#ship: platonic iron trio

[lockwood-fic-recs]

We Don't See the Sun Anymore

by EudociaCovert on ao3

Rating: T | Category: Gen, Multi | Relationship: Lockwood/Lucy/George

“This isn’t a job interview. It’s a trap, Ms Carlyle. Run.”

There is no Lockwood & Co. to take Lucy in when she reaches London. There is however a Ghost Cult called the Visionaries, and two missing boys locked in a basement.

[anulithots]

Noorie's JJK analysis's/ screaming

You cannot keep me contained. My overthinking brain is buzzing.

(all sfw! This asexual likes to find as much fluff as possible.... but stuff tends to go over my head so I might accidently reblog a thing or two. Sorry about that <3)

Analysis

Most of my essays are here

Gojo the analyst

SatoSugu and how they support each other

Ao No Sumika - "Will we meet again?"

Gojo and Geto being compliments in an ironic way

Yuji Itadori and his non-existent coping mechanisms

Satoru Gojo... is there anything you don't have?

Gojo and his teasing

Gojo and Geto teachers AU

Gojo, being alone, and loneliness

Itadori is also selfish... and Gojo is compassionate.

Gojo will take care of it. Don't worry

Chapter 236

Jujutsu Kaisen Meta analysis

Would SatoSugu ever get back together

Itadori the sacrifice

Why Gojo and Geto understand each other... and no one else.

If JJK had a happy ending

Fav Analysis (not by me)

If Geto loved Gojo, why didn't he try to recruit him? by @ellionwrites

How much Geto canonically loved Gojo by @ellionwrites

Who the hell is Gojo Satoru by @fushiglow

Kenjaku's purpose as a literary device by @justrustandstardust

It's only them by @justrustandstardust

SatoSugu as celestial bodies (red and blue) by @justrustandstardust

He knew when he left by @mylee-sketches

Yuji Itadori's... not so healthy tendencies. by @epickiya722 

everything by @glo7to3

Yuji's past by @glo7to3

Yuiji and Megumi's breaking points by @uriekukistan

chapter 261 by @uriekukistan

Yuji and Yuta's teachers by @florasuno

To read

Chap 236

mental health

Fanart

Gojo's wallpaper (crack comic with my sibling @mylee-sketches)

Umbrella

Lousy Personalities

Karaoke (crack comic #2)

Neurodivergent Satoru Gojo

Slice of life ideas

Itadori gets a demon dog plushie for Fushiguro

'I'm Satoru Gojo because of you, Suguru'

KFC breakup

Edits

"You were a wonderful experience"

"You're holy to me"

if JJK had slice of life episodes

(cannon compliant)

Itadori's sense of style

Gojo and Geto insult teachers together

AUs

If Kenjaku possessed Gojo instead of Geto

Headcannons

Aspec Satosugu

Fav fics

Carry me home It's so ridiculously good. Timeline suguru-centric fix-it-fic that doubles as a character deep dive. It's absolutely amazing.

5 Times Gojo Satoru Tries to Rizz Up Geto Suguru and 1 Time He (Kind Of) Succeeds by @justrustandstardust. Really funny. It made the asexual try to hold in laughter. Need I say more. Also prose style and the pacing and character voices are all really really good.

April pink cute satosugu fluff

Urban Privilege Nobara and Gojo bonding. Need I say more.

Embers SatoSugu but post-shibyua and full of painful nostalgia.

like best friends do aromantic satosugu. Mind the tags, for it gets... close to being nsfw? But... aromantic satosugu. It was wonderous.

Two-headed Calf Post breakup but pre vol. 0. What could've been. Absolute pain.

here and where you are - cityboys - 呪術廻戦 | Jujutsu Kaisen (Manga) [Archive of Our Own] REALLY REALLY REALLY SAD Itafushi. Alternate Shibuya timeline but somehow even sadder than cannon, believe it or not. It's a 'everyone gets a happy ending' but in the worst way possible.

Fav JJK posts that make me ~feel things~

Suguruuuuu whyyy

___________________

also also, specific JJK things that give me happy sparkles (I like pain):

SatoSugu but they transcend labels and to me they have a queer platonic flavor to them. (Romantic, Queer platonic, best friends, soulmates, everything. They are everything. But I like Queer Platonic for them quite a lot! They feel like Queer platonic to me <3)

Itafushi but I flipflop between fluff ship and best dynamic in history, or both.

Itadori and Fusiguro's their differing morals and perspectives on a complex situation/circumstances.

Maki and Mai angst.

Found family Gojo and Tokyo trio.

Tokyo trio in general.

Itadori and his sensei's

Itadori in general

SHOKO MY ASTHETIC CRUSSHHHh

Geto's children

The Junpei arc

Cursed womb arc

Maki and Nobara

Inumaki

Nanami and Hibara

Megumi and his sister

Found family Gojo and the Fushiguro children

everything. Literally everything except for Mei mei and the dub.

Want to blabber about JJK with me? Feel free to ask! <3

[lurkinginnernarrator]

Hi....! If you don't mind, can I ask, who are your top 7 favorite romantic relationship's couples in books/ manga/ anime/movies/tv series (can be canon or non-canon) and your top 10 favorite characters ever from any media? Why do you love them all? Thanks if you want to answer....

Top seven?... Before SVSSS I wasn't really into ships, if there was a fic with a ship I didn't mind and could enjoy it but I didn't specifically seek out ships.

Most of the dynamics I enjoy I personally don't have a preference for whether they're portrayed as platonic, romantic or some sort of queer platonic, because it's the chemistry between the characters that compels me, not the spark of romance. There are only three ships that I cannot conceive of in a platonic capacity which are:

Hualian (it's HUALIAN, I don't know what to say)

Wangxian (It was never platonic to begin with)

Agathario ("Congratulations my love" "Please my love" NEED I SAY MORE???)

For svsss specifically I can't say there's a ship I prefer over another, they're all incredibly compelling and entertaining, and I don't think there's a ship I dislike.

Bingqiu, Liushen, Jiuyuan, Qijiu, Zhushen etc etc etc are all gorgeous

Sorry, not much of a shipper😅

Favourite characters?

Hmmm

Zhuzhi-lang captured my heart, (loyal snake boy, love himmmmmm so so so so much. We are not talking about the extras because I WILL CRY. I WAS DEVASTATED I AM DEVASTATED FOREVER)

Loki, but specifically the fanon Loki that existed in the Thor to Avengers era, though I've enjoyed all types and did enjoy the show. (Loki fandom was the first fandom I was ever in, and was formative to my young years, and so he's more than earned his spot)

Murderbot (I find MB as a protagonist relatable and so, so, very funny.)

ART (from the Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells) (I love the dynamic between ART and MB, it makes me so happy)

Three (Also from the Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells)(What's not to like about Three? I feel like I get cuteness aggression whenever Three does something)

Wu Zetian from Xiran Jay Zhao's Iron Widow (iconic)

Edward Elric (the whump is pre installed!)

Greed (From Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood)(he's just a cunty little dude who made a gangfamily )

Wei Wuxian (smart, loyal, dedicated etc, Yunmeng trio feels, wen siblings+Wuxian feels all the feels)

And finally.

Shen Qingqiu (which one you may ask? Both. This is a two-for-one) (is he unbearably elegant and cold? Is he a bitch? Is he a nerd? Yes to all these things, and another relatable character)

hope this was satisfactory, thank you for the ask!

[gkdmts]

Bonjour, idk if somebody else already did this question but, speaking of twst in general i have some! This is simple rlly :P

— What's your fav dorm? (Or least based of idunno.. aesthetic? Anything

— What's your fav character? (Again, or what's your last)

— Fav or least housewarden or vice? (I think this belongs to the first category than the one above, but just in case)

— Now! Any twst character who arent the main focus that you like? Ex: The nrc staff.. RSA (chenya neige etc etc) or the ones of events.

Also, I wanted to ask you about some ships but I feel that it is somewhat disrespectful or weird, but you can answer with your duo or trio/I don't know how to say groups of four or more in English but those too instead. Although if you want and if you feel comfortable with this reapond with your OTP or NOTP, that's all, have a beautiful day!

good day to you as well anon : ) wow i'm like in a social survey or something! i'm honestly somewhat nervous about giving my opinions on things, but i'll answer these for those who're curious! -- i'd say Savanaclaw in general, as in aesthetic and design, and Diasomnia based on my personal preferences (bc i like gloomy places duh). as for the least fav i'd say Ignihyde, it's techno theme is not really my thing. though it still has a grim touch of the underworld that i like still, i adore all dorms with how unique they are, the designs in twst are just ughh *tears up* -- disclaimer i adore all the characters too! they all have something in them that makes me want to smile when i see them the one that i adore the most is Rook! my only sunshine really the only character who doesn't sit quite well with me is, ironically, Vil. though i still try to appreciate him the best i can -- hmm honestly i don't exactly tie the characters to the dorms they belong to, so the take on fav/least fav housewarden/vice will be unbiased haha anyway it's Idia! mostly because i relate to the guy so much that it's unsettling, but it's also all the other features of his character yeah yeah as for the least fav, i don't have one! -- i actually don't feel anything too special for any of the side characters, though i love Rollo's design and story. nah, his whole event has a place in my heart -- for the last one, i'm afraid the answer will be quite boring but i don't currently have any ships that i'm a big fan of. though i think well of pretty much all of the pairings, there are so many interesting dynamics between characters, platonic or romantic or anything really, i'm very open-minded on this one! well that's about it, thanks for reading! it's not often that i have to write something so big huh have a good day you guys : ) ah and thanks for the questions anon! i hope my answers were enough

[awkward-anxiety]

~ Information About Yours Truly ~

~ Basics ~

~ My Full Name is Theodore, But Please, call me Teddy! Or if you are feeling like being even more fun, Theo, Ted and Tedster are great options!

~ Any Pronouns will do my good chaps! (Even It/Its will work for me 😉)

~ I am on level 23 of my life

~ I am a College Graduate with a BS (Bachelor of Science) in Film!

~ Digital Artist 🎨

~ Roleplayer / Writer (on the DL, don’t want to wow the world with my amazing writing skills just yet/j)

~ Gay with a Capital G 🌈

~ Also very Trans - GenderQueer…with a bit of Genderfluid in there ☺️

~ Certified Autistic

~ Fandom(s) ~

~ It

~ Stranger Things

~ The Goldfinch

~ Ghostbusters

~ Bungo Stray Dogs

~ Bungo to Alchemist

~ Sk8 the Infinity

~WindBreaker

~MHA (I know…Im basic ��)

~ Oregairu

~ Moriarty the Patriot

~ The Case Study of Vanitas

~ Buddy Daddies

~ Demon Slayer

~ Smosh

~ Rise of the TMNT

~ Camp Camp

~ My Little Pony

~ Harry Potter

~ Sherlock (BBC)

~ Umbrella Academy

~ MCU (Mostly just Spider-man & Iron Man…I know…basic)

~ Community

~ Henry Danger

~ Be More Chill

~ Dear Evan Hansen

~ Falsettos

~ Epic the Musical

~ South Park

~ Steven Universe

~ Hazbin Hotel

~ Helluva Boss

~ Others…Probably 🤷

~ Kin List ~

~ Richie Tozier

~ Mike Wheeler

~ Donnie

~ Raph

~ Steve Harrington

~ Steven Universe

~ Jeremy Heere

~ Evan Hansen

~ Reki Kyan

~ Peter Parker

~ Henry Danger

~ Sherlock

~ Dazai Osamu

~ Odysseus

( Im perfectly Mentally fine!! I promise)

~ Ships I Enjoy ~

IT :

~ Reddie

~ Stozier

~ PolyLosers

~ Core Four

~ Stenbrough

Stranger Things :

~ Mileven

~ Byler

~ Madwheeler (as a platonic soulmate type deal)

~ Ronance

~ Stoncy

BSD:

~ Soukoku

~ Souheki

~ Fyozai

~ Odango

~ Ranpoe

~ FukuFuku

~ FukuMori

~ Decay Trio

~ Mersault

~ Fyolai

The Goldfinch:

~ Boreo

Sk8 The Infinity:

~ Renga

~ CherryMacha

Sherlock:

~ Johnlock

Be More Chill:

~ Boyf Friend

Dear Evan Hansen:

~ Kleinsen

~ Sincerely Three

Hazbin Hotel:

~ RadioApple

~ RadioStatic

~ AppleMedia

~ Socials ~

~ Commissions Information ~

~ Master Posts ~

~ Art Masterpost

~ Show / Character Analysis Masterpost ~ Roleplay Masterpost ( COMING SOON )

[solitaire-sol]

Prongsfoot Week 2023 - Day 1

This... maybe got away from me a bit, but I'll take any chance to present my Prongsfoot ramblings in a semi-organized fashion!

When and Why did you begin to Ship Prongsfoot? What makes you Ship it? Basically, just gush on this ship.

Somewhat ironically, developing a NOTP led me to this OTP: Back when the books were still coming out, I was a Harmony shipper. (Not a crazy one, I swear!) This led to a lot of "discussions" with people who shipped other pairings, but most relevantly with several Sirius/Remus fans who were both extremely disdainful of my noncanon ship and adamant that their ship was, in fact, canon/eventual canon. This led to little Past Me re-reading the PoA and post-PoA books multiple times, trying and failing to see this "proof" of Wolfstar, but in the process paying a lot more attention to pre-Golden Trio characters. "Actually," I thought, "Sirius seems a lot more attached to Harry's dad than to Lupin. Huh." I found myself fascinated by their dynamic, by the hold Sirius' friendship with (and loss of) James had on Sirius, and how much is implied about James that we don't get to see (the Potter lineage, James "maturing," etc). Imagine my disappointment when not only was Sirius/James not popular, but Wolfstar, which didn't appeal to me, was only gaining steam (see: "Wolfstar is canon/eventual canon!"). Shipping wars were more 'maniacal sports fans' than 'political discourse' at the time, but between being deep into then-fandom and not liking Wolfstar, I found myself shipping Sirius/James almost by accident because… Well, it just made so much more sense.

Yes, James is dead before the series actually starts; yes, James marries a woman and has a son; but I've yet to meet a fandom that lets such paltry things as 'canonical facts' stop a ship, and it's always baffled me that Prongsfoot isn't more widely recognized for its potential, if nothing else. I will always believe this stems from a one-two punch of early HP fandom's obsession with canon vs noncanon, Jily being canon, which led to Wolfstar and the subsequent idea that Sirius "belongs" to Remus With the series completed, we have a surprisingly complex character in James, tantalizingly hinted-at if not explored in-depth, and we're given ample on-page examples of Sirius' exceptional qualities as well as his deep attachment to James, who must be exceptional himself to command this kind of devotion and affection. They're the most interesting characters to me, for what we see and what we don't see, and unlike a lot of other pairings they don't require a hammer and chisel to force them into a romantic mold: They're best friends and platonic soulmates, but they could just as easily be romantic partners and the shift feels completely natural. There's an equality and an authenticity to their partnership that I cherish deeply and don't find in a lot of their other ships, which often require them to be OOC… and if a fic doesn't include them as each other's best friend and Most Important Person, I consider it OOC.

In a way, lack of good James/Sirius friendship nudged me towards actual Prongsfoot because other ships de-emphasize the importance of James and Sirius in each others' lives to make the ship work, including outright giving their roles away, ex. someone else being the only person who can rein James in, Sirius running away to [name here] instead of to James. James and Sirius make each other more themselves, for better and for worse, and I honestly believe that they believe it's always for the better: They embrace each other's strengths and weaknesses, love each other for their flaws instead of despite them, support each other even after death (if the memory of James wasn't instrumental in Sirius surviving Azkaban, I'll eat my nonexistent hat). Sirius has so much devotion to James, enough to eat rats and face death for James' son, his godson, who he had a year of knowing before it all went to hell, that I find it hard to believe he had much room for anyone else; and from what we see, that devotion was absolutely reciprocated. Even after marrying Lily, even after Harry, JamesandSirius were such a thing that James' own wife writes to Sirius to say my husband is down and only you can make him feel better, not his wife or child or other friends. They would have buried bodies for each other, and I'd be surprised if that didn't actually happen off-page. What we see of their past makes it clear that they existed together in some rarefied space that would have absolutely continued regardless of who they dated or who they married or where they wound up. I'll always be a little sad that we didn't get more of these two in canon, and I'll always be equal parts frustrated and bewildered that these two are not the Marauder ship, or at least a much much more popular ship than they are.

Over time, the popular depictions of James and Sirius grew increasingly incompatible with the way I saw them, which is generally closer to canon: James is not an idiot jock or an indiscriminate bully (he's very discriminate, thank you) or an abuser, Sirius is not an idiot sex addict or peer-pressured by James into bullying (he's absolutely an active bully of Snape & Co) or there solely to fawn over Remus. This is also where I started to dislike Remus, sorry Remus fans, neither uwu softboi Remus and uberdom alpha Remus are my jam I eventually fell out of fandom in general and didn't think more than the occasional wistful thought until I re-read the books and had that Prongsfoot flame reignited, enough that I started to read HP fic and even write/post stuff again. I'm endlessly grateful for the authors who put such wonderful work out there, and for people who cultivate this little pocket of a fandom that's otherwise become alien to me, as someone who just doesn't get much of New Marauder Fandom and its ATYD influences.

James and Sirius are soulmates and friends-to-lovers and fluff and angst and boyish exuberance and the uncertainty of growing up, they're knowing you're meant to spend your lives together and struggling to exist when your other half is gone, they're sweet domesticity and the darkness of war and Good vs Evil and all the shades of gray, they're loving someone relentlessly and instinctively and maybe unwisely but knowing it's 100% reciprocated, no-strings-attached, because you can't be any other way and wouldn't change that (or them) if you could. There's just so many ways to explore Prongsfoot and all of it works because these boys contain multitudes, and I just want to gather all of it around me like a nesting squirrel and snuggle down amidst the Prongsfoot goodness.

[shadowpeachlillies]

Ship Names (Both Romantic and Platonic)

As more are revealed they will be put here

Romantic Ship Names:

ShadowPeach (Macaque x Wukong)

ShadowPeachLillies (Macque x Sun Wukong x Lilith)

FreeNoodles (Pigsy x Tang)

Irondumpling (Princess Iron Fan x Demon Bull King)

BuleHollys (Ba x Beng)

SpicyNoodle (Red x MK)

Chimera (MK x Red x Mei)

SilkTea (Huntsman x Sandy)

Platonic Ship Names:

Chaos Trio (Mei, Jin, and Yin)

Traffic Light Trio (Red, MK, and Mei)

[theamazingmaddyas]

I've been reading Riordanverse fanfictions for a while, and writing them for a while to, and realized that I've read a lot of different Leo pairings. Ironically, I'm not actually the biggest fan of any Leo ship, because personally I think Leo's aro/ace, and has no attraction whatsoever (I could write essay after essay about why, but that's not the point right now). However, thinking back on all the Leo fics I've accidently read over the years (or purposefully, if the main ship or the plot intrigued me enough that I could put aside my preconcieved biases) got me thinking about whether I think Leo would be in a qpr with the characters who others ship him with. So, here's that:

Disclaimer, I'm not dissing on any ships here, ship what you want unless it's actively harmful! These are just my opinions on if I think Leo would be in a qpr with a character, because I really struggle to see him dating in my own head

Calypso — Maybe

Now, I've written Caleo before, when I was much younger and had the need to make every single fic I write canon compliant (still have this urge too, since I use fanfiction as an extension of canon works, which is why I rarely write AUs though I have) but in recent years, I just can't get myself to write them anymore, so my canon compliant fics have them breaking up pretty soon after TON for my sanity. As for them in a QPR, I've written it before (see Self-Discovery on ao3 by TheAmazingMaddy) (actually it might be on Wattpad too, but I can't remember, same name) (Double checked, it is also there) and that was such a fun fic for me to write! However, in the future I see them more as business partners and close friends than queer platonic partners. If you've read my Solangelo future fic Surprise! you'd know in that fic Leo and Calypso have their mechanic shop that they talk about in HOH, but Calypso has her own girlfriend (Sapphic a-spec Calypso is my new favorite thing) and Leo is living his life with his adoptive children, Madalena and Aidan, and they're content. (I won't go into any more details about this dynamic because I'd probably cap the word limit if I try, but if anyone wants elaboration, feel free to ask)

Jason Grace — Very likely

As aforementioned, I mainly write canon-compliant fics post TOA, so I'd probably never write this myself, but out of everyone on this list, Jason is by far the most likely candidate. Valgrace is by far the Leo ship content I see the most, as I've read a lot of aus that include it, mainly for the Solangelo content ngl. But, back to the qpr stuff, I definitely see them being queer platonic partners, as they're friendship is already solid. (Note; I can also totally see Jason having a onesided crush on Leo, which I know is definitely not a popular hc as most fics have Leo as the one down bad, but I also have reasons for this I can elaborate if even one person asks, or if I feel like I'll explode if I don't say it)

Jason Grace & Piper McLean — Likely enough

Disclaimer, I was raised without any knowledge on polyamory, and still have very little knowledge on it, as I struggle comprehending attraction to one person, much less more than one, but just because I don't understand it, doesn't mean I don't support everyone, and am willing to try and learn from more coherent sources

I just wanted to put a disclaimer before this one, as it's the only poly ship on this list, and I'm honestly afraid I'll say something ignorant and offensive, when that's not my intention at all. I'm not 100% sure how poly qprs would work, but I don't see why it wouldn't work? I mean, I haven't read anything on poly qprs, but I haven't consumed much poly content in general, and am being forthright when I say I am ignorant. That being said, the Lost Trio has some of my favorite friendship dynamics, so I see it as likely enough they could be in a poly qpr. Piper, obviously, is romantically dating Shel though, as they are one of my favorite underrated ships. I adore them, and wish we could get some more content on them and their meeting.

Drew Tanaka— Definitely Not

This one is because I very recently read a Solangelo fic that had background Leo/Drew mentions, and I didn't read the compliant story about them the author had written but I still decided to add it. Personally, I can't see it. Don't get me wrong, I love the Drew redemption arcs that a lot of Drew fics have, and I've even written Aro Drew myself for Aro Week 2024 (Aro Allo Drew to be specific) but I really can't see Leo and Drew working. Friends? Possibly, I'm not 100% sure, I could see Drew getting annoyed with him too fast for them to be around each other for more than 5 minutes at a time. QPP? Definitely not in my head.

Austin Lake— Maybe? I honestly can't tell, but the idea has merit

If anyone has read my Apollo Cabin fics, or my Ace 2023 and Aro 2024 oneshot collections, they'd know not only am I a bonafide expert in all things Aro/Ace Leo, but I am also a bonafide expert in all things Aro/Ace Austin, crazy how things work out, huh? Now, does me hcing them both as aromantic and asexual (both leaning more towards repulsed because self-projection? I don't know them)make them a good candidate for a qpr? I honestly don't know. The merit for this one comes from the fact that I can see Leo building or fixing instruments for Austin to play, and I think that's sweet. Austin plays the Valdezinator now, I don't make the rules.

Connor Stoll— Possible, but the world might come to an end if it happens

Leo and Connor are both such chaotic energies that combining them might be detrimental to the human and mythological worlds alike. They'd get along fantastically, so them being in a qpr is not out of the question, it's just the pranks that they'd come up with if they were together often would be the thing of nightmares. When I read them together in a fic, I was honestly scared for the well-being of the camp. They scare me together a bit.

Laurel Victor- No

Okay, admit time, the tagged Leo/Laurel fic I've read was written by me... Now, you're probably thinking why did I write this? The answer is simple, it was the fic First Dates in my Aro Week 2024 oneshot collection, where Jason and Piper set Leo up with a blind date with Laurel that goes pretty badly to try and take his mind off the Argo II building process and him feeling like a 3rd wheel (Because obviously Leo has no attraction towards her), but I feel obligated to add it to this list because I mean I have reread my own works before? I'm just saying it would go really badly because Laurel and Leo are both all energy all the time but in completely different, and butting heads kinda way.

You know, I probably have read more, but these are the ones I remember (mainly because the fics I read ages ago had some really memorable parts, that even if I probably would never find them again, it's forever altered my brain chemistry) at the moment. I'd love to hear if people have read or written other Leo ships, that they'd like me to rate the qpr-ability of!

[random-writer-online]

⭑.ᐟ⤷ Pictures are not mine, art made by Cassandra Jean.

-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈

⋆˙⟡ Iron Trials and Harry Potter head-canons ⋆˙⟡

(Lore might not be accurate, as I haven't read it in a long while.)

ੈ✩‧₊˚༺☆༻ੈ✩‧₊˚ ੈ✩‧₊˚༺☆༻ੈ✩‧₊˚ ੈ✩‧₊˚༺☆༻ੈ✩‧₊˚

⋆˚࿔ I've always wondered what the main characters from Iron Trial would do when put into the Harry Potter universe, since both of their schools are magical, and both have students graduate at the age of seventeen (17), with The Magisterium only allowing students to enter the school at age twelve (12).

⌇ Now, the main characters from Iron Trials is Tamara Rajavi (Far left), Callum Hunt (Middle), and Aaron Stewart (Far right).

.ᐟ.ᐟ SPOILER ALERT FOR IRON TRIALS .ᐟ.ᐟ

⌇I won't get too deep into the lore, but here is what I remember off the top of my head. Callum hunt realizes he has magical powers, so does his father. Before that though, he has been bullied his whole life because of a limp he had as a baby. Now, Callum's dad doesn't want him to go to this 'evil' school, but they arrive late and Callum does the tests, and purposely tries to fail them all instructed by his father. He goes into the negatives, a first for the tests, but still manages to be selected by Master Rufus, alongside Tamara and Aaron. Tamara shows slight dislike, but Aaron greets him like a friend. Callum's dad basically throws a fit and yells at Rufus, before throwing a dagger at Callum. It doesn't hit the boy, but he keeps the dagger as his father gets dragged out.

⋆˚࿔ Okay! now that your all know the beginning lore for book 1, let's move on to the fun parts.

ੈ✩‧₊˚༺☆༻ੈ✩‧₊˚ ੈ✩‧₊˚༺☆༻ੈ✩‧₊˚ ੈ✩‧₊˚༺☆༻ੈ✩‧₊˚

⋆˙⟡ HOGWARTS HOUSES ⋆˙⟡

‧₊˚ ┊What are Hogwarts houses? there is four main ones, Hufflepuff (Loyalty, Patience, Teamwork), Ravenclaw (Wisdom, Wit, Creativity), Slytherin (Cunning, Ambition, Leadership), and finally Gryffindor (Chivalry, Courage, Nerve).

⋆˚࿔ Let's start with Tamara, Honestly, she could fit all the houses, but me personally I would choose Ravenclaw for her house. From my knowledge, she is strict and want's to learn more. Tamara was placed with high expectations because of her older sister, and she doesn't want to mess it up. She's creative in how she handles problems as well.

⋆˚࿔ Moving on, our beloved Aaron! Tbh with you, He feels very Hufflepuff to me. Very kind to his friends, and won't hold back when standing up when they're getting bullied (mostly Callum). He's loyal, and very Patient in certain scenes (I think). He also just has that vibe.

⋆˚࿔ Finally, Callum! This one had me stumped for a bit, but I eventually chose.... Slytherin! Why? Mainly because of his ambition on not wanting to attend The Magisterium. Like, he failed and went into the negatives just to not attend. Some of it probably wasn't meant to happen, as he was fairly new to everything, but still! And he has the leadership, because I think of him as the leader of the trio.

ੈ✩‧₊˚༺☆༻ੈ✩‧₊˚ ੈ✩‧₊˚༺☆༻ੈ✩‧₊˚ ੈ✩‧₊˚༺☆༻ੈ✩‧₊˚

⋆˙⟡ RELATIONSHIPS ⋆˙⟡

‧₊˚ ┊Strictly Platonic, excluding canon ships like Tamara/Callum, etc.

⌇H E R M I O N E

⋆˚࿔ Tamara would have a love-hate relationship with her, because while she is studious and is a great study partner, she can be bossy at times and downright being a mother hen. But they could gossip about the boys on how they're dumb, and could help each other on upcoming tests and essays.

⋆˚࿔ Aaron would be a friend to her, but wouldn't actively seek her out, sticking to peaceful conversations about certain books or grouping up on small projects and what not.

⋆˚࿔ Callum I feel would dislike her right away, but slowly grow on him and begrudgingly start to act nice around her. He would be the farthest away from her, only staying as acquaintances rather then friends.

⌇ H A R R Y

⋆˚࿔ Tamara would think of Harry and Callum the same type of people, and slowly get friendly with him. Harry would probably be distant with the remarks Tamara would give, but seek her out for help when needed.

⋆˚࿔ Aaron Friend right away, Aaron would be the type to love quidditch but not really sign up for it. They would talk about quidditch while doing homework, and sometimes partner up if they have the same classes.

⋆˚࿔ Callum would be average, not hating on Harry but not loving him either. Care of Magical Creatures and Hagrid is what they would be having conversations about, and showing off Havoc a lot.

⌇R O N

⋆˚࿔ Tamara I-I-Instant dislike. Sloppy from afar, rude at times, and lazy. Now, some of this dislike would loosen up once she sees him be brave for his friends, but she will not succumb to helping him with homework.

⋆˚࿔ Aaron the become acquaintances, and soon friends way later on the year. Ron is a quidditch fanatic, which is a hobby that Aaron likes a little. Same with Harry they will talk about quidditch during free periods, and Aaron will be nice to him unless he talks back about his friends.

⋆˚࿔ Callum Dislike from the start. Callum thinks he acts like Jasper deWinter at certain times. also how he is messy with his food, and the way he acts around others. Will this loosen up like Tamara? unlikely. Just hope for the best tbh.

-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈

[luvether]

A GUARDIAN OR TWO ੭୧. . . Feixiao entrusts two of her most trusted people to look after you.

jiaoqiu and moze + gn!reader. trio shenanigans, them being overprotective, princess treatment (if you squint so hard), misunderstandings and arguing, attempted assassination, hurt with comfort, platonic-ish dynamic with semi-romantic gestures, the line is very blurry. worldbuilding for Xianzhou Yaoqing. fluff and angst! content. this is written before version 2.5. [6.5k wc]

prequel to much love, your guardians ノ This might be extremely ooc due to the lack of info and interactions of them but honestly this became self-indulgence, was listening to Look after you by the fray.

HAVING THE MERLIN’S CLAW as your older sister is both a blessing and a curse, but it also meant being the weak link, the vulnerable dent on her otherwise iron-clad armor, and having targets on your head on occasions, it’s nothing new in your routine. Compared to Feixiao—the fierce and righteous Madam General—you were more reclusive, colder. You prefer scrolls and parchments over military regiments, you like writing about Feixiao’s military missions instead, taking account of the Verdant Knights’ supplies of weapons, keeping tabs on the IPC’s transfers on technology for combat than being under the honeyed heat training blood, sweat and tears till weary limbs become knotted and hard with purpose.

You were quite literally, the opposite of Feixiao, which sparked heavy rumors of your incompetence in combat.

The Arbiter-General of the Yaoqing born for her military prowess has a sibling who doesn’t even know how to wield a sword.

The lesser one in a Xianzhou ship that prides itself to be the master of its many war achievements.

The nasty conversations are never ending, so to dilute the backhanded comments of people questioning your status and reputation, you direct your focus to dealing with the dirty work, the more complicated, nitty-gritty politics of Xianzhou Yaoqing, the acidic talk about you had lessen since then but taking up the mantle into the political side of everything also makes you susceptible to more external enemies outside of the battlefield. Sometimes, that worries Feixiao.

So it comes as no surprise when she assigns her two most trusted people to watch over you from time to time—the famed Jiaoqiu from the Alchemy Commision and even the Shadow Guard himself, Moze shows up to look after you.

The first encounter between you three was…uncanny and awkward.

It happened just as you were dropping off papers to Feixiao’s office, surprised to see two men as you entered. No wonder why the atmosphere had a hint of spice hanging in the air.

You’ve met Sir Jiaoqiu a handful of times, he is your sister’s doctor after all, but never once have you exchanged more words with him than a quick good day doctor or a thank you for looking after her as usual. He’s still the same gentle-eyed, kind smiling counselor as you’d remember.

Sir Moze on the other hand, was someone you barely saw in person but heard more with words from Feixiao herself. He’s taller than you anticipated, scarier even. He had his arms crossed, back against the farthest wall of the room.

“I believe you’ve heard about Jiaoqiu and Moze, right?”

“From you, yes.” You flicker your gaze wearily at the two. “What of them?”

“How would you like to have these two guard you?” Feixiao is leaning close, chin on her palms, blue eyes twinkling.

If you hadn’t deposited the files on the desk, you would’ve dropped it all on the clean tiles beneath you. “Pardon me, Madam General but,” you’re trying to keep your tone cool, less offensive. “Why?”

“You don’t think I wouldn't find out about the little incident that happened in Verdant Harbor?”

You stiffen then. “That was due to my ignorance, it won’t happen again.”

“An assassination attempt on you is not something that you can just brush off and say, it won’t happen again.” Feixiao frowns, then she gestures to the two again.

“Just until I can properly assign someone reliable to you, these two will look after you when I’m busy.”

“General, but—“

“Your constant refusal to the General’s order makes it seem like you don’t want us around, little scribe.”

From the corner of your eye, Jiaoqiu speaks for the first time today, his syrupy tone brushing the shell of your ear. You hadn’t noticed him getting close, popping his head in front of your face, pink ears perking.

You lean back from his face, exhale. “Sir Jiaoqiu, you are my sister’s companions, not mine.”

“It doesn’t mean we can’t be acquaintances, no?”

“I’m too busy to have guards following me around.” You cross your arms. “I check on Yaoqing’s inventory everyday, write reports the entire afternoon and pay visits to IPC delegates. I don’t want to think about yours and Sir Moze’s well-being while I'm working.”

“You don’t have to.”

From the farthest wall, Moze speaks his opinion on the matter, his deep velvet pupils unmoving on you. “You can completely ignore our existence, for all I care. The General ordered this because your life was threatened, it’s no use arguing over the factuality of the issue at hand.”

His words felt like a stab through your chest, you didn’t expect his voice to be so…gravelly and ice cold. Complaints melt away on your tongue, your slump shoulders show your defeat on the matter, which prompted a smile on Jiaoqiu’s delicate face, peaks of butterscotch eyes grinning at you.

“That’s three against one.”

And that’s how the arrangement started. You had left that office with paper-free hands and two distinguished gentlemen in tow, following your foot falls as you left Feixiao’s great seat. You were almost convinced the two would stay quiet the majority of your journey but not even a minute in, Jiaoqiu pops his head in your view, again.

“So, what’s the schedule for today?” The healer should really refrain from leaning in close to your face when he converses with you. Your tongue is thick with childish rebuttals however you quell it down, pin your shoulders with professionalism, pace your steps faster.

“I have to meet again with an incessant customer in Caelorium Venti Pavilion.”

Jiaoqiu tilts his head again, it’s funny to see his ears tip up or down, matching his emotions—Feixiao’s ears do that too. “Incessant, you say?”

“He’s been complaining about some clauses in our shipment agreement. Some folks from the Artisanship commission and I have been trying to resolve this dispute peacefully but he’s being very difficult. This is our fourth day trying to convince him.”

Pink ears droop, floppy-eared. “I heard about this briefly two days ago, I can’t believe it’s still going.”

“You’d be surprised how relentless some people can be.”

“Do you wish for it to be resolved?” Moze speaks up from your other side.

You turn to him, puzzlement sewn between your brows. “Yes, I’d want this to be done already.” What’s he thinking?

“Then, allow me to handle it swiftly.” What does that even mean?

Jiaoqiu sighs beneath his red fan, a pointed look directed at the taller man. “Is assassination techniques all you think about? I don’t think being aggressive will help our little scribe here.” Being aggressive??

Moze frowns. “And if we don’t do anything, this will still be an issue till tomorrow—“

“No, sir Jiaoqiu is correct. Sir Moze you are prohibited from being violent with any of my clients. You are here to be my bodyguards not paid assassins. I can handle my work on my own.”

Moze’s frown deepens, he mulls over your scolding then nods his head reluctantly, “Very well.”

You sigh, fingers pressing onto your temple. It’s not even a few fifty steps from the office and you’re already having a headache.

The walk towards the destination is filled with Jiaoqiu's chatters on his recent discovery on remedies for stomach ache, you half-listened, he doesn’t seem to mind the lack of response. Moze had disappeared like a wisp of smoke from your side, but you know he was still there somewhere, his heavy foot falls is something he made known to you, a synchronous thud thud thud when your feet hit the cement floor. You thought it was odd to have someone follow you like a shadow. When you reach the Pavilion, you cannot help but sour at the distant arguments already peppering your ears. The healer’s ramble seems to ebb at the disruptions and Moze’s footfalls go silent.

“Seems like they are having an engaging debate.” Jiaoqiu comments at the scene. “Do you deal with this everyday?”

“Unfortunately.”

“Alright then.” Jiaoqiu’s hand lands gently on your back, giving you an encouraging push. “We’ll be here, don’t mind us so go do your work.”

You glance at him, under his red fan he nods at you. You turn without a single word, the more you approach the scene the more the tangle mess of arguments fall upon your ears,

“I told you my decision once and I'll tell it again for the hundredth time but I won’t change my mind nor am I gonna agree with your ridiculous clauses!”

“Sir Zhenye, I understand your concerns. But this clause is for the protection of all shipments, this is a law for Yaoqing, we are in no position to change it even with your demands.”

“Then call your manager!” When your associates sigh, you knew their banter wasn’t going anywhere.

“Mr. Zhenye, this is the only thing we can provide for you and your shipment no matter how much you are displeased with it.”

You see the faces of the Artisanship Associates perk up at your presence, you drag a chair back and take a seat with them.

The man scoffs. “I question the flexibility of Yaoqing’s customer service, you are lacking, I don’t even know why I am still arguing with you on this.”

“But—” You raise a hand at your companions. Yeah, this won’t do. You can sit here and argue all you want, but you have other things to handle.

“Then, I’m sorry our services aren’t to your liking. We may end our discussion here since we cannot seem to come into a mutual agreement, you may take your shipments with you, maybe the other Xianzhou ships will be more to your liking.” You stand. ‘Have a good day—”

“Aren’t you the Merlin’s Claw kin?”

You stop in your tracks, Zhenye crosses his arms, an ireful glance directed at you. “Yeah, I have heard of you. You were once an orphan during one of Yaoqing’s many battles with the Denizens of Abundance. Just because the Merlin’s Claw has found and decided to take you in, you think you have the right to look down on people, huh?”

No, that wasn’t the case. Talks like this have been plentiful, you had gotten used to it by now but you cannot help the crawl of shame flushing through your skin, for him to downplay you and your efforts in front of Artisanship Commision representatives—in front of Feixiao’s two most trusted retainers? How shameful. You wondered what they would think of you, you had failed to convince a customer and now you’re being told off in public, they might think you are unworthy, they might even agree with Zhenye.

“You think you’re someone special?” Zhenye continues the spur, deepening the thorn. “Compared to the Madam General, you are lacking—”

“And our smart little scribe had already ended the discussion a few moments ago. If you continue all this yelling, kind sir, I might report you to the Knights for verbal harassment.” A body reveals itself, blocking you from Zhenye’s view. Jiaoqiu’s closed-eye smile replaced with a malicious look.

“W-who” Zhenye is stunned at the threat. ‘Who are you supposed to be, I am An Zhenye, the son of the famous merchant family An. Who do you think you are to—”

“Then, I might just need to have a word with your family—” Jiaoqiu’s smile is cynical. You divert your attention from the scene when another large palm rests upon your shoulder, you glance sideways and see Moze standing there, his velvet pupils soften under the meek afternoon light.

“you alright?” He flickers his gaze in front where Jiaoqiu is now in a winning argument with a stuttering Zhenye. “It’s gonna be fine now, he’s good at dealing with difficult people as well. That Zhenye will agree with the shipment agreement just like intended, And...”

You watch him pause, you furrow your bows up at him. “And don’t take his words to heart, he’s saying nonsense. The General treasures you the most, she never thought you were anything but.”

A weird feeling tickles your chest. You were fine with the insults, it did not offend you—but those two, they almost defended you in an instant, it’s weird. “Thank you, Sir Moze.”

“Just, call us Jiaoqiu and Moze, sir is too formal for our arrangement.” You hummed at his statement.

The afternoon ended with Zhenye agreeing with the clauses begrudgingly, just like Moze had mentioned. The sky starts to dim when you leave the Pavillion, silence overbearing the cool breeze, the night hue melting on three of your figures as you continue walking.

Someone pats your shoulder, stirring you from your thoughts. Jiaoqiu’s smiling again, back at the Pavillion, it was your first time seeing him look at someone so coldly, it was unbecoming for a doctor but remembering how he had come to your defense renders you speechless.

“Are you hungry?”

“What’s with the question?” There’s an unexplained grin on his face.

“How about you come by my place for dinner? After all, eating a good meal can uplift any type of mood. It would taste even better after a long day’s work.”

You were ready to decline, the words were at the tip of your tongue, however Jiaoqiu adds. “The General mentions how you’d usually eat your meals alone, that won’t do, you cannot object to this.”

You turn to look at Moze, silently praying he would help you, his countenance suggests that he spends his free time lonesomely, just like you. He sees you looking at him and immediately says,

“He cooks well.”

That wasn’t what you wanted him to say.

You kick a pebble on the road, grumbling under your breath. But instead of dislike, all you feel was warmth at the invitation to dinner. It has been awhile since you ate around a comfortable crowd.

“Alright.” You finally say. “Only because you helped me today.”

Jiaoqiu laughs, Moze nods his head, and a smile sits on your face for the first time today.

“So, how does it feel to have them as your bodyguards today?” Feixiao raises the question that night, your fingers stop combing through her silver locks, you thought for a while.

“They were okay.”

“Just okay?”

You thought about it, wanted to say something else, dropped it, then you thought about it again, narrowed your eyes, dropped it finally. “Just okay.”

Feixiao’s hair tangles through your fingers softly, ridding her long ponytail and letting her hair scatter down her back, you raise a question of your own, “I wonder how you manage to put up with them.” She almost leans her weight towards you, her blue eyes hiding a gentle smile.

“Why, did Jiaoqiu tease you the whole day?”

“Not really.” You avoid her stare. “He cooked me dinner though.”

She laughs at that. “Well, it’s not easy but I can assure you those guys aren’t bad to be around with.”

“I see.” Your tone sounded doubtful, you didn’t mean for it to sound like that spilling between your tongue, Feixiao picks up on this quickly and her smile falters a little.

“You know it’s my fault that people are talking ill of you,”

Ah, so the news had reached her ears. “I’m guessing Jiaoqiu personally told you?”

“It was Moze, actually.”

“Well, good to know he talks then.”

Feixiao sighs, “The point is, you shouldn’t be subjected to any of these comments and I should’ve paid more attention to it and dealt with it long before, I’m sorry—“

“Stop it sis. Don’t…don’t apologize. It’s fine, it doesn’t bother me as much as you thought it does.” You say. “I didn’t want to bother you with such trivial matters, I can handle things on my own too you know, I’m no longer a little kid.”

A long pause. “I know.”

“You say that but you had assigned two of your trusted retainers to be my bodyguards, you know a simple knight from the Verdant Knight unit will be enough, so why them specifically?”

Feixiao and you had sat in front of each other, your mattress creaking under both your weight, her ears had turned floppy-eared. “You know, you’ve always been so…distant. A part of that is my fault, it must’ve been really lonely for you to rely on yourself for all this time whenever I’m away. I just wanted you to relax for a bit, at least if it’s not only for them, but for me.”

Her hand lands on your shoulder, tugging you to her in a warm embrace. Feixiao kisses your temple. “It’s time to trust others again. And those two can help.”

You have mulled over Feixiao’s words but cannot exactly pinpoint her clear intention. After that, Jiaoqiu and Moze slot into your routine so seamlessly, your lonely afternoon writing reports became lunch breaks eating Jiaoqiu’s cooking with him and Moze. You have grown to get used to Moze’s ebb and flow, his constant appearances and disappearances, materializing from the shadows, his cutthroat quips and acts of service as he sometimes helps you carry around cargo weight for Cycrane shipments or sort papers in your office neatly.

Moze also has the knack for saying profound things related to the methods he was used to,

If there was someone else that spat insults at you, you hear Moze’s “Do you want me to finish him?”

And your constant “No, Moze, we aren’t even sure if what he’s saying is credible or not. Let the Verdant Knights handle this issue.”

His’ “That will take too long to dispatch a set of knights. I can follow him now and verify it myself.”

And finally, your frustrated “Again, no, that’s called stalking—actually you know what, Moze? You’re fired.”

He frowns at your answer, “You cannot fire me, the General was the one that assigned me to you so I go by her orders.” He doesn’t know how to read in between your chides, but you don’t hold that against him.

Aside from pitting with Moze’s stubbornness, Jiaoqiu’s chattering became something you look forward to. On days where you take breaks, you listen as he talks and teaches you about his food discoveries and different alchemical theories, stories he’d exaggerated to garner your attention, medicines he wishes to procure for Feixiao’s illness. He’s passionate about it, you respect that, the admiration almost quickly goes down the drain when you had fallen ill, one time and couldn’t get out of bed.

You remember laying helpless, staring at your ceiling, deciding it was for the best to take a rest instead of going to work with a fever. It will go away in a day, you had gotten used to sleeping off your fevers, and got used to not telling Feixiao of such simple problems. You had closed your eyes, buried your nose into your pillows until you were woken up by the sound of knocking, the stir of movement, the scent of spice and herbs following, Jiaoqiu and Moze came to visit you.

You sat up. “What are you doing in my house?”

“We are your bodyguards, remember?”

“I thought that only applies to following me around when I work?” You push two fingers to your temple, vision spinning and melting colors with one another. “I can take care of personal matters myself…”

When Jiaoqiu reaches you, he touches the back of his ungloved hand to your forehead. His skin is cool against your burning ones.

His ears are perked up, frowning, he asks. “Are you feeling okay?”

“I just caught a fever.” You’re too tired to argue back. Jiaoqiu’s eyes melt like butterscotch under the warm sunlight spilling through your curtains.

“I see.” You watch him stand. “Allow me to use your kitchen then, I'll make you something.”

You could only nod, the pink-haired doctor then beckons Moze to grab him a few more ingredients from the Healer’s Market, with a simple nod the raven-hooded man disappears without another word. The sound of opening cabinets and clattering pots fills your ears as you drift back to sleep, exhaustion finally succumbing to your senses. When you have awakened, you smell something, a deep aroma of mushrooms and soup. You find Jiaoqiu sitting on a chair beside your bedside, you try to find Moze but he’s nowhere to be found.

Jiaoqiu places a hand on your cheek. You had unconsciously leaned against the coolness of his fingers on you. “Your fever didn’t die down, here, drink this medicine I made, it’ll help.”

You take the bowl from him, mushrooms. “Medicine? A broth?”

“Yes, medicine.”

“On whose orders are you demanding this from?”

“I'm a certified doctor, my word is credulous, I can assure you, this medicine is a requirement to alleviate your health.” Jiaoqiu taps your cheek teasingly. “Come on, little scribe, the more you delay it, the more bitter it will be.”

“Fine, fine just stop talking already.” He’s so insufferable, with the insult you cursed in your head you downed the broth, face crumpling, you aren’t fond of mushrooms. Jiaoqiu pats your head for a job well done. Moze arrives after a while, he’s got candies on his hand.

“For you.” He reaches out to take your hand gently, dropping a piece on your open palm. Moze’s fingers are ice-cold, he must’ve stalked off to get the ingredients out in the cold night breeze, you clasped your own fingers with his, simply trying to warm him up, if he noticed your gesture, he didn't question it.

After drinking the medicine, you lay back down with a tired sigh, you feel Moze’s hand on your head now, clumsy fingers combing through your messy bangs and Jiaoqiu pulls the blankets up to your shoulders, his soft coo of goodnight a lullaby in your ears, maybe they’re not as terrible as you initially thought.

The two continue to visit you in your home for the next few days, and the more you feel yourself relaxing within their presence. It didn’t take long but you felt like you were becoming closer with them.

Today, Moze’s the only one that visited. He had mentioned that Jiaoqiu had businesses to tend to with Feixiao. He makes himself comfortable on the chair beside your bed, eyes-closed as you continue to write your reports even when you’re bed-ridden, Moze’s just present in case you needed him to fetch another document or a glass of water.

When the afternoon sun melts through your window, you lowered your pen, letting out a loud sigh as you finished the last sets of papers for today. You spare a look at the man beside you, Moze’s head is tilted back against the wall, peeks of gray hair flopping over the shadow of his eyes, Adam’s apple vulnerable to the warm air and his chest rise and fall to his slumbering breaths. You lean onto your open palm, it’s the first time you’ve noticed how long his lashes are, and even when he’s slumbering he looks so peaceful.

For a moment, curiosity gets the better of you. You shimmy closer, a tender finger brushing through his bangs.

His calloused hand comes up to circle your wrist, stopping your motion, velvet pupils flutter open, steadying on your own. Looking at him closely, you see how his brows crinkle and the peaceful look on his face deepens into his innocent poker face.

“Are you done?” His graveled tone reaches your ears, you settle back and nod your head, gesturing towards the papers on your lap. Moze hums, leans close to gather the papers and sets it back on your desk.

“Here’s your medicine.” Moze comes back with a tray of the familiar looking broth, Your expression changes almost immediately,

You wave your hand. “I’ll take it later.”

“That’s what you said yesterday.” Moze’s lips tip into a frown. “and you didn’t take it.”

I didn’t? “Well, I promise you this time, I’ll take it late—“

“You must take it, little scribe.”

“Just give me a second to…“ He’s already holding the cup in front of you,

“Moze—“

“If you don’t take it now, I’ll tell Jiaoqiu.”

That silences you quickly. After a second, you decide to take the medicine with a grumble, he nods at you in satisfaction.

“Moze, I want to take a walk.” After nibbling another candy from him, you peel the blankets off of your body, setting your bare feet on the cold ground. Moze follows from behind, opening the door for you as you both exit the building. You haven't realized how long you were bedridden with a fever, your bones ached with weight and the breeze kissing your skin tenderly calms you. A tamed sigh escapes through your lips, it was short-lived though, through the canopy on the other hallway, you hear murmurs.

It was a group of people you aren’t familiar with, they must’ve been part of the warrior units and they were talking bad about you,

How you were too weak to the point Feixiao had to call for Jiaoqiu and Moze to ‘babysit’ you, and how an unknown blood like you is unworthy of the attention of the military healer and the shadow guard—You can tell Moze is ready to confront them, his stance dangerous, but you put your hand on his chest, shaking your head.

“It’s no use stopping it, they’ll just continue talking, leave them be.”

Moze grabs ahold of your hand, pulling you closer to him once again after you started your self deprecating statements, you're glad that he did, the action grounded you back from your wallowing thoughts.

“You’re not unworthy of your place here, and you’re not just someone Jiaoqiu and I protect just for the sake of protecting.”

It took twenty seconds at most, staring into those grey-blue eyes of his, dissecting every inch of his expression because you just couldn’t understand. You aren’t convinced still, and maybe that was due to people that had come and gone from your life, the parents that left you during that battle years ago, the parents that protected you which caused them their lives, you cannot unsee how that tragedy unearthed before your eyes.

You don’t need people to protect you, you don’t want to be left alone again, your own problems seem to weigh a lot more on your mind today.

The night is so close to ending, your eyes closed in a peaceful slumber then you hear someone opening your door, a rhythmic type of tap tap tap, a thud thud thud and a thum thum thum of footsteps pepper your ears. Feixiao decides to visit you with her two retainers in tow. She sits on the edge of your bed, reaching out to caress your hair affectionately.

Jiaoqiu and Moze remained by the door, their voices hushed but you can pick them up easily, “It seems like malicious talks have been going on for a very long time, our little scribe just doesn’t say much about it. New rumors have been going around too, ever since our involvement with that merchant in the Pavillion.”

“You should’ve stop them, Moze.” Jiaoqiu chides.

“You don’t think I wanted to?” Moze’s stare is pointed, tone rigid. “They stopped me from doing so.”

There was a silent pause aching through the room after that, Jiaoqiu spoke. “Well, let’s..think about this with our little scribe when we return after a month or two from the Luofu, have you spoken about the Wardance yet, General?”

“I haven’t got the time, but I’ve already chosen a knight to look after them when we leave.”

They’re leaving? Somewhat, a sting pricks your chest. You knew from the very beginning that their duty with you was temporary, a superficial arrangement. Don’t get too attached, they might leave like how your family left you in that battlefield protecting you, how Feixiao had found you and cared for you only to teeter between life and death.

It’s not fair. Why do you feel the need to get close to me if you’re just gonna leave? It’s just not fair.

That night, when you heard them finally leave your room, you had your bed sheets clutched tightly between your fists.

That morning, Jiaoqiu had greeted you, ever so carefree like a chirping morning bird. “You better drink the remedy I have concocted for today, just as you prefer. It's not mushrooms, I used other herb as a substitute to the actual ingredient needed. Now here, don’t refuse it—“

You hum, taking the bowl and downing it in one go, Jiaoqiu watches quietly, a crack of silence filling the air.

“Are you okay?” He places a hand on your forehead, “You’re not feverish, are you dizzy maybe? Stomach ache?”

“It’s nothing.” You stand and Jiaoqiu voices, “Where are you going?”

“I have a lot of work to do, I cannot stay in bed all day.”

“But—“

“I’ll see you when I can, sorry I have to go.” Something changed between you, you’re distant, ice-pricked. Jiaoqiu cannot understand this change.

A few days passed, you focused all your attention with work, work, work and more work. You haven’t seen Jiaoqiu and Moze—pettily and childishly—you’ve been avoiding talking with them for a while now. You need time to think, more time to figure out the ache you feel. It’s not their fault, you are aware of that but you hate the confrontation of knowing what they truly feel and the reality of them not being with you after their duties have been fulfilled, you hate it all. You cannot face them, not like this.

Jiaoqiu and Moze are quick to notice your change in behavior, and you can tell even from a distance that they disliked it, your coldness, your apathy. For the last few days they’ve been trying to corner you, to try to talk, you don’t give it to them. Even with your petty behavior, you weren’t joking when you said you were busy—just like what they had talked about, the upcoming Wardance Ceremony in the Luofu has brought many interstellar travelers from afar, wanting to visit the many Xianzhou ships, you haven’t had time to take a break in a long while.

Only after a week, when you find yourself cracking under the stress of work does the two retainers finally catch you unguarded. You were resting under the sun, back against a wall, your eyes flutter open when you feel a shade from above —Jiaoqiu is standing in front of you, his red fan used to block the sun from your face.

“Too much sun exposure can be unhealthy.” Jiaoqiu’s not smiling, his amber eyes open to see how upset he’s been with your behavior.

You shift. “Thanks.”

Silence.

“You want to talk about it?”

“I…don’t know.” Your hesitation makes him reach out to grab your hand tenderly—too tenderly, enough to make you decompose from its softness. You don’t pull away and the pink-haired man takes a seat beside you.

“Hey.” His ears are downcasted. “What’s on your mind?”

Too many things: anxiety, worry, abandonment. You don’t know how to voice these issues aloud.

“I’m just tired.” Then, you pull away. “You…you can stop doing this, the both of you.”

More silence, this time deafening.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Jiaoqiu sounded offended, his brows knitted, you averted your gaze, brushed away his question.

“It means I don’t need you to look after me anymore.”

“Why?”

“I just think—“ don’t get attached. “I don’t need you anymore.”

“It’s not the matter of needing us to look after you or not, this isn’t supposed to be something—“ Jiaoqiu stumbles on his words, he tries to reach for you, stops when he sees the look in your expression, hurt.

Jiaoqiu’s convinced something is on your mind. “What happened?”

“Nothing happened.” Stop pushing for answers.

“If nothing happened, then why are you being like this?” Stop. “Did someone threaten you perhaps? I—“

Moze materializes from the thin air in dark smoke, hand landing on the doctor’s shoulder firmly. “Hey, Jiao—“

“What, Moze—“

“Just stop already, can’t you see you’re making our litt—“

It’s too loud, stop it.

“Then stop running away and talk to us so we can underst—“

“Aeons.” You finally snapped. “Stop talking to me, why can’t you both just leave me alone?! I don’t need you, so stop talking to me, stop pushing me for answers—!”

You choked, sharp words staggering between the crevices of your teeth. You dare to look up and see their shocked expressions, something bitter cracks in your gut. You didn’t mean to…

You turn to leave, for a split second, Moze reaches for your arm but you were already out of reach. Tears threaten to prick your eyes when you turn a corner, your heart thumping rapidly, you didn’t mean to say that.

The crowd around suddenly overwhelms you, so you stir clear, finding an isolated alley to slip under where you can let the tears roll down your cheek, where you have enough time to think of what just happened.

Pathetic. You can’t even tell them how you truly feel—

Something fleeting from the corner of your eye catches your attention as a cold chill runs through the column of your spine. Something’s wrong. You barely reacted, but you could’ve sworn you saw something flying past your vision, a shadow you don’t recognize. You hear the sound of a blade being cut through the air, slicing the atmosphere, letting your heart fall at the pit of your stomach.

An assassination attempt, at daylight too?

You pivot, you turn around, but the sound of the blade is harsher and you could’ve sworn the assassin was right behind you.

You truly let your guard down this time, you don’t think you have time to dodge the dagger coming your way—

You await for the strike, for the pain to drown you, but instead of something sharp hitting your skin, you feel a pull, your nose buries into a cloth that smelled like spices, protective arms wrapping around you. A pained grunt muffled your ears, your body hit the floor, shouts came second, you snapped your eyes open and saw vanishing smoke and Jiaoqiu’s crumpled expression, his butterscotch eyes flaring as he shouts something to someone before everything goes quiet. You’re clutching him tight but, liquid hits your fingers, curiously you retract your hand to see red.

Blood.

Jiaoqiu’s bleeding.

You haven’t realized how pale you had become until the pink-haired man delicately takes your face between his trembling palms.

“Hey…” He looks in pain. “You cannot give up on us now, we’re your bodyguards after all, aren’t we?”

“Jiao—Jiaoqiu...” Your tone is cut with vulnerability, he wipes the tears pouring down your cheeks. “I’m sorry, I didn’t…I didn’t mean to—“

“I know.” His syrupy tone is weak, he winces, then lays his head heavy on your shoulder, nose on the crook of your neck. You hold him tightly likes he’s liquid in your open palm. Shakily, you call out;

“Moze!“ Your scream is desperate, borderline begging, your voice is ringing in your ears when you exclaim again. “Moze, please!“

When you see the swirl of smoke and hear the familiar thump thump thump of footfalls, you cannot be all the more relieved. When Moze appears before you, he was already scraped and bloodied, fear spikes through your chest thinking he was also hurt during the assassination—only a few more seconds later did you realize, it’s not his blood that he’s drenched on, he must’ve dealt with the culprit, Jiaoqiu was the one that shielded you from the attack.

Moze’s chest is heaving, eyes ravenous and crazed. “How, how is he?”

“He’s bleeding so much, I don’t know what to do—“

“We should take him to the Alchemy commission.” Moze’s ruff voice is impatient as he sheaths his blades. “I’ll carry him there, can you get up?”

You nod.

“Good.” He gently pulls Jiaoqiu’s weight off of you, he tosses an arm over his shoulder, lifting him up, “Let’s go, quickly.”

The seconds dragged long, bleeding numbers to minutes till it pools into an hour, then two system hours. Your knuckles are white from how long you’ve had your fingers clasped with one another, you prayed to the Hunt, prayed that he would make it through.

Don’t take him away yet, you prayed to them. Don’t take Jiaoqiu away from Feixiao, from Moze, from me.

You have murmured at least three more prayers before you see Feixiao leaving the room, you jump to your feet, anxious palpitating through your artery.

When she reaches you, she pulls you into a long, tight hug.

You part your lips, terrified. “How is he..?”

“He’s gonna be alright.” You have never let out such a long breath of relief till now. You clutch Feixiao tighter, “Sister?”

“Hm, what is it?”

“This whole thing happened because of my selfishness, it’s all my fault and Jiaoqiu had to get hurt because of this, because of me—“

“Hush, don’t say that now…” her hand rests softly behind your head, caressing through your hair. “They’ll be upset if they hear you now, how about you go inside and tell Jiaoqiu that yourself? I’ll go fetch Moze.”

Sniffling, you nod your head. Feixiao cups your face, pressing her cheek against yours as a form of affection before leaving.

When you step inside, Jiaoqiu’s awake, his ears perk up when he sees you. “You look like you just ran a marathon, little scribe.” He tilts his head, smile on his lips. “Don’t tell me…were you crying this whole time?”

You cannot help but let out a laugh. “You rascal, still have the time to joke around even at a time like this.”

He opens both of his eyes. Suddenly, saddened sincerity crosses his face. “I’m…I’m sorry for yelling at you, back there.”

You meet his gaze. “I should be the one apologizing to you, Jiaoqiu. You got hurt because of me.”

“It was my decision to protect you, don’t take the blame. I don’t know what I would do with myself if you were the one that got hurt.” A tentative pause hangs in the air, then you see him open his arms wide. “Now come here, let me hug you.”

A smile forms on your face, tears heavy in your eyes when Jiaoqiu pulls you to him. “Looks like we all have issues to solve together one step at a time, how does that sound?”

Together, you like that. “Okay.”

“Where’s Moze?” Jiaoqiu asks.

“He had to go talk to the Verdant knights about the whole thing, sister is going over to fetch him.”

“That’s good, when he comes back you should go hug him too.”

This time, you nod your head. Just as promised, Feixiao returns with Moze, there’s an uneasy dent between his brow and he’s in freshly clean clothes. Jiaoqiu nudges and you approach Moze who sends you a puzzled look. You don’t give him time to react, your arms immediately wrap around his torso, you feel him stiffen beneath you.

“…Are you okay?”

“I’m sorry, Moze, for being mean to you and Jiaoqiu.”

Moze doesn’t say anything for a long time, but you feel him melt into your embrace, large arms engulfing you wholly, his lips on top of your head, humming gruffly. “Don’t be sorry, you can tell us all about it, yeah?”

Jiaoqiu and Feixiao smile at the scene, and you hum.

“Yeah, I’ll tell you all about it.”

Maybe, it’s okay for you to have a guardian or two, even for a short while, you let yourself find comfort to talk to them about your problems.

[lockwood-fic-recs]

Just Before The Walls Come Down

by WaitingForMyHogwartsLetter on ao3

Rating: T | Category: Gen, Multi | Relationship: Lockwood/Lucy/George, Platonic Iron Trio (can be read as either)

1) Lockwood likes contact to feel grounded, George makes an effort to provide it. 2) Lucy isn't used to being treated with care; it takes some getting used to. 3) Sometimes the answer is right in front of you — George discovers a solution to his post-job Touch aftershocks.

Or: Lockwood & Co, a quick study on the physical touch love language from different POVs.

[anulithots]

Random ask, who are your favorite romantic relationship's couples in any media, like anime/manga, tv series, books, etc (can be canon or non-canon)? Feel free if you want to write the reasons or not of why you love them....

P.s

I'm not the one who asked that fav charas but WOW your answer is great, thanks for sharing them.

THANK YOU FOR THE ASK!

I typically like dynamics, romantic or otherwise (if they are canonical, it's just an extra for me, a nice extra but an extra nonetheless.)

BUT I do have my ships, very much so.

Here's a quick list:

Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto

Megumi Fushiguro and Yuji Itadori (queer platonic/semi-romantic, I really just like their dynamic)

Maki and Nobara Kugisaki

Crowley and Aziraphale

@pinetreevillain's Timothy and Donnie

Jesper and Wylan

Kaz and Inej (really all the pairings in Six of Crows are great)

Bo Seon and Kang Dae (I hope I spelled their names right! I don't have easy access to webtoon anymore... sadness)

Daph and Tom (queer platonic) from the Interpretation of Shadows

And just a note! I typically ship with a 'queer platonic flavor' to everyone. This aspec person loves their fluff I guess. (I don't like/don't read smut)

#1 Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto

I've rambled about them... a lot.

Most of my essays are here

Gojo the analyst

SatoSugu and how they support each other

Ao No Sumika - "Will we meet again?"

Gojo and Geto being compliments in an ironic way

Edit with them is here

They are each other's compliments, they are soulmates, they are most comfortable around each other, and they feel like themselves when the other is around. Like... just perfection tbh.

#2 Itadori Yuji and Megumi Fushiguro

I ship them queer platonically/semi-romantically.

But first... THE SATOSUGU PARRALLELS THEY HAVE!!

Second..

Yuji validates Megumi's way of seeing things. Megumi says that he values personality most ('unshakable character') for people he likes, and he canonically likes Itadori's personality and his 'unshakable character'.

They also get to have a calmer version of satosugu moral squabbles. (With Megumi being the one to say that not everyone should be saved, and Itadori trying to save everyone.)

ALSO ITADoRI KNOWING THAT mEGUMI SAVED HIM BECAUSE MEGUMI THINKS THAT ITADORI iS A GOOD PERSON, ONLY FOR ITADORI TO BELIVE HIS ACTIONS (finger eating) HURT OTHERS. (and Megumi's adamant proclamations towards not saving someone who would hurt others in the future... but all the while Megumi is making sure not to tell Itadori because he doesn't want itadori to be sad.)

Also the way Itadori is always giving Fushiguro little compliments, and considers him a friend pretty much immediately.

Also the 'if you die, I'll kill you' 'I guess I can't die then'

Their dynamic is just perfection. PERFECTION I TELL YOU!

#3 Maki Zenin and Nobara Kugisaki

Maki and Nobara feel like they have similar underlying beliefs, values, and personalities. They would definitely hype each other up (especially when Nobara immediately fawns over Maki). Honestly I would love to see more Nobara content in general, and if JJK were a slice of life, it would've been so much fun to have an episode directly devoted to Nobara and Maki.

As it is, they both are self-determined and are selective with who they choose to care about. And as far as anger goes, Nobara seems like someone with a 'wild anger', whereas Maki's anger is more controlled.

Nobara also is sparing in her compliments, doesn't let unessecary emtions get in the way of a mission, is more focused on strategy than the rest of the Tokyo trio, and all she wants is to live her best life. No one's getting in the way of that.

Maki is also going to live her life to the fullest, but in a ~spiteful way~. She doesn't see herself as lesser and will leave relationships behind (see Mai) for the sake of living to her fullest potential.

Basically Maki and Nobara solidarity. They would understand and work well with each other.

#4 Crowley and Aziraphale

I got into a hyperfixation about them (just them, did not have acess to the show so I scoured the internet for clips of them). A lot of my ships have this common theme of 'comfort person'. And... yea.

It's been a bit since I've hyperfixated on them though! I fell out of it a little bit before JJK.

Crowley recognizes the flaws in the system and decided to live in his own human-esque way. This includes Aziraphale. Always.

Aziraphale follows the system and justifies all of his human indulgences with the fundamental goodness of the system. Most comfortable around Crowley.

They are constantly doing little things for each other. THeir own tragic breakup scene was because they wanted to do things for each other. (Aziraphale wanted Crowley to be an angel because he thinks he would be happier. Crowley knows that they would both be happy if they had each other.)

I'm probably missing some things, but yea! They gave me a lot of happy sparkles. (Aziraphale was so excited to hold Crowley's hand it was great)

#5 @pinetreevillain's Timothy and Donnie

(I want this image forever imprinted in my brain.. also hope this doesn't count as a repost... full credit forever to pinetreevillian!)

Again, while I still love rottmnt and it was (and is) my longest running hyperfixation ever... my brain is all JJK right now. So I might have forgotten some things!

For all the love that his brothers give him, none of them give their wholehearted trust to Donnie ("Fixing your fix" and all that jazz). None of them can understand exactly how his brain works - and it's lonely being the only one with a mind that works differently. (Plus it's maddening to not have at least ONE PERSOn that listens to your infodumps... speaking from experience).

The FIRST THING TImothy says to Donnie is "I trust you"

"I love it when you talk"

Someone who understands his science jargon! Somone who he can vent to that isn't his brothers! THE FONTS! FRIENDS! EVERYONE GETS A TRAGIC BREAKUP WHOOPDEDOO! (the bad ending death)

... is there a single ship on this list that isn't 'comfort person + tragic breakup?'

... nope?

.... I guess I have a type.

AND I WRITE THE SAME WAY actually -

THEY ARE LIKE THIS TOO WUT. 'comfort people + tragic breakup'

WELL! YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST! If you want Noorie to like your ship, they better be each other's comfort person and have a tragic breakup scene.

I'm going to skip over the SIx of Crows ships because it's been awhile + I want to talk about the others. BUT THE SIX OF CROWS SHIPS ARE REALLY GOOD

#Iforget - Kang Dae and Bo Seon.

They are so fluffffyyyyyyyy

And they're from the webtoon: to the stars and back. I don't have easy acess to webtoon anymore because of 'they're going to make you gay' (I'm literally lithromantic asexual... being gay isn't going to change anything... also being genderfluid makes everything gay. So there <3)

I HAVEN"T ANALYZED THEM BECAUSE MY BRAIN WAS TOO FOCUSED ON FLUFF (which rarely happens) IT"S SOO FLUFFY AND THEYARE PERFECT FOR EACH OTHER BECAUSE I PREFER ENJOYING EACH OTHER'S COMPANY TO PINNING AND PRE-CONFESSION NERVOUSNESS (unless you're @justrustandstardust and can make it really funny)

#something or other. Daph and Tom from the interpretation of Shadows.

CANNONICALLY QUEER PLATONIC WHOOODEWONDEROUSDOO!(comfort people comfort people comfort people... not sure if they have a tragic breakup tho)

Daph can't see Tom's shadow and it's a comfort because he isn't bombarded with truths all the time and I remember seeing the author talk about it more but I forgot..... and I still like them A LOT, but I;m also waiting for the comic to progress before I can analyze fully.

For now! We have Daph the silly with a great burden on his shoulders, and Tom who tries to be rational and likes hanging around Daph even thought the sillies can be aggravating (because of aggravating sillies?)

ANYWHO! SORRY FOR THE LATER REPLY! I HONESTLY HAVE A FEW SHIPS THAT I LIKE AND THE REST IS FOUND FAMILY-ESQUE DYNAMICs

and while we're here... Satosugu anyone?

Also Gojo core-

[fixaidea]

Highly Specific Ship Ranking (I'm not good with names to start with so I definitely don't remember all the ship name combos. My bad)

Frodo/Sam

Iron Triangle trio

Frodo/Sam

BroTP / Cute / I love them - Could read them as either platonic or romantic, I love their relationship either way. Gotta say if we're doing romance I like to round it up to a poly ship to include Rosie and/or write Frodo as aroace, but I like just the net pairing of Sam and Frodo too.

Iron Triangle trio

I need to see how I could make it work / BroTP / Cute - Could go any old way. I love them as a group, no matter who (if any, if all) are romantically involved. My personal preferred setup is romantic Pingxie and then digging into the friendship between Xiaoge and Pangzi, after all that's what makes this a triangle instead of a V.

[apompkwrites]

omg congrats on 2k followers!!!!!!1!1!!1!1!1 kk can i get kingscholar!reader x malleus (romantic) fic? i just find the idea funky like that 🥳 thanks!!!!!

graduation ceremony || black sheep expansion pack

masterlist characters: malleus, leona (platonic), falena (platonic) genre: fluff contains: cuddly malleus <33, my version of falena :D, timeskip summary: as the school year draws to a close, malleus finds himself returning to sweep his beloved off their feet. oh, and the kingscholar brothers are there too. notes: vv funky idea :D but it's a cute ship ngl :)) just a short lil fic for the cute lil couple event: [black sheep expansion pack]

oh, how ironic. leona couldn't help but laugh to himself at the thought.

who would have foreseen him, the second-born kingscholar, returning to NRC to witness his little sibling, the third-born kingscholar, graduate and be swept off their feet by the very man he had spent the better half of his school life despising?

falena, on the other hand, seemed delighted at the news of his "baby sibling", as he insisted on calling them, finding love. perhaps it was because he wanted to see them happy after all of what the elders had done. regardless of the reason, he was standing just on the other side of malleus, a bright smile on his face as he pat his back.

leona bet he would be bawling by the time malleus swept them away to briar valley.

"and finally, housewarden of savanaclaw, (name) kingscholar!" crowley suddenly announced, his booming voice catching the attention of the trio in the crowd. falena was the first to stand, excitedly shouting his youngest sibling's name as they walked across the stage.

malleus felt the urge to stand up but held himself back. deep down, he knew if he got up, he would have rushed over to the stage to sweep (name) off their feet. but, he could do that later. right now was (name)'s time to shine.

leona slouched in his seat, averting his eyes from his brother as if trying to distance himself.

(name), upon shaking crowley's hand, waves happily to falena before scurrying to the other side of the stage, standing beside ace. deuce and jack stood behind ace and (name), respectively, their dorm uniforms on full display for the crowd.

despite (name)'s stone-cold face as they stood in front of all to see, the trio could see their tail swaying behind them happily.

"(name)!" falena cheered as the ceremony ended, scooping his younger sibling into his arms.

"falena! put me down!" (name) screeched, kicking their legs wildly. "leo! malleus! get him off me!"

in unison, the two lightly (not so much on leona's part) pushed falena away. malleus' arms replaced falena's as he wrapped them around (name)'s midsection.

"thanks," (name) sighed in relief, seemingly melting in malleus' arms. falena pouted, prompting leona to roll his eyes and slap his brother upside the head.

"congratulations, my dear," malleus hummed softly as the brothers (mainly falena) began to bicker. he pressed his nose against their neck, a light smile gracing his lips as he pressed a kiss against their skin. "i can't wait to see what you do next."

"you have no shame, do you mal?" (name) huffed, nodding up to their brothers. "can't even wait until we get home, huh?"

"mm... not at all," malleus chuckled at (name)'s teasing. he was careful with his horns. they had grown since the last time he had been at NRC. he often risked poking his beloved lion in the head when he nuzzled his face into their neck, but they often argued they didn't mind.

still, malleus' neck strained as he kept his horns away from (name)'s head. he didn't mind, of course. he would endure anything for his beloved.

"gross," leona huffed when he turned back around, eyeing the man burying his face in his sibling's neck. "you're just as bad as falena."

"rude!" falena gasped, slapping his brother's back. "i'm standing right next to you!"

"mhm."

"leona!"

"can we go home now?" (name) sighs, opting to stop an argument before it could begin. "i wanna say bye to everyone before i move."

"don't remind me!" falena whined, shifting his attention to (name). ignoring malleus standing behind them, he lunged forward and did his best to wrap (name) in a hug, tears dramatically falling down his face. "do you have to leave so soon?"

"it would be for the best, falena!" (name) groaned swatting at falena's arm. "i'll leave without going home if you don't get off me!"

"wait, no..."

malleus merely chuckled at the sudden shift, resting his chin on (name)'s shoulder.

he never thought that he would be where he was, his beloved in his arms ready to be swept away to his hometown. he never thought he would find some sort of connection to his high school rival. and yet here he was.

and he wouldn't have it any other way.

taglist: @brokenncrown @help-meplz @destinationdesignation @rainys-personal-garden @kalims @sxftiebee @luxaryllis @auld-a @the-dumber-scaramouche

[ninjasmudge]

So we've seen how entanglement swk and maq's relationship is super great

What about the others?

Mean nezha and swk and Mk and meis relationship is a no brainer. But what about nezha with the trio or redson with Mei and mk? Was he not at all annoyed about being kinda kidnapped?

one of the fun things about this au is that space is so big and theres so much happening all the time that most of the small points i make would probably be several episode plotlines if it was a show. when they 'kidnapped' red (thats what he calls it when hes annoyed) it was more like he and mk were both hiding from guards and ended up running in the same direction.

red had been at a conference with his parents but he left to go mess about in the engines of the space ship bc hes interested in the mechanics of it.

when he was down there he met mk who was dressed up like an engineer, and red starts asking mk questions about the specifics of the engine, both of them desperately tying to pretend theyre allowed in there. when an actual guard showed up both of them skeedadled and it escalated to them being shot at very quickly.

they end up overhearing part of a conversation on the way out, uncovering a plan the guards had to kill red son so obviously they agree it isnt safe for red to return until theyve worked out what the fuck is happening and stopped their plan. this means mk and meis online persona are extremely wanted for a little while, but even after its sorted, dbk and iron fan are pretty miffed

as for the question on how they get along, i put some bullet points under a cut

(all platonic):

mk + mei: gets on amazing, we know this

mk + red: theres definitely fights but theyre almost always red taking something too seriously, and they work very well together

mk + nezha: nezha thought mk was kind of annoying at first, but he grew on him real fast

red + mei: when red first got on the ship, he thought the fact that mei talks to herself constantly was the most annoying thing, but now hearing her background chattering makes him feel safe

red + nezha: these two fight the most bc theyre the most serious and both misread tone sometimes. they work together well though, and nezha really helped red figure out some finer points of his fire powers

mei + nezha: both sort of disliked the other to start off with but then bonded heavily over a love of coding and knitting

[nostalgicatsea]

Racism in the Marvel fandom as seen through the number of fanworks per M/M ship on AO3

I talked about this on Twitter, but I'm posting it here with tweaks and additions.

A couple of notes about the ship selection process:

I focused on M/M ships here as they're the biggest and most common on AO3 overall and, for the most part, the Marvel fandom

I put aside my personal feelings, so the following selection ranges from my OTP and ships I like to ships I dislike or am squicked by and NOTPs. The big ships and crack/niche ships are ones that have the most popular male characters or I’ve seen come up the most often, but I'm sure the pattern is consistent with more minor characters and subfandoms with fewer works

I focused on ships that exist in the MCU (film side only, no TV), only or in addition to other universes, just to simplify things. The MCU fandom is the biggest, and it gets complicated once you throw in other universes considering the vastness of the Marvel multiverse

I looked at the overall fanwork count for the ships rather than fanworks for that ship in the MCU tag as people tend to miscategorize their works

As of 6/19/20:

AO3 fanworks of big MCU/MCU-based ships: 

Steve/Bucky: 50,501 

Steve/Tony: 36,638 

Loki/Thor: 13,071

Clint/Coulson: 10,940

Loki/Tony: 9,880

Bucky/Tony: 7,504

Spideypool: 7,271

Starker: 6,073 

Ironstrange: 4,844 

Bruce/Tony: 4,734

Bucky/Clint: 3,841

Stuckony: 2,331

AO3 fanworks of MCU/MCU-based ships with 1 or more POC where the characters interact a few times, have meaningful relationships with each other, or have genuine or crack potential: 

Sam/Bucky: 3,023

Steve/Sam: 2,908

Rhodey/Tony: 1,434

Erik/T'Challa: 578 

Ned/Peter: 429

Coulson/Fury: 264

M'Baku/T'Challa: 155 

Rhodey/Sam: 149

Strange/Wong: 82 

Heimdall/Thor: 50

Scott/Jimmy Woo: 36

Scott/Luis: 24

Fury/Pierce: 16 (fandom is also ageist)

The disparity between the two lists is particularly egregious when you consider:

Clint and Coulson had 17 seconds of dialogue and 7 lines with each other and never interacted again after Thor. This is a generous estimate as I included pauses

Loki and Tony haven't interacted since The Avengers 

The only time Bucky and Tony as a duo and Steve, Bucky, Tony as a trio interact is in the bunker in Siberia

Spideypool includes a character who isn't even in the MCU

Ironstrange didn't exist or really exist in MCU fanworks before 2018, and Tony and Strange only communicate once in their second movie together, with Strange holding up his finger silently 

Bucky and Clint never interact with each other

I’ll be focusing on the Captain America, Avengers, and Iron Man subfandoms first as those are the three biggest in the MCU. Before I start, here's my thread from last year about some of the ships I’ll be mentioning. 

Okay. How does Bucky/Tony have 6,070 more fanworks than Rhodey/Tony and 4,481 more than Sam/Bucky and Bucky/Clint have 818 more than Sam/Bucky? How do Loki/Tony and Ironstrange have 8,446 and 3,410 more fanworks than Rhodey/Tony, respectively, and Stuckony almost as many as Steve/Sam?

The gap is especially glaring when you compare Steve/Bucky and Steve/Tony to Steve/Sam, Sam/Bucky, and Rhodey/Tony; however, though it's important to point out that wide gulf, I lose my mind more over the fact that ships with white characters who have never interacted or only exchanged a few lines (Clint/Coulson never even STAND IN THE SAME ROOM, and they're one of the top ships!) have more fanworks than ships with POC who do or have potential. 

I will point out that at least with the MCU Spider-Man and Black Panther fandoms, you do see some diversity with their big ships (I’m including some M/F ships here to make a point in the next paragraph). MJ/Peter has 3,518 fanworks, and in addition to the two T’Challa ships above, Nakia/T’Challa has 286, MJ/Shuri 220, Bucky/Shuri 210, and Peter/Shuri 140 (Black Panther is a much smaller fandom, but some ship numbers are higher if you put BP and non-BP characters together, e.g., Tony/T’Challa (405) and Bucky/T’Challa (345). 

It's important to note, however, that these two films are significantly more racially diverse than all other MCU films; in fact, they're very much the outliers. These ships and Ned/Peter are also heavy indicators of racism in this fandom. These numbers are very low compared to the big ships, and there are fewer works for these fandoms especially in BP’s case. Additionally, ships with white non-BP characters rank second, third, sixth, and eighth in the fandom (Bucky isn’t a BP character as he is only in the post-credits scene). Nakia/T’Challa is canon but outranked by Tony/T’Challa and Bucky/T’Challa, and all other ships with only BP characters, not listed here as the numbers are much lower other than M’Baku/T’Challa (second-lowest among the listed), are outranked by all the ships with white non-BP characters. 

To sum up everything I said above:

white M/M ships are extremely overrepresented by a huge margin, even if they have little to no canonical basis

interracial ships are poorly represented even if the characters have meaningful relationships or potential (and even if they clearly have all the traits that would ensure that they would be a big ship had the character of color been white)

the ships with the least representation by a longggggg mile are ones that involve only POC. Their fanwork count is, aside from Erik/T’Challa (578), in the low 100s and 200s. Countless ships are below the 100 mark. 

If you want to make this even more infuriating, here's a random selection of white (or in one case, AI) crack ships and ships that are more niche that I’ve seen to compare to the ships of color above: 

Clint/Tony: 1,423

Loki/Steve: 1,251 

Clint/Steve: 986 

Bucky/Rumlow: 984 

Clint/Pietro: 837 

Hydrahusbands: 770 

Grandmaster/Loki: 633 

Steve/Rumlow: 547 

Steve/Howard: 457 

JARVIS/Tony: 414

And just for the hell of it because Darcy, a minor character who appears in only two movies and last appeared in 2013, shows up all the time in MCU fanworks (17,004 (these include ones where she’s not paired with anyone)) and is probably one of the top three or four little black dresses/fandom bicycles: 

Darcy/Steve: 3,013

Darcy/Bucky: 2,640

Darcy/Loki: 1,558

Darcy/Clint: 1,107

Darcy/Steve/Bucky: 676

Darcy/Tony: 326

The Darcy situation is a post for another day (she has more fanworks than all other female characters except ~3 women), but in the context of this post, it’s absurd that nearly all of the non-canonical ships above which feature characters whom Darcy has never interacted with (I don’t even remember if Darcy interacted with Loki) have more fanworks than the listed ships of color.

That said, if you like the aforementioned white M/M ships, even if they have little to no canonical basis, that's okay. Anything goes in fandom. It IS a problem, though, if you have more than one ship, but ALL of them are white M/M ships or, if you like F/F and M/F, those are also all white. If you only create and consume works for a single ship, which a good number of people do (many people only get into a fandom because of an OTP!), it's fine if it's a white M/M ship. Honestly, it’s not that surprising either considering most of the screen time and meaty development is given to white characters because of racism (that's a post for another day). However, it IS a problem if most or all of your other ships across your current and previous fandoms are white—and if the only media you consume is predominantly or all white.

This post is longer than planned, but tl;dr, fandom has a racism problem which is nothing new, and we should all examine the following and see and remedy any implicit biases that we have:

our feelings about different characters and relationships, both platonic and romantic

our decision whether or not to seek or make content with characters of color. This includes content with your white ships that have POC in the work because sometimes every other white character in the MCU show up except them or all of them play bigger roles than the POC despite their relationship with the protagonist(s)

the way we interpret and write/draw those characters. For example, is Sam a yes-man? An unofficial or official therapist for white friends? The bro who cracks jokes and/or gives sage advice but seems to not have any flaws, struggles, or life of his own outside of his white friends? The BFF who thinks his white best friend is being dumb about another white guy and wants them to get their act together already?)