#the djinn dilemma

[the-badger-mole]

After All This Time...

This week marked the end of a long journey. I posted the final chapter of The Djinn Dilemma, a fic that I stared in 2012. I wish I had some explanation on why this story in particular took so long, but the truth is I don't know why. I have started and finished several other fics- a few of them quite long- in the time that I started Dilemma, but it (and another fic that I have left lingering for a ridiculous number of years at this point) was never far from my mind.

Writing this fic has given me a newfound empathy for writers of stories I'd fallen in love with but then were never completed. It's always been my attitude that I'm not paying these writers for the stories I'm reading and although I might get annoyed at being left hanging, I can't make demands. Now, though, I get it. Sometimes it's not some big world shaking life change that leads an author to leave a story. Sometimes it's something small. Sometimes you just lose steam. Sometimes you lose inspiration (writer's block is a rabid beast of a bear). Sometimes you get a new job and you think you'll have time to write, but you get home and you're just too tired. It wasn't necessarily any of these things for me, but I understand now how easy it is to lose track of time and then to look up one day and realize the last time you updated that fic was six years ago.

If you're one of those writers, I just want to let you know that whatever reason you stopped, it's fine. Fanfic is supposed to be fun. It's an escape. A hobby. If you outgrow it before you finish your opus, it's okay. But, if you want to come back to it years after the fact, that's amazing. I'm pretty sure the entire original audience for this fic has moved on, but I'm still glad that I did it because at the end of the day, our fanfics are ultimately for ourselves, and I really wanted to know how this story ended.

The Djinn Dilemma

[hyatoro]

Sinbad Sub Headcanons

Sinbad

Part 2 of a request. You can find Kouen’s part here. 

SFW

Sinbad is a generous lover but because of everything that’s happened to him you can tell it’s all very surface level. Sure he can get up in people’s spaces and charm their pants off with his natural and hard earned charisma, but when it comes to his genuine relationships (as like a person) the ones that know him best have stuck with him even after seeing his ugly sides. 

How he loves and lets himself be loved can vary depending on what phase of Sinbad we’re talking about, but I’ll be sticking with the Sinbad we meet in early Magi. Not his prequel, and not late game Sinbad, though those are all sides of him. He is very welcome to public displays of affection, especially during festivals, but he hopes that his partner understands time and place, like when he has important meetings to arrange business deals. 

In contrast to Kouen, you wouldn’t need to be necessarily on his level djinn-wise. He just needs someone with a strong will to reign him in. He’s not as concerned about marrying another position of power. You’d likely still be somewhat of a power couple, since everyone he keeps around him is useful in one way or another. If we’re talking about having a relationship that has dom/sub stuff happening, then yeah. If he went to some red-light district and got dominated that’d be more a one time thing.

Your characterization is more open ended. As long as you find a way to make conversation with him and prove yourself, then you’re in. It’ll start as a fascination, and then evolve into an infatuation. Which honestly, he’d lie to himself about it because he doesn’t actually want to get distracted from his goals, which is what he thinks of it at the beginning. A distraction. Then he convinces himself that because you’re such a useful person that he’s just getting close to you to keep you in his arsenal. But then eventually he’d fold and admit that he’s weak for you. 

NSFW

Maybe he finally spills the beans when you corner him about why he’s been so annoying. “Why did you schedule me for so many meetings? All of which actually already have you in them so I don’t know why you would need me there.” 

Nervous sweating. “UH-”

He’s been in this wild mental state of “God she’s so hot and amazing and I’d be ok if she slapped me man i wish she would lol wouldn't that be funny” and “Haha eyes on the prize. Wake up and grind king.” 

So when you have him pushed up against a wall he’s frozen. And you already know he’s more than capable of just bolting if he wanted to. Then you realize exactly what weird emotions he’s feeling so you make the first move. 

A knowing look crosses your face and he gulps as you lean closer. You’re bent so that you’re looking up at him and he’s frozen like prey caught by a predator. And it’s kinda nice. 

You grab him by the collar of his shirt and whisk him away, and he can’t help but follow. Tired of dealing with his mental dilemma he surrendered the decision, the control, to you. 

As seen in my bondage headcanon for him, he needs a lot of trust. And that applies to all of this really. You may point out that dom/sub relationships need that in the first place. You’d be surprised. 

Of course he gives off his authoritative aura that exudes leadership, but he’s also just a silly goofy man sometimes. So it’s much easier to reign him in and transition to that dom/sub dynamic whenever, as opposed to Kouen where he has a hard line between private and public. 

Sinbad is down to get messy anywhere. 

Does not like choking. Is okay with gags if he’s not tied up. Basically if you want to tie him up you have to be thorough in making sure he’s comfortable. He doesn’t like anything around his neck like a collar or a choker because of his slave days. 

He likes edging and overstimulation. Testing his will and stamina gets him going and you can easily make him go crazy with little effort, or a lot. 

Kind of a masochist so he likes pain, but not to the point where you’re like actively trying to cause damage. It’s not like he hasn’t had worse but he doesn’t think getting beat is sexy. Spanking, pinching, slapping is all good. 

[beevean]

I find it very interesting (A.K.A. annoying) how the idw comic tries defending this whole "sonic never kills" nonsense by bringing up every bad person who's turned around. But they also blatantly ignore all the times Sonic did kill or was fine with letting someone die

Dark gaia

Time eater

King Arthur

Solaris

Erazor Djinn (eternal damnation)

Ifrit

Captain behemoth

Bio Lizard

Explicitly tells Infinite he's going to kill him

The Ifrit (the one from Sonic rivals 2)

Captain whisker

Black Doom (Shadow was the one who finished him off, but the point is Sonic has no problem with other people killing either)

The idw comic's writing only barely functions if you blatantly ignore everything outside of it, and even then, it's still extremely iffy.

Secret Rings is canon to IDW, btw. Sonic had a flashback to the events of that game in #16.

"Everyone deserves a chance to be free, even the evil doctors," Sonic says after he yeeted Erazor Djinn in lava :)

Also yeah, some of these are creatures whose level of sapience is questionable... but not all of them. Solaris never speaks in his full form, but Mephiles is explicitly his mind, so we know that he's a cunning, sadistic deity. Sonic slashed King Arthur fully believing he was a real person, and he did act like one. Also Sonic is the very first person Shadow meets in his game, and the very first thing he asks of him is to kill all the aliens in Westopolis, with the goal ofc of reaching the "big boss" if you go through the Pure Hero route. Again, the sapience of the Black Arms is questionable, but those are still living creatures who might as well be slaves for all he knows. Doesn't care! He'll kill them all!

Sonic doesn't have a rule when it comes to his enemies: he's not a pacifist, he's not the Punisher. He either listens to them, or cuts to the chase: it depends on how unrepentant they come across. The very idea of him having a "principle" about it is ridiculous. Sonic doesn't have principles, he doesn't follow rules, he does what he wants to do.

I get the moral dilemma around Mr. Tinker: he's a blank slate genuinely willing to do good, so does he deserve to be punished for crimes he didn't commit? I don't know why Flynn felt the need to insert such a moral dilemma in a book that he himself has said is for kids and thus can't properly explore the concept of identity and sins, but whatever.

Problem is that, somewhere along the line, they started to treat him not as a brain damaged version of Eggman who might as well be a different person, but as "Eggman reformed", which is insane and even creepy from Sonic. It's just absurd that IDW Sonic based his entire moral code, that everyone has the chance to become a better person, after he witnessed his war criminal of an archnemesis simply getting brain damage, and somehow thinking that this amnesiac personality reflected Eggman's real ego. What the fuck.

Oh, and then this ridiculous shit lmao:

Not only Sonic would never play villain apology for Eggman of all people, but those examples are nothing but proof of how selfish Eggman is. He never cared about protecting the planet because of some hidden depths. My man spells his reasoning out very clearly:

But now Sonic passes off those strained alliances as some good deeds and proof that Eggman is not so bad after all. "Grade-A jerk", huh? Is that how you describe the guy who broke the planet into pieces and was willing to destroy the spacetime continuum for the sake of killing you? What's next, is Black Doom with his plans of turning humanity into cattle "a big meanie"? Why are you trying so hard, man?

Ah, and then he has to resort to guilt tripping Shadow about his own "crimes" (read: being forced to follow Gerald's programming) to get his way :) piece of shit who pretends to be morally superior when in reality he's just an awful person.

[margonite-seer]

The Tragic Love Story of Zohaqan & Nakis, or: a rant about the unnecessarily lonely tormented grief of the storm djinn and how to fix his broken heart

So yesterday I finished reading one of the best long fanfictions I've ever found. If you are interested, here is the link. But by the gods, it made me sad that ANet never continued the story of this canon inter-species homosexual couple.

Down below, I put my own ideas on how their story could end.

But to provide the context:

A powerful male djinn lived on mainland Elona, around the Elon Riverlands. He was not only attuned to one element, as most djinns are, but to three: water, air, and earth. His name was Zohaqan.

Some unknown time before the beginning of the events of Living World Season 4, he fell in love with a male human. His name was Nakis.

Something or, more probably, someone, made the Riverlands undesirable, maybe even dangerous for them. And so, from their dilemma, we have one letter, which Zohaqan left in a cave:

"My darling Nakis, my tender Nakis, my clever Nakis…you're right. Let's go. We'll flee tomorrow."

Eventually, they found their new home on the eastern coast of the northern Sandswept isle. There, they left their own marking. They burnt an image of themselves into a tree on the beach. With it, also their initials, Z + N, in a heart.

Their happy life wouldn't last long, though.

The nearby Inquest somehow managed to capture Nakis.

And eventually killed him, presumably during experiments in Rata Primus.

Poor Nakis's prayer beads would later be found inside the main complex. It is not known how Zohaqan learned of his death. Maybe he stormed the facility Nakis was being held in and found him dead there, most probably from experiments on the scarab plague. Or killed by a mutated specimen. Or turned into a corrupted subject himself. Or maybe, given how magical djinns are, Zohaqan just felt it.

But it is definite that it absolutely broke the powerful djinn. By the time the Commander made it to the islands, Zohaqan had turned mercilessly hateful towards all mortals. In his deep grief, he created large violent storms that threatened everyone on the islands. This is known in the game as the "Gathering Storms" meta event.

Blinded by rage and sorrow, he didn't let anyone near his cave which was very close to his and Nakis's tree.

During the meta event, he would scream:

"There shall be no mercy for your trespass!"

"Heartless fools! You will pay in blood!"

"You mortals feign civility, yet speak nothing but treachery and lies!"

The Stormcaller, as he was nicknamed, was confronted in his own cave at the end of the meta event.

One of the last things he said before he was defeated was:

"They stole from me, and now you barge in here with empty demands? You know nothing! You ARE nothing!"

Some Olmakhan say he was destroyed for good. Some say he is powerful enough to return and continue his grief-stricken rage. Depending on how you understand the canon or non-canon repeating of the meta event, anything could be true.

Either way, his story never had any real closure.

Zohaqan either died alone and was metaphorically spat on, with no memorial or grave for either him or Nakis.

Or, he is now stuck in a loop of living in tormenting grief, getting beaten to a pulp, laying dormant for a while, and then living in grief again. And that's such a horrible horrible fate.

The Commander helped Efi, an Olmakhan cub, with her grief of losing her mother.

I'm asking: Why nobody helped Zohaqan?

Much worse people than him have been redeemed and forgiven in this game's story...

Why not him? He deserves it just as much.

Now finally to the theories and my ideas on what to do next:

First things first, we don't know what exactly happened to Nakis. Or where his body is. However, the closest we have to a hint is what I mentioned about him getting turned into a corrupted subject himself. And I could be simply reading too much into this, but: in the southern meta event of the Sandswept Isles, you fight in The Specimen Chamber. Two out of six possible mutated bosses spawn, all of them results of experiments with Elder Dragon magic.

Five of them have names. The last one is simply "Subject Beta".

Subject Beta is a Branded. A male human Branded.

You already know what I am hinting at...

Moving on, there is one more object related to Zohaqan. Under certain circumstances, one of the drops from the event where you defeat him is called "Smashed Vase". Its description says "A small vase, reminiscent of work from Vabbi."

Could it be what Zohaqan was bound to after he and Nakis fled the mainland? If so, does it mean smashing the vase released Zohaqan's spirit all over the islands? Or was the vase smashed before the event?

Lastly, how to fix Zohaqan's broken spirit?

As I mentioned, he is a very powerful djinn. I have never encountered any djinn in the game who could command two elements, let alone three. An Olmakhan elder also thinks that he's powerful enough to come back and return to his mad rampage.

But I do not blame him in the slightest for mourning in such a violent way.

Zohaqan should be redeemed and mainly, given his peace.

Who knows how long the djinns live? How deep their love can go?

However, he sure is suffering alone.

And I wish he wasn't. I wish the writers looked at his story again and gave him a proper closure.

He deserves it.

I, personally, can see three ways this could potentially go in the future:

1: Zohaqan joins the Olmakhan and/or fights with us to destroy the Inquest for good

A friend of mine got me thinking about this, and honestly, it's perfect. Zohaqan is an elemental being. He's commanding entire storms. He shouldn't have to be necessarily human enough to better avoid conflict and soul-rotting revenge at all costs.

But instead of blind rage, he could have taken the years since the second episode of season 4 to calm down just a little and finally not be an enemy of the Olmakhan. I am sure they would be understanding enough to accept him. Instead of putting the innocent in danger, he could finally, after all those years, have a goal, an ambition now: take revenge on the ones who brutally murdered his love, not on simply everybody near.

Zohaqan is voiced by Tommie Earl Jenkins, who voiced Blish, Cloudseeker, or the Wolverine Spirit. That being said, quite recent characters. Shouldn't be that big of a stretch to have him return to this role, too, no?

Still. The Inquest are one of the few major enemy groups that haven't been dealt with yet. It'll surely need quite a big story arc to destroy them for good. The Commander will need all the help they can get.

Why not the Olmakhan, still mourning their lost ones, together with Zohaqan, the heartbroken yet mighty and powerful three-elemental djinn, with revenge on his mind?

After he finally sees the Inquest are no more, he could consider Nakis avenged. And could finally move on with his life as not a threat to everybody around him, though still forever scarred.

2: Zohaqan puts up a fight one last time and is finally and definitely put out of his misery

The saddest of the three ideas.

We did not get any definite answer to what happened to Zohaqan after the end of the meta event. So, even if the writers want him dead and never redeemed, why not make it final?

Just destroy him to the point where his soul simply ceases to be, as the djinns seem to work in the way I assume.

That's better than living in centuries of torment.

3: Zohaqan and Nakis find peace in the afterlife, somehow

I doubt the djinns have an afterlife when they die. They're basically sentient elementals, after all. And though they have souls, could they be ghosts? Have there ever been ghost djinns in either of the two games? I don't think so.

But humans do have an afterlife either in the Underworld or as ghosts in the mortal realm.

Couldn't Zohaqan somehow find a way to the Mists? Or couldn't Nakis's spirit-ghost somehow be bounded to his and Zohaqan's tree so he could be with him for centuries?

If Belinda could infuse herself into Marjory's katana, why can't Nakis stay bound to the tree and use its life essence to be able to communicate and move around, too?

Would that even be possible if, given the worst-case scenario, Nakis's spirit is still trapped in the Domain of the Lost?

____

And this is the end of my rambling essay. I'm very emotional about these two poor guys as they have been my perhaps favorite queer GW2 couple ever since I learned about them a year or two ago.

Their love was so unexpected, so rare. Yet they decided to live so far away from their homes just to be together.

Only to be torn apart by violent death.

And only to have almost zero backstory, no definite answer as to what happened to the bereaved, and no answer to whether the spirit of the dead one is already in peace in the Underworld, or not.

I hope these two will get a closure sometime.

[superthatguy62]

Villain Talk: Xande

Final Fantasy has a smorgasbord of villains in its roster. You have the morally complex such as emperors who seek to unshackle humanity from the gods or whatever, to the intelligent, nihilistic and possessing a wicked sense of humor to even more simpler cases like a man that is actually a tree stuffed full of evil spirits. However, if one were to look at the villains as a whole, who would be the weakest link? The bad egg? The one that isn’t up to snuff? With such a strong set of rouges, surely it must be difficult to deter It’s Xande. I like the guy, but it’s Xande.

General

Xande suffers, more than anything, from the format of the game, in that it isn’t very story-oriented. Final Fantasy 3 would be akin to a monster of the week show; one with the occasional plot development until the season finale. Xande is basically the Dr. Tomoe or Rita Repulsa to the main characters’ Sailor Scouts or Power Rangers respectively, except that they don’t show him sending the monsters and also a significant chunk of those monsters may not even be his.

Overall, Xande suffers from three issues as a villain:

Lack Of Impact

Final Fantasy villains usually have some major impact or effect on the world in some fashion. Chaos and his four fiends messed with the elemental crystals, throwing the world into ruin (among other things). The Palamecia Empire laid waste to the rest of the world. Golbez used Baron’s forces to attack its neighbors and steal their crystals, alongside other attacks. ExDeath is a war criminal in Galuf’s world and begins tossing places into the Void when he gains power over it. Most of the characters in VI are victimized in some way by the Gestahl Empire and things only get worse when Kekfa ascends to godhood. And then, there is Xande. It’d be a lie to say that Xande didn’t impact his world; He caused the Great Earthquake after all. But, overall Xande somehow still feels like he lacks impact despite it. The Great Earthquake causes problems, but most of them are easily reversible. Additionally, most of the problems it caused were indirect rather than being intentional on Xande’s part. The surface is even worse as that is totally fine after it is revived. To illustrate this, here is each boss in the game with a ranking: X means that Xande intentionally sent them (or is implied to), E means that they were a side-effect of the earthquake, meaning that Xande only inadvertently had a hand in their creation, and I means that there is no clear evidence that they were involved with Xande. Land Turtle – X (?) Djinn – E Giant Rat – I (The Giant Rat is guarding the Nepto Dragon’s eye, but I don’t recall any evidence that Xande or the earthquake made it evil). Medusa – X Gutsco/Salamander – I Hein – E Kraken – X Goldor – I Garuda – I (There is no evidence that Xande resurrected Garuda.) Hecantoncheir – I (Hecantoncheir’s dialogue suggests that it is the fang’s guardian,) Titan - X

This count is not counting the Eureka or Summon bosses. It is also not counting Doga and Unei, who fight the party explicitly to prepare them for Xande. As one can see, Xande has his own equivalent to the four fiends. But whereas Golbez and Garland’s fiends actually accomplish significant tasks, only half of Xande’s fiends do so: Medusa causing the Tower of Owen’s furnace to go haywire and Kraken attacking the water crystal, forcing the water maidens to seal it. During the story, two of the Warriors of Lights’ allies sacrifice themselves, but only one stays dead. Everything else is either a side effect of Xande’s messing about or not even connected to him to begin with. This is partially a side effect of FFIII’s desired narrative: A rather light-hearted adventure with not much of an overall plot. Thus, most of the issues on the Floating Continent are reversible, the Water Crystal dilemma aside the surface is mostly ok and the only major defined threat to the world pops up at the very end.

Lack of Presence

In a different way from the previous section. Final Fantasy antagonists usually make multiple appearances in their games, usually in some way that gives them a major impact. Garland works in a twist villain/book ends fashion. The Emperor already has his army and warmachines and even baits the party into fighting in his colosseum. Golbez started the trend of villains confronting the main characters multiple times over the course of the game, which ExDeath and Kefka continue.

And then, again, there’s Xande. It should be noted that Xande is a trend-setter in that he’s the first Final Fantasy villain with something approaching a fleshed out backstory; Garland’s backstory is vague and The Emperor’s is only given the questionably-canon “Final Fantasy 2: Labyrinth of Nightmares” novel. Xande’s motive for why he’s doing what he’s doing is actually explained within the game itself. In spite of this aspect of Xande being fleshed out, the rest can’t be said for the rest of him. Xande’s only appearance is at the end of the game, first gloating about how the Warriors of the Light have fallen for his trap, and then being fought. Even Garland, by virtue of being a twist villain, actually appears prior to confronting him in the past. Xande is pretty much an outlier in never making an appearance prior to the final battle. While it isn’t impossible for villains to make a strong impression despite a lack of screentime, Xande doesn’t have that either. He’s treated as just another boss, complete with having the standard boss theme. Given the context of the era, it kinda does still work as a fake out; FFII only had one boss theme after all. But given that II did toy around with giving the Emperor his own boss theme, and the Cloud of Darkness has its boss theme, Xande kinda draws the short end of the stick. To give the devs a bit of credit (or maybe not), a design doc in the Ultimania suggests that Xande was intended to get his own musical theme, but it didn’t pan out.

Lack of Connection

Final Fantasy has a habit of making their hero-villain dynamics personal. The Warriors of Light found themselves locked into a time loop with Garland, constantly killing each other. Firion, Maria and Guy lost their home and their family to the Empire, most notably their brother Leon. Cecil loses his position as leader of the Red Wings to Golbez, who has the king replaced with one of his own men and constantly toys with him, to say nothing of the reveal. ExDeath was the personal nemesis of Galuf and his team, and Bartz happens to be the son of one of those team members. While not everyone was personally victimized by the Gestahl Empire, a majority of the party were affected by it in some way, shape or form. And then, yet again, there is Xande. If there is a question of which hero/villain combo has the least connection to each other, it’d be hard to beat Xande and the Onion Knights.. Now, that’s not to say that none exists: Xande is responsible for the deaths of Aria, Doga and Unei at the end of the day (indeed, Opera Omnia leans into that to explain why Onion Knight is hesitant to use Xande’s dimensional coordinates i.e. use him in the party). But due to the nature of III’s plot, Xande doesn’t really have any sort of ‘fated relationship’ with them like the other protagonists. You could argue that them being Doga and Unei’s proteges makes up for it, but that only happens at the last fourth of the game. For all intents and purposes, Xande gets killed by four random kids. It’s entertainingly pathetic when you think about it.

So, Xande may lack all of these things, but so what? Garland and the Emperor were both lacklustre in initial appearances before appearing in spinoffs to get more refined. Xande just needs to show up in something like Dissidia and-

The Cloud of Darkness

The Cloud of Darkness is the prototype of the “Giant Space Flea From Nowhere” type of Final Fantasy final boss. These are bosses that come out of nowhere at the end of the game, sometimes as a physical manifestation of the game’s themes. In the Cloud of Darkness’ case, it is an emissary of The Void; the recurring force of nothingness throughout the Final Fantasy series. While the Void featured very prominently in Final Fantasy V, Final Fantasy III was the first game to introduce the concept, albeit making it out to be more of a natural phenomenon. The Void is the force from which both the light world and the dark world emerged from and, based on the Warriors of Darkness’ words, the force that they will someday return to. The game is somewhat vague on the specifics, but it’s implied that in the process the worlds of light and dark merge, or something. In any case, The Cloud of Darkness appears whenever the balance between Light and Dark gets too unbalanced and goes about returning the world to the void, regardless of whether its time or not. It’s implied that the Warriors of the Dark had to fight it during the Wrath of Light and, thanks to Xande, it’s the Warriors of the Light’s turn to do so now. As an aside, the Ultimania reveals that the Cloud of Darkness was originally more closely tied to Xande, being created by the mage via the Dark Crystals (explaining why the WoLs go around to each and releases them from the Cloud’s control). On a more speculatory note, Xande was intended to be a woman, calling into question the possibility of the CoD being modeled after him/her, but no artwork of Xande from that stage is suggested to exist, so this is just a theory. Regardless of what could’ve been, the Cloud of Darkness makes for a significant impression compared to Xande. Its first appearance has it kill your party, it is the reason for III’s infamous final boss gauntlet, it even has a unique effect in the original game where its sprite colors change over the course of the encounters. That plus the game’s scale and stakes become much higher once it gets involved. So, for all of those reasons, it is of no surprise that the Cloud of Darkness became FF3’s go-to villain representative. It appeared in Dissidia as Onion Knight’s rival and retains this role in later appearances, especially in Opera Omnia where it [REDACTED DUE TO SPOILERS]. This on top of featuring in other games such as FFXI. All of this is well and good, but the Cloud of Darkness only enters the story at the very end. Poor Xande got the short end of the stick. So with all of that in mind: What about the remake? The 3D remake expanded on the story of Final Fantasy III, and while most know of the main protagonists, what about the other characters, most particularly Xande? Golbez got quite the glow-up in the FFIV 3D remake, with the backstory flashbacks. What about Xande? Is he improved? …Kinda?

Remake Xande

The FF3 remake makes a number of changes to the game’s plot and Xande honestly benefited from it. That’s not to say he’s a better villain per say, but he’s quite improved. Xande still lacks presence, but these aren’t as much of a problem due to the game’s script changes. Instead, Xande is something of a Red Herring. But before we can talk about that, we must talk about a way Xande improved: 

Consistency. In the original FFIII, Xande’s overall end goal was kept ambiguous. Sure he’s miffed about gaining mortality, but what does summoning the darkness have to do with it? Perhaps he was pulling a Kuja before Kuja existed: Xande knew he was going to die and decided that if he must go, then everything else is going with him. In the remake, however, this is reinterpreted. Xande messing with the balance is said to have caused time on the surface to cease. Why? Because he wanted to regain his immortality, and if freezing time was as close as he was ever going to get, then that’s fine by him. As a result of this, parts of the game were rewritten with this in mind. In particular (a point emphasized in unused content) the hints of the Flood of Light that we get implied something similar happened in the past: That the sun stopped moving, creating an eternal day. It’s implied that Xande basically did the opposite and created an eternal night. More subtly, the Curse of the Five Wyrms was also overhauled: In the original, the wyrm statues were actual wyrms that Xande intended to feed the frozen youths to. In the remake, the freezing in place is the curse itself, which thematically is similar to what Xande’s trying to do. Dude’s really into freezing stuff now. Even Xande’s lines before battle in the remake now make mention of his goal to gain eternal life. Also the main theme of the game is named “Eternal Wind”, so you know, maybe there’s something complementary there.

Connections

In terms of connections, Xande is also improved. Not only is the relationship between Doga, Unei and Xande emphasized a bit more from the former two’s perspective (again, more heavily in the unused text), but Xande’s actions actually have a direct impact on the four main characters, namely making them orphans that were raised by Topapa & Nina/Takka/King Sasune. Sure, the game doesn’t dwell heavily on it, but Xande is directly responsible for Luneth, Arc, Refia and Ingus being brought up by the people they ended up with. Maybe spinoffs like Opera Omnia can call more attention this- Oh. Right. Despite my grumbling, it’s clear that the remake’s portrayal of Xande influenced Opera Omnia’s take, with Xande’s desire for immortality being his primary motive, contrasted with Seymour’s belief that death is Really Great, You Guys.

Impact

In terms of Impact, the remake makes some key decisions: For starters, Xande’s act of stopping time was so unnatural that it caused the floating continent to ascend into the air. It’s implied that Owen had to repurpose his tech to ensure that the continent stayed up rather than falling to the ground, which in turn led to Desch being sealed away. This in contrast with the Famicom version where the Floating Continent was an Ancients project and Desch was sealed during the flood of light. And, of course, Cid is hinted to be from Saronia in this continuity, and some NPCs mention his disappearance. But I mentioned that Xande was a red herring, didn’t I? And while those aspects are good, how exactly is Xande a better villain? Well, that’s the thing. While the remake doesn’t change the amount of agency Xande has (on the contrary, it actually removes it), it actually does do so for the Cloud of Darkness. Xande is reinterpreted as a red herring; The party assumes for most of the game (or at least, the part where they’re aware of his existence) that Xande is behind all of the shenanigans up to that point. However, Unei notes that while she dodged the time stop due to being in the dream world, she noticed a great evil caused the earthquake on the Floating Continent. She then notes that Xande couldn’t have done it; He was busy being frozen like everyone else.

This is further cashed in by the Warriors of Darkness, who note that Xande fell under the control of the Cloud of Darkness and reveal that it was the one who sent the monsters to sink the Floating Continent. Xande himself still screwed up though as he was the one who inadvertently summoned it in the first place. The Famicom version does note that Xande himself was a puppet to the darkness, but goes no further than that. So yeah, the remake made Xande better. By not making him the main villain.

These days, Xande has seen a resurgence in use: He appeared in Brave Exvius as a Vision, he got a counterpart/reinterpretation in Final Fantasy XIV’s Syrcus Tower raids and he appears in Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia as a party member and recurring antagonist. While he is arguably still an underrated character and it could still be better, he is getting more love from SE now than he has been for a while.

[ao3feed-zutara]

by Mauve_Avenger

When Zuko's archaeologist uncle sends him an artifact from a dig, Zuko can't imagine that it would change his life. Katara is now his djinn and she grants him fifteen wishes, but what's a brooding rich boy to wish for?

Words: 3889, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Fandoms: Avatar: The Last Airbender

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: F/M

Characters: Zuko (Avatar), Katara (Avatar), Sokka (Avatar), Suki (Avatar), Azula (Avatar), Mai (Avatar), Ty Lee (Avatar)

Relationships: Sokka & Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Suki (Avatar), Katara & Zuko (Avatar), Katara/Zuko (Avatar)

Additional Tags: Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Spirit Shenanigans

[riptidesblog]

That's not a rule tho?No harm,no love,no more wishes.He also brought back Clouse from the dead even if it was painful and meant to waste his last wish.

And the reason he had Delara possess Nya instead of reviving her as a separate person...first,he married Nya not Delara. Second,there is literally no physical difference between them aside from maybe eye color and small things like scars and etc.Third,Nadakhan is not someone that really cared about either of them.Delara was a way to get infinite wishes and Nya became one once Delara was unavailable(when Jay accuses him of never caring for Delara,he doesn't even deny it.He may have felt something but his greed for power was way stronger than any 'love' he could've had for Delara.).

I do think that infinite wishes depending on a spouse or the land itself is a good point.To get those wishes a king has to marry on djinn land.So if the land or the lover are gone or if the king loses his position...whatever power grants the infinite wishes ability would count the conditions broken and take it away.And it makes sense considering Nadakhan's dilemma to Jay at the end has his power and Nya's life directly connected or how once Nya is dying,the possession by Delara stops

Nya wore Nadakhan's mother's wedding dress.Nadakhan's father is a djinn king. So Khandjikhan is a djinn king that was married. He couldn't have used his infinite wishes to save Djinjago?Do infinite wishes stop working once the spouse is dead?Or did Khandjikhan get married in another place and didn't realize what an opportunity he missed?Or is he just stupid?

[sorrowful--owl]

tripletheglitch replied to your post:

   Creeper He seems easier for you. Also he smexy    

The Djinn is smexy too

eeeegerhertherhh

[dragonsruby]

Hey Pokémon or Disney/Aladdin fans, I'm struggling with another concept for the Aladdin/Pokémon AU I'm writing up, and I need help trying to think through it. Could you help me out, if you'd like?

What would Genie be in the Pokémon world? Jirachi, Hoopa, or something else?

I'll explain my dilemma below the cut, if you want to read first.

This encapsulates the Disney animated franchise so this would include The Return of Jafar, the TV series and The King of Thieves. Basically, this Genie goes through the full process of the first movie, being set free and going off on his own, but then returns in the sequels to stay with his found family. He's lost some of his power, now being rendered "semi-phenomenal, nearly cosmic," but still keeps many of his original abilities, like shape-shifting, creating objects from nothing, and essentially doing anything that can progress the plot without solving it. He's eccentric and fun-loving, sometimes to the detriment of the plot since he tends to act before he thinks. All in all, he's pretty much the same, but he grows more fun-loving and eccentric over time.

(also, that quote needs to be a meme, I swear)

So with that, I'm struggling to figure out what Genie would be represented by in a Pokémon story since his personality and abilities change over time. I've come down to a few specifics for characters, but my best guess is that he would be represented well by Jirachi, Hoopa, or both of them.

On the one hand, the vast array of mystical abilities seems to be right up the alley of Jirachi, who's based on the concept of tanzaku (the strips of paper where wishes are written upon) and grants wishes for the seven days where it's awake every 1,000 years.

Jirachi would fit well into the story of Aladdin as the Genie, being awoken by the Diamond in the Rough Aladdin (does he sing to it in a pure voice? I must know) and choosing to serve him for the seven days that it is awake. During those days, it accompanies Aladdin on his adventure, offering advice and entertainment while getting Aladdin the life that he wants. Jafar ends up stealing its power, whether by using Jirachi or draining Jirachi of its power through its third eye, somehow giving him great power until Aladdin seals him or all of his power away. In the end, Jirachi wishes to be awake for longer to have more adventures, and Aladdin himself does what he can to grant this wish, leading to Jirachi losing much of its power but able to stay awake for much longer than the one week that it's used to. Though it goes off on its own, it eventually comes back to spend more time with Aladdin, whom it had come to love as a good friend.

The main issue I see with having Jirachi take the genie's place is how little we know of its abilities. The extent of its power seems to vary depending on the adaptation, with it being unable to create new material in the anime, being able to grant one wish per written-on tag in the manga (three in total) and an entry from the games (Alpha Sapphire for this one) stating that it is "said to make true any wish that people desire."

While it likely could be fun-loving, Jirachi seems limited to granting the wishes of others, and its small size and inability to alter itself (apart from crystalizing its body when it goes into hibernation), while having the powers needed for the story, makes it much less like the genie in in terms of appearance, ability and personality.

Hoopa, on the other hand, has no wish-granting properties, but it does have access to alternate dimensions through the rings that it holds. A majority of its great power is sealed in the Prison Bottle (also known as the Djinn's Bottle in Super Mystery Dungeon), which, when opened, releases the power for Hoopa to become Hoopa Unbound. If it is able to control the power, then it can access and alter multiple dimensions from its rings, with the movie even showing Hoopa calling upon the power of Legendary Pokémon (essentially deities) and using their power for its own will.

Now, Hoopa's got the appearance in SPADES. It wouldn't have the shapeshifting abilities of the genie or the power to grant one's wishes, but it definitely has the looks, mischievous nature and personality of a fun-loving magical creature, whether it be through the diminutive Hoopa Confined of the massive Hoopa Unbound.

The plot of Aladdin very heavily relied on the genie only being able to provide three wishes per master, though, and with how powerful the wishes that the genie grants (everything from flying one out of a cave to turning a human into a genie themselves), it would be very difficult to find an excuse for Hoopa to work out something like that. It would work perfectly in the franchise after the first movie, with its powers being considerably weakened, but getting to that point would be difficult.

If we were to put Hoopa in the spot of Genie, then a concept could be that Hoopa is trapped in the Cave of Wonders, sealed away along with the Prison Bottle. Aladdin is tricked into retrieving the bottle by Jafar, who wishes to use Hoopa to achieve his goals of conquering Agrabah and becoming known for his all-encompassing power. Aladdin is trapped with Hoopa and unintentionally releases the power, allowing Hoopa to become Unbound. Hoopa promises to get Aladdin whatever he wants in thanks for releasing him, using his powers to alter and access other areas and dimensions to disguise Aladdin as a prince to gain access to the palace so that he may meet Princess Jasmine again. Jafar eventually steals the bottle and imprisons Hoopa, forcing Hoopa to unleash its power for his own sake and causing destruction in the palace while imprisoning the royalty. Aladdin makes it back with the abilities of his allies that he made during the story, fighting against Jafar and freeing the prisoners, eventually getting Jafar banished to his own dimension. Hoopa is freed from Jafar's control and uses its power to return the palace to normal. The Sultan allows Jasmine to choose Aladdin as her fiancé, and Hoopa, with its job done, goes off to explore the world. Once it is satisfied, Hoopa returns to spend more time with the people who inspired it.

Maybe its main setback in using power is something like in Hoopa and the Clash of Ages, where Hoopa could access other dimensions through its rings but was cursed to not move through the rings itself until it understood why it was cursed in the first place. Something similar could explain why it could only use a certain amount of power for itself and for others.

Alternatively, maybe they both could work somehow? It would add more major characters than was originally in the Aladdin movie, but it would give both aspects of the genie without much compromise. Hoopa could teleport others around and provide anything from any world in order to provide things like the carpet (whatever THAT will end up being), the parade, the large beasts to fight for or against Jafar and the villains, while Jirachi would be the wish-granter who serves its master or whoever has taken its power. That could be like the recorded demo of the Aladdin movie where Aladdin held possession over both the genie of the lamp and the genie of the ring. They serve the plot for whatever is needed, and they defend each other from opposition. To give them identities apart from others of their kind, if desired, they could be given names like Genie and Eden from the animated TV series.

The main issue is... well, they'd likely be very, very overpowered, particularly for the first movie. Deciding which monster should perform which task from the film would be difficult, and juggling them could be a hassle. All the same, it's an idea.

With ALL OF THAT said, it's been bugging me for several months now, and I want to hear some opinions apart from my own. Could you all help me out?

[viridianllamasinthesilentspace]

Sorting Dean Winchester

Hufflepuffs value communities, so they’ll often take on the values that their community holds. They’re doing it for the community, and to be a part of the culture of that people, so sometimes they end up adopting the moral system/methods of that community. And that gives you people like Dean Winchester, who adopts Gryffindor.

We see in the early seasons the type of black and white morality that the Hunter culture is especially fond of. The ‘a monster is a monster is a monster’ style morality that is a very basic level of thought-out, and is then enforced and challenged by gut calls like 'Sam is a monster’, 'No, Sam is my brother’. It flounders when it comes up against any moral dilemma more subtle than, say, a mass-murdering ghoul. And we get a wonderful progression in Dean’s characterization that can be tracked from the standard (and mostly narrative-endorsed) killing of demons in the first seasons to killing the kitsune Amy Pond (and leaving her son Jacob alive) in the seventh season to befriending Benny the vampire in the eighth. The longer Dean spends learning that it’s okay to be himself, that he doesn’t have to be hyper-masculine, that he doesn’t have to be his father, and that he doesn’t have to be the hunter that his father always wanted him to be, the closer he gets to a more sympathetic, 'people are people are people, and people get chances’ morality.

And this morality is not necessarily Hufflepuff. You could have a 'people are people’ Gryffindor. Except that that’s not the Gryffindor that Dean is. He spent some time feeling very obligated to subscribe to the Hunter system. And he hated it. In Season 3, in the episode where he confronts his demon self, the demon yells about how John is a monster. That’s not coming from nowhere. In the djinn episode, Dean’s perfect life is domestic and fairly peaceful, and when he leaves it, he doesn’t leave because it’s the right thing to do; he leaves because of the people he would be leaving behind. Because of Sam, because of the people he’s going to go on to save. It feels right, but it’s right for Hufflepuff reasons. People reasons.

And so as much lip-service as he gives to the Gryffindor Hunter spiel, and as often as he makes choices (especially the smaller ones) based on Gryffindor right/wrong, he will never be and has never been a Gryffindor. It is not right to make a deal with a demon to bring Sam back, but Dean does it because he loves his brother and that matters more. It is not right to let a boy he honestly thinks is going to grow up into a monster out into the world, but he does it because right now, that boy is an innocent, and Dean wants to have hope. Doesn’t want that on his conscience, because it would weigh on his conscience, and there’s enough of that already.

Dean’s Gryffindor to Hufflepuff character arc is an arc about gaining self-acceptance and self-worth after a childhood of abuse, not about changing who he is. The deconstruction of Dean’s caricature of a masculine hunter begins almost immediately after it appears, and the cracks reveal, from the beginning, what’s actually fueling that boy’s morality. When he tries to live up to the standards of a community he doesn’t actually agree with, it’s all posturing.

Dean’s arc is him learning that it’s okay to be a Hufflepuff and still be a hunter.

[suzannahnatters]

it's been a while since I've enthused about Watchers of Outremer lately so I'm just gonna try to sell it to y'all. I'm mostly known for my light hearted, funny gaslamp books. WATCHERS OF OUTREMER is my magnum opus. The work of my heart. The decades-long, nine-book, "what if I did a generational saga but with time travel, djinn, demons, and lady knights" epic of the medieval crusader states.

Expect: - a historical setting so vivid you can smell it; - nine years' worth of academic history reading; - so many villain arcs; - so many redemption arcs; - so many enemies-to-lovers romances; - tons of terrific female characters, including a sledgehammer lady knight, an amnesiac djinn assassin, a streetwise waif with a colourful vocabulary, and an ice-cold queen with terrible anxiety; - tons of exasperating male characters, including a terminally ill young king, a lonely immortal assassin, a legendary warrior just trying to get back home, and several different walking disasters; - a magic system that starts out very subtle but gains detail as it goes along; - not a whole lot of jokes, until book 3, honestly; - a sweeping, epic plotline unfolding over 200 years in the lives of dozens of characters; - bad things happening to people you love, because history can be dark; - nevertheless, a strong sense of hope and light in dark times.

I've never wanted to compare myself to the great JRR Tolkien, but in hindsight I've realised that the one book, more than all others, which has influenced the WATCHERS OF OUTREMER series is Tolkien's SILMARILLION. So, if you like characters who struggle with hubris and ambition, bloody warfare, gutwrenching plot twists, epic history, moral dilemmas, tragic love, and yet over all a glimmer of hope and beauty, I think you just might enjoy WATCHERS OF OUTREMER.

Book 5, The House of Mourning, will release next month, DV. There are four more to follow.

one of my favourite weird historical facts is that the Assassins once threatened Saladin by sneaking into his tent and leaving one of their distinctive knives on his pillow, along with two cakes of the bread only they made. "hi, these scones verify that we can kill you. bon appetit!"

(this weird medieval fact brought to you by the House of Mourning line edits, which I am nearly finished!)

[the-badger-mole]

A while ago you said you had a different ending planned for The Djin Dilemma. Could you tell us what it was and why you changed it?

It was actually a less sad ending. Originally, I was going to have Katara succeed in not granting Azula's last wish, and having that be the reason why Katara couldn't be a djinn anymore. Azula wouldn't remember Katara, or her brush with super power, and she and Zuko would have been no contact after Ozai's arrest for years, but there would have been space for them to reconcile somewhere down the line.

As I got closer to the end, though, I thought having Azula end up as a wish bringer spirit would fit better. She got too greedy, and her hubris won out. I feel bad for Zuko,, and for his sake I really, really wanted to stick to that original ending. He and Azula had a terrible relationship, but it didn't necessarily have to stay that way. But sometimes, a story gets a mind of its own, and going against it usually makes for an unsatisfying ending. Turning into a djinn felt like the natural conclusion for Azula. I agree with Toph that in a few centuries she'll find that it suits her. She'll be worse than Katara for screwing with people's wishes, but she probably won't do too much damage in the grand scheme.

[criticlog]

SPN S4E03 - In the Beginning

Dean! Sam’s sneaking out again! Also why are you sleeping completely dressed on top of the covers?

Oh lmao that’s why Dean’s dressed, he needs to go on an adventure

I can’t believe Misha was told not to sit on the bed cause it was “too gay” like wtf spn people

also the way Cas turns his head here always reminds me of an owl lmao, I think it’s the way he keeps looking forward for most of it

Oh hell, time to go meet the parents when they were young

John, I don’t hate you yet since you’re still just some random dude, but you're on thin fucking ice

ffs Cas startled me lmao

IF ONLY JOHN GOT THAT VOLKSWAGEN VAN THOUGH!!

Dean you’re weirding him out lmao

Dinner with the grandparents (also Samuel and Deanna? Wait, Dean was named after his grandmother?)

Samuel, you’re already getting on my nerves with your attitude

Another crossroad deal? Damn, business is booming for those demons!

John was kind and sweet? Wow, well he sure changed let me tell you! 

Oh ouch...Mary… I have some bad news…

This is like the Djinn dilemma all over again

Uh oh.. grandpa’s giving me possessed vibes.. yeah there it is!

Is this really where you’re gonna propose to her John? In a car at night while she is clearly in distress?

Oh ew, she had to kiss her dad’s body to seal the deal… Also I just realized that everyone in this family except for Sam made a crossroad deal to save someone else AND SAM TRIED TO BUT GOT TURNED DOWN SO THEY ALL TRIED! 

oh thank god, Cas you’re here. Can we go home? This field trip sucked ass

You know Cas, I kinda wish you would have just told Dean about what happened to his parents instead of traumatizing him by making him feel like he failed to save them again

Well shit, time to go save Sammy from his demonic tendencies!

[beevean]

I think I had my official "Please stop." moment with the endless stupid debates over why Sonic doesn't just kill Eggman when it was suggested that Sonic sealing Erazor Djinn away was too harsh, or that it was some kind of proof that he didn't respect other people's freedom or something, as if it's the same case as Chaos. Poor cosmic swole bitter genie, who called his implied girlfriend a dumb weak hoe when he accidentally killed her, just wanted to be free even after he had already served his sentence. Why can't Sonic respect his freedom to come into his world and stir shit?

Slightly related, but I want to propose again the IDW FAQ @woodchipp and I wrote back then, which ofc tackles the whole dilemma of Sonic dispatching his enemies. We haven't updated it in ages, but then again, aside from the Whispangle drama nothing major has happened

anyway, bruh. I missed this Erazor apologism, and to be honest I'm not curious to elaborate on it.

[blursed-ninjago-ideas]

Djinn Jay (First Wish Snippet)

"So...any ideas what's wrong with him?"

 Zane sighed and looked away from the monitor. "Not yet. Pixal is currently trying to find any matches for any part of our current dilemma, but so far she is stuck trying to eliminate any references to Garmadon from the search parameters."

 "Why would that be a problem?" Kai asked.

 "Four arms, Kai, remember?" Cole replied. "Do you need any help, Zane?"

 The nindroid shook his head. "I do not believe there is much that any of you could do, sadly."

 Lloyd was currently looking over the unconscious Jay, watching as tiny sparks of blue lightning danced through the cloudy trail that was now positioned where the auburn-haired teen's legs should have been.

Looking up, he gave Zane a comforting, though everyone could tell it was forced. "Don't worry, Zane, I bet you'll figure it out. I just..."

 "Just what?" Kai sat down next to the blonde.

 "I just really wish we all knew what was wrong with him--Jay, I mean."

 Unbeknownst to the group, as Lloyd spoke, small electrical-blue sparkles whirled around him, like a sort of magic was found in his words.

On the table where he lay, Jay's eyelids fluttered momentarily. "Your wish...is...your heart's...to...to keep," he slurred out weekly, barely a whisper. Having said that, his blue eyes once again snapped shut, and he let out a faint sigh.

The others all looked at each other in shock.

 "What just..." Cole began, and then suddenly, a rush of images, words, memories suddenly came flooding back into the room's conscious occupants.

Battles that hadn't been fought, conversations that hadn't taken place, events that hadn't happened...yet they all, at the same time, had.

An evil Djinn, framing them, then trapping them one by one. Jay, being forced to stand alone, and wishing the events undone. Nya, captured and married against her will, and...then...

"NYA!" Kai yelled, then rushed out of the room to find his sister, the others watching as he left.

"...Okay, now I REALLY want to know what just happened," Cole decided. "Nya...died? Jay had an eyepatch? We had to fight pirates again?!"

"You know, when I said I wanted to know what was wrong with Jay, I meant physically what has happened to him, not...all the mental trauma he went through...yikes..." Lloyd held his forehead, trying to process the new memories.

"Although it is still helpful to know..." Zane mused. "For smoke, now we understand why he has been so distant lately."

"Nya! WHERE ARE YOU?!" they could hear Kai yelling from somewhere else on the Bounty.

"...Someone should go check on Kai," Cole noted.

"I'll do it," Lloyd volunteered, then left the room.

About half a minute after he left, Jay once again stirred, rubbing his eyes as he sat up.

"...Guys?" he asked, looking at Cole and Zane standing over him, confusion visible on his face. "What's going..."

"JAY!" The master of lighting found himself being hugged by the nindroid and the ghost.

"Guys?! Are you okay? What happened?! How long was I out?! Did I worry you guys?! Where's Nya? And the others? Is everything okay?!"

"Jay?! You're awake!" Lloyd ran back in and joined the embrace.

"Seriously, what is going on?!" Jay demanded, staring to panic. He liked hugs and all, but this was really sudden and confusing. How long HAD he been out?!

Finally, his teammates let him go, and the blue-clad ninja could breathe. Shaking his head to clear it -- why did he have such a headache -- he tried to stand.

He didn't fall over, but for some reason, his feet never touched the ground.

"...Guys, why am I floating," Jay asked, giving his friends a worried look. "I should not be floating. WHY AM I FLOATNG?!"

Cole cringed. "Uh...we don't...exactly...know? All we really know is that-"

"Your physical form has changed substantially since you were last conscious, but none of us know why or were there to witness said transformation, " Zane provided.

The master of earth facepalmed. "Wow, way to break it to him lightly, Zane..."

Jay had no clue what was going on. "Transformed?! What do you mean-" And then he noticed something.

His arms. He should not have that many arms. Was he seeing double -- no, he could feel them all just fine, it was real, he had four arms.

"...Jay? Are...are you okay?" Lloyd asked him.

Jay didn't respond, starting to hyperventilate. "A mirror," he managed to say. "I need a mirror."

"There's one over there," Cole told him, pointing to the left wall.

In a flash, Jay had zoomed over to it, and with growing horror, took in his reflection.

Four arms. No legs, just a trail of smoke that looked like deep blue storm clouds. No. No. It couldn't be.

But it was.

"I'm..." he stammered, fighting not to scream, "I'm a...I'm a...a... "

The blue ninja had been somehow transformed into the same type of being that haunted his nightmares.

Jay was now a Djinn.

Edit: This is good shit. You are now the Djinn!Jay person! -Ivy

[squidpro-quo]

Hi I absolutely adore your writing, please never stop!! Also for prompts if you ever need some ideas; - Katsune Jaskier that follows Geralt like a shadow, which he's aware of but doesn't know who/what it is and it drives him mad until he finally sets a trap to catch him and lo and behold, it's a cute famous bard - THE HANAHAKI DISEASE AU BUT NOT FATAL - just Geralt secretly loving Jaskier's voice and pining for his singing - Feral Antisocial Geralt who's only Soft with Jaskier is my shitok

 AN: I'm so sorry this took so long! The world went to shit and my brain went along with it, but I loved your prompt so much I needed to write it, even so late >.

   It starts small. Geralt thinks it starts with the djinn but it really began much earlier, years earlier when Jaskier burrows past his defenses in a way that he barely even realizes and plants the seed that will turn Geralt’s life upside down. But it does start with the djinn, in a way. 

    The tickle in his throat had been growing for months, in hindsight its progress was likely inhibited by the twisted physiology of witchers, and Geralt ignores it in favor of working towards the next job, the next town, the next good night’s sleep. Until it turns to an itch that he can feel with every breath, keeping him tossing and turning on the spring earth like a dying beetle. He doesn’t sleep easy in the first place, even with swords in reach and Roach nearby, but the faint pressure in the back of his throat leaves him grasping for even the thinnest veil of peace every night. 

    Naturally, his only solution to this dilemma is to find a djinn. The net’s wet cords are unwieldy until he’s thrown it over three dozen times, more beyond that when he loses count until Jaskier’s voice cuts into his frustrated groans. He’d never admit that it might have been the bard’s lucky presence that wins him the amphora after so many hours of fruitless searching but even that thought is quickly tossed away when he sees what the djinn has wrought on Jaskier. 

    The long rides on his search for help are time enough for him to listen to the ragged breaths Jaskier fights to take and Geralt swears under his own at the foolishness his sleep-deprived brain had concocted as a solution. He’d bear the itch in his throat for the rest of his life if it meant Jaskier’s voice wasn’t torn to shreds between wheezes like this. His traitorous mind wonders if the solution to his problem of sleeplessness might have even happened if he’d had Jaskier’s strumming in the evenings to drift off to, that he’d gotten used to and only found he missed when the bard had left for the Countess de Stael. But it doesn’t matter, the hands weakly gripping his waist are what he should be focusing on. 

    He keeps a hand on Jaskier every second until he stands before the mage, the back of his throat scratched with how many times he’s cleared it in the past few hours and the exhaustion bleeds into his voice just slightly as he hears that haunting wheeze whistle from Jaskier’s lips again. 

    “Just a… friend?” Yennefer arches a brow with enough refined subtlety that he barely understands. 

    “Companion.” 

    “Ah.” The unimpressed look on her face doesn’t stand in the way of her offering help however, for a price Geralt would gladly pay many times over. The guilt that gnaws at him seems to crawl up out of his stomach and nestle in his lungs, his usually slow exhalations paced fast enough to almost be a normal human’s. The change would be disquieting if he wasn’t more worried about someone else’s chest rising and falling faster, and easier. 

    He’s standing over Jaskier, watching his eyelids flicker and trying to explain away why he’d rushed through a bath with a mage like Yennefer when she broaches the subject again. 

    “You care so much about what he’d die thinking, what did you say?” 

    Geralt considers not telling her but he could imagine what Jaskier would say. Brave enough to fight monsters as your day job but not enough to admit you cut me with a sharp quip? It would sound far better in Jaskier’s voice; Geralt’s mind had never been good at filling in Jaskier’s side of conversations unlike Jaskier himself was for Geralt’s. And maybe it was the sleepless nights that had brought back his habit of substitution, of trying to fill the hole in the everyday that had once been bursting at the seams. 

    “I insulted his singing.” 

    “He must be the bard then. The ‘humble bard’, no less. Well, I’m sure he’s heard worse.” Yennefer leaned against the post at the corner of the bed, arms wrapped around the wood as she pressed her face to the whorls carved into it. 

    “He shouldn’t—” He can’t finish the words, a cough disrupts his thoughts and forces him to focus on what had grown in the back of his throat. Swallowing hard, he feels something slip down from the force of it, a tightness as that of food eaten too fast. 

    “I’ve healed his ills, do I have to add yours to the bill?” 

    “No. This is nothing.” He braces himself on the post she’d abandoned, seeing the marking drawn on the floor and his mind scrabbles for something other than Jaskier to revolve around. “You’re planning to use him as bait.”

    “He’ll get his last wish, fully healed. What happens after is a matter of circumstance,” Yennefer says, shrugging. 

    “It’ll make everything worse, trying to cage…” Geralt stops, this time from the cloying scent that’s flooded his nose. 

    “That was faster than I’d have thought. You, witcher, are distracted.” She sways towards him as his senses begin to cloud and her glance towards the bed has him jerking to intercept. “Hush. He’s got all of your attention already, I’m just borrowing you for a bit.” 

    The world goes dark and Jaskier returns. But it doesn’t stop Geralt from marching back into the building to save her in the end. She had saved Jaskier, and as much as he’ll deny any conclusions one could jump to about how much he cares, or as Jaskier creatively put “give a monkey’s about”, him, that act deserves some kind of repayment. 

    ———

    Once it starts, it takes far longer for it to end, however. His and Jaskier’s path weave together in the years after that and he sees the bard’s fame continue to grow and his ballads about him growing wilder, if still mostly true, while for him the only change is the tickle that grows into a cough with every sunny step Jaskier’s takes away from him when he leaves even as he tries to hide it. 

    By the time he meets Triss, he’s found out what he swallowed that night. He leaves them strewn around his campsites, when he can afford to simply hack them up and discard them, and keeps his mouth shut otherwise, breathing only thinly until he can weed out the fresh patch that grows over the course of the day. The only reprieve he ever found was in the slip of meditation when his senses dull just slightly and Jaskier’s wandering fingers pluck out tremulous notes of his latest creation. But that only lasts so long. 

    Triss frowns as soon as she sees what Geralt holds in his palm.

    “If you weren’t a witcher, you might have died from this already,” she mutters, spinning the stem between her fingers. 

    “It won’t be what kills me directly. One good slash from a bruxa while I’m coughing these up and I’ll be the next piece of roadkill in the night.” 

    “I was talking about the poisoning. Buttercups are toxic, but at the rate your—You say you’re coughing them up so much that you swallow them instead, that might just be making it worse.” 

    “What am I supposed to do about it? What cursed me? Who? If I could solve this, I would have done it already. That’s why I’m asking for your help.”

    “This isn’t something I can heal.” 

    “Then who?”

    “You. Just like how symptoms of a sickness get worse the more you ignore them, so too with this. Except this time, your body isn’t what’s being repressed but rather your emotions.” 

    “That’s what the mutations did. Too late to undo that,” he growled, the soreness in his throat mounting in the now-familiar foretelling of a fit. He doubled over, coughing a shower of drifting yellow petals onto the frosted earth. Buttercups in the dead of winter, like a trail of breadcrumbs leading back to him, giving him away even more thoroughly than Jaskier’s singing usually did. 

    Triss continued once she saw he’d stopped. “This is something you’re deciding to do. Or more likely, something you’re deciding not to do.” 

    “There’s plenty I don’t do. Fight every human who sneers my way or cavort in the streets, for a start.” 

    “But something you want to, but decide not to. That’s your mystery to solve. Not mine.” She smiled. “Unless you really do have a fancy for dancing a jig in the main square, I’d surely watch that.”

    He leaves her disgruntled but with an answer to his problem, even one he doesn’t like. While he racks his mind for what the solution is, the days start to blend together until he finds himself growing used to his condition. The flowers grow rampantly, but clearing his throat helps to at least keep the stems from clogging his breath for the hour it takes for them to grow back. It serves the same purpose as his usual monosyllabic sides in conversations about jobs, with the side effect of earning more than a fair share of stupefied, and disturbed, looks as the petals slip from his lips whenever he does open his mouth. 

    The only one who seems to ask him about it however, is Jaskier. He stumbles into Geralt’s campsite one dusk with a few of the flowers tucked behind his ear. 

    “I hear you’ve been spreading rumors without me! What’s this about the ‘Spring Witcher’? It’s like something from a fairytale, except instead of diamonds you get the burden of flowers dropping from your mouth. Shame it’s only the one kind. Pretty color though!”

    Geralt doesn’t say what he can feel lying on his tongue, that with Jaskier’s sky-blue doublet, the same one from when he’d wished the bard silent and come closer to killing him than anything else, goes so well with the yellow in his hair. Instead, he coughs, leaving a dusting of buttercups on Roach’s back just as he’d finished brushing her down. 

    “The tales don’t tell of that. Is it a curse? Can you still talk? Is it painful?” 

    By the time Geralt clears his tongue of any more bitter stems, Jaskier’s stroking Roach’s nose and looking at him with concern. It takes a second for him to speak, caught in the relief of the weight of those eyes on him, something he hadn’t realized he’d missed. 

    “What are you doing here?” 

    “That answers one of my questions at least,” Jaskier sighs, but acquiesces, “I’m… wandering, for now. I don’t know, I happened to find you. Maybe it was destiny, although I know you don’t like that word. Maybe I can stick around for a bit before I go, help you get rid of those weeds.”

    “You a healer now?” 

    “No, but I’ve taken care of plenty of other things for you.” Jaskier takes hold of Geralt’s wrist, raising it until the scar running to his elbow is shining white in the firelight. “Wouldn’t look as nice if I hadn’t taken that embroidery class all those years ago, you know. And the rash from the—”

    “Yes, I remember the rash, Jaskier,” Geralt cuts in before he can continue down that vein any further. The tightness in his lungs eases just slightly in the moment, and he finds he doesn’t want it to be temporary. “Stay.”

    “Where? Here? I mean I don’t mind holding your hand, Geralt, but I’m also not a dog.” 

    “Just… It helps.” It feels like he’s pulling the words out, slowly and methodically uprooting them from inside and shaking the dirt from them before offering them up. 

    “Does it really?” Jaskier’s eyes widen, his hand tightening slightly on Geralt’s skin and he relishes the warmth of those nimble fingers, but it feels like he still hasn’t finished clearing out the field. 

    “And it’s been too quiet. Roach is good company but…” 

    “She’s not the best conversationist? I’ve noticed that too. She’s all eye-rolls and huffing, with good reason but there’s only so much of that deadpan you can take.” Jaskier smiles, still holding onto his wrist as he talks, stopping only to pat Roach’s flank between sentences. “I’ve missed you too, Geralt. I’ve never met anyone who can brood so expressively. And insult me so bad I almost die.” 

    “Jaskier, I’m—”

    “I kid. I can respect a good repartee as well as any jester. Besides, I flatter myself to think you may have learned such sharp wit from me.” 

    “I somehow doubt it.”

    “See? That was good, but I bet if you spend another decade or so with me, you’ll be killing monsters with just your words.” Focusing back down on the scar that had been the first point to his argument, Jaskier runs the pad of his thumb over the beginning of the raised skin, turning thoughtful. The expression scares Geralt, his mind always returning to the conversation before the djinn, to all the points where he could have stopped what he was doing and spared Jaskier the ensuing pain. To all the hurts that Jaskier bared to him, without him even realizing it. 

    “By then, will you still be using ‘old friend’?” he asks, realizing his words are coming easier, as is his breathing. The dull ache that had sat inside his chest for almost a year had eased, the taste of pollen against his teeth waning with every clear breath. 

    “Maybe something different. I have a few ideas, but I’ll run them by you. See how you react.” He almost doesn’t see Jaskier’s wink, with the darkening sky and the thumb that has traveled from his wrist to his palm, but he catches it. By then, the only buttercups left are those in Jaskier’s hair and even those are knocked loose by his next gesture. 

I’m open for prompts