#the characters are there in spirit but the other shows have either settled in my heart permanently

[willsilvertongue]

EIGHT SHOWS TO GET TO KNOW ME

tagged : @malinaa hi hi lys ty for the tag i loved this one <3 almost fell victim to just listing favourite shows i really had to dig deep (not)

tagging : @casualavocados @eleanoracrain @djandthesix @mishoney @mrbinglee @jameszmaguire @capinejghafa @dadjoelmiller

lost in space

his dark materials

succession

cloak and dagger

galavant

american vandal

atla

winx club

[watercolorfreckles]

Could you do a story where a guard of a Supermax prison befriends a supervillain, because he treats him like a genuine human being instead of an animal; and later, all the power-dampeners suddenly fail; and all these villains just revolt against the guards; but supervillain makes sure he’s safe since he was always kind to him?

I understand if you don’t want to!!❤️

Hello! This has been sittin in my inbox for many months during my huge writing rut, sorry about that! I know you also gave this prompt to @the-modern-typewriter and she's been making an incredible series with it on patreon! I changed some things around because I don't want to in any way attempt some sad copy of her interpretation, but I was still inspired by the prompt itself, so I've taken some fairly big liberties to avoid any significant similarities! Hope that's okay! Also, please manage your expectations, I do not compare to the magic that is TMT's writing 😆

TW: Brief depictions of body horror. Violence.

The power blew out in sections. The lights dissolved sector by sector with a sickening whine and click–one by one–in approach.

The commotion ripped Eloise from the fictional world she was lost in, aged page corners still pinched beneath her thumb. Her spirited storytelling abruptly died behind her teeth.

Somewhere in the distance, one person shouted. Two.

Her gaze flicked behind them to the door isolating herself and the bound supervillain from the other sectors of the Maximum Security Prison for Powered Individuals or, as everyone called it, The Max. Seeing nothing but black beyond the bullet-proof glass, her attention snapped forward again to the supervillain imprisoned across from her. 

Was this the start of some elaborate escape plan on his part? Why did it have to happen on a day that she was stuck fulfilling her community service hours instead of being something she could safely gawk at in the newspaper from a distance in a few days? Her stomach did a nauseated flip. 

“What are you doing?” she blurted, voice quivering only a little. Her fingers tightened around her book.

The villain made a show of looking pointedly at his restraints. Wrists strung taut and chained to either wall, he shrugged an innocent shoulder at her as if to say “clearly, nothing.” He was perched on the edge of his bed like a bird, tilting his head with a matching sort of probing curiosity. 

For all the chaos outside of the room, Artisan had not a hair out of place. He appeared perfectly unconcerned, though as thoroughly trapped as ever: ankles shackled, arms stretched uselessly apart from each other. The power-dampening collar wrapped around his neck still blipped a faint red light, indicating it was active. 

The prisoners were rioting. Surely they couldn’t get too far? Containing the most dangerous of powered individuals was, after all, the express purpose of the facility…

The lights above them flickered, dipping the room in and out of inky darkness before settling into a dimly lit haze. Eloise’s breath stalled. The imposing dark felt like a threat, as if the lights could keep the monsters at bay. It only made a little sense, in the way that a child feels safe from the monsters under their bed as long as their nightlight is plugged in.

Except that these monsters were real. The most dangerous in the country. And she was currently feet away from the monster that made even other monsters run.

He hadn’t seemed so bad in the time that she’d known him. Quiet, impassive, yet twisting her gut with pity any time she eyed his barbaric restraints. The least she could do–while crossing off her hours–was to read the supervillain a story every few days. She couldn’t change his fate. Couldn’t make him more comfortable. What she could do was rattle off, sheepishly, about fictional worlds and impactful characters in literature and the way that a well-crafted story could transport you somewhere better.

A crash, gunshots, a scream. Tension racketed through Eloise’s shoulders. More shouts chased thundering footsteps.

Things were going very, very, wrong. And she was very much out of her depth.

Eloise jolted as something struck the door, her special-edition copy of Mary Shelly's Frankenstein falling to the ground and skidding away.

Finally, the lights cut out. With it, every noticeable piece of tech died. All of the energy felt sucked out of the room as if vacuumed. The camera’s blinking light disappeared. Alarms that should have been wailing cut silent. Speakers, keypads, and security systems, all dead. The secondary generator hadn’t sprung to life yet. That meant that this was more than a simple power outage. This was a calculated revolt.

 Eloise’s mind raced through a list of everything else that must have been failing. Coms. Sedative gas. Shock collars. Layers and layers of security locks…

Power dampeners.

Panic clamped vice-like and suffocating around her throat. Artisan’s collar was no longer blinking. 

She froze in the eerie silence of the cell, afraid of shattering the fragile calm. Her heart thumped, rabid, against her ribs.

Chains rattled and clinked to the floor.

Eloise bolted blindly for the door, smacking her palm against the DNA scanner while frantically swiping her “Volunteer Staff” badge through the card reader. When neither miraculously came to life, she resorted to banging on the door.

“Let me out, let me out! Guard!”

The door could only be opened by one person inside the cell and one outside simultaneously unlocking the security checkpoints. Even if the power were on, if the guard on the other side was gone…

The emergency floodlights kicked on, bathing the building in startling fluorescence. Eloise flinched, briefly stunned.

Hands grabbed her firmly from behind, yanking her backward.

Eloise yelped. “No, please–!”

The spot that she had been standing in exploded, steel door and concrete chunks collapsing into the room in a barrage of shrapnel. Something–no, someone–landed, bones crunching, at her feet. The guard who had last been standing on the opposite side of the door lay motionless. His blood puddled the floor, staining the soles of her Converse sneakers.

A horrified sound choked in Eloise’s throat.

Another supervillain strode in, eyes alight with hatred and something more–power. His lip curled, waving a mocking hand–engulfed in green energy–at the guard’s corpse. “God. I’ve wanted to do that for far too long. That one always got on my nerves.”

Artisan looked unimpressed. “You’re making a mess in my cell.”

Eloise’s breath caught. Hearing the supervillain’s voice was jarring. Artisan rarely spoke. Not that any of the other staff had ever actually attempted conversation with him… But even in news clips and YouTube videos, he carried himself with the kind of self-assured quiet of someone who had absolutely nothing to prove. His lethal efficiency did more for his reputation than any words could.

The other man was a villain named William Frenzy, a telekinetic with a gleeful taste for violence.

Faced with Artisan’s startling calm, Frenzy… paused. Faltering on a tight rope he had moments before been strolling across. 

“Yes, well. It won’t have to be your cell much longer, will it? They can’t stop all of us.” He smirked at the dead body on the floor. “Some of them can’t even stop one of us.”

Eloise shrank back toward the corner nearest the door, agonizingly slow, willing the ugly shadows from the artificial lighting to swallow her up while the supers focused on each other. She was the kind of person that people tended not to notice; a background character in the perimeter of a story that the protagonist would meet once and never spare a thought again. She wished, then, that invisibility really was her superpower.

Artisan said nothing, his steely gaze fixed upon Frenzy.

Frenzy floundered beneath the scrutiny. The smugness buffered on his face. Finally, he huffed, crossing his arms. “I made you a nice and easy door out. You’re welcome.” He flicked a hand toward the gaping hole in the wall.

Eloise inched further toward it.

Artisan tutted, and while it wasn’t aimed at her, it shot a cold thrill up her spine. She froze, briefly, before continuing her tantalizing escape. She listened to Artisan speak again. 

“I did not need anything from you. I’ll be getting out regardless. You on the other hand…” 

Eloise stared as Frenzy’s skin shrank taut against his bones, the frame of him creaking and groaning like an old tree in the wind. The air choked out of him, fingers grabbing at his jaw as it stretched open too wide. The corners of his lips tore, slitting his mouth into a gaping maw.

The faintest of smiles graced Artisan's lips as he continued, soft as ever. “Say sorry.”

Eloise didn’t wait to see the carnage through, slipping out into the hall and running.

The other sectors were washed in the same sterile glow as Artisan’s cell was, blue-tinged and horrible, like the lights in a dentist's office. She kept to the edge of things as best she could, clinging to the walls and dark corners.

There was brawling in every sector—guards with weapons drawn mowed to the ground by the creatures they had wardened for so long. A villain fell as shots rang out. Another grabbed the guard from behind, cracking his skull against their knee. 

The smell of blood stung Eloise’s nostrils. She couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t breathe.

She turned to flee down another hall, but two fighting inmates crashed into the doorway in front of her.

Eloise squealed, jerking backward into the belly of the room's chaos.

Don't notice me, don't notice me, don't notice me.

Everyone was so occupied by their chosen prey, maybe she could fade into the background. Maybe she could–

Her heel caught on something and she tumbled, gracelessly, to the floor. It took her several moments to register the lake of blood seeping warm and sticky into her clothing. 

Terror blurred her brain in a white flash bang.

Disappear, disappear, disappear…

“Mm. What do we have here?”

Eloise couldn’t bring herself to lift her head. She clamped her eyes shut, another child’s illusion of protection. 

The villain opposite her chuckled. He ripped her volunteer badge off of its clip against her chest. Her eyes snapped open again. She recognized him as a ringleader among superpowered thieves. They called him Volt.

“Volunteer, eh? A pretty thing like you should know better than to willingly set foot in a prison full of men with nothing left to lose. It’s been a long sentence, darling. I could make excellent use of your volunteer services. Get up.”

Numbly, ears full of static, Eloise shook her head.

Volt frowned, electricity jumping to life in his palms. “No?” He reached for her, hand nearing her throat.

“Keep your hands to yourself or I will remove them.” 

Artisan’s voice was calm. His eyes were not.

The room quieted.

Spatters of red decorated Artisan’s prison uniform. A few drops dotted his face and he brushed them away with his knuckles, smearing the crimson across his cheek. Almost lazily, he popped his neck and stretched his shoulders, no doubt sore from the strain his restraints kept him in.

The villain across from Eloise paused, sparks still dancing across his fingertips. He regarded Artisan with the same wary caution as Frenzy had.

Before he'd been… Before Artisan had…

Eloise swallowed back the nausea climbing her throat.

Finally, Volt’s hand lowered. “She's yours?”

“She's hers. Step away.”

The man hesitated a moment too long. Artisan didn't offer a second warning. 

As if puppeted, the man's fingers raised to gauge at his own eyes. He screamed, the faint evidence of Artisan’s power shimmering over him. He clawed, next, at the skin on his face, peeling it back like wet wallpaper. 

As promised, his wrists crunched and bent, wrenching all on their own at impossible angles.

Eloise covered her ears, unable to bear the screaming. She felt sick.

“Stop,” she whispered finally. “Please.”

It did. The man collapsed into a sobbing, bloodied heap.

When Eloise managed to look at Artisan, she startled to find his attention fixed on her.

They stared at each other for a stretch of silence that itched. She imagined being forced to choke on her own lungs, or her skull constricting in on itself until it squashed her brain into pulp. For being so bold as to run, he might snap her legs and reaffix them the wrong direction, or splinter her bones to poke, grotesque, out of her skin. They always did say that his victims were his personal works of art, bodies twisted into shells of monsters.

He crooked a finger, beckoning her.

The edges of her vision swooped fuzzy and vertiginous. She rose onto wobbly knees and pushed herself to her feet. When she swayed, Artisan caught her elbow, slipping an arm around her waist to lead her forward.

He did not look back at the others, with complete confidence that no one would challenge him.

No one did.

Eloise was barely aware of taking one step after another. When they arrived back in the villain’s cell, the bodies of Frenzy and the dead guard, thankfully, were gone, though the floor was streaked with the drag lines of their blood.

She wrenched her gaze away.

Artisan’s hand moved further down her arm to her wrist, gesturing that she sit on his bed. When she shifted to do so, his grip tightened, tugging her to a stop. She frozen and tried to read his face. 

His dark brows were furrowed, suspicious eyes flicking from hers down to her hand.

He pulled down her sleeve and held her wrist up between them, revealing the power-blocking cuff clamped around it. His head cocked. He waited.

Eloise swallowed. “I’m not a super. I mean- not a super-super. Just a…..no one.”

“A no-one who volunteers at The Max? With a power-dampener?”

“They’re terms of my probation,” she blurted. “A thousand hours of community service here and a power-inhibitor for a year. I think they put me here to threaten me with where I could end up if I continue on like… Um…”

“Me.”

“A villain,” she clarified, as if that was better. 

Her gaze flitted from the fingers wrapped around her wrist and up to the villain’s face again. The harsh lighting haloed him, dimly silhouetting his face. He looked haunting. He looked lovely. A beautiful house, old and creaking, wrapped in ghosts like a bride’s veil and left to rot. 

“What did you do?”

“I…” Eloise felt very small. “I lied about being powered on my documents. So that they wouldn’t put me on the registry. When they found me out, I tried to run away.”

Artisan’s scrutiny burned her cheeks. He let go of her wrist.

“...What can you do?”

“Nothing special,” she said, cradling her wrist–wholly uninjured as it was–in her other hand. “It doesn’t even work most of the time. My power is sort of…blending in. Going unnoticed. When it’s working, I could stand in a the White House and people’s attention would glide over me as if I belonged there. Not quite invisible, but… It just tricks your brain into not thinking twice.”

Artisan’s eyes narrowed.

Eloise flinched back a step, stumbling back over her fallen book onto the bed. She stared at him.

“I’m not going to hurt you.”

Some of the tension eased from her shoulders, but she still waited for the catch. “Why aren’t you out there with the rest of them? Trying to escape?”

The villain considered her for a long moment. He sat down beside her, and the hard cot creaked beneath his weight. “Mm. That’s just it. No one inside the prison could have blown the power-dampeners. They require someone with powers to turn them off or on, and the security is impenetrable. My team has tried. Besides, if this was a simple power outage, the inhibitors would still be on. But they’re not. This was premeditated–and no one imprisoned here could have done it. No one on the outside could have done it. So. Process of elimination. Who’s left?”

That was the most Eloise had ever heard Artisan speak, and she could only sit and listen intently–As he had when she’d read him stories. Her brain whirred in a jumbled jigsaw of puzzle pieces. 

“It… It could only be an inside job.” She wet her lips. “The heroes- The higher-ups- They want the prisoners to break out so that they can kill them. A clean massacre. Justified under the law. The world’s most dangerous criminals could never be allowed to escape…”

Artisan smiled and it swirled something in her insides. “A convenient way to get rid of all of the pesky criminals clogging up the system. I’d bet anything that there are 50 snipers surrounding the building, waiting to slaughter anyone who steps foot outside.”

“Oh.”

“Oh,” Artisan agreed, his smile easing into something softer; something with less feral teeth.

“Thank you for helping me,” Eloise whispered. “What do we do now?”

Artisan hummed. He bent down and swept up her book, dropping it into her lap. He laid back against his pillow and crossed his arms behind his head. The bloodspots on his skin and clothes glittered in the lowlight. 

“Keep reading. I want to know how it ends.”

Part 2

[chaeyoei]

Hello :3 ,I had an idea while staying up late (it's 3am) and I was remembering school and so on, so I'm curious if you could write about HSR characters in school (as usual I want Blade and Aventurine;) and other characters if they're male or female (Kafka pls..) And how they act with the reader

All in all, have a good day/night (Any time.)

👀 we'll settle some things down then. Gender Neutral. These are personal opinions and my creative juices aren't flowing well.

Blade

Blade borderlines between Class delinquent and Bunker.

Blade was an A grade student but something happened and he lost all motivation and became who is he now.

You can expect school bully traits from him. He and his group are always in detention. It's become a daily basis.

His interaction with you would really just be him not acknowledging you or if you're close to him, he'll share his lunch with you.

Sliver Wolf

Sliver Wolf is the Kid who's going to be developing obbies in Roblox and just be a champion in digital games.

She's going to bunk classes and just grafiti the school wall.

If you ever see the username ChampionSliverWolf_0 in your game, just know that you're losing your one game streak.

She'd call you loser if you're really bad at games (me), and if you make for a good opponents, just expect from her to come up to you and go "Game night at 5 pal" And then leave.

Kafka

Makima Charm with Monkia's manipulation.

You know this woman is going to make you question your sexuality. She just has that charm. The one girl who's locker would be filled with love letters and roses.

If you ask anyone what they think she'd be in the future, 99 out of 100, you're going to hear model.

I think that her and Blade would be friends which nobody expected to happen but she would give her notes to Blade and in return Blade would protect her from the creeps. (No ship.)

Kafka would either be that one girl you can ask on how to charm your crush and she'll give you tips for some credits ofc.

Firefly

That one silent and shy girl that can kick ass and give you nasty looks if you bully her or her friends.

She's a goodey two shoes but she'd break rules for her friends.

I'd like to think she has a condition that limits her to have a few friends.

But I think she and Silver Wolf would get along pretty well. Silver Wolf would host a slumber party and invite Firefly, they play Mario kart and monopoly, munch on Cheetos and fall asleep.

Firefly, if you're a good friend would remain lighthearted and shy infront of you but boy if anyone ever bullies you, she's going to kick some ass.

Aventurine

That one kid who already has a business running. Need a pen? That'd be 10 credits, a new notebook? 25 credits. Gum? 5 credits.

He's really popular too. Heck he's somehow friends with the topper Ratio.

i think he'd be a shameless flirt. He'd have those right lines and rizz you up like it's nobody's business.

Herta

The Academic weapon. Doesn't even attend the class, shows up in the finals and scores the best with full marks and nobody knows who she even is.

honestly, nothing. She's not even attending. You either don't know her or do.

Robin

The popular girl who'd help you do your make up and is just nice. There's a chance that my Seele can crit more than the chance of anyone disliking her on planet Earth.

The most active and the lead of the choir.

She'd help you in everything, whether it'd be studies or getting you into a group.

Drabble and no long paragraph because my creative spirits have betrayed me like Dan Heng IL not coming home after I spent everything on him.

[lxmelle]

Just some thoughts on 270

Yes the end is near.

Yes I almost threw up when I saw that unmistakable hairstyle...

Yes I was a bit disappointed that there were no visible satosugu crumbs - or are there? More on this later... and the it overall just felt a little bit 😔 empty 😪

Nevertheless, I want to just blab about a few things.

First, is it Geto/Kenjaku?

If we think about how Yuta’s copy CT works, Rika would need to consume a viable part of the sorcerer. The only part of Kenny left was his whole brain. He was the brain. The rest is Geto. We have not seen any evidence of Yuta having CSM, so it can be assumed that Yuta did not have Rika eat any part of Geto. Otherwise, it’s be Geto’s CT and not Kenjaku’s body-hopping technique.

Imho: The person with Takaba is not likely to be either Kenny or Geto. Geto cannot function without a brain, there was none “spare” either, so the theory of a spirit entering the body is going to make it alive again - no, it doesn’t. There is no other living sorcerer who can do that - Ui Ui maxed it out with the number of times and there is no other person to swap with. Just. Not. Possible.

And Kenny was seen to have told Mimiko and Nanako that he took Geto’s brains out to inhabit it.

So. My conclusion is that Gege is baiting. Just as he did with the “we have to help Yuta!” And the rude yelling that got so many of us wondering just who would speak to roughly to Yuta and what warranted it. We were all asking: who calls Yuta “Yuta” and not “Okkutsu-senpai” etc. I even thought it was Shoko, assuming that Maki was in the same hallway as the others, but the main culprit was of course the most obvious, Maki herself.

And that baiting thing with the clock theory about 2:21 pm linking with chapter 221 of Gojo’s unsealing - I theorised it’s about having presence (like how spiritualists, and in Shinto, believe that spirit is all around us) despite being dead and his soul with Geto.

And goodness know what other theories there are out there about time and Gojo revival. I’ve said before that I don’t buy into it, but it is interesting.

So is it Geto? Kenjaku? I 80% think not but... yeah, I am worried. To be completely transparent, I’m so scared that it is.

Because I’m in the camp of: please please Gege, please please please let Gojo and Geto be at peace in their eternal afterlife until they’re ready to be reborn and let them find each other over and over and over again.

So rationally, I doubt it is. But I’m worried. I’m worried for reasons like: why aren’t the bodies and resting places of Gojo & Geto still not mentioned?

Next thing to I have some thoughts on are about Itafushi. They’re really good friends and I think it’s also just one of those things Gege is doing because it’s JUMP and he doesn’t want to just pretend the Hana -> Megumi thing is forgotten. It also shows some character growth.

So overall, I’m rather neutral about the Megumi + Hana thing. They’re still kids, and Yuji + Megumi are compatible but they’re also not quite Satosugu, so their relationship will be undeniably different. Friends or otherwise.

It’s nice to see the Megumi is taking initiative and finding novel ways to make new meaning & connections. I wouldn’t read too deeply into it, especially since Hana obviously read too deeply into it and got it all wrong.

I will say that it feels cliche maybe. Again it’s maybe a JUMP serialisation thing shonen mangakas do, since a big portion of the fanbase are young boys too. Gege can’t be doing too much for lgbtq+ too obviously after all.

So it leaves me feeling it is a little reminiscent of the Sasuke and Sakura pairing in Naruto - as if it could become something seemingly out of convenience/settling/making do, but what do I know? Sometimes relationships in life are like that. I’d rather marry my best friend, but you know... different strokes for different folks. As they say.

Now it wouldn’t be me if I didn’t find a way to make it about satosugu. I’m imagining collective groans from people who may be reading this... so please skip if you’re bored of me now, lol. Or read on if you like to be in satosugu delulu brainrot like me.

One of the satosugu-related takeaways from this recent chapter is that it seems to reduce the possibility of interpreting Gojo not allowing Shoko to process Geto’s body as being out of consideration for her.

Her saying that the idiot should have let her process Geto’s body pretty much says Gojo took matters into his own hands. Not only was it protocol… but she also personally thought it would be a privilege. But Gojo did not let her.

We ofc don’t know the details.

So it leaves us with: He did it for his own reasons, or reasons at least relating to Geto. Kenjaku thought it was out of consideration. And Kenjaku is not a reliable narrator, nor was Geto... who tended to think he didn’t matter.

You know, as a person who can quietly just swallow vomit and shit rags without complaint. As a person who could practically transform the filth, negativity, evil, and darkness of the world into power that he could use for good - he was vessel of sacrifice.

Anyway, I digress.

It seems to indicate that Gojo kept his body to himself ... for his own reasons, breaking protocol.

And referring back to 270 again, for Shoko to talk about the afterlife right after preparing the body -> cremation is strange. Does preparing the body and cremating it have anything to do with the afterlife? 🤔 so somehow, prepare body -> cremate -> mourn/afterlife?

Interesting in that Gege is giving us yet another example of how everyone has a different reality / belief. If we believe what we saw in Gojo’s death, then there is one and Shoko will be proven wrong when her time comes like how Gojo was wrong about dying alone.

And it is also interesting in the sense that it’s familiar…

Something about how she said prior to Gojo’s unsealing, about “I couldn’t love either of you like you loved each other, but I was there too.” - am I reading too deeply? Probably. But it’s there for me to read.

Shoko prepared Tsumiki for cremation. She was made her beautiful for the afterlife - even if she was to be cremated, there was something about giving her something (dignity?) before she turned to ash. And those left behind can send them off into the afterlife feeling they did their best.

I think you’d need a certain level of trust for someone to hand your beloved over. Or at least feel like they would mourn the departed like you would. Or faith that your beloved would be happy with entrusting you with that decision. In some cultures, the family wash and swathe their dead in cloth with their own hands where possible.

So Shoko. Shoko could do it for Geto, for Gojo. She was there. She was willing. But. It was almost as if saying that Gojo 1. could not allow someone else to prepare Geto’s body, and neither did he seem to have mourned because 2. Geto was not cremated to be sent into the afterlife. As if he didn’t trust anyone. As if he could not let go.

Again, Rika kept Yuta’s body “alive” too. Parallels are paralleling.

I don’t know how Geto regenerated or if Kenny was responsible for it. Or if Gojo somehow did. But those are just unnecessary details at this point.

And again, Shoko was there but she could not be like what Gojo was to Geto and what Geto was to Gojo.

How complicated.

I’m reminded of that scene where he says to ichiji and Shoko: “There are just 3 of us remaining huh.”

In agreement to Shoko acknowledging that Geto’s body needed retrieving from Kenjaku, it was quite a pregnant pause from Gojo before he goes, “………yeah.”

He seemed surprised Shoko brought it up and decided to just gloss over it.

To me, it collectively implies that Gojo doesn’t let Geto be anyone else’s but his.

His friendship was his one and only. His loneliness was his. His dreams were his. His love was his. His life was his. His body was... his. And his soul was his too. As was his satisfaction.

I think Gege wants us to understand something here. By what he is showing and not showing us.

If I think about the exclusivity that they shared... the whole, “we are the strongest (together)” and “it wouldn’t be bad to be killed by you” or even “I’m jealous but if you were satisfied I’m glad for you.” and then “if you were there to pat me on the back I’d be satisfied.”

It’s a lot like... only YOU can be the one. And therefore I think Gojo kept Geto all to himself. Maybe thinking Geto would only want HIM to touch his body.

It was his exclusive right. And that was mutually shared... because Geto wasn’t really pleased with Gojo getting satisfaction from elsewhere (lol, you know, the “jealous” 妬けるね that got the fandom in a frenzy).

I’ve mentioned it in another post... link: https://www.tumblr.com/lxmelle/758015943938113536/i-love-the-idea-of-mutuality-that-is-deeply-rooted I really do like the idea of Gojo and Geto just teaching each other things. Like selfishness and love. Binding each other to the other. Selfishness and selflessness as part of being human.

Was this an act out of the side of Gojo that was “a little selfish, a little inhuman but a little too human”, and he wanted to keep Geto all to himself? Despite not giving his best friend a proper burial?

When I think about how he normally did what Geto approved of (you can dispute this if you wish) and I think back to how he might’ve really given Geto’s body back to his family- but what we saw in the manga seemed like they didn’t have much involvement either. Surely they’d have wanted Geto cremated?

So it leaves me with the idea that it was Gojo acting out his secret feelings.

Just Gege and how he shields Gojo’s privacy. Secret words. Secret thoughts. You know. Gege being Gege letting Gojo do Gojo things.

I think we might need to accept that Gojo and Geto just have this exclusive thing we aren’t privy to.

That’s all for now. Abrupt ending 🫡

Thanks for reading my rambling if you made it this far 🫶

Feel free to share your thoughts/comments/criticisms 😄

[generouskittentidalwave]

Watching the She-ra reboot after 5-6 years

Hey remember that show in 2018 that came out on Netflix during Tumblr's Twitter era and stirred up enough toxicity to turn you into Dave the Skeleton in the highschool science classroom?

Well BUCKLE IN for a RIDE cause I recently watched that show for the first time after avoiding it for YEARS, after seeing the fans and the haters be so devoted to either the fans praising it like a godsent deity or haters devoting their whole life to finding something wrong with every aspect of the show that it makes you wonder if they realized that they've become the Catra that they sought to destroy, I decided to avoid even touching the show and went about my life in other fandoms.

Well years have passed and like a Hallmark movie time abruptly went on and the drama soon faded, the tides have settled, the war has ended, and neither side remains the same. The fans have grown up, matured and enjoy the show as it is and the haters have lost all that sweet sustenance back in 2019 and have went the ways of the DoDo. With everything finally settled, I joined in on the rush of new fans recently that started rewatching the series and wanted to display my thoughts as well as a first time watcher ^^

I went in well aware of all the criticisms in mind, and having seen the original She-ra, and I just gotta say that my worrisome thoughts on watching it was completely washed away from the start of the show. I was worried of Adora being that one marysue character that is from the bad guys side but is actually a good a guy with the personality of white bread and with flaws of just being "a little bit QuiRkY" but she completely shooed away those fears. She is a well balanced character with a unique and well done backstory, her character breaking away from the steriotypical chosen ones and her having flaws that don't take away her being a good person but instead have their own charm and relatability that makes her very fun and down to earth. She is so golden retriever coded and I love it. What I like most though is that she wasn't "random main character comes in to lead everyone to victory out of nowhere" , instead of making her the unsaid leader, they made her the main character who is the muscle of the group and part of the heart and has to learn overtime and understand their ways instead of making her the leader. It makes way for her to pave and earn her way as being the main character instead of it being given by default by making her the leader and I love that break away. And that break away also helps to counter the fears I heard about the white savior trope by making Adora the way she was and making Glimmer and Glimmer's mom the queen the actual leaders of the rebellion that they helped start.

Love the best friends squad, I love Glimmer's growth and her bond with Adora, I like how she went downhill and built herself back up again as a person as it was very realistic with her being so young and having to replace her mom as queen. Bow is my spirit animal, period, but I really want to know more about his huge family. I imagine that because they are all historians they must go to the academy or similar academies that Bow was meant to go to and I can see why they wouldn't question him not being there as 12 siblings is A LOT to keep track of. Swiftwind is great but he shall always be known as Horsie and the queen's sacrifice hurts everytime I see it, I love how she owned up to her own flaws. Shadowweaver messed up being a mother figure 3 times, she needs parenting classes fr, 'nough said. I love all the princesses but Mermista is my personal favorite. Also why is aunt cast named Castaspella, I can't even say it without dying of laughter 💀🖐️

Now I know some of you are sitting at your computer with 5 monsters in hand and sweat anxiously dripping from your forehead as you dramatically hover over the keys just WAITING to write a five page essay response if I even dare to utter the name Catra and her relationship with Adora. So, I'ma give you my opinion.

Honestly, their romance was the end goal since the beginning and the story made that clear and honestly I like Catra's growth as a character from her knowing she has anger issues and actively working on it to better herself, helping to save others and helping to save Adora in the end. Her realizing that pushing others away to protect herself only harms her and everyone around her in the end and her realistically taking it slow and steady to better herself as a person for herself and for Adora is something a really like. Yes their relationship was hella toxic, especially in the middle (but I do like how Adora recognized that and punched Catra when they were in the portal). The build up was great, the middle ground of her doubling down was great, and I think her growth at the end was great and that the two are happy and not in a toxic relationship with eachother anymore at the end. I think what truly makes it odd is although the redemption was great the time constraints made it so they couldn't flesh it out to help answer and address the past actions that were caused by her, they did so great with her slowly becoming better and better, and so it wouldn't have come off as bad as it did if they had just a bit more time to address everything with that instead of being forced to dive right into it which definitely left a- well- less than good impression to it's audience. But they tried their best with what they could do and honestly for a show as surprisingly dark as this I'm just glad they aren't in a toxic relationship anymore and are happy in the end and that Catra got redeemed. It definitely wasn't trying to romanize abuse, however it came off as such due to constraints and them rushing the ending which gave plenty of ammo to people who already hated the show to have a reason to hate it more. In my opinion if you don't like it that's valid, if you do like it that's valid, me personally I'm not a romance person so I couldn't care enough either way.

Now to address some things I know some people are waiting for, but in speed run fashion. Mara's She-ra design was the fault of the designers not agreeing on what they wanted her to look like, I was expecting her to have brown flowing hair not blonde, I get the stripping of individuality message they tried to go with, it just needed better designers and better execution but that's as deep as it goes. It's not that they are racist, they are more along the lines of "you need a more organized team cause her design changes every five seconds like wtf" kind of situation. I'm glad they didn't automatically forgive Hordak or accept him but I'm glad he was changed enough to not be a killer that's mass murdering people anymore and as long no one is dying by his hands anymore and people don't automatically forgive him then that's fine by me, whatever keeps others from dying a horrible unnecessary death.

Overall, in conclusion, love the show, great depth, great characters, love the humor and amazing magical girl transformations, awesome rep, stronk princess punching things, would most definitely recommend, especially now with all the wave of chaos it's initial release sucked in now evaporated. (Seriously there are full tags and blogs deticated to hating a show about glowing princesses fighting aliens, it's okay to not like a show but come on people there is more to life than that 💀) Enjoy it, have fun, and I hope you have a great day/night! ^^

[celestialtarot11]

How is this retrograde affecting you? 🤍🪽

Hi friends! I know its been a while since I last posted. I have been so busy with settling back at university and juggling my schedule. I do hope to be more consistent moving forward. Thank you all for your patience and support ❤️‍🩹🪽 I hope you enjoy this reading!

Pile 1: Hi there pile 1! Welcome to your reading! 🤍 For you I received the knight of pentacles and king of cups. For a long time you guys have been working on your emotional intimacy with yourself & working on any avoidant tendencies. I think you guys have the tendency to be harsh on yourself and set limitations, but this mercury retrograde has been teaching you to soften up. To become more encompassing of how you really feel and think. I think for a while you have been in a state of honing your individuality, emotions, and awareness of self. And i think your healing is beginning to show, not necessarily for external factors like people and such, but for yourself. I feel like you know its not about other people now, and its okay to give back to yourself what you gave out. You feel more at ease and comfortable now. And you know what stability you need and want, even if others didnt deliver or give that to you. You’re creating your own space and sanctuary to feel calm and good within yourself. I will say this retrograde maybe didn’t feel like a breakdown, but it felt more like character building in the sense that it’s rejuvenating. You’ve had to reevaluate your plans and goals to better help yourself 🥰 Thank you so much for being here pile 1’s! Please like comment and reblog to help this blog 🥹🪽🤍 have a great one!

Pile 2: Hi there pile 2’s! Please take a cup of tea or something to relax :,( For you I received the 10 of wands and 9 of pentacles. I feel you guys have been stressed out during this retrograde. I feel you’ve had a lot of burdens, maybe it was financial. I heard it was a wreck, so maybe some of you had to start over financially, or regain your footing after a loss. If not, it could be related to status. Maybe there were lots of rumors or gossip about you and I feel you’ve been defending yourself nonstop. I feel that this retrograde is showing you how to come back to your inner world of rest and trust, regardless of what the world might say or do. I also feel its showing you the way home to your heart, but in a stable way. If you’ve always felt unstable emotionally in your home life, spirit wants you to build a home first internally then expand on it in real life. Its very possible some of you are trying to move out and get an apartment, and I feel spirit is saying to remind yourself you are worthy of a safe space and calm at this time. You are worthy of a space of your own. If some of you are into manifesting, you can also manifest and reevaluate what you want, regardless of the retrograde. Its there to help us think clearly. I also feel this retrograde is about mental rest too, so come back to your meditation rituals or whatever you do to calm yourself 🤍🪽 Come back home to yourself. Thank you pile 2’s! Please like support and reblog to help this blog grow 🥺🤍 have a good one!

Pile 3: Wow! Welcome pile 3! For you I received 9 of swords reversed and ace of wands! Talkin about passion over here, I love it. I feel like you guys are in a state of releasing unashamedly and I love the energy. Its like “take it, it no longer serves me and I feel good about saying no” and I feel thats what this retrograde has taught you! How to say no to energy you don’t need or like. I also feel you guys have been stuck in a period of doubt, anxiety, self sabotage. And now you are seeing clearly, you’re seeing that you really don’t need to continue this anymore as it isn’t benefitting you. And this retrograde is bringing in fresh, passionate energy for you internally so you can put that out externally! Maybe its quitting that job. Finding a new one. Maybe its going on that vacation, maybe its decluttering your home! Either way I feel you guys are definitely not waiting around anymore to love yourself and spirit is commending you. Its also 11:11 as I type this 🥺 so nice. Your wishes are in the state of evolving and coming true! Keep your mentality and allow it to grow and you’ll see your manifestations will come to you. Its less about taking and more so about rightfully creating the life you deserve to live. I love to see it pile 3! Thank you so much for being here and I hope this reading got you clarity! Please like and support to help this blog continue growing 🤍🪽 have a great one!

Thanks so much everyone! I could just feel the energy through me as I channeled lol. I really hope yall found clarity you need! 🤍🪽

Paid readings 🤍

[51-queer-frogs]

Hi! Hello! Tell me about your OCs! Especially the cool multi-eyed fluffy creature with six eyes! I love multi eyed critters!

Oh boy

okay so! Spirit is an oc I created a longg time ago, who's story had changed a lot over the years. We're gonna do a history

wayyy back in about 2018 I did a shitty re-color of a drawing of wolf link. while both the original shitty re color is gone, I have re-found the original by Teddie4Ever01 on deviant art. that's where the earring comes from, and it's one of the few aspects that has stuck around. to quote myself from six years ago "this is my oc its a link wolf possed by a dragon ( it can grow wings ). " I was young and the dragon bit was gone in about two weeks, but it will come back later.

SO

I am guessing, at least a little bit here, because six years ago but the original lore was as follows; There were 5 different colored magic space stones all of which had slightly different powers. Spirit had the purple one (of course) and I'm not sure what it's power was. ANother character, Shadow, (below spirit ref) had the blue and it made blue fire. I'm sure there was more, but I don't remember. at the time, Spirit looked something like this

which, y'know, it a good design if it wasn't stolen. note that I never drew the wings because I was lazy and also everything I drew at that point was traced in some way or another. (aka why I'm not showing the original drawings.)

now the next design stayed around for a bit, but I don't really have any writing on lore from that time. anyways the sheet I used to make it was by sm0shy on fur affinity, and it looked like this

Now finally we've settled on a design ! this was the sheet I used for almost every commission I made, including my old icon. from here on out we'll just be talking about lore. At this point, while I hadn't completely abandoned the magic elemental space rocks, I did add some new characters to the mix which is where we meet ember and moondrop, who use the same base

to quote me again "her name is Moondrop and she is actually social unlike shadow and spirit she loves everyone but Ember because of emotional trauma the flower can not leave her ear or she will be sick until it is returned" which, okay sure. BUT THEN for ember i said "a beta wolf who used to be in the same pack as moonshine . she was very strict especially towards moonshine at one point moonshine messed up a cache and and was very badly treated by Ember for ages." what! we're using fucking warrior dogs now! great! okay! yeah that didn't stick around. SO here's where written records are uh.. completely gone. yeah. no more of those. lore has died. I have old drawings, but I do remeber that shadow fell out of use, and Spirit, Ember and Moondrop became a trio the image below is the only one i have from before a real life time skip of like a year.

Alright, we have writing again, along with pictures! grabbed my old sketchbook for this.

The text (not in photo) reads Moondrop was born in 17839-F while her cause of death is unknown she currently lives because of the world tree, and is it's caretaker. She treats every leaf as it's own being, and the flower on her head is directly tied to the tree as well.

Ember was born in 1839-H her life was normal until her forest caught fire. The pack ran out, but one pup was trapped inside. she ran back in and threw the pup out, saving it's life. the last her pack saw of her was two days later, as she flew overhead on a brand new pair of flaming wings.

Okay. Alright. I remember (kind of) where we are now. At this point the lore went as follows. Moondrop and Ember were opposites with an unclear relationship (see I called it friends then but they were either siblings or dating, don't remember) Ember was a (possibly the) god of fire, And Moondrop was the god of nature. Spirit, on the other hand, (i think) was the god of death. The three of them were re-incarnated to find each other again and again, no matter the timeline, which is what those numerical codes are about. The rocks are completely gone at this point, good riddance. from here the three stagnate. For a good couple of years. They go on adventures. whatever. Exempt! and here come yet another side tangent!

GENDER CRISIS

So for years at this point I'd gone by spirit online. I was also old enough to know what non binary was, and was doing as people do and freaking out. This is the funny part, because since the start, spirit was she/her but all genderless. Hm. Maybe that meant something. So i'd done what any one would do when already having another name and wanting to transition, and I'd asked folks at school to call me spirit. Hey who wants to guess what my name is now. Yeah. yep. named myself after my furry oc. felt silly i guess. so. yeah where was i aganin. ohh.

life changed. and i forgot about spirit, moslty. Still doodled them but didn't post because devaint art had died. whatever. I get an in class assingment to draw a monster. this is what i drew.

side note; not transcriing that, no way in hell.

but nontheless the idea is here, which is where we FINALLY get to modern lore. (aka one more year later)

As of now Spirit is a time travelling archivist, stealing books and relics just before they would get lost, creating a sort of library/museum of babble. The multiple eyes thing is taken directly from Anasii, the spider god of stories. with this, they also are a trickters, specalizing in illusions, which they often used for nonsensical bullshit.. moondrop and ember are both also time travelers, but not as fleshed out. also also the current ref sucks and i'll make a new better one when i have time. That being said ive been here for two hours and i'll shut up now.

[whatavery]

In the Spirit of Defiance

Ah, welcome, welcome. What’s this, you might wonder. Avery, don’t you just post almost decent fanfiction about Lackadaisy? And the answer is yes, that’s usually what I do. However, for my latest story, I settled upon writing a compendium to go with the story. What initially started as a bit of ramblings about the Funeral Home itself, I instead decided to turn into a more detailed piece on my creative process, my ideas, head-canons and the like.

Now, perhaps you’re wondering why someone – anyone at all – would care about the Arbogast Funeral Home this much. Well, allow me to formally introduce myself, in case you don’t know me. My name’s Avery, I’m an avid(-ish) Lackadaisy fan-fiction writer and I've been working on a major story that predominantly features the Arbogast Funeral Home and its residents.

So what is this story I’m speaking of?

Ordained Defiance is a story following Abelard Arbogast and my OC Cainan Wirth. This compendium will also go into detail about him, his creation and the motifs I chose to play with. With no future spoilers, of course. This will be a breakdown of the first story arc, which consists of chapters one through five, which I titled In the Beginning…

In the name of defiance, while writing and conceptualizing the story, I actually went out of my way to go against a lot of conventions when it comes to OC and canon ships.

For one, if you’ve read the story, you will have noticed that the story is primarily from Abelard's perspective – it’s his story first and foremost and Cainan is just another player within his world.

A lot of ship media tends to put all the focus into the OC to the point where they get all the development and care, often to the point where the canon character they’re shipped with gets reduced to being little more than a mannequin for them to hug and kiss when needed. One of the easy trappings is to not allow the canon character to retain their sense of autonomy and agency.

It’s not always the case, of course, but it’s an easy trap to fall into. As of writing this little think piece, I’ve written nine chapters of which only a single one is entirely focused on Cainan.

It’s so easy to give in to the temptation of making one’s shiny, new OC the star of the show, the proverbial sun with all the canon characters orbiting them. But I think it’s especially important to retain focus on the canon character when it comes to a ship. And doubly so when it’s someone with less screen-time in the main medium of the series.

Abelard is only featured on a small handful of pages and one of my other goals with this story was to expand on him as a character, primarily utilizing head canon and ideas of my own. It’s one of the fun aspects of writing characters you like, when they’re not the head-lining acts; you can add your own ideas and project them onto the character.

I likewise didn't give Cainan an overly detailed backstory that would require a timeline or compendium of its own. I purposefully left in blanks and some things will remain unspoken. After all, isn't that what's so enticing about many of the main characters in Lackadaisy? We know Rocky went on the road for years, but we don't know everything he did or experienced; we know Zib and the band met in New Orleans, but we don't know what their time on the road entailed either. I could go on... filling in the blanks and guessing is half the fun; it's why people are so eager to ask Tracy lore questions on streams - it's fun!

-----

Next, let us talk about the primary settings within the story, namely the Arbogast Funeral Home. My inspection of this house took me to some weird, weird places and nearly broke my brain. However! The good news is that it was all worth it. Note that there shall be a few instances of guesswork and head-canon in this.

The Arbogast Funeral Home was confirmed by Tracy to be the childhood home of Abelard and Elsa, hence the place being named for their family. This was confirmed on a Patreon stream that took place on February 29th 2024. The Funeral Home is located in Defiance, Missouri, a small unincorporated community that was settled by German immigrants. The name Arbogast itself is derived from old germanic and contains ‘Gast’ which in modern German means ‘guest’. Arbogast itself carries a similar meaning, according to several etymology websites; ‘inheritance’ and ‘guest’ are the key interpreted meanings behind the name. In case it wasn't already obvious enough, Abelard and Elsa's heritage/ancestry was indeed confirmed in the February 29th stream.

So now that we have that out of the way, first things first: how did this start?

Quite simply, I started with the embalming room where a certain fender bender got his head fixed up by Elsa. As you can see in the picture above, my overthinking actually works out quite nicely.

Elsa can be seen entering from a wooden door with a large frosted window, which is connected to a separator wall with similar wooden construction and frosted windows. The door can be seen being open at the bottom of the frame in Lackadaisy Medicament and it’s even more visible in Mortuary where the other panels aren’t blocking the view. However, in Morphia we get the clearest view of this side of the room.

Similarly, my overthinking has further been proven to be a valid method for figuring out this house by the fact that you can see two windows near the ceiling in the embalming room. When looking at the outside of the Arbogast Funeral Home as seen above, you can see the windows near the ground clearly line up with the ones in the basement.

Now, let us delve into the tale of the impossible window.

This is the part of the funeral home that nearly broke my brain. In Lackadaisy Scrutiny when Elsa sees Wes and Fish walking up to the door to the side of the funeral home, she’s glancing out a window. First to establish how and why I know this is that door, the main thing is that the front doors to the funeral home’s parlor (as mentioned by Bobby to exist in Lackadaisy Undertaker) is a large double door with windows, as can clearly be seen in establishing shots of the place. Meanwhile, Elsa stands by a single, fully wooden door, which has porch lights on either side of it. This is also the door where there’s a swing seat as can be seen in Lackadaisy Bygones.

So how come I refer to a supposed impossible window? Well, I’ll tell you. If we look at the type of window and match it to the ones on the front of the house, none of them fit. The main issue is there’s no stretch of uninterrupted wall where the window could possibly be, based on the first shot we see of it. Furthermore… no wind chimes to be seen. We can see the chimney in the establishing shot of Lackadaisy Sendoff.

If we look at Wes and Fish leaving, we can see they walk along a path leading away from what is clearly the left side of the house (when looking at the two establishing shots we see), but they’re walking to the right (our POV). How do we know it’s supposed to be the left side of the house? Namely the absence of a chimney, which we see in establishing shots as part of the wall on the right side of the house.

Am I nitpicking over details no one else would see? Yes.

Am I trying to justify how long I spent trying to make sense of this house? Also yes.

To briefly go into the established layout; front door leads into the parlor, which connects to the turret in front; to the right of the parlor is a foyer, beside it a living room with a fireplace. Above is where bedrooms would be, which is an assumption. To the left is a garage or a shed, which I have assumed to be where bodies are brought down into the embalming room via the other door leading there as can be seen in the scenes taking place there.

And that is all I have so far on the layout.

-----

The first thing a lot of people ask me when they learn that I’m one of the very few, very vocal Abelard enjoyers in the Lackadaisy fandom is simply: why? Why Abelard? And to an extent, I get the confusion. Abelard isn’t a main character, he’s not someone you immediately think of when you think of the series; he doesn’t appear much in the comic, but he made an impression on me when I decided to reread the comic following the release of the pilot.

Say what you will about the man, but you can’t deny that he’s one of the most expressive characters and that his dialogue is amazing, honestly. Hamfisted, dramatic, over the top in the most perfect way. So that was of course something to take into account while writing Abelard, though for the first mini arc of the story, there hasn't yet been much reason for him to really get vocal just yet, but odds are it will happen in future chapters.

The prime examples of Abelard's defining dialogue – or rather his monologues – can be found in his confrontation with Ivy as well as his card game with her in Lackadaisy Sendoff.

Actually writing for Abelard seemed very intimidating at first, though I’ve been doing my best to keep up with his colorful language and his very wide vocabulary. Granted, I’m not entirely convinced I’ve got it right quite yet, it’s likely my personal biggest weakness, but I like to think I at least have his characterization down, even if it’s written and conveyed in a less smooth way than the comic.

So… Cainan Wirth, eh?

Yeah, Cainan Wirth indeed. Former resident of Defiance, who left home in his early teens to attempt to carve out a life on his own, perhaps making friends with some not-so-nice people. Yes, indeed, I’m pairing him with Abelard, thank you for asking. Why? Because I love Abelard, duh.

When I set out to create Cainan, I decided to make someone who would very violently contrast with Abelard; a white-furred, young, snarky and remarkably lazy atheist paired with a golden-brown, older, serious, no-nonsense reverend. What could possibly go wrong? I did go out of my way to try and distinguish Cainan, taking visual inspiration from Wick and Ben. I took the healthy, slightly more healthy body type from Wick seeing as many other male OCs are built like twigs. Like, let’s be real here. I also wanted to make sure his eyes weren't blue, as blue seems to be a common eye-color for white cat OCs. And I also gave him some good, old forehead fluff to give him a more youthful appearance, much like Calvin, Mordecai and Joey, for example. And of course, can’t forget those lynx-like ear tufts.

But I know what you were already thinking of, before I even started talking about his design; Cainan and Abelard? Not very subtle.

And you’re right. Though it took me a while to settle on a name after I started creating him, this was entirely intentional,. Not just because I thought it was a cute name pairing, but also because I wanted to further contrast the two; Abelard as a religious man to whom religion is important; the biblical Abel was favored by God; Cainan as an agnostic (at best) man to whom religion is a sore subject; the biblical Cain lost God’s favor and was cursed as a punishment.

Furthermore, Cain’s punishment in the bible was to be cursed to become a wanderer, not unlike Cainan who spent his youth and part of his young-adult life as a drifter. Oh, and I also decided to give Cainan a moon motif, which leads us into…

Moon Spirit might seem like a very strange ship name at a glance… and it is. Its origin is really clunky, but I think it works… and I’m not changing it now. Portmanteau ship names really don’t work; Cabelard just looks like Abelard with a C in front; for a while I went for Cainard, like ‘canard’, but I wasn’t really happy with it.

The origin of Moon Spirit as a strange one, but in hindsight it works. The ‘moon’ part I took from the term ‘moonshine’, for obvious reason, and an old myth states that Cain was sent to live on the moon after killing Abel in the bible. This was a coincidence, however; I’d decided on giving Cainan the moon motif before I even learned that this was a thing.

The ‘spirit’ part is twofold; it references the Holy Spirit, referencing Abelard's unwavering faith, and also just… spirits, as in alcohol. So you see, both words reference an aspect of each of them, and also reference booze.

Cainan's moon motif also ties into one of Abelard's most iconic lines, speaking of the “Wicked, troubled sea in every soul” (Lackadaisy Brimstone). As I assume most people know, the moon’s magnetic pull affects the sea and the tide.

Returning to the world of etymology, I also chose the name Wirth for the sake of being the opposite of Abelard. Whereas the name Arbogast, according to several etymology websites, stems from the old germanic words for ‘heritage’ and ‘guest’, ‘Wirth’ is an old germanic form of ‘Wirt’, which means host or innkeeper.

So, what else is there to know about these two? That’ll be in the story as future chapters come out. For spoiler reasons, I won’t disclose more beyond what can be learned in the first part of the story.

And now I will briefly mention a couple of minor characters, starting with Cainan's parents, Harold and Gabriela Wirth. I chose their names for a very specific reason. Being devoutly christian, I chose Harold after Harold Bluetooth, the king of Denmark who made Christianity the predominant religion of the country in place of the old Norse religion.

I decided to name the store owner of Defiance General Mr. Weaver as a tribute to John Weaver who ran a store near a different Defiance in Missouri, one that used to be located in Worth county. Not implying that they’re one and the same, but I figured it to be a fun little reference to that.

---

And so this brings us to the very end of the first story arc of my story. Was all this insanity worth it?

Absolutely not, but hey, what are you gonna do?

[valleyfthdolls]

Oka redesign is finally done! Info/ideas under the cut

Design:

I considered giving her That Visual Kei Haircut, but ultimately liked her hair longer. Her roots are grown out black & the curls are a combo of actual waves/curls and messiness.

Very pale eyes make her look spooky/intense.

Her earrings are omamori charms, her choker has a pentagram, and her necklaces are a magatama bead and a teru teru bozu. All tying to the idea that she's a particularly spiritual person. (I replaced the Ambiguously Satanic Generic Brand Occultism of the canon occult club with religious practices that follow Shinto, Buddhist and Spiritualist beliefs.)

I won't lie, spider webs hurt my hands to draw, so I gave her a more stylized print for her sleeves and tights.

Black arm warmers because I saw those a lot looking for reference images. Instead of just goth, Satoka is meant to be visual kei with gothic and gothic lolita inspirations.

Once again, since students are said to be allowed to customize their uniforms, Satoka has a longer skirt, blue tie, and dark blue uwabaki.

Info page:

Satoka means enlightenment or village (apparently), Miyamoto means one who lives near the shrine. Boom, religious meaning.

As I've said a lot, in my rewrite these high school students are actually teenagers.

Satoka doesn't have a crush on Taro, she's just a friend of his who Ayano perceives as a threat to their relationship.

Friends: The rest of the occult club + Miyuji (them being friends is relevant to my rewrite)

Job: A miko (shrine maiden) in training. This mostly means she sells souvenirs and helps out with important things like cleansing, but also that she helps perform divination and spirit mediumship, which is perfect for her.

Story relevance:

Satoka's mother kept her out of school for 2-3 weeks while the other students settled in to try to prevent Satoka from being bullied during the beginning of the year. As such, she doesn't know her way around the school, and needs someone to help her. This is where Taro comes in: he helps Satoka gather her bearings and adjust to the school, showing her around for her first week. This causes her not to develop feelings for him, but to want to become his friend.

Ayano either perceives her desire to befriend Taro as a repressed crush poking its way through or as a different kind of threat- someone who would take Taro's attention away from Ayano with her need for protection and care.

Satoka being kept alive and in school would have the benefit of resolving Sumire's storyline. As it is, her spirit is infesting the school with a sort of malice that fosters the violence and bullying of the school's environment. If Satoka is kept alive, the occult club would begin trying to appease Sumire's spirit, which gets her to calm down.

Befriending or matchmaking her would both cause her to quickly stop trying to push a friendship with Taro as she's now either made another friend or gotten a partner and thus has the company she wants from Taro.

Rejection would be more about making Satoka lose interest in being Taro's friend, tarnishing her view of him so she leaves him alone.

Satoka is one of the rivals I imagine Ayano stalking and sabotaging outside of school. This could raise an interesting mechanic of navigating Osaka (where my rewrite takes place) and using a train system to stalk Satoka to her job.

I imagine her "canon elimination" being befriending, since I have so many ideas for that and how that would play into characters around her like her clubmembers (especially Kokomi and Suzuko)

[sunsetstarving]

would like to start this by saying there is DUH no time limit on answering this i sooooooooo get it <3

i finished legend of korra and have been mulling it over playing minecraft and just RRRHRHSDFERRRLKFD

i think my favorite part of the whole show is how humanized all the villains are? underneath it all theyre just guys who've been fucked over one too many times. and each time the *basis* of their quest is valid.. it's just that they go about it in ways that actively hurt people. it's like, okay, so you want this, but the people who are directly affected by this change have to *agree* with it before you start enacting it. you cant just... force people to change their entire way of life thats not how life works. which....... SUCH parallels to palestine im kinda going crazy over here bc its rlly just enforcing my like. not understanding of how zionists can uphold their ideology. really ANYONE who's belief system requires the putting down of another group. but especially with zionism.

its like.. ok sure you want the land but fun fact?? people literally already live there?? and you cant in any way make yourselves look like the good guys by forcing people out of their homes. ESPECIALLY when you already have your own land.

mainly connects to the fourth season lol

also lowkey HILARIOUS to me how much the spirit vines felt like a metaphor for nuclear power lmao. like ok?? way to go making a critique of something that happened like 70 years ago (when season four was released anyway).

obviously not the most eloquently put as it is past midnight and i am sorta shaking from either the windows being open or the avalanche of thoughts being had about korra (probably a combo)

my other favorite part got realized during the last episode and idk if you care about spoilers or not so i wont say anything too detailed but basically just admiring korra's growth as a character etc etc. tbh something the people making these shows are so good at????? like give the same attention as character arcs to romance plotlines :') (i will say, however, that by the time mako/asami/korra were all just friends i LOVED them it was never more awkward than it shouldve been and i super appreciated that)

RAHHHHH YEAH!!! oh man i knew u would love the villains they're just so fantastically done. i think my personal favorite had always been zaheer because of how interesting his philosophical debate was with korra but also as i've been rewatching i've also come to appreciate all three of the main villains just. how much their debates are also something that korra gets to (in some ways) understand?? iirc. and yeah it is horrific how it compares to real life and how vividly similar it is. tbh i find a lot of the comparison to current events also in the original atla just because like... the total destruction because they think that they deserve this power more, and then the insane propaganda that affects those on the inside if that makes sense. i didn't like the live action show but watching the first episode just had me sitting down and staring at a wall because in general just. how can we look at death like this and think that it's okay. anyway

i mean hey man we can always use some more critique of nuclear power it's always good to dissuade the kids who will become adults someday

anywho DO tell me more about korra's development i would love to hear ur thoughts (also YEAH the mako/asami/korra platonic dynamic was extremely nice and deeply appreciated. it settled nicely despite all of the pains)

[secretly-a-catamount]

The Carpenter and Tightrope Walker

(Did somebody say Rowaysa Circus AU? It was me. I said it.)

I wrote this on Ao3 under the account Beatty_About_Books, if you want to read my other works you can find them here: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beatty_About_Books/pseuds/Beatty_About_Books

CONTENT WARNING: This work has implied/referenced child abuse and a murder of a major character. If either of these things are upsetting to you, please don't read this.

Waysa was eleven when he first saw the tightrope walker. The hoards of circus-goers around him kept remarking on her glorious red hair - so bright that it could easily be seen even from where Waysa was sitting, which was the penny-cheap area of the stands - but he thought that it was her confidence with which she crossed the thin cable that made her beautiful. She was strong and grateful.

Waysa was thirteen when he caught Lady Rowena Fox-Pemberton after a show and presented her with a bouquet of wildflowers. Wildflowers, inexpensive and dull in their coloring, but meant with an emotion he dared not examine. Her face was surprised as she took them, their fingers brushing. Rowena softly confided in him that no one had ever given her a gift before, he said that he always would, and that soon became their routine (a friendship built on soft words and small gifts) until the Circus moved, as it always did, Rowena moving with it, as she always did, too.

Waysa was fifteen when she first kissed him in response to a comment he could never quite remember later. He was in love, although he did not yet know the name of the feeling he had tucked away in a secret compartment of his heart - a secret because he was a carpenter's boy and she was The Mistress of the High Wire.

Waysa was seventeen when he first told Rowena he loved her and placed a ring on her hand, something he couldn't really afford but had bought for her anyway. He knew what, or rather who, he wanted now, who drove him, who he waited for every year until her posters graced the town and he ran into her arms, kisses abound, her name always, always, always on his lips.

Waysa was nineteen when they ran off together. They fled both Rowena’s father, the Ringmaster of the Circus, an physically abusive and cruel man, and the illness that had taken Waysa’s family.

Waysa was twenty-one when they settled in a town by the sea. He built them a shop where they could both practice their trades (carpentry and apothecary respectively) and a house where they both could live.

Waysa was twenty-three when they married in second-hand clothing (Rowena looking more like an angel or a goddess than a mere woman).

Waysa was twenty-five when they had a daughter. A daughter they named Lorraine, who had inherited Waysa’s looks but Rowena’s spirit.

Waysa was twenty-seven when he disappeared.

Waysa would have been twenty-nine when his body was dredged from the cove. Weights lashed around his ankles and wrists, a single name carved into his skin, a warning and a threat.

Waysa would have been thirty-one when his wife killed her father, took control of the Circus as its new Ringmaster, and began training their daughter for the high-wire.

Waysa would have been thirty-six when Lorraine fell in love with a clockmaker’s son who had brought her a bouquet of wildflowers and a watch he really couldn't afford.

[msfbgraves]

Here, she greatly respects Chozen and feels very warm affection for him, loves her beautiful girls... but she still prays for Daniel. 😭 😭 As someone whose favourite character is Chozen (and Daniel lmao) that hurts to read. Wish my man had ended up with someone who loves him the world over arghhhh. I feel sorry for Kumiko too. Daniel is still her great love, but Terry has taken first place in his heart. On the other hand, it never fails to crack me up just how obsessed Terry is with Daniel and how he simply MUST have him no matter what. I feel like in any universe, this is a given.

Cobra Kai is suprisingly much deeper about relationships than it has any right to be. What they actually set up with Daniel and his lingering obsession with Terry; Kumiko and her inability to move on (so incredibly cruel for them to do that!); Terry's lingering unfinished business with Daniel; Chozen not being able to get over himself enough to settle down either... wow that's a lot to unpack.

I'm so interested in the way that the show chose to make Terry such a lingering presence in Daniel's life from Daniel's first appearance onward. Daniel kind of married Terry even in canon. Amanda is freakishly similar to Terry in looks and character. To me, that tells me that there is something that binds them together even if it isn't a simple relationship. But there is also something that binds Daniel, Chozen and Kumiko together. I really do feel that there was something at least on Chozen's side, when it comes to Kumiko before Daniel came to the island. But going by the show they seem to have been in contact quite regularly for Kumiko to have Chozen's number and be in on a prank to bring Daniel and Chozen together. So why are Kumiko and Chozen not dating? They are both free and they seem close! Apparently Daniel stands between them, if he would never want that for either of them! I really think that in another timeline, either post Karate Kid canon, or even this AU, the three of them are a throuple, at least in spirit!

For instance: in the movieverse, If Daniel had returned to Okinawa and married Kumiko before the beginning of CK, he would have opened a dojo with Chozen and within 5 years they'd all be happily cohabitating and having amazing sex. Daniel having coaxed Mr. Miyagi back to Yukie. But he can't, right, because where does that leave Terry? In the alternative omegaverse timeline then, where Kumiko falls pregnant with Daniel's puppy, I can actually imagine Chozen saying: why can't I mate them both? I'll raise the pup! I'll have his pups, her pups, maybe she has his puppy again, idc! He's hot! And the Don and Sato going "Who do you think you are, the Emperor?" Daniel would be like "Fine, if that means I can have both my puppy and my wife, we'll make it work!" But there is Italian marriage politics at play, the Don's attachment to his youngest, plus the lingering threat of a certain Terry Silver...

In this, the Knights and Pawns universe, Chozen did feel some kind of way seeing Kumiko and Daniel together, and he hates Terry on sight. But he and his wife go back to their lives, have puppies and have the kind of love and friendship that gets built over decades of companionship. There's simply something destined about both damiko and silverusso, in my view, that cannot be prevented. I really would have hoped for Chozen and Kumiko to sincerely move on and find love on their own terms, but that is not canon, so it creeps into my fic too, always. Last but not least - Johnny Lawrence and John Kreese also have a place in each other's and Daniel's life in every universe.

It is what it is, Nonnie, I am so sorry.

[firewoodwander]

What might you think about Kix/Scorch? —MBW

Not a clue, frankly

@mandalorianbrainweasel

Wish you would write…

Kix doesn’t really like medical facilities.

He likes that they’re better stocked (somewhat), that they’re better prepared (sometimes) and that they’re a lot more organised than what he’s used to (almost always). But he’s a field medic and a trooper, and he never really got far enough past his fears of physical examinations on Kamino to feel completely, one hundred per cent settled walking through halls that look so similar.

Still, that doesn’t mean he thinks the dramatics his fellow brothers kick up are warranted.

“What’s a pretty thing like you doing in a dive like this?” the commando asks, grinning very winningly for a boy with a black eye and a freshly re-opened split lip.

Kix looks up and around and at the inoffensive blankness of the GAR Medical HQ, the dozen screens on standby around them, and the gleamingly clean equipment, and then slowly back to the RC on the bed.

“Pick that one up on your downtime, did you?”

Twelve-sixty-two chuckles a little and rubs at his bleeding knuckles. “From a brother—just wanted to test it out for once, I guess. Not that I don’t think the situation applies.”

He punctuates that with a wink that is not wholly ruined by his battered state. Kix has certainly seen worse, and certainly been hit on by worse.

(He’s definitely including the time Rex, high on meds and unable to move anything other than his right arm, had made a very brazen pass at him in front of half the company, including Skywalker, to absolutely everyone’s embarrassment and glee.

No, Kix isn’t going to let it go. Ever.)

From an RC, in the grand scheme of things, it’s rather flattering.

“Congratulations,” Kix tells him dryly. “I can confirm that your brother lied, and that the line is terrible. You’re not getting out any faster than it’ll take for me to clear you. And you are aware that I saw you try to fight an AZI droid twenty minutes ago, yes?” He gestures to the black eye and grimaces. “It didn’t exactly help your set up.”

Twelve-sixty-two shrugs as if he knew this would have been the outcome, but clearly thought it was worth the try. He’s an interesting character. Kix eyes him almost unintentionally while he gazes off, smiling slightly to himself and letting Kix get on with the formwork on his datapad.

“The name’s Scorch, by the way. Didn’t catch yours…”

“Kix,” Kix allows. “Please don’t tell me how you earned that name. I can take a guess.”

Scorch pouts a little, for show, then chuckles again. “See a lot of my kind of crazy around here?”

Kix does laugh, then. “I know my fair share of wild-spirited idiots. And they don’t have anything as serious as that shell of yours to protect them from themselves, either.”

Flashing that grin once again, Scorch leans back on the diagnostic bed, musculature on show, in what Kix assumes is supposed to be a flirtatious manner. “Commando training has its perks.”

“Indeed,” Kix hums, and then fetches a supply of antiseptic wipes, bandages and bacta gel.

To his credit, Scorch doesn’t squirm so much as Kix patches up his last little scrapes. The broken leg is still quite severely bruised, but it’s clearing, and apparently mobile enough for poorly executed escape attempts. Kix reckons if he hadn’t been so impinged, or the medcentre wasn’t staffed by a hundred perfectly capable soldiers who are very used to commando antics, Scorch would have made it outside with no hassle at all.

Perhaps Kix should be grateful the rest of his squad aren’t here.

“You wanna get a drink some time?” Scorch asks abruptly. Kix blinks and looks up from the patch he’s applying to the man’s left side floating ribs. “I know a couple of good places… Or the clone bar’s good, too.”

“Promise you won’t try to elbow me in the solar plexus, next time?” Kix asks, and Scorch beams, looking not a mite repentent.

“Of course. We can save a round of sparring for another time.”

An interesting character, Kix thinks. Hopefully the good kind of interesting, too, because somehow against all good sense, he opens his mouth and says—

“Perhaps, maybe I could. But you’d have to be paying.”

And he doesn’t even regret it that much, after.

[hosticaaa]

Anonymous 𝖜𝖍𝖎𝖘𝖕𝖊𝖗𝖊𝖉 ; Do you think Dabi will live or die?

Honestly,  anon,  I'm  super  bias  about  it, so I might be totally wrong  but  I  think  (hope)  he  will  live  and  I  think  the  fact  he  hasn't  died  yet  is  a  good  sign. When  I  really  think  about  it  there  is  actually  no  reason  why  Dabi  should  die.  Taking  aside  the  stupid  missing-the-point  moral  posturing,  the  other  "logic"  I've  seen  for  why  he  should  die  has  already  been  invalidated  by  the  canon.  As  a  child  Dabi  was  cremated  to  such an  extent  that  it  would  be  impossible  to  not  only  live  through  it  but  to  actually  have  his  body  reconstructed,  and  yet  thats  what  happened.  Thats  as  far  as  real  world  logic  goes.  But  the  logic  of  MHA  being  set  like  150+  years  in  the  future  and  the  presence  of  supernatural  powers  negates  this. On  top  of  this  we  have  the  heavy  themes  and  tropes  present  in  Dabi's  character  which,  imo,  are  important  to  Dabi  "living"  through  both  of  his  self  immolations.  He  is  based  heavily  on  the  idea  of  the  Revenant  Zombie  and  the Onryo,  which  I  talked  about  in  this  post,  along  with  the  fact  he  parallels  Frankenstein's  Monster. 

So  in  a  way  I  think  its  very  much  suggested  Dabi  is  and  perhaps  always  has  been  some  type  of  pesky  undead.  This  isn't  way  out  with  the  presence  of  the  Nomu,  given  undead  bioweapons  are  exactly  what  the  Nomu  are  so  if  the  MHA  world  can  have  that,  theres  no  reason  it  can't  have  a  functioning  Revenant.  It  kinda  just  makes  Dabi  a  kind  of  proto-nomu.  Garaki  does  say  that  while  he  was  able  to  reconstruct  most  of  Dabi's  body  ( We  can  only  thank  whatever  medical  advancements  humanity  has  made  in  the  last  150  years  for  how/why  he  was  able  to  do  this )  he  ultimately  failed  and  Dabi  was  dead  but  he  somehow  "came  back  to  life"  and  that  it  was  obvious  it  was  Dabi's  burning  grudge  that  brought  him  back  and  has  kept  him  alive.  

So  we  have  that.  Which  means  I  can't  see  why  Dabi  couldn't  live  through  this.  So  far  he  has,  so  far  he's  still  alive.  The  last  time  we  saw  the  Todoroki's  Enji  and  Natuso  were  using  their  bodies  as  shields  to  protect  Dabi  from  further  harm  when  the  Twice  Clone  Army  were  closing  in.  This  suggests  Dabi's  still  alive.  And  if  Dabi's  body  could  be  restored  after  his  first  burning  why  couldn't  it  be  restored  now ? Theres  nothing  saying  it  couldn't  so  overall  theres  nothing  really  saying  Dabi  should  or  has  to  die  and  that  he  can't  come  back  from  his  current  condition. 

My  only  concern  is  that  the  tropes  of the  Revenant  and  the  Onryo  often  see  them  finally  "dying" or "moving on"  to the afterlife once  they've  settled  their  grudge /  did  whatever  they  had  to  do  to  find  peace. Thats  when  the  spirit  finally  moves  on  in  most  portrayals  of  them  in  popular  media.  This  could  be  Dabi's  case  too  but  I  don't  know  that  Hori  intends  to  throw  it  that  way.  I  think  he's  planning  to  invert  the  ending  of  Frankenstein  and  rather  have  the  monster  and  creator  heal  from  the  suffering  they've  inflicted  on  each  other and have neither die in the process  because  I  really  think  its  Hori's  intention  to  "save"  the  LoV .  (  Not  just  Dabi  but  all  of  them  and  current  canon  is  looking  real  good  for  this,  and  NO,  I  don't  believe  Himiko  is  dead  or  going  to  die  either.  The  way  Hori  set  her  story  and her  "redemption"  up  would  turn  her  dying  into  a  really  ugly  cliche  and  so  far  I  have  faith  in  him  to  avert  that  too. )   

Its  a  way  more  compelling  and  satisfying  story  than  "Villains  bad,  they  all  must  die  cause  villains  bad"  cause  thats  really  not  what  the  stories  about.  I  feel  like  if  they  were  going  to  die  we  would  have  obvious  and  explicit  confirmation  that  they're  dead  already  as  was  the  case  with  AFO.  The  stark  difference  in  the  climax  of  AFO's  battle  and  the  way  we  had  his  story  and  motives  shown  to  us,  showing  us  that  he  was  rather  NOT  a  very  sympathetic  character  and  was  more  or  less  born  a  monster,  and  the  way  he  was  finished  is  another  good  sign  that  Hori  doesn't  intend  to  just  kill  off  Dabi,  Himiko,  Tomura  and  I  hope  not  Spinner  either. Surely  if  he  did  it  would  have  happened  already. 

[goshdangronpa]

"Screw it, Danganronpa Vampire AU" pt. 1 (Trigger Happy Havoc)

So, Danganronpa is my favorite video game series. My favorite book series is Anno Dracula, an alternate timeline created by Kim Newman in which Bram Stoker's Count not only survives the events of the novel, but becomes king of England and reveals the existence of vampires to the world. Newman's books explore the ramifications across world history, with real figures (Queen Victoria, the Red Baron, Winston Churchill) and even characters crossing over from other fictions (Inspector Lestrade, James Bond) being vampires thenselves.

Rereading the terrific first book naturally got my mind mixing these two fixations. How might Danganronpa's characters be different in an AU where turning isn't unusual and many vampires live alongside, and sometimes in tension with, the "warm"? I'm gonna write a few posts, starting with the cast of Trigger Happy Havoc

Aoi Asahina: swimming is hardly a problem for vampires, who don't need to hold their breath. It's all the more impressive that a warm girl like Aoi can beat them in races, winning her an Ultimate slot. She'll never turn - she loves the flavor of high-calorie snacks too much to settle for an all-blood diet.

Byakuya Togami: warm for now - he believes vampirism is the natural choice for supreme human beings like himself, but he'd rather not be a teen for the rest of his life. Unfortunately for him, that means Genocide Jack can still drink his blood, and Toko can simultaneously live out a vampire master/human servant fantasy. Proof that the warm can be just as cold as the dead.

Celestia Ludenberg: claims to be a vampire of Countess Elizabeth Bathory's bloodline, but isn't even a vampire. She sure wants to be, though, and fantasizes just as much as her normal DR version about living in a castle with a harem of vampire boys.

Chihiro Fujisaki: warm, yet a firm believer in vampire supremacy. Even in regular DR, she believes there are two types of people in this dog-eat-dog world: the strong and the weak. She wants Mondo to turn her so she can be among the strong. Something odd happens in her murder, causing her spirit to wander the school before settling in a laptop. From inside the computer, she manually codes a presentation of herself - not AI, but the two Chihiro.

Hifumi Yamada: honestly, he probably wouldn't be that different. I do like the idea of him becoming Celestia's drudge, manipulated into believing he must serve her even though she doesn't have any vampire powers to actually enchant him like that.

Junko Enoshima: the rare vampire who shows up on film, but her true nature is a well-kept secret. In this version of THH, it really is Junko who gets impaled on the Spears of Gungnir (sorry, Mukuro fans). However, she designed them to miss her chest and heart. She spends the rest of the game recovering with supernatural healing, fueled by feeding off the blood of victims and executed blackeneds. More dangerous still, she's an energy vampire who feeds on other people's despair. If ever Dracula had an heir, it was her.

Kiyotaka Ishimaru: despite his father turning vampire as a means of advancing his political career, he remains warm. His friendship with Mondo challenges his negative bias against vampires. "Ishimondo" remains as bizarre and inexplicable as in the game - he's no longer fully warm, though a gross attempt at drinking blood suggests he didn't somehow become fully a vampire either.

Kyoko Kirigiri: tell me this girl wouldn't be a vampire. She refuses to share her turning experience, which may have something to do with her perpetually gloved hands. Her nature enhances her perception of small details, an asset to her detective work. However, the transactional nature of vampirism strongly influences her worldview, making her sensitive when she feels like others aren't giving her as much as she's giving them.

Leon Kuwata: another character who likely wouldn't be too different. In besting and slaying Sayaka, he'd mainly serve in the narrative to prove that the warm can be just as physically powerful and lethally dangerous as vampires.

Makoto Naegi: warm and perfectly ordinary as ever. He's a little nervous around vampires, having not met many before. He warms up to them as he gets to know them, especially Kyoko, who gives much of her blood to him after he nearly dies in his botched execution. His first time in a bloodgiving interaction gives him the power and vitality to defeat the mastermind, and his spreading of hope to his peers deprives Junko of the despair that gives her such great power. If Junko is Dracula, Makoto is the sun.

Mondo Owada: turned vampire so he could be even gnarlier and stronger, though his brother Daiya chose to remain warm. He became reckless like so many young vampires and would've been killed once had Daiya not sacrificed himself for him. He tries to give Chihiro what she wants, but her twisted views of vampiric masculinity unintentionally hit him where it hurts. The resulting mental break makes him lose control of his feeding, draining her to death.

Sakura Ogami: fully warm. Even with their enhanced strength, all but the fiercest elders would fall in battle with her, more than earning her the title of Ultimate Martial Artist. Jealous rivals speculate that she allows vampires to feed on her so some of their power can transfer to her in the process.

Sayaka Maizono: turning vampire was one of the many choices she felt compelled to make for the sake of her music career. If she can't age, she can be a teen idol forever. This version really is an esper. A silver knife to the chest kills her just as good as in the game.

Toko Fukawa: her split identity was always too cartoony to really fit any real condition or disorder. Here, she's a halfa, Blade-style, compartmentalizing her human and vampire sides into Toko and Genocide Jack. Of course it's not healthy, as Jack tends to kill those she feeds on (cute boys are her preference). Even that changes when she meets a certain girl in Towa City ...

Yasuhiro Hagakure: warm, but a Hope's Peak research team infused him as a child with the blood of multiple psychic vampires until he became a greater psychic than all of them. Otherwise as chipper and unserious as ever.

And Monokuma can be a little bat. Monokomori.

[nalyra-dreaming]

what's your theory on modern-day loumand, the state/dynamic of their relationship? obvs we can't take the 'love of my life' thing at face value, something's off. it looks to me like armand's altering louis' mood at times, kinda mentally 'sedating' him when he gets agitated, and i buy the idea that he's altered key areas of louis' memory too, though not with bad intentions per se. I don't think louis is a prisoner or that he's being forced into the interview, but the vibe's still very off.

Hey nonny! Ok, so... for that I need to expand on my thoughts a bit I think. Because imho it depends heavily on where we are in Modern Dubai.

So. Neither the Mayfair Witches, nor the Vampire Chronicles can do without the Talamasca (for a lot of reasons), and MF has already introduced Ciprien Grieve. For that reason alone, and the fact that Rolin Jones has mentioned TtotBT, I think David has to be... somewhere. (In fact one of the servants was given an explicit shot and that actor would fit well with the description. Just... an idea though.) We see Armand on the phone in the last episode, telling someone "not long now". I believe he refers to the interview, because most of what Louis may have wanted to tell is told (what Daniel now drags out of him may be a different story). Louis called the reason for the interview "truth and reconciliation" in episode 1... however that's probably only a part of it, and might not even refer to the interview itself. Season 2 will most certainly include some kind of... version (memory/reference/revival/resurrection) of the Devil's Minion (imho). And of course Paris, but there was this comment that season 2 would be a lot of "sitting and talking".

Back to David. David is a Candomble Priest in the books, and yes, he can conjure spirits, and use spells after turning. I don't think they actually need Merrick as a character for the story. In the book Merrick Louis wants to see Claudia's ghost. I talked about it why I think it fits so well, but this setting also pays a lot into a mixed Trinity Gate / St. Elisabeths / post Rue Royale setup.

Because after Merrick, the Talamasca make Lestat, David, Louis (and Merrick) leave Rue Royale.

Now, if you only twinge that setting just a bit, and mix it with the hideaways Armand creates with Louis while they live together for a long time... voilà. Imho.

And that, in return, says a lot about their relationship.

Louis and Armand have... settled. Lestat is somewhere in a coma. David and Louis are nice to each other, but David could never be anything Louis really needs. (I think it's David Armand is on the phone with). Louis is suffering, still, always, tortured by everything that happened. Armand is very aware that Louis is suicidal (and he addresses that, in the show), and that is why he says to David that he thinks Louis will try soon.

The time with Armand has dampened the pain somewhat, but with everything that's happened in the meantime... it just doesn't go away. Armand tries to alleviate the burden in his own... errr special way. Better to have Louis angry at Lestat than yearning, right. Better to feel the attempt to kill him was justified than not. Better to feel that he was right to escape. Better to feel that escaping feel good, than... not. Better to make Claudia seem cruel at times, than to make it hurt even worse than it already does. Better to make Louis calm down than let the pain break out.

I think there is a lot of love between Armand and Louis in Modern Dubai. I do think that Louis has forgiven Armand most of it (though he probably harbors some dark thoughts/feelings still)... there's one of Marius' paintings on the wall, there has been some kind of reconciliation, and so Louis got to know quite a lot as well, if only through the blood. The comment re the love of his life... that was for Daniel. Because Louis is trying to reconcile Armand and Daniel, imho. And no, I don't think Louis is a prisoner either. He is hiding away, away from the world. He is withdrawing. Dictating his will, his testament.

:)

All this to say... I think Louis and Armand really care for each other a lot. Louis tries to reconcile Armand and Daniel, because he does intend to commit suicide, as Armand has hinted at. And Armand... actually tries to protect him. And doesn't quite know how.