don’t know people, I give them weird nicknames...”

You look down with red cheeks. The ray guy look at his brother but a raised eyebrow. The blue one sigh.

“- You’re not allowed to call me by my name. But you’re not allowed either to call me by this weird thing.

- Then what should I call you?

- I don’t know, chu...

- You’re not helping me there!

- Just find something else!

- Well, Sir!”

You both look at each other, then the blue fishman crosses his arms against his chest, still looking at you with a stern look.

“- What?”

You sigh. Guess that this name is better.

You take your courage in both hands and you straighten up to face him correctly.

“- If you’re an Arlong’s Pirate, may I ask, what happened to your Captain?

- You’re looking for Arlong?

- Well... Yes? Why isn’t he with you all?”

The ray guy approaches you, when you look at him, the fishman looks kinda sad. But you can see that he’s trying not to show it. He then starts to explain :

“- Arlong tried many times to attack the Celestial Dragons, the guards and other people that could arm us or lock us here again and again. At the beginning of our life here, he was with us, but then, because of his attacks, the Celestial Dragons decided to put him aside.”

You approach slowly the duo, the other fishmen are watching you three behind the two known pirates.

“- And Sir, do you know where your Captain has been locked up?

- Why do you want to know that?”

You look at the blue one, a bit scared because of his look on his face right now. All you can see is anger and disgust. But you don’t let it go, you clear your throat and explain :

“- I would like to help him get out, like I’m doing with you.

- We’re not out yet-

- Chu, That’s enough.

- Ugh...”

The second fishman turns back to you :

“- Arlong has been locked up down this hallway, at the end of the corridor.. He’s completely alone and we don’t know what these monsters did to him. It’s been a while since we last saw our Captain...”

All the fishmen are looking down with sad faces. It’s breaking your heart, but your determination is coming back. You have to help them all get out of this place. You clench your fists and straighten up again with more confidence this time.

“- Ray guy, Bluefish-

- Oh, not this name again, chu.

- Please, bring all your friends out of here and be careful. I’ll try to be quick. I’ll go help Arlong getting out of his cell and then we’ll both join you.

- Arlong won’t follow you, chu.

- What is making you think that?”

Chu rests his hands on his hips and bends over to you :

“- Arlong is hating humans even more than us, he won’t support you for a second. We’re barely trusting you, chu, so imagine how he would react ; seeing a naive human like you who wants to “help fishmen”.”

You look down, but look back up quickly.

“- I’m maybe naive, but let me tell you, Bluefish. I’m also very stubborn, and I wanna help you! I will get you out of here! And you will let me do it. After all of this thing is done, you will never see me again! You’re just going to be with me for what- one or two hours if everything is alright?”

The fishman named Chu was about to say something, but his ray brother puts a hand on his shoulder to get his attention :

“- Chu, this human is right, it’s only for a short time. Maybe could we just... let the story of hate between humans and fishmen aside for a second?”

The blue fishman sighs in defeat and walks away towards the other fishmen. You look at the ray :

“- S-so... What now?

- Go to Arlong. And me and Chu are going to protect everyone while you’re gone. We can resist a little time if we’re being attacked. Do you think you can handle facing our Captain, little human?”

You look at the ground again, hesitating for a second, but then you look back up at the guy in front of you and nod at him.

“- I can do it.

- Great. Then we’ll see each other in a short time.”

You start to leave the group and the ray warns Chu about what's going to happen.

Chu then prepares the other fishmen and the ray turns back to you :

“- Little human!

- Mmh?

- W-what if... What if Arlong’s dead?”

You can see the fear and the worry on his face. You start to share his emotions, but to not worry him even more, you try to hide it.

“- I’m sure he’s alive, Sir... And if he’s not, I’ll make sure you’re all going to be safe and out of here. Probably home too. For him. I promise umh...

- Kuroobi.

- I promise, Kuroobi.”

You give the fishman a smile, take back your torch and then start to run to the other side of the corridor.

---

You slowed your pace as you walked deeper down the hall. You’re looking around, trying to find Arlong’s cell. All the ones you see are empty. The only one that was keeping prisoners was the one with Arlong’s Pirates and some other fishmen.

After a little while, you finally see a bit of light. This light isn’t from a torch on the wall, but it looks like it’s from a window.

You approach the light and you notice that it comes from a cell. When you notice it, you already start to look for the key.

By chance, when you’re in front of the door, you’ve got the right key the first time, so you can open the door without losing more time.

You frown a bit because the door doesn’t looks like the others. It’s not made with bars. It’s a pretty huge door made with rough metal and it has only a little window. The light comes from here by the way.

You enter the cell and what you see is shocking you.

Arlong is here, you don’t know if he’s alive, but you hope so... He’s sitting on the ground, looking down. The shark fishman looks very weak. He’s wearing a sort of muzzle or gag around his mouth and his jaw. He has bruises, marks and sores all over his body.

You’re almost about to cry when you’re seeing this. You don’t wait any longer, you let the keys fall down your feets and then run quickly in front of him.

You kneel down to be level with him and cup him face in your hands. You make him face you and when you do, you can see he’s trying to open his eyes.

“- Arlong..? Arlong, can you hear me?”

Slowly, his eyes are looking up to you. But when he sees you, his gaze instantly turns to anger. He starts moving, hurting even more his wrists shackled in blood. You can see he’s trying to get you, probably attack you, but you don’t flinch.

“- Shh.. Shh... Please, I-I’m here to help you... Do not move like that, you’re going to hurt yourself even more!”

But the fishman doesn’t listen to you, he moves more and tries to yell. His screams are restrained by the muzzle.

You frown. Let’s do it.

You ignore his anger and his dissatisfaction. You decide to take this risk. You get up, grab a small tool hidden in your jacket to open handcuff locks and start working on his chains.

Arlong is still trying to yell at you and push you away from him, but without any success.

When the first handcuff is unlock, he tries to get you with his hand, but you dodge him pretty easily.

“- Please calm down... I’m not here to hurt you or bring you to these monsters. Today is your time to leave and go home, Arlong.”

He still looks angry at you. He doesn’t look even normal... His rage in his eyes, he almost looks savage...

After some minutes, the other handcuff falls on the ground. When it does, you hear footsteps behind you :

“- What do you think you’re doing!?

- Sh*t...”

You get up quickly and look at the Celestial Dragon in front of you. The guy grabs a gun and points it in your direction.

“- Get away from this creature! I’m going to call my guards, we’ll take care of you... Are you an ally of this monster!?

- Who I am isn’t important... All you have to know is that I’m here to stop you! What you’re doing isn’t normal! It’s barbarism!

- Enough!”

The Celestial Dragon shot, you tried to hide yourself with your arms. But the bullet never hit your body. It hit the ceiling instead of you. And now, you hear chains, growl of anger and the rich man screaming in fear. You finally decide to look and what you’re seeing is surprising you.

Arlong, on top of the Celestial Dragon with the muzzle off his face. He’s looking at the man with so much anger and pain...

“- N-no, please! Go back to your place, slave! You can’t touch a Celestial Dragon, you monster! Down, right now!”

The pirate didn’t wait any longer, he grabs the Celestial Dragon’s neck and throws him on the wall, knocking him out.

You’re looking at the body on the floor, in shock. But then, your attention turns back to Arlong. His back is facing you. He turns a bit his head in your direction but still doesn’t face you completely.

“- Who are you...?

- U-umh... My- my name is Y/N... I’m... I try to free the slaves when I can...”

The shark is mocking you :

“- Ah..! That’s risky...”

He finally faces you and looks you up and down.

“I could easily break you... But I’ll be kind today... You set me free, after all... Didn’t you..?

- Y-yes...”

He laughs a bit and starts leaving the cell. You then run to catch him and notice that he is limping. You approach him a bit more and puts a hand on his back, making him flinch and recoil away from you.

“- Who do you think you’re touching, pity human!?”

You recoil a bit, to not make him even more uncomfortable and try to reassure him.

“- I’m just... trying to help... You’re injured and you can’t walk by your own anymore for the moment... You look like you can fall at any time..

- I don’t need your help anymore... You did great for a human, now leave! I’ll get my crew...”

You drop your arms along your body, watching Arlong walk away.

“- They’re waiting us outside.”

Arlong turns to face you again with a raised eyebrow and disgust.

“Us?

- I freed them. Kuroobi and Bluefish are protecting the others. We had this agreement before I went to get you..

- So they did a plan with a human like you?

- Yes... to live...”

The pirate captain was about to get more angry, but when you mentionned the living part, he calmed down a bit, thinking of the danger his loved ones are going through.

“- I need to join them... We need to leave.

- Let me help you.”

He stares at you, not sure if he should accept or just laugh at you again. But then he looks at his wounds and sigh.

“- Just this time.”

You approach him and you wrap your arms around him to carry him as best as you can to help. He’s taller than you, but you still manage to make things easier for him.

---

When you both come out of the underground prison. You find guards bodies on the ground and the fishermen waiting for you.

Kuroobi approaches you :

“- You’re back!

- What a good feeling to see you alive Captain, chu.”

You look at Chu and smile.

“- I told you I would help, Bluefish.

- You’re still not allowed to call me like that!”

You laugh and Arlong looks at you with a kind of scary face. You stop laughing and look at him. He’s intimidating..

His face relaxes but curiosity still invades his mind.

“- You’re a strange case, human.

- Maybe I am.

- Enough talking now. Let’s not lose time, we need to go. We managed to beat up these guards, but more are surely coming. And Arlong, you need to healing.”

You nod at Kuroobi. Him and Chu approach you both and start caring Arlong. You look at them, starting to leave the prison, and you then follow them.

“- So, where are we going, human?

- I’ve got a ship! I stole it from the Revolutionaries! I’ll bring it back tomorrow.

- You’re a Revolutionary!?

- I am!

- I’m not shocked anymore, now I understand why you attacked the Celestial Dragons, chu.”

You laugh a bit and bring the pirates to your ship.

...

[ghostofvalorie]

That Essay

@forsaire tagged me and now I MUST provide! You opened Pandora's box on this one.

To adhere to the rules I will first provide FOUR and ONLY FOUR of my fictional crushes! And to make it easier on us all I've narrowed it down to games only, so here we go!

I'm starting off from the very beginning of my journey into crushing on non-existent people, and people who have read my tags before might know this one already!

Malik Al Sayf from Assassins Creed 1 - 2007

A man whom you've wrong by being arrogant and then spends the next few hours of the game being yelled at by him, and rightfully so. Not only do you cost him his arm and place as an assassin in the brotherhood, but his younger brother as well.

Eventually Altaïr stops begin a prick and apologizes and Malik, bless his heart forgives him.

Still... not me rolling into Jerusalem hoping, wishing, to get yelled at because Malik's Voice Actor goes HARD <3 I love him and his 7 whole polygons! NEXT!!

Keeping it somewhat chronological:

The Arishok from Dragon Age 2 - 2011

He beeg. He got horns. He is technically an antagonist in the game but he has a moral code that makes sense to him that he is willing to kill and die for. Qunari famously live their lives incredibly black and white so to him he is in the right, even if we disagree.

But he just got a wholeass vibe, and he'll say nice things such as

"I have a growing lack of disgust for you" and I mean, with that voice... say no more sir. *takes shirt off*

NR 3: Adam Jensen from Deus Ex - 2011-2016

My cyborg husband <3

Ex-swat turned security guy, then interpool agent (depends on which game you are playing)

He's just an incredibly good guy, the sweetest person on the block. Ofc it depends on how you play and what choices you make, but MY Adam is a sweeheart that will go out of his way to help people.

And my boi got sass, he'll be snarky to literally anyone, his boss, the cops, criminals you name it.

He's also secretly a little funny. <3

Nr 4: Arthur Morgan from Red Dead Redemption 2 - 2018

I mean first off, he do a little *mlem* when he drinks coffee... Do i even need to say more?

Arthur is just such a perfect sad boy. Raised to believe his only worth lies in killing people when in reality he is incredibly competent, sharp and caring. Again depends on how you play the game, but my Arthur is the goodest boi in the west.

Now that was four, oh but look, somehow completely unrelated to all this, some other honorable mentions seems to have ended up after the cut, how silly of me!

And @xintothewoodswegox, show us what you got!

Beast from Beauty and the Beast - 2017

No further comment, your honor, if you've seen the movie you should know.

Kaidan Alenko from Mass Effect - 2012

How can we not love the powerful nerdass space magician! He's caring, he is cute, he is Canadian and schrodinger's person of color!

He also glow blue, what else can you possible want? I for sure do NOT kick my feet and twirl my hair anytime he wants to talk to me.

Eris Goddess of Chaos from Sinbad - 2003

I MEAN LOOK AT HER?!?!?!? Again an antagonist, but she is sexy about it.

Helga Sinclair from Atlantis - 2001

I'm-I i mean, I don't even have words. Every time I SEE Helga my brain flat-lines I can't help it.

THAT GIF THO???

Majima Goro from the Like a Dragon series of games

No comment, because if i start i will NEVER stop, he's story is too good.

Simon 'Ghost' Riley from Call of Duty MWII - 2022

I could literally put ALL the characters from that game in this list. ALL OF THEM, but to keep this somewhat short I've chosen ONE and i've chosen Ghost, the most tragic man alive.

Kar'niss from Baldur's Gate 3 - 2023

Another TRAGIC boi, missunderstood and abused </3 I could take care of him. LET ME TAKE CARE OF HIM LARIAN

Jonathan Reid from Vampyr - 2018

You didn't think I'd squeeze in a vampire this late, did you?

I wasn't overly impressed by Jonathan from the start, BUT, he is FASCINATING if you play him as a bloodthirsty villain willing to murder everyone for power! I'm here for bad-boy Reid!

Lastly, for now:

Corvo Attano from Dishonored - 2012

Also an incredibly tragic man, who's fate you hold in your hands with your actions!

He's just hot, he's a dilf, he can succumb to grief and violence or rise above it to save not only his daughter but an entire empire from destruction.

I'm not sure i've y'all have noticed the pattern yet but let me spell it out for you:

PEOPLE THAT CAN ABSOLUTELY DESTROY ME! Look at them all! So STRONG! So POWERFUL! Fuck, mess me up fam!

And the beauty lies in that they never would. Or I mean Eris might... but I'm in a firm belief that the others would never harm someone they care about and ain't that just the purest thing you've ever heard.

Now this was only the highlights of my fictional crushes, I've kept most of the absolute freaks out for now. Maybe I'll do an updated list later where werewolves and Cthulhu makes the cut, we'll see. Now I know HP Lovecraft wasn't a very cool dude to say the least, but you expect me to be normal about the big tentacle monster? REALLY?

Lower your expectations.

[best-tv-theme-song]

Polls will start to be posted within the next week or so.

Bracket list under the cut!

UPDATE: LIST CANCELLED

*Starred shows have multiple theme songs or I have combined shows in a franchise in an effort to include as much as possible. These will have preliminaries built-into their polls on the first round. This is how it works: 1. all of the songs will go into a poll together against one other show; 2. the COMBINED votes for those songs will determine which show wins that poll; 3. only the top voted song for that show/franchise will move on, if the show has won the poll. (If you are confused it will make more sense when we start, I promise!)

The 100

30 Rock

9-1-1*

The Addams Family

Adventure Time*

The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

All That

The Amazing World of Gumball

American Dragon: Jake Long

Animaniacs

Arcane: League of Legends

Arrested Development

Arthur

Assassination Classroom*

Austin & Ally

The Backyardigans

Barney & Friends

Barry

Batman*

Bear in the Big Blue House

Ben 10*

Better Call Saul

Beverly Hills, 90210

The Big Bang Theory

Big Time Rush

Bill Nye the Science Guy

Black Sails

Bluey

Bob the Builder

Bob's Burgers

BoJack Horseman

Bones

Boy Meets World

The Brady Bunch

Breaking Bad

Bridgerton

Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Buffy the Vampire Slayer*

Captain Planet and the Planeteers

Charmed

Cheers

Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers

Choo Choo Soul

Code Lyoko

Codename: Kids Next Door

Cold Case

Community

Cory in the House

Cowboy Bebop

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend*

Criminal Minds

CSI*

Cyberchase

Danny Phantom

Daredevil

Dawson's Creek

Death Note*

Desperate Housewives

Detective Conan

Dexter

Dexter's Laboratory

Diff'rent Strokes

Digimon*

Doctor Who*

Dora the Explorer

Downton Abbey

Dragon Ball*

Dragon Tales

Drake & Josh

Ducktales*

ER

Ever After High

The Fairly OddParents

Firefly

The Flintstones

Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends

Fraggle Rock

Frasier

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

Friends

Fringe

Full House

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood*

Futurama

Game of Thrones

George Lopez

George of the Jungle

Gilmore Girls

Glee

The Golden Girls

Good Omens

Gravity Falls

Grey's Anatomy

H2O: Just Add Water

Hannah Montana

Hannibal

Happy Days

Hawaii Five-0*

His Dark Materials

Horrible Histories

House, M.D.

How I Met Your Mother

How It's Made

Hunter × Hunter

Huntik: Secrets & Seekers

I Dream of Jeannie

I Love Lucy

iCarly

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

The Jeffersons

Jeopardy!

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure*

Jonas

Justice League

Kim Possible

The Last of Us

Laverne & Shirley

Law & Order*

LazyTown

The Legend of Vox Machina

Leverage

Lilo & Stitch: The Series

Little Einsteins

Lizzie McGuire

Looney Tunes & Merrie Melodies

The Love Boat

M*A*S*H

Mad Men

Madoka Magica*

The Magic School Bus

Malcolm in the Middle

The Mandalorian

The Mary Tyler Moore Show

Merlin

Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir

Mister Rogers' Neighborhood

Mob Psycho 100

The Monkees

Monster High

The Muppet Show

Murder, She Wrote

Murdoch Mysteries

My Babysitter's a Vampire

My Hero Academia*

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

The Nanny

Naruto*

NCIS

Neon Genesis Evangelion

The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

New Girl

NFL (various network themes)*

Ninjago

The O.C.

The Office

One Day at a Time*

One Piece

Only Murders in the Building

Orange Is the New Black

Ouran High School Host Club

The Owl House

Parks and Recreation

The Partridge Family

Phil of the Future

Phineas and Ferb

Pinky and the Brain

Pippi Longstocking

Pokémon*

Power Rangers

The Powerpuff Girls

Pretty Little Liars

The Price Is Right

The Proud Family

Psych

Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure

Reading Rainbow

Reba

Red Dwarf

Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Riverdale

Rugrats

Sabrina the Teenage Witch

Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat

Sailor Moon

Sanford and Son

Saturday Night Live

Schitt's Creek

Scooby-Doo*

Scrubs

Seinfeld

A Series of Unfortunate Events

Sesame Street

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

Sherlock

The Simpsons

Smallville

Sofia the First

Sonny with a Chance

The Sopranos

Spider-Man

SpongeBob SquarePants

Star Trek (instrumental themes)*

Star Trek: Enterprise

Star vs. the Forces of Evil

Stargate*

Steven Universe

Stranger Things

Succession

The Suite Life of Zack and Cody*

Suits

Taskmaster

Ted Lasso

Teen Titans

Teen Wolf

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Teletubbies

That '70s Show

That's So Raven

Theory of Love

Thomas & Friends

Tokyo Ghoul

Total Drama

Totally Spies!

Transformers*

True Blood

The Twilight Zone

Twin Peaks

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

VeggieTales

Veronica Mars

Victorious

Voltron: Legendary Defender

W.I.T.C.H.

The Walking Dead

WandaVision*

Welcome Back, Kotter

The West Wing

Westworld

What We Do in the Shadows

The White Lotus

Wild Kratts

Winx Club

The Wire*

The Witcher

Wizards of Waverly Place

Wonder Pets!

Wonder Woman

Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!

The X-Files

Xena: Warrior Princess

Yellowjackets

Yu-Gi-Oh!*

Yuri on Ice

Zoboomafoo

Zoey 101

[save-the-data]

🅳🆁🅰🅼🅰 🅶🅸🅵 🅼🅰🆂🆃🅴🆁 🅻🅸🆂🆃

🅲🅷🅸🅽🅰

Guardian

S.C.I

Killer and Healer

Outcast

Detective Samoyeds

My Roommate is a Detective

Ultimate Note

Hikaru No Go

Heroes

Novoland: Eagle Flag

Murder Notes

Evil Minds

Cross Fire

Mysterious Lotus Casebook

Stand by Me

Stay with Me

The Haunting

Adventures of Young Detectives

Tientsin Mystic

Yandai Byway No. 10

Breaking Dawn

Desire Catcher

Men with Sword 2

Xiang Long

A League of Nobleman

Along with Me

L.O.R.D Critical World

Order of Sommelier

Reunion: The Sound of the Providence S1

The Blood of Youth

The Silent Criminal

Word of Honor

🅹🅰🅿🅰🅽

Amerio Paradox Aogeba Toutoshi Coffee Ikaga Deshou Criminologist Himura and Mystery Writer Arisugawa Death Note Don't Call it Mystery Dousoukai Eien no Kinou FAKE Motion Fugitive Boys Fukou-kun was Kiss Suru Shikanai Fuujinshi Gannibal Given High&Low the Worst Episode.0 His - I Didn't Think I Would Fall in Love Jack O'Frost Kamen Rider 555 Kamen Rider Fourze Kamen Rider W Kamisama no Ekohiki Kamne Rider OOO Kei x Yaku: Abunai Aibou Kimi no koto Dake Miteitai / I Want to See Only You Kiss that Kills Life as a Girl Me, My Husbands and My Husband's Boyfriend Minato's Coin Laundry S1 Minato's Coin Laundry S2 More than Words Muchuu-sa, Kimi Ni My Beautiful Man S1 My Beautiful Man S2 My Personal Weatherman Naked Dining Ningen Shikkaku Old Fashion Cupcake Our Dining Table Radiation House Re: Follower Senpai, Danjite Koidewa! Sugarless Takara-kun to Amagi-kun Tokyo in April is… Trapped in a Box Vanishing My First Love XXXHoLic Zettai Bl na Hokago S1

🆂🅾🆄🆃🅷 🅺🅾🆁🅴🅰

Bon Appetit

Jun & Jun

A Shoulder to Cry On

All the Liquors

At a Distance, Spring is Green Bad and Crazy Behind Cut Black Knight Blueming Cherry Blossoms After Winter Choco Milk Shake Color Rush S1 Color Rush S2 Connect Duel First Love Again Ghost Doctor Happy Ending Romance Hellbound Individual Circumstances Insider Island S1 Island S2 Jun & Jun Kissable Lips Light on Me Love Class Love Class S2 Love in Spring Love Mate Missing Noir M My Sweet Dear Nobleman Ryu's Wedding Oh! Boarding House Oh! My Assistant One Ordinary Day Our Dating Sim Roommates of Poongduck 304 Semantic Error Star Struck The Devil Judge The Director who buys me Dinner The Eighth Sense The New Employee The Tasty Florida Through the Darkness Tinted with You To My Star S1 To My Star S2: Our Untold Stories Unintentional Love Story Weak Hero Class S1 You Make Me Dance You're All Surrounded

🆃🅰🅸🆆🅰🅽

Stay by my Side

49 Days with a Merman

About Youth

Be Loved in House: I Do

Danger Zone: The Dark Night

History3: Trapped

History4: Close to You

Innocent

Kiseki: Dear to Me

KO One Re-Act

Love is Science?

Oh! No Here Comes Trouble

Papa and Daddy S1

Plus & Minus

We Best Love: Fight Mr. 2nd

We Best Love: No.1 For You

🆃🅷🅰🅸🅻🅰🅽🅳

Hidden Love

You're My Sky

Nitiman

Manner of Death

Laws of Attraction

Wedding Plan

House of Stars

Midnight Museum

Mafia the Series: Guns and Freaks

180 Degree Longitute Passese Through Us 2 Moons: The Ambassador 21 Days Theory 609 Bedtime Story A Tale of Thousand Stars Ai Long Nhai Bad Buddy Bed Friend Between Us Big Dragon Bite Me Blacklist Boyband Call it What you Want S1 Catch Me Baby Chains of Heart Check Out Close Friend S1 Close Friend S2 Crazy Handsome Rich Cupid's Last Wish Cutie Pie Dangerous Romance Dark Blue Kiss Destiny Seeker En of Love: Love Mechanics Even Sun Fahlanruk Friends Forever Gen Y S2 Ghost Host, Ghost House Golden Blood Hard Love Mission He's Coming to Me Hidden Agenda Hidden Love Hit Bite Love House of Stars House of the Dark Shadows I Promised You the Moon I Will Knock You In Between KinnPorche La Cuisine Laws of Attraction Love By Chance Love by Chance: A Chance to Love Love in the Air Love in Translaton Love Mechanics Love Poison S1 Love Poison S2 Love Stage!! Love Syndrome Love with Benefits Mafia the Series: Guns and Freaks Make it Right 1 & 2 Manner of Death Midnight Museum Moonlight Chicken My Ambulance My Coach My Engineer My Gear and Your Gown My Only 12% My Ride My School President My Secret Love Never Let Me Go Nha Harn the Series Nitiman Not Me On Cloud Nine Only Friends Our Days Our Skyy 2 Oxygen Part-Time Pastseger Physical Therapy Remember You Rose in Da House Saneha Stories Season 4: Saneha Kap Cheewit Scent of Love School Tales the Series Second Chance Secret Crush on You Self Senior Secret Love: Puppy Honey S1 Senior Secret Love: Puppy Honey S2 Siew Sum Noi Skinship S1 Skinship S2 So Much in Love Something in My Room Star and Sky: Sky in Your Heart Star and Sky: Star in My Mind That's My Candy The Best Story The Eclipse The End of the World, with You The Love of Winter The Miracle of Teddy Bear The Tuxedo The Warp Effect Till the World Ends Tin Tem Jai the Series To Sir, With Love Together with Me Tomorrow I'll Still Love You Triage Unforgotten Night Until We Meet Again Vice Versa War of Y Water Boyy Wedding Plan What If What Zabb Man! Why You…Y Me? Work From Heart You're My Sky

[this-is-a-name-dont-worry]

September 2: Tell the baby a bedtime story about identity

Ai is sitting on xyr bed, watching. Today, xyr parent came back from "school and end of vacation stuff", which means...

Xyr mother smiles at xem.

"Ready for more of the story?" she asks.

Ai nods.

"Alright, so...

Once upon a time, a seventh son and a second prince left their kingdom to become traveling warriors, due to unfortunate circumstances. They made many meetings along the way, such as an old lady who offered them kindness and a family."

Ai taps on xyr tablet, and holds it up when xe sees xyr mom noticed.

"What do you mean, "many meetings"? We only saw one."

"Well, yes, but they travelled a lot since! Plus," she adds with a wink, "it's more dramatic that way!"

Plhum thinks yet again that has xe have eyes, her little egg would be the deadliest ever with xyr glares.

"Fine, fine, they had one important meeting, and along the way afterwards, they had just regular meetings, like a farmer transporting them in his to the next town, or Gertrude, the tavern owner, and André, the guy who kept offering drinks to everyone because his crush told him yes."

Ai seems satisfied with the answer, and settles back comfortably in xyr bed.

"Actually," xyr mom continues, "André that evening started a chain of events that led to our protagonists current predicament. Indeed, with all the alcohol and camaraderie, it became harder to hold the truth in, and the seventh son -or was it the second prince?- let slip that one of them was of royal origin, and even showed the prince's precious sword as proof.

The next morning, they left the tavern with happiness in their mind, unaware that by that point, all the thieves in town knew of the walking moneybag hidden in their duo.

By the end of the day, all criminals of the region were planning on how to capture the prince.

That night, the second prince and the seventh son stopped in a forest to camp. The next day, they would take the time to explore it, as they've heard many strange tales about this forest, said to inhabit bad spirits and witches. Most of the time, those stories were only that, but they desperately needed the help to become known."

Plhum stops. She looks at Ai with a smile. The egg raises its inexistent brows.

"Ai, if you had to imagine them, how would you say the second prince and the seventh son each look?"

Ai thinks. Then starts to scribble on xyr tablet, hit a button, scribble again. To Plhum's surprise, a text to speech voice rises after the button hit.

"I think the son has dark hair, and blue eyes. He's shorter than the Prince, but more muscular because if the farm work. The prince has long white hair and dark eyes."

"I see, I see..."

Ai this time only shows xyr writing, not using the voice.

"Why are you asking?"

Xyr parent does this annoying "you'll see" smile. Ai used to be a bit uneased by it, but now xe knows that with xyr mom, the "wait and see" attitude was playful rather than... whatever it was back there.

"In the morning, the one with the short dark hair got up. Strange, his friend should have woken him up in the night to take watch instead, but maybe Louis wanted to let him sleep? But then, the white haired beauty wasn't around, and no food was prepared. Manu decided to look around for his friend, and found a note:

"give us one million gold, and we'll give back the prince"

No name, no meeting place, and no date. How was Manu supposed to give them the money? Nevermind finding it too.

No, instead he'd have to go fight for his kidnapped friend.

Taking the sword the second prince gifted the seventh son on his 15th birthday, a beauty with a handle sculpted with a dragon and a blue hue to its blade, Manu went deeper in the forest, tracking for the kidnappers who came discreetly by night.

On his way, he saw strange apparitions, warning him away, and one even tried to kill him. But despite it all, he never faltered, and decided after losing the tracks that the more ghosts appeared, the closest he must be to where his friend was held captive.

And so, he found a manor."

"Where is the identity thing? Please don't tell me it's because you revealed their name, and so their identity."

"Patience, Ai, patience!"

The egg pouts.

"In the manor was hiding a terrible villain, the king of all criminals of the region. His identity was kept secret, but Manu and his family have had the theory in a while that he was none other than the duke of the region... and when after battling many thieves and murderers, he found his way to the king of criminals (which was a name Louis and Manu would criticize when hearing about him, as it was lacking un je-ne-sais-quoi to make it sounds truly terrible), Manu knew he was right. He had seen the face of this man before.

"Are you here to pay for your prince, lackey?" the king asked.

"I think you already know the answer. Give him back!'

The king stared. Then, let out the most boisterous laugh he could.

"Do you think I'm afraid of a servant? You're nothing but a peasant, if I defeated the prince, I can take you easily."

At this, Manu smirked.

"You are right, in a way, as the prince is better at fighting than the son. But it's only because Louis always puts more care in his studies of the world than his studies in the art of fighting."

"Have you lost your mind? No son of His Majesty is named Louis!"

"Indeed, but his godson is. His son's names are Richard, Emmanuel, and Albert."

The dark haired man took out the sword of his friend.

"Generally, they call me Manu."

Shocked by the reveal, the duke didn't immediately react, and the second prince easily defeated him.

His sword against the throat of the king of criminals, Manu tells him:

"You let your expectations of our appearances deceive you, and let our swords mistake us for more than we are. We have no money to give, and we grew as one. You may think has it been my friend facing you, you would have won, but I know you played unfairly. You use tricks to make people run away from your manor, you can't write a ransom note, and if it's so easy to defeat you, then sending too many men is the only way you can win."

Then, in a last, threatening whisper: "Where. is. he."

Of course, the duke faltered and told the second prince where to find the seventh son. When the blade left his neck, a trait of blood was drawn.

Manu easily found Louis, as well as the royal sword, the criminals surely waiting to sell it after the ransom.

The two left under the gaze of the Duke, who swore to take revenge on the two.

"At least now, we'll get to be known as the guys who found the true identity of the King of Criminals," the second prince laughed. Or was it the seventh son?"

Xyr mom stopped her tale with a satisfied smile. Ai thinks in silence for a minute.

Finally, xe writes something on the tablet, and shows it to her.

"So... I'm guessing the identity theme isn't just about the king of criminals?"

"Yes! I'm glad you're starting to think outside the box!" she says, and with it pokes at where she thinks his nose would be.

"I mostly know YOU think outside the box. I'm not there yet."

"Well, that's the first step!"

Ai decides that arguing longer about it would be useless. Xe still makes sure that xyr mom understands xe isn't agreeing.

"Alright, I got it," she starts, and for once she seems to be more serious than usual. "I'll stop annoying you with that."

Hm.

Ai looks to the ceiling with hesitation.

"What IS the out of the box reasoning?"

Plhum smiles. She's glad to see her kid let xemself be curious about the silly things.

"Well, for starter, names, so identity reveal!"

Ai gives her a mortified look.

"But, more seriously, it was the identity swap. The second prince and the seventh son were raised almost together, and at this point of the story, they could look like the prince is the son, and the son is the prince. So they can swap who is who. Even in the story you have moments when the doubt is put on which one has done or said which. To add to it, they are no longer going to be just nobodies, so even their identity as traveling warriors is getting known! So many identity."

Ai thinks about it. There's... some sense to it. And at least, this time there's an obvious tie in to the identity theme. And xe has to admit, it was enjoyable.

Xe gives a nod of approval, which makes xyr mom smile brightly. Who's supposed to be the child, here? Ai amuses xemself.

Xyr mom cups xyr head. Kisses gently xyr face. Whispers good night.

And yes, Ai will likely dream of a white haired peasant reading books alongside a dark haired prince.

[felassan]

Dragon Age: Absolution Episode 4

some random bits and pieces on Episode 4. under a cut due to length

Episode 1 post, Ep 2, Ep 3

The title, Those Who Falsely Dream, reminds me nicely of Those Who Speak and Until We Sleep :>

^ "Tevinter snake!" reinforces the image created by the title of Episode 3 (The Serpent's Coil). like a snake, he can't be trusted, he's manipulative and just wants to 'coil around' and entrap her and hypnotise/lull you into a false sense of security (a false sense of what their relationship dynamic is) :| you know that scene in the Jungle Book (I think?) where the snake is like, trussst in meee.. even if on some level he believes it's okay. and the way he victim-blames Miriam for his mother's and his own evils is unsettling.

when Miriam's friends run in to try to fight Rezaren and help her, despite all his 'I don't trust you, I'm gruff and out for myself, we've only just met etc' gruff bluster, Lacklon is the one yelling loudest (at this point Lacklon still doesn't even completely trust her/the situation, see his subsequent discussion with Roland in the alley, but even then he's running in with them!). I was teary when Miri's new [found] family ran in to help her here despite the risk, it's just 🥺

It's a very cool move/scene when Rezaren is blocking Qwydion's magic here. the SFX there were also cool

Was that Fade Step?

Qwydion holding wounded Miri in one arm while magically sealing the door with the other 🥺

is the blond blue-eyed guard who reports to Tassia about the dragon and the captured thief the one who saw the mark on Miri's face at the end of Ep 1 and let her in?

"Don't play stupid" Tassia straight-talkin

the mark on Miri's face, the name. Do we think it's Ammosine or Rezaren? And do we think it's Tevene, like the literal Tevene for it or the initials, or is it more like a family (House) or personal sigil symbol?

the funny thing is I figured the woman 'mother' from Miri's backstory as shown in the trailer was Rezaren's actual mother before Ep 1 dropped, in November, if only because she and Rezaren have a similar bob haircut ｡(^▽^)ゞ I also sussed that the other elf in her flashback was a sibling of hers and that something had happened to them. I didn't expect the reanimated body stuff tho

the word Sicarri isn't said, but Miriam's situation and training reminded me of the Tevinter Siccari. a slave, and Rezaren's personal spy, assassin and whatever was needed.. the Sicarri are Tevinter's elite spies, most of whom come from enslaved families. their families are kept 'safe', as a promise and a threat, to ensure that the Siccari never flinch from their duties. their existence has been officially denied.

"left hand" reminded me of The Left Hand of the Divine. if Miri was to be Rezaren's left hand, a rogue, was Neb's 'purpose' to be his right hand, a warrior, more like a bodyguard, mirroring the way Cassandra as the Right Hand of the Divine is an out-in-the-open protector?

"But she raised us as siblings. Now Miriam's the only family I have left" - Tassia knows the soldier Neb is loyal to Rezaren. She doesn't know he's an animated corpse. so if she isn't questioning the assertion that Miriam is Rezaren's only family left, then she must not know that his mother raised him with not one but two slave 'siblings' (because otherwise, wouldn't she say "What about Neb?"). I guess he never told her about his 'siblings'

Rezaren's shadow looming over the wall that's covered in Miriam's blood feels like.. well, foreshadowing

Rezaren happens to keep a bottle on him at all times, ready to do blood magic in a pinch whenever wherever apparently

Tassia has lines she won't cross. girl, you can't trust that guy. when she says "It always starts with a few drops Rez, but it never stays that way".. I wonder what she's seen in the past, in Tevinter society with Magisters abusing blood magic for power and their own ends?

security, hunting criminals, no lyrium-based power to deflect magic.. Tevinter Templars really are as Tevinter Nights says, basically just guards with fancy equipment and shiny metal armor.

"I won't disappoint you" he says after being told not to use blood magic by Tassia, with.. a vial of blood in his hand, which she has seen

"Please, you're my best friend. I can't lose you too." "You won't". 🥺 it's wlw-mlm solidarity 🥺

^ Lacklon's face when Roland says "Trust me instead" ;;

also, Qwydion carrying Miriam!! a] strong b] my heart..

mOOOOOM THE DRAGON'S WAKING UP AGAIN

hhh when the dragon is thrashing around, one of the guards that was holding one of the chains goes flying through the air with a cartoonish "aaaaa!"

did none of the other guards notice that their comrade guard had been badly stabbed, armor ripped right open, blood everywhere, and was just standing there silently like 'all cool'?

^ shoutout to the creator of the descriptive subtitles in this show

now we see part of why Qwydion was recruited for this job, and introduced to the audience in episode one as a talented healer

Okay, so this use of blood magic feels like new lore, new information on what blood magic can do. We learn here that if you have a vial of their blood and do the right spell/have the right skill, blood magic can be used to keep someone who is wounded from healing (even when they are being healed by a talented mage healer who is trying to counter the offensive blood magic), to keep someone unconscious and to 'visit' and talk to them inside their minds. Rezaren later says "Blood magic can make a lot of things possible" - what else can blood magic do that we don't yet know about? maybe it's just referring to the ability to bring the dead back using an artifact powered by blood magic, which as we know is his intent

Lacklon knows first aid and some field medic stuff :)

it's a fake Hira, Miri, "I'd never leave you", she did though, to go and join the Inquisition

In this mindscape of Miriam's, the nice white fluttering sheets from the scene with Hira turn into solid vertical bar-like structures in the background when her trauma and Rezaren manifest. it's like bars of a cage, the cage she's trapped in still (the past that she can't stop running from, or more accurately can't move past yet or isn't yet ready to confront)

I guess from the Rage demon in the mind sequence, Miri holds (understandably) a lot of anger still about what was done to her in the past. she's also angry at herself. trauma and survivor's guilt are very complex things.

Rezaren lookin very creepy when he's floating there with the sword.. in the dream at the time he looks and sounds calm and kind, and a bit sad/forlorn, but irl he's smirking creepily. he's so manipulative. it's his facade vs what he is inside, what he pretends to be (and on some level thinks he is) vs the reality. he's deceptive, and to an extent deceiving himself

I feel like when Rezaren is talking about how he bound a demon to Neb's dead body in order to keep his body going, and his plans to bring Neb back to life, the background music purposefully grows discordant, childlike but discordant, because, yeah, that's creepy and wrong Rezaren and he still has juvenile tendencies ("mine!")

the ritual to use the Circulum to bring someone back from the dead requiring the blood of a [I assume] close relative was a good shout. resurrection in a setting like this (outside of game mechanics) is extremely OP, so it needs significant limitations placed on it in the 'rules' to make it 'feel' more reasonable

^ what's this lil dude? looks like a cat-nug, maybe rabbit as well

Tevinter mages do still go through a Harrowing, iirc Dorian references his in DA:I dialogue

It looks like Miri's face marking is on the left of her face and Neb's was on the right of his. I feel like this lends credence to the idea that Neb's job was to be Rezaren's 'right hand'

^ the demon possessing Neb, I wonder what kind of demon it was?

Rezaren's mom was a piece of work, I feel like she knew her son was pretty weak and disappointing both in terms of magical power and personality (like lacking in fortitude) - he references this soon when he says "the mage mother never thought I could be" - so she thought there was a chance he may fail his Harrowing, so she ensured to bring Miriam and Neb along in case she needed help killing anything that came through or in case she needed to do something just like what she did to save her son

When the floating rocks start, the mindscape is now reflecting Rezaren's thoughts/things he's saying (rocks floating up = rebuilding). Are we now in Rezaren's mind? Is he creating these images in Miri's mind? Are their minds temporarily mashed together?

oooh I see. Rezaren's mother was basically raising him with the intent of him becoming the next Black Divine in future, from his very early years trying to mould and train him for this lofty goal, and that's why from their very early years she was trying to train a left hand and right hand for her son. Maybe in Tevinter, the Divine also has a Left Hand and a Right Hand, just as the Divine does in the south. makes sense, the two Chantries are in some ways mirror images. also "the role you were born for" has unpleasant implications.

When Rezaren says that Miri doesn't have to keep running anymore, not the past, not from his mother or from herself, notice he doesn't also add "or from me"

^ btch, u thought?? such entitlement, he's dumbfounded when she won't play along. I'm glad Miriam isn't written as entertaining his horrible notions and that the show (while Rezaren is a well-written and realistic villain [not all bad people are cartoonishly evil on the outside]) doesn't try to like.. sugarcoat what he was or send him on a redemption arc. obviously it doesn't matter if an owner "cares a lot" about their possession/tool, it's still 100% not ok. in this scene we see that despite his charming persona / exterior, Rezaren is brittle, kind of like glass. he seems to have been an only son, so the only blood scion of his House. as the mage son of a noble house with a powerful mother that had these lofty goals for him, he had everything he could ever have wanted. there's a childishness [idk what the right word would be, I don't mean that he's child-like]? to him even now as, sometimes his charming exterior bluescreens when his mask drops when he's challenged by someone or something doesn't go his way. like a tantrum. in this scene when his mask is off everything begins to crumble and shatter. his illusion of their future together in the mindscape crumbles even as his external persona (which is in its own way an illusion) evaporates, as he realizes that his dream of them 'being together' again isn't going to happen. everything around them crumbles and the rocks/ice starts boxing Miriam in. more coils.

^ Thedas is entering its turtleneck era

anyways, how did Rezaren know some of this stuff about Miri's life since she escaped? either he was keeping tabs on her during that time (he did say he made it so the Templars never found her. which btw ig implies that Tevinter Templars are also responsible for chasing down/catching/dealing with runaway or escaped slaves) or he can 'see' the knowledge in her memories because they're in bloodmagicmindscape

I wonder what Rezaren's plans to 'make Tevinter a better place for everyone, to change the world' entailed exactly

^ Rezaren up there in his ivory tower

our falsely-dreaming dreamers.. Rezaren, with his vision for the future that isn't going to happen. Rezaren, in his dream/delusion that the slaves his mother owned were his 'siblings' and that everything could just be alright again (and that it was alright before to the extent that they should try to go back to that place). Miriam, with the dream of a Hira that would never leave her?

This is gross but I think the blood that Miriam throws up after waking up from the mindscape was Rezaren's, it magically evaporates and he had cut himself using the sword to combine his blood with her blood that he had from the vial, in order to do this blood magic spell. gross. truly invasive in more ways than one.

Qwydion and Miriam 🥺 I just love them both. they have some really nice moments together in this series

Miriam's friends taking it in turns to watch over her bedside as she recovers 🥺

the final shot of Miriam outlined by the doorway and backlit by the daylight pouring in is cool.

[bookgeekgrrl]

My media this week (3-9 Dec 2023)

just fucking spatchcocked him

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

😊 The Late Mrs. Willoughby (Mr. Darcy & Miss Tilney #2) (Claudia Gray, author; Billie Fulford-Brown, narrator) - another perfectly serviceable, decently entertaining historical cozy mystery feat. Austen characters and their progeny. Plot's pretty basic but it's still cute to see Jonathan Darcy (autistic king) and Juliette Tilney (mom's adventure sense, dad's common sense) solving murders again. The 'obstacles' to their romance are typical for a series like this but still annoying [tbh in more deft hands they might be more angsty and less annoying but it is what it is]

😍 The Charming Man (Zenaidamacrouras1, author; Late_to_party_81, artist) - 65K, shrinkyclinks no powers AU - just a delightful fic with adorable art (TEXTILE ART!) - I'll let the author's summary speak for itself: "Tldr: Steve has an eventful three weeks. Longer version: Steve Rogers is quite happy with his pleasantly simple life working as a graphic designer, chatting with his best friend Sam who has the desk next to his, eating the same gluten free sandwich for lunch every day, and staring out his office window hoping to catch a glimpse of The Charming Man walking by. Unfortunately, life has a tendency to get complicated without our permission, particularly when Steve begins to suspect that a certain evil corporation is doing criminal things that decidedly grate on his nerves." Great banter/hilarious lines - even the secondary characters get great lines plus some fine quality angst.

😍 Proper English (England World #1) (KJ Charles, author; Bella Lowe, narrator) - reread, love love love. The origin story of fluffy Fen & practical Pat getting together and solving a country house murder.

😍 Think Of England (England World #2) (KJ Charles, author; Tom Carter, narrator) - reread. Another country house mystery featuring blackmail and treason being resolved by Daniel Da Silva (poet & spy) and Archie Curtis (blond viking himbo, about to have a gay awakening) with secondary but crucial support from Fen & Pat

😊 Lessons In Chemistry (Brenda) - 42K, stucky no powers college AU - I’m not often in the mood for a college AU but this hit the spot

💖💖 +46K of shorter fic so shout out to these I really loved 💖💖

Cupid's Rugby Ball (softestpunk) - The Sandman: Dreamling, 5K - h/c meet cute with instalove, as is only correct for this pairing 😆

you'll never be blue ([currently anonymous]) - The Cabots (Cat Sebastian): Peter/Caleb, 3K - "Caleb and Peter, adjusting to living together." Perfectly captured the character voices! {written for the Fic In A Box 2023 exchange, authors not yet revealed}

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

D20: Fantasy High: Sophomore Year - e4-7

Dirty Laundry - s3, e7

D20: Burrow's End - "Evolution and Revolution" (s20, e10)

D20: Adventuring Party - "Welcome to the Honk Honk Club" (s15, e10)

Dimension 20 Interview: Siobhan Thompson Talks Jaysohn's Near Death In Burrow's End & Fantasy High

Doctor Who: The Star Beast (2023 special #1)

Doctor Who: Wild Blue Yonder (2023 special #2)

🎧 PODCASTS 🎧

⭐ Welcome to Night Vale #239 - Sister Cities: Vermillion Falls

What Next: TBD - They See You When You’re Shopping

Desert Island Discs - Lea Salonga, singer and actor

⭐ The Sporkful - Rise Of The Foodie Bro (The Year In Food 2023)

Cautionary Tales - The Dunning Kruger Hijack (and Other Criminally Stupid Acts)

Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus - Julia Gets Wise with Amy Tan

Vibe Check - Nostalgia, Ultra

99% Invisible #562 - Breaking Down The Power Broker (with Conan O'Brien)

Endless Thread - "Extremely Online" with Taylor Lorenz

Ologies with Alie Ward - Syndesiology (CONNECTIONS) with James Burke

NPR's Book of the Day - Norman Lear's memoir recalls a life and career that shaped American television

Cautionary Tales - Demonizing Dungeons & Dragons

⭐ Switched on Pop - Hear the Year: The music we loved in 2023

One Year - 1990: Bush vs. Broccoli

Song Exploder - Raye - Escapism (feat. 070 Shake)

Today, Explained - Get the lead out

What Next: TBD - Spotify Unwrapped

Today, Explained - Are movies too long now?

Dear Prudence - My Friend Won’t Stop Buying Me Gifts. Help!

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - The Super Museum

Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me! - Fred Schneider

Strong Songs - The Band: The Last Waltz

Endless Thread - What Is That?!

⭐ Cautionary Tales - How the Radium Girls Fought Back

🎶 MUSIC 🎶

'90s R&B Girl Groups

Presenting Etta James

Pop Motivation

Victoria Monét

Troye Sivan

Laufey

[pathogenflock]

HELLO CC FANDOM!!

A few folks and I over on one of the Criminal Case Discord Servers have been brainstorming a CC AU concept! We call it WildSide!CC (Or WS!CC, CC:WS, etc.), and it essentially involves various characters re-imagined as animal-people, set in a universe where humans have a few animal-like features (Like how catboys have tails and ears I guess?). Here's what we came up with:

Characters:

We only have a few characters so far, so bear (lol) with us!

(Season 1)

Nathan - Snow leopard, people just refer to him as a catboy though, which he doesn't really mind

Jones - Husky-Golden Retriever mix

Grace - Red Fox

Alex - Avian, specifically a Blue Jay

Ramírez - Honey Badger

Cathy - Axolotl

Tony - Tiger (no pun intended)

Chief King - Lion

Ginger - Secretary bird

Alden - Andean Cock-Of-The-Rock (🫵😂)

(Season 2)

Amy - Penguin

Frank - Brown Bear

Karen - White Peacock

Yann - Lobster

Roxie - Parrot

Hannah - Ram

Russell - Spider

Andrea - Panther

(Season 5)

Zoe - Shima Enaga

Martine - Lynx

Some helpful tips!

It's typically a little frowned upon to ask people (especially dogfolk) what "breed" they are. If they're open about it, they'll tell you. Otherwise it's kind of intrusive to ask.

No, catnip is not like weed for cats. Still, felinefolk with the gene that makes them respond to catnip are advised against using it in professional settings.

There are insect-people! The most common are beetlefolk.

Feral (normal) animals still exist, and are owned as pets. It's nothing weird to them.

Bird people have wings, though they’re not very useful: they’re there for warmth, or cosmetic purposes.

People who are "bigger" birds like eagles, vultures etc. can, with great effort, hover above ground for a few seconds but that's about it.

Mythical animals are allowed! Dragons, unicorns, etc.

Meowing at catfolk is seen as strange. Think of it as if you cooed at a grown adult.

Avians still molt! Some bird-parents like to keep the feathers they shed in “feather albums”.

Bird-people have bird-like feet but they're not as thin as regular bird’s. Same thickness as a human’s, but they have all the scales that birds do.

As babies, arachnids do have these sort of pseudo-limbs accompanying their actual human arms. These limbs are very spider-like, but they shed them after a while. It’s a little bit of a gross process, as they fall off like teeth, but it's better to let them shed these "legs", as taking them off manually is painful and can result in scarring if done too early.

OCs are allowed and encouraged! Be it you make a character for this AU specifically or take a fan character you already had and make them fit into the AU, that's completely fine! also please tag me if you do I'd love to see it

And, finally:

While this is, technically, a CC:WS "masterpost," don't take this as an end-all-be-all! If you want to add your own canon, switch up your favorite character's species, or divert from what we've stated here in any way, feel free! No hard limit, no rules other than to have fun :D

(big big shoutout to @transgnderflag for helping with species hcs AND organizing our brainstorms into a neat lil list!! :3)

[memes-in-a-half-shell]

Villain AU - Deadlock, Part 6

Part 1 || Part 2 || Part 3 || Part 4 || Part 5 ||

Struggled with the beginning a bit, but now here we areeee.

Trigger warning: Panic attack (due to a fear of men :'] yeee)

It's been a while since she'd been asked to go after the Purple Dragons. The request came from some rich guy that wanted to be the next big tech guru and see their company reach the highest heights - or something along those lines. It was no secret that the targeted criminal organization had plenty of tricks up their sleeves, especially when it cames to technological advancements and anything of the sorts. Stealing from them was always a risky gamble, but it was one Vee was ready to take, especially for a good price.

It was deep into the Lower East Side, bordering the east river, that the woman made her way into a large warehouse. She knew the place would be empty, the Purple Dragons really keen on keeping a low profile about their stashes. The more "normal" and "unbusy" it looked, the better it wouldn't get picked up by any sort of law enforcements. Sure they had their usual security passwords, accesses and whatsnot, but that was a piece of cake to bypass when you knew what you were doing.

The lower floor was filled with rows of large stacked containers that Vee knew would be holding weapons, guns, drugs or any other illicit goods. She was mostly aiming for the upper floor which consisted mainly of modular rooms hugging the walls, all linked by a metal mezzanine.

Getting up there, she stealthily made her way towards the first room she found, wanting to start her searches there. Entering and closing the door softly, she could never expect her next sight as she turned around to glance at the room's interior.

Two pairs of eyes were now staring at her, one blue and one green. It was two of those mutant turtles; the big one sporting a red do-rag and the other smaller and wearing an orange bandana. Vee was completely frozen. What were they doing here?

"Hey, you're that girl from the Foot clan stronghold," started the red one.

"Yeah, so?" replied Vee in her flanged voice. She was ready to bail at any moment.

"We were startin' to wonder when you'd show your face again."

"Well, we can't see much of her face with those googles and mask," added the smaller one.

They were starting to get closer, the woman keeping her eyes on the nunchuck the orange terrapin was lazily swinging at his side.

"What do you guys want here?" she dared ask.

"We're here for nunya," said the orange clad one.

"... Nunya?"

They were now towering her, Vee feeling so small all of a sudden.

"Nunya business," he finished.

That got a quick laugh out of the two brothers, landing a quick fistbump between them. The tall muscular one next rested his forearm against the closed door, Vee now trapped between them and the only exit.

"What about you, smooth criminal?"

Oh she was starting to hate this very much. She could feel her anxiety rise, mostly from being cornered.

"Let me go," she simply said.

"We're just talking, sweetcheeks," added the orange terrapin.

"I said, let me go away!" her tone was now harsher.

The red clad turtle then forcefully rested his hand against her upper torso, blocking her even more against the door.

"We're not gonna ask again," he said, with a faint tint of menace. "There's no way we're lettin' you fail our mission once more. So ya better start talkin'."

Vee's heart was now beating fast out of fear. She usually could deal with people getting in her way, but for those behemoths to stop her, she felt some old repressed fears crawl back into light... Out of pure instinct, she did not hesitate to slap her right hand against the brute's face, letting her glove's claws scratch his scales. He backed out in surprise, giving the woman enough room to turn around and rapidly open the door. In her rush, she miscalculated her steps and faceplanted hard against the door frame first; knocking against the left side of her forehead and cracking the left lense of her googles. Quickly regaining her senses, the woman was then able to properly exit, hearing some commotion behind her. Her flight response took over, not even trying to reach a staircase as she prefered to jump over the railing and fall straight down - finishing her fall with a roll. That unfortunately brought her cracked lense to fall off, Vee now losing accurate sight from that eye. That didn't stop her still, prefering to rush inbetween the rows of containers, still hearing the two others call out to her. It was after she made a sharp turn that she bumped into something else, this time falling backward.

Her good eye spotted a black backpack first, the new form then turning around and revealing itself to be Donatello. The tall terrapin gasped, already reaching for Vee and getting her back up.

"What are you doing here?" he asked. His hand already got to her forehead. "You're bleeding, what happened?"

The human wriggled out of his hold. Fear could be read in her visible eye.

"Don't touch me," she said in slight panic. "I need to go."

"Vee, you got hurt, let me help at least."

Her sight locked on another presence at the end of the row they were in, behind Donatello, this time being the fourth turtle. His icy blue stare was burning her soul, his stance making him more akin to a big cat ready to pounce its prey at any moment... She could feel Donnie's hands on her once more, trying to stabilize her and get an assessement of her state. But that only snapped Vee back to the current moment, looking back at the purple banded terrapin.

"Leave me alone!" her tone was now tainted with fear.

She was able to escape his hold once more, already turning heels and about to run away. She did spot the two others from earlier at the opposite end of the row, her breathing fastening again. Franctically looking at both sides, she finally settled for some smoke bombs as she saw the red and orange ones approaching fast. The thick layer offered her a chance to slip through two containers, unseen. In a renewed rush she got her grappling hook out, aiming for an opened window at the top of one of the building's walls. Zipping through it, she was glad to find a ledge to walk onto. Her steps were fast as she only wanted to get as much distance between her and the terrapins.

Reaching the ground level she almost slipped in her rush, her breathing labored as she franctically seached for the most nearby subway entrance. Most of her senses were now scrambled - her eyesight in a tunnel vision, her hearing amplified tenfold. It felt like a dream once she reached her goal. She didn't even bothered to pay for the entrance, jumping over the till. Her sole goal was to head home. Nothing more. Nothing less.

She could feel the stares on her, strangers looking over her like the freak she most probably seemed like at the moment. Sitting down, her right leg was bouncing franctically, her eyes lost on a specific point on the floor. Her chest was clenching her, making it difficult to breathe at each passing seconds. Not now, she thought. Not NOW.

The trek home didn't feel real. She didn't even mind showing herself in her gear. She climbed the stairs and it felt like a chore, her legs so stiff and heavy... Reaching the door to her unit, her hands were shaking as she struggled to find the key and unlock the damn thing. Once Vee finally stepped in, she fell against the door, closing it with a loud bang. Sitting on the floor, her emotions now could flow freely, removing her face mask in a hurry only so she could take in air more easily. Breathing loudly, tears escaped her eyes effortlessly, her legs shaking once more.

"Fuck!" she sobbed.

She hated being cornered. She hated feeling small. She hated loud voices and strong, harsh movements against her. In an instant, she relieved at those times men abused of their power on her. Loud voices that kept freezing her. A strength that would pin her and break her in every ways possible. She didn't want to remember, yet that's all she could do...

A vibration in one of her bags grounded her, guessing that it was her phone. She got the device out only to notice a notification for a new text message. Vee sighed, knowing it was Donnie. They had finally exchanged phone numbers after that time he came by her place. ... Right now was not a good time.

D: Please tell me you're alright. You were bleeding pretty bad... V: I'm safe. Stop.

That's all she could write. She only turned her phone off next, a long sigh escaping her lips. The weight of her panic finally fell down on her, lazily removing her broken googles. Her features were now wet from her tears - overall feeling disgusting and sore. The woman was able to make her way to the bathroom, first noticing her state in the mirror. A long streak of blood was now on the left side of her face, starting from her forehead. She did feel slightly light-headed, but didn't make a huge deal out of it, prefering to head into the shower instead.

The water running down her hair and skin felt like a cure. A balm that washed away any leftover fears. At once she was able to breathe, realizing that she was home. She was safe. She took the time to review her failure, trying to figure out how she'd tell her client that she either needed more time, or that she's drop the case completely... Right now her body and mind simply couldn't stand dropping by that warehouse again ... at least not in the near future.

Stepping out, she simpy wrapped her body and hair in towels, prefering to head afterward to her computer. There was a simple comfort whenever it came to mindlessly scrolling through the internet, somehow numbing her brain to any stressors. It was however when she landed on her usual forum that Vee noticed a notification from one of her contacts. FuttoGyangu...

FuttoGyangu: Requesting a status update about the agreed transaction.

A heavy sigh left Vee, feeling her hands shake a little once more. She was clearly not in the mood to handle this, but her fingers flew across the keyboard on their own.

smooth_criminal: It'll take time. Can be a matter of days, weeks, months even. This is a delicate situation and I need to make sure I can do this without any issues. smooth_criminal: This case remains my top priority, no matter what comes in my way.

It was true in a sense. Especially with the promised amount of money she'd receive, she simply couldn't fuck this up.

FuttoGyangu: My boss' patience has its limits. We will be keeping an eye on you. In hopes that this message will fasten your procedures.

Vee frowned lightly at the "keeping an eye on you" part.

"Great, are they also logged in my stuff?" she groaned.

She didn't have the heart to dig any deeper nor unplug her damn router again. Simply turning her machine off, she opted to beeline for her bed, falling down naked onto her mattress and blankets and hoping that sleep would claim her fast instead...

***

Oh was she glad that she had the day off today. She woke up close to noon, the sky awfully blue and the trafic roaring lively outside. With a groan she reached for her cellphone on her nightstand, turning the device back on. It was with slight surprise that she noticed a string of texts waiting to be read:

D: I'm sorry for whatever happened last night. D: Mikey and Raph told me they found you first and you clawed Raph! (nice btw, he needs to be bitchslapped more often) D: I failed to recognize that you were panicking... I'm sorry I tried to restrain you. D: ... Please let me know you're feeling alright. That was a nasty bruise on your forehead. D: I'm sorry.

A small smile crept on Vee's lips, somehow amused yet touched by his concerns. Simply to amuse herself, she only replied:

V: Missing some more 'I'm sorry', then I'll forgive you.

Lazily getting out of bed next, she simply slipped on a pair of underwear and a hoodie, slipping her phone inside the front pocket and resolving herself to get something to eat. Vee settled herself for some toasts, not even minding to get crumbs everywhere as she sat down on the couch. She needed to figure out a way to accelerate getting her hands on the green ooze... yet some details about the substance kept itching her brain.

The woman felt her phone vibrate, surprisingly. Taking it out, she noticed a new message from Donatello.

D: sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry

That got a quick snort out of her, instantly writing back:

V: That's it! Congrats, you're more Canadian than me. V:... I thought you'd be sleeping? Aren't you guys ever resting or something?

Maybe their mutant genes gave them unlimited energy?

D: I was starting to sleep. I just finished some freelance work. But I also wanted to know when you'd tell me you're okay.

Oh....

D: Can I call you? I'm too tired to type... V: Just go to sleep. D: Please

Vee sighed, finishing her small meal first.

V: Sure

It only took a brief moment before it rang, the human accepting the call with some hesitation.

"What's up, coconut," she greeted lazily.

She heard the faintest chuck on the other end of the line, which somehow brought a small smile on her features.

"I just wanted to hear your voice. I need to make sure you're feeling alright after that hit to your head."

Gosh, his voice had this je-ne-sais-quoi when he was tired...

"How did it happen, anyway?"

Vee faked a quick laugh: "I thought your brothers would've told you. It was really embarrassing.... I slammed my face against a doorframe."

"Oh-" he tried to retain some snickers. "Oh, I'm- I'm sorry. That must've- hmmrph- hurt."

"You can laugh, I don't care," reassured Vee. "It's really stupid. I can be quite clumsy at times."

He puffed, losing the hilarity: "No, no, accidents happen. I'm just glad it didn't get worse."

"I mean ... it did get worse last night, but not because of that," confessed the woman.

She instantly regretted letting that out, but at the same time it was absolutely not far from the truth. She could feel Donnie's sympathy through the phone.

"... Wanna talk about it?"

Vee could feel some tears swell up in her eyes again, rapidly drying them with her sleeve. God, she was still shook, it seems...

"I don't know," she answered in a weak tone. "I'm still processing a lot of emotions right now. ... Last night I felt some stuff I haven't dealt with in a long time." She tried to lighten her voice, forcing a smile: "I'm sorry, you don't need to hear this."

"Nonsense. ... I get it, my brothers and I can be quite intimidating. ... I just saw that fear in your eyes and I knew something was wrong, but I had no idea how to deal with that."

"It's no one's responsability for me to get my shit together," added Vee. "I just have to get over it and do better."

"There's no harm in asking for help when things go sour, Vee. Sometimes we can't overcome things on our own."

That somehow got to her, this warm feeling suddenly invading her body and senses.

"Stop it, you're too sweet. I'll get diabetes."

That got another quiet laughter from the turtle, improving Vee's mood.

"Although, you're a on thin line, mister. Your turtley gang prevented me from completing my job, so that sucks ass."

"What were you looking for?"

A sigh left her: "Schematics, technological advancements, files of any sorts that could help a rich loser bring his tech company to new heights. I was supposed to deliver that after going to the warehouse..."

A brief silence was experienced, the terrapin probably thinking.

"... Tell you what; I did get some files while I was there and maybe there could be something interesting. Since you first stole from me but then handed the data, I'd say I could reciprocate the generosity."

"Oh aren't you so kind," said Vee jokingly.

"I'm serious," added Donnie. "I wanna keep that trust, Vee. So if I can help you, then I'll do it."

She was frankly surprised by the proposition. That offer did feel like a good step in the right direction, her smile warm.

"Alright, monsieur Donatello. How about tomorrow night, at that music store's rooftop? I feel like this should become the spot for data brokering."

"I'll be there," he answered gently.

As they said their goodbyes and the call ended, Vee still had that smile on her features, somehow melting on her seat. His words and tired tone were still bouncing in her brain, the reality of having someone actually care for her well-being feeling like an unexpected dream... ... If she had to get close to him on a more personal level in order to get what she needed, then so be it. She could play that game.

((Part 7))

[thesurielknows]

Spinning Daggers- 2

Sloane x Aaric Fanfiction

Iron Flame Spoilers Ahead!!

Is she alright, your majesty?

Neach, that’s not funny. And yeah. She’s fine.

Neach-Brathaidh, my blue clubtail, likes to call me that, to remind me what I’d like to forget. That King Tauri is my father.

Sloane is gorgeous as ever as she lays with her foot at an absolutely grotesque angle, the braid of hair dangling off the medical bed, but only just. She’s furious I’m the one here. Embarrassed she hurt herself. Killing me slowly with those blue eyes.

She has her arms crossed over her chest, and she’s refusing to look at me. This is the first time she’s been in a room alone with me since the night she’s refusing to speak of.

Sloane and I slept together.

It was after a particularly hard-won battle. She was wallowing in guilt for things that weren’t her fault, losses we took that she thought she should’ve stopped. And I found her in a glen with her dragon, whittling a stick and crying. I took the knife from her, because I was pretty sure she was going to slice her hand open with the tears that blurred her vision. And then we talked. And then I brought her back to my room.

I told her after it was be nothing, because that’s what I thought she wanted. But she hasn’t spoken to me in months. And now my arms ache to hold her.

“You can leave, you know,” She bites at me.

“Sorry,” I say it like I don’t care one way or the other. “I’ll probably have to carry you back to your room as well.” Red begins to climb her neck and up her face as she blushes scarlet. She remembers. She still thinks about it. I shift in my seat to hide my pleasure at the thought of her.

Sloane is freedom. She’s energy. She’s everything I would’ve never had at home. She’s a representation of all that I’ve gained and all that I’ve learned here.

She hates me.

“You can get someone else to. I’m sure you’re not pleased to have the inconvenience.” She thinks I hate her.

“And who would you like me to get? Sorrengail?” It’s a low blow, and she cringes. “Who else would you want to be here for you?” It’s worked.

Sloane can’t bring herself to admit she needs help, and she refuses to inconvenience the ones she cares about. So she’s going to let me stay, because if I’m inconvenienced, it isn’t a loss to someone she’s worried about. Not anymore.

After a while, she’s cleared to go to her room. The medic tells her to take it easy on her ankle, which I pray she doesn’t decide means she can try to walk on it. Before she can draw the conclusion, I scoop her up. “Thanks for your help,” I tell the medic with a lazy smile. Sloane is silent and red.

I walk down the hall, and Sloane groans when she sees how many cadets we’ll have to pass, “Kill me now,” she grumbles.

That can be arranged.

Neach.

She is the one who treats you as if you are a criminal.

I’m the one who told her she was nothing.

Neach snorts at this, well we both know that’s not true.

I ignore him and turn my attention to Sloane, who is so mortified, she’s turned her face and buried it into my shoulder. “If you didn’t make a big deal out of it, no one else would, you know.”

“I know that’s your specialty, but some of us are not so talented at that.” Ouch.

“I’m not good at that, actually.” I murmur. I see her eyes flash up to mine, for a second, but she hides again.

When we reach her room, I take her key from her and open it with some struggle. “Your mortification is over. We’ve made it to the privacy of your room.”

“Great,” She says, “you can leave now.”

I give her a lazy smile, “Sorry, no can do. What happens when you need to go somewhere? Then you’d be alone.” She groans and I try not to laugh.

“Sorry, Sloane. You’re stuck with me.”