#shameless exposition

[shearlin]

Chapter 3: What is magical aura?

Word count: 4262

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Hi! It me :D Early Happy New Year and late Happy Holiday Season! <3

You might have noticed that the chapter number went up. Once I finished writing "the intro" to what used to be the original chapter 3 and I got a nice 4k+ words, I decided I would split it in two. I'm posting the original body of that chapter - now chapter number 4 - immediately after this one, so there's no delay. I wanted to finish it before the year ended and post it together and I did it! Yey! :D

While writing this I had two month break when I didn't touch this fic at all, because of life that was happening. In the meantime, I lost some of the original brainrot that compelled me to write it in the first place and was not able to put myself back into that mood again. It didn't affect my want to finish this story - that was very much still there - but it did affect the academic tone I was trying to maintain. I did my best to blend it in with itself within the chapter and with the tone of the previous ones while editing, but if you notice that some part are repetitive or feel disjoined from the rest of the fic - that's why.

Enjoy! :D

He and Hyrule started to swap their knowledge, comparing terminology and experiences in an increasingly animated back and forth, where they were infecting each other with their enthusiasm. It wasn’t long, however, before they were interrupted by Wind with an unimpressed look on his face.

“Hey nerds!” he shouted, making them both flinch and turn to him like startled dears. “Could you two slow down for the newbies in the class? I got like five words from what you said.”

“That’s five more than me.” Twilight said, while Wild looked at him in mocked surprise, whispering “Those were words?”

Legend felt himself blush slightly in embarrassment as both he and Hyrule rubbed their necks bashfully.

“My bad,” the veteran mumbled, before clearing his throat and summoning back the confidence and excitement from moments before. “Alright! Let’s take it from the top.”

“Before talking about alignments, let’s talk magical aura. You already know about life energy and that it gets converted into magical energy when your body overflows. But when your soul fills up, there is no third state of energy that magic could take, nor do we have a third aspect of being to store such energy. So… what happens to it?

“Well. It leaks. Like heat radiating from your body, magic radiates from your soul in a steady but small trickle. Eventually, that energy will be picked up by the world around you and absorbed back into the cycle. But before that happens, there is a window of time when your magic is very distinctly you .

“Magic energy - your magical energy - is a culmination of your being, your entire lived and taught experience. Your magic is unique to you and only you . Magic-sensitive people can pick up on that energy residue in the air or on the objects you touched and track you, using the specific feeling they get from it, called magic signature. Of course, the better you know someone, the easier it gets. It’s a lot like looking for someone in a crowd. If it’s a stranger you’ve seen once in your life, they’re going to disappear in the sea of faces. But if it’s someone familiar, a friend for example, you would be more likely to spot them among others.

“So! What does it have to do with anything? Well, one’s aura, at its very core, is centred around one’s alignment. No matter if it’s warrior or scholar, old wizard or sniffling brat -  people with shared alignment will also share certain motifs in their aura that allow for estimation of what that alignment is . Key word though. Estimation.

Read the rest on Ao3!

[juniperhillpatient]

new chapter of 'the devil you know' :)

this time -

Azula & Katara tell their friends about the return of Ghostface, & begin a dangerous investigation leading to questions about who can be trusted.

[teawiththespleen]

aah fuck i just know theyre going to not do my girl maddy milkovich any narrative justice

[finchly-tintinnabulation]

- Scout's Honor - Part 2

Original Ultramarine (Aristaeus) x GN!Reader

<<Prev = Next>>

Tags: Exposition (specifically about rut cycles), shameless fluff, cuddling

Thank y'all so much for the kind words on part one!! @daily-shenanigans784 performed necromancy on her blog so I can thank her for the beta reading and freak matching! I'm not entirely sure if there's a process for a tag list but for the time being just message/reply me if you want to be tagged for the next part :D

- - -

Scout Sergeant Telion had given you a brief explanation and a rather scuffed up dataslate before a brisk escort back to the serf quarters, leaving you bewildered and with an unexpected day off from your duties. At least that gave you some quality time with the pamphlet-like dataslate to piece together what your life was becoming. 

The Adeptus Astartes were designed to be the living weapons of the Emperor, blades honed and sharpened to defend his beloved mankind with unwavering loyalty. It was common knowledge amongst baseline humans that the Astartes were sterile, not engaging in romantic or sexual pursuits, but apparently the whole truth was a bit more granular. 

Bio-augmentation left Astartes in possession of their original facilities (you mused to yourself that it must be easier to relieve oneself on the battlefield that way), but with their sex drive heavily curtailed. The physical desire, the itch to be scratched with intimacy had been all but eliminated. With the exception of the rut cycle. 

A surge of hormonal activity, amplified by the trans-human processes of the creation of a space marine, resulting in regular periods of extremely amplified drive accompanied by the potential for intense bonds with baseline humans. Perhaps it was purposeful, the will of the Emperor leaving in a subconscious drive to protect those that would otherwise be seen as beneath them. However, allowing that all-consuming bond to form was where problems began. 

Bonds in the otherwise controlled workings of a space marine chapter had proved to be extremely disruptive in the past. On top of a single-minded loyalty to a bond that would distract from his duty, an Astartes separated from his ‘mate’ would exhibit extreme signs of distress. 

The Ultramarines had preventing bonds perfected into protocol, the senior Astartes’ enhanced senses quickly detecting the beginning of their cycles and preventing baseline contact until the recruits had better control and their cycles occurred much further apart. 

You had been an error. It was inconvenient, but the Ultramarines had learned to salvage these situations as well. Sergeant Telion had instructed you to remain in the serf barracks until further notice, but you would soon be moved into Brother Aristaeus’s quarters. You would accompany him to everything. Meals, training, sleeping. The part that worried you was combat. 

Yet somehow, facing the battlefield wasn’t the thing haunting your mind as you sat on your bunk. It was Aristaeus and those big brown doe eyes of his, dazed and glassy and staring right up at you. 

Undoubtedly the encounter had scared the wits out of you, but knowing that in hindsight he hadn’t been in his right mind made your chest ache. Both of you were at risk because of a stroke of misfortune and miscommunication, and if things played out poorly it could leave the pair you mind-scrubbed. Or worse. You had little to lose other than your life now, but Aristaeus was so close to becoming a battle-brother. It wasn’t fair to either of you. 

So, despite Telion’s recommendation of staying put, you found yourself creeping down the barrack halls in the dead of night, stockinged footsteps silent against the marble floors. You were no scout, but you’d made a living out of going unnoticed, so you slipped out of your quarters and through the fortress-monastery until you stood before the Astartes’s room. 

And there you stalled. Their senses were so enhanced, surely the rest of the recruits would hear you knock? Calling out seemed equally inadvisable. 

Thankfully, your angel appeared. The door slid open with a soft hydraulic hiss just as you began losing your nerve, revealing a hulking shadow lingering in the doorway, the reflective glow of eyes far above your head. 

“Brother Aristaeus, I hope I didn’t wake you.” You dipped your head in a bow, voice barely louder than your breath. “…I wanted to ensure you were well.”

“…You were concerned about me.” By the Throne, his voice… those bestial huffs and whines had done no justice to the soft, sonorous baritone that seemed to lilt like a hymn. Quiet and calm and speaking of sanctuary, for a moment you felt the illogical urge to melt into a puddle at his feet. 

“Yes.” You tried to swallow; your mouth was suddenly very dry. “The fact you’re speaking to me bodes well.”

The massive shadow stepped forward, and for a moment you were rooted to the spot, your instinct to take flight escaping you. Then you saw his eyes, warm and honey brown and clear, looking upon you with curiosity. Maybe even a touch of awe, though you were sure you were imagining it. With the caution of someone scooping a butterfly up off the ground, he gingerly gathered you into his arms and retreated into his quarters. 

“How is your neck?” You shivered at the proximity as his lips brushed against your ear, tender in a way you didn’t expect. 

“Iced it hours ago. You’re deflecting.” The door slid shut, leaving you in darkness with the exception of the dim glow of incense at the bedside and its reflection in Aristaeus’s eyes. He lingered in the center of the room, silently holding you to his chest. 

Did he not know how to respond? If he felt as afraid as you, was he not permitted to say so? Before you could give it a second thought your hand was feeling for his jaw, reaching up to bury your fingers in his hair. The effect was immediate as his shoulders slumped, taking a few wobbling steps towards his cot and sitting heavily and letting out a low trilling purr. Your other hand joined the first, experimentally stroking his clean shaven face until he took a deep, shaky breath and seemed to settle.

“Ah. I’m sorry…” Achingly soft, he bent to nose at the top of your head, his voice unsure between shuddering inhales. “I know not what came over me— that is, I didn’t expect to be so… overwhelmed. I think it’s better now.”

“Tell me. I don’t know how you feel, but you didn’t seem to be… all there.” Nails scraping lightly down his jaw, your eyes strained to try and make out his face in the dark. “I want to know.”

The tiniest whine squeezed out of the space marine’s throat, impossibly small and fragile for an angel of death. Aristaeus pressed his lips to your forehead, seeking closeness rather than a kiss, a sensation that made your chest warm.

“...I thought it had run its course. We had trained through the height of it, it was hard to wear armor with the heat and the itching but the drills helped to numb things.” He mumbled into your hair as if expecting someone to be eavesdropping. “Thought I’d gotten used to it…”

He’d been near the end of his cycle. Shit. Your stomach clenched with guilt, leaning against his solid mass and taking a steadying breath. “And then… me?”

“Mhm.” Aristaeus’s hand found yours, gently grasping your fingers to run his thumb over your knuckles, the gesture tentative and curious. “Catching your scent was— it felt like I didn’t know how long I had been walking through a desert, acclimated to the sun and the sands. You are the oasis that made me realize I was dying of thirst. It was as if I didn’t know what I needed until that moment, and then in your presence… I could hardly think.” 

“Throne, I’m so fucking sorry.” Squeezing his hand with a vicious surge of shame, you turned your face to press it against his chest, gritting your teeth. There was little a mere baseline human could do to possibly protect an Astartes, and yet you felt as though the responsibility of holding the scout’s heart in your hands was a burden you would shoulder. “I promise, you’re going to become a battle-brother. I won’t hold you back. I already know how to shoot.”

“...Okay.” He murmured, shifting back to lay on his cot with you held to him like a beloved stuffed animal. How quickly you had become accustomed to his presence would have been alarming, but there was safety being hidden away from the world, tucked against Aristaeus’s torso. 

“It’ll be fine. You’re going to do fine.” You both needed that reassurance, so you spoke partly to yourself. Although you doubted the emotional availability of a living weapon, his presence was doing more than enough for now, settling your frayed nerves. Gingerly you turned in his grip, craning upward to press a proper kiss to his cheek before settling back into his arms, to which he dutifully shifted to accommodate you.

Using his bicep like a pillow, you listened to the even waves of Aristaeus breathing you in, soaking in the warmth radiating from him like a space heater. Your robes were thin and the cot was little more than a large metal shelf bolted to the wall with a mattress pad on top… and it was the most comfortable you’d been in a long time.

Being spooned by a space marine wasn’t something you had previously imagined, and yet it was much nicer than whatever subconscious expectation had formed in the back of your mind. Perhaps power armor didn’t exactly make for the most inviting nap spot. It just felt so cozy and peaceful. Absentmindedly you ran your fingertips up and down the scout’s arm, feeling the light prickle of goosebumps as you traced veins and tendons, circling the rims of his neural ports and counting the strong thrum of his pulse. 

You weren’t sure when your eyes closed, the room already dark and absorbing you in the feeling of the body resting behind you. It was only when you jolted out of your doze did you realize it had happened at all. It was very late and you were far too comfortable to keep yourself awake like this.

“Aristaeus, I should go back to the serf quarters.” Shifting forward you attempted to prop yourself up on your elbow, and that was as far as you got before the scout’s thick arm snagged you around the middle and pulled you back to him. “I’ll be back in the morning, come on.”

Squirming had already proved to be little use, but you tried anyway, huffing and pushing at the forearm over your stomach. “Hey, I mean it. Please?” All you got in response was a whine and a brief squeeze. You sighed. “If it makes you feel better, you could walk me back to my room. How’s that?”

Aristaeus finally acquiesced, slowly and reluctantly pulling his arm back and sitting up on his cot, waiting for you to gather yourself to your feet before taking your hand to lead you through the dark and back out the door.

[do-angels-dream-of-starry-seas]

My thoughts on honor among thieves:

So yeah, beginning is definitely an exposition dump, but I respect them owning up to it

Bard not doing any kind of magic is so funny. I guess they didn't wanna make him overpowered but like... could've just been a rogue???

Same with druid just doing wild shape the entire time

The cameo of the dnd animated series team in that cage in the center of the maze (I never heard of it so my friends pointed it out to me)

Favorite characters were Simon (lmao me), Xenk (shameless lvl 20 DMPC) and HOLGA (buff lady who should've been buffer :))

Holga, I just loved. I loved her fighting, I loved that she had low int but wasn't stupid, i loved she sings along to the silly little tune cause we expected her to hate it, I loved that she proudly and openly loves Kira, I loved that she clearly has a type

Xenk and Edgin should've kissed

But really I just loved the whole family aspect of the movie

Not even a kiss between the two people who technically got back together!!

Especially with Edgin and Holga who never once change from their sibling dynamic despite being coparents to their daughter cause they do not see each other that way

Overall a great movie, hope they do a sequel or maybe an anthology so we can see more of the world

And XENK IS APART OF THE GROUP!!!!

And him and Edgin kiss :)

[nexility-sims]

𝐍𝐎. 𝟑   ❛ 𝐡𝐨𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐚𝐬𝐭 ❜   |   NAKAWE, 2023

❧  𝐝𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲  /  𝐛𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠  /  𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬  /  𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭.

   ❛  Karolina Teague was hardly famous. Her name carried a certain heft among culture critics whose heyday had passed, but she liked the anonymity that came with being washed up. All of her favorite people were has-beens, after all, and she wasn’t ashamed to spend her time reminiscing about days past with them or anyone else who would listen. Today, she welcomed a whole crew of listeners into her Nakawe home—a film crew to be exact, led by a director-producer duo who had known her name well before a previous interviewee mentioned it to them. She wouldn’t be the star of their documentary, but they believed from its inception that the story wouldn’t be complete without her thoughts.

❧ honestly very proud of the scrapbooking !!!! this is basically just shameless exposition, but i am convinced i picked a creative vehicle for it :^) i watched that 90s docuseries on hulu a year ago and this specific story post was born fjdhjf anyway, canonically, no one would be writing or printing in script like that but i am simply NOT that committed to my worldbuilding sdkjfsf consider this whole thing an english language reimagining (^:

𝐬𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐮𝐞𝐝 & 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐩𝐭 ↓

Karolina took them on a tour of her colorful seaside house, one concluding in a room already set up for their perusal. It was the archive, she explained. This was what they came for; her recollections were valuable, but she had so much more than her own memories. Photographs waited on the tables, and an old television screen teased some scene from exclusive VHS tapes. Karolina plopped down onto a sofa and gestured widely, saying, “Have a look. I’m ready when you are.” 

The director, a woman named Ildaria, picked up a photograph. 

“Can you tell us about her?” 

Karolina beckoned for the photo, and Ildaria walked over to hand it to her. For a moment, she peered at it, keeping everyone in suspense. Finally, she replied, “Sure. What’s she going to do, sue me?”

“Maybe,” a cameraman elsewhere in the room snorted.

“I’ll take the risk,” Karolina laughed. “Look, I don’t know Princess Leonor, but I met her plenty of times. She was at The Den at least half the nights in 1991, for sure. Probably into 1992, but I didn’t really keep track of her comings and goings. Definitely not after 1993.”

The producer, Eilo, held up another photograph. “What’s the story here?” he asked.

Karolina reached for it. Unlike the other photo, this one was a proper candid. There were several people in the frame, but Leonor was at the center, kneeling by a table with her hand draped across Renzo’s thigh as he held her head in his palm and said something beyond the capture of still photography.

“It wasn’t anything formal,” Karolina explained. “Renzo didn’t date anyone in those days, and I don’t think she did either. They liked each other. It was mutual fascination with zero understanding, is how I saw it. They hung out—liked each other’s company. Hot and fast, burned out quick, that’s what it looked like.” She shrugged. “That was Renzo.” 

“And Leonor?” Ildaria asked, having sat down nearby. 

“Like I said,” Karolina began. She seemed to be choosing her words carefully. “I didn't know her. Seemed like a cool girl. I’m older, mind you. I think she wanted to get a little wild and try new things—this is off the record—and The Den was for her what it was for everyone. You could kick your shoes off. Scream along to your buddy’s new song, have a movie star tell you his woes while he pours your drink, get high in the dressing room and probably be fine—” 

“Did she do that?” Ildaria’s eyes were wide.

Karolina cleared her throat. “No, of course not. Not everyone did! Enough, sure. We all know the quote-unquote horror stories.”

The crew listened, rapt, having stopped flipping through albums and poking around the bookcases, eager to hear something explosive. They had set out to make a documentary about a particular time and place. The Den at the turn of the century was their subject. That glorious decade solidified its place in celebrity culture, to say nothing of its place in music history. The princess was just a footnote in that story. Nonetheless, it was a tantalizing footnote. Most people below a certain age were shocked to hear that she hadn’t been a humorless, buttoned-up bureaucrat her entire life. The idea that someone whose day job involved keeping the country afloat may have once been young and reckless intrigued. That she was adjacent to the salacious stories of sex, drugs, and rock and roll they knew better nearly crossed the line into unbelievable. Yet, people in Uspana also knew their royals had been wrapped up in the glamor of celebrity for decades. Even now, they continued to rub elbows with rock stars, including the one elder princess who was herself a music star. 

“She’s a different person now, clearly,” Karolina continued. She spoke tentatively still but nonetheless addressed what everyone wanted to know. “But, for a time, she was at The Den with everyone else, drinking too much and carrying around a pharmacy in whatever cute purse you had that night. You may remember there was a big Reyes death around then. It’s like—when my mother died in 2009, I lost my shit, too.” 

Karolina shrugged again. “She was having fun. I was doing worse, alright, so I only feel judgmental about it insofar as she’d probably be embarrassed if you asked her about any of it today. Royals are supposed to do their sniffing in private, right, not in a bathroom Renzo forgot to hire someone to clean. She was snobby, but my sense was that she liked pretending she wasn’t—roleplay, you know, transgressing or whatever.” 

Someone coughed. The rifling through materials resumed. Ildaria and Eilo shared a look. 

“You haven’t talked to her since ‘92?” Ildaria asked. Eilo, meanwhile, had pulled out his cell phone and was typing with fast fingers. 

Karolina shook her head. “So, she knew I’d asked Renzo to let me collect photos and bring along my Zenith. I got a weird email in 2000 inquiring about them from someone who worked for her.” She grinned, then added as an aside, “Only one recording, by the way. The Den had a strict no video policy.”

“We’d like to see them sometime,” Ildaria responded. 

Karolina nodded, then shook her head and clarified, “Which—my tapes or the email?” 

Eilo answered without looking up, “Both.”

He finished what he was doing after a moment of quiet, then held his phone up for Ildaria and Karolina to see. “Seems like she’s still in touch with people,” he said.

They leaned forward to view the screen while he swiped at it, then Karolina laughed.  “Okay, maybe she just didn’t like me!”  

While they watched, Eilo moved through a hastily thrown together slideshow of the princess with various people Karolina knew well. Some looked like event photos. Others were captured with long lenses—paparazzi shots that made money but didn’t always generate enough interest if the other person was a comparative nobody. Not everyone had evolved in the last thirty years. Plenty of people who visited the bar during the decade of Renzo’s ownership continued to have flourishing careers. They were, at the time, young and beautiful and painfully unprepared for the lifetime of celebrity ahead of them. That’s what they brought to this place more than anything: their pain, which, being creative types, they eagerly spun into something beautiful and private. 

That’s what The Den gave them. These impossibly talented, dedicated stars created fleeting things for each other and no one else. Bands and dance troupes formed. An endless stream of songs and poetry and performance art kept the bar’s little stage occupied nightly for years. Offstage, people with no reason to meet in the real world bonded in this space of both contrived and undeniable intimacy. For some, the reprieve helped them endure the difficulty of becoming that invariably attended a rise in fame. It was detrimental to others. These were the ones who didn’t evolve—people who gave up their relevance to live forever in this meaningless, generative privacy or people who couldn’t make the choice and lost everything in the process. 

Karolina hadn’t evolved, but she hadn’t died or wanted to die either. From her perspective, what people like the princess and even Renzo himself had done wasn’t evolution. It was more like a revelation. People don’t change, she would tell Eilo and Ildaria later, over dinner, when the conversation had moved far away from the royal footnote. She believed people just uncover deeper truths about themselves, knowingly or unknowingly, and those became harder to conceal once they were exposed.

Have you felt that way before? she asked them. Exposed, like when you break your leg so hard the bone snaps right through your skin? They had. The conversation detoured to childhood misadventures, but Karolina had a point to make. She pulled them back. Some people get comfortable with that feeling and learn how to live in it. Other people, you know, they deny and lie and call it growth. That’s my opinion. I’ve seen it—artists are the worst for it, I swear. Artists who don’t want to be artists anymore? Worse than that. 

Can I say you sound bitter? Ildaria laughed. 

Now, Karolina threw her hands up. She exclaimed, joyful, That’s my truth, baby! I took too many bites of the world, and I’ve been disgusted by it ever since. Some people come out of their mamas malcontent.

Later that night, Eilo was exhausted, but Ildaria’s hand hovered over the light switch with uncertainty. She heaved a big, put-upon sigh, then asked, “Is it bad that I want to give Mencia Cipac a call?”

“Give her a call?” Eilo snorted. “Sure, Mencia Cipac, whose number you totally have, definitely won’t ignore your calls because she, for sure, knows who you are and has endless free time to spare.” He sat up straighter, then added, “No more overloading on projects. You promised. Besides, you don’t wanna poke that bear.”

“Not a bear,” Ildaria retorted. “A jaguar. Roar!”

TRANSCRIPT:

KAROLINA | Have a look. I'm ready when you are.

RENZO (O.S.) | Get that thing out of here, Karolina!

ILDARIA | Can you tell us about her?

KAROLINA | Sure. What's she going to do, sue me? CAMERAMAN | Maybe.

KAROLINA | I'll take the risk.

KAROLINA | Look, I don’t know Princess Leonor, but I met her plenty of times. She was at The Den at least half the nights in 1991, for sure. Probably into 1992, but I didn’t really keep track of her comings and goings. Definitely not after 1993

EILO | What's the story here?

KAROLINA | It wasn't anything formal.

KAROLINA | Renzo didn’t date anyone in those days, and I don’t think she did either. They liked each other. It was mutual fascination with zero understanding, is how I saw it. They hung out—liked each other’s company. Hot and fast, burned out quick, that’s what it looked like. That was Renzo.

ILDARIA | And Leonor?

KAROLINA | Like I said, I didn't know her. Seemed like a cool girl. I’m older, mind you. I think she wanted to get a little wild and try new things—this is off the record—and The Den was for her what it was for everyone. You could kick your shoes off. Scream along to your buddy’s new song, have a movie star tell you his woes while he pours your drink, get high in the dressing room and probably be fine—

ILDARIA | Did she do that?

KAROLINA | No, of course not. Not everyone did! Enough, sure. We all know the quote-unquote horror stories.

KAROLINA | She's a different person now, clearly. But, for a time, she was at The Den with everyone else, drinking too much and carrying around a pharmacy in whatever cute purse you had that night. You may remember there was a big Reyes death around then. It’s like—when my mother died in 2009, I lost my shit, too.

KAROLINA | She was having fun. I was doing worse, alright, so I only feel judgmental about it insofar as she’d probably be embarrassed if you asked her about any of it today. Royals are supposed to do their sniffing in private, right, not in a bathroom Renzo forgot to hire someone to clean. She was always a snob, but I my sense was that she liked pretending she wasn’t—roleplay, you know, transgressing or whatever.

ILDARIA | You haven't talked to her since '92?

KAROLINA | So, she knew I’d asked Renzo to let me collect photos and bring along my Zenith. I got a weird email in 2000 inquiring about them from someone who worked for her. Only one recording, by the way. The Den had a strict no video policy.

ILDARIA | We'd like to see them sometime.

KAROLINA | Which—my tapes or the email?

EILO | Both.

EILO | Seems like she's still in touch with people. KAROLINA | Okay, maybe she just didn’t like me!

ILDARIA | Is it bad that I want to give Mencia Cipac a call?

EILO | Give her a call?

EILO | Sure, Mencia Cipac, whose number you totally have, definitely won’t ignore your calls because she, for sure, knows who you are and has endless free time to spare.

EILO | No more overloading on projects. You promised. Besides, you don’t wanna poke that bear.

ILDARIA | Not a bear. A jaguar. Roar!

[tokiro07]

Toki Reads Shonen Jump 2024, Issue #52

HxH: Morena's card game begins, and she exposits that she was conceived in a state-sanctioned non-consensual orgy; Borksen learns that thanks to Nen restrictions, she actually does have actually does have an escape route. The implications of Morena's backstory are certainly staggering, but also lost on me

Yozakura: Taiyo has an "I know you're in there" fight with himself, ending with him expelling Asa by shooting himself in the heart. Taiyo's willingness to damage his own body to make it uninhabitable to Asa doesn't seem ideal, but definitely preferable to being possessed

Undead Unluck: Soul tries to force Andy and Victor's souls back together, but Rip cuts them apart permanently with Unrepair. This is Rip's capstone, where he finally uses Unrepair for someone else's happiness instead of ruining his own with it

Roboco: Roboco writes more shameless ripoff manga, but finally learns that her own original material is a lot better. I have no faith that this lesson will stick

Sakamoto: Atari's luck has literally run out; she reveals to Tenkyu that his friendship w/ Uzuki is irreparable; Shin resolves to kill Tenkyu, even if it means severing ties with Sakamoto. Both Tenkyu and Shin are losing their friends because they're killing in their name against their wishes; Atari's an idiot for using such an obscene amount of luck last chapter just to fire ONE bullet

EluSam: Tokiyuki and realKojiro gush over Kojiro as he fights Nagao; the scene cuts away to Mima getting into architecture and interior design. This seems to have an affect on enemy morale, but I feel like it's not worth ignoring what seems to be Kojiro's most important fight

Witch Watch: The flashback gang discusses the legacy of Familiars and their prejudice towards humanity; Kuon warms up to the team, and Taiga raises more death flags. The idea of magic fading away as a sign of peaceful times is a topic I've been thinking about a lot lately because I've been revisiting Medaka Box; this may inform a future essay

Blue Box: Taiki endears himself to Chinatsu's dad with his earnest, if a bit overbearing, nature. I'm glad we're not drawing out the tension too much, it makes the dad more relatable

Akane: Despite Miroku's refusal to let them perform, Shiguma and Issho learn enough rakugo for Kiroku to give them a slot; Miroku offers to grant Kiroku his name and rank if he will use it to expel the pair. This is clearly the event that led to the founding of the Arakawa School, but even with a foregone conclusion, it's a nailbiter

Kill Blue: Juzo and Shin use assassin techniques to advertise the bakery; Yoichiro wagers his staff's bonuses to whichever club can beat their challenges. Clearly he's plotting something, but I can't quite see yet how this furthers his plans

Nue: Rido spontaneously achieves his Bankai Spirit Armor and promptly passes out. It looks cool, but I'm already so unclear on this power system's rules that such an upgrade only serves to confuse me further

Kagurabachi: In a side story, we revisit everyone's favorite guy, Sojo, trying desperately to enjoy a bath despite his routine being ruined at every turn. Looking back, I'm sad that Sojo died; I hope he continues to haunt the narrative

Chojo: Keinain's new assistant, Makami, finds everything about the Chinjuku station to be lewd; this is not because she's a prude, but an extremely repressed pervert. Would

Astro Royale: Himuro reveals he became a cop to stop the Yotsurugi family from interfering with his dad's business, but only found out later that they were supporting him through hard times; the damage he caused this business relationship resulted in his father's suicide; he eats the Daybreak Ore and becomes a mutated mass. Himuro's motivations now reflect Kinpa's, but just like he hurt his dad by targeting the Yotsurugi's, his rage is misdirected and self-destructive

Kiyoshi: Asuta's time runs out and he gets away, cementing the sacrifices made to summon him; as he leaves, he calls Kiyoshi his soulmate in a perverse twist on Kiyoshi's own desire for friendship. Axe-deniers when the lead fails and lets 100 innocent people die - 🎉🍾🥳🎊🥂; throw the yaoi girlies in there too since there's about to be a huge boost in sales

Hima-Ten: Tenichi takes up the rear on the class hike; Himari fakes an injury to keep him company. Very cute, but how the hell does this moron not realize she's in love???

Ichi: Just before the contest begins, Ichi sees a mysterious figure; the Kindake Magik vows to kill everyone who doesn't worship his mushrooms, then escapes into his mushroom forest. So much for not being a human-hater; Togeice's poor sense of direction will certainly make this challenge much harder on her

Shinobi: Yodaka sabotages Hachikuma's strings and turns them against him. Though heavy-handed, Yodaka straightening and braiding Hachikuma's discarded, tangled strings as a symbol of the value of putting effort into maintaining relationships is sweet

Hakutaku: The mechanics of the AR game are explained, but Hikuma sleeps through people actually enjoying it. Maybe it's cus I don't like mobile games, but I do not see the appeal of this game, which is probably the most damning indictment of a game design manga

Syd Craft: Elio is revealed to be Levie Olyn, Syd's favorite romance author, who became his assistant after he cleared her name in a case; she writes her books to vent her DEFINITELY NOT ROMANTIC feelings for Syd. That's a great dynamic, I love girls who pine, I'm super endeared to this idiot

My top 3 manga for the week are:

Undead Unluck, unsurprisingly, for its fantastic color page, multiple great spreads, and at least two of what will undoubtedly become the most iconic moments in the entire series; congrats on netting the final cover of the year!

Syd Craft for continuing to expand upon its concept in a way that really appeals to me; let it be known I never said Tsutsui was a bad author, I just said he was a coward

Kiyoshi for dodging the axe, establishing an interesting dynamic between Kiyoshi and Asuta, and the bravery to leave it on such a bleak cliffhanger

Runners up include Astro Royale and Shinobi Undercover, both for giving me some interesting symbolism to chew on, as well as Hima-Ten and Chojo for women in denial that fall short of Elio

Edit: I want to correct something I said last week - it does not seem like Bug Ego is joining Weekly Jump after all, I think someone I follow on twitter either got a bad tip or I misunderstood what they said. Bug Ego was added to the Shonen Jump app, not Shonen Jump itself. Apologies for any confusion!

[skyfallscotland]

Ok I’m OBSESSED with in too deep. Like embarrassingly obsessed it’s so good. Do you have any upcoming scenes you’re excited for?? Maybe a tease for them?? (I’m shameless) 👀👀😂😂

😭 Thank you so much! I'm so glad people like it because was meant to just be a fun, less-plotty thing haha that's now going to be a novel-length exposition of disability and feelings 💛 Maybe this, from the next chapter:

By the time I’ve had my coffee and I’m more than half-awake, I’m mad enough to actually reply to one of them from the Team USA account. What are they going to do, fire me? I’m not Tavis—I have leverage over my boss.  I thought he was dating that diver…the British one? Someone on instagram asks beneath the photo, to which ‘Team USA’s’ reply is a simple but firm ‘no’. 

[sheeposquid]

shameless self plug!!!

for those who already follow my work, chapter 8 is up. this one was a long, crazy, and fun ride. i strived to sprinkle a little bit of greatness from all the fic's aspects in here

it has the hints of romance, it has the action, it has the exposition. i can only hope that it is the same food for you all that i pray it is

its absurd length is attributed to this stream of consciousness i had during my afternoon commute, which resulted in the inn/chase scene. i just KNEW i had to get it down before the spark faded

this chapter is also brought to you by susumu hirasawa's "gats" and "these dreams" by heart. i fixate on one song and listen to it on loop while i write, so i thought i'd throw that out there, for those of you who want to feel the same vibes as your dear old author

anyways, a quick shoutout to @eggcitizen for being my irl bestie and beta, and @shiny-ampharos-writes for gassing me up ENDLESSLY. so much love

and with that, i retreat into the night sky

[amalgamate-exe]

because i'm ill with the plauge i started watching shameless AND HOLY SHIT THEY DONT MESS AROUND WHEN IT COMES TO PLOT, the amount of exposition, man ass, WOWZA, i'm not even half way through the first episode

[shearlin]

Chapter 4: What is magical alignment?

Word count: 11704

First || << Previous

And that's it! :D

I have some writers notes about the alignments and energy quirks of the boys without all fluff. I might post it here ? Or one day add it as chapter 5 to this fic? I'll think about it.

I hope you liked it :D Thank you for reading <3

“Alright, kids, listen up and pay attention because it’s important.” He said leveling all Links in the clearing with a glare, especially Wind, who seemed too excited to finally learn about his magic to actually pay attention. “Aura tells a story of your life through magic. That means that every significant thing that happens in your life, especially magic-wise, will most likely be felt through your aura. That being said. Does anyone want to sit this one out?”

He waited as the words sunk in the minds of the heroes around him, wanting all of them to truly understand what they were signing it for. Some of them were considering it for a good while, once again weighing the implications of what might or might not be brought up, but eventually each of them gave him their confirmations, not able to resist learning something new.

Satisfied with their responses, Legend turned to his successor.

“Traveller,” he said, “Before we start, have you ever read aura? Did you ever try to sense for anything other than the simple presence of energy?”

“Well, yes and no? I know how to read aura. I scanned ambient magic in the past, specifically for dark energy and tracked down fairy fountains following the magical signatures left behind by fairies. I can differentiate between auras of different people. But if you mean if I ever wondered what alignment they were?” he shook his head. “I never thought about it. To me it’s just ‘that guy's energy’ or ‘this guy’s energy’, that sort of thing. Never really thought about what makes them different.”

“It's a pretty similar process, really. All you need is a change of perspective. Reading alignments requires attention to details that is unnecessary for a simple detection. I’m going to guide you though finding those details, so you can familiarise yourself with how different types of energy feel like. But. All I can do is point you in the right direction. The rest is on you.”

Hyrule nodded. He knew how it worked.

Everyone’s magic sense worked a bit differently. The common part was ‘ the feeling’ . An impossible to specify closer awareness of magic. But the beautiful thing about brains was that if they couldn’t make sense of something, they would make stuff up. And so, what could not be described from the primary sensation alone was bleeding into other senses.

For Legend, most often it was sound. Magic sang to him, hummed and played. Each type of magic played its own motifs, used different instruments, sang unique harmonies. Ever since that fateful stormy night his world was seldom quiet.

For Hyrule however, magic sense manifested most commonly though smell and taste. He talked about how rancid dark magic tastes, how sweet is the trill of a fairy. He loved the smell of forest after rain, its earthy tones reminding him of protection magic.

Those differences, while fascinating to discuss, made comparing anything about how they detect different types of magic near impossible. Not that if they shared the secondary magic sense it would make it any easier. From what the veteran knew, Time also experienced it though sound, but it manifested mostly through instruments and whispers . Magic talked to him, as creepy as it sounded. So despite there being some common ground between them, their experiences varied a lot either way.

The only way to learn then was through practice.

Read the rest on Ao3!

[inspector-montoya-fox]

You know sometimes i like using my tumblr as like a brain rot bank? Like a time capsule for thoughts and opinion that cater to no one but everyone is welcome to enjoy and partake. And today i'll be doing just that because i have finally finished The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles. If you've been following me for a while you know that this is lowkey monumental because (a) it means that i have officially played all Ace Attorney games, and (b) i have been struggling to finish these two games since their bundled release three years ago. So, i just wanted to share some general thoughts, some tier lists, and feel free to let me know what you think if you read what i have to say!

Ok so, my main takeaway from playing the two games is that... Dr Courtney Sithe is a bad bitch deserving of the same praise as Franziska, Lana Skye, Justine Courtney, Dee Vasquez and Calisto Yew. I genuinely love her so much. Miss Buttplug Hair got her PhD in being a girlboss and i'm so upset she was only in one case. For such a cool character with an amazing design, she was criminally underdeveloped. Same goes for my other fav, Rei Membani. Soon as it was mentioned that Professor Mikotoba and Judge Jigoku were on their way to the UK, i was one hundred percent sure she'd accompany them, and i was ultimately disappointed. To have her right next to Susato on the game's cover art and give her such an amazing takedown of Raiten Menimemo... and then just not have her be anywhere else was such a shame. I need more Dr Sithe and Rei !

The rest of the games' characters were a bit of a mixed bag with some obvious (and some unexpected) stand-outs. Here's my tier list:

Notes:

The biggest surprise that came when i was making this is how high i placed Herlock. I started off hating him so much and then he just suddenly grew on me so quickly, i hadn't even noticed. One of my favourites for sure.

I think we can all collectively agree that we have, at some point in our lives, embodied Pop Windibank... poor guy...

I don't know what Kazuma's deal is. He starts off as Ryunosuke's Mia Fey before um... just becoming a jerk? Why does he have beef with his best friend who was literally mourning him for almost a year? Can't lie though, the bitch looks hot in his white uniform.

Some of the jurors made a bigger impression than actual characters/ witnesses, just by having cool designs. Mainly the green lady, who rightfully earned her spot in the third tier after i found out she's supposed to be a reincarnation of the teacher from PLvsPW !

Eggert Benedict or whatever the fuck that rich breakdancing asshole is called, cannot be a final villain i'm sorry. Seriously, what were they thinking?

The two redheads are such a shameless rip-off of the Skulkins. Two ruffians taking the witness stand for the game's climax AGAIN !? And during the credits, they pose in their prison cell with "Gossip" in the middle the exact same way Eggert and the Skulkins did in the credits of Adventures, like no thank you.

I love how my overall bottom 3 are an annoying str*ight couple and a child.

If Stronghart wasn't in the second (very coveted) tier, he'd be in the bottom of 'like !' because he was ok. It's blatantly obvious he's the big bad from the second he's introduced but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Also, i need him and Damon Gant to have a fat titty bounce-off.

Moving on to criticisms, i can't help but feel like the fact that Shu Takumi decided to split his original script into two games only served to hurt the entire project. Because, for starters, each game has a different feel and the two don't match. Adventures is reminiscent of PLvsPW, Takumi's whimsical and eccentric love letter to the UK that hinges heavily on exposition. Resolve, on the other hand, is a bit of a mix between its predecessor and traditional Ace Attorney, its cases focusing more on driving the narrative to its conclusion rather than experimenting on the classic formula (as with the first game). It also echoes aspects of the first Investigations, bringing in diplomatic immunity, international relations, "tracking down and going against the head of the evil organisation" (the Reaper storyline is very similar to the Yatagarasu one). Personally the two vibes don't mesh, even when Resolve tries to latch onto Adventures with Memoirs of the Clouded Kokoro, for example.

Then, the pacing in both games is all over the place. Adventures is just so unreasonably and unashamedly long-winded and slow, it's the reason it took me literally three years to get into it. The game repeats the same lines of dialogue again and again until they're made painfully clear, subsequently making the player (or at least me) feel like an idiot who needs to read the same thing 13 times in order to get it. This, coupled with the fact that actual gameplay was almost nowhere to be seen and that progression in the courtroom almost always relied on not pointing out inconsistencies but pressing the witnesses adjacent to the one testifying, made the game such a slog to get through. And once the game started to pick up, it was over before i even knew it and in a very unceremonious fashion no less. In comparison, Resolve is very streamlined, albeit a bit too fast-paced. With the exception of Memoirs, which felt like shameless filler, it's clear that they wanted to waste zero time and crammed so much stuff into the episodes, to the point where it became difficult to keep track of everything going on. Because, keep in mind, the second game was tasked with tying up all the loose threads from the first one.

This leads to my final criticism regarding the split: inconsistencies and unresolved mysteries. I think it reads as careless writing when questions keep sprouting everywhere and their answers are reserved for the final two episodes of the second game. Even Unspeakable, a final case, introduces mysteries tied to the overarching narrative just for them to be shelved until Twisted Karma, leaving the player with a sense of dissatisfaction when the game ends. Not only is it frustrating to keep track of all the unsolved mysteries, a chore which good writing would not expect from the player, but it also has you questioning whether or not some of them will get answered at all. Why was the selection of jurors obviously rigged? Why did Van Zieks stop appearing in court five years prior? Where did he lose his gun in Twisted Karma? Why didn't Stronghart assassinate Madame Tusspells as well? Why is Kazuma fully exonerated after admitting to his involvement in the assassin exchange? I grouped the unresolved mysteries with inconsistencies as one problem because the latter is a result of the former. The majority of mysteries spills over from the first game to the second, giving way to different phrasing, details getting glossed over and the plot's consequences getting ignored. There's a very apparent shift in Gregson's character, for example, going from uncooperative and rigid in Adventures to more forgiving and helpful in Resolve, all the while his misconduct from Unspeakable is seemingly forgotten and met with zero ramifications. There's also the government's secret message about the assassin exchange Herlock deciphered at the end of the first game, which sets up the second game nicely but then doesn't get mentioned until the very last day in court. Like, come on now. It feels like Resolve continues Adventures' story without wanting to acknowledge it because, in the grand scheme of things, McGilded and Eggert Benedict seem to not matter at all. And then there's Memoirs, which... Inconsistency City, honestly. This episode's lack of impact on the overall story allowed it to be literally anything else. It's such a bizarre choice to have it be something which only achieves in taking away from the first Clouded Kokoro case! Like ok, i can get behind it being a case no one wanted to talk about so it didn't make the first game. I can turn a blind eye to the inconsistent character development and timeline, whatever. But it absolutely drives me nuts that, for an Ace Attorney game where the murders are explained in full detail, they couldn't stay consistent with the direction Olive Green was walking in. Hate. Loathe. Get it away from me.

That pretty much covers it in terms of complaints, because otherwise i enjoyed my playthrough quite a bit actually. I know i've just spent like 3 mega-sized paragraphs complaining but the games have great elements as well. The Deduction dances are easily the best thing about the gameplay, especially when you didn't see them coming. They were so much fun to play, very animated and cartoony with amazing banter, and effortlessly accelerated the investigation segments. Equally, i loved Judicial Findings. Undoubtedly my favourite part of the courtroom sections and a welcome change of pace. I tended to stall a lot because the jury's music fucks so hard. While on the topic of what i liked, Ryunosuke and Susato's chemistry rivals what Phoenix and Maya have going on. Susato leaving at the end of Adventures was a genuinely effective point in the plot, even though i knew she'd be back.

Now, let's take a closer look at the episodes. Here's my overall tier list of all Ace Attorney cases, the Great Ace Attorney ones being highlighted in yellow:

Notes:

Blossoming Attorney gobbled the rest of the girls right up (a court-only episode, no less). They gave us Susato gameplay, what more can you ask for? An amazing case. Gay Women in STEM !!

Return kinda strikes a nice balance between the different feels of the two games i mentioned before. You've got exposition and world-building with the whole Great Exhibition, turn of the century mad science thing, but also classic Ace Attorney with tracking down Drebber (very Matt Engarde's apartment) and Madame Tusspells as just some witness (very Lisa Basil). A very fun case right before the clusterfuck of mysteries ensues. Also, Dr Courtney Sithe !!!!! Girl you're such a star and you don't even know it spit in my mouth

Was tempted to put Unspeakable in the second tier but i think it's earned its high placement on its own merit and not because of personal bias. It's a great case. Maybe not for a final one, but it's still great. It tries its hardest to tie up some loose ends before the game ends and that's worth something.

Resolve of Ryunosuke is objectively better than Twisted because i could not give less of a fuck about the purple guy's headache and Espella Cantabella selling firecrackers, but they're both very much one single package. Extra points to Resolve of Ryunosuke though for having its villain sit at the judge's seat. That was neat.

The two Clouded Kokoros are giving stinky Bri ish culture with the whole apartment building background, like Ribena, bad teeth, rusty Union Jack, horseshit breath at the pub, you awrite luv? Slander, i'm sorry.

Slightly unrelated but when i was making this tier list it became so obvious that Investigations 2 is the crown jewel of the franchise. Like it has two cases in the top 5, how can you even argue against that?

Arriving to a conclusion, i'd say both games belong on the same level as Apollo Justice: a blend of good and bad. My experience playing the Ace Attorney franchise has followed this trend of attaching each game to a pivotal moment in my life. I finished the first game while i was still a soldier, Justice for All during my first year at university, Dual Destinies during Covid lockdown, Investigations while helping my parents set up their shop one summer. So i know i'll look back at playing The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles right after handing my dissertation very fondly. In other words, despite not quite sticking the landing, it's left a very pleasant aftertaste. Thank you for reading!

[demonslayedher]

Things that went through my head while watching this episode: --This was a great episode to notice during the OP that in the clip right after Muichiro throws the sword and Tanjiro goes rushing forward in a strike presumably with that sword, you can see Yoriichi in the back lined up next to Tanjiro--almost like the pose Tanjiro strikes with Pillars in the OP! (Hmm, how are they going to do that for the Pillar Training Arc?)

--Kanamori, in some not very well-placed exposition, says that Tanjiro asked him to be understanding of Muichiro, and that is why as Muichiro's new swordsmith, he looked into who used to smith his swords. First of all, when? We only saw Tanjiro interact with Kanamori the day or two before this all goes down, but Kanamori already has Muichiro's new sword ready and stashed away in the same shop where Haganezuka is busy putting his life on the line for polishing a sword even before Gyokko shows up. The first we see of Tanjiro even hearing of Kanamori being responsible for Muichiro's sword is when Muichiro woke him up maybe an hour or so ago. This means Tanjiro had to have known this and had an opportunity to talk to Kanamori long before he even witnessed Muichiro in the Swordsmith Village. Perhaps Tanjiro brought it up as general advice to Kanamori who expressed feeling pressure for being assigned to a Pillar, and Tanjiro just wanted to be encouraging to him based on what little impression he had of Muichiro at the Pillar Meeting and whatever he heard from Shinobu (and Shinobu did tell Tanjiro Muichiro's name, at the very least). But also, perhaps Kanamori started this endeavor to understand Muichiro after completing his first sword for him, because Tanjiro only said this to him yesterday? In which case, was this truly a matter of Tanjiro seeing that Muichiro is in need of that kindness, or was it Tanjiro throwing his hands up and saying, "I don't know what to make of him, you try!"

--And that, friends, is how you can dig too deep into canon to find fanfic ideas.

--Kotetsu-kun truly is a brave kid whose response to seeing his friends in pain was to attack instead of run away. I love how close-knit everyone in the village is, they all know (and recognize!) each other by name. --Muichiro is the kind of person who would walk around a modern art museum saying, "I could do that." Kotetsu would be the one saying, "but you didn't." Gyokko, of course, is the worst of modern artists. There must be a modern day AU which Gyokko leans a bean in Chicago and Muichiro starts a "paint the bean pink" event.

--Gyokko deserves some credit here for his cleverness! Although what Muzan would have preferred is Gyokko finding Ubuyashiki or the blue spider lilies, Gyokko has honed in the Corp's weapons and focused his efforts on eliminating those. Maybe he was merely lucky to have found a clue about the village, but he developed a technique, I assume specifically, to deprive swordsmen of their Breath.

--Being taunted for having "a dull life" and an existence with no meaning sure adds weight to that "I was born to be happy" statement. --Kimetsu Academy answered some of my wishes by having Uzui-sensei and Gyokko hang out and talk art, but what I really want is to see Shinobu see those fishes.

--I love the BGM and sound effects for Love Breath. Mitsuri is just so special, you guys. I love hearing her in this Taisho Secret showing off her sword skills to Tanjiro & Nezuko, and a sound that lives in my head rent free is the the sound she made in the previous episode's Kimetsu Academy short as she falls to her knees. --One of my favorite background characters in this whole series is the guy who tried to protect Tecchin by charging at the fish monster with a naginata. ----First, naginata. I have bias. ----Second, such upstanding character! That is not a man who runs away even when the swordsmen have been slain. ----Also, while Tecchin and the other guy who got his head bumped are shameless in fishing for Mitsuri's care and attention, this is the guy who had the view up her skirt and who made no mention of it whatsoever. ----That might be because he was so rightfully distracted by the sight of her sword instead, and he gave us some smoother exposition with which to appreciate it. --Another random thing, but I love the nighttime lighting in this season! The BGM in general feels more experimental and sometimes takes me out of it (opposed to how the Yuukaku spin plunged me deeper into it), but when it slaps, it slaps, like on the new variation as Tanjiro attains a lightsaber Red Blade. Also also, there are a lot of characters in this one with peculiar and kind of old-timey ways of speaking (Kanamori, Tecchin, Hantengu's clones, etc.) that are still distinct from other characters (like Rengoku). I don't know how much of it comes across in translation, but my ears enjoy the extra characterization.

--I love--and the first time I watched this, my friends loved it too--how Nezuko and Tanjiro take turns carrying each other when they lose consciousness. It keeps the pacing fast and desperation high, while also illustrating their bond really well. What also gets me is how Tanjiro frets and tells her to let go of the sword because her fingers will get cut. It doesn't feel like a big concern because we know she's already lost a forearm and being impaled through through the torso and neck tonight, but any reasonable brother doesn't want to see his sister's fingers cut off, much less sliced with a sword at all.

--I love how Sekido is the only demon around here whose perspective is worth anything

--Quickly jumping to the end of the episode to note how we see the base of Aizetsu's neck and the top of his head still intact, so that implies that Genya munched on the bottom half of his head. In general I'm not much into ship content, but I know there is a fandom for Aizetsu and Genya out there, and I do find the idea of it being one-sided infatuation on Aizetsu's part an amusing premise. With that in the back of my mind, I could also imagine Aizetsu mistakenly thinking Genya was going to make out with him and how quickly and shockingly he'd have his hopes dashed. --Okay, so, HINOKAMI KAGURA WITH A RED BLADE AND THE MARK, TIME TO DIAL UP THE ANIMATION

--And they do

--And it's so sad Haganezuka doesn't get to see it --Like, after how much the fight with Rui blew up and the internet collectively lost their minds, we tend to just expect this from Ufotable, so the beauty they accomplish doesn't always stick out because they have to work harder and harder to stand out from what they've already given us, but this attack on Karaku, Urogi, and Sekido is a thing of wonder and it is highly worth appreciating.

--The lighting! The fluid motion and changing camera angles! But also the ability to show changes in expression, and to differentiate Tanjiro in the marked state from his usual state.

--But, again, the timeline has me in knots. Tanjiro says he was "always" thinking about that last strike on Gyutaro and how it felt different, but when would he have had time to do that, since he's spend so much of his wakeful life, like, fighting for his life against a mechanical doll? He's of course had downtime, but given the Taisho Secret in the hand-out at the early Mugen Ressha showings, I suspect comatose Tanjiro spend a lot of time analyzing and replaying that moment and doing image training. --On the first watch, when Tanjiro is thinking about how his will is tied with that of everyone around him, and even if he can't do it, someone else will take over for him, it's easy to get wrapped up in "THAT'S RENGOKU" or "this is foreshadowing all the hands in that truly final battle with Muzan!" but, I can't wait to think back to this scene when he's talking to Giyuu in the next season. Giyuu is the first person he thinks of, but also, Giyuu's hand is absent from among the ones on Tanjiro's back.

[lalazeewrites]

What are your personal favorite Gallavich fics?

OKAY, BUCKLE IN!

I actually answer this fic and Tumblr like glitched and deleted it and I was crushed about it, but now I'm back. Ready to tackle this again!

First off, I have 90 Gallavich fics bookmarked. So let's start with the fact that I have a lot of fics that I LOVE and I'm going to link you right here to my Gallavich Bookmarks, should you want to look. I didn't add to my list any purely smutty fics and I have A LOT of amazing ones Bookmarked.

That being said, here are my personal standouts. I'm NOT putting these in order of how much I like them, because I would simply die on the spot under that kind of pressure.

BELOW THE READ MORE: 25 FIC RECS & SHORT RAVE REVIEWS

Life, or Something by @palepinkgoat

This fic encapsulates a lot of things that I crave in a fic that is designed specifically for my tastes. Personal journeys that begin rocky and work toward healing. Dark themes that are treated in a very matter-of-fact way instead of rolling in angst. The growth of mental health. You'll probably see those themes a lot in the fics I love. I also have a fascination with all things death, as someone who has almost died many times and who struggles with a chronic illness. This fic is so. . .beautiful? Articulate. FEELING. I love everything about it.

Belladonna by devovitsuasartes

Oh, THIS. Oof. Okay, this is fantasy HOW I WANT IT. So intricate, so unique, so embedded into the world-building that isn't word-dumped on us with exposition, but SHOWN to us. Witches and forced familiars, complicated family dynamics, rough pasts, coming full circle between the beginning and the end. Emotional journeys, coming back from tough experiences, PINING. This is the fantasy for ME.

Is There Somewhere by andchaos

Soulmates! Soulmarks! Mute Ian who is really fucking funny and sweet and Mickey who doesn't think he has a soulmate because he has no 'first words said to me' mark. I love the dance, I love their rapport, I love how warm this fic is. I've read it several times for comfort.

You Can Bite Me by @goodkwuestion

It's easy as breathing to love all of this author's fics, but this is the one for me, and it has nothing to do with the fantasy vampire aspect. This is one of the only fics that has made me cry. I don't cry from fics, almost ever. The write in this goes from hilarious, witty, clever, and sharp, and then swoops you into appreciating the beauty and sanctity of life, traversing the journey of loss and grief, embracing the passage of time, welcoming love into your life, and simply embracing what it means to be human. This fic touched me in ways I'll never be able to express without a five page essay.

Etherized Against The Sky by Snarfle

A canon-divergent story from 1x09 onward. I couldn't put this into words if I tried, because it is EVERYTHING. Everything that I could ever want in a canon compliant type of fic. Holy shit, does this make me ache. It explores so many facets of their growth, mental health, self-acceptance, found family, rebuilding blood family, and learning how to live in the world of Shameless, but this time, thriving. A complete work of art.

You make me feel human by Dragona

Listen. LISTENNN. Are you listening? Anything that is considered a 'dark' AU is going to be my jam. Anything that dips its toe or severed foot into Hannibal or Murder Husbands type worlds are not just up my alley, but they're leading right up to my fucking house and knocking on the door. This is it, folks! This is the one! No one did it like this fic did it! PLUS: A happy ending? Bitch, I'm on the ground.

My Nine Lovers by @annatrow

While we're talking kiss kiss bang bang gun boyfriends, let's just slap this fic right down here, because holy fuck, I have read it at least three times. The pining? The smut? The secrets? SEXY MURDER BOYFRIENDS TURNED HUSBANDS??? Yeah, honey, I'm here in the front row with my little #1 fingie! My Bookmark comment says "This was so fucking clever and reverent and heartening and joyful."

The Mask of Insanity by @annatrow

Yeah yeah, I am trying to pick only one per author, but I simply cannot with this one. It's so fucking gritty and smart and sharp and emotional. Full of depth, character growth, strange life coincidences, bad boys and good guys and where they fall in between together. I'm big on fics that make you fall down, get scraped up real good, then pick you up by the armpits and say, bitch, we're got more to go!

Conflict of Interest by @thisdivorce

Everyone and their mom knew this was coming. It has everything I crave in a fic. Exceptional characterization. Deeply flawed, real humans living through real life events. The struggles of being queer and unsupported, specifically within the trans community. Journeys through mental health and the pitfalls of navigating the world when you don't see it as clearly as others might. Tearing and screaming out of the confines you've built around yourself, even if they're comfortable and safe, but knowing it's no longer right for you. This fic as everything and more and I've read it three times now because it fills my heart.

(And since this author is possibly probably my fav ever in this fandom, check out WIPs Reckoner and Change Like Shifting Shadows because their writing speaks to my pain and love on a bone deep level.)

Burden of Proof by DodgerBear

Okay, I really fucking like crime fics. Whether on the good side, bad side, or grey side, I love crime fics. This one is soooooo good, and I LIVE for the pining, the draw between them, the SPICE. Please! This is so fucking well done! Whip smart and sexy!

(and shout out to WIP by the same author, Quatervois, for which I will wait an eternity to update, I don't care, go read it NOW.)

Wild West Ian and Mickey by 09cityskylights

Always always always, I will be invested in Western AUs. Any fandom, anywhere, any time. I love for Westerns and this author does it so perfectly. I fucking adore this journey and I can't recommend it enough.

Can't Figure You Out by Crimson_Bebop

If I'm going to pick one office AU from the lot (and there's so many good ones, check out this post for more), it's gonna be this. It's nerve-wrecking, hot as hell, an emotional rollercoaster. You're rooting for both of them so badly, but they both require different but equally important things in their lives, and finding that middle ground is MESSY.

Dancing After Death by @squidyyy23

Oh man. Oh shit. I don't know where or hot to start, because this combines two of my fav things, Sons of Anarchy with Shameless. It combines them, yes, but more important, this is completely it's own beast with an incredibly detailed timeline of events. It's hot as all HELL, it's gritty, it's real, it's loving and tender and difficult and highly charged with emotion and struggle. LIVING FOR IT. I have read this three times.

Teenagers Scare The Living Shit Out Of Me by Mellow_Yellow

Oh hey, we're back at the Lala Loves Murder & Crime Show, and yeah, this one is FULL of it. It's so fucked up. It's so well written. The character growth is fucking A+, the murder reveal is exceptional, the mystery is FRAUGHT WITH DANGER. Guys! It's so fucking GOOD!

Teenage Dirtbag by @celestialmickey

Hah. . .I have read this three times. I'll never have read it enough times. Ian is 17 in 1999 here and I was 12 at the time, so everything this fic speaks to speaks of my entire adolescence and I just. Deeply cherish every moment. I savor every chapter of slow build. I revel in their victories. I sing along to all of their songs that I already know by heart, I wiggle in my seat to the Spotify soundtrack, I live for the vingettes of their happy ending. This fic is so magicl and wias written with such love and care.

you'll never see us again by @spoonfulstar

Okay okay okay, listen to me. Yes, we ALL love Intro to Quantum Dating by this author. I fucking adore it. I open it up at random chapters just to read and make myself smile. But THIS FIC??? THIS ONE??? You have got to be kidding me. I cried. I fucking yearned. I hurt, I hurt so bad down to my toes, and I smiled when things went right, and I teared up when it didn't, and I hoped and prayed for a happy ending, and yes I got one that was fulfilling and beautiful and poignant. Did the fact that I am a kidney transplant recipient play into my deep-seeding feelings about this fic? Absolutely. Do I think everyone should read this fic to grasp what exceptional storytelling looks like? BIG TIME.

Solid Skies and Slate-Blue Earth Below by @sentimentalspiders

This is one of the weirdest fucking fics I"ve ever read and I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT. Best alien!Ian! Exceptional, fascinating, vivid writing style! The narrative is articulated in such an ethereal, out-of-the-box way that is perfectly fits a story that is about an alien and a very lost man. It's SOOO COOL.

Brand Spanking New by J_Q

I don't know what to tell you. Micky gets sent to a fuckin' retreat when he gets professionally spanked (by Ian) to fix his horrible behavior. He gets out of there and then he and Ian start a very detailed BDSM relationship. This is SOOO my wheelhouse of JOY, but if it is not yourself, y'know uh. I mean, I still recommend it anyway. It's so wildly delightful and hot as FUCK.

That's a Wrap by @crossmydna

Am I biased because this was written for me as a gift? Shut the fuck up, of course I am. But also, no, because well before Cross took on prompts, they were working on The Menagerie which is in my top five favorite Gallavich fics of all time, and I read it all the time AND YOU SHOULD TOO. Anyway, back to this fic. What can I say, it's EVERYTHING I WANT. Actor AUs! Meet Ugly, the hottest smut imaginable, banter that's sharp and strong, badass Ian & Mickey, everything everything everything.

The Stargazer by crazynadine

Hey yeah, hi, welcome to my Daddy Kink. There's a lot of it. Let me show you around, its got scrappy heart of gold sex worker Mickey, it's got age difference bearded and jaded by life Ian, it's got panties and road side motels, and secrets, jealousy, and hot hot hot smut, like holy shit. But if daddy kink is not your jam, then y'know. . .ahem.

The Question of Normal by blue_newman

Ian is a prison counselor and Mickey is in prison. The way that I LIVE for Ian breaching any of his professional protocols to help Mickey (this goes for so many fics in my bookmarked fics) is unholy, but how about you five me a fucking break okay. I just like it when they break the rules, as they should, because this is Shameless LOL. But seriously, this is so thoughtful and heartening and left me feeling really fucking right in the world after I read it.

Well, I hope this helped! This is only about a fifth of my Bookmarked fics, and I wanted to write about SO MANY MORE. Anyone is always welcome to ask me to rave about fics, I am always here for it lol.

I said this in the begining, but I have bookmaked A LOT of smut fics that I think are exceptional works, so I suggest you filter my Bookmarks by works under 10,000 words and you're gonna find 'em all.

[sl-vega]

✧Sticking to the Script✧-Prologue

⋆｡°✩ Prologue-A little fall of rain can hardly hurt me now

"I just don't think we'll work out anymore"

You choked back a sob as you stormed out of the restaurant, those words still ringing in your ears.

"I've been seeing someone else."

You continue to blink back tears as you tried to block those words out.

"You aren't actually surprised-are you?"

Surprised would be an understatement you thought bitterly.

Two years. Two fucking years of being together.

"And for what?" you told yourself as you sobbed, some tears escaping. You didn't even know where you were going, you just wanted to be far, far, away from him.

You pulled out your phone to message Lyney

You put your phone back into your purse. Tears and raindrops trickling down your face.

You leaned against the outer wall of the tea house. The downpour was heavy and you could feel your dress cling to your body from the water. You found some shelter by a tea house, but it didn't make any difference, your feet felt numb in the fancy heels you had put on for your date, and your makeup that your friends had helped you with was all messed up from your tears.

You stared at the busy street, at the many cars rushing by, you prayed that Lyney would show up soon, you just wanted to escape.

This time, you didn't hold back your sobs you let them all out. Your vision was blurry from your tears, your head hung low and the tears fell down to the side walk.

Suddenly you felt the rain stop.

You turned your head to your side and saw a boy around your age holding an umbrella over your head. He was dressed in semi-formal attire. He looked familiar. Where have I seen him before

"Sorry, I just noticed you crying when I walked by." he said as he gave you a gentle smile, still holding the umbrella over your head. You whispered your thanks to him.

"Xingqiu!"

The boy turned around after hearing someone call out to him. He held your wrist and placed the umbrella in your hand. "I think you'll need this more than me." he told you as he turned around.

"I hope that whatever you're going through gets better"

He gave you another smile before running through the rain "I'm coming!" you heard him yell as he ran towards the source of the first voice.

You felt your face flush as he left, it was a brief moment of bliss before you remembered why you were out here in the rain, before you remembered what just happened. Before you remember your boyfriend of two whole years had just confessed to cheating on you.

Archons, I'm pathetic

You thought to yourself, you felt like you were going to start sobbing again. Then, a familiar car pulled up.

"(Y/N)!"

You heard Lyney call your name, he quickly got out of the car. He was holding a red towel and he handed it to you. "What happened? Why isn't Chaoxi with you?" he asked, along with many other questions that you couldn't bother to remember.

Your eyes were still red and puffy from crying.

"He-" you tried to muster out some words but you started sobbing again. Lyney pulled you into a hug, placing the towel around your shoulders, and taking the umbrella you were given earlier.

He led you into the car, opening the door for you. "You don't have to talk about it now." he said as he wiped a tear off your cheek. You nodded, as you stepped into the vehicle, fastening your seatbelt.

As he started the car, he placed his hand yours, he looked you in the eye and said "It'll be okay."

You looked out the window and thought

I hope you're right

additional notes:

-prologue out FINALLY

-ik it's a tad boring but i got to set the scene

-in case y'all didn't pick up on my shameless exposition, let me summarize this chapter for ya:

-chaoxi is y/n's boyfriend and he just confessed to cheating on her (on their 2-year anniversary no less!)

-chaoxi is actually a character in game, he's an npc in liyue that's dating three girls at the same time

-yes xingqiu giving y/n his umbrella is a reference to that one mlb scene

-you can't write a romance story without including smth like that

-lyney supremacy fr fr

-this chapter title is actually a reference to the song "A little fall of rain" from the musical les miserables

-ty to @freyao7 for proofreading this 4 me <3

masterlist

<prev ll next>

✧Sticking to the Script✧

Pairing: Xingqiu x FEM! Reader

Genre: fake dating, strangers to lovers, slow burn, fluff, angst (?), high school smau, modern smau

⋆｡°✩-Synopsis: Xingqiu just got entered into a special writing contest, the type that's invite only, the theme this year is love, the only problem is that he has zero romantic experience. but he really wants to prove himself as a writer. meanwhile, you just found out that your boyfriend cheated on you, and you need to show him that you're 100% over him, the only problem is that there's no way you can get an actual boyfriend that quickly. clearly, the solution to both of your issues is to fake date each other. it shouldn't be hard for an actor such as yourself, all you need to do is stick to the script.

(OPEN) Taglist: @freyao7, @thatoneswordgirl, @sn1perz, @latay7, @esmetrees, @nmriki0, @help-whatdoimakemyusername, @httpsrenren, @cupid-spams, @aixaingela, @kaitfae, @luvkvni, @danhenglovebot

[trainwrecksys]

ok!!!!!!!! i am!!!!!!! going to just say it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! long long post ahead!!!!!!!!!

yes i look like an out of touch stan with a victim complex for one character when i draw no one but bentham in my fanart and completely ignore everyone else to feel sorry for him and yes i am aware and no i dont know if anyone else sees this in me or im just paranoid but bro i am annoyed with myself !!! i hate how stannish i am sometimes because yes bentham had every reason to be called evil but yeah i had a good few reasons to have a complete breakdown when i read that in the book !!!!!!!1 too much writing under the cut about a lot of stuff that is in my head and needs to get out for better or for worse idk

i have made a severe and continuous lapse in my judgement and i do not expect to be forgiven but genuinely the way me being a stupid shameless stan can come off to others even subconsciously is actually important because it makes me look like someone who would see a situation like the bentham siblings' in real life and side with the STRAIGHT WHITE MALE who has made more than mistakes and hurt people in moments of heightened emotion (end of library of souls)- but like not in defense of bentham for ONCE IN MY LIFE everyone feels emotions everyone gets hurt and he had a right to not be perfect after everything he went through but that doesnt mean hurting people is the course of action and bro i have completely ignored that and skirted around it for two years and IM NOT GONNA KEEP APOLOGISING FOR MAKING THIS TOO LONG BECAUSE IT BLEEDS INTO REAL LIFE AND I REALISE HOW MUCH OF A STUCK UP DICK I COULD BE NOT ONLY ABOUT THIS BUT IN GENERAL LIFE AFTER I READ THE BOOKS AND GAINED AN ATTACHMENT TO BENTHAM

the stuff im talking about is honestly mainly between me myself and i and most of the art i post is him either chilling or feeling a bit sad but the way i completely ignore miss peregrine's issues and betrayal to focus on how oh so hurt and betrayed myron was like there was no reason he was exiled

like yes years in a big mansion with three people to keep him company in the middle of devils acre with no way to resolve his trauma can do shit to someone but what about years feeling his sisters guilt, BASIL????? what about how she mustve felt after both her brothers DIED due to their own hubris???????????? what about how she felt she was a bad sister when she literally had to be like their mother with all the baggage she had then actually mother children while thinking her slightly better brother might have been getting better with him saying he was gonna give them info on caul only to see him SIDE WITH CAUL when he had just done something that COULD HAVE HELPED HIS CAUSE and then spitefully capture her and lead them into the mouth of hell OH MY GOD

and how jacob and emma had to deal with his bullshit being all "lets talk over tea!" and waiting for when it was right in the exposition to tell them who he fucking was, then telling them he BASICALLY KILLED JACOBS GRANDPA while giving excuses and them finding out later on that hE KEPT THE SUUL FOR HIMSELF?????? i made some bullshit reason up why he did that for my headcannons but lets be real the only reason they could have at least imagined was that he was planning on using it in the library. the information betrayed them either way and to alma again it was only a stab in the gut because he hurt a guy who was basically her son

overall hes not some aesthetic victimised pookie bear hes a more than flawed man who only did some things to mend his image and cant be excused for what he did and this whole post was basically me shouting at myself