#the whole limited edition thing becoming obvious

[ssaalexblake]

everyday it annoys the snot out of me that they did steelbooks for everything Thirteen But season eleven.

I want to complete my collection, but no.

[amastarxoxo]

How would yandere Ekko handle a darling who got injured while trying to escape?

Ty 4 reading my request!

ㅤ        ㅤ             ⠀◌   𑁍 _ my baby fire     ⸝⸝  

masterlist ૮ ྀི ◞ ◟ ა navigation

not proofread

if you escape during an important firelight meeting and he find that out DURING the meeting, oh he would be pissed but he wouldn’t be able to show it cause the members didn’t even know that he kidnapped you, everyone just thought you were the secret lover he was hiding for so long.

but let him catch you running, hiding etc and you’re injured. he would be concerned first and making sure you’re not dying on him.

“hey hey—you’re okay. relax, i’m not going to hurt you.” he walks slowly towards you as you backed up until your back hit a wall. your whole body tenses; coming to terms with your faint and freedom slipping away from you and completely vanish as the white haired boy stood before you. a sharp piece of wood cut your side, deep but not deep enough for major stitches or brink of death.

he would cradle you back to the hideout, everyone becoming worried about your obvious bleeding out and the children wanting to comfort you but ekko gently pushed them away, reassuring them that you’ll be okay. you’re not seeing the light of day for a month. minimum.

“firefly.” he spoke sternly as he cleans the wound properly but deliberately making it slow and painfully for you to hurt. “what did i tell you about running away?” his voice low and the feeling of pressure on your chest was unbearable and his burning gaze as you stared at the wall the entire time. “you’re so ungrateful.”

his top priority was healing you up first then feeding you. don’t try to refuse eating he will shove it down your throat if needed.

“now.” he slowly paces in front of you, sitting in the cold basement with sitting with chains tying your hands tightly. he grabs your face firm but gently. “who have you the right idea to try to get away from me? hm?” he breathes out and his head slide down from your face to your neck, his hand form around your neck but doesn’t squeeze it. “such a pretty thing. you’re too good for zaun.” he mumbled, more to himself than you. his lips connect to your lips, firm but soft; the type of affection signaling you’re never escaping after today.

he’ll only allow you out of the basement is to play with the children or help around the base, understand his strict watching of course, he can’t have his firefly running out into the dangerous world again, especially zaun, you seen this dump? why do you think he made firelights in the first place? is to keep people safe, to keep you safe.

©︎ A M A T E R A S U. all rights reserved. please don't plazarize, copy, or steal any of my works without my permission, thank you !

edit: 9:40pm: omg this was suppose to come out yesterday at 8pm with episode 2 of purpose of fun love but the queue set it to 4am and i didn’t feel like changing it or posting it earlier than it set to be cause i actually have a post limit ( 2-3 max ) so i just let it be.

[ancha-aus]

RealAgeAU drabble - Moving

Hello I am back and I got another idea for this little silly au that I have @spotaus to thank for for the original idea :3 Though I think this may be officially becoming one of my AUs hahahaha

First part Prev Part Next part

Also yes. I know it would work better to number these uploads but also i am not writing these in any set order so it will become miserable for all of us if i number them because either they will be out of order or I will have to rework all the names and I am already editing links I don't need that extra energy in my life.

ANYWAY! :D

Next part! The one I lovingly clal in my head - The one where the gang finds a more permanent temporary home. (also yes. Before this they all speed-run the whole Parental bonding and emotional bonding to the idea of having a babybones. Which honestly can and probably will make four different drabbles)

-------

Horror stares at the door and wonders once again how he got to this point.

Well, no. That is a lie. He knows exactly how he got to his point.

He glances over his shoulder where the other four at hiding off to the side. Out of view from the doorway but still visable for Horror if he looks just right. Seems like Dust won the discussion, again, and is holding Nightmare, again.

Horror wants to say it is surprising how quickly they all just... accepted the situation they got into but he really isn't. Monsters are weird like that. Forced adoption is not that wild all things considered when you are talking about beings made of magic and emotions.

Horror stares at the door and raises his hand before knocking twice.

He really hadn't wanted to do this but they have no other choice. As he waits he can't help but think back to what made them decide this.

Cross walks from side to side "That was way to close! That was the third time we came across the Stars with Nightmare out. Third!"

Killer nods from where he is sitting wiht the sleeping Nightmare in his lap "Yeah no kidding. It is annoying as shit that they are hunting us."

Dust shrugs "Not surprising. Nightmare 'disappeared' after all. We are their only lead."

Killer grins "We were lucky Cross managed to lie his way out of the last one." and he shoots Cross a wink.

Cross sputters "I panicked!"

Killer grins and winks "Sure sure daddy crossy."

Horror holds up his hands between his two... co-parents "This is not the time. We need to figure out where we can go." and he thinks things over.

Cross sighs "I don't get how they keep finding us!"

Dust huffs as he packs their bags "We go to too little universes. Makes it easy for Ink and Dream to pick us out because they recognise us personally."

Killer frowns "Meaning. we need a big universe?" he taps his chin "But also mostly positive as we still don't know how obvious Nightmare would be otherwise."

Cross frowns "I think it will be fine. He can't feel the balance anymore right? And no one seems to have a reaction to him like they had before nor how people have a reaction to Dream's aura thing. Maybe with the corruption gone he really is just... ex-guardian now?"

Killer groans "I hope so. I am not a fan of child labor."

That is when it hits him. Horror sits up "I think I know a place."

All of them turn to him and he immediantly regrets saying anything. See? This is why he normally tries to limit what he says.

Either way. Here they are now and Horror prays this works. Please. They need one thing to work in their favor.

The door opens and a gasp "Horror! It has been ages! It is great to see you. How have you been?" Crop smiles at him.

Horror steels his nerves. Come on. Too much hangs on this moment "Hey Crop. Nice to see you. I am... okay. How are you?"

Crop frowns at him instantly "You sure? You don't sound okay. Trouble at home?"

Horror chuckles "Kinda? Not exactly. Euh... Can't go back to that place now?"

Crop frowns "Why? Need a place to stay? I got a spare room."

Okay yes! this is going great! just... gotta make sure he knows.

Horror nods "I do need a room. Not just for me though..." Crop starts to frown and Horror raises his hands "Just temporarily!"

Crop frowns "Did... something go wrong?"

Horror pauses and thinks this through once more. He trusts Crop. Crop has never been anything but kind even when Horror had been an ass. Even when he had to once drag Dust here to get healing before they could make the jump back home.

Horror looks to the side and he sees the others just beyond the treeline, hidden in shadows and waiting. Crop takes a look as well but he can't quite spot them. Crop looks back up at him.

Horror takes a deep breath "You need... to promise me, no not just promise you need to swear. That what you are about to learn will not leave this universe."

Crop frowns as he immediantly looks uncomfortable. It is the reaction a promise gets from most of them. But Crop also shoots him a considering look before he nods. He holds out a hand "I swear and promise I will not share the about to be giving information. UNLESS! It endangers anyone." and he waits.

Horror stares at the hand and thinks. That... That is fine right? That should be fine. Nightmare being a child doesn't endanger anyone. Only them and Nightmare. Horror nods and shakes the hand.

Crop nods and steps aside "Come inside. I bet you will be more comfortable explaining there." he glances at the forest "Do your... friends? Want to come in too?" a guess clearly. probably on multiple fronts.

Horror shakes his skull "Not yet. Need to know your answer and reaction first." He turns to the forest and makes a signal to wait a bit longer. He sees a thumbs up shot his way back. Probably Killer. He never bothered with the signals they had learned together.

Crop nods as he steps aside and Horror walks in, having to duck slightly for the door. The door closes behind him and Horror sees the small living room with fireplace.

Crop leads him to the kitchen "Lets talk there. I will get some tea."

A few minutes later they are both seated and with a cup of tea. Crop looks at him expectingly.

Horror takes a deep breath and takes out their most valuable resourch. The Dreamtale book. And places it on the table. Crop frowns at it before looking at Horror.

Horror nods to it "It will help explain... Very long story short... Nightmare was never an adult. He was a child with a magical shield of some type. That magic has ran out."

Crop stares at him for a moment, then he pulls the book closer and starts reading it. He pauses at the title before opening it.

And now he waits.

---------

Crop sits wiht his skull in his hands. Horror just sits across from him, with his empty cup of tea. Crop's own cup has grown cold a long time ago. Horror just waits for anymore questions but Crop hasn't said anyhting in the last ten minutes.

Horror looks back at the book and sees that Crop has turned the pages back to the one with the drawing of Nightmare's head being cracked open. The image makes a very clear show on how small Nightmare was compared to the ones attacking him.

Horror still thinks the book doesn't do it justice. Nightmare is much smaller in person than the picture makes him seem. The cracks had been much worse than the picture showed. But it is the closest they got.

Crop finally sighs and speaks. He doesn't look away from the picture "I don't... Know a lot about this whole... multiverse stuff. It isn't my place at all. And that is fine." he pauses for a moment "But this... You are telling me... That the one being that had everyone afraid. That everyone saw as a demon. Is a child... is this child?"

Horror nods before he explains more "Nightmare... gained a lot of magic and powers when he ate those apples. At least that is what the story implied. We haven't managed to get him to tell us yet, mostly because well... he is six again." Crops pulls a face as well, yeah. Horror agrees. A PTSD filled six year old is not easy. But they are managing.

Horror nods "so... What Cross nad Dust think what happened is that... The magic and negativity of the apples bond itself to Nightmare. Which game him the magic and powers he would use. The connection to the balance because the apples were part of the balance. and more importantly, an adult form and mind to fit all the magic. There was just no way all that magic and energy would have fit a babybones. Especially one that hadn't shown much magic beforehand." an assumption on their end as Nightmare was never said to use magic in the book.

"We think... We think that this magic of the apples just. ran out. We had been in battle at the time and Nightmare had been hit but it shouldn't have had that much of an effect. it was the same type of attack he had been hit by before. Dust thinks it was just the last bit of magic that the apples had having run out. Meaning that with the magic and energy so went the form." all a theory of course. But it is the only thing they have.

Crop nods as he clearly thinks "And as he was suddenly an adult. instead of just being afraid and scared. all that pain and emotions took a more violent turn. As he was an adult and was suddenly able to realise that it was unfair which made him angry..." Crop pauses.

Crop glares back at the table and shakes his skull "It is... It is a whole story about victim blaming. A victim is blamed for the abuse they suffered. They are made to believe they deserve it and should be abused. Then as soon as they fight back and defend themselves they are seen as guilty." Crop takes adeep breath as he leans back "What I don't get... Why come here? I can't help with any of this."

Horror shakes his skull "This isn't about any of the big stuff. We don't even care about it. We just... Nightmare is himself again. His real self." he taps the page lightly "Not his aged-up self that the corruption enabled him to be."

Crop stares before his face changes to shock "You are trying to hide him." Then a frown "Why not go to your own home? Has it been compromised?"

Horror snorts "At this point? probably." a confused look and Horror continues "Nightmare used his magic to shield off an universe and make a castle." he shrugs at the glance "Nightmare likes to read. I imagine he liked to read back then too. He may have been an adult technically but he was still a child at soul. Child him wanted a home and wanted that to be a castle and adult him made it happen... probably... that is Killer's theory at the moment."

Crop laughs and nods "Suonds reasonable- oh... and with his magic disappearing."

Horror sighs "When I left his universe the castle had already been decaying..."

Crop frowns "Left? The five of you you mean?"

Horror looks to the side and feels the shame return "We.... we did not react well... when we saw the changes at first... we... we obviously dind't know what was going on and well." he looks down "We abandoned him. I know it was wrong and stupid and we all regret it. We came back but we still did it." shame.

shame shame shame shame shame shame shame-

A hand on his shoulder. Horror glances up and Crop smiles at him "It is okay. You are trying to fix it now right? obviously. Not cool that you abandoned a child... but it can be nerve wrecking. Suddenly going from a position where a person is mostly guiding you, to going to a position where you suddenly are responsible over that same person."

Horror looks to the side "We still left." he can't believe they just left!

Crop nods "But you returned." he grins "And you are trying to fix it."

Horror nods again "We are..." he chuckles "Not that we have been doing a good job at it. Jumping from place to place."

Crop hums "So you are looking to settle, at least for a little bit, while also hidding. Why this universe?"

Horror nods "Yeah..." He looks to the side "We... we don't know how everyone will react. To him being like this. Maybe they will react well. Maybe not. We don't want to risk it. Risk him."

Crop stares at him for a long time and nods "There must be better places?"

Horror shakes his skull "The Stars kept finding us. Dust figured out we needed a big universe that leans towards positive. Yours is one of those. It is one of the wider and bigger ones. And overall leaning towards positive."

Crop frowns "It can't be the best one..."

Horror shrugs but continues "True... there are bigger and more positive ones. But those are busy. Many people. many places. Yours is quieter. more empty. Gives peace and room to work from."

Crop frowns as he taps his chin. He thinks deeply before sighing "You guys got any type of backstory we can use? The multiverse thing isn't a known thing here and the only reason my brother and I know is because you crash landed here."

Horror blinks "You will let us stay?"

Crop nods "Sure." and he grins "Can't kick out four parents with a babybones." and he gets up.

Horrro shakes his skull "That isn't... Well I mean technically." He knows that Killer has come close to killing quite a few people with how protective he has grown over Nightmare and that isn't even including the motherhenning of Cross nor the clinginess that Dust has.

Crop chuckles as he nods towards the stairs "The attic is messy and should be cleaned but can be used by you four, well five. There is an old bed and an old lounge chair up there." more thoughtful "How big is he exactly? we will need some clothes. Probably also get a healer to check him if he is developing okay after all those magical shenanigans."

Horror stares for a moment before smiling "Thank you... I know it is a lot."

Crop shrugs as he opens the linnen closet "Horror. Taking care of milking all the cows on your own is a lot. Having to fix your roof in the middle of a thunderstorm is a lot." He straightens his spine with blankets in his arms "Helping a friend and his friends who have somehow aqcuired a babybones, while strange, does not compare to either of those. Now get your friends out of those woods. They will make the animals nervous." he grins "I am excited to be one of the first ones to meet the real Nightmare."

Horror smiles as he packs his book and goes towards the door. "Thanks again Crop."

Crop waves it off as he moves the piles upstairs.

-------

Boom! and they are staying in FarmTale for now! Horror and Crop are homies and Dust is more of an acquaintance of Crop but it works. Aged-up Nightmare knew that Horror had an universe he liked to visit but never demanded details. *shrugs* Nightmare didn't see the point. as long as horror wasn't going to betray him what did it matter he didn't tell him?

Surprise Nightmare, this is your temporary home now. For a bit. or maybe longer? They are still figuring it out.

First part Prev Part Next part

[ghost-buddies]

ᴛʜᴇ ʟɪᴠɪɴɢ ɢʜᴏꜱᴛ.

ᴘʀᴇᴠɪᴇᴡ. in commemoration of jjk ending: what would've happened if suguru never defected, and... Shoko did? [pt 1 of 'gone like a wisp of smoke']

ɢʜᴏꜱᴛ ɪɴɢʀᴇᴅɪᴇɴᴛꜱ. lowkey au :: angst :: hurt :: self indulgent :: sfw :: cursing :: multiple parts :: highkey really bad so m sorry

ʟᴏꜱᴛ ꜱᴘɪʀɪᴛꜱ. Gojo Satoru :: Ieiri Shoko :: Geto Suguru :: Iori Utahime :: Mei Mei :: Masamichi Yaga :: a whole lot of other characters that my 3am brain can't comprehend

ɢʜᴏꜱᴛ ɴᴏᴛᴇꜱ. I love shoko and she's being slept on fr </3 this is really self-indulgent and i really dont expect this to go anywhere... enjoy. ANOTHER NOTE. if youre reading this ur a real one, but the next installment is gonna be more abount the 2006/star plasma thing. i havent seen anything on her perspective.

ᴡᴄ. 1.8k (oof)

Ieiri Shoko is a living ghost. Not quite human anymore: just an asset for the Jujutsu world, and a slave to the people that take her for granted, right?

No, Ieiri Shoko is not a ghost. She is a useful tool that will kill herself with cigarettes and sadness, because most of all she cannot feel anymore and simply does as she is bidden.

For all the moping that Gojo Satoru and Geto Suguru do about ‘being the strongest’ and ‘no one quite like us,’ there is no one quite like Shoko; and so she suffers in silence as the world keeps moving.

2006 is the year that everything seems to turn for the worse. But of course Shoko doesn’t know that; she’s barely seventeen, after all, and her biggest worries are keeping her smoking secret(-ish) from Yaga, stopping Gojo and Geto from starting a full-on battle because someone ate the last limited-edition Kit-Kat (Shoko did), and healing them when missions go south. So when the three of them are sent to the gym after Gojo forgets to put a veil where Mei Mei and Utahime did their mission, she doesn’t expect anything to happen.

If anything, she expects Mei Mei to blow a vessel because Utahime’s ‘crush’ on Shoko is getting ‘too obvious.’ Mei’s undying bets about relationships seem to never end, and in order to stop them, Shoko fears that the only way out is to pay the white haired menace.

But that doesn’t matter. Satoru and Suguru seem to be getting ready for another argument, and it’s a perfect moment to have the two boys get their emotions out of the way. Shoko leaves for a smoke break.

Apparently, they’re being sent by Tengen (why he would choose her two insufferable classmates out of anyone, Shoko will never know) to escort the Star Plasma Vessel to assimilate with him.

Satoru makes sure to send her lots of photos of the fight, and Shoko fights a smile as the sees them.

She doesn’t feel too sad that she wasn’t invited to partake in the mission, but Yaga wants to talk to her anyways about it.

“Shoko!” he says, catching up to her as she’s walking back to the dorms from the infirmary. “I just wanted to apologize.”

She looks at him, confused, and so Yaga continues:

“I didn’t invite you to the Star Plasma vessel mission. Tengen just requested the two of them.”

Shoko laughs, a bright little thing that Yaga seems to like since he offers her a small smile. “Oh, sensei, don’t even think about it. I would’ve been dead weight. I’m not worried about them.”

(She should’ve been.)

Time seems to move too fast when they come back to Jujutsu Tech.

--

It’s 2006 – right after the Star Plasma vessel died – and even though the death is still a shock to Gojo and Geto, they’ve bonded over their loss and become stronger from it.

(The one time Shoko thought she might serve as more than a tool to heal, she’s been left in the dust.)

It’s the end of August when Shoko finds Suguru alone. She’s puffing a new cigarette, and he waves to her.

“Oi, Sho. I haven’t seen you in a while, what’s up?”

“Same old, same old. How… how are you? After the vess- After Amanai?”

“It’s tough, but that’s expected of the job. I have Gojo to look after me.” He takes a cigarette from her, making heart eyes at the mention of Satoru.

Shoko internally blazes. She was there every night, when Suguru felt the pangs of guilt, when Satoru felt inadequate for the title of ‘the strongest.’ She was there for them, the both of them, so how dare he say he has Gojo?

“You also have me, dumbass,” she deadpans.

Suguru doesn’t seem to respond to that, because he laughs a little bit and Shoko’s felt no stronger urge than now to slap some sense into him. “You look tired, Sho. Have you been getting rest?”

She ignores him back. “Geto, I have a question for you.”

“What’s on your mind?”

“Do you… do you ever get tired of doing sorcery?” Do you get tired of being used? “You’re forced to risk your life every day to save the people that cause your suffering.”

Suguru thinks for a moment. He’s always been the thoughtful one. “What brought this on? But I guess not. Sure, it gets exhausting, but it’s rewarding knowing that you’re helping innocent lives.”

“Well,” Shoko deadpans, “surely you get annoyed that you need to eat curses and feel like throwing up almost every night.”

He laughs again. Shoko leaves.

--

When Shoko sees Gojo, she’s not doing well. She’s lost weight, and her once-shining eyes are surrounded with puffy purple. She doesn’t sleep very much anymore, using her reversed cursed technique to sustain herself. Satoru’s landed himself in the infirmary, and Shoko almost feels like laughing when she realizes it’s been months since she last saw the white-haired man.

She decides to cut around his shirt to get closer to his broken rib: it’s fractured and bound to hurt like hell, and she doesn’t want to heal through the fabric and waste precious energy.

Instead of using scissors, she chooses a scalpel. At first, she’s scared of the tiny, wicked blade, but her hands are always steady, and soon enough, she was using it every chance she got. She still has it today: a glinting, thin silver blade that she had personalized – there’s diamond edging along each of the assortment of blades, which she uses on a rotation. It exuded her RCT, and sliced skin (and fabric) easily and reliably.

Satoru’s been scraped badly after a mission, and even though he has Six-Eyes and probably knows Shoko’s unwell, doesn’t seem to comment on it. Shoko heals his broken rib and the scratches on his knuckles and moves to leave him when he grasps her wrist. She stills.

“Sho? I’ve been thinking. We should go out for yakisoba sometime soon.”

“I… can’t.”

“Heh? You’ve never said no to an outing!!”

“It’s been months since you’ve even thought of inviting me to you and Geto’s shenanigans.”

She turns to face him, and he seems to register her state. He softens, only marginally. “You look like shit, Shoko. Let us take you out. We’ll protect you from perverts on the train, and you’ll keep me and Suguru from killing each other. It’ll be like old times.”

Shoko doesn’t smile. “I wish I had the free time. There’s more work for me here in the infirmary.”

“Shoko…” Satoru pouts. “I don’t want to exclude you, or anything like that—”

Shoko tamps down her frustration. She smooths a mask of indifference over her face. Bastard, she thinks. You already have. She looks at his shining eyes.

“It should be a date for the two of you. I’d hate to impede.”

She wriggles her wrist from his grip and leaves.

--

The one thing that perhaps Shoko appreciates about school is that even though her talents lie solely in healing, Masamichi Yaga is not stupid and teaches her how to fight.

She’s a Grade One sorceress, after all. And she did accompany Geto and Gojo on missions early on – it’s a shame her technique is as prized as it is because she could be quite formidable.

So when Shoko reveals that giving energy and healing others using RCT isn’t her only talent, it’s not met with the kind of ‘wow, you’re not actually a one-trick pony!’ response, and more of a ‘well, good to know’ half-assed reply.

Late 2005 and early 2006 were the last times she went on missions.

It was a rainy night, and Shoko, Geto, and Gojo hopped onto a train from Shibuya. It was an easy Grade Two curse and a couple of Grade Threes, and they had no trouble taking care of them.

Unfortunately, Shoko was cold and tired of hearing Satoru yapping, so they quickly boarded the train.

It was of course their luck that it was cramped, and they all had to stand up.

“Why the long face, Ieiri?” Satoru probed. “No way those curses wiped you out. All you did was punch them and swing around banging your stethoscope into their brains.”

Suguru punched his arm. “Yeah, just like how all you did was run around in circles after one of the Grade Threes tried eating your finger—”

“It was a rat! You know how I hate those! Thank goodness for Shoko taking care of that thing—”

Shoko groaned when Satoru blocked Suguru’s next attack with a blow to his shin. They started to attract odd glances, but thankfully Shoko didn’t have to deal with troublesome girls gawking at the two imbeciles next to her because the train was filled with…

Just her luck. Old, pervy men.

They shamelessly gawked at her (she’s a teenager. She’s growing, she shouldn’t be surprised they’d stare), and of course Satoru and Suguru noticed immediately because they formed a meat shield around her.

Satoru snapped at an old man who was taking photos of her: “Oi, what’re you looking at?”  while Suguru tag-teamed with him, snatching the phone from the geezer and quickly deleting the photos he’d taken.

Shoko smiled inwardly. They stopped fighting, to protect her.

One by one, Gojo and Geto intimidated any and all creeps trying to perv on her. Once the train car finally fell silent, they were fighting again as if nothing had happened. Thankfully, they kept up the meat shield.

Shoko had to stop them from having a full-on battle to the death (what Satoru jokingly calls the ‘Battle of the Balls’) before they arrived back at Jujutsu Tech.

Shoko secretly hid the tiny Grade Three curse – the rat that attempted to eat Gojo’s finger – and cupped it in her hands.

Thank God for those creepy men, and them distracting Gojo and Geto from the cursed energy swelling around the tiny thing, Shoko thought. I want to experiment with you, little guy.

If Shoko can output RCT, surely she can take it away… right?

They arrived back at school, right as she finished the thought, and they bid each other goodnight. Shoko made a quick beeline for her room, all while blaming it on ‘the two of you punks taking up all my energy,’ which wasn’t quite a lie. They know she’s thankful for the two of them taking care of her.

In the silence of her room, Shoko marveled as she forced the rat close to death, and then brought it back to life.

She withered an arm and then regenerated it.

 She wrinkled its eyes and let it see again.

 Ieiri Shoko found her full potential that night.

© property of @ghost-buddies. do not repost, translate or edit.

[yumedoca]

And UY's third cour's final PV dropped.... which means it's time for me to share my thoughts!!

(And as usual. Ignore the shitty quality of the screenshots)

First up, I have to mention the fact that MAISONdes is doing the OP and ED again!! The new OP is 'Rock On*' feat. Hashimero, Meguru and the new ED is 'Raizakura' feat. 9Lana, SAKURAmoti. Here are the gorgeous album cover arts for both songs and oh my gosh, they are so precious!!

*It might either be 'Lock on' since the Japanese pronunciation for 'L' and 'R' sounds the same.

(Edit: Seems like it is 'Lock on' after all!!)

As for my thoughts on the songs themselves, so far they sound great, but to form a proper opinion I need to hear the whole thing as well as see how it pairs with the visuals.

Now to the actual PV itself.. (Attention: Spoilers!!)

First up, as expected, there's a lot of new footage shown. Many of them are from the episodes shown in the previous PV which I've already discussed (go read it if you haven't, since this is technically a part 2) so I'm not going to talk about any episode shown previously unless it's new or specifically worth mentioning..

First, I want to talk about the adaptation of the hilariously deceptive 'Lum becomes a cow' chapter. Let's be honest, this is hands down the funniest AtaLum chapter of all time and it looks like the remake is making the AtaLum moments in this one extra dramatic (they even added rain for more effect!) just so the final payoff would hit us in the most hilarious way possible (unless those bits are from something else but I doubt it). AtaLum enjoyers (me included) are being really well fed this cour, huh?

I don't know where these and a few others come from (please tell me if you know!!). I'm guessing the fourth one might be from the chapter about Ryu's mom since it was already confirmed previously and the montage looks like a flashback with lot of beach vibes but I might be wrong. The Kotatsu Neko one might come from the Kitsune (fox) chapter with the photo and camera since I remember a similar scene which looks like that shot, but again I might be wrong. There are a few other scenes as well (Onsen-mark getting hit, Ten hanging from a tree and such). Maybe they're anime original scenes? Who knows, but we'll know sooner enough...

That's really all I have to say anything new about the PV, everything else are chapters I've already pointed out. That aside I do have to give props to how absolutely gorgeous everything looks as well as the fluid animation. The above shot of Lum and Ten sleeping is so pretty!! There are others but there's too many to count and it's obvious which all they are. I also like how Inaba's bunny realm looks and I'm also in love with AtaLum's outfit colorings for their 'date' in the electric jungle arc, they're kinda caramel coded!! Speaking of AtaLum, the PV also showed a lot of their key moments which surprised me since I though they'd keep those a secret till the episode airs, but to be fair, it's only bits and it did end up making the PV a bit emotional.. :')

(I had space for one more image till I hit Tumblr's limit so here, have an Inaba coming out of a trash can. He looks so proud of himself XD)

Anyways, that's all for now. This cour seems to be very AtaLum focused, to the point where the OP and ED album cover arts have both Lum and Ataru in it!! But it still has other fun storylines as well and I'm excited for all the episodes, may it be big or small. There's one week left and we'll probably get next weeks episode titles on Tuesday (as how it always is). One more week, here we go!!!

[joltai-showa]

fic notes, From Queen to a Pawn, chapter 7 edition

as promised, here's everything you might have missed in "Unwanted Discoveries"!

recently had seen the behind the scenes photo of Deidara and Obito's actors from the official Naruto stage, so I think it would go really well for this particular chapter *wink wink*

- regarding the title of the chapter: it's quite obvious, as Obito gets to learn a bunch of things he really would have lived happily without (including but not limited to a) women don't stay lovey-dovey after a near death experience, no matter how much you pinned after them while they were gone b) Kakashi has a Mangekyo c) he's got a list of fetishes almost as long as his dick as the list of his warcrimes)

- speaking of Kakashi: as I have mentioned in the notes before the chapter, I am not insane, and the title of Naruto chapter 276 is "New Sharingan"

Yes, this is preciesly the moment when we see Kamui being activated for the first time and Deidara becomes one arm short. Now, why the fuck do we never see Kamui before that (as far as I remember) and why is Kakashi referring to it as a "new Sharingan" when almost 400 chapters later we will see that this eye was awakened 16 years before these events with Rin somehow outrunning regular Sharingan's reaction speed time and yeeting herself on a Chidori? The answer is: I have no fucking clue. But on a more serious note, this is Kishimoto writing this, so likely at this point in time (276 was released on the 3rd of October 2005) he had no idea what exactly he was going to do with the whole Kakashi/Rin/Obito circus besides "errr yeah Kakashi promised to protect Rin, he failed, Rin is dead, Obito is mad and now is Tobi in Akatsuki, here's the busted ability for Obito's Mangekyo" and planned out the details only a lot later (Rin's death is shown in chapter 604, released on 22nd of October 2012, a whole 7 wooping years later).

Anyway, obviously, this entire bit of the Kazekage Rescue arc makes no sense if everyone (including Kakashi) is aware that Kakashi's got a Mangekyo. So I am going with the explanation that the pain of the awakening was so severe Kakashi passed out before realizing what the hell even happened with his left eye, and as a result only recently (yes, 16 years later) did he understand that "wait, I've got a Mangekyo" and starts using it. It makes sense in my head, so I am sticking to it.

- and on that note this little missing detail creates a lot of tension for both of my blorbos during the aftermath of this mission😈obviously, Kakashi would keep this "nEW ShARinGan" a secret, because why the fuck would you mention having this absurdely powerful tool in your arsenal (unless, of course, it's someone who is also on the task of guarding Naruto), so what ends up happening is that Deidara goes against Sharingan Kakashi, who, in fact, has an even more powerful form of this dojutsu. Deidara obviously knows what Mangekyo is - girlie's been training to beat Itachi's ass for the last 7 years, so of course she'd be trying to dig up some info on the Sharingan and its abilities.

We actually see Deidara and Sasori in canon asking for the info from other Akatsuki members (Zetsu informs everyone of what's going on outside + Itachi with his legendary "he'll be the first one to scream at you *dips out of the zoom call*" and Deidara and Sasori going "????"), so imagine being Deidara, assuming that you know all of the relevant information on the guys running after you, only for the Sharingan guy to pull out a fucking Mangekyo and start sucking you up into a literal black hole. Like, she already hates Sharingan with her guts, but what in the actual fuck is that? I think for the day? she'd spent wandering around looking for her arm she'd be absolutely fucking pissed at everyone who failed to mention such teeny tiny detail before the Konoha gang got to them, which is why she lashes out at Zetsu in this manner, because she's just done with everything Sharingan-related

- really, in any situation Deidara would likely have been the most angry at discovering Kakashi's Mangekyo. That is if anyone but Obito came to look for her. Which is whole another level of fucking comedy. In canon Obito abandons his left eye (for some reason), and with Kakashi keeping Mangekyo secret as his super uber powerful tool, Obito by that point in time has NO IDEA that a second Mangekyo has been activated. So imagine his reaction to learning that little fact after that entire mission. Like, seething is nothing compared to what Obito would be doing. And his reaction would be twice as funny with Obidei in mind, because now not only did Kakashi accept Obito's Sharingan and finish developing Chidori (remember, he couldn't use it before Obito "died", the jutsu was too fast for his eyes) before fucking killing Rin, Obito's first crush, with that very same jutsu, he now also got Obito's other Mangekyo and the very first thing he does with it (as far as Obito's aware) and runs with it at Deidara, Obito's second crush, and almost kills her with it too. Like, fate actually fucking exists.

- the world isn't really hell to Obito, it's just that the fate is a fucking bitch and Kakashi repeatedly stumbles into scenarios that would make Obito most upset

- in alternative universe Obito sits inside Kamui, chilling, when a fucking human elbow pops up out of nowhere. in a place where only Obito can control what goes in and out. he'd drive himself crazy from freaking out too much

- "The shade of her teeth is also closer to pink, and judging by the hole in the lower row, someone knocked her hard in the jaw earlier" - this is referring to this particular moment of that arc

I believe anime even shows something like a tooth flying off, so I'd say that it's fair to assume that post-Kazekage Rescue arc Deidara needs some dental work

- "Like absolutely nothing has changed between her and Tobi" - so some minor spoilers regarding the plans for FQTP, it'll actually be a while before the two of them will be able to discuss what had happened in that alley, Deidara will continue acting standoffish in Tobi's presence. Obito correctly guesses some of the reasons (other members of Akatsuki being present), but... some of the darker things from Deidara's past are raising their ugly heads, leading her to acting this way. And Obito isn't really aware of these things. Not that he particularly cares for Deidara's past at the moment, he's too busy with Deidara's present

- on that note it was imperative for me to bully this man. Like. He has to be so pathetic. He is a giant wet clingy dog. And then Deidara acts not in the way he imagined (and god did he imagine things about her while she was gone), he is just🥺🥺🥺🥺w-w-why are u so mean to me🥺🥺🥺🥺im good boy🥺🥺🥺🥺i've been waiting for you🥺🥺🥺🥺i've been really upset🥺🥺🥺🥺why would you scream at me🥺🥺🥺🥺i don't deserve being treated like that😭😭😭😭

- meanwhile outside of Obito's delulu world: Deidara is still without arms, low on chakra after the unsealing, lost a shit ton of blood, got jumpscared by a sudden Mangekyo of her least favorite dojutsu, had to fight Naruto, Gain and his team alone and without ninjutsu. Oh, and Tobi is prancing around with her severed arm like it's a chewtoy

- Obito's intelligence is a horseshoe and it keeps bouncing between its upper ends

- Was that... was that nothing to her? Is she used to doing something like that? Pleasuring men in this way? No, no, there must be something else, it can't be, I refuse to believe this - Obito's character arc of coping and seething at Deidara's likely lack of virginity continues

- again, the dude is perma stuck in his childhood perception of relationships between men and women. and it's all rainbows and unicorns and everyone remaining "pure" until marriage and blushing when they hold their hands

- yes, I made a point not to mention the fact the Obito's still clutching at Deidara's arm as he waves his arms around

- "but they hadn't managed to figure out that I replaced myself with a clone at the last moment. Must have exploded in their fucking faces," the girl sniggers" - it never really made sense to me that Deidara digs himself out and knows what had taken place after he left his clone. Again, the returning memory is a feature of Shadow Clones (as far as I remember), and Deidara is using his own Clay Clones. Even if the Clay Clones can somehow give Deidara the details regarding the events they see, that one would explode and vanish before Kakashi finished sucking it all in into Kamui (insert joke about alternative universe where Obito sitting in Kamui gets blasted with a fucking full scale explosion), so he shouldn't know it all from that either. And Deidara shouldn't have stayed behind after replacing himself with a clone, he'd be speeding underground away from Konoha gang, so no way for him to see it either. Anyway, I guess this is kind my way of fixing a case of author's omnipotence

- oh yeah and Deidara did train with a Clay Clone back in LTFG. I actually included all of the models she would be shown to use in the following arc

- "Konoha's got some freaky dojutsu, I'll give those shits that, but no, none of them noticed the change, hm." - so, to put into perspective how little screen time Deidara's chase actually has, the entire "activate Mangekyo - lose arm - get shit beaten by Naruto - Naruto loses it - team Gai runs into Deidara - Deidara does the funny and explodes" happens in a span of just 2 chapters (and we don't really see him after he leaves the cave, the entire Sasori vs Chiyo and Sakura never changed focus to any other POV). After checking I know realize that the "So that's what Byakugan looks like" or something like that said by Deidara was actually something that only happened in the anime, because manga shows Deidara being caught by Gai and others and then we instantly cut to them fighting. Well, whatever, it's not that of a stretch to assume that this is Deidara's first time meeting a Byakugan user

- "Byakugan is super powerful, like super-duper! I've heard that it's supposed to be even stronger than Itachi-san's family jutsu!" a pretty funny load of bullshit, "There's no way that dead-fish-eye guy could have missed your clo–!" - we want Deidei to be praised, so here's a reason for her to be praised by Obito (in his mind, but nonetheless). Deidara had a Byakugan and a Sharingan focused on her at the moment of going kaboom, and yet neither Kakashi nor Neji noticed anything off about clone's chakra patterns? Goddamn baby girl, chill out, how good are your clones.

Also of course couldn't miss the opportunity to dunk on Kishimoto's "oh Byakugan is supposed to be waaay stronger than Sharingan" from OG Naruto. Yeah, I am sure it is, mister "let me slap invincibility and literal alternative dimensions on Sharingan"

- "What the fuck do you think you know about dojutsu, hm?!" - babygirl he's got one🤭🤭🤭🤭

- "Quality of clone aside, did you actually dare to use it in Nine-Tails jinchuriki's vicinity? Were you attempting to sabotage Akatsuki?" - Uchiha "had Yagura under control for years and the kid still somehow wound up dead, with Isobu gone to Pure Lands for a second trip in like a decade" Obito 🫶 Baoshu "let me try to steal Sasori's kill and when that doesn't work out explode a clone like ten meters away from Naruto" Deidara. Black Zetsu has to drink some calming tea every evening just so that he is able to deal with these two's bullshit

- "Oh, find a cactus and go fuck yourself with it, Zetsu, hm!" - a reference to either "Dealing with the Devil" or the fact that Deidara's been stuck in a desert for a few days, whichever you prefer

- "even standing at a significantly lower height than both Zetsu and Tobi, without arms at her side, Deidara still manages to look twice as threatening as either of them" - again, Obito is 182, Zetsu is 177 and Deidara is 166. I don't see a reason to change Girldara's height, even in canon he isn't reaching any ceilings with his hand lmao (on that note I remember someone pointing out the 16 cm difference between Obito and Deidara and calling that long distance relationship. I haven't stopped wheezing since then)

- "after licking some of the blood off her lips and chin (Obito tries not to think about how much this movement reminds him of the events in Amegakure)" - Deidara's reconfigured him to the point that at any point in time at least 30% of Obito's thinking takes place in his dick. It's okay, he'll figure things out. Eventually.

- "your throat will hurt if you continue to scream like that, come on, didn't you say that Akatsuki should always keep their coo–" - and that's a reference to what Deidara says to Tobi in LTFG

- "I swear to gods, if I hear you yapping one more time, I'm killing you. Got it, hm?" - while it's not explicitly mentioned, this is supposed to be the very same three strike counter that Deidara does in the original before trying to strangle Tobi. First strike comes from Tobi running around with her arm, second strike comes from Tobi trying to tell her she's supposed to act cool like an Akatsuki member, third is Tobi's comment about the breath play

- "If Deidara saw it, she would be able to recognize it under Madara's mask. Fucking hell, anyone who saw Madara's Sharingan will realize it has the same pattern as Kakashi's." - on a bit of an unrelated note, but I do remember Kishimoto being really fucking inconsisent with drawing activated Mangekyo when it came to Obito, because of course that would kinda blow the entire twist if the readers would see "Madara"'s pattern

- "It was like a hole in the sky. No, not in the sky, in reality itself," a hole in the reality." - I was debating whether to use the term "black hole" in here because ranged Kamui at this point in time pretty much acts like one, but considering the fact that Naruto world is somewhere between middle ages and early industrial age + certain Uchihas literally tried using the moon as a place to show their Sharingan Powerpoint presentation, I realized that they probably don't have a concept of black holes

- "Somewhere that Obito believed to be secure. To be something that no one can touch and where he can not be harmed. A place belonging to just him, his own space where he had absolute control. A sacred, unsullied by this hell territory." - once again Obito is a control freak and learning that he now has to share access Kamui with someone else... well, he is certainly not having a great time

- "It was doing the same swirly-whirly shit as this pumpkin-head's mask over there does, hm." - yeah, Obito, can you explain to the class what was the genius idea behind replicating the effect of Kamui on Tobi's mask, huh? Or the fact that you alter-ego's name is just your name, but the first syllable is dropped, while the other two change their order?

Obito never got discovered not because he's smart, but because everyone else is too stupid.

- "Deep ugly red gashes cover the thin gentle skin there. In a few spots where the skin did not manage to withstand the pressure some smaller traces of blood trickling down her throat were visible"

I think anime is kinda more obvious with Kakashi aiming for Deidara's neck, but you can kind of see it in the manga too. Can't imagine having this near your neck is a pleasant and harmless experience😊😊😊😊and of course everything to make Obito as shit as possible, because not only did his eye chop off Deidara's arm, but also almost decapitated her

- "only to activate Kamui, his only solace in this hell, a place where nothing could have possibly happened without his knowledge, and stumble upon Deidara's severed head" - during editing I realized that Kakashi would have probably sucked in only Deidara's neck, not the whole head, but whatever, this is Obito spiraling, only the worst for him💋

- Deidara used Pussy Grab! It's super-effective!

- "the entire scenario reminding him of how the girl managed to grab at his scarf, leaving him without a breath and choked after the last Akatsuki meeting" - as far as this AU is concerned, this is not the first time Deidara chokes Obito, the first on-screen one was during their game of tag. And it wasn't as bad at the time, Obito wasn't interested at Deidara, and getting choked vertically is not nice. Now getting choked horizontally and in this position...😋😋😋😋the monkey brain is back

- "but what made all of his organs instantly shrink in panic was his realization that Deidara's kick was enough for his mask to partially slide off his face"

(what a fucking image)

this is actually a reference to the one and only "death by suffocation" panel where Obito's mask is drawn in such a way the the highest of the swirls actually looks like someone's forehead being slightly revealed. absolutely sure that it wasn't the intention, but nonetheless, felt too funny not to include, "Akatsuki leader's identity almost gets revealed by one angry twink femboy"

- "Now that he's kind of gotten used to Deidara choking him with nothing but her thighs, it wasn't as bad as he originally thought it was." - once again, Obito's on his way to discovering that the list of his kinks is as long as the list of his warcrimes. He is not having fun with this discoveries. Well, at least his brain isn't. But he is freaky. Trust him to run up to Deidara, grab her shoulders and scream "Senpai it's imperative that you sit on my face, humanity's salvation literally hinges on it" after something minor goes wrong with Eye of the Moon.

- "In fact, his voice was probably loud enough to alert all Suna (and an additional secret Iwa) squads nearby to the location of a very intense confrontation taking place between the Akatsuki members (two confrontations, in fact, one being between Deidara and Tobi and the other between Akatsuki's real leader and his forcefully awakened uncontrollable libido)" - poor Suna and Iwa ninja. Imagine hearing some commotion and stumbling upon Akatsuki going freaky.

I don't feel bad for Konoha ninja. After all, canonically Kakashi is riding guy literally at the same time as Obito is getting choked by Deidara

Maybe it's something in the air in the Land of Rivers that makes all Konoha-born men aged 30 act like that?

- "There is no wariness or the usual predatory glint in Black Zetsu's eye. Only quiet triumph." - if you believed Black to have some darker ultirior motives in the choking scene, sorry, but no, he really is just giggling at what a loser Obito is.

-

it was a lot of fun writing the difference between Tobi acting and Obito thinking. Also as the time goes on Obito defaults into his 13 year old self insults - garbage/trash/etc

- "which resulted in him accidentally stepping on his own scarf and choking himself some more, just to drive his level of embarrassment for today higher. Making a pathetic "bleah", Obito falls headfirst into the nearest bush, where his series of misfortunes ends" - Obito MUST be bullied under my watch. This man is not getting to look cool in front of Deidei. If she doesn't fall in love with his loser side, then what is the point.

- "Good, thinks vindicated Obito, rubbing at his sore neck you deserve to feel like shit after making me go... through all of that . He even makes a crooked grin when he hears her wet heavy coughing ripping through her entire body." - throughout this chapter there's tiny sprinkles of what is going to happen in the next chapter, and one of the bits is right here. But back to Obito - he's a petty bitch. And a drama queen. A girl is coughing up blood after getting triggered by his stupid comments and all of her injuries? Not as much suffering as he had to go through after almost popping a boner😡😡😡😡

- "So do you know why the Kazekage boy is now alive?" - I swear to god why was everyone so fucking chill about Gaara surviving that shit? Like, the murder organization with expertize in murder murders a guy and the guy gets somehow unmurdered, and everyone asks no questions???

- "Dead as they fucking come, hm! You'd think I wouldn't notice that when I was sitting on him?!"

Obito's head shoots upwards, straining his ears to better hear the conversation that took quite an unexpected turn. His eyebrows unconsciously furrow into frown, lips thinning as he intently watched the girl argue with Zetsus." - if Deidara mentioned her plan to provoke Naruto by sitting on Gaara's corpse, you bet your ass Obito would be running max speed out of Amegakure and into that hideout. He would personally throw Gaara's body into Naruto's face just so he can be Deidara's sofa.

- "Where am I supposed to go next?" Deidara's voice seems... strange. If Obito was not watching her talk, he would have had trouble recognizing it to be hers. It's completely flat and disinterested" - ta-da! we're kind of starting the arc regarding Deidara's past😈

- "This Deidara has empty gray eyes, completely dull and disinterested, deep dark bags beneath them. It was like looking into a corpse's face." - more stuff kind about her past, but now with a quick detail that Obito calls Sasori a laughing corpse and Deidara a silent girl, however now she also remind him of a corpse

And that's it for this chapter! Originally supposed to be one with the following one, but alas the following events are pretty important, so not to end up with a behemoth of a chapter I decided to release this one as is. I should be starting work on the next one pretty soon, so see you there

[loonybun]

TRICK OR TREAT!!!!!!!!

HII!! take a fun au drabble!! this one’s from my starkiller au which is like if a band au went terribly terribly wrong. gonna give the specific drabble a cheesy name because i might write more w this au in the future heehee

Starkiller: That’s just showbiz.

contains: betrayal, invasion of personal space/intimate creepy whumper, implied past major character death, grief of that death, implied substance abuse (specifically alcoholism in this but there’s definitely more), as well as implied enabling/taking advantage of said abuse (non-sexual), panic attack, violence/assault with a weapon, drugging, and manhandling.

fun for the whole family!

also barely edited like my other halloween drabbles are and will be. just ignore that part.

————————————————

Gig after gig, afterparty after afterparty, blackout after blackout, everything was beginning to blend together into a mess of a loop.

Koi’s head was pounding when he blinked his eyes, trying to register the dark room around him. The effects of a massive hangover made his head swim as he tried to piece together what had happened the previous night. Obviously, he’d pushed his limits again. Dealing with all of the lights and people was too difficult to do sober, anyways. It had been fun when it was once or twice a week, but now it was just another part of an already exhausting routine.

Things weren’t the same. It would never be the same.

Practice, write, party, perform. That’s all they could do, right? They had to put themselves out there somehow. If that meant letting his manager show him off to someone at a shitty party, then so be it.

He couldn’t let this be for nothing.

Someone else stirred next to him, bringing his focus back to his surroundings. Shoot. Vian probably had to drive him again. It had become a bit of a recurring theme on these kinds of nights. Can’t exactly be trusted to find your own room when you can barely even find the doorknob.

Still, normally he would be on the couch. This was… New.

The digital clock on Vian’s dresser showed that the time was around 4 AM. Not exactly the most ideal time to get up, but his throat felt as dry as sandpaper. He slowly pulled off the covers and got out of bed, trying to squint in the darkness. Unfortunately, he had no idea where his manager had set his stuff down, so using the flashlight on his phone wasn’t much of an option.

After a bit of stumbling around, he eventually found the door, slipping out of the room and down the stairs. The kitchen was a decent step up from his, nice and open to the living room. Moonlight leaked through the grayish-blue curtains, helping him navigate the actual light switch. The brightness caused his migraine to flare up. It took him a moment to readjust to the light, even if it made the nerves in his eyes feel like they were being pressed right up against his skull.

Where did he keep his cups again? Koi opened a cabinet, groaning when he was greeted with nothing but bowls and plates. Then the next, and then another. Eventually, he found one filled with mugs and figured that was good enough.

As he took it out of the cabinet, he noticed something reflective a bit deeper in. After a moment of consideration, he succumbed to curiosity and pulled the object out.

He stared at the familiar pair of glasses in his hand.

His palms turned clammy, knees going weak. He had to set the mug down just to make sure he didn’t drop it.

The world around him seemed to fade entirely, everything turning into a dizzy blur. The deafening silence quickly became occupied by his own heartbeat, going faster and faster by the second.

He couldn’t bring himself down. His head was reeling with all sorts of possibilities, scrambling for some desperate explanation. Trying to prove the innocence of a man he already knew was guilty. He’d already begun stringing the extra bits of context into place–

He’d gone to him for comfort. He’d confided in him. Broken down completely.

The all too obvious possibility that the same person he’s trusted and the reason for his misery were one in the same was too painful to handle. That just couldn’t be right. It didn’t make sense.

(Yes it did. It did and that made it worse.)

“Oh.” His stream of thoughts was broken by a sickeningly recognizable voice. He hated how normal it sounded, how accustomed he was to it. It didn’t sound like the voice of a monster. “I thought you might be down here. Not sleeping well?”

He had to bite his trembling lip to keep his mouth shut. Instead of screaming accusations, he slowly shook his head.

Vian’s eyes moved down towards the glasses in his hands, his expression still neutral. “...I figured. I really thought you’d had enough alcohol to knock you out for the night. An oversight on my part. I would have put you on the couch if I’d known.” His tone was so casual. Completely unbothered by the horror of the man in front of him.

“Speaking of oversights, God, I really just stuck that in there? That’s funny, isn’t it? I must have planned to take care of it eventually, just got a bit caught up in everything else.”

“What–” Koi choked on his words, forcing himself to swallow the bile in his throat. “What the fuck did you do?”

Vian clicked his tongue. “Don’t give me that. You can go check if you’d like. I’m sure she’d love to see you.” his eyes glanced over to the basement door.

He’d barely even finished speaking by the time Koi had dashed down the steps, entering the large, dark room. The floor was covered entirely in tarps, coating every inch of the freezing concrete.

…It was empty. Not so much as a fucking hair.

The only evidence that had even suggested what had taken place was a dark, dry stain on the plastic.

(This was it. She was gone. She was gone and he couldn’t even–)

The blunt end of a hammer slammed into his back, sending him gasping to the hard floor.

“P-Plea-”

Vian knelt beside him, smiling fondly.

“Shh, shh. I’m not going to kill you. Come on, now, you know I’d never do that.”

He dragged the man’s head into his lap, ignoring his yelps of pain. Then, with one hand, he pressed a soaked cloth over his mouth, holding it firmly in place despite Koi’s muffled pleas.

“You’ll thank me later. Just take deep breaths.”

[roserysttrpggarden]

PETA tried to make D&D subclasses and I critique them

Hi there

So, this wasn't a post I anticipated making but just this week PETA (People for the "ethical" treatment of animals) put out three subclasses for 5th-edition (with two accompanying magic items and spells) and cause I have nothing better to do, I wanted to critique (And laugh at) them in a overly long blog post, without further ado, let's start with the first of the three subclasses: The Circle of Empathy Druid

First off, the theme of this subclass is already funny cause druids whole thing is taking to animals but i'll let it slide for now

As for the class features, the circle spells are really good since they get both conjure animals and conjure woodland beings on the same spell list. It's a bit odd that they get three second level spells, but as you'll see later I doubt they payed much attention to 5e subclass formatting. Empathy connection is a really funny feature because not only did the designer forget to give an action trigger (Notice how there's no line that mentions using an action, bonus action or anything to use it) and based on how the text is written its implied you can only use the ability upon gaining your subclass, the other funny thing is that by rules as written, you can establish the connection between a humanoid and say, a rat, then dunk the rat in boiling water, or break its legs, and the humanoid will feel the rats pain, so you can effectively torture someone by torturing an animal. Does that completely go against the subclass's theme? Yes, is it funny that you can do that? Also yes!

Persuasive Resonance is a lot of fluff for what's essentially a mass charm you can infinitely spam (Notice there's clause that states you can use it x number of times per long rest.) Enchanting address is both very clunky and overpowered, it's a very potent control ability that, ironically, is way stronger if you don't have any animals around, cause the feature states they "Must use actions that benefit and protect animals for 24 hours" and it has doesn't have a limited number of uses too, combine this with a divination wizard you could very easily shut down any humanoid you want. Besides that the protective instinct feature is weirdly worded, I feel like the last sentence should read "if the humanoid is within 5 feet of the animal, they become the target of the attack instead" it's also interesting that the creature you use this one has a choice of their saving throw, dunno if it's a good thing, but it's interesting. On the complete opposite end of the spectrum: Natures mirror is kind of funny, but also basically useless in combat, I guess it can get around invisibility? the +2 to wisdom and intelligence checks is situational, but could be useful in some niche circumstances.

To close out my thoughts on this subclass, it's really funny that this is the only subclass of the three that tries to capitalize off of the 2024 PHB, Onto the next subclass!

Oh boy this paladin subclass sure is something. First off, it's way to easy to oathbreak with this subclass. Say for example, you come across a village that's being attacked by oh I don't know, a red dragon, you know, in Dungeons and Dragons. Since your oaths state that you "protect animals from harm" you cannot attack the red dragon in any way without oathbreaking, or what if you get ambushed by an owlbear? Can't fight that without oathbreaking, I would go on but there are so many ways to oathbreak hat the DM borderline has to build most combats around this subclass, and that's just isn''t fun.

Moving on from the obvious flavor fails, the two channel divinitys are pretty good? Beasts fury sucks to read cause it swaps between flavor and mechanical text in the same paragraph, but it's basically an additional 1d6 of damage on the creatures melee attacks and frightening enemies they hit on a failed wisdom save, strong but I imagine the frightening could get very annoying especially once extra attack comes into play, an 11th-level fighter under the effects of beasts fury could possibly impose 3 wisdom saves at once (6 if they action surge) slowing the game down dramatically, it's the same issue that the topple property from the 2024 PBH has, it slows the game way the hell down. Sanctuary of The Innocent is broken, first of the radius is questionable at best, is it centered on yourself? a point you can see? Secondly, granting immunity to damage on all animals is busted when combined with summon beast, conjure animals/woodland beings or even a beast master druid, at the same time the feature doesn't specify friendly beasts so going back to the dragon example, you could end up making the boss invincible for the entire encounter. Guardians refuge is okay, the benefits are sort of decent? But I doubt you'll be fighting that many CR 3 beasts or monstrosities by 6th-level (Not to mention the feature is completely worthless as higher tiers of play) the second benefit is really vague but it could be decent if you have a druid or ranger. Unburden the beasts is a quite possibly the first harmful ribbon feature! Cause by rules as written you say, can't ride on horses, or have them pull a wagon, but it also for some reason doubles the carrying capacity of animals...Despite you not being able to use them to haul your supplies? Such a strange ability. Whispers of the wild is another ribbon that comes on too late to be decent. Humanoid handing is, say it with me folks, really strong if you have a druid or ranger in your party, it's funny that its uses per day are limited to your wisdom modifier (despite paladin not using wisdom.)

For my closing thoughts on the animal liberation paladin, a lot of the abilities are strong on paper, but require you to either multiclass, or have a druid/ranger in the party since it doesn't get any way to summon animals, so even if you somehow don't oathbreak after a session, you're abilities are mostly useless! While I didn't point it out in the feature rundown, it's very noticable that the subclass does not follow the paladin subclass structure at all (3, 7, 15 and 20th level) I have no idea why! Probably because the designer wasn't paying attention!

With that mess out of the way, time to cover the last of the three subclasses: The Warden of The Wild ranger.

The spell list is fantastic, charm person, aid, hold person, dispel magic, and polymorph all on one spell list is amazing, on top of it you also get double the spells that a normal ranger expanded spell list would give, Sabotage hunt is anti hunters mark, there's really not much more to say about it other than rolling a d6 for every damage roll I imagine would get extremely annoying and slow down the game. It's odd that you don't regain a use of this feature upon completing a long rest but whatever, echo's of the wild is a crappy ribbon feature that won't work most of the time, and isn't that helpful even in situations where you can use it, I guess if you have a beast master on your teams it's really good cause you can basically never be sneaked up on but otherwise, it's not that good. Sanctuary is also really good if you have a animals but otherwise, it's alright. Purify life is decent if you really need to cleanse one of your pets (or an ally under the polymorph spell) but otherwise it's alright. The not regaining use on long rest strikes back!

Closing out my thoughts on these sublcasses, it feels very apparent that whoever wrote these really doesn't understand 5e very much (Especially clear with the oath of animal liberation) none of the subclasses follow the 5e style guide all that well, for some reason the term "Being" is used constantly when it's supposed to be creature or target, most of the features gained by these subclasses are either crappy ribbons or are features that, not only range from meh to overpowered, are also super situational to the point that you have to build your party around them.

But that is not all PETA decided to "grace" us with, as the document includes two spells and items (Which are for some reason called tools) so let's go over those as well

Liberate is pretty strong, being able to undo a charm person or confusion on a animal, and instantly breaking a cage open for animals is a lot for a 1st-level spell slot, though the irony in the oath of animal liberation not having this spell is not lost on me, crimson mark is super funny, you spend a 1st-level slot + use concentration to tell is someone is evil. What a masterful display of game design prowess! The two magic items are meh, a magic item version of liberate and a worse bag of holding, yay??

That's about all I have for PETA "attempt" at homebrew, as bad as they are, at least I got a laugh out of them, and hopefully you did too. if you wanna leave your own thoughts make sure to comment or reblog.

Take care and go make some homebrew.

[terephin]

Fuck it, Honkai 3rd worldbuilding time.

============

Anti Entropy Server Network > General Information > Honkai Energy Weaves > Necessary Weaves

An Introduction to Honkai Weaves, presented by Doctor Henry Clarke, (Formerly) of St Freya

(Note : This edition of the document was written shortly after the incident with the Wind Herrscher.)

Honkai Energy is all around us, in doses large and small. From the smallest of AE’s batteries to the Herrschers themselves. To be a Valkyrie, or analogous, requires one to have an immense understanding of this.

Honkai Energy, when used through the outlet of Humanity, and Intelligence as a whole, is best utilized through what are commonly called Weaves. Weaves are highly complex, layered semi-constructs of Honkai Energy, used in everything a Valkyrie does, be it enhancing their body beyond human comparison or summoning giant cat paws.

In this introduction, I will go over two of the most common and crucial weaves, while more complex and niche ones will be introduced to students individually.

Now, to begin with we have the Enhancement Weave, a fairly simple weave that you’ll become intimately familiar with soon enough. The Enhancement Weave, as should be obvious, enhances the physical form.

It’s laughably simple, in truth, to generate. While I can’t explain it’s workings in an understandable way here, as it’s something rather esoteric and they still won’t update the system to support graphs and images, I can explain what it does further.

The Enhancement Weave increases speed, strength, reaction time and so much more, but what’s important is two factors. 1) This enhancement uses your current state as a basis, meaning the better your condition the stronger you are. 2) When you unravel Deactivate if you want to be boring. the weave not all it’s effects are lost There are ways to trigger this effect without unraveling it, but all are highly complex. In fact, roughly 5% of the effect remains indefinitely. When you couple these two things you get the ever increasing power of a Valkyrie.

Now, onto the next weave, which is important less often to B rank Valkyries, but is essential if you seek the A rank, alongside simply making many other things easier.

I am, of course, talking about the Friction Weave. The Friction Weave, while having a gross oversimplification of a name, is truly necessary when you reach the levels of an A rank Valkyrie. Now, you are all likely to struggle with this weave, as while it’s considered among the basics it’s also one of the more complex weaves you’re likely to run into.

The weave itself is not of human creation. In fact, to my knowledge, it was copied unfathomable long ago from either a rather powerful Honkai Beast or a full on Herrscher, both of which are known to generate it by their very natures.

The Friction Weave has very little to do with friction, inherently. But ignoring that for now, what it does, most importantly, is negates sonic booms1. It’s this weave that allows A rank Valkyries to move at speeds in excess of Mach 2, when the situation calls for it. It’s this weave that allows the most massive of Honkai Beasts to even move without tearing themselves apart. It’s this weave, all of it. And we barely know how.

However, this isn’t the time to lament the limits of human knowledge. Instead, I have one last thing to mention regarding the Friction Weave. In certain atmospheric conditions, few of which are even vaguely natural in occurance, the weave actually has the opposite effect. It generates devastating effects of various natures instead, typically vaporising everything nearby.

(Archived note, attached to main document after transfer.) It is this fact that makes me believe that a fully realised Wind Herrscher would’ve been a threat like no other. While we never got any halfway decent scans of Wendy’s weave, battlesuit scanners meant to monitor the condition of Raiden Mei (Atmosperic sensors included to note possible stormfronts) detected forming type 1 and type 5 environments all around her during the event.

1 Which can be rather terrifying when they interact with Honkai Energy, being known to have pulverised solid steel and deafened everyone within 40 meters during testing.

[glade-constellation]

Horrors Beyond the Bayou AU Infodump (Q & A Style)

Edit : This AU has been renamed "Dirty Paws, Little Talks"!

First off, any triggering topics?

• Yes, there are several triggering topics that are gone over in this AU. There is a lot of bad and messed up shit happening here, the fic will be rated M on Ao3 when I start posting. Please be advised that there is going to be a lot of very upsetting topics being mentioned or discussed! This includes but is not limited to: viewing a person as property, graphic depictions of violence/torture, talk of death/suicide, suicidal ideation, self harm, graphic depictions of gore, use of weapons such as knives, etc. There will be a lot of heavy stuff in this AU. You have been warned. (All posts for this AU will be properly tagged.)

What’s the main plot of the story?

• Fazbear Entertainment basically has an underground system for black market sales because they never can pass up a few extra bucks. One of the few things they sell are tiny little creatures called Borrowers, a species thought only to exist in children’s story books (for those who don’t know what borrowers are, here’s a wiki link). Y/N is a borrower who escapes their containment before being sold, but now must learn to survive in the Pizzaplex and all the dangers it brings.

Who’s the main cast?

• Y/N is our protagonist, but Sun & Moon and Monty are also main characters in this AU. A lot of the first half of this AU is simply just for setting up Y/N’s relationship with them (romantic for DCA, queerplatonic for Monty). A lot of the other canon characters come in on the second half of the plot, which will tackle the canon plot of Security Breach. Freddy, Gregory, and another surprise character will become friends with Y/N during this time as they work together to figure out what’s happening at the Pizzaplex. Some familiar faces that are canon to FNAF but aren’t seen in SB will also be showing up!

What relationships can we expect to see?

• Sun x Y/N is a definite, but I’m on the fence whether to make Moon and Y/N romantic or queerplatonic. I’m still working on Moon’s personality in the AU, so I’m not quite sure what his sexuality is yet (they are genderfluid though). There is queerplatonic Monty & Y/N, something I wasn’t actually planning on from the start but that showed up and didn’t want to leave. They both rely heavily on each other throughout certain things that happen in the first half of the plot, and form a very tight bond. There’s also some background Roxy/Chica because those two are literally so in love and you can’t tell me otherwise. (I would like to add that all interactions are SFW, and Y/N is portrayed as being asexual. Lots of cuddles and kisses but that’s about it.)

What’s the setting of the story?

A large majority of the first half of the plot takes place in Monty Golf, and Y/N’s home is there for a very large majority of the whole plot. That’s actually how I came up with the AU name. The Theater/Daycare are the second most used setting in this AU. We will eventually be seeing the whole Pizzaplex, but for the first half of the plot Y/N is stuck to the ground floor. The Daycare has a very different set up during the very beginning of the AU since it’s technically still a theater then. The canonical theater part of the daycare was all concessions/storage back then, and the main stage was the ball pit area. The glass walls used to be bleacher-type sitting areas, separated by what is still currently being used as the daycare doorway. The line that Moon uses to get around in the air was something kept from the theater, and used to be used to better entertain and immerse the audience.

What’s the borrower world building?

• The first and most obvious thing, borrowers are a real thing in this AU. While they inspired fictional works like the Borrowers book series and the Littles, they are real beings. They look mostly human and have human intelligence, but have a few differences. They tend to have mouse-like ears, a padded nose, fangs, digigrade legs/feet, claws, tails, and fur in some areas. Their heart and respiratory rate are also considerably faster, much more in tune with that of small rodents. Borrowers tend to actually live in colonies in large abandoned buildings or old houses. Yes, there are still plenty who live in human households, but borrowers find it infinitely more safer to stay clear of human populated areas. Borrower culture can change dramatically depending on if they live in colonies or not and what location they live in, but most borrowers tend to view the sun and moon as almost gods. It’s not the same way humans typically view gods, probably better to be compared to good omens and horoscopes. While the brightness of the day isn’t safe for borrowers, the sun helps grow their food and provides them with shadow, as darkness cannot exist without light. Children born during the day are often viewed to be gifted with some sort of ability to nurture and provide. The moon is a symbol of protection, and new moons are seems as blessings. Children born at night are viewed to have different abilities based on the moon phases. Babes of the New Moon are viewed to have have the potential to create great change and are seen as lucky to have around. It’s unknown why, but sun babies and new moon babies are actually quite rare. Most borrowers tend to have their babies during or near the full moon. (This cultural view on the sun and moon does affect how Y/N views Sun & Moon in the beginning, but it’s simply a push to trust them more than the other Pizzaplex inhabitants. More of a subconscious push.)

[darkeneddawningmain]

Reblog chain removal rant

I just spent a long time composing this message about removing reblog chains to submit as feedback to Tumblr's help center and wanted to share it here as well. It's pretty long so I'm putting it under a read more, but I hope this post encourages more people to submit feedback to Tumblr about what a bad idea removing reblog chains is.

I'm here to add another voice to the protest against removing reblog chains. There are a lot of things I wish was better about Tumblr (direct links to posts from the post header and being able to pause videos instantly on mobile at the top of the list!), but by and far the worst change Tumblr could ever make is to take away reblog chains.

By taking away reblog chains, Tumblr would be losing the entire essence of what Tumblr is. People have already illustrated this really well in posts (which I hope staff have seen), but getting rid of loved features to become a worse knockoff of other sites is the worst possible decision to make. It will not result in the users of the original sites Tumblr is trying to mimic abandoning the sites they're already established on to join Tumblr. The other sites already have their community ecosystems and brand recognition that people will not want to abandon just because Tumblr is suddenly operating in a similar format. All the change would do is drive away Tumblr users that are here for TUMBLR.

Even non-Tumblr users appreciate reblog chains! Have you not seen screenshots of funny and classic Tumblr posts circulate the web, beloved specifically for the collaborative reblog chain format? Tumblr has always been a source of engaging and satisfying content in a way that other sites share to feed off of, and it’s precisely because of Tumblr’s post format. In comparison, when people share screenshots of Twitter posts and threads, it’s obvious how much clunkier posting to Twitter and also sharing posts from Twitter is. (I refuse to call the site ‘X’ btw)

When people post to Twitter, they have to either make sure their message fits within a finite character limit (which works for small zingy posts, but ONLY the ones they can make fit), or they have to break up their message into many pieces, which is so clumsy.

1) The poster must compose their message in segments, which can cause problems if they realize they want to edit earlier parts of said message because it’s already been posted. It can also cause problems if they (like me) have ADHD and forget what they’ve already said if they can’t see the whole message at once. Workarounds like composing in a separate program are inconvenient, and posting long messages still requires many steps (e.g. cutting messages into character limit sizes and posting each individual tweet)

2) Readers have to be aware enough to see and/or find all of the parts of the message, which people will often miss or not care to follow up on.

3) If anyone wants to add to a thread, they can only reply to a single tweet, and then go through the same process of breaking their message into pieces. This means that anyone reading the replyer’s thread would have to follow a link to the original thread if they want to see all the context, and that’s just inconvenient enough that people would rather not.

4) Anyone who wants to share these threads via screenshots has to make sure they have all the tweets in the thread. Do they also navigate to other threads to additionally screenshot further context? What if the poster still has more to say and hasn’t finished their thread? Not to mention how much wasted space there is in these screenshots since each tweet is separate and has its own UI around it.

That got into a bit of a rant, especially since removing reblog chains doesn’t necessarily mean Tumblr will enact a stupid character limit, but I hope my point that Twitter is NOT a better site than Tumblr was made clear. People sharing Tumblr screenshots and laboriously trying to convey longer messages on a platform that is unfriendly to them goes to show that reblog chains are not confusing or overwhelming to anyone. If anything, Twitter’s format is far less intuitive and people have just been forced to get used to it. Many people HAVE to use Twitter for work; people feel like they have to since it’s the current dominating social platform; people think Tumblr is dead and not an option anymore, etc.

In conclusion, making posts less convenient to see the full context of at once is a HUGE slap in the face to your loyal userbase that has been sticking around specifically for Tumblr’s engaging collaborative platform. It’s a pointless cut to functionality that is not enticing to anyone, even the people you’re trying to entice. I hope the people in charge can recognize this and not move forward with the idea. Thank you for your time.

[huny-bun]

So actually I am gunna bring a counter argument here- there's 2 different audiences who need to get different messages from these games each time and I think the duality of that info is what makes each game so good at being propaganda. So let's use the Quarter Quells as an example just bc we know the most bout them so far.

The 75th Arena isn't just for the Capitol, it's to start a rebellion. Plutarch given katniss and her team by extention a clue about the arena before they go in. It's designed to allow for a show stopping Exit in particular while not being so obvious to any Loyalist. He'd argue its about the US vs Them entity within the Capitol which be vital as they are killing off important ppl to the Capitol they're killing ppl they have long standing parasocial relationships. The Capitol almost rioted when Peeta drops that baby bomb and nearly every Victor is attempting to have their own version of that so they are all trying to lean into those parasocial relationships to help during the arena. And the clock design throws the typical structure of Hide and Survive out the window, and also the Career idea of set up camp and hunt out the window. It also encourages the most one on one violence which again is supposed to bring these smart, social, loved characters back down to Burtual Monsters which are ment to represent the backwater ways of the districts in general. I do think the way it "plays out" isn't as dramatic as he def pitched it but he would chalk it up to Victor's Being Weird who knows what they're thinking they're Victor's!! Also the angle of Victors "solving" the arena which isn't allowed in any other game would be enjoyable to Capitol citizens like watching a mystery when you where expecting mindless murder.

And then there's the 50th!! (Can't wait to get a full book about it honestly) but it's not just the double tributes and thus they have to kill them off faster with natural means, but the whole thing looks like a warped version of their homes looking idyllic but even the sunset and butterflies have horrors for them. The fields, the woods, the game and plants being poisonous outside the prepackaged items meaning careers also have limited resources. This game was designed to remind parents that the Capitol can take your kids and make them die off screen like it's nothing and there is nothing to be done about it. Each district having 4 tributes to support brings more hope in the start, but then the reality of not being able to afford a care package bc of the price going up so quickly and the fact you have to choose which districts tribute you want to live and probably cause infighting within the district. Betting becomes more exciting in the Capitol itself! And you can tell they really wanted a Career to win, someone close and loyal to the Capitol to put on a stage and parade around for ages as the one who fought extra! And this is why Haymich winning was so awful and out of no where for them and thus why hes so heavily punished for messing with their narrative. There had only been 1 Victor from 12 prior and she was never a mentor! They wanted a puppet they could control and use to soak up the mess with a winning personality in the Capitol after a season of excessive and boring deaths (which they force by editing Haymich to be a joker and party guy making him passive but silly to audiances)

And within the Capitol you dont want every game having multiple beloved characters bc then they will be remembered, think of the waves Rues memory caused. They want ppl in both places Numb to these horrors, too horrifying and ppl will stop having kids or try to riot or too social and the Capitol will get too attached to the wrong tribute and maybe wake up to the horrors they're doing for sport. They need to be equally helpless and hopeful, yet distant from the characters so when they die off screen you don't feel like you missed much when you didn't catch the viewing last night, you'll watch again next year or only really start watching when it gets to the top 5 and they do all those home interviews.

i think i could design a better death arena for children than those hunger games amateurs.

the whole premise of the games is all pageantry. every year you get a crop of 24 candidates around whom the entire state media apparatus dedicates an entire year to building celebrity narratives. this candidate is the younger sibling of last year's winner - these candidates are young lovers forced to compete - he's smart - she's fast - root for them, care about them, watch them, form opinions on them, bet on them. and then they stick them all in an arena to kill each other, which is a great entertainment premise, except that they make the arenas themselves really boring and generic. ooo, they're in...a forest.

it's not even an interestingly designed forest. imagine if the game designers treated their arena like an actual video game designer treats level design. discrete zones with multiple paths between each room, creative use of lighting to guide players to points of interest, points of interest scattered across the map, discoverable resources hidden to encourage exploration. instead they just have a generic outdoors location and if you get too close to the edge they throw a random fireball at you.

the 75th games are especially bad about this. the arena is laid out radially into 12 wedges, and each hour one wedge becomes especially dangerous in a 12-hour loop. as a mechanic, this is genius. it forces everyone to keep moving, making "survival by hiding" an engaging and tense viewing experience instead of someone sitting in a tree for three days. plus, it encourages players to return to the center of the arena, where travel time between wedges is short, which creates a high-value zone for players to regularly return to and conflict over. in other words, it's a mechanic which incentives players to adopt dramatic, dynamic, exciting behaviors which are entertaining to watch (not to mention it communicates geography to the audience well). but it only incentives those behaviors if the players understand what's happening, and they go out of their way not to tell the players anything! when they figure out what's going on, the showrunners spin the arena to disorient the players, like they're intentionally trying to get them to just. randomly wander the jungle instead.

this isn't even to mention how often they create undramatic, boring deaths. they plant poison berries around the arena. they supply no fresh water and no way to get it. they roll poison clouds over sleeping victims. these happen to work out in the books themselves but you have to imagine that extremely often these just result in players dying unexciting deaths.

the cardinal sin though, of course, is that nothing is done to personalize the arena for the crop of contestants that year. if i'm designing the 75th hunger games and two of my most beloved contestants famously had to cancel their wedding because of a return to the games, i would OBVIOUSLY give them a trail of, i don't know, wild game which conveniently leads directly past a well defended wedding chapel. will they hole up there for a while? hold a mock ceremony for themselves? do or receive ironic violence here? stare wistfully and move on? any of it is better television than getting attacked by generic attack monkeys. you should have a dozen of these things on the map for every single candidate. but the game makers are more interested in doing the same thing every other game has done than in telling a compelling story.

it makes me second guess enjoying the children's murder arenas at all.

[hospitalterrorizer]

diary78

11/28-29/2023

tuesday -wendesday

light on reading today, but:

i still did it, at least.

this is simply a good quote to have around, the carnivalesque is powefully aligned with much good art, i feel. another interesting bit in a prior section made me think of hour of the star.

this makes me think of the appearance of the framed narrative, over and over, the book being written as if you were witnessing the machinations of another author, an "i" who is truly anonymous, outside the system of the author/true author, lispector, and macabea, you really get thrown around the varying subjects, and are forced into identification with/against these figures at various points, the narration being, in that novel, several conversations, layers of discourse, perhaps no more than two, but they are complex, if anything, more enmeshed, the falsity of the narrative makes evident the signs the novel is playing with, but it never dissolves them completely, the tears will still come, the weight arrives, but it is toyed with, to its very limit. the drama of it remains there.

a strange thought:

on youtube, i remember it used to work like this:

your video stays around long enough, it will accrue views over time. this isn't 'good' because views are positive, but it meant people would see whatever dispatches were made, possibly, at least the curious could see/would. it seemed more certain, it's also the case that i'm thinking of music videos especially, where things over time just become more traveled (this will likely remain the case, as old yt uploads of songs do better than topic uploads, sometimes, and have more going for them). right now though, it seems that everything will continue to trend towards the immediate, and up to 3 years is lost, ready for the garbage heap. the thought makes me think about old let's players i watched, like trask nari, and if his videos will simply be totally forgotten, or if at some point in the future, people will find things like that, and say: these old vibes are so much better than right now. a weird future.

currently thinking about the way 'the gaze' is used right now in the whole indie sleaze thing, it's very obvious/weird but it's strange to me how it's kind of coming out of this reactionary pulse in ny, especially in their theory re:art, that it's losing the sense of 'the erotic' or something, but gaudy videos that zoom right into women's asses is not really 'the erotic'. but it isn't the case that the erotic as actually founded in being chaste, or restrained, it's a particular sense of heat, so a naked body can be erotic, think of schiele or bellmer, or in writing, bataille describing naked bodies, so much before you, that you are in the middle of, or baudelaire's description of the bloated corpse. these are all plain displays of nudity, the imaginary though, is still involved. the obvious does not negate the imaginary, usually the two gather so much speed so quickly they travel elsewhere, and so in each of these examples i've listed (many come to mind, genet, cocteau, blanchot's description of fever) take the erotic to somewhere strange, and it feels actual, i suppose. there are plenty of things in the realm i like, honestly there are times i dress very skimpy, this summer i had my ass out basically (something to be said about how some of these videos i am seeing are directed by women, so there is a level of i guess wanting/needing to be sexy), but something about the camera/the particulars of the editing are strange. often the videos are just women half-dressed, skinny, posing. they don't do much, other videos though (tu tu neurotic specifically (which seems a lot like violet vanalden's other work, it has her in it, i wonder if she directed/edited?)) oscillate between the oversexualized and then these strangely emotive/violent bits. violet takes this to an extreme with this video (don't want to embed it because it's giving me evil vibes). i don't like this really, the fact that new york weirdos have created this weird, super-vitalistic fantasy of what art should be, and that this is what being erotic means (or is it really what it means now, and i am the weird one for wanting to be tied to a tree and beaten? (or writhe on the ground (always, i am wanting to be in the middle of something, to forget i got there (there it is, the erotic always follows a sequence similar to dreaming, you end up with people inside of you, half knowing why, by their intent, the expressions on their face, but the details fuzzy)))). i am not sure what solution there is, in all honesty, the dare (the musician) who got accused of having fully clothed teens in sexual positions on his album art (they weren't, it was a strange moment where wearing a tennis skirt and being skinny = young (or trying to look young? (a whole way of dressing thrown out as too fantastical))), seems to be the least insane or freakish in this way. his music is goofier about sex, he really doesn't seem compelled by the weird screeds written in compact mag or whatever else (these ny people seem to love doing print only magazines (so the woke horde cannot cancel them (to make them seem worth 'cancelling'? (to buy into their cool club, mostly, though)))) about how sex is gone from art, but i am sure they loved what happened to him, those people, as they felt it proof of their own narrative, that the world right now is totally puritan (while pornography proliferates, higher and higher numbers, and the spectacle has found a way to make prostitution seem less like a kind of torturous work one turns to while in throes of serious material lack, while shows like euphoria are super crazy popular and whatever, too (they love that guy, the director, they're going to all say his show, the idol, is totally genius (actually they already are))). essentially they want to look, i think, that's what it's about. hang the icons of sex in frames, stare, and then from there, aroused, they can have sex for reproductive purposes, like bug people.

it is crazy that they call everyone else bugs, but they really are the most bug-like.

takato yamamoto

anyway, it's late, i am getting sleepy. i did work on music today, i got that song's last part out, the one i was talking about last night, and soon i've gotta get through all the songs i have exported rn and i need to go and do the subtle mixing stuff and put the reverb on them, and see where we are on everything. the song also has more of a lyrical idea, since the last part is written out. i always write about voyeurs, especially in music. i dunno why. i should put that confusion in the song. i am just worried about finding a way to fit words over the first parts of the song, since it's pretty fast/hardcore.

but i am exhausted basically, so:

byebye!!!!!

[galacticlamps]

💘🌈🤍 for the fic writer asks? :)

💘Is there any posted fic you want to rework/re-edit/re-write?

Not especially? Little mistakes I'll fix whenever I notice them, even if it's on something that's been up for a long time already - and for anything I'd want to do a major overhaul on, I'm enough of a '2 cakes!' person to be down with writing a new fic on a similar concept, rather than rework one that already exists. Sidebar: that's actually how Shards of Memories & Fragments of Glass and Interrupted initially began, as kinda inverse/incompatible approaches to a similar moment - and I wasn't even frustrated with those, so I can only imagine how much more willing I'd be to write both ideas again if I thought it would be a massive improvement on a story.

((The fics of mine I like the least are also the ones I think about & re-read the least, so maybe there's something in one of them that I would be annoyed by enough to want to re-write, but it just isn't really on my mind? I suppose I look at Reckless and wonder why so little happens in 10k words, or I look at Oh, So Right and wonder if I shouldn't've held off and let that grow into something larger that incorporated more of my headcanons on the subject (I have a lot, but that fic was never meant to be the vehicle for them) - but it's not like I've ruled out doing that some day, so there's no real harm in it already existing as-is. Honestly I think my whole 5+1 series is pretty unbalanced - some like In the Kitchen feel better suited to being a chapter than a whole fic of its own, whereas others feel more like their own independent stories - and I think if I set out to do something like that again, I'd aim for more consistency, but it's not like I want to rewrite those actual fics just so they'd fit together better. If I recall correctly, On the Spot is probably fairly silly, but it's meant to be and there are about a million different versions of proposal & get together fics I have in my head - that one's far from being my favorite version but it doesn't hurt to've gotten one of them out of my system at least.))

🌈is there a fic that you worked *really fucking hard on* that no one would ever know? maybe a scene/theme you struggled with?

See, the thing I struggle with the most is length, and to some extent it really affects everything I write - because it's not as if I'm just anti-long fics, it's that I have a problem with consistently under-estimating what the word count on just about any wip will become. And then I worry if I'm pulling focus & distracting from what I actually want the story to be about with unnecessary word vomit - so I tend to do a lot of second guessing, shortening & looking for things to cut before I post anything, and sometimes I get waaaay too concerned about that, for relatively little payoff. In that regard, it would be much simpler to list the fics I miraculously didn't struggle with lol

But to talk specifics - there's a bit of anti-gravity business in Small Hours in a Wide Universe that I super stressed about narrating, and I sincerely hope no one would ever know - in that case, the problem was that I could see the actions very clearly in my mind & wanted to make sure I articulated it well enough that the reader could too, but the extra dimensions & scifi environment gave me a kind of limited vocabulary to describe movement with specificity. Since I know what it's supposed to look like though I'm not a good judge of if the description I ultimately wrote works well or if it's obvious reading it that I struggled there.

Your Life Begins By Leaving was another that I guess I had trouble with? It spent much longer than usual in my 'on deck' pile, but I wasn't working on it so consistently that it required major trouble to become stalled - again, I was just worried about sort of focus & mood and if I was overshadowing certain things with less necessary bits.

(there are 3 wips in particular that I would love love love to've posted & be able to answer this about one day, because those are truly the ones I've struggled the most with - but right now the only reason no one would know is because they literally don't exist in anyone's minds but my own lol)

🤍what’s one fic of yours you think people didn’t “get”?

I don't think this is really a case of people not 'getting' it as much as people just not caring about it as much as I do, and that's understandable - of everything I've posted, Wedding Colors is probably the most Gen & deals the least in romantic pairings - which a) is already a less popular subject in fanfic, and b) possibly even actively disappoints people by sounding like it would be more overtly romantic, given the title. But that's what I wanted to write, and I did, and I even tagged it as 'one day i decided i needed a Two/Jamie wedding fic that was actually about Zoe and this is that,' so I was kinda as upfront as I could be. (I do find it funny though, because when I'm writing things that are more exclusively Two/Jamie focused, I'll often wonder if I've done a poor job of contriving some reason for the other companions to be absent - sometimes I even feel bad writing them out, bc I think there's a great importance in a healthy romantic relationship also being part of healthy dynamics among any kind of friend group or found family, so I don't want to feel like I'm sidelining everyone because I don't think they're relevant - and yet if we're going by statistics, a fic that does heavily involve those other people & their perspectives on the romance IS in fact less appealing than ones without them, apparently)

The only other one that even slightly comes to mind is Bath Salts & Bruises, but again, saying people don't get it sounds unnecessarily harsh. I did mention once that its stats are pretty unique - if you rank my fics by hits, it's in the top half, by kudos it's in the bottom half, by bookmarks the bottom 4, and by comment threads dead last - which would seem to paint a picture of attracting more attention than it did interest or appreciation - whereas personally, it's a kind of favorite! I'm rather proud of the particular angle I took on their relationship in that one, it's one I believe in headcanon-wise (which I don't always - sometimes I just write things I could see happening because a story seems fun, and not because it's reflective of my more consistent beliefs about the characters) and for something I was a little nervous to write about, I was pretty satisfied with how I executed it too. But again, I don't think this is truly a case of anyone not getting something and more of just varied tastes, and it for sure has some stuff that objectively works against it. It's near the end of a series that took me months to write, versus the beginning installments that you'd expect to receive more attention. Most installments in that series are missing scenes during or after tv episodes - this one's set after a Big Finish audio, and to make matters worse, one that's part of a box set in a relatively unpopular range. Like the wedding one, it might also be a kind of false advertising too - it's a bath scene, the characters are nude for most of it and touching each other and even thinking about sex more directly than usual in most of my stuff - and yet it's not at all steamy or spicy or whatever you want to call it, and nothing ever comes of those thoughts, which could be a let down in terms of expectations/disappointment. And then there's also the fact that this is, I think, the most blatantly ace I've ever written Jamie - which could in itself annoy or even just fail to appeal to people who don't agree with that take - but he's also pretty clearly not uninterested in potentially sleeping with the Doctor. That combination makes perfect sense to me because it overlaps with some of my own experiences as an ace person, but could easily serve to confuse people who've spent less time considering asexuality, while at the same time even alienating other people who are more familiar with its nuances, but whose experiences or perception of the character are at odds with that particular detail.

So I've no reason to believe anyone hates it or is actually super confused by it, but it certainly doesn't appeal to others as much as it does to me (and that's fine, nobody at all could read it ever & I'd still be quite glad I wrote it!)

[another-random-goose]

Okay. throwing my own little not quite essay into the ring on the last day

Maybe The Real Ghost in the Vault Was the Friends We Made Along The Way: A Sentimental (Not Quite) Essay about Poll Brackets of Yesteryear, Dominion, and Friends by Goose

Disclaimer now in case the title wasn’t obvious enough. This is gonna be real sentimental and sappy. Buckle in.

So I think I’m technically considered an old Viking fan now, even though it doesn't really feel like it. I got into his content during the ever infamous mcytblr sexyman polls bracket. I watched the entire community rally together for VikingPilot to get him past the first round. I watched the celebration that came afterwards when he made it to round two. I saw how genuinely happy and excited everyone was because that was Their Guy! And he made it to round two of the sexyman bracket!! I watched how excited Viking himself was throughout, celebrating with his fans here on tumblr. One of my mutuals (shoutout lyric. love you lyric!) had been talking about dominion for ages, and I was honestly on the verge of taking the plunge and checking it out regardless, but the final straw that got me to watch it was getting jumpscared by vikingpilot himself reblogging my reblog of the poll (the first time i ever got bell noised. i think i still have a screenshot somewhere, lol). Genuinely I kid you not, a single reblog of a tumblr post fully and completely changed my life.

So I watched Dominion. I expected to get really into it, maybe make a couple tumblr mutuals who I could occasionally scream at for having incredible art and cool headcanons, but otherwise I figured things would stay largely the same. Boy was I wrong. Not only did I gain a love for an incredible series that captured my attention with intriguing, fun characters and entertaining storylines that kept me hooked the whole way through, I gained a love for future series like Gilded Hardcore, TSMP, and Skyblock Kingdoms, and all the characters and story in those. I started catching streams and listening to whatever was going on in Dominion during my high school robotics practices. I gained back some of the energy I had lost when it came to making my own fan creations. I gained back an even greater love of a storytelling medium that has always meant so much to me: Minecraft. Minecraft has always been so important to me, ever since I was a little kid and playing pocket edition with my cousin in my living room. I fell in love with just how much you can make and communicate with a bunch of cubes. I love how things are communicated through means other than facial expressions because of the limitations of the medium. It leaves so much room for artistic choices in other aspects and that’s so beautiful to me. But more than that, more than anything else, I gained a community I adore more than anything.

I’m going to get so incredibly sappy here for a minute. The community I have gained through the Dominion fandom is one of the best things to ever happen to me. I have never met a group of people so welcoming, so encouraging, so supportive, so kind, so enthusiastic, and so funny. Shoutout a million times to my fellow dominionerds. I was so incredibly starstruck when I started interacting with you guys. If you’d told me before I watched Dominion that I’d become friends with some of my favorite artists and writers on the whole internet, the ones that I’d talked to my IRLs about before I even knew what dominion was, I’d have said you were lying. I’d be lying if I said I still wasn’t a little starstruck by you guys. Every time I see the things you guys create, I am still in awe of how incredible you all are and how lucky I am to be part of it. You all inspire me to be better literally all the time.

So I love Ghost’s Vault from the bottom of my heart, not just because it’s impressive and intimidating, and home to some of my favorite lore moments in all of mcyt ever, but also because of everything it means in the course of my life over these last couple years. This fandom and the people I’ve met because of it have changed my life. I have no clue what the last couple of years would have looked like for me without it, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Also, bell it. if we win, next time I dye my hair, I’ll go blue and yellow.

Pandora"s Vault:

Contained : Dream, Tommyinnit, Ranboo, Technoblade, Connoreatpants

Series : DSMP

Propaganda : its so big. Its so so big. Look at a map of the dsmp. Its just a black void bigger than l'manburg was. You look at it and you just know it's something terrible. the obsidian walls, lava, the iron. It's just there. In the middle of the ocean. It does not fit in and its scary. the AMOUNT of redstone and functions it go is AMAZING. the only way to enter is through a portal that then leads u to the nether and has to be manually activated again by the warden. So to enter you literally NEED the wardens permission. All the bridges and all the door. It's so fucking cool man what can I say. The amount of security. the lore that happened inside pandora as well. Pandoras arc was the best arc of the whole of dream smp and I stand by that. There is so so much to unpack. Sam and Dream could have just built some shitty obsidian box and called it a prison, but no they made PANDORAS VAULT

The Ghost's Vault:

Contained : VikingPilot's Prized possesions

Series : Dominion SMP

Propaganda : Perhaps the only self-titled Vault to actually be one, the Ghost's Vault, built by VikingPilot, is two things -- a consolidation of wealth, and a display of power. Built at a time on Dominion where every single diamond had to be handed over to the Queen every two weeks, the Vault is made in total opposition to that policy as an extremely intimidating secret stash. All 10 sets of Netherite armor are enchanted and labeled. It's built with soulfire lanterns under the center carpet runner for the sole purpose of unnerving the local piglin. He's taken people here twice onscreen, and both times it was to cash in a no-conditions-set IOU with that other person in order to make sure things work out exactly the way they need to. It also contains two very important books! Viking's "To Do" list is very simple -- Run Dominion. However, the other one -- the Book -- is quite possibly the single most dangerous thing in Viking's possession. He's not sure what's in it, other than that it contains rituals of unimaginable power and that if he opens it again, he will crack in half. Oh, and the Ghost's Vault is also the location for the world's most unhinged 12-minute 100% improv monologue to ever exist.

[saffyspirals]

can i request baji, mitsuya, dranken and mikey with a foreign black reader?? (headcanons.. you can only do baji if you want tho) how they would react to her and how they would act developing a crush if that’s okay with you :) thank you if you do write !!

𝚝𝚘𝚔𝚢𝚘𝚛𝚎𝚟 𝚡 𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚎𝚒𝚐𝚗! 𝚋𝚕𝚊𝚌𝚔 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛

; with: keisuke baji, takashi mitsuya, draken, and mikey

; warnings: insecurity, mitsuya’s is more like a scenario written in headcanon form💀

; author’s notes: thank you for the request! i feel like i went a bit off topic in some places, but i hope it is to your liking regardless.

+ apologies for any mistakes! editing will be done soon (or never lmao).

𝚋𝚊𝚓𝚒

it was your father’s job that took you to japan for the first time.

you were not happy about it, and pretty much everyone in your new class could tell, from the completely unenthusiastic mini speech you give when prompted by your teacher to say something.

i don’t think baji is one to help out strangers when he sees that they’re feeling down, but he quickly decides to take you under his wing.

as in, he approaches you during break and tells you to sit with him.

baji is very curious about you in general, that’s why you become fast friends.

he asks a lot of questions about your family, your culture, foods you eat at home etc.

will drop hints that he’d like to try some of your hometown dishes. would really like it if it was specifically you who cooked them. (will not force you if you’re not comfortable!!)

you definitely notice baji’s crush on you before he realises he’s got one.

it’s the things he does that makes it obvious; asking you questions about where you’re from, going apeshit when people ask awkward/rude questions about your skin colour, going all red when his mother asks if you’re his girlfriend…

once you’re positive that you like him back, you ask him out.

here’s the thing: he actually gets mad. both at himself, for not realising his original feelings of curiosity had developed into something romantic, and you, for not giving him more time to figure that out so he could be the one to ask you out!!

nonetheless, he accepts your request, and you become a couple!

𝚖𝚒𝚔𝚎𝚢

“hey, ken-chin? i’ve found someone that i like.”

“huh? who?”

you’re standing at the front of the class, introducing yourself, when mikey and draken start talking.

draken realises that mikey’s talking too loud, but mikey doesn’t. (or maybe he does, but doesn’t care).

“the new girl. y/n.”

mikey has good instinct. he can tell when a person is good or bad. i think that’s why he’d be comfortable admitting when he’s fallen for someone at first sight.

you, knowing nothing about mikey, find it weird that he was able to admit that so easily, and in front of an audience. it’s also flattering, but still.

you take your assigned seat, and don’t dare to look at mikey the whole lesson, who can’t take his eyes off of you.

he catches you before you can leave the classroom for lunch.

mikey can be charming when he wants to be, so it’s pretty hard to decline his request to eat with him.

you start to get along faster than you thought you would, and his morning confession almost slips your mind.

“i might be in the friend zone for now, but don’t trap me in there okay? i plan to be something more with you someday♡”

from then on, you’re included in all of his fun, all of his shenanigans, everything. he’s good at making people let loose around him, when he’s mikey, a regular teenager as opposed to invincible mikey, leader of toman.

speaking of, he doesn’t really get you involved with the gang too deep. you just know the members, who all know that you’re off limits.

when you do eventually fall for mikey too, and you become a couple, you start opening up about how you feel.

he noticed the looks and whispering people did when you were together, but always thought it didn’t bother you, because you never complained.

in a sense, the two of you were similar; people stared and whispered about him too.

so, he is able to offer you advice on how to ignore them (or what to say to scare them off). mikey also gives you lots of reassurance, and affection.

“you’ve got me alright? focus on that.”

𝚖𝚒𝚝𝚜𝚞𝚢𝚊

you decide to cut last period, favouring ducking into an empty classroom.

you’d definitely underestimated how hard it would be for you, a foreigner, to fit in with students here in japan.

back home, you’d been known to be bright and outgoing. here, you’re quiet and gloomy. you’ve tried your best, but nobody seems to want to get to know anything about you, your personality.

no. what people are interested in is the color of your skin. how different you are, they keep reminding you.

classes last an hour, so you hadn’t been expecting someone to join you in the vacant classroom so soon.

you shoot up out of the seat you’ve occupied the moment the door slides open, wiping stray tears that have fallen.

“a-ah, sorry. don’t mind me, i’m skipping class…if you need this classroom, i’ll find somewhere else.”

you hastily grab your bag.

“no, it’s fine. you can stay.” the awfully cute boy tells you, offering you a small smile.

“actually, i’m cutting last period too,”he continues. “though…not for the same reason you are.”

you sink back down into your seat, wishing you would be swallowed up by the ground, or something.

so he had seen you crying. how embarrassing.

he walks over to where you’ve occupied, taking a seat beside you.

“you can spill your guts out to me about it if you want? i’ve been told i’m a pretty good listener.”

and, though you’re not usually one to let everything out, especially to a stranger, you feel oddly comfortable enough to do so.

you tell him about how you still haven’t settled in, even after being here for a few weeks.

and about the stupid awkward questions people keep asking you about your skin, and your culture.

that it makes you feel uncomfortable, and…ugly in your own body, something you’d never felt back home.

mitsuya listens intently, nodding along until you’re done.

“y/n…right? listen, i dunno if this will help or not, but i think you’re pretty.”

“…i didn’t tell you that story because i was looking to get complimented.”

“i know, i know.” he touches your arm, dispersing your annoyance before it can properly form.

“but still, i really do think you are. if they aren’t interested in who you are underneath what they see, then they’re not worth it, don’t you think?”

he smiles again.

“find people — or it could just be the one person — who likes you for you. you get what i’m saying?”

you fall for him right then and there.

(hard not to).

but, i think mitsuya is a slow burner, so it would take quite a while for him to first of all, realise he likes you in a more than friends way, and then accept that he’s going to have to do something about his quickly growing feelings.

𝚍𝚛𝚊𝚔𝚎𝚗

isn’t intrigued by you because of your skin, or the fact that you’ve come from another country.

you first become friends one day after school. he’s in the school’s courtyard, on the way to the entrance/exit to go home, when he sees you surrounded by a group of 3 - 4 students.

if the students were all girls, draken probably would have kept on walking. who was he to get in the middle of a cat fight?

since they’re all boys, he starts making his way over.

only for you to beat down all of them before he can even step in.

“you want a piece of me too?” you ask draken, preparing your fists to go another round.

he raises his hands in defence, and calls you badass. that’s how you start chilling with each other.

overall, draken wouldn’t ask a ton of questions about your background.

he doesn’t want to risk making you feel uncomfortable or annoyed by them.

if you pick up on this, and encourage him to ask what he wants, he’ll spill absolutely everything on his mind.

aside from your personality, draken really likes your hair.

he plays around with mikey’s quite a bit, and, if you let him, likes the playing of your natural hair. he likes the feel of it. sometimes styles it simply.

braids? even better. wants to know how you attach them. (he won’t ever get the hang of how to do it himself tho)

it takes him a long time to develop feelings for you; you get to know each other really well before you start dating.

“but,” he tells you. “we basically were dating for a while, just not officially, right?”

[here’s my masterlist] !