#tend to do. and also because you kind of have to adopt a the enemy of my enemy attitude with the death police

[sangfielle]

not that im against vampire politics (obviously, given the context) but given the setting present prevalence of monsters and given how relatively uncommon vampires specifically are there theres no way theyre a big enough deal to have their own little society imposed on top of the larger populace outside of holdout areas. and especially not in that kind of converging point city/area no matter how much lina wants make shit all vampires all the time. theyre just super outnumbered by the witches and animalfolk and otherwise mortal monsters who keep trying to secede from new york and make their own cities or communes or whatever.

[wangxianficfinder]

Fic Finder

Nov 14th

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1. Hello, I am looking for a fic that I think is wangxian. It was based on the ballad The Highwayman, and it ends tragically. It should be a complete work. Thank you!

Found by asker as a Star Wars fic -

Nov 14 #1 requester, I think I’ve found it but it’s a Star Wars fic. If a wangxian version exists, I’m happy to have it, but I think it’s solved. Always fun separating out the fic memories from a fandom obsession transition period…

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2. I hope you can help me find this one. It was a Twitter threadfic. In that LWJ proposed to WWX but WWX said no because he didn’t believe in marriage. They go to a wedding and the groom gets cold feet but LWJ helps him. Seeing that made WWX want to marry him but by then it was LWJ who changed his mind and WWX was heartbroken .

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3. There was this fix where wwx was a funeral arranger? Or something like that and lwj and wwx established relationship but then madame yu and her husband died and it focused on like grieving and stuff, there was also yanli and jiang Cheng and showed like the sibling bond I can’t find it I been trying for ages now

FOUND? grave goods by luckymarrow (E, 28k, WangXian, Grief/Mourning, Minor Character Death, Modern AU, mortician!wwx, Angst with a Happy Ending, Established Relationship, Accidental Baby Acquisition, Marriage Proposal, abrupt tonal shifts, Tragicomedy, Comedy, Romance, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Adoption, Implied/Referenced Abuse, for lan parents, it’s not described and is all backstory, Family Bonding, Family Dynamics, Married WangXian, brief daddy kink, the barest hint of consensual non-consent, Anal Sex, Oral Sex, BDSM)

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4. Hello! I'm looking for a couple of fics I lost sight of a long while ago!

A) The first one took place during the Cloud Recesses Arc: all the swords are stolen at night by 'Wei Wuxian' who is later found badly injured in the forest. He had been attacked by the future Wei Wuxian/ Yiling Laozu.

B) The Second One took place after the Siege, and I'm pretty sure the spirits of the Wen Remnants attacked others? I don't remember much about it, I'm sorry.

Thank you in advance and I appreciate your service a lot

4A)

FOUND? For the Dust and the Dirt by Nyxelestia (M, 63k, WIP, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Time travel Fix-It, Cloud recesses study Arc, It gets worse before it gets better, WWX Whump, Hurt/comfort, Angst, Eventual Happy Ending)

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5. Ok hi sorry can’t remember much but school in tilling WWX is teacher there LWY moves there to teach also become friends a misunderstanding make WWX not speaking to LWY after LWY follows a Yao and finds WWX fighting it on a rooftop they defeated the Yao and LWY asks WWX “you’re wearing crocks?” WWX is that what you are going with …, or something like that

As always THANK YOU for all that you do for us 😁 @bkpmystinen

FOUND? An Unscheduled Stream by trippednfell (M, 68k, WIP, WangXian, Modern AU, Modern Cultivation, Misunderstandings, BAMF WWX, BAMF Wen Popo, WWX cultivates resentful energy but keeps his golden core, WangXian Get a Happy Ending, Presumed Enemies to Lovers, Not Yunmeng Jiang friendly, Time Skips, Dual Cultivation - Not the Sexy Kind but ALSO the sexy kind, POV Multiple, Hurt/Comfort, Horny wound tending) I'm not sure about the crocs bit, but WWX and LWJ definitely end up fighting yao on the roof of the school.

FOUND? Roadside Attractions by Bodldops (T, 10k, WangXian, Teacher WWX, Teacher LWJ, The power of organized aunties)

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6. Heyy! I'm looking for two fics:

A) Omegaverse, modern au, wei ying is an omega and jc is an alpha and wy lives w the jiangs and i think there's this sort of expectation that he's gonna marry jc or atleast that's what jc wants, but wy gets pregnant by lwj and moves out after a fight then yeras later lsz and jl go on a date and that's how wy and jc meet again, cos jc's there when wy goes to dinner to meet jl's parents and uncle and turns out its the jiangs obviously, and basically jc's really stalkery and jealous after that but lz protects him.

B) modern au, omegaverse, lxc goes to pick up lwj from school and finds out a kid jc is his mate. he's disgusted and goes away for a while. when he comes back jc is older now. i don't remeber much but wy and lz are the side couple and wy is a beta as far as i can remeber, and there's a scene where jc wakes up in the hospital and wy and lz are kisisng and jc's kinds like fucking finally yk but yea!

Thank you! Love you guys!!

@body-inabyss-heart-inparadise

6A)

I recognise the fic though I can't remember the name. The author deleted all their works from AO3 a few months ago, if I recall correctly. I know it's also been on other fic finders.

FOUND? 6a is Meant To Be (But Not That Way), dm me ~dripping-moonlight

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7. Hello,

Ficfinder request.

Modern but with magic or cultivation. LWJ is a magical creature(?) hunter working for some kind of agency to protect humans.

The rest of the sects(from my memory) are families of magic creatures(?) but WWX has some kind of ‘half-breed’ status so when he goes through the magic/darkness detectors at LWJs work he doesn’t set them off.

Much of the fic is from LWJs pov but there is a great chapter from WWXs pov when he fully lets his powers out and we get badass WWX.

I feel like it was mdzs+ some anime but i don’t know which anime. 🥺 @empiresprince

FOUND? our reflections as seen (when the water stills) by chatonnerie (E, 121k, WangXian, XuanLi, Modern, Tokyo Ghoul Fusion, Blood, Canon-Typical Violence, This is a ghoul au, but everyone is also in university, so dumb energy is peak, Gore, Body Horror, Anal Sex, Anal Fingering, Biting, our reflections as seen (when the water stills) [PODFIC] by Opalsong) OHHH 7 IS THE TOKYO GHOUL AU IT’S SO GREAT AND ALSO THERE’S A PODFIC WHICH IS ALSO ABSOLUTELY AMAZING (I was too excited sorry for a million replies, but) It’s so good that there’s absolutely no tokyo ghoul knowledge needed, reads like a fun creature!modern!au kinda this way, has been one of my comfort listens for several years now

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8. Hello, I am looking for a fic, where Wei Wuxian runs away from Lotus Pier, right after he was brought there and Jiang Cheng kicked him out and threatened with dogs (when they were children). I think that Wei found his father? Not sure, but I have a feeling that this fic was found here and I forgot to save it. Thank you in advance.

FOUND? 🔒 the world wags on by justdoityoufucker (T, 5k, WCZ & WWX, WCZ & LQR, WCZ/LQR, canon divergence, pre-canon, not everyone dies au, not Jiang friendly, past child abuse, canon Jiang family relationships, parent-child relationship, not YZY friendly, pre-relationship) has elements of the world wags on but it isn't a perfect fit.

FOUND? In Another Life by SingingInTheRaiin (M, 21k, wangxian, time travel)

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9. Hi, I’m looking for a fic where after wwx is found during the sunshot campaign Jiang Cheng pretends his demonic cultivation is just the Jiang clan’s secret technique and uses that to keep the other sects off their back. I’m pretty sure it was from jc’s pov, and compared wwx, jc, and jyl to different bodies of water at the start of it (though I could be wrong about that part)? Thank you for the help

FOUND? Three kinds by apathyinreverie (T, 7k, wangxian, JC & WWX, canon divergence, protective JC, twin prides of yunmeng dynamics, soft WWX, smitten LWJ, worldbuilding, fix-it, golden core reveal, fluff, siblings) 

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10. Hello! I'm looking for a wangxian reality TV fic. It's a dating show and lwj is a participant while wwx is his camera man. They try to keep their relationship a secret but by the end the crew discovers them and has wwx brought in as lwjs partner. I think lwj proposes to wwx at the end and that Mo xuanyu was involved as the participant who stayed the longest

FOUND? After the Final Rose by azurewaxwing (E, 55k, wangxian, modern, reality show au, secret relationship, fluff & angst, happy ending, bachelor LWJ, cameraman WWX, smut)

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11. Hello! I'm so sorry to bother you but I've tried doing all my own searches and just can't find it. There's a fic series where Madame Yu cut off Wei Wuxian's hand before the fall of lotus pier and the Wen siblings took him in to help him recover. He ended up leaving the Jiang sect and starting his own and he and Wen Qing became amazing at making spiritual prosthetics. I know it's a series and I know I loved it but I can't find it anywhere! Thank you for your help! @queerlyloud

FOUND? 🔒 a star called sun by thelastdboy (E, 120k, wangxian, SL/XXC, JC & JYL & WWX, JYL & LWJ, WWX & WN & WQ, JYL/JZX, Canon Divergence after Xuanwu Cave, Fall of Lotus Pier, But worse!, Power Imbalance, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, Not Everyone Dies AU, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Canon-Typical Violence, Sunshot Campaign, Miscommunication, Heavy Angst with a Happy Ending, Slow Burn, Major Character Injury, Loss of Limbs, Chronic Illness, Seizures, WWX’s Three Months in the Burial Mounds, Wēn Remnants Live, Wēn Remnants Deserve Better, WWX Creates a Sect | Yílíng Wèi Sect, Additional Warnings In Author’s Note, Hurt/Comfort, Selectively Mute LWJ, Service Animals, Crows)

FOUND? 💖 from the other side of sorrow by Sour_Idealist (E, 127k, JC & WWX, JC/WQ, JC & WWX & JYL, JYL & WQ, WangXian, WWX & JYL, JYL/NHS, LXC/JGY, JGY & NMJ, JGY & WQ, Canon Divergence, Golden Core Fix-It, Golden Core Transfer, canon-typical family dysfunction, Torture, secondary character death, Canonical Character Death, Comfort Sex, Femdom, Choking, Cock Slapping, Cunnilingus, Series Context Provided, Under-negotiated Kink, Mentions of canon-typical violence, Clan Leader JYL, Sunshot Campaign, JYL POV, spiritual weapons, Sect Leader WQ, Biased Narrator, Slow Burn, sect politics, Trauma, D/s elements, Reconciliation Sex, Reconciliation)

FOUND? 🔒💖  in payment, a hand series by justdoityoufucker (M, 10k, wangxian, not jiang friendly, amputation, injury recovery, self reflection, abusive YZY, families of choice)

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12. Hello! I started reading a Tangled x MDZS fic which I remember being pretty long. It was with lwj as Rapunzel and wwx as Flynn Rider. I started reading it but then decided I don't want to and now I regret it 😭. The part that I read was exactly like the start of the movie, with wwx complaining about how his wanted poster looked and all that jazz.

FOUND! we sit in the sunset glow by moonsteps (T, 36k, WangXian, Tangled AU, Fairy Tale Elements, Strangers to Lovers, Slow Burn, Curses, Sharing a Bed, Minor Violence, Traveling, Falling In Love) for the tangled AU, it sounds like it could be it starts just like the movie with Wei ying complaining to lil apple abt how he looks in his wanted poster😂

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13. Hey buddy, Hope you are doing well!

I'm searching for a fic. The only thing I remember is just a scene. The cloud recesses is hosting lectures and and guest disciples from all sects are visiting. I think it is after the war with the wens. It's a cannon divergence I think. The scene I'm referring to is, two of the disciples are from Su She's (Su Minshan, I think the full name is) and the sect heir is just a kid below 10. At some point others makes fun of him and his sister when they present gifts at the beginning of the lectures and LWJ kinda defends them, I think....

That's all I remember. Thanks in advance! @grrumpywoof

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14. Hello , I am looking for a fic where Jang Cheng dies instead of Jang Yanli at nightless city. Then she moves back to Lotus Pier and becomes sect leader, and lan wangji ends up living there too. Also, wei wuxian is brought back to life earlier, and by xue yang. lan wangjis back takes longer to heal.

Thank you!

FOUND? picking up the pieces by KouriArashi (M, 111k, JYL & LWJ, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Alternate Canon, Grief/Mourning, Angst, Regret, Family, Kid Fic, Families of Choice, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Politics, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Canon-Typical Violence, canon typical political bullshit, Eventual Happy Ending)

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15. I'm in search of two time travel fics: A) WWX has traveled back to CR. LXC hears him playing dizi (wangxian among others) and recognizes it as something LWJ composed (possibly same fic, though I may be conflating details, he realizes in lessons WWX is pretending to be less skilled at the dizi than he actually is). B) LWJ travels back in time from right after the 30 lashes and ends up in the burial mounds early w/the wens, still seriously injured and bleeding through his robes. Thank you guys! @moku-youbi

15B)

FOUND! The Cottage Amongst the Gentians by Enigmatree (T, 5k, WangXian, LXC & LWJ, Time Travel, LWJ and WWX time travel from post nightless city to before jin ling's celebration, or, I give WWX back to 13-years-grief LWJ like he deserves, Hurt/Comfort, Feat. LXC being a good brother who'd love to know what the fuck is happening, WWX goes to Gusu with LWJ after time travel; the fic, Domesticity) maybe?

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16. Hi I'm looking for a arranged marriage fic where lwj and wwx both are in love with each other but the marriage is arranged by their families. On the wedding day wwx overheard a conversation between lwj and his best friend who also have initials of ww the best friend had found a letter addressed to ww written by lwj confessing his love and think lwj is in love with him and he is trying to convince lwj to not marry and give him a chance. Their married life is full of misunderstanding.

FOUND? A Marriage Story by DeviyudeThoolika (E, 38k, wangxian, NMJ/LXC, married wangxian, but there are some complications, because it’s marriage, Sex is complicated, Angst and Pining, Pining while fucking, Mature elements, Mutual Pining, HEA, Arranged Marriage, Sort Of, Misunderstandings, of epic proportions, One True Pairing, Good Sibling JC, Good Parent YZY, Fluff and Angst, in that order, Slow Burn, Angst with a Happy Ending, Everyone Loves WWX, Angst and Hurt/Comfort)

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17. Hello! I would like to ask for help in finding a wangxian fic:

Modern with magic

I remember that Wei Ying got injured in Xuanwu cave together with Lan Zhan. In the Lan hospital he was denied help because he was fired (?) from the Lan org and later received a bill to pay for expenses.

He is saved by Wens.

Few years later Lan Zhan and Lan Xichen seek his help in some kind of case. Wei Ying says something along the lines of "I don't work with Lans".

Later Lan bros find out it was Su She's fault in how WY was treated.

I would really appreciate your help in finding it! ❤️‍🩹 @popugaj-ara

FOUND? 🔒 Wish I could forget the taste of your skin and the feel of your hands pinning me down by KizuKatana (E, 63k, wangxian, WQ & WWX & WN, Modern Cultivation, weapons-grade thirst, Getting Back Together, Trying REALLY hard to not still like your Ex, but failing, BAMF WWX, BAMF LWJ, Canon Divergence, Case Fic, LWJ’s canonically big dick, sort of a ‘thirsting for your co-worker ex’ vibe, it eventually gets worked out, Mutual Pining, Guest-starring LWJ’s canonically poor communication choices after romantic cave encounters, novel canon relationship dynamics, basically this fic is about escalating sexual tension)

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18. hi there thank you for finding fics for us

there is a fic where WWX is a teacher in Yilling and LWJ accepts a teaching job at the same school, they become friends and then a misunderstanding (not uncommon btwn them) WWX ignores LWJ LWJ follows a trail of a yao sees WWX fighting it on top of the school roof when landing he sees is WWX and then asks "Are you wearing crocs?" I think WWX tells him is a comfortable wear

please/thank you @mysticalyunique

FOUND? An Unscheduled Stream by trippednfell (M, 68k, WIP, WangXian, Modern AU, Modern Cultivation, Misunderstandings, BAMF WWX, BAMF Wen Popo, WWX cultivates resentful energy but keeps his golden core, WangXian Get a Happy Ending, Presumed Enemies to Lovers, Not Yunmeng Jiang friendly, Time Skips, Dual Cultivation - Not the Sexy Kind but ALSO the sexy kind, POV Multiple, Hurt/Comfort, Horny wound tending) I'm not sure about the crocs bit, but WWX and LWJ definitely end up fighting yao on the roof of the school.

FOUND? Roadside Attractions by Bodldops (T, 10k, WangXian, Teacher WWX, Teacher LWJ, The power of organized aunties)

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19. hi this is for the fic finder! i remember the fic so well but i fear it may be deleted bc i just can’t find it in my bookmarks? so wwx after dropping off the face of the earth due to Wen Drama is a folk punk (?) musician along with wen ning and they live in a van, and jingyi is a huge fan, he drags sizhui to a show where they realize this guy might be lwj’s long lost best friend <3 call lwj over and they reunite, lsz is actually wwx’a bio child whom lwj adopted, they get to know each other etc

FOUND? your heart is a muscle by howodd5ever (E, 47k, WangXian, Modern AU, Pacific Northwest, folk punk, Adoption, WWX is LSZ's Parent, as in bio parent, WQ is LSZ's bio mom, brief mention of past wwx/wq hook up, chosen family, ljy and lsz are best friends, wwx is a folk punk singer, wn is a folk punk singer, Getting Together, Eventual Smut, fan boy ljy, protective big brother lxc, Happy Ending, I promise)

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20. Hi! This is fic finder. A ghost WWX after the first burial moubd sige. His ghost is in YMJ. JWY makes WWX to teach. WWX trains JL. And then there are a conference in lanling where WWX goes too. Thats all i can remember. Thanks! @idontknowwhattowriteforusername

FOUND! Death of a Ghost by Gotcocomilk (E, 107k, Family Bonding, Fluff and Angst, Eventual Happy Ending, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, Mutual Pining, Parental WWX, BAMF WWX, he is a beast and I love him so much, Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Canon Divergence, Ghost Sex)

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[quitealotofsodapop]

Holy crap! I can only imagine how the Stalwarts are dealing with all this.

You mentioned that they have been keeping an eye on Wukong all these years. Did they know about the mysterious Stone Egg their King took in before his disappearance, or did Wukong keep it secret?

Did they know about the fight that cost their King his memories, or did they find him after the fact once they were informed that he disappeared?

If so then why haven’t they come forward? Why haven’t they said anything? Why are they only here when Peaches already has a new life and family? Why are they only here when he’s having a full blown existential crisis? This is what’s going through Peaches’ head as he’s essentially being info dumped to by these strangers who claim to know him.

No doubt Peaches is feeling so overwhelmed by all of this. So, Dadsy puts his foot down and shoos everyone away because he can see that his eldest is seconds away from a breakdown.

I feel like, despite his grumpy exterior, Pigsy is the more emotionally sensitive parent. He’s not and did not start out perfect, but he has learned read his boys like the back of his hand. Peaches, particularly, he found quite easy to read and understand his quirks and habits. He doesn’t know how, or why they sometimes made his feel strangely nostalgic. Oh, well 🤷

+ bonus anon ask;

The Stalwarts were def panicking when they checked in on their King and found evidence of a scuffle. They knew he had been tending to an odd rock for a while, but they had assumed at first it was a case of him brooding like a hen over a regular stone.

An alarm is sounded off across the Realms when the King fails to return that morning.

Eventually it's Nezha who finds a patch of destroyed woodland just outside of Megapolis, along with scraps of the King's nightclothes and pieces of shell-like rock...

The Stalwarts had debated for a while over whether or not to walk in and claim "Peaches" as their missing brother, but after seeing him with a newborn Stone Monkey and a pair of his Pilgrim brothers reborn, they decided it was better for him to heal where he couldn't be harassed by Heaven or Diyu.

They also made sure to keep the *Amnesia-thing* to themselves. The Celestial Realm nor Wukong's enemies need to know about that. They had found the smell of a suspicious-smelling liquid on the King's clothing scraps.

The Stalwarts take care of the island with it's King away, driving out villains and humans alike to preserve the Monkey King's home.

The four also keep a close eye on their King and future Prince. A gym teacher here, a kind granny there, a grumpy regular here, a market stall owner etc... just to make sure they stay out of world-ending trouble.

Their little brother deserves a happy childhood after all he's been through.

They do reveal themselves however, after the chaos of New Years throws Peaches/Sun Wukong's condition into the limelight. He's not just some kid claiming to be Sun Wukong's successor - he IS Sun Wukong with his memories stolen!

They help his adoptive family with the cleanup around the city, and formally introduce themselves as Peaches' *first* found family. There's a minor panic that they've come to "take him away", but the older monkeys quickly calm that fear - they've been around for a while, and have no interest in ripping their brother from his present troop. They explain their side of the story, and how they felt it would be a kindness to let their little brother live happily and for his little miracle to have a normal childhood. Had they come forward, he would have been immediately recognised and targeted for his condition.

Peaches does get a little overwhelmed by all this lore though, and the Stalwarts take the cue to leave from a concerned Pigsy, promising to continue protecting him and his family from harm. Pigsy appreciates their ability to read the room (unlike Tang, who's been interviewing them for the past hour or so).

They do however joke that Pigsy is now their Dadsy too since he's adopted their baby brother! And MK is now the "baby-est" brother of their little family to spoil! Pigsy grumbles a little at that, but doesn't object. XD

[jasminegazer]

FINALLY FINISHED THIS ART PIECE

I cannot tell you how much I struggled but it was soooooo worth it. This is just a little wholesome angst for my version of MM!/Tottmnt Venus. On the left is Venus holding her little sister Lita. To the right is Dr Tyler Rockwell holding Venus (og post that explains story right here). I don’t know why I keep doing this trend of posting more stuff about these characters when I make artwork of them but I’m starting to think about starting another MM!/Tottmnt au after Difference Between the Appearance. So ignoring that random info dump. Here’s my opinion on how Venus acts like and what her relationship with each of the boys is like:

Her Personality: Venus is a very very very very VERY weird girl. Not like creepy wolf girl weird but like Luz(Owl House) and Marcy(Amphibia) weird. She doesn’t find disgust in the casual weird creatures she meets when her and brothers are getting into shenanigans. Part of this is formed because she was raised around yokai but it’s mainly because she tends to lean towards the bright side of things in very “Welp at least it’s not completely hideous” kind of attitude. But other than that she’s just your usual dorky K-pop loving artistic teenage girl(scratch that there is absolutely nothing normal about this chi overpowered weirdo of a turtle mutant . . . but she is a fellow kpop fan). But one thing that is definitely most unique about Vee that’s sets her apart from her brothers and Jennika is that she is very proud of and comfortable with being a mutant. She doesn’t care if society doesn’t think it’s ideal. She don’t care about society’s ideals period. If it means she gets to live as her true self, which was usually being shunned and forcefully molded into something different by Big Mama, she won’t mind being rejected or called weird. This concept is something that she has raised Lita in and she usually tries to get her fellow turtle mutants to understand as she is confused why they want to be normal instead of themselves.

Vee is a hug friend/family first make sure they’re ok later kind of gal. If you’re someone she cares about deeply and something goes down, she will immediately attack you with a bear hug. She is usually very physical about her affection towards others but can also be somewhat wise when it comes to self worth and personal issues that may be affecting them. But don’t mistake her for her huggable demeanor. If you mess with her or anyone she cares about, you are dead in the water and about to get your butt whupped sooo bad. She can be short tempered with enemies but patient with allies and people in pain who she understands far too well.

PS: Venus and the main turtles don’t become siblings immediately. Though she does live with them for a while she is not officially their sister until Splinter adopts her and Lita(which would happen a month or two after Vee and Splinter meet and Splinter trains her to join his sons in battle).

Anywho now for her relationship with her bros:

Pizza and Boba: Venus and Mikey tend to be the batshit crazy duo. Always think of new crackhead ideas that their siblings could never begin to comprehend. One would stand on the other’s shoulders as they would try and reach for a vent to escape or just to snag the last pop-tart. Though Venus will tend to be a little more mature and aware of when things are getting too serious for jokes and games. They’re the 2 silly goobers of the group giving enemies nicknames. Mikey is actually the one who came up with the nickname Vee when they first met and in response Vee deemed him as Miguel. Speaking of when they met Mikey completely ignored the fact of how weird it was that they met another turtle mutant and immediately threw his trust into her hands and tried to get to her know her as much as he could. They also both try to avoid fighting the most and try to end matter’s peacefully or with a good joke.

Tech and Turquoise: Donnie and Venus probably have the closest relationship with each other out of all the brothers. They are an unstoppable in sync duo on the battlefield. Yet also a peculiar combo. Technology a passion based on logic and strict reasoning and Chi the free flow of life with no boundaries and no clear explanation. Vee opens up to Dee more than she does with anyone(even Leo) and Dee does the same(similarly to how he does with Mikey). When they first met, Dee was the one who pried the most into her past and her life as he had noticed her wounds and scars first. They both love kpop, in different ways, but it still gives Donnie someone to info dump with who will actually understand what he’s talking about. They are definitely the most sarcastic of the group and will eat you up and roast you dry if they can and whenever you dare think about trying it.

Red Fire meets Blue Fire: Raph is the must reluctant to connect with Venus considering she’s technically Big Mama’s niece. When they first met Raph drilled her with questions whenever she messed up the facade she created to protect them from Big Mama. Raph tries to ignore her interactions with him as an attempt to prepare himself for another betrayal. Once Vee finally tells the whole true story of her harsh past, he feels even more conflicted feeling sympathy for her pain. When they do eventually work out their problems Vee and Raph are the sibling duo who tease each the most but still care about each other in the end. Kind of like Luz and Hunter(Owl House). Raph and Venus are also the most short tempered of the group.

2 Shades of Blue 1 Little Sis and 1 Big Bro: Leo is the one who is the most gentle with Venus. He worries his head off about her pain after she reveals how badly she had been beaten down and then shoved back up again. She appreciates it of course but hates how much of a hypocrite he is when he calls her out for saying it’s fine after erupting like a teal volcano of chi. They hold each other up when they reach there low points. Leo always insists that he helps Vee get home after using her chi in battle for fear of her overwhelming her body(which happens quite frequently when she strains herself). And Vee always immediately swoops in and hugs her big bro when he gets upset and needs to just let it all out.

(P.S. When the boys tell her that Leo has a crush on April, Venus thinks it is the most adorable thing ever and starts cooing at her big bro immediately, causing his brothers to tease him for being adorable😜(same thing when she finds out Rasey get together))

[practically-an-x-man]

it's been A Week lol so what do your OCs do when they're particularly stressed?

It has indeed been A Week XD

Thank you for the ask!!! <3333

Rae: Depends on what kind of stress it is - physical stress she'll take out on a punching bag down in the Danger Room, mental stress she'll work out with a good book (she likes Stephen King)

Robin: Honestly, she's not that great at dealing with stress XD But Peter will sometimes whisk her off to grab a meal or a few rounds of Joust down in the rec room when he can see she needs a break

Madison: She'll take Bravo out for a walk! (which for her translates to a 4-mile hike through the woods). She also tends to stress-bake sometimes.

Ophelia: She's also horrible about dealing with stress, but powerlifting is a great way to clear her mind and boost her endorphins when she's feeling overwhelmed - Peter even had to go out and buy her a set of dumbbells while her knee was healing, since she still got restless and stressed but couldn't do a full workout like she normally would.

Gia: She'll try to take a step back, maybe play some video games or spend some time with Thistle, but the fact is that she's pretty much in a perpetual state of stress and anxiety and doesn't know what to do about it

Jasper: If they can, they'll bust out the skates - either down to the rink for some actual derby practice, or just a bit of skating around the streets - but sometimes the best stress-reliever is just some cuddles with Kyle (especially when they're overwhelmed with emotional sludge from a long day at work, he's got this inner sunshine that just melts all of that away)

Kestrel: Also depends on the type of stress, and where they are. Sometimes it's that they feel cooped-up and need to go for a fly, other times they need to get out some of that frustrated or destructive energy by pulling up weeds and digging around in their garden, and sometimes they just need some quiet, domestic comfort and to be reminded that they're loved (one of their biggest sources of stress is just the ingrained insecurity of belonging somewhere)

Katherine: Comic books!! They've always been a source of escapism for her, and even as an adult she finds it really calming to just be able to dive into those fantastical worlds where the hero always comes out on top

Quinn: Things go up and down for her. First it was parkour - great stress-reliever, being able to run around and feel like you're on top of the world - but after her disability prevented that, she didn't really have a stress-reliever aside from turning to alcohol or pot. Thankfully things start to look up for her once she joins the Ghosts (gets some mobility back, and starts to build that support system), and she usually ends up going for a float at the hidden reservoir or playing some stupid prank on One.

Eris: Sparring. Easy. If they can't find a partner willing to trade blows for a bit (Rick is usually down for it, but sometimes he's beat up from a mission or is just too busy to step away), they'll pick up a weapon and run some forms, but they've always treated martial arts as a way to find balance - and he's surprisingly graceful when he's focused on technique rather than simply felling his enemies!

Nikoletta: She's also not great about dealing with stress, namely because there wasn't any way she could let off stress in Belle Reve. She had to keep up the illusion of poise and control, for one, and prison meant limited options even at the best of times. She finds some stress-relief in kitty-cuddles once they adopt Baron and Barbie, and once she builds up her skills a bit I think she would find cooking fairly relaxing, but most of the time she just tends to sit in it and let herself be miserable unless Abner reminds her to take care of herself (though, to be fair, he does the same thing, so they're in the same boat there)

Jimmy: He's honestly kind of clingy when he's stressed XD If he's demanding attention like an understimulated parrot, that's probably a sign that something's bothering him - though to be fair, he spent over a hundred years as a wandering ghost with no human interaction, so can you really blame him?

Vivienne: As usual, storytelling becomes its escape to pretty much anything. Something stressing her? Well, that becomes a great storm or a terrible plague or a fearsome leviathan that her hero must defeat. Some of her stories are from her own experiences, but many of them are just legends and tall tales it creates from nothing more than its own imagination.

Spider: Off to the climbing gym! Or if he can't get to the gym, he'll at least want to find a tree or some kind of interesting architectural feature, something to get him off the ground. That, or he'll take a look at his tape collection - the organization of it all tends to calm him, especially once he's got it all labeled and digitally catalogued.

[dynared]

Yes! Burning justice for Star Saber! I also once made a post about the unfair treatment he received from IDW comics, and now I really hope that he will have chances to appear in other projects.

And about that. I don't think having Optimus or Rodimus can be a big problem for him to appear in the media. Everyone has already got used to the fact that, for example, Elita One is the commander of a certain number of fighters or units, so why shouldn't Star Saber be something like a field commander of some part of the troops on distant borders, if the war is more global? This could show that the Autobots (and Decepticons) have some kind of chain of command and a hierarchical army structure, not just a leader and a few assistants.

I have, perhaps not the smartest idea of how to tie this atmosphere of Super Robots to the character.

If we include Jan's adoption in the story, then the development of events may be as follows.

Jan could grow up and socialize on the base among transformers or partially even among other aliens. But at some point, Star Saber could decide that a human child still needs to communicate with his kind and peers, or decides that it is becoming more dangerous for Jan to be around him. In any case, this is a kind of repetition of the plot from the anime.

Gradually, Jan gets acquainted with Earth culture, with local media, in particular with anime about Super Robots, because it seems to me that this genre would have arisen anyway, despite the presence of transformers, even if they were known to people.

At some point, Jan, due to resentments, difficult age, or still insufficient level of socialization, could quarrel with Star Saber and say something like: "If only you were like (insert the name of some character)!". Considering that they were fighting in the manga as well, that would be partly in Jan's character. In addition, sometimes children, at some moments of resentment against their parents, really tend to compare them with some kind of ideal or example.

Such a comparison or some reason for the quarrel could cause a sense of guilt in Star Saber that he did not pay enough attention to his adopted son because of his responsibilities or did not meet the expectations of the child. This reaction could also be caused by an old sense of guilt that he did not have time to save Jan's parents (as it was in the original).

All this could lead to the fact that Star Saber would consciously or not begin to copy the behavior and character traits of Jan's favorite character in order to become "that real hero" for his son. Something like overcompensation.

And if this were a children's media, it could lead to the morality that you don't have to copy someone to be a real hero for your child, for children the moral is that parents, despite the fact that they are not as cool as heroes, can still be for their own children. Or you can take it in the other direction altogether, that with the help of such changes, Star Saber became even more inspired by the ideas of justice and the fight against evil and became, I don't know, a symbol of hope for children like Jan.

I repeat, the idea may be stupid, but, okay, in any case, it's better than what was shown in the IDW comics.

Being better than the IDW comics is an admittedly low standard, but there is a lot here, and most of it is based off of what already exists of the character rather than the insane Roberts portrayal.

I like what you’re suggesting, as a sort of journey for the character, maybe going TOO over the top in the vein of his Earth Wars character from what I originally saw as a more stoic character to something a bit more balanced between the two extremes. The martial arts master who’s used to acting in solitude and fighting his enemies without a single care given for what civilians think of him would definitely be taken aback by how disapproving his son is of his focus on work and would probably do everything he could to keep his trust.

There is also something to the idea that Star Saber presenting himself as a Brave Hero in the hopes of being someone Jan can admire and while Jan ultimately learns the lesson that parents are people (robot people but imperfect people all the same) his new portrayal ends up making him very popular with kids and civilians even if the other Autobots end up finding the whole thing completely ridiculous. How would the Cons react to such a thing? Ignore it? Poke fun at him? Make him an active target because of his popularity with the flesh creatures? Maybe a rival of his chooses to portray himself as an over the top villain to contradict the hero? There’s a lot that one can do here.

[ruthlesslistener]

Spare Grimm headcanons? Funky goth bastard has been on my mind lately

Sure! These are just scraps lying around me old noggin

-Started off as a twin to the Radiance, who then slowly grew more and more distant as each accumulated new differences between them. This works mainly because the majority of their power sits in the Dream Realm, so they do not obey the same rules of biology as those born in the physical realm (like PK, who mimics a biological being quite well despite basically being composed of soul pretending to be flesh). Grimm now views his sister as a pitiful thing almost entirely apart from himself, and while he does wish things did not turn out the way they did, he wouldn't shed a tear at her death

-Created the butterfly tribe soon after Radiance created the moths (or was it before...?) Both argue that they had their own idea first. Grimm doesn't tie himself to them, however, because the Radiance's obsession with being the mother of the moths/be accepted and loved by them all disturbed him. Also, being tied to them brings discrimination from those terrified of him, so if you ask his relationship to them, he'll never give you a straight answer

-The butterflies, in turn, either do not worship him directly; they are often traveling preformers, much like their creator, but they dance and sing and turn to the arts to remind people to value life when it is rich and beautiful, not to herald Grimm's arrival (as is often misunderstood by those who know of him). They also never speak his name, so many who are estranged from their tribe just straight-up don't know him

-Split himself into three (Nightmare Heart, Nightmare King, Troupe Master Grimm) partially because he disliked the all-eggs-in-one-basket means the other gods did, and partially because he was curious about death. The Troupe Master form will literally 'burn out' without the full might of its componant parts to constantly regenerate it in the physical world, which is why he has that phoenix-like lifestyle. If one part is killed, the others survive, but he cannot live a continuous, constantly immortal existance like the rest of his kin

-Infertile; can only reproduce asexually, which bothers him sometimes. Actually a great dad though fuck y'all who says otherwise. Tends to adopt kids he finds in warzones/runaways, which gives him a legend of being a grubnapper and cradlerobber despite him not going out of his way to steal children

-Opportunist to the core: is he as dangerous as other gods? Probably not. He holds no territory of his own apart from his troupe, and he's a scavenger to boot. But he's less of a mild-mannered vulture, and more of a crow; he'll wait patiently for his turn at the carcass of old civilizations, but if he finds an easy way to hurry along the process, he will. And while he does feel pity for unfortunate souls, he will also devour their fear and dread just as hungrily, because that's kind of his entire job. He's the cleanup crew. It's nothing personal

-Does he have bones? Organs? A face? Don't ask

-Much like wyrms are legends brought to life of now-extinct vertebrates like snakes, Grimm has batlike/mammilian features because legends are still whispered about those ancient enemies of the night, even though it has been many millenia since they went extinct, and bugs were small enough to be hunted by them. Their memory lives on in legend and the deepest instinctual fears of bugs, and manifests itself in Grimm

-Somewhere above 13,000 years old, if we count continuous rebirth cycles as a single life. Yes, the Radiance was this old as well. I place their creation somewhere around the time bugs became able to conceptualize/tell stories of their hopes and fears, which brought them into being

-Gender? Whatever feels like the most fun preformance for him right now. Gender doesn't exist when you're a dream coaxed into reality, with all the temporal bindings that posesses (almost none). He usually uses he/him bc Radi feels very strongly positively about she/her, and bc its dapper, but that's not set in stone by far. More set in smoke, and just as whimsical and easy to change

-Somewhat of a narrative foil to the Pale King, but in self-sacrifice, responsibility, and fatherhood, unlike the direct foil of the Radiance. Bit incoherent rn bc I'm sleepy, but despite his fairytrap deal of joining the Troupe still being, well, a fairytrap, he doesn't hold anyone to strict loyalty like PK. Yeah he's a nightmare god who lives on the entrails of civilizations felled by death and ruin, yeah he's exactly what he sounds like he is, but he's also not cruel. That would be a waste of precious time and energy, and he hasn't got much to lose, either, so why bother? He's just genuinely a laid-back dude when it comes to the other gods. Best to let them tear each other apart, he'll always profit when the warmongering is over no matter what

[lycorogue]

One Piece NoPixel

Ever since the 4.0 launch of NoPixel (a private GTA Online roleplay server), my husband and I have become OBSESSED with the Yuno Sykk storyline going on.

Considering Sykkuno has been streaming NoPixel for roughly 8hrs every day, there's no way I can fully keep up, so my insomniac husband tends to give me recaps the following day. As he's telling me the story and is trying to get me to understand the relationship ties between characters I had an epiphany: Yuno is just Luffy from One Piece.

People already joke that Sykkuno has "plot armor" and is the "main character", so his GTA character Yuno being Luffy already kind of fits. Plus, both Yuno and Luffy are ADHD/Autistic balls of chaos that are also unintentionally beams of charisma that attracts just about everyone to their side. It doesn't matter how insane the plan is, if Luffy/Yuno says it people will follow through. You also have the fun of wondering if Luffy/Yuno is just insane with godly amounts of luck that allows their plan to work out, or if they are secretly geniuses that had already calculated everything in the background and the plan worked because of that discrete planning (or if it's a happy combo of the two). Luffy and Yuno are both almost impossibly optimistic and goofy, and people INSTANTLY know to take these boys seriously the second they become serious. If Luffy/Yuno stop smiling, you KNOW shit is about to go down! Also, Luffy/Yuno is INSANELY loyal and protective of his found family. On multiple occasions, Yuno has been informed that if he were to betray the speaker that would kill their last bit of faith in humanity, because if they know ANYTHING it's that Yuno doesn't lie and doesn't betray. Much like Luffy.

OK, so Yuno Sykk is Monkey D. Luffy (If Yuno's name wasn't just Sykkuno's I wouldn't be surprised if he had included the D. initial).

I then thought about those around Yuno. While the personalities don't work one-to-one, my husband and I were able to map a lot of Yuno's friends onto Luffy's simply based on relationship ties.

First is obvious. Yuno, through the 3.0 adoption chaos, ended up the adopted grandson of cop (and eventual Police Commissioner) Sam Baas. So, Baas is Garp. The fish-name connection is just a bonus.

Next up is the inspiration to both start an illegal lifestyle and to become the best possible at it. A pseudo-father-figure and mentor. The man whose blessings and pride in Luffy/Yuno is just about everything to the boy: Lang Buddha as Yuno's Shanks.

Luffy/Yuno couldn't get as far as he does without his true ride-or-die. The man who is loyal to a fault. Who will gladly give his life to not only save his best friend and brother, but also to simply lift him higher, if that's what's requested of him. A man who will smile as he participates in mass murder, and whose homicidal tendencies are surprisingly calmed when around Luffy/Yuno: Raymond Romanov as Yuno's Roronoa Zoro

The personalities don't really match, and YMMV when it comes to this ship, but 4.0 brought about Yuno's "relationship arc". This introduced us to a woman that Yuno loves spending time with, is very protective of, and joys in making her smile. She is there to comfort Yuno, but understands that he needs to do things his way and on his own sometimes. Yuno keeps saying that they're only best friends, and that may be true. He may honestly have no romantic interest in her, despite her obvious romantic interest in him. Even so, she's His Person and he wants to be with her and protect her as much as possible. If there's one person that Luffy/Yuno cares about that you DO NOT mess with, it's her. Ladies and gents, meet Yuno's Nami: Lottie Mae

On the flipside, we have a woman who started off as an enemy, but was instantly charmed by the lengths Yuno would go to in order to help someone that had threatened him. Someone who has family who viciously protects her. Someone who is completely smitten despite Yuno not really giving as many "I want to be in a romantic relationship" vibes as he does with Lottie. Someone who clearly has a jealous streak to her. The main person people seem to ship with Luffy/Yuno behind Nami/Lottie. Our own Tsundere Queen: Gigi Costello as Yuno's Boa Hancock

Next up is a man who is a more serious leader who doesn't approve of Luffy/Yuno's shenanigans, but he also can't deny the results, so he begrudgingly gives Luffy/Yuno free rein. He still tries to talk some sense into Luffy/Yuno and his friends, and they do listen to him on occasion, but those moments are few and far between. He also can't ignore Luffy/Yuno's charisma, and, in spite of himself, he's equally drawn in to the King of Chaos. Congratulations, Tommy T. You are Yuno's Trafalgar Law.

We then have someone who is older. Someone who is a bit of a mentor, but also would gladly follow Luffy/Yuno. Someone who was once a leader himself, but has since disbanded his own crew (or, at least, left them). Someone who is incredibly protective of Luffy/Yuno, but also understands that the kid can hold his own (for the most part). Someone who can't fathom Luffy/Yuno ever betraying anyone. Someone who is a master a steering??? This one is a little bit of a stretch, but my husband believes that Tony Corleone is Yuno's Jimbe.

Finally, we have someone who is a pseudo-ally to Luffy/Yuno, almost begrudgingly. Someone whose goals differ from Luffy/Yuno's and those differing goals caused tension for a bit before the two decided to break off from each other. Someone who has a sort of 1920s gangsta vibe with his underground gambling and mob-like connections. A man whose main goal deep down is to find a family of his own. Marty Banks as Yuno's Capone Bege

My husband also thinks that Benji Ramos would be Yuno's Sanji, mostly due to the incessant flirting with little-to-no success. Also, Mickey Sinclaire as Usopp due to Mickey being a cowardly schemer and master liar. I'm still on the fence for both of those. This list was largely mapping parallels on how these characters relate to Luffy vs how they relate to Yuno. The Benji and Mickey parallels are more about their personalities pairing with One Piece characters.

I think that will have to be a different list, though.

So, NoPixel/One Piece fans, what do you think? Does this work? Would you have picked other character parallels? Are there others we didn't think of?

[imsobadatnicknames2]

What are your favourite ttrpg mechanics that you’d like to see adopted by more systems?

Sorry for taking so long to answer!

Anyway, my answer is probably gonna be kinda boring because I very rarely play those artsy, high-concept rpgs with really out-there experimental mechanics.

I think some of my favorite mechanics are those that take elements of classic old-school roleplaying games but streamline and abstract them to juuust the right amount of crunch. For example, I've mentioned this before: I ADORE the initiative mechanic from games like Mausritter, Into the Odd, or The Black Hack: At the start of combat, every player makes a Dexterity check. Players that pass get to act before the group of enemies, while players that fail have to act after the group of enemies.

Similarly, I REALLY like the way The Black Hack handes inventory management through its usage dice system (which has inspired similar systems in later games): for stackable, consumable items such a arrows, rations, lantern oil, etc, instead of keeping count of the exact number, your represent the quantity of items with a die. Each time you spend the item, you roll the corresponding die, and if the result is 1-2, you downgrade the size of the die by one step (e.g. a d12 becomes a d10). When the usage die is 1d4 and you roll a 1-2, you run out of whatever item it was.

Both of these mechanics massively streamline initiative and inventory management and vastly reduce the bookkeeping involvd in those systems, but still keep the idea behind them crunchy enough that they still preserve an element of tactics. I tend to hack these mechanics into pretty much any old-school game that features initiative or inventory management, and I've yet to find a case where it wasn't a huge improvement.

Another mechanics that I love that I' think we don't see enough in games is 'd love to see used more often in games is risk-reward choices. One of my favorite examples is a magic weapon which I think appears in the second Mörk Borg Cult zine (Mörk Borg Cult: Heretic). When attacking with it, you can choose any number and apply it as a penalty to your attack roll, in exchange for getting to apply the same number as a bonus to your damage roll if you succeed. So the harder you choose to impair yourself with the attack roll, the bigger the potential damage you'll do if you manage to succeed. I think that's one of the best-designed magic items I've ever seen in a ttrpg and I wish more things in TTRPGs incorporated that kind of decision.

Lastly, another one that I love but I don't think it fulfills the "you’d like to see adopted by more systems" part of your ask: I absolutely ADORE the flashback mechanic from Blades in the Dark. Basically: at any point during a heist, you can spend stress to invoke a flashback to roleplay an action your character did in the past to prepare for the situation they're facing in the present (as long as it doesn't contradict or "undo" any of the things that have been established in the fiction so far). E.g. as you enter a party you get patted down and deprived of your weapons, you might choose to trigger a flashback to roleplay how earlier that afternoon you came by, gave one of your guns to one of the valets and, bribed him to hide it for you in one of the potted plants inside the ballroom. Just like any other action, depending on how hard or risky it is, it might automatically succeed, or it might require one or multiple rolls.

The reason I'm hesitant to say I'd like to see it adopted by more systems is because, as much as I consider it one of the most brilliant ttrpg mechanics of all time, it's also a mechanic firmly rooted in BitD's criminal theme and heist structure, and to me i'd feel pretty out of place incorporated into any system that doesn't mainly revolve around executing heists.

[deficd]

GET TO KNOW THE MUN.

respond to the prompts out of character!

what made you pick up the current muse(s) you have? oh man. uh. i guess, following my url's general meaning, i choose to write muses on here that have defied their fates/expectations in some shape or form. this is true for more of my older muses on here, as i've definitely added some recently where i have to kinda twist that a bit. aside from that, i really just write muses that i can connect with on some level. my apparent calling is sad men who are prone to violence and are also incredibly sad/lonely. the mains i have floating in my head are usually there because it's the current media i'm consuming (i.e. star wars: the old republic). i could write long metas on why i adore all of my muses though. c':

is there anything you don’t like to write? uhh, you know. i'm actually pretty open to most things. i need some sort of action going on, regardless of the type, to keep interested i suppose. like, if there's a lot of conversation, i tend to get stuck. that's just because i struggle with it and i don't want to bore my partner, though. aside from that, pretty much any genre you throw at me, i'll be interested in writing.

is there anything you really enjoy writing? I'm a sucker for redemption au's, even if it takes thirty threads to get there. i enjoy writing the aftermath of a character's worst arc, and all of the guilt, pain, and sorrow that comes with it. so do i want to write arcann's redemption? yes. do i want to write about nihilus somehow healing from being a literal wound in the force? yes. (or even, writing who he was before malachor.) ragnar going back to being a farmer? please. all of it, yes. aside from that, i really, really enjoy hurt/comfort, violent/gore threads, general sci-fi adventure, and general fantasy adventure (the campfires, the fights, the enemies in between destinations, etc.)

how do you come up with headcanons?  it's kind of a mix between being inspired by outside sources, such as media, music, mututals, and things that pop into my head after hyperfixating about a muse for three straight hours or something. i do adopt headcanons/partial headcanons from other people, but like sparingly and if it's appropriate/i know them/have asked. most of the time i really just get hit in the face with them though.

do you write in silence or do you play music? i am someone that requires music to write. i need to drown out distractions however i can. i really struggle with being easily distracted (getting tested for adhd soon lol) because i can very easily lose a thought before i'm able to write it down. i find that with music i can focus better, and i have playlists that help with whatever mood i'm going for in the reply.

do you plan your replies or wing them? i usually just sort of write what comes to mind first and then, if i have questions about something, i'll either approach the other mun or write things in the tags. sort of referring to the previous question, i try to write my ideas down as soon as i see a reply, or i'll be prone to forgetting them.

do you enjoy shipping? yes, 1000% yes. i love all sorts of relationships, not only the romantic ones. i don't really get to write about platonic/friendships too often, but i really enjoy the times i can. that said, re: romantic ships, i'm usually on board if there's chemistry between muses. i also encourage other muns to approach me if they think they might want to ship because chances are, i'm already on board.

what’s your alias/name?  Lee

age?  old

birthday?  December 25th

favorite color?  silver, purple, black

favorite song?  i... don't think i can choose? there are all sorts of songs that hit me in the right way. i can tell you a song i'm listening to on repeat right now is The Wind Weeps Eleanor by American Murder Song.

last movie you watched?  Hagazussa: A Heathen's Curse, but I hope to go see Dune 2 this week.

last show you watched?  just started Shōgun and it's wonderful.

last song you listened to?  Dwamn by Tech N9ne 🫣 

favorite food?  fry bread! or a step further: navajo tacos.

favorite season?  winter

do you have a tumblr best friend? um i think i'm close to a few people on here, but the only one i know i can tag for sure is @vuulpecula starbuck has put up with my nonsense on here for years and somehow still talks to me lmfao we have the greatest and the worst ships and honestly i am always always always excited to write with her❤️❤️❤️

and idk if i should tag u because this is an rp meme and this is one of my rp blogs but @oolathurman is my other bestie and i've known and adored them for literal years so. yeah sflkjdslf❤️❤️❤️

TAGGED BY @valorums thank you<3

TAGGING @vuulpecula @riiese @hcxcd @fasciinating @juramentum @mistrdctr / @respondedinkind @auroradicit @red-white-and-trauma @blue-eyed-banshee @helreginn @astridnorddottir @brittlefcrged and YOU!

[polyhexian]

Btw I do feel extremely bad for eventually!Darius. I love Darius! He's a very cool character with interesting motivations and flaws! And they're all coming to a head in this one, lol.

Darius is replaying the last time he ever saw Jasper on loop, and he's reevaluating every interaction he has ever had with Hunter, and he has realized he's fucked up. Darius has realized he's been consistantly fucking up for 16 years.

Maybe he tries to defend himself to himself. Brains tend to do that. I was grieving! Okay yeah valid but no excuse for bullying a child, actually. How was I supposed to know he was Jasper's kid? Oh come on you can't say you didn't KIND OF suspect with those eyes and that face and the hair, also it shouldn't matter WHOSE kid he was you still hurt a kid. I was subconsciously upset Jasper apparently had a kid and didn't tell me. Right but this all keeps coming back to you bullying a kid. It's not like he explicitly told me to look out for the next Golden Guard! It costs 0 snails to not be mean to the child soldier.

Darius is just…facedown on his bed, groaning. He hasn't kept up with his hair or skincare routine in two days. Eberwolf is getting worried; they've dragged MULTIPLE animal carcasses into Darius's bedroom and he hasn't complained ONCE.

Raine: We're not getting Eda involved, I refuse to put her in danger.

Darius: Sure! Of course! Perfectly understandable! I'm so glad you have the opportunity to look out for your loved one! Of course if it turns out you wildly misunderstand what she wants she may never forgive you, but hey, whatever you think is best! AHAHAHAHA.

Raine: Darius are you okay.

At some point when he's on speaking terms with Alador again, it comes up.

Darius: I've horrifically betrayed the man I love. He trusted me, and I let him down, badly. Now he hates me and he's never going to forgive me and I have to see him scowl at me from across the room and call me all sorts of horrible things and the sad truth is I deserve every single one of them.

Alador, nodding: I can tell you from experience that it's an awful thing to go through, but it is possible to eventually move on.

Darius: Are you MOCKING me??

Alador: No? I'm being genuinely sympathetic and supportive.

Idk if this is a universe where Jasper and Darius would be able to work things out between themselves - the hurt runs deep, Jasper honestly thought he could at least count on the one man who befriended HIM to look out for a kid who looked like him and was stuck in the same position, and instead Darius failed at just not being MEAN to said kid. Jasper didn't even realize the bar was so low. And Darius doesn't really have much time to fix his behavior and turn things around, and Hunter's real dad is here so there's no need for Darius to become an adopted father figure, and…yeah.

Jasper's relationship with Darius is so hostile, and once Darius realizes what's up he's just miserable and resigned and apologetic even though he knows it'll fix nothing, like a dog rolling over to show its belly. It's sad and hard to watch.

But if their relationship ever DOES progress to something less than hostile, it's entirely because Hunter's willing to forgive Darius, and Jasper can't deny Hunter anything. They can maybe work their way towards cordial neutral. Romance…romance may not work out here.

…Of course, Hunter has to tackle Luz when she catches wind of the situation. She starts rambling about the Parent Trap and Friends to Enemies to Lovers and orchestrating an Only One Bed situation and he is like NOPE, BAD IDEA, THAT IS HOW PEOPLE (mostly Darius lbr) DIE.

YEAH NO IT SUCKS TO BE DARIUS IN ALL TIMELINES HDDGJIKKIFDRH

I don't think it's.... TOTALLY unsalvageable if he plays his cards right. Like on the beach he realizes that's jasper and he's ALIVE. And jasper hisses at him like. If you ever threaten my son again I will rip you limb from limb. And he poofs and I'm sure Darius is left like SON??????? SON??????

And like back at the castle he has an existential crisis in the middle of the night before like. Oh my god. I've been bullying his son. What the fuck. Son??? He had a son???? Wh. When did he do that. And suddenly he has that same interest in hunter canon Darius has but... perhaps with a little more guilt and desperation. My dude is ALREADY planning to kidnap hunter and get out of there because holy shit??? Jasper???? Alive??????? Out of my way gayboy I have amends to make

Like... Jasper loses him after hollow mind. Hunter bolted and jasper couldn't catch him. So Hunter spends nine days homeless while jasper is having a fucking panic attack. Hunter is in so much fucking immediate danger rn. There is no more fucking around in the shadows it is GO time. Maybe he hates Darius, but Darius is strong, he knows the emperor's coven and hunter, and most importantly he fucking owes him.

Jasper has MAGIC now. He has Hunter's staff! He shows up at Darius' door like GET UP SCRUBLORD YOURE GOING TO HELP ME FIND MY FUCKING SON RIGHT NOW

Ohhhh my god the drama. The two of them working together. Darius is overwhelmed with guilt and confusion. Jasper is angry and hates him. Darius keeps asking questions like "how are you alive" "why didn't you tell me you were alive" "how do you have a son" "do you like legit hate me" and jasper is just fucking ignoring him. But then!! Labyrinth runners! Darius hears over, the like-- like the fucking coven group chat or whatever, that Adrian graye has found the fucking golden guard and jasper's like AHHHHHHHHH and so they both rush over but... it all happened so fast! They're too late! But now they get the full details of the draining spell because hunter told the kids and oh my god.... oh my goodddd. Jasper is like. I have to get hunter as far away from here as humanly possible. And Darius is like you literally don't even know if that would work. And also what about everyone else??? But obviously a worked up jasper is like fuck everybody else!! Gasp. Shock. You're mad at me for bullying you're kid when you're willing to let every kids parents die?? And he's like. Gasp. How dare you

But Hunter is already gone... and jasper is ready to go look for him, but... oh no! Did you think you could beat up a coven head and not face retribution?! There is like a whole outfit of coven soldiers on the way. Like the ones with Adrian were not like combat guys. They were just here to hassle some school kids. Now the school kids have committed fucking treason. And if Darius fights then his cover will be blown! And maybe even Belos will realize he needs to look for moles higher up! If nothing jasper does works then that is the only backup plan to stop the spell and save Hunter along with everyone else!

There's only one choice. Jasper has to stay and fight off a whole army so the kids have time to escape, and Darius has to go and find hunter. And jasper is like you fucker. You go and remember how much you fucking owe me. You remember that. And then wham! Bam! Sick moves!

And we know that hunter really wants Darius's approval... he likes him a lot. At this point we kind of lose track of them for a second because Luz and king go do the Titan trapper stuff, and then they go to the knee to hide out, then they get captured and Darius and co saves them and then the next we see hunter he shows up to say Darius told him to protect Luz so... I guess he's been staying with him? It's a little unclear. But ALSO.... where were Gus and Willow and hunter hiding??? How did they run into Darius and the CATTs?

Maybe they ALSO needed a rescue mission... maybe while fleeing from the school they got captured by a unit too, and Darius swung in and rescued them and brought them to the safehouse BUT also he got a really serious injury like stabbed or something, he's not like dying yet but OWWWWW... and no one in their crew knows healing magic!!!! He gets patched up but.... and you know. He's fretting over hunter. He's been homeless for nine days. He's hungry. He's malnourished. He's upset. Time for Darius to go dad mode for the first time but ALSO hes injured and he gets to finally have a big "I am so sorry Hunter that I let myself drown in my grief and turn into a person I never wanted to be and I'm sorry you were on the receiving end of that, and you might never forgive me but I'm going to do everything in my power to keep you safe now" and it's all very FEELINGS!!!!!!

But where is jasperrrrr???? Poor motherfucker has lost his kid AGAIN... and the thing is that from the time eda and Luz get rescued, it's only 24 hours until the draining spell!! Jasper does not fucking have a lot of time! He searches and searches but THEN.... THE SPELL... AND HUNTER IS UP THERE.... oh maybe he rescues Alador after the kids leave and he tells him they went up to the coven heads and he gets there and Darius says they went to go save Luz... and that's when he finally pops in just in time to protect the kids from a big dramatic Belos attack. And then of course he loses an arm and nearly dies and spends a week in a fever coma lol

[mischief-lies-and-stories]

Loki Ships

All right, I think it’s time to jump into the inevitable, since ships can make or break whether or not some people care what I have to say, and I get it. I considered including them in my pinned post, but that was already way too long. 

I ship Loki with a lot of people. The first time I heard the term fandom bicycle, a friend was using it to refer to Loki, and I took it to heart (and probably also a challenge). As I said in my pinned post, though, I mostly ship Loki with guys, since his canon women love interests are often kind of shitty to him. This doesn’t deter me from the potential of shipping him with women (I acknowledge and celebrate that he’s bi/pan, after all) but the women that he’s around tend to be assholes to him, so the men kind of have to pick up the slack. (Is the assholery deserved? Yeah, sometimes. But I also like the idea of people being soft with him. And I think he deserves that sometimes, too.)

So I’m going to explain a little bit about the ship in general, why I ship it personally, and the canon likelihood of it, whether or not it’s likely to become canon in comics or the MCU or both or neither. Also spoilers for Where Mischief Lies, The Defenders (1983), The Defenders (2021), and Defenders: Beyond.

 Thorki: Might as well start with my most divisive ship, though if you read my Loki playlist post, you’ll already know I ship this. I believe this is the first person I came to ship with Loki. This is obviously Thor and Loki, and I get it. I do. I am not here to defend my questionable taste at all. I am not here to make the flimsy arguments people sometimes make for this ship, like that he’s adopted so “they aren’t really siblings, so it’s not really incest.” I think that’s damn rude to people who are adopted and have adoptive siblings. Frankly, these are fictional characters who are fictionally siblings and I know the difference between fiction and reality. Am I supportive of IRL incest? Not particularly, no. But Loki and Thor are not real (and thank God for that; Loki would annoy the hell out of me). So I’m not here to defend it. I just think that they have a lot of chemistry, and a lot of romantic and sexual tension. Especially in Thor: Ragnarok. Like towards the end, they have this whole conversation about how Loki belongs on Sakaar, how he can flourish there and rule over Sakaar and it would be the ideal place for him. And both of them (at least verbally) agree that this is the case. And then Thor leaves him basically seizing from electric shock on the floor of a hangar. And then the next time we see Loki, he has come back to Asgard anyway, to help Thor save the people. And if that’s not love (familial, romantic, whatever), I don’t know what is. 

          Canon Likelihood…….Unlikely.

          Not even possible, it’s never going to happen. In the comics, not a chance. In the MCU, not a chance. Marvel’s never going to make incest happen, especially not with Disney as their parent company. And frankly, I don’t want them to. I don’t trust them to do this right or be sensitive about it. They will never not be able to spin it as some shocking joke no matter how serious they pretend to be about it, if they ever were to do it. And with the level of backlash that would happen because of it, it wouldn’t be worth it. So I’m just content to read and write fanfic and look at fanart. I don’t need it to be canon and it’s never going to be canon and that’s okay. Sometimes that’s okay.

Theoki: Theo Bell (from Loki: Where Mischief Lies) and Loki. Theo Bell (as I’ve said previously) is gay, very snarky and is a good match personality-wise for Loki in the novel, he walks with a cane as a result of becoming disabled due to a homophobic attack, and he works essentially for Odin on Midgard (but Odin really only calls on him and his coworkers when he really needs something, like when he needs something for his younger son to do when he exiles him to Earth). This is speed-run Enemies-to-Lovers. They don’t like each other at first, mostly because Loki does not want to be there. And Theo’s basically like ‘You don’t want to be here, got it. You’re here, though, so let’s deal with this.’ And then pretty quickly Loki’s like, ‘Oh shit. He’s hot…Oh shit. He’s smart… Oh shit. Do I like him?….Oh shit. His freckles are like stars.’ (He thinks the last sentence almost exactly, it’s wild.) So I think it’s very cute and I don’t think they got enough time together. 

          Canon likelihood…….Depends on your definition of canon.

          Did they kiss? Spoiler alert: Yes. Are they together? Well, uh, about that… So this book is supposed to serve as a prequel to the events in the MCU. Do you see Theo anywhere in the MCU? There’s your answer. (Which sounds like I’m implying something different, so you should still read this book, because you don’t know what’s going to happen.) So at this point, at this time, is it likely that this relationship is going to come back and be 100% canon? No. Not likely. But in my opinion, how I define canon, has this ship been canonized? I generally define canon as requited affection that’s acted upon, so Yes, this was a canon ship to me. (Still hoping my unlikely Loki theories are true, though, so this ship can come back and be present tense canon.) I wish this could be an established relationship right now, but given the circumstances of the events of the story and the purpose the story is supposed to serve in the MCU, it’s not possible.

Lokius: Loki and Mobius, from the tv series. I was resistant to this for a little while. Mostly I was finding Owen Wilson in the MCU in general and interacting with Loki hard to believe. It was weird to me and I could not unsee Owen Wilson for a chunk of the show, and that’s partially what was preventing me from shipping it. But the tie fixing scene, while it wasn’t what got me to ship it, it did make me go Oh, fuck. This is going to end with me shipping this. And then I continued to resist it for a few episodes, and then it hit me, and now I’ve been bitten by the Lokius bug. I don’t remember precisely what was the turning point for me, but it was late. I think it was probably “You could be whoever, whatever you want to be. Even someone good.” I think they’re perfect together. I think it’s an interesting dynamic, because Mobius knows him so well. But at the beginning, he knows Loki from this clinical standpoint. He knows how Loki’s story is supposed to go and his personality, from studying versions of him, but he doesn’t know him. And then spending the show getting to know Loki himself. I think they neglected somewhat to show this on a nuanced level in the show itself, but the working relationship and budding friendship between Loki and Mobius is what ultimately gets Mobius to realize that the TVA is kind of crap and needs to be shut down because the TVA doesn’t know everything. Because he gets to know Loki as a person, that he’s not just a story or the predetermined events that have been laid out in the timeline by some higher power, just because that’s how Kang has decided that’s how he wants Loki’s life to go (or something to that effect). I think there’s something inherently interesting about taking how you understand someone from a general, macro level and thinking you know everything about that person, and then getting to know someone on a more personal and intimate basis. At the risk of perpetuating a sort of racist rewrite of historical events, it’s kind of reminiscent of Disney’s Pocahontas in a way. Where you have these assumptions about a person or group of people based on what you’ve been told by your superiors, but by getting to know a particular individual in that group, you change your preconceived notions about that person. And then taking it a step further into a romantic level. 

          Canon likelihood…….Likely

          I think they fucked up in season one. And I think they know they fucked up. I’m sorry if people ship the other thing (I’m trying not to type the ship name so it doesn’t come up in searches and people think I tagged my hate.), this is not the place for you. I think they fucked up where they were like “Look, we’re so progressive! Here’s two bisexual characters.” And then they were like “No homo. Here’s some selfcest instead.” And obviously Loki can have a girlfriend and I’d be fine with that, but making that woman love interest a variant, essentially just an alternate version of him? That feels like they only let Loki say “A bit of both,” so they could pat themselves on the back. They didn’t want to act on that. But the only woman who makes any sense to pair him with, with whom he has the most interaction with in the series…is himself. But they went with that anyway. 

So the level of likelihood is either one, they realized they fucked up and now they’re going to fix it. Or two, (and I don’t think they have enough foresight for this) they knew they fucked up before they even aired it, and are like “This is the journey that Loki is on. He will eventually break away from himself, and fall in love with somebody who is not himself.” Or three, not understand what bisexuality is and be like “We need equal! He kissed a girl and now he’s gotta kiss a guy!” [Which implies there are only two genders, but they don’t even know what genderfluidity is, so I’m not confident they have any understanding of the diversity of gender identity either.] So I think it’s likely (especially the last option, unfortunately, given their track record with representation). I’m not sure they’re going to do it well, but I think it’s possible. I think they’ve set it up well for this to be canon. I think there’s some romcom story beats that are already present in season one, despite their decision to go with a different ship. It’s just a matter of how much they’re willing to break out of this mold of heteronormativity.

Frostiron: Tony Stark and Loki. I like this because I am partial to Enemies to Lovers tropes. I think the fandom has done a really good job of taking like two minutes of onscreen interaction and making an entire ship out of it. I think they have a lot of things in common, which can help them bond. They both have daddy issues, they’re both kind of spoiled, and a little self-centered, which can cause some conflict that will eventually be resolved. And they both have quite a bit of trauma that’s ultimately caused by the same big purple asshole, so that can also bring them closer together. I have a lot of feelings about them, which has caused me to write a six-part series about them and their relationship and how they can relate to each other. (I’ve attempted a few times to write a seventh part, so we’ll see if that ever sees the light of day, but they have certainly not relinquished their hold on me.)

          Canon Likelihood…….Not likely.

          Absolutely not likely, not a chance. Comics, no. MCU, no. In the MCU they had like a two-minute interaction and that was it. It was cute, they were snarking at each other, Tony offered him a drink, but that was about it. In the comics, they have a little bit more interactions but it’s still very limited. The most I know about their interactions in the comics that are not antagonistic comes from (I believe) The God Who Fell to Earth, and there’s still not a whole lot. There is some explicit dialogue of Tony respecting Loki’s pronouns, so that’s chill. Tony knows that Loki’s genderfluid, so I like that. But again, that’s about it. Ultimately, the places were Tony and Loki have the most interaction are in Avengers Academy, the mobile game, and I don’t believe there are romance options for anybody in that game (I didn’t play that game for very long, so I don’t remember much; there was too much multitasking and it was stressing me out). And in the animated tv show Avengers Assemble, and even there it was only like an episode or two. (And in later seasons, Tony isn’t even in much of the show, let alone Loki.) So I don’t think it’s likely we’ll ever see a canon frostiron, unless we get like an episode (or issue) of What If that’s like, “What If…Tony Stark was gay” or something, but that’s both unlikely and I can think of several characters more likely to be Tony’s What If boyfriend before Loki. 

Cloudki: This is a ship name I made up on the spot, because no one else knows who this character is. (And that hurts me, deeply.) Cloud has a fraught history in the comics, and ultimately, it’s not much of a history at all, they’re in maybe three stories since their debut in 1983. Cloud is basically the personification of a cloud nebula (hence why they’re called Cloud), and they’re genderfluid! Primarily because, when they made their debut in the eighties, they crash landed to earth and then their essence combined with the dying souls of this straight couple whose car they crashed into. And the essence of the star lost their memory and decided to take on the couple’s likeness and sort of absorb their souls so they could survive on earth. And the comic, while weirdly progressive for the time, was still published in the eighties. So you have to get past the Comics Code Authority or whatever it’s called (which is basically censoring anything it considers remotely queer), and also it’s the eighties and the author was cis and (I’m pretty sure) straight. And I’ve read articles that said he had a friend who was a transwoman, so he was able to get some help maybe (if he asked her). But at the same time, if she’s a transwoman she’s not genderfluid, so it’s not exactly the same thing. So while it’s done surprisingly more sensitively than expected, there is still a lot of transphobia directed at this sweet summer child. And they don’t know any better so they kind of adjust to this shit, so it’s rough. 

         So that’s Cloud’s debut. It sucks, and we don’t talk about it. But Cloud comes back a few decades later in The Defenders (this is a new run; they also debuted in The Defenders). When last we left them, Cloud had figured out they were a nebula, and people were being kinda shitty to them on earth, so they were like Fuck this, I’m supposed to be a star, good-bye. And so for the last few decades they’ve been in space as their true self. So they get summoned by Dr. Strange to help the Defenders solve a mystery through the cosmos. (Cosmos as in I don’t get this part. So in the comics, the cosmos are like eras of existence in the universe. I think most events take place in like the twelfth or thirteenth cosmos. The Defenders travel backwards through the cosmos through this story.) In the middle of one of the battles, they’re like “Hey, by the way, I would like to go by they/them pronouns.” (Because up until this point they’ve been going by she/her pronouns.) And everyone else is like “Yeah, sure.” And then no one messes up for the rest of the book. Because Al Ewing is the best. And then like halfway through the book, they get to one of the cosmos where the emphasis is like beauty and imagination and color or something. And Cloud is like “I’m going to stay here. This is a good place for me.” And they transform their body into one that they choose, one that is no longer resembling the guy or the girl whose souls they absorbed. And Cloud’s living their best life in this cosmos. And that’s the last we see of Cloud in this book. (And I almost stopped reading the book at this point, because I read Defenders: Beyond first because Loki’s in it, met Cloud, and then read The Defenders, which comes first, just for Cloud because Loki isn’t in this one.) 

        Then in Defenders: Beyond, Dr. Strange has to call the Defenders together again. But he only calls a few of the original Defenders and the rest are new people. And one of the people he calls is Loki. And this is right where Loki: Agent of Asgard ended. (And thank God for that, because whoever took over for Loki between AoA and DB fucked him up. I don’t know who that was or what that run was or if it was just Thor, because I never read it, but I’m upset by that author and the new Loki that trashed all of his character development. Because Al Ewing did some great things. Okay moving on.) Frankly, I don’t know what the fuck is going on in this book. We’re still traveling through the cosmos, but I’m very confused. I only read this for Loki and then I met Cloud and read Defenders. So they’re going through the cosmos and they get rescued (Loki especially) by the members of the imagination cosmos, and one of the members of the imagination cosmos is still Cloud. This is similar to MCU Frostiron, because Cloud and Loki have a very important conversation towards the end, but that’s about the extent of their interaction.

        My reason for shipping these two (since this post is long as fuck, as usual), because I know nothing about Cloud and Cloud is known by nobody but I would die for Cloud I love them so much, is that they’re both genderfluid. And I think gf4gf is a great pairing honestly (I’m not super interested in a relationship myself anymore, but I think the only partner I’d want at this point would also be genderfluid, so I’m projecting a tad). And I think they would be great for each other and I love it. I think Cloud could really help the present Loki come back to himself and deal with these memories that AoA Loki wiped from him so that he could be this stupid Loki that doesn’t have any of the character development, that at the eleventh hour of this book (I think) regained all his memories and now has to deal with it all and defend the cosmos. And also, where the hell is Verity? Ya know? Like, does he remember Verity? How much did he forget? So I think Cloud would be a good help to rehabilitate him and then they fall in love.

        Canon likelihood…….Not completely unlikely, things have to happen.

        I’m not gonna straight up say unlikely, because things happen in comics all the time. And comics go back and fold in on themselves and change things all the time. So I’m gonna say probably not likely, but maybe. Here are the things that are gonna have to happen in order for this to take place: One, Cloud needs to come back. I think the last time they showed up was in Defenders: Beyond, and that came out last year. Preferably, Al Ewing needs to write Cloud, because Al Ewing is the best and I love him. Two, Loki from Agent of Asgard needs to come back. Loki as it is needs to regain his memories and become the perfect version of himself again. Preferably written by Al Ewing, because Al Ewing is the best and I love him. Three, Cloud and Loki need to be in the same comic at some point. They’re two completely different characters, drawn together by the ties of fate and tarot cards that, for some reason, Dr. Strange has. And also the cosmos (because he didn’t draw Cloud’s tarot in Defenders: Beyond). Therefore, it’s difficult to get them back together, because Cloud isn’t even in this cosmos right now, let alone on the planet, and Loki doesn’t even remember meeting them. Four, Cloud has to have some romantic capabilities. I don’t know what their romantic capabilities are. In their original run, they tried to fall in love with Moondragon, and then also with some other guy (I don’t remember his name). That dude was transphobic as fuck. Moondragon, the second she found out Cloud was genderfluid, became transphobic as fuck, because it was the eighties, and neither of these characters were gay yet. So did that turn Cloud off to romance forever? That was also before Cloud realized they were a cloud nebula; did Cloud realizing that they are technically supposed to be an insentient celestial being turn Cloud off to romance forever? I don’t know. Five, even if Cloud has some capacity of romantic inclination, Cloud and Loki have to be attracted to each other. They have the tiniest of interactions ever, so who’s to say? Certainly not me, except in my fanfictions, which I haven’t written yet, because I don’t know enough about Cloud. So possibly, but unlikely. And that makes me sad. 

This is the only ship, besides Lokius, where if it doesn’t become canon, I’m going to be a Victorian heroine wasting away on my fainting couch, because I’m very disappointed. 

[jojotier]

so for your spy au you have Rose adopting both Dirk and Roxy, but later on you say that Dave is taking care of Dirk? how does Dirk end up with Dave?

yeah!! so basically Rose adopts both Roxy and Dirk bc for her spy mission she needs kids to send to a prestigious school so she can slide in and make connections with the parents, but later on Dirk ends up kinda moving more in with Dave, though he officially still lives with Rose, and the crux of that comes down to

Dirk cannot function in a traditional school.

He's a smart kid, but traditional schooling kinda eats him alive- it's both incredibly understimulating and overstimulating for a 7-yr-old, and he's not particularly good at playing with other kids or socializing the way Roxy does.

Compounding it all, though, is his telepathy. He can't turn it off. So every day he's in a classroom with about 30 or so other voices loudly talking in his brain over the teacher, who has two monologues going simultaneously, and he's got his own internal monologue- it's a Mess. eventually comes the moment where he kinda breaks and, with the special ed resources lacking, Rose agrees to pull him from the school.

but that leaves Rose in a Predicament. Because Dirk still needs an education, but she can't stay with him during the day, because she has spywork to attend to. There's the option of hiring private tutors, but that also adds unnecessary risk to the mission, since anyone onto her could try to slide in as a tutor to counteract her spying.

And Rose absolutely cannot send Dirk back to the orphanage (because she loves him) because with Roxy being her only in with this prestigious school, the mission rests on Roxy's mental health being intact, and sending Dirk away would cause unnecessary stress.

So Rose tries to get a few of her civilian friends' help. Kanaya turns her down (because as Auxiliatrix, Kanaya has to hunt down Agent Arachnid and her house is just full of weapons), as does Ms Vris (because as Agent Arachnid, there's this fucking terminator esque character trying to murder her???). Karkat just flatly tells her that she doesn't want any of his connections teaching her kid shit. Jade agrees to help a bit, since she homeschools Jake, but she's fairly STEM-heavy and tends to get lost in her (nuclear research) florist work fairly easily, so it's not a long-term solution. June is still likely in the enemy camp, to Rose's knowledge, so that's a no-go.

So finally in comes Dave for weekend babysitting duty and finally he sighs real big and goes hey Rose? I can take it from here. And Rose is a bit... dubious, about having Dave be in charge of teaching any children, and Dave's just like you do realize I have a master's, right, I know how school works, and Rose is like I didn't realize you went to school, and it just kind of goes unsaid that 'maybe you'd know if you didn't disappear for 15 years and make me think you were dead'. But they both silently know it's there.

and lo and behold- Dave's actually probably the most well-suited for teaching Dirk. He's got a working knowledge of politics, philosophy, economics, history, anthropology, archaeology, art history, literature, art and more, and even if he doesn't quite know science or the real advanced mathematics, he can usually outsource to Jade and teach himself first before passing it on to Dirk. (And hey- if that knowledge just so happens to make the wheels of the propaganda machine he runs turn to trying to turn the Prospitian public against nuclear power, that's just a coincidence)

so at first Dirk bounces between being taught at Dave's apartment during the day and then going home to Rose at night, but as the months go on and he starts being able to stomach not being in the buddy system he and Roxy have been in since they broke out the lab, he starts asking to stay over with his Bro more.

It suits Rose fine. In fact, it makes things easier in the long-term- when the mission is finally over, and when she is asked to shed this identity and become someone else once more, kill this persona and burn the name Rose from her memory- when she has to leave this pretend family behind- she won't have to send the kids back to foster care. Dave will take good care of them. She doesn't trust anyone in the world more than her twin.

[a-mute-on-a-mule]

Hi!! for the oc asks: 🛋️ & 👥 & ⛰️

I love both modern and middle ages AU so I guess make the choice for me lmao (unless you want to answer each question for both OCs...👀)

Awww thank you!

It's the same character but in two different settings, in case there was some confusion there. Johann does get mentioned a couple of times though, so you do get a second OC either way lol. I'll go with the assumption that you're asking for both canons. Green for Medieval. Blue for Modern. Orange if true for both.

(Have an old style experiment to see the reason for the color code lol) _

🛋 [COUCH W/ LAMP] -> Where does your Original Character live? As in, where do they reside - one of the many stables across the Jorvegian Peninsula, or do they own an apartment/home within one of Jorvik's Cities?

Ruth does have a home to return to if she wishes, which is Johann's family farm (precursor to places like the Goldspur farmlands). But she's essentially a frontiersman for the Jarlaheim settlement so her usual home is wherever nature gives her the materials to build one.

Modern!Ruth has no permanent home. She can usually be found in places like abandoned storehouses, haylofts, and tree houses. Pre-built spots, if you will. Often in Harvest Counties. She does also build secret shelters around the map that tend to be built in a hillside or underground so they're virtually invisible. Yes, she basically makes Budget Hobbit Holes™. It's a very high compliment if she shows you one of those.

_

👥 [TWO PEOPLE] -> Has your Original Character formed any special bonds on Jorvik? Be it romantic, platonic, or a third secret option. Who have they bonded with?

Note: I may as well treat this as a light intro to the Medieval cast since just a list of OC names means nothing if people don't have an idea about who they are. This one does involve others' OCs and thus is an approximation based on what info I remember. So it may not be entirely accurate.

All of Ruth's and Johann's relationships both with each other and with other characters are platonic/familial by default.

Johann is Ruth's unofficially adopted son/little brother and a member of the Drake family. Ruth knows Johann through working with Ms. Drake. He is the "extrovert who finds and adopts an introvert" to Ruth and has a better moral compass than Ruth does, ironically. In the Medieval headcanon, his family may be Drake ancestors but they are not a medieval version of the game NPCs. Ruth does work for them for some of her early years in Jorvik. She's kind of his guardian as well.

William (Ravenyour. The player deleted her blog) is a Jarlaheim soldier that Ruth sees pretty often since she works with the livestock, including the horses. He caught her up on archery and horse riding once she upgraded to leysingi, and she became a guide for his patrols.

Renata is probably the first Jorvik native Ruth encounters (whether Ruth knows it or not). They're similar in some ways. Ren is quiet to start with, while Ruth is completely mute until she feels comfortable. So theirs is likely the kind of friendship that starts over common chores they have to be in the same place for and grows from there.

Astrid is a shieldmaiden of the Dundull settlement (under a different jarl) that Ruth bonds with as a fellow explorer. Pretty sure that's gonna become a friends-to-reluctant-enemies situation.

Suka is a Kallter and is probably the last member of the OC cast Ruth meets because of the distance and terrain between them. Don't have much worked out but at the moment she and Astrid run into her at the same time.

There is also a Vala called Lyssandra whom Suka knows before Ruth does. Haven't worked out how or when Ruth meets her but I imagine it's in somewhat close proximity to when Gunnar last meets Sive. _

⛰️ [MOUNTAIN] -> What is your Original Characters favorite spot on Jorvik? Are they more of a nature lover, or do they need the fuzz and buzz of the cities?

The Graydew Mountain Pass (the path we take to Epona the first time). It's a rough trail that most don't like to attempt but her mule is more sure-footed than most of the horses (plus the view and nature's bounty on the other side are great). The Pass may or may not become an escape route for Jarlaheim's inhabitants at some point as well.

It's a toss up between Greendale and Hollow Woods, though HW might come out slightly ahead because of the stream going through it and a water source is very appealing when you're a drifter.

She has no real issue with civilization or people in general. It's just more effort than it's worth to engage with most people when they're expecting you to talk and doing so is rather hard.

[dolce-elegy]

Introducing: Renzo Barnes aka REVENANT

"Oh honey you shouldn't have~..."

The current unwilling avatar of the conveniently slumbering grandmama of all eldritch abominations and the abstract personification of discord itself: KHAOS. Renzo is the resident ultra dramatic, full-tilt diva of the Avengers (well, co-full-tilt divas with Stark) who loves more than anything to mess with people, beat the shit out of nazis (along with so-called “realists” who are nothing more than nazis in a trenchcoat with an anatomically-incorrect symbol), and be the most well-dressed bitch on the team~✨. With both a lust for life and a lust for blood, Renzo is the one you call upon when you need a bit more fire power to take of particularly stubborn enemies; supernatural or otherwise. Now the thing to know about them is that they usually like to “play with their food” and tend to not take things so seriously. However, if you manage to actually piss them off you better pick a God and pray that they finish you off quick instead of taking their sweet time with it. There are worse things than death after all…Normally when they’re not doing the odd superhero work around New York, you can find them either hanging out and having overdrawn fan discussions about the Star Wars prequels with one Peter Parker at their apartment near Empire State University or arguing with Eddie Brock and whining about the listicles they have to write as a Daily Globe intern for their day job. That or practicing for the current semester play their drama department is putting on. Also they tend to help out their “Grandpa” Alexei with some totally “legal” missions much to their mother and father’s chagrin along with teaching Morgan new and exciting swear words in both English, Spanish and Voidspeak to mess with Stark~✌️✨

Full Bio Below 🔽

Full Name: Renzo Yelena Barnes-Romanoff

Alias(es): Revenant (main alias)/Night Spinner (only used during the 5 years post snap as a way to honor Peter)

Nicknames: Ren, "Little Shit," Hot Topic, Life on the Murder Scene, Depeche Mode, Ren Ren (used only by Kobik), Kid (used by Bucky), Little Blackbird or “Маленький дрозд/Malen'kiy drozd” (used by Alexei and Melina), “Femme-Presenting Patrick Bateman,” “Netflix Adaption of Yuno Gasai,” and "RENZO NO"

Age: 23 (in 2027)

Birthday: May 27, 2004 (Gemini)

Face Claim: Indya Moore

Gender: AMAB femme-presenting non-binary

Pronouns: They/Them

Family:

James Buchanan “Bucky” Barnes (Adoptive Father)

Natasha Barnes-Romanoff (Adoptive Mother)

Richard James “RJ” Barnes-Romanoff (Adoptive little brother)

Kobik Rebecca Barnes-Romanoff (Adoptive little sister)

Melina Vostokoff (Adoptive Grandmother)

Alexei Alanovich Shostakov (Adoptive Grandfather who is absolutely proud of Renzo’s pre-teen kill count much to Natasha’s annoyance and Bucky’s horror)

Yelena Belova (Adoptive Aunt)

Anthony Stark (biological uncle because Howard Stark had a bit too much “fun” in Mexico during the 70s)

Virginia Potts-Stark (aunt by marriage)

Morgan Stark (Biological half-cousin)

Steven Grant Rogers (honorary uncle/Godfather)

Samuel Thomas Wilson (honorary uncle/Godfather)

Clint Barton (honorary uncle/Godfather)

Laura Barton (honorary aunt/Godmother)

Appearance: (please note that since one of Renzo’s main abilities is shapeshifting they can technically have any kind of appearance they want. They following is what they “lovingly” call their “default skin”)

Skin color: brown skin with a reddish, summer undertone

Hair: black, full-bodied, spiky and wavy, mid-length hair with 3 distinct cowlicks

Eyes: blood red eyes with a permanent “smoky eye” and eye bags that also do “fun” things like glow, leak out black smoke and/or a black, ink-like substance along with their scleras turning pitch black as well.

Powers: Mediumship, Retrocognition, Empath Abilities, Umbrakinesis, Pyrokinesis, Shapeshifting, Flight/Levitation, Chaos Magic, Teleportation, Enhanced Speed/Strength/Healing Factor

Likes: Iced Coffee, High Fashion, sunglasses (especially if they’re heart-shaped), cheesy 80s movies, old musicals, watching old musicals and movies with Barnes, vintage fashion, charcoal (when you’re the KHAOS proxy you get “interesting” cravings…), hamburgers, french fries, salty foods in general, pocky, bad horror movies, anime, manga, broadway musicals, drama, drama (again but this time it’s theater-related), performing, singing, hot vampires, trying to hook up with vampires and get the big titty goth gf vamp gf of their dreams, gossiping, beating the shit out of and killing nazis/hydra agents/fascists, ABBA, disco in general (is pissed off that they were never around for the 70s and 80s), citypop, messing with Flash Thompson, messing with Mary-Beth Asger (ex-member of a “Christian” cult/proxy to KHAOS’ equally “slumbering” counterpart of Order, who honestly hasn’t completely stopped believing everything that she was taught even though admittedly she’s gotten better and is still your stereotypical, pompous, “nice white girl”), flirting, knives, messing with General Ross, getting to “let loose” (AKA letting their murderous impulses run wild on nazis), messing with “Tio Tony,” constantly shoving in “Tio Tony’s” face that they’d totally be “Team Cap” if they were around for the Airport Fight, honestly just messing with people in general.

Dislikes: egg creams (no matter how hard Barnes tries to make them like it, they refuse to drink it and they think that it’s nasty), ghosts, being able to see ghosts, their “Seer” powers overall, nazis/hydra/fascists, cults, other eldritch abominations in the AMARANTHINE (court of eldritch abominations that KHAOS is technically the head of), KHAOS because they have to clean up their (KHAOS’) messes, Christian cults (i.e. Evangelicals, Fundamentalists), terfs, boring people, boring movies, when people try to pick on Peter and Ned, having to write “listicles” for the Daily Globe, Blade constantly dashing their big titty goth vamp gf dreams

Personality: Theatrical, petty, vengeful, crafty, mischievous, sarcastic, but surprisingly compassionate, and empathetic (whether they like it or not). When not acting like they're trying to go for a Tony award in a notable revival of a classic production, they can be pretty out-there with a little bit of the uncanny valley mixed in. Not to mention, they can be also pretty laid-back and nonchalant; especially when dealing with villains trying for the umpteenth time to take over New York. Additionally, and not surprisingly, due to their background, they can be rather cynical and distrusting; however over the years they have been slowly but surely trying to look more at the bright side of things and give people the benefit of the doubt. However, God forbid you actually piss them off though, because that's when their sadistic side comes out. When that happens, you better pick a God and pray that they decide to kill you at all, let alone kill you quick...

Love Interest: Peter Parker

Bio: Renzo has never had the best time growing up. Born a "Seer" or otherwise known as a medium, they've always been able to see ghosts to their utter displeasure. However, they were the only one in their bio family that could see ghosts and thus was written off as an "insane" problem child by said family. Heavily medicated and then eventually abandoned after the death of their bio parents, Renzo was forced into the foster system at the age of 9. However that didn't last long, as Renzo eventually ran away and the then impressionable 10 year old fell into the clutches of Dr. Darius Titus Solomon and the Esoteric Cult of the Maverick. After being love-bombed to heck and back by Solomon due to their Seer "gifts," Renzo soon became enthralled with him and would literally do whatever Solomon wanted: including becoming an assassin for him.

However that all came to an end when Renzo found out that they were nothing more than a sacrifice and after inadvertently getting their revenge and unwanted new powers, they ran away to New York and became a part of the Parker Family. From there, they went to space, survived the snap, grieved their loss and ended up unexpectedly bonding with James "Bucky" Barnes and Natasha Romanoff. So much so, that a couple of years later after the Snap, Barnes and Romanoff (who ended up getting married themselves) adopted them, and then later on adopted RJ and then Kobik. Now years later, after helping to kick Thanos' ass, losing their memory of Peter and then regaining it; they're currently just trying to survive college and their internship at the Daily Globe, along with dealing with some "interesting" feelings concerning their best friend...

“Fun” Facts:

When they were formally adopted by Barnes and Romanoff, they decided to offer their new parents a chance to give them a middle name to help them better get a clean slate. Romanoff ended up deciding to use “Yelena” to honor her (still dusted at the time) sister, and thus Renzo officially became Renzo Yelena Barnes-Romanoff.

They are the absolute epitome of a theater kid and helped to run the drama club at Midtown High with an iron fist.

They were also surprisingly part of the Midtown High cheer squad and tended to do most of the acrobatic stunts when on the team.

They absolutely detest their mediumship and empath abilities due to making their early life a literal, living hell. It’s not fun when ghosts that only you can see have forgotten the meaning of “no” and try to turn you into their own personal “errand boy” after all. Especially when your own family thinks you’re insane and need to be institutionalized. Not to mention in terms of their empath abilities, it took a long, long time for them to finally get a hold of them. Before they would heavily get overwhelmed by other people’s emotions to the point that it would even influence their own. Though nowadays, if they’re not careful they can still get overwhelmed; especially in a crowd.

Going hand-in-hand with the previously mentioned empath powers: When Thanos first enacted the Snap, they could feel the devastating, vast loss of life in the same way Mantis could...

When they first escaped the Esoteric Order of the Maverick, they lived on the streets for a while trying to avoid any remaining members by constantly traveling. They were 12 when they came to Queens and ran into a sympathetic May Parker who after realizing that they had trauma-related to the foster system, made it her mission to coax Renzo into a stable home environment. It took her over 5 months but she and Peter were finally able to coax them into living with them.

For the longest time before the “Blip” they were basically known as “Parker’s weird, little ‘brother’.”

Has a petty feud with Peter over who’s taller. Back when they were 12, obviously Peter was taller, but then after the Blip, Renzo was the new reigning champ of height. However, during college Peter got a growth spurt and managed to get a couple of inches on them. To which, Renzo immediately used their shapeshifting powers to make them exactly 1 inch taller than Peter.

One of their most precious possessions is an old, black hoodie that Peter gave to them when they first met, after seeing the shivering, pre-teen, ex-assassin in the rain in an alley behind his and May’s apartment. It’s pretty much has become a comfort object for them and they even still wear it around their apartment sometimes to Peter’s surpise no matter how ratty it’s gotten. Even when they lost their memory of Peter, they still kept it and couldn’t bear to get rid of it, even if they couldn’t remember why exactly it was so important to them...

Another valuable possession of theirs was an old burner, flip phone that they had from their days in the cult that during the 2 years they lived with Peter and May became filled with pictures of them, Ned, and MJ. For the longest time it was a symbol of them overcoming their past as a killer and healing from it, and then during the 5 years after the “Blip,” it became a symbol of mourning for them. They ended up using it however on Vormir as a loophole since it was “something” they loved, by throwing it over the edge in order to prevent their mom from sacrificing herself.

Speaking of their time during the “Blip,” they ended up inadvertently going on a “revenge roadtrip” across the western United States with Barnes, Romanoff, Logan, Wade, W’Kabi, and a teenaged Dora Milaje in training called Thandiwe. Basically when they were 16, they found out to their horror, the Order was starting to gain power again, so they were trying to stomp out all of their hideouts during their summer break. At one of said hideouts they ran into Barnes and Romanoff who were trying to wipe out any Hydra remnants, W’Kabi (who was sent out as a War Dog as penance for his betrayal of T’Challa) and Thandiwe (who was also there to keep an eye on him) who were tracking down illegally trafficked vibranium, and Logan and a teenaged Wade, who were trying to get revenge on people in involved in the “Weapon X” program. There all of them found out that they were basically dealing with a “quadfecta” of evil, where the cult and hydra were working together with illegal vibranium and experimenting on mutants to create human weapons. From there they all decided to work together so they can all make sure that all factions of that network were taken down.

During this time, this was also where they, Barnes, and Romanoff first met Kobik, when they came across a mysterious town called “Pleasant Hill”...

For the 5 years after the “Blip” they also became “Night Spinner” as a way to honor Peter, where they even used Peter’s old, original, homemade Spider-Man hoodie. They felt that New York needed a Spider-Man and while they felt they were a poor replacement, they still felt that it was necessary. Stark even hooked up a version of Karen with their outfit too.

A 14 year old Renzo also was given Peter Quil’s zune by Rocket during the “Blip” years due to them reminding Rocket and Kraglin of Quil. During the time they were stranded in space waiting for a rescue with Stark and Nebula, Renzo found the zune and started using it a lot to distract themself. After recovering a bit when they got back to Earth, they tried giving it back to Rocket and Kraglin, who ended up telling them to keep it. For the next 5 years Renzo took care of it and was almost never seen without it Obviously when everyone came back after the final defeat of Thanos, Renzo gave the zune back to Quil; albeit with some extra future funk additions~

To their horror (well more like embarrassment and annoyance), they found out that they were the illegitimate nephew/niece (nephice? niecephew? we really need to come up with something gender neutral that’s not nibling) of Tony Stark when they were 20 during a routine medical checkup at the Avengers complex. Apparently Howard Stark had a bit too much fun in Mexico during the late 70s which ended up producing Renzo’s biological mother. Nobody in their bio family knew about it; not even their egg donor and their bio maternal grandmother took that secret with her to her grave.

Is basically (one-sided) sitcom nemeses with Blade due to the fact that Blade keeps killing all of the hot vampires that they kept trying to hook up with.

Currently has undiagnosed BPD [Borderline Personality Disorder]

Still has “Girls Nights” with Wade and a reluctant Peter.

Constantly gets harassed by KHAOS’ cult and their [KHAOS'] “children” who think that they’re “literally” KHAOS who’s just “playing one of their silly little games with them...”

Can be “bound” via very specific casting sigils/circles which are normally used to essentially put them in a “time out” where they can’t leave until the spell burns out.

Was unfortunately used by Peter to prevent a rage-filled Renzo from murdering Norman Osbourne after Peter spared him, and later prevent a despondent Renzo from stopping him having Strange erase everyone’s memory of him...

When they first went to Empire State University (at age 20 after taking a gap year or two) and still couldn’t remember Peter, they ironically got paired up with him (who after getting his GED and applying like crazy for student aid, scholarships, FAFSA, etc. was able to qualify for student housing) in the dorms. They didn’t understand why they had an immediate camaraderie with him, why Parker always seem to know what they liked, and why they liked spending time with him so much (nor why Parker always looked like he was in pain and about to cry whenever they were spending time together...)

Regained their memory of Peter when a second Spider-Verse event occurred and due to their stint as “Night Spinner” they technically counted as a “Spider-Person.” Peter had been kidnapped by the “Inheritors” and while spending time with Peter 2 and 3 who were confused as to why Renzo didn’t remember them and Peter 1, something in their mind snapped when they tried to think about certain things that didn’t make sense about their “roommate.” That was when after having the absolute worst headache of their life, they finally remembered who Peter was and was absolutely pissed that he went through with erasing their and everyone else’s memory of him. Basically after one-shoting of the Inheritors who were holding their Peter hostage, they initiated a fight with him out of feeling betrayed and the fact that it made them feel like Peter didn’t trust them enough. They did eventually make up though; though Peter had to deal with everyone else remembering who he was since Renzo brute-forcing through Strange’s spell helped MJ, Ned, Happy, and all of his other loved ones remember him. Well at least no one else remembered that he was Spider-man at least...)

While Peter, Ned and MJ went on the school trip to Europe, “lucky” Renzo and Mary-Beth got trapped within Westview and got to be “special guests” on Wandavision due to being in the wrong place and the wrong time (aka Renzo went with Mary-Beth to look at colleges in the Jersey area against their will and only intended to stop in Westview to get something to eat when Wanda had her mental breakdown). Strangely though, while both of them were still forced to follow Wanda’s unconscious machinations, they still retained more of their free will than other Wandavision “cast members”...

Obviously the universe that they occupy has a lot of things go differently than the main MCU universe. For example, instead of Bucky, Sam, and Shuri being one of the people dusted, Steve and Sarah Wilson get dusted instead and Shuri has to try and run Wakanda by herself without her brother nor her mother. Also Alexei doesn’t get dusted either and has to deal without having Melina and Yelena with him.

And since his sister got dusted while leaving her sons alone, Sam had to step up and move down to Louisiana to take care of his nephews (with Bucky and Nat becoming an honorary uncle and aunt).

Also Bucky and Tony managed to begrudgingly come to an understanding and while they’re not “friends” per say Tony doesn’t want to kill him anymore and doesn’t blame him for his parents deaths. He still wants to slap Rogers though...

Of course Bucky and Nat become closer and end up dating and eventually married.

Nat and Tony don’t die. Renzo uses a loophole on Voromir to prevent their mom from sacrificing herself and since Tony “shares’ the load of the Infinity Stones with Nebula (who was the one actually wearing the glove) and with a powered-up Renzo and Mary-Beth (basically another Seer who was a proxy to a slumbering eldritch creature: this time KHAOS’ counterpart: KOSMOS, who was the personification of order/ frenemy of Renzo). Tony still ended up in a coma for a couple of years, and Nebula almost died and was out of commission for a couple of months. Same with Renzo and Mary-Beth.

Also Sam and Steve get married as well when the Blip is reversed and Steve doesn’t go back in time to be with Peggy. Sam still becomes the new Captain America though, and Steve becomes the nephews' cool but dorky, Uncle Steve. Steve also basically becomes a “trophy husband” as he likes to joke and has full on retired but will still be an ornery, stubborn, bastard that tries to unionize everything and protest against injustice.

Extras:

Drawn Reference: https://www.deviantart.com/faint-requiem/art/MCU-OC-Renzo-Barnes-Revenant-937451201

Tumblr Tag: https://dolce-elegy.tumblr.com/tagged/renzo%20barnes

Spotify Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0f5SO3CbQGkH9El9i4d9tb?si=f267a9dfd6d44fae

Pinterest Board: https://pin.it/66kniAC

Taglist: @ocappreciationtag @ocs-supporting-ocs @allaboutocs @multifandom-oc-hell @arrthurpendragon @fyeahocsofcolor @fyeahmarvelocs @marvelocsdaily @marveloccommunity

[eamonorus-blog]

Why TLOU2 fails as a morality tale.

Ok, it may feel like it's not necessary in order to talk about tlou2, but I want to talk about the first game first. Specifically, the ways in which it fails to be realistic, but why that isn't important in the same way the failure of the sequel to be realistic is.

Obviously, stories in any medium feature impossible scenarios, contrivances and fantastical elements all the time, and they don't have to ruin the story. They can either have a minor negative effect, or in fact be part of the appeal.

So, I feel like I have to explain why the way that tlou2 is unrealistic is a problem first, and a great case study of the opposite is the first game.

tlou follows in the footsteps of many tropes from the post-apoc genre. Most notably for my discussion, in the way the world is populated by hordes of kill crazed bandits.

To a degree, this is the inevitable nature of the medium. tlou is a third-person shooter, so it needs a lot of hostiles, and hordes of vicious killers with a bad sense of self-preservation are a great way to add that.

But I think there is more to it than that. Cormac Mcarthy's The Road has the same set up. As does the Fallout series. So, I think this is more a matter of genre convention than medium convention. Plenty of games are just about killing zombies, so there is no reason that the killing of human enemies couldn't be very limited or non-existent.

And why is this a problem? This is a problem because its not how people would really behave.

Of course, I don't know that for certain, but I think I have a good argument to make. The world of tlou is a pre-industrial society basically, and we know what those would be like. We can look at all of human history. And what we see is conflict, sure, but not just hordes of angry bandits without women and children that they look after.

Its human nature to fight, but its also human nature to cooperate and breed. The all male groups of criminals who focus on material possessions are not the natural outgrowth of a collapse of civilisation, but instead its continuation.

We ascribe the presence of sadistic Mad Max style raider gangs to the post-apocalypse because that is the kind of social ill that actually plagues us in the here and now, in our modern world. In the presence of urban gangs, motorbike gangs, etc…

Even if you look at African modern civil wars with child soldiers, those conflicts are still based around racial and tribal loyalties which distinguish them from the multi-racial rootless gang which tends to predominate in post apocalyptic fiction.

In the first game the biggest culprit here is the Pittsburgh group, with their lack of women and children, and hence any wider society that they are fighting for, and their total lack of regard for their own lives in chasing after Joel no matter how many of them die.

In the modern overpopulated world, life is cheap. Whether we are talking about gang warfare or full scale conflict. But in a post-apocalyptic setting people would be risk averse, respectful, and would only resort to violence as a final choice.

Steppe pastoralists like the Mongols, Scythians, Turks, etc… who had a low population and lived in vast nearly uninhabited wildernesses tended to adopt fighting styles that minimised casualties as much as possible.

And people living in a wasteland caused by some apocalyptic event would act in the same way. They wouldn't attack a stranger for no reason, if only to avoid entangling themselves in conflict, with another tribe who would seek revenge. Ofc course, like I said, conflict would still exist over territory, resources, women, etc…

But it wouldn't be the way it is shown to be in tlou.

But why is this not that much of a problem in my opinion? For starters, one of the central themes of tlou in regard to violence is that we all just do what we have to to survive. That that is what drives conflict. And that is what David uses to justify his actions, and what Joel does to.

So the game is diagnosing the way conflict works correctly, even if the gameplay is doing a bit of a sloppy job of getting that across.

But the main reason why it works is because the game ends with Joel choosing to sacrifice hope for a cure to save Ellie. By doing this the game would have us believe he is dooming humanity as a whole to more suffering, but what has the game shown us humanity consists of?

Certainly not the tough and brutal but nonetheless sympathetic and rational people who would really exist in such a world.

Instead it would be to save a bunch of trigger happy fascist police, a whole city of murderous bandits, random bandits who attack people trying to rebuild society, and a bunch of cannibals lead by a pedophile.

Yeah, no thanks.

Sure we meet some good people, and we like Jackson, but if we got a broader sense that humanity as a whole consisted of decent people who would really benefit from the cure, we might feel a bit differently about Joels decision. As it is, we have Tess, Sam and Henry die as a consequence of being bitten, and that's sad, but still, thats already happened and cant be changed.

Having the world of tlou be more realistic would make how we feel about Joels choice more complicated, and I dont think it would make the game worse, but as it is the games failing in this way just makes us sympathise with his decision even more.

So the game is actually leading us into being ok with the ending.

If we never met any hostile humans, just helpful kind people who are desperate to avoid being infected and need whatever help they can get, who are traumatized by losing loved ones to infection, we would feel quite differently about Joels final decision. In that hypothetical situation, making the world unrealistically OPTIMISTIC about how humans would behave in the post apocalypse, as opposed to PESSIMISTIC, would hurt the story, since it would lead Joel to seem more villainous and unjustified.

So, with that extended preamble out of the way, let me explain why lack of realism hurting the story is exactly what happens with tlou2

First off, tlou2 fixes the problem I mentioned in tlou. In the sense that the rabid, mad max style, casualty careless, all male bandit groups of the first game are gone.

Instead we have group conflict happening between rational, capable societies that fight each other over land, resources, normal stuff, stuff that makes sense.

This is a good thing as far as it goes, but unfortunately this increased realism is countermanded at every turn.

Lets start with the opening, with Abby leading the Salt Lake crew to Jackson to kill Joel. Right away we have serious issues.

As I just laid out, in the real world people fight each other over resources, land, women, stuff that really matters. And they fight on behalf of a broader group/society.

Even the modern criminal groups I mentioned beforehand do this for the most part. Sure, lone vengeance killing unrelated to a wider societal enemy or resources do happen, like with the few famous cases of parents who have killed someone who raped or killed their child before they could be sentenced.

But even that is very rare. FAR more common is revenge killings in the context of a gang war over territory. Which mimics the historical pattern of conflicts over history I have mentioned before. When people seek vengeance over a murdered parent, historically that is within the context of their parents' killer being a part of a group their tribe/society is at war with. If the killing is within their own society in most cases, there are social mechanisms to get justice.

By which I mean that the vengeace, while a very real motivator, is actually given the ooomph to be carried out because it serves the wider purpose of fighting your societies enemies.

We see this in tlou2 with the way Isaac talks about the back-and-forth conflict with the Seraphites. That is an example of a realistic conflict leading to realistic revenge being sought by both parties. The fight is actually over ideology, territory, etc… The vengeance is just a factor that comes out as the conflict escalates.

Let me reiterate, human beings are risk averse, and are only usually willing to resort to violence to defend their people, and/or for a big material benefit.

And Abbys quest for revenge has none of these factors. Joel was a lone individual. He isn't a member of a group the Fireflies have a vested interest in fighting, or who will continue to be a threat to them. Ideologically it would make sense for them to go after him to get Ellie, but the game dismisses that with the claim that Jerry was the only person who could make the cure, so that's a non-factor.

All of this has a cascading effect that makes going after Joel a terrible idea. Finding him will involve taking a bunch of people the WLF can't afford to lose, across country on a massive trek where they are liable to get hurt or killed, in order to kill one man who is no threat to them, and who they have nothing material to gain from killing, and in doing so risk aggravating any community that he has become a part of in the meantime.

The game itself, to its credit is well aware of all these problems. We are told that Isaac green lit this operation off screen with the claim that he "cares about justice"

Well, it looks to me like Isaac, as a person engaged in an actually plausible example of group conflict, cares more about winning and fighting for the survival and wellbeing of his people against outsiders. It looks to me like that is his value, not justice.

But he does agree to this for some reason.

But then we have all the reasons why people in the real world don't act like Abby does begin to raise their heads.

When they get to Jackson, Owen discovers that the place is big and thriving. There is no way their small team that Isaac for some reason granted permission to leave is going to be able to attack this place. And he rightly says that the others are going to want to leave after this. But Abby ignores him, goes off on her own, and miraculously finds Joel and Tommy, miraculously in the middle of a zombie horde so they can bond fighting them off and it makes sense for them to trust her.

It's also necessary so that she can plausibly convince them to come with her to their hideout, where, as many people have pointed out, Joel and Tommy seem shockingly unconcerned about why a large armed group would have come all this way to Jackson and not have introduced themselves.

The contrivances, character assassinations and almost plot holes here annoy people. But they annoy them especially because even if they can't articulate it like I can, they know that this kind of thing doesn't make sense for people to do in this world, and it doesn't make sense that they would succeed at it.

The blizzard, the infected, Joel giving out his name, they are all needed to happen because logic needs to be bent out of shape for this to happen in the first place.

Ellie choosing to go after Abby is just as stupid. Some people felt that way too, but others didn't, because yes, we are more invested in Joel than Abby, and the human instinct for revenge does kick in, which is of course the feeling Neil wants us to feel.

Abby has gone out of her way to be unreasonable and stupid, so we feel that Ellie is justified in doing the same back.

But that doesn't make it any less foolish. Maybe if we had seen Ellie grow and get attached to Jackson, as she probably would have, we would realise more how stupid she is being by risking all that going after Abby. But just like the masses of decent people that we would have needed to see in tlou to get us to really question Joels decision to save Ellie, we don't see that here.

tlou2 wants to be a commentary on the nature of violence, and why the cycle of violence is bad, but it doesn't actually critique the kind of cycles of violence that actually occur in the real world. Neil is fighting shadows, wagging his finger at a kind of human being who doesn't really exist, shaming us for doing something people don't actually do.

In terms of the games actually believable conflict, that between the Seraphites and the WLF, the game tries to a degree to be nuanced and "both sides" but it falls short because the Seraphites are so over the top evil, in a different way than the Pittsburgh gang maybe, but in a way that makes them just as unlikable and clearly coded as evil.

The only Scar characters that we are meant to empathise with are defectors, we clearly aren't meant to actually understand or sympathise with their perspective like we are with Abby.

The game is about different perspectives, but only for someone who is engaging in a self-destructive, stupid, act of vengeance, not for a religiously minded oppressed people fighting for their beliefs and their way of life against a superior enemy.

And this is why the game doesnt work as a tragedy.

The idea of a tragedy is that the protagonist has a fatal flaw, one they are given opportunity, time and time again, to correct and overcome, but the flaw is a part of their nature, and they fail to overcome it and perish.

But Ellie does overcome, she lets go of the pointless hatred she and Abby have engaged in. And she still loses everything. If she had killed her, and lost everything, just like Abby did after killing Joel, that would have been something, but no.

Either a story is a hero's journey, where the protagonist learns the lesson and triumphs, or a tragedy, where they do not, and fail.

But Ellie learns her lesson and still fails.

tlou2 chastises humanity for a sin it doesn't commit. That is its great failing.