#slice-of-life including the actual slicing of people it's great

[todayisafridaynight]

new doujin grab a copy when it releases 6/9/69

[anantaru]

Hi Yoru.

Which boys do you think would be most gentle during sex?

including. neuvillette, ayato

cw. soft dom, we love strong men being sweet, fem! reader

— ꒰ NEUVILLETTE ꒱

the iudex of fontaine neuvillette, who's each respectively admired and respected by the people of his nation.

indeed, he was a mysterious man in quite a lot of ways, and of course with this in mind— there came great responsibilities which the man made his priority to fulfill as good as he was able to.

until his dying breath.

to say that he was strong was a clear understatement, but even someone such as neuvillette can find himself rather fatigued at times, especially when he always tends to go well over his capabilities for the people around him.

it has not always been this way, however, whenever he found himself in an exhausted state of mind, he instantly comes rushing home to you, and neuvillette will not admit it, he simply cannot, but he had missed you so very much that it was burning a deep hole in his heart.

it's difficult to be vulnerable, and in the beginning he believed that being open and unshielded in front of you might make you view him in a different kind of light— because in his own very mind, neuvillette wanted, no, he needed to look powerful and almighty for your sake.

you are his everything, and he promised himself to never suffer from another loss in his life again, more so protect you to the fullest extent.

"ahh, it's okay," you utter in a sweet voice, instantly noticing how neuvillette's breathing hitched and his muscles relaxed, but you can more importantly feel the overeager acceleration of his hips grinding into your warm cunt, so eager it made you giggle,

"you're here now," your hands slowly cup his cheeks as he melts into your touch, a soft smile parting from his lips as neuvillette sighs in appreciation of you, "you're home now,"

now, heed yourself, because if you believe that you would be able to make neuvillette relax under this particular choice of words, you were clearly mistaken because with displaying it to him all exposed and while he pleasured you, infused with real desire, his heart burns through his strong chest as he let his lips trace the breadth of your cheek, lingering across your ear as his teeth sank into the nape of your neck, claiming you and deepening the approaching orgasm flooding through you from the very inside.

the greedy roll of his groin into your cunt was fast and ruthless, the repeated sounds of skin buzzing over skin slices across the shells of your ears as he begins to squeeze and knead the fat of your ass in his palms— to get a good hold on it, you know?

so neuvillette can twist and turn you against him as he pleases, fitting his hips in between your legs so perfectly that your walls shape a little too well around his throbbing length, his erection snugly tucked in as you pitch your hips up to receive his fast thrusts.

the way he handled you was interesting— both rough and soft that you're smiling from head to toe, the thought that neuvillette would never forget to be gentle with you despite the bundled up heat in his chest, he'd always fuck you right and nasty, his deep thrusts rattling through your skin that you think you'll bruise once he's done with you, your pitchy sobs uncontrolled at every draw his hips fucking you hard, plunging deep.

— ꒰ AYATO ꒱

the dizzying intensity of ayato's thrusts, the focused face when he grinds himself a little deeper in you, and lastly, the complete authority he held given his position were the key factors on your current state— his hands tight around your wrists, his dripping cock in a possessive hold that burned away the worries churning his mind and downed it to a single spark of nothingness, replacing it with deep need to feel and taste you all around him.

you'd think with all of this considered, most people honestly wouldn't believe that your boyfriend was actually anything else other than frightening and mysterious in his own rights— yet they do not know him the way you did, because ayato decided to show you his real, unprotected self.

when he comes home to you after a rough day consisting of his responsibilities, it was the best thing ever, something he was looking forward to each day— being enveloped by your warm hold while he nuzzles his face in the nook of your neck was the most soothing piece in his life.

your intoxicating scent and how you tasted would absolutely relax him— one kiss and he melts under your trace, although do not get fooled because it would also turn him on, your delicate touches and candid little kisses going straight to his cock like a strong bold of lightning of some kind, setting his loins on fire.

and ayato believes he must be dreaming when you finally lead him to the bedroom, carefully discarding the clothes he wore and taking your sweet time with undressing him, placing each individual piece next to you— never forgetting to be content when he exhales shakily at the way you soothed yourself on him, then he flinches when your cool finger pads slide across his strong abs, never stopping to admire his beauty like you completely worshipped him, just as much as he worshipped you.

with that out of the way, ayato's new choice of voice was low and commanding, it was mind altering to the point where it made a slight shiver manifest and run down your spine as he fills your cunt with the speed of lust and love.

your pussy was dripping through his shaft pistoling in and out until he's pushing hard and fast into you— both lost in the restless friction as you listen to the crumbling whimpers concealed behind his restless groans. your room was engulfed by the scent of sex and pheromones as you arch your back into his touch, your eyes drifting close on a fresh surge of lust splitting your pussy in half, head rolling aside in easy surrender.

©2023 anantaru do not repost, copy, translate, modify

[starhvney]

𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐘'𝐑𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄 𝐀𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐄𝐀𝐂𝐇

𝐅𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆: garroth, laurance, dante, travis, zane, vylad, blaze, daniel, dottie, katelyn, lucinda, nana, & cadenza

𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐒: fluff, slice of life, headcanons on the characters on a beach vacation!

𝐂𝐖: none!

𝐀/𝐍: justice for not including the zvahl siblings during love love paradise or starlight in mys, rip you guys would’ve loved a beach vacation. anyways it’s summer guys! i’m not even a huge fan of summertime but i kind want to go to the beach?? so weird cause i’m totally a zane when i’m at the beach

𝐌𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓

𝐆𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐎𝐓𝐇

☆ if it’s a surfable beach, he’s going straight out to the waves

☆ i mean, look at him, he looks like the classic surfer boy from the 2000s

☆ gets really excited if you surf too or want him to teach you

☆ he comes back to slam down some sandwiches before he tries to run back out. you have to pull him back and restrain him to put on more sunscreen and let his food digest.

☆ he always wants to stay or at least come back to watch the sunset over the ocean. it’s the best part!

𝐋𝐀𝐔𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄

☆ also goes out to surf with garroth, but he’s not as good so he comes back to shore sooner than garroth does

☆ he’s the guy you go to for getting good beach pics, he just has that good artistic eye

☆ he actually prefers going out to the beach in the evening/at night, loves shell hunting and walking along the boardwalk when everyone is quietly fishing or minding their business. plus the weather is cool! he loves how peaceful it is.

𝐃𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐄

☆ this freakin goober 

☆ bro will purposefully let the ball out frisbee fall into the direction of groups of people he wants to talk or flirt with because so he can have an excuse to strike up a conversation

☆ when he gets bored he will be nagging everyone to go eat at the seafood restaurant “it’s like a five minute walk from here and i’m hungry guys, come on!”

𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐕𝐈𝐒

☆ professional swimmer here! well, not really, but he was really good at it in highschool! he competed and everything. someone always has to swim out and yell at him to not go out too far, cause he’s always trying to swim out to the third sandbar by himself

☆ comes back and his face and shoulders/back are always more tan because the sunscreen wore off and he was swimming all the time. (not the pale leg combo, is this just as bad as a farmer’s tan?)

☆ comes back starved from using all of his energy swimming and trying not to drift away from where you guys are on shore, ends upp eating too many sandwiches and everyone gets mad at him cause there aren’t enough

𝐙𝐀𝐍𝐄

☆ lathers himself in lotion and sunscreen and is either staying under the umbrella or dunking himself into the water

☆ he’s really not a fan of the beach, he’d rather vacation in the mountains or something like that, but he still goes since everyone else is going

☆ he just hates the humidity, the texture of the sand, and the stickiness of the salt water. it’s just not his thing

☆ he keeps how miserable he is to himself, but the silly little grumpy pout on his face says everything

☆ like someone get him a drink with a lil spike to it please the poor boy looks like he’s on the verge of death

☆ he’ll enjoy himself a lot more if you give him a sweet treat or if everyone goes to the pool after (except for the…incident)

𝐕𝐘𝐋𝐀𝐃

☆ so chill. he’s such a great guy to lounge with

☆ brings a book to read or a sketchbook, loves to sketch the different kinds of people on the beach and what they’re doing. (major people watcher)

☆ something about everyone else being busy and him being there so calm makes it so easy to get into a deep conversation with him, you two could talk for hours and not even realize the time has passed

𝐁𝐋𝐀𝐙𝐄

☆ oh my gosh

☆ he’s all over the place

☆ wants to build a sandcastle! no, wait, that’s too boring! wants to play frisbee! dang it, he threw it too hard and now he’s running through the ocean like a madman trying to get it back from the waves! shell hunting? nah, he’s gonna race that person’s dog down the shoreline cause it barked at him so now he has to show him who’s boss!

𝐃𝐀𝐍𝐈𝐄𝐋 

☆ sandcastle building king

☆ spends the whole time dedicated to building the most extravagant castle, hauls a huge bucket of the sand molders and starts digging a moat immediately

☆ someone has to come regularly just spray him down with sunscreen cause he’ll forget the world around him and most definitely get burnt

☆ you might pull him away from building if you offer him a sandwich

☆ eventually you may learn that just bringing an extra umbrella and putting it over where he’s building is the best option

𝐃𝐎𝐓𝐓𝐈𝐄

☆ she wants to be at the beach to play, not relax!

☆ beach volleyball? she’s in until there’s no one left to compete with! (her and katelyn could compete against each other for hours) frisbee? heck yeah, she wants to play frisbee!

☆ she loves going to those outdoor showers to wash off all the sand, then is so excited and looking forward to the crazy good nap she’s going to have back at the hotel/condo/rent house. won’t wake up until everyone decides to go eat at a restaurant for dinner

𝐊𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐋𝐘𝐍

☆ if you can’t find any sunscreen, you can without a doubt go to her and she will have some

☆ gets super competitive with beach volleyball

☆ if no one wants to play volleyball anymore she ventures out into the ocean and doesn’t return until it’s time to leave

☆ if you’re not scared of going out too far in the ocean, she will go out with you to where you can reach the bottom and calmly jump over the larger waves. she could do it all day

☆ she’s another person you have a good bonding talk with while chilling out in the ocean, she opens up to you and you learn stuff you had no idea she had even experienced before

𝐋𝐔𝐂𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐀

☆ opposite of katelyn, has hawaiian tropic tanning oil on her at all times

☆ doesn’t go into the ocean unless she’s ready to go straight to shower off. can’t stand the sticky feeling of salt water and then going back into the sand

☆ is the one who brings the speaker, and she has such a good beach playlist

☆ sunbathes and sips on a drink the whole time, queen really enjoys herself

☆ she goes to whatever nearby beach bar there is to order the drinks that come in pineapples or coconuts and has the umbrellas in them for everyone

𝐍𝐀𝐍𝐀

☆ packs an entire picnic for the beach

☆ like, legit carries a full icebox with a selection of drinks and a bag full of sandwiches, chips, sweets, etc. 

☆ is obsessed with seashell hunting! she gets so excited when she finds large or colorful ones. she runs to everyone when she finds a conch shell telling them to listen to the ocean inside of it. brings home a small collection every time and has a box full of (mostly pink) seashells in her room.

𝐂𝐀𝐃𝐄𝐍𝐙𝐀

☆ has so many swimsuits and outfits planned

☆ if yours gets dirty or messed up she drags you to her suitcase to choose from like ten different pairs and combinations you can mix and match.

☆ makes handmade jewelry from different trinkets and shells she finds, she goes hunting for potential charms with nana

©starhvney, 2024. please do not steal or repost my works as your own.

[blood-and-pizza]

Notable Details from the original "Into The Pit" story (PART 1)

Upon the mill's closure, Oswald's dad works part-time at the deli counter in a store called the Snack Space (a 7-11 equivalent, basically), which requires a red vest as their uniform. Oswald is embarrassed by the fact his dad is wearing the vest as he drops him off at school. Just a neat bit of world-building.

Oswald has a best friend named Ben who moved into the next town over.

Oswald's bullies, including Dylan Cooper, call him "Oswald the Ocelot" after a cartoon character they saw as pre-schoolers, a big pink ocelot named Oswald. Again, more world-building.

Oswald is described as having freckles and a cowlick in the original story.

Oswald has no modern electronics in his home, save for one laptop he shares with his family. His phone is an outdated model he's embarrassed by.

Oswald's teacher, Mrs. Meecham, puts on a movie for her class on the last day of school, which is described as "about a farm with talking animals", "too babyish for a roomful of fifth graders". I'm guessing they might have been watching the animated adaptation of Charlotte's Web... or it could be wishful thinking on my part, since I love that movie.

Oswald has been drawing mechanical animals ("bears, bunnies, and birds") for reasons even he doesn't know, other than lack of anything better to do when he's bored.

Oswald's mom works at the hospital from 12PM to 12AM... yikes.

Oswald's dad can't cook to save his life. If it can't be boiled in water or heated in a microwave, he has to buy his meals... how relatable.

Blue-box macaroni and cheese exists in FNAF, meaning Kraft and its products likely exist, too. Just thought that was funny for some reason.

Oswald's dad squirts ketchup into his mac and cheese. I just think knowing he's the kind of dad who does that is really funny... kinda reminds me of my stepdad's love of ketchup, to be honest.

Other pizzerias that once existed in Oswald's town were Gino's Pizza and Marco's Pizza, both of which closed not long after the mill closed. Both Gino's and Marco's are described as good restaurants, while the food at Jeff's Pizza is described as "decent".

Oswald is into B-grade Japanese horror films, including kaiju movies like Zendrelix vs. Mechazendrelix. Zendrelix is apparently FNAF's answer to Godzilla, making Mechazendrelix an equivalent to Mechagodzilla. They're described like this: "... Zendrelix just looked like a giant dragon thing, but Mechazendrelix reminded him [Oswald] of the mechanical animals he drew when he stripped them of their fur." Zendrelix is also described as being portrayed by "a guy in a rubber suit", solidifying the connection between him and Godzilla.

Oswald and his dad both really love bacon. I just thought that was cute.

When Oswald visits the library, a place he finds "actually kinda fun", he shows interest in a science fiction book from a series, as well as a manga he liked. Based, IMHO.

The library Oswald visits frequently allows homeless people to use their computers and other resources. WE NEED LIBRARIES AND THIS IS EXACTLY ONE REASON WHY!

Oswald's mom, being a nurse, is a bit of a germaphobe and won't let Oswald play in places she considers dirty. A ball pit would be considered one such place.

The pizza Jeff serves comes in huge slices too big for the paper plates they're served on, and very greasy. As someone who was born in NYC and used to eat greasy New York pizza... I think I would have liked eating at Jeff's. Maybe.

Oswald reads a library book while visiting Jeff's Pizza, about "a world where kids with secret powers went to a special school to learn how to fight evil". I wonder how many books that describes...

Oswald plays an online fantasy game at the library that's free to play, but Oswald gets to a point where he can't progress without money. I wonder what game it could have been...

Oswald's dad and mom used to date in high school, often frequenting a roller rink, and are great skaters as a result. Oswald himself can't skate and needs his parents to hold him up.

Oswald's dad only ever buys vanilla ice cream.

There's a video rental service Oswald's family uses called Red Box, but I don't know if it's meant to be the same as the actual existing Redbox. Maybe it is?

Oswald's mom is very good at playing Clue... oh, and Clue exists in the FNAF universe.

Oswald's dad prefers practical effects over CGI in movies. Oswald is the exact opposite.

Oswald's dad is a fan of country music. Oswald... is not.

[nburkhardt]

Somebody Loves You, You Got A Friend.

Hello! This is my abo teenage parents steddie fic I talked about a few times. Wrote it a while ago for myself, never felt quite confident for sharing. But after sharing the few snippets, here’s the start! There’s real no end to it, it’s mostly slice of life with nearly no real plot. (Title is from Spaceship by Andy Grammer)

Some info you should know: it takes place in season 2. Originally wasn’t going to include the upside down but switched it to have it. ANYWAY, enjoy the start! It’s mostly Steve angst and only a hint of Eddie lol.

So, here’s the thing… Steve never keep his secondary gender a secret. In fact, he was quite proud of it. Mostly because it pisses his dad off to no end, and well, pissing off his dad is one of his and his mom’s favorite past time.

With that said he was definitely proud to take after his mom and for being a male omega. He knows it probably pisses more people off than they let on and really, that makes his fucking day.

Sometime around the time he entered high school, his status went sky high. He didn’t mind, though finding true friends was rough. Especially when Tommy and Carol glued themselves to him within a few hours of knowing him. Since he didn’t keep his omega status a secret, they thought he was weaker and needed to be protected. With Tommy being an alpha and Carol a beta, they decided to be best friends. It pissed him off, but at the time he didn’t have many friends. But of course, he’s not weak. He knows how to protect himself and even others.

His life gets flipped upside down, shortly after Nancy Wheeler calls him ‘bullshit’ in a bathroom at a dumb Halloween party.

It’s been months since Will Byers disappeared, thought dead and found alive. Also months since Nancy’s best friend fucking died while sitting at his pool. All while he and Nancy were in bed, they only found out in the next morning at school.

Nancy’s words send him spiraling down immediately, because unlike her, he does or did love her. So in a blind panic, he leaves the room and then the house and straight into the forest behind. Freaking out and sobbing as he went.

He didn’t know how long he was there, all he remembers of the night is panicking and then someone that smells of smoke, rain and freshly cut grass, helps him to his car and on his way. With only a matchbook with a number on it sitting on his passenger seat as who helped him.

In the morning, he gets ready for school, kisses his mom on the cheek and goes on his way. Only pocketing the matchbook as he parks in the school parking lot.

The day is simple only because he avoids Nancy as much as he can and then nearly get his ass handed to him by the new big alpha in town, Billy Hargrove.

“Should plant your feet, pretty boy”

He rolls his eyes, “shove the fuck off, Hargrove”

Billy is about to do another shove, he can’t figure out why to be honest. His scent is currently covered by scent blockers, the one thing his mom told him to take. When he notices Nancy waving him down, so he goes willingly to that danger instead.

It’s nothing but anger from her, it’s rolling off her in her scent even with a blocker, “Why didn’t you pick me up?”

He scruffs, “because I’m apparently bullshit?”

She at least flinches at that. But doesn’t apologize, at least, not the way he’d like. She does try to excuse it all by saying she was drunk and if there is one thing he took to heart from his asshole dad; drunk words are sober thoughts.

The final kicker of the whole conversation: her not saying “I love you” after he pleads her to.

He decides after that, Nancy Wheeler is someone he refuses to be with.

—

If you made it this far great!! Because after this the real fun begins 🥳 meaning Eddie is actually there and you get to meet my favorite person, Janet Harrington… Steve’s mom! This was just getting things mostly set up. I hope it doesn’t seem too weird with jumping around or weird phrasing lol.

(Btw, I don’t necessarily keep to everything everyone does in abo fics. I go with whatever I like and easy to work with. So there’s scents, mates, pack easy things. Nothing too explicit either, I’m definitely not confident enough to post smut hahaha.) OH AND IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS OR WANNA TALK ABOUT THIS AU MY MESSAGES AND ASK BOX IS ALWAYS OPEN!!!!!

Permanent Tag List: @spectrum-spectre @itsfreakingbats @mysticcrownshipper @artiststarme @thereindeerlady @justforthedead89 @ronniescontinuum @freyaforestafay

Also those who liked my snippet: @zerokrox-blog @callme-keys @maya-custodios-dionach @rajumat @yellowdevilkitten @munsonfamilyband @steddierthings

[fraternum-momentum]

Hey! I love your art!!! Tho, I was wondering if you could tag your ocs names cause I’m new but I’m really interested in your ocs and want to learn more about them :)

It’s okay if you can’t tho! Hope you have a great day

YOOO HELLO welcome to the blog :D i hope you enjoy your stay here and thank you !! i finally finally gave some of them names so I can make tags, that's mainly why it took so long to answer this 😭

Azalea, Melanie, :o), MC, Gabriel, Nigel, Kian, Theo.

(the actual tags are also in the tags of this post)

Here's some contextual and random facts about them lolol:

Azalea and Melanie are characters of a webcomic I'm making ! It's just a little passion project that I'm slowly working on. (emphasis on slowly)

Theo is just a nickname. His actual name is Theodore. MC's name is still TBD.

They're also gonna be in a comic thing :D but more episodic and slice of life-y instead of an overarching plot.

Kian makes pipe bombs in his basement.

Kian is based on a rock I got on a random beach. I took a picture of it and put a bunch of stickers and gave it a personality a few years ago bc I thought it would be cute 💀 I have other rocks that still needs to be gijinka-fied LMAO (my fave is this one beach glass named Kelsey)

I was debating on naming the jester clown guy JJ but i decided against it, it's cute but ehh idk.. I might change my mind on it if I can't think of anything.

Kian and friends + the jester guy + that one teeth guy that I didn't include here (whoops) are mostly just one-offs and don't really have an ongoing story. I made them mostly cause I wanted to design a cool looking character. Maybe I'll do smthn with the rock friends but I don't really have any ideas :P

Nigel and Gabriel are part of this western cowboy universe thing I'm doing on the side. A lot of wonderful people have made ocs for it :DD !!!

make of that what you will 👼

Gabriel has a twin sister named Mica, who also helps around their church.

Nigel is just an amalgamation of the kinks i like (that will not b disclosed !!!!!). Cause I thought 'hey, why don't I make a blorbo that has all my kinks that would b awesome ahaha' and look at me now.

Also BTW i know Nigel is technically a cop but he's more of a classic cowboy than an actual police officer. I added that random fact just for the cowboy³ joke. ACAB.

[mlleclaudine]

Miniature Artist Transforms Household Objects Into Tiny Scenes Full of Whimsy and Wonder

by Regina Sienra - My Modern Met, May 28, 2024

Artist Tatsuya Tanaka continues to immerse us in the whimsical world of his creative miniatures. Having devoted himself to building these tiny scenes every single day for the last 13 years, his creations are as exciting and fresh as ever. As charming as his miniature art is, the true beauty of his ongoing art project lies in his materials of choice. Tanaka uses household objects—from ordinary white bread to a simple wallet—to breathe life into these little worlds.

Tanaka's miniature compositions are part of his never-ending Miniature Calendar, a project that has seen him create a new scene with household objects and tiny people daily since 2011. His images are influenced by anything from pop culture and world events to seasons and holidays. Lately, his feed has taken great inspiration from spring with cherry blossoms appearing in many of his leisurely compositions—including one of bikers by a riverbank and another of a serene carriage ride by a sakura tree. He also celebrated Star Wars Day with an R2-D2 sauce dispenser and Mother's Day with a heart bouquet.

Despite his use of everyday objects, Tanaka's miniature scenes exude a sense of wonder and adventure. In some of his latest creations, his tiny characters visit a spoon-based waterpark, take a brush boat to go dolphin-watching, and play a game of table tennis on a deck of cards. And since leisure is enhanced by a little culture, his cleverly crafted images take us to a jazz concert lit up by the pages of a book. And he has another music-themed piece where a piano is made out of a cassette tape. His imagination is limitless!

Pop culture is also a massive element of Tanaka's work. He recently included some beloved characters from Japanese productions, like Dragon Ball and Studio Ghibli. In one of his most clever recreations, Chihiro from Spirited Away rides the train; but if you look closely, the windows are actually made out of blue eyeshadow. Meanwhile, Nobi from Doraemon cries with the help of two slices of onion; and the golden details of Dragon Ball‘s prideful Vegeta‘s suit are actually pieces of tortilla chips.

To stay up to date with Tanaka's creations, make sure to follow him on Instagram.

Tatsuya Tanaka: Website | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube

[dededaio]

The New Kirby Novel Announcement might hint at the future of the series?

...or as I also would like to call it, yet another installment in the "Klu puts on a tinfoil hat in desperate attempts to predict Kirby's future" series.

So you might've already heard about the announcement of the upcoming Kirby Light Novel in the March of 2024. It's title is "The Dream Onsen is a Good Hot Spring" and If you aren't familiar with it's plot yet, here's the full synopsis:

At first the story doesn't seem too remarkable, there are no promises for new high-stakes adventures on a different planet like in Dedede-focused novel "King Dedede's Great Escape Strategy" or shocking twists like in "Meta Knight and the Knight of Hades", but then it hits you. This novel will feature Elfilin and Daroach. A lot of people who learned of these news did instantly become excited, but not a lot of people seem to have realized just how bizarre this is.

If you aren't familiar too well with the novels in general, their utilization of the extended game cast is quite similar to the way mainline games handle them. As in, they rarely if ever appear if their names aren't "Kirby", "King Dedede", "Bandana Dee" or "Meta Knight". If novels could help it, they only use the main four and occasional recurring enemy/helper like Burning Leo or Chilly (and Chef Kawasaki as a bonus) as the supporting cast. And if the original story requires more important characters, instrumental in the narrative, Mie Takase, novels' author, tends to invent entirely new ones instead.

So far there were only 3 types of novels that primarily utilized game-exclusive characters. I myself sorted them out by type, this is not an official classification or anything. Here's a nifty chart:

Remixes, as I like to call them, are quote unquote "original stories" that feature game characters like Magolor, Taranza or Animal Buddies. But while most of the plot seems original, more often than not it seems as a re-imagining of the actual game plots. Kirby's Labyrinth Rescue is probably the most egregious example, as it's an unholy amalgamation of Return to Dream Land, Triple Deluxe, Rainbow Curse and Amazing Mirror. While a lot of the story might be original, they are "based" on something from the games instead of being wholly original narratives.

AUs are interesting, because they do tend to have entirely new stories that utilize game characters, but this is only with an asterisk that they take place in entirely different world from the main novels/game-adjacent canon.

Adaptations speak for themselves. They might have an original character or two (mostly early on in novels' existence) but they are mostly 1:1 faithful adaptations with some omissions and additions that don't significantly alter the narrative (with sole exception of Planet Robobot's novelization letting President Haltmann live for some reason). Notable thing is, that in case of certain game-adaptations, like Merry Magoland or Kirby Fighters 2, mentions/appearances of extended game cast are omitted or heavily limited (In KF2 novel Magolor and Gooey don't appear or get mentioned at all, in Merry Magoland only Gooey is mentioned among masks of the characters that don't appear in the story in flesh).

As you can see, this newly announced novel doesn't fall under ANY of these categories. It's a brand new, seemingly slice-of-life-esque story, that just so happens to randomly include Daroach and Elfilin. This is highly unusual because novels rarely if ever take risks or go out of their comfort zone. They kind of established the rules and formulas of how they work for years now and it's been working out for them. So why anything would change now?

Well. Heh... What if this sudden change in direction is actually reflective of franchise-wide changes? Shinya Kumazaki talked about how Forgotten Land is going to be the beginning for "the new phase of Kirby". So far it's hard to tell what he actually meant by this. But I would argue that one of the aspects that could be true in this new "phase" is more frequent utilization of the extended Kirby cast.

Novels, in terms of franchise-wide hierarchy, some of the closest things to the actual games in terms of importance, mainly thanks to how much of a juggernaut in terms of sales they are within Japan. Across 10 years of their existence they managed to sell over 3 million copies of all books, which might not sound that impressive, until you realize that these are books for children that until recently were purely Japanese-exclusive endeavor.

These books are the only adaptations, to our knowledge anyway, that get special privileges from HAL themselves in terms of telling some plot and lore details that even fans aren't aware of. Shinya Kumazaki even directly supervised and helped to write one of the books (Return to Dream Land's novelization that came out in 2022). It doesn't mean that novels are canon, but it does mean that they tend to reflect the current status-quo of the series better than most other aspects outside of the games.

So this sudden inclusion of ensemble cast in a random story might signify HAL's willingness to do more with these characters. Elfilin alone wouldn't have been perhaps that surprising, as he was hinted to have more importance past his debut in how he passionately expressed that he wants to stay by Kirby's side forever, but Daroach's inclusion is puzzling because while he did appear in multiple games, he didn't get any merch or notable appearances lately.

Of course, this might mean absolutely nothing! But I feel like this is more notable than most people give it credit for. At worst, this means nothing except that novels will utilize game cast more frequently, which would be cool, at best, it means that HAL is opening up to the idea of returning past characters more frequently, which would be awesome. Let's wait and see, I suppose.

[papermonkeyism]

Poking at the dinosaur project thingy, this time with some production technicalities point of view.

Here be musings.

I originally thought of the project as a calendar, then a series of calendars that could be collected into an art book once enough art had been made for it, and at some point I thought of just skipping the calendar part and going straight for art books.

I've been going back and forth between those options multiple times over the years, and it's still kinda open. Like on one hand a simple calendar with just thirteen illustrations (twelve months plus cover) is the easiest and cheapest option, though pretty limited (what to do once the year presented in the calendar ends, and you still got unsold leftover stock?), and the other hand art books are big projects requiring lots of work, even more money, but be a lasting and very satisfying thing to have.

Maybe I should take a middle road and make a zine instead?

Maybe.

Though, this is where the shape of the actual project comes in.

I've always planned the project as having a slice of life style format, with little story and more focus in exploring the setting. Kinda just looking in and enjoying the view while you go. But I've noticed that keeping the "narration" as illustrations kinda keeps the immersion at arm's length too. While that is fine and dandy for a calendar where the space for any narrative would be very limited anyway, if I was going to do more with the setting, I kinda need something deeper. Even if the audience is fine just looking at pretty pictures, with ADHD it would be better to have something deeper to help keep me personally invested enough to actually plan, plot and produce the materials needed.

Should I make an actual story, with plot and stuff? Feels kinda unnecessary for a thing focusing on just illustrations, and I don't know if I really "click" with a text heavy picture book format. I kinda feel it would make comic as the best option, though that has its own downsides. I've always wanted to do full colour paintings of the dinosaurs, yet going comic it would have to simplify a lot and make it grayscale just to keep me sane. And, as someone who has done well over 250 pages of a long form comic, that's still a HUGE commitment I don't think I have the resources - mental, physical nor financial - to pull off.

I also kinda feel having a plot story would sort of detract from the "exploring the world" aspect and put more heavy focus on characters, which. Well, it's not *bad* exactly, just not quite what I want.

(Also I am aware the dinosaur clan I have has a kid character, and I don't want to make her the point of view character for the story. I have no interest doing a childrens' book. I mean, I am perfectly fine if kids do eventually end up liking my stuff, but I don't consider them my target audience. My target audience is me, an adult person in their later 30s, and a handful of nerds I consider friends and/or mutuals.)

Another option I've been toying with is kind of a double edged sword.

Those who got the Almost Real speculative evolution zine volume 5 got a bit of a taste of this, as I kinda tried it out there.

So... I've gone to pretty great lengths as a layperson to work in the setting of the project thingy. It's always bothered me when dinosaurs get just dumped into a story with no regards to when and where they actually lived, making for an anachronistic hodgepodge of what's popular forming into a mismatched fantasy setting, usually with throwing humans into the mix. I don't like that. I'm more interested in seeing the actual animals as they were, when they were and where they were, where the focus is in the dinosaurs themselves. Thus the limit to Two Medicine formation (with some of the surrounding areas included too, though still keeping to the same time period).

I do not want humans in my dinosaur stories. Period.

But what if...

So, imagine a research journal. There's a scientist visiting the clan of Singing People the project focuses on, with the mission of studying them, their life and their world. The book or zine or whatever could be a story of the dinosaur clan introducing themselves and their life to this person. An outsider point of view to excuse learning about them by them teaching this POV person how their world works. There could be some interaction and maybe interviews, and of course illustrations because you need to document your subjects after all.

Like, I'm kinda excited about the idea. It would let me get into the details I want to picture without getting too into the heads of the characters to limit the chances of artistic exploration. You gotta document the surroundings your study subjects live in after all! But you'd still get to know the characters because it's the job of the POV person to learn about them. Win win!

It's just that I don't want to put too much attention on this hypothetical scientist. Like I said before I don't want to mix my settings. The dinosaur project thingy's world IS Laramidia in the Campanian period of late Cretaceous, it's not meant to be a scifi setting, nor do I want to have any focus on any time travel.

Wonder if it would be possible to leave the scientist character vague enough to never actually get explained? They're just nameless outsider from undetermined time and place who's interviewing some dinosaurs. Maybe with some peronal opinions or musings but no anecdotes about their own life or themself. And whenever there's interactions between the scientist and any of the Singing People it just gets handwaved away. (Of course the Singing People are curious about them too, but that's not the point of the study so it just doesn't get documented or something?)

I don't know. Could that work?

[sunnylolli]

How many au's do you got? and what's their names

Oh sweet mother, that's like counting grains of sand at the beach at this point-

I'll handpick from what I've posted and then add two or three more:

1. "Can I stay for a year or two?"/CISFAYOT- Alfred's Mentally Ill and goes to stay with Arthur to unwind so he can get back to work ASAP. Just to be jumpsacared by Arthur having gotten therapy and who is now enforcing obligatory therapy on Alfred which absolutely works. He has a stern dad-to-president talking to with Alfred's boss after christmas and has him put on paid sick leave so he can start actually getting better.

2. Lighthouse au - Arthur's a lighthouse keeper, Francis is a myserious specter of the sea that lures him in

3. Time Travel au - Alfred forgets to mind his business when out for a walk in the English Woodlands and ends up stepping through a fairy-circle-esque circle of branches and trees and is teleported back to early middle age England to meet England when he was 200 years old.

4. Domestic FACE au/Domestic au: A modern day, human au centered around the FACE-family, but where I've branched into including the nordics for self-indulgence. There's not really any plot, it's just a slice-of-life/Buying groceries kind of au :,)

5. Pirate au: (They are countries in this) Arthur's a pirate on the run from the English Crown, Alfred's a wee lad that hides in a crate of oranges and sneaks onto Arthur's ship. Arthur recognizes that he's a nation, thus let's him stay at the price of menial labor. It's an au where Arthur weren't there to discover Alfred in the 17th century and were held prisoner i England until he broke free and went to sea. Meanwhile Alfred's been growing up with his people around the east-coast but wants to explore and do more things, feeling like he's meant for more, so he finds a ship and sneaks on.

Gonna make a read more so this doesn't go rogue on the dash:

Here are the ones I haven't posted about because there's not really any art of it:

5. Medieval comedy sketch: In which we follow Arthur (Nation) through his very eventful life in the 15th century as a personal guard to an excessively annoying prince. The prince eventually grows on him and Arthur's ready to lay down his life several times for him, but turns out so is the prince. I started it initially as a full-on comedy sitcom (think Monty Python), but it became a comedy melodrama in the end.

I'm not mad about it though, one of the more lighthearted and fun au's to write - It's honestly my favorite one.

6. Big, little empire: This is prime example of biting off more than you can chew for me. This au is also medieval, but much much earlier- It's set in around year 1000, during the reign of King Cnut the Great and is about Arthur's and Asger's (Mathias, once he's properly christened) relations, personal and political. My plan for it was to explore Arthur as starting out watching empires and becoming one himself - Though with the constant nagging at the back of his head that he is not meant for greatness and the doubt is what consumes him in the end.

7. Race you to the end: Yet another prime example of too much plot for a skilled procrastinator who gets easily overwhelmed with details. This au is genuinely one of the saddest, most heartwrenching au's I have ever had, and I have MANY.

The au is nationverse and is about Gilbert and Ludwig maneuvering Gilbert's bucketlist once it becomes apparent that Gilbert is terminal. The title itself makes me want to cry, because it refers to the first scene where they're at the beach; Gilbert insists they race to see who reaches a group of seagulls first and ends up winning by tripping up Ludwig. I know it's a spoiler, but Gilbert does die at the end and Ludwig goes back to the beach from the beginning and chases a pack of gulls by himself.

8. Portrait of the modern nuclear family/Family unit: Tw for talk of drug and substance abuse for this one, lads.

This au is about FACE, but unlike my other FACE au's, it's dysfunctional. MAJORLY dysfunctional. Alfred is caught up with meth/cocaine and juggles a failing career on the side that leaves him to take up loans to fund his addiction. Matthew's caught up with weed and alcohol, though he's managing to seek help and make an attempt to get better, because he does not want to end up like Arthur and Francis. Francis is a bonnafide wine-alcoholic ("but it's wine, so it doesn't count!") and Arthur's "just" an alcoholic who has too much to say and too much work for his own good to maintain.

Together they make the perfect cocktail for family get together's like birthdays, holidays and whatnot, because all four of them together always ends up ruining the occasion. But they all want to pretend they're normal, so they keep doing it. Over and over again. (Nationverse)

9. Alfred gets lost in the Canadian winter wilderness au: Exactly as the title says, Alfred's on his way up to visit Matthew over the holidays just to get caught in a blizzard. He sees something in the middle of the road, swerves and crashes. It's just about Alfred wandering through the thick of it surviving and encountering ✨folklore creatures✨. It's a bit of a mystique, a bit of a horror au.

10. Haunted house au: Alfred forces Arthur to come along with him on several trips to American and European haunted or abandoned houses for the thrill of it. They end up in an actually haunted one in the US and things go south very fast. A very cliché horror, but one that I also enjoy writing immensely.

I am ending it here, but know that I do have more 🪩💃

[conostra]

Sexual Abuse in the Golden Age

Berserk’s beginnings make me sad. From the very start, the series was incredible. Great art, a rich world, complex and interesting characters, terrific explorations of motivations and philosophies and relationships and everything you can think of. Even including, despite all the airs around the manga, the intricacies of sexual assault and abuse!

At least, against men.

Casca, Griffith, and Guts all have their lives irrevocably warped by both the threat and pursuance of sexual assault against them in the Golden Age. It goes on to define their various pathologies, influencing how they interact with the world around them. And this is handled with incredible nuance and care, up to and including events like Donovan’s assault on Guts, Griffith selling himself to the Governor, and Casca being sold off by her family to the noble in her town. These events are all pivotal to the development of the characters into those we know and love. But unfortunately, at least in the beginning, this is where the praise ceases. Allow me to expound:

Guts’ entire life, from his literal conception, is drenched in vulgarity and gore. Born and baptized in blood from his mother’s hanging corpse, and rescued by a band of lunatic roaming mercenaries, Guts is far from a stranger to the horrors of the world. Forced to carry a sword for his survival, trained under an uncaring brutal mercenary who gave flashes of approval to a boy desperate to please, who was only truly “fair” to him when paying him for his work of slicing down men twice, thrice or more his age in combat to the death, Guts’ perspective would be warped further still. 

And yet, no matter how warped his perspective could have been, it was not warped enough to handle what fate still had in store. One night, Guts is set upon in his tent, and viciously raped by a member of his own crew. A demon of a man named Donovan violates Guts’ autonomy to the highest order, proclaiming that this was allowed, as Guts’ very independence had been sold out by Gambino, the distorted version of what some would call the only thing resembling a father figure Guts had ever had. 

And this affected Guts in a way that became prominent through the story. He becomes incredibly reclusive and aggressive. Even the lightest of contact from even his hirers, offering extensive gold in exchange for his service on the battlefield, flashes him back to that time and place. Even the lightest allusion to operating under anything other than his own will (or, to some degree, blind allegiance to Gambino) is heresy, and a violation of his autonomy on par with spitting on his face and telling him to wipe it down. This is especially seen in his first interaction with Griffith, where he flat-out asks him upon hearing him speak: 

“Are you a homo?”

And even though he definitely is, it’s almost irrelevant to how Griffith is talking about him. Griffith objectifies Guts here, places him as an item of desire, to own, to wield, and to do as one wishes with. And Guts objects to that to his very core. There is no part of him that does not scream and rail against the very notion.

And in the beginning of his tenure with the Hawks, Pippin of all people is the salt that pours over Guts’ old wounds. While played somewhat casually, Guts still freaks out at Pippin’s casual disregard for his personhood. Whether or not that is Pippin’s goal is meaningless in the face of what it actually does to Guts and how it makes him feel.

Even later on, when Guts has his sexual encounter with Casca, the physicality of the intimacy they partake in flashes him back to that moment with Donovan. It takes him and Casca time to process everything that’s happened to him, for him to finally vent and take at least some of that pain off of himself alone, that allows him and her to finally love each other.

Griffith is not too far from this. Although this life was forced upon Guts, it feels only partially thrust upon Griffith by himself. From the very beginning, his sexuality was paramount to his mission. The fawning of common citizens and women and men and nobility all alike over his body, over his presence, was something he decided he had to exploit in order to do what he thought must be done for him to gain what he knew would one day be his. From his interactions with the Governor, to how he almost leads on Casca, to the entirety of his relationship and the strange power dynamics at play every time he and Guts are alone in a space spilling their guts to each other, everything Griffith plays at is tinged with a man who has, since a boy, been tainted with a nearly-religious worship by zealots of various degrees, including some who have no qualms over tainting the statue they kneel at and pronouncing it to the world as worship. This puts him at odds with Guts from the very beginning, the man he loves, violating his self-sanctity, as this is the way Griffith knows to attain what he desires. 

This plays out further with how he… interacts… with Charlotte after Guts leaves him, and how he treats Casca, uses Casca, throws her back in Guts’ face to get at him. Ownership, dominance, and usage are what Griffith knows. And he knows how Guts feels about Casca. So he tries to, from his perspective, ruin her. The same way Guts was ruined. Honestly, it’s incredible, and would be a great way to handle it- if it didn’t completely strip Casca of her character for the next 300 chapters.

Casca was affected by all these things too. Same as Guts, sold off, but by her actual family. Almost immediately, assaulted by the stranger who now owned her life. Then, a murderer. Then, over the course of the rest of her life, despite becoming one of the most prodigious warriors the very world had ever seen, she was often reduced to the butt of the joke- always laughed and jeered at, not taken seriously by Guts or unfavorably by Griffith. Always caught off guard, always caught weak, or tired, or on her period, always taken advantage of, always on the ground, threatened to be molested, stripped bare for the usage of whatever the army they’re fighting at the time is. Always having her sexuality used as a catalyst for other characters, always used as a damsel to allow another to save the day- her body is a resource pulled at by Miura to cash in on more grandiose moments for the narrative. 

Even in the road to the eclipse, there are at least two separate occasions where Casca is sexually taken advantage of, with soldiers slowly stripping her armor when Guts steps in and earns his title as the hundred-man slayer, and then the Apostle Wyald, leader of the Black Dog Knights, completely strips her bare and literally molests her, only not managing to penetrate because he is murdered by Guts in a stupendous rage.

And then the eclipse happens. There are so many things I can say about what occurred on the Eclipse, but ultimately, it is Casca’s humanity that makes the Eclipse so tragic. Scorned by her infatuation, unable to be saved by her lover, she is finally destroyed the way both of those mentioned prior have been. But this time, there is no growth from this. There is no development. There is no greater story to be told from this for Casca. As incredible as this moment and the development from it are for Guts, there is nothing gained from this for Casca. Her entire arc has simply been to be… what, torn apart for the sake of the boys around her masquerading as conquerors? To be used and abused, ultimately fridged for literal decades, kept around as important but unable to be anything more than arm candy? What happened to Casca is a tragedy, and is great writing as well in full admittance- but with two entire chapters devoted to her violation, a view of her complete degradation from the male gaze, and her complete loss of ability after the fact, it makes me view how she was treated before that with some amount of… anger? Frustration? 

Something. It makes some amount of sense, of course- but if this was her penultimate conclusion, at least for as long as she has remained in this state, I would have appreciated if the other attempts at violating her were treated with the sanctity of Griffith’s and Guts’ encounters, if not even the attempt made at her in her past. You can only have a female character as incredibly skilled & competent as Casca trip herself into a terrible situation and threaten to be raped by the big strong men around her so many times before the singular self-save against the leader of the Blue Whale Ultra Heavy Armored Fierce Assault Annihilation Knight Corp, General Adon Coborlwitz, loses a bit of its luster, no matter how many different variations of the reason you can find.

Ultimately, I’m glad that Miura has other very well written women in the series- after all, even Charlotte is given time to shine, shown as able to play her role and shoot for lofty goals even under the crushing weight of Griffith’s ambition later, and both Schierke and Farnese have great arcs. I just… I’m just glad Miura rectified this later on, all in all.

God damn it lmfao. It was handled so WELL for the boys! and then casca kinda got the "yo isn't this so crazy? she's not a character now btw"

[she-posts-nerdy-stuff]

Analysing my favourite lines from Six of Crows chapter by chapter: Chapter 4

Same as usual: famous or popular quotes being missed doesn't mean I don't like them it just means I don't have anything new to say, and some quotes will not have explanations because I just like them I don't really have anything to analyse

“Inej knew the moment Kaz entered the Slat” - first of all I think it’s relevant that this is our second chapter from Inej’s POV and both of them have begun with the focus entirely on Kaz, the first one being the infamous “Kaz Brekker didn’t need a reason”, which she immediately disproves to be factual and instead shows as something created by the opinion of the many who don’t really know Kaz and disputed by the few, herself included, who do. To some extent it’s possible that the same action is being completed with this introduction, since it’s actually less about Inej being aware of Kaz’s presence than it is about her being aware of the Dregs’ acknowledgment of him. Secondly I find it an interesting parallel between the pair, that Kaz recognises Inej’s presence despite no-one else knowing she’s there whilst Inej recognises Ka’s presence because everyone knows he’s there. This not only summarises their drives, for Inej to melt into the background and stop being noticed for her physical appearance and instead valued for her skills, and for Kaz to be seen, to rise to prominence, and to be noticed by Pekka Rollins, but also tells us about their particular gifts for reading people. Kaz reads individuals incredibly well, he explains this in many of his quotes about lock picking and blackmail and we also get the brilliant idea of the way he notices everything about a person down to their scent and the story that their scent tells (I’ve written before about the relevance of him being bothered by the fact that Inej doesn’t have a scent but in the Bathroom Scene he comments on how he can smell soap on her), he sees small details, tells, and nervous ticks and these things give him a massive advantage in the control he exercises over individuals. Inej reads crowds, she sees collective responses to people, events, or objects and uses that response to evaluate the thing that caused it, she doesn’t notice tells until Kaz suggests she looks out for them but she is able to very quickly assess Kaz’s chances of success, and how quickly those chances change, when he faces the Dregs at the Slat and leads a coup against Per Haskell in Crooked Kingdom.

“The worst part of the Barrel […] Most of the buildings in this part of the city had been built without foundations, many on swampy land where the canals were haphazardly dug. They leaned against each other like tipsy friends gathering at a bar, tilting at drowsy angles” - I love the description, I love the imagery, I have a deep obsession with worldbuilding… this is just great, like I don’t really know that’s there’s anything to say it’s just great

“Inej’s room was on the third floor, a skinny slice if space, barely big enough for a cot and a trunk. But with a window that looked out over the leaked roofs and jumbled chimneys of the Barrel. When the wind came through and cleared away the haze of coal smoke that hung over the city, she could even make out a blue pocket of harbour” - ok first of all I’m obsessed with the imagery and the description, and second of all I’m actually just going to copy and paste a post I made a while ago about the window because I find it an incredibly important detail for Inej and I think this is worth saying again:

‘I find it really interesting that Inej’s favourite part about her room at the Slat, despite it being “barely big enough to fit a cot”, is that she has her own window. I think this is important not only because all the windows at the Menagerie were barred, but also because the whole idea of a window is representative of the difference between her life in Ravka and her life in Kerch. Travelling through Ravka, she had no need or want of a window because she was part of and at one with the outdoor world, free to explore it and enjoy it as she saw fit, but in Ketterdam windows and rooftops are her way of travelling the city. They bring her a source of hope and connection to the life she lost whilst simultaneously being her method of completing jobs for the Dregs to slowly claw her back to that very life. So in a way, the window has become a physical manifestation of both a veil of separation between her and everything she’s ever loved or cared for, a literal sheet of glass between her and her world, and of a hope for salvation to return to that love and care.’

“If you had a gripe, you settled it outside where you didn’t risk interrupting the hallowed practice of separating pigeons from their money” - I love this quote so much but I also think it could be interpreted as quite sarcastic on Inej’s part; she talks a lot about how “nothing [is] sacred to the Kerch except trade” and finds a lot of their traditions baffling since their cultural attitude and religious attitude are both so different to the ones she was raised in. This could be seen as a subtle undermining of the culture that abused her whilst appropriating her own culture of peace, which is of course deeply ironic of them, and also reflective of the battle constantly waging inside her over the morality of her surroundings and the core moral code she knows she has broken and will continue to break because circumstance has left her no other choices - possibly linking to the way she specifically considers more fear of her parents not forgiving the actions she’s taken since leaving the Menagerie than what she was forced to do whilst imprisoned there

“I didn’t hurt you none. It was just words” - this is Rojax’s response to Inej punching him in the face whilst wearing brass knuckles after he insulted her, demanded money that neither she nor the gang owed him, and then tried to grab her collar. Now ignoring the money since to be fair we don’t know how much he stole and how much his pay cheque should have been so we don’t know if it evens out or not, the important thing here is that Rojax fails to identify his ability to do Inej damage by calling her “little girl” (words Tante Heleen weaponised against her), referring to her as though she’s Kaz’s property, and threatening violence towards her. I don’t think Rojax meant to affect Inej in the way he surely did, but I do think it shows so well that there’s a massive lack of understanding in the Barrel for the kind of pain that people like Inej have experienced and carry with them, especially since she herself comments on the way even though she hid the scar from her Menagerie tattoo “they all knew it was there”. I how this makes sense I’m not sure if I’ve articulated it quite right

“People were watching now, so she hit him again”

“It would’ve been easy enough to turn away when they called her names or sidled up and asked for a cuddle, but do that and soon it was a hand up your blouse or a try at you against a wall” - this again emphasises that there’s no real acknowledgment of Inej’s experience as traumatic but almost as intriguing or even erotic, and it reminds the reader of the rampant misogyny that travels through the Barrel not only in the dehumanising treatment of women and children in the pleasure houses but also in the cultural attitude as a whole. Although no-one sees Inej as a less threatening force because of her sex, it’s undeniable that the Barrel sees women as something to be conquered or won, and we also see this reflected by the upper classes in the attitudes of merchants and in Van Eck’s marriages.

“Nothing was sacred to the Kerch except trade” - laughing at myself because when I talked about it earlier I didn’t realise this quote was in this chapter

“Inej like Rojax, but right now he was just a frightened man looking to feel bigger than someone”

“Still clutching his cheek like a stunned toddler”

‘ “You look exhausted. Will you sleep at all tonight?”

Jesper just winked.

“Not while the cards are hot. Stay and play a bit, Kaz will stake you”

“Really, Jesper?” she’d said, pulling up her hood, “If I wanna watch men dig holes to fall into I’ll find myself a cemetery”

“Come on, Inej!” He’d called after her as she passed through the big double doors onto the street, “You’re good luck!”

Saints, she’d thought, if he believe that he really must be desperate. She’d left her luck behind in a Suli camp on the shores of West Ravka. She doubted she’d see either again” ’ - this conversation is so important in developing the reader’s baseline understanding for Jesper’s situation and addiction, and it’s not something I see people talk about a lot. Other than Kaz staking him and Jesper calling himself “a creature of habit”, this is the first concession to Jesper’s gambling “habit” being a genuine and debilitating addiction, and I think it’s important for us as the reader to so early on see that Inej, someone whose opinion Jesper so highly valued and someone he is evidently so close to, is unable to talk Jesper out of the card game - in fact the entire conversation to me gives the air of there having been many previous conversations where she tried and this one being one of many following where she’s all but given up. She expresses her opinion on the situation with the beautiful cemetery line, she directly confronts him in the issue by asking if he’s going to sleep tonight, and doesn’t hold back on pointing out that the addiction is having a physical impact on his health by saying that he looks exhausted, but she doesn’t make active strides to pull him away from the game. I think Inej has reached a point where she accepts that it isn’t her job to try and fix the people she cares about, but that doesn’t stop her from wanting to. She desperately needs Jesper to hear what she means through what she’s saying, and if he isn’t going to then she cannot stand by and helplessly watch his self-destruction. Jesper on the other hand seems to seek support in her and her presence because of his fears surrounding failure and not being cared for by others as much as he cares for them; he knows Inej leaves because she can’t help him and can’t watch him, and he knows that her trying to help him would make little long term difference as he explains in Crooked Kingdom when talking directly about his addiction, but that doesn’t mean that the cruel, self-destructive, disparaging part of him isn’t taunting him with the idea that she’s leaving because she doesn’t care about him and because she doesn’t want to help him, and that fear/pain only makes him feel more hollow and only makes him need to play more. Again I hope this makes sense it’s starting to feel like I’m just rambling

“Inej moved aside a bucketful of cleaning supplies that she’d placed there precisely because she knew no-one in the Slat would ever touch it” - I couldn’t cope in the Barrel. There’s no way I could cope with the fighting anyway, but if I by some miracle survived it would only be for the general lack of cleanliness to finish me off

' "This place is like anything in Ketterdam. It leaks,"

Inej could've sworn he looked directly at the vent when he said it. ' - I love this so much because Kaz never mentions anything about this himself but it just so fluidly becomes part of the way he's always aware of her presence. There's also never any surprise at meeting her right outside the closet she's hiding in immediately after the conversation with Haskell so I think we get the idea that's quite routine, and it begins more and more to introduce us to this quiet dependence Kaz and Inej have on each other without addressing it; there are so many things that they each know the others does but never mention, and I think generally speaking they both know that the other knows as well but their ease with one another doesn't require voicing it aloud - if anything it may even rely on keeping it silent, since neither of them are in a position yet where they can admit to themselves the need to rely on someone/the care they feel towards each other.

"You're smart Brekker, but you need to learn patience," - this line always catches me out a little, but I think it's actually just giving us another hint to the extent of disconnect Haskell has from the real experiences of his gang members. We already know Kaz to be a patient character at least in some of the situations we've seen so far, and he goes on to prove himself as immensely and genius-ly (I have no idea what the real word for that is, work with me) patient in his processes and his plans - particularly in Crooked Kingdom when he explains that "you don't win by playing one game". Remember it's in chapter TWO of Crooked Kingdom the Kaz puts the plan to hand Wylan his father's fortune into motion, we just don't know it until after the auction for Kuwei's indenture. Kaz does have a quote somewhere about how too many people aren't patient enough in committing crimes and that's how they end up making mistakes but I can't remember it exactly (I'm working off my audiobook at the minute so I can't flick through and find it), if any one knows it feel free to comment it because it's a great quote and a really interesting reference for this! My point here is that we know Kaz is a very patient person yet Haskell, someone who would appear on the surface to work so closely with him, is accusing him for a lack of it. Because realistically, Haskell has no idea of the everyday workings of the gang or anything of the scope of work Kaz puts into it, and I htink this is just another of the many unsavoury characters building hints we have to encourage the reader to develop an immediate disliking for Per Haskell in this scene.

"But you'll get your twenty percent" - it took me a while to actually think about the money and why the total is 30 million but the main six characters are only getting 4 million kruge each because honestly I won't lie it just didn't occur to me to actually think about the maths. Like I was vaguely aware that didn't add up but I didn't really think about it. But let's talk, because 30 million kruge split between 6 crew members should have meant each character receiving 5 million kruge each (30/6=5). But Per Haskell is owed 20% of any money that the Dregs earn, so he's taking some of the money. On the surface, does 20% seem like an unfair margin? Probably not, considering that theoretically the Dregs members owe him money, live at the Slat seemingly rent free, and are his employees in a business taht has to make money somehow. Personally I odn't think it's a great business model, but I literally know noting about business and also that's not really the point right now. The point is that on the surface 20% doesn't sound wholly unreasonable, and it doesn't sound unreasonable in this conversation. It's not until later, when Kaz offers Inej and Nina 4 million kruge to join the Ice Court Heist that it really occurs to us that they're kind of getting screwed over. Because 20% of 30 million kruge is 6 million kruge. SIX. This man is about to make 2 million more kruge by sitting around in Ketterdam playing with a ship in a bottle than any of our main characters are about to make for nearly dying a thousand times over and successfully infiltrating the Ice Court. What is interesting to me is how the decision of the money is made, because it seems that we're regarding it as if the income is solely Kaz's so he's paying Haskell is twenty percent then choosing to split the remainder between his crew, which seems to make sense since he was the one who was approached for the deal and the one who was offered the money. But if the money had been offered to hte six of them, the financial implications could have been far more complex. Wylan and Matthias aren't members of the dregs, so they would have no need to lose 20% of their income. They would each take 5 million, whilst the other four took 4 million and gave Haskell 1 million from each of their hauls. SO HASKELL WOULD STILL MAKE EQUAL TO THEM. Wylan and Matthias would come out marginally richer than the others, which neither of them were particularly bothered about anyway, and Haskell would still have done nothing and successfully screwed over Kaz and the other Dregs members. And I'm not saying they would've gone for that, because I don't doubt that Wylan and Matthias would have suggested splitting the income the way they do in the book anyway, but I'm saying it's so important that ultimately the person winning here is always Per Haskell. But what's really interesting about Kaz is that not only does he never question the suggestion of splitting the money evenly when he could have easily claimed more for himself as the person who made the deal nad hired on the others, effectively putting himself in Haskell's position except with more involvement, but even when he cuts Haskell out of the business he keeps none of the 6 million kruge for himself, instead splitting it between Rotty and Specht for their smaller roles in the Ice Court Heist. Kaz represents so many things that Per Haskell doesn't, and in that way he comes to represent key things that Pekka Rollins isn't as well, since the book makes strides to show Haskell and Rollins as effectively representative for all the gang leaders. Even though Rollins appears far more involved and on the ball than Haskell, when Inej attacks him in the final chapter of Crooked Kingdom he is forced to question the last time he "felt real pain" since no-one dared to actually fight him any more. I really hope this makes sense because it's very rambly and I'm starting to think I just explained fairly straight forward maths for no real reason.

"Rich as Saints in crowns of gold" - ok I love this because it shows us so much of what Kaz, or if we assume this is a common saying then the Kerch or just citizens of the Barrel, think of the Saints and of religious iconography. We know from the King of Scars duology, the Lives of Saints, and probably to some extent Shadow and Bone that the Saints' lives were not ones of riches, fame, or power, but Kaz exercises this idea of people turning themselves into religious icons for crude, financial purposes. I actually wonder if the way he views them is a kin to the way I've talked about viewing Jarl Brum as a reader, and I think that it's really important to hear this from Inej's perspective because we're already heightened to such an opposite idea by the overall style and tone of the chapter.

"And why Pim? The thought shamed her a bit. She could almost hear her father's voice: So eager to be the queen of thieves, Inej. It was one thing to do her job and do it well, it was quite another to want to succeed at it. She didn't want a permanent place with the Dregs, she wanted to pay off her debts and be free of Ketterdam forever, so why should she care if Kaz chose Pim to run the gang in his absence? Because I'm smarter than Pim," - First of all shout out to the Inej narrator of the soc audiobook because she nailed the intonation of "I'm smarter than Pim" I love it. Second of all we get this really interesting implication of Inej's moral code here, because as I've talked about before her morality is incredibly important to her and the necessity of crossing that line to survive has wreaked havoc on her emotional and probably mental states. She sees a clear distinction between doing what she has to in order to survive and enjoying what she does and I think this is possibly her 'new' moral code to cope with the inability to control her life and stick to what she considers her core moral values.

' "What would you say to 4 million kruge?"

"Money like that is more curse than gift,"

"My little Suli idealist. All you need is a full belly and an open road," he said, the mockery clear in his voice.

"And an easy heart, Kaz"

That was the difficult part. '

"We'll be kings and queen, Inej. Kings and queens,"

"Kaz was not a giddy boy smiling and making future plans her. He was a dangerous player who was always working an angle. Always."

' "I'll need Wylan waiting at the Crow Club tomorrow night,"

"Wylan? If this is for a big job..."

"Just do it," ' - Inej throws so much shade on Wylan early in six of crows and I always seem to forget and then be caught off guard when she's just complaining to Kaz that he's useless and Wylan's like '... I'm right here,'

"One moment he made her blush and the next he made her want to commit murder,"

' "Fence it,"

"Whose is it?"

"Ours now," ' - I shouldn't find this romantic, should I?

"Move the DeKappel we lifted from Van Eck's house into the vault. I think it's rolled up under my bed," - pleaseeeeee he doesn't even have the painting up, the audacity in this boy know no bounds. I talked a lot about the DeKappel when I was writing about the last chapter so I'm not going to detail it here, but everything about it makes me so happy

"Please, my darling Inej, treasure of my heart, won't you do me the honour of acquiring me a new hat?" - first of yesssssssssss we love, and secondly I wrote a whole thing about Kaz using sarcasm as a defence mechanism and the complexity of his inability to express emotions a while ago with particular focus on this quote and a few others so if you want to you can find that on my page or I might be able to tag people on it or whatever if you can't find it because it was some time ago now

' Inej cast a meaningful glance at his cane.

"Have a long trip down," she siad, then leapt onto the bannister sliding from one floor to the next, slick as butter in a pan. '

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed and that my scattered thoughts made at least some sense <3

[john-laurens-hamilton]

What did Alexander Hamilton actually look like?

I've spent a lot of time looking at portraits of Hamilton, from the awful (that's an opinion) portrait by Charles William Peale to modern-day facial reconstructions, looking for constant features and repeated descriptions that can help us get as close as possible to knowing how Alexander's face really looked. So, I found myself writing these discoveries down in a Google doc with links to all of the cited portraits and busts and some descriptions. So I wanted to share.

Descriptions

This part features the collection of descriptions from publius-esquire on tumblr, whose account has been deactivated, plus a few I’ve gotten from my own research.

He was under middle size; thin in person, but remarkably erect and dignified in his deportment. His hair was turned back from his forehead, powdered, and collected in a club behind. His complexion was exceedingly fair, and varying from this only by the almost feminine rosiness of his cheeks. His might be considered, as to figure and color, an uncommonly handsome face. When at rest, it had rather a severe and thoughtful expression; but when engaged in conversation, it easily assumed an attractive smile. (William Sullivan)

Although I read with tranquility and suffered to pass without animadversion in silent contempt the base insinuations of vanity and a hundred lies besides published in a pamphlet against me by an insolent coxcomb who rarely dined in good company, where there was good wine, without getting silly and vaporing about his administration like a young girl about her brilliants and trinkets, yet I lose all patience when I think of a bastard brat of a Scotch pedlar daring to threaten to undeceive the world in their judgment of Washington by writing an history of his battles and campaigns. (John Adams)

Hamilton had no more gratitude than a Cat. If you give a hungry famished Cat a slice of meat, she will not accept it as a Gift; she will snatch at it by Force, and express in her countenance and air, that she is under no obligation to you; that she got it by her own cunning and activity, and that you are a fool for giving it to her. (John Adams)

…Yet, in the lapse of days, how insignificant appears the effigy of Burr beside this symmetrical, almost girlish engine of thought, intercourse and public science. (G.W.P. Custis, Katherine Baxter’s Godchild of Washington)

In the intercourse of these martial youths [Hamilton and Laurens], who have been styled “the Knights of the Revolution,” there was a deep fondness of friendship, which approached the tenderness of feminine attachment. (John Church Hamilton, Life of Alexander Hamilton)

…On his return, his friend said, “Well, you have seen Hamilton—you have seen the great man.” “I cannot tell you about his greatness,” the Divine answered, “but he was as playful as a kitten.” (John Church Hamilton, Life of Alexander Hamilton)

Even though he never liked to think of himself as handsome, other people couldn’t help but notice his dashing looks. [...] [his eyes were] deep azure, eminently beautiful, without the slightest trace of hardness or severity.” (Fisher Ames, Martha Brockenbrough’s Alexander Hamilton: Revolutionary) \

Portraits

John Trumbull, 1792, Alexander Hamilton

Another John Trumbull 1792 painting called Alexander Hamilton

John Trumbull, 1805 (post-mortem): The Midnight Appointments: Alexander Hamilton

Charles William Peale, early 1790s: Alexander Hamilton

Constantino Brumidi, published in 1904: Alexander Hamilton, head-and-shoulder portrait

Hamilton’s portrait in the 10-dollar bill, John Trumbull’s 1805 painting

1773 portrait of Alexander Hamilton, when he was either 16 or 18

The features we can see are persistent that Hamiton is always in a ¾ angle except for the last one, which is still made when he was young: the features I keep in my interpretation are his nose, his jawline (softer in John Trumbull’s portraits from 1792 as Hamilton grew older), and his smug grin, including mostly the arched eyebrows and the subtle smile in the corners of his lips.

Busts

Bust of Alexander Hamilton, 1794, by Giuseppe Ceracchi

His head looks like an egg and that’s so funny.

Now seriously, busts are some of the most accurate representations we have in the modern day. This one was made while Hamilton was alive, so more so; if we ignore his egghead, this is one of the most influential pieces on my own interpretation of Alexander Hamilton’s face.

...

So, I sketched my own head-shoulders portrait + side profile portrait + 3/4 portrait. I am going to redraw them and paint them properly, but these are quick drawings I'll use as references for the final one:

I am super aware these are in no way a revolutionary masterpiece, but it's my attempt: to be fair, this is a history account, not an art one. But yeah! This was a dive through every source I could find, and of course, the credit for most of the descriptions goes to publius-esquire as I mentioned earlier.

[yourdeepestfathoms]

The Ringmaster's Guide

a character guide for my TADC Dungeons & Dragons AU! this was originally gonna be the characters in the same universe, just LARPing the game, with Caine making the terrains and magic and stuff, but then i actually started thinking of backstories for everyone. so now it's a real AU in the DnD universe! (there's no exact full, fleshed-out plot line, and the fics i'm gonna write with this are gonna be random events!)

this guide contains stuff like the gangs' races, classes, designs, abilities, and some fun backstory tidbits ;)

(also even though they're not playing the game, i still included the stats, skills, and some written game mechanics for the vibes!)

RAGATHA

Race: Aasimar (Protector)

Class: Cleric (Order Domain)

Feats: Inspiring Leader, Great Weapon Master, Tough

Resistances: Radiant, Necrotic

—

Mother bear…

Oh, mother bear…

Where has thou cub gone?

—

STATS

HP: 135

AC: 20 (Mithral Plate)

SPEED: 30 ft. walking, 30 ft. flying

STR: 19 (+4) | DEX: 17 (+3) | CON: 18 (+4) | INT: 16 (+3) | WIS: 20 (+5) | CHA: 17 (+3)

Saving Throws

STR: +4

DEX: +3

CON: +4

INT: +3

WIS: +9

CHA: +7

Senses

Passive Perception: 19

Passive Investigation: 13

Passive Insight: 19

Skills

Acrobatics: +3

Animal Handling: +5

Arcana: +3

Athletics: +4

Deception: +3

History: +3

Insight: +9

Intimidation: +3

Investigation: +3

Medicine: +9

Nature: +3

Perception: +9

Performance: +3

Persuasion: +7

Religion: +7

Sleight of Hand: +3

Stealth: +3

Survival: +5

—

Wings like silver, slicing through the sky. Twisting, turning, as graceful as a starling. A dance between earth and sky, a ballet of feathers and air, where gravity’s pull was but a distant memory when up so high.

A tiny squeal of joy. Shining eyes casting downward. Shimmering eyes looking up. 

“Aww, look at you,” she coos to the infant bound to her chest by soft fabric. The baby’s little wings, still covered in fluffy down, are extended fully and flapping gleefully. 

The mother laughs. “Do you think you’re flying?”

“AH!” her infant shouts, wings flapping harder.

Another laugh. She brushes her fingers over her child’s cheek, then looks to the horizon. “One day, this will all belong to you.”

—

WEAPONS/SPELLS

Weapons

- Vicious Glaive

- Crossbow

Spells

- Cantrip: Guidance, Mending, Resistance, Sacred Flame, Spare The Dying

- 1st Level: Command, Guiding Bolt, Heroism, Inflict Wounds

- 2nd Level: Hold Person, Spiritual Weapon, Warding Bond, Zone of Truth

- 3rd Level: Mass Healing Word, Revivify, Slow

- 4th Level: Banishment, Compulsion, Locate Creature

- 5th Level: Dominate Person, Flame Strike, Greater Restoration, Hallow, Mass Cure Wounds

- 6th Level: Blade Barrier, Heal

—

The city in the sky is divine and shining. The sky is clear and a crisp blue, not a cloud in sight. Other Celestials dart to and fro, all of them radiant. She sits in the soft grass of one of the many parks, watching as her child toddles around. A guitarist is playing nearby.

It’s peaceful. 

—

CLASS FEATURES/RACIAL ABILITIES

Class Features

Voice of Authority- Ragatha is able to invoke the power of the law to strengthen an ally’s attack. 

Order’s Demand- By raising her holy symbol, Ragatha can charm an enemy through exerting her presence over them.

Destroy Undead- If the will of an undead enemy fails against Ragatha casting Turn Undead, they are destroyed.

Embodiment of the Law- If casting a spell of the Enchantment school, she can quicken the casting time. 

Divine Strike- Ragatha can deal an extra bout of Psychic damage upon hitting an enemy.

Divine Intervention- Ragatha can call upon her deity for aid.

Racial Abilities

Healing Hands- Ragatha’s very touch is nurturing and life-giving. She is able to draw from a wellspring of gentle energy to heal people for a certain amount. 

Darkvision- Ragatha can see in the dark.

Celestial Legacy- Ragatha can cast the Light and Daylight cantrip at will.

Celestial Revelation: Radiant Consumption- Ragatha is able to unleash her full Celestial might on those who dare to test her. A bright, seething light pours from her eyes and mouth, and her very body acts as a beacon, radiating this same searing light in a radius. Any enemy who gets too close is scorched by this holy glow. All weapon attacks do extra Radiant damage. 

Flight- Ragatha is able to fly with her angel wings. 

—

Hunger. 

The whisper of the woods.

A hulking beast - clawing up her insides, biting at her ribs.

—

DESCRIPTION

Background: Acolyte 

Languages: Common, Celestial, Primordial, Elvish

Alignment: Lawful Good

Inventory

Money: 100 GP

- Alms Box

- Amulet (Holy Symbol)

- Baby Blanket

- Bag of Holding

- Blanket

- Box of Incense

- Candle

- Censer

- Crossbow Bolts

- Crossbow, light

- Photograph of her and a small child

- Prayer Book

- Rations

- Reliquary

- Shield

- Tinderbox

- Vestments

- Vicious Glaive

- Waterskin

Aasimar are well-known for their beauty, and Ragatha is no exception. She’s a well-built woman, bearing great muscles for someone of her appearance. Her skin has a lustrous sheen to it. Growing within her curly red hair are shimmering feathers of white-blue. An ethereal light glows in her black left eye, and the right probably would be the same if it weren’t for the fact that it’s been seemingly scratched out; a seething red scar extends down that side of her face, as though she had been struck by a bladed weapon. 

Large, feathered wings extend from her back. They’re a beautiful silver-white color, fading to gradients of blue at their tips.

Strangely, she has sharper teeth and nails than would usually be seen in an Aasimar.

A red blemish, some kind of burn scar, encircles her throat, never to truly heal. 

—

Blood in her eyes. Blood in her mouth. 

Stinging, burning. Vicious pain, and yet the hunger and rage dominate everything.

 So many eyes, watching. 

Circling - a trapped beast. 

Somewhere deep within, a voice screaming, “STOP IT! STOP!”  

—

OTHER

- Lycanthrope (werebear)

—

Mama Bear,

Mama…

Please come home soon.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

JAX

Race: Tiefling-Harengon

Class: Rogue (Thief)

Feats: Shadow-Touched, Mobile, Gunner

Resistances: Fire

—

A fey bathed in infernal fire. Tainted, scorched. Searing flames burning inside and out. 

—

STATS

HP: 63

AC: 15 (Leather Armor)

SPEED: 40 ft. walking 

STR: 13 (+1) | DEX: 20 (+5) | CON: 10 (+0) | INT: 12 (+1) | WIS: 11 (+0) | CHA: 16 (+3)

Saving Throws

STR: +1

DEX: +9

CON: +0

INT: +5

WIS: +0

CHA: +3

Senses

Passive Perception: 10

Passive Investigation: 15

Passive Insight: 10

Skills

Acrobatics: +9

Animal Handling: +0

Arcana: +1

Athletics: +1

Deception: +11

History: +1

Insight: +0

Intimidation: +3

Investigation: +5

Medicine: +0

Nature: +1

Perception: +0

Performance: +3

Persuasion: +7

Religion: +1

Sleight of Hand: +12

Stealth: +12

Survival: +0

—

She tried so hard to raise him to be a good boy. But she always knew he would follow in his father’s footsteps. 

—

WEAPONS/SPELLS

Weapons

- Rapier

- Daggers

- Shortbow

- Revolver

Spells

- Cantrip: Thaumaturgy

- 1st Level: False Life

- 2nd Level: Darkness, Hellish Rebuke, Invisibility

—

The smell of fire and brimstone. Ash dusting purple fur to black. Licking embers off his lips. 

—

CLASS FEATURES/RACIAL ABILITIES

Class Features

Sneak Attack- Jax is able to deal extra damage on attacks he has Advantage for.

Thieves’ Cant- As a Rogue, Jax can speak a language only other Rogues know.

Cunning Action- Jax’s agility allows him to make certain actions sooner than his allies would be able to. 

Fast Hands- Jax can use an item as a Bonus Action instead of an Action.

Second-Story Work- Jax can climb faster than his allies. 

Uncanny Dodge- When Jax can see the attacker who has hit him, he can half the damage. 

Evasion- Jax is able to avoid taking damage from certain attacks if they require a Dexterity Saving Throw.

Supreme Sneak- As long as Jax doesn’t use half of his movement, he has Advantage on Stealth checks. 

Reliable Talent- Jax is able to make the dice fall a little more in his favor. 

Racial Abilities

Darkvision- Jax can see in the dark.

Hellish Resistance- Jax is resistant to Fire damage.

Infernal Legacy- Jax innately knows the Thaumaturgy cantrip and the Hellish Rebuke and Darkness spells.

Lucky Footwork- Just because he doesn’t have the rabbit legs of his Harengon mother doesn’t mean this fella isn’t dextrous. When he slips up or stumbles, Jax’s quick reaction time gives him a chance to steady himself. 

Hare-Trigger- Jax’s fast rabbit reflexes sometimes allow him to strike first in combat. 

—

Too fast for the guards. Too quick for the dogs to catch. Any lock can be broken, and no chains can hold him down for long.

—

DESCRIPTION

Background: Criminal

Languages: Common, Thieves’ Cant, Infernal

Alignment: Chaotic Neutral 

Inventory

Money: 250 GP, 300 SP, 50 CP

- Alchemist's Fire (5)

- Arrows

- Bag of Holding

- Ball Bearings (bag of 1000)

- Beads of Fireball (10)

- Beads of Force (5)

- Bell

- Candle

- Crowbar

- Dagger (2)

- Deck of Many Things

- Grenade, Magical (3)

- Grenade, Smoke (5)

- Hammer

- Icon of Greed

- Lantern, Hooded

- Oil (flask)

- Piton

- Playing Cards

- Poisoner’s Kit

- Potion of Haste (3)

- Potion of Greater Healing

- Pouch of Gemstones

- Rapier

- Rations

- Rope (50 feet)

- Shortbow

- String

- Thieves’ Tools

- Tinderbox

- Vial of Acid (5)

- Waterskin

Anyone who looks at this guy can tell that he’s a hybrid. He’s a tall, lithe young man with a regular humanoid build. His entire torso is covered in thick purple fur that extends to his elbows on his arms and to his thighs on his legs—below that, it’s darker purple skin. Instead of rabbit feet, he has hooves, and his fingernails are sharp claws. Tufts of fur sprout from the base of his long tail, which ends in an arrowhead, before it tapers off to regular skin. His head is completely furry, and he has both the iconic rabbit ears and black horns that curve back over his scalp.  

—

Every jail cell looks the same after a while. None are impressive. And they’re all so easy to get out of. 

—

OTHER

- Son to the Demon of Greed

- Criminal of the state

- Wanted for several crimes

—

Chained to a wall. Slated for execution. Death by beheading. 

Ha.

That’s cute.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

ZOOBLE

Name: Zooble

Race: Simic Hybrid

Class: Barbarian (Path of the Totem Warrior)

Feats: Savage Attacker, Sentinel, Slasher

Resistances: N/A

—

They were someone, once. Normal skin. Normal hair. All their fingers and toes. All their teeth.

But that was a long time ago.

They can’t even remember their name.

—

STATS

HP: 137

AC: 19 (no armor)

SPEED: 40 ft. walking

STR: 20 (+5) | DEX: 16 (+3) | CON: 19 (+4) | INT: 10 (+0) | WIS: 13 (+1) | CHA: 9 (-1)

Saving Throws

STR: +9

DEX: +3

CON: +8

INT: +0

WIS: +1

CHA: -1

Senses

Passive Perception: 11

Passive Investigation: 10

Passive Insight: 11

Skills

Acrobatics: +3

Animal Handling: +1

Arcana: +0

Athletics: +9

Deception: -1

History: +0

Insight: +1

Intimidation: +3

Investigation: +0

Medicine: +1

Nature: +0

Perception: +1

Performance: +3

Persuasion: -1

Religion: +0

Sleight of Hand: +3

Stealth: +3

Survival: +1

—

For a long time, it seemed that they were going to waste away. Life was harsh, and their money was scarce. 

And then, they found their way to the great bronze city. 

Everything changed when they stepped through those giant gates. 

To this day, they still don’t know why they caught the eye of those aristocrats, but they were offered a job. It would give them housing and paid well. 

But there was a catch, of course. Two of them, to be precise. Everything came with strings attached. Nothing was ever that good.

Surprisingly, though, they found themself not minding these “conditions.” If anything, it sounded interesting.

And they did pride themself in their high pain tolerance. 

—

WEAPONS/SPELLS

Weapons

- Greataxe

- Handaxe (2)

- Javelin (4)

Spells

- 1st Level: Beast Bond, Speak With Animals

- 5th Level: Commune With Nature

—

Ow. Ow. OW.

It hurt worse than they were expecting, but the enhancements fit just right. They did well. 

They’ll be fine. 

They’re strong.

—

CLASS FEATURES/RACIAL ABILITIES

Class Features

Rage- Zooble is able to enter a Rage in battle that makes them resistant to Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing damage.

Unarmored Defense- Zooble’s AC is higher when not wearing armor.

Reckless Attack- Zooble can choose to attack heedlessly, giving them an Advantage on the hit, but also giving all enemies Advantage to hit them.

Spirit Seeker- Zooble has an attunement with the natural world. They are able to cast Beast Bond and Speak With Animals as ritual spells.

Totem Spirit: Bear- Zooble has picked the bear as their Totem Spirit. While in a Rage, they are resistant to all damage except Psychic.

Fast Movement- Zooble’s movement is boosted by ten feet when not wearing heavy armor.

Aspect of The Beast: Elk- Zooble has chosen the elk as their animal aspect. Party travel is faster than it usually would be.

Feral Instinct- Zooble’s might allow them to attack quicker in combat.

 Brutal Critical- Through sheer savagery, Zooble can increase the damage done to an enemy.

Spirit Walker- Zooble can cast Commune With Nature as a ritual spell.

Relentless Rage- Zooble’s fury urges them forward. When they otherwise would have fallen unconscious, if in a Rage, Zooble can cling on for just a little bit longer to keep fighting. 

Racial Abilities

Animal Enhancement- As a Simic Hybrid, Zooble has had new body parts added to them to make them more powerful.

Manta Glide- Zooble has ray-like fins on their back that allow them to glide and fall safely, though they can’t fly with them. 

Grappling Appendages- Zooble has an additional pair of appendages growing alongside their arms, which they are able to grapple and attack enemies with.

Darkvision- Zooble can see in the dark.

—

All around them, they’re being watched. So many people, so many more eyes.

The sun is high in the sky. The walls around them gleam. The sand of the coliseum floor is warm beneath their feet. 

In their hands, they heft their greataxe, then charge forward.

This will be easy. 

—

DESCRIPTION

Background: Champion

Languages: Common, Elvish

Alignment: Neutral

Inventory

Money: 10 GP

- Bedroll

- Greataxe

- Handaxe (2)

- Mess Kit

- Rations

- Rope (50 feet)

- Tinderbox

- Torch

- Waterskin

Zooble is a bit of an anomaly, as many Simic Hybrids are. Their body is a strange clash of bits and parts, like they’re a puzzle made of pieces from other puzzles.

Their torso and right arm are humanoid—and those are pretty much the only normal things about them. However, their torso is mottled in orange and yellow for an unknown reason. Their left arm is similar to that of a crustacean’s, red in color and ending in a large claw. Their left leg is hooved, while their right leg is that of a bear’s, both having come from their Totem Spirit rather than from being a Simic Hybrid. Two appendages, similar to the arms of a praying mantis, extend from their back. Also on their back are two fin-like membranes that are almost like wings, allowing them to glide. 

They constantly wear a helmet that they rarely ever take off. The helmet is grated in the front and has two horns curving out from the top. 

—

Fighting. Training. Growing stronger and stronger.

More battles. All victories. 

They’re called a champion. 

No one can make them fall.

They will never lose. 

—

OTHER

- They were something great. Once. 

—

It’s their first time tasting blood, and it is a rank venom in their mouth. 

Their body aches all over. They can barely move their limbs—if they’re even still attached to their body. It’s difficult to tell.

All around them, the forest is buzzing with noise, and yet all they can hear is their own shallow breathing and the echoing roar of a crowd, slowly fading out…

They should have died that day. Their injuries were grievous. But fate had other plans. 

Something in the forest stirs. Like those aristocrats, it saw something inside of them. So, it approaches, tentative and slow, then accepts them in its embrace.

Infused with the vitality of the earth and its kin, they stand.

They will never lose again. 

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

GANGLE

Race: Plasmoid

Class: Druid (Circle of Stars)

Feats: Healer, Elemental Adept, Mage Slayer

Resistances: Poison

—

Bright light. 

A roll of thunder.

Pain pulsing through every inch of her body.

“Yes! YES!”

Awakened. 

—

STATS

HP: 87

AC: 15 (Leather Armor)

SPEED: 30 ft. walking

STR: 10 (+0) | DEX: 14 (+2) | CON: 14 (+2) | INT: 16 (+3) | WIS: 17 (+3) | CHA: 12 (+1)

Saving Throws

STR: +0

DEX: +2

CON: +2

INT: +7

WIS: +7

CHA: +1

Senses

Passive Perception: 13

Passive Investigation: 13

Passive Insight: 17

Skills

Acrobatics: +2

Animal Handling: +3

Arcana: +7

Athletics: +0 (Advantage)

Deception: +1

History: +3

Insight: +7

Intimidation: +1

Investigation: +3

Medicine: +7

Nature: +3

Perception: +3

Performance: +1

Persuasion: +1

Religion: +3

Sleight of Hand: +6

Stealth: +6

Survival: +3

—

The tower is nice. The woods outside of it are even nicer. So many animals. So many flowers.

It’s a shame she can’t stray very far.

—

WEAPONS/SPELLS

Weapons

- Scimitar

Spells

- Cantrips: Druidcraft, Magic Stone, Mold Earth, Produce Flame

- 1st Level: Cure Wounds, Entangle

- 2nd Level: Flame Blade, Heat Metal, Moonbeam

- 3rd Level: Call Lightning, Conjure Animals

- 4th Level: Polymorph, Stoneskin

- 5th Level: Antilife Shell, Mass Cure Wounds

- 6th Level: Primordial Ward

—

Elf ears. Marigolds. Shriveled bat wings. Powered flame. A piece of a unicorn horn.

She enjoys watching the cauldron be mixed around and around. 

—

CLASS FEATURES/RACIAL ABILITIES

Class Features

Druidic- Gangle knows Druidic, the secret language of the Druids.

Wild Shape- Gangle can shapeshift into animals.

Star Map- Gangle has a special starry map that gives her several different benefits.

Starry Form- Instead of turning into an animal, Gangle can use her Wild Shape to take on a certain kind of Starry Form of her choosing, with each one giving a different benefit.

Cosmic Omen- Gangle can consult her star map for omens to predict how an action might pan out.

Twinkling Constellation- Even after she’s already selected a Starry Form, Gangle can change it to something else. 

Racial Abilities

Amorphous- Gangle can squeeze through spaces as narrow as 1 inch wide. 

Darkvision- Gangle can see in the dark.

Hold Breath- Gangle can hold her breath for up to an hour.

Natural Resilience- Gangle has resistance to Poison damage and to being poisoned.

Shape Self- Gangle can mold and shape her body however she pleases.

—

Her master’s power grows.

As does her worry. 

—

DESCRIPTION

Background: Servant

Languages: Common, Druidic, Giant, Ooze

Alignment: Lawful Good

Inventory

Money: 15 GP

- Bedroll

- Calligrapher’s Supplies

- Candle

- Holy Symbol

- Mess Kit

- Rations

- Rope (50 feet)

- Scimitar

- Wooden Shield

- Tinderbox

- Torch

- Totem

- Waterskin

- Weaver’s Tools

As a Plasmoid, Gangle appears much like a blob of slime molded into the vague shape of a humanoid. The pale red ooze making up her body is shaped in a way that makes it look like she’s swathed in ribbon. Within her body, a nervous system can be seen, glowing ever so slightly. Upon her head, she wears a white mask that acts as her face, as it is enchanted to emote and speak. 

—

Perhaps it is time to leave.

The forest calls. 

—

OTHER

- She was once the servant to a Lich. 

—

Freedom. 

Finally.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

KINGER

Race: Warforged

Class: Ranger (Swarmkeeper)

Feats: Sharpshooter, Durable, Alert

Resistances: Poison, Disease 

—

His kingdom is flourishing. 

Within the city walls, life blooms in every crevice. Queenie loves flowers, so he’s covered every possible surface in plant life for her. It really brightens the streets. 

They’re happy. 

—

STATS

HP: 124

AC: 17 (Scale Mail)

SPEED: 30 ft. walking

STR: 12 (+1) | DEX: 14 (+2) | CON: 18 (+4) | INT: 8 (-1) | WIS: 13 (+1) | CHA: 14 (+2)

Saving Throws

STR: +5

DEX: +6

CON: +4

INT: -1

WIS: +1

CHA: +2

Senses

Passive Perception: 15

Passive Investigation: 9

Passive Insight: 11

Skills

Acrobatics: +2

Animal Handling: +5

Arcana: -1

Athletics: +1

Deception: +2

History: +3

Insight: +1

Intimidation: +2

Investigation: -1

Medicine: +1

Nature: +3

Perception: +5

Performance: +2

Persuasion: +6

Religion: -1

Sleight of Hand: +2

Stealth: +2

Survival: +5

—

He’s down at the stables one day when the marshal comes up to him, asking if they could take a stablehand under their wing to help with the workload. 

Weird. He could have sworn he hired a stablehand… But perhaps he’s just thinking wrong. Queenie always says he would lose his head if it wasn’t attached to his neck!

He agrees to the marshal’s request, and a new stablehand is hired. 

—

WEAPONS/SPELLS

Weapons

- Longbow

- Quarterstaff

- Spear

Spells

- 1st Level: Cure Wounds, Longstrider

- 2nd Level: Pass Without Trace

- 3rd Level: Conjure Animals, Plant Growth, Water Walk

—

Kinger goes to a bookstore to pick up the newest copy of Queenie’s favorite book series. 

“How’s your wife been?” he asks the clerk.

The clerk looks at him oddly. “I’ve never been married.”

Kinger is confused. He could have sworn a young, cute couple ran this store together. He remembered meeting them when they first arrived in his city.

But… 

No. He didn’t.

By the next day, he’d forgotten about the clerk’s wife.

—

CLASS FEATURES/RACIAL ABILITIES

Class Features

Favored Enemy- Kinger has expertise on tracking, hunting, studying, and interacting with two creature types of his choice (monstrosities and beasts).

Natural Explorer- Kinger is adept at traveling through certain types of terrain (forest, grassland, mountains).

Primeval Awareness- Kinger can focus on the immediate area around him and try to sense aberrations, celestials, dragons, elementals, fey, fiends, and undead within a 1 mile radius.

Gathered Swarm- Kinger has befriended a swarm of insects that act as his allies and will attack with him.

Extra Attack- Kinger can attack twice.

Writhing Tide- Kinger can focus his swarm around him, allowing the swarm to lift him up so he can hover around. 

Land’s Stride- Kinger can move through non-magical difficult terrain without wasting any excess movement.

Hide In Plain Sight- Kinger can camouflage himself.

Mighty Swarm- Kinger’s swarm grows stronger, allowing it to deal more damage. 

Racial Abilities

Constructed Resilience- Due to Kinger not having a body of flesh, he has great fortitude that grants him several benefits: resistance to Poison damage and being poisoned, immune to disease, doesn’t need to sleep, doesn’t need to eat, drink, or breathe.

Sentry’s Rest- Instead of sleeping, Kinger can stand or sit motionless doing nothing and gain the same benefits of a rest.

Integrated Protection- Kinger’s body gives him natural protection.

—

It seems like the city is getting smaller. 

He and Queenie held their usual Flower Festival the day before, where butterflies would fill the sky in their multitude of colors. But for some reason, it felt like not as many people showed up. He doesn’t know why. 

—

DESCRIPTION

Background: Noble

Languages: Common, Draconic, Quori, Undercommon

Alignment: Lawful Good

Inventory

Money: 25 GP

- Arrows

- Bedroll

- Books

- Longbow

- Mess Kit

- Quarterstaff

- Rations

- Rope (50 feet)

- Scroll of Pedigree

- Signet Ring

- Spear

- Tinderbox

- Torch

- Waterskin

- Wedding Ring

Kinger almost looks like a regular man, except instead of skin, he looks to have been chiseled out of marble - a grand statue given life. He has no mouth, and upon his head is a crown carved to always be present. His hands seem like they were broken off somehow, replaced by swarms of insects forming the shape of hands. Butterflies follow him around and are usually perched on his shoulders and head. 

—

The sound of singing haunts his dreams. A gentle dire, a murmured beckon. He refuses to sleep, and for a while, Queenie is there to coax him to rest, but then…

Wait.

Who is Queenie?

—

OTHER

- He’s strayed far from his kingdom. 

—

He’s never been married. 

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

POMNI

Race: Shifter (Swiftstride)

Class: Warlock (The Void)

Feats: Mounted Combatant, Fey-Touched, Actor

Resistances: N/A

—

Stuffed in a cage, the kitten quivers, pressed into the furthest corner to stay out of reach. She’s crying, hyperventilating. She’s so scared. She wants to go home. 

—

STATS

HP: 87

AC: 15 (Leather Armor)

SPEED: 40 ft. walking

STR: 5 (-3) | DEX: 18 (+4) | CON: 15 (+3) | INT: 12 (+1) | WIS: 12 (+1) | CHA: 20 (+5)

Saving Throws

STR: -3

DEX: +4

CON: +2

INT: +1

WIS: +5

CHA: +8

Senses

Passive Perception: 11

Passive Investigation: 11

Passive Insight: 11

Skills

Acrobatics: +8

Animal Handling: +1

Arcana: +5

Athletics: -3

Deception: +5

History: +5

Insight: +1

Intimidation: +5

Investigation: +1

Medicine: +1

Nature: +1

Perception: 1

Performance: +12

Persuasion: +5

Religion: +1

Sleight of Hand: +8

Stealth: +4

Survival: +1

—

Bright colors and flashing lights. A calliope is playing happily. Dozens of people fill the stands to watch the show, and she is the main act. 

Don’t mess up.

Don’t mess up. 

—

WEAPONS/SPELLS

Weapons

- Dagger (2)

- Sickle

- Sling

Spells

- Cantrips: Chill Touch, Eldritch Blast, Fire Bolt, True Strike, Mage Hand, Magic Stone, Prestidigitation  

- 1st Level: Bless, Hellish Rebuke, Inflict Wounds, Misty Step

- 2nd Level: Blindness/Deafness, Shatter

- 3rd Level: Bestow Curse, Counterspell, Vampiric Touch

- 4th Level: Blight, Dimension Door, Elemental Bane

- 5th Level: Hold Monster

- 6th Level: Investiture of Fire

—

The lick of a whip dragging its blood-wet tongue across her back. Chains around her wrists, holding her down. A bridle in her mouth, choking back the screams that so desperately want to be heard.

—

CLASS FEATURES/RACIAL ABILITIES

Class Features

Touched By The Void- Sometimes, Pomni’s body will flicker in and out of existence. When this happens, she gains Advantage on Dexterity Saving Throws, causing the attack to phase right through her. Additionally, she has Advantage on Death Saving Throws, but if she were to die, she would be dragged back into the Void and devoured. 

Eldritch Invocations- Pomni has a number of eldritch knowledge at her disposal, granting her a number of benefits.

Eldritch Spear- The range of Eldritch Blast is extended to 300 feet.

Agonizing Blast- More damage is added to Eldritch Blast.

One With Shadows- If in an area with dim light or darkness, Pomni can become invisible.

Relentless Hex- Pomni can create a temporary connection with a creature. When connected, she can teleport up to 30 feet towards the creature.

Maddening Hex- Pomni can deal extra Psychic damage by creating a psychic disturbance.

Repelling Blast- Eldritch Blast will move the target back by 10 feet.

Pact Boon: Pact of the Tome- Pomni has been given a Book of Shadows by her patron, granting her three extra cantrips.

Abyssal Field- Pomni creates a sort of field that rips at the veil of reality, opening up a space to the Void in the material plane. Within this field, weak objects crumble away and are destroyed, while everything and everyone aside from Pomni takes damage. 

Entropy Awaits- After reducing an enemy to 0, Pomni can thrust their soul into the Void, feeding it and allowing her to regain a number of hit points back. 

Mystic Arcanum- Pomni’s patron has bestowed upon her an arcanum, which allows her to gain a higher level spell earlier than she normally would. 

Racial Abilities

Darkvision- Pomni can see in the dark.

Shifting- Pomni can take on a more bestial appearance. As a Swiftstride Shifter, when she is shifted, she moves faster than she normally would. 

—

Something is wrong. Something happened. The train took too sharp of a turn, and suddenly, she’s falling. Falling. Falling.

She braces herself for impact, for the terrified release of death…but it never happens.

She opens her eyes.

There’s nothing.

Everything is just…empty. 

—

DESCRIPTION

Background: Circus Freak

Languages: Common, Abyssal, Undercommon, Deep Speech, Sylvan, Goblin

Alignment: Neutral Good

Inventory

Money: 10 SP

- Book of Shadows

- Component Pouch

- Dagger (2)

- Ink

- Ink Pen

- Little Bag of Sand

- Parchment

- Sickle

- Sling

- Small Knife

- Woodcarver’s Tools

Unlike others of her kind, Pomni isn’t exactly the most ferocious or intimidating—both in personality and appearance. She’s a small, stout young woman—so short that she constitutes as a Small creature. All Shifters resemble some kind of animal, and she resembles a tiger, which is rather hilarious due to the previous mention of her being tiny and pathetic. Weirdly, her fur is red and blue instead of black and orange…but given everything else that’s just been mentioned about her, that’s pretty on-par.

Round little tiger ears poke out of her scruffy black hair, and she has a tiger tail. Her fingers and toes are clawed, and her teeth are sharp. Blue stripes are scored along her upper arms, thighs, neck, and cheeks. The bottom of her feet are padded, making it more comfortable for her to walk around without shoes on, which she usually does. She also appears to be somewhat digitigrade, often walking on her toes (perhaps to look taller?). Her nose is pink like a tiger’s. Her fingers have been permanently stained to a black gradient. 

When she’s shifted, Pomni gains a slightly more intimidating edge. Fur sprouts up her limbs and along her back, and her face takes on a more bestial appearance. 

There are red blisters around her wrists and ankles.

However, there’s something…weird about Pomni. Something almost…uncanny. Sometimes her muscles will visibly spasm beneath her skin, like they’re alive and want to get free. Sometimes her flesh will ripple. Upon her back, she has a pair of strange, vestigial wings beneath the skin. Occasionally, little black tentacles will sprout from random parts of her body. Two horn buds rise from her crown. 

And her eyes…they’re just not right. 

—

She doesn’t know how long she’s been down here. Days? Weeks? Months? Years? It doesn’t matter anymore.

She’s alone. All alone. 

She’s tried screaming. She’s tried to claw her way out. She’s tried praying to every god in existence.

Nothing.

It’s like the entire world has shut her out. 

She always knew there were fates worse than death.

She thinks she may have found the worst. 

—

OTHER

- She was once an act in a traveling magical circus that would go around via train on the borders between different planes. 

- Aberrant Horror

—

Light. Freedom.

She’s out. She’s free.

But she’s not alone. Not anymore.

Something whispers in her mind. And something writhes beneath her flesh. 

She’s scared. 

[dramatea88]

Kill Me Love Me Episode 14 - 15: Murong Jinghe's really bad week. (Also, he needs lots of therapy)

After the fantastic end to episode 13, I wondered if the next episode could match its intensity. It does, and then some. Some notable moments:

Jinghe's night terrors AKA can we get him a therapist?

Mei Lin sees Jinghe at a vulnerable moment once more as he suffers through a horrible nightmare of the moment he was nearly beaten to death and crippled. So fierce was the dream that it left him trembling for a few good minutes. Again, Mei Lin just quietly does what needs to be done, no fuss as she gathers herbs to help Jinghe sleep. I love her style. She knows that Jinghe doesn't need sweet words but practical help.

Though I have to be amused at his earlier attempts to literally get in bed with her. I thought he would've benefited from a cuddle or two but Mei Lin is having none of that LOL

As usual, this was a great performance from Liu Xueyi and Wu Jinyan.

The best fight I've seen in a while

For one, it has some of the most intense and well done fight scenes done in a Cdrama since forever. I wrote about it in my last post.

A contrast between the princes

Some will question why the writers included that small storyline with Commander Yang of the prison camp and his subordinate. I actually thought it was brilliant - episodes 14 and 15 contrasts how the two princes differ in their treatment of their men.

The Crown Prince does command loyalty, but it's all through deceit. Just like how he deals with all the people in his life, from General Yin to the Emperor, he projects an aura of kindness and benevolence and strikes at his enemies from the shadows when they least expect it. (Luo Mei will be his latest victim 100%.)

His men think that he's a great man but will almost always realise it too late what he really is, as Yang's subordinate finds out. RIP . Commander Yang, I hope you don't get too big a shock in the afterlife when you find out the truth

Meanwhile, Jinghe is the total opposite. He projects an image of a decadent and murderous bastard who is willing to kill people for amusement, but in truth he is kind and loyal to his men. He worries for Qingyan when they separate, and when one of his men died during that massive battle in the bamboo forest he grieved so deeply that Mei Lin and Qingyan had to drag him away.

Both princes command loyalty in their men, but only one is truly loyal to them.

A quiet interlude

So they had to go through hell (well, a snowstorm anyway) to reach an isolated, idyllic village.

Btw can I express my appreciation to the producers for filming in actual places? It was soooo satisfying to see a fight in an actual bamboo forest and a whole village! According to a BTS video, they hardly shot in the studio. After the tense, angsty episodes of 13-15, it's good for our leads (and our brains) to have a vacation lol.

When I saw these scenes in the trailer, I just couldn't imagine HOW Jinghe and Meilin's relationship could've ended up being so ... sweet!

But in episodes 13-15, our couple has seen each other at their worst; they've fought side by side like comrades and they've saved each other numerous times. The next step, love, is 100% more logical than episode's 8-11's cutesy moments. I'm so so glad that my fears about the drama devolving into a frivolous mess didn't come true. And thank god for the intensity of ep 13. This couple really needed that moment.

Anyway, 100% for sure they are going to have a Meet Yourself slice of life time in that village where they connect and ya know, get "heated up".

Darlings, you know what that means, right?

PAIN IS COMING!

My not favourite moments

Xiyan prince is back. WAIIII. I get you need to be second male lead and all, but can you like stop taking up so much screentime? Each time we switch to Xiyan I just legit want to throw a mantao at the TV

[fanfictionstuff]

Curiosity 4 (Ikki Niko x Reader) SMUT

*Characters are of legal age*

Sorry for the late update, I know people have been waiting for it, including my friend who requested it. My favorite character from Blue Exorcist is finally back on the show so my thoughts are nonstop Amaimon. Sorry.

Normal.

Everything was normal the following day. You got up before Ikki and quietly changed into some clothes from your drawer. Since you’ve spent so many nights together, your parents and his had arranged for you to have a place to keep your clothes at each other's houses. You even have a uniform hanging in his closet, which is perfectly normal for best friends, right? It’s not.

Moving swiftly through the kitchen as if it were your own, you take various pans from the cabinets and gather ingredients from the fridge needed for breakfast. Ikki’s mom has left some miso soup for both of you. Preparing the tamagoyaki is straightforward, and there’s pickled cabbage waiting for you in the fridge.

Breakfast is normal. Ikki praises your cooking while you roll your eyes because there's really nothing to praise. Tamagoyaki is quite easy to make, and the soup and cabbage are leftovers from his mother. "You make the best tamagoyaki ______." “Whatever you say, Ikki.”

Everything felt normal as if last night hadn’t occurred. Watching you browse through your textbooks, Ikki begins to wonder if maybe it hadn’t happened. 

“_____, is everything okay?” He questions cautiously.

"No. Everything is not fine. Can you tell me when I'll actually use this after high school?" You pull up the calculator on your app. "Once I graduate, this calculator will be all I need. I’d like to know when I’ll have to apply this level of math in real life, Ikki?” You lift the workbook in frustration. It’s ridiculous.

He frowns at your answer; he is not talking about schoolwork. “I meant…with us.”

“Us?”

Now, he’s truly wondering if it was a dream or something more. Could it be a dream of one of his deepest desires? “Uh, never mind. I have practice in about an hour; I need to prepare." He heads into his bedroom to put on his workout clothes. A bento his mother packed yesterday sits waiting in the fridge, which he plans to take for lunch between practices.

“_____, do you need me to get you anything?” He questions as he grabs his bag.

“No, after I finish this, I’ll grab lunch and pick up what I need.” You dismiss him, focusing on the problem in front of you. “Don’t overdo it today.”

After another twenty minutes of struggling with the workbook, you reach for your phone and decide to google the answers. At first, you try to use a website that gives you the answers and explains how it’s the answer, but then you get bored with reading about math and quickly switch to just writing the answers down.

Instead of making something for lunch, you decide to go out to a local café with great sandwiches and warm drinks. It’s just around the corner, and you make it into the coffee shop rather quickly; the scent of coffee and baked goods hits you as you enter the door. “Hi _____.” The barista grins. “How ‘s my favorite customer today?” He questions as you step up to the display case.  “Good, how are you?”

"Great! Where’s my other favorite customer? I don’t remember the last time I saw you come in alone," he asks, as he begins preparing your favorite hot drink for your order.

“With his true love.”

The man snorts. “Fairly certain soccer isn’t his true love, kiddo. Anyway, what else can I get you?”

Your original plan was to come for a sandwich, but your eyes lock on a slice of cake. Would it be weird to get a slice of cake and a sandwich? Usually, you’d order one and take the other home, but you’d like to eat both now. “A panini and a slice of cake.” You point towards the slice of cake you want.

As you sip on the warm drink, you relax in the quiet cafe, watching the people walking by outside on the sidewalk. It’s not a school day, so you notice a lot of high schoolers walking by with friends. The warm comfort of the drink and smoothing warmness of the cafe is slowly starting to get to you. You and Ikki had stayed up pretty late last night, and he had to wake up early for practice today, so you wanted to make him breakfast like a good girlfriend best friend.

Shaking your head, you decide to head back to Ikki’s house. You should take a nap while you can before Ikki finishes practice. 

The journey back to his house feels slower, as fatigue weighs heavily on every step. You struggle to unlock the door and carefully place your shoes in their designated spot before slipping into a pair of indoor slippers. A nap is definitely needed. Wanting to be as comfortable as possible, you remove your pants and neatly fold them before settling onto the sofa with a cozy blanket.

Ikki gazes down at his phone while eating the bento his mother prepared for him. He hardly registers the coach announcing that practice will end early today, as he's still grappling with whether last night was a dream or reality. He hasn’t received a text from you, which feels unusual since you usually message him during lunch.

After practice, Ikki makes his way to the locker room to change out of his sweaty clothes. He pulls out his phone to check for any messages from you, but finds nothing. A wave of disappointment washes over him, yet he quickly dismisses it, reminding himself that you’re likely busy with your own activities.

“______.” Someone whispers, shaking your shoulder. “Are you okay?” You groan, opening your eyes to see concerned teal eyes staring at you. “Ikki? Yeah, I’m okay. Why wouldn’t I bed?” You ask while rubbing your eyes.

“Oh, you didn’t text me during lunch, so….” He tilts his head down, allowing the hair to cover his eyes. “…. I was a little worried.” He admits.

You slowly sit up, glancing around the living room. “Wait, what time is it?”

“A little after two.”

“Why are you here?”

Ikki’s concerned expression morphs into something else, his mouth a thin, straight line. “Sorry, I can go-“

“What? Where are you going? Why are you here so early? Practice shouldn’t be over yet, right?” you ask, tossing the blanket aside and standing up. Ikki’s eyes widen as your bare thighs come into view at his eye level. he swallows hard, his gaze slowly moving up; you remain unaware of his lingering stare. As you stretch your arms overhead, your shirt rises slightly above your panties.

As memories from what he’s starting to believe was a dream flash through his mind, his mouth starts to water.

Ikki quickly averts his gaze, feeling a rush of heat creeping up his neck. "I-I just... our coach let us go early today," he stammers, trying to compose himself. He clears his throat and looks away, his heart racing at the sight before him.

You raise an eyebrow at his flustered demeanor, noticing how he avoids looking directly at you. "Well, since you're here early, want to watch a movie or something?" you offer casually, not realizing your casual movements' effect on him.

Ikki hesitates momentarily, still trying to shake off the images from the dream—or was it reality? "Uh, sure. Yeah, that sounds good," he replies, finally meeting your gaze but quickly looking away again.

“Great.” He’s still on his knees when you lean forward to grab the remote from the coffee table in front of the sofa. Ikki bites back a groan at the sight of you bent over like that in only a shirt and light blue underwear. 

You didn't think twice about dressing like this in front of Ikki; it was completely normal for you. Even though last night had been more intimate and left you feeling exposed, him seeing you like this now, just casually watching TV, made it feel innocent again. 

After selecting a movie, you sit on the other end of the sofa. Your body angled towards him, with your knees bent and resting against the arm of the sofa. This position gives him a perfect view of your slightly visible underwear. 

It had to have been a dream. Otherwise, you would’ve said something to him, right? His fingers dig into his thighs as he tears his eyes away from you. Last night, you were so open and blunt with your curiosity. So, was it a dream? He glances back at you from the corner, but as his eyes land on the blue cloth, he can’t help but feel starved. He wants to pull them down, see if you’ll make those same noises if he parts your legs and runs his tongue along your slit. 

“Ikki, are you okay?” You shuffle on the sofa, not noticing that you’ve opened your legs a bit wider for his view as you do. 

“No.” 

“What’s wrong.”  “Last night.” He watches you carefully to see any signs that maybe last night wasn’t just a dream. 

Your eyes widen; he sounds upset. Quickly, you straighten up, tucking your legs under you, and sit on your knees, staring at your best friend. “I’m sorry! I pushed too far. Didn’t I? We can just pretend it didn’t happen.” 

“No.” 

Your hands start to shake at his blunt tone. Is he angry and doesn’t want to be friends anymore? Does he feel like you took advantage of him? “Ikki, I’m so sorry. I was being selfish.” 

“______, I love you.” 

“I know; I love you too. Yet, I put you in that position. I shouldn’t-” 

He leans in, his forehead touching yours. You can feel his breath on your skin as he closes his eyes and sits silently with you.

“_____?” 

“Yes?” 

“I meant I’m in love with you.”

He leans forward, gently pressing his warm lips against yours. It’s a sweet, quick kiss, and when Ikki pulls away, he rests his forehead against yours again. "I'm sorry if I just made things awkward between us," he murmurs. “If you don’t return my feelings, it’s okay. We can act like I never said anything. I just can’t lose you _____.” 

You slowly pull away, reaching up to cup his face while pushing some hair from his eyes. “Sorry if you made things awkward? Ikki, I asked you if I could give you a blow job last night.” 

“_____.” 

“You’re not going to lose me; I love you too. I always have.” You admit before pressing your lips to his. He responds with a low groan before nipping at your bottom lip. Encouraged, you part your lips slightly, and he slips his tongue inside, gently moving against yours. His hands slip up your thighs; they’re on your hips, fingers slightly tucked in the waistband of your underwear. “Are you okay?” He whispers against your lips. You nod.

“You’ve been teasing me since I got home today. Did you know that?” He says with a smirk. “First, I wasn’t sure if last night was just a dream. All morning, you didn’t say anything, and now, when I come home, you’re wearing only this.” He gestures towards your outfit. “Bending over, slightly spreading your legs. Right in front of my face.” He moves from the sofa to kneel in front of you. “I told you before, you taste amazing.” He gently trails his fingers over your knees, spreading them apart slightly. “Can I have another taste, ____? It's all I've been able to think about all day." He confesses, running his tongue over his lower lip. 

You nod, feeling a rush of excitement and anticipation course through your body. You can feel yourself getting wet at his words and the way he's looking at you. He leans forward, placing his hands on your thighs as he parts your legs wider. His fingers trail up and down your inner thighs, causing you to shiver.

“You smell amazing, too.” He looks up at you with darkened eyes before pulling down your underwear and nuzzling against your core. 

You close your eyes and let out a soft sigh, enjoying the feeling of his warm breath against your sensitive area. He starts to kiss and lick gently, causing a wave of pleasure to wash over you. You reach down and thread your fingers through his hair, gently guiding him closer to where you need him most. 

You're feeling a mix of emotions: embarrassment but also excitement. Last night, you thought he only did it because you gave him oral pleasure, and he felt obligated to reciprocate. But now, as his mouth eagerly explores your core with messy licks and desperate movements, it's clear that he's enjoying this just as much as you are. Your body responds by arching your back in pleasure, and he places your legs over his shoulders for easier access to you. 

He can feel your arousal building, the tension in your body growing with each passing moment. Ikki's face is buried against your core; his eyes are closed in concentration as he focuses on giving you the most intense pleasure he possibly can.

You let out a loud gasp as his thumb finds your clit, rubbing small circles that send jolts of pleasure through your body. Your hands grip his hair as your back arches off the sofa, letting out moans of pleasure that fill the room.

With his thumb rubbing your clit, he uses his other hand to insert a finger into you slowly. He watches you through his hair, accessing the situation. Your expression and sounds only hint at pleasure, so he slowly adds another finger. Still focused on your expression while starting to make a scissoring motion with his fingers. That’s how he’s supposed to do it, right? To prepare you in case you want to go further with him. His brow furrows in concentration, wanting to bring you the most pleasure possible. When you start pulling his hair almost painfully, he realizes you’re going to cum. He curls his fingers while gently sucking against your clit.

You pant out his name as you come undone, the sensation seemingly stronger than it had been last night. “I-I think you somehow got better at it, how? It hasn’t even been twenty-four hours. Your body jolts as you feel his warm tongue running along your folds again. “Ikki! Too sensitive.” You whine, trying to pull away. “Are you going to do this every time?” He frowns at you. “I’m sorry _____, you just taste amazing. I’ve never tasted something this amazing before.”

“You’re full of shit.” You huff, not believing that the taste of your release is anywhere near the level he’s trying to say it is. Ikki shakes his head, leaning forward to run his tongue along your folds once more. “I could do this all day.”

“Can I suck your cock?” Suddenly, the tables have turned, and Ikki’s confidence melts away into embarrassment at your words. “W-what? No, I mean yes.” He attempts to hide his red face against your legs. “Yes, just let me shower first, okay? I just got back from training and wasn’t expecting to do this within twenty minutes of walking in.”

“So, you were expecting this?”

Ikki chuckles nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. "I-I mean, I hoped it would happen again; I didn’t think it would happen so soon." He looks up at you with a shy smile. "But I'm not complaining," he adds quickly, the embarrassment still evident in his face.

You grin at him, finding his reaction endearing. "Alright, go take a shower then. I'll wait for you."

Ikki nods and stands up, pulling his clothes off as he heads towards the bathroom. You watch him go with an appreciation for his toned body before pulling yourself together and sitting up on the sofa.

As you wait for Ikki to finish showering, your mind races with excitement and anticipation. Last night was amazing, and you can't wait to feel that same pleasure again with Ikki.

When he finally emerges from the bathroom, freshly showered and dressed in comfortable lounge pants, you can't help but stare at him hungrily. He grins at your reaction before making his way over to you.

"Are you sure about this?" he asks softly as he stands in front of you.

You nod eagerly; this all started off as your idea; of course, you’re ready.

“Maybe we could go to the bedroom.”

“Right! Yeah, of course.” You probably sound a bit too eager, but Ikki is your best friend and boyfriend? Is he your boyfriend now? Maybe this is something you should confirm first. “Uh, Ikki?” You question, suddenly feeling nervous as you follow him into the bedroom.

“Yes?”

You sit on his bed, nervously fidgeting with your fingers. “So, uh, are we in a relationship?”

He pauses, suddenly becoming more nervous, too. “I hope so. I love you, and you said you love me unless you don’t.”

“I do! I just, nothing was said.”

You watch as his face starts to turn red. “_____, I thought it was implied.”

“Oh, right, yeah.” You rub the back of your neck awkwardly. “Anyway, you’ll let me suck your cock now?”

He knows you’re just reflecting your embarrassment, so he doesn’t say anything about your comment. Slowly, he nudges you to sit on his bed, and he sits beside you. His eyes never leave yours as he pulls down the waistband of his pants to reveal himself fully.

He's already hard, and your mouth waters at the sight of his length. Without hesitation, you lean forward and take him into your mouth. A low groan escapes Ikki's lips as your tongue swirls around him teasingly.

You savor his taste and feel in your mouth, loving how he responds to your every movement. You want to make him feel as good as he made you feel earlier. You take him deeper into your throat, causing him to let out a loud groan that seemingly vibrates throughout the room.

Ikki reaches down, gently taking hold of the back of your head as you continue to pleasure him. His fingers thread through your hair, his breaths coming out ragged and labored as you continue on.

"Oh god, ____," he moans softly, eyes tightly shut as he revels in the sensation of your mouth on him. "You're so good at this."

You remove your mouth from him but don’t lift your head, slightly panting; the puffs of air you release against the head of his cock just make him more sensitive. “Ikki, I’m the only one that’s done this for you. I could be awful for all you know.” You causelly comment, licking the tip.

"I don't think that's possible," he replies, his voice slightly hoarse. "You... you make it feel so good."

You grin in response, feeling a newfound confidence as you move back down to take him into your mouth again. Your lips wrap around him, and you begin to move your head rhythmically up and down, taking him deeper with each passing second.

Ikki's fingers tighten slightly in your hair, guiding your movements as you continue to please him. His breaths come out in short, sharp pants, each one more labored than the last as he approaches his climax.

"I'm going to cum," he warns you softly, his voice barely above a whisper.

You pull off him just in time, sitting back on your heels as he releases a loud groan, his hips bucking as he reaches his peak. He grips the sheets tightly as his orgasm washes over him, his eyes squeezed shut in pleasure.

As he enjoys the aftermath of his release, you lean forward, kissing the tip of his softening penis softly before looking up at him with a smile. "Glad you enjoyed it."

Ikki leans forward, capturing your lips passionately as his hands roam over your body. You eagerly respond, tangling your fingers in his hair as the kiss intensifies. His hands continue their exploration, trailing down to your core, where he finds you already wet with anticipation.

He slides a finger inside you, causing you to gasp and arch your back against him. "You're wet again," he murmurs against your lips before adding another finger and increasing his pace. Your moans become louder as he continues to please you with his fingers.

Feeling impatient, you grind yourself against him, wanting more contact and friction. “Could we, um, have sex?” You mumble as his thumb makes contact with your clit.

“Y-yeah.” He pulls away from you slightly to remove his pants completely; you follow suit and remove your shirt; your underwear is still somewhere tossed in the living room.

Gently, he guides you to lie down on the bed. “Are you sure?” You nod. “Let me know if it hurts.” He positions himself above you nervously; he expects the first time to be awkward; you are both virgins. His main concern is not hurting you when he first enters you.

“I’m ready.” You reply, reaching up to wrap your arms around his neck, pulling him closer. He takes the hint, slowly entering you, his eyes locked with yours as he moves deeper inside you.

At first, it feels a little uncomfortable, but he moves slowly and pauses to ensure you’re okay before entering more. He waits a moment once he’s fully in you, giving you time to adjust. There’s no pain, just an odd feeling of being filled. You pull his head down to place a kiss on his lips. “Okay, you can move now.” He nods, starting with shallow thrusts, watching you carefully the whole time. You moan softly, your legs wrapping around Ikki’s waist as he moves deeper inside you.

Ikki groans softly in response, his chest grazing against yours as he finds a rhythm that seems to work for both of you. His lips find yours again in a passionate kiss, his movements becoming more urgent as he tries to please you in every way possible. Ikki moves a hand between your legs, reaching for your clit, gently pinching it as he continues to thrust into you.

You gasp at the sudden sensation, your eyes fluttering shut as waves of pleasure radiate from your core. "Yes," you whisper, clutching at his back as he continues to touch you in just the right way.

Ikki's movements become more earnest, his thrusts deeper and harder as he tries to give you the pleasure you both desperately crave. His eyes are locked on yours, searching for any sign that he's succeeding in making you feel good.

"I'm close," you pant, your voice barely audible over your own heavy breathing. "Don't stop."

Ikki nods, his eyes never leaving yours as he continues his relentless assault on your body. His breath becomes ragged, his heart pounding in his chest as he fights for control over his own impending orgasm.

Suddenly, a wave of intense pleasure washes over you, your entire body trembling as you cry out his name. Ikki feels your muscles clench around him as you release. His body shudders against yours, and he lets out a rough groan as he cums deep inside you.

Ikki's breath hitches as he pulls back slightly, his gaze still locked with yours. "Are you okay?" He whispers concern etched on his face.

You laugh, “Better than okay. Hey, did you know most girls don’t have an orgasm during their first time? So, good job.” You pat his back.

His head drops to your shoulder, “_____, please.”

“It’s true. I read it online.”

“_____.”

“Fine, fine. I love you.”

“I love you too.”

You grasp a handful of his hair, pulling his head back so you can make eye contact. “So, our parents…”

If your parents knew, they’d realize they had been wrong about your supposedly sibling-like relationship all this time, and it’d be a mess.

Ikki looks thoughtful for a moment. “We’ve only got a few months before we finish high school. Let’s tell them once they’ve helped us move into a new apartment at the university.”