#the forbidden knowledge has been granted friends

[esotericdivinity]

Holy hell thank you so much! I appreciate the detail, and showing the specific things used. Thank you for taking the time to write this out 🙏

Okay so like. I've been following you on another account since last year and I've always wondered how you get such fantastic skin textures on your character art. Is it alright if I ask? (Is it a program?? A specific brush? Or just the fact that you've got banger technique?) It's okay if you'd rather not. Regardless, you're just a great artist and I appreciate seeing you and your posts on my Tumblr 🎉

Depends on specific drawing, I like to try new things!

At first I tried to imitate my traditional art in clip studio paint, so I used only watercolor brushes and mechanical pencil for hatching

Then I started adding paint brushes on top of the watercolor ones, and if I wanted to highlight texture of the paper more, I added it on top. And also mechanical pencil hatching.

Now I use oil brushes over watercolor and one of the previous ones + hatching + textures (not only paper ones, maybe noise and any other)

Also brushes I use for details:

For the last art with Lucien Lachance I used brushes with ready-made hatching and added my own on top, for filling with color lasso tool + noise textures

Hope this is useful for you!

[burningcheese-merchant]

Here is more lore and funfact abt Choco Powder since you asked

- He has the same wish granting power like Mystic, if it was anything his powers are more unstable. Because of this, mystic forbid him for ever using his powers for another person, she worries that he will end up like her, and the fact that Powder is so similar to her doesn't help.

- He is a very quiet but observant person, the type of person who will observe you wanting something and then the next day ur getting it. His love language especially to the people closer to him is gift-giving, it made him feel fulfilled.

- he meditated to relax, he learned it from Mystic. If he gets pushed over the edge he relaxes with sparring in the citadel's training area, he got it from Dark Cacao.

- he is very studious, mostly in the art of healing, and generally, as a prince it is important for him to be knowledgeable.

- he met dark Choco many times in his childhood, guiding him and teaching him, he never found out he had a big brother (mostly in childhood and teen years) so he thought Dark Choco is just a wondering soul

Dark Cacao sometimes slips and called Choco's name instead of Powder's

- he enjoys listening to other people, maybe Pepper Jack can yap to him and he will just sip tea and listen closely

- While he doesn't look like it, he actually is very empathetic but his way of handling sadness is not really healthy (Pepper Jack is the first person to notice this but doesn't know how to

I apologize if i yap too much abt Choco Powder, my brain goes overdrive every time i hyperfixated on my ocs haha

Been dying to answer this! I gotta get to all the other adoring fans in my inbox (/j), but I don't want to leave my friend hanging any longer. I'm really happy you're telling me more about Choco Powder, I want to share my thoughts!

I wonder how they first discovered that he inherited her powers? Did he hear someone say "man, I wish I had a good cup of coffee right now" as a baby and poof, he was waddling over to give them a coffee? Lol. I understand why Flour would want to keep him from using them, she knows the potential consequences... but is that really the wisest course of action? Would Powder not only end up more tempted to use them, specifically because he was banned from doing so (as kids and teens often are with things they're told are "forbidden")? If he's so similar to her, then she would know best how to approach the topic with him, I think. Like... a former drug addict warning their child against doing drugs, for lack of a better analogy. If anyone can get through to them, it's the person who already went down that road and faced its consequences. (Perhaps this is something Cacao can try to push? Maybe it could be something he and Flour argue about, even. "I don't want our son to get hurt or hurt others" VS "You are risking a self-fulfilling prophecy through your actions. The road to Hell is paved with good intentions. This is not the right way, we cannot stifle him like this, there must be some sort of compromise")

I figured. He seems like that, at first glance (great job conveying his personality through his design btw, I might not really be an artist but I do know a good character design tells you what a character is like before they speak). With the gift-giving... perhaps this can be encouraged as a "healthier" outlet for his want to use his wish-granting powers? Especially if the gifts are handmade. It would teach him the value of hard work and gifts coming from the heart as opposed to something bought in a store, as well as allow him to "grant wishes" in this way without the risk that might come with using his powers. (I wonder what he'd give Jack and Paneer? haha)

How does sparring with Cacao go? What weapon(s) does Powder like to use? He doesn't seem particularly violent at first glance (but looks can be and often are deceiving, of course); how much enjoyment does he really get out of these duels? Is he a skilled fighter? Is this a way he bonds with his father? Does Cacao congratulate him for his efforts? (Now I want to contemplate Pepper Jack VS Choco Powder lol)

A fellow egghead lol. He and Jack could hang out at the Golden Cheese Kingdom library together (it's where Jack likes to go a lot). And the healing thing... Paneer may or may not have a knack for that, too. But that's for me to address another time hehehe

How fascinating! So Dark Choco never really returns home in your canon, is that the implication here? When and how does Powder find out who he is? What is his opinion of him before and after discovering this? Does Choco know who he is? What does he think of having a brother? What does he think of Mystic Flour being in their father's life at all, never mind having a child with him? So many avenues to explore here haha

That sounds kind of awful tbh lol. Does Cacao apologize for the Freudian slip? How does it make Powder feel? I can't imagine Flour is particularly happy when it happens...

Oh, I'm sure Jack wouldn't mind that lol. He's not necessarily a chatterbox (that's a bit more his sister), but he'll gladly engage people in conversation if they seek one with him. And I don't think he'd be too bothered by Powder being more of a "listener" type (but he will want Powder to say something every once in a while. Just to check if he's really listening to him)

What's unhealthy about it? Does he withdraw from others? Try to suppress it? Stress-eat lol? And I'm sure Jack would notice, he is highly observant as well (and he would try to think of a way to help, he's very caring). (Jack doesn't handle his own negative emotions very well, either... and that becomes SUPER apparent in a particular story arc I have planned)

Thank you soooo much for indulging me and giving me Choco Powder lore! He's really cool and I like him a lot. I hope you share more about him with all of us soon!

[wolfofcelestia]

Since Caleb’s has an Apple theme going on

Do you you think his myth would base off the Adam and Eve story.

It's possible. That's one of the most famous stories where an apple is a key symbol of temptation, so that would be an easy tie-in. Since a lot of people have been comparing the boys to Disney princesses, you could also connect the witch's apple from Snow White to Caleb's theme. In this case, the apple also symbolizes temptation with the promise of a wish being granted

In both stories, giving into temptation would lead you to spiritual ruin/physical danger

Since we already have a villain LI, I feel like Caleb won't full on be cast into antagonist roles, but considering the apple is associated with villainous characters, I feel like there's definitely going to be mystery, unease, and angst surrounding his character

Him giving MC enlightenment about all the things in her past does sound like him though. But since it was Satan who tempted Adam and Eve with the apple of knowledge, the information MC learns will come at a cost

Caleb could offer her information about her past, but it could mean losing him forever or losing something important to her. Or maybe it's Caleb who's being tempted and MC is the forbidden fruit? To cross the line separating childhood friends and lovers, to give her devastating information that she needs to know... both situations would come at a cost and there would be no going back once he takes the first step

There's also the possibility that Caleb and MC would be sort of like Adam and Eve, where they're both in the garden/lab before they escape together

There's also the devs' favourite, Greek mythology, where the apple symbolizes Zeus and Hera's love for each other, which is straightforward enough, but there's also an apple that started a war so asdnflakj

Also Idun from SMTV Norse mythology whose apples deliver rejuvenation, eternal youth, and immortality, so Caleb's myth could tie into him trying to find a way to keep MC alive

Of course, there's always that joke that Caleb's symbol is an apple because he wants to keep Dr. Zayne away from MC but I don't think that's enough to make into a myth lol. I do hope we get to see them banter about things regarding MC though 🫠

[green-ray-blog1]

On the merits of replaying Metal Gear (spoilers for MGS, MDZS and sorta Homestuck)

I have replayed MGS1 on PS1 with a friend who has somehow pretty much zero spoiler knowledge, so that was fun. They liked it, and I am quite happy.

That also means I was exposed to forbidden knowledge such as :

Like either like 15 minutes into the game (or before, during the briefing tapes accessible in the menu), referring to dr. Naomi Hunter as "Evil Wen Qing", which, aside from the "evil" part (which was mitigated, if anything because assuming WQ is less evil is questionnable), was a surprisingly accurate snipe of a character assessment, considering that Naomi also has an overpowered undead brother, and that she's obsessed with a guy she injected with an experimental nanomachine virus (granted, she was obsessed with him before she experimented on him, but still, the unhinged energy she shares with CQL!WQ is, well, huh).

The friend being extremely judgemental of Otacon proudly explaining how he designed Metag Gear Rex to have a secret weakness out of a sense of aesthetic (and, you know, designing Rex to be able to roar/screech), leading to the unfortunate conclusion that, yeah, Otacon kinda has some WWX energy.

After Naomi dramatically confesses her hatefeels to Snake: "Troll MGS must have been so popular on Alternia!", and damn, yeah. Not only do you have Naomi's desperate kismessissitude towards Snake (who tragically isn't into it), but you have the Sniper Wolf successfully (albeit briefly) becoming kismessis with Snake, BUT ALSO Otacon uselessly trying to Auspiticise between them for purely selfish purposes. And you know, Liquid just oozing caliginous feelings all over the place. Yeah, Troll MGS must have been pretty damn popular.

[shikanoko-nokonoko-koshitantan]

Amidst Darkness

Magical Trainer AU (Puella Magi Madoka Magica x Pokemon) @superstaridolstart

Summary: A miracle, which a talking, Eevee-like creature called Kyubeon offers to N, seems to contradicts his belief

Author's Note: N Harmonia has the He/They swag, which is why i often switch between those two pronouns here, lmao. Don't expect that walking tree(??) to have a consistent pronoun.

***

No wishes could be granted at no cost

That’s what his first human friend, Hilbert, has taughted to them on the day the truth was revealed. At first, they shakes upon hearing that notion, unable to proceed the harsh reality. But slowly, his heart finally opens and accept this cruel truth.

They hold close those words laced with thorny tendrils onto his chest. Never even once straying from those bitter words.

Yet now, right in front of their own eyes, a pokemon … no, a creature white as a snow with eyes red as an apple, offering him a miracle, which contradicts their forbidden knowledge bestowed by the ‘serpent’ who guides him to escape that false Garden of Eden (according to Ghetsis, minus that ‘false’ word— but hey, that wasn’t relevant, doesn’t it?).

“This better be some nonsense joke …” That green haired former king … no, former puppet murmurs, shaking at each words they whispered.

“Did you not believe what you just saw with your own eyes?” That Eevee-like creature stares at them with an empty eyes. “My my, human are such a fascinating being.”

A white creature they barely know and despises validating them as a human being. Meanwhile, the man they've known for their entire life, which they once loved shamelessly admits that they’re nothing more than a freak without human heart. Ah, what an irony, doesn’t it?

They don’t know what to do. Their heart aches with a longing for miracles. However, their brain acknowledge the fact that something, everything, is wrong.

After a long pause of silence, that green haired human continue to ask that suspicious creature many questions.

“Could your wish really comes true?”

“Undoubtly, as long as you’re willing to pay.”

“What’s the price for one wish, exactly?”

“To accept your very own Soul Badge and accept your new fate to fight against Dark Champions.”

“Please, elaborate further on Dark Champion!”

“It’s an evil being who spread curses and despair. Magical Trainer must fight against them.”

“How can a Magical Trainer manage to beat them?”

“With their power, of course.”

“Where did their power comes from, specifically?”

“Soul Badge.”

“What exactly is this Soul Badge? Indeed, it created from wishes and gives Magical Trainers power. But, Kyubeon, what, exactly, that things is?”

Silent falls the broken castle once again, even Kyubeon itself unable to handle their intelligence.

The green haired trainer was the one to break the silence first, “… and, for what purpose does that gem-like badge named ‘Soul’ …?"

Despite not having lungs, Kyubeon sighs, “N, you are a very knowledgeable person, don’t you? So I challenge you to figure out the answer to that question.”

Although being insinuated, they silently accept its challenge.

A minute or two has passed, Kyubeon still continue to stares at that distressed green haired trainer. Many theories and thesis flowing through their head.

However, there’s one which they believes as the closest to the truth and at the same time, the cruelest.

“Could it be … that …” That young trainer hesitates, fear of the truth came back to haunt him. “Soul Badge … created out of soul of the contractee ...? A badge … as a prove that their prayer has been answered?”

The empty castle once again drowns beneath silence.

However, this silence was much more peaceful than the eeriness of something called truth.

With red eyes glowing amidst darkness of the empty, broken castle, Kyubeon humbly replies, “… It seems that you are just as smart as i predicted.”

[retroillustrates]

Tell us about your oc!

My main character is Zhivoyn Bellum (short Voyn), a warlord (bellidux) of a small city of a cluster allience of various creatures driven away by wars from their homelands. His goal is to reclaim the stolen lands of his people and fulfill some promises he made in his youth

The thing with Voyn is that he met a time traveller called Percival Belmont from another world in a steampunk-like setting (Percival is a friend's oc) and Voyn has since been hopping on and off worlds with his friend's help, gaining forbidden knowledge and meddling where he shouldn't. However, Voyn also keeps a lot of dark secrets about himself.

Voyn has a companion in the form of a sentient shapeshifting dagger called Cassia. She grants him special abilities such as healing and spellcasting and assists him in combat. Cassia is an anti-stormbringer in a sense, as she is more of a service dog-type of blade

The overlord is a character that I can't talk about a lot, but they are bitter and vengeful toward certain individuals.

[artinandwritin]

For the ask game 6, 10, 11, and 14... hopefully those can fill your time but let me know if you need more lmao!

AGH TY for asking so many!! Im certain ill be able to fill a lot of time with those <333

6. Favourite ships; like i mentioned on your post, for me it really fluctuates what ship is in the front of my mind on any given day. Ofc, hiccstrid is a big one (theyre really good to me personally) and I'm currently also in a big snotstrid mood bc of my friend @spacenintendogs 's dragons off the coast au! (Also p l e a s e if you aren't familiar yet with dragons off the coast im begging you to look into it, its such an interesting take on a modern au and Rose's writing and worldbuilding is absolutely phenomonal). Fishlout also takes up a space in my heart, adore them so much! The dynamic is so good.

Ruffnut and her army of men is also so good, and the dynamics she has with Eret, Fishlegs and Snotlout is really fun and has a lot of potential. Tho i do also think she and Heather have potential. As do Eret and Heather! That whole group can just be mixed and matched together haha. Heather and Fishlegs ofc is also wholesome, they deserved more than this!

Due to me being so involved in the oc side of the fandom and being a really big supporter of everything oc (which is common knowledge after 4 years of this haha), I also love a lot of people's ocxcanon ships! Such as Rose's oc Ermintrude and Snotlout, @nosuda-cringe 's oc Mayeth Vang and Snotlout, and ofc the ships you've hinted and teased in otwd (zephbal save me... save me zephbal. I think about them a. Normal amount. Same with castav but i wouldnt let them save me, they need to save themselves first), plus a lot of others. Theyre all very dear to me <333

10: favourite songs from the soundtrack; OKAY so ive actually got history with this! When i was about 13-16-ish i had music classes as part of my middle school experience (lmao) and we were given the freedom to do any project we wanted. In those 2-3 years i used the httyd soundtrack twice for projects!

First I used Forbidden Friendship (that song man. That song) as like. An underbeat or smt? To add things on. Im sure it sounded horrendous and y'know the other kids in my class laughed at me bc of me using an animated movie's soundtrack, but the song did remain a favourite of mine and still is.

The second time I used the soundtrack was just after the third movie released! We were once again granted freedom and I decided to learn Once There Were Dragons on the piano! (Im not certain i still know it LMAO its been 5 years, this was even before I learned about OTWD which is in hindsight pretty funny)

Ofc once again the kids around me weren't amused and I couldn't play piano to save my life (my hands are too small to reach the octaves needed which. Sucked haha) but i had a lot of fun and the song really stayed with me throughout the years, it always brings me at least some sort of emotion <3

11; favourite locations; OH gotta be Old Berk and Dragon Island. We spend so much time in Old Berk during the shows and the movies and the form of the island is just so... memorable, in a way. In school of dragons, i always loved climbing the Great Hall up to Gothi's little hut haha. Miss that silly little island.

Dragon Island is soooo underused but i adore the implications sm! Like, the Red Death's corpse is there (and we all know how much i love environment changing giants) and we haven't really seen it since RoB/DoB. Underused location in my humble opinion.

Honorable mentions to Berserker Island and the weird treasure island from rtte season 1. They really slayed haha

14; favourite animation style; everyone knows i'm a big hand animation girlie so I have to go for those little moments in the franchise where more 2D animation is implemented (like in Fishlegs' leadership dream and the Boneknapper special). The keyframing and the subtle movements are really worth analysing and i absolutely adore how it's used. A real treat for us animators! (Special mention to the animation that's been going around from the live special, so good)

As for 3d styles, I have to say the first movie. It has a very raw edge which i love and it gives everything a great feeling. Plus, the animation error during forbidden friendship they left in the final cut owns me <333

[monsterspet]

Tav is the God of Defiance

Headcanons/ Fic Plot Overview

A/N: Has life been kicking my ass? Yes, but let’s not get into that. The whole Tav as God thing has really been burrowing deeper into my psyche and I need to get it out here or I may actually just go insane.

Enjoy some quickly thrown together headcanon type ideas - I may expand on these later if I can find the time in between work and everything else.

See prior drunken ramblings about God!Tav here

Before BG3:

Tav has been living almost exclusively in the material plane since the events of the Second Sundering. While they are empowered to live amongst mortals because Ao forbids it they can’t exactly risk returning home in case they get stuck there. It's sneaking back in when your parents are distracted sort of situation.

I imagine that at one point that Tav was traditionally worshipped, but as the other Gods pulled further back on Ao’s command the mortals around Tav likely began to question why their God was still walking amongst them. Or maybe a wandering God is simply too hard to keep track of in legend - especially when they can no longer disclose their godhood to followers. The old ones die - and no one was there to replace them. The traditional faith simply died out.

Tav has been adventuring for centuries, strengthening the resolve of their companions in the face of dire circumstances and impossible odds. This defiance they demonstrate in close proximity to the God enough to sustain Tav even if it wouldn’t grant them the same power they had before from temples and clerics.

I think regardless of the class you choose Tav is at least a little bit of a bard - if only to hide their godly magic as some form of bardic inspiration during a battle.

They always inevitably end up alone as their companions leave them behind, either leaving adventuring to retire or more likely dying despite Tav’s best effort.

While they can defy almost anything, there’s a finality in death that’s much older and primal than even Ao and there’s nothing to be done against that. Tav takes the pleasure they can in staving off death for their beloved friends as long as possible before it comes to claim them.

Tav doesn’t just simply gravitate towards the longer lived races on Toril, there’s something more potent probably in the defiance of a mortal that is risking their almost comically short life in comparison to that of an aged elf. Though longer lived races do allow Tav to go longer before losing another friend or lover.

During BG3:

As a God, hearing whispers of a new God calling itself the Absolute isn’t what you want to hear. Not when they - like you, appear to be directly interfering with the lives of mortals. Tav gets away with it purely by the nature of their domain. This new God may not be so lucky.

Combined with the increase of murders in Bhaal’s name in Baldurs Gate, and stirrings at Moonrise Towers which Tav knows all too well to be a Shar cursed land - Tav is compelled to investigate.

Finding themselves aboard a nautiloid has Tav panicked - this is looking to be a much larger threat to their beloved mortals than previously expected.

They have no allies with them though - no angered cries or acts of defiance to power them in this moment. Not that it matters. Interfering in the lives of a handful of mortals is one thing - but fighting against multiple Gods for the sake of all mortals would be a step too far for Ao.

This all changes when Tav is infected with a mindflayer tadpole.

Those infected with tadpoles are a threat to all those around them for many reasons. An individual with secret and forbidden knowledge is a tantalizing target to add to an illithid colony’s hive mind. What would happen if a God were to be transformed? Tav’s hand is forced, they’ll need to escape - gather allies and fight.

Upon crashing the nautiloid near the Emerald Grove and realising that most of their innate abilities are dampened by the psychic powers of the tadpole, Tav has to scramble to form an adventuring party. Thankfully - a group of desperate adventurers all with their own tadpoles to remove and lives they desperately want to return to just may very well have enough defiance in them for Tav to kill a God.

Tav just has to convince them to fight long enough to get the job done.

[sonorousabyss]

Hi, i hope doing good. Can i have a Romantic Star Wars matchup please. I'm genderfluid, bisexual with male preference. A Libra, Infp, 5w4 if you interested. I have long black wavy hair. I have thick black eyebrows, brown eyes. I always have rosy cheeks. My body is curvy with very big chest and little tummy. Also i'm 172 cm. I always have poker face. Those who know me for the first time describe me as cold, quiet, scary and distant. I'm only close to two or three people. They describe me as cold, soft inside, calm, resourceful and knowledgeable. They say I make clever jokes and I'm the mom-friend. And i hate phsyical touch. My love language is words of affirmation. And I'm a switch in a relationship. If I talk about myself, I've always been on my own. I have family problems, I was never close with my father. Even though we are side by side with my mother, we are distant. I'm just my own mom and dad. That's why I've always focused on academic achievement for salvation. And I think I'm very good at it. My hobbies are drawing, sewing, writing and researching, especially about mythology, cultures, history, fashion. I always wear my headphones and listen to music. I like silence, soft colors, being alone, flowers (especially honeysuckle), spring and breeze. I don't like crowds, noise, children, loud talkers and shiny things. I always wear colorful clothes with floral prints. I also wear interesting earrings and different printed socks. And finally, I don't really have an ideal type. I love every person. I like the fact that there are different people.

I'm doing well, rinkutakime! Thank you for your request, and congrats on being my first matchup for this account. It was a tough battle deciding who to pair you up with considering how vast the world is, but I think Obi-Wan suits you quite well.

Hope you like it, bare with me, and may the force be with you.

Whether you're a force user or not, it's safe to say you and Obi-Wan would be quite the infamous couple. (Granted, if he's still a part of the order when you get together your relationship status might not be public, but your reputation in helping him execute strategy certainly would be.)

He's a fairly balanced individual, and while his dedication to the order might not always be the most pleasant, causing him to likely butt heads with you from time to time? There isn't going to be any issue that goes unresolved with him as your partner.

One of the things he admires most about you would be your knack for research and overall knowledge. It comes in handy in the least likely circumstances, and it's safe to say he'd be fairly interested in whatever you had to say even if it weren't related to work.

Believe it or not, knowledge of history, culture, and mythology is quite handy in their line of work, especially with how many planets they venture to on official business. If you were to apply this knowledge to learning languages or battle tactics? You'd become practically invaluable. He's perfectly aware of this.

Besides- someone who's capable of competing with him verbally? Oh, he's treasuring every conversation, debate, and meeting with you he can possibly get in.

Another thing he'd certainly love about you is your wit. Anyone who's watched the Clone Wars knows that this man is the absolute king of one-liners, and having someone capable of making clever jokes and retorts- even if he is the butt of them- would make him the happiest Jedi around.

He's most definitely fantasized about what life with you outside of the war would be like. Attachment is forbidden in the order, so the fact that he's committed to going as far with you as he has means he's ready to go the whole nine yards if he has to. If he has to leave, he has to leave. This is something he's come to terms with.

Another pro of being with Obi-Wan is that he isn't afraid to compliment you. I feel like words of affirmation is something he'd lean into regardless of whether or not it's your love language, but the second he becomes aware of how much you appreciate it he's doubling down when he can.

Not engaging in physical touch isn't much of a problem for him either. On the off-chance that you were okay with contact at any point in time, he'd be delighted, but he isn't exactly needy in that department. He'll treasure what he can get all the more- after all, it is from you. The rarer it is, the more valuable.

I feel like he's certainly poked at that colder exterior of yours a few times, teasingly. He knows you're not all fire and brimstone (your love for bright colors and floral patterns, for one, help to make that more obvious), but the way people tend to perceive you as spooky has amused him on more than one occasion.

You've startled more than one shiny on several occasions.

It's gotten to the point where bets may or may not have been made with Cody and his men regarding the very issue. Will they scare the new recruits this time? Or will the newbies pass this rite of courage?

I only jest, though this is certainly something about you that Kenobi doesn't dislike.

He's a fairly busy man, so you'll get plenty of free time where he's involved.

He looks forward to coming back and seeing you if you don't end up on missions with him, but perfectly understands if you're not recharged enough to hang out.

Furthermore, if you happen to run out of your social battery while you're out with him, he's going to be looking for an opportunity to get you out of there as soon as possible.

An odd thing to note, but your habit of wearing patterned socks and earrings entertains him.

He looks forward to the next time he sees you because he's curious as to which pair you'll end up wearing next.

Has snagged you a pair of earrings or socks at least once while he was out because they reminded him of you and he thought you'd enjoy them. It's one of his ways of showing you he was thinking about you while he was out.

He likely leaves you notes to update you on things going on, like where he was headed or what he'd done that day. This is both a for when you're not in the mood to hang with people thing and a you were asleep and he wanted to keep you posted thing.

Quite frankly, I don't think he minds you being a switch either. He's totally cool with it.

He's probably let you sew up his uniform a few times when it gets damaged, assuming you showed interest in doing so.

Overall, it's a pretty solid, healthy relationship built on communicated boundaries and mutual respect. He's in it for whatever the force may bring, so treat him well and he'll give you the world. Or perhaps the universe, if you're into that.

Dear me, this was rather fun to write. With all the groundwork and deliberation that went into deciding just who would be selected for the official matchup (there were more than five candidates at one point, dear lord) it's really satisfying seeing it all come together in a coherent manner. I certainly hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. May the force be with you, and your day be as pleasant as the ocean's abyss is deep.

For those of you who are new here, I take requests. You can find the rules here.

[vigilantdesert]

Headcanon~

It's wrong to say that Urbosa is superstitious. She values reason highly and, like her Hylian friend, strays on the side of the scientific method. However, when one grows up in a harsh environment like the Gerudo desert, one learns that many "superstitious" are just stories told to keep one safe. Do ghosts really appear to those who are lost in the desert for too long? Urbosa wouldn't say yes, but she would certainly agree that getting lost in the desert is an idiotic thing to do and, even with adequate supplies, one will probably start hallucinating between the lack of human companionship and the constant howl of the wind. Not drinking water that no life grows around is less about it being cursed by an ancient demon and more that it likely has some kind of poison in it, and it should be left untouched.

With that said, she's fully willing to admit that there are powers beyond her knowledge and she tends to err on the side of caution when any lives are on the line (besides her own, with which she tends to be a bit reckless). She especially keeps close to religious law and taboo, even if she personally finds it silly or irritating to deal with. She herself has never had serious issues with voe (outside of the occasional bar fly who won't get the message that she already has a child, and even if she wanted another, he would certainly not be the father she would choose) and even keeps a few as friends beyond ally-ship, but she knows that admitting one to the capitol outside of dire, wartime circumstances is not only forbidden, but likely to lose her all support. If an ally had been felled on their way to the city, she would certainly taken them in for medical assistance and damn the consequences, but in any other circumstance she would either house them outside the city, grant them support in the bazaar, or on very rare occasion, offer them a disguise if there was something she needed them for in the city.

[sakuracyanide]

also zoi verses & tags.

golden dreams. golden kingdom. set in the golden kingdom. a high-fantasy drama where i run wild with my headcanons. zoisite is madly in love with kunzite but is repressing it.

in the dark of the night. dark kingdom. 90s anime timeline.

the moonlight carries the mesasge of love. revival. after galaxia has been dealt with and metallia has been quelled, the reborn shitennou finally awake to their true power - their curses finally broken. marion, the reborn zoisite, makes his way from russia to japan and there - has to figure out how to make amends to the price he twice betrayed, and the guardians he tried to kill.

the sun goes out. genshin. in a past life, "zoisite" was the szhneznaya god dazhbog, who was said to rule over fire and the sun. dazhbog took many forms - a black tortise, a fire-breathing horse, a beautiful man and an equally beautiful woman. all imagery associated with this god has been lost to time, save for the descendants of his most devoted and the entities long-lived enough to remember his quick wit and sharp smile.

during the archon war, dazhbog aided the cryo archon and gained a new dominion - war. the god was known as a fierce combatant, unrelenting and unwilling to call defeat. he achieved victory at any cost - and, as he would go on to tell others, that cost was very nearly his soul itself. when the dust settled his kingdom was decimated, and he had lost the will to rule as a god after witnessing the cruelty that his kind inflicted upon their own. dazhbog left this homeland and ventured to khanri'ah with his three closest friends, believing that the time of gods was done and it was time to entrust the future of the world to mankind. the four of them took human form and worked as guardians to the royal family. they served as loyal guardians to the kingdom.

which... ultimately proved to be their downfall.

dazhbog became infected with forbidden knowledge. there was still enough of him to save, though what survived was but a fragment. dazhbog and his fellow gods faded from existence, 'reborn' centuries later as ostensibly human children. he was found abandoned at the foot of a the rubble of a long forgotten god, and was raised by handlers to be an assassin.

each reincarnated guardian bears the scars of what they had witnessed that day - for dazhbog, renamed zoisite, this manifested in his left eye. no longer did it bare the star-shaped pupils of his chosen human guise, it now looked like a nova. multiple pupils all within one gaze, the mark of one who had glimpsed truth not meant to be known.

zoisite was raised within the fatui, and due to his great talent and thirst for knwoledge, was sent on a mission as a spy (how active he is depends largely on who he's threading with) to sumeru where has been living since he was about thirteen. he's a scholar in spantamad as is well on his way to becoming sage.

he has a unique talent for magic, allowing him to use all elements offensively. it's rumored that his distorted eye (which he claims to be blind in, opting to cover it with his hair) grants him sight beyond sight. in truth, his abilities allow him to tug at the fabric of the reality.

a question of duty .final fantasy vii. a member of the turks, "zoisite" joined shinra with the intentions of becoming a SOLDIER as all young boys do. when this fell through, the young man was instead recruited by the turks.

hailing from cosmo canyon, zoisite has a surprising connection to the earth - if you trace his lineage back far enough, you'll find cetra. but not nearly enough to hear the planet's call. even if he could, the young man's thirst for power dwarfs his sense of duty to it.

[inseparableduo]

Ok this is not the official post as honestly I would like to polish up a few more things before I can consider making an official post but!!!

I would like to share what I do have and some of this is stuff I've shared before so yeah. This is a rough outline of the woman who revived the cult way back when then a bit more. I don't even have a name for her yet lol.

In the 1940's a woman found an old trunk in a bomb shelter. Said bomb shelter had been created a bit before world war one. At the time she found this world war two was ongoing. The previous owner of the items in the trunk was unknown, but once it came into her possession, she took full ownership of it. Inside of the trunk were things that the previous cult locked up after loosing faith and moving on. She took great interest in the materials that she found and quickly became a devout follower. Believing it to hold forbidden knowledge that was granted to her by the God written. She believed that she alone was chosen to one day find this book.

She wasn't possessed or anything of that nature but, the more that she read, the more she wanted to test it, the more she tested it the more faith she had. The more corrupted and twisted she eventually became to the point where she virtually had no humanity left. She was a head nurse in a mental asylum, giving her plenty of chances to take on human subjects to test what was written. Keep in mind this was during war and she tortured plenty of soldiers. Once more, it also gave her plenty of chances to practice in human sacrifices and be granted more blessing by Lyra. She quickly converted the rest of the staff and even when the war ended. Even when asylums were no longer and treatment of the mentally unfit became more human, their ways evolved as they moved to a different location and found a ways to hide it better.

For generations her bloodline were leaders of the cult as she founded it, grew it, molded it, etc. Eventually we get to a bit more modern day. 10 years before twins are born, the next in line to lead graduates from high school. The same day, his best friend dies. He knows all he has to do to bring him back to life, he has to kill someone of equal importance to him. He kills his remaining parent, as the other had been dead for years.

No one questions this.

He soon regrets this, as he didn't realize they wouldn't be brought back to life as a human. Not only that, but he didn't know of the additional consequences. He leaves the cult dissatisfied with the results. Not only does he lose faith, but it leaves him and many others upset with her

The cult then one day kidnaps twins. This time when they ask for something from their God she will deliver it in the way they want her too.

[ryan-says-hi]

OKAY OKAY OKAY I just had a MASSIVE brain idea, and usually I'd just sit and vibrate in my seat in silence BUT then I remembered I have tumblr!

Idea - Horizon: Zero Dawn HiJack AU

Hiccup is one of the Nora. He's not a machine hunter so he's pretty looked down upon. Stoick is the War Chief for the Nora and loves his son, but he already knows Astrid will take her place among the Braves and he won't.

Anyways, Hiccup has long been fascinated with old-world technology, even though he's never understood it, and sometime before the Proving, he makes friends with a wounded dragon machine. He fixes him up, makes him a pseudo tailfin and names him "Toothless" after the missing teeth he had to replace. He starts to find and explore old-world technology more passionately and finally finds a Focus in one of the ruins. He trains with the focus, and on the day of the Proving, he actually passes as a Brave!

But uh-oh, Shadow Carja Raid. Stoick saves Hiccup Rost style, and Hiccup only survives his fall down the mountain because Toothless catches him. He loses his leg in the battle, and recovers while Astrid takes the mantle as war chief. Dead set on figuring out what's happening with the derangement, he sets out with Toothless.

Along the way he meets the Dragon Riders from the different tribes (Not entirely sure who should belong to what yet, but it's absolutely a found-friend thing like in Forbidden West). They start unraveling the mystery, and this is where I fiddle with the plot.

They travel to the Frozen Wilds before everything with Hades goes down and meet Jack, a troublemaker in his tribe who's well acquainted with Cyan and grew up with old-world tech his whole life, and knows the machines as friendly before the Derangement.

Turns out, Jack is the "Aloy" clone, a rebirth of an old-world scientist (Not sure which one, or how he'd have Elizabeth Sobeck levels of access). Jack isn't crazy about the idea of being some old-world savior, but when he sees how much good he can do by granting Hiccup access into the Caldron, and what all he can do with Jack's knowledge of Old-World Tech, he's quick to join the "dragon riders".

Hiccup's mom would probably be from the Forbidden West, and left back to her tribe for some reason or another. Not a lot of ideas past that, but HZD is a massive love of mine so I'll probably think of something later and add it lmao

[retvenkos]

Grishaverse Deep Dive: The Darkling is a Character that lives in a Society.

((spoilers for ALL of the grishaverse))

Ah, yes, Shadow and Bone season 2 is gearing up, the birds are singing, I have a cup of earl grey tea before me -  it is finally time to sit down to talk about the Darkling, and explain his tenuous relationship with the Grishaverse.

The Darkling is a character greatly contested. When simply looking at his motivations, we see a rift in the fandom. Add in his backstory and it fractures even more. When you pepper in the third ingredient of his relationship with Alina, you get an entire war. The Darkling is a divisive character. He gets under our skin and lingers for days afterwards.

I am going to take you on a deep dive of the Darklings character, and try to tease apart the problems that lie within the creation of his character. Why were so many fans betrayed by his ending? How did he muddle the messages of Shadow and Bone, and why is his ending so complicated that it satisfies very few? Today, we’re going to look at The Problem of the Darking: An Essay in Six Parts.

A little history lesson;

So first, allow me to take you back in time, to 2012, when Shadow and Bone was first released.

Two years prior, The Hunger Games Trilogy had finished coming out and, in a rather stunning turn of events, shifted the popular Y.A. category from the genre of the paranormal romance (thank you, Stephanie Meyer) to the dystopian society. 

Now, this is not to say that there weren’t dystopian stories prior to The Hunger Games, or that there weren’t paranormal romances in the Y.A. genre afterward. Both have survived, but the boom of dystopian stories and the whimper of paranormal romance was definitely felt.

So 2012 hits. In comes Shadow and Bone, in a time where we have some interesting precedents that our Y.A. forefathers created: 

Firstly, let’s talk about themes.

Carried over from both genres, is this idea of duality. There is light and there is dark, and whether or not there is a middle ground is up to the author. As the Y.A. target audience is quite large, there’s a lot to be said for how nuanced this idea can be. In many stories, it’s a nail on the head. In others, the lines are a little more blurred. In most stories, you get some semblance of Good = Light, Bad = Shadow. In the end, the ultimate goal is to embrace one or the other. At the end of the series, we’re either in the midday sun or the midnight darkness. The peak of the story leaves very little middle ground.

Then, brought over from the dystopian genre, we have the idea that The Current Regime is Bad for insidious reasons, and it needs to be torn down and built anew. This is often the main focus of dystopian stories, and our main characters are revolutionaries that see the world in a new, free light.

Finally, a trap of the Y.A. category is it’s simplistic idea of good and bad. Again, we hark back to the vast target age range, and you can see why this would be so prevalent. There is very little by way of morally grey, in the Y.A. category, and if there is moral greyness, it almost always falls into two categories: (1) it is held by the main character alone, and that is why we root for them, or (2) it is martyred and killed. Moral greyness is either the Ushering of a New Era, or The Ideal that Could Not Be. If greyness is to survive, it must exist in the main character who, readers hope, will usher in a new dawn of peace (and light moral greyness) either through their small acts of love (the angel loving the demon) or in large displays of change (the morally grey character rising to be ruler).

These are all themes we expect to be present in Shadow and Bone. And for the most part, they are!

But now let’s talk about character tropes.

Carried over from the paranormal romance, we have the introduction of the “Othered” love interest. This character has a condition that sets him apart from others, and (whether it be vampire, demon, werewolf, etc.) is so prevalent that he cannot fit in. And because of his differences, he has been shunned by Society. This character, notably, is not the “light” or “pure” paranormal figure - he is not the angel - but rather, the demon. The angel would be able to slip into society (presumably because his goodness grants him some kind of godly camouflage). The demon cannot. He doesn’t fit in, and he never can. This creates tension in him, and so he shuns others just as hard as they shun him - he has done so for a very long time until he meets our main character, who gets close to him and breaks down his walls. This character is often the eventual love interest, for reasons that will become apparent later. 

Sometimes carried over from the paranormal romance is the idea that the main character is secretly an “other in hiding” (an angel without her wings, etc.). This creates a bond between the “Othered” love interest and the main character - a bond that can’t be deteriorated once it’s been made, because the main character can’t be un-Othered. They can’t take back the forbidden knowledge they’ve obtained. If this character pops up, the “Othered” love interest is almost always chosen, if he exists.

The dystopian genre has a branching version of this trope, as there is almost always a healthy amount of othering. The main character usually comes from a group of people that is Othered from Society, but our main character is even more unique/different from their “Othered group.” This “specially Othered” character is superpowered in that they can navigate both “Othered” Society and “normal” Society. They can be the go-between.

Sometimes found in the paranormal romance is the “normal” or stereotypical character. This is the average human - the character that doesn’t understand the “Othered” love interest, and wants the main character to go back to the way things were before. This character can sometimes make up the other leg of the love triangle and become a love interest. Other times, it’s a family member or a friend or even an abstract ideal. The point of this character, however, is to show the main character that they can’t go back to the way things were. Too much has happened. Too much has been discovered.

All of this is to say that when Shadow and Bone came out, audiences had expectations with long standing. It is safe and fair to say that the Darkling was set up as a character to be viewed in a certain light, and then the rug was pulled out beneath fans, who had already invested so much in his character.

Shadow and Bone: The characters that Don’t Fit;

So now let’s look at Shadow and Bone in the scope of history and audience expectation. Let’s look at the characters as well as the Grishaverse, in broad terms.

The Darkling is, in the first half of Shadow and Bone, the stereotypical “Othered” love interest. He can summon shadows, which is remarkably different from the other powers of Grisha, and his “forefathers” have done terrible things with this power, making him not only an other in talent but an other in animosity and fear.

In comes Alina, and she is a perfect fit for the main character being an “other in hiding” as well as a “specially Othered” character. She was otkazat’sya before she realized she was Grisha, and she is seen as the go-between for these two different worlds - she can bring them together. Furthermore, she is stronger than your average Grisha - distinct from all others, excepting the Darkling.

Alina is understood by the Darkling. She is discovering parts of herself that she didn’t know she had. This is all decidedly Good, and the romance that is forming is living up to reader expectation.

We also have an interesting occurence of duality. Alina, with her light, is the equal and opposite to the Darkling and his shadow. Together, they have limitless power, a common goal, and perhaps a purifying dynamic as Alina can “save” the Darkling. Her light can banish his shadows. 

History is leading us to believe they are the endgame ship.

This is only inculcated when you have Mal, who is the “normal” character. Through the framing of the story (not seeing Mal, holding on to him only causing Alina to not reach her full potential), we see that the love story with Mal is the Romance That Cannot Be. They are fated to be apart due to the tropes that readers know and understand.

But then the second half of the book kicks in, The Darkling is proven to have been manipulating Alina, things go South, and readers are left unaware of what’s coming next. In this moment, the theme of The Current Regime is Bad slaps readers across the face.

So let’s take a second to look at The Current Regime is Bad, because how the Darkling and his motives exist in that tempest is thought provoking, to say the least.

The Darkling is, decidedly, a part of The Current Regime. He is a general and close to the King, after all. He is a part of this life... and yet he is not. Remember that The Darkling is our “Othered” character. He cannot be a part of The Current Regime because he is shunned by it. And yet, he is tied to it like a prisoner. 

The reader thinks: is the Darkling bad? He is shown to be a part of Society. He wants the war to continue - he doesn’t want to tear down the Fold.

As the reader is grappling with this revelation, we are told (in the same book!) that the Darkling is actually not a part of The Current Regime (which is Bad), but rather, had been working against it. 

Okay.

So now the reader thinks that since Society is Bad, and the Darkling is against it, he and Alina do have a common goal, and his status as a love interest can be saved. He can be redeemed as a character because Alina can purify his methods, then together they can get rid of the current regime, and they can be Others together.

It’s a solid thought process. After all, the “Othered” characters have been consistently good at heart, and Alina can redeem him. We still have a bad guy to take down - and it’s not the Darkling.

But...

Leigh Bardugo decides that is not the story she wants to tell, and she has to pull out some literary gymnastics to give us an explanation. The idea is, no, the Darkling is Bad and his “Othered” status is not relevant because it doesn’t justify his actions. He is a part of a radical portion of The Current Regime and is just as Bad. 

Enter Nikolai Lantsov, who can take over The Current Regime, because as the reader is constantly reminded, Alina no longer wants novelty - she wants normalcy (which is represented by none other than Malyen Oretsev).

So, what does all of this mean? The Darkling decidedly Doesn’t Fit into any of the currently accepted (and expected) tropes of the Y.A. genre. This, on its own, is not inherently Bad or Wrong, but you can see how readers were thrown and consistently, ideas were stretched to fit the simplistic ideas of good and bad that run rampant through the Y.A. category.

The Darkling: What We Left Behind;

We have all heard the critique that the most frustrating thing about the Shadow and Bone Trilogy is how the treatment of Grisha is never fixed. It’s mentioned, but it’s never addressed.

To play the Devil’s Advocate, I am going to tell you all that this problem was never fixed because it was never part of Alina’s Narrative. As I will now attempt to point out, The Darkling is an ill suited antagonist for Alina’s story.

As I like to joke with my friends, the Darkling is an Adult Fantasy character inside of a Y.A. Fantasy story. He cannot be properly served because the story does not fit him, and it doesn’t really try.

Y.A. stories are incredibly focused. There is usually a lot going on in the wider story, but the reader is confined to one point of view and one narrative. This is why the main character is always leading rebellions and fighting in the thick of things. In order to address the problems of the wider narrative, the main character needs to be pretty front and center with the problems.

Alina is at the center of an inner conflict of power vs. normalcy. She is not at the center of the Grisha’s problems. 

Time and again, we see that Alina largely doesn’t care about how terribly Grisha are treated, as a whole. She has moments of clarity where she is angry (notably the scene in Ruin and Rising where the nations’ treatment of Grisha is described in detail), but her remorse doesn’t really extend past sympathy. In the end, she still does nothing to save Grisha.

Alina is a terrible hero when matched to the problems the Darkling is trying to solve. She doesn’t understand their full breadth, having not grown up with them, and she doesn’t want to fix them.

The Problem of The Darkling is that he is a character with problems and motivations that get shrinked and discarded because they do not fit into the Alina Narrative.

Alina’s story is about three things: (1) learning that a lust for power is bad and only corrupts; (2) tearing down the Fold, which is the representation of lusty power; and (3) returning to normalcy. (If you’re wondering why Mal is a rough™ character, it’s because he’s supposed to be the ideal of normalcy, that Alina both wants but can’t have as long as she seeks the amplifiers.) The Grisha don’t factor into that equation.

Alina doesn’t have a solution for giving the Grisha a safe existence where they won’t be sold into slavery, won’t be persecuted by the world, and won’t be forever Othered. She stumbles upon the vague promise of fixing the last of those problems when she runs into Nikolai (purely by chance, or, if you want to stretch it, The Darklings machinations). Furthermore, she doesn’t want to do any of that - she wants normalcy, remember? Her story isn’t going to be saving the Grisha - that’s not what it’s about.

The Darklings entire character motivations focus on all of the plot points that Alina doesn’t hit. He wan’t to make a safe existence for Grisha, he wants Grisha to no longer be persecuted and Othered. How is he going to do it? By ugly means, yes, but he’s going to achieve it nonetheless.

The Darkling has motivations that are not addressed in the Shadow and Bone Trilogy. They aren’t what the story is about, or what the story chooses to focus on. His story is a braided narrative that is too complicated for the simplistic, black and white story that the Shadow and Bone Trilogy is. 

So here’s the problem: the story insists the Darkling is the bad guy, but he can’t possibly be the bad guy if his intentions are Good, and there is no other way. Until Alina finds another way, he is a martyr - he is the Starless Saint. The Saint who was misguided, sure, but the only Saint who tried to solve things.

The Darkling is not fit for Shadow and Bone. His story and what he advocated for isn’t resolved by the end of the trilogy. So when he dies, it feels unearned. It’s tragic - and perhaps there is some beauty in that tragedy, or some lesson to be learned about how you cannot justify evil means for a good end - but it feels undeserved. His problems aren’t addressed. He is defeated, but his cause and his essence aren’t put to sleep.

King of Scars: A Cause Without Its Martyr;

Which leads us to the Nikolai duology.

Like I said - The Darklings’ problems are forgotten in Alina’s narrative. So what happens when we break out of that point of view? After a brief (and iconic) interim with the Crows, we are back in Ravka and the Grisha are still struggling with the problems that Shadow and Bone failed to address. Ravka is still dying, but now that we have gotten rid of a reluctant cast of characters and have made distance from the trope-heavy Shadow and Bone, we are better equipped to save her.

But here’s a question - can we ignore the man who pioneered these problems in favor of a more palatable cast? Can we not address the Darkling while picking up the sword he used?

Leigh Bardugo needs to reclaim the Grisha Problem by stealing it from the Darkling’s grasp. That proves to be difficult, given that we’ve killed him and have given him a tragically beautiful death. Absence has made the heart grow fonder, and in his final moments, the Darkling was not the evil Shadow Summoner but rather Alexander Morozova - the boy within. Readers (even those who didn’t like the Darkling) might be more endeared to him now that everything is said and done.

We need to separate the Darkling from his cause.

Enter the Cult of the Starless Saint and the Condemnation of the Starless.

To remind readers that the Darkling is bad, Leigh Bardugo does a few things. Firstly, she has her characters repeatedly condemn the Darkling. On one hand, it makes sense and feels genuine. On the other hand, it can be a little excessive. Sometimes, the vehemence reads like what it is - Leigh Bardugo is giving us reasons to hate the Darkling again. Add on the fact that Nikolai’s monster is Bad and one of few remnants of the Darkling still surviving, and you get a lot of hate.

Except, ah! The more we talk about the Darkling, the more we are reminded of what he stood for!

So we have to strip him of that - we have to take his legacy and drag it through the mud. Thus, we create The Cult of the Starless Saint. They represent the Darklings legacy and status in history - were his intentions Good Enough to grant him mercy? To give him Sainthood? 

Spoiler alert: They are not. Not as portrayed by the Cult of the Starless Saint.

The Cult is a laughing stock. They don’t have a stance of the Grisha, they’re worship of the Darkling is meant to be seen as mocking Alina’s sacrifice, and the main priest readers interact with is the receiving end of a slew of jokes. They don’t care about anything the Darkling cared for, and they don’t really want to help Grisha. This is done to muddy the waters - if the people who emulate the Darkling are selfish and without cause, well... the Darkling clearly wasn’t Good. They just think his shadow powers were cool and want him to be a Saint. They exist to slander the Darkling.

So now we have separated the Darkling from his cause, and the story continues. The Darkling is Bad. He doesn’t have a legacy. His cause is passed on to others.

But (because we’re Delta airlines and life is a f*cking nightmare) it doesn’t end there. We bring the Darkling back from the dead.

*long sigh*

Resurrection? The Curse of a Second Life;

I have wracked my brain for many an evening, trying to give reason as to why we brought the Darkling back. The obvious answer is for his role at the end of Rule of Wolves - we need him to hold the rift of the Making at the Heart of the World together. However, when Leigh Bardugo introduces real Saints, he’s not needed. Suddenly, we have a slew of characters who could do the same. Furthermore, part of why this rift exists is because the Darkling was brought back. If he is both the cause and the solution, the conflict didn’t need to be there in the first place - especially considering how inconsequential it was to the narrative.

If I had to pin a reason as to why we brought the Darkling back, it was simply to further push the Darkling from his original motivation. He comes back and... doesn’t do much. He doesn’t seem to have the same care for Grisha, he has watered down character traits, and he largely does nothing. The Darkling in the Nikolai Duology is Not The Darkling because he’s a shell of the character he used to be.

Bringing him back from the dead was unsatisfying, and it weakens his original ending. As I have mentioned in other posts, the Darkling coming back cheapens whatever meaning readers gleaned from his ending. The Darkling is resurrected and he doesn’t truly seem to care about anything - which is the direct opposite of what the Darkling has been shown to be.

The Darkling has been bastardized in any appearance he’s made after The Demon in the Wood, and ultimately, it leads to a rather anticlimactic end for such a distinctive, hallmark character.

But let’s really quick establish why the sacrifice the Darkling makes at the end of this book is unfulfilling.

Because, in the final moments of Rule of Wolves, the Darkling gets his moment of penance and sacrifice - he chooses to hold the rift. It’s said he will have to hold it for eternity. You would thing that this would leave an impact! 

However, as is, this ending leaves much to be desired for a few reasons:

The Darkling has been so far removed from his character, that when he states, “Everything I did, I did for Ravka,” it feels... incorrect? It sounds like the hollow, misguided claims of a tyrant king, because for an entire Duology, the Darkling has been bastardized and has been the cause of a blight that is killing Ravka. His presence is actively killing the country he claims to serve, and as for actions, he has done very little for Ravka, and nothing for the Grisha. The last time he did anything of substance was before Six of Crows!

None of the characters present for his sacrifice have any sympathy for the Darkling. The Darkling chooses to sacrifice himself, and we get no emotional closure. Alina isn’t there to whisper his name and mourn him, and while Zoya gets the glimmer of weak pity, we have much reason to believe that Zoya mostly feels disenchanted because he will be praised as a martyr and not hated as the evil man she knew him to be (more on that here). There isn’t sympathy so much as there is bitterness and the semblance of the remnants of tattered respect shining in the dim light.

The final chapter of Rule of Wolves tells us that it’s all going to be made inconsequential in the coming books, when they are going to replace the Darkling with something else. The Darkling won’t even get his full sacrifice, because he is undeserving of a redemptive act of selflessness.

So now, where do we leave the Darkling? For two books, we have separated him from his initial cause, watered down his character and motivations, and given him ends that are largely unsatisfying. 

We’ve actually started to fix the Grisha problem, and there’s something interesting to be said in that it’s fixed by Zoya Nazyalensky, who goes up through the chain of command in a very similar fashion as to how the Darkling planned. She was a General, and then she became Queen of Ravka - the acting monarch, no less - with a beloved public figure on her arm (which, in the Darkling’s case,  would have been Alina).

So I am left to wonder - was the lesson, then, indeed, that you cannot justify evil means for a good end? Was the moral of the Darkling all along about how you must be good throughout - with good acts and good intentions - in order to make change and be revered for it? If so, why did Leigh Bardugo slander the Darkling retroactively, the way she did?

If the problem was his actions and not his intentions, why insist that his intentions were devoid of meaning, as well?

Aleksander Morozova: What We Buried;

Now, you all knew I was going to get here eventually, and if you’ve made it, congrats. We are now talking about the emotion behind the deed, the man behind the monster, the boy swallowed by the shadows.

I believe it is pivotal to understand that Leigh Bardugo has always wanted us to struggle with our feelings over the Darkling. She wanted a character that you could sympathize with, she wanted a character with humanity, and she wanted a reason for his villainy. I think that Shadow and Bone, for all of its failings, gave us that. There’s a reason why there is such a big divide over the Darkling in the original trilogy. He was a compelling character! Somewhere along the way, Leigh Bardugo lost that nuance of her own character. At some point, she resorted to stripping him of his meaning and slandering his image. 

Perhaps I am playing the Devil’s Advocate again, but I believe this was intentionally done.

Because one has to ask - why slander the Darkling? A large portion of the fanbase already hates him, so cheapening his character is doing nothing for them other than giving them sweet vindication, which is unnecessary and only disenchants the other half of your audience. There has to be some deeper reasoning. Leigh Bardugo wanted this character to be sympathetic, so why, now, does she want him to be two-dimensional?

Once more, I am asking you to think back to the original trilogy. What was the main moral? That power, no matter how good-intentioned the pursuit of it is, corrupts. What is the Darklings purpose of coming back again if not to simply have power? He certainly shows no other motive than lusty greed, after being resurrected.

And even if we ignore his lust for power, as he so willingly gives it up to Zoya Nazyalensky in the end of Rule of Wolves, we have two other corrupting forces that could account for the degradation of his character - time, and  death.

We know the Darkling to have lived for eons, and he would have continued to live on for an eternity more. There is nothing like time to truly corrupt a character’s vision, and there is nothing like death and resurrection to husk a character.

In fact, if Mal’s character did anything of importance when it comes to effecting the Darkling, it lies in the epilogue of Ruin and Rising, where it is stated that “the boy and the girl had both known loss.” Mal’s loss is equated to Alina being stripped of her power - that is the power of having died, and being forcefully brought back to life. That is a vague basis for which we readers can compare what it must have been like for the Darkling to come back - even if he is so desensitized to feeling, that he doesn’t remark on it himself.

But let’s keep chugging on.

When we first met the Darkling in 2012 Shadow and Bone, he was unfeeling. He was cold and harsh. There was something beneath the surface, yes, but there were thick sheets of ice in the way. You had to mine for it. Time had already warped the actions of his intentions. It’s expected that time would continue to do its damage, and when he is revived in King of Scars, his intentions are warped as well. He is nothing of the person he used to be other than memories and power. That is why, at the end of Rule of Wolves, when he states that he did everything for Ravka, it feels hollow - that was once true, but the Darkling has even lost that. He has the vague impression of it, but nothing you can sink your teeth into.

I think, had this idea been looked at in deeper depth, it would have been a far more compelling story. Had Rule of Wolves really dedicated itself to showing the Darkling’s conflict of his current apathy, and the knowledge that there was once a time he possessed meaning, we could have found the marrow of his arc. If the book had made an allusion to this concept, his character would have been more satisfying. But as it stands, the Darkling is just degraded in the later books, and unless you really search for meaning, there isn’t any.

And perhaps, if the Darkling had been a different character - a character who, at his core, was more unfeeling - the way we left him would feel okay.

But while The Darkling was harsh and cruel, Aleksander Morozova wasn’t, and that’s what has us all hung up on his character.

If you haven’t read The Demon in the Wood for whatever reason, do yourself a favor and read that instead of revisiting the show’s version of his villain origin story. The show made the Darkling far less compelling by showing him as the grief stricken Black Heretic, rather than the boy within. When we meet Aleksander, he is a boy who is afraid of the world, who has never belonged in it or with others, and who is, ultimately, afraid of himself. With his mother, Baghra, he has taken on a thousand names and traveled a thousand places, and all the while, he is afraid of getting too close to others because he is an amplifier and he knows that if any Grisha were to find out, they would kill him for his power.

Thus, there is so much nuance to his relationship with the Grisha. He is one of them, but he is not. To hark back to our history lesson, he is the exact opposite of the “specially Othered” character that is so often given to protagonists. Instead of acting as a go-between, he is the one person that everyone - Grisha and otkazat’sya - can come together to kill.

And as a little boy, he knows that. He knows he has to stay in the shadows, and yet, he is deathly afraid of the dark - afraid of that which sets him apart, and that which he cannot escape.

This is poignant because at the root of every great character is a singular, vulnerable emotion, and for the Darkling, it is fear. And most importantly, fear of the shadows.

When he meets Alina, we truly see the strength of their duality. We truly see why he was so drawn to Alina - why he could so easily fall in love with her, despite the years and despite the tide, and despite his fear of letting others in. She is his equal and opposite - with her, there are no shadows. There is no fear. The fact that he lets Alina use him as an amplifier is so telling of his deep feelings for Alina.

Where each reader draws the line between their dynamic - either him truly loving Alina, or him simply loving and obsessing over the idea of her - is for the individual to decide. The wonderful thing about the Darkling in his current state in the original Shadow and Bone Trilogy is that he still has good intentions within him, no matter how corrupted by his evil actions. Whether or not they truly could have been is up to each person because the question over whether or not Alina could “purify” the Darkling was never deeply explored. We will never know if she could save him, or if it would have destroyed her in the end. Whether or not you want her to try is personal preference.

Again, Alina didn’t want to fully commit to that act, and so we readers will never truly know. Luckily, fanfiction exists.

But, I didn’t name this section “what we buried” for nothing, and I think it’s important to note that even in the beginning of The Demon in the Wood, the Darkling was already on his way toward a darker, harsher existence.

Baghra, from presumably the moment he was born, groomed the Darkling to be a certain way - the same way as her, a survivor with little hope, living for the sake of living and fighting for the sake of a meal. She had no plans to save the world - it was only after the Darkling had a run in with the possibility of death that he unearthed a deep desire within him - the desire to save the Grisha. Before that, it was buried.

Before that, the Darklings' desires were buried beneath his mother’s words and buried beneath the dirt that settled over his heart like a shallow grave, because his connection to others was buried as well. Baghra did that, and whether or not she was misguided or if she was the smarter of the two is an essay better tackled by looking at her, specifically, which we won’t do here.

As we’re reaching the end, I feel like I have earned the right to be cliche and quote the Darkling’s thoughts from when he was still a boy, but already a shadow. In The Demon in the Wood, he thinks:

“My father is dust. You all are.”

At such a young age, the Darkling has already lost his grip. Already, he knew he would outlive and outlast anyone, and this heavy knowledge was already piling up, and he was slowly being buried alive in his own infinence.

It was only ever inevitable that his story would end like this - with a detached man who was once a hopeful boy, but could no longer recall what such confidence tasted like - so perhaps the tragic beauty in the end of Ruin and Rising was not that he died, it was that he wasn’t given an end.

— Special kudos to @onceupon-a-decembr​ who let me scream about this with her, and another kudos to @musicallisto​ who introduced me to a book series that I will never stop screaming about. Ever.

— tagging: @maybanksslut, @musicallisto, @catsbooksandmusic, @thefifthweasley, @thegirlwhocriedwerewolf, @amirahiddleston, @lachichapequena, @mrs-brekker15, @amortensie // add yourself to the taglist here!

[hd-fan-fair]

THE MASTERLIST OF H/D SEX FAIR 2020 FANWORKS

View the full list on [AO3] or under the cut below!

( Fanwork posted in chronological order by type )

ART

1. How hard can it be? (Digital Comic, Mature) Summary: 

Harry and Draco have to stay over at their friends' places for a few weeks, since the renovation of the Grimmauld Place hadn't been completed by the time they were back from their honeymoon. That creates a slight issue with being intimate but the newlyweds are nothing if not creative...

2. Revelio! (Digital, Teen and Up) Summary:

It's that time of year again for Witch Weekly's annual charity event! By popular demand, this year they have prepared a calendar featuring the sexiest studs in the Wizarding World. Gracing the cover in style, the Hogwarts staff is represented by none other than DADA Professor Harry Potter and Potions Professor Draco Malfoy. Grab one before they're gone! Reserve your copy by owl today!

3. Handling Dragons (Digital, Teen and Up) Summary:

Harry brought over dragons to Hogwarts for a new Triwizard Tournament or for a class. Draco is hopelessly turned on by the resident Professor or Hogwarts Medic. Draco wants his dragon tickled by Harry. Unknown to him, Draco is the only dragon Harry wants to manhandle.

4. I plan on getting very wet. (Digital, Mature) Summary:

When they arrived at their private beach holiday, they didn't expect it to rain all the time. Oh well, boys can still find a way to have fun.

5. The Dragon's Boy (Digital Comic, Explicit) Summary:

Harry is chosen to be the next sacrifice to the dragon, but it turns out this dragon is interested in Harry for entirely different reasons.

6. The Art of Trust (Digital, Mature) Summary:

One piece of rope offers what Harry and Draco seek the most from each other.

7. (Intimidating) Brand New World (Digital Comic, Mature) Summary:

Draco's nervously perusing a sex shop for the first time when he sees a flash of dark hair across the store. He'd know it anywhere, but why is Potter here? And what on earth is in that box he's buying? Years of uptight parenting from his parents have left him woefully lacking in knowledge about his newfound interests. Potter's always been rather uncaring of public opinion, perhaps he could be the one to help Draco figure it all out...

ART & FIC

8. as much a light as a flame (6303, Explicit) Summary:

His mother paints a wolf on his chest, its eyes bracketing his heart, and its muzzle pointed towards his groin. His aunt fills in the spaces around his waist and ribs with symbols he's lost the meaning of in the wash of whatever plant had been mixed in with the steam. They move after her brush leaves his skin, turning from incomprehensible marks to his name to wolf to home to hunt and then back to misunderstanding again.

His legs are painted in patterned bands, starting from his ankles and ending at his upper thighs. His groin is left unmarked, the pale and empty skin meant to leave no doubt of the Claim once he makes it.

9. Starkissed (32631, Explicit) Summary:

“Your tattoos!” The intruder says, boldly stepping over Ron’s chaise and crossing in front of Hermione to get to Harry, eyes wide and hungry. Harry immediately sits up, pulling the towel draped across the back of his chair down over his shoulders.   “No! Don’t cover them. They’re beautiful.” Harry hopes an indulgent trip abroad will help shake him out of the doldrums of his life. What he finds once he gets to Venice is more than he ever expected.

  PODFIC

10. Infuse With Affection, Enchant With Love by bafflinghaze (1.5 Hours, Teen and Up) Summary:

It starts with Draco making protective pendants for himself, his parents, and his friends, after the war. Something that would watch their backs—and their fronts—as people spat on them in the streets and hexed them in the alleyways. Draco gets better at it, does a course on it, and takes enough commissions for charmed jewellery that he eventually opens his own shop.

But Harry doesn’t know any of this. So when he sees Malfoy in a shop of charmed necklaces, he immediately tries his best to uncover Malfoy’s machinations.

11. Things Worth Paying For (1.5 Hours, Explicit) Summary:

After leaving post-war Britain for Paris, Draco is finally happy, with friends and a job he loves, But then his newest client turns out to be Harry Potter, and everything changes.

  FIC

12. Three Wishes (10161, Explicit) Summary:

Draco meets his fairy godmother and is granted three wishes. Unfortunately, they all keep coming back to the same thing.

********** Pop! 

"Oh, wow," Vince says, and is that sarcasm Draco hears? "I never saw that coming."

"What?" Draco opens his eyes. He's prepared for the theatrics of the puffs of smoke—Vince, despite the sudden career change, was never blessed with an overactive imagination—but what he was not prepared for was the sight of Harry Potter, bare-chested and dressed in arseless chaps, his hands bound and mouth wrapped around a ball gag while lying face down on Draco's sofa.

13. H.A.G.S. (Hogwarts Alliance for Gender and Sexuality) (9517, Explicit) Summary:

When Hermione decides Hogwarts needs a LGBTQIA+ club, of course Ron and Harry are roped into helping. After a rocky start, Harry begins seeing the club as an opportunity to educate students and celebrate diversity and sexuality at Hogwarts. He also starts seeing it as an opportunity to snog Draco Malfoy.

14. You Don't Know Me (Like You Used To) (33106, Explicit) Summary:

"Buy me a drink as compensation for maiming me?" he asks.

"And why the hell would I do that?" It’s a perfectly valid question. A drink invitation from Harry Potter is about as likely of a scenario as me streaking down Piccadilly in broad daylight. Consider me completely thrown off.

Sometimes it only takes a week to change everything. The story of how twenty-five-year-old Draco Malfoy hit one Harry Potter with a door and knocked both of their lives into somewhere entirely new.

15. the best treasure is up Harry’s arse (2891, Explicit) Summary:

Harry and Draco probably had a tumultuous time getting together, filled with angst and denial and pining and brooding. However, this is not that story. Here, Draco makes Harry come (more than once).

16. Breakin' the Rules (3146, Teen and Up) Summary:

Harry and Draco are Auror partners. They're in a relationship that they've been forced to keep secret due to relationships between Aurors being forbidden. Harry is okay with this, as he hasn't come out to anyone other than Draco, but after a mission goes awry, their relationship is exposed.

17. The HogShagMan (31685, Mature) Summary:

Professor Potter is called upon to teach the first-ever official course on Magical Sexual Relations at Hogwarts and, in the process, must navigate the pitfalls of relationship-building, the nefarious schemings of those entrusted with school funding, and the uneven tempers of his boss and several co-workers. Clearly, only ‘the’ Harry Potter can pull it all off.

18. Let's not wait for France (17714, Teen and Up) Summary:

All Harry had wanted from his Eighth year at Hogwarts was a little peace and a little privacy but, from the moment that he stepped onto Platform 9 3/4, it was obvious that nothing was ever going to be that easy.

An accidental bond with Malfoy that resulted in them having to stay together at all times was the final straw.

Things couldn't be worse. So much to a quiet year in Hogwarts.

19. Take All That You See (19666, Teen and Up) Summary:

Draco Malfoy has only two goals for his eighth year are Hogwarts: 1) stay as invisible as possible, and 2) get enough NEWTs to be accepted at a university abroad and get the hell out of the UK. Everything is going according to plan until he is unceremoniously outed by the Daily Prophet and subsequently disowned.

Finding himself the unexpected focus of unwanted attention and harassment, he is suddenly dependent on the good will and protection of the last people he would have expected — Harry Potter and his gang of do-gooder Gryffindors (plus Luna Lovegood). With his world turned upside down, how will Draco make it through the rest of the year? And worse still, as he grows closer and closer to Harry, how will he get out with his heart intact?

20. True Children Still (34240, Explicit) Summary:

After years of dancing around each other, Draco and Harry have finally begun to date, though they're taking things slow. They've got enough to figure out as it is, and the last thing Harry needs is an unexpected introduction to desires he's not quite ready to face.

21. Asking For A Friend? (13734, Explicit) Summary:

Asking for a friend? Don't be shy! I'm Genna Russ with advice! Draco Malfoy, drag queen and agony aunt for the Daily Prophet, is very happy with his life. He loves his job. He loves his drag queen persona. And he loves the fact that the wider Wizarding world doesn't know who is offering them sassy advice with their morning news.

When he starts receiving letters from one Harry Potter – letters that are too racy to publish – he does the only thing he can do: he replies. His carefully constructed secret life is at risk of being blown wide open, but he just can't help himself. Draco never did have any self-control where the Prat Who Lived was concerned.

22. All I Have to Do (9575, Explicit) Summary:

The Patented Daydream Charm (Adult Edition) allows you to enter a top-quality, highly realistic thirty-minute sexual fantasy. Solitude and privacy spells advised.

Or: Draco finally has some alone time; Harry just needs to nip in for a book.

23. Take My Wonder (3949, Explicit) Summary:

Harry Potter is the author of very well-written children's text books. Joshua Starkweather is the author of not-so-well-written erotic fiction. Only one person knows that they are one and the same.

24. (There Is Nothing) More Than This (5431, Explicit) Summary:

Harry Potter returns home past midnight, distressed and anxious about the multiple murder case that he is leading. His husband Draco looks after him, comforting Harry with his hands, his mouth and his unwavering love.

25. the space between (what you want and what you need) (13601, Mature) Summary:

As a specialist Healer in dark magic, Draco has had his fair share of difficult cases and awkward patients. Still, nothing has prepared him for a curse-paralysed Harry Potter.

26. Walk in the sun (18233, Explicit) Summary:

Harry is perfectly content with the life he built for himself; simple and private, it helps him heal the wounds from the war. He then accepts to go out with one of Neville’s acquaintances, never expecting that decision would bring him back to his obsession for Draco Malfoy.

“That was his cue. Had Harry stopped to think about his situation, he could have left. Malfoy was nibbling at his neck, he had his hand down his pants. All things considered, a disaster incoming. And yet, his feet still refused to move. After all, he was not the stop-to-think-of-consequences kind of guy.”

(Features drunken confessions, bathrooms, a lot of smut, sexy pictures, panties, cats and only one bed)

27. You Need to Just Do Whatever You Want (7998, General) Summary:

Draco's confused when he receives a manual explaining his magical inheritance. Being a veela would be good (at least he would be prettier), and a vampire would have been fine (another excuse to hide himself in the Manor). But a descendant of the God of Love, complete with arrows and a love quota? Now that's just bonkers.

A story in which Draco is Cupid (sort of).

28. Under my Skin (8258, Explicit) Summary:

One year after the war and after Hogwarts restorations, Harry is back at school to finally finish his education. He wasn't expecting McGonagall to assign him to protect Draco Malfoy, in case he was bullied during the classes. Although really just wants to relax on his last year in Hogwarts, he'd seen how Draco had changed at the trials. He knew being around him would be easy enough... Wouldn't it?

29. Glory, glory! (16898, Explicit) Summary:

It's 2005 and Harry has recently purchased a new mobile phone so he can easily keep in touch with his friends. Little did he know that the Muggle technology would lead him down a path of self discovery and safe exploration that would lead him into the soft recesses of the last person he ever expected. As it turns out, very good things can be found in the dark.

30. Husbandly Duties (2108, Explicit) Summary:

Draco and Harry leave their wedding after-party early for some quality one-on-one time.

31. Sex, Relationships & Love (3873, Mature) Summary:

Draco Malfoy runs an anonymous sex advice column in the Witch Weekly magazine and gets hundreds of letters asking him for advice on sex, love and relationships. How was he to know that the advice he had given in response to one of those letters would result in Harry Potter showing up at his flat at 6 in the morning?

32. Disparate (6022, Teen and Up) Summary:

Ever since he went to Hogwarts, Draco realized that he wasn't quite the same as the others.

Or: Draco Malfoy over the years as he tries to understand and accept his sexuality.

33. Silver Scales in Pools of Green (26603, Explicit) Summary:

Draco is one of the last sirens of the seas, who escaped to the human world looking for friendship and food, but captivity found him instead. For seven years, he's gotten used to his life as human entertainment, and prides himself in his ability to make humans fall in step to his song.

That is, until everything falls apart when he has an audience with green eyes...

34. It's So Hard (9170, Explicit) Summary:

Draco has posed for some interesting photos, and it is currently making things very... hard for Harry.

35. On Your Shore (35113, Mature) Summary:

Clearing out a remote house full of cursed collectibles in the Outer Hebrides? Not a problem for an experienced curse breaker like Harry Potter. Spending a week with the straight, happily-married man that he’s starting to have feelings for? And sharing a bed with him at night? Surely Harry can handle that, too. But both the house and Draco Malfoy have secrets to uncover, and Harry might be in deeper water than he thought.

36. A Little Less Broken (6417, Mature) Summary:

After the war Draco thought he would never feel again. But a mix of revenge gone wrong and Harry Potter, might help him to feel just a little less broken.

37. Always (20147, Explicit) Summary:

In which Draco is the (in)famous erotica writer H.J. Belladonna, writing successful scandalous novel after successful scandalous novel and hiding his true identity, and Harry is questioning his sexuality after reading one of Belladonna’s books. Until ten years after the war their paths cross again, and Harry doesn’t only question his sexuality, but also the meaning of his obsession with Draco Malfoy.

“You look like something my cat dragged in,“ Blaise said from the sofa. Draco’s sofa, in Draco’s tiny flat. “You don’t have a cat, because you’re too vain, Blaise. A cat would get hair all over your expensive clothes,“ Draco replied and then ignored Blaise in favor of going into the kitchen to get some hot sweet tea into his system. Maybe that would make his day better, even if it had just started and the potential for disaster was high. Blaise followed him. “I’ll take one too.“ “You can’t use my home as your personal hotel, Blaise,“ Draco said, but he was already grabbing two cups out of the cupboard. He was too tired to use magic, after writing the whole night, he felt like all the magic had been absorbed by his parchment. Some of his sanity maybe too.

38. Absurd. (3773, Explicit) Summary:

When Draco discovers a kink that Harry's been hiding from him, he has no choice but to explore said kink, right? Right.

39. For Want Of Five Minutes (And a Locked Door) (4333, Mature) Summary:

It’s hard enough to get five minutes to yourself in a house of five kids, nevermind getting five minutes with your boyfriend for anything else.

40. Let Out the Beast (9649, Explicit) Summary:

In the wizarding world where alphas are looked down upon for their lack of control and unseemly aggression, it is generally accepted that they are not allowed to work in places like schools and hospitals where their nature could risk the people there. When Draco Malfoy suddenly shows up at Hogwarts smelling strongly like an alpha, Harry is beyond baffled. The fact that no one else seems to catch his scent only adds to his confusion. But, of course, the most puzzling part is how Harry’s body reacts to that scent.

41. Flowers, Dildos and Other Courtship Gifts (15853, Teen and Up) Summary:

Harry Potter is the Ministry's star auror trainee, and Draco Malfoy is the cute florist in Diagon Alley who Harry stares at through the window during lunch breaks and leaves. That's all they are and all they would ever be. (Really.) Until Harry accidentally mails Draco an autumn themed dildo (among others). Cue: bad planning, owl kidnapping, and flangst.

Or two emotional gay disasters fall in love in the middle of autumn.

42. he touched me, so I live to know (4729, Mature) Summary:

Five times Harry Potter is unsure about touching someone and one time he isn’t.

43. cut my name into your lip (6321, Explicit) Summary:

Harry can't take it anymore. Seriously. If Malfoy chews on the end of his quill/licks his spoon/sucks on the papercut on his finger one more time, Harry's going to put an end to it.

44. Realities, Unfurling (45487, Mature) Summary:

Draco Malfoy is released from Azkaban into a changed world.

45. The Delicate Balance of Light and Shade (13288, Explicit) Summary:

With the war finally over, Harry tries to find his own path in a world where he is free to make his own choice. On a holiday in France, he unexpectedly falls in love with art and painting. Returning to Hogwarts to help rebuild it, he is paired up with Draco Malfoy to restore the Room of Requirement - and unexpectedly falls in love with Draco. When the rebuilding efforts are done, Harry disappears.

Years later, Draco goes to Muggle London at Pansy's suggestion to visit an art gallery. The name of the Muggle artist is unknown to Draco, but the subject of the erotic paintings is shockingly familiar: it's Draco himself. It's time to confront the past and make some long-due confessions.

46. Tonight's the Night (Gonna Be Alright) (9181, Explicit) Summary:

Sex is hard to come by when you're 40 and have kids.

Or: Five times Harry and Draco tried and failed to have sex and one time they were successful.

47. The Spoiling of Sex From Enthusiastic Ignorance (6079, Explicit) Summary:

Draco is going to lose his virginity, so help him god, and he's going to lose it to one Harry Potter. Why? Because of his big cock, his status as The Top Five Quidditch Players in England, and Witch Weekly's Most-Eligible Bachelor for eight years straight. At least that's what he tells himself. Too bad first times rarely go as one plans, and now Harry is looking miserable and Draco doesn’t understand why.

48. you killed me on the moon (4906, Explicit) Summary:

'You barely know me. We do not know each other.’

‘Beyond this overwhelming need to submit to you, completely and utterly?’ Potter raises his eyebrows, stretching his scar. ‘Beyond this bone-deep awareness that you are made for me, and I for you? That our destiny was written in the stars, in the very foundation of our known world?’

An A/B/O Royalty!AU wherein a desperate Slytherin prince faces a proposal from the conquering Gryffindor king.

49. i just want your extra time and your... (9058, Explicit) Summary:

Ron should know better than to speak Latin in a magical library. If he’d just left well enough alone, instead of trying to badger Malfoy for the details of his newest novel, Harry wouldn’t have to listen to all of this chatter about how bloody decent Malfoy is, and he wouldn’t be dealing with all of these...feelings. Really, it’s all Ron’s fault that Harry’s mind is stuck on Malfoy like this again.

50. The Kisses Don’t Count, If No One Else Knows (41492, Explicit) Summary:

Minister for Magic Harry Potter does not love his job. The one bright point in his life is his secret relationship with Quidditch Super Star Draco Malfoy. When they're 'outed' by a peeping tom with a camera, Harry has to decide what's really important.

51. You Do Your Body Work, I Feel My Pulse Working Overtime (1627, Explicit) Summary:

Harry did not have an addiction to watching Draco masturbate on camera. He could stop any time he wanted to. Really.

52. Right Romantic Setting (6266, Explicit) Summary:

On the twelfth day of their romantic relationship, Draco and Harry take Albus, Scorpius and Rose on a weekend trip to Muggle London that Ron and Hermione were supposed to lead. At the fully-booked hotel where they'll be staying for the night, they're surprised to discover that their rather plain room has only one bed. It's definitely not the right romantic setting for their first night together but, as Draco comes to realise, there's good in taking things slow.

53. Portrait of a Marriage (130627, Mature) Summary:

Harry didn't want to marry Malfoy, he really didn't, but he also does want this house and Malfoy looked so smug and well - now they are married, and the house still doesn't like him, and Malfoy only looks more smug.

Draco didn't want to marry Potter, he really didn't, but he also does want this house and he never seems to be capable of escaping Potter anyway, so if he is already doomed to being married off he might as well decide for himself what he is worth, sign the papers and ignore everything wrong with that plan until physically no longer possible.

54. Regardless of desire, life hands you who you are (29803, Explicit) Summary:

When Draco finds himself wrongly accused – of course it's Potter who swoops in to save the day. Isn't it always Potter?

[amywrites256]

WIP Intro: The Happily Ever After Series

This is an introduction to The Happily Ever After Series, which I am currently drafting. Each book is a different fairytale retelling, but they all take place in the same universe and setting and have similar lore.

Of Tears and Ashes (Cinderella Retelling)

Seraphina has been condemned to a life of tears and suffering, after being enslaved in her own home by her wicked stepmother, she is constantly mistreated by those around her and it’s no surprise to her that when she stumbles across a conspiracy to kill the king and learns too much, cruel men in power don’t hesitate to slit her throat and murder her. However, confronting death plays out much differently than she expected and when she wakes up at the crossroad between life and death, Moros, the god of death, who judges souls and sends them on tells her that she still has another chance at life. Rising from the pit of the graveyard with dried stains of blood covering her gown with the plan to run away into the night and never be seen again, Sera somehow manages to run into the path of the charming prince Alexander in disguise, who's searching for the truth behind the strange curse that is making the palace walls bleed. She soon finds herself intertwined in the plans of a bloody coup, and a vengeful god of destruction and her life turns into a conundrum of chaos, shattered glass, and fire.

Status: Rewriting

Current Word Count: TBD

PINTEREST AESTHETIC

Of Thorns and Splinters (Sleeping Beauty/Little Briar Rose Retelling)

When Princess Briar learns that she is going to be married off to a man she doesn’t love and that she only has weeks to live before she pricks her finger on a spinning wheel on her eighteenth birthday and falls into a death-like sleep, she decides to risk her life on a dangerous quest to break the curse that has been plaguing her life since she was a child. Ever since she was a child, Briar has constantly been plagued by strange dreams of thorns and blood, and ravens preying over her as if waiting for her demise, after years of being sheltered by her cruel and overprotective father she decides to take her life into her own hands and confront the dark faerie, Melinoe, who cursed her when she was a child, and beg for her to break the spell. Thrust into a world of dark magic, and adventure, Briar teams up with a powerful sorceress, a reckless fugitive, and her estranged ex-best friend; Liam on a journey to break her curse and change fate, herself. But what lengths is she willing to go to, to change her destiny, and what is she willing to sacrifice?

Status: Outlining/Planning

PINTEREST AESTHETIC

Of Wrath and Ruin (Sequel to Of Thorns and Splinters, and inspired by Arthurian Legend)

It has been three years since the Princess fell under the Enchantress’s curse of eternal sleep. And in those three years, a bloody insurrection has killed the King and the remaining successors, with the vain and ruthless Basileus taking over the kingdom, ravaging the realm with tyranny by killing anyone that doesn't swear fealty to him. In the upheaval, Liam is just trying to keep his family safe, after barely escaping execution from the former King. But when he defends a helpless farmer, he is taken prisoner and sentenced to be executed along with all the other rebellious commoners, but things take a drastic turn when instead of being hanged he is taken to the royal palace, and ordered by the King to use his knowledge and experience to embark on a deadly journey into the forbidden lands of the fae, in order to retrieve a chalice prophesied to grant immortality. Now Liam must face the strange shifting mind games of the fae and confront the dark magic of the unknown or face execution, and the odds aren’t in his favour.

Status: Brainstorming

Of Blood and Gold (Rumpelstiltskin Retelling, prequel to Of Tears and Ashes)

When Gabriella's father is imprisoned by King Alexander, for illegal poaching, gambling and tax evasion, her life slowly begins to fall apart when she too is arrested for not being able to make up for her father’s debts on time. After being thrown to rot in the dungeons for days, she and her father are finally taken to be sentenced, and the ruthless King doesn’t spare them any pity, immediately sentencing her father to death, and she and her siblings to a life of servitude. But Gabriella makes the dreadful mistake of not knowing when to be quiet, speaking out of turn as the guards begin to escort her and her father away in chains, she accidentally condemns her whole family to death. The King's punishment is cruel, with her only hope for survival being the impossible request that the King mocks her with -- to turn straw into gold. All hope seems lost until she meets Killian, one of the seven deadly sins, and whose cunning nature thrives off of greed, murder, and blood offerings. In order to keep her family alive and safe, Gabriella is soon thrust into life among royals, and nobility, and the deceitful art of murder and broken promises.

Status: Outlining/Planning

PINTEREST AESTHETIC

Of Flame and Fury (Beauty and the Beast Retelling)

Bellona lives in an isolated village bound in fear and religion, with their town constantly under threat of being attacked by devilish monsters, every year the villagers choose one outcast to feed to the hellhounds that roam the Scourge; the dreadful monster-infested valley that separates mortals from the daemons, spirits, and cursed creatures that live beyond. This ancient ritual takes place around the coming of winter, to honour the goddess, Morana, the bringer of winter and famine. Around this time of year, mothers paint blood and ash on their children’s foreheads each night praying for their safety. But all Belle cares about is protecting her father and two sisters, who live on the edge of town, and do not concern themselves with the communal practices of their neighbours. But when Bellona gets into a violent altercation with the son of the chieftain, the night before the Autumn festival, she soon becomes the perfect scapegoat, and she is banished into the wilderness with no hope for survival. When she tries to light a fire for warmth in the dead of night, she is immediately attacked by a pack of hungry hounds, before she is knocked unconscious and a strange winged shadow saves her as she slowly bleeds out. The next morning, she wakes up in a large, empty and haunted castle, occupied only by a soft-spoken, book-loving prince, that is supposed to be dead, who is cursed to turn half-monster when the sun sets, and a white-haired egotistical faerie lord, who sleeps in a hall filled with enchanted mirrors and embodies pride and vanity. But Bellona’s luck only lasts so long, soon enough she is cursed by the same Enchantress who condemned the Prince to his dreadful fate, and must venture out on three impossible trials to save her and her family from destruction, all before the last petal falls on the dying golden rose that the Enchantress left her.

Status: Brainstorming

PINTEREST AESTHETIC

Of Chaos and Charisma (Rapunzel Retelling)

Rhea was declared an abomination at age twelve, seen as an omen by the other villagers due to strange prophetic visions, as well as the ability to see ghosts, and to drain the life out of any living thing with a single touch. When the villagers attempt to burn her alive after she accidentally kills another child, she is saved and taken in by Belladonna; a powerful enchantress of poison, darkness, and sorrow, who locked her away from the rest of humanity in a hidden tower in the wilderness, telling Rhea that no one will ever love her like she will. Every blood moon, when the human and magical worlds collide, Rhea revives her blood oath to her adoptive mother, binding her soul to the dark faerie, and gaining a sliver of Belladonna's divine powers and immortality. Rhea’s arms are covered in scars, and although she knows she should be grateful, she is not content living her life as a prisoner. Her existence has now become a continuous repetition of blood, dark magic, and astronomy. But when the charming Prince Darius, appears bleeding on her kitchen floor, whose on the run after supposedly lacerating his own father’s throat with the shard of a wine glass in order to steal the throne, an opportunity to break the bleak cycle of her life appears, when he asks her to help him break into the royal palace in exchange for her freedom and a ridiculous sum of money. In a matter of hours, Rhea's life becomes full of danger, pirates, murder, and chaos, as she and Darius aim to sneak into the Royal Palace's treasury.

Status: Brainstorming

PINTEREST AESTHETIC

Of Poison and Envy (Snow White Retelling)

When Verena was thirteen, her power-hungry stepmother, Queen Evelyn, ordered an assassin to murder her the night before her coronation. Princess Verena barely escaped with her life that night and is found bleeding out in the snow with a crossbow bolt penetrating her shoulder, by a rowdy group of mercenaries and assassins, who decide to heal her and take her in as their own. Years have passed now, and Verena's life has turned into a thrill of poison, steel, and blood, a life where she and the other seven assassins are prepared to kill whoever as long as they get their money’s worth. But when Queen Evelyn discovers an abandoned foggy mirror in a vacated guests room, she is enthralled by how the mirror enhances her beauty, but it doesn’t take long for her to realize that the mirror is enchanted, when her perfect reflection begins speaking back to her, staring back at her with cold empty eyes. When the queen asks the mirror who is the fairest in the land, she is confronted with the revelation that her stepdaughter is still alive and a threat to her rule and shatters the mirror in a fit of rage. A woman of ice and glass, with white hair and pupilless eyes, comes out, vowing to help her satisfy her envious desires. Now that Evelyn knows of the princess's survival she sends her guards after her, with Aaron; Verena's former childhood friend being among them. Now, Verena must confront her stepmother and finally enact her revenge after years of hiding, leaving a trail of fire, poison and blood in her wake.

Status: Brainstorming

PINTEREST AESTHETIC

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