#squick in this installment too

[chuckeroo777]

Laios got Eaten AU Chapters 1-52

So, I was pondering a lot (as I do), and was thinking about this AU. Here's my take on it. Sorry if my grasp on characterization isn't the best. Expect lots of Farcille.

This is mostly a plot point based summary, going chapter by chapter. If something isn't elaborated on, assume it's the same as canon.

Note: This first installment ends at the same point as the anime, but as a manga reader, there are spoilers for later in the canon story.

Edit: Wowzers, that ended up being over 4,000 words! Guess I had more to say than I thought.

This is pretty long, so I'll begin under the cut.

Chapter 1:

Unlike Laios' self deprecating take on this scenario, the rest of the team doesn't immediately give up on him. Marcille and Chilchuck are his friends, and if Falin thinks it's possible, then they're in.

Namari leaves of course, but Toshiro is more complex. He argues with Falin, trying to convince her not to embark on such a risky mission, and may accidentally frame it as Falin choosing between him and Laios. Falin, of course, picks Laios. Toshiro leaves, dejected. After feeling sorry for himself for a while, he gets his retainers and heads after her, hoping to offer backup.

Falin proposes the dungeon eating plan, having casually discussed the possibility with Laios in the past. Without the gourmet guide, she isn't as knowledgeable about monsters, but she is pretty good at identifying stuff from her days of eating weird stuff in the woods, so she can tell the walking mushroom isn't poisonous. She also manages to grab the scorpion, having messed with crayfish as a kid.

Unlike Laios, she doesn't try to eat the venom, but they still struggle, and Senshi comes in to help. Falin is very excited to have such an expert helping them out, and is happy to have him join the team.

In general, Marcille is just as squicked out by monster cuisine, but she tries to put on a brave face for Falin. In fact, her attempts to be more accepting results in her not yelling at Senshi, so the slime doesn't attack her.

Chapter 2:

They go after the man-eating plants, and things mostly go down the same. Without Laios, it takes a little longer for Falin and Senshi to figure out how to save Marcille, going for the root. Marcille gets seeds planted in her skin, but Falin is able to heal her and get them out.

Chapter 3:

Senshi takes them Basilisk hunting, and Marcille is dismayed to see Falin knows the trick for intimidating Basilisks, a sight she will not soon forget. While Senshi slices the snake, Falin caves the chicken's head in.

While Senshi prepares the Basilisk, Falin is able to use a detox spell on Doni. The two still stay to eat though.

Chapter 4:

Events mostly play out the same, though Falin is a bit more gentle in rejecting Marcille's help. Falin admits to having skipped class the day they learned about mandrake harvesting.

Chapter 5:

Chilchuck uses Falin's metal staff instead of the sword to find the passage. When they go to get the oil, Falin casts a fire-ward spell on Chilchuck, just in case. Senshi declines to take one too.

Chapter 6-7:

Without Laios' insights, they deem the living armor too dangerous after the first attempt, and take a slightly different route to the third level.

Much to Marcille's chagrin, they run into a nest of giant rats, and they end up having giant rat stir-fry instead.

Chapter 8:

Falin thinks Senshi's utilization of the golems is absolutely delightful.

Chapter 9:

Falin is rather uncomfortable with Chilchuck's suggestion to trade at the seedy bar, but doesn't argue.

Events with the orcs go more or less the same. Falin thinks Bahay is very cute.

Chapter 10:

No Kensuke, so they get ambushed by the bugs. Chilchuck gets bitten, but Falin is able to heal him.

Falin applies much better ghost wards than Marcille. In fact, she quickly realizes they are just paralyzed, and is able to heal them. Yeah, no. That would have way too big of a butterfly effect on the story. Maybe she's too distracted by the pretty bugs to notice.

Unlike Marcille, Falin thinks the centipedes are adorable. In fact, she secretly takes one and hides it in her pack to keep as a pet.

Chapter 11:

As one would expect, the ghosts are a complete non-issue. No ice cream for them.

Chapter 12-13:

No one in this party is crazy enough to bother with the living paintings. Without the delay, they are able to make camp at the level 4 entrance, bypassing the mimic.

Senshi catches some fish, and they have a very nice dinner.

Chapter 14:

Mostly the same, except instead of Laios, Senshi is saved by Falin. She has experience in such manners.

Chapter 15:

Sadly, Falin does not know the song, so they have to resort to earplugs. This leads to a silent but amusing argument where Chilchuck has to talk down Falin from eating fish-men without words. Falin does not pull the waterweed stunt.

Chapter 16:

The kraken battle is pretty much identical.

Unlike Laios, Falin has eaten calamari before, having gone to that restaurant with Marcille several times. She is very disappointed the kraken tastes bad.

Senshi cooks up the parasite, and Falin doesn't eat any raw.

Chapter 17:

No one is sick, so this chapter doesn't happen.

Chapter 18:

Marcille has a sponge bath and insists Falin take one too. Chilchuck is annoyed by their flirting, but Senshi thinks it's cute.

When the Undine attacks, Falin is able to waterwalk and help Marcille, but neither of them has particularly good magic for fighting an undine. Both are badly injured, but they manage to escape.

Falin is able to heal both of them, but they are both left very hungry, and relatively low on mana. They have a barbecue to help them recover.

Chapter 19-20:

The Tansu party arrives. Tensions aren't quite as high between Marcille and Namari, but it's still there.

After Tansu fails to pacify the Undine. the two parties agree to help each other out. First, they help get down to the tower. A well placed fireball saves Kiki from the tentacles. Sadly, without Laios' knowledge, they can't eat them, at least not as easily.

When coming up with a plan to stop the undine, the idea to trap it is brought up, and they basically use the same plan, except Namari is in on it from the start.

After killing it, Falin suggests eating it, and the two groups enjoy some kelpie stew before departing opposite ways.

Chapter 21:

More or less plays out the same. Chilchuck suggests making the suits, to which Falin enthusiastically agrees. Senshi makes froggy hash instead of pasta, since he doesn't know how to neutralize the stinging.

Marcille puts on the frog suit without complaint since Falin puts one on first.

She attempts to take it off to much complaint still.

Chapter 22:

Most identical chapter yet. Namari asks about Laios instead of Falin. That's it.

Chapter 23:

Plans are made to take down the red dragon. With Falin here, their warding spells are much better, but no Laios means Senshi is the only proper warrior. Falin is a decent fighter, and plans to join Senshi and Chilchuck on the frontline. They search the orc's storehouse and find some spears, which will hopefully be enough for the inverse scale.

They mostly come up with the same plan. Crush the dragon, then kill it.

Chapter 24-25:

The pot defenses fail, and they go ahead and crush the dragon. When the dragon emerges, Falin is able to execute the plan, stabbing the dragon as they play dead. However, she isn't able to stab deeply enough before the dragon recoils, the spear getting pulled away from her, landing some distance away.

Senshi tries to stab the dragon in the foot, but the spear breaks. Things go as they do in canon, with Senshi and Chilchuck managing to toss Falin the spear and blind the dragon in one eye.

Falin meets up with Marcille, and ends up pulling the same self-sacrificing gambit Laios did, stabbing the dragon in the throat while dangling from its mouth.

Chapter 26:

Falin falls unconscious, and has a dream about when Laios first left home, leaving her behind. And how he later promised to never leave her behind again.

Marcille still has to heal Chilchuck and Senshi herself, since Falin is in no state to do it herself. They retrieve her leg, and Falin is able to finish healing all four of them.

They begin carving into the dragon, with Senshi taking the lead. Laios' intrusive thought fun facts end up saving the day, reminding Falin about the flame sac.

Chapter 27:

Falin doesn't even bother mentioning the resurrection office, already knowing what must be done. Marcille doesn't hesitate to offer her ancient magic as the solution.

Falin is able to assuage Chilchuck's concerns a little better than Marcille did, clarifying that the ancient magic is just used to perform magic of a magnitude impossible with just natural mana. He still doesn't quite buy it, but doesn't protest further.

Putting Laios' skeleton together takes longer, since no one here is super knowledgeable about dog skeletons. They get it eventually though.

Marcille does the ritual. Falin thinks Marcille is hot when she lets her hair down like that.

Laios is revived successfully, and everyone is incredibly happy.

Chapter 28:

No bath scene. :(

Laios is incredibly curious about their journey, and is running his mouth asking questions. He is extremely excited that his monster eating idea worked, and is practically glued to Senshi for a while asking questions. Due to his presence, Senshi doesn't explode the dragon.

Marcille isn't surprised in the least by Laios' enthusiasm, and is just glad to have her friend back. They enjoy their little dragon feast, regaling Laios with their tales of monster eating.

Unlike Falin, Laios does not realize that forbidden magic was used to revive him, and apologizes profusely for abandoning Falin, even though she insists it wasn't his fault.

Chapter 29:

When Thistle summons Laios, a ghost wakes Falin up. She wakes the others, and they go looking for him.

Unlike Falin, Laios doesn't gain magical power from the dragon, instead getting an even bigger boost to his strength. Falin isn't just knocked unconscious, but is badly injured by his punch.

Not even being dominated by the mad mage can stop Laios from yapping. As he is transformed, he gives Thistle tips, causing his chimera form to be significantly more dangerous, featuring a bigger but more slender build and bigger wings, allowing him to actually fly. As well as a few other embellishments, such as tail spikes and small horns.

The ghosts save the party, and things proceed as normal.

Chapter 30:

Chilchuck's arc is mostly the same, except that it is easier to convince Falin once she wakes up. Healing the internal bleeding Laios caused took a lot out of her, and both her and Marcille are tapped of magic. They agree to return to the surface.

Chapter 31:

Literally Identical.

Chapter 32:

Kabru's deductions are mostly the same, only altered slightly due to being warded by Falin instead of Marcille.

Shuro isn't quite as haggard. Falin isn't actively dead, so he doesn't feel the need to run himself ragged. Funny enough, taking better care of himself ends up canceling things out, and he arrives at Kabru's group at about the same time.

Chapter 33:

Senshi and Chilchuck have to fight the Dryads by themselves. They use the axe instead of Kensuke. Not that Laios helped much, but the first dryad manages to attack Senshi, leaving him in much rougher shape by the end of the fight.

Thankfully, he makes a full recovery once Falin recovers some mana from the yummy pottage.

Once Falin is recovering, she suggests teleporting out of the dungeon, but Marcille flat out refuses to let Falin do that again. It's way too risky. Now that they have a source of food, mapping out the area should be simple.

Chilchuck does not escape the sex ed.

Chapter 34:

A dramatic reenactment of chapter 34:

They still need to spend several days making the map, but at least petrification isn't an issue.

Chapter 35:

The ghost warns Falin about the wyvern, and they hide in the wall, so business as usual.

When Marcille accidentally puts on the frog suit, Falin decides to put hers on too. This somehow makes Marcille more mortified, not less.

Recognizing Falin, the ninjas don't attack. Marcille is annoyed how happy Falin is to see Toshiro, considering the bad terms he split off on.

Chapter 36:

Since Falin has been enthusiastic, but not overbearing about monster food, Chilchuck chooses to go with Senshi even more easily.

Falin explains what happened to Toshiro, leaving out the ancient magic. Toshiro has no reason to think Falin wouldn't be able to revive Laios. He is happy to learn that she intends to return to the surface, and he plans to try and talk her out of returning once safe on the surface.

Kabru can tell Falin is lying about something, but remains quiet.

Chapter 37:

Even though harpies show up, everything seems to be going well, until Hien splatters on the ground. The Laigon quickly proves to be a ferocious foe, with razor sharp claws, a vicious thagomizer, and the ability to easily fly out of reach, or drop opponents from deadly heights.

Marcille didn't know that sufficient brute force could splatter an Undine to death, but apparently so.

Falin watches in horror as she can see an almost joyous look in his eyes. He would never do this of his own volition... but he clearly doesn't hate it.

When Rin grounds the Laigon with lightning, Falin steels her resolve and charges in to pummel his weak point, but he smiles and says her name.

Chapter 38:

After Kabru fails to kill him, the Laigon is too powerful, and kills Kabru before Falin can do anything. Seeing the Laigon about to attack Falin, Marcille hits it with an explosion.

Snarling, the Laigon looks like it's about to pounce at Marcille and company, causing Falin to fully freak out and unleash her strongest offensive spell, causing several massive rocky spires to erupt and impale the Laigon from below, and accidentally hitting Rin in the process.

Screaming and convulsing in pain, the Laigon takes for the sky, fleeing as fast as it can, leaving behind a thick trail of blood.

With both Falin and Holm alive, as well as Marcille not being barred from helping, the revivals go smoothly.

Toshiro ends up getting into a shouting match with Falin regarding her goal of saving Laios. Falin insists that if they defeat the mad mage, they can save him. He insists that trying to do so at this point is suicidal.

In the heat of the moment, Toshiro declares that Laios isn't even worth saving, and Falin slaps him. The conversation comes to an abrupt end, with both severely regretting their actions. Toshiro walks off to think, while Marcille comforts Falin, who seems on the verge of tears.

Toshiro ends up apologizing, saying he can't understand her decision, but he will respect it. He has Maizuru give them supplies so they can head down immediately, and gives Falin the bell.

Asebi overhears Marcille speculating with Chilchuck about the Laigon, and the possibility of the dragon's soul getting mixed in due to her revival magic.

Kabru leaves with a higher opinion of Falin than he did of Laios, because while she seemed fascinated by monsters, she wasn't as crazed about it as him. Plus she didn't offer him a harpy omelette, so that helps.

Chapter 39:

Without the living paintings, they aren't able to quite grasp the mad mage's motives, but are still hopeful that they can talk to him.

And then the shapeshifters happen.

Chilchuck's Falin is an airhead, reflecting her calm demeanor and lack of commanding presence, even though she is ostensibly the leader without Laios around.

Senshi's Falin looks just like his Laios, but with longer hair. They look identical to Senshi.

Falin's Chilchuck is colder and more even-tempered than the real Chilchuck. She appreciates his levelheadedness and maturity.

Falin's Senshi is always spouting fun facts about food and food prep, and is always smiling. Senshi reminds her a lot of her brother's passions.

At first, the group is confused. They seem to be short two fakes. But then they find Falin's Marcille and Marcille's Falin making out in one of the cells. Both are too shy to admit their feelings, but apparently their mental images aren't so shy about it.

Once obvious stuff is out of the way, and equipment has been checked, Marcille and Falin have been found, but Chilchuck's Senshi, Marcille's Chilchuck, and Falin's Chilchuck are still around.

Chapter 40:

Marcille and Falin manage to eliminate Chilchuck's Senshi, since they both get a weird feeling from it, and all three Chilchucks agree it's the right Senshi, practically confirming it to be Chilchuck's.

The Chilchucks prove much trickier, until Falin comes up with an idea. We skipped chapter 13, so Falin suggests the Chilchucks provide their age. Marcille's says 20. Falin's says 45. Chilchuck is able to explain those guesses are way off the mark, and as the only one able to give a proper explanation of half-foot age ranges, he is clearly the correct one.

With all the copies locked up, the shapeshifter gives up and goes to find other prey.

Asebi ambushes the party as normal afterwards.

Chapter 41:

There is a bit of confusion at Asebi's accusations, since Marcille never confessed to using ancient magic, but Asebi overheard her talking about how she may have blended Laios' soul with the dragon, and that is not something someone does on accident. Clearly she must have been using black magic to do something like that.

Nonetheless, Marcille agrees to break the collar's magic, and things proceed the same. Falin attacks the hag with her mace-staff, creating a messier cut, but functionally the same.

The explanation of their goals goes about the same, including Falin being rather happy to meet Izutsumi, though she's a little less weird about it, talking about how Laios was fine before the mage kidnapped him, and that hopefully he'll go back to that state of mind when saved.

Chapter 42:

In Falin's nightmare, the Laigon appears and tries to kill her, but Falin becomes lucid before it can strike.

Falin goes into Marcille's nightmare to help her. Being more experienced with this sort of thing, she is able to calm Marcille down, and cause her to become lucid, dispelling the nightmare without violating Marcille's private traumas.

They then spend the rest of the lucid dream having fun together. I'll let you decide how much those shapeshifter clones inspired their behavior.

Senshi cooks the nightmares, and much to the girls' dismay, the dream is shown for all to see. Everyone agrees not to bring it up again.

Chapter 43:

While searching the recovered packs, Falin is delighted to find the Dungeon Gourmet Guide. She was afraid it had been digested with Laios.

Note: Falin should be seeing the ghost by now, but I don't want to break up the chapter flow, so just assume the ghost got caught in ghost traffic.

Without Laios to block them, Marcille gets impaled by a few stalactites, and Falin has to tend to her. The fight goes as normal.

Izutsumi is able to undress without anyone being weird about it.

When doing the sauna thing, Chilchuck can't help but notice how closely Marcille and Falin are sitting. He tried to block the dream out of his mind, but it's clear that now that the feelings are out in the open, that's just how they're going to act from now on. He just hopes this doesn't cause any issues.

Chapter 44:

Falin finds the boiled mandrake quite tasty, and so doesn't question it when Izutsumi gives her a second.

When arguing over dinner, Falin is just as baffled as Izutsumi regarding the Barometz. As they run over, she flips through the guide, discovering the potential danger a few seconds too late.

Izutsumi and Marcille run off to do their thing. Falin panics and does something dumb. She starts barking. She isn't as good as Laios, but it's enough to scare off the wolves. Chilchuck isn't even surprised at this point.

Chapter 45:

Pretty much goes the same. Toshiro plans to report the Chimera, at least so people know to be wary, and Falin is just as careless with the bell as Laios.

As they eat their eggs, the ghost finally catches up and Falin is happy to chat.

Chapter 46:

Our party arrives in the golden country. Falin wants to check out the monster corrals, just like Laios, but while he was ecstatic about minotaur milking, Falin is much more charmed by the opportunity to pet the basilisk chicks.

Falin becomes extremely flustered at the sight of Marcille in a pretty dress. Unlike Laios, Izutsumi lets her pet her.

Since minotaur was not requested, they are served basilisk cordon bleu.

Sadly, the running joke of turning ghosts into ice cream is dead.

"One shall come who bears a staff of living wood." With Laios out of the picture, Marcille is the lion's next choice of champion.

Marcille really isn't sure what to think about this. Her? Become new queen of the land?

She ultimately gives no conclusive answer, but the possibility of gaining dominion over this land where no one ever dies is tempting.

Marcille and Falin share the double bed, while Chilchuck gets the single bed to himself. At least until Izutsumi curls up on him.

Chapter 47:

Breakfast goes smoothly, and they head back into the dungeon.

Things in the cistern go mostly the same, though Falin also thinks the griffon is Laios. Senshi doesn't panic until the griffon actually appears.

Chapter 48:

Marcille puts her plan into action, and Falin carries her.

With the second familiar, Falin suggests shaping it like a dragonfly, since they are very fast and agile. It isn't as fast as the wyvern, but it dodges a lot easier. The third familiar is still sky fish.

Once the griffon is defeated, Falin suggests eating the sky fish. Marcille objects, but she can't say no to Falin's smile.

And Senshi shares his story.

Chapter 49:

Unlike Laios, Falin doesn't push Senshi to try the griffon. She suggests cooking it, since they don't want to waste good food, but Senshi doesn't have to try it if he doesn't want to.

Senshi decides to go for it. You can decide if he's traumatized further, or if changelings follow logic, and meat without any spores on it (since it was cut from inside the griffon), and was then "washed" by turning it into soup turns back into hippogriff. Senshi tastes the "griffon" soup, and is immeasurably relieved.

Changlings are a lot of fun, but they sure open some plot holes. By all accounts, it should have reverted to hippogriff soup.

Look, this is my silly what-if AU, things don't have to be perfect.

Chapter 50:

Falin is a dwarf now. She sucks at magic, but now she can really smash some heads in.

Falin thinks half-foot Marcille is adorable. Marcille isn't sure what to think of dwarf Falin.

When they reach the door, Falin is surprised when her pet pearlipede crawls out unbidden and unlocks the door.

Despite the disadvantages, Falin's mace proves super-effective against the gargoyles, managing to defeat one, but tiring out while one is still left. They flee through the door.

Now that the party knows she has it (and that it's oddly useful), Falin starts wearing her pet as a bracelet.

While preparing dumplings, Falin ponders if maybe the griffon wasn't actually a griffon, but Chilchuck shuts her down before she can accidentally re-traumatize Senshi.

Chapter 51:

Falin notices Marcille's strong adverse reaction to the news that half-foots only live fifty years, but doesn't say anything.

Falin suggests the possibility of using the changelings on Laios, though unlike him, she doesn't consider that the two halves might change separately. She just imagines them turning the whole Laigon into a gnome or something.

When the last gargoyle arrives, Falin's staff gets knocked out of her grasp, and thrown by the gargoyle.

They use the knowledge from the transformed staff to defeat the last gargoyle. Sadly, Marcille does not get to fly.

Falin washes her staff.

Chapter 52:

Senshi grows curious and asks about Laios. Falin talks about how Laios always had trouble fitting in, and it wasn't until he started dungeon diving that he finally seemed able to make friends and be happy. Falin had dropped out of magic school because she didn't want Laios to be alone.

Marcille starts crying and clinging to Falin. She talks about how she used to hate Laios. But as they adventured together, he became like a brother to her. Falin starts crying too. Izutsumi sits by Chilchuck to avoid all the tears.

Senshi proposes his bacon and eggs plan. Falin can't find any issue with his reasoning, and thinks its a great idea, but Chilchuck points out how long it will take to eat that much meat. They start making plans for the foreseeable future.

Thistle tries to stop the Laigon from eating a walking mushroom, but is unsuccessful.

Chapters 53-85

Chapter 86-Finale

[5eraphim]

https://www.tumblr.com/5eraphim/706289447610761216/medic-or-engineer-with-someone-who-ran-away-on

you touch on the idea of collars briefly at the end of this - i love it. i feel like engie specifically would stick a shock collar on just to make sure attitude is kept in check, complete with a little tag with his title on it (whether it be daddy or sir or whatever)

Character: The Engineer 🦫 (Team Fortress 2)

Rating: M ( MINORS DNI, GO PLAY OUTSIDE)

Content Warnings: yandere, x reader, abduction, mind games, possessiveness, NSFW mention, dehumanization, forced domestication, reader is kept gender neutral

Word Count: 750

MASTER LIST

TIP JAR

From your perspective, the collar was a cruel physical reminder of your place, forever shackled to Engie's side as his enduring live-in hostage. An untamperable heavy-industrial device which clipped your wings and effectively nullified any resilience you tried to hold onto or any kind of hope to fight him off. Let alone ever regain your freedom. With this painfully literal weight around your shoulders, the grief felt altogether too much to endure. It's not like he'd officially "won" by forcing you to wear a collar, but the collar was as depressing as it was humiliating. 

From Engie's perspective, the collar was, at least at first, little more than a fun side project. An electrical collar designed to keep his favorite test subject from escaping confinement, strong enough to prevent human tampering from the inside. But as he understood exactly how it made you feel so domesticated and broken down, the more it spurs him on.

The slightest consolation you had to comfort yourself with pertaining to the shock collar and a tracking device within, at least you could trust Engie to design something comfortable and practical. Something nearly impossible for you to chip away at or to break by yourself. (As if any other Conagers would help you escape if you asked.)

It wouldn't be painfully tight or abrase your skin. Engie would be sure to pad the inside generously to keep the cold, hard metal from damaging your neck. Still, while this protects you, it has the unfortunate side effect of making the device much bulkier, forcing you to be almost always aware of the device strapped around your neck's sensitive skin.

Engie likes to mindlessly drum his fingers against the metal when the two of you are cuddling or run his thumb along the area where the lock is connected to the collar. Especially loves the sound of his gloves squicking as they rub against the collar. 

Nothing is sexier to him than thinking about you stripped down in nothing but the collar, warming his bed at night, waiting faithfully for him to return home after a long day. It really fuels his possessive side to see you shackled with his collar, without any clothes to hide behind and nowhere to run, forever bound to his bedside by the threat of force. He's also turned on thinking about you desperately trying to cling to your inner resilience and attempting pitifully to fight back. Knowing you're not entirely mind-broken yet but still have that helpless look in your eye and a kind of limp quietness on account of the exhaustion that fuels his ego and libido.

It's painful to imagine breaking free now. You've been shocked as punishment for bad behavior before, and you didn't want to think about what you'd feel if you tried to go out of bounds now. Engie would also install a physical hook on the back of the collar, giving him the option to lock or chain you down physically with some kind of a leash if he feels like it. (Additionally, as a shorter guy, he likes that he has the option to force you to look up at him by grabbing onto the collar and craning your neck upward to look him in the eye.)

If you still try to fight him back and refuse to give in and let him take control, Engie would be more than happy to whip you up a pair of locking cuffs to match the collar and to see how long you want to resist while you're forced to entirely rely on him.

Sooner than you anticipated, the paranoia of being forced to live like this caught up with you. Feeling endlessly on edge, aware of the weight around your neck keeping you from letting your guard down around Engie.

Always looking over your shoulder, expecting to see him behind you when you thought you were alone. The psychological toll of having to live like this was almost as bad as the physical toll. With every passing day, you feared your grip on reality, your memories of a life outside of the Conagher family land slipping from your mind as you were reprogrammed in real-time against your will to become nothing but a subhuman docile and well-behaved pet.

The name Conager is engraved on the back, but yours isn't; as far as Engie is concerned, you're his property first and foremost and a person of your own second.

[prince-liest]

On Alastor calling Vox “lover”, i thought it was the complete reverse - that he said it with only malicious intent in the wire play fic (to satisfy his own itch to hurt vox), and in the latest one it’s just “i’m being sarcastic” (but i don’t feel well and i need a stepping stone at this very moment tho i’ll never admit it) but i guess i misunderstood? tho i suppose this only shows how well u write alastor’s character because he is not easy to decipher

Alastor is a character that lies a lot, both to himself about his feelings and to others, and his narration is pretty unreliable! I do try to insert, like, the hints, context, and behaviors that point to what his true feelings actually are, but a lot of it is through implication and so there's a lot of room for different interpretation in how I write him!

That said, you're not the first person to think he was being genuinely malicious and nothing but in the wireplay fic, so... death of the author and all that, but if you are interested in my take on how it was originally intended:

Alastor is so incredibly fucking fond of Vox in that scene in S6E66, Now Rerunning: The Hentai Episode! He says some absolutely heinous shit, but his tone is fond, and warm, and condescending, and it is very, very obvious to him that Vox enjoys being humiliated and at Alastor's whims. He compliments Vox's distress, he makes a little winking joke about the "rut" comment because they both know that was Alastor just the other day, and he unequivocally denies any implication that he's rejecting Vox's love.

He's a total narcissist on a power trip, and Vox being so into his little menacing routine that he drops the I think I'm in love with you is basically heroin to Alastor's ego. But he's also just been growing increasingly fond of Vox over the course of their relationship - there's a reason that the very next installment is one where Alastor is in fact really fucking upset to have been ghosted, even though a lot of the cause of that ghosting is that neither of them are open communicators that do things like properly check in a la, "Hey, we just did a really undernegotiated scene where I mocked your very sincere emotions, where are we on that?" because they've been flying by the seat of their pants and expect mutual understanding where there isn't necessarily enough of it and getting away with it. Until that point, at least.

So he says "lover" because he's making fun of Vox, yes, but he's making fun of Vox because he enjoys and is genuinely fond of Vox when he's pathetic and obsessive, and also because he knows that Vox enjoys it, too. Safe, sane, and consensual? No. But not genuinely malicious in intent, either!

He doesn't want to hurt Vox for the sadistic hell of it (to quote Alastor himself: "If I wanted to hurt you, I would have done so already!"), he wants to hurt Vox because the fact that Vox is so in love that he will let him (and ask for more) is acutely and inordinately pleasing to Alastor. A lot of his dialogue echoes that: he tells Vox to ask for it, then tells him to beg, then makes fun of him for not asking Alastor to stop.

And afterward: Well, he's not very good at actually being reassuring, but he makes a few genuine efforts at it, to the extent that his own ego will allow him to. If he didn't actually give a shit, he very much would have dumped Vox on the floor after having his fun and just left. But he cares enough to make sure Vox is at least remotely alright, and he's even fond enough to suffer through some skin-to-skin until his squick meter taps him out.

In contrast, in Network 0666: No Signal, Alastor is once again mocking Vox for claiming to love him - but he's doing it while struggling his way through a panic attack that has sent him spiraling under the assumption that Vox's alleged "love" is just possessiveness that led him to try to leash Alastor to his own power. He says "lover" and immediately follows it by describing the ways in which he thinks Vox is a traitor who is bastardizing the very word. He's not, at that moment, even using it as a weapon against Vox - why would it hurt Vox, after all, if he doesn't really love Alastor - but rather as a way of mocking himself for actually falling for the ruse. He doesn't genuinely break out of it until he reaches to touch the chain again and finds that it's been gone since Vox reached out to help him.

Anyway, I hope that helped or at least was an interesting read! Alastor is a very unreliable narrator and it makes him a great deal of fun.

[blade-liger-4ever]

So I've been bored/running ideas in my head lately......

I know, that's dangerous coming from me - especially considering how I can start and then go on and on about a topic (see my post on my fanon history for Smokescreen for an idea.) That said, ever since I've started watching RWBY, I've been hooked, though I will be stopping after Volume 4 as I've heard...let's say mixed opinions on the show's writing after the fourth installment's conclusion. Because I've been hooked, I've also noticed that some characters - in particular Mercury Black, my favorite character outside of the main and side characters - were underutilized, in my own personal opinion. That, in addition to my fixation on Transformers, has led me to this crackpot idea:

RWBY x Transformers Partnerships.

What is this, you may ask? It's Blade saying, "What if there was a crossover between these two franchises I love and, more specifically, who would bond with who in a hypothetical crossover?"

I know it's been done before, but I mostly want to just pit characters together for the sake of fun, especially since life has been a bit much lately. So to unwind - and pass around some fun - I'm going to be starting a series of RWBY characters buddied up with Transformers characters.

Of course, that also means I have to set the stage for how this would all work. I'll summarize it as best I can, and leave open enough doors that things won't be too convoluted, or have too little substance to be able to feasibly work.

In a twist on Volume 2, I would have Mercury be used by Cinder to get close and learn about Team RWBY and gather info from them. However, he and Ruby would hit it off, and over time, Mercury would grow to care about her and the team before he'd defect - with the added benefit of having Pyrrha not only survive, but also be pushed on to the path to becoming the Fall Maiden.

Now, shortly after the Fall of Beacon, and before Ruby wakes up, I would have had Watts working with...let's say Team BRIR and Bram Thornmane (yes, I did research on relatively obscure characters connected to a RWBY game) to develop an interdimensional portal. Who knows what it was for, but Salem gave him this job, so he may as well do it, right? Well, turns out, in a Transformers: Prime-styled universe, the Autobots and Miko (see here for details that will be carried over to my mad little crossover) are in a battle with the Decepticons when - an ancient Cybertronian artifact, I suppose - activates at the same time Watts' machine does. The two groups are sucked through the wormhole, and are practically scattered across the world of Remnant, but because the CCT is down, hardly anyone realizes that Something is amiss.

And so the story begins!

Now, I'm sure I'll be asked about this, so I'll say it right now: the ship QuickSilver (Mercury x Ruby) will be a subtle part of this series, as well as Combat Goggles and BlackSun. I'm not the biggest fan of RoseGarden (having Oscar sharing living space with Ozpin gives me a major case of squick), and if I'm being honest, I love the idea of Ruby's purity pulling Mercury out of the darkness his father drowned him in. I also adopted love Mercury as a character, and his potential just screams at me to be recognized. Combat Goggles is another I love for how they interact in that one episode in Volume 2, and I can see Neptune with Yang more easily than with Weiss (plus I can't find that much content for them, so I gotta do it myself.) And BlackSun, while it isn't my favorite, I do love a good ship of Brooding Girl and Sunshine Boy in stories, so it's staying. And as a Hummingbird shipper/Qrow is Ruby's dad theorizer, I will be making references to that as well.

If this turns anyone off, I apologize. This is done primarily to satisfy my own wants, and to just goof around and find my favorite 'Bots friends from Remnant. If you are interested, though, welcome to RWBY x Transformers Partnerships! Let's have fun together!

See you around, folks!

[worryswipe]

Domain Names-

SkyBreak32 (A03)

worryswipe (Tumblr)

Actual Name- Storm

Likes: ANGST, HURT, POETIC AND OR PHILOSOPHICAL METAPHORS (was that too specific?) , Crack fics, Hurt/comfort, Disaster Twins Centric, Donnie centric

Squicks- Not much honestly….hmmm… Maybe Keep it platonic ig?

Favourite Iteration(s):

Rise of the TMNT

Mutant Mayhem

~●○°●○°●○~

Prompt #1

Butterflies are a symbol of hope, but a tiny tear in their wings can kill them so really, their freedom to fly is their will to live.(ROTTMNT)

Prompt #2

An inability to lie paired with an inability to say no is a dangerous combination, which may cause devestation to all involved.(ROTTMNT)

Prompt #3

The Wifi goes out in the Hamato Clan's current location. Causing the temporary trackers Donatello installed to go down too. (rottmnt)

Prompt #4

Leo had always loved his stripes. But now whenever he looked at the mirror, all he could see was blood. (rottmnt)

Prompt #5 The turtles have a larger lifetime (cough centuries) more then the average human being. After seeing April hanging out with them Hueso starts to worry whether the turtles truly know what that means. (rottmnt)

Let’s Fight some Foot People!!

But honestly if you guys wanna write for Mutant Maynem in these prompts as well.. I’m cool with that!

HOT SOUP!

~●○°●○°●○~

[chalkrevelations]

So, I’ve been catching up on podcasts about TLOU during the commute to and from work or while I’m running errands. And I’ve developed this habit that I subject spouse to on a regular basis, which I call “Today On ‘How Dudes On Podcasts Are Wrong About The Last Of Us.’” And this week, I just feel really strongly about a couple of things re: Ep 8, and so all y’all get to be subjected to this week’s installment, too.

(I definitely need to go back and watch all of the show again, because I feel like it’s going to unfold beautifully on a second watch, but I don’t actually have the patience to wait until I get all the way around, back to Ep 8 again, before hashing through this particular stuff, so fuck it, we ball.)

I just feel like I’m listening to a lot of guys 1) being weirdly precious about the cannibalism and 2) missing the point of the cannibalism.

I mean, all of this is with the caveat that I realized a long time ago, I’m kind of missing the automatic cannibalism squick that most people have. I’m not down with killing people specifically to eat them, and I wouldn’t particularly want to eat another person, but I do appear to be more pragmatic - at least theoretically - than about 96.5 percent of the population about the idea that dead bodies are meat, that living people take precedence over dead people, and that if you’re in a starvation situation without other options and Joe next door kicks it, as long as he wasn’t carrying any communicable diseases, I don’t have a lot of practical or ethical compunction about you looking at Joe as a source of protein. All that being said, I’m listening to people acting not only like the cannibalism in Ep 8 is some freaky weird shit - which it is! don’t get me wrong, being in a situation where your only option is to eat people is inherently fucked up! - but that it’s a narrative choice that illustrates a moral and ethical vacuum in this group of characters, which completely misses the point? I’m hearing things like the fact that they didn’t immediately butcher the horse while people are neatly strung up for storage shows that they’d rather eat people, and how voraciously they were eating their “venison” stew shows how they are indelibly marked and changed by eating human flesh - even when they don’t know, I guess - and I’m like, no, they’re HUNGRY. They’re literally starving. That’s why they’re sucking down that stew. And I’m sure they’ll get around to butchering that horse as soon as David’s done terrorizing and molesting Ellie, which brings me to my first point:

The cannibalism is not what makes these people monstrous. What makes them monstrous is that they allow David to openly prey on children the way he treats Hannah and Ellie. What makes James monstrous is that he knows their raiding party attacked Joel and Ellie without provocation and Joel killed their guy in self-defense (don’t start none, won’t be none, m’fkr), and yet he still wants to revenge-obliterate Joel and Ellie. What makes David monstrous is the way he preys on the people in his care and particularly on the children in his care, like Hannah and Ellie. “Freaky cannibalism” is not what makes any of these people monstrous, it only means they’re starving and desperate. What makes them monstrous is their other behavior, that they could control, unlike starving to death if you don’t eat Jim-Bob when he kicks it and all you have otherwise are three cans of stewed tomatoes for a group of 25+ people.

Also, I realize I’m coming at this with hindsight because I’ve finished the season, but particularly if you’ve played the game, I feel like you should see this coming: The narrative point of the cannibalism isn’t about these people at all. It’s not even really about David. The cannibalism is about Joel. Joel has to see those bodies strung up in the back of the steakhouse, Joel has to understand that David and his group are - in Ellie’s words - cutting people into little bits, Joel has to understand that this is likely what they’re going to do to Ellie, and Joel has to see that he wasn’t able to rescue her from that, that he failed her again, that she only survived because she saved herself. Joel has to see those bodies stripped down to meat because it literalizes what’s going to happen in Ep 9, when he wakes up in the Firefly facility and Ellie is gone, and Marlene tells him she’s already headed into surgery - they’ve washed her, prepped her and are getting ready to expertly butcher her, to kill her and strip her down for parts, cut her into little bits, just like those bodies he saw hanging back at Silverlake would be, just like Ellie would have been if she hadn’t saved herself. He’s failed her again and again and again, he told Tommy, back in Ep, what? 6? 7? He fails her again in Ep 8, and she is fucking traumatized. You think he’s going to fail her this last time, if he can help it?

And that’s why, sure, people can argue the ethics of his actions all they want, but the overall story is so very VERY narratively satisfying, because Joel was never going to do anything other than what he did, and that’s what the story is ABOUT. This is the most cohesive story I’ve seen, on a character level, in a LONG damn time.

But I do think part of the ethical argument of whether you do or don’t agree with Joel’s decision should be informed by the fact that David’s group and the Fireflies are paralleled in Ep 8 and Ep 9. Maybe Ellie would have said yes to Marlene, but Marlene didn’t ask - she doesn’t care any more about Ellie’s consent than David did. Is Ep 8 repulsive because it’s happening in the back of a steakhouse and Ep 9 OK because it’s happening in an operating room? You’re going to be all “Ew, cannibalism, beyond the pale” when it’s about desperation and survival, and the meat is (usually, at least) already dead anyway, and a lot of other people would starve to death if you just let it rot, but you’re OK with Ellie, who’s still alive, being butchered to keep other people alive? No - to maybe keep other people alive, because this is all hypothetical, the Fireflies don’t even know if it will actually work? So, if it doesn’t work this time, how many teen-aged girls are you willing to butcher on a possibility? At what point does it become too many? Do we rebuild the world on the bodies of dead teen-aged girls? I submit this is part of the moral calculus that has to be considered at the end of S1, and it’s put into stark relief by what we see in Ep 8.

And that is the point of the cannibalism.

[tulipscomeinallsortsofcolors]

I mean this in absolutely the most polite way possible, but what is the official tag for the soulmate verse because I would like to block it because soulmate things squick me out. Is it rhoyh?

Ah you must be new, I have 2 soulmate verses. The first is called "pieces verse" and all goes under the same tag

The fic installments of this new one will be under rhoyh and the asks will be under rhoyh ask

Putting "rhoyh" and "pieces" in your filtered content should catch them

But fair warning I often don't tag minor asks that contain very little info about my fics (things like non-specific compliments or jokes) because i simply get too many to do so, so you'll have to judge if you can tolerate that much on your own

[timeless-secret-santa]

We want to say a huge thank you to everyone who participated in 2022! You all made amazing creations!!

With a New Year comes new changes!! Like our name, we’re now Timeless Secret Santa! (though our email will stay the same…google won't let us change that, the dirty little lint lickers.)

We’ve updated our FAQ with this year’s dates for Secret Santa 2023! 

We’ve read your feedback which we really appreciate! As a result there will be changes this coming year. 

Things to keep in mind:

We’re keeping the sign ups date on October 22nd, which means this year you get a little under two months to create your gift!

There will be two check-ins! We will contact you and you can always opt out of the second check in if you’re finished early or just don’t want it. You can even check in early and beat us to the punch. We secretly love it when people do that.

We are instigating two drop out dates, we know shit can get hectic in December. You’ve caught covid, your idiot brother is in the ICU and you can’t leave them, your colleague died at their desk and now you’re stuck working 80 hours, or we gave you too much time and you forgot and you just can’t do it. We want you to tell us on or way before those dates if you’re dropping out. We will not be mad and honestly, we don't even need an excuse. We just need to know ASAP as we like to be able to find a pinch hitter so your Secret Santa is covered. We cannot stress enough that our priority is that you look after yourself and our asses are covered.

Gifting period is moving to 25th December - 1st January 2024! So, don’t feel you’re limited to Christmas themes, let's throw in post Christmas themes, New Year’s Eve, New Year’s resolutions, New Year’s heat waves, winter themes, or whatever you want etc.

We will be asking for emails this year, so if you don’t want to give out your personal one, please create a fandom email that we can use in the event we can’t contact you through your preferred medium of communication. E.g. twitter dies, tumblr has an outage etc.

We are also making discord as another option for communication. 

We are asking for your AO3 handle, this one is optional. It's so your Secret Santa can gift their work to you.

The sign up form has been simplified for the ease of mixing and matching you all. So bear in mind you will be asked for three requests. These are your favourite pairings with a trope or prompt. We will be matching you to/with people that have similar ships in their requests, if you’re ok with NSFW or not and squicks etc. instead of how we’ve been doing it in previous years.

We’ve removed the choice of gift medium, we feel everyone is happy to receive artworks or fic no matter what. We have found in the past couple of years that we end up with small groups of people who can only give gifts to each other. Soon they’d be repeating on each other which might get boring for them. Frankly, we want to open them back into the larger group cause we’re a family!

We’re installing better questions for pinch hitters and opening the option to be a Bon Bon creator! So when we need you, we can contact you appropriately.

Bon Bons are quick moodboards, manips, small drabbles/short fics, if you are keen you can prepare some ahead of time and just post them, we won’t stop you!

We asked you if you wanted to do a Christmas in July AO3 Challenge. The response was very surprising! So, we’ll be looking into it and will let you know the details of that by the end of January latest.

That’s it! For now. Thank you all for participating and I can’t want to see what 2023 brings!!

❤️ Timeless Secret Santa

[amazing-spiderling]

17. there should be more of this type of fic/art; 25. common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing

17. There should be more of this type of fic/art:

So, my last two major fandoms/ships were pretty different, right? Otasune from Metal Gear Solid and Spideypool from various mixed Marvel media. The MGS fandom (when I was an active part of things) was kind of like the wild west because we'd go YEARS between games, and each installment wasn't guaranteed to have YOUR blorbos in it, so with such long droughts of canon content to go on, AUs were extremely common. Spideypool arrived at the same destination via a different route. With SO MUCH content for a popular ship, it was the weird AUs that stood out from the crowd.

These days, I'm most active in the Daredevil fandom, which is a comfortable size... but maybe its *too* comfortable. XD I just mean that there's so much (great) fic that is made up of lost moments/in between scenes and other canon compliant or "step to the left" of canon storylines that it kind of makes me wish people would get weird about it. Weirder, anyway. I know it's a fine line to straddle, and a lot of people get touchy about what writers choose to change, but I don't think my opinions about that are as set in stone as they are for other people. Besides my squicks, I read whatever is well written.

25. common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing

I'll be real, I find fandom complaints to be tedious a lot of the time because a lot of them boil down to people who don't like X making a case for why X is objectively bad, and I think more people need to realize that you just don't have to like everything, sometimes it's for a different audience. So if I start reading a post or something that looks like it's going that way, I just scroll by.

I guess to that end, I'm kind of tired of people being so angry about the current comics run. It sure is making some choices, I'll give you that. But at least it's doing something different. (And I'll be honest, I've seen some specific complaints where I've thought, "you're actually wrong about this specific thing, because you've made a mistake about who is speaking in this moment bc you are seeing the page out of context" but bothering to correct people just doesn't seem worth it when people have made up their minds, y'know?)

Maybe it's because I love a fucked up AU that I'm like "Haha if two Daredevils were on a mountain and one of them went to hell would that be fucked up or what?" or maybe it's because I'm a bit jaded by reading comics for three decades that I'm of the mindset that comic runs (and canon for that matter) are like buses. ("If the one here now isn't taking you where you need to be, another will be along in a little while.") I'm personally having fun with the run and even if there's stuff I would have chosen to do differently, I can't be bothered to expend the energy outright hating something when I can use half of that to find things to like about it. Meh!

[osterby]

WoL question of the day from Twitter, Alivion's answer.

"Don't meet your heroes, you're always going to be disappointed" Last time Exarch saw your WoL in person was all the way back in ARR. And a lot happened since then. Was meeting the "new" you shocking for him? Did he had that sting or did you exceed his expectations?

Alivion was not what G'raha was expecting, because G'raha was expecting the Warrior of Light he'd met during the Crystal Tower story, and not Alivion at all.

He was devastated.

Being unable to summon Hiroshi and getting a bunch of Scions and then Alivion instead was how he found out that Hiroshi had died and the role of Warrior of Light had been filled by another man. He had to come to terms with the fact that the many stories about the Warrior of Light that he had held close for the last hundred years had not been inspired by his boyfriend, but by some random Ala Mhigan he'd never heard of.

G'raha had two worlds to save, though, and set his grief aside to accomplish his goals with the Warrior of Light he had available. But he could very clearly recognise Hiroshi in Alivion. They didn't look or sound anything like one another, but they were very similar in other ways. Alivion is G'raha's type to begin with, but on top of that G'raha could tell that something of Hiroshi was in Alivion. I don't think he knew about the exact mechanics of the soul shenanigans (Alivion has some shards of the Hiroshi/Azem soul stuck to his own), but he could recognise that there was some variety of existential kinship going on. And on top of that, Alivion carries a number of Hiroshi's memories.

All of which combines such that G'raha very quickly started seeing Alivion as a bargain bin Hiroshi, instead of as Alivion. He treats him the way he treated Hiroshi, forgets and addresses him by Hiroshi's name, and expects him to remember things that only the two of them knew (and often Alivion does remember, but tries to file those memories away and behave as if he doesn't have them, because it's only polite to not pry into other people's business, even if it's been installed in your head).

G'raha wants, desperately, for Alivion to love him in return, but it isn't Alivion he wants, he wants his dead boyfriend back. And Alivion is both too respectful and too squicked out to go anywhere near that kind of relationship. By the time Endwalker happens, they've come to something of a comfortably respectful distance. They value, respect, and admire one another as both friends and Scions, but the crush on one side and the other person's memories on the other side are simply too much to allow that friendship to grow too close. They do have some brief moments of closer friendship in Ultima Thule, but it's not the romance that G'raha wishes it was, nor is it the close companionship that Alivion knows it could and should be without Hiroshi's memory haunting both of them.

G'raha wants, desperately, for Alivion to love him in return, but it isn't Alivion he wants, he wants his dead boyfriend back. And Alivion is both too respectful and too squicked out to go anywhere near that kind of relationship. By the time Endwalker happens, they've come to something of a comfortably respectful distance. They value, respect, and admire one another as both friends and Scions, but the crush on one side and the other person's memories on the other side are simply too much to allow that friendship to grow too close. They do have some brief moments of closer friendship in Ultima Thule, but it's not the romance that G'raha wishes it was, nor is it the close companionship that Alivion knows it could and should be without Hiroshi's memory haunting both of them.

[oh-yes-i-did-not]

Sorry that your discomfort is not commonly tagged but you need to be nicer on other peoples post. people can see that. be nice. and maybe dont reblog the post so you dont have see it again if it really bothers you that much

You're right and thank you for calling me out. It was a bit of a wake up I needed. I have some very strange squicks and triggers and I have known for a long time that they are my problem to deal with and I thought I had learned to deal with it, so I feel horrible that I acted like that, no matter how something made me feel at that moment. I'm sorry for my reaction and saying something mean and awful like that and for being needed to called out on it but also, thankful that there are people who are willing to do that, be it followers or strangers.

Answer to ask ends here. The rest is some thinking on my part.

I was gonna add reflecting on things but I don't honestly think I'm doing much of that yet? I'm thinking but not reflecting or doing anything else constructive just yet.

So I'm just gonna use this same post on a more general note or as an announcement but I've been thinking about things for the last 2 days, thinking about what I've been feeling and doing of late and I think I'm going to need a social media break. I kinda thought leaving Twitter was some magic tool to get rid of all the things toxic in my social media life but that is not true.

I joined Threads some time ago and I realized I've been engaging with posts in a very reactionary way again. I have given up on thinking and holding back, without even realizing it. Scrolling my activity on Threads and Facebook, too, like 10% of the stuff I've said is now something that should have been an "inside head voice" stuff and never typed out loud.

And while I feel I've curated my Tumblr pretty well and I don't really feel the need to interact in inflammatory issues here, there is no 100% safe space from randomness of the world. Like, someone I follow has been absolutely obsessed with mushrooms of late, and that is a huge phobia for me. I don't want to be in a headspace where I start to lash out at everything, including innocent posts, like I did already. And until I feel like I can handle that, I don't think I can be part of much of my social medias.

I don't know how long this will be. Resources on mental health care are not that plentiful in my small town + I'm currently also undergoing physical rehab to not become physically disabled which is also a huge mental load right now. So like, no plan. I'm probably gonna install Cold Turkey, even tho it's a right bitch to get completely rid of afterwards.

I'm probably gonna keep my insta, bc that one is nothing but art and school stuff. And some personal blogging space, idk. Get a Blogger or Wordpress, maybe. Get my feelings out on my own damn posts. But I gotta be out of Threads and Facebook, NOW. And also, from Tumblr and probably Pillowfort and Masto as a collateral damage. It's unfortunate but I have to sort myself out and not be like... this. Reactionary, unemphatetic, and mean. I should not be like that.

[yamatossideboob]

One Piece 1099 spoilers!

I put off doing this yesterday bc qf the aged-up child Bonney aspect just nauseates me. It's unnecessary and creepy and just doesn't add anything that wasn't done already and better. By this I mean the 'forced to grow up while still a child' aspect that I assume Oda is going for, which was done much more powerfully and much less creepily with Momonosuke, literally and figuratively! Unless next week and beyond really turn things around, this just damages Bonney's character so much, jfc Oda.

ahem. Let's see what else this chapter offers:

The cover pages is admittedly very good

so we don't even get to see how Bonney got her fruit 8T Oda is not beating the allegations!!

so the whole Kuma the Tyrant angle is just WG hearsay backed by tabloid media. makes sense lol. This is less interesting than what could have been with Kuma's character but tbqh I'm just glad he's not like that lmao.

Also ngl when I saw the Paw Paw 'Splosion I assumed Kuma just Mountbattened Bekori to smithereens, but nah.

Old prune Bonney messing with Connie is cute 🥺

I respect pacifism when it's integral to a person or character's being, but in fiction and real life it's just. not practical and often not admirable lmfaoooooooo

I do love this bit with Kuma visiting places he would later send the Strawhats. Also, actual bounty hunters! (I'll never not be a little miffed that they didn't have a bigger role in OP, but I can hardly complain)

DRAGON AND THE BESTIES HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

I really do love the back n forth between Kuma, Dragon and Betty, esp the captain bit... idk what Dragon's been up to off-page all these years but little touches like this really sell what he's clearly meant to be.

YAY KOALA MENTION also Sabo too I guess

sigh... I do appreciate that we see Bonney training to take on the seas one day, even if it won't be like she hoped it would. In retrospect this helps sells how she became one of the Worst Generation later on.

BONNEY IN A BOX. BONNEY IN A BOX!!!

She's right though, Vegapunk's original head has always squicked me a little... *shudders*

That tiny bit between Sentomaru and Bonney is very cute 🥺🫶

Oda Says Fund Stem Cell Research!

srs though what a peculiar term to see in OP imo lol

okay here we're getting a hint at just how Vegapunk could stand to make all those weapons and such for the WG while claiming to be working for humanity's good... morality and ambition are not glad bedmates....

Though I can well say similar about Kuma... deal with the devil indeed....

and so a terrible beauty is born...

Another chapter is scheduled for next week, but with the condition of the last installment (and possibly Oda), I'll not count eggs etc. Hopefully the usual break was what Oda needed, and the SJ winter break is around the corner... I really hate this industry lads.

Til next time 💪✖️

[ajokeformur-ray]

just out of curiosity are you excited about/seen the trailer for the new Evil Dead Rise movie? just wondering your thoughts on it!!! i’m personally stoked about it

I've seen the trailer for it, yeah!!!!! There were a few scenes which had me wincing, and that got me excited!!!😂😂😂 I watched it with @bisexual-horror-fan one night and due to how many squicks are in it for me just from what's in the trailer, we said we'd watch it together because when I see a horror film for the first time (if it passes all my 'safety checks'), I prefer to view it with someone else so if I nope out, the other person can tell me when it's safe to look again and/or help me mitigate my emotional reactions if there's something which catches me out (Bex has watched many a film with me and is well versed with how I get so she's my go to for all things horror and "is this safe?" 🥹)

I LOVE horror yet there's so much of the genre which doesn't sit well with me, which is kind of amusing. I'll fall asleep watching the first Evil Dead but also I need my nightlight as a general nighttime necessity😂

I'm really excited about it, the gore was off the WALL (as expected for an Evil Dead instalment)!!!!😍😍😍 Definitely not one I can see for the first time alone, though. Lots of gore squicks for me but I love the franchise too much to not watch it. I'm gonna miss Bruce though, I'm not a fan of these Evil Dead films without him in it💔

What were your favourite parts, nonnie?

[mauserfrau]

Sampaguita Chapter 6 - I Can Count I Swear

It's just the prologue is numbered 0 in my file and the Asides aren't numbered at all, so posting it on Ao3 has been FRUSTRATING.

Click to Read NSFW & CHECK THE TAGS

I also changed the title on this one several times. Why? Well, it evolved as I was working, eventually becoming the anime-style filler with needlessly artsy panning shot aspirations we see today.

Enjoy! Plot next update. If this one doesn't breathe, it will suffocate us all. And by us all I mean Troy.

:X

[whump-adjacent]

Ask can you recommend some obikin fanfics?

For sure! I’m relatively very new to the fandom, but here are some of my fav Obikin fanfics so far:

NB- my preference leans heavily towards omegaverse & mpreg, so be warned if that’s not your jam 🤙🏼 Also see full tag lists per work on Ao3 link for squick/TW, etc.

Conceal Me Verse / by @himboskywalker​​

Conceal Me What I Am (Omegaverse AU | 18 chapters | Complete)

Brilliant, brilliant AU set during the Clone Wars where Obi-Wan is a high-flying (beta) Senator and Anakin is a popular (alpha) Jedi Knight. To help resolve growing suspicion towards the Jedi, the Chancellor proposes an arranged and very public marriage between a member of the senate and a Jedi. Obi-Wan and Anakin are of course chosen, being shiny and popular on the holonet (albeit fairly incompatible otherwise). Little do they know the Chancellor is purposefully setting them up for disaster as he knows the big secret - Obi-Wan is in fact an alpha! Anticipating the marriage will end in violence and subsequently destroy the Jedi’s standing in the Republic, what the Chancellor doesn’t know is that Anakin is also harbouring a secret designation: omega. 🤯

This work is STUNNING. It’s a slow burn in the best possible way; packed with feels, politics, so many beloved clone wars characters, omegaverse, humour, smut, whump, *costumes*, and so much more. It’s literally a novel. Like, it’s the actual full thing. Huge fav!

Let me be that I am (Omegaverse AU | 2 chapters | Continuing (hopefully!)

Set 1 year after the events of Conceal Me What I Am, this follow up gives a glimpse into Obi-Wan and Anakin’s lives now that their secrets are out & they are living as a mated pair in earnest. *Spoiler alert* Anakin unexpectedly gets preg - which immediately makes it my favourite type of fic. Plus the writing and details and smut are just as sublime as the first instalment in the series, so it’s really just the pinnacle for me. I really, REALLY hope there are more chapters in the future because this is the 𝓈𝓌𝑒𝑒𝓉 𝓈𝓅𝑜𝓉 🥲

For Pleasure series / by @himboskywalker​

Clone Wars era | 2 works | Continuing (I think) 

During a mission to infiltrate a slaver’s ring, Obi-Wan, acting as slaver, is forced to demonstrate how well Anakin, acting as slave, can take punishment. Unexpectedly, Anakin is able to take it very, very well indeed 👀💦

A very sexy lil series that gets added to approx. once a year. It’s non omegaverse/preg related (which makes it very off-brand for me oh la la) but just so bloody well written that I think anyone would enjoy regardless of their ~preferences. Literally, it focuses on spanking/public humiliation kink, which is not something I’ve ever really considered or been interested in per se, but I was SO on board with it during this fic. As always, hats off to the writer (particularly for work #2, you had me!). 

Oh, Where Do We Begin? / by ZenyZootSuit (Ao3)

Clone Wars era | 21 chapters | Continuing​

There’s so much included in this one (as you can tell by the chapter count!) and it’s all so brilliantly done. Set in an AU where Anakin is living with bipolar disorder and Obi-Wan battles with alcoholism, key events from the prequels and Clone Wars canon are incorporated throughout this odyssey (e.g., Attack of the Clones, Rako Hardeen arch, etc). This writer *loves* angst and drama, plus a healthy serve of whump, so be warned there are death scenes, tears, relapses, and battle injuries - but there is also lots of humour, feels, and truly impressive smut ❤️‍🔥 It’s not omegaverse but it does incorporate mpreg (which obvs is a huge tick for me) as well as a very dramatic birth. All the fav characters are in there too, Padmé, Ahsoka, Rex, the 501st, the 212nd... Big recommend!

what’s mine is your is ours / by @tennessoui​​

Omegaverse canon-divergence | 2 chapters | Complete

The council calls in Obi-Wan to breaks some very unexpected news: Anakin is with child, and it’s his! But wait, it can’t be - they weren’t...? Ah, we love a force-willed pregnancy moment to spur on a relationship ❤️ 

This is a relatively short, very sublime gift fic that is *chef’s kiss* 3 Michelin star omegaverse smut 😙👌 I’m aware people have diff preferences when it comes to omegaverse ~anatomy, and this one does a great job of touching on everything a little bit without leaning too heavily on any specific trope. 

Sidebar, if you’re not already following Tennessoui on tumblr (and keeping an eye on their Ao3), firstly shame on you! But secondly, do yourself a favour; read through their backlog too, they’re constantly creating and updating fics, responding to prompts and engaging with AUs. It’s fabulous and lots of fun! They also do commissions (an opportunity which I may or may not have jumped at 🤫)

[whumpsday]

Whumpmas in July Day 2: What’s your first memory of whumperflies?

Gone by Michael Grant is probably what first got me feeling like “huh. i like seeing characters being tortured. i think this is probably Not Normal.” it’s a YA horror novel series about a bunch of teens getting into fucked up lord-of-the-flies-on-steroids situations after the adults disappear and they start getting superpowers. it’s been described by several reviewers as “stephen king for teens”.

i was probably too young to read it when i did, which was at the age of 11. the guardian’s review of the series describes it with: “In my opinion, Gone and its sequels, all the way to the final installment Light, are highly dark even for the young adult audience they are aimed at. Grant is successful in writing a brutal, unforgiving account of the reality within the sphere in which the children are now restricted: scenes of death, mutilation, and moral dilemmas form the basis of the plot in each book.”

this is a passage from the first book that i remember obsessing over when i was in elementary school:

cw: minor whump (iirc both characters are 14 but it’s been an equally 14 years since i read it so who knows if my memory’s right), death wish, past torture

it’s... apparent that this had a lasting influence on me. and it only gets worse from there in the following books, torture-wise. SO MUCH WORSE. these characters were older than me when i first read it, but i could never re-read since minor whump is a huge squick for me now as an adult, especially with the level of intensity these books get to.

there’s also a whumper-turned-whumpee character named Caine, but i promise this is a COMPLETELY COINCIDENCE and is in no way related to me naming my guy Kane.

@whumpmasinjuly​