#samsara beats

[kazu-naito]

you know it's over when you see these expressions

[astrum99]

Surprisingly, human beings are the only creatures that looked into themselves. Movement of a blade sharpened to max, lightning fast, no hesitation. Peeling back skin and draining sinus. Bodies (alive, young), huddled around bodies (dead, damaged), to examine and poke and tear and say “I see, that one is the Inferior Vena Cava”. These abominable actions saves lives. Curiosity and morbidity guided a way of survival, of rescue. Later, the same sentiments, mixed with desperation, guided a way to destruction.

Bearing the remnants of humans, their organs pulsating in its body. A machine. A child of man.

Angels, on the other hand, are made perfect. Healthy body, strong will, and filled with holy light right off the bat. Vicious in battles. No need for learning, little need for healing. The smoothness and perfection of their skin akin to marble and sea glass. All creations pale in their presence. Nothing beats perfection. Certainly not creatures of cold unfeeling metal. Lightless, soulless, running on a fixed program of 0’s and 1’s set by the expired words of self-destroying, world-destroying, rotten images of God. Heretic. Even in their perishment, they set to ruin. Systems that they themselves can no longer escape from. Samsara of endless pain and death.

It is a wonder then, that when the machine finally tear through Gabriel’s helm, he become faintly aware of the things hidden deep inside. The ugly, raw things inside. The things he must have known but were never brave enough to face: the same pulsing gore that pushes through the gaps of his skin is the same as the one in the mankind’s bodies; the wires that prods through the throbbing organs is the same as that runs through the chassis of the machine. His body echos the lesser beings. For a second, he could not distinguish himself from man nor machine. How ridiculous, he thought, it thought. To be of this state. To see his/its image in his/its body. To have his/its strings/wires cut so late. The taste of spectacular freedom at the last millisecond of his/its life.

As the last drop of holy light seeps through his helm to stain the machine’s optics, he recognizes himself as heaven’s machine, and the machine as mankind’s angel. And now they are the same.

---

Insp is this post by @sinew-lattice!

thank u for infesting me w brain worms i enjoyed hosting the wiggly thing very much (also pls let me know if u don't like ppl writing/tagging i can always take stuff down:] )

[gallusrostromegalus]

"-and then the new guys beat the shit out of the Soul King's buddy and dismembered th Soul King for parts to sell as part of an organ harvesting scheme!"

Wait.

"but they messed up and now the only normal exit from Hell is being blocked by God's Ass."

Wait.

Is the title a joke about.... no, I'm taking that thought too far. One thing at a time.

Gallus, is God the elephant?

~**CONGRATULATIONS ON SPOTTING THE OVERARCHING THEME/MAJOR NARRATIVE DEVICE FROM THE SHITTY LITTLE SUMMARIES!!! **~

Your High School Literature teacher would be proud.

--

Ok, it's two steps to the left of "God is literally The Elephant", but that's where it started.

The Fable of The Blind Men and The Elephant actually IS about how no single person can perceive the entirety of any situation- your friend's weird breakup, the nature of God, economics, etc.- and that you need to work with other people to have a damn clue about what you're doing. The Fable (Or rather, my favorite children's book about it), is used as a framing device to structure the plot because I have ADHD and my brain is a flan on a good day, so I need all the structure I can get.

But The Fable is there because the overriding theme is one of how people *thinking* they know what they're doing when they have only a fraction of the information available, feeling like they have to do something alone, and/or failing to communicate fucking anything is the primary cause of disaster, and things only start to improve when the characters start listening to a diversity of opinons and fucking cooperate.

So on one hand, the fact that God's Repairman's Disassembled Corpse is gumming up the wheel of Samsara is the elephant. On the other hand, the elephant is the wheel itself, and the important lesson here is to fucking talk to people about your problems and help each other out.

Also yes. It's a very shitty pun :)

[peemanne]

INFINITE WEALTH SPOILERS IN MINI RAMBLE AHEAD!!!!!!! YEAH!!!! LIKE FINAL CHAPTER SHENANIGANS!!!!! REALLY BAD!!!!!!!! YEAH!!!!!! (and also touching on y2 and y6 and gaiden i guess but come on)

YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!!!!!!! IF YOU ARE NOW ON YOUR WAY OUT, SEE YOU LATER AND ALSO CHECK OUT THIS COOL PHOTO OF ZHAO I TOOK

Been mulling over IW's story since I beat it, and while there are still aspects I'm very much still mixed on, one thing I've surprisingly found to actually only be better after thinking about it even more was the final boss in Ebina. And yeah yeah he could have used a tad bit more screentime, but I think the stuff he does have and all the stuff he symbolizes are really well written. In Gaiden, we dealt with the manifestation of the yakuza itself, and now we face off against the manifestation of all the wrong the yakuza's done. Despite Kiryu's best efforts, there's so many lives he's endangered. So much death that follows him and those around him, and he's completely aware of this. Kiryu shows a lot of self-destructiveness throughout the series, like in Y2 where he gives himself up in a practically suicidal draw with Ryuji, or in Y6 where he so readily throws himself away at the first chance he gets. I still remember Haruka's line in that game: "Don't look so satisfied about this!". And especially in IW, knowing that cancer's got him that much closer to death's door, he's still so ready to throw himself away. But now that's he's forced to rely on his allies, now that he gets to really reflect on all the friends that he's made throughout the years, now that he has Ichiban telling him to really LIVE, he's done running. Kiryu sees a lot of himself in Ebina, because he knows the look of a man who's hellbent on throwing himself away.

Ebina knows he's fighting a losing battle. He leaves Sawashiro alive and he repeatedly begs for Kiryu to kill him at the end of the fight. Look at the demon on his back: he knows he's falling into hell, and he's intent on dragging the reason why he's falling down with him. And that's why it's so cathartic seeing Kiryu beg to him at the end. He's breaks down, seeing the personification of all of the sins the yakuza, and he cries out apologies. Because that's what this fight is about. Atonement, against a vengeful spirit. A breaking of the cycle, further hammered in by the choice to name Ebina's moves after chakra points ("Pierce the Muladhara, Cripple the Manipura, Wheel of Samsara"). The theme The End of Denial is such an amazing choice for this too, a much more sorrowful, reflective track than most of the other final boss themes. It's not just a cheeky bit of "look how far we've come" that they've included the original Yakuza's intro guitar in here, it's Kiryu directly reflecting on running away. Running away from the Fourth Chairman spot. Running away from Daigo and the clan. Running away from his family. Running away from all the wrongs he's done throughout the years. And now that Kiryu finally finds himself ready to confront it all, even if it's in his twilight years, there's not a chance in hell he's gonna let it slip past him, as he takes Ebina head-on. I couldn't disagree more with the notion that Ichiban should have been the one to fight him. Despite it being his half-brother, this just isn't his fight to take.

It's why this line means so much. Teary-eyed, he begs the man he just punched down for forgiveness for everything the yakuza has done, and he begs for him to LIVE, to not throw himself away the very same way Kiryu has. And this is how he breaks the cycle.

This is how Kazuma Kiryu finally gets to live again.

~ ~ ~

ok thing over! i've been thinking about a write-up on this game's finale ever since i beat it last march 30th and ebina's an aspect i really had to stew over, and i finally got to it in the same way i did with my gaiden mini ramble. by making a long text wall in a discord server and figuring that it'd fit well enough to be put here

i'd really like to shoutout @.FormerSoulKing on twitter and their post on IW's religious symbolism for inspiring this post. it's also just like, a really cool read.

additionally i'd also ramble about the ending scene with ichi carrying eiji out at the end and how it's like him "setting things right" and not letting what he watched happen to masato happen to another friend of his but honestly i just love that scene so much i don't think i could ever properly put it into words

[loving-n0t-heyting]

relented to temptation today and restarted qud after having broken the cycle of roguelike samsara months ago by beating the main quest as far as possible under the last version whose ui i can tolerate (pre-beta). on my first run (permadeath mode) i was able to achieve the lesser victory in under half a day of on and off playing. w00t

[yuuka-chan-twst]

It's honestly a fact that twst mc is overall better then the om!MC,

1: the unfair treatment is a proof tbh,om MC gets a nice and fancy life,books,money, education while staying in devildom,where as twst MC has to live in a rundown building with a fire breathing monster,little-to-no money,Ghosts,and gets turned into a janitor,is called magicless,and insulted by cast on various occasions.

2: diavolo Is a nice man,he helped MC get through devildom life,gave her money etc etc,is generous,where as the asshole Crowley, doesn't care for MC,makes her do all the work,and blackmails them about their living conditions to get his work done,he literally left MC to die in scarabia arc while he was at vacation..

3: obey me is harem game,meaning things will only be tough for MC during first few chapters of the story,after that it's all love and Harem,nothing new,where as twst mc has to deal with overblot every damn time,fixed riddle's overblot?Now Leona's turn!did his too?now azul!and the samsara continues...

4:obey me MC is indeed female.... bet you didn't knew that huh?MC's canon/default name in game and manga is ibuki and yuki!both extremely used names in Japan,for girls.

Where as yuu/mc has no appearance,in manga however we have different types of MC every arc!Male badass MC,female badass MC,Chubby and short MC,Insecure MC(all chapters aren't out yet so all of them aren't leaked yet.)

5: strength!do I even need to explain??Om MC(canon)by themselves can't do anything,they rely on pacts and their harem.

Twst mc,in the manga and game is confirmed to be strong,they beat up guys from Savannahclaw(beastmen),and they went as far as fighting overblots by RAW STRENGTH,and they won.

6:IQ!

Twst mc is stated to be smart,as they didn't needed azul's godly guide to pass in exam and still managed to pass,their leaders skills,And they figured out azul's unique magic loophole before Leona,who is one of the smartest and cunning people in twst.

Om MC is constantly overshadowed by other characters,they aren't stupid,but not too great,they SHOULD know that brothers started acting different towards them after the find out they are lilith's descendant...they forgave BELPHIE a MURDERER,wtf??and belphegor got now consequences of his actions..

Om MC is having time of their life fucking Demons,where as twst mc just wants to go home,atleast om MC gets to go to human world and visit their family,Twst MC haven't seen their family since so long,neither is Crowley finding a way for them..

Over ratings??

Om Mc 5/10

Not a bad MC but if they are making an insert character they should make it appearence-less.

Twst mc:9.9/20

Good character,but is used alot by that ass man Crowley....

[asksythe]

Since it's been a couple years I feel fine to ask, garden of the gods isn't entirely dead right?

Don't need a date because I know you got stuff, just wanted to make sure it's still alive.

Sorry for pestering you.

Oh hey! Good morning!

Yes, From the Garden of Gods and its spinoff story are alive. That said, I don't want to give people false hope. I know there are people who have followed this sleepy blog of mine for ten years and counting.

You probably already saw the prose version of Clan War, so you know the story beats and ideas are alive and well in my head. But as you yourself put it, life and work get in the way. I can't write for my hobby if I'm busy writing to pay bills.

Plus... I can't say I look fondly on a lot of post-Inuyasha developments. It's changed my feelings a fair bit for the story and for Kagome.

I always want to return to FtGoG and complete it, but I doubt I will have the time and space to do so until fairly far in the future. It might be a project for my retirement years 😅. I'm gonna be one of those cool fanfic grannies!!! I'm kinda halfway there already!

Neither here nor there, but today, I finally managed to convince/wheedle/cajole/push/drag @erimies to resurrect her Naruto fic, Clan of Samsara!!!!

Woooot!!!

[darkdevasofdestruction]

Chapter 14 - Goddess of the Luo River

It was already a week before New Year's, and Kitsune's days were numbered on the fingers of both hands. It was maddening the Demon Prince, terrifying him for the first time - That he will experience a loss that would leave his heart shattered in pieces forever. He was afraid that, if Kitsune died, he would be incapable of falling in love again - As profoundly as he loves Kitsune - And he would become just like his father.

He did not want to become like his father.

They celebrated a weird version of Christmas a few days prior, but for Kitsune it hardly meant anything. She couldn't fully understand the meaning of Christmas, not the birth of the Biblical figure of Jesus Christ and what it means to the religious Christianity cult; For most people, Christmas wasn't a religious festivity, however, it just meant a reason to celebrate and exchange gifts - Though even that was lost of the fox lady. She hardly had any Grimm to buy anyone gifts - So she went with Mammon to buy gifts - Generic, low-cost Christmas things that meant nothing to her; A scarf, a snowy globe, some mittens - Of course, the Greed Avatar was the happiest with his money gift.

On the other note, Kitsune received some expensive gifts - She was surprised she received anything at all though; It was quite sad - But with time, he was sure she will be able to understand the spirit of gifting to your loved ones. A nice outfit, a rare book, a lovely make up set, a gorgeous pair of shoes - But she couldn't understand the value of money in her own world, let alone in the Devildom. She'd lived through too many eras and currencies.

"Are you all ready?" Kitsune asked as everyone gathered in the House of Lamentation. It was the 'Day of Death' ritual she had to do every year at the shrine - A celebration of death and appreciation of life - A day where the souls of the deceased can roam the earth once more, and mingle with the living - A custom only she could do. 

As everyone affirmed they were ready to go, Diavolo teleported them to the human world. Everyone was dressed appropriately, elegant as never before; The priestesses guided them to the long banquet table, serving them wine, sake and meals of all kinds - All that while watching Kitsune perform, in front of a crowd of humans. They were not allowed to take photographs or film anything; They were a very select few, who would brave the wilderness just to see their beloved for a few hours.

The Sun was about to set down, and the festivity was to begun. Kitsune now stood in the very middle of the stage, looking down with perfect stillness at the people present. "In a festival where we celebrate life - We must also learn to appreciate death." she began. "When one life ends, another begins - And when one begins, another ends - Such is the circle of life that none is exempt from." what a harsh reality that must be for humans, the demons thought to themselves; Though perhaps this idea of a circle of life - A Samsara - The Afterlife and Reincarnation proved to make death easier for them; Death wasn't the end of life, but just another journey. 

"From the time we first cry into this world, after crawling out of our mother's womb, to the time we last take breath, and our remains are burnt, ashes scattered into the wind, to grant us our lasting freedom - We must celebrate life, in all its forms, from the littlest, to the biggest, oldest, and youngest, plant, beast or human, oni, youkai, kami, gashadokuro, yurei, and everything in between." the demon Lords were familiar to some of the entities mentioned, thanks to her extensive care in choosing their Hyakki Yako costumes for the Demon Parade. "In this day, we are blessed to communicate with the skies - Share our messages to those who are no longer amongst us - And they, too, will caress our faces once more." at once, from inside her sleeve, Kitsune took out that magical fan of hers, and with the beat of the instruments, she began dancing - The moves were unlike anything they've ever seen - Not that they've witnessed many such ritual dances, let alone fan dances, or anything that wasn't from the Devildom. - Diavolo, like the others, felt trapped in her trance, and he was sure, all of them were enchanted, one way or another. Her moves were fluid and each movement held perfect discipline, to create a most outstanding show.

As the Sun finally set completely, Kitsune snapped close the fan, driving it back inside the sleeve, only to retrieve something else - It was a her Gohei wand, with the handle a crimson red, and an a golden crest on top - It was the Sasarindo, as Shingen informed, a symbol of the Minamoto clan, the imperial bloodline. From it, two rows of flowing ropes, adorned with paper squares glued together, painted from white, to gold, in perfect gradient - It acted akin to a wand to her, Solomon thought to himself, as he watched the way she danced with it, only to throw it up in the sky, and with a foreign incantation, looking up like a shaman praying to nature's elements - Mystical lights that looked like ghosts and wisps started illuminating the night sky, brighter than the stars, as if the souls of the deceased were descending from Heaven - And as the wand fell back in her grasp, the lights disappeared. 

"Let us celebrate, together, as brothers and sisters!" the stars were invisible, as large, colourful fireworks bombed all across the sky, all the way, until you couldn't see the horizon anymore - Intricate shapes of all kinds, and they dances, and swayed around, depicting stories and folklore that though they couldn't understand, they still could appreciate the grandeur of it.

The luminous wisps that looked like fireflies became corporeal - Elderly, children, men and women - They all reunited with some living person from the audience.  Mammon picked on an elderly man, barely holding himself up with his cane, smiling warmly as the spirit of his young, beautiful wife engulfed him into a hug - He felt like crying, realising the elderly man would crawl the whole dangerous and perilous wilderness, just for a chance to his the woman he loves once more time before they are reunited.

Luke started sobbing into Simeon's chest, pointing towards a child looking very much like him, brought here by his grandparents, was weeping and hugging his phantasmal parents who died young. They would hug him, kiss him and listen to all of his stories - He just started school, and he loved learning - He wanted to become an astronaut, so that one day, he would be able to visit them among the stars.

Solomon found himself gritting his teeth as he watched a teenage girl nervously approach the spirit of her grandmother, holding a worn recipe book in her hands. The grandmother had passed away before she could teach her granddaughter how to cook the family’s traditional dishes, but now, the girl knelt beside her spirit, carefully following her grandmother’s gentle guidance as they prepared a meal together—one filled with love, tradition, and the bittersweet joy of a reunion that transcended time.

Levi sniffed, hugging himself with his tail as he noticed a elderly soldier casually hanging out with his teenage best friend and comrade - A true friendship that lasted for decades as he's always wished for, a loyalty and comradeship he's not experienced even when he was the Navy Captain; The living was wearing the old war uniform proudly, to show his respect and love for his fallen friend. The man held a box of old, weathered comic books that they used to read together, their shared love for heroes and adventures alive once more. They spent the night flipping through the pages, laughing at the same jokes, reminiscing about the imaginary worlds they had once explored together, and for a moment, the years that had separated them melted away.

Beel, for once, wasn't unable to eat; The infinite void in his stomach was temporarily filled as he saw a man kneeling before the spirit of his younger brother, who had died suddenly in an accident. The man held out a small, worn baseball glove, the same one they used to play catch with as children, and the brother’s spirit grinned, taking the glove in his ethereal hands, the two of them tossing a ball back and forth like they used to, reconnecting over a simple game that meant the world to them both.

Asmodeus also had to cling onto Solomon and carefully wipe away the tears - But not the perfectly applied make up - As he saw a living man, on his knees, before his heavily pregnant wife... She had died, along with their child, before she could give birth... And the man was hugging her belly, sobbing inconsolably and asking for forgiveness.

Simeon felt a pang of pain in his heart as he watched as a group of siblings, all now adults, gathered around the spirit of their mother, who had passed away when they were still children. They each took turns sharing stories of their lives, telling her about the families they had built, the careers they had pursued, and the way they had carried her lessons and love with them through all these years. The mother’s spirit smiled, her presence a reminder that she had never truly left them, and she kept kissing their foreheads and cheeks, just as she did to them as children.

Lucifer found himself deeply moved by a woman who sat alone, holding the spirit of a withered rose in her hands. The rose had been a gift from her late husband, given to her on their first anniversary, and though it had died long ago, the spirit of the flower bloomed with the moonlight once more in her hands, its fragrance bringing back memories of the love they had shared, a love that still lived on, even beyond death. Satan watched quietly as a young mother, her eyes heavy with sleepless nights, cradled the spirit of her infant child in her arms. The baby had passed away in its sleep, and now, for just one night, she sang a lullaby that only the two of them knew, tears mingling with her song as the spirit cooed softly, comforted by the familiar melody.

Diavolo found himself deeply moved as he watched a man kneeling before the spirit of his estranged father, who had died before they could reconcile. The man held a bundle of letters - Apologies he had written but never sent. The father’s spirit reached out, and as they embraced, the man felt the weight of years of regret lift, replaced by a profound sense of peace. They spent the night talking, finally saying all the words that had gone unsaid in life, finding the closure they both needed. Would this be how he and his own father end up?

EvenBarbatos paused in his duties, his usual passive visage holding a bittersweet smile as he watched an elderly woman, frail and bent with age, as she danced slowly in the moonlight with the spirit of her long-lost lover. The two had been separated by war decades ago, never to reunite in life, but now they moved together in perfect harmony, reliving the joy of their youth as if no time had passed at all.

That old woman was Aiko and her husband who died in war.

As the servants took care of the attendants, Kitsune returned back to the shrine, where she was able to change into a dancing outfit, but she hadn't returned to her guests - She remained in the middle of the court, looking up into the dark sky. The smoke from the fireworks had dissipated, and the stars were twinkling as powerful as ever.

"I never imagined even demons could cry." Aiko's elderly voice resounded among the guests, startling them. "Ah, of course, forgive me - I forgot some of you were angels... And wizards too."

"Darling, don't tease them so much." her husband's smile was dazzling and charming, Diavolo noted - No wonder she loved him for so many decades.

"I am glad to see you again, Aiko. You are happy, just as you said." the Prince smiled at the joyful elderly woman.

"I had been waiting 67 years to reunite with my beloved, Little Lordling. Of course I am happy." the husband gathered her in his arms, a tear escaping his eye as he kissed her forehead.

"And I have missed you every day, looking down at you from the skies." his voice was so soft and tender that it made Asmo and Mammon hug each other and cry like babies. They were so weak when it came to romance.

"Lady Aiko - Why is no one going to Kitsune?" surprisingly, it was Satan asking. He remembered her distress during the game - Surely, she would have at least one person to want to see her... Right?

"We are a bunch of elderly ladies, Little Demon." Aiko said, pointing towards the spirits of the mikos who slowly gathered around the fox lady. "The Princess raised us all as her own children - We owe her everything." she smiled gently, looking at the poor fox lady sobbing as her children embraced her and expressed their gratitude. "We had nothing - That's why she took us in. Some of us were were refugees, some lost our husbands, children or family and had nowhere to go... Some were born here... Others came to seek a change... But whatever the reason for us being here... The Princess nurtured us as if we were her own children, and taught us everything she knew... History, language, culture, art, literature, poetry, war, spirituality... Everything."

"A mother should not live to see her children dying." Simeon found himself bitterly speaking.

"Quite so, Little Angel. The poor Princess experienced far too much loss... She should not be lingering longer amongst the living. She should take her place among equals that she could cherish forever." the priestesses vanished, as if to push Kitsune towards her guests.

"Kitsune, you were so beautiful!" Asmo chimed as sweetly and enthusiastic as ever.

"Yeah, you were so cool! I'm jealous on how cool you were!" Levi joined also.

"Those fireworks were awesome!" Mammon said also.

"I thought her all about gun powder." said a foreign voice that everyone jump in surprise - A man with silvery-white hair and a snake-like smile had appeared just to her side; To think even Kitsune would be caught off guard. "Well - I suppose I can only be glad the apprentice overshadowed her master... Not that you'd shoot your musket better than me."

"Mitsuhide!" the fox lady chirped - A fire fox and a silver fox were staring at each other.

"So I was called!" he turned towards the feast with a mock bow. "To think you'd replace us so easily - My, little fox, you wound me!"

"W-Wait, no -- It is not like that -- I could never --" the stupefied woman stuttered over her words so cutely; Few times anyone witnessed her so speechless.

"What did I say about teasing the Princess?!" from behind her, a tall man, more burly, with messy brown hair and a frustrated expression on his face, like that of an exasperated mother scolding her misbehaving children. "Mitsuhide, back off!"

"Ah, it's Lord Nobunaga's lapdog... Shouldn't you be looking to become a doormat by now?" the silver haired man sniggered elusively, enjoying the raise he gets out of the other. Hideyoshi was so easy to work up!

"Will you two stop this charade already? You are making fools of yourself." this man was blond with shorter messy hair, dressed in autumnal colours and an apathetic look on his face. 

"Lord Toyotomi, Lord Akechi, please stop your fighting. You are upsetting the princess." came a softer reply from a grey-haired man, smaller, but no less elegant. It was Ishida Mitsunari.

"Ieyasu..." Kitsune threw her arms around her best friend; "My friend, how I have missed you so!" it was Ieyasu and his wife and confidante, Lady Saigo, with whom she spent most of her time after Nobunaga's death - He was young, intelligent and interested in medicine; Likewise, Lady Saigo was well-read in history, politics and war, but also talented in arts of all kinds. She had the best of times spending time with them... And nurturing their children. It was then that she learnt how to take care of people - The influence was a good one, as the priestesses said.

"What about me?!" came a loud, brash yet playful voice - It almost sounded like Mammon whining for attention.

"Shut up, cyclops!" both Kitsune and Ieyasu snapped at him, only to look at each other and stifle a chuckle.

The tall man with long black hair and a single beautiful blue eyes was Date Masamune, the One-Eyed Dragon of Oshu. He was the only trusted friend that Kitsune and Ieyasu had while building the Tokugawa Shogunate; He was wearing a disheveled blue outfit and a black eyepatch over his missing left eye - He had taken it out by himself when he was 14 and afflicted with smallpox; Truly, he wouldn't have cared about it, but Ieyasu warned him an enemy might grab his dangling eye and incapacitate him. What a menace.

"N'aww, c'mon, lemme join the hug!" Masamune threw his arms around Kitsune and Ieyasu, squishing them together.

"Lord Date, please back away. That is no way to treat a Princess." Mitsunari sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Well, Mitsunari, don't you know? When you see something cute, you have to squish them to death. Perhaps that is what Masamune is trying to do." Mitsuhide sniggered under his breath.

"Masamune would never hurt Princess Kitsune and Lord Tokugawa." Hideyoshi got in Mitsuhide's face, having a verbal altercation again.

"That's right - I would never!" Masamune let out a boastful laugh - And then started pulling on her tails, wrapping himself in them. "But I do like a nice scarf!"

"Hey - My tails are not scarfs - Leave them alone, Oni-brain!" much to the demons' shock, Kitsune started chasing Masamune around as if playing tag - He was the youngest of the Sengoku Lords she befriended so intimately - And it was showing. They were behaving like two children, Mitsuhide and Hideyoshi were arguing with each other, and Mitsunari and Ieyasu were trying to pull them away. They weren't unlike the Demon Lords in their childishness.

"Princess Kitsune has forgotten her manners as usual - How quaint!" Aiko laughed heartily. "Your old mentor would have your head for this misbehaving!"

Eventually, they all sat down at the table, wining and dining merrily, sharing stories of all kinds - Like one silly family to the other. Eventually, some of the younger priestesses came by, and they also got social and friendly with the Lord on both sides. Once they were drunk enough, they started chanting Kitsune's name, their alcohol cups up in the air. 

"That's right - Haven't seen Princess Kitsune's dancing in a while!" Masamune threw his arm around her shoulders, making her hunch from the sudden pressure. The ogre was drunk as hell.

"Oh, I'd love to see Kitsune dance! I bet she's a lovely dancer!" Luke was the first to chirp up.

"You should hear her singing, little mouse~." the silver fox chuckled, watching the chihuahua blush and protest at his nickname. "Like a precious nightingale."

"How come you never sang for us, Kitsune?!" Asmo whined playfully. 

"Come on, sing for us." Simeon urged her.

"You are awful - All of you - You know that, right?" the poor girl sighed pitifully, getting up from her seat.

One of the priestesses brought the zither to Ieyasu to play for the Princess - His wife taught him well - And thus, Kitsune started singing in a voice as mellow and sweet as a ripe fruit - And her dance was as graceful as a swan. The guests were marveling at her beauty, while those familiar with her endeavours were cheering on her, equally mesmerised by her enchanting magic.

She is lightsome as a startled swan-goose, As graceful as a roaming dragon; Her lovely complexion outshines the autumn chrysanthemum, Her radiance surpasses the springtime pine.

She is as nebulous as the moon concealed in light clouds, Gracefully gliding, as snow spun by a flowing wind. Gazing at her from afar, She shines like the sun rising above the rosy mists of dawn;

Observing her close by, She is as luminous as a lotus emerging from clear ripplets. ...

Her singing and Ieyasu's zither playing all stopped in unison at the sound of a flute taking charge, dominating the scene. Everyone knew who he was, without a need for introduction. Lord Oda Nobunaga wore a serene expression as he played the bamboo flute for Kitsune to play to his tune.

In perfect sync, the Princess danced around him with the beauty of a pink lotus and the grace of the Phoenix Empress. The universe had created them for each other, only to rip them apart.  Her smile was wide, like that of a woman in love, and she was glowing magnificently.

Their outstanding performance soon came to an end, and the two soulmates looked into each other's eyes so deeply and full of love. He wore a confident smile on his face. Nobunaga waved his hand at Ieyasu to play the melody for the only song he knew to be danced in pair - That of the valiant Prince going to war, and the Princess rushing after him, worried - She was struck down, and died in his arms, leaving him all alone, with his only comfort being the bloodshed of the battlefield.

It wasn't much unlike their own story, they often thought, as Nobunaga rose her up with ease, spinning around; Her flowy dress and sleeves danced around with herself, like a butterfly on a peony. Every move, every caress, every look their shared - They were all special.

Everyone applauded them - The dance of two soulmates fated to never be together - Then allowed them to settle at the feast, where they would converse more. Nobunaga was eccentric and talkative, yet his words were as wise and truthful as always. He earned easily everyone's respect - And poor Diavolo had to see the love of his life clinging onto his arm, her head on his shoulder - Will he ever earn her love? Or will she remain pining for this admirable Lord? 

They stood around the table having a merry time until morn, where the Sun was beginning to illuminate the sky; Once the stars started disappearing, so did the wisps. It seemed to Diavolo that Kitsune might have forgotten this bliss wasn't permanent - Though he would have loved nothing more than to see her as happy as this night... Even if he wasn't the cause of her joy.

"It was an honour meeting all of you. Be well." Mitsunari was the first to disappear.

"N'ahh, what a killjoy! Mitsunari has always been so boring - Always glues to that GO table of his... How lame!" Masamune groaned loudly, drunk out of his wits.

"At least he is not as dumb as a rock - Cyclops." Ieyasu next to her sighed dramatically.

"Exactly --" Kitsune turned to her Shogun friend - But he wasn't there anymore. Her heart began panicking fast-paced. "No... Not yet, no... Not again... Please... Do not go..."

"What a cutiepie!" Mitsuhide hummed, getting up and bending at the waist until he reached her eye-level. "You're too cute to mourn the dead for so long, Princess. Lighten up." he booped her nose and disappeared into smokes before the fox lady could reach out to him.

"No, guys, please -- Stop it!" she was then tugged by her tails; Masamune held a wide, boyish grin on his face, and he waved at her, fading away into nothingness. "Not again... Stop... STOP! STOP!" distress was evident on her face as her friends had died once again before her very eyes - And they will continue to die again, and again, and again, until she is no more. The pain of loneliness was harsh and sharp; A twisting stab right to the heart.

"Do not mourn us, Princess. We are content where we are. And we are looking after you - Always." Hideyoshi patted her hair, like an older brother comforting his sobbing little sister before leaving for war, never to return.

"This always happens." Nobunaga sighed solemnly. "Did I not tell you that, if you start crying like that again, I will stop coming to see you?" his comment made the fox lady shake, immediately clinging onto his kimono desperately.

"Please don't leave me. Not again." her soft pleas were in vain. "Take me with you."

"You never change, do you? Always a cute cry-baby." he let out a low exhale of amusement, raising her hand to wipe away her flowing tears. "When I died, I told you to find a reason to live - And keep on living. Shatter the heavens, reach Godhood and reign over the weak." he held her tightly into his chest, caressing her hair as she sobbed uncontrollably. "You are a woman worthy of being a Queen - So become a Queen." he continued. "Stop crying over a dead man, and move on. You have found a true man worthy of your affections." he placed a kiss on the crown of her head. "He is a good man. Trust him, the way you trusted me."

With one unexpected move, Nobunaga cupped her face and brought her into a deep, loving kiss. "You will always be the only woman I ever loved, Kitsune -- But you must forget me and move on." such a bold, truthful declaration of love shattered Diavolo's heart. Lord Oda Nobunaga was a respectable man in every sense of the word - He perfectly understood why Kitsune was so in love with him... Because he was equally in love with her. So in love, in fact, that he was willing to let her go, just to see her happy. What a man. 

Nobunaga slowly pried himself away from the girl's clutches, and walked towards the middle of the court - And he uttered a most eccentric phrase - A phrase that those who were stuck in the Sengoku no Kokoro game remembered well and vividly. 

 "WORSHIP ME! DIE FOR YOUR CRIME OF DEFYING THE HOUSE OF ONE HUNDRED DEMONS, AND REPENT IN THE AFTERLIFE! THERE ARE NONE BEFORE ME, AND WILL BE NONE AFTER ME! I AM THE DEMON KING OF THE SIXTH HEAVEN, ODA NOBUNAGA!" 

Kitsune ran as fast as she could, throwing herself at him - That smile, that expression, that face - Forever engraved into her retina - And she passed right through his smokes, tumbling to the ground, her hands grasping into the air to catch the fumes, yet holding nothing in the end. Every year... Just smoke and mirrors.

With a desperate, raw cry into the skies, Kitsune bolted out of the shrine grounds, and into the forests, away from anyone that could find her.  To think that such a bittersweet night could end so tragically... None of the guests expected the degree of misery they experienced. Not to this degree, at least. Luke, especially, was the most confused and upset - Kitsune was so happy with that man, then he disappeared and she was so sad - He hated seeing Kitsune upset. She was very nice to him - Luke hoped she would never have to cry of sadness ever again...

But Simeon knew best, the torment of Kitsune's heart. The chaos and agony that she's been feeling for so many centuries... He could feel it all, a heavy pain that appears into his chest whenever she is around him - Thus is the extent of her sorrow.  Of course, Solomon lived for many centuries also, and he could relate well with her - The amount of people he loved that he had to watch wither away and die, while he remained young, beautiful and very much alive... It wasn't an easy existence, but he had to make the best out of what he got.

"Diavolo, I think we better wrap up for the day." Lucifer was the first to regain his senses, getting the Demon Prince's attention.

"Yes, of course." Diavolo got up from the table. "Lady Ayaka, thank you for your hospitality. It was a pleasure learning more about your customs. Humans are truly fascinating." Diavolo smiled at the new lady Kitsune put in charge. "Lucifer - Please bring everyone home." he needn't continue further; Everyone knew he was going to search for Kitsune.

"Lord Diavolo, please be patient with the Princess. She is... Very fragile - But she cares dearly for you." Ayaka implored the Lord, who merely smiled at her with reassurance.

"Don't worry - She is very dear to my heart also." thus, he took off into the mountains after her.

The mountains were wrapped in a veil of early morning mist, the air cold and crisp, yet filled with the scents of pine and earth. Diavolo trudged through the dense forest, his usually confident demeanor marred by an uncharacteristic tension. He had spent hours searching for Kitsune, guided only by the faint traces of her spiritual energy that lingered like whispers in the wind. He hadn't expected the forest to be a labyrinthine maze, trying hard to trap him, never to see the light of day again. Each step he took was heavy with the weight of fear—fear that he would be too late, that she would slip through his fingers like sand.

The landscape around him was both beautiful and foreboding, ancient trees towering above, their branches reaching out like the hands of forgotten gods. The path was treacherous, winding and narrow, yet Diavolo pressed on, driven by a desperation that gnawed at his very soul.

Finally, he found her.

Kitsune stood on the edge of a cliff, her figure a silhouette against the pale dawn light. The soft rustling of her kimono was the only sound in the stillness of the mountain, save for the distant call of a lone bird. She gazed out at the horizon, her back to him, seemingly lost in her own world—a world of memories, of love lost and love found, of pain and solace.

Diavolo approached her cautiously, his heart pounding in his chest. As he drew closer, the weight of her sorrow became palpable, an invisible force that pressed down on him, threatening to suffocate him. He hesitated for a moment, unsure of what to say, how to comfort someone who had endured so much.

“Kitsune.” he finally called out, his voice gentle as always, as if to not scare a baby fawn.

She didn’t turn around immediately, but he saw the subtle stiffening of her shoulders, the way her hands clenched into fists at her sides. Slowly, she turned to face him, her eyes red and swollen from tears she had shed in solitude.

“Dia…” she whispered, her voice barely audible.

Without another word, he closed the distance between them, his arms instinctively reaching out to her. Kitsune hesitated only for a second before she collapsed into his warm embrace, her body trembling as she buried her face in his broad chest. Diavolo held her tightly, one hand gently stroking her hair, the other wrapped protectively around her waist.

For a long time, they stayed like that, the silence between them filled with unspoken words, with shared pain and love. Diavolo could feel her heartache, her struggle to reconcile her love for him with the loss she still felt for Nobunaga. Kitsune loved deeply - And he was privileged to be on the receiving end of that also.

“You don’t have to carry this burden alone.” Diavolo murmured into her hair, his voice soothing. “I’m here for you, Kitsune. I always will be.”

Kitsune pulled back slightly, just enough to look up at him. Her eyes were filled with tears, but there was a determination in them that took Diavolo by surprise. “Dia...” she began, her voice overflowing with emotion. “I… I’ve tried to move on, to let go of the past, but Nobunaga… He was... He was my everything... I can’t just forget him.”

Diavolo’s heart ached at her words, but he nodded, understanding. He knew, if he was in her position, he would have felt the same for a man as special as Nobunaga. “I know, my darling. I know.” he replied softly. “And I would never ask you to. Nobunaga will always have a special place in your heart." he reassured her he was sympathising with her - Diavolo had always been so patient and understanding of her, Kitsune often felt she was overstepping his love for her. "As long as you keep a special place for me also." 

Kitsune’s eyes widened, and for a moment, she looked as if she might break down again. Instead, she reached up, cupping his face in her hands. “Dia… I love you.” she confessed, her voice trembling. “I love you so much." she confessed dearly. "But it hurts… it hurts so much, because I still love him too... And I don't want to hurt you also with... This - This... Everything that I have become."

Diavolo felt his heart pounding against his chest; He couldn't see Kitsune so sad and conflicted, it physically hurt him. “Love isn’t something that diminishes, Kitsune.” he whispered, pressing his forehead against hers. “It’s something that grows. Your love for Nobunaga doesn’t take away from what we have. It only makes your love bigger, stronger.” he spoke sweetly to her. "You are one woman who cares so deeply for those she loves - And that love of yours can never dissipate, no matter how much you try. It is not a weakness, nor something you should run from. It is who you are, my love. It is what makes you - You."

Kitsune let out a shaky breath, her eyes searching his for any sign of doubt or hesitation, but all she found was love - A deep, unwavering love - Only for her. “I’m scared, Dia...” she admitted, her voice breaking. “Scared of losing you, of losing myself… Of everything.”

“You won’t lose me. Ever.” Diavolo vowed, his voice firm. “I’m not going anywhere, Kitsune." something in his words, in his tone, seemed to reach her. Kitsune closed her eyes and took a deep breath, as if drawing strength from his presence. Then, with a soft sob, she threw her arms around him, holding him as tightly as she could, as if afraid he might disappear if she let go.

"I don't want to die, Dia. I don't want to die." after so many months of her boldly admitting how she desired death above anything else - To just disappear from the face of the earth forever - She finally found her solace, her reason to live, her safe haven - Her soulmate. "I want to live forever, by your side. I don't wanna die - I want to be able to love you for the rest of my existence. I don't want to ever lose you, Dia. I love you so much - So much that I'd go crazy if I lost you too."

Diavolo held her just as tightly, his heart swelling with love and determination. He thawed away her icy shield, and allowed her to feel the sweet relief of love that he's been trying to offer for so long; The comfort and warmth of his warm embrace. 

As the first rays of sunlight broke through the clouds, casting a warm glow over the mountains, Diavolo whispered one last promise into Kitsune’s ear.

"I want to marry you, Kitsune."

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[joelletwo]

kintoki arc edo: gintoki = silver, imperfect, shouyou, lake toya the prosthetic blade kintoki = gold veneer with imperfection underneath, gintoki and also utsuro, real blade gintoki's friends ("the four of them") = what give him his humanity but what also force him into an impossible binary choice where either options destroys himself, which he third-options out of with seppuku mantama (kintoki's continuation of samsara): gintoki = tokiko (gintoki without the silver only left with time), dies loving kintoki and is reborn destroying him kintoki = only male with a dick left on earth universally beloved and desired but he only wants tokiko. and also his dick is prosthetic gintoki's friends = beat up kintoki's prosthetic dick, genderbend, beg for kintoki's life to be spared

what does any of mantama meannnnnn kjsdhfg it makes me cry it means literally everything to me but it also seems to map onto. NOTHING. which is unique. also thanks anime for the joui4 inclusion

[sailoryooons]

Hello my lovely friend 😌 I’m so so so proud of you and all that you’ve accomplished this past year! And thank you for letting me be a small part of your time here 💜

Also pls give me some unhinged urban fantasy Yoonmin to feed my sick soul 🙏🏽 I love you 😈 보라해

❀ Pairing: Half-demon!Yoongi x Demon Lord!Jimin 

❀ Summary: samsara [sɘm-sӓr-ɘ](noun) : the indefinitely repeated cycles of birth, misery, and death caused by karma. OR: Yoongi has made a terrible mistake that has bound Jimin to a life of endless grief. 

❀ Word Count: 4,060

❀ Genre: Urban fantasy, angst, smut, lovers to not?

❀ Rating: 18+ Minors are strictly prohibited from engaging and reading this content. It contains explicit content and any minors discovered reading or engaging with this work will be blocked immediately. 

❀ Warnings: Vague world-building, mention of guns and Yoongi is restrained the entire time, angst!!!!, Yoongi has fucked over Jimin, references to Christian theology, mentions of scars, Jimin is mean, sexually explicit content including light blood play, restraints, spit play, no anal prep or foreplay, unprotected sex (anal penetration), ONE kiss even though I wanted to write more, very disconnected/angry sex, no aftercare, Yoongi and Jimin are fucking sad!!!! And distant!!!! Not a happy ending really? Just vague. 

❀ Published: April 1, 2023

❀ A/N: Jai thank you so much for trusting me to write this for you. I know that the original picture is a little bit more … unhinged and I was planning to go far more unhinged with this, but somehow the poem really made me more angsty and I loved the bit about two-hundred and ten million years of desire wash through me and I really tried to channel that here. I at least still have the image of Yoongi being tied up with Jimin on top of him with a gun lmao. Thank you for being here and making me love writing in this community so much. ALSO THIS IS MY FIRST MEMBER X MEMBER FIC I’VE EVER WRITTEN SO BE FUCKING NICE TO ME PLEASE I’M VERY FUCKING SCARED RIGHT NOW. 

Thank you @here2bbtstrash for beta reading and making this perfect ily and I love our totally legit monogamous relationship

❀ Disclaimer: All members of BTS are faces and name claims for this story. This is entirely a work of fiction and by no means is meant to be a projection, judgment or representation of real-life people. Any scenarios or representations of the people and places mentioned in works are not representative of real-life scenarios.

Masterlist | Ask | Milestone Event Request Fill |

Yoongi might be having a bad night. Really, he knows that it’s fifty-fifty. He can feel the weight of drugs making him sluggish, eyes too heavy to open. There’s a tight squeeze around his arms, which are pinned to his body. When he squirms, he feels the constriction of what he thinks are ropes or cables - it’s hard to tell through the leather of his jacket. 

There’s definitely pain blooming from his skull, a throb that beats in time with his heart. It’s part of the reason why he keeps his eyes closed as he tries to suss out the rest of his scenario, tied up and drugged as he is. He can smell the sheets - his own, for sure. That’s his sage shampoo he smells and the soft rub of jersey knit against his cheek. 

Tied up, drugged, and in his own bed.

It’s definitely fifty-fifty where this is going to go. It wouldn’t be the first time he’s been drugged and tied up only to receive the best orgasm of his life. However, he has also had his ass beat after fucking up a contract for Hoseok, starting in this exact scenario.

Someone moves in the room. Yoongi keeps his breathing even and soft, feigning sleep as he listens. His hearing is sharper than most, but the footfalls of the other person are inaudible to him. When he hears a sound again, it’s something like a scoff. Purposeful. 

They know he’s awake, and they know he’s listening. 

Still, Yoongi’s captor doesn’t say anything. The bed dips near Yoongi’s feet. Not significantly, indicating his kidnapper is smaller- can he be kidnapped if he’s home? The soundless way they move rules out humans. Yoongi can’t even hear them breathe as they crawl up his legs, the sound of material scratching against material the only thing he can make out.

Fuck. They’re dressed, which leads Yoongi to believe this isn’t the kind of restraint that leads to fun. He’s a little disappointed, sagging into the bed as the weight of a person - or creature - settles on his waist.

He doesn’t move, waiting for them to make the first move. Yoongi runs through a list of enemies and internally winces. It’s long, and so many of them are recent that he thinks the weight sitting on top of him could be there to collect any number of debts. 

Cold metal kisses Yoongi’s cheek. He shivers in response immediately, gut flipping as goosebumps break out up and down his arms. As a half-demon, he’s not as susceptible to temperatures as full humans are, and he’s not invulnerable like a full-blooded demon. But the metal against his skin tingles, vibrating at a frequency that he can barely detect. 

Brimstone. 

Fuck. The list of enemies that own a gun made with brimstone alloy grows shorter, but Yoongi is none the wiser. 

“Come on,” the voice urges, barely above a whisper. “You gonna fucking look at me or what?”

That voice pulls Yoongi’s eyes open immediately, his head turning to blink away the swimming colors and whirling lights as his vision melts into place. His mouth falls open slightly as he looks up to see Jimin peering down at him, head cocked and frowning.

Yoongi’s heart thunders in his chest as he fights between trying to find something to say and drinking in the vision that is Jimin. He looks a little bit different. His hair is longer than it was last time, shorter on the sides than in the back, almost in a mullet but not quite. He’s a slip of a thing but heavy, indicating there’s weight on his wiry frame. 

And his face. Hells, his face is devastating. Siren eyes staring at him, sucking the breath from Yoongi as he gazes and gazes and gazes. He could stare into Jiimin’s eyes forever, falling head over heels into their bottomless depths as he loses sense of the world. 

Jimin smirks and presses the gun in his hand to Yoongi’s cheek hard enough that the metal is pushing uncomfortably against his cheekbone. Yoongi doesn’t care, gaze sweeping over the rest of his captor. Smug, full lips that are always a natural shade of rose, narrow nose with the perfect rounded tip, and an angry scar that vanishes into the collar of Jimin’s black jacket. 

Yoongi turns his attention from the scar before thinking about it and then looks again, not wanting Jimin to notice.

But it’s Jimin. One of the many Lords of Hell. He notices, and the gun digs in a little deeper as Jimin’s face morphs from beautiful to terrible. “What?” Jimin seethes. “Don’t like seeing your work? You should admire it, Yoongi. True fucking art isn’t it?” 

“You’re beautiful.” His voice comes out hoarse from disuse. He licks his lips which are dry and cracked. “With and without it.” 

“I never said I wasn’t.” 

Yoongi feels the space between them so much at these times. The first few minutes of seeing him again are always the worst to navigate. Sometimes Jimin is so full of hate that there’s no crossing the rough waters between them. Sometimes Jimin is so full of grief that Yoongi capsizes in the storm. 

They are best in the middle. Somewhere between hate and want. 

“Why am I all tied up?” He wiggles at the rope. He’s starting to lose feeling in his arms, a soft tingle settling from his elbows to fingers. He looks down at the gun - a pistol, dark black and buzzing with the energy of a Hell-made weapon. “And why is there a gun pointed at me?”

“I thought about killing you.” There’s no sign on Jimin’s face as to whether he means it or not. “Didn’t want to do it while you were asleep, though.” 

“A weapon like this would do it.” Yoongi feels his breath catch as something angry flickers in Jimin’s eyes and he feels the need to add, “Permanently. This would kill me permanently.” 

“I know.” 

It hangs in the air between them, the finality of Jimin’s admission. That he thought about killing Yoongi. Not for the first time over the years they have been playing this game. Sometimes, Jimin even conceded to killing Yooongi. Small deaths. Minor deaths. Impermanent. The kind that sends Yoongi to the edge of Hell where he at least gets to see Namjoon occasionally. 

Those meetings are always awkward when the Guardian of Hell sees Yoongi standing in the corner, alone and not in line with others waiting to be sorted. Namjoon always gives him the same smile and pat on the back. 

“It’s nice to see you,” Namjoon always says. “Alas, this one isn’t permanent. I’ll see you next time he sends you, yeah?”

Sometimes Yoongi just nods, toeing his boot in the gravel before Namjoon’s eyes go white with light and Yoongi is flooded with blinding pain as he’s sent back topside. Other times, he’s more talkative. 

Now, Yoongi stares down the barrel of something that wouldn’t send him to Namjoon. It would send him straight to Seokjin, who has an empty cell waiting for Yoongi. 

“Well,” Yoongi murmurs. He looks up to see Jimin watching him. He’s no longer expressionless. There is pain in those eyes - eons of it. Yoongi tries to figure out how to get Jimin away from his grief, how to walk him back toward the safe zone between hatred and… something else. “I wouldn’t blame you if you did it.”

“It wouldn’t fix this.” Jimin’s hand comes up to the rough scar on his neck, jagged and knotted red. “It wouldn’t fix me.”

It’s true. What Yoongi did to keep Jimin will never let him go, even if Yoongi dies. It had been done out of… desire, out of want, out of something that was so confused with love that Yoongi had sacrificed Jimin’s free will to keep him bound to earth, year after year, decade after decade. At the time, Yoongi thought that the word was love. He did it out of love. 

Now he knows that love could not do something like this. Love cannot be responsible for Yoongi taking the knife to Jimin’s neck, spilling his blood over the sacred ground to taint it and make it an anchor point. Love could not have driven Yoongi, half-assed in magic, to bind Jimin to earth for longer than he was allowed. 

Love could not have been responsible for Yoongi condemning Jimin to a life of recurring pain. To agony. All for one week of time with him. A single blip in the endless abyss of their lives.  

Lords cannot walk topside, Jimin had gasped, that wet, death-rattle sound. You cannot undo this. 

As a Lord of Hell, Jimin’s time allotted on earth was only snippets of hours. Too powerful to walk the earth, he and the others are only given tiny moments to walk among the living, to see the vitality of life pulsing through the streets. 

Punishment for anything longer than that is endless torture at the end of Belial’s fiery whip. It is eons of time passing between eternal lashes and the snatch of one week that Jimin is bound to exist on earth. 

It only took a collection of hours for Yoongi to want Jimin - for he cannot call it love, now. Stolen moments pressed so firmly behind Yoongi’s eyes when he sleeps that it makes him dizzy. Makes him sick, to feel and relive the memories. 

But Yoongi is bad at magic, and now Jimin is bound to a week on earth once every year. Beyond his allotted limit. Beyond what is allowed. And thus, the cycles of Jimin’s life have been secured: A week on earth between years and years of punishment in Hell for breaking the rules. Eons of time passing differently from that on earth, with Jimin suffering for Yoongi trying to steal more than hours with Jimin. 

But Yoongi is bad at magic and didn’t realize he bound Jimin to the earth. Not to Yoongi. So Jimin would live on in this hellish cycle even without Yoongi. 

“I should do it,” Jimin murmurs. His eyes are distant and Yoongi knows that Jimin is weighing the consequences. 

For one week, he gets to stay here. To do what he wants with his time. Sometimes he spends his week never leaving Yoongi’s bed. Sometimes he spends it inflicting as much pain and suffering on Yoongi as he can. Sometimes, he spends it trying to find a way out from Yoongi, from this. 

“But I’ve been living this curse for this long with you. Perhaps I could do it a little longer.” 

The words aren’t romantic, but Yoongi’s heart flutters. He watches as Jimin heaves a sigh, pulling the heavy weight of the gun from Yoongi’s cheek. There is a dull throb there, his sensitive skin bruising already as Jimin leans, shifting his weight to put the gun on the table.

Jimin’s movement creates friction against Yoongi’s crotch and his stomach flips, arousal shooting straight to his cock. He hates it, that something as simple as this with Jimin can have that effect. He feels flushed as Jimin settles his weight back on Yoongi, sitting directly on his dick where the blood starts to flow.

Yoongi’s fingers flex, needing to squirm somewhere. He doesn’t dare move his hips, but he needs to move, needs to fidget as the feeling sinks deeper into his stomach. 

Jimin looks down at him and it’s the most beautiful thing Yoongi has ever seen. He wouldn’t mind if it were Jimin who sent him to that permanently reserved spot in Hell for him. Yoongi deserves it and has been evading permanent death for almost two hundred years now, as befits the bastard son of Hell’s prince.

Only Jimin can send Yoongi to that place forever, now. Only Jimin has the power and pull to do it without Yoongi’s sire stepping in. 

Stupid boy, the Prince of Hell had whispered when Yoongi admitted it to his father, that Wednesday it was raining some time ago. Anchoring a Lord to this mortal plane. I will not let him go unpunished. Not for you, not for him. He will suffer like the others, and so will you, should he decide he’s had enough of you and your endless folly. 

Yoongi always wonders when Jimin will decide he’s had enough. He hopes it’s not tonight, though. Not with the way Jimin’s face has softened, finally drifting away from grief and despair to something else. 

“I’m tired,” Jimin admits. He drops his hands to fiddle with the hem of Yoongi’s shirt. Delicate fingers brush against hot skin and Yoongi can’t help but wiggle his hips this time. He lets out a sound between a sigh and a whine and the corner of Jimin’s mouth lifts as he watches Yoongi through half-lidded eyes. “Alright, then.” 

Shadow fills the room. Yoongi looks to see that night has blocked out the window. Inside his room, it’s just Jimin’s pressing shadow and a single lamp glowing over by the door. Somehow, Yoongi feels comforted by the throbbing of Jimin’s shadow magic and the way that Jimin’s hands drift to unbutton his jeans. 

Yoongi’s breath is stuck in his chest as Jimin’s small fingers work the zipper. Jimin has always been small, but mighty. A force to be reckoned with, a shadow storm beneath skin. It’s what Yoongi loved - admired - most about Jimin. How he moves through the world unchallenged and respected. How he loves when Yoongi fights him, challenges him, and questions him as no one else dares. 

Now, Yoongi doesn’t think Jimin admires Yoongi’s challenges. It was Yoongi’s challenge to rules and fate that got them into this reincarnated week of hell. 

Whatever was between them had died a long time ago. But there is still want, and as Yoongi’s jeans scrap down his thighs and he shivers when Jimin nips at his knee, the want is all he can think about. 

It is in his blood, this craving for Jimin. This need, this desire, this unhinged aching feeling that claws at Yoongi’s belly. The same insanity that drove him to destroy Jimin for a single sliver of time and tie him to the mortal world. 

Jimin doesn’t untie Yoongi. It makes Yoongi a little dizzy as Jimin shucks his jeans all the way off, leaning forward to bite savagely into the meat of Yoongi’s thigh. He cries out, both in pain and a bolt of pleasure. He’s hard now, cock throbbing as Jimin’s breath ghosts over Yoongi’s thighs. Jimin leans back, eyes locking on Yoongi as he sheds his clothes.

It’s a sight to see. Jimin had been an angel once, before that long one-trip fall. He can see the grace in Jimin’s beauty. Soft cheeks and lips, supple thighs and ass, ribbon curves like a dancer. But there’s shadow too, the hard cut of Jimin’s jaw, the sharpness of his eyes as they land on Yoongi, the powerful muscle corded in his compact body. 

Yoongi very much feels like prey as Jimin kneels on the bed, naked. He’s beautiful, a rendition of Michaelangelo’s David but with a much bigger cock, thick and brown at the tip, dripping beads of precum. Yoongi makes a needy sound. He doesn’t mean to, but it comes out when he sees how hard Jimin is. 

“Shut up,” Jimin bites out and Yoongi bites his lip hard. Doesn’t make a sound, though his feet dig into the bed and he’s hot all over, suffocating as he’s naked from the waist down and trapped in a jacket and shirt. He wants Jimin to take the rest off, to feel Jimin’s skin. “Don’t be a whore.” 

Yoongi is dizzy. He wants to be a whore, if it gets him closer. If he has to act like one to get the damn clothes off, he thinks he just might. But he gets distracted, watching as Jimin fists his cock, pumping leisurely and tilting his head back, golden lamplight painting him, making him glow. 

Golden boy, so full of pain. 

Jimin stops stroking himself to crawl up Yoongi’s body. Yoongi holds his breath as Jimin cages him in, leaning forward so their noses are almost touching. Yoongi searches for softness in Jimin’s eyes, but there is none. Not for him, not anymore. Want, sure. Desire, sure. But nothing more than the craving for Yoongi in Jimin’s blood.

Jimin’s cock brushes against Yoongi’s and even the barest hint of skin on skin sends a zap of pleasure down his spine and he bites his bottom lip, trying to keep quiet like asked. He tastes metal and salt in his mouth, lip bleeding from the force of his bite. 

“Just one,” Jimin says, more to himself than to Yoongi. 

And then Jimin kisses him and nothing else matters. 

Jimin’s tongue tangles with Yoongi’s in a lick of warmth and blood. Yoongi’s world spins as their mouths melt together, slow and heated. There’s no air in his lungs and he doesn’t care, lifting his head, sucking Jimin’s tongue into his mouth.

Yoongi’s neck and chest feel hot and the room is tilted on its axis when Jimin rolls his hips against Yoongi’s. He moans into Jimin’s mouth, his skin tingling as pleasure curls through him, cock leaking and sticky against Jimin’s as he continues to devour Yoongi’s mouth. 

It feels like he’s in a shitty hotel room stealing a moment with Jimin again, frotting against one another in a rush of heat and borrowed time. He wiggles his arms, trying to free himself, trying to grab a hold of Jimin and feel him. He wants so badly to-

Jimin pulls away and Yoongi’s eyes snap open. Blood is smeared across Jimin’s mouth and he’s not looking Yoongi in the eye. 

“Jimin-”

“No,” he answers, not looking up. He spits in his hand, fluid tinged pink from Yoongi’s blood in his mouth. He closes his eyes and leans back, stroking himself a few times with one hand as he pushes Yoongi’s thighs open with another. “I said one.” 

Yoongi realizes what he meant now. One kiss. It was all he was allowing Yoongi to have. Or perhaps, all he was willing to take.

Grief threatens to take away the vibration under Yoongi’s skin from the feeling of Jimin against him, but he ignores it in favor of squirming when Jimin grabs his cock and prods Yoongi’s tight rim. He grinds his teeth, realizing Jimin isn’t going to prep him or stretch him wide before fucking him. Yoongi deserves the pain, he supposes. 

Instead of begging Jimin to wait, Yoongi opens his legs wider. Doesn’t complain that he’s still tied up for Jimin to do what he wants, still half-clothed and unable to feel anything except the pulsing throb of his cock and Jimin’s tip breaching the tight ring of Yoongi’s ass. 

The burn is intense. Yoongi holds his breath and squeezes his eyes shut, unable to think beyond the ringing in his ears and the way Jimin pushes into him. Yoongi tries to relax but can’t, his body shivering as it flips between pain and pleasure. Jimin is at least slow, the push of his cock against Yoongi’s tight walls both delicious and terrible all at once. 

Yoongi’s vision dances in front of him, pulses black at the edges. He gasps, suddenly remembering to breathe as Jimin bottoms out, holding all of his weight where his hips rest against Yoongi’s ass, waiting and letting Yoongi spasm around him. His walls hug Jimin’s cock tight. His muscles twitch and scream at the intrusion. 

It hurts but Yoongi doesn’t care. It’s good - better than good. He is so so full, Jimin buried inside of him, and he’s kicking his feet on the bed, needing more, wanting more. He doesn’t know if he says it or if Jimin is done waiting because he pulls back, cock dragging against Yoongi and he nearly passes out with relief. 

Yoongi is seeing stars, fingers gripping the bottom of his shirt as Jimin starts to fuck him in earnest. Yoongi’s breath punches out of him with every snap of Jimin’s hips, as though the Lord of Hell can fuck the oxygen from his lungs. It feels like he is, hitting deep inside Yoongi where he swears only Jimin can reach. 

Jimin is vicious, hands clawing the sheets as he leans forward and slams into Yoongi, the smacking of his hips drowning out Yoongi’s gasping breath. He feels like he’s being driven to the edge of madness, tight rim swallowing Jimin’s cock whole.

Shadows dance around Jimin. They curl at his collarbone, hiding his scar from Yoongi. They drift around his arms, and ghost over his flexing stomach. Both Jimin and his shadows don’t touch Yoongi though, and if he wasn’t so fucked out from the feeling of finally having Jimin back, he might cry. 

Maybe he will later. 

The burn lessens as Jimin jostles Yoongi suddenly. The contact is brief and cold - he realizes Jimin moved him with his shadows rather than with his hands. He swallows hard as Jimin pushes his sweaty hair back with one hand, never stopping the fluid roll of his hips fucking into Yoongi. Yoongi’s mind turns to white noise at the sight. 

He goes to reach for Jimin and remembers he’s tied up. Yoongi notes he has no feeling in his arms but he doesn’t care, not when Jimin adjusts his stroke and fuck. His cock hits Yoongi just right, pressing against his prostate and Yoongi starts to babble.

This time, Jimin doesn’t tell Yoongi to shut up. He lets the slurred string of noises leave Yoongi’s mouth as Yoongi starts to go slack under Jimin, letting the pleasure drag him under. He feels lost in it, swimming in this feeling that ebbs and ebbs and ebbs until it’s a pulsing inferno that feels like it's going to corrode him from the inside out. 

“Come on,” Jimin grunts, teeth clenched. “Come for me. Just like you know how to.”

Just like you know how to. 

Suddenly, Yoongi is back to before. 

When they were just Yoongi and Jimin, not meeting in this weekly cycle of endless misery that he has signed them up for. 

When Jimin would catch Yoongi late at night, slipping in with his shadows to wake Yoongi up.

When Jimin would fuck Yoongi to desperation, sweaty chests pressed together and moving in the moonlight coming in from the window.

When Yoongi would come, cock pressed between the two of them, sticky and messy, and mouth tangled with Jimin, the slow push of Jimin’s cock making Yoongi insane. 

Yoongi’s eyes flutter open. He wants to see Jimin. He knows he’s about to come, that fire inside of him ready to unleash. But he wants to see Jimin as he does it. As if that will make it better, this detached, feral thing that exists between them. 

Jimin is a vision. He hovers over Yoongi, a being of shadow and light, stuck somewhere in between. He is so beautiful and impermanent. Yoongi only gets these moments in flashes, when their paths cross inevitably. When Jimin comes to find him, that one week of the year. 

There is salt on Yoongi’s tongue when he comes with Jimin’s name shaped in his mouth. He realizes he’s crying. It’s not the first time, and it won’t be the last. Jimin doesn’t notice or doesn’t say anything, chasing his high with a furious snap of his hips and a snarl on his face. 

Yoongi fades. His eyes roll back as he drifts somewhere else, letting Jimin use him for his orgasm. He hears him growl once, slamming into Yoongi so deep that it pulls him just a little from the dreamless, listless haze of his comedown. 

At some point, he thinks he falls asleep. Or maybe something like sleep, because he vanishes from the room, but he feels Jimin pull out. Feels the wet gush of his hole, feels the afterburn of Jimin’s visit.

But when he opens his eyes, there’s no one there. There are no shadows, there is no Jimin. The illusion of being able to have anything with Jimin shatters. Yoongi knows it will keep shattering, a mirror broken in an endless cycle of misfortune.

Yoongi is left alone and waiting for Jimin’s next visit. For the next time that Jimin is dragged from where he lay flayed, only to exist in the samsara Yoongi has shackled him to. 

[big-nerd-boi]

Luhan the six eared macaque.

Kill the crown intro post.

The most infamous monkey with identity issues, the six eared macaque. The stone monkey who had disrupted the journey after Wukong left by beating the Tang monk unconscious, and stealing what was “rightfully” his own destiny.

But it wasn’t.

Killed by Sun Wukong, he awoke in Naraka; in a special little hell crafted by his own hands. The cuffs were tight, numbing around his arms and legs, even his neck. The chains held his limbs tight, keeping him immobile as frost built along his fur and crawled under his skin until his veins burst and his blood froze across his body. All the while the gaping hole in his chest bled, and ached, and his body rotted back on earth.

Luhan didn’t know how he got here. He had plenty of time to reflect after all, and yet he didn’t know how he ended up here- with all his power and cunning… he was beaten by the monkey of the mind.

He deserved it more! He had abandoned everything to make his own journey, including his own face for months- pretending to be someone else all to get those scrolls. He had been so close to tasting true immortality but that damned monk just had to reject his offer for water- to make things difficult!

How did he end up here? Alone, unable to hear anything but the frost on his skin and his chains clacking. It was terrifying only being able to hear that, not his own breath, not his own heartbeat.

He didn’t know how long he’d be stuck here, alone, malformed, an abomination. But he didn’t want to reincarnate! He didn’t want to be someone else, or worse… something else. He’d most likely be forced to become a plant or perhaps an animal. Something mindless, having to crawl his way to human over the course of lifetimes upon lifetimes.

He screamed.

A wordless cry from his stomach, anguish and rage mixing together until his eyes burned with tears.

This wasn’t supposed to be his fate. He heard his future and it wasn’t supposed to be this. He was supposed to be alive, to be happy. But it was a lie.

He had been alone for years.

Time passed so slowly in the realm of darkness, it felt like centuries. But it couldn’t have been, right? Surely if it had been that long he would’ve finally been given the chance to go back into samsara.

For the first time since his death, he heard a heartbeat.

No, heartbeats.

Two people entered his little slice of hell and spoke. His ears rang, their voices like thunder. He could barely understand them, his mind like putty from all the isolation.

But the bodhisattva had need of him, he didn’t know a bodhisattva of the name Avalokiteśvara. It didn’t matter he was being freed.

His cuffs were opened, and he took a deep- hollow breath. It didn’t fill his lungs. He didn’t have lungs.

His knees fell to the misty, cold floor- body crackling like a stone being thrown into a frozen river.

But the two men, one a humanoid with bull horns and hooves and the stench of smoke, and the other… a baboon. Blond and brown fur with eyes like the sunset.

They carried him out, carried him until the baboon couldn’t go any further. Luhan barely registered the confusion, not when he was so close to being alive again.

The red demon stopped, telling the baboon— Heng— to keep moving.

Luhan didn’t pay attention as he began to inch towards the river. The same one the Tang emperor fell into, bringing him back to life.

His limbs were stiff, ice and frost clinging to him. It hurt. It was agony. But he fell into the river, uncaring of the shouts for him to stop.

The wind is as howling in his ears, so many sounds flooding his ears including his own breath.

Shooting up, his head spun- his body ached, stiff as a board. But he was alive. He didn’t know where he was, but it was dark. Three people sat around him, all mediating.

The young gibbon.. had that staff. That iron rod that crushed his ribcage. Why did she have it?

The man near his head opened his eyes, and Luhan knew those eyes.

He knew this man, the bodhisattva.

He forgot form did not apply to enlightened beings, able to change themselves without a second thought. While he had to learn the hard way…

“Welcome back, Luhan. Are you ready to listen?”

———

Can you tell which one is older? / sarcasm

Right side is his “true” form! Left side is how he glamours himself to look! Bottom picture is just a list of points I didn’t quite know how to cover in the intro post!

Also a reminder that some of this information is subject to change as I continue to ready through journey to the west! Thank you for reading!!!

[herrscherofmagic]

The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that an Eden expy would be perfect for HSR.

Beauty... What is your definition of beauty? Did you have it? Did the old me have it?

TL;DR: Eden's a HI3rd character with themes/motifs around music, beauty, elegance, and so on. I think it would be cool to see an Eden expy in Honkai: Star Rail :)

Slightly longer TL;DR: Eden is a character whose story revolves around the meaning of beauty in an ugly world, a world in which terrible things happen to good people, in which the greatest and bravest heroes of humanity fail to save the day. In spite of this, even as the last cities of Earth crumbled to dust, Eden still held steadfast on her belief, and she had faith that even though her era is now fading away, the new era of humanity would "script their own fate and sing their own songs."

So I've seen a fair bit of discussion about expys on the HSR subreddit from time to time, and I figured I'd have a go at this with my own post discussing a pre-existing Hoyoverse character I'd like to see in HSR someday!

This post is mostly aimed at an HSR audience so I've written it in a way that should be understandable even without any prior knowledge of HI3rd, but fellow HI3rd peeps might enjoy it too :)

The thought of this came to me when I was playing HI3rd earlier, because when I was looking at Eden's signature weapon, I was thinking "wow, I forgot how beautiful that was" and then it hit me- one of Eden's core themes as a character is Beauty, making her a perfect candidate to be a future Pathstrider of the Path of Beauty! Whether part of the Knights of Beauty or part of a different faction or even walking this path on her own.

There's going to be some light spoilers for HI3rd's story, but nothing that spoils major story beats. Eden is a character from the Previous Era, meaning most of her story takes place in the form of archives and records of the past. This post is pretty much all backstory, and I won't discuss any important "secrets of the past" meaning any big plot twists should remain unspoiled.

So if you're ambivalent or unconcerned about HI3rd spoilers, I'd say it should be okay to proceed, but if you want to play it safe then you should probably return to this post later. All of this is lore from the Elysian Realm, so if you're already familiar with that then there won't be any spoilers at all :)

That being said, this post does contain some pretty heavy content. Nothing particularly graphic or violent, but there is discussion of death and trauma so please keep this in mind!

Some quick context, to start with:

HI3rd's story takes place on Earth, and in this setting there have been multiple "past eras". Over the course of a civilization's development, powerful apocalyptic beings called "Herrschers" appear and wreck havoc upon the world. When the final Herrscher, the Herrscher of Finality*, descends upon the Earth it removes all trace of the current existing civilization... or whatever remains of it. Over the course of 50,000 years a new civilization develops in its place until someday Finality returns once more and the samsara repeats.

Eden is a character belonging to the Previous Era (PE), which is the civilization immediately preceding the Current Era (CE), which is the present-day setting of HI3rd.

*disclaimer: this Finality is not related to the Path of Finality. It's a matter of translation, since the original text uses different characters.

Eden was living a pretty great life- she was a superstar and she was filthy rich, with global tours and widespread fame. In fact, several of the other major characters of the Previous Era (such as Kevin and Su) were fans of her music! Singing, playing instruments, she could do it all. Naturally, she was a fervent supporter of the arts.

Despite this, Eden was still living a "normal" life- a life in which she was blissfully unaware of the looming threat of Honkai. She became painfully aware of it when disaster struck during a concert of hers in Sydney (the PE version of it, of course). During this concert but elsewhere in the city, the 7th Herrscher awoke: the Herrscher of Fire. Almost immediately the entire city was engulfed in raging fires. According to some sources, even the entire continent of Australia was destroyed, but this may have been retconned so take it with a grain of salt.

Eden was (un)fortunate enough to survive this disaster, being saved by one of the former Fire MOTH soldiers that was under the leadership of the person that became the Herrscher of Fire. Though Eden survived and still retained her public image and wealth, there was no returning to her past life. She ended up learning about the organization Fire MOTH, humanity's leading force fighting against the threat of Honkai. While she kept her usual public image, she would also use her wealth to help support MOTH.

The past is no more, but I can still remember this moment. This is what I can do right now.

Over time Eden grew to become a more active member of MOTH, until someday even she would end becoming a soldier herself. She witnessed the toll of war as fewer and fewer soldiers returned from battle and as the survivors became increasingly worn and weary. Though many people knew of her music and appreciated it, as the war went on Eden realized even her music had its limits to how much it could help people. Because of this, Eden chose to volunteer for a program that would give her the strength to fight alongside the rest of MOTH.

One of MOTH's many programs to fight Honkai was the MANTIS project: augmenting humans with the DNA of Honkai Beasts, granting them tremendous power. If they survived the Meta-Morph surgery. Eden underwent this program and survived, placing her as part of an elite force with the strength to fight the Herrschers head-on.

Plus she got a sick pair of guns! so that's pretty neat ^.^

Unfortunately, we know how this story ends. We call it the Previous Era precisely because it ended. Even humanity's greatest heroes couldn't stop the crushing power of Finality.

Eden would not live to see the next era of humanity.

With this summarized backstory of Eden in mind, I'd like to share a few archive entries from HI3rd, featuring Eden. I was originally going to try and summarize and discuss these lore entries myself, but I think it'd be best to keep my thoughts to a minimum and provide the full text instead, so anyone reading this can think about it for themselves and come to their own conclusions instead of taking my word as law.

First, we have one of the records discussing the events of the awakening of the 7th Herrscher. Do note that I snipped out a portion of this archive to shorten it and reduce spoilers, so it's not the complete version found in-game.

Another part of Eden's backstory I want to mention is the way Eden interacted with another major member of Fire MOTH, Dr. Mobius.

Mobius is a pretty complicated character, because while she seems to be a straightforward "mad scientist" type of character, there's a lot of nuance to her behavior and attitude. It's difficult to sum it up, but in this case I'll focus on how other people perceive her: very negatively.

Dr. Mobius' work was groundbreaking for genetics and biology, and her projects (including the MANTIS project as well as early versions of Project Stigma) were crucial in fighting Honkai. However, she was incredibly intimidating and her experiments were... questionable, to say the least. Cold and calculating, not someone to inflict needless cruelty but also someone who doesn't let silly little things such as "ethics" get in the way of progress.

Interestingly, Eden is probably one of the few people that was capable of interacting with Dr. Mobius in a positive way. Many people found it difficult to work under the supervision of Dr. Mobius and most would go out of their way to avoid her, but it seems that Eden was not one of them. This scene in particular is a good example of this:

At this point I think Eden's theme of Beauty is quite evident, and I could probably cut the post short here. But there's one final part of Eden's story I'd like to share, and since it's a scene involving Mobius it builds on the previous entry quite neatly. Since I'm going to end the post with this scene, I'll give my final thoughts first!

I don't really think it's worth worrying too much about expys and whatnot, because ultimately the important thing is whether a given character fits the story, not whether they look like a past character. If we get a "HSR Kiana" or an "HSR Kiana", what matters is the way they fit into this setting. The setting of Aeons and Paths, of a diverse set of factions vying for power and influence across the universe, and how the Nameless will cross paths with this character.

But I wanted to make this post anyways because I feel like Eden's story is greatly underappreciated, and since it has such a neat connection with the Path of Beauty.

Eden's theme of "Beauty" is not just about Eden being a beautiful person, nor is about her beautiful music. To me, it's her understanding of humanity and the way that the arts allow us to connect with each other. It's her ability to reach out and connect with a person as cold and calculating as Mobius. It's just as Eden says, "something that makes people happy, guides the way, and sparks hope."

Just something to keep in mind when reading this final archive entry. I've also re-attached the same image from the start of the post, since I think it takes on a much more powerful meaning with this scene in mind.

For those who're curious, the first & last image of the post are a still shot from the credits of the HI3rd animation "Because of You", which is a very beautiful but also spoiler-filled animated short

[phoenix-is-the-hottest-thing]

How do you reckon an evil Hua arc could go/could have gone?

Well first, the setup is important.

See, we want Hua in character, but by its construction, the HoS arc was Hua ACTING OUT OF CHARACTER... because she was never Hua. Our Hua's wayyy too steadfast, and I don't want to mess that up.

So for an evil Fu Hua, I think we'd need to have Hua be driven to mild insanity by trauma, grief or an external factor like SWARA or the Honkai. Maybe a combination. How about an obsession, too?

If we go by what the HoS arc originally SEEMED to be going for... (beautiful bamboozle that arc trailer)

We can have it be Hua yoinked back into her body because say, Kevin gave her feather back to Otto and he put it back there, and so she's stuck and in pain and doesn't know if Kiana's alright; maybe the Honkai torments her with how she keeps failing her mission and her loved ones, mistakes from a painful past she'd forgotten, etc etc.

So, eventually, she's well enough to break out. Hell, if Otto's around, I can see her beating the crap out of him since he shot her in the face last time they met— but mostly likely she'd go for efficiency, so you'd have a newly Herrscher'd Hua who's unconsciously emitting a ton of Honkai and slaughtering security bots that Otto's trying to contain her with. In that case, she'd mostly just kill Otto because she needs to go through him. Maybe say something cold about how that's how his friends treat one another, considering, you know, he's got his little friend spiel even though he SHOT HER IN THE FACE.

(Seriously they should've let Hua come with Dudu and Kiana to beat him up in Kolosten.)

I don't think she'd care to go find Kevin beyond making sure Kiana escaped him, unlike HoS. Like... evil Hua isn't gonna try and bond with an old comrade, she'd just bulldoze her way through things until she finds her objective. She's stubborn after all! And here I think her priority would be Kiana, given that she left her alone and in danger. Also Fuki's a great ship.

At that point of the timeline, Kiana's with AE, but unlike with HoS, after brutalizing World Serpent HQ for information, she'd go looking for Kiana rather than wait on Mount Taixuan with illusions. So you'd have a lot more active walking disaster.

Not sure when/how she'd notice that she did not come back quite right this time. If she has a quiet moment to reflect, probably quickly? But I kinda want her to... not. Like, Hua needing to get snapped out of it, and in the meantime sweetie's having a grand ol time making a huge mess of things while obsessed with finding Kiana.

You have fun, Hua dear, okay? They'll stop you when they stop you. You earned this.

Then it'd depend whether Hua finds Kiana first, or if AE figures out there's a Herrscher on the loose and Kiana + Bronya go and confront her, only to realize it's their good old class monitor.

THEN I GUESS HUA SNAPS OUT OF THE OBSESSION, REALIZES SHE'S A HERRSCHER, AND THIS TIME WE GET SHATTERED SAMSARA BUT WITHOUT HOS BEING A DIFFERENT PERSON and that honestly makes it even darker coz Hua didn't actually want to kill HoS but she'd have no such qualms against herself

If my memory is correct (too lazy to check rn) that's actually something the devs have said themselves, they wanted a Herrscher to become Fu Hua, rather than Fu Hua becoming a Herrscher, because she'd self-terminate immediately if she thought she was a threat like a Herrscher.

Fun!

[lynne-monstr]

fic where sun xiang leaves excellent era on good terms with xiao shiqin but walks away with the assumption that xiao shiqin only ever tolerated him during their time together. (he doesn't blame xiao shiqin. how could he. looking back on his own behavior makes sun xiang want to cringe into oblivion). he thinks fondly of xiao shiqin but doesn't make any effort to contact him once he's at samsara. he spent enough time as an obnoxious brat, he's going to do better now.

meanwhile, xiao shiqin is wondering why sun xiang has been ignoring him ever since they parted ways. he really thought that they formed a connnection during that finale match, and so can only come to the conclusion that sun xiang has some lingering resentment that xiao shiqin's plans weren't enough to beat team happy.

anyway, this all comes to a head at worlds when they find themselves back on the same team and it's awkward.

[hotmessteaparty]

WIP Music Monday

The rules : Post a song that is relevant to your WIP or inspires it.

I was tagged by my beloved girl @josephseedismyfather and I gotta tell you I am really excited to do this! Especially since music is a big point for all my fics 😁 so I'm following her lead and also post the lyrics to my different stories.

As always no pressure to do this tag, this is just for fun ❤️ I'm tagging @blaze13full @writermml @jasonsnowwhitebrody @insanityofvaas @merryandrewsworld @michaelmandog @thirdstreetmangos

For The Lost Souls - Prequel to Narcotic (Vaas Montenegro background story)

You've never been a sinner, maybe you're not the only one

The world it won't be shaking and burning on that day when you're gone

You'll never see the things that you've been dreaming of

As long as you are bound to all these empty words

They're calling you a sinner

Since the day you're born

And wrote it in your mind

But still you've got a chance to turn

Or live a lie

Narcotic - Vaason FF

So you face it with a smile

There is no need to cry

For a trifle's more than this

Will you still recall my name?

And the month it all began

Will you release me with a kiss

Have I tried to draw the veil?

If I have how could I fail

Did I fear the consequence?

Dazed by careless words

Cosy in my mind

I don't mind

I think so

I will let you go

I don't mind

I think so

I will let you go

Now you shaped that liquid wax

Fit it out with crater cracks

Sweet devotion, my delight

Oh, you're such a pretty one

And the naked thrills of flesh and skin

Would tease me through the night

Now I hate to leave you bare

If you need me I'll be there

Don't you ever let me down

Dazed by careless words

Cosy in my mind

I don't mind

I think so

I will let you go

I don't mind

I think so

I will let you go

And I touched your face

Narcotic mind from lazed Mary Jane

And I called your name

Like an addicted to cocaine

Calls for the stuff he'd rather blame

And I touched your face

Narcotic mind from lazed Mary Jane

And I called your name

My cocaine

In The Room Where You Sleep - Unposted Ed x Lorraine FF

I saw something sitting on your bed

I saw something touching your head

And in the room where you sleep

In the room where you sleep

Where you sleep

Where you sleep

Where you sleep

You better run

You better run

You better hide

You better hide

You better hide

There's something in the shadows

In the corner of your room

A dark heart is beating and waiting for you

There is no open window, but the floors still creep

In the room where you sleep

In the room where you sleep

[ac-liveblogs]

Oof first on the chopping block my favorite archon T-T (or sleep. I appreciate the followup to the curse though) I guess if he joins the party to investigate he's not as weirdly omniscient as he is in canon lol, I've been rumiating the belief that he's is always listening in the wind ever since playing through barbaras hangout and carmen dei.

I guess you'd have kokomi in enkanomiya too :) would you have someone in the chasm? And since signora would get to be an Arc Villain around her beef w barbatos as she SHOULD HAVE instead of dying pathetically before the throne, would she even appear in inazuma?

(I'm so curious abt ur sumeru rewrite bc I've seen some rewrites of inazuma but never of sumeru...if collei's powers crop up again would they mitigate her eleazar?)

Venti is my fave too, but needs must........... Venti and Zhongli's Unhelpful Refusal To Share Information They Definitely Have is one of my least favourite plot devices I hate that we almost never just ask Archons, or other immortals, questions they probably know the answers to - maybe Zhongli is under contract so that he can't, but I think it's simpler if Venti Just Doesn't Know Things because he was asleep!

To be honest, while I had planned to give Kokomi a much more major role in the AQ, she wasn't one of the characters I'd thought about accompanying the party - I mostly considered Ayaka for Inazuma. Depending on how the Abyss storyline shakes out, I wanted to push Enkanomiya back further towards the endgame so it could be a more active location... Kokomi being the reason we get in makes sense though.

The Chasm is one of the areas I wanted to overhaul considerably. I was going to set it before Inazuma, because Xiao's storyline there seems like a good springboard for him joining the party permanently. Additionally, I think a lot of the stuff regarding the Fantastic Compass is unnecessary, so I'd mash up Xiao's storyline with bits of the We Will Be Reunited quests and cut the Fantastic Compass/Yan Fei, the Arataki Gang etc.

Yelan is probably still hanging around, but it would be Xiao joining the party and Dain being mysterious and unhelpful as usual.

And yeah, I definitely do want to make better use of Signora. She'll still be present in Inazuma, but won't die there - I want to save resolving her plot for later, probably just before Venti's death. Kind of the catalyst for things getting much, much worse. Spark to a flame to a wildfire, haha. It would also be fun to have her and Scaramouche bickering during the Inazuma arc, not just waaaay after the fact in a flashback...

(Besides Mondstadt, Inazuma is definitely the easiest to handle... my plans for it are the most complete. Liyue is pure nonsense and Sumeru and Fontaine have so much bloat...

Without going into too much detail, the beats I roughly want to focus on in Sumeru;

The party wants to go to Sumeru, since it's likely to have the most information about what happened during the Cataclysm. Due to an increase in the Withering's severity, travel to Sumeru is really dangerous. (Since there's no real reason to want to go to Inazuma, I like to think that Beidou was actually trying to take the party to Port Ormos, but they ended up shipwrecking in Inazuma and got stranded because of the Storm Wall LMAO. They get there in the end)

Collei is a somewhat angry, angsty kid at this stage, since she's back to dying of Eleazar. Despite Tighnari telling the party its a stupid idea, she agrees to lead the party through the Withering to get to Sumeru. (the webtoon would've been less than a year ago.)

Reduce Dunyarzad's relevance. I want it to be Collei's Eleazar that is accelerated during the Samsara, and Collei that Nahida tries to save (though she'd succeed). I actually wanted Collei and Nahida to be friends, and that friendship motivate Collei to help save her. I actually think trying to save her would be what gets Collei to break the seal Cyno put on her powers (especially since she figures she's going to die soon anyway.)

Cyno is an enemy unit for awhile. He's a scary Matra, if the Akademiya decides that the party are criminals, why not have him hunt them down... (him being made General Mahamatra by the end of this instead of already having that role makes sense to me, along with Alhaitham becoming Acting (lol) Grand Sage.) Also, focusing on Cyno and Collei's relationship would be great.

Remix the desert storyline into having Dottore as a more major player - his labs, potential research into Deshret, that sort of thing. Playing him up then is more fun than that nonsense in Port Ormos, and Collei can meet him face to face again before the conflict in the Akademiya. We can kill one of his Segments but - uh oh!!!

Kazuha vs Scaramouche. It would be fun to have Scaramouche maliciously focus on Kazuha in Inazuma (Kazuha is perplexed and really isn't into it), and then have the dynamic reversed in Sumeru once Scaramouche commits to being a God and Kazuha gets to understand why his ~friend died smiling~ when he fights GodModeScara.

Way more focus on Forbidden Knowledge, to bring Celestia more concretely into the main storyline. I was very annoyed when Nahida threatened to wake up the Heavenly Principles and... nothing happened, with that. Given the Divine Nails are used to 'heal the land', which can include things like Forbidden Knowledge. Wouldn't it be fun if the party has to prevent Sumeru's destruction because Scaramouche's attempt to become a god started leaking Forbidden Knowledge into Irminsul.

I am forever haunted by that trailer that had Dottore burning Irminsul. Can we pick up on that. Maybe by making those damn Forbidden Knowledge Capsules relevant, or Scaramouche specifically knowing the sky is fake? Related to above.

I would like Scaramouche to not be resolved in Sumeru. He can lose the Dendro Gnosis, but go on the run with the Electro Gnosis and go full renegade. (build out kazuha and scaramouche more for later)

I wanted to adjust Nahida's character, to have her and Collei better complement each other (personality, role). I also really want to work the Aranara in...

Cyno's backstory, too, maybe? It seems a bit of a shame to have the Akademiya trying to build their own god, and the whole Ba Fragment thing be unrelated.