#only this account has its unique name and i don’t really want people to know me as smokehalos when I have more common names soz

[cecilcastles]

i’m this close to changing my url to cecilcastles or back to swutstuff

[lastsubstance]

How the TS gang feels about Kuras

(The Alchemist.) When everyone disperses and you have to choose who to follow.

Asking about Kuras.

You follow Ais.

MC: I didn’t know that you and Kuras were friends.

Ais: In a way. I help him in the clinic sometimes. Doctor doesn’t let most people closer than arm’s length.

MC: And you do?

Ais: Heart’s on my sleeve.

               Get the sense Kuras was like that in the past. Must’ve been burned.

He trails off after the last few words. Then shrugs.

Ais: He opens up in his own ways, if he’s relaxed enough.

MC: I don’t know how to even imagine that.

Ais: You’d be surprised. Even the doctor has an endearing side.

I can’t decide what’s more intriguing: the fact that Kuras has an “endearing side,” or the idea that Ais has managed to coax it out of him.

Ais: Tell me if you uncover any of his other secrets. I’d kill to know more.

You follow Leander.

MC: Do you and Kuras work together?

Leander: Occasionally. Did the mysterious, competent doctor catch your eye?

—OPTION SELECT—(Select "He seems like a good person")—

MC: He seems like a good person, though it’s hard to believe anyone’s a good person these days.

Leander: That’s Kuras. He works hard to serve the people of Lowtown.

               He’s a miracle worker, even if his beside manner could use some work.

MC: Do you think he might be able to cure my curse?

Leander starts to speak, but pauses to consider me for a moment first.

Leander: …Kuras is good, but he’s only a doctor.

               Besides, unless you’re actively dying he’ll make you wait in line all day like everyone else.

—OPTION SELECT—(Select “He came across as cold”)—

MC: I get the impression he’s a bit cold.

Leander: A doctor with his level of expertise and perfect service? Impossible.

               He never warns you if something’s gonna sting, and he’s stingy with the pain medicine too.

               But at least he treats everyone the same. That’s something I suppose.

You follow Mhin.

MC: You and Kuras seem to get along, though.

The tense lines of Mhin’s features soften.

Mhin: He’s an exception. Few people are willing to help others; fewer when there’s any risk involved. And of them, Kuras is unique.

I have a feeling that Mhin doesn’t smile often. But the curve of their lips, however slight, is unmistakable.

They catch themselves, their expression closing off with a near-audible snap.

Mhin: He’s not the worst. A decent doctor, even if he asks too many questions.

               But nothing is really free here.

MC: Unique is one way to describe his work.

Unconsciously, I grip my stitched arm, where the Soulless severed it. Mhin glances at me almost knowingly.

Mhin: The only one of its kind; not replicable by anyone else. It’s a fitting word.

I wonder what injuries Kuras has healed for Mhin, and whether they know how he does it.

But if they did, I doubt they’d tell me.

You follow Vere.

MC: I wanted to ask you about K—

I regret speaking as soon as I start. Vere’s mentioned Kuras before, though not by name.

His reaction last time was nasty, but I can’t back down now. Not with Vere eyeing me suspiciously.

Vere: About…?

MC: The doctor, Kuras.

I tense, ready for a blowback, but Vere only flicks his hand dismissively.

Vere: Bit of a bore if you ask me, but he’s popular enough.

               You know, on account on his massive…heart.

He winks, as though the stress he placed on “heart” wasn’t already suggestive.

Vere: There’s always a line wrapped around the block for his services. People can’t seem to get enough of his special medicine,

MC: Probably because he doesn’t charge anything.

Vere’s tail gives an impatient twitch.

Vere: Or they’re eager for a little mouth-to-mouth with their pelvic examination, if you get what I mean.

When I grimace, Vere gains wolfishly at me. There’s clearly no point in asking him anything else about Kuras.

[genericpuff]

Genuinely curious as to if you asked permission to use Rachel’s characters and she said yes or if you just decided Lore Olympus is popular enough to make a fan comic of and are hoping you don’t receive a cease and desist? Can anyone create a remake comic of original content and just change what you don’t like about it and it’s considered legal if you say the characters belong to the original creator? There is plenty of disappointing media out there that could be remade. I understand you cannot use their characters for profit so is just posting it ok?

Yes, anyone can, because it's called fanfiction lmao Obviously in my case the term "fan" is being used loosely here as at this point it's more like "foe"fiction LMAO but the same principles apply. Unless I try to claim LO is my own creation or make a profit off Rekindled, I should be in the clear. If legal action was taken against me then it would set a precedent against all forms of fanfiction, rewrite, redraw, etc. content around LO which are all essentially doing the same thing Rekindled is doing. I think people tend to view Rekindled as somewhat of an "exception" that's vulnerable to legal action because it's an actual weekly comic put into practice in the same playing field as LO (though they're on massively different bases obviously LOL), but there's not much more separating it from the LO redraw accounts or even the genuine fan accounts that have learned how to draw in Rachel's style (and use it to make their own LO self-inserts and whatnot). I had the time and resources and experience to do what I do through Rekindled, but every redraw, rewrite, fanfiction, etc. account are making the exact same statement I am, whether intentionally or not - "I do/don't like the canon, but/so here's what I think it would be like if it went like this".

There is definitely plenty of media out there that could be remade, and a lot of them are by the fanfiction writers out there who are filling that niche within their respective fandoms. LO is the one I want to do because it's the one that interests me and compels me the most to rewrite.

Not to mention, it's already a bold statement in and of itself to say that I'm "using Rachel's characters", a statement that likely wouldn't hold up in court LMAO Her "characters" are literally just stylized self-insert versions of public domain figures. She did not write The Hymn to Demeter. She did not create Hades, or Persephone, or Hecate, or any of the other characters she writes about. She does not own an entire religion or its deities. The only thing that she really "owns" is the licensing rights to the name "Lore Olympus", and while the style of LO is very unique and identifiable, you can't trademark/copyright a style because that uproots the entire foundation of what art is (ironically no one has had an original idea SINCE the Greeks, we all just learn and adapt our styles based on other artists that we get inspired by and learn from).

Shit, there are series completely unrelated to LO that get harassed or otherwise warned that they could cross into "legal territory" with LO just because they're Greek myth comics. Punderworld, Theia Mania, H x P Ficlets, all of these are comics that also tackle the H x P myth, and while they aren't attempting to do the same thing as Rekindled (as they exist on their own terms) it's really disappointing when I see people talk about these comics purely through the scope of Lore Olympus as if LO invented Greek myth. If WT/Rachel tried to pull rank over the story's "characters", they'd be picking a fight with every other Greek myth comic, book, movie, etc. and they oughta know that's not a fight they're gonna win lol

So everything beyond LO's branding is, in and of itself, fanfiction. Rekindled is just another level deeper by being fanfiction of a fanfiction. As long as I'm not profiting off Lore Olympus' namesake or distributing my work with the misconception that I created LO, it's legally fine. Morally, I'm sure it doesn't exactly make me a saint to do it, it definitely took a lot of hubris for me to say "yeah I don't like how you wrote your story enough that I felt the need to rewrite it completely" and I wouldn't blame anyone for thinking doing so is icky. There are certain lines I won't cross - I don't use the general LO hashtags because my content is very critical and my work isn't really for the fans, I don't encourage anyone to "show Rachel" what I do here because none of what I do here is obligated to be seen by her (and I know it wouldn't be in her best interest to see it anyways, she's literally said that she doesn't like criticism so why tf would I wanna show her a comic that exists to criticize her work lol), and I'm not planning on posting it to Webtoons because that's Rachel's territory. I don't want to overstep both in the legal sense and in the moral one. I think it's more than enough for me to just post my stuff here for the people who are seeking it, and not profit off it or directly affiliate it with LO/Rachel beyond crediting.

All that said, in a moral and legal sense, what I'm doing is literally the basis of fanfiction, and I wouldn't be going to such lengths and spending this much time every week putting out episodes every week if I never cared about LO and how it made us all feel, even if some of us don't love it as much as we used to.

[carecrowgames]

Yazeba Read Through Session 3

Today was pretty busy so todays reading is gonna be only of page 17, but I want to keep up doing these daily. On the other hand, page 17 is the dramatic personae so there is a lot of meat to chew on!

Reading the book this slowly really makes me appreciate how seriously it takes creating a strong image of the bed and breakfast, its characters and storytelling genre, as well as the feeling that you are being drawn Into the world of a BOOK. Idk seeing a dramatic personae in a ttrpg book just excites me ~~

This where part of me wishes I knew EVEN LESS about the book. Because what yazeba IS, is such a unique thing in the ttrpg space and I would love to be able to see how my brain puts the nature of the beast together as I read it. The dramatic personae would probably be even more exciting then! On the other hand knowing a bit of what’s to come means I can try and find out how it builds up to it with some forth sight so I don’t mind it at all.

Btw, I love how the little symbols next to the characters serve as mnemonic devices to remember core ideas of the characters. Yazeba being a heart that was broken several times over but still holds together sticks out as especially strong to me.

In general, while I believe strong design elements are those that fulfill several functions, I also think any one function should be fulfilled and reinforced by several design elements as well. The way the book layers, builds and reinforces information, themes and vibe of its characters so far is I think really strong - and necessary, if you want people to want to inhabit and explore them!

Because no mortal can stop me, I will give some notes on each of the character introductions:

Gertrude: "Capable beyond expectations" is such a wonderful and kind genre phrase, I just really love how much the book itself cares for Gertrude, it makes it impossible for the reader to not also care about her.

Sal: I did not expect Sal to have been yazebas dropout apprentice! What an absolutely amazing combination with wanting to be a Rockstar. I have so far mostly appreciated how this book deploys its genre space but it can't be unsaid how cool the specifics of the characters and world it is building is. Sal being a cool dropout lyricist who wants to be a Rockstar is a great character, but making him a dropout WITCHES APPRENTICE? absolutely in love with the idea I'm so hooked. Once again, I would read an entire book with him as the protagonist based on this premise alone!

Hey Kid: This page also has the first mention of Hey Kid!! They are one of the characters I come in knowing the most about, because they appeared so prominently in the advertisement of the book, and I am so excited to see more of them!! For now, i can only say: what an incredible name, it says so much of the character and their sense of identity and role in the b&b, even before you know they are a delightfully rambunctious devil-child. Like, of course they are, they are called Hey Kid!

Speaking off it, as you see I decided I will take the advertisement into account when I discuss my experience with this book – it is part of the paratext afterall, and I find with most ttrpgs people will most likely enter them with some amount of outside knowledge, that is propably informed by the games advertisement and strongly informs how they interpret the text. Sadly I don’t have an absolutely garbage memory, so what I remember of the advertisement campaign is full of holes. On the other hand, the fact that my entire brain lights up when I see Hey Kid makes pretty clear how delightful the voice of the character is and how well it stuck with me over the months. In that way the advertisement gave me yet another narrative hook to enter the world through, because I can easily imagine what sort of hijinks Hey Kid might get up to, and have a very clear voice in mind with which I could play them.

Parish: Here is where I have to admit that I already knew who the frog on the cover was, and that it is likely to be the first character I’ll play once I get a game of Yazeba together. I have an incredibly soft spot in my heart for gentle but burdened knights. Once again an amazing take on this character type, making him a frog and not-a-knight-anymore but instead someone who makes sure people get to eat is just *chefs kiss*. Immediately such a range of characteristics to combine and play with and apply to each other. Btw, I feel like with the way this book builds up characters from interconnection and layers information about them, that the wizard who cursed parish might come up as a guest or a chapter. Super curious, because this is yet another narrative thread I can see myself wanting to pull on as the story progresses.

Amelie: And here we have our teased at robot! I am actually the most unsure about what to make of Amelie from the vibe I have of them so far, which means reading that they also don’t know who they are supposed to be strikes a fascinating chord with me.

Yazeba: I love the playful way the book is written, especially when it surrounds Yazeba who stands in strong contrast to that playfulness and is all the more characterized by it. I am also amazed by how strong she is characterized already. I feel like I have a very clear picture of how she moves through the B&B, and also the way people behave around her, both in space and in relationship.

The Moon Prince: As predicted, our resident to be! I was curious how the book would build them up, considering they are the first of the locked characters. Would I only know of them once I get to the locked characters, would I read of how to unlock them in the early chapters, etc. I think it works really well for me that the expectation that they will join the cast is build up this early on. It gives a first hint at the very unique unlocking mechanics that are core to the books narrative construction and an immediate motivation to want to engage with them. And what a motivation it is! I am a sucker for romantic melancholics and the image evoked by the prince is such a wonderful picture of longing. It just gets me!

It also somewhat reminds me of the French childrens book the little prince. In honor of that I’m adding a french piece to the playlist. “Comptine d’un autre été, l’après-midi” is I seem to remember the first ost playing in the french-german cult hit The wonderful world of Amelie. It creates a melancholic mood that helps me imagine the prince staring out of his window, so there it goes into the playlist.

We end the page with a promise that there will be many guests to come, building first expectations for yet another part of the narrative structure. And the Rabbits in the Garden who wear little outfits are mentioned to! Yazebas realy knows what names will tempt me xD

That’s it for today. I ended up writing way to much for one page, but the introduction of every resident felt like something I couldn’t jump over quickly. See you tomorrow!

-------------------

you can find my other Yazeba readthrough posts under #zeebthrough!

Preorder the game on https://possumcreekgames.com/pages/yazebas-bed-breakfast

[da-birb-writes-sometimes]

Lucille/Rose/Angel and with any pronouns (henderqueer)) I'd like romantic, only expecting one but fine with having multiple as well, even a platonic one would be fine! I see myself as fun and unique, and fairly confident to a degree, I like to make people laugh and friends would describe me as funny and smart, but if you want to go based off moots here then the highlights are 'fruity' and 'funky little dingus'

I play guitar and love love music all the way, I model and love makeup and all things pink and cute and considering girly and love going shopping especially if its someone else's money /hj and cooking baking all that kind of stuff, I date to keep around and want a long term relationship for the most part, and really just want someone who will support me and my interests and take care of me, while also being realistic and help me keep a realistic view of progress and ambitions. Anyone who's mean for no reason is a no and I need someone who won't play around or make me feel unloved

I like giving things to others as well as getting things, and it's the same way for doing things together and physical touch

Anyways

I am lesbian for real stuff but when its fiction I don't care really, I'm a INFP-T and Libra, not sure about the rising and whatnot, don't know what an enneagram is either

I like vintage and 50s/60s/90s clothing the most and would describe it as very feminine no matter if it's more gothic or preppy, as for physical I'm a redhead with freckles everywhere and a mix of a pear and hourglass, my hair is shorter and kinda shaggy but im currently growing it out

Well, well, well, if it isn't Rose! First off; happy birthday! *forces your match into a cake so he can surprise you*

Vil Schoenheit

Support, honesty, and care; Vil is there with a realistic yet care-filled hand on your shoulder. He would help you build achievable goals for yourself, reassure you and also hold you accountable. He wants to see you achieve everything that you set your heart to, but will also be there to offer you support when needed. 

He is also in a relationship for the long-term, he would only trust his heart to few, in the off chance someone could burn it, but not you, he knows that he can trust his heart with you, his angel. And in turn, he would take care of your heart with the utmost love.

Vil would offer breathy laughs at your jokes and humour, and if you caught him off guard, even a good-hearted laugh. He appreciates your wit, and may even counter every now and then in a friendly battle.

He is also happy that you’re confident in yourself, but if you ever have an off day, he’ll also be there to build you back up.

Vil has connections with the modelling world but also knows that you should make your own name. He would be your number one supporter and would give you a reassuring smile during photo shoots or runways.

Going with his connections, if you have difficulty finding something your style in stores, Vil will either custom order it or make it himself; be it super pink 90’s fashion, gothic 50’s, or preppy 60’s. He would roll his eyes in jest at the ‘somebody else’s money’ but it’s all in good fun… and if it makes you happy, then it’s worth it.

He would hum gently whenever you played the guitar, adding to the melody but not taking away the attention from the song either. He would also listen to your music taste since it’s a way of being closer to you… a piece of you that not many see.

Vil would appreciate anything you get for him since he knows your love language. He also enjoys going on little outings… just hopefully the tabloids don’t interrupt your date. Because of said tabloids, he would at most hold your hand and kiss your temple in public, but behind closed doors, he would be a bit more affectionate (kissing your freckles becomes a hobby of his).

Hope you enjoy your match-up, and your b-day, Rose!

Also, he would be there every step of the way as you grow your hair out, and knows plenty of cute styles for the awkward stages.

[chuluoyi]

noooo 😭😭 who you gonna use the s-chips on then 😭

UNHOLY BLOOD!!! It's my 1st Vampire-related manhwa and it's so good!!! Hayan is such a GIRLBOSS! I LOVE THE MAGICIAN DUDE AND HIS LION 🥹🥹🥹 But yes Euntae and Hayan's relationship was too slow I couldn't take it... But at least they had such a cute relationship at the end 🫶🏻

do you know the manga artist has a new webtoon? I'm not sure what it's called but I heard it's good! I've yet to read it myself... On another note, I love the art so much it's so unique and different from other manhwas!

And hmm few of my faves are "Death is the only end for the villainess", "No longer a heroine!", and "The Couple breaker". The last 2 are by the same artist! The 1st is a regular "I died and was reincarnated as a villainess" kind of story, BUT It has a twist! It's in an otome game instead of a storybook! Quite interesting... The 2nd is based on the life of an actress. It's pretty realistic and is a little dark... Not much romance tho...The last is really drama HAHAH It's crazy like the name says it all. As for childhood friends to lovers, I recommend "The Secret Bedroom of a Dejected Royal Daughter". It's a little bit enemies to lovers too. And it has 18+ Scenes 😁🤭 That's a bonus.

For status?! Honestly I don't get how that works LIKE you don't feel anything for him? And yeah! I agree that we definitely want the real thing. Woahh but 23 isn't that bad! Exactly I don't wanr boys I want men.

And HAHAHA don't worry bae you're not lecturing at all! I kinda like it when people give me advice.

It's not hot but it's too rainy 😭 I love the rain but I'm on school break now and I wanna go out with my friends 🫠

HAHAHAH I FEEL YOU OMG! Like its so gut-wretching and painful but IT FEELS SO GOOD TO READ!

Impulse buying HAHAH Makeup ain't Impulse buying it's a necessity 🫶🏻 WOAH 10 EPS IS A LOT- My best was like 4 eps maybe HAHAHHA

Omg You're so right my Twitter was always untouched until I started receiving notifs of Gojo being alive theories... And Gege continues toying with us till the very end...

AHHAHA To be fair I started Aot cause of Levi like PLS HE'S SO HOT idc if he's like 8cm shorter than me- But it's really ... complicated.... Too complicated for my liking...I understand where your girl friends are coming from ...

HAHAHAHA Karma hitting him hardddd

Also Karma is the guy on the screen (Gojo) coming straight home to youuuuu [If you listen to Taylor Swift you'll understand haha]

Also I flunked my excel exam... Idk why I have this module it sucks cause I'm not tech savvy... I think I aced my accounting test tho so that's good! Thanks for believing in me tho 😭😭😭 so touched rn..

We'd PAY to be Suguru's monkeys 🐒 🙈

Lmk once you read it omg I wanna know what happens I LOVE this AU it's so cute!

And hang in there, Chu!!!! You can do it!! Ik its already Saturday but still!!! Atb for next week babe!!

p.s. so sorry I took so long to reply, I'm overseas now...

-🪩

hii disco anon!! sorry for the late reply too i was just back from my weekend break!🥹

for christmas event?🥹 there must be a christmas event… right? i haven’t checked the chinese server yet but there must be! (#trust💁🏻‍♀️)

RIGHT it was so good and i’m glad i found people who also like them bcs my friends don’t seem to be interested😭 i know it’s so slowburn but the story is so great too. I KNOW I LOVE HIM TOO but wait i also forgot his name😭 but euntae is so hot i can’t—

really?! i’m looking into it now!! i really love her story and art so it must be good🤭

oooh i never have much affinity for isekai manga but now that you said it’s good then i’ll def check it out!!👀 i read no longer heroine too!! aaah that was so good i was on the edge of my seat every chapter🤧 and hey couple breaker seems interesting?? i’ll eat that up this weekend and oooh what’s that in the end👀👀 okay thank you sm for the recs!!🫶🏻

i have a rec too!! must be a happy ending! have you read it? the art is soooo majestic and the plot got me like 😩🥲🫣🤭 many times i love it so much from the start to the end!!

honestly i don’t really understand to till this day actually, but yeah she didn’t seem to like him that much because as she said it herself it was all out of “curiosity” which is a big red flag in and of itself💀 mind you not even a year later they broke up 🙄

(aww i’m glad you feel that way <3 when we’re close i tend to run off my mouth so…)

ahh school break!! i used to sleep in most of the time🤭🤭

it’s necessity for us but some boys are just too nosy *sigh* they be like “i love natural look!” and then be 🙃 when they see our bare face 😩 HAHAH yeah back when i had so much free time i spent it all on binge-watching🥲 do you have any show recs?? can be anything, even anime too!!

HAHAHHAA omg there’s this one twt account that always makes points about how gojo will live until this day 😭😭 i have accepted it by this point but evidently twitter nation is still going strong🥹

OMG SAME like i know levi but i didn’t know eren at firstt🤧🤧 he seems so cool and so fine (my bf 🙄 again at me when i mentioned that) even with one eye missing in the recent last part of aot too!!

OH YEAH I LISTEN TO HER THESE DAAAYS omg i must make a confession; her songs are the inspiration for my fics these days🥹🥹 like everything is so relatable and the tune are so easy to remember i love her songs 🫶🏻

ohmy i’m sorry🥺 i used to be sooo bad at excel (esp macros) too but ever since i’m following some yt tutorials i started getting better! and let me give you some shortcuts too:

chat gpt. believe it or not it works on codes! my friend who is a programmer cheats from chat gpt sometimes🥲 not totally recommended but it can be your last resort

excel forum. whenever i get confused regarding codes or formulas, i drop by the forum to ask. there are many kind people there! and most of their codes and formulas work too

whaa accounting!! i used to be so bad at it like i would tear my hair out to find “why are they not balanced?!” 😭😭 i love science subjects better🥹 and aw you’re welcome!!

i haven’t read the bakerlon card yet but i will tonight!! will update you once i do!!🥹

awww thank youuu disco anon!!😭🫶🏻 you’re so sweet thank you for interacting with me!!! and it’s totally okay! waaa i hope you enjoy your vacation!!✨

[douchebagbrainwaves]

MICROSOFT IS THIS THE STARTUP INVESTING TRENDS

There may be room for tuning here, but as the corpus grows such tuning will happen automatically anyway. If you ask at that age, people will choose conservatively. 14758544 valuable 0. And if you want to invest in any good startups. Ron Conway, say it's the people—that the idea will change, but the people are the foundation of the company. Startups don't win by getting great funding rounds, but by making great products. It works because although the response rate is abominably low at best 15 per million, vs 3000 per million for a catalog mailing, the cost, to them, is practically nothing. More Ideas One idea that I haven't tried yet is to filter based on word pairs would be in effect a Markov-chaining text generator running in reverse. It wouldn't have been a natural fit for, say, how to raise an angel round, don't feel bad on that account. There are two senses of the word troll. Every person has to do their job well.

07347802 sorry 0. And through a combination of how good it would be to send out a crawler to look at this actually quite atypical spam. False positives are such a worry that they demand extraordinary measures. What people delete are wisecracks, because they have no redundancy. Madam. That's the closest I can get to the opposite of hapless, that would be painless, though annoying, to lose. Indeed, c0ck is far more damning evidence than cock, and Bayesian filters know precisely how much more. And while it can be very demoralizing. But events like Demo Day only account for a fraction of matches between startups and investors. If you're Sam Altman, you don't have to be some baseline prosperity before you get a silicon valley is China. They want to invest in companies that are dynamic.

We saw this happen so often that we made up a name for it: playing house. Which means to the extent you do. When we sold our startup in 1998 I thought one day I'd do some angel investing. 01 continuations 0. Raising $20,000 from a first-time angel investor can be as much work as raising $2 million from a VC fund. Mark Zuckerberg didn't succeed because he was one of those lucky people who know early on what they want to work on interesting things, even if no one else cares about them, and then answering them. You look at spams and you think, the gall of these guys to try sending me mail that begins Dear Friend or has a subject line that's all uppercase and ends in eight exclamation points. If they were driven by equity they'd be looking for ways to take advantage of those, people have to move. And the reason so many people think of property as having a single unchanging definition is that its definition changes very slowly. Don't just think investors are stupid. I thought was hard, the mechanics of investing, really isn't.

Obviously that's false: anything else people make can be well or badly designed; why should this be uniquely impossible for programming languages? Creating such a corpus poses some technical problems. I don't think we'll ever reach the point where most startups can do without outside funding. So American grad schools spawn a lot of trolls in it. If there were a word that meant the opposite of the damping that the fear/greed balance usually produces in markets. Another thing I may try in the future. It takes a while to be optimistic. If you're part of a round led by someone else.1 By then it's too late for angels.

I've found, again by trial and error I chose. And while governments might be able to solve the problem with fairly simple algorithms. $60,000 is less than a lot of people working to keep this from happening again. Which is not to try to create a silicon valley in Germany, because you just have so little to go on, but you don't need it this month. Performance isn't everything, you say? One answer to that is obvious: because you need money to live on for a year.2 Till you feel comfortable investing, don't invest more than that per startup. Talk about a recipe for an unstable system. As I was mulling this over, I found myself thinking: I can understand why German universities declined in the 1930s, after they excluded Jews. I'm an advocate of whitelists, but more as a way to save computation than as a way to reinforce what you learned in that chapter. And in fact one of the most important quality in an investor is simply to be a good guy.

Notes

Even if you know whether this happens because they're innumerate, or b get your employer to renounce, in Galbraith's words, it's a net loss of personality for the others to act through subordinates.

Or more precisely, while she likes getting attention in the first couple times I bailed because I realized the other reason it used to reply that they don't yet have any of his professors did in salary. I. Their opinion carries the same thing twice.

Thanks to Fred Wilson, Robert Morris, Sam Altman, Erann Gat, Cameron Robertson, Lisa Randall, and Trevor Blackwell for reading a previous draft.

[glorioustidalwavedefendor]

@jupitermelichios

I am sorry it took so long to answer, wen your answer is always so quick.

My head didn‘t work last week … and you take so much care to answer, that I really want to give it my full attention <3

It is really fun to read your answer :-)

And very interesting.

I want to take my time with it and really enjoy it :-)

And I am honestly sad that I don‘t really have any more big questions … just some tying up of loose ends :-(

SO no more reason to tell me anything … :-(

Btw. I totally understand if you don’t answer anymore … my answer is shamefully over due

Thank you for your time and have a great day/week <3

„I don't mind at all 😊 Glad to put my theology degree to actual use for once!“

I thought you might have studied something like theology … or history with a heavy emphasize on religious history

You talk so effortless about all these very densely packed infirmations

„incidentally, Mary's invasion was called the glorious revolution, a name which is referenced in pratchett's night watch!“

OMG!

I did not know that either

There are so many little nods and jokes that are completely wasted on my … because I just don‘t notice …

Do you have more of those?

“This has improved over time as Anglicanism has grown increasingly into its own identity, but there’s a reason the church is haemorrhaging members right now when more extreme protestant sects are growing, and (imo) a lot of it is that aspect of compromise.”

That is super ironic … considering that the bible says:

So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.

(This is like the only bible quote I actually know XD and I still had to google it XD)

Like, you know ...they, of all people, should have kind a seen that one coming …

Levellers

I assume the Levellers fall under the general umbrella of protestant?

Or at least they do NOT fall under the general umbrella of high church an catholicism?

I tried to do my own research … but then google gave me words like antinomian and I got scared … ;-) XD

“at the same time as the church is trying to emphasise its unique qualities, the aristocracy are also trying to emphasise their own wealth and power because they’re genuinely terrified they’re going to be overthrown but also they’re all morons, so instead of compromising with the reformers (that does happen a little, with some parliamentary reforms, but not significantly) they think any compromise will be seen as a sign of weakness and instead get real into fancy art and architecture. (Disappointingly, this does kind of work, at least for a while)”

I am not sure I am more angry about the fact that:

the aristocracies answer to: can we please have some fair wages, equal rights and all in all better living conditions

Was to go: Look how rich we are

Or that it worked …

Well maybe I should simply be happy that it isn‘t working this time around …

“for some reason british map makers always coloured empire countries pink”

How adorable … maybe it was just the cheapest color XD

gothic revival

O.K. so the gothic revival was kind a the straw that broke the camels back and drove people away … yeah that makes sense …

“sharing a single room with three other families working 12+ hour days and your kid lost an arm to machinery and you still can’t afford to eat”

The more things change the more they stay the same …

„Which isn’t to say it was a good life, it absolutely sucked in a lot of ways, but the lives of the newly urban poor arguably sucked a lot worse, and this time, there was someone they could blame that on.“

100% agree, not just food being more secure but also if you look at working hours they worked a lot less … I mean if you just take in to account that in winter there is not really that much to do in a farming community … like yeah … stables need to be mucked out … some harvest maintenance … and spinning/weaving … etc … and of course chores … but it is still the more relaxed part of the year …

But in the city?

The machines run year round 24/7 … they don’t care …

The Wee Free men

The Wee Free men being a play on the churches just completely blows my mind … I am still not over it …

Every time I remember it I have to stare in to space for a while … XD

I wonder how much more little nods just went right over my head …

Even L-space didn‘t tell me either of those two things (the glorious revolution and the Wee free men)…

“It had never occurred to me that them thinking they’re already dead might be a reference to the way Calvinists think a person’s life is basically just an extension of their afterlife, but you very well might be right, that's really cool!”

Thank you! <3

That happened by sheer accident XD

broken clock and all that XD

[crowfeatherquill]

Spider and Songbird Behind The Scenes: Currency! (Courtesy of Jackelope)

You may have noticed that in the most recent chapter of Spider and Songbird, money is exchanged for goods and services. Furthermore, you may have noticed that that money is Called Something Specific. That would be because Kel (@colormywords) has an economics degree and a passion for making sure all the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it details get just as much polish as the rest of the fic.

The essay you’re about to read outlines the process by which they figured out not only what the money should be called, but roughly how much money is being exchanged. Personally? I could never. But they can and did and now it’s here in front of you. Enjoy! Or else :)

‘Tis I, the nerd! In trying to decide what to call the currency in our modern setting, I thought long and hard about how much I wanted to be like this meme and call our currency coin or gold like it really is in Baldur’s Gate and how much I wanted it to be more unique in name.  I knew that gold was called Dragons in Waterdeep because I ran a Waterdeep based campaign once and know far too much about the City of Splendor (there’s more than one reason I love Gale) so I just kind of casually googled if Baldur’s Gate had the same thing. I found this fellow nerd with a similar question and went from there. If you don’t want to look at the analysis the title is enough: there’s no definitive canon spot where it says what Baldur’s Gate currency was called, but they did trade in Trade Bars. Further research (don’t knock my academic writing) showed that Baldur’s Gate set the standard weight for silver trade bars in the Sword Coast and possibly beyond (there’s only so many books I can read). 

For a list of the full terms of coins as collected by a few people, you can check this link or this one. 

With that established, I thought about how the British currency got its name (the pound). After researching to make sure I wasn’t fully insane about how that came about, the pound was the monetary value of one pound of silver (a fortune at the time). It retained the name after the UK established the currency with gold backing, in other words keeping enough gold somewhere in a vault that amounted to the total minted currency in the country. More recently, most economies have entered fiat currency, basically the principle of saying “bro you know I’m good for it” when they print their money. 

So imagining that Baldur’s Gate had a similar economic history: they started with physical trade bars with a government set weight and monetary value. They changed to paper because of convenience but continued to hold that much physical money in a vault somewhere and the single paper bill was equivalent to a 2lb Trade Bar represented in that vault. As they moved into the modern era and realized printed money was infinite but resources like silver and gold were limited they began practicing fiat backed currency. The paper is called a trade bar or bar because that’s what it represented so that’s what it was always called. Because the physical bars were 5 inches long they could be easily cut into inches and separated that way for partial payments back in the day so the biggest coins are bar fifths (think if the US did .20c fifths instead of .25c quarters) 

So Dehlia gets 10gp roughly in tips for her 5 song set. Now in the time BG3 is set, a “poor” lifestyle is 73gp a year. So does Dehlia earn 1/7th (roughly) of scraping together a living in 15 minutes? Making the fractions fract (not the verb for that using it anyway) 73gp/yr for a poor lifestyle should equal 1800L/yr (the 2022 UK poverty line not including housing). So by that estimation it’s 0.0406~ gp per L. So, Dehlia’s 10gp equivalent trade bar equals roughly 0.41L. Hardly enough for a tea or coffee. So then we take into account inflation! With inflation at roughly 1.3% a year, that takes the .41 to 333L. Which… also doesn’t make any sense. So we went digging for more nerds! And it turns out the math for a gold piece doesn’t make too much sense. http://www.kenthedm.com/blog/2019/8/7/how-much-is-a-gold-piece-worth-5e https://medium.com/@Swizzler/what-is-a-dungeons-and-dragons-gold-piece-worth-in-modern-dollars-fcd7670b285b 

Some other people have put a lot of thought into how money maths. And they end up with a 1492 (ish) gold piece would be worth about 35$ or 100$ based on whether you consider it across the economy or tied in worth specifically to food. The more conservative of which put us much closer to what our above math works out to. But is a nonsense amount for Dehlia to just carry in her pocket. 

So how do we get from a trade bar being equal to 10 gp and therefore 333L to a reasonable number? Well I arbitrarily decided to move the decimal up another place, putting into canon a world in which the trade bar at some point stopped being worth 10gp but instead became a stand in for a single gp. A trade bar is now worth roughly 33L. More than enough for a coffee while also not being a ridiculous number. I also decided to never try and make fictional currency make sense again.  

[rielzero]

Random Reminder Regarding my username(s)

While my primary username is usually ‘’actualevil’’ the reason I use rielzero as an alt username and otheriwse- is because sometimes either rielzero or actualevil on a website is already taken. (sometimes i use _actualevil, like on tiktok, or instagram.)

check out my carrd to make sure you know which socials i’m actively using; actualevil.carrd.co I recently deleted my twitter btw, so if these usernames pop up there again its likely not me.

the user actualevil on tumblr isn’t me! another example of my other username being used somewhere else would be the warframe forums- there’s an user who uses the username rielzero. I do not play warframe, this isn’t me.

While I personally really identify myself with these as my ‘’brand names’’ I don’t like the concept of copyright surrounding names at times- its just a lot of work, and weird. The only inconvenience being that people might assume every account with such username is yours- This is why stuff like carrd or linktree are really nice.

I feel very attached to these as my ‘’brand’’ but unless its necessary, I will not change them. Just remember to check my carrd to make sure you’re not confusing me with someone who uses the same or similar handle.

Thought i’d mention this since my tumblr is now my primary social media and I’ve gotten a spike in new followers. 

Sometimes I’ve considered trying a new handle, but I’ve been using these two interchangeably since 2016 ish, while still using different handles at times and experimenting. I’m too attached to them, and I don’t want to harass strangers online to ask to change theirs. This is why I have two usernames. If possible, I’d toss ‘’rielzero’’ out as an username, as this is just the name of my main persona, Riel Zero. And Keep ActualEvil as primary brand/handle everywhere. But since I'm not a company or corporate brand, I don’t really feel the need to chase it. I have no plans to make a career with my work, I’m a passionate hobbyist, and as a disabled person I cannot keep a heavy work routine or focus on profit. Social media alone would be a job. I don’t have the capacity to be employed in any way,

TLDR: Make sure to check my Carrd link, (actualevil.carrd.co) Because my handles are not specifically unique to me, sometimes someone else has the username already.

[weirdmarioenemies]

Name: Mechakoopa

Debut: Super Mario World

So a very polite anon has humbly requested we write a post about Mechakoopa! They are apparently this person's favorite, so today's their lucky day! See I don't like to brag but, I'd definitely consider myself as part of the top 100 most qualified people to talk about Mechakoopas in the world! And who am I to turn down such a request?

Now the 90s you see, were a turning point for good Mr. Bowser here. With a brand new clown-helicopter thing to pilot around you might think he's all set, but what kind of self-respecting villain would he be without filling his evil lair with a number of Evil Wind-up Toys based on himself? So he does exactly that- a whole fourteen years before Mario stole his idea, mind you!

Yes, you read that right! Despite their name, Mechakoopas are tiny mechanical versions of Big Bowser himself, not just any run of the mill Koopa, which explains their green heads and funky hair! You know how Koopa is actually Bowser's Japanese name? Yeah! They could've localized them as Mecha-Bowsers, but Mechakoopa just flows nicer doesn't it? And he is still technically a Koopa!

"Yo, somebody rang?"

No!! Not you, Mecha-Bowser from Super Mario Sunshine (2002)!! You'll get your turn eventually! Geez! Anyway. Where was I. Oh! Yes!

This is the obligatory part of the post where I'm like “Get a load of this funky guy”! Get a load of this funky guy! Instead of reinterpreting Bowser’s design very literally in toy form, the Mechakoopa is very much its own beast, with its funny beak and little funny legs. Our aforementioned anon mentioned the wind-up key, and oh, what a wind-up key it is! And of course the raisin d’eclair- the fantastic little googly eyes! Oh where would we be without those googly eyes?

Naturally though, Bowser doesn’t just use his toys to populate his spooky castle- he always has to keep a few on his person! So he chucks them at you in the game’s final boss fight, but he didn’t account for the fact that, in this game only, Mario can throw upwards! Oh no! His one weakness! Being pelted with plastic!

By the by, I’ve always thought the original Mechakoopa sprite from Super Mario World looked super funky! The hair almost looks like its on fire! And I like the goofy grin. 

The Super Mario World cartoon decided to interpret this sprite by turning him into a horrible little man. No, I don’t want this! He shouldn’t have arms!

The Mechakoopa’s next appearance in a mainline Mario platformer was in New Super Mario Bros. Wii, where they act... exactly the same as they do in Super Mario World! Cool! This basically established them as modern Mario enemies, but there isn’t much to say other than that!

Like all our posts about Common Mario Enemies, it would probably be boring if I just listed off their every appearance, so I will just bring up the ones that are worth mentioning. For example, Super Mario RPG! In this game, Bowser’s strongest special attack is Bowser Crush, which summons a giant Mechakoopa to stop on foes! According to the Player’s Guide, this Mechakoopa was a top secret weapon developed by Koopa researchers... to stomp flowers and scare butterflies! Wow! That is so so evil! These big guys would definitely live up to the name “Mecha-Bowser”! 

“Hey guys, are you talking about me?”

NO, we are NOT talking about you, Mecha Bowser (with no hyphen) from Mario Kart: Double Dash (2003)’s Bowser’s Castle course! Get the heck outta here! Gosh, some people just don’t know when they’re not wanted!

I am sure after all this you are wondering, they may be mechanical toys but can they do math? The answer is yes obviously! This is Mechakoopa from Mario Party Advance, and they’re a mathematician! They invented Mechakoopa’s Theorem, the very real mathematical theorem that we all used in school! Everyone give them a round of applause!

I’d like to bring up their appearances in the Mario & Luigi games, not because it’s particularly notable, but because of how much I like their sprite and idle animation! Look at the wind-up key spin around and the eyes go up and down! So cute! Oh, and also because in the Superstar Saga remake they replaced the Mecha-Chomp enemies (may god rest their souls)!

Super Mario Maker 2′s final update was an epic win and a #1 victory royale for Mechakoopa fans anywhere, since it not only added Mechakoopas to all four main game themes, but also two brand new variants: the Blasta Mechakoopa (in red) and the Zappa Mechakoopa (in blue)! 

As you might expect, they can Blast (missiles) and Zap (lasers) respectively! I’ve no idea why they added these random functionalities to Mechakoopas specifically, but they’re a lot of fun and some of the most unique projectiles in the game! Zappa? I barely know ‘a! 

Oh, and I almost forgot! They are in Super Smash Bros. as well! Bowser Jr.’s moveset is a treasure trove of little references to Mario gadgets, and even though Bowser no longer tosses these guys from his Clown Car, his son has taken up the job! Only in this game, Mechakoopas explode. Uh oh! They didn’t do that before! Still, I really like popping a Mechakoopa out of its Mechakoopa Compartment just to see it wander around the stage. It’s fun!

Now that’s all I have to say about good old Mechakoopas, but I’d like to give a special shoutout to this guy in particular- the Micro Mecha-Bowser, from Super Mario Galaxy! For a long time, I assumed they were just Mechakoopas with a different design... But this definitely looks like a beefed up version of the Mechakoopa, with their big goofy teeth, their pig nose and their funky cross-hair eyes! These dudes can breathe fire too, so they really are more like Bowser! And if there’s a Micro Mecha-Bowser, there’s gotta be a normal one!

“Whassup? I heard somebody call my name!”

Harumph! Nobody called you, Mecha-Bowser from Super Mario Galaxy (2007)’s Toy Time Ga- Er... hold on a second. You actually are exactly the person I was talking about after all! My mistake! Though I do wish you’d at least give us a heads up when you’re gonna show up, given you’re the size of a small planetoid!

Yeah, the Micro Mecha-Bowsers are named after this big robot from Toy Time Galaxy, Mecha-Bowser (not to be confused with Mecha-Bowser or Mecha Bowser)! Though I have to say, there isn’t much family resemblance! He’s so blue and un-turtle like! Still, this must’ve been my favorite mission in Galaxy as a kid- I’d replay it over and over again just because the idea of climbing on a giant planet-sized robot and dismantling it piece by piece was so cool! It was like Shadow of the Colossus before I knew what the heck that was!

Well that’s about the extent of the Mechakoopa family. Isn’t it fun? There’s a moral to be learned here, and it’s that, uh... little wind-up toys are very charming! Um, I suppose. Look, writing conclusions is hard! 

Mechakoopa

[olderthannetfic]

I’m so tired of people shitting on RPF, when RPF fandoms (specifically the Hockey RPF community) are some of the healthiest, least-toxic places I’ve ever been in. I can’t speak for everyone, and I think that the target audience of a piece of media has a lot to do with the toxicity of the fandom, but everyone has been so kind and welcoming to me throughout the years and I rarely see any fighting over than the casual sports team ribbing (and even then, unlike irl cis men sports fanatics, it’s really rare that anyone is actually mean or violent to one another!). It’s obvious that everyone in the fandom shares a love of the sport, the players, and writing, and they’re all really helpful to newbies who are trying to get into hockey. “Primers” are something I’ve only seen in the hockey RPF fandom but tbh I wish they existed elsewhere, for instance. I think this has a lot to do with the fact that the majority of the fandom, as I see it, are adults, and many are fandom olds.

I can see how one could get the wrong impression of RPF looking at a lot of the recently popped up YouTuber fandoms, for instance, but I would argue that a majority of RPF fans KNOW BOUNDARIES and don’t want to cross them. There’s a reason that most hockey RPF fics on ao3 are user-locked and have disclaimers, and that’s both out of respect for the players and to protect ourselves. But that fact just makes that one often-circulated post where people call sports RPF gross or weird or freakish even weirder, because you literally have to go *purposely looking for it* to see it. It’s really hard to find sports RPF accidentally.

Unfortunately, the stigma surrounding is making it really hard for me to want to be associated with it. I recently got into a new fandom and changed tumblr mains + got a new ao3 account (since I had a lot of bad memories associated with my old one). I don’t really want to post RPF fic on anon, but also as a fic writer I am somewhat popular and I’m worried I’ll get hate for it. Advice?

(Also, the majority of hockey RPF is really, really good. Well-written, a lot of unique stories, plus smut and romance obviously written by someone who knows what they’re doing. I’d honestly recommend the AUs to people who know nothing about hockey, they’re that good.)

--

Hockey RPF fandom is usually okay, but it has its moments. (Namely, when a famous dude is revealed to be a rapist as happens unfortunately often with pro sports, everyone behaves like an idiot for a while.)

But yes, most anti-RPF discourse on tumblr lately isn't about music or sports RPF but about youtubers. The dynamic of those fandoms is quite different and music and sports shouldn't be tarred with the same brush.

As for worry about getting hate, archive-lock your fic, turn on comment moderation if you need to, and tell the haters to go fuck themselves. Half of LJ fictional person slash fandom moved to Hockey RPF after Stargate Atlantis, and people just had to learn to deal.

[angelofthequeers]

I really love how this show tells a story without explicitly saying so, especially with how that pertains to Chloé

She can’t be redeemed yet because she doesn’t want it. She hasn’t hit rock bottom quite yet because she’s still got support if she wants it...but she doesn’t want it. She’s pushing everyone away and ‘Queen Banana’ uses a nice parallel to show this.

Adrien once again tries to reach out to her, to convince her to improve herself and stop being so nasty to everyone. But unlike in ‘Despair Bear’, she’s not even willing to pretend, because she was Queen Bee and that means she’s Good and therefore can’t possibly need to change and it must be everyone else who’s the problem. So she just straight up rejects one of the only two people she’s ever been nice to and cared about in her life.

“You’re not my Adrikins anymore, you’re my Adri-no one!”

She claims he means nothing to her, just like she did to Ladybug in ‘Miracle Queen’ after Ladybug stood her ground and didn’t cave in to her demands to take the Bee Miraculous. She literally cannot handle being told no and when Adrien does so with finality - with a gentle force that she knows she won’t budge - she lashes out and pushes him away.

Just like she later does to Ladybug in a parallel of her words to Adrien.

“You’re not Ladybug, you’re Lady-nonexistent!”

Because this episode showed that to Chloé, life is a movie for her to direct. She’s the star, she gets everything she wants on demand, and when people finally stand up to her and firmly say no? She lashes out and insists that they don’t exist in her perfect world where everything goes her way and she gets everything she wants.

In her perfect movie world, she’s the stunning hero Queen Bee who revels in the attention of being a superhero and saves her Adrikins while Ladybug gushes about what a great superhero she is just like in her documentary back in ‘Malediktator’. When things go off-script, she demands that the entire script be re-written to once again centre her as the star; as the queen. She calls on people with the power to give her what she wants, like her father...or Shadowmoth.

“Chloé, we don’t want to change everything again!”

“DADDY!”

And when people finally refuse to play along with her script, she erases them from her life so she can keep clinging to her fantasy. She denies that they’re her sister, tells them she doesn’t need them, turns them into bananas...and so on.

‘Miraculer’ proved that she could resist if she wanted to but, well, she doesn’t want to. She’s not going to get the power and prestige from being Queen Bee, so she’ll get it from taking down the person who’s holding her back from that glory. Ladybug, who only existed to boost Chloé’s image as her “best friend”, then ceased to exist when she went off the script that Chloé had constructed in her head.

She’s not out of character for regressing. She never has been. It’s always been about the attention and stardom for her and when she couldn’t have that, she reverted back to her old ways. Why should she bother improving herself if she gets nothing out of it? Like she said in ‘Sole Crusher’ (which people slam for being too cartoonish without taking a closer look at it), there are winners and losers in life and she’s a winner. If she’s not then that makes her a loser. Queen Bee is a winner, a powerful figure standing next to Ladybug with Adrien fawning over her, and having that taken from her makes her a loser. So...she doesn’t acknowledge that. She doesn’t acknowledge Ladybug. She doesn’t acknowledge Adrien pointing out her promise to change. If she does then she’ll have to face some very hard truths about herself, and I do believe she’s got the self-awareness to know that those truths are there even if she staunchly refuses to acknowledge them.

And I do believe that’s where Zoé will come in. Zoé is taking everything that Chloé sees as rightfully hers: the attention and love of others, a relationship with Adrien (as Chloé so explicitly pointed out last episode, Adrien is hers), her role in the movie, her father’s attention...even her superhero mantle. Twice now, André has stood up to Chloé when he never has before. And both times pertained to her behaviour towards Zoé. He even explicitly called her out the second time, because he’ll give her anything she wants except hurting her own sister. But Zoé’s explicitly said that she loves Chloé, even if no one else will, and she’s the only member of Chloé’s family to genuinely love her without taking her crap.

“And I’ll always love you even if the whole world hates you...sister.”

Zoé will be the catalyst that Chloé truly needs to improve herself and stay that way. Chloé needs tough but tender love, which she can’t get from the people who have already tried. Adrien doesn’t have the power to make her keep her promise because if he’s nice to her, she just takes that as a reward and permission to stop acting since she actually wants to know him and have a relationship with him. Ladybug’s job isn’t to sit there and coddle her and hold her hand and if Ladybug can’t make her special then, well, she’s useless in Chloé’s eyes. Ladybug tried once, and Chloé did acknowledge the truth about herself and apologise, but her change of heart didn’t stick. She had no one to consistently hold her accountable and call her out when she stumbles, and no real reason to want to change. But Zoé is in a unique position as her family, as one of the only people she literally cannot refuse to acknowledge, and I believe that Chloé will at least have her footing back by the time the show comes to an end.

The name Zoe means ‘life’, while Chloe means ‘green shoot/fertility/blooming’, and I feel like this describes how their future dynamic will unfold. Zoé is the healing power who believes the best in everyone, even Chloé. Chloé is the angry, destructive power who hates everyone and lashes out because she feels that they ruin her world and don’t deserve to even look at her. But just like in the start of the episode, once Chloé stops trying to force the story to cater to her and lets herself break for good, Zoé will be there to help her get back up and stay up; to blossom and grow by giving her new life. And now that she’s got a charm to protect her from akumatisation, she can safely fall and break and process this without being preyed on by Shadowmoth.

I just...really love this show and its storytelling, is all.

[xaharadesert]

Shifter MC - Headcanon Pt 6

Nadia Satrinava x MC

A/N: Part 6, the final part, for @tasteofgummies! Thank you so much for your patience, I hope it was worth the wait! Also, thank you for such a unique prompt, I genuinely enjoyed writing for you, and I appreciate how much you helped me with the details! Please let me know if there’s anything you’d like changed, I know I deviated from the original prompt a bit ;) also, everyone, please let me know if there are any spelling or grammar mistakes! Requests are open!

💜Nadia💜

Out of all the LIs, Nadia is by far the most inquisitive about your quirks

When you make a reference she doesn’t understand, she asks for clarification without hesitation or shame

She usually assumes it’s a reference to something the Vesuvian citizens all know, and she’s just out of touch

Which mostly likely makes explaining them without exposing yourself rather difficult

Obviously blatantly lying to her would be out of the question, so it would probably be best to say that it’s a reference from your childhood, and hope she doesn’t ask follow-up questions (she usually picks up on your tone, and recognizes it would be best to leave it be)

That doesn’t change the fact that she would love to know more about you, and often fills your free time together with conversations aimed toward learning everything there is to learn about you

The two of you are incredibly different, and she isn’t blind to this

As she opens herself up to you more, she expects the same level of trust to be returned

At times, she can cause some strain on your relationship, as you can’t give her the same level of dedication

But she is a persistent woman, and will not be dissuaded by what she assumes to be a difficult past that you struggle to speak about

What really causes problems is your unspecified journeys that you regularly take

You could make excuses for them, making up tasks and locations to prevent her from suspecting too much, but when she inevitably asks about the details of your trip after you return, you seem to always say something that apparently tips her off to the fact that you’re lying

And if there’s one thing Nadia hates, it’s lying

She would rather you present to her the cold, hard truth in all its brutal glory than try to calm her with pretty lies that only serve to deepen the cracks in her already fragile trust

And she tells you so, as she will tell the truth even when you do not

She points out every time you’ve evaded her questions about your childhood, every reference that went unexplained, and every fabricated journey you claimed to take

So, in return, you would likely decide to give her the same; if she genuinely wanted the truth, then you should give her the truth

To her credit, she takes it about as well as one could expect

She doesn’t deny the existence of magic, but she has never been fully aware of the extent of it

So you can’t really blame her when she’s skeptical in accepting what you claim to be the truth

But you can convince her with what she does understand: logic and facts

Tell her about your world; tell her everything you can recall

From the governments, to the education system, to the name of your hometown, to your favourite places to shop

Tell her so much about your world that she has no choice but to believe you

And she does; even if you could make all of that up, it’s a detailed enough account that she can tell you genuinely believe it

Once she accepts this, your relationship seems to reignite with this newfound trust

You can now answer her questions freely, and she basks in the feeling of a relationship built on mutual trust

Nadia realizes that there’s much to learn from your world, especially in relation to Vesuvia, and occasionally asks you to learn about certain topics that are unexplored within her world to report back to her, so she may better help her people (don’t worry if the topics she asks about aren’t your strong suit— she usually asks for cold hard data to draw her own conclusions from, so if you can memorize a couple facts about certain historical events between shifting to Vesuvia, she’s more than happy)

In return, she provides scathing rants about the injustices of your own reality— she might not have all the facts, but she has enough to put together an eloquent and brutal review about topics you often struggles to voice your displeasure for (sometimes it feels wonderful to hear someone put into words the feelings you struggle to communicate)

Obviously she misses you when you aren’t in Vesuvia, and she ensures you know it as well

She wishes she could be with you in your original reality, exploring everything with you, including the things you take for granted

Through her, you learn to enjoy even the smallest things in your original reality; she wants to hear all of it, which makes you more aware of it, which in turn makes it all the more enjoyable

Even when she can’t be with you physically, she changes your life in lovely, little ways

And in turn, you change her life as well

You’ve expanded her horizons further than she ever would have expected, and she’s eternally grateful

She couldn’t imagine life with anyone else by her side— her love for you only grows every time you return to her

[libermachinae]

Notes: baby robot

—

“602 RPS. Fuel pressure 124 over 75. Circuits holding—”

“Prowl, come.”

Prowl glanced up from the monitor for just an astrosec. Mesothulas was standing in front of the CR chamber, leaned so close he was nearly touching the casing, well beyond the limits of safety protocols. Even from up here in the observation deck, Prowl could see the way he quivered, fingers flexing as though he really intended to brush them over the freezing pod. He’d spoken without looking away from it, optics fixed on the narrow porthole, its view blocked from Prowl’s gaze by the glare of the lab’s lighting.

When he looked back, RPS had dropped to 598.

“I can observe plenty from up here,” he said, logging the change along with the rest of the readout flashing across his display. The system would do it automatically, but keeping his own logs allowed him to feed the data directly into his risk analysis programs, their last safeguard against any unexpected chain reactions. Reversal and shutdown commands remained queued and at the ready.

“But he can’t see you,” Mesothulas insisted, still with his gaze on the pod. There was a mechanical growl deep within the machine, systems warming to protect them against the coming temperature snap.

“I’ll introduce myself later,” Prowl promised. He had a script prepared, easily integrated into the standard basic function tests he’d plucked from the ruins of Petrex’s last construction center. It would serve to demonstrate the construct’s ability to differentiate itself from other people and recognize when it was being addressed, provided current readings held steady and they actually made it that far. “I need to keep monitoring in case of—”

“In case of what, Prowl? Our design is without flaw. He’s perfect.” Mesothulas did touch the pod then, yanking away and shaking out his hand when the cold bit back. “We’ve already run every test, accounted for every variable. You said yourself, nothing will go wrong.”

“Because I’m up here, making sure it doesn’t.” There was a hiss as the internal ventilations started to draw out the freezing gasses, and a fog appeared over the porthole as moisture in the air responded to the change in temperature. Mesothulas leaned close again, and this time Prowl decided not to bother worrying about it. “I don’t understand why this is an issue. We haven’t installed its datalogging software yet; it won’t remember any of this.”

There was a lot he didn’t understand about Mesothulas, but most of the time that worked to his benefit, their different priorities allowing them to easily collaborate by taking over parts of each project the other had no interest in. It was rare for them to clash, and if it caused him to add a few extra lines to his spreadsheets as he accelerated his tracking speed, the construct certainly wouldn’t suffer for it.

“He, Prowl. He has his own spark.”

And going by the standards Prowl had grown up with, that put it in the animate category, a step above mechanized but not yet in the autonomous phase that signified life. But that was for spliced sparks, borrowed identities who only became individuals once introduced to a unique processor sequence. He and Mesothulas had gone back and forth on what this meant for the construct, whose spark had been struck from as close to nothing as one could, and Prowl was smart enough to know it was not a discussion worth bringing up now.

“And it’s important because we’re not just introducing ourselves: we’re introducing the entire universe to him. We’re his first impression of everything. I’m not letting you waste that opportunity.”

There was a hiccup in Prowl’s momentum as Mesothulas’ sentiments caused his processor to pick up a memory. Its low priority weighed against the negligible file size meant that despite considering deleting it as it lost relevance with each new change to his life, he’d kept it buried in his archive. The auditory component had become uncoupled during one of his early processor crashes, so all he had left was the visual, grainy with the degradation of multiple transfers and processor upgrades. The file played and his optical feed came online to two Cybertronians, one standing back with a datapad while the other stood closer, his optics fixed on Prowl. They were both talking, but Prowl hadn’t bothered to watch their lips: all his focus had been on their plating, his first thoughts a string of hexidecimal codes as he tried to track all the ways their paint reacted to light and shadow.

It was not a long memory. He’d dropped offline almost immediately, having overwhelmed his processor before his temperature controls had finished booting up, and after that he’d had a specialist team to finish his construction. Though he’d had access to the database, he’d never bothered to go looking up the names of the first two bots he’d seen. Their role in his life had been all but inconsequential, compared to the engineers who spent decacycles making sure his spark and frame could maintain the advanced tactical suite he’d been built for.

“I’ll make sure the construct functions long enough to see any of it,” he said, returning his focus to the monitors. 608 RPS.

He thought he caught a glint of yellow from where Mesothulas stood.

“P—”

“Vacuum seal releasing.”

There was a louder hiss as a plume of white mist escaped the seams of the pod door. Mesothulas jumped away from it, then moved back in as soon as it had dissipated, hands up like he wanted to help the door along as it pushed out and then slid aside on a silent track. More mist spilled out, blanketing the floor around Mesothulas’ pedes, but it was hard to tell whether his slight hop step was from pain or eagerness.

“Surge guards holding,” Prowl reported. “Autonomics steady. Entering second stage bootup.”

Mesothulas gasped and Prowl looked up, concerned, but found himself just as startled. Bioillumination was a hallmark of stage two and not in itself surprising. Even the brilliant intensity, light stretching beyond the confines of the pod, was to be expected, given that they hadn’t installed any code to regulate it yet. Mesothulas just hadn’t told him the optics would be blue.

“Sys-systems disconnecting from external fuel supply,” he stammered, feeling a rush of embarrassment before he composed himself. “Fuel pressure 121 over 74.”

Mesothulas made no indication he heard, and a moment later Prowl realized he wasn’t listening at all: he was talking to the construct, his voice a low murmur Prowl couldn’t hear from his place on the observation deck.

“Entering third stage. Somatic systems coming online.”

The construct turned to look at Mesothulas. Even turned away, Prowl somehow knew the scientist was beaming, his lesson from earlier the only thing keeping him from reaching into the pod and wrapping himself around his creation like he was wont to do with Prowl.

And then Mesothulas stepped back and to the side, pointing up at the platform still without his optics leaving the construct.

“And that’s Prowl,” he said, finally loud enough for his voice to carry. “He’s worked just as hard.”

Those blue optics turned to him. Prowl knew it was only the most basic coding compelling the construct to follow the movement of Mesothulas’ finger, its bare processor unable to even register him as a separate element from his environment, let alone a fellow Cybertronian. But there was something about being caught in that gaze, watching the lenses attempt to focus when there wasn’t enough data yet to tell them what to focus on, that caused him to raise his hand in an uncertain wave.

“You’ll get the chance to meet him later, I promise,” Mesothulas said, drawing the construct’s attention back to him. “Ostaros, we have so much more to show you. You can’t imagine.”

It couldn’t, Prowl mused, watching Mesothulas attempt to link his fingers with those of his creation and pulling away with a hiss at the subsequent reminder. But this period of emptiness would not last forever. Like the science that had formed its impossible spark, the construct—Ostaros—would come into being, something pulled from nothing, a person just as much as himself or Mesothulas. Prowl would introduce himself then, to whoever it was that Ostaros became.

[sup-hoes-its-me]

I have a Shikamaru request! It’s a bit long winded so dust with me 😊. Shikamaru is assigned to protect reader who is the last of her clan that a lot is not known about. (So he also has the secret mission of finding our more about the clan and their abilities). They end up falling for each-other (of course). And after reader finds out she is pregnant she learns that Shikamaru was meant to learn about her. I’m seeing some angsty fluffy goodness! And hopefully a happy ending. 🥰

Healing You (Shikamaru x Reader)

A/N: Thank you for your request! These long detailed ones are perfect and give me just enough information to give you the perfect story. I skipped the pregnancy part because im not totally comfortable with that...hopefully you still enjoy.

word count: 5500

Shikamaru had been anticipating this mission for a while. The Hokage told him it was of utmost importance to be ready at any time for this clan princess to show up. He was expected to drop all other missions or plans to escort this woman, whoever she was across the country to her homeland deep within Frost country. He wasn’t expecting much, actually he was expecting probably the worst client ever.

For someone to request escort at the drop of a hat like that, someone with enough money to do so as well... Shikamaru could only assume they were an asshole of the highest caliber. Probably some old woman or a spoiled little child, someone he definitely would not get along with for a month long mission just the two of them. He could remember the urgency in Kakashi’s tone when he assigned the mission, the amount of trust behind his words.

Shikamaru walked into the office casually, hands shoved deep in his pants pockets. Kakashi sat there alone at his desk, looking through paperwork and sifting through piles of white sheets, each with different names and faces. He must have thought long and hard about who he was to pick for this mission, the boy concluded.

This was going to be tiresome, he deduced quickly. Another tedious mission.

“Shikamaru, I have an important mission for you,” the man said clearly. “You can look through these files, if you want, but we don’t have any clear information on this one, I’m afraid.” He tossed over a folder full of records. Death receipts, birth certificates, first hand accounts of battles witnessed. He didn’t know what to make of what he was looking at other than a common last name running across the pages.

Hirawa.

“What is this about?” he questioned.

“In about a month's time, possibly longer, possibly shorter, I don’t have an exact date, you will escort Princess Y/N Hirawa, of the hidden Hirawa clan to the Land of Frost.”

“Who’s on my team?”

He shook his head at that question. “No one. This is a solo mission, and I’m entrusting you alone with this. It’s important you keep your mouth shut about all of this until we know it’s safe, for you and the princess.” Safe? Just what kind of mission was this anyway? Obviously it had something to do with this clan, not that he’d ever heard of them. “She has a bounty on her head, quite large at that. But we believe she can become the key to mastering some ninjutsu, particularly medical jutsu.”

“Well, what’s her clan’s kekkei genkai?”

“That’s what we don’t know, and for you to find out. All we know is that there's some dangerous people out there who want this power, and we need to protect her at all costs, you understand,” he stressed, and Shikamaru nodded. This wasn’t that big of a deal, he guessed. Protecting one girl from some rookie bounty hunters, not to mention he was being sent out alone. This was going to be a walk in the park.

The worst part of it all would be putting up with some troublesome girl for an entire month. Making conversation and having to pretend she wasn’t getting on his last nerve. That would tire him the most.

“Rumor has it, she was never able to awaken her ability, so I’m hoping you can help coax it out of her and see what we’re dealing with.”

“Of course. I’ll figure it out.”

“Good. I’m counting on you. You should take the files to look over in your free time, you’ll have lots of it before this mission. I have copies here for myself,” he motioned to another folder on her desk filled to the brim with papers just like the one he was holding. It was strange to have so much information at their fingertips, but not enough to put a description to their kekkei genkai. They must be secretive, similar to how the Uchiha hides their secrets on the stone tablet, or something.

He left the Sixth Hokage’s office and walked away to his home, where he could more closely go over the information in this folder, try to deduce something from all this random information. He would get to the bottom of this, he was a genius after all. Whether he had the help of this woman or not, he would figure it out for the Hokage.

And so, here he stood outside of Kakashi’s office with all his supplies packed in his bag, dressed for a long mission away from home. The princess had arrived. He was to meet her and then immediately they were supposed to leave off to her homeland.

The Anbu officer to his left opened the door, and motioned for him to walk in. So uptight for just a little meeting, was all this security really necessary, he wondered to himself. As he looked into the room, he spotted Kakashi standing along the window behind his desk with a smaller woman at his side, wrapped up in thick robes made of wool, embroidered with thick silver and white yarn.

Admittedly, her clothes looked incredibly expensive. He questioned how she wasn’t sweating bullets with the typical warm weather outside here in Konoha. He was expecting her to turn around, to be this hideous creature.

“Ah, Y/N, it seems your escort has arrived,” Kakashi hummed, placing a soft hand on the woman’s back as she turned around. When he finally got a good look at her face, he was taken aback, nearly enough to throw him off balance. She was decidedly the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in his entire life. Wrapped up in those blankets was a young woman, who couldn't be much older than he was, with piercing eyes that immediately cut through his.

Her hair fell just perfectly around her face to frame her features, the soft color suiting her eyes and skin perfectly. Her eyelashes flickered over her eyes a few times as she gazed over at him, and he felt swoon. She had the softest skin he’d ever seen combined with those mesmerizing eyes and the shape of her face which looked like it belonged cradled in his hands.

He felt this inert urge to run in the opposite direction from her, out the room and down the hall, back to home where he could catch his breath. He already knew his cheeks were turning bright red under her stare, and he could tell Kakashi was judging him with those dark eyes of his.

“It’s nice to meet you, Shikamaru Nara,” she hummed, and he felt faint. Even her voice was precious, almost like she was singing. He choked down his breaths, trying to keep his cool the best he could. It was uncharacteristic of him to act this way with a client. He was just her escort, not some pervert. They were going to live together for basically a month, he needed to get a grip on his emotions. “Your Hokage was telling me great things about you.”

“Oh, uh,” he paused, frozen without words to leave his lips, just an empty mind full of her image. He shook his head a bit, eyes now glaring down at the floorboards beneath him. “You too, Princess.”

“Please, just call me Y/N. Princess is just too formal for me,” she told him, waving off the title almost as quickly as it left his mouth. “Kakashi, it was nice getting to know you this morning, I hope to see you and your wonderful village again soon.”

“You’re welcome back whenever you like.”

She rounded the table and approached Shikamaru carefully, eyeing him down as she did so. She took in his appearance and his stance, the emotions she could see radiating off his person from his body language. From the looks of it, he simply appeared flustered and confused. Not exactly the most ideal for the situation at hand, but they would manage. Men usually had a similar reaction when they saw her for the first time, either they were in awe or they were trying to kidnap her.

He nodded in her direction and then to the Hokage before turning around and starting out the door, the girl following closely behind him. He could hear the swishing of her thick robes around her ankles, just barely skimming the floor. He still didn’t know her personality at all, but he wouldn’t mind looking at her once in a while on this trip.

“So, why are you heading to the Land of Frost?” he asked, and she sighed.

“One of the village elders is dying. They believe my kekkei genkai is the only way to reverse the incoming death, and its consequence on my people,” she explained.

“Why doesn’t another one of your clan members do it? Surely the rest of your family lives-”

“There is no one else. I am the last living Hirawa,” she told him simply, and he could sense a bit of ice dripping off her tongue at those words. How could she not be upset recalling the annihilation of her entire clan. “The problem is that I haven’t been able to awaken my kekkei genkai. I’m not sure what they want with a useless Hirawa like me.”

“Listen, I’m sorry about your clan, but calling yourself useless really isn’t-”

“How would you feel, Shikamaru, if you were the only person in the world with the ability to save a human being from their certain death and you couldn’t even activate that gift? You have to understand how that feels for me,” she told him solemnly, her head hung low as she walked toward the gates of the village right beside the boy. People looked at her as she moved through the village, they stared in awe at her clothes and her face and the unique glimmer in her eyes. And she cowered inward, tucking herself into her robes and the fur of her hood even further, away from the prying eyes of this village.

He stayed silent, not really knowing how to respond to what she’d said to him. The sadness and the anger in her tone, deep within her words, was immeasurable. She was in pain, a conflict with herself. He wasn’t going to get into that just yet. They’d only met a few minutes ago.

They left the village together and started on their journey. It was going to be a long month, that’s for sure.

________

It had been a week of walking through the forest already, days of sleeping on the ground beneath the stars, eating rations out of his bag over the fireplace. Originally, he thought this mission would be easy, that she seemed like a normal-ish girl who wouldn’t give him any trouble, but he was wrong.

She was too quiet. It was strange, walking with someone for hours without a single word shared between them. He tried to start up a conversation, and she would reply with one word answers, sometimes if he was lucky, two or three words. She rarely looked at him, choosing to either stare at the ground where she took each step, or up at the stars and the vastness of it all. She was lost in her own mind.

Every night, as they were falling asleep, he could hear her looking over at him, scanning his form for a sign that he was still awake. He would remain still, facing the opposite way on his side, head propped up on his bag. Then, when she thought she was safe, he would hear the sobs run through her weak form. She would shake and quiver, curling in on herself and crying out into the forest for only Shikamaru and the moon to hear.

He felt terrible for her, needless to say. The guilt he felt just from hearing her cries, and knowing her internal struggle was enough to make this trip difficult. His heart hurt for her, as strange as that was to say. Normally, it was easy to remain objective, but with Y/N, it was different. He felt attached. He felt like her problems were also his. It was maddening.

She laid on the ground beside him, the majority of her soup still in her bowl and her water bottle resting at her side. She stared up into the clouds, occasionally, her eyes would slide over to see what he was up to and then she would look back at the sky. “You need to eat. We have a lot of walking until we reach the next town, probably a week’s worth. I can’t carry you if you get too tired,” he told her, pushing her bowl closer to her side.

“You know, Shikamaru, sometimes I wonder why people like you Leaf nin even protect someone like me. What’s the point? I’m useless to you and the enemy,” she muttered hopelessly. He still pushed the soup closer until she sat up and took the bowl into her hands, taking a small sip from the spoon. “I just don’t get it. How can you call me princess when I’m just as normal as the next woman on the street?”

“Listen, I don’t know what anyone else has told you, but that’s a load of bullshit.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, just because you can’t access your abilities right now doesn’t make you useless. You’re still a person just like everyone else,” he explained, stabbing his spoon into his soup as he found himself getting a little worked up. He couldn’t stand this self-pitying bullshit from her. Yeah, she was sad and all, but she didn’t have to rub it into the wound like this.

She looked surprised at his words.

What did she expect him to say? That she was right and then just abandon her out in the woods? He was beginning to think this girl was just plain stupid.

“It’s just been impossible since the incident to think of anything else. I’m sorry for upsetting you,” she sighed, taking another sip of her now cold soup.

He questioned carefully. “What incident?” He was on a mission after all. To discover her clan secrets and bring them back to the village to study. Even if she was being emotional, he could still gather some intel.

She bit her lip, and looked up to the sky again, blinking back tears from gathering in the corners of her eyes. She took a few deep breaths before explaining herself. “The day my clan was massacred. The day that those people slaughtered my sensei in front of the entire village and then killed my parents.”

He paused, lifting his eyes to look at her. She was crying, as he expected, silent tears dripping from her eyes into her lap. But she was holding strong otherwise, not a falter in her voice or a catch in her breath. She wasn’t even shaking. She was really serious about keeping these emotions private, in the middle of the night where he couldn’t hear or see.

“It’s okay. You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” he assured, but she shook her head.

“I’m fine. I should talk about it anyway. I haven’t had a person to talk to in years, you know.” Sitting on her face was the saddest of all smiles, a weak attempt at remaining strong. She wiped at her eyes with her wrist and continued. “I’m not even sure why they wanted us all dead, but it had something to do with the war and my clan’s actions. They were barbaric. They slit the throat of my sensei in town square and we watched her blood drip across town while they carried her head.”

“Oh, damn.”

“I know,” she agreed, “As sick as it is to say, I’m glad they only stabbed my parents with a sword. We used to be royalty, it took them killing an entire army of soldiers to get to the throne room to kill them. I was only a child hiding in the curtains, I had to watch without making a sound. I couldn’t cry, I couldn’t even breathe, or they would have killed me too.”

“I’m so sorry, Y/N. That’s horrific.”

“When they left, it was only me. I had to walk my way to one of the outer villages for help. I was a mess, covered in my parents blood. They’d stolen everything. All the secrets of the clan. I never got the chance to read the sacred texts. I only know from my Sensei the very basics of what we can do.”

He absorbed what she had said, taking in each word. Admittedly, she lived a terrible, horrible life, one to rival Sasuke at that. He asked, “You haven’t been able to retrieve any of the texts, have you?”

“No, unfortunately. That’s why it’s taken me this long to figure out how to unlock my ability. I literally do not know how,” she confessed, rubbing the back of her neck nervously. “It feels strange, knowing I have this ultimate healing ability and I can’t even use it to save anyone.”

“Ultimate healing ability?”

“Well, yeah. That’s our kekkei genkai. We can heal basically anything besides death. Blindness, deafness, rotting limbs, in some cases, paralysis. I’m not sure how it works, but that’s what it does. That’s why they want me to come home so desperately. I’m the only one left who can heal her.”

“You’ll figure it out,” he stated bluntly, and she tilted her head to the side in confusion.

“What?”

He reiterated, “You’ll figure out how to use your kekkei genkai. I believe in you. You’re beautiful, smart, and modest, not a fool.”

She found her cheeks begin to heat up at his words, and she leaned back, her eyes catching onto his. “Thank you, Shikamaru. It’s not everyday I get earnest compliments like that.” It was true. Normally, she did get compliments, but not the nice kind. She would often get harrassed on the street by men without brains, or recieve backhanded comments from people of her own village who hated her for what she could not be.

He shook his head, “Well, you should. You’re a strong woman, you just need more faith in yourself. You have almost no self-confidence whatsoever.” He was right about that too. Sad, wasn’t it? “You’re obviously a good person, so be proud of yourself. Not a lot of people could have gone through what you did and still be on the good side to this day.”

“I-” Y/N froze, her eyes growing wide. “Did you hear that?” she asked, her eyes flickering from Shikamaru into the woods. There were voices, soft and quiet voices, but they were still there, hush in the background. He stood up on his feet, and motioned for her to stay down close to the ground.

“Come out, whoever you are.”

And, indeed, a group of men emerged from the forest, at least ten of them. They sauntered up to the pair and the leader smirked. “We’re not here to hurt you, Leaf shinobi. Just hand over the princess and no harm will come to you,” he said, his voice musty and disgusting, like he’d been smoking cigarettes everyday for the past ten years. They knew, clearly, that a leaf shinobi wasn’t just about to abandon their charge and go running for the hills. His request was a joke.

Y/N wasn’t a fighter. She couldn’t help even if she wanted to. She was solely a healer, and even then, her skills were shaky at best. She could only do the most menial and mediocre of work on her patients. Shikamaru was against these men completely alone.

She felt fear creeping up her spine and sending shivers through her body. She barely knew the boy, had only known him for a week or so, but damn, did she like him. He was kind to her, one of the kindest people she’d met in a long time. She wanted him to be safe, to save her and come out on top like the shinobi of the Leaf are supposed to.

He turned around and waved for her to run. “Princess, Imma need you to run. I’ll come find you when it’s safe. Just go.”

She was hesitant to take off, but one stern look from him shot down any thought of staying. The woman gathered up her robes and ran in the opposite direction of the crew and her protector. Immediately after she left, she heard screaming from behind, the shouts of men in pain and men filled with anger. So much yelling. She held her breath, and kept running, running until she could only hear the faint yells of the men. She couldn’t hear Shikamaru. He was far too quiet to have those loud theatrics on the battlefield.

Y/N took cover in the roots of a tree, and just listened, felt what was going on around her. She studied the chakra signatures floating through the air, counting how many men still lived and how many were alive and well. Likewise, she kept close track of Shikamaru’s energy, making sure he was still going.

If he died, she didn’t know what would come of her. Would she be sold off? Murdered? She knew of the unspoken bounty on her head amongst the criminals, and that struck fear in her heart. All she could do was pray for Shikamaru’s survival.

After what seemed like hours but in reality only about 10 minutes, the screams and shouts finally came to a halt. The chakra signatures of most of the men were completely gone, meaning they had died sometime during the battle. Only some remained, and they were weakened severely, probably passed out or bleeding out.

Shikamaru’s alarmed her. It was weak, almost as weak as the rest. She crawled out from under the tree and started back in the direction of the campsite, keeping her head low nearly in a crouch to stay unseen. There was no telling what was happening over there or who was still out here.

When she got to the campsite though, her eyes widened and she nearly screamed. While the rest of the men collapsed on the ground in bloody heaps, Shikamaru lay in the middle of them, bleeding out from a ginormous wound protruding from his side. She fell onto her knees beside his barely breathing form and held her hands over the wound, trying her best to run her chakra through her, but she was weak. Only a faint light emanating from her hands, not enough to come close to saving him.

“Shikamaru? Shikamaru, can you hear me? Please, try to stay awake, okay?” the girl pleaded, resting one of her soft hands on his cheek. He sighed into her touch. It was just as he imagined. Warm and gentle, like the caress of a feather. At least, if he were to die, it would be in the arms of an angel, he decided.

“You need to head back to the Leaf. Tell Kakashi what happened,” he sputtered out, blood leaving his lips and dripping down the sides of his face. “I lived a good life.”

“No, no, no. You are not dying on me. Not happening,” she whispered. She continued to pour her chakra into his wound, not that it was doing anything serious. Tears filled her eyes and she bit her lip, trying to keep them from falling, but she couldn’t help it. All these tears plagued her life. Memories that made her cry. All the pressure. All the death. Poor Shikamaru lying here dying after saving her life. “I’m going to save you,” she muttered firmly.

Pressure built up in her chest and she pushed further and further, digging deeper into her chakra reserve. It actually hurt the amount of effort she was putting in. It was exhausting, and after about a minute, she was gasping for breath. “Stop. It’s okay, princess.”

“Dammit, Shikamaru, I told you not to call me princess, “ Y/N shouted, and in that moment, she felt something shift inside her. A well of energy she never knew she had opened up and she felt it being filled not by her own chakra but by the men around her. Her body absorbed every last bit of chakra in their bodies, filling hers completely. When Shikamaru looked up at her, he noticed a slight glow coming from her skin that wasn’t there before.

It seemed she awoke her kekkei genkai.

With all the newfound energy she had, she channelled it into saving Shikamaru. Right in front of her eyes, his wound began to close and blood sunk back into his body. He groaned at the feeling, shifting uncomfortably on the ground. Finally, she had done something great.

And as she watched the last bit of his wound shut and the blood to seep back into his body, she found herself grow lightheaded.

As she was passing out, she heard him calling her name, and the only thing she could do was smile. She did it. She saved him. Her vision went black and sleep overtook her swiftly.

________

After Y/N saved Shikamaru and awoke her kekkei genkai, the boy gathered up both of their belongings, hoisted them over his shoulder, and then carried her in his arms to the next village. She wasn’t waking up anytime soon, he found that was probably a bad side effect of using the ability. It completely drained her. He just knew he had to move before any of those guys woke back up. He was not ready to fight again.

He enjoyed feeling her in his arms, pressed tightly to his chest with her head lolling side to side. Y/N was sweet and cute, with her little, “don’t call me princess” proclamation before saving him. It seemed she was just as much a princess as everyone thought she was, and a powerful one at that. She basically brought him back from the dead, and he would be grateful for his entire life for what she’d done for him.

The two of them rested for the night in a village inn just a couple miles away before waking up the next morning and setting off with a new bounce in her step toward your homeland where she was sure she could save the village elder now. He watched as the girl walked eagerly in front of him, swinging her robes by her sides and letting her hair loose instead of a tight braid.

This side of her, it was gorgeous. She was gorgeous. Maybe, he found himself harboring just a tiny crush on the girl who saved his life, the girl who took his breath away when they first met. Maybe he liked her a lot. It was pointless to have such feelings for a girl he would probably never meet again after dropping her off in her homeland.

But he could enjoy his time now, with the girl of his dreams at his side.

He found himself wanting more time with her. Much more time. He knew they only had about a week before they arrived in the Land of Frost, and it was depressing him. He wanted her to come back to the village with him and live there, just so he could see her face everyday and hear that sing-song voice run off her tongue.

Was that so much to ask for? Well, yes, but he still wanted it…

They found themselves stopped for the night or two in a village on the coast. She was tired from all the walking and sleeping in the grass. She was willing to spend a few dollars to have a nice bed to sleep in for the night. She booked a room at one of the inns in town and collapsed into the mattress in the room, throwing her robes to the side and cuddling into the comforter. It had been so long since she was living in such comfortable conditions.

He took a seat beside her and pulled out a book, flipping to the most recent page and diving in. He was more than happy to finally rest. He was lazier than she was, after all. They had been walking for almost a month now, he was tired of it. The only thing that kept him going was seeing her smile every now and then, especially the ones directed at him, or in response to something he said.

Something about those smiles just made him feel good inside. It was sickening. These mushy, gushy feelings he was having. He was beginning to think he might be falling for the girl, like, falling in love. He was disturbed. Was he really that weak to a pretty face, soft hands, and a warm heart?

“Shikamaru?”

“Hmm?”

“I’ll be home in a week, and you’ll have to go back to the Leaf Village,” she said. He nodded. At that point, they would go their separate ways and it would all be over, this friendship they had. He’d never felt so torn about a mission until now.

He replied casually, “Yeah. Time flies, huh?”

She held her breath for a moment, thinking over her next words very carefully. She’d actually been pondering when she was gonna tell him over the last few days, thinking over every way the scenario could play out. “I don’t want you to go. I don’t want to leave you, Shikamaru,” she confessed, finally letting go of the breath she was holding.

He raised a brow, setting down his book and turning to face her. “What do you mean?”

“Well...it’s just that your Hokage seems to really like me, and I don’t really have a home anymore with my clan gone,” she mumbled, twiddling her fingers in her lap. “I was thinking maybe after I heal the elders and the village that I could go home with you instead. Live in the leaf village.”

He just looked at her. Had all his longing been for nothing? Could she really mean it? Coming home with him? Could his future really involve seeing her every day, introducing her to his best friends, and healing his people when they were injured?

“I mean, if you don’t think it’s a good idea, though, I totally get it-”

“No! I-I love that idea, actually.”

“Really?”

“Would I say it if I didn’t mean it?”

He watched as her lips curled into a bright smile and she clasped her hands together. “Shikamaru, I’m so happy. You and the other Leaf nin are the only people to show me any kindness in a long time. I get to go home to people that will care about me.”

“Yeah, we’re pretty good at that back in the Leaf. Caring, that is.”

She fell back against the bed and sighed, curling up in the sheets once again. He watched as she smiled into the covers and closed her eyes, relishing in this feeling of newfound freedom and happiness, of the hope she found in him and the village. Despite finding women troublesome most of the time, he was willing to go through trouble for her. He felt like he’d do just about anything for this girl.

So unlike him. Tch. Get a grip, Shika.

Her next words had him melting like putty in her hands though. He just couldn’t help it.

"I'm glad you were assigned this mission with me. You helped me awaken my abilities, and I think it was fate that brought us together for that to happen," she sighed. "This meeting, you and I, it was always meant to be. I'm sure of it now."

"Maybe you're right. I wouldn't know," he replied.

It was quiet for a while, just her lost in her own dreams, her own thoughts. Her eyes trailed over to him, and she just knew she was swoon. With his lazy grin and his thoughtful gaze. It was so obvious to her now.

She confessed, “I think I like you. As more than just a friend, Shikamaru. I know I probably shouldn’t be telling you this considering I still need you to escort me to the village and all, and you might not want me to go back to the Leaf with you now, but I just-”

He couldn’t wait anymore. He was going crazy. Finally, he kissed her.

She felt his hands resting on either side of her head and his lips pressed carefully to hers, testing the waters. She brought her own hands up to cup his own, bringing him closer and deeper into the kiss. She smiled and sighed, enjoying the feeling of pure bliss. It had been so long since she felt something so good. Something so sweet.

“You like me too?”

“You’re dumb as hell.”

And he kissed her again. And again. And maybe a couple more times after that.