#so if this breaks containment then DO NOT PERCIEVE ME PLEASE

[coles-scythe]

Very very rough WIP of my man 2D for a redraw of a redraw of a screenshot of a virtual live performance. Sharing on here bc I don't want this to get much attention and I wanna gush about him a lil. Old art + screenshot and f/o gushing under the cut.

AAAA the improvement from the sketch alone holy cowwww. The drawing is August of 2019, so nearly 4 years ago. Very excited to finish this one, hopefully I can tomorrow.

Anyways-- I wanna talk about my history of listening to Gorillaz and my slowburn crush on 2D. Plus a little of what I've figured out about my S/I.

2D is one of my older F/Os by technicality. I never actively self shipped with him until recently, but I've had that big crush on him since I was a freshman in high school. So around 2016/17. I was vaguely aware of Gorillaz before then, but only because my cousins had shown me two different music videos. One of Clint Eastwood, and the other of Devil Inside by Slipknot. Watching those back-to-back + having a phobia of eyes did not turn out well and for the longest time I was terrified of 2D because my cousins told me he didn't have eyes at all. I later learned from a friend I met in my freshman year that isn't entirely true, his eyes just have eight ball fractures and are drawn to look like they're gone. I had also apparently confused the Slipknot music I had heard for the Clint Eastwood video, so that friend made me watch the video again with them and I realized I actually really like the song lol. From there I fell down the whole rabbit whole for Gorillaz and 2D quickly became one of my favs. Russell is sorta still my fav because I'm biased towards drummers, but Stu is a very close second LOL. I read a bunch of fanfiction, mainly X Readers of him on Wattpad. Fun fact, this is also around the time I started seriously questioning my gender, and started reading/writing male readers to explore those feelings lol.

So then I listened to their music and doodled them occasionaly when I was first starting art in my sophomore year, but I didn't really get involved in the fandom or anything besides reading fanfiction on Wattpad. 2017 was peak for me since they dropped Saturnz Barz after years of silence from Plastic Beach. Despite all the new music I was constantly listening to, my mini-hyperfixation on the bad quickly faded. Two years passed before I realized it, it was suddenly 2019 and I was a fresh high school graduate with a massive hyperfixation on Splatoon. Phase 5 had concluded a few months prior and my brain decided it was a great time to have a little redux of my Gorillaz hyperfixation.

I started drawing them, mainly 2D, more often and got very into the fandom on Insta and Tumblr. Met some pretty chill people, a few of whom I'm still mutuals with on my main :D!! But the entire time, I was still in my "self ship is cringe" phase and kinda ignored anything I was feeling towards 2D. I was still reading and contemplating making my own X Reader fics of him on Wattpad, but that was all irrelevant to me I guess. Eventually that hyperifxation on them passed and I returned to my regularly scheduled Splatoon hyperfix.

Fast forward to another year later in 2020 and into 2021, I finally embraced my cringe and started self shipping again for the first time since I was like 9. First with Erik from Dragon Quest, then several Persona characters (most importantly Adachi lol), then Happy Chaos, and I've been jumping around from crush to crush I've had since I was a kid. Very good for the soul, 10/10 would reccomend reconnecting with childhood F/Os lol. As of a few months ago I starting thinking of 2D as a potential F/O before officially naming him a romantic F/O!!

All this time I've been tossing around different ideas for a self insert, but haven't really explored it until I named him my F/O. I'm still figuring that stuff out, but I at least know they knew each other before D-Day! Not too sure about Phase 1 stuff, but I do know they'll reappear in Stu's life during the band's break between Phases 1 and 2 and maybe they start dating each other by the time Phase 2 does roll around OwO. And then my insert also gets kidnapped by Murdoc and gets shipped off to Plastic Beach with 2D. They become the stand-in drummer for the band while Russ is MIA. Then for Phase 4 and beyond? I have no idea lol.

Sorry for just rambling about this, but I like sharing the origin stories for my F/Os and 2D is one of those that has a very long and somewhat complicated story. I've liked him a lot since I really got into the band's music, but I was so absorbed into cringe culture and avoiding being called cringe that I just ignored any potential story I could tell between us. Plus all the gender dysphoria and less than stellar reactions I got from my friends didn't exactly help matters lol. But I'm no longer an egg, those unsupportive friends are out of my life, and I am cringe and I am free babey!!!

[zzztobi]

𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐝 - 𝐣𝐣𝐤 ʚ₍ᐢ. .ᐢ₎ɞ chapter thirty

chapter twenty nine | chapter thirty one

TODAY'S WALK TO MEGUMI'S

room felt lighter on your body, somehow. you couldn't distract yourself too much but, after a few years living here, you noticed how bright the colors were; from the tall and leafy trees surrounding the cemented pathway to the dorms, as wells as the little flowers at the very roots of them. everything seemed to be prettier than usual or maybe that's how your eyes percieved the world around you. maybe being in love made you see the world from a different perspective.

soon, you found yourself knocking on the 505 dorm room, followed by a serious megumi whose gaze described nothing but pure anger and hurt. a chill ran down your spine in alert, the cloud 9-like feeling dissipating into something colder. "can i come in, 'gumi?" your voice was soft and so low that it almost became a whisper in the end. megumi just stepped to the side without a word, leaving you just the tiniest of space to enter his room, brushing your body past his.

"there wasn't any spicy ramen so i bought you shoyu instead. i doubted the spicy ramen would've been good for you if you're sick anyway but- is everything okay?" his current state was what stopped your rambling: megumi still stood by the door, now closed, back against it and eyes so dark that even the deepest of oceans could not compare with it.

he suddenly pushed himself from the door, walking to sit on his desk, back against you. his thoughts were clouded with the image of you kissing sukuna, with what noritoshi had inquired a few moments ago. his mind couldn't comprehend it, why? why you and not any other girl in this forsaken college? why did he have to fall for you like this? why did it have to hurt this much seeing you in his dorm, with those beautiful eyes pleadingly looking at him? why did he have to care so much?

"you can sit down on my bed y/n" his voice sounded pained, strained. you didn't think twice before doing it, placing the hot bowl on top of his desk. megumi took the container out, looking at it with an ache inside his chest. his heart hurt more that he could phantom, the thought of you caring for him enough to do this; to do any of the things you've done during your whole friendship. it was stupid to keep hiding it.

"i need to ask you something y/n" you looked at him, who still wasn't looking at you. "i need to tell you something too 'gumi" megumi closed his eyes, like the mere mention of his nickname out of your lips hurt him more than a blade cutting through his pale skin.

you waited and waited, seconds and minutes until he deigned himself to look at your face, your hair and neck. he pictured what noritoshi told him, the purple marks on your skin, your tousled hair and bitten lips. megumi felt his heart breaking even more at that thought, because he wasn't the one that had left you like that, that had pleasured you enough, that had taken care of you like he wanted to.

"i met noritoshi today, you know?" megumi wore a sad smile, one that turned into a scowl so rapidly you thought it didn't even happen. "he seems like a cool guy but he has a big ass mouth that talks more than it should." his gaze met yours and somehow, only for the briefest moment, you realized what was about to come out of his mouth and nothing could've prepared you to answer it. "y/n, did you fuck gojo?"

your whole body tensed, every muscle restrained with shock. would you say the truth and loose the opportunity to confess? would you lie to him for megumi to find out later? your mind was running by a mile a minute, only noticing the hurt in his eyes, hurt that you caused.

you inhaled deeply before answering, soothing that weird feeling on the pit of your stomach, "yes i did, but i can explain! please let me explain!" megumi's scoff was what started to break your heart a little, then his disgusted face and the incredulous expression on it. "explain?! why would i want you to explain to me what you did with him?!" he stood from his chair, running both of his hands through his hair.

"i didn't want to believe it y/n, i truly didn't. when noritoshi told me about what he saw the other day and asked me if you two were involved i truly thought he was mental. but guess what i saw seconds later?" megumi paused, almost like he wanted you to guess it. "i saw you kissing sukuna on the back of the gym! gosh y/n, his brother was probably changing two feet away!"

suddenly your body felt too small in his room, his anger wasn't making sense to you. why did he have to be so mad anyway? you were old enough to do whatever you wanted and he was in no place to tell you what to do. "why do you care so much megumi?! i'm a big girl and i can do whatever i want with my body and my life! you're in no position to tell me who i fuck, who i kiss and who i hang out with!"

your body had moved on its own, standing up from his bed and coming closer to him. rage was boiling inside your veins, so hot and venomous that it clouded your vision. megumi scoffed again and threw his hands in the air, "isn't it obvious?! its because i love you y/n! i've loved you since the very first day i met you  and this that you have done," he said pointing at you with his fingers accusingly, "this is breaking my heart and i cannot stop mourning for something that wasn't mine in the beginning!"

his eyes shut down entirely, his breath came out in labored pants but he no longer felt that overwhelming and heavy feeling on his shoulders. "i don't want to know what you did with gojo or sukuna but i do want to know if they were the only ones" you clenched and unclenched your fists on each one of your sides, "no, and before you explode again let me explain. before telling you anything, i want you to know that i love you too megumi. not like a friend, not anymore. but after i tell you everything you might think that i'm a slut, a whore, whatever you want to call me. it doesn't mean that i will not feel the same about you, but it can change what you feel about me"

megumi sat down on his chair again, slumped on it like  just standing up was tiring enough. "i made a bet with more of my teachers, i will not include the main object of the bet but all i can tell is that it involved sex" megumi grimaced at the explanation. "all this time when i told you i was busy with school work i wasn't. i lied to you and yuuji and i'm sorry about that. i'm sorry about everything honestly."

megumi's face did nothing to express what battle he was fighting inside but you could almost see the gears moving. "when you say teachers, you mean everyone that teaches you in some way, right?" you nodded, too lost to even acknowledge what he was inquiring, "does it include my father y/n?" your eyes widened, something that megumi noticed. you could not stomach watching his expression falter, the way his own eyes widened too. "y/n did you have sex with my father?"

your eyes still didn't meet his, tears were forming on them and threatened to fall any minute now. "answer me, did you fuck my dad y/n?!" your silence, fidgeting and tears was all he needed for an answer. if his heart wasn't broken yet, if that little flame of hope didn't extinguish before, it did now. "get out." his tone was solemn and hard, it was not a debatable order. "what?" you asked, meeting his face. "i said get out. i don't want to see you anymore y/n. get out of my room and my life, i can't stand being with you right now"

more tears cascaded down your cheeks, wetting your face in the least appealing way. " 'gumi please let me explain. please hear me out and try to understand me, please" you were begging him right now, crumpling his shirt under your fist. megumi pulled your hand away without any trace of love and simply said, "get the fuck out and don't you ever call me 'gumi again"

and so you did. with a breaking heart and a broken soul, with fresh tears running down your face and a new found hatred for yourself.

you left the only person that had cared for you enough.

©️ zzztobi 2023 — all rights reserved. please don't repost, translate or copy any of my work.

[spaghettiremix-blog]

Another Story Duo in Hogwarts

RFA in Hogwarts could be found here

Note: I won't be doing all of Saeran's alter egos but only the egos we see in his route in Another Story so this may or may not containing spoilers! Constant vigilance, everybody!

anyways enjoy reading, my dudes!

—

V / Jihyun Kim

"A Hufflepuff through and through!"

his wand is 10½ inches long, made of willow and has a unicorn's tail hair for it's core

his Patronus is a Borzoi

his favorite and best subject is Herbology and you can't change my mind

he doesn't find any of Hogwarts' subjects too blandish or boring or insanely mentally scarring so he doesn't really have a subject that he dislikes although, the terms with Dolores Umbridge and Gilderoy Lockhart were rather unpleasant memories

his grades aren't as extraordinary like Jaehee's but his never ending politeness makes up for it

he doesn't know how to play Quidditch because he's like, half-blind so he settles for watching the players playing it instead

but he would make a good Chaser though

but then again, he's terrible with flying the broomstick so;;;

he can understand Parseltongue but only to a certain degree

he has a talent for non-verbal spell casting

potions-making makes him uneasy

heck, potions in general makes him uneasy

he barely leaves the Hufflepuff Common Room, but if he does though, you can usually find him with Jumin (and Elizabeth 3rd) hanging out in the library or in one of the Hogwarts Greenhouses

Apparation is a blessing to him

probably has Metamorphmagi blood in him

this dork loves to collect the magical cards that comes inside the chocolate frogs he has over seven hundred by now and he doesn't plan on giving them away

a Half-Blood but Jumin doesn't even care :)

Ray

"...he is better off in Hufflepuff!"

Hufflepuff's Golden Boy

his wand is 11 inches, made of hornbeam and has a dragon's hearstring as a core

his Patronus is a seal because as though as they may be percieved as adorable and cuddly in actuality, these mostly amphibious animals can be vicious, carnivorous predators

he plays Seeker on the Hufflepuff Quidditch Team

and he shall destroy you

affectionately

his favorite subject is Herbology and he's Professor Sprout's favorite student I'm so sorry Jihyun;;; but Potions comes in second place though

he finds Muggle Studies interesting but he doesn't really act to actually learn it

he somehow manages to sucks at Defense Against the Dark Arts and he hates it

he's actually very skilled in Alchemy so I guess that makes up for it

tries to learn Occlumency and he never bothered to learn it again because it hurts :(

non-verbal spell casting isn't really his thing but he tries

he can't find the heart to eat the chocolate frogs and collect the cards that are hidden inside so he settles for No-Melt Ice Cream instead and it's not really a bad investment

same as his brother, he's a Pureblood but Rika someone managed to thoroughly convince him that he's Muggleborn wizard

Unknown

"Welcome to Slytherin!"

his wand is 14 inches long, made of holly and has a dragon's heartstring as a core

his Patronus resembles a hippogriff, although it's non-corporeal, hinting that his past didn't really have any major positive outcomes that was strong enough to make his Patronus clearly defined

he plays as Beater for the Slytherin Quidditch Team

is it a foul to knock your own teammates with a bludger?

probably endures over 20+ penalties in every game he's in and it drives Snape absolutely insane

note: he still manages to become Captain;;;

although he's too much of a dick to admit that he has a favorite subject, he really likes Transfiguration

maybe it's because that he can just turn you into a teacup in just a just flicker of his wand, just in case you become too "annoyingly pretty stupid" in his eyes—which is a lot (he never actually does it though)

he doesn't bother to attend Defense Against the Dark Arts (nor Divination nor Herbology nor Care of Magical Creatures) since he thinks it's a pretty useless subject

"Why in Merlin's fuck do we need DADA for anyways? We're gonna be hexing, jinxing and cursing our way into battle anyways so might as well skip the bullshit and just learn Dark Arts instead."

he only ever attended DADA during "Mad Eye Moody"'s term with them

again, he's not really good at non-verbal spell casting, neither at Occulumency nor Legilimency but he's good at hexing people

he once tried to hex Saeyoung with a Instant Scalping Hex but it somehow manages to hit Zen instead

many cried that day

he prefers Chocolate Skeletons than Chocolate Frogs ("I'm telling you, my dear toy. The reason why they're so popular is because of these damn wizarding cards.") but he secretly brings back a whole box or two of No-Melt Ice Cream whenever you guys get a trip to Hogsmeade

he's proud of being a Pureblood but he's not proud of his family name nor lineage

he constantly disses on the Ministry of Magic

NE!/GE!Saeran Choi

"He belongs in Gryffindor!"

his wand is 12 inches, made of hawthorn and has a unicorn's tail hair as a core

his Patronus is a falcon — a representation that he was once a troubled soul but decided to cast away his old, evil habits to fly down the hard, right path

unlike Unknown's (and possibly even Ray's), Saeran's Patronus is lucid, well-defined and bright

when you asked him what makes it so bright everytime he conjurs it, he replied "Well, you're bright. So that makes sense if each of my memory of you is bright as well."

⁄(⁄ ⁄•⁄o⁄•⁄ ⁄)⁄

damn boi, when did you get so smooth?

plays as Seeker for the Gryffindor Quidditch Team

Saeyoung's #1 fan and cheerleader

"WoOooO! There goes my brother, the shining, shimmering, lustrous, luminous, ever glimmering—"

"Mr. Choi, please."

"—AND EVER BLOSSOMING SAERAN CHOI! Now, ladies, I see you make a line towards him everyday but let me break it to you in the most subtle way possible—"

"—the poor boy is haplessly in love with MC."

"Saeyoung!"

whenever his brother speaks on the microphone (or just opens his mouth, in general), he gets an incoming migraine that he mentally prepared himself to repress

he loves him to pieces but Merlin's crocs, there are times where he catches himself wishing for his brother to get eaten by Aragog

he really likes Herbology, and tends to pull a Hermione Granger when it comes to this subject

Defense Against the Dark Arts is also his strong suit

although, somewhere in Lockheart's term with them, he tries so hard not to cast a Sardine Hex on him

he might have not have done it but he still holds a grudge

"That narcissistic buffoon unleashed some Tiny Tumbelinas of Terror as a form of lesson, MC. Tina Tumbelinas of Terror."

he just noped out of DADA when it was Umbridge's term

Gryffindor lost a lot of House points that year

he really likes going to Honeydukes and would probably make it his home if it was allowed

Ambrosius Flume and his wife like him very much and vice versa

"Dear, get the papers! We're adopting this boy!"

he brings a lot of sweets back to Hogwarts every weekend

two full sacks

and a lot of letters get sent to him by Ambrosius' wife nagging him to eat more healthily during the weekdays

he's good at non-verbal spellcasting, although it's kinda get hard to get used to

he's good a Legilimency but he doesn't use it very often — he's working on his Occlumency though (because Saeyoung won't leave him alone sometimes)

Apparition and using of Port Keys make him nauseous so he settles on commuting by broom instead

everyone thinks he's a Metamorphmagus because of his powdered hair

again, he's Pureblood but he doesn't really care because he'll love no matter what blood status you have :)

[thehyperromantic]

2nd POV Blank Name OCs are NOT Reader Inserts

Stories written from an OC’s POV in second tense are not Reader-Inserts. Stories written from an OC’s POV in second tense are not Reader-Inserts. Stories written from an OC’s POV in second tense are not Reader-Inserts

IF YOU HAVE A PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION FOR YOUR CHARACTER, IT IS AN OC They are not the reader, who is me. They are not the reader, who is everyone reading the fic.

IF YOU HAVE A DETAILED PAST FOR YOUR CHARACTER, IT IS AN OC It is not the reader, who is me. They are not the reader, who is everyone reading the fic.

It is okay and expected for a reader insert to have traits that I do not have. I am in a wheelchair. I may walk, but realistically, I cannot run. Most readers can. I am autistic, and the reader-character may react in more neurotypical ways than I do. That’s okay. In real life I have a weird name, and people will comment on it and ask how to pronounce it. But characters in reader inserts don’t ask me to verify it. That’s okay. In the story I may live with a vague caring parent, or drive a car, or have a healthy past. That’s all okay.

A reader-insert is a written story. It cannot give me multiple options like a visual novel does. It cannot choose my appearence nor can I choose my personality or history.

But what it does give me is leverage to insert myself into the story. Typically an Au!self.

But the more details you add, the more it breaks the mold. The more I feel like “this cannot be me, in any alternate universe”.

While blank names such as (y/n) or _____ are important for reader inserts, they are not the entirety of reader inserts. A blank name is not enough for me to delve into the illusion of a reader insert story. It’s only the top of the iceberg.

But if a blank name and second tense is all you have to call the story a “reader insert”, then the illusion is broken.  It doesn’t matter whether you tell me it’s me and let me use my name. This person is not me. If Agent of Asgard had a blank-name, would that mean it’s a reader insert? No. Because it’s obviously about Loki.

Just because it’s a blank name doesn’t mean it’s about me. Just because you use “you” doesn’t mean it’s about me, or any of the other readers. If you write in detailed details about their physical appearence, their past, their personality then the illusion is broken.

There are many people named Jessica. If I were named Jessica, and I read an OC with the name Jessica, and the story is written in first or second person, does that mean this character named Jessica is me? No. They are clearly, vehemently not me. I can read about them, but they are not me, the reader.

The entire point of a reader insert is to insert the reader into the story. A good reader insert will draw the reader in and, temporarily, let them live that fantasy. It is an illusion that has a delicate balance. It balances the reader-character’s personality with the reader’s  personality. The reader-character may be short tempered, they may be sweet, they may have a bad past or a healthy past, they may live alone or with roomates or family.

But they always, always have a vagueness to them. They do not tell me how to feel unless it’s relevant to the story. And usually, the good ones show me how to feel rather than tell me how to feel.

He held your pale hand in his. Squeezed it. You felt your heart racing. What could he be thinking?

“You see, the thing is...ever since  I saw you underneath the bridge, I’ve  been enamoured with you.”

‘He...was in love with me?’ you thought. ‘I’m not sure how I feel about that.’ A part of you wanted him. But a part of you was worried. You didn’t want to ruin your friendship. You run your fingers thru your hair, and the wind stires up your long hair.

Now let’s fix it up a tad.

He held your hand in his. Squeezed it. You  felt your heart racing. What could he be thinking?

“You see, the thing is...ever since  I saw you underneath the bridge, I’ve  been enamoured with you.”

‘He...was in love with me?’ you thought. ‘I’m not sure how I feel about that.’ A part of you wanted it. But a part of you was worried. You didn’t want to ruin your friendship.  You run your fingers thru your hair, and the wind stires up your hair.

Now, more.

He holds your hand in his. Squeezes it. Your heart races. What could he be thinking?

“You see, the thing is...ever since  I saw you underneath the bridge, I’ve  been enamoured with you.”

He was in love with you?  A part of you wanted him. But would your friendship suffer? You run your fingers across your head, and the wind stirs.

This is pretty darn good. But we can still change it even more if we want to:

He holds your hand in his. Squeezes it.

“You see, the thing is...ever since  I saw you underneath the bridge, I’ve  been enamoured with you.”

He was in love with you? A part of you wants him. But what about your friendship? You run your fingers across your head, and the wind stirs.

When we give the reader room to feel, we allow the illusion to take place. Your readers get to dive into the fantasy while still letting their au!self have their own feelings, which they now get to feel.

But when you do not achieve- or rather, even try- to maintain this balance, it just becomes a regular story. All fiction books contain original characters. All official characters are OCs. The idea behind a reader-insert is to draw the reader in and see the protagonist as themselves. Which means cutting down on that characterization to allow the reader to characterize themselves.

Even published books do this. Even published works have reader inserts, but they work very differently due to publication standards.

Remember Twilight? Of course you do. Remember how Bella was criticized for having “no personality”?

Guess why she had no personality. You get one guess.

That’s right! Because she was supposed to be a reader insert. But in the romance novel industry, reader inserts are really more like reader proxies. So you get undeveloped protagonists with their own name (because the publishers are NOT OKAY with blank names) who have a detailed past with no personalities so that you can put yourself into their place. Edward/Bella isn’t Edward/Bella, it’s Edward/Reader.

This setting works for some people. Some people are able to use proxies this way. Some people are just okay with reading them as underdeveloped OCs and are happy that way.

But not everyone is happy with that, which is why reader inserts developed. Reader inserts developed to give people a chance to hear characters say their names over a blank instead of over a name. Reader inserts developed so that they could be described as “you” instead of “I” or “he/she/” like most stories have in the past. Reader inserts were devoloped to counter OCs. And to support that counter, writers would lessen their descriptions of their readers feelings. An author knows how their OC feels, but an author doesn’t know how their readers feel. They’re entirely seperate individuals after all, and there are (hopefully) many of them. But then reader inserts became hype, and so youngsters in their self-insert/OC phase hopped on the blank name/second tense vote and now call these reader inserts.

If you don’t tag it correctly, then you’re misrepresenting the genre. It’s really hurting the reader insert culture by not tagging it correctly. It means I have to search and sort thru tons of fics of an entire different sub-genre just to find ones in mine. It also changes the way people who would actually like reader inserts percieve reader inserts. Can you imagine that there are people who love visual novels and hate reader inserts? Oh, they’ll date Thor in a visual novel. But in a reader insert? No way. These two are basically the same thing on different platforms: video games vs fully written word. They both contain second POV, chosen names, lots of reading, and being able to date the character you want. But for some people visual novels are lit and reader inserts are cringey. How could this be? I think it’s because people who make visual novels are more likely to take time and care in their work. Even using Ren’py takes a months of hard work to complete a demo (from what I understand). But when you’re typing on a computer, it all happens so fast. And people in highschool or below are less likely to revise their work. Ya’ll don’t give reader inserts the care they need, and it shows. Both works can be cringey. But reader inserts are judged worse because of the huge influx of kids making not only bad work, but labelling it incorrectly. It’s so easy to write what’s immediately on your mind and slap whatever tags and title you want on it.

And, I’m not saying that kids shouldn’t write. I’m 100% okay with children creating fanfics as a form of creative expression. But when children dominate a romance genre without caring about how their readers actually feel about their work, it leads to some problems. It makes the adults like the genre look bad, and it makes it hard for us to find the fanfics meant for us. It makes us feel disappointed that we can’t indulge in a genre we created.

So please. Please please please please please please please. Figure out what you want to write. Are they an OC or a reader insert? Whichever they are, and whichever tense you decide to use, give them the care they, you, and your readers deserve. And tag it correctly.

[metalliveblogdramon]

Adventure Episode 16

The Digidestined are walking through another desert. I’m starting to think the Digital World just automatically fills in desert terrain if there’s nothing important nearby.

The group are worried about keeping ahead of Etemon. Tai tells them not to worry too much, they just need to figure out how to use his new crest to get Agumon up to Ultimate. Tai figures all he needs to do is make sure Agumon is well-fed for energy and he’s in danger- which Etemon will provide either way.

“And if that doesn’t work, I’ll just get a new Digimon!“

Probably a joke, but Agumon visibly doesn’t take it that way and Tai doesn’t notice.

Yep, we’re doing the “don’t be a  dick to your partner“ episode all kid with monster partner shows need to go through.

Tai has in fact confiscated everyone else’s rations and is attempting to give Agumon 14 shares of food. Not sure why they allowed that, they’re in a damn desert.

Sora and Izzy have a conversation to the effect of “You know, Tai isn’t usually a complete douche what’s up with this“ until Joe’s tag starts glowing.

Which I guess answers “Do tags actually do anything?“ the answer is that it apparently helps you find your crest.

Joe runs towards a colloseum in the distance, then faceplants after tripping over a Dark Network cable, immediately letting Etemon know where everyone is. He recognises the colloseum as where he holds his annual tribute concert to himself. He calls his minions in the area and tells them to roll out the welcome wagon and keep the kids occupied as he’s on his way.

The colloseum turns out to contain a football pitch, causing the group to form a humans vs digimon team game whilst Joe looks for his crest... Until Tai throws a hissy fit at them for trying to have fun.

Honestly, I know from meta-knowlege that Tai is team leader, but in the early arc they weren’t organised enough to have leadership. This is the first time he’s really tried to take charge beyond simply having a fairly confident personality and a self-percieved responsibility to keep morale up.

Etemon speaks to them via the Jumbotron, still being a long way off, and when they try to flee he drops one of the goal nets over them, electrified so that they can’t escape. Agumon was too slow and lethargic from his deviantart stuffing session, so got isolated from the rest of the group. Etemon takes this opportunity to release another Greymon into the arena to force Agumon to fight in a mirror match.

The amimation team miss an opportunity to redraw the digivolution scene to reflect a bloated and lethargic agumon. To be expected though.

Greymon recieves a predictable beatdown from the other Greymon who’s in fighting condition, including getting shoved into the electric fence, a period of literal curbstomping and an uncomfortable burp instead of being able to breathe fire. Tai spends the entire period yelling at him.

Also Tentomon keeps flying into the fence like it’s a bug zapper.

Tai, at this exact moment: “GET UP AND FIGHT!”

Etemon orders one of his Gazimon to break out the fireworks for his arrival, and I wasn’t actually going to mention that in this liveblog because I thought it was a trivial detail but no, so:

The Gazimon runs up this weird statue and starts letting off fireworks.

Gomamon tries using his Marching Fishes attack, and water pours out of the statue’s mouths and releases fish, which start flying, grab the fireworks, fly up to and harass Etemon’s Greymon, then leave.

Joe asks Gomamon how he did that, gets back “I don’t know but if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.“ Izzy cuts in and says it’s “probably just a dimensional vortex rift” then Sora waves goodbye to the fish as they fly off into the upper atmosphere.

...Anyway,

The Digidestined set to lifting flagstones so as to try to tunnel out from under the goal net. One of the flagstones is Joe’s crest, and removing it causes them to fall into a tunnel network beneath the arena. In the meantime, Greymon is being choked out by Greymon. The kids get out without incident, and instead of doing the sensible thing and ganging up on the Greymon Tai insists on going out alone and throwing rocks to provoke it whilst yelling at his own Greymon to just frickin’ digivolve already.

The other kids catch on and start digivolving their ‘Mons to try to rescue him, but they’re too late and a beam shoots out of Tai’s crest turning into a roiling cloud of darkness spreading across the sky, which turns into pillars of dark fire which shoot down into Greymon.

Technically, this does count as achieving ultimate.

The other Greymon tries to flee, but is backhanded into the Jumbotron then he, the jumbotron and half the stands on that side of the coloseum are evaporated by one of the weird shark-missiles Skullgreymon can shoot from his back.

Tai yells at Skullgreymon that he’s his partner and he has to obey him.

Skullgreymon attempts to step on Tai, then is engaged in battle by the other partner digimon. They aren’t able to do any meaningful damage, and Etemon flips out back in his trailer as the collateral damage severs his Dark Network connection to the area and cuts off his ability to observe what’s happening.

Skullgreymon smashes through a wall of the coloseum and runs off into the desert smashing everything in his path until he runs out of energy and devolves all the way back to Koromon.

Koromon has a different voice actor than he did in his first appearance, that is to say, he used to just have the same voice as agumon, now he’s clearly a woman doing a high pitched falsetto to sound babyish. That aside, he’s freaking out over all the damage he caused and attacking the others. And for disappointing Tai. Matt tells Koromon it’s not his fault, as Tai finally catches on to how he’s been acting.

Tai: Sora this is all my fault isn’t it?

Sora: Yes.

Other than that though, he basically gets away with looking kinda sad and saying “Please forgive me?“

This was a really chaotic episode, even by Digimon Adventure standards, with weird goings on and asspulls left and right. That said, Skullgreymon’s design steals the show by being a freakishly huge, lanky-proportioned terror with strange bony protrusions, an exposed heart and uh... a shark missile.

[drawingdreamingdragons]

Chapter 1 The Jade Egg Cont.

The unusual antique caused me the first excitement I had had in a couple of months; sometimes it is just hard to pick myself up when I feel like life isn’t going right. I had asked Dad what antique store the egg had come from in hope of finding some background information on it. So now I am on my way to Jou Dong’s Antique shop, apparently the owner, Mr. Dong, was a good friend of Mom’s.

As I enter the small shop I hear the chime of the tiny bell attached to the door and an older man with the kind of crinkly eyes you get when you have smiled every day in your life comes out. “Jade! Oh you look exactly like your mother! Same frame and bright green eyes, like the color of a jade dragon!” I laugh, “You must be Mr. Dong.” I say, I can picture mom getting along really well with this man, he is the kind of person you immediately feel like you can trust, he just a few inches shorter than me with shiny dark grey hair, blue-green eyes, a thin beard sprouting from his round chin, as well as slightly pointed ears of the like that I have only ever seen on my mom and myself.

“Oh, please call me Jou, you are just like your mother, polite to a fault.”That gets me wondering where mom met Jou, she wasn’t particularly interested in antiques. “Would you mind telling me where you and my mother met? She hadn’t ever told me.” His brow scrunches like he is trying to determine whether to tell me, then I get the feeling that that thinking about my mom might be just as painful for him as it is for me, “I’m sorry I wasn’t thinking, it’s ok.” His brow relaxes, I wonder how close they were and why I’d never met Mr. Do.. I mean Jou before. “That’s alright dear, maybe I’ll tell you the story some other time, but for now we met in China while your mother was visiting her family on a college break.”

“That would be good.” This I say with a genuine smile, I hope to spend a lot of time in the presence of Mr. Dong. He suddenly looks like he realizes we are in a store, “Oh dear, there must be a reason you came other than to meet a senile old man, isn’t there?” I laugh at his joke, “Well actually, my dad came in the other day and bought this antique egg, I was wondering if you knew anything of it’s history?” I ask this with a hopeful smile, “I’m afraid I’m a bit of an antique buff, anytime I find something that I have never encountered before I like to find out it’s history.” I pull the box with the Jade egg out of my bag, when I open the box I see hairline fractures all over the egg, I’m surprised I did not notice them before.

He looks down at the egg, then back up at me and visibly swallows, “ I think we need to talk in the back room.” he then grabs the egg and leads me through the door behind the counter. In the tiny room there is a small table with two chairs, as well as a locked cabinet which I assume must contain all the truly valuable antiques. Jou motions for me to sit in one of the chairs as he opens the cabinet and pulls out an envelope. He brings it back to where I am sitting and hands it to me, I almost cry. On the front of the envelope, written in my mother’s neat handwriting, is my name. I carefully separate the sticky flap from the rest of the envelope so as not to damage it or the paper inside. I pull out the letter full of her neat scrawl. 

My Darling Jade,

If your reading this, you have reached your eighteenth birthday and am not there to celebrate with you. The other condition for your reading this is that you have received the Jade Egg I left for you and it currently has started hatching for you. 

At this point I stop, did she just say that the egg, which is carved out of a gem, is hatching? I look up at Jou, he nods and gestures towards the letter, which I then continue to read.

I assume that sentence just very much confused you, so I will have to start from the beginning. As you know I grew up in China, what I never told you was that most of my years were spent in a small kingdom found within China, not politically connected at all. I assume you have no clue what I am talking about, so I will try to explain this to the best of my abilities. Our family is not human, however we are loosely related to humans, We are elves, keepers of the sacred forests of china and protectors of the dragons. The best of us are the Dragon Keepers, they are those who the dragons have chosen to hatch for.

Did she just say dragon?!

Yes, Jade, dragons are real and it would seem one has chosen to hatch for you. As you know when I fell in love with your father and moved to Maine I did not leave on the best of terms, this is because I am the daughter of the Keeper of the Jade Dragon, the head of all elven clans. However before I get to that I should probably explain to you how it is that there could be a whole kingdom of people who the world doesn’t even know about.

Dragon keepers? Granddaughter of the equivalent of a king, an elve? Or would I be half elve? I decide to continue reading.

Long ago after the one of the first dragons betrayed the lord and tempted Eve, the other dragons became upset that one of their ranks would do such a thing to those the lord favored, What many do not know is that Eve had had a daughter prior to this episode. Because the daughter was not in the fault or born after, the Lord allowed the girl to grow up and put her in the care of the Dragons who had separated themselves from the serpent. Andrea grew and became the first keeper of the Jade Dragon who’s name was Treana. She spent a thousand years cultivating her life giving magic and protecting the Tree of Life as the spirit taught her along with the dragons. 

Eventually she wanted to leave the forest of dragons to meet creatures of her own species. She was sorely disappointed with what she found, very few people recognized God as their lord. She continued to be disappointed until she met Jaxen, a close relative of Noah. She spent many days with Jaxen, and eventually they fell in love, however because Jaxen was fully human he was not allowed entry to the Forest of Dragons. Jaxen understood and they eventually married even though he could not live in the forest with her. Andrea would live in the forest during the winter months and with Jaxen during the summer months, she eventually became pregnant and gave birth to twins, a boy who she named Jaxsol and a girl named Dreadra. Within two years she had another set of twins Trace and Adeline. 

There was much percieved competition on the part of the second born set of twin, for they thought that their mother loved them less than her first born children, she did not, at that time it was simply tradition to pass on the mantel of leadership to the oldest child, in this case children. Because of this Dreadra and Jaxsol spent much of the year with their mother, learning how to be keepers of the Forest of Dragons while the second born twins only spent a quarter of the winter in the Forest of Dragons. Soon because of their half human roots Trace and Adeline became jealous and stopped listening to the spirit, they each stole two dragon eggs, which upon touch of corrupted hands turned from their beautiful precious stone appearance to a gangly browns and blacks. When hatched these dragons had the appearance that the serpent received, however since they were not direct descendants of the evil serpent they maintained their back legs and are now known as Wyverns. Trace and Adeline themselves became warped from their erithreal elven appearance to a more evil one with dirty looking brown hair instead of the black and blonds with colors flashing through of their brothers and sisters. Their pupils expanded to cover almost their whole iris. Finally their ears became twisted around the ends resembling horns.

Their mother and father lamented their traitorous behavior however they could not find them. Eventually the elven kingdom in the heart of the Forest of Dragons grew as Dreadra, Jaxsol and their many other siblings got married and had children who were known as the Elves of the Dragon Forest. Every year on the summer solstice there would be a celebration where elves between the ages of 15 and 25 could see if a dragon egg would crack for them, not all dragons chose keepers, after all those eggs that chose keepers hatched then the ones that did not would start their hatching period. The elves lived in harmony with the land protecting the dragons, the Tree of Life, and the forest. 

You are the the great-granddaughter of Dreadra. After Andrea stepped down Dreadra and Jaxsol ruled the elves jointly for thousands of years before disaster struck. While hiding for all those years Trace and Adeline, having enslaved humans and bred their own army of elves and wyverns attacked The Forest of Dragons, hoping to gain the Tree of Life and the magic stored within it. The elves of The Dragon Forest were ill prepared for a siege and while they were able to keep the Tree from Trace and Adeline they suffered many losses in doing so. Elves by their nature as descendants of an untainted human are peace loving, They trained for battle on the off chance that the younger twins would return however they most of their time was spent caring for the forest and maintaining the shield that kept humans from seeing the portal that is the entrance to their forest. The greatest of the losses were their royals, Dreadra, Jaxsol and many of their children, your grandfather was the only one to survive from Dreadra’s line all of Jaxsols children were killed. 

I am not in my forties like many believe as the first born of your grandfathers line I am 300 years old, relatively young for the elves who die only in battle, because of this our losses were much worse that day 275 years ago, I was young during the first attack. Since then we have suffered many attacks from the Evlins, as we call them for they lost their elven title when they betrayed the lord, and their wyverns. Because of this my father sent me away, hoping that it would keep me safe. During my wanderings I fell in love with your father who has a much diluted elven heritage because some elves left the forest to care for the forests of the rest of Earth when they realized the humans were not paying much attention in their expansions. Many of them fell in love with humans and had children, your father is the great-great-grandchild of an one of those elves. 

The best day of my life was when I had you, and the best years of my long life were spent raising you. In these years activities of the evlins have increased in multitudes, they have been trying to find us, because we have the Jade egg. The Jade Dragon is the ruler of all the dragons in The Forest of Dragons, they lay one egg every couple thousand years and the one who is chosen by this dragon is given many powers. With one of the Jade Dragons the evlin could not only steal the tree of life but also conquer the human world, which is not theirs to steal. The Jade egg is the only egg that always chooses a keeper, this is why I had to bring it with me, I had hoped it would hatch for you because you are such a pure hearted beautiful young lady, however I could not bare to take you away from your human existence at a young age. I am writing this because the last Jade Dragon has died and the evlin efforts have increased ten-fold. I know you must have hoped for some much different last words from your mother, but this is the truth which you must be told before making your decision.

I love you my dear, May you burn the skies with your Jade Dragon forever. I have and will always love you.

By the end of it I am crying, angry or happy tears I don’t know. Suddenly I burst out laughing and Mr. Dong looks a little bit perplexed. “This is some kind of joke, a deranged one at that, but my last words from my mother telling me that elves and dragons exist, not only that but I’m an elf and that tiny egg contains a dragon. Yeah right.” Jou Dong stares me straight in the eye, “This is not a laughing matter young lady, you have been entrusted with a great responsibility.” I sober up and look at him, “You are the granddaughter of what, in this world, is equivalent to a king, that makes you a princess. That is what I have spent my life protecting not some girl who won’t believe what her own mother wrote with her last words!” He takes a deep breath, “You probably want proof, don’t you?” I nod my head, afraid to speak incase tears or laughter come up again, “Well I can not give you proof of dragons until yours decides to come out of that egg, however I will tell you that I do not normally look like this, I use my magic to keep up appearances of an aging man, I am 70 years old, which in elven years is equivalent to a human twenty year old.” Suddenly his face changes going from old and wrinkly to smooth and handsome, His hair grows longer and becomes silky black, while his beard shrinks into his chin, he stands straighter and I think I might faint. “I just dropped the spell that was causing me to look and talk like an older man,” his voice is a deep tenor, then I look to his ears and the points have become a touch more pronounced. My brain isn’t really registering that he is the same man who was standing there before. “Is that proof enough for you?” My world becomes dark and I distantly feel myself falling before I am caught and all sensation is lost to me.