#that i'm sure it'd fly over most people's heads)

[lastthroes]

this has been in my to-post list for too long almost a year. thank you v for sharing this one with me 🙏 it changed my brain chemistry as it's usually said

anyway, a rough translation:

lailah: even though i wanted to have a girl talk with everyone once we were in bed together… edna: the one i'm interested in the most among the guys? i'm surprised you enjoy talking about those things lailah: you don't, edna? edna: there's no one that interests me. the one i love most is eizen, of course lailah: is that so…

[gendercomsumer]

hiii ^^ I would like some headcanons for riddle, malleus, vil and rook with a fem mc that accidentally ends up making them laugh (because what she says or does is very random xd maybe an example would be like jennifer lawrence sjjs she is very funny ) well that's all, thanks and take care <3

Riddle, Malleus, Vil, and Rook with an S/O who can make them laugh with the most random things

A/N: Hello to you too Anon! I know this has been in my inbox for gods knows how long- But thank you still for sending this in! I hope this is to your liking! I actually did watch some Jennifer Lawrence videos for inspiration and I have to agree the comedic timing she has is perfect!! I also used some google translate in Rooks part so it may not be accurate ^^;

Characters: Riddle, Malleus, Vil, and Rook

Warnings: Cursing to a mild degree, playful mention of stalking in Rooks (I love him I swear!!!), lightly proof read

Fem!Reader

Riddle Rosehearts

Riddle is a bit difficult to get a good genuine laugh out of, at least in my opinion.

Like sure you have a small chuckle when he finds something amusing, but i feel like it'd be a bit of a challenge to get a good genuine laugh out of.

Then you came in, saying the strangest things at the most unrelated times!

And Ace and Deuce find this absolutely hilarious

You'll say the most out of pocket shit with the straightest face and somehow half the people around you start to laugh some others breaking out in giggles

Ace and Deuce have definitely talked about this 'talent' of yours, at least in their words.

You had said some of these strange comments around Riddle and he found them strange a bit endearing as well

I'd think the time you got a good laugh out of him was when you had come with him to take care of some of the hedgehogs

The two of you were sitting in the grass some of the hedgehogs were playing while a few had decided that climbing on the two of you was a good way to pass the time

One had wandered up onto your head and almost fell off but luckily you were able to save the little guy before he fully hit the ground

After Riddle worriedly checked the little guy over you while looking over his shoulder at the small animal said:

"Well at least we know this one has no self preservation"

Unwillingly, or maybe subconsciously, a small laugh makes it's way through Riddles chest to his lips.

Well, now maybe he saw what those two were blabbering on about

Your little comments were always appreciated with Riddle

Even if they didn't cause him to laugh they did brighten his mood at least somewhat

"Yes, this one does tend to be a bit of a handful. Reminds me of a certain rose I know"

He teased before you two fell back into the pattern of caring for the small animals

More chuckles and comments to come no doubt

Malleus Draconia

At first Malleus didn't understand why the rest of Diasomnia found your remarks so comical

Yes his child of man did tend to bring a certain warmth where ever she walked

But he didn't see this as an excuse for the amount of laughter you cause people around you

Most of the remarks you make will fly over his head

I'm sorry but he seems like the kind of guy to not get the joke until you explain it to him-

Now the Thorn Prince does share a few chuckles with those around him when he finds something amusing, similar to Riddle

But it's even more difficult to get a laugh out of him considering he doesn't get a lot of the play on words type of jokes

but something abrupt and slightly out of context?

I feel like that would get some sort of laugh out of him

One day you were talking with Malleus about some of the things you did in your old world

The topic of amusement parks came up and you started listing the rides you used to go on as a child

Roller coasters, bumper cars, lazy rides where you could relax, until you blanked on the name of a ride

It was frustrating considering it was probably something simple and you would remember it after their conversation, but you wanted to keep the ball rolling

Malleus mean while was partly enjoying seeing how frustrated you got over a simple word

You really were a strange thing weren't you Child of man?

"I'm sorry Mal- I know what I'm thinking of! It's on the tip of my tongue- It's like one of those horse tornado things!"

Horse.. tornado..?

Now that got Malleus attention

he understood the other rides you described, favoring the lazy rides

but what ever this horse tornado was... it sounded.. strange, yet curious at the same time

"CAROUSELS!! FUCKING CAROUSELS, THAT'S WHAT THEY'RE CALLED!"

Malleus let out a small puff of air before he started chuckling under his breath

You truly were a strange one weren't you child of man, just like the world you came from

Malleus pressed a kiss to your forehead letting out one more chuckle before speaking

"Truly fascinating, maybe one day you could bring me to one of these 'horse tornados' you have me interested"

Sure jokes your fly over his head, but he would tease you some what for your small skips in memory

Vil Schoenheit

Now Vil, having acted in a lot of movies, (If I'm correct) Would have probably had a few good laughs in that line of work

Weather that be on set or behind the cameras

But he doesn't often let out a good laugh in public, it's not really part of the proper image he'd want to put out there

As for behind closed doors or with close friends he's definitely willing to have a laugh

And who better to bring a smile to his face than his lovely sweet potato?

Though one good moment always stuck out to him that caused him to have one of the most genuine laughs in awhile

The two of you were getting ready to go out to a fancy restaurant, courtesy of Vil of course, hair, makeup, shoes things like that

While Vil was sitting at his vanity working on his eyes when you came out of the bathroom in a stunning dress hand picked by Vil

It brought out all your best features while still being enough coverage to where it wasn't uncomfortable to wear into a public area

The two of you made idle conversation as you sat on a near by chair to slip on a matching set of heels for the dress

As you stood up in the heels to work on your own makeup you lost your balance thanks to the new height the heels provided

Although Vil was quick to catch you making sure you came no where near the floor he still was concerned

"Oh sweet potato are you alright? What happened?"

Yes looking back on it the question seemed dumb but he was concerned

but you just let out a giggle while regaining your balance before saying:

"Well I'm not sure what happened, but I remember wanting to yell 'fuck' as my last words before I embarrassed myself"

Vil took a moment while looking at you

then a chuckle escaped his lips which soon turned into the two of you sharing a small laugh

Now Vil doesn't know why he laughs at your antics, in hindsight they're just normal phrases

But maybe it's the delivery?

Or the way you smile at him?

What ever it may be it always causes a smile to grace his lips or a chuckle to be drawn from him

Sure Vil maybe all about preserving beauty and making sure he looks flawless

But if he happens to get a few smile lines because of your antics, he will never hold it against you

"Well my darling, I'm glad to hear you're alright. It would be a shame if you or your lovely dress got roughed up before we left. Now come, you still want to do your makeup don't you? Allow me to help"

Rook Hunt

Now Rook has plenty of laughs in his life

Weather that be from stalking some poor soul or a genuine laugh among friends

Rook out of the four is probably the easiest to get a laugh from

He's a joyful guy wanting to see all nature and the world has to offer! Can you blame him?

Then enters you who some how can't help but leave Rook giggling when ever you do something!

You put your tie on wrong? Oh silly Trickster aren't you just the sweetest thing!

Then comes your words which to Rook is a whole new ball park

Rook tends to hold onto every word meant for him, weather that be written or spoken out loud

His darling Tricksters words are so elegant and so sweet how could he not treasure everyone!

What really gets him chuckling and laughing is the moments when your words aren't as sweet and graceful

Cut to one day when you and Rook were in the fields often used for flying class

Rook had a desire to teach you archery so he happened to drag you along with a quiver and bow to some targets set by his hand

After the first few moments of Rook teaching you how to properly hold and aim the bow and making sure your arm guard was secure (He wouldn't want his darling trickster to get rope burn!) He let you shoot

All was going well as you hit targets in an... acceptable way

But all that seemed to end when a large gust of wind sent your best shot yet off course and into the ground

And just as Rook was about to offer some encouragement to keep going and try once more

some colorful language came from you to say the least

"Wind!? Really!?! Could you not wait two fucking minuets!! Nooooo! You just had to thro my best shot off course you-!"

Now don't get Rook wrong he hold the sweet words you two share close to his heart

But there was just something about you yelling at the wind of all things that caused him to start laughing

As he laid on the grass of the field eyes closed as he laughed

Oh? It seems your colorful language is directed towards him now? Even better!

"Trickster- reine de mon coeur! Please I believe- I believe you have shared plenty enough words with the wind today!"

A/N: This is actually the first time I've taken a good look at the name of Malleus' dorm. Dia = Dragon. Somnia = Sleep

Diasomnia = Dragon of sleep

just a ting i found silly :)

[theunaveragepsychoticbitch]

KINKTOBER DAY 1- MATING PRESS

Barbatos x AMAB!Prostitute!reader, raw dogging, cumming inside

Barbatos was getting tired of missionary.

As the loyal butler of the royal line, he didn't get much time to simply relax- let alone to fuck rough and nasty until his body couldn't take it anymore. So in the quickies he'd sometimes schedule with any random lucky demon, it was usually a matter of fuck and go. Kinks and performance be damned.

But hell.

A demon could only take so much before even the biggest cocks weren't doing it for him anymore. Being big wasn't enough; where's the technique? The hunger? The lust and need to devour the other, until there was nothing left but a living toy for one to fuck when they pleased?

Maybe he just wasn't bringing out that feeling in people anymore. Most demons were scared to even accept his requests these days, honestly...

The demon sighs, head low as he walks to the room. Hopefully, this time would be different.

It was part of his birthday weekend gift– a full three days off from work. And how did he choose to spend the first? Ordering a prostitute, of course.

'I'm gonna die.'

Sweat poured off your bodies by the bullets, plastering stray hairs to sweltering skin as heavy pants and heady moans filled the space.

The slap of skin on skin was a mantra within the four walls of the cheap hotel room; its weak bed groaning under the force of your movements, smacking the wall hard enough it'd surely leave a hole.

"Please, fuck," hic! "no more-" Barbatos' voice was a hoarse cry, throat raw from screaming for so long. With every stroke, you fucked deep into his core, abusing his prostrate and bringing fresh, hot tears to his summer-green eyes.

He was on his side; one leg over your shoulder, held there by your strong hand, with the other wrapped tight around your waist, muscles jumping and trembling from the strain of such pleasure.

His hands were everywhere. Clawing at the sheets, your thighs, your arms, even gripping desperately at his own lonely breasts, nipples pink and perky from the abuse.

His dick bounced in time with your strokes, pre and cum alike flying. You adjust yourself, going hard enough to drive his reddened face into the pillow, drool spilling carelessly out the side of his mouth, and Barbatos screams. His eyes roll to the whites as his back arches, his orgasm seeming to shred his nerves and white-screen his already foggy brain.

And you? While he's clamping tight around you again, dragging his claws through your skin and making thin trails of blood run down your arm? You, while he's senselessly fucking himself on your cock through his orgasm, as if trying to drain your balls dry. You, who's moved one hand to his blushed, crying cock, and the other to his pebbled nipple, working him through it all?

You, you're...

Bending down to kiss him on his mouth, tongue sticking out to play with his as you take him by his knees and push them up to his shoulders. His feet are high in the air, still arched from his orgasm. His moans are swallowed by your mouth, eventually fading out into small whimpers as you slow your hips to a stop.

Cum connects your hips to his ass in sticky white strands. It's gross, nasty even, but you find yourself loving it. Maybe even loving him. You can't help but feel like its a waste of cum though... he'd be better off stuffed full, really. So full of your seed he'd see stars. Left with no choice but to become addicted to your cock, and you'd fuck him like this everyday because he cant live without it anymore.

Fill him up just like this, everyday.

The idea blooms in your mind as he pants out little out-of-breathe 'thank you's'. His eyes were drooping, his breath slowing...

You push his legs tight against his shoulders. The gasping moan when you slam your hips into him again, somehow even deeper than before, makes your dick twitch hard.

You get no more than a few strokes in, but they're life-changing. He can see the bulge in his stomach as you go in and out, see the hunger and determination in your eyes. The tears are streaming again and stars are (indeed) dancing around his vision as he cums again, this time with you right behind him. You're at his core, his deepest point, and you cum right there inside him.

Barbatos isn't sure how he could get any fuller, but he did. And how good it felt, to be pumped full of warmth like this. Even when you pulled out and it drizzled down his asshole, he was happy. But when you fingered it back into his opened hole, your eyes lowered in concentration, free hand clutching his thigh in a vaguely possessive manner?

He fell in love.

----

This wasn't as hard as I coulda gone, but I got all of October to write us fucking him better. Happy kinktober, enjoy!

[napstabl00k]

"I'm in love with you," Whisper had said at somewhere like two in the morning.

Tangle glanced at the clock hung on Jewel's dining room wall, reading out a happy little 8:27. A good time for breakfast, in Tangle's book.

She had this uncanny habit of waking up at 7 on the dot, or, at worst, three minutes later, and always crawled out of bed for a morning jog. This morning was no different, despite the absolutely atrocious 3 in the morning at which she'd fallen asleep. Four hours was a terrible amount of sleep to get. But naps didn't agree with her an hour after a morning run, so yogurt and oatmeal for breakfast with a heap of boredom on top it was.

Any other day, Jewel would have been awake. Any other day, she would have been down at the museum, even, getting ready to open at 9:00.

Today, Jewel was getting a hard earned ten hours of sleep, and was not going to work.

And Whisper- well, Whisper had this strange ability to fall in and out of sleep until she was either roused by some outside force or-

Well, really, just roused by some outside force. Presumably it was some tactic from when she was out on the battlefield, to be able to wake up at any sign of danger. Right now, when curled under Jewel's spare blanket, it meant that either her Wisps were gonna wake her, or Tangle was gonna do it herself.

And Whisper deserved those ten hours as much as Jewel did.

"So do I," Tangle admitted to herself, glancing back up at the clock.

8:31

"Ughhhhhh," Tangle whined, smacking her head against Jewel's dining table. "I wish I was asleep too... I bet everyone's sleeping right now."

The party had gone long into the night, and everyone was almost certainly catching up on some much needed z's. Her jog had told her that most stores were closed till an easier to deal with 10 in the morning, though she admittedly didn't feel like leaving her best friend and Whisper behind to go make a ruckus.

Speaking of Whisper.

"I'm in love with you."

Tangle covered her head with her hands. She kicked her feet, just for some way to get all this flustered energy out.

Part of her was happy. Beyond happy, even. She'd been waiting for this for months. Before the virus started, probably. It might've been wishful thinking back then, though.

Tangle would allow herself to admit that she was a little bit stupid. She didn't really get the big words that mechanics and the, like, smart people on those adventure teams she participated in sometimes would say. Plans jumbled in her brain at a certain point, so sometimes she had to make stuff up on the fly, and sometimes explanations went waaayyyy over her head.

But she figured she was pretty smart on one thing.

Emotions came pretty easy to her. Her emotions, for sure, but other's too. They just sort of clicked in her brain.

Love was a weird one, sure. But she lived in a town where she knew everyone and everyone knew her, and it'd been that way since she could remember. She had a lot of time to gather what love looked like as gossip flooded from ear to ear. That's the thing about a town like Spiral Hill. No one's business is really private.

There'd been a little tickle in the back of Tangle's head when Whisper had shown her her mask. She hadn't paid attention to it, then, too preoccupied by the issue at hand. But it had stuck with her, and she'd sorted through it in daydreams and in the minutes between her head hitting the pillow and sleep taking her.

It was the trust that came too easily to a creature like Whisper. Tangle had seen it before, in kids, teens, adults that fell in love. She'd asked Jewel's auntie, once, curious.

"Why do they act so dumb around them?" She'd said, with her little baby lemur voice.

Jewel's auntie, who Tangle had believed to be the smartest woman on earth, then - because she hadn't yet seen her fully put her foot in her mouth when trying to talk to people with any sort of power over her - had glanced out from the balcony the three of them sat on, at the subject of Tangle's curiosities.

"Love makes you trust a little too easily. Consider why someone is the way they are a little less. And you're putty in the hands of someone you trust too much." She'd sounded melancholy, then. A bit sad. A bit thoughtful.

The answer had felt wrong to Tangle's little brain, and years later it caught up that Jewel's aunt had just been cheated on by her boyfriend. But the answer had stuck just as well, and had applied itself to Whisper in a moment of realization.

It probably didn't mean anything on its own, really. But it was a seed that built with every interaction they had, and eventually Tangle thought, with a pretty heavy vote of confidence, that Whisper might be in love with her.

Which was great, because, as Tangle had realized pretty early on, she was in love with Whisper too.

So it was hard to wait, to swallow every time she wanted to blurt it out (because Tangle, for all her talents, was not very good at shutting up), to wait until Whisper knew, to wait until Whisper was comfortable.

Boundaries. That was one of the first things she and Whisper had talked about, when friends was only something you could sort of call them. It had been weird, at first, when hugs were instinctual. And then it got easier with practice. And then Whisper was willing to take her hand, and told her that hand holding was fine. And there was this give and take with them, where some were alright, and others got put up, and Tangle understood.

Really, she did. Whisper had a lot going on, and a romance might not have been in the cards for her. Not for a while. Maybe not ever.

So Tangle sucked in a breath, and waited for Whisper to tell her on her own. She could simmer knowing already in the meantime.

Tangle tapped her foot against the ground. She didn't like daydreaming about all this past stuff like this. Especially not the obvious next bit.

But Whisper had held her like they were both going to die, back on Angel Island, when Tangle had woken up. And there hadn't been much time between her waking up and everyone trying to get back into the swing of normalcy.

Whisper had spent the time all but attached to her tail.

She'd missed her with a desperation, Tangle found. One she didn't understand, but Whisper's face, as monotone as she kept it, turned to her with relief, often. She allowed arms over her shoulder (truly the only way Tangle knew how to flirt, so that was nice,) with the need of someone who felt that Tangle would disappear if she went too far.

She'd grabbed a drink (almost definitely alcoholic, which neither of them were old enough to have legally), downed it like a shot, turned to Tangle, and immediately got interrupted by Eggman crashing in.

Tangle had known, then, what Whisper was going to say, but she wasn't going to say it in this mess, so out with Eggman!

The fight wasn't even that bad, other than the fact that the town square was a little bit busted. Sonic showed up, Eggman turned tail, and Whisper huffed a little bit.

Tangle turned to look at Whisper, later that night, or earlier that morning, and asked her what she'd wanted to say.

Whisper, heavy with sleep:

"I'm in love with you."

And with the excitement came a fear.

Because Whisper was latching onto her as someone who'd risen from the dead. Whisper was latching onto her as someone she'd failed. Whisper was latching onto her with regrets.

And Tangle didn't really know what to do with that.

They could get through it, sure, but Tangle had a saying about it, and it had been running through her head for the past couple days:

It'll pass, sure, but it sucks right now.

"Tangle, if you wanted to sleep more, you could have- you know, slept more."

Tangle lifted her head. Jewel was standing in the bedroom's doorway in her pajamas, Whisper standing at her side in Tangle's biggest tanktop, groggy.

"I wasn't sleeping!" Tangle defended. "Just. Thinking."

Jewel snorted. "Don't hurt yourself." She paused. Covered her mouth. "Sorry. Still waking up."

"I think it's funny," Tangle reassured.

Jewel sighed, then, fond. "I know."

And then she went over to the kitchen and pulled out a can of instant coffee.

Whisper trudged over to the table and placed her head on the table, letting her hair act as a curtain to the light streaming in from the windows. Tangle watched, head resting on her hand.

"Hey, Whisper, girl, uh... Can we talk?"

Whisper hummed a note that might be affirmative.

"'Bout last night. Or, I mean, this morning. Earlier. Y'know."

Whisper lifted her head, pulling her hair out of her face, and placed her head back down, on top of her arms this time.

"Were happy, then," Whisper said, quieter than Tangle's ever heard her.

"I am," Tangle admitted, and her tail began swishing against her will.

In the corner of her eye, Jewel turned.

"Then?" Whisper asked.

"I love you too," Tangle said, it falling out with some kind of weight in her chest she'd been ignoring. "Me too."

Jewel, in the corner of her eye, was leaning against the kitchenette counter.

Whisper's lips curled up, and Tangle watched her press her hands against her snout to hide it.

"But, what now?"

Whisper tilted her head, confused.

"Do we, like. Date? I've never done this before, Whisper!" Tangle pressed the balls of her hands into her eyes.

"Me neither," Whisper admitted softly.

"Then?"

"Don't want to change," Whisper explained. "The same. Us."

"Then, what are we?"

Whisper frowned. "Us?"

"Us. Is that- does that count?"

Tangle turned to her best friend, who was already waving her hands in front of her. "Don't look at me!!"

"Can we do that?" Tangle asked.

"Don't know," Whisper said, almost to herself. "Just, wanted you to know."

That had been what she'd been afraid of, a little bit, Tangle recognized. Whisper was tackling regrets. Not telling Tangle that she loved her was one of them. And now that Tangle knew, she didn't need anything more.

Did Tangle?

It was a strange question. She thought it over for a minute, wondering what, really, dating brought new to the table for them.

Nothing, really, that she could imagine. She could ask to kiss Whisper now, probably, but did they need to be dating for that? She would have asked then anyway if Jewel didn't look extremely awkward, standing to the side, glancing between her mug and her friends.

"What would change anyway?" Tangle asked, finally. "Can't think of much."

Whisper smiled, a small thing. "Then?"

"I like the way you said it. Just us. Doesn't matter if we're not dating." Tangle grinned, big, big enough for the both of them.

"Is- um, are you two good?" Jewel asked. "I feel- I feel I shouldn't have been there for all that."

"It's your apartment," Tangle said.

"I'm sorry," Whisper added for the both of them.

"It's fine! Just- that should have been private, I feel. I didn't need to- Shouldn't have, really, um, been here."

"Of course you should have!" Tangle said easily. "Speakin' of, make your coffee- I already ate, but you should too."

The kitchen sort of settled into something steady, then - Whisper and Jewel hovering about, trying to fill their stomachs. They bring plates back, two different kinds of breakfasts, neither matching Tangle's finished one.

It really did feel normal, Tangle found. Like nothing had changed between them, but the weight of a secret was pulled off of her shoulders.

Well, maybe one thing could change, actually.

"Whisper, what do you think of kissing?"

Jewel nearly spat out her coffee.

[immoralimmortals]

ok so what if, hear me out Takara was pregnant (gasp) nah like I want to hear your thoughts on this

So all cards on the table...miracle of life, wonderful, wonderful thing... Yeah, I know all that. But all the same, pregnancy to me is largely a form of body horror. A lot of this is going to be on the fly since it's not my cup of tea. So putting that aside and trying to make the subject warm and romantic, here are some thoughts on what it'd be like if Takara was pregnant:

You KNOW they dote on her. Absolute kings. There isn't a day that passes where ten separate Akatsuki members come up to her, if not multiple times, to make sure she's okay.

Itachi swears she's radiant, glowing like she's holy. You've heard this all before in other headcanons on this site-- he's over the moon with love. Glued to her side, yet somehow not overbearing. 10/10, I'd let this man be with me during my morning sickness. Takara will want for nothing. Probably becomes the most overtly sweet and romantic in al the time they've known each other, gently stroking her skin and kissing her head. When it comes to the point where she's "showing", he's quick to tell Kisame to do tasks for Takara whenever she's about to do something, and he has to be reminded she's not useless and it's good for both her and the pregnancy to continue being active.

You thought Kisame was awkward and cautious *before*? He's at the point where every single little touch, regardless how small or where it is on her body, is so, so purposeful. Nothing he does is haphazard. He will clear paths for her if necessary. He's her knight, her guardian, placing himself between her and the rest of the world. Definitely at one point rests his head on her belly and cries. He's very quick to answer to Itachi's orders and further enables inactivity. It is a lot easier to use his body to interact with other things than it is to use it to directly touch her; he's up for anything. He'll mow down a mountain just so she could go for a walk without having an incline. He will walk to town to buy her flowers every single day.

Hidan gets...quieter around her, especially as the pregnancy begins to show. He's more observant than before. Still gets into his usual attitudes if he doesn't understand or see something coming ("What? You seemed FINE a second ago! What do you MEAN you're gonna throw up!")...but he's certainly taking all this in. What does it mean to Jashin if someone brings forth life instead of takes it? He holds his prayer beads and feels the sigil between his fingers, only shutting his eyes to pray once she is surely asleep. He'll wonder a lot, eventually out loud, what the baby is going to be like, who they'll grow up to be, what it'll be like to have one around. He won't say it, but he's nervous as hell for that part. It's a whole new human being.

Kakuzu is so fucking stressed. This man is the closest in the group to being a normal-ass man with a normal-ass job and goal. He is trying to coordinate enough income for eleven fucking people to live at least somewhat comfortably. You're going to add a BABY? Good lord he might break. That being said, he's a worrywort that's always a little bit on edge. If someone is fucking around with her or the pregnancy too much, he will actually hit you. ...But not until he took you outside, she doesn't need to see it and stress herself or the baby. He is also especially concerned about accidentally being too rough. She'd have to convince him to touch her or sit next to her. Once she does? He finally relaxes, and he's in heaven. There's a whole world that fits right in his arms. He has a second chance not just with her but this child to have a life worth living.

Deidara is the most to treat her like...a normal human being undergoing a body change? I'm not saying he's uncaring, more like he's the best at not losing his fucking mind. Most willing to just hang out and not make it weird, let her do things on her own. Other people-- no, literally everyone else-- will see her reaching up in the kitchen cabinet for a mug and will scold him for not jumping to do it for her. He argues otherwise-- and it makes sense-- so therefore the other person gets pissed off. He tells Takara to be grateful for what he does for her independence, and she genuinely is, rewarding him with a kiss on the cheek that makes him bright red. It makes him stutter and try to move on so things are normal again. I think like Hidan-- even more so actually-- he's very curious about what it'll be like once the baby is around. It's fun to see her change little by little, day by day, too.

Sasori doesn't like change. That's kind of his whole bit. He isn't looking forward to the noise, the filth, the troubles of a baby and then later another growing person. So the pregnancy is kind of a precursor for that. Once it's clear that yes, this baby is coming, he has to make peace with it. He's the one that's most attentive about her physical health and body. He'll notice any change in color of her skin-- reddening or paling-- catch on to ANY morning sickness before she even says a word. She'd have to remind him that regardless of if the stretch marks stay, they're a part of her right now, and with that explanation he begrudgingly appreciates them. He eventually becomes entranced by the idea of teaching the child what he knows.

Konan is...wistful, I think, as well as in awe. She's kind of like Itachi in that she's very present, very gentle. But Takara being pregnant gives her a lot of...thought. Surely when she was born-- when Nagato and Yahiko were born-- their parents, too, had the best intentions in the world. A piece of her is afraid. The best laid plans can still fall into ruin, the intentions of being good parents and giving a happy life certainly did not happen to her and her friends. That being said, she finds comfort in being a pragmatic planner. She's the one that gets a routine for Takara both prenatal and then postnatal, the one that strategized how the baby is going to be educated, what kind of food they need, etc. So if nothing else-- if anything and everything goes wrong-- they at least have a plan to follow even if they panic. She also, like Itachi, finds her radiant in this time. I can see her sitting with Takara and holding her hand for hours on end, just finding peace in how much she loves her right now.

Nagato picks up where Konan leaves off on the whole planning thing. She is not to be alone at any time. She wants to go for a walk? Kisame, walk ten paces ahead, Kakuzu, ten paces behind, Deidara, go up in the trees. If she so much as scrapes her knee, there will be consequences. This will NOT be fucked up. He won't say it, but he loves her even more right now than he ever thought he could. He thinks that despite all her flaws-- any human has flaws, of course-- Takara will be the best mother to grace this universe or any other.

"Tobi" is so, so excited. While Konan is sitting next to her, he's on the floor, wrapping around Takara's legs, talking endlessly about how much fun the baby is going to be. He's also excessively careful and protective, which is in earnest at heart but also being played up so no one second guesses he's an idiot. He will throw away a cup of tea if he deems it too hot for her to drink, uncaring if it hits and spills on someone else. In private...he's quieter. I can see him putting on her socks for her as she has trouble bending, and he does it nearly reverently, looking up at her through that mask with a gaze she can feel as adoring. Obito is feeling every emotion possible. He's afraid, he's overjoyed, he's shaken, he's happy. This situation is the culmination of everything he's come to want while Takara has been here. He looks at her carrying this baby like she's Mary, mother of Jesus.

Zetsu is the funniest one. He doesn't get it. Like he DOES-- there'd be a joke where he'd say he doesn't get it and Tobi begins to explain where babies came from and Zetsu would yell at him to shut up-- but he doesn't get it. He's like me, the author, in the sense that like...if you really want to experience parenthood...why are you making a whole new baby? There are so many babies out there who NEED a parent. And you're going to fill up that slot? Humans are really genuinely so selfish, what the hell. That aside, he's at least mindful of her, in a physical and medical sense. He asks her questions, in the rare moments she is alone, and he genuinely listens and tries to engage. I think he would, finally, in at least a little way "get it" when Takara invites him to put an ear to her stomach and listen.

Everyone is excited to see who the father is, regardless of how much they say it does or doesn't matter.

[bellaxgiornata]

Omg! Happy anniversary for tumblr 😅? I'm so happy you've enjoyed the experience and as a fan of your work I wanna say congratulations!

It's a bit of a silly ask, but how would matt or Michael react to a reader asking if at their future wedding they could have a 'wing' bearer? Like, all du k with a bow tie waddling down the aisle to hand over the rings? A bit silly but a cute idea. Could be taken seriously or not, just wanna know your ideas for it?

Thank you for reading this, hope the pregnancy is going okay!

Ahh thank you so much!! 💕 It's been just over a year that I've been on here so I'm treating it like an anniversary/follower celebration thing because I've never done one before. They always seem fun though and I love interacting with y'all! And yes, the pregnancy is going a little better this week than last week thankfully! I'm nearing the end finally, too!

And you know what? I don't mind silly asks. This actually prompted two different fun dialogues in my head immediately, so hopefully that answers your question! The first one immediately had me thinking of Matt and Reader from FFTD specifically, but the dialogue with Mikey wasn't for any specific Reader. As usual, everything is below the cut!

“What if we had a wing bearer at the wedding?” you asked, lowering your coffee mug to the table.

Matt's head tilted curiously to the side as he paused at the kitchen sink, the dish he was cleaning currently forgotten at the question. “You mean a ring bearer, sweetheart?” 

“No,” you said, shaking your head. “A wing bearer. Like a duck waddling down the aisle with our rings. Maybe wearing a cute little bow tie.”

Matt turned more towards you, both of his dark brows rising up onto his forehead. “You're not seriously suggesting that are you?” he asked. “Do you have any idea how unreliable a duck would most likely be? It'd probably fly away with the rings.” 

“Okay, yeah, maybe,” you agreed slowly. “But it would be adorable. And how many people can say they had a wing bearer at their wedding?”

“Or we could just, you know, ask your nephew,” Matt pointed out. “Like normal people. I'm pretty sure he'd happily dress up like a duck if you asked, anyway. And at least he wouldn't fly away with the rings.”

“I suppose,” you conceded. 

“And honestly, could you imagine if the duck started attacking guests because it was afraid?” Matt mused, returning to washing the plate in his hand. He chuckled lightly, shaking his head. “That'd be a disaster.”

“Well if that was the case,” you replied, picking your mug back up, “then I'd have to remind you of the promise you made to me on our first date. About protecting me from giant ducks.”

“Sweetheart,” Matt began, once more stopping mid-wash of the plate in his hands as he focused back on you from across the kitchen, “please tell me you're not over there actually considering paying to have a massive duck walk our rings down the aisle.”

When you didn't answer immediately, one of his brows quirked up onto his forehead. 

“It was just a thought,” you said in defeat. “But fine. You're right. I'll just ask Hudson instead. That makes more sense.”

“What're ya lookin’ at, love?” Michael asked, settling down onto the sofa beside you. He leaned over, eyes squinting at your phone. “And why does it involve ducks with bow ties?”

“Just working on wedding planning things,” you answered him off-handedly.

“But ducks?” Michael asked again. “What do ducks have to do with our wedding?”

“I don't know,” you said with a shrug, glancing up at him beside you. “I was on this site that had a bunch of wedding vendors listed and stumbled on something called a wing bearer. I was curious so I looked.”

“And what is it?” he asked.

“A trained duck who walks your rings down the aisle,” you answered.

Michael stared at you in silence for a moment before roughly shaking his head. “That's ridiculous,” he muttered. 

“I'm not making it up,” you countered.

“Well I'm tellin’ ya now, pet,” Michael told you, “there's not goin’ to be ducks at the wedding.”

Your eyes narrowed curiously back at him as he settled into the cushions. He somehow appeared to have grown tense now, a note of finality in his tone.

“What about–”

“No ducks,” he stated firmly. “I don't like 'em.”

Lowering your phone to your lap, you eyed him suspiciously. Out of all the time you'd known Michael, you'd never seen him shut a lighthearted conversation down so fast. 

“I feel like there's a story here,” you said slowly.

“No, there's not,” Michael answered, shaking his head again.

“Oh come on,” you pressed, reaching a hand out and lightly squeezing his shoulder. “It's me. You can tell me anything, Mikey.”

Michael shifted, looking at you sitting beside him. His lips were drawn into a straight, unamused line as he studied you for a moment. Then eventually he blew out a rough breath, shoulders sagging. 

“Fine,” he relented. “Back when I was younger I was pissed off my ass and stumbled onto a duck's nest once. She wasn' thrilled and the encounter was…rather unpleasant. Left me with a bruise on my face. Told Jimmy I'd gotten into a fight at the pub. Now I avoid ducks.”

You bit your lip, attempting to fight back an amused laugh as you nodded and tried to shoot him a sympathetic look. But Michael saw right through you, immediately rolling his eyes and shaking his head.

“Forget I said anythin’, pet,” he muttered.

“No, no,” you reassured him, still fighting back a laugh as you patted his shoulder. “I won't invite any ducks to the wedding. I promise.” Clearing your throat, you couldn't help but add, “I couldn't possibly risk starting a war between a Kinsella and one of their known enemies. And on our wedding day, no less.”

Michael shot you a flat, unamused look which had you breaking at the sight. Throwing a hand over your mouth, you tried to quiet the laugh that slipped out. 

“Hilarious, love,” Michael deadpanned. “I expect ya not to tell anyone ‘bout this, ya know.”

“Of course,” you said behind your hand, still trying to fight down the laugh. “Your secrets are always safe with me, Mikey.”

He rolled his eyes again, but when you saw him crack a grin, you finally loosed the laugh you'd been holding back.

[starry-night-author]

i love ur writing tee hee <3333

im a sucker for hero x villain with a child but!!!! divorced :0 ? show me some great co parenting with a side of falling in love again (^o^)

Thank you!!! Nyehehehe the dynamic ever

Prompt #14

Villain leaned back dramatically as Sidekick was led down the hall to them. "Ah, baby's first time in jail. I remember my first time! It wasn't this jail, but being here sure does bring back memories."

"Shut up," Hero grumbled. They were in the middle of signing papers. "Don't encourage this."

"You guys didn't both have to come," Sidekick said awkwardly, stepping over to them.

"Yes, but I wanted to congratulate you, and Hero wanted to yell at you." Villain said, sweeping their child up into a hug. "I brought cotton to stuff in your ears if you don't want to listen to it."

Sidekick giggled, then caught sight of the look on Hero's face and quickly sobered up.

After fully signing out and Sidekick getting their belongings back, the three piled into Hero's car to head back to their house. Hero drove, but spent most of their time looking up into the rearview mirror to hold a conversation with Sidekick in the backseat.

"I can't believe you!" Hero exclaimed. "You know there's only so much the Agency can allow, and you ending up in jail already is going to have you on probation. Are you trying to end up like Villain?"

"Which isn't a terribly bad thing," Villain reminded them. "There's a stop sign, love."

"Thank you." Hero slammed on the breaks just in time, sending both Villain and Sidekick flying forward, only to be jarringly caught by their seatbelts.

Hero let out a breath, letting two other cars go at the four-way stop before pressing on the gas again. "Look, I suppose it's fine if you get in with Villain's operation, but you have to do that the right way. The villainous world is dangerous, and you have to get in through going along with Villain and not being caught stealing in the middle of the night!"

"Sorry," Sidekick said quietly. "It won't happen again."

"It won't?" Villain frowned, looking let down.

Hero glowered at them, and they laughed. "Sorry, sorry, kidding. I'll support whatever you do, dear."

"It'd better not," Hero looked up at them in the mirror again. "The only time I want word of you stealing is if it's from the right people and you're with Villain, got it?"

"Got it, Hero." Sidekick looked down at their hands.

"That being said, if you do decide to go back to it, I know a few cases we could do together." Villain glanced back at them with a grin, and Sidekick couldn't help but smile back.

Having a hero and a villain as parents could lead to some strange conversations.

"Look, we're already being accused of nepotism by the Agency, due to how fast you've advanced." Hero said. "Which, you and I know that's not the case, but if you manage to keep your position after this people are really going to be suspicious."

"I'm going to lose my position?!" Sidekick asked, alarmed. They hadn't thought of that.

"You might," Hero admitted. "I'll try to do everything I can to stop it, but there's only so much I can do."

Sidekick let out a breath. "Sorry, Hero. And... thanks."

"Of course. How are you, though? Are you doing okay?"

"I'm fine," Sidekick let out a breath. "I didn't realize getting caught would ruin my position though."

Villain nodded. "See, this is why you should come be a villain with me, we don't have to worry about any of that."

"Stop pressuring them!" Hero scolded.

The villain shrugged. "It's just a point!" They looked back at Sidekick. "You're sure you're alright though? This isn't the result of lashing out due to teenage angst or anything?"

Sidekick smiled. "I'm fine, you guys. Really. I'm sorry you both had to get up this late."

"I was up anyway," Villain yawned.

"Doing what?" Hero cast them a suspicious glance.

Villain just smirked, leaning back in their chair. "Your little Agency will find out in the morning. Thankfully everything had been wrapped up by the time I got the call."

Once they got to Hero's house there were just enough hours of darkness left to get in a little sleep, so the two tucked Sidekick into bed. The kid was never too old for that.

Outside of Sidekick's door Hero let out an anxious breath, and Villain opened their arms. That was all it took for Hero to melt against them, Villain holding them tightly. They just held each other for a moment, Hero taking a minute to let go of their stress.

"I'm just worried because they've worked so hard to get where they are in the Agency," Hero murmured into Villain's shoulder. "I don't want them to lose that."

"They'll be fine," Villain assured them, gently rubbing their back. "Besides, if you can't talk the Agency into letting them keep their position, they've got one of the city's most feared and respected villains as their parent too. Threats have worked in the past, haven't they?"

Hero chuckled. "I've missed you."

"Missed you too."

"Coffee in the morning?"

"I thought you'd never ask."

[meowcats734]

(prompt response) A tiny dragon and a crow fight over a gold coin. They’re both equally strong, and both can fly. The crow is smart enough to dodge the fire, and the dragon is trying not to melt the coin. They tussle on the street.

We were set for shelter thanks to the Redlands' forgiving climate, and Mairel's ghost combined with my foraging skills meant we were good for food and water. I wasn't exactly sure what the limitations of the ghost were, but Sansen assured me that the soulspace entity from the Plane of Nostalgia was limited in what it could do—mostly, bringing memories from its past to life, spending them one by one.

I felt a little sad taking advantage of the ghost of Sansen's old crush like that, but it was clear from experimentation that the clump of soul fragments that made up Mairel's ghost wasn't sentient, and was perfectly happy to help us in any way it could. If we could have a slightly higher chance of not dying before we found Jiaola and got the hell away from this nightmare war, I'd gladly sacrifice a hundred ghosts and memories to save one living person. 

"So how come it's not sentient, but people like Odin and I am?" Meloai asked. I had no idea how her clockwork body repaired itself, but she seemed to have recovered from her flight through the Plane of Elemental Cold, because she could walk longer than any of us—and for the entire day, too. She offered to shapeshift into a horse and give us all a ride, but... something about that just felt sleazy, and it was pretty clear that she had no idea how to control a horse's body anyway, so we all walked for now until we could think up a faster method of transport.

"I think it has something to do with the number of memories that happened to agglutinate at that point in soulspace," Sansen said. "Or maybe the diversity of memories? I could tell that Mairel's ghost was... well, Mairel's. There weren't any elements from other people's minds, as far as I can tell."

"Hey, yeah. And that creepy little mimic I, er, threw into the void way back when—the only soul fragment that came out of that was my mother's. And it sure as hell wasn't sentient."

"That reminds me—what were you doing in the Plane of Elemental Falsehood in the first place?" Lucet asked, tilting her head towards me.

"Odin was fucking with me," I said. It was the safe response. Liquid metal flushed through my soul, but I ignored it. "So, wait, Meloai, when we're feeding you the soul fragments from the animals we hunt, is that making you... smarter, or something?"

Meloai giggled awkwardly. "Sort of? But not in the way you think! I have to, uh, consume a certain amount of memories per day. In theory, I could survive indefinitely by consuming my memories as quickly as I produced them—that's how most soulspace entities just sort of keep existing—but then I wouldn't get to form new memories with you guys, having a good time and learning about the world. So... I consume other things' memories, instead." She paused, frowning. "It's not very efficient, though. I need to eat the right... kind... of memories. Ones charged with insecurity."

"Huh." Lucet turned to Sansen. "Hey, speaking of which, do you have any idea where memories that get eaten by soulspace entities... go? Our old teacher sort of stonewalled us on the topic."

Sansen shrugged. "Too theoretical for my tastes. Wouldn't they just get destroyed?"

"Soul fragments can't get destroyed, only transformed," Meloai said. 

"According to the Academy," I added.

"Okay, yeah, but if there's one place where we'd expect a little less propaganda, it'd be the realm of science, no? It's an empirically observed fact, and we ran some experiments to confirm it."

"Yes, true, cool—counterpoint: the Academy harvested our fucking emotions to power their war machine. I'm not trusting anything that came out of that 'education' that I can't verify with my own two hands."

"Hey, uh, guys?" Lucet said. "I hate to interrupt, but... are you three seeing this?"

Sansen muttered something about poor old eyes, but Meloai and I stopped in our banter, turning to face the end of the dirt road we'd been following for the past week.

The village was utterly and clearly ruined, even from this distance. The sky was scribbled over with slashes of darkness, and there wasn't a building taller than an outhouse left standing. 

"What is it?" Sansen asked, squinting at the horizon.

Nobody wanted to say "probably a massacre," but I was a Redlander. I was used to it. "Probably a massacre," I said, and my voice was surprisingly calm. It was only the third village I'd seen this way, but it already felt... familiar. Like slipping into an old torture rack, made comfortable from years of use. "It's a standard Redlands tactic. There's some valuable piece of land that everyone wants—a particularly fertile field, a really good aquifer, whatever—but nobody's able to hold it for long. So someone who knows they can't have it decides nobody else can, either, and tears open rifts until the place is uninhabitable. Then they move on to go fight over some other piece of land and forget about it until a year or two have passed and the rifts have mostly closed over. And the next batch of villagers settle in, name the place after the rifts that killed the last group of poor bastards to live there, and hope they have a decade or so before the cycle repeats itself all over again."

"Fuck," Lucet murmured. "I'm sorry, Cienne."

I shook my head. "It's... it's just the way things are. Come on. These rifts don't look as bad as they could be—let's check for survivors."

"What kind of rifts are we walking into?" Sansen absently asked.

"Darkness," I said. "If we encounter a shadow, we should probably just run. Demons of Fear can be fucking terrifying, and I don't... there's nothing here to be happy about. I can't use joy right now."

"Let me see," Sansen said, and two lenses of possibility swirled into existence around his eyes. He shook his head. "Very unlikely for there to be demons in the near future. Best bet is that the forces that clashed here—and let's be real, this was the Silent Peaks against the Order of Valhalla—already dealt with them, one way or another."

"Then let's get going."

Grimly, the four of us marched towards the ruined village, three of us keeping a lookout in space, one of us keeping a lookout in time. Nobody detected any threats, but I was still jumpy for the entire journey.

Meloai and Lucet seemed like they had a pretty good coverage of realspace, so I closed my eyes and looked into soulspace. The cluster of memories that made up Meloai was beginning to grow into visibility, although it was still small in comparison to the souls of the three humans in the party. Aside from us, though, there weren't many lifeforms in the village, and those that were seemed to mostly be dumb animals. I could tell from the emotions—mostly monotone, tiny drops of joy or crystals of sorrow...

...except, wait, I'd nearly overlooked it, since its soul was so small, but there was a more complex soul. It had the simple emotions like sorrow and fear, yes, but there were glass shards of shame and sticky black thorns of self-hatred, and those were emotions I uniquely associated with what it meant to be human.

"Hold on," I said, eyes still closed. "I think I found something. A sapient soul, this way." I pointed towards where the soul would have corresponded to in realspace. Nobody questioned me—with my nine attunements, I had by far the broadest range of emotions I could see with my soulsight, and even though it didn't make me a master witch by any means, it gave me an edge in situations like this.

Even as the four of us inched closer to the broken rubble that I'd sensed the soul in, in my soulsight I felt the soul breaking apart. Fuck, the only person who could tell us what had happened here was already dying. "Quickly," I said, kneeling down to excavate the rubble.

Meloai pushed me aside without even thinking and hefted, clockwork tick-tick-ticking as strength a dozen times more than I could possibly output lifted a massive wooden beam off the ground.

At what she saw beneath, Meloai froze—not in the living, breathing way a human might, but in the perfect form of a statue that reminded me of her home in endless halls of oil and clockwork.

The girl who'd been crushed beneath the falling beam was undeniably dead. Nobody could survive watering the grass like that.

But the soul I had sensed stirred, and I knelt down, lifting up the girl's hand to reveal... a crow. Jet-black, beautiful, bloodied, and broken. But still alive, for now.

"Can you—" Lucet began.

"I never attuned forgiveness," I said, and it was disgusting how level my voice was. "It's not an emotion for me."

"Fuck," Lucet whispered. "And there aren't any other sapient souls in the village?"

"Not that I can sense," I said. Calm, sorrow, passion, insecurity, joy, fear, spite, guilt, self-hatred—even with the nine fields of magic I could now touch, I couldn't even save a fucking crow.

Well. At the very least, my oldest attunement was in perfect working order.

The crow shifted in my hands, letting out a faint wheeze. For a moment, I could have sworn it was trying to tell me something.

And then, in a flash of insight, I realized that it still could.

"You two. Choose an emotion," I said, "and I'll open up a rift. Meloai, you just do what you do."

Lucet blinked, uncomprehending, but Meloai got it immediately. "What?" Lucet asked.

"We've got exactly one witness to what happened here," I explained, "and their memories are about to be scattered throughout thoughtspace. Maybe if we're lucky, we can catch them as they go."

"Worth a shot," Sansen said. "I'll take care of my own rift, thank you."

"I'm... comfortable with the Plane of Sorrow," Lucet said. "You just focus on yourself."

I nodded, oil welling up from my soul as I let my passion swell. The dying crow almost seemed to nod at me as three witches and one demon prepared to dive into the crow's memories.

Then the crow's soul shattered, and I slashed my way between realities to try and catch a shard before it was lost forever.

And I was no longer Cienne, the helpless little boy who was still hopelessly in over his head.

I was the crow. I liked shiny things and eating clams. I disliked fire and pointy knives. I was the crow. I was the crow—

###

Astrenn needed the Shiny. Even though my feathers were singed, even when the Angry Thing swiped at me with its claws, Astrenn needed the Shiny. And so I would get the Shiny. It didn't matter how long it took, it didn't matter how distracting the village was (ooh! Is that tinsel? I love tinsel. No. No, focus. Astrenn needed the Shiny.) The Angry Thing was dumb, and even though it was strong and magical, I was clever-clever, fast-fast. I would win eventually.

The first thing to do was to get to a friendly nest. Right now, we were near the nest of the Large Baker—who used the Angry Things for cook-fires and shooed away me from the Delicious Breads. If the Large Baker came out on the street to investigate, Astrenn would never get the Shiny. So I flew to a nearby bin of Smelly Rotten Mush and tipped it over with a wingflap.

I knew this much about the Angry Things: they had a powerful sense of smell. And so as soon as the Smelly Rotten Mush poured out onto the street (to the dismay of the Large Baker), the Angry Thing awkwardly flapped away, the Shiny in its claws. I grabbed a small pebble (and a tinsel, for later), and shot into the sky, my feather-silent wings swift where the clunky, impossible weight of the Angry Thing farted along on inelegant wind magic.

"Caw," I said, and released the stone.

The Angry Thing must have been stupid, because it didn't even try to dodge the stone that thunked on its head. Unfortunately, the Angry Thing was a big ball of scales (shiny? No, not Shiny. Focus. Astrenn needed the Shiny) and probably wasn't even hurt by the rock. Which was no fair. Even the hard-hard-hard clams from the market got split open by a high-heavy-dropped rock. But at the very least, the Angry Thing dropped the Shiny, letting it twinkle to the ground like a wish upon a star.

Astrenn would get the Shiny. Astrenn had to get the Shiny.

I dove down, folding my wings tight and close to my body like how I'd seen the swooping-fast-kill-above birds do, and snatched the Shiny out of the air. The Angry Thing dove after me, but it had fallen into my trap.

For these fields of amber grain were the nests of the Old Farmer, and they appreciated me for my ability to hunt-find-eat mice more than the Angry Things that set their barns and crops on fire.

The Angry Thing dove after me, heat lighting up in its maw as I settled on the ground, and I knew the Angry Thing thought it had victory in its stupid little claws.

But then, like a thunderbolt, a broom head slapped the Angry Thing out of the sky as the Old Farmer scolded it.

"Back, you silly little dragon! I won't have you burning the barn down today!" The Old Farmer had skin like wrinkle-walnuts, and he was unamused by the Angry Thing's presence in his nest. Another two broom slaps swept the defeated Angry Thing away, and the Old Farmer gave me a piercing look.

"Say... you're my daughter's friend, aren't you?" The Old Farmer chuckled to himself. "You clever little thing. Well, go on. She's waiting for you where we buried... oh, why am I bothering? You can't understand me; you're just a crow. Astrenn! Your crow's here to visit!"

I flapped towards the barn, where Astrenn was waiting. The little girl who'd once taken me in, feeding me, and keeping me warm when the nights grew cold. Astrenn had saved my life when she was a hatchling, and I would do anything for Astrenn in return.

Astrenn needed the Shiny. And finally, I had delivered.

Astrenn looked up from the small lump of freshly-turned earth, the small, carved rock that stood where a mother should have been. Her cheeks glistened with sparkling droplets of water, but for once, I only wanted to wipe these shinies away.

"There you are, you silly lump of feathers." Astrenn sniffled and held out her arm; I hopped on and nuzzled her cheek. "What've you got for me today?"

I said, "Caw," and relinquished my treasures. A single gold coin for Astrenn, and a bit of tinsel for me.

Astrenn giggled. "You crazy crow—where'd you get this? Mother would have fed you plump for days. Come on—we can still send her off, if we hurry."

Astrenn pocketed the Shiny and hurried into the market, exchanging the Shiny for some smaller sparkles and a bouquet of fresh flowers.

Then Astrenn and I returned to Astrenn's mother's grave, placing the flowers in the center. After a moment of thought, I delicately balanced my tinsel on top, and Astrenn closed her eyes that shone like stars.

"She would have loved you, you pretty little girl."

"Caw," I said, perhaps agreeing, perhaps simply being there for my friend.

And Astrenn and I knelt there in mourning, until the sun bled red and the greatest shinies of all twinkled in the night sky above.

###

Time flickered, stepped, and jumped, and I was back in my body. Back in realspace. Back in the ruined, darksky village.

Back by the corpse of a girl named Astrenn who loved to feed crows.

"It was them," Lucet whispered by my side. "The Order and the Peaks. They fought here."

"Yeah." The words came out of my mouth. "I get that."

My friends gave me odd looks, but I couldn't hear what they said next over the sudden rush of my heartbeat in my ears. Worried, Lucet stood to put a hand on my shoulder, but as if I was in a dream, I walked forwards and my friends fell away.

"You guys keep looking," I managed to say. "I'll be right back."

"Cienne, where are you—" Lucet started to say, before someone cut her off. Probably Sansen. I loved Meloai, but... it would be Sansen who stopped her. 

I stepped into the middle of a blackened, ruined field. Now that I knew what to look for, it was obvious that this was where the Peaks had called down one of their devastating strikes of pure light. The crops here had been burnt to ash, but that was okay. The bodies, the blood, the ruins—they would just make more fertile soil, more desirable targets for the next time war came to this horrible, beautiful place that I called home.

This coming spring harvest we'll do it again

From the first bitter dawn to the pitiful end.

My heart thumped to the mournful tune of the Redlands Anthem, and I clenched my fists and my jaw and my soul and my everything, everything was dense and hot and furious—

So lift up a glass for the heroes who fell

And the bastards that got them, we'll see them in—

I let loose a wordless, bloody, guttural shriek, and a torrent of fury and sorrow and self-hatred screamed out with it, heat that warped the air as much as my tears, frost that numbed my flesh as deep as my soul, and I was falling, shrinking, fading into nothingness as the storm of ice and fire that was my love and loss reached so high it nearly split the sky in two.

When it was over, I was curled up in a patch of melting frost, surrounded by ruined, incinerated earth. My soul was empty. I was empty. I was so, so weak, and if a gust of wind so much as touched me, I would blow away into dust.

From behind me, I heard the frost crunch as someone stepped up to me, waited, then laid down by my side. Reaching out to loop one arm around my chest, holding me tight and close. 

I closed my eyes and let Lucet hold me, the anthem of the Redlands echoing in my ears as my soul went quiet and still, falling asleep in a cradle of frost and flame.

A.N.

Soulmage is a serial written in response to writing prompts. Stick around for more episodes, or join my Discord to chat about it!

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[siriannatan]

Count fWhip's Well-Deserved Rest - SausagefWhip

I'm still going strong with writing something every day this month, which can't be said about Integrated Strategies in Arknights or all the quests I have backed up in Genshin… I'll slowly catch up there. Eventually :D

Sausage never saw fWhip asleep. Like deeply asleep, not just fell asleep after Sausage shoved him into the bed. He was the go-to man for fWhip's advisors to call if the count, the head of the Wither Rose Alliance, current Lord Emperor, probably the most powerful ruler around... Refused to rest.

Yes. When fWhip refused to rest. Sausage would fly all the way from Mythland to pick up the half-dragon. Wrap his soft feathery wings around them and... drag fWhip kicking, screaming, scratching and biting to bed. And stand over him and wait until fWhip got ready for bed and actually fell asleep. It happened at least twice a week.

But today was the first time no one knew where fWhip was. He was never late for WRA meetings. So they split and looked around the manor. Gem went to fWhip's lab. Pearl to his library. And Sausage, with little hope of finding him there, fWhip's bedroom. Just in case he stayed up too long but somehow made it to bed, and was still asleep. 

But against everything he thought he knew, Sausage did find fWhip in his bed. But as soon as he recognised it was fWhip there his brain short-circuited.

He would never expect fWhip of all people to be a cuddler. Or at least get grabby in his sleep. But here he was, staring at fWhip practically wrapped around a pillow. One wing folded close and the other stretched out, blocking sunlight from reaching fWhip. His tail almost touching his nose which scrunched in the most adorable way. Too cute for Sausage's heart. 

What was Sausage supposed to do? Let fWhip rest, obviously. So he went to find Gem and Pearl and proposed they let fWhip sleep today. Volunteering to stay to inform fWhip when he wakes up. Shockingly they didn't mind. Could be all the hard work fWhip was doing recently or they were simply too busy to argue or wait. Or something.

Anyway. Sausage was glad they agreed and made himself comfortable in an armchair in fWhip's bedroom. To avoid advisors and inform him about everything as soon as he woke up. Not to stare at him contort around his cuddle pillow and tear another pillow apart with his horns. He was just making sure fWhip got all the rest he needed.

Watching fWhip wake up was just a nice bonus. Even if Sausage would never expect to get warm watching fWhip yawn widely, all sharp teeth on full view, and stretch, it was rare to see how wide his wings were without fWhip flying away within seconds. And he could see the way the sunlight shone through it.

"Sausa... The meeting!" fWhip instantly panicked when he noticed he wasn't alone. And would fall off the bed if Sausage didn't catch him at the last moment.

"Whoah, calm down, we decided to move it till you're fully rested. Your advisors agreed that you need a day off as well," Sausage calmly explained as fWhip steadied himself. 

"Were you watching me sleep?" fWhip realised far too quickly. That's on Sausage for trying to outsmart a genius. 

"I was waiting for you to wake up so you don't panic and hurt yourself," Sausage still tried to defend himself, "as you nearly did."

"Because you were here, otherwise it'd take me a second to..."

"Shush, I'm not explaining to Gem why you haven't rested for a change," Sausage cut the argument before it took over the whole day.

fWhip just sighed and leaned his full body weight on Sausage. Between the wings and tail and everything he was shockingly heavy. Not that Sausage would be complaining about having someone as pretty as fWhip this close. "I'm going to assume I get to keep you here the whole day as part of this resting arrangement?" he hummed in a manner that could only be described as flirting.

"Of course, I... I'll just need to send one quick letter," Sausage agreed. Anything for fWhip and his pretty eyes...

"You have until I'm done with morning bath," fWhip announced and ran off. Sausage wasted fewer precious seconds than expected on staring after fWhip's tail.

[your-neighbor-in-the-northblue]

Coffee? ↠ Nami, Usopp x Reader

➼ Word Count » 0.6k ➼ Warnings » None ➼ Genre » Slice of Life, Modern AU, Platonic, Coffeeshop AU

The cozy chatter of the warmly lit cafe made you smile as you sip on your cup of coffee. The leather booth you'd found was cold on your shoulders, but it was welcomed compared to the heat that burned outside. Your neck still had the burn that came with standing in the sun for too long.

"Hey~" Nami greeted as she came up behind you, running her hands along your shoulders as she went to sit across from you in the booth. Usopp followed quickly behind, shooing you over so that he could slide in beside you. "How've you been?"

"Well enough," You answered, pushing the other two drinks you had ordered to the people in question, "It feels like forever since we last did this."

"Tell me about it," Usopp groaned, gratefully accepting the latte presented to him, "This week has been long, I'm glad our schedules finally managed to work."

Nami nodded sympathetically at your long-nosed friend, "Well, did you hear about the Government giving everyone their criminal records back?"

"What do you mean?" You asked, taking a sip from your drink as you stared at her in confusion.

It was a wild statement in itself but even more wild when you took in the fact that your city had a record for brushing crimes under the rug and ignoring them completely in favor of their image.

"All these people who originally had their crimes fly under the radar are now getting charged for them years after they've been committed." She informed, "Big News Morgan has it written all over his Twitter, I'm surprised you hadn't seen it."

"Who's all being charged? Not anyone we know, right?" Usopp asked, nervously glancing over at you, clearly just as unaware as you were about the whole ordeal.

"I wouldn't be surprised if Luffy was one of them."

"Moria, Mihawk, Hancock──"

"Hancock?" You interrupted, "Really? She didn't seem so bad when I met her. What'd she do?"

She shrugged, "I think she was down for manslaughter, but for now it's all hearsay."

"Fuck! Manslaughter??" Usopp cried out, putting his head in his hands, "Y-You don't think she'd wanna kill us do you??!"

"Why would she go after us?"

"I don't know! Just like──what if??"

"That's stupid," Nami retorted, "All I know is that if I were that pretty, I'd definitely test the waters a bit as well."

You nodded at her statement, "Oh, for sure, but I feel like Mihawk should be the one we're most concerned about. I mean, Zoro's dad??"

"And his sister's boss," Usopp added thoughtfully, "not the greatest look for them."

"He's been missing for a couple of days now," You mentioned, it felt like a lightbulb started to flicker in your brain the longer you thought about it, "Do you think he ran away?"

"Doubt it, he probably just drove off somewhere and got lost," Nami responded, swirling her drink with her straw, "Perona's got a tracker on him, I'll ask her about it when I see her next."

You leaned back in your booth and sat quietly as you watched the two decide on whether or not Perona would have stayed or disappeared herself considering the allegations that'd been put forward. You relished the feeling of having your friends spout conspiracies over coffee. It'd been months since you'd last done this together and it was something you didn't realize you missed so much till right now, as they bickered over who knew the family better.

[lastlycoris]

For some odd reason, I get the feeling I make Sylph - I guess, Levant - nervous. Not sure why.

I can tell her heart rate goes up when she notices me because of the Heartbeat sense. And she seems to have a weird six sense when I'm watching her because whenever I'm looking at her, I can sense her heart rate going up too.

How odd.

She has a very strange power. I commented it on before - her ability to make her strikes non-lethal to a ridiculous degree. Even if a lamppost is dented with a guy's head caught between it and her bat, all the guy suffers is blacking out and a small headache afterwards.

It doesn't quite seem like a power you get through a meta-gene. I haven't really seen magic around either, though Kunlun does have alchemy which might as well be magic. But it doesn't seem like that either though.

If it's a meta-gene, what is it exactly augmenting? Her muscles and bones to control her power? Is she somehow redirecting force while attacking - she is a martial artist and I wouldn't be surprised if it's some weird quirk of her martial art? But that's also require an ability to sense what her damage is doing to others - is her skin's nerve receptors more acute than other people's then? And also to do it in the fly likely means changes to her brain and her spinal cord too?

I could just say it's probably magic and be done with it. But that's a pretty unsatisfying answer, especially for a scientist/doctor.

I think it'd probably be rude to ask for a skin biopsy. And a muscle biopsy is probably out of the question. I don't think there's enough risk-benefit arguments in the world to perform some sort of exploratory surgery. Maybe a brain and spine MRI to see if there is anatomical changes?

All of this is just me blabbing though. Like I said, the risk-benefit to the girl is skewed very badly. Most of the tests I would need for anything definitive would be very invasive - like for neural things, that'd be a biopsy.

I'm hoping that their visit will be over soon. I'm getting weird looks from both Kunlun and the prison folk, cause it seems like Kunlun wants to recruit me too.

[aita-blorbos]

WIBTA if I saved everyone from an unstable lunatic?

I (?M -- the place I'm from uses a different calendar system) am an ambassador from another dimension, and as part of my job I'm supposed to check and see if there's anywhere that would make decent housing for my people. I found a place recently, but I also got roped into a bunch of politics I wanted no part in, and that's really been dragging the whole operation down.

Recently, things have gotten worse with one person in particular. He (??M, ghost) has been constantly spying on everyone, hiding in people's walls and eavesdropping on their conversations and the like, and I'm pretty sure he'd been stalking me specifically since he knows a bunch of stuff that I've never told him? I'm mostly willing to let that fly -- or I would be if the rest of his actions weren't extremely worrying as well.

For starters, he somehow got his hands on an IOU from me, and he's been holding it over my head ever since. The way he goes about it is creepy, too -- first he pulls me into his underground graveyard to giggle about it like an unhinged person, and says "it'll wait for the right moment." He figures out what he wants to ask me for? He doesn't shoot me a message, that'd be too normal of him. No, he specifically gets me to teleport to his underground lair full of lava and precious metals before asking me to steal something from a ritual we'd all been planning to try and get the queen unpossessed (long story).

I told him I'd do it anyway, but then a mutual friend of ours (??M) steals them first. Later, I find out that for some reason the ghost had instructed him to stop me from stealing the diamonds for reasons I cannot possibly fathom and frankly do NOT want to know. So not only did he try and get me to sabotage this ritual that was potentially our only hope of getting our friend back, he also asked someone to make it more difficult for me. He hasn't even told me what the diamonds are for.

Anyway, I get back in contact with my employers and tell them I'm going to need a little bit more time to canvas the area, because there's a lot going on and I don't want anyone to get inconvenienced, and then I end up getting dragged into a bunch more stuff -- probably a good thing I told my folks it'd take a while. The ghost contacts me again and reminds me about the IOU in the most menacing way possible (cornering me outside his house and going "what do the interest rates look like on your word?" in the creepy voice he knows I hate), a different mutual friend of ours (??F) might be possessed by the same thing that got to the queen, and the local HOA is sending me threatening messages for building things on my own property.

The ghost says he's got an idea for how to fix the situation, but his idea of "fixing" things basically caused the apocalypse, so I'm not super keen on that. I'm thinking of rallying a combination of my friends and some of my folks to exorcise him before he hurts anyone particularly badly -- I don't like having to suggest it, but it's becoming clear to me that he's the cause of pretty much everything that's gone wrong around here recently, and, I mean, needs of the many, you know?

The person I asked first (our second mutual friend) seems kind of on the fence about it, though, which I'm not sure I'm comfortable with. I'm thinking I might just get my own people for backup and deal with him myself so everyone can get some peace and quiet around here and I can get back to work doing what I was supposed to be doing this entire time. She's probably going to blame me no matter what I do, but WIBTA?

[hcguesstheauthormessageboard]

world building woooo. i got a structure in mind, it'll be chaptered, with each one taking place in a different part of the city. no idea how long i'll be but we'll see ig. :D

-

The Hermetheus? Yeah, I've heard of her. Been there a few times, too. Nothing really prepares you for the size of the place, you know? Like, on a planet, it'd make sense. Sure, that can be a sprawling city all over the place. That makes sense. But to find one on a ship? One that can travel almost anywhere she wants? Yeah, that's weird. Like, you can't walk that place, it's too big. They have these wings that they can fly around with that help them cover the distances in the city. It's open enough for that.

Not that I've tried it, though. I'll fly in a ship, but strap some fragile wings onto me? Nah, I'm good, man. I'll pass. I rode a strange beast around the place that they use when they don't want to fly, or can't fly somewhere. These creatures had four legs, and some kind of sandy-coloured fur, and were taller even than I am. They lumbered slowly and were often stubborn about moving. I didn't much like 'em, but well, itwas that or flying, and I said I'd take the beast.

They're alright, though, those hermits. Small people, really, with a sometimes chaotic city. It's the kind of place where you think there'd be like, millions of people living, but it's really not that many at all. Seems strange to see such a large ship as the home to maybe three dozen people. Makes me wonder if there was some kind of calamity that happened that wiped out everyone else, and these guys are the survivors.

They tell some good stories though. They're good hosts. Perhaps because they don't get many folks wanting to stay with them for a while. I'm pretty sure most just take the time to trade and then head off. Not that I blame them, I've done my fair share of that too. Sometimes it's for the best not to linger. Just get what you need and go before something worse happens to you. But these people are kind. They laugh a lot. They're very generous with their skills and their resources and they really don't need to be.

And, like I said, they love to tell stories. I heard so many stories about other worlds they'd visited in the past. The kind of structures they'd built there. That one world where the moon crashed into the planet, and they were only just able to escape in time. Perhaps that's where the calamity happened. Maybe that's where the rest of the people went. These guys got out. The rest didn't.

I dunno. I speculate a lot about them for a ship I've only been on a few times, let's be real. It is still a little strange to see the ship so empty though. Like, a ship that size should have a population of thousands. But it's like, not even fifty! Where'd they all go?

Maybe I'll ask them next time I see them. They turn up every now and then with supplies to trade for resources they're looking for. Last time, they were after some mineral they needed to make some spare parts for the ship, and they'd stopped at a planet rich in that mineral to seek some trades for it. I dunno if they got all they needed. I was just there to trade loot and jewels for some fuel, which they were happy to do.

I do remember how weird it feels to be in that place, though. The city's so empty most of the time. Like, they let me wander, and didn't really bar me from anywhere other than the temples without an escort, but other than that I was free to go wherever I wanted. And like maybe it's just me, but there were so many houses done up for people to live in. Shops that looked like they were once owned by someone who had since disappeared. Abandoned parts of the city that not even the stray cats went into. And they didn't really look abandoned, as there never seemed to be any decay or damage. It was the sound. The stillness. They just didn't feel alive. Those walls had not heard any voices for a very long time. It creeped me out a little, I'll be honest, so I never lingered long.

And when I asked about those abandoned areas, they just said they were places they'd finished building in, and had moved on to new sections. Sometimes they tore down huge sections of the city and rebuilt them in a different style. Decided they wanted a park somewhere, or maybe the temple needed redoing, or another god was asking for worship. They seemed to think this was entirely normal, but all I felt was bewilderment that they took such active control over their city and how they shaped it, especially when there's so few of them. Very strange, if you ask me. But what do I know? I'm just a treasure hunter. Cities ain't none of my business.

The Hermetheus? Yeah, I've heard of her. Been there a few times, too. Nothing really prepares you for the size of the place, you know? Like, on a planet, it'd make sense. Sure, that can be a sprawling city all over the place. That makes sense. But to find one on a ship? One that can travel almost anywhere she wants? Yeah, that's weird. Like, you can't walk that place, it's too big. They have these wings that they can fly around with that help them cover the distances in the city. It's open enough for that.

Not that I've tried it, though. I'll fly in a ship, but strap some fragile wings onto me? Nah, I'm good, man. I'll pass. I rode a strange beast around the place that they use when they don't want to fly, or can't fly somewhere. These creatures had four legs, and some kind of sandy-coloured fur, and were taller even than I am. They lumbered slowly and were often stubborn about moving. I didn't much like 'em, but well, itwas that or flying, and I said I'd take the beast.

They're alright, though, those hermits. Small people, really, with a sometimes chaotic city. It's the kind of place where you think there'd be like, millions of people living, but it's really not that many at all. Seems strange to see such a large ship as the home to maybe three dozen people. Makes me wonder if there was some kind of calamity that happened that wiped out everyone else, and these guys are the survivors.

They tell some good stories though. They're good hosts. Perhaps because they don't get many folks wanting to stay with them for a while. I'm pretty sure most just take the time to trade and then head off. Not that I blame them, I've done my fair share of that too. Sometimes it's for the best not to linger. Just get what you need and go before something worse happens to you. But these people are kind. They laugh a lot. They're very generous with their skills and their resources and they really don't need to be.

And, like I said, they love to tell stories. I heard so many stories about other worlds they'd visited in the past. The kind of structures they'd built there. That one world where the moon crashed into the planet, and they were only just able to escape in time. Perhaps that's where the calamity happened. Maybe that's where the rest of the people went. These guys got out. The rest didn't.

I dunno. I speculate a lot about them for a ship I've only been on a few times, let's be real. It is still a little strange to see the ship so empty though. Like, a ship that size should have a population of thousands. But it's like, not even fifty! Where'd they all go?

Maybe I'll ask them next time I see them. They turn up every now and then with supplies to trade for resources they're looking for. Last time, they were after some mineral they needed to make some spare parts for the ship, and they'd stopped at a planet rich in that mineral to seek some trades for it. I dunno if they got all they needed. I was just there to trade loot and jewels for some fuel, which they were happy to do.

I do remember how weird it feels to be in that place, though. The city's so empty most of the time. Like, they let me wander, and didn't really bar me from anywhere other than the temples without an escort, but other than that I was free to go wherever I wanted. And like maybe it's just me, but there were so many houses done up for people to live in. Shops that looked like they were once owned by someone who had since disappeared. Abandoned parts of the city that not even the stray cats went into. And they didn't really look abandoned, as there never seemed to be any decay or damage. It was the sound. The stillness. They just didn't feel alive. Those walls had not heard any voices for a very long time. It creeped me out a little, I'll be honest, so I never lingered long.

And when I asked about those abandoned areas, they just said they were places they'd finished building in, and had moved on to new sections. Sometimes they tore down huge sections of the city and rebuilt them in a different style. Decided they wanted a park somewhere, or maybe the temple needed redoing, or another god was asking for worship. They seemed to think this was entirely normal, but all I felt was bewilderment that they took such active control over their city and how they shaped it, especially when there's so few of them. Very strange, if you ask me. But what do I know? I'm just a treasure hunter. Cities ain't none of my business.

The Hermetheus? Yeah, I've heard of her. Been there a few times, too. Nothing really prepares you for the size of the place, you know? Like, on a planet, it'd make sense. Sure, that can be a sprawling city all over the place. That makes sense. But to find one on a ship? One that can travel almost anywhere she wants? Yeah, that's weird. Like, you can't walk that place, it's too big. They have these wings that they can fly around with that help them cover the distances in the city. It's open enough for that.

Not that I've tried it, though. I'll fly in a ship, but strap some fragile wings onto me? Nah, I'm good, man. I'll pass. I rode a strange beast around the place that they use when they don't want to fly, or can't fly somewhere. These creatures had four legs, and some kind of sandy-coloured fur, and were taller even than I am. They lumbered slowly and were often stubborn about moving. I didn't much like 'em, but well, itwas that or flying, and I said I'd take the beast.

They're alright, though, those hermits. Small people, really, with a sometimes chaotic city. It's the kind of place where you think there'd be like, millions of people living, but it's really not that many at all. Seems strange to see such a large ship as the home to maybe three dozen people. Makes me wonder if there was some kind of calamity that happened that wiped out everyone else, and these guys are the survivors.

They tell some good stories though. They're good hosts. Perhaps because they don't get many folks wanting to stay with them for a while. I'm pretty sure most just take the time to trade and then head off. Not that I blame them, I've done my fair share of that too. Sometimes it's for the best not to linger. Just get what you need and go before something worse happens to you. But these people are kind. They laugh a lot. They're very generous with their skills and their resources and they really don't need to be.

And, like I said, they love to tell stories. I heard so many stories about other worlds they'd visited in the past. The kind of structures they'd built there. That one world where the moon crashed into the planet, and they were only just able to escape in time. Perhaps that's where the calamity happened. Maybe that's where the rest of the people went. These guys got out. The rest didn't.

I dunno. I speculate a lot about them for a ship I've only been on a few times, let's be real. It is still a little strange to see the ship so empty though. Like, a ship that size should have a population of thousands. But it's like, not even fifty! Where'd they all go?

Maybe I'll ask them next time I see them. They turn up every now and then with supplies to trade for resources they're looking for. Last time, they were after some mineral they needed to make some spare parts for the ship, and they'd stopped at a planet rich in that mineral to seek some trades for it. I dunno if they got all they needed. I was just there to trade loot and jewels for some fuel, which they were happy to do.

I do remember how weird it feels to be in that place, though. The city's so empty most of the time. Like, they let me wander, and didn't really bar me from anywhere other than the temples without an escort, but other than that I was free to go wherever I wanted. And like maybe it's just me, but there were so many houses done up for people to live in. Shops that looked like they were once owned by someone who had since disappeared. Abandoned parts of the city that not even the stray cats went into. And they didn't really look abandoned, as there never seemed to be any decay or damage. It was the sound. The stillness. They just didn't feel alive. Those walls had not heard any voices for a very long time. It creeped me out a little, I'll be honest, so I never lingered long.

And when I asked about those abandoned areas, they just said they were places they'd finished building in, and had moved on to new sections. Sometimes they tore down huge sections of the city and rebuilt them in a different style. Decided they wanted a park somewhere, or maybe the temple needed redoing, or another god was asking for worship. They seemed to think this was entirely normal, but all I felt was bewilderment that they took such active control over their city and how they shaped it, especially when there's so few of them. Very strange, if you ask me. But what do I know? I'm just a treasure hunter. Cities ain't none of my business.

- aphroditos

YEAHHHHHHHH MORE WORLDBUILDING‼️‼️

[braveclementine]

Chapter 6

Warnings: 18+ readers only, mentions of nudity

Copyright: I do not own any Wizarding World characters that J.K. Rowling wrote. I do however own Elizabeth Kane (main character) and Trang Nyguen (best friend). There should be no use of these two names without my permission. I also do not condone any copying of this.

🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎

𝕳𝖆𝖌𝖗𝖎𝖉 𝖒𝖔𝖛𝖊𝖉 𝖔𝖓 from teaching about Phoenixes to talking about Centaurs and Merpeople. Since I'd already seen both of those, he didn't have to bring an example into class- not that, we both knew- either of them would've agreed to it.

There was quite a bit that I knew about Centaurs, but I knew nearly nothing about merpeople. Hagrid was still had hard feelings towards Harry, Hermione, and Ron about not continuing his class, but he tried not to show it. He still showed up to mealtimes and waved hello when they called out to him.

Of course, he was a bit moody, but there was nothing that I could do about that. They'd come down eventually and talk to him and then we'd be fine.

Potions was an equal success for both Harry and I and the classes usually ended with Professor Slughorn not knowing which potion was better, and believing that we'd both inherited our mother's skill for potions.

Of course, I'd tried multiple times in class to tell him that I wasn't related to Harry whatsoever, but Professor Slughorn never let me get the words out and so now the entire class was wondering whether Harry and I were related.

Again.

Draco of course, seemed most interested in this topic. I'm sure he'd love to run back to Voldemort with the news that Elizabeth Kane Lupin was, indeed, Harry Potter's sister. Harry and I had quite the time stamping down that rumor again.

"Maybe you two should date." Hermione said one night at the Gryffindor table. I spat my pumpkin juice out of my mouth and Harry choked on his steak.

"You're mad!" I said, hastily wiping up the pumpkin juice with my napkin, forgetting that I could clean it up with a wand.

"It'd stop all the questions." Hermione pointed out, an amused smile on her face.

"Absolutely not." I said firmly. "As far as I'm concerned, Harry is as good as my brother and that's that."

Harry had finally dislodged the piece of steak he'd been choking on and nodded his head in agreement, his eyes watering and his cheeks fading from purple to red to pink to normal.

Trang had been giggling quietly on my left and I put my foot over hers and pressed down. She pursed her lips and stopped laughing. Ron had been goggling at Hermione as though she was, indeed, mad.

Meanwhile, I had posted that Quidditch tryouts would be this Saturday. There were a couple names added to the list, including Ernies and Hannah's. I had pretty much all of my friends from Hufflepuff on the damn list and I knew I was going to have to exclude some of them... possibly all of them and I wasn't looking forward to doing that.

Of course, there were other stresses on top of that. For instance, Dumbledore wasn't going to be alive by the end of the year. Of course, Severus was upset about this fact and I knew eventually he was going to fight with Dumbledore about it. And of course, there was quite a bit of homework, prefect duties, a late period, starting private lessons back up with Professors, interning under Madam Pomfrey, etc.

Saturday came and I walked down early with Trang to the Quidditch pitch. "Are you going to try out for the Ravenclaw team?" I asked as we entered the stadium. No one but Zacharias was there yet and he was nodding off on the bench, his broom beside him.

"I've put my name down." Trang said. "But our Captain hasn't put down a date yet and I don't know how the other people fly so I don't know who I'll do."

"Don't worry." I said. "A lot of the people who show up are horrible and just hope other people are worse than them. Ravenclaw hasn't won the Cup in a while."

"Wow. . ." Trang said with a roll of her eyes. "Definitely makes me want to try out now!"

I grinned sheepishly. "I'm just saying you have a good chance of getting on the team, that's all. What position do you want?"

"Chaser or seeker." Trang said thoughtfully. "But I think Cho is going to play seeker still so I'm stuck with Chaser."

I wrinkled my nose when Trang wasn't looking. Cho, urgh. I'd forgotten she was still around.

There were 30 people even which made it wonderfully easy to split up into 6 sets of 5 so that I could see how they flew in the different formations and by the time they landed, I realized that weeding people out was going to be much more difficult than I thought.

I started with the Keepers first which consisted of Susan and about ten other students. I had the others go first, each of them saving averaging between two-four of the five goals that Zacharias threw at them and then let Susan go up who saved five goals. I was a bit surprised and I knew it was showing on my face because she glared at me when she landed.

"Alright then." I said brightly, waving away the others. "Susan, you'll be the new Keeper then. Go join Zacharias on the bench."

The nice thing about Hufflepuffs was that they didn't get angry or resentful when things didn't go their way. They congratulated Susan and then went to sit up in the stands with a few spectators.

I went with beaters next of which Justin and Ernie were both trying out for. However, James was already on the team and there was only one spot open. Neither Justin nor Ernie did as well as Anthony Rickett however, and so Anthony was the newest beater for the team. Both Justin and Ernie went back up into the stands with the seven other students that had tried out for beater.

The Chasers trying out for Heidi and Malcolm's spot including Hannah, Rose, Zacharias, and the rest of the Hufflepuff students. I had to admit, watching them fly, Rose was good, much better than I would have expected as the bludgers and beaters flew around, trying to knock them off. Hannah wasn't so good and was knocked off the broom by a bludger.

At the end, I chose Rose and a seventh-year boy by the name of Luke Cholderton. Unfortunately, I couldn't find anyone to replace Zacharias and tried not to seem so disappointed when I gave him his spot back. Other than that, I was pleased with the outcome of my team and Trang and I went back up to the castle for breakfast. I was afraid that Ernie, Justin, and Hannah would have hard feelings but they seemed in just as high spirits as possible.

Then, Hannah said, "I really only tried out for the team because I thought it would be fun. I'm not really all that serious about Quidditch to be completely honest." Then she quickly stuck some bacon in her mouth.

Ernie shrugged, "I think the teams going to be good this year."

"It ought to be interesting, watching you and Harry race each other for the snitch from the crowd anyways." Justin said with a grin and I felt immensely better though part of me wondered if they only said those things so that I did feel better.

That night, Trang and I went to the Gryffindor Tower to study.

". . .Or herself." Hermione was saying irritably in the corner of the room. "It might have been a girl. I think the handwriting looks more like a girl's than a boy's."

"The Half-Blood Prince, he was called." Harry said, "How many girls have been Princes? Oh, hey Liz, Trang!"

"Could be a last name." I said knowingly, sitting down on the couch. "But it was a boy." I said.

"Do you know who's book this was?" Hermione asked excitedly.

I nodded. "But you guys will find out who's it was in due time so I'm not in any hurry to spill."

"That's so annoying, when you do that!" Ron said with a roll of his eyes. "Why don't you just spit it out?"

"Could impact the whole future." I said, smirking.

"It's five to eight, I'd better go, I'll be late for Dumbledore." Harry said, getting to his feet, "can you tell me what I'm going to be doing?" He added with a joking tone.

"He's going to be showing you different memories." I said, taking out my quill and a bottle of ink. "Different memories from Voldemort's past."

"We'll wait up!" Hermione said.

Harry nodded to me and then headed out of the Gryffindor portrait.

"So," Ron said, leaning in. "What's the first memory he's going to be shown about."

I sighed, looking up from the essay I was trying to concentrate on. "Voldemort's relatives, his mother and father and grandparents and things like that. What his roots are."

"I suppose Dumbledore thinks its important for Harry to understand Voldemort's past." Hermione said thoughtfully.

"Er-?" Trang asked, "Memories?"

"Oh." I said, "Yeah, memories. Wizards and witches can take their memories and put them into bottles and things like that. As long as the glass doesn't break, they could keep a memory forever. Then, they'll pour the memory into something called a pensieve and they can watch the memory from a third-person view."

Trang stared at me with an open mouth and then looked back down at her essay she was trying to finish up.

Around ten o'clock, I got up, stretching and said good-bye to everyone. Ron looked up, "You're not going to stay?"

I smiled at him mischievously. "Why would I have to if I've already seen the memory?"

Then I walked out and headed to Severus' bedroom.

🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎

𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝖘𝖈𝖍𝖔𝖔𝖑 𝖉𝖆𝖞𝖘 passed in a blur. The classes were harder than I remembered and all the students stared at the teachers as thought they'd grown second heads. Even Hermione and I were asking for instructions to be repeated before we could understand what we were being asked to do.

Nonverbal spells had to be used in every class now (that required them at least). Many students were now relieved to be in classes like Herbology or Ancient Runes were no magic was really required.

Of course, Hermione and I were doing well with the nonverbal spells and other extremely smart students were starting to get the hang of it too.

I'd also restarted private lessons with Flitwick, McGonagall, and Snape as I had in the past five years of my education at Hogwarts. They'd been stopped last year after an educational decree announced that private lessons were unethical as they boosted other kids and didn't help others. However, all educational decrees under Umbridge had been undone and so I was able to continue doing private lessons this year.

On top of these lessons, I was also tutoring Rose and Grace on Fridays. I was holding Quidditch practices on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I was going down and helping Hagrid with other activities whenever I felt like being outside. I was interning under Madam Pomfrey (I was debating between become an Auror and Healer). And of course, there was homework and patrolling the corridors at night.

But despite all of this, there was a depressing gloom around me when I was alone. I couldn't help seeing into the future, watching Severus kill Dumbledore over and over again. I wasn't sure why I was seeing so far into the future, I wasn't used to doing so. I could usually foresee a few months, but never the entire year. Maybe it was because I already knew and the future didn't care about keeping it from me.

Then again. . . it wasn't the entire year I was seeing, just that one scene. Over and over and over again.

I wondered if maybe my skills had finally developed and now I could see things at will. Or maybe I could just see farther than used to. Whatever the case, I wasn't sure I didn't prefer not knowing how things were going to end.

On Friday in Herbology, a stranger came in and spoke to Professor Sprout and then pulled Hannah Abbott aside to tell her that her mother was dead. There were whispers throughout the greenhouse and Ernie, Susan, and I exchanged a look. Hannah left with the wizard.

"Do you think that she'll go home?" Susan asked me quietly as we returned to the dangerous plant we were working with.

I shook my head, "That's what I foresaw but. . . well you heard her in the dorm. Of course, circumstances might have changed now that she's actually faced with it."

"Dreadful." Ernie muttered, wiping sweat away from his brow and we continued our work in silence.

When I went back up to the Hufflepuff common room and to my dorm, I noticed that many of Hannah's things were indeed, gone. I sighed, wishing I could've said good-bye to her.

The next day at breakfast, Harry was frowning down at the list in his hand.

"We've got to go and explain." Hermione said, looking over my shoulder at something.

"We've got Quidditch tryouts this morning!" Ron complained. "And we're supposed to be practicing that Aguamenti Charm from Flitwick! Anyway, explain what? How are we going to tell him we hated his stupid subject?"

"We didn't hate it!" Hermione squealed.

"Speak for yourself, I haven't forgotten the skrewts. And I'm telling you now, we've had a narrow escape. You didn't hear him going on about his gormless brother- we'd have been teaching Grawp how to tie his shoelaces if we'd stayed."

I frowned at him, "The lessons have been really good so far."

Ron spewed out his breakfast and I wrinkled my nose in disgust, glad I wasn't sitting across from him. Trang looked revolted as she wiped egg off her glasses. "You're taking Care of Magical Creatures classes?"

"Yeah." I said disdainfully. "We've gone over Phoenixes- he borrowed Fawkes from Dumbledore for that lesson- Centaurs, merpeople, and we're working on dragons, though without a physical example. He's saved all the good lessons for sixth-year."

"Er- how many students are in your class?" Harry asked, looking up from the paper for a second.

"Just me." I snapped.

"I hate not talking to Hagrid." Hermione said, looking over my shoulder again.

"We'll go down after Quidditch." Harry said. "But trials might take all morning, the number of people who have applied. I dunno why the team's this popular all of a sudden."

"Oh, come on, Harry, it's not Quidditch that's popular, it's you! You've never been more interesting, and frankly, you've never been more fanciable." Hermione said with a bit of impatience. Trang giggled and Ron choked on his kipper.

"Every knows you've been telling the truth now, don't they? The whole Wizarding world has had to admit that you were right about Voldemort being back and that you really have fought him twice in the last two years and escaped both times. And now they're calling you 'the Chosen One'- well, come on, can't you see why people are fascinated by you?"

Harry's face was a bit pink now.

"And you've been through all that persecution from the Ministry when they were trying to make out you were unstable and a liar. You can still see the marks on the back of your hand where that evil woman made you write with your own blood, but you stuck to your story anyway. . ."

"You can still see where those brains got hold of me in the Ministry, look." Ron said, shaking back his sleeves. Trang giggled harder. I was starting to grin.

"And it doesn't hurt that you've grown about a foot over the summer either." Hermione said, completely ignoring Ron.

"I'm tall." Ron said inconsequentially.

I bit my tongue to keep from laughing too and instead said, "Well then I should have lots of boys after me cause I've got words written on the back of my hand!" It was a joke so I was surprised when Hermione went ahead and spoke with complete seriousness.

"Oh, but there are hundreds of boys after you." There was a hint of impatience and surprise behind her words too, "You just don't pay any attention to them."

I snorted, ignoring this statement. Boys after me, yeah right. All the ones that liked me had left school. . . or were dead.

Trang and I headed down to Hagrid's to help him in his garden while the other three continued to eat breakfast. We harvested potatoes for a few hours, chatting about unimportant things. Hagrid was delighted with our company. Him and Trang had hit right off and she enjoyed his Care of Magical Creatures classes most of all.

"Can we ride Buckbeak Hagrid?" I asked as I plopped another potato in his basket.

"Yeh mean Witherwings?" Hagrid asked with a wink.

"Of course." I said. "I can't get used to calling him that unfortunately. He don't seem to like it much either."

Hagrid chuckled, "Tha's true enough. Sure, I don' see any harm in lettin' yeh ride him. Yeh've ridden him before so it shouldn' be a problem."

"Want to ride with me, Trang?" I asked, standing up, and brushing dirt off my pants. Though it was September, the weather was nice enough so that we'd taken off our long robes.

"Er-" Trang said, looking frightened. "Will he like that?"

"Sure." I said, leading her out to the front garden and approaching Buckbeak. "But stay back, okay."

Trang dithered near the front of the cabin, watching as I untied Buckbeak's leash. "Alright boy." I whispered, petting his beak, "You ready for a ride?"

He clucked, tossing his head. I took it for a yes.

"Now Trang, you have to bow to him, make sure not to blink. If he doesn't bow back, he's not gonna let you ride him, understand?" I asked her seriously. Trang took off her glasses. I nodded, backing away a little.

Trang bowed slightly, keeping eye contact and not blinking. Much to my hidden surprise, Buckbeak bowed back almost immediately.

Trang approached him and petted his beak too. "He's really beautiful."

Buckbeak crowed again, making Trang jump, and I laughed, "Don't worry, he likes compliments. But you never want to insult a hippogriff anyways. They're very proud creatures, aren't you Buckbeak!" I said in a sing-songy voice.

I climbed up onto Buckbeak's back and helped Trang up. I noticed Harry, Ron, and Hermione were coming up the slop towards his house. I set Buckbeak at a gallop, and then he raised his wings and took off.

Trang was clutching my midriff tightly so as not to fall off. I wondered if she had her eyes closed and then she said, "The lake looks really pretty from down here."

I nearly thought about pushing her off, but also remembered that there were magical creatures in the lake that she didn't know how to deal with, so I thought better of it. A shame, really, it would've been a laugh to talk about later- for me, not necessarily for her.

Buckbeak stayed airborne for nearly twenty minutes but it was wonderful and when we touched back down, Trang hopped down and the two of us went up to Hagrid's front door, noticing he wasn't in the back anymore, and knocked.

"Come in." a somewhat grumpy voice said.

We entered and noticed that Harry, Hermione, and Ron were in there. Harry was nibbling on a Rock cake.

"Hello!" I said happily, grabbing two rock cakes and passing one to Trang who made the immediate mistake of trying to bit into it and turned around so she wasn't facing Hagrid as she winced.

I giggled, "So what are we talking about?" I asked, taking a seat next to Hagrid, away from the grubs.

"How much we thought Professor Grubby-plank was a horrible teacher." Hermione said, looking at me intently.

"Oh yes, well of course." I said lightly, breaking off a piece of rock cake and sticking it in the back of my mouth. The trick was to let it sit there, because it would melt like a sugar crystal. And despite the fact that they were named 'rock cakes', they were decent and did taste like chocolate and dough when it was warm. If I wasn't so hungry, I'd have taken them and put them next to fire to soften them first.

Hagrid beamed at me.

"Did you see that arrest in the paper Hagrid?" Harry asked, changing the subject. He had a rock cake before him on the table.

"Ay, don' know wha' they're playin' at, arresting' Stan Shunpike." Hagrid said, frowning. "Don' s'pose he knew wha' he was really doin' though."

"I don't know." Hermione said slowly. "The newspaper said he was caught talking about Death Eater plans and I don't think he'd be talking about them if he was under the imperius curse."

"Unless they had him spewing false information." I pointed out.

"Elizabeth's right." Hagrid said. "I knew Stan, an' he wouldn' of gone round sayin' stuff like tha' no matter how stupid he is."

Trang looked a little lost but didn't ask any questions. The conversation soon moved away from the depressing news articles.

We left the cabin around dusk because students had to be inside the castle before night fall or (in the summer) 6 o'clock.

"I'm starving." Harry said once the heavy cabin door was closed behind us and we hurried up to the castle. "I've got that detention with Snape tonight, I haven't got much time for dinner. . ."

We walked into the Great Hall and we came up behind Cormac McLaggen. He walked straight into frame the first time he tried to go in and then bounced back and managed to get through the doors on the second try.

Trang giggled quietly and Ron laughed. I smiled, following them into the Great Hall and then we noticed Harry and Hermione weren't with us and we waited until they came through the door.

We headed towards the Gryffindor table until Professor Slughorn intercepted us. "Harry, Harry, just the man I was hoping to see! I was hoping to catch you before dinner! What do you say to a spot of supper tonight in my rooms instead? We're having a little party, just a few rising stars, I've got McLaggen coming and Zabini, the charming Melinda Bobbin- I don't know whether you know her? Her family owns a large chain of apothecaries- and, of course, I hope very much that Miss Granger, Miss Nyguen, and Miss Kane will favor me by coming too."

"I can't come, Professor, I've got a detention with Professor Snape." Harry said at once.

Trang hung back behind my shoulder.

"Oh dear! Dear, dear, I was counting on you, Harry! Well, now, I'll just have to have a word with Severus and explain the situation. I'm sure I'll be able to persuade him to postpone your detention. Yes, I'll see you all later!"

"He's go not chance of persuading Snape, this detention's already been postponed once; Snape did it for Dumbledore, but he won't do it for anyone else." Harry said, watching Professor Slughorn head down the corridor.

"You've got that right!" I said brightly.

I went back to the Hufflepuff common room, wondering if I should go in my Hogwarts school robes or in a different outfit. I mean, it was a dinner, was it not?

In the end, I decided to simply wear my slacks and the white V-neck blouse that I usually wore under my robes and left the robes in the room. I also changed out of the normal shoes for flats. I did my hair up in an elegant bun, and then put on the earrings Severus had given me along with the necklace and went down the stairs and made my way to the potions office.

I thought that perhaps I'd walked into the wrong room when I walked into his office, and then realized that it had been enlarged and brightened. The shelves filled with liquids that had once been lined up against the wall had been removed and replaced with portraits.

I noticed with relief that the other students had dressed similarly to me. Professor Slughorn showed me to a seat next to Zabini, much to my displeasure. Trang came in and sat on my other side so it wasn't so bad.

Once everyone had settled around the table, Professor Slughorn passed out the food and talked about famous people. I felt uncomfortable next to Blaise as I felt that he kept looking at me. I wondered briefly if his parents were Death Eaters.

Near eleven o'clock, he was done with us and we left. I said good-bye to Trang, Hermione, and Ginny and made my way to the Hufflepuff common room and then doubled back to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom.

I knocked before I entered because I didn't know if Severus was done with Harry and his detention yet. A cool voice said, "Enter."

I entered and looked around. No one but Severus was there, putting two tubs away and he said, "Lovely, you just missed Potter."

"Good." I said, closing the door behind me.

"You look different." Severus said, looking over my attire, his eyes resting on the earrings. I lifted a hand to them.

"Oh, well Professor Slughorn invited me to his little dinner party. It'd be rude not to go and I wanted to look decent." I said, a blush creeping into my cheeks.

Severus snorted, "Decent?"

"Well I didn't look in a mirror before I left so maybe I looked less than decent." I said with a shrug, "Maybe that's why Blaise kept looking at me strangely." I added on thoughtfully.

"Blaise. . . Zabini?" Severus asked, pausing at his desk.

"Yeah." I said, taking the earrings off and putting them in my pocket. They were clip ons and they were starting to burn my ears. I massaged the earlobes between my fingers. "Why?"

"Nothing." Severus said, coming over to me, "And you look more than decent. You looked very pretty tonight. But I still preferred you in that dress at the Yule Ball."

I blushed even darker, pleased. "That was a nice dress, wasn't it."

"It shaped your frame perfectly." He said before pressing his lips to mine, "Come on then."

I took his hand and we walked upstairs. He locked the door behind us and I unclasped the necklace from around my neck and I put it down on his desk. I also took the earrings out of my pocket and put them next to the necklace so that I didn't lose them. I also took the pins out of my hair, letting my hair down. I felt it land at my knees.

Severus put his hands on my hips, resting his chin on my shoulder and I closed my eyes, smiling. "Long day?" I asked softly, reaching up to touch his hair.

"Very." He whispered, pressing his lips to my neck.

"I'm afraid I'll have to make it just a little bit longer before I let you go to sleep." I murmured, throwing my clothes to the floor and taking his hand and leading him to the bed, "If you don't mind... of course." I whispered against his ear.

In response, he climbed over me and lowered himself into me. 

⬅️➡️

[terraxcloud]

Yuffie 2 - Clerra edition

Hello everyone. I have to mention more about Yuffie since I remembered/noticed more.

According to FF7 fans, the relationship mechanic and the Gold Saucer date are like...50% of the game based on how much people mention it. It'd be surprising if it was even 5%. Well, get rid of it from your brain for now!

Unlike the last Yuffie one where I didn't really care what I posted, this one is more Clerra-related.

In Balthier's Lost Chapter in Opera Omnia, Yuffie says this line:

This cutscene (called "Best Buddies") released way before FF7 Remake (it's the 4th one from a couple hundred lost chapters in the game). Anyone's who has played her DLC understands why her words strike a cord as it is hinting at it years before the Remake released. Well, Sonon came and died, so it would have to be someone else, right?

Yuffie does not appear very often in Opera Omnia. In Act 3 and 4 (both Chapter 7s) she'd walk into a few scenes alongside Cloud (Cait is also involved to some degree). Cater's Lost Chapter much earlier in the game has some stuff too, but there's not anything "worth noticing".

With the scene above in mind, what does Yuffie say at the end of her DLC?

Who does she want to join her team?

A cloud...?

Oh, this reminds me. My interpretation about the beginning of "Hollow" was that of "a person flying in the sky talking to clouds as if they were talking to Cloud". Take out the "fly" part and this may apply here as well.

Moving on.

I'm not exactly sure if this camera trick is a "thing" (camera tricks have been used before), but it's easier to notice when you put the speed to .25x. At the end of Advent Children after Cloud wakes up in Aerith's church after Moogle Girl and the group talks to him, he turns his head around to look at everything in front of himself before noticing Aerith and Zack.

He turns his head around past them just enough that Yuffie's pretty much in the exact middle of the screen. I wouldn't find this odd if she didn't have that flowery shirt on.

That shirt has 5-petaled flowers. In the ancient year of 2005. I've mentioned a few times that 5-petal flowers signify Terra because they literally are from her clothes.

They also appear on:

The pattern on Miss Folia's shirt.

Sprinkled around a Dissidia Arcade (2015) screenshot of Cloud-Terra-Onion Knight fighting WoL-Lightning-Y'shtola.

All over the Aerith-Cloud synergy attack "Firework Blade" which looks like Terra's similarly named "Riot Blade" attack.

The 2020 New Year's card featuring Terra as a mouse ("year of the mouse") riding Magitek armor with the flowers trailing behind her.

I suppose there's more, somewhere. Yes, the year FF7 Remake released was the year of Terra Branford according to Square Enix.

To a person who just found this bit of information, it probably doesn't "feel" like it means much. Most people point at Aerith whenever flowers are involved, but there's a heavy consistency concerning flowers with 5 petals. What's weird about Yuffie is that I've had such a hard time believing that they were doing this all the way back in 2005. Terra wasn't even a 3D character until the end of 2008...maybe this is where the hint started? They have leaves, which may bring some doubt, but they still are 2d flowers with 5 petals.

I mean, this is the end of Advent Children. Yuffie does nothing significant...ever, so how do we get from her to all this random stuff involving Terra?

What's the theme of the Advent Children ending? "Cloud Smiles"? Maybe that's part of it.

Ever Crisis just had a Valentine's Day event called "The Secret Sweetheart" - <Click Here for All Cutscenes>

The background and the ticket pull for this event is Yuffie (who kinda just joined Ever Crisis). In the event, Yuffie is shown starting a rumor:

They all make cookies for Cloud after this.

Every single character says they started that rumor in their own cutscenes and Cloud just "believes them" (maybe I don't have the context?), yet Yuffie is the one that mentioned it first. Yuffie's solo cutscene is different to the others as Cloud doesn't mention to her how her cookies tasted like or all the "nice" stuff the others show (Ever Crisis is trying to be more OG-like than FF7R...although you get Yuffie right after leaving Midgar and she has a chocobo).

How can Barret start the rumor if he literally has no idea what Yuffie was talking about when she mentions it? (Is this actually a Valentines tradition?)

Well, beyond trying to find out what's up with the event, it sure seems like elements of Jessie (like telling Cloud to smile) are implemented into Yuffie even before we get to see Rebirth. We know very, very little about her role in Rebirth (probably in the same way they didn't show Zack much).

My mind tells me that she's more of a permanent low-key (or maybe the better word is "secret") Jessie. Thinking about it a bit, the characters so far can be split into duos. Aerith and Tifa are shown as a duo and I think Barret and Red XIII are a duo, so in this regard Yuffie and Cloud are the other duo with the DLC ending and DFFOO hint. I'm not sure of the other three characters, so my reasoning can be flawed, but it's there, isn't it?

If that's true, does that make her the "second-in-command"? How about that word no one wants to hear when describing Yuffie? THE HEROINE? Would a surprise Terra's reveal minimize Yuffie's role for the next game? Probably not since Terra can't bother the OG storyline with her presence (can she can appear in it tho'?).

Maybe a lot of the Terra stuff will be explained through Yuffie "emulating" it. By "stuff" I mean things that even I don't know.

There's another thing...

Yuffie started a rumor? How about Mireille in FF7 Remake and her "rumors"? How about Kyrie starting rumors? Y'know, Kyrie? That character that's literally "not-Yuffie"?

You first see her on the train from Chapter 2 all the way to the very end of the last side quest where she's...

Well, the entire conversation involving Kyrie and Mireille takes place in front of Aerith's flowers. She just walks to there and the quest stays there until Mireille takes her place at the very end of the side-quest...staring at the flowers just like she was in the exact same spot.

It could be that Kyrie represents Yuffie and Mireille (who is the "Guardian Angel of the Slums") represents Terra (outside of being made from Lucca and Robo of Chrono Trigger). This is why both of them stare at the flowers...it's a hint.

If Kyrie is staring at the flowers, this does mean she's taking the role of "the Angel" before Mireille replaces her.

Considering there are two timelines...maybe Yuffie and Terra are...ah...well, there could be two Yuffies...maybe I'm stupid and none of this is anything! Although I do wonder if they cut something from Yuffie's OG character and made her optional for that reason...and we'll get to see what "that" is.

Doesn't Yuffie's theme play around the point the Kyrie side-quest starts where Johnny gets his wallet stolen?

Unless the next part of the demo has something surprising, this may be the last post until the game.

(Yuffie calls herself "treasure princess" in Crisis Core). There's been "debates" on whether or not she's technically a princess.

There's also that thing where Priscilla is technically Rikku (FFX)...or literally Rikku. I'm not going to bother with that, but she does know Yuffie. It would be on-point since Rikku called Yuna "Yunnie".

To people who are unfamiliar with Clerra - the characters involved tend to be young, sometimes very young. Being young is part of the symbolism.

[prowerprojects]

I do hope with Sage being around, it offers Tails some interactions that's more his wavelength and offers different perspectives that gets him to think about double-edge situations. (Sometimes the straightforward solution isn't always the correct one or the most beneficial.)

But I'm definitely vouching for antagonists that Tails encounters on his own. (And I prefer it not being another tech-head. I'm open to like, other aspects of science and creating. {Speaking of magic, I'm curious of how'd react to a necromancer, considering his fear of ghosts} Or even ones that tests his other attributes, like flying, intellect or discovering a different fighting style from Sonic and Knuckles.)

Archie was all over the place, but I was intrigued by the concept of Speedy essentially being jealous of Tails being free and not locked to a bloodline. Expressing a few times he wants out. (But it is funny how outside of Eggman, Tails' biggest beefs is with birds who feel threatened by his abilities{Wave}.)

Yeah, I'm really interested in how their relationship could be developed, and how their characters could push and challenge each other. It would be a waste if there wasn't something done with them. Though it's hard to tell now how it'll go since we don't know what'd happen to Sage after Frontiers.

A necromancer? It'd probably be a bit too much for Sonic, haha. (Well... we do already jave ghosts and spirits...) Though honestly, I'm open to almost anything. There's also the matter of how the game would be played and how it would affect the design and abilities of the villain. Personally I would be interested in a character that also had a rough childhood like Tails but decides to take revenge on others for it (even if it's a bit cliche). I think it could be interesting because I feel like Tails could provide a lot of empathy for them (instead of being like "I got over it so you have no excuse"), while also protecting other people from them. (Though it'll probably be a one off antagonist since there's no way they aren't getting reformed at the end. Still)

Eeehh. I'll be honest I don't consider Tails Adventure canon and the Battle Birds don't interest me. Jokes about toddler Tails fighting off an army are funny, but it's incompatible with Tails's characterization of being a meek and timid kid before he met Sonic. Ignoring Tails Adventure makes Tails's character arc stronger. (Also those birds are ugly as sin. (Sorry). Tails deserves enemies with a cooler design/j)

The concept of someone being jealous of Tails's freedom doesn't intrigue me either, because it's got nothing to do with Tails himself. If it was someone being jealous of Amy's freedom, for example, literally nothing would change. Tails is not a character that has freedom as one of his core character themes, at least not in the same way as Sonic, or Rouge. (Maybe I wouldn't even mind that it's not one of Tails's major character themes if it wasn't already Sonic's. Sonic and Tails have a lot of similarities but I'm sure we could get something that's more unique to Tails if we're making an antagonist for him).

I guess Tails has a similar theme which is about choosing to do things his own way and carving his own path, etc., which could work with "feeling of being locked into the bloodline" thing; but this also works really well with Sage, it's even more on point, I think, because with Sage, she's also choosing, but to do the opposite, to go along with Eggman and his scemes. (At least I'm assuming that's how it'll end up going). I like that it's two characters having agency (I mean Sage doesn't really because Eggman wouldn't be keeping her around if she made the "wrong" choice but she doesn't know that) and having contrasting views on their growth and "destiny". Plus we've already got Sage and we gotta do something with her. (I do want Tails to have his own antagonists but she's already here and we can't waste her)